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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/16604-h.zip b/16604-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44e673d --- /dev/null +++ b/16604-h.zip diff --git a/16604-h/16604-h.htm b/16604-h/16604-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbc7d8a --- /dev/null +++ b/16604-h/16604-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12141 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html lang="en"><head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> +<title>Poison Island., by Arthur Thomas Quiller-couch (q).</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {text-align:justify} + P { margin:10%; + text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; } + img {border: 0;} + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + PRE { font-size: 97%; margin-left: 15%;} + --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Poison Island, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q) + +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: Poison Island + +Author: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q) + +Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16604] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POISON ISLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Lionel Sear + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> + + +<h1> + POISON ISLAND. +</h1><br> + +<h2> +By ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH (Q). +</h2> + + + + +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER LINKS</h2> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tbody><tr><td> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001"> +CHAPTER I. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002"> +CHAPTER II. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003"> +CHAPTER III. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004"> +CHAPTER IV. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005"> +CHAPTER V. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006"> +CHAPTER VI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007"> +CHAPTER VII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0008"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0009"> +CHAPTER IX. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0010"> +CHAPTER X. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0011"> +CHAPTER XI. +</a></p> +<br> + +</td><td> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0012"> +CHAPTER XII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0013"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0014"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0015"> +CHAPTER XV. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0016"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0017"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0018"> +CHAPTER XVIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0019"> +CHAPTER XIX. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0020"> +CHAPTER XX. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0021"> +CHAPTER XXI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0022"> +CHAPTER XXII. +</a></p> +<br> + +</td><td> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0023"> +CHAPTER XXIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0024"> +CHAPTER XXIV. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0025"> +CHAPTER XXV. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0026"> +CHAPTER XXVI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0027"> +CHAPTER XXVII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0028"> +CHAPTER XXVIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0029"> +CHAPTER XXIX. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0030"> +CHAPTER XXX. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0031"> +CHAPTER XXXI. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0032"> +CHAPTER XXXII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0033"> +CHAPTER XXXIII. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0034"> +CHAPTER XXXIV. +</a></p> + +</td></tr> +</tbody></table> +</center> + +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<br> + +<a name="2H_TOC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br> +<br> + + +<h2> + CONTENTS. +</h2> + + + + + +<pre> Chapter. + + I. HOW I FIRST MET WITH CAPTAIN COFFIN. + + II. I AM ENTERED AT COPENHAGEN ACADEMY. + + III. A STREET FIGHT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + + IV. CAPTAIN COFFIN STUDIES NAVIGATION. + + V. THE WHALEBOAT. + + VI. MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CHART. + + VII. ENTER THE RETURNED PRISONER. + + VIII. THE HUNTED AND THE HUNTER. + + IX. CHAOS IN THE CAPTAINS LODGINGS. + + X. NEWS. + + XI. THE CRIME IN THE SUMMER-HOUSE. + + XII. THE BLOODSTAIN ON THE STILE. + + XIII. CLUES IN A TANGLE. + + XIV. HOW I BROKE OUT THE RED ENSIGN. + + XV. CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION—THE MAN IN THE LANE. + + XVI. CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION—THE FLAG AND THE CASHBOX. + + XVII. THE CHART OF MORTALLONE. + + XVIII. THE CONTENTS OF THE CORNER CUPBOARD. + + XIX. CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG. + + XX. CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG (CONTINUED). + + XXI. IN WHICH PLINNY SURPRISES EVERYONE. + + XXII. A STRANGE MAN IN THE GARDEN. + + XXIII. HOW WE SAILED TO THE ISLAND. + + XXIV. WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND. + + XXV. I TAKE FRENCH LEAVE ASHORE. + + XXVI. THE WOMEN IN THE GRAVEYARD. + + XXVII. THE MAN IN BLACK. + + XXVIII. THE MASTER OF THE ISLAND. + + XXIX. A BOAT ON THE BEACH. + + XXX. THE SCREAM ON THE CLIFF. + + XXXI. AARON GLASS. + + XXXII. WE COME TO DR. BEAUREGARD'S HOUSE. + + XXXIII. WE FIND THE TREASURE. + + XXXIV. DOCTOR BEAUREGARD. +</pre> + + + +<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I. +</h2> +<center> +HOW I FIRST MET WITH CAPTAIN COFFIN. +</center> +<p> +It was in the dusk of a July evening of the year 1813 (July 27, to be +precise) that on my way back from the mail-coach office, Falmouth, to +Mr. Stimcoe's Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen, No. 7, Delamere +Terrace, I first met Captain Coffin as he came, drunk and cursing, up +the Market Strand, with a rabble of children at his heels. I have +reason to remember the date and hour of this encounter, not only for +its remarkable consequences, but because it befell on the very day +and within an hour or two of my matriculation at Stimcoe's. +That afternoon I had arrived at Falmouth by Royal Mail, in charge of +Miss Plinlimmon, my father's housekeeper; and now but ten minutes ago +I had seen off that excellent lady and waved farewell to her—not +without a sinking of the heart—on her return journey to Minden +Cottage, which was my home. +</p> +<p> +My name is Harry Brooks, and my age on this remembered evening was +fourteen and something over. My father, Major James Brooks, late of +the 4th (King's Own) Regiment, had married twice, and at the time of +his retirement from active service was for the second time a widower. +Blindness—contracted by exposure and long marches over the snows of +Galicia—had put an end to a career by no means undistinguished. +In his last fight, at Corunna, he had not only earned a mention in +despatches from his brigadier-general, Lord William Bentinck, but by +his alertness in handling his half-regiment at a critical moment, and +refusing its right to an outflanking line of French, had been +privileged to win almost the last word of praise uttered by his +idolized commander. My father heard, and faced about, but his eyes +were already failing him; they missed the friendly smile with which +Sir John Moore turned, and cantered off along the brigade, to +encourage the 50th and 42nd regiments, and to receive, a few minutes +later, the fatal cannon-shot. +</p> +<p> +Every one has heard what miseries the returning transports endured in +the bitter gale of January, 1809. The <i>Londonderry</i>, in which my +father sailed, did indeed escape wreck, but at the cost of a week's +beating about the mouth of the Channel. He was, by rights, an +invalid, having taken a wound in the kneecap from a spent bullet, one +of the last fired in the battle; but in the common peril he bore a +hand with the best. For three days and two nights he never shifted +his clothing, which the gale alternately soaked and froze. It was +frozen stiff as a board when the <i>Londonderry</i> made the entrance of +Plymouth Sound; and he was borne ashore in a rheumatic fever. +From this, and from his wound, the doctors restored him at length, +but meanwhile his eyesight had perished. +</p> +<p> +His misfortunes did not end here. My step-sister Isabel—a beautiful +girl of seventeen, the only child of his first marriage—had met him +at Plymouth, nursed him to convalescence, and brought him home to +Minden Cottage, to the garden which henceforward he tilled, but saw +only through memory. Since then she had married a young officer in +the 52nd Regiment, a Lieutenant Archibald Plinlimmon; but, her +husband having to depart at once for the Peninsula, she had remained +with her father and tended him as before, until death took her—as it +had taken her mother—in childbirth. The babe did not survive her; +and, to complete the sad story, her husband fell a few weeks later +before Badajoz, while assaulting the Picurina Gate with fifty axemen +of the Light Division. +</p> +<p> +Beneath these blows of fate my father did indeed bow his head, yet +bravely. From the day Isabel died his shoulders took a sensible +stoop; but this was the sole evidence of the mortal wound he carried, +unless you count that from the same day he put aside his "Aeneid," +and taught me no more from it, but spent his hours for the most part +in meditation, often with a Bible open on his knee—although his eyes +could not read it. Sally, our cook, told me one day that when the +foolish midwife came and laid the child in his arms, not telling him +that it was dead, he felt it over and broke forth in a terrible cry— +his first and last protest. +</p> +<p> +In me—the only child of his second marriage, as Isabel had been the +only child of his first—he appeared to have lost, and of a sudden, +all interest. While Isabel lived there had been reason for this, or +excuse at least, for he had loved her mother passionately, whereas +from mine he had separated within a day or two after marriage, having +married her only because he was obliged—or conceived himself +obliged—by honour. Into this story I shall not go. It was a sad +one, and, strange to say, sadly creditable to both. I do not +remember my mother. She died, having taken some pains to hide even +my existence from her husband, who, nevertheless, conscientiously +took up the burden. A man more strongly conscientious never lived; +and his sudden neglect of me had nothing to do with caprice, but +came—as I am now assured—of some lesion of memory under the shock +of my sister's death. As an unregenerate youngster I thought little +of it at the time, beyond rejoicing to be free of my daily lesson in +Virgil. +</p> +<p> +I can see my father now, seated within the summer-house by the +filbert-tree at the end of the orchard—his favourite haunt—or +standing in the doorway and drawing himself painfully erect, a giant +of a man, to inhale the scent of his flowers or listen to his bees, +or the voice of the stream which bounded our small domain. I see him +framed there, his head almost touching the lintel, his hands gripping +the posts like a blind Samson's, all too strong for the flimsy +trelliswork. He wore a brown holland suit in summer, in colder +weather a fustian one of like colour, and at first glance you might +mistake him for a Quaker. His snow-white hair was gathered close +beside the temples, back from a face of ineffable simplicity and +goodness—the face of a man at peace with God and all the world, yet +marked with scars—scars of bygone passions, cross-hatched and almost +effaced by deeper scars of calamity. As Miss Plinlimmon wrote in her +album— +</p> +<pre> "Few men so deep as Major Brooks + Have drained affliction's cup. + Alas! if one may trust his looks, + I fear he's breaking up!" +</pre> +<p> +This Miss Plinlimmon, a maiden aunt of the young officer who had been +slain at Badajoz, kept house for us after my sister's death. She was +a lady of good Welsh family, who after many years of genteel poverty +had come into a legacy of seven thousand pounds from an East Indian +uncle; and my father—a simple liver, content with his half-pay—had +much ado in his blindness to keep watch and war upon the luxuries she +untiringly strove to smuggle upon him. For the rest, Miss Plinlimmon +wore corkscrew curls, talked sentimentally, worshipped the manly form +(in the abstract) with the manly virtues, and possessed (quite +unknown to herself) the heart of a lion. +</p> +<p> +Upon this unsuspected courage, and upon the strength of her affection +for me, she had drawn on the day when she stood up to my father—of +whom, by the way, she was desperately afraid—and told him that his +neglect of me was a sin and a shame and a scandal. "And a good +education," she wound up feebly, "would render Harry so much more of +a companion to you." +</p> +<p> +My father rubbed his head vaguely. "Yes, yes, you are right. I have +been neglecting the boy. But pray end as honestly as you began, and +do not pretend to be consulting my future when you are really +pleading for his. To begin with, I don't want a companion; next, I +should not immediately make a companion of Harry by sending him away +to school; and, lastly, you know as well as I, that long before he +finished his schooling I should be in my grave." +</p> +<p> +"Well, then, consider what a classical education would do for Harry! +I feel sure that had I—pardon the supposition—been born a man, and +made conversant with the best thoughts of the ancients—Socrates, for +example—" +</p> +<p> +"What about him?" my father demanded. +</p> +<p> +"So wise, as I have always been given to understand, yet in his own +age misunderstood, by his wife especially! And, to crown all, unless +I err, drowned in a butt of hemlock!" +</p> +<p> +"Dear madam, pardon me; but how many of these accidents to Socrates +are you ascribing to his classical education?" +</p> +<p> +"But it comes out in so many ways," Miss Plinlimmon persisted; "and +it does make such a difference! There's a <i>je ne sais quoi</i>. +You can tell it even in the way they handle a knife and fork!" +</p> +<p> +That evening, after supper, Miss Plinlimmon declined her customary +game of cards with me, on the pretence that she felt tired, and sat +for a long while fumbling with a newspaper, which I recognized for a +week-old copy of the "Falmouth Packet." At length she rose abruptly, +and, crossing over to the table where I sat playing dominoes (right +hand against left), thrust the paper before me, and pointed with a +trembling finger. +</p> +<p> +"There, Harry! What would you say to that?" +</p> +<p> +I brushed my dominoes aside, and read— +</p> +<p> +"The Reverend Philip Stimcoe, B.A., (Oxon.), of Copenhagen Academy, +7. Delamere Terrace, begs to inform the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry +of Falmouth and the neighbourhood that he has Vacancies for a limited +number of Pupils of good Social Standing. Education classical, on +the lines of the best Public Schools, combined with Home Comforts +under the personal supervision of Mrs. Stimcoe (niece of the late +Hon. Sir Alexander O'Brien, R.N., Admiral of the White, and K.C.B.). +Backward and delicate boys a speciality. Separate beds. Commodious +playground in a climate unrivalled for pulmonary ailments. Greenwich +time kept." +</p> +<p> +I did not criticise the advertisement. It sufficed me to read my +release in it; and in the same instant I knew how lonely the last few +months had been, and felt myself an ingrate. I that had longed +unspeakably, if but half consciously, for the world beyond Minden +Cottage—a world in which I could play the man—welcomed my liberty +by laying my head on my arms and breaking into unmanly sobs. +</p> +<p> +I will pass over a blissful week of preparation, including a journey +by van to Torpoint and by ferry across to Plymouth, where Miss +Plinlimmon bought me boots, shirts, collars, under-garments, a +valise, a low-crowned beaver hat for Sunday wear, and for week-days a +cap shaped like a concertina; where I was measured for two suits +after a pattern marked "Boy's Clarence, Gentlemanly," and where I +expended two-and-sixpence of my pocket-money on a piratical +jack-knife and a book of patriotic songs—two articles indispensable, +it seemed to me, to full-blooded manhood; and I will come to the day +when the Royal Mail pulled up before Minden Cottage with a merry +clash of bits and swingle-bars, and, the scarlet-coated guard having +received my box from Sally the cook, and hoisted it aboard in a +jiffy, Miss Plinlimmon and I climbed up to a seat behind the +coachman. My father stood at the door, and shook hands with me at +parting. +</p> +<p> +"Good luck, lad," said he; "and remember our motto: <i>Nil nisi recte!</i> +Good luck have thou with thine honour. And, by the way, here's half +a sovereign for you." +</p> +<p> +"Cl'k!" from the coachman, shortening up his enormous bunch of reins; +<i>ta-ra-ra!</i> from the guard's horn close behind my ear; and we were +off! +</p> +<p> +Oh, believe me, there never was such a ride! As we swept by the +second mile stone I stole a look at Miss Plinlimmon. She sat in an +ecstasy, with closed eyes. She was, as she put it, indulging in +mental composition. +</p> +<pre> Verses composed while Riding by the Royal Mail. + + "I've sailed at eve o'er Plymouth Sound + (For me it was a rare excursion) + Oblivious of the risk of being drown'd, + Or even of a more temporary immersion. + + "I dream'd myself the Lady of the Lake, + Or an Oriental one (within limits) on the Bosphorus; + We left a trail of glory in our wake, + Which the intelligent boatman ascribed to phosphorus. + + "Yet agreeable as I found it o'er the ocean + To glide within my bounding shallop, + I incline to think that for the poetry of motion + One may even more confidently recommend the Tantivy Gallop." +</pre> +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II. +</h2> +<center> +I AM ENTERED AT COPENHAGEN ACADEMY. +</center> +<p> +Agreeable, too, as I found it to be whirled between the hedgerows +behind five splendid horses; to catch the ostlers run out with the +relays; to receive blue glimpses of the Channel to southward; to dive +across dingles and past farm-gates under which the cocks and hens +flattened themselves in their haste to give us room; to gaze back +over the luggage and along the road, and assure myself that the rival +coach (the Self-Defence) was not overtaking us—yet Falmouth, when +we reached it, was best of all; Falmouth, with its narrow streets and +crowd of sailors, postmen, 'longshoremen, porters with wheelbarrows, +and passengers hurrying to and from the packets, its smells of pitch +and oakum and canvas, its shops full of seamen's outfits and +instruments and marine curiosities, its upper windows where parrots +screamed in cages, its alleys and quay-doors giving peeps of the +splendid harbour, thronged—to quote Miss Plinlimmon again—"with +varieties of gallant craft, between which the trained nautical eye +may perchance distinguish, but mine doesn't." +</p> +<p> +The residential part of Falmouth rises in neat terraces above the +waterside, and of these Delamere Terrace was by no means the least +respectable. The brass doorplate of No. 7—"Copenhagen Academy for +the Sons of Gentlemen. Principal, the Rev. Philip Stimcoe, B.A. +(Oxon.)"—shone immaculate; and its window-blinds did Mrs. Stimcoe +credit, as Miss Plinlimmon remarked before ringing the bell. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Stimcoe herself opened the door to us, in a full lace cap and a +maroon-coloured gown of state. She was a gaunt, hard-eyed woman, +tall as a grenadier, remarkable for a long upper lip decorated with +two moles. She excused her condescension on the ground that the +butler was out, taking the pupils for a walk; and conducted us to the +parlour, where Mr. Stimcoe sat in an atmosphere which smelt faintly +of sherry. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Stimcoe rose and greeted us with a shaky hand. He was a thin, +spectacled man, with a pendulous nose and cheeks disfigured by a +purplish cutaneous disorder (which his wife, later on, attributed to +his having slept between damp sheets while the honoured guest of a +nobleman, whose name I forget). He wore a seedy clerical suit. +</p> +<p> +While shaking hands he observed that I was taller than he had +expected; and this, absurdly enough, is all I remember of the +interview, except that the room had two empty bookcases, one on +either side of the chimney-breast; that the fading of the wallpaper +above the mantelpiece had left a patch recording where a clock had +lately stood (I conjectured that it must be at Greenwich, undergoing +repairs); that Mrs. Stimcoe produced a decanter of sherry—a wine +which Miss Plinlimmon abominated—and poured her out a glassful, with +the remark that it had been twice round the world; that Miss +Plinlimmon supposed vaguely "the same happened to a lot of things in +a seaport like Falmouth;" and that somehow this led us on to Mr. +Stimcoe's delicate health, and this again to the subject of damp +sheets, and this finally to Mrs. Stimcoe's suggesting that Miss +Plinlimmon might perhaps like to have a look at my bedroom. +</p> +<p> +The bedroom assigned to me opened out of Mrs. Stimcoe's own. +("It will give him a sense of protection. A child feels the first +few nights away from home.") Though small, it was neat, and, +for a boy's wants, amply furnished; nay, it contained at least one +article of supererogation, in the shape of a razor-case on the +dressing-table. Mrs. Stimcoe swept this into her pocket with a turn +of the hand, and explained frankly that her husband, like most +scholars, was absent-minded. Here she passed two fingers slowly +across her forehead. "Even in his walks, or while dressing, his +brain wanders among the deathless compositions of Greece and Rome, +turning them into English metres—all cakes especially"—she must +have meant alcaics—"and that makes him leave things about." +</p> +<p> +I had fresh and even more remarkable evidence of Mr. Stimcoe's +absent-mindedness two minutes later, when, the sheets having been +duly inspected, we descended to the parlour again; for, happening to +reach the doorway some paces ahead of the two ladies, I surprised him +in the act of drinking down Miss Plinlimmon's sherry. +</p> +<p> +The interview was scarcely resumed before a mortuary silence fell on +the room, and I became aware that somehow my presence impeded the +discussion of business. +</p> +<p> +"I think perhaps that Harry would like to run out upon the terrace +and see the view from his new home," suggested Mrs. Stimcoe, with +obvious tact. +</p> +<p> +I escaped, and went in search of the commodious playground, which I +supposed to lie in the rear of the house; but, reaching a back yard, +I suddenly found myself face to face with three small boys, one +staggering with the weight of a pail, the two others bearing a full +washtub between them; and with surprise saw them set down their +burdens at a distance and come tip-toeing towards me in a single +file, with theatrical gestures of secrecy. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"Hist! Be dark as the grave!" answered the leader, in a +stage-whisper. He was a freckly, narrow-chested child, and needed +washing. "You're the new boy," he announced, as though he had +tracked me down in that criminal secret. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I owned. "Who are you?" +</p> +<p> +"We are the Blood-stained Brotherhood of the Pampas, now upon the +trail!" +</p> +<p> +"Look here," said I, staring down at him, "that's nonsense!" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, very well," he answered promptly; "then we're the 'Backward Sons +of Gentlemen'—that's down in the prospectus—and we're fetching +water for Mother Stimcoe, because the turncock cut off the company's +water this morning! See? But you won't blow the gaff on the old +girl, will you?" +</p> +<p> +"Are you all there is, you three?" I asked, after considering them a +moment. +</p> +<p> +"We're all the boarders. My name's Ted Bates—they call me Doggy +Bates—and my father's a captain out in India; and these are Bob +Pilkington and Scotty Maclean. You may call him Redhead, being too +big to punch; and, talking of that, you'll have to fight Bully +Stokes." +</p> +<p> +"Is he a day-boy?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"He's cock of Rogerses up the hill, and he wants it badly. +Stimcoes and Rogerses are hated rivals. If you can whack Bully +Stokes for us—" +</p> +<p> +"But Mrs. Stimcoe told me that you were taking a walk with the +butler," I interrupted. +</p> +<p> +Master Bates winked. +</p> +<p> +"Would you like to see him?" +</p> +<p> +He beckoned me to an open window, and we gazed through it upon a bare +back kitchen, and upon an extremely corpulent man in an armchair, +slumbering, with a yellow bandanna handkerchief over his head to +protect it from the flies. Master Bates whipped out a pea-shooter, +and blew a pea on to the exposed lobe of the sleeper's ear. +</p> +<p> +"D—n!" roared the corpulent one, leaping up in wrath. But we were +in hiding behind the yard-wall before he could pull the bandanna from +his face. +</p> +<p> +"He's the bailiff," explained Master Bates. "He's in possession. +Oh, you'll get quite friendly with him in time. Down in the town +they call him Mother Stimcoe's lodger, he comes so often. But, I +say, don't go and blow the gaff on the old girl." +</p> +<p> +On our way to the coach-office that evening I felt—as the saying +is—my heart in my mouth. Miss Plinlimmon spoke sympathetically of +Mr. Stimcoe's state of health, and with delicacy of his +absent-mindedness, "so natural in a scholar." I discovered long +afterwards that Mr. Stimcoe, having retired to cash a note for her, +had brought back a strong smell of brandy and eighteen-pence less +than the strict amount of her change. I knew in my heart that my new +schoolmaster and his wife were a pair of frauds, and yet I choked +down the impulse to speak. Perhaps Master Bates's loyalty kept me on +my mettle. +</p> +<p> +The dear soul and I bade one another farewell, she not without tears. +The coach bore her away; and I walked back through the crowded +streets with my spirits down in my boots, and my fists thrust deep +into the pockets of my small-clothes. +</p> +<p> +In this dejected mood I reached the Market Strand just as Captain +Coffin came up it from the Plume of Feathers public-house, cursing +and striking out with his stick at a mob of small boys. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III. +</h2> +<center> +A STREET FIGHT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. +</center> +<p> +He emerged upon the street which crosses the head of Market Strand, +and, dropping his arms, stood for a moment us if in doubt of his +bearings. He was flagrantly drunk, but not aggressively. +He reminded me of a purblind owl that, blundering Into daylight, is +set upon and mobbed by a crowd of small birds. +</p> +<p> +The 'longshoremen and loafers grinned and winked at one another, but +forbore to interfere. Plainly the spectacle was a familiar one. +</p> +<p> +The man was not altogether repulsive; pitiable, rather; a small, lean +fellow, with a grey-white face drawn into wrinkles about the jaw, and +eyes that wandered timidly. He wore a suit of good sea-cloth— +soiled, indeed, but neither ragged nor threadbare—and a blue and +yellow spotted neckerchief, the bow of which had worked around +towards his right ear. His hat, perched a-cock over his left eye, +had made acquaintance with the tavern sawdust. Next to his +drunkenness, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about him was his +stick—of ebony, very curiously carved in rings from knob to ferrule, +where it ended in an iron spike; an ugly weapon, of which his +tormentors stood in dread, and small blame to them. +</p> +<p> +While he stood hesitating, they swarmed close and began to bay him +afresh. +</p> +<p> +"Captain Coffin, Captain Coffin!" "Who killed the Portugee?" +"Who hid the treasure and got so drunk he couldn't find it?" +"Where's your ship, Cap'n Danny?" These were some of the taunts +flung; and as the urchins danced about him, yelling them, the passion +blazed up again in his red-rimmed eyes. +</p> +<p> +Amongst the crowd capered Ted Bates. "Hallo, Brooks!" he shouted, +and, catching at another boy's elbow, pointed towards me. +Beyond noting that the other boy had a bullet-shaped head with ears +that stood out from it at something like right angles, I had time to +take very little stock of him; for just then, us Captain Coffin +turned about to smite, a stone came flying and struck him smartly on +the funny-bone. His hand opened with the pain of it, but the stick +hung by a loop to his wrist, and, gripping it again, he charged among +his tormentors, lashing out to right and left. +</p> +<p> +So savagely he charged that I looked for nothing short of murder; and +just then, while I stood at gaze, a boy stepped up to me—the same +that Ted Bates had plucked by the arm. +</p> +<p> +"Look here!" said he, frowning, with his legs a-straddle. +"Doggy Bates tells me that you told him you could whack me with one +hand behind you." +</p> +<p> +I replied that I had told Doggy Bates nothing of the sort. +</p> +<p> +"That's all right," said he. "Then you take it back?" +</p> +<p> +He had the air of one sure of his logic, but his under lip—not to +mention his ears—protruded in a way that struck me as offensive, and +I replied— +</p> +<p> +"That depends." +</p> +<p> +"My name's Stokes," said he, still in the same reasonable tone. +"And you'll have to take coward's blow." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, indeed!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"It's the rule," said he, and gave it me with a light, back-handed +smack across the bridge of the nose; whereupon I hit him on the point +of the chin, and, unconsciously imitating Captain Coffin's method of +charging a crowd, lowered my head and butted him violently in the +stomach. +</p> +<p> +I make no doubt that my brain was tired and giddy with the day's +experiences, but to this moment I cannot understand why we two +suddenly found ourselves the focus of interest in a crowd which had +wasted none on Captain Coffin. +</p> +<p> +But so it was. In less time than it takes to write, a ring +surrounded us—a ring of men staring and offering bets. The lamp at +the street-corner shone on their faces; and close under the light of +it Master Stokes and I were hammering one another. +</p> +<p> +We were fighting by rule, too. Some one—I cannot say who—had taken +up the affair, and was imposing the right ceremonial upon us. It may +have been the cheerful, blue-jerseyed Irishman, to whose knee I +returned at the end of each round to be freshened up around the face +and neck with a dripping boat-sponge. He had an extraordinarily wide +mouth, and it kept speaking encouragement and good advice to me. +I feel sure he was a good fellow, but have never set eyes on him from +that hour to this. +</p> +<p> +Bully Stokes and I must have fought a good many rounds, for towards +the end we were both panting hard, and our hands hung on every blow. +But I remember yet more vividly the strangeness of it all, and the +uncanny sensation that the fight itself, the street-lamp, the crowd, +and the dim houses around were unreal as a dream: that, and the +unnatural hardness of my opponent's face, which seemed the one +unmalleable part of him. +</p> +<p> +A dreadful thought possessed me that if he could only contrive to hit +me with his face all would be over. My own was badly pounded; for we +fought—or, at any rate, I fought—without the smallest science; it +was blow for blow, plain give-and-take, from the start. But what +distressed me was the extreme tenderness of my knuckles; and what +chiefly irritated me was the behaviour of Doggy Bates, dancing about +and screaming, "Go it, Stimcoes! Stimcoes for ever!" Five times the +onlookers flung him out by the scruff of his neck; and five times he +worked himself back, and screamed it between their legs. +</p> +<p> +In the end this enthusiasm proved the undoing of all his delight. +Towards the end of an intolerably long round, finding that my arms +began to hang like lead, I had rushed in and closed; and the two of +us went to ground together. Then I lay panting, and my opponent +under me—the pair of us too weary for the moment to strike a blow; +and then, as breath came back, I was aware of a sudden hush in the +din. A hand took me by the shirt-collar, dragged me to my feet, and +swung me round, and I stared, blinking, into the face of Mr. Stimcoe. +</p> +<p> +"Dishgrashful!" said Mr. Stimcoe. He was accompanied by a constable, +to whom he appealed for confirmation, pointing to my face. +"Left immy charge only this evening, Perf'ly dishgrashful!" +</p> +<p> +"Boys will be boys, sir," said the constable. +</p> +<p> +"M' good fellow "—Mr. Stimcoe comprehended the crowd with an +unsteady wave of his hand—"that don't 'pply 'case of men. <i>Ne tu +pu'ri tempsherish annosh</i>; tha's Juvenal." +</p> +<p> +"Then my advice is, sir—take the boy home and give him a wash." +</p> +<p> +"He can't," came a taunting voice from the crowd. "'Cos why? +The company 've cut off his water." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Stimcoe gazed around in sorrow rather than in anger. He cleared +his throat for a public speech; but was forestalled by the +constable's dispersing the throng with a "Clear along, now, like good +fellows!" +</p> +<p> +The wide-mouthed man helped me into my jacket, shook hands with me, +and said I had no science, but the devil's own pluck-and-lights. +Then he, too, faded away into the night; and I found myself alongside +of Doggy Bates, marching up the street after Mr. Stimcoe, who +declaimed, as he went, upon the vulgarity of street-fighting. +</p> +<p> +By-and-by it became apparent that in the soothing flow of his +eloquence he had forgotten us; and Doggy Bates, who understood his +preceptor's habits to a hair, checked me with a knowing squeeze of +the arm, and began, of set purpose, to lag in his steps. Mr. Stimcoe +strode on, still audibly denouncing and exhorting. +</p> +<p> +"It was all my fault!" Master Bates pulled up and studied my mauled +face by the light of a street-lamp. "The beggar heard me shouting +his own name, silly fool that I was!" +</p> +<p> +I begged him not to be distressed on my account. +</p> +<p> +"What's the use of half a fight?" he groaned again. "My word, +though, won't Stimcoe catch it from the missus! She sent him out to +get change for your aunt's notes—'fees payable in advance.' I know +the game—to pay off the bailey; and he's been soaking in a +public-house ever since. Hallo!" +</p> +<p> +We turned together at the sound of footsteps approaching after us up +the street. They broke into a run, then appeared to falter; and, +peering into the dark interval between us and the next lamp, I +discerned Captain Coffin. He had come to a halt, and stood there +mysteriously beckoning. +</p> +<p> +"You—I want you!" he called huskily. "Not the other boy! You!" +</p> +<p> +I obeyed, having a reputation to keep up in the eyes of Doggy Bates; +but my courage was oozing as I walked towards the old man, and I came +to a sudden stop about five yards from him. +</p> +<p> +"Closer!" he beckoned. "Good boy, don't be afraid. What's your +name, good boy?" +</p> +<p> +"Harry Brooks, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Call me 'sir,' do you? Well, and you're right. I could ride in my +coach-and-six if I chose; and some day you may see it. How would you +like to ride in your coach-and-six, Harry Brooks?" +</p> +<p> +"I should like it finely, sir," said I, humouring him. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes, I'll wager you would. Well, now—come closer. Mum's the +word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "—he +broke off and cursed horribly—"they're not fit to carry slops to a +bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time +you're in trouble, just pay a call on me. Understand? Mind you, I +make no promises." Here, to my exceeding fright, he reached out a +hand, and, clutching me by the arm, drew me close, so that his breath +poured hot on my ear, and I sickened at its reek of brandy. +"It's <i>money</i>, boy—<i>money</i>, I tell you!" +</p> +<p> +He dropped my arm, and, falling back a pace, looked nervously about +him. +</p> +<p> +"Between you and me and the gatepost, eh?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +His hand went down and tapped his pocket slily, and with that he +turned and shuffled away down the street. I stared after him into +the foggy darkness, listening to the tap of his stick upon the +cobbles. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV. +</h2> +<center> +CAPTAIN COFFIN STUDIES NAVIGATION. +</center> +<p> +Events soon to be narrated made my sojourn in tutelage of Mr. Stimcoe +a brief one, and I will pass it lightly over. +</p> +<p> +The school consisted of four boarders and six backward sons of +gentlemen resident in the town, and assembled daily in a large +outhouse furnished with desks of a peculiar pattern, known to us as +"scobs." Mr. Stimcoe, who had received his education as a +"querister" at Winchester (and afterwards as a "servitor" at Pembroke +College, Oxford), habitually employed and taught us to employ the +esoteric slang—or "notions," as he called it—of that great public +school; so that in "preces," "morning lines," "book-chambers," and +what-not we had the names if not the things, and a vague and quite +illusory sense of high connection, on the strength of which, and of +our freedom from what Mrs. Stimcoe called "the commercial taint," we +made bold to despise the more prosperous Rogerses up the hill. +</p> +<p> +Upon commerce in the concrete—that is to say, upon the butchers, +bakers, and other honest tradesmen of Falmouth—Mrs. Stimcoe waged a +predatory war, and waged it without quarter. She had a genius for +opening accounts, and something more than genius for keeping her +creditors at bay. She never wheedled nor begged them for time; she +never compromised nor parleyed, nor condescended to yield an inch to +their claims for decent human treatment. She relied simply upon +browbeating and the efficacy of the straight-spoken lie. A more +dauntless, unblushing, majestic liar never stood up in petticoats. +</p> +<p> +She was a byword in Falmouth; yet, strange to say, her victims kept a +sneaking fondness for her, a soft spot In their hearts; while as +sporting onlookers we boys took something like a fearful pride in the +Warrior, as we called her. It was not in her nature to encourage any +such weakness, or to use it. She would not have thanked us for it. +But we had this amount of excuse: that she fed us liberally when she +could browbeat the butcher; and if at times we went short, she shared +our privation. Also, there must have been some good in the woman, to +stand so unflinchingly by Stimcoe. Stimcoe's books had gone into +storage at the pawnbroker's; but in his bare "study," where he heard +our construing of Caesar and Homer, stood a screen, and behind it an +eighteen-gallon cask. A green baize tablecloth covered the cask from +sight, and partially muffled the sound of its running tap when +Stimcoe withdrew behind the screen, to consult (as he put it) his +lexicon. +</p> +<p> +His one assistant, who figured in the prospectus as "Teacher of +English, the Mathematics, and Navigation," was a retired +packet-captain, Branscome by name, but known among us as Captain +Gamey, by reason of an injured leg. He had taken the hurt—a +splintered hip-bone—while fighting his ship against a French +privateer off Guadeloupe, and it had retired him from the service of +my lords the Postmaster-General upon a very small pension, and with a +sword of honour subscribed for by the merchants of the City of +London, whose mails he had gallantly saved. These resources being +barely sufficient to maintain him, still less to permit his helping a +widowed sister whom he had partly maintained during his days of +service, he eked them out by school mastering; and a dreadful trade +he must have found it. In person he was slight and wiry, of a clear, +ruddy complexion, with grey hair, and a grave simplicity of manner. +He wore a tightly buttoned, blue uniform coat, threadbare and frayed, +but scrupulously brushed, noticeably clean linen, and white duck +trousers in all weathers. He walked with the support of a malacca +cane, dragging his wounded leg after him; and had a trick of talking +to himself as he went. +</p> +<p> +I need scarcely say that we mimicked him; but in school he kept far +better discipline than Stimcoe, for, with all his oddity, we knew him +to be a brave man. Such mathematics as we needed he taught capably +enough and very patiently. The "navigation," so far as we were +concerned, was a mere flourish of the prospectus; and his +qualifications as a teacher of English began and ended with an +enthusiasm for Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas." +</p> +<p> +Such was Captain Branscome: and, such as he was, he kept the school +running on days when Stimcoe was merely drunk and incapable. He ever +treated Mrs. Stimcoe with the finest courtesy, and, alone among her +creditors, was rewarded with that lady's respect. +</p> +<p> +I knew, to be sure—we all knew—that she must be in arrears with +Captain Branscome's pay; but we were unprepared for the morning when, +on the stroke of the church clock—our Greenwich time—he walked up +to the door, resolutely handed Mrs. Stimcoe a letter, and as +resolutely walked away again. Stimcoe had been maudlin drunk for a +week and could not appear. His wife heroically stepped into the +breach, and gave us (as a geography lesson) some account of her uncle +the admiral and his career—"distinguished, but wandering," as she +summarized it. +</p> +<p> +I remember little of this lesson save that it dispensed—wisely, no +doubt—with the use of the terrestrial globe; that it included a +description of the admiral's country seat in Roscommon, and an +account of a ball given by him to celebrate Mrs. Stimcoe's arrival at +a marriageable age, with a list of the notabilities assembled; and +that it ended in her rapping Doggy Bates over the head with a ruler, +for biting his nails. From that moment anarchy reigned. +</p> +<p> +It reigned for a week. I have wondered since how our six day-boys +managed to refrain from carrying home a tale which must have brought +their parents down upon us <i>en masse</i>. Great is schoolboy honour— +great, and more than a trifle quaint. In any case, the parents must +have been singularly unobservant or singularly slow to reason upon +what they observed; for we sent their backward sons home to them each +night in a mask of ink. +</p> +<p> +Saturday came, and brought the usual half-holiday. We boarders +celebrated it by a raid upon the back yard of Rogerses—Bully Stokes +being temporarily incapacitated by chicken-pox—and possessed +ourselves, after a gallant fight, of Rogerses' football. Superior +numbers drove us back to our own door, where—at the invocation of +all the householders along Delamere Terrace—the constable +intervened; but we retained the spoil. +</p> +<p> +At the shut of dusk, as we kicked the football in triumph about our +own back yard, Mrs. Stimcoe sought me out with a letter to be +conveyed to Captain Branscome. I took it and ran. +</p> +<p> +The lamplighter, going his rounds, met me at the corner of Killigrew +Street and directed me to the alley in which the captain's lodgings +lay. The alley was dark, but a little within the entrance my eyes +caught the glimmer of a highly polished brass door-knocker, and upon +this I rapped at a venture. +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome opened to me. The house had no passage. Its front +door opened directly upon a whitewashed room, with a round table in +the centre, covered with charts. On the table, too, stood a lamp, +the light of which dazzled me for a moment. On the walls hung the +captain's sword of honour (above the mantelpiece), a couple of +bookshelves, well stored, and a panel with a ship upon it—a brig in +full sail—carved in high relief and painted. My eyes, however, were +not for these, but for a man who sat at the table, poring over the +charts, and lifted his head nervously to blink at me. It was Captain +Coffin. +</p> +<p> +While I stared at him Captain Branscome took the letter from me. +It contained some pieces of silver, as I knew from its weight +and the feel of it—five shillings, as I judged, or perhaps +seven-and-sixpence. As his hand weighed it I saw a sudden relief on +his face, and realized how grey and pinched it had been when he +opened the door to me. +</p> +<p> +He peised the envelope in his hand for a moment, then broke the seal +very deliberately, took out the coins, and, as if weighing them in +his palm, turned back to the table and laid Mrs. Stimcoe's letter +close under the lamp while he searched for his gold-rimmed +spectacles. (There was a tradition at Stimcoe's, by the way, that +the London merchants, finding a small surplus of subscriptions in +hand after purchasing the sword of honour, had presented him with +these spectacles as a make-weight, and that he valued them no less.) +</p> +<p> +"Brooks," said he, laying down the letter and pushing the spectacles +high on his forehead while he gazed at me, "I want to ask you a +question in confidence. Had Mrs. Stimcoe any difficulty in finding +this money?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, sir," said I, "I oughtn't perhaps to know it, but she pawned +Stim—Mr. Stimcoe's Cicero this morning, the six volumes with a +shield on the covers, that he got as a prize at Oxford." +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord!" said Captain Branscome, slowly. As if in absence of +mind, he stepped to a side-cupboard and looked within. It was bare +but for a plate and an apple. He took up the apple, and was about to +offer it to me, but set it back slowly on the plate, and locked the +cupboard again. "Good Lord!" he repeated quietly, and, linking his +hands under his coat-tails, strode twice backwards and forwards +across the room. +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin looked up from his charts and stared at him, and I, +too, stared, waiting in the semi-darkness beyond the lamp's circle. +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord!" said Captain Branscome for the third time. "And it's +Saturday, too! You'll excuse me a moment." +</p> +<p> +With that he caught up the letter, and made a dart up the wooden +staircase, which led straight from a corner of the room through a +square hole in the ceiling to his upper chamber. +</p> +<p> +"Money again!" said Captain Coffin, turning his eyes upon me and +blinking. "Nothing like money!" +</p> +<p> +He picked up a pair of compasses, spread them out on the paper of +figures before him, and looked up again with a sly, silly smile. +</p> +<p> +"You won't guess what I'm doing?" he challenged. +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"I'm studyin' navigation. Cap'n Branscome's larnin' it to me. Some +people has luck an' some has heads; an' with a head on my shoulders +same as I had at your age, I'd be Prime Minister an' Lord Mayor of +Lunnon rolled into one, by crum!" He reached across for Captain +Branscome's sextant, and held it between his shaking hands. +"<i>He</i> can do it; hundreds o' men—thick-headed men in the ord'nary +way—can do it; take a vessel out o' Falmouth here, as you might say, +and hold her 'crost the Atlantic, as you might put it; whip her along +for thirty days, we'll say; an' then, 'To-morrow, if the wind holds, +an' about six in the mornin',' they'll say, 'there'll be an island +with a two-three palm-trees on a hill an' a spit o' sand bearing +nor'-by-west. Bring 'em in line,' they'll say, 'an' then you may +fetch my shaving-water'—and all the while no more'n ordinary men, +same as you and me. Whereby I allow it must come in time, though my +head don't seem to get no grip on it." +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin stared for a moment at a sheet of paper on which he +had been scribbling figures, and passed it over to me, with a sigh. +</p> +<p> +"There! What d'you make of it?" +</p> +<p> +At a glance I saw that nothing could be made of it. The figures +crossed one another, and ran askew; here and there they trailed off +into mere illegibility. In the left-hand bottom corner I saw a 3 set +under a 10, and beneath it the result—17—underlined, which, as a +sum, left much to be desired, whether you took it in addition, +subtraction, multiplication, or division. +</p> +<p> +"And yet," he went on plaintively, "there's hundreds can do it—even +ord'nary men." +</p> +<p> +He reached out a hand and gripped me by the elbow; and again his +brandy-laden breath sickened me as he drew me close. +</p> +<p> +"S'pose, now, <i>you</i> was to do this for me? You <i>could</i>, you know. +And there's money in it—lashin's o' money!" +</p> +<p> +He winked at me, glanced around the room, and with an indescribable +air of slyness dived a hand into his breast-pocket. +</p> +<p> +"It's here," he nodded, drawing out a small parcel wrapped about in +what at first glance appeared to me an oilskin bag, tied about the +neck with a tarry string. "Here. And enough to set you an' me up +for life." His fingers fumbled with the string for two or three +seconds, but presently faltered. "You come to me to-morrow," he went +on, with another mysterious wink, "and I'll show you something. +Up the hill, past Market Strand, till you come to a signboard, +'G. Goodfellow. Funerals Furnished'—first turning to the right down +the court, and knock three times." +</p> +<p> +Here he whipped the parcel back into his pocket, picked up his +compasses, and made transparent pretence to be occupied in measuring +distances as Captain Branscome came down the stairs from the garret. +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome gave no sign of observing his confusion, but +signalled to me to step outside with him into the alley, where he +pressed an envelope into my hand. By the weight of it, I knew on the +instant that he was returning Mrs. Stimcoe's money, +</p> +<p> +"And tell her," said he, "that I will come on Monday morning at nine +o'clock as usual." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +I turned to go. I could not see his face in the gloom of the alley, +but I had caught one glimpse of it by the lamplight within, and knew +what had detained him upstairs. Honest man, he was starving, and had +been praying up there to be delivered from temptation. +</p> +<p> +"Brooks," said he, as I turned, "they tell me your father was once a +major in the Army. Is he, by chance, the same Major Brooks—Major +James Brooks, of the King's Own—I had the honour to bring home in +the <i>Londonderry</i>, after Corunna?" +</p> +<p> +"That must have been my father, sir." +</p> +<p> +"A good man and a brave one. I am glad to hear he is recovered." +</p> +<p> +I told him in a word or two of my father's health and of his +blindness. +</p> +<p> +"And he lives not far from here?" I remembered afterwards that his +voice shook upon the question. +</p> +<p> +I described Minden Cottage and its position on the road towards +Plymouth. He cut me short hurriedly, and remarked, with a nervous +laugh, that he must be getting back to his pupil. Whereat I, too, +laughed. +</p> +<p> +"Do you think it wrong of me, boy?" he asked abruptly. +</p> +<p> +"Wrong, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"He insists upon coming; and he pays me. He will never learn +anything. By the way, Brooks, I have been inhospitable. An apple, +for instance?" +</p> +<p> +I declared untruthfully that I never ate apples; and perhaps the lie +was pardonable, since by it I escaped eating Captain Branscome's +Sunday dinner. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V. +</h2> +<center> +THE WHALEBOAT. +</center> +<p> +A barber's pole protruded beside the ope leading to Captain Coffin's +lodgings. It was painted in spirals of scarlet and blue, and at the +end of it a cage containing a grey parrot dangled over the footway. +</p> +<p> +"Drunk again!" screamed the parrot, as I hesitated before the +entrance, for the directing-marks just here were so numerous as to be +perplexing. To the right of the alley the barber had affixed his +signboard, close above the base of his pole; to the left a flanking +slopshop dangled a row of cast-off suits, while immediately overhead +was nailed a board painted over with ornate flourishes and the +legend— +</p> +<pre> "G. Goodfellow. Carpenter and House-Decorator, &c. + Repairs Neatly Executed. Instruction in the Violin. + Funerals at the Shortest Notice. Shipping Supplied." +</pre> +<p> +"Drunk again!" repeated the parrot. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, kiss +me! Oh, you nasty image! Kiss me, kiss me! Who killed the +Portugee?" +</p> +<p> +"He don't mean you," explained the barber, reassuringly, emerging at +that moment from his shop with a pannikin of water for the parrot's +cage, which he lowered very deftly by means of a halliard reeved +through a block at the end of the pole. "He means old Coffin. +Nice bird, hey?" +</p> +<p> +He slipped a hand through the cage-door, and caressed him, scratching +his head. +</p> +<p> +"If you please, sir," said I, "it's Captain Coffin I'm looking for." +</p> +<p> +"Drunk again!" screamed the bird. "Damn my giblets, drunk again!" +</p> +<p> +"He don't like Coffin, and that's a fact," said the barber. +</p> +<p> +"He don't appear to, sir," I agreed. +</p> +<p> +"You'll find the old fellow down the yard. That is, if you really +want him." The barber eyed me doubtfully. "He's sober enough, just +now; been swearin off liquor for a week. I dare say you know his +temper's uncertain at such times." +</p> +<p> +I did not know it, but was too far committed to retreat. +</p> +<p> +"Well, you'll find him down the yard—green door to the right, with +the brass knocker. He's out at the back, hammering at his ship, but +he'll hear you fast enough: he's wonderful quick of hearing." +</p> +<p> +A man, even though he possessed a solid brass knocker, had need to be +quick of hearing in that alley. Without, street-hawkers were bawling +and carts rattling on the cobbled thoroughfare; from the entrance the +parrot vociferated after me as I went down the passage beneath an +open window whence an invisible violin repeated the opening phrase of +"Come, cheer up, my lads!" plaintively and persistently; while from +the far end, somewhere between it and the harbour side, an irregular +hammering punctuated the music. +</p> +<p> +I knocked, and the hammering ceased. The rest of the din ceased not, +nor abated. In about a minute the green door opened—a cautious inch +or two at first, then wide enough to reveal Captain Coffin. He wore +a dirty white jumper over his upper garments, and held a formidable +mallet. I observed that either his face was unnaturally white or the +rims of his eyes were unnaturally red, and that sawdust besprinkled +his hair and collar. I recalled the tavern sawdust which had +bepowdered his hat on the night of our first meeting, and jumped to a +wrong conclusion. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? It's Brooks—the boy Brooks! Glad to see you, Brooks! +Come inside." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, sir," said I, feeling a strong impulse to bolt as he +shook me by the hand, so hot was his and so dry, and so feverishly +it gripped me. +</p> +<p> +"You're sure no one tracked ye here?" he asked, as he closed the door +behind us. +</p> +<p> +"There was a barber, sir, at the head of the passage. I stopped to +ask him the way." +</p> +<p> +"<i>He's</i> all right, or would be but for that cursed bird of his. +How a man can keep such a bird—" Captain Coffin broke off. +"I had a two-three nails in my mouth when you knocked. Nearly made +me swallow 'em, you did. They was copper nails, too." +</p> +<p> +I suppose I must have stared at this, for he paused and peered at me, +drawing me over to the window, through which—so thickly grimed it +was—a very little light dribbled from the courtyard into the room. +Yet the room itself was clean, almost spick and span, with a +seaman-like tidiness in all its arrangements—a small room, crowded +with foreign odds-and-ends, among which I remember a walking-stick +even more singular than the one Captain Coffin carried on his walks +abroad (it was white in colour, with lines of small grey +indentations, and he afterwards told me it was a shark's backbone); +a corner-cupboard, too, painted over with green-and-yellow tulips. +</p> +<p> +"Copper nails, I tell you. Nothing but the best'll do for your +friend Coffin." He leaned back, still eyeing me, and tapped me twice +on the chest. "You heard me say that? 'Your friend' was my words." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, sir." +</p> +<p> +"But you made me jump, you did—me being that way given when off the +liquor." He hesitated a moment, with a glance over his shoulder at +the tulip-painted cupboard. "Brooks," he went on earnestly, "you and +me being met on a matter of business, and the same needin' +steadiness—head and hand, my boy, if ever business did—what d'ye +say to a tot of rum apiece?" +</p> +<p> +Without waiting for my answer, he hobbled off to the cupboard, and +had set two glasses on the table and brimmed them with neat spirit +before I had finished protesting. The bottle-neck trembled on the +rims of the glasses and struck out a sort of chime as he paused. +</p> +<p> +"You won't?" he asked, gulping down his own portion; and the liquor +must have been potent, for it brought a sudden water to his eyes. +"Well, so be it—if you've kept off it at your age. But at mine"— +he drank off the second glassful and wiped his mouth—"I've had +experiences, Brooks. When you've heard 'em, you wouldn't be +surprised, not if it took a dozen to steady me." +</p> +<p> +He filled again, and came close to me, holding the glass, yet so +tremulously that the rum spilled over his fingers. +</p> +<p> +"Ingots, lad—golden ingots! Bars and wedges of solid gold! +Gems, too, and cath-e-deral plate, with crucifixions and priests' +vestments stiff with pearls and rubies as if they was frozen. +I've seen 'em lyin' tossed in a heap like mullet in a ground-net. +Ay, and blazin' on the beach, with the gulls screamin' over 'em and +flappin', and the sea all around. I seen it with these eyes, boy" He +stood back and shivered. "And behind o' that, the Death! But it +comes equal to all, the Death. Not if a man had learned every trick +the devil can teach could he lay his course clear o' that. Could he, +now?" +</p> +<p> +His words, his uncouth gestures, which were almost spasms, and the +changes in his face—from cupidity to terror, and from terror again +to a kind of wistful hope—fairly frightened me, and I stammered +stupidly that death was the common lot, and there couldn't be a doubt +of it; that or something of the sort. But what I said does not +matter. He was not listening, and before I had done he drained and +set down the glass and gripped my arm again. +</p> +<p> +"I seen all that—ay, an' felt it!" He drew away and stretched out +both hands, crooking his fingers like talons. "Ay, an' I seen +<i>him!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Him?" I echoed. "But you were talking of Death, sir." +</p> +<p> +"You may call him that. There's men lyin' around in the sand— +Did ever you hear, boy, of a poison that kills a man and keeps him +fresh as paint?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir." +</p> +<p> +He nodded. "No, I reckon you never did. Fresh as paint it keeps +'em, and white as a figure-head. The first heap as ever I dug, +believin' it to be the treasure—my reckoning was out by a foot or +two—I came on one o' them. Three foot beneath the sand I came on +him, an' the gulls sheevoing all the while over my head. <i>They</i> +knew. And the sea and the dreadful loneliness around us all the +while. There was three of us, Brooks—I mention no names, you +understand—three of us, and <i>him</i>. Three to one. Yet he got the +better of us all—as he got the better of the first lot, and <i>they</i> +must ha' been a dozen. Four of them we uncovered afore we struck the +edge of the treasure—uncovered 'em and covered 'em up again pretty +quick, I can tell you. Fresh as paint they were, in a manner o' +speaking, just as though they'd died yesterday; whereas by Bill's +account they must ha' lain there for more'n a year. And the faces on +'em white and shinin'—" +</p> +<p> +Here Captain Coffin shivered, and, glancing about him, poured out +another go of rum. +</p> +<p> +"You wouldn't blame me for wantin' it, Brooks—not if you'd seen 'em. +That was on the Keys, as they're called—half a dozen banks to +no'thard of the island, and maybe from half a mile to three-quarters +off the shore, which shoals thereabout—sand, all the lot of 'em, and +nothin' but sand; sand and sea-birds, and—what I told you. But the +bulk lies in the island itself, in two caches; and where the bigger +cache lies <i>he</i> don't know, and nobody knows but only Dan Coffin." +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin winked, touched his breast, and wagged his forefinger +at me impressively. +</p> +<p> +"That makes twice," he went on. "Twice that devil has got the better +of every one. But the third time's lucky, they say. He may be dead +afore this; he'll be getting an oldish man, anyway, and life on that +cursed island can't be good for his health. We won't go in a crowd +this time, neither; not a dozen, nor yet four of us, but only you an' +me, Brooks. It's the safer way—the only safe way—an' there'll be +the fatter sharin's. Now you know—hey?—why Branscome's givin' me +lessons in navigation." +</p> +<p> +He chuckled, and was moving off mysteriously to a back doorway behind +the dresser, but halted and came back to the table beside which I +stood, making no motion to follow him. +</p> +<p> +"Look ye here, Brooks," said be. "If there's anything you don't get +the hang of—anything that takes ye aback, so to speak, in what I'm +tellin' you—you just hitch on an' trust to old Dan Coffin; to old +Dan, as'll do for you more than ever your godfathers an' godmothers +did at your baptism. You'll pick up a full breeze as you go on. +Man, the treasure's there! Man, I've handled it, or enough of it to +keep you in a coach-an'-six, with nothing to do but loll on cushions +for the rest o' your days, an' pick your teeth at the crowd. +And look ye here." He waved a hand around the room. "I'm old Danny +Coffin, ain't I? poor old drunken Danny Coffin, eh? Yet cast an eye +about ye. Nice fittin's, ben't they? Hitch down my coat off the peg +there; feel the cloth of it; take it between finger and thumb. +Ay, I don't live upon air, nor keep house an' fixtures upon nothin' +at all. There—if you want more proof!" He dived a hand into his +trouser-pocket, and held out a golden coin under my nose. +"There! that very dollar came from the island, and I'm offerin' you +the fellows to it by the thousand. Why? says you. Because, says I, +you're a good lad, and I've took a fancy to see you in Parlyment. +That's why. An' it's no return I'm askin' you, but just to believe!" +</p> +<p> +He made for the back door again, and opened it, letting in the +sunlight; but the sunlight fell in two slanting rays, one on either +side of a dark object which all but filled the entrance, blocking out +my view of the back court beyond. It was the stern of a tall boat. +</p> +<p> +The boat, in fact, filled the small back court, leaving an alley-way +scarcely more than two feet wide along either party-wall. She rested +on the stocks, about three-parts finished, in shape very like a +whaleboat, and in measurement—so Captain Coffin informed me, with a +proprietary wave of the hand—some twenty-nix feet over all, with a +beam of nine feet six inches amidships. And even to a boy's eye she +showed herself a pretty model, though (as I say) unfinished, with a +foot and more of her ribs standing up bare and awaiting the top +strakes. +</p> +<p> +"Designed her myself, Brooks. Eh, but your friend Dan'l Coffin has +an eye for the shape of a boat, though no hand at pencilling, nor +what you might call the cabinet-making part of the job. There's a +young carpenter lives up the court here—a cleverish fellow. +I got him to help me over the niceties, you understand; but on my +lines, lad. Climb up and cast your eye over the well I've put in +her. That's for the treasure; and there'll be side-lockers round the +stern-sheets, and a locker forward big enough to hold a man. +The fellow don't guess their meanin', an' I don't let him guess. +He thinks they're for air-compartments, to keep her buoyant; says +she'll need more ballast than I've allowed her, and wants to know +what sense there is in buildin' a boat so floatey. <i>We'll</i> ballast +her, Brooks; all in good time. We'll ship her aboard the Kingston +packet, bein' of a size that she'll carry comfortable as deck-cargo; +and soon as we get to Kingstown we'll—" +</p> +<p> +"Avast there, cap'n!" interrupted a cheerful voice; and I glanced up, +to see a sandy-haired youth with an extremely good-natured face +nodding at us across the coping of the party-wall. "Avast there! +Busy with visitors, eh? No? Well, I've been thinkin' it over, and +I'll take sixpence an hour." +</p> +<p> +"I don't give a ha'penny over fippence," answered Captain Coffin, +patently taken aback by the interruption. +</p> +<p> +"Fivepence, then, as a pro-temporary accommodation," said the youth, +and, throwing a leg over the wall, heaved himself over and into the +back yard. "But it's taking advantage of me; and you know that if I +weren't in love and in a hurry it wouldn't happen." +</p> +<p> +"You can take fippence, or go to the devil!" said Captain Coffin. +"By the way, Brooks, this is my assistant, Mr. George Goodfellow." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI. +</h2> +<center> +MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CHART. +</center> +<p> +"Good day," said Mr. George Goodfellow, nodding affably. "I hope I +see you well." +</p> +<p> +"Pretty well, thank you, sir," I answered. +</p> +<p> +"And where might you come from, makin' so bold?" +</p> +<p> +I told him that I was a boarder at Mr. Stimcoe's. +</p> +<p> +"Then," said Mr. Goodfellow, taking off his coat and extracting a +pencil and a two-foot rule from a pocket at the back of his +small-clothes, "I'm sorry for you. What a female!" He chose out a +long and flexible plank from a stack laid lengthwise in the alley-way +along the base of the wall, lifted it, set it on three trestles, and +began to measure and mark it off. "She's calculated to destroy one's +belief in human nature, that's what she is! Fairly knocks the gilt +off. Sometimes I can't hardly realize that she and Martha belong to +the same sex. Martha is my young woman." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. At present she's living in Plymouth, assistant in a +ham-and-beef shop, as you turn down to the Barbican. That's her +conscientiousness, instead of sitting at home and living on her +parents. Don't tell me that women—by which I mean some women—ain't +the equals of men. +</p> +<p> +"Because," continued Mr. Goodfellow, after a pause, "I know better. +Ever been to Plymouth?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Live there?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir." +</p> +<p> +He seemed to be disappointed. +</p> +<p> +"You go past the bottom of Treville Street, and there the shop is, +slap in front of you. You can't miss it, because it has a +plaster-of-Paris cow in the window, and the proprietor's called +Mudge. I go to Plymouth every week on purpose to see her." +</p> +<p> +"By coach, sir?" I asked, suddenly interested, and eager to compare +notes with him on the Royal Mail and its rivals, the Self-Defence and +Highflyer. +</p> +<p> +"Coach? Not a bit of it. Shank's mare, my boy, every step of the +way; and Martha's worth it. That's the best of bein' in love; it +makes you want to do things. By the way," he asked "you ain't +thinkin' to learn the violin, by any chance?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir." +</p> +<p> +"No," he said reflectively. "You wouldn't—not at Stimcoe's. +Not, mind you, that I believe in coddling. Nobody ever coddled +Nelson, and yet what happened?" He shut one eye, put his pencil to +it for an imaginary telescope, and took a nautical survey of the back +premises. +</p> +<p> +"That rain-shute's out of order," he said, addressing Captain Coffin. +"Give me a shilling to put it right for you, and you'll save yourself +a lot of trouble." +</p> +<p> +"That's the landlord's affair," answered Captain Coffin, "and I'm not +paying you fippence an' hour to talk. +</p> +<p> +"But, sir," I put in, "if you walk to Plymouth you must pass the +house where I live—a low-roofed house about three miles this side of +St. Germans village, with a thatch on it, and windows opening right +on the road, and 'Minden Cottage' painted over the door." +</p> +<p> +"Know it? Bless my soul, to be sure I know it! Why, the last time +but one I passed that way, taking note that one of the window-hinges +was out of gear, I knocked and asked leave to repair it. A lady with +side-curls opened the door, and after the job was done took me into +the parlour an' gave me a jugful of cider over and above the sixpence +charged. I believe she'd have made it a shillin', too, only when I +told her she lived in a very pretty house, and asked if she owned it +or rented it, she turned very stiff in her manner. Touchy as tinder +she was; and if that comes of being a lady, I'm glad my Martha's more +sociable." +</p> +<p> +"That was Plinny—Miss Plinlimmon, I mean. You didn't catch sight of +my father—Major Brooks?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I didn't. But I stopped to pass the time o' day with the +landlord of the Seven Stars Inn, a mile along the road, and there I +heard about 'en. So you're Major Brooks's son? Well, then, by all +accounts you've got a thunderin' good father. Old English gentleman, +straight is a ramrod—pays his way, fears God and honours the King— +such was the landlord's words; and he told me the cottage, as you +call it, was rented at twenty-five pounds a year, with a walled +garden an' a paddock thrown in, which I call dirt cheap." +</p> +<p> +"I don't see that it's any business of yours what my father pays for +his house!" said I, my flush of pleasure changing to one of +annoyance. +</p> +<p> +I glanced round for Captain Coffin's support, but he had walked +indoors, no doubt in despair of Mr. Goodfellow's loquacity. +</p> +<p> +"No?" queried Mr. Goodfellow. "No, I dare say not; but you just wait +till you fall in love. It's a most curious feelin'. First of all it +makes you want to pull off your coat and turn a hand to anything, +from breakin' stones to playing the fiddle—it don't matter what, so +long as you sweat an' feel you're earnin' money. Why, just take a +look at my business card!" He stepped to his coat, pulled one from +his pocket, and glanced over it proudly: 'George Goodfellow, +Carpenter and Decorater—Cabinet Making in all its Branches—Repairs +neatly executed—Funerals and Shipping supplied—Practical Valuer, +and for Probate—Fire Office claims prepared and adjusted—Good +Berths booked on all the Packets, and guaranteed by personal +inspection—Boats built and designed—Instruction in the Violin—Old +instruments cleaned and repaired, or taken in exchange—Rowboat for +hire.' "There, put it in your pocket and take it away with you. +I've plenty more in my desk." +</p> +<p> +"That's what it feels like, bein' in love," continued Mr. Goodfellow. +"And, next thing, it makes you take a termenjus interest in houses— +houses an' furnicher an' the price o' things—right down to butter, +as you might say. I never see a house, now—leastways, a house that +takes my fancy—but I want to be measuring it an' planning out the +furnicher, an' the rent, an' where to stow the firewood, an' sitting +down cosy in it along with Martha—in the mind's eyes, as you may +say—one on each side o' the fire, an' making two ends meet. I pity +any man that ends a bachelor." He glanced towards the house. +"By the way, how do you get along with Coffin?" +</p> +<p> +"He—he seems very kind." +</p> +<p> +"Tis'n his way with boys as a rule." Mr. Goodfellow tapped his +forehand with the end of his two-foot rule. "Upper story," he +announced. +</p> +<p> +"You think so?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure of it. Cracked as a bell. Not," said Mr. Goodfellow, picking +up a saw and making ready to cut the plank lengthwise to his +measurements—"not that there's any harm in the man, until he gets +foul of the drink. The tale is he gets his money out o' Government— +a sort of pension. Was mixed up in the Spithead Mutiny, by one +account, an' turned informer; but there's another tale he earned it +by some hanky-panky over in Lisbon, when the Royal Family there +packed up traps from the Brazils; and that's the story I favour, for +(between you and me) I've seen Portugal money in his possession." +</p> +<p> +So, indeed, had I. But Captain Coffin himself cut short the talk at +this point by appearing and announcing from the back doorstep that he +had a treat for me if I would come inside. +</p> +<p> +The treat consisted in a dish of tea—a luxury in those times, rarely +afforded even at Minden Cottage—and a pot of guava-jelly, with +Cornish cream and a loaf of white, wheaten bread. Such bread, I need +scarcely say, with wheat at 140 shillings a quarter, or thereabouts, +never graced the table of Copenhagen Academy. But the dulcet, +peculiar taste of guava-jelly is what I associate in memory with that +delectable meal; and to this day I cannot taste the flavour of guava +but I find myself back in Captain Coffin's sitting-room, cutting a +third slice from the wheaten loaf, with the corals and shells of +mother-of-pearl winking at me from among the china on the dresser, +and Captain Coffin seated opposite, with the silver rings in his +ears, and his eyes very white in the dusk and distinct within their +inflamed rims. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing like tea," he was saying—"nothing like tea to pull a man +round from the drink and cock him back like a trigger." +</p> +<p> +His right hand was at his breast as he spoke. It came out swiftly, +as upon a sudden impulse. His left hand closed upon it and partly +covered it for a moment; then the two hands spread apart and +disclosed an oilskin case. +</p> +<p> +"Brooks!" he whispered hoarsely. "Brooks, look at this!" +</p> +<p> +His fingers plucked at the oilskin wrapper, uncovered it, unfolded an +inner parcel of parchment, and, trembling, spread it out on the +table. +</p> +<p> +I leaned closer, and I saw a chart of the Island of Mortallone in the +Bay of Honduras dated MDCCLXXVII. From the scale on the chart, the +island was some eight to ten miles long in the north-south direction, +and perhaps eight miles broad at the widest point. At the north end +of the island, around a promontory called Gable Point, there were +five small islands called The Keys. To the south was a wide inlet +with a ship seemingly in the act of sailing towards it. +The eastward edge of this inlet was labelled Cape Fea and just around +from this, in an easterly direction wa a small cove called Try-Again +Inlet. In the sea to the west of the island was drawn a mythical +sea-monster. +</p> +<a name="map"></a> +<br> +<br> +<center> +<img alt="map (108K)" src="images/map.jpg" height="768" width="642" /> +</center> +<br> +<br> + +<p> +Twice, while I leaned across and stared at it, Captain Coffin's +fingers all but closed over the parchment to hide it from me. +The afternoon light was falling dim, and I stood up to walk around +the edge of the table for a better look. As I pushed back my chair +he clutched his treasure away, and hid it away again in the breast of +his jumper, at the same moment falling back and passing a hand over +his damp forehead. +</p> +<p> +"No, no, Brooks! You mustn't think—Only you took me sudden. +But my promise I've passed, and my promise I'll stand by. +Come to-morrow, lad." +</p> +<p> +Outside in the back yard I could hear Mr. Goodfellow, the slave of +love, sawing for dear life and Martha. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII. +</h2> +<center> +ENTER THE RETURNED PRISONER. +</center> +<p> +Strange to say, although I paid six or eight visits after this to +Captain Coffin, and by invitation, and watched his whaleboat +building, and ate more of his delectable guava-jelly, I saw nothing +more of the chart for several months. +</p> +<p> +On each occasion he treated me kindly, and made no secret of his +having chosen me for his favourite and particular friend; but +somehow, without any words, he contrived to set up an understanding +that further talk about the chart and the treasure must wait until +the boat should be ready for launching. In truth, I believe, a kind +of superstitious terror restricted him. He trusted me, yet was +afraid of overt signs of trust. You may put it that during this +while he was testing, watching me. I can only answer that I had no +suspicion of being watched, and that in discussing the boat's +fittings with me—her tanks, wells, and general storage capacity—he +took it for granted that I followed and understood her purpose. +If indeed he was testing me, in my innocence I took the best way to +reassure him; for I honestly looked upon the whole business as +moonshine, and made no doubt that he was cracked as a fiddle. +</p> +<p> +Christmas came, and the holidays with it. As Miss Plinlimmon sang— +</p> +<pre> "Welcome, Christmas! Welcome, Yule! + It brings the schoolboy home from school. + [N.B.—Vulgarly pronounced 'schule' in the West of England.] + Puddings and mistletoe and holly, + With other contrivances for banishing melancholy: + Boar's head, for instance—of which I have never partaken, + But the name has associations denied to ordinary bacon." +</pre> +<p> +Dear soul, she had been waiting at the door—so Sally, the cook, +informed me—for about an hour, listening for the coach, and greeted +me with a tremulous joy between laughter and tears. Before leading +me to my father, however, she warned me that I should find him +changed; and changed he was, less perhaps in appearance than in the +perceptible withdrawal of his mind from all earthly concerns. +He seldom spoke, but sat all day immobile, with the lids of his blind +eyes half lowered, so that it was hard to tell whether he brooded or +merely dozed. On Christmas Day he excused himself from walking to +church with us, and upon top of his excuse looked up with a sudden +happy smile—as though his eyes really saw us—and quoted Waller's +famous lines: +</p> +<pre> "The soul's dark cottage, battered and decay'd, + Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made. . . ." +</pre> +<p> +To me it seemed rather that, as its home broke up, the soul withdrew +little by little, and contracted itself like the pupil of an eye, to +shrink to a pinpoint and vanish in the full admitted ray. +</p> +<p> +This our last Christmas at Minden Cottage was a quiet yet a +singularly happy one. It was good to be at home, yet the end of the +holidays and the return to Stimcoe's cast no anticipatory gloom on my +spirits. To tell the truth, I had a sneaking affection for +Stimcoe's; and to Miss Plinlimmon's cross-examination upon its +internal economies I opposed a careless manly assurance as hardly +fraudulent as Mr. Stimcoe's brazen doorplate or his lady's +front-window curtains. The careful mending of my linen, too—for +Mrs. Stimcoe with all her faults was a needlewoman—helped to disarm +suspicion. When we talked of my studies I sang the praises of +Captain Branscome, and told of his past heroism and his sword of +honour. +</p> +<p> +"Branscome? Branscome, of the <i>Londonderry?</i>" said my father. +"Ay, to be sure, I remember Branscome—a Godfearing fellow and a good +seaman. You may take him back my compliments, Harry—my compliments +and remembrances—and say that if Heaven permitted us to meet again +in this world, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to crack a +bottle with him." +</p> +<p> +I duly reported this to Captain Branscome, and was taken aback by his +reception of it. He began in a sudden flurry to ask a dozen +questions concerning my father. +</p> +<p> +"He keeps good health, I trust? It would be an honour to call and +chat with the Major. At what hour would he be most accessible to +visitors?" +</p> +<p> +I stared, for in truth he seemed ready to take me at my word and +start off at once, and at my patent surprise he grew yet more nervous +and confused. +</p> +<p> +"I have kept a regard for your father, Brooks—a veneration, I might +almost call it. Sailors and soldiers, if I may say it, are not apt +to think too well of one another; but the Major from the first +fulfilled my conception of all a soldier should be-a gentleman +fearless and modest, a true Christian hero. Minden Cottage, you say? +And fronting the road a little this side of St. Germans? Tell me, +pray—and excuse the impertinence—what household does he keep?" +</p> +<p> +It is hard to write down Captain Branscome's questions on paper, and +divest them, as his gentle face and hesitating kindly manner divested +them, of all offensiveness. I did not resent them at the time or +consider then impertinent. But they were certainly close and minute, +and I had reason before long to recall every detail of his catechism. +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin, on the other hand, welcomed me back to Falmouth with +a carelessness which disappointed if it did not nettle me. +He fetched out the tea and guava-jelly, to be sure, but appeared to +take no interest in my doings during the holidays, and was +uncommunicative on his own. This seemed the stranger because he had +important news to tell me. During my absence he and Mr. Goodfellow +between them had finished the whaleboat. +</p> +<p> +The truth was—though I did not at once perceive it—that upon its +completion the old man had begun to drink hard. Drink invariably +made him morose, suspicious. His real goodwill to me had not +changed, as I was to learn. He had paid a visit to Captain +Branscome, and give him special instructions to teach me the art of +navigation, the intricacies of which eluded his own fuddled brain. +But for the present he could only talk of trivialities, and +especially of the barber's parrot, for which he had conceived a +ferocious hate. +</p> +<p> +"I'll wring his neck, I will!" he kept repeating. "I'll wring his +neck one o' these days, blast me if I don't!" +</p> +<p> +I took my leave that evening in no wise eager to repeat the visit; +and, in fact, I repeated it but twice—and each time to find him in +the same sullen humour—between then and May 11, the day when the +<i>Wellingboro'</i> transport cast anchor in Falmouth roads with two +hundred and fifty returned prisoners of war. +</p> +<p> +She had sailed from Bordeaux on April 20, in company with five other +transports bound for Plymouth, and her putting into Falmouth to +repair her steering-gear came as a surprise to the town, which at +once hung out all its bunting and prepared to welcome her poor +passengers home to England with open arm. A sorry crew they looked, +ragged, wild eyed, and emaciated, as the boats brought them ashore at +the Market Stairs to the strains of the Falmouth Artillery Band. +The homes of the most of them lay far away, but England was England; +and a many wept and the crowd wept with them at sight of their +tatters, for I doubt if they mustered a complete suit of good English +cloth between them. +</p> +<p> +Stimcoe, I need scarcely say, had given us a whole holiday; and +Stimcoe's and Rogerses met in amity for once, and cheered in the +throng that carried the home-comers shoulder high to the Town Hall, +where the Mayor had arrayed a public banquet. There were speeches at +the banquet, and alcoholic liquors, both affecting in operation upon +his Worship's guests. Poor fellows, they came to it after long +abstinence, with stomachs sadly out of training; and the streets of +Falmouth that evening were a panoramic commentary upon the danger of +undiscriminating kindness. +</p> +<p> +Now at about five o'clock I happened to be standing at the edge of +the Market Stairs, watching the efforts of a boat's crew to take a +dozen of these inebriates on board for the transport, when I heard my +name called, and turned to see Mr. George Goodfellow beckoning to me +from the doorway of the Plume of Feathers public-house. +</p> +<p> +"It's Coffin," he explained. "The old fool's sitting in the taproom +as drunk as an owl, and I was reckonin' that you an' me between us +might get him home quiet before the house fills up an' mischief +begins; for by the looks of it there'll be Newgate-let-loose in +Falmouth streets to-night." +</p> +<p> +I answered that this was very thoughtful of him; and so it was, and, +moreover, providential that he had dropped in at the Plume of +Feathers for two-pennyworth of cider to celebrate the day. +</p> +<p> +We found Captain Coffin seated in a corner of the taproom settle, +puffing at an empty pipe and staring at vacancy. "Drunk as an owl" +described his condition to a nicety; for at a certain stage in his +drinking all the world became mirk midnight to him, and he would +grope his way home through the traffic at high noon in profound, +pathetic belief that darkness and slumber wrapped the streets; on +which occasions the dialogue between him and the barber's parrot +might be counted on to touch high comedy. I knew this, and knew also +that in the next stage he would recover his eyesight, and at the same +time turn dangerously quarrelsome. If Mr. Goodfellow and I could +start him home quietly, he would have reason to thank us to-morrow. +</p> +<p> +We were bending over him to persuade him—at first, with small +success, for he continued to stare and mutter as our voices coaxed +without penetrating his muddled intelligence—when a party of +'longshoremen staggered into the taproom, escorting one of the +returned prisoners, a thin, sandy-haired, foxy-looking man, with +narrow eyes and a neck remarkable for its attenuation and the number +and depth of its wrinkles. This neck showed above the greasy collar +of a red infantry coat, from which the badges and buttons had long +since vanished; and for the rest the fellow wore a pair of dirty +white drill trousers of French cut, French shoes, and a round +japanned hat; but, so far as a glance could discover, neither shirt +nor underclothing. When the 'longshoremen called for drink he +laughed with a kind of happy shiver, as though rubbing his body round +the inside of his clothes, cast a quick glance at us in our dim +corner, and declared for rum, adding that the Mayor of Falmouth was a +well-meaning old swab, but his liquor wouldn't warm the vitals of a +baby in clouts. +</p> +<p> +As he announced this I fancied that our persuasions began to have +effect on Captain Coffin, for his eyes blinked as in a strong light, +and he seemed to pull himself together with a shudder; but a moment +later he relapsed again and sat staring. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said one of the 'longshoremen. "Who's that you're a-coaxin' +of, you two? Old Coffin, eh? Well, take the old shammick home, an' +thank 'ee. We're tired of 'en here." +</p> +<p> +As I looked up to answer I saw the returned prisoner give a start, +turn slowly about, and peer at us. He seemed to be badly scared, +too, for an instant; for I heard a sudden, sharp click in his +throat— +</p> +<p> +"E-e-eh? Coffin, is it? Danny Coffin? Oh, good Lord!" +</p> +<p> +He came towards our corner, still peering, and, as he peered, +crouching to that he spread his palms on his knees. +</p> +<p> +"Coffin? Danny Coffin?" he repeated, in a voice that, as it lost its +wondering quaver, grew tense and wicked and wheedling. +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin's face twitched, and it seemed to me that his eyes, +though rigid, expanded a little. But they stared into the stranger's +face without seeing him. +</p> +<p> +The fellow crouched a bit lower, and still lower, as he drew close +and thrust his face gradually within a yard of the old man's. +</p> +<p> +"Shipmate Danny—messmate Danny—tip us a stave! The old stave, +Danny!— +</p> +<pre> "'And alongst the Keys o' Mortallone!'" +</pre> +<p> +As his voice lifted to it in a hoarse melancholy minor (times and +again since that moment the tune has put me in mind of sea-birds +crying over a waste shore), I saw the shiver run across Captain +Coffin's face and neck, and with that his sight came back to him, and +he bounced upright from the settle, with a horrible scream, his hands +fencing, clawing at air. +</p> +<p> +The prisoner dropped back with a laugh. Mr. Goodfellow, at a choking +sound, put out a hand to loosen Captain Coffin's neckcloth; but the +old man beat him off. +</p> +<p> +"Not you! Not you! Harry!" +</p> +<p> +He gripped me by the arm, and, ducking his head, fairly charged me +past the 'longshoremen and out through the doorway into the street. +As we gained it I heard the stranger in the taproom behind me break +into a high, cackling laugh. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII. +</h2> +<center> +THE HUNTED AND THE HUNTER. +</center> +<p> +All the drunkenness had gone out of Captain Danny. Gripping my arm, +he steered me rapidly through the knots of loafers, up Market Strand +into the crowded Fore Street, across it and up the hill towards open +country, taking the ascent with long strides which forced me now and +again into a run. Twice or thrice I glanced up at his face, for I +was scared, and badly scared. His mouth worked, and I observed small +beads of sweat on his shaven upper lip; but he kept his eyes fastened +straight ahead, and paid no heed to me. +</p> +<p> +At the head of the street the town melted off into a suburb of +scattered houses, modest domiciles of twenty-five pounds or thirty +pounds rentals, detached, each with its garden and narrow +garden-door, for Falmouth in those days boasted few carriage-folk. +He paused once hereabouts, in the roadway between two walls, and +stood listening, while his right hand trembled on his stick; but +presently gripped my arm again and hurried me forward, nor halted +until we reached the summit, and the open country lay before us, with +the Channel and its long horizon on our left. Here, in a cornfield +on the very knap of the hill, and some two hundred yards back from +the road, stood the shell of an old windmill, overlooking the sea— +deserted, ruinous, without sails, a building many hundreds of years +older than the oldest house in Falmouth, serving now but as a +landmark for fishermen, and on Sundays a rendezvous for courting +couples. At the stile leading into the cornfield, Captain Coffin +released me, climbed over, hurried up the footpath to the windmill, +and, having satisfied himself that the building was empty, motioned +me to seat myself on the side where its long shadow pointed down +across a bank of nettles, and beyond the edge of the green young +barley sheeting the slope towards the harbour. +</p> +<p> +"Brooks," he began—but his voice rattled like a dried pea in a pod, +and he had to moisten his under-lip with his tongue before he could +proceed—"Brooks, are you in any way a superstitious kind o' boy?" +</p> +<p> +"That depends, sir," said I, diplomatically. +</p> +<p> +"After all these years, too," he groaned, "an' agen' all likelihood +o' natur'. But you saw him—hey? You heard what he said, an' that +cussed song, too? Sang it, he did; slapped it out at the top of his +voice in a public tavern. I tell you, Brooks—knowin' what <i>he</i> +knows—a man must have all hell runnin' cold in him to sing them +words aloud an' not care who heard." +</p> +<p> +"Why, he sang but a line of it," said I, "and that harmless enough, +though dismal." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so, lad—is that so?" Captain Danny put out a hand like a +bird's claw and hooked me by the cuff. "Wasn' there nothing in it +about Execution Dock; nothing about ripe medlars—'medlars a-rottin' +on the tree'? No?"—for I shook my head. "Well, then, I could be +sworn I heard him singin' them words for minutes, an' me sittin' all +the while wi' the horrors on me afore I dared look in his damned +face. An' you tell me he piped but a line of it?" His eyes searched +mine anxiously. "Brooks," he went on, in a voice almost coaxing, +"I'd give five hundred pound at this moment if you could look me in +the face an' tell me the whole scare was nothing but fancy—that <i>he</i> +wasn't there!" +</p> +<p> +His grasp relaxed as I shook my head again. Despair grew in his +eyes, and he pulled back his hand. +</p> +<p> +"I'll put it to you another way," said he, after seeming to reflect +for a while. "Suppose there was a couple o' men mixed up in an ugly +job—by which I don't mean to say there was any real harm in the +business; leastways not to start with; but, as it went on, these two +men were forced to do something that brought them within reach o' the +law. We'll put it that, when the thing was done, the one o' this +pair felt it heavy upon his mind, but t'other didn' care no more than +a brass button; an' the one that took it serious—as you might say— +lost sight o' the other for years, an' meantime picked up with a +little religion, an' made oath with hisself that all the profits o' +the job (for there were profits) should come into innocent hands— +You catch on to this?" +</p> +<p> +I nodded. +</p> +<p> +"Well, then"—he leant forward, his palm resting amid a bed of +nettles. He did not appear to feel their sting, although, while he +spoke, I saw the bark of his hand whiten slowly with blisters— +"well, then, you can't go for to argue with me that the A'mighty +would go for to strike the chap that repented by means o' the chap +that didn'. Tisn' reasonable nor religious to think such a thing—is +it now?" +</p> +<p> +"He might punish the one first," said I, judicially, "and keep the +other—the wicked man—for a worse punishment in the end. A great +deal," I added, "might depend on what sort of crime they'd committed. +If 'twas a murder, now—" +</p> +<p> +"Murder?" He caught me up sharply, and his eyes turned from watching +me, to throw a quick glance back along the footpath, then fastened +themselves on the horizon. "Who's a-talkin' of any such thing?" +</p> +<p> +"I was putting a case, sir—putting it as bad as possible. +'Murder will out,' they say; but with smaller crimes it may be +different." +</p> +<p> +"Murder?" He sprang up and began to pace to and fro. "How came that +in your head, eh?" He threw me a furtive sidelong look, and halted +before me mopping his forehead. "I'll tell you what, though: Murder +there'll be if you don't help me give that devil the slip." +</p> +<p> +"But, sir, he never offered to follow you." +</p> +<p> +"Because he reckoned I couldn' run—or wouldn', as I've never run +from him yet. But with you in the secret I must give him leg-bail, +no matter what it costs me. And, see here, Brooks: you're clever for +your age, an' I want your advice. In the first place, I daren't go +home; that's where he'll be watchin' for me sooner or later. Next, +our plans ain't laid for startin' straight off—here as we be—an' +givin' him the go-by. Third an' last, I daren't go carryin' the +secret about with me; he might happen on me any moment, an' I'm not +in trainin'. The drink's done for me, boy, whereas <i>he</i>'ve been +farin' hard an' livin' clean." Captain Coffin, with his hands deep +in his pockets, stared down at the transport at anchor below, and +bent his brows. "I can't turn it over to you, neither," he mused. +"That might ha' done well enough if he hadn' seen you in my company; +but now we can't trust to it." +</p> +<p> +He took another dozen paces forth and back, and halted before me +again. +</p> +<p> +"Brooks," he said, "how about your father?" +</p> +<p> +"The very man, sir," I answered; "that is, if you would trust him." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Branscome tells me he's one in a thousand. I thought first o' +Branscome, but there's folks as know about my goin' to him for +navigation lessons; an' if Glass got hold o' that, 'twould be a hot +scent." +</p> +<p> +"Glass?" I echoed. +</p> +<p> +"That's his d—d name, lad—Aaron Glass; though he've passed under +others, and plenty of 'em, in his time. Well, now, if I can slip out +o' Falmouth unbeknowns to him, an' win to your father—on the +Plymouth road, I've heard you say and a little this side of +St. Germans—" +</p> +<p> +"You might walk over to Penryn and pick up the night coach." +</p> +<p> +Captain Coffin shook his head as he turned out his pockets. +</p> +<p> +"One shilling, lad, an' two ha'pennies. It won't carry me. An' I +daren' go home to refit; an' I daren' send <i>you</i>." +</p> +<p> +"I could take a message to Captain Branscome," I suggested; "an' he +might fetch you the money, if you tell him where to look for it." +</p> +<p> +"That's an idea," decided Captain Coffin, after a moment's thought. +He unbuttoned his waistcoat, dived a hand within the breast of his +shirt, and pulled forth a key looped through with a tarry string. +This string he severed with his pocket-knife. "Run you down to the +cap'n's lodgings," said he, handing me the key, "an' tell him to go +straight an' unlock the cupboard in the cornder—the one wi' the +toolips painted over the door. You know it? Well, say that on the +second shelf he'll find a small bagful o' money—he needn't stay to +count it—an' 'pon the same shelf, right back in the cornder, a roll +o' papers. Tell him to keep the papers till he hears from me, but +the bag he's to give to you, an' you're to bring it along quick— +<i>with</i> the key. Mind, you're not to go with him on any account; an' +if you should run against this Glass on your way, give him a wide +berth—go straight home to Stimcoe's—do <i>anything</i> but lay him on to +my trail by comin' back to tell me. Understand? There, now, hark to +the town clock chimin' below there! Six o'clock it is—four bells. +If you're not back agen by seven I shall know what's happened an' +take steps accordin'. An' <i>you'll</i> know that I'm on my way to your +father by another tack. 'What tack?' says you. 'Never you mind,' +says I. If the worst comes to the worst, old Dan Coffin has a shot +left in his locker." +</p> +<p> +I took the key and ran. The alley where Captain Branscome lodged lay +a gunshot on this side of the Market Strand; and while I ran I kept— +as the saying is—my eyes skinned for a sight of the enemy. +The coast, however, was clear. +</p> +<p> +But at Captain Branscome's door a wholly unexpected disappointment +awaited me. It was locked, and I had not hammered on its shining +brass knocker before a neighbouring housewife put forth her head from +a window in the gathering dusk, and informed me that the captain was +not at home. He had gone out early in the afternoon, and left his +doorkey with her, saying that he was off on a visit, and would not +return before to-morrow afternoon at earliest. For a moment I was +tempted to disobey Captain Danny's injunctions, and fetch the money +myself, or at least make a bold attempt for it; but, recollecting how +earnestly he had charged me, and how cheerfully at the last he had +assured me that he had still a shot in his locker, I turned and +mounted the hill again, albeit dejectedly. +</p> +<p> +The moon was rising as I climbed over the stile into the footpath, +and, recognizing my footstep, the old man came forward to meet me, +out of the shadow on the western side of the windmill, to which he +had shifted his watch. +</p> +<p> +My ill-success, depressing enough to me, he took very cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"I was afraid," said he, "you might be foolin' off for the money on +your own account. Gone on a visit, has he? Well, you can hand him +the key to-morrow, with my message. An' now I'll tell you my next +notion. The St. Mawes packet"—this was the facetious name given to +a small cutter which plied in those days between Falmouth and the +small village of St. Mawes across the harbour—"the St. Mawes packet +is due to start at seven-thirty. I won't risk boardin' her at Market +Strand, but pick up a boat at Arwennack, an' row out to hail her as +she's crossin'. She'll pick me up easy, wi' this wind; but if she +don't, I'll get the waterman to pull me right across. Bogue, the +landlord of The Lugger over there, knows me well enough to lend me +ten shillin', an' wi' that I can follow the road through Tregony to +St. Austell, an' hire a lift maybe." +</p> +<p> +I could not but applaud the plan. The route he proposed cut off a +corner, led straight to Minden Cottage, and was at the same time the +one on which he was least likely to be tracked. We descended the +hill together, keeping to the dark side of the road. At the foot of +the hill we parted, with the understanding that I was to run straight +home to Stimcoe's, and explain my absence at locking-up—or, as Mr. +Stimcoe preferred to term it, "names-calling"—as best I might. +</p> +<p> +Thereupon I did an incredibly foolish thing, which, as it proved, +defeated all our plans and gave rise to unnumbered woes. I was +already late for names-calling; but for this I cared little. +Stimcoe had not the courage to flog me; the day had been a holiday, +and of a sort to excuse indiscipline; and, anyway, one might as well +suffer for a sheep as for a lamb. The St. Mawes packet would be +lying alongside the Market Strand. The moon was up—a round, full +moon—and directly over St. Mawes, so that her rays fell, as near as +might be, in the line of the cutter's course, which, with a steady +breeze down the harbour, would be a straight one. From the edge of +Market Strand I might be able to spy Captain Coffin's boat as he +boarded. Let me, without extenuating, be brief over my act of folly. +Instead of making at once for Stimcoe's, I bent my steps towards +Market Strand. The St. Mawes packet lay there, and I stood on the +edge of the quay, watching her preparations for casting off—the +skipper clearing the gangway and politely helping aboard, between the +warning notes of his whistle, belated marketers who came running with +their bundles. +</p> +<p> +While I stood there, a man sauntered out and stood for a moment on +the threshold of the Plume of Feathers. It was the man Aaron Glass, +and, recognizing him, I (that had been standing directly under the +light of the quay-lamp) drew back from the edge into the darkness. +I had done better, perhaps, to stand where I was. How long he had +been observing me—if, indeed, he had observed me—I could not tell. +But, as I drew back, he advanced and strolled nonchalantly past me, +at five yards distance, down to the quay-steps. +</p> +<p> +"All aboard for St. Mawes!" called the skipper, drawing in his plank. +</p> +<p> +"All but one, captain!" answered Glass, and, disdaining it, without +removing his hands from his pockets, put a foot upon the bulwark and +sprang lightly on to her deck. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX. +</h2> +<center> +CHAOS IN THE CAPTAIN'S LODGINGS. +</center> +<p> +I leave you to guess what were my feelings as foot by foot the +packet's quarter fell away wider of the quay. If, as the skipper +thrust off, I had found presence of mind to jump for her, who knows +what mischief might have been prevented? I could at least—whatever +the consequences—have called a warning to Captain Coffin to give his +enemy a wide-berth. But I was unnerved; the impulse came too late; +and as the foresail filled and she picked up steerage way, I stood +helpless under the lamp at the quay-head—stood and stared after her, +alone with the sense of my incredible folly. +</p> +<p> +Somewhere out yonder Captain Coffin was waiting in his shore-boat. +I listened, minute after minute, on the chance of hearing his hail. +A heavy bank of cloud had overcast the moon, and the packet melted +from sight in a blur of darkness. Worst of all—worse even than the +sting of self-reproach—was the prospect of returning to Stimcoe's +and wearing through the night, while out there in the darkness the +two men would meet, and all that followed their meeting must happen +unseen by me. +</p> +<p> +This ordeal appeared so dreadful to me in prospect that I began to +cast about among all manner of impracticable plans for escaping it. +Of these the most promising—although I had no money—was to give the +Stimcoes leg-bail and run home; the most alluring, too, since it +offered to deaden the torment of uncertainty by keeping me employed, +mind and body. I must follow the coach-road. In imagination I +measured back the distance. If George Goodfellow walked to Plymouth +and back once a week, why might not I succeed in walking to Minden +Cottage? Home was home. I should get counsel and comfort there; +counsel from my father and comfort most assuredly from Plinny. +I needed both, and in Falmouth just now there was none of either. +Even Captain Branscome, who might have helped me— +</p> +<p> +At this point a sudden thought fetched me up with a jerk. The enemy, +by pursuing after Captain Danny, had at least left me a clear coast. +I was safe for a while against his spying, and consequently the +embargo was off. I had no need to wait for morning. I could go +myself to the old man's lodgings, unlock the corner cupboard, and +bring away the roll of papers. +</p> +<p> +I dived my hand into my breech-pocket for the forgotten key. It was +small, and of a curious, intricate pattern. Almost before my fingers +closed upon it my mind was made up. Stimcoe's—that is, if I decided +to return to Stimcoe's—might wait. I might yet decide to break +ship—as Captain Danny would have put it—and make a push for home; +but that decision, too, must wait. Meanwhile, here was an urgent +errand, and a clear coast for it; here was occupation and +inexpressible relief. It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good. +</p> +<p> +I set off at a run. On my way I met and passed half a dozen gangs of +hilarious ex-prisoners and equally hilarious townsmen escorting them +to the waterside, where the coxswains of the transport's boats were +by this time blowing impatient calls on their whistles. But the +upper end of the street was well-nigh deserted. A dingy oil lantern +overhung the pavement a few yards from the ope, and above the ope the +barber's parrot hung silent, with a shawl flung over its cage. +I dived into the dark passage, and, stumbling my way to Captain +Danny's door, found that it gave easily to my hand. +</p> +<p> +For a moment I paused on the threshold, striving to remember where he +kept his tinder-box and matches. But the room was small. I knew the +geography of it, and could easily—I told myself—grope my way to the +corner, find the cupboard, and, feeling for the keyhole, insert the +key. I was about to essay this when the thought occurred to me that, +as Captain Danny had left the door on the latch, so very likely with +equal foresight he had placed his tinder-box handy—on the table, it +might be. I put out my hand in the direction where, as I +recollected, the table stood. It reached into empty darkness. I +took another step and groped for the table with both hands. +Still darkness, nothing but darkness! I took yet another step and +struck my foot against a hard object on the floor; and, as I bent to +examine this, something sharp and exceeding painful thrust itself +into my groin—a table-leg, upturned. +</p> +<p> +Recovering myself, I passed a hand over it. Yes, undoubtedly it was +a table-leg and the table lay topsy-turvy. But how came it so? +Who had upset it, and why? I took another step, sideways, and my +boot struck against something light, and, by its sound, hollow and +metallic. Stooping very cautiously—for by this time I had taken +alarm and was holding my breath—I passed a hand lightly over the +floor. My fingers encountered the object I had kicked aside. +It was a tinder-box. I clutched it softly, and as softly drew myself +upright again. Could I dare to strike a light? The overturned +table: What could be the meaning of it? It could not have been +overturned by Captain Coffin? By whom then? Some one must have +visited the lodgings in his absence. +</p> +<p> +Some one, for aught I knew, was in the room at this moment!— +Some one, back there against the wall, waiting only for me to strike +a light! I declare that at the thought I came near to screaming +aloud, casting the tinder-box from me and rushing out blindly into +the court. +</p> +<p> +I dare say that I stood for a couple of minutes, motionless, +listening not with my ears only but with every hair of my head. +Nevertheless, my wits must have been working somehow; for my first +action, when I plucked up nerve enough for it, was an entirely +sensible one. I set the tinder-box on the floor between my heels, +felt for the table, and righted it; then, picking up the box again, +set it on the table and twisted off the lid. I found flint and steel +at once, dipped my fingers into the box to make sure of the tinder +and the brimstone matches, and so, after another pause to listen, +essayed to strike out the spark. +</p> +<p> +This, for a pair of trembling hands, proved no easy business, and at +first promised to be a hopeless one. But the worst moment arrived +when, the spark struck, I stooped to blow it upon the tinder, the +glow of which must light up my own face while it revealed to me +nothing of the surrounding darkness. Still, it had to be done; and, +keeping a tight hold on what little remained of my courage, I thrust +in the match and ignited it. +</p> +<p> +While the brimstone caught fire and bubbled I drew myself erect to +face the worst. But for what met my eyes as the flame caught hold of +the stick, even the overturned table had not prepared me. +</p> +<p> +The furniture of the room lay pell-mell, as though a cyclone had +swept through it. The very pictures hung askew. Of the drawers in +the dresser some had been pulled out bodily, others stood half open, +and all had been ransacked; while the fragments of china strewn along +the shelves or scattered across the floor could only be accounted for +by some blind ferocity of destruction—a madman, for instance, let +loose upon it, and striking at random with a stick. As the match +burned low in my fingers I looked around hastily for a candle, +scanning the dresser, the mantel-shelf, the hugger-mugger of linen, +crockery, wall-ornaments, lying in a trail along the floor. But no +candle could I discover; so I lit a second match from the first and +turned towards the sacred cupboard in the corner. +</p> +<p> +The cupboard was gone! +</p> +<p> +I held the match aloft, and stared at the angle of the wall; stared +stupidly, at first unable to believe. Yes, the cupboard was gone! +Nothing remained but the mahogany bracket which had supported it. +I gazed around, the match burning lower and lower in my hand till it +scorched my fingers. The pain of it awakened me, and, dropping the +charred end, I stumbled out into the passage, almost falling on the +way as my feet entangled themselves in Captain Coffin's best +table-cloth. +</p> +<p> +A moment later I was rapping at Mr. George Goodfellow's door. +I knew that he sometimes sat up late to practice his violin-playing; +and in my confusion of terror I heeded neither that the house was +silent nor that the window over his doorway showed a blank and unlit +face to the night. I knocked and knocked again, pausing to call his +name urgently, at first in hoarse whispers, by-and-by desperately, +lifting my voice as loudly as I dared. +</p> +<p> +At length a voice answered; but it came from the end of the passage +next, the street, and it was not Mr. Goodfellow's. +</p> +<p> +"D—n my giblets!" it said, in a kind of muffled scream. +"Drunk again! Oh, you nasty image!" +</p> +<p> +It was the barber's accursed parrot. I could hear it tearing with +its beak at the bars of its cage, as if struggling to pull off the +cloth which covered it. +</p> +<p> +A window creaked on its hinges, some way up the court. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo! Who's there?" demanded a gruff voice. +</p> +<p> +I took to my heels, and made a dash up the passage for the street. +The cage, as I passed under it, swayed violently with the parrot's +struggles for free speech. +</p> +<p> +"Drunk again!" it yelled. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me—here's a +pretty time o' night to disturb a lady!" +</p> +<p> +No longer had I any thought of braving the night and the perils of +the road, but pressed my elbows tight against my ribs and raced +straight for Stimcoe's. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X. +</h2> +<center> +NEWS. +</center> +<p> +By great good fortune, Mr. Stimcoe had been drinking the health of +the returned prisoners until his own was temporarily affected. +In fact, as I reached Delamere Terrace, panting and excogitating the +likeliest excuse to offer Mrs. Stimcoe, the door of No. 7 opened, and +the lady herself emerged upon the night, with a shawl swathed +carelessly over her masculine neck and shoulders. +</p> +<p> +I drew up and ducked aside to avoid recognition, but she halted under +the lamp and called to me, in no very severe voice— +</p> +<p> +"Harry!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, ma'am!" +</p> +<p> +"You are late, and I have been needing you. Mr. Stimcoe is suffering +from an attack." +</p> +<p> +"Indeed, ma'am?" said I. "Shall I run for Dr. Spargo?" +</p> +<p> +She stood for a moment considering. "No," she decided; "I had better +fetch Dr. Spargo myself. Being more familiar with the symptoms, I +can describe them to him." +</p> +<p> +More familiar with the symptoms, poor woman, she undoubtedly was, +though I was familiar enough; and so, for the matter of that, was the +doctor, whose ledger must have registered at least a dozen similar +"attacks." But I understood at once her true reason for not +entrusting me with the errand. It would require all her courage, all +her magnificent impudence, to browbeat Dr. Spargo into coming, for I +doubt if the Stimcoes had ever paid him a stiver. +</p> +<p> +"But you can be very useful," she went on, in a tone unusually +gentle. "You will find Mr. Stimcoe in his bedroom—at least, I hope +so, for he suffers from a hallucination that some person or persons +unknown have incarcerated him in a French war-prison, such being the +effect of to-day's—er—proceedings upon his highly strung nature. +The illusion being granted, one can hardly be surprised at his +resenting it." +</p> +<p> +I nodded, and promised to do my best. +</p> +<p> +"You are a very good boy, Harry," said Mrs. Stimcoe—a verdict so +different from that which I had arrived expecting, or with any right +to expect, that I stood for some twenty seconds gaping after her as +she pulled her shawl closer and went on her heroic way. +</p> +<p> +I found Mr. Stimcoe in <i>deshabille</i>, on the first-floor landing, +under the derisive surveillance of Masters Doggy Bates, Bob +Pilkington, and Scotty Maclean, whose graceless mirth echoed down to +me from the stair-rail immediately overhead. Ignoring my preceptor's +invitation to bide a wee and take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang +syne, I ran up and knocked their heads together, kicked them into the +dormitory, turned the key on their reproaches, and—these +preliminaries over—descended to grapple with the situation. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Stimcoe, in night garments, was conducting a dialogue in which he +figured alternately as the tyrant and the victim of oppression. +In the character of Napoleon Bonaparte he had filled a footbath with +cold water, and was commanding the Rev. Philip Stimcoe to strip—as +he put it—to the teeth, and immerse himself forthwith. As the Rev. +Philip Stimcoe, patriot and martyr, he was obstinately, and with even +more passion, refusing to do anything of the kind, and for the +equally cogent reasons that he was a Protestant of the Protestants +and that the water had cockroaches in it. +</p> +<p> +"Of course," said Mr. Stimcoe to me, "if you present yourself as +Alexander of Russia, there is no more to be said, always provided"— +and here he removed his nightcap and made me a profound bow—"that +your credentials are satisfactory." +</p> +<p> +Apparently they were. At any rate, I prevailed on him to return to +his room, when he took my arm, and, seating himself on the bedside, +recited to me the paradigms of the more anomalous Greek verbs with +great volubility for twenty minutes on end—that is to say, until +Mrs. Stimcoe returned with the doctor safely tucked under her wing. +</p> +<p> +At sight of me seated in charge of the patient, Dr. Spargo—a mild +little man—lifted his eyebrows. +</p> +<p> +"Surely, madam—" he began in a scandalized tone. +</p> +<p> +"This is Harry Brooks." Mrs. Stimcoe introduced me loftily. +"If you wish him to retire, be kind enough to say so, and have done +with it. Our boarders, I may say, have the run of the house—it is +part of Mr. Stimcoe's system. But Harry has too much delicacy to +remain where he feels himself <i>de trop</i>. Harry, you have my leave to +withdraw." +</p> +<p> +I obeyed, aware that the doctor—who had pushed his spectacles high +upon his forehead—was following my retreat with bewildered gaze. +As I expected, no sooner had I regained the dormitory than my +fellow-boarders—forgetting their sore heads, or, at any rate, +forgiving—began to pester me with a hundred questions. I had to +repeat the punishment on Doggy Bates before they suffered me to lie +down in quiet. +</p> +<p> +But the interlude, in itself discomposing, had composed my nerves for +the while. I expected no sleep; had, indeed, an hour ago, deemed it +impossible I should sleep that night. Yet, in fact, my head was +scarcely on the pillow before I slept, and slept like a top. +</p> +<p> +The town clock awoke me, striking four. To the far louder sound of +Scotty Maclean's snoring, in the bed next to mine, I was +case-hardened. I lay for a second or two counting the strokes, then +sprang out of bed, and, running to the window, drew wide the curtain. +The world was awake, the sun already clear above the hills over St. +Just pool, and all the harbour twinkling with its rays. My eyes +searched the stretch of water between me and St. Mawes, as though for +flotsam—anything to give me news, or a hint of news. For many +minutes I stood staring—needless to say, in vain—and so, the +morning being chilly, crept back to bed with the shivers on me. +</p> +<p> +Two hours later, in the midst of my dressing, I looked out of the +window again, and I saw the St. Mawes packet reaching across towards +Falmouth merrily, quite as if nothing had happened. Yet something— +I told myself—<i>must</i> have happened. +</p> +<p> +The Copenhagen Academy enjoyed a holiday that day, for Captain +Branscome failed to present himself, and Mr. Stimcoe lay under the +influence of sedatives. At eleven in the morning he awoke, and began +to discuss the character of Talleyrand at the pitch of his voice. +Its echoes reached me where I sat disconsolate in the deserted +schoolroom, and I went upstairs to the bedroom door to offer my +services. Doggy Bates, Pilkington, and Scotty Maclean had hied them +immediately after breakfast to the harbour, to beg, borrow, or steal +a boat and fish for mackerel; and Mrs. Stimcoe, worn out with +watching, set down my faithful presence to motives of which I was +shamefully innocent. In point of fact, I had lurked at home because +I could not bear company. I preferred the deserted schoolroom, +though Heaven knows what I would not have given for the dull +distraction of work—an hour of Rule of Three with Captain Branscome, +or Caesar's Commentaries with Mr. Stimcoe. But Mr. Stimcoe lay +upstairs chattering, and Captain Branscome appeared to be taking a +protracted holiday. It hardly occurred to me to wonder why. +</p> +<p> +It was borne in upon me later that during this interval of anarchy in +the Stimcoe establishment—it lasted two days, and may have lasted +longer for aught I know—I wasted little wonder on the continued +absence of Captain Branscome. I was indeed kept anxious by my own +fears, which did not decrease as the hours dragged by. From the +window of Mr. Stimcoe's sickroom I watched the St. Mawes packet +plying to and fro. I had a mind to steal down to the Market Strand +and interrogate her skipper. I had a mind—and laid more than one +plan for it—to follow up my first impulse of bolting for home, to +discover if Captain Coffin had arrived there. But Mrs. Stimcoe, +misinterpreting my eagerness to be employed, had by this time +enlisted me into full service in the sick-room. After the first hint +of surprised gratitude, she betrayed no feeling at all, but bound me +severely to my task. We took the watching turn and turn about, in +spells of three hours' duration. I was held committed, and could not +desert without a brand on my conscience. The disgusting feature of +this is that I was almost glad of it, at the same time longing to +run, and feeling that this, in a way, exonerated me. +</p> +<p> +At about seven o'clock on the evening of the second day, while I sat +by Mr. Stimcoe's bedside, there came a knock at the front door, and, +looking out of the window—for Mrs. Stimcoe had gone to bully another +sedative out of the doctor, and there was no one in the house to +admit a visitor—I saw Captain Branscome below me on the doorstep. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said I, as cheerfully as I might, for Mr. Stimcoe was awake +and listening. +</p> +<p> +"Is—is that Harry Brooks?" asked Captain Branscome, stepping back +and feeling for his gold-rimmed glasses. But by some chance he was +not wearing them. After fumbling for a moment, he gazed up towards +the window, blinking. Folk who habitually wear glasses look +unnatural without them. Captain Branscome's face looked unnatural +somehow. It was pale, and for the moment it seemed to me to be +almost a face of fright; but a moment later I set down its pallor to +weariness. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Stimcoe has gone off to the doctor," said I, "and Mr. Stimcoe +is sick, and I am up here nursing him. There is no one to open, but +you can give me a message." +</p> +<p> +"I just came up to make sure you were all right." +</p> +<p> +"If you mean Stim—Mr. Stimcoe, he's better, though the doctor says +he won't be able to leave his bed for days. How did you come to hear +about it?" +</p> +<p> +"I've heard nothing about Mr. Stimcoe," answered Captain Branscome, +after a hesitating pause. "I've been away—on a holiday. Nothing +wrong with you at all?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +I could not understand Captain Branscome. Why on earth should he be +troubling himself about my state of health? +</p> +<p> +"Nothing happened to upset you?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +I looked down at him sharply. As a matter of fact, and as the reader +knows, a great deal had happened to upset me, but that any hint of it +should have reached Captain Branscome was in the highest degree +unlikely, and in any case I could not discuss it with him from an +upstairs window and in my patient's hearing. So I contented myself +with asking him where he had spent his holiday. +</p> +<p> +The question appeared to confuse him. He averted his eyes and, +gazing out over the harbour, muttered—or seemed to mutter, for I +could not catch the answer distinctly—that he had been visiting some +friends; and so for a moment or two we waited at a deadlock. Indeed, +there is no knowing how long it might have lasted—for Captain +Branscome made no sign of turning again and facing me—but, happening +just then to glance along the terrace, I caught sight of Mrs. Stimcoe +returning with long, masculine strides. +</p> +<p> +She held an open letter in her hand, and was perusing it as she came. +</p> +<p> +"It's for you," she announced, coming to a standstill under the +window and speaking up to me after a curt nod towards Captain +Branscome—"from Miss Plinlimmon; and you'd best come down and hear +what it says, for it's serious." +</p> +<p> +I should here explain that Mr. and Mrs. Stimcoe made a practice of +reading all letters received or despatched by us. It was a part of +the system. +</p> +<p> +"I picked it up at the post-office on my way," she explained, as I +presented myself at the front door and put out a hand for the letter. +"Look here, Harry: I know you to be a brave boy. You must pull +yourself together, and be as brave as ever you can. Your father—" +</p> +<p> +"What about my father?" I asked, taking the letter and staring into +her face. "Has anything happened? is he—is he dead?" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Stimcoe lifted her hand and lowered it again, at the same moment +bowing her head with a meaning I could not mistake. I gazed dizzily +at Captain Branscome, and the look on his face told me—I cannot tell +you how—that he knew what the letter had to tell, and had been +expecting it. The handwriting was indeed Miss Plinlimmon's, although +it ran across the paper in an agitated scrawl most unlike her usual +neat Italian penmanship. +</p> +<pre> "My dearest Harry, + + "You must come home to me at once, and by the first coach. + I cannot tell you what has happened save this—that you must + not look to see your father alive. We dwell in the midst of + alarms which A. Selkirk preferred to the solitude of Juan + Fernandez; but in this I differ from him totally, and so will + you when you hear what we have gone through. Come at once, + Harry, with the bravest heart you can summon, Such is the + earnest prayer of:" + + "Your sincere friend in affliction," + "Amelia Plinlimmon." + + "P.S.—Pray ask Mrs. Stimcoe to be kind enough to advance the + fare if your pocket-money will not suffice." +</pre> +<p> +"And I doubt if there's two shillings in the house!" commented Mrs. +Stimcoe, candid for once, "and God knows what I can pawn!" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome plunged his hand into his pocket and drew out a +guinea. Captain Branscome—who, to the knowledge of both of us, +never had a shilling in his pocket—stood there nervously proffering +me a guinea! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI. +</h2> +<center> +THE CRIME IN THE SUMMER-HOUSE. +</center> +<p> +Mrs. Stimcoe, having begged Captain Branscome to take watch for a +while over the invalid, and having helped me to pack a few clothes in +a handbag, herself accompanied me to the coach-office, where we found +the Royal Mail on the point of starting. The outside passengers, +four in number, had already taken their seats—two on the box beside +the coachman, and two on the seat immediately behind; and by the +light of the lamp overhanging the entry I perceived that their heads +were together in close conversation, in which the coachman himself +from time to time took a share, slewing round to listen or interject +a word and anon breaking off to direct the stowage of a parcel or +call an order to the stable-boys. Mrs. Stimcoe had stepped into the +office to book my place, and while I waited for her, watching the +preparations for departure, my curiosity led me forward to take a +look at the horses. There, under the lamp, the coachman caught sight +of me. +</p> +<p> +"Whe-ew!" I heard him whistle. "Here's the boy himself! Going along +wi' us, sonny?" he asked, looking down on me and speaking down in a +voice which seemed to me unnaturally gentle—for I remembered him as +a gruff fellow and irascible. The outside passengers at once broke +off their talk to lean over and take stock of me; and this again +struck me as queer. +</p> +<p> +"Jim!" called the coachman (Jim was the guard). "Jim!" +</p> +<p> +"Ay, ay!" answered Jim, from the back of the roof, where he was +arranging the mail-bags. +</p> +<p> +"Here's an outside extry." He lowered his voice, so that I caught +only these words: "The youngster . . . Minden Cottage . . . +I reckoned they'd be sending—" +</p> +<p> +"Hey?" +</p> +<p> +Jim the guard bent over for a look at me, and scrambled down by the +steps of his dickey, just as Mrs. Stimcoe emerged from the office. +She was pale and agitated, and stood for a moment gazing about her +distractedly, when Jim blundered against her, whereat she put out a +hand and spoke to him. I saw Jim fall back a step and touch his hat. +He was listening, with a very serious face. I could not hear what +she said. +</p> +<p> +"Cert'nly, ma'm'," he answered. "Cert'nly, under the circumstances, +you may depend on me." +</p> +<p> +He mounted the coach again, and, climbing forward whispered in the +back of the coachman's ear. The passengers bent their heads to +listen. They nodded; the coachman nodded too, and stretched down a +hand. +</p> +<p> +"Can you climb, sonny, or shall we fetch the steps for you? +There, I reckoned you was more of a man than to need 'em!" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Stimcoe detained me for a moment to fold me in a masculine hug. +But her bosom might have been encased in an iron corselet for all the +tenderness it conveyed. "God bless you, Harry Brooks, and try to be +a man!" Her embrace relaxed, and with a dry-sounding sob she let me +go as I caught the coachman's hand and was swung up to my seat; and +with that we were off and up the cobble-paved street at a rattle. +</p> +<p> +I do not know the names of my fellow-passengers. Now and then one +would bend forward and whisper to his neighbour, who answered with a +grunt or a motion of his head; but for the most part, and for mile +after mile, we all sat silent, listening only to the horses' gallop, +the chime of the swingle-bars, the hum of the night wind in our ears. +The motion and the strong breeze together lulled me little by little +into a doze. My neighbour on the right wore around his shoulders a +woollen shawl, against which after a while I found my cheek resting, +and begged his pardon. He entreated me not to mention it, but to +make myself comfortable; and thereupon I must have fallen fast +asleep. I awoke as the coach came to a standstill. Were we pulling +up to change teams? No; we were on the dark high-road, between +hedges. Straight ahead of us blazed two carriage-lamps; and a man's +voice was hailing. I recognized the voice at once. It belonged to a +Mr. Jack Rogers, a rory-tory young squire and justice of the peace of +our neighbourhood, and the lamps must be those of his famous light +tilbury. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" he was shouting. "Royal Mail, ahoy!" +</p> +<p> +"Royal Mail it is!" shouted back the coachman and Jim the guard +together. +</p> +<p> +"Got the boy Brooks aboard?" +</p> +<p> +"Ay, ay Mr. Rogers! D'ye want him?" +</p> +<p> +"No; you'll take him along quicker. My mare's fagged, and I drove +along in case the letter missed fire." He came forward at a foot's +pace, and pulled up under the light of our lamps. "Hallo! is that +you, Harry Brooks?" He peered up at me out of the night. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir," I answered, my teeth chattering between apprehension and +the chill of the night. I longed desperately to ask what had +happened at home, but the words would not come. +</p> +<p> +"Right you are, my lad; and the first thing when you get home, tell +Miss Plinlimmon from me to fill you up with vittles and a glass of +hot brandy-and-water. Give her that message, with Jack Rogers's +compliments, and tell her that I'm on the road making inquiries, and +may get so far as Truro. By the way"—he turned to Jim the guard— +"you haven't met anything that looked suspicious, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing on the road at all," answered Jim. +</p> +<p> +"Well, so-long! Mustn't delay his Majesty's mails or waste time of my +own. Good night, Harry Brooks, and remember to give my message! +Good night, gentlemen all!" +</p> +<p> +He flicked at his mare. Our coachman gathered up his reins, and away +we went once more at a gallop towards the dawn. The dawn lay cold +about Minden Cottage as we came in sight of it; and at first, noting +that all the blinds were drawn, I thought the household must be +asleep. Then I remembered, and shivered as I rose from my seat, +cramped and stiff from the long journey, and so numb that Jim the +guard had to lift me down to the porch. Miss Plinlimmon, red-eyed +and tremulous, opened the door to me, embraced me, and led me to the +little parlour. +</p> +<p> +"Is—is my father dead?" I asked, staring vacantly around the room, +and upon the table where she had set out a breakfast. She bent over +the urn for a moment, and then, coming to me, took my hand and drew +me to the sofa. +</p> +<p> +"You must be brave, Harry." +</p> +<p> +"But what has happened? And how did it happen? Was—was it sudden? +Please tell me, Plinny!" +</p> +<p> +She stroked my hand and shivered slightly, turning her face away +towards the window. +</p> +<p> +"We found him in the summer-house, dear. He was lying face downward, +across the step of the doorway, and at first we supposed he had +fallen forward in a fit. Ann made the discovery, and came running to +me in the kitchen, when she had only time to cry out the news before +she was overtaken with hysterics. I left her to them," went on Miss +Plinlimmon, simply, "and ran out to the summer-house, when by-and-by, +having pulled herself together, she followed me. By this time it had +fallen dusk—nay, it was almost dark, which accounts for one not +seeing at once what dreadful thing had happened. Your poor father, +Harry—as you know—used often to sit in the summer-house until quite +a late hour, but he had never before dallied quite so late, and in +the end I had sent Ann out to remind him that supper was waiting. +Well, as you may suppose, he was heavy to lift; and we two women +being alone in the house, I told Ann to run up to the vicarage or to +Miss Belcher's, and get word sent for a doctor, and also to bring a +couple of men, if possible, to carry him into the house. I had +scarcely bidden her to do this when she cried out, screaming, that +her hand was damp, and with blood. 'You silly woman!' said I, though +trembling myself from head to foot. But when we fetched a candle, we +saw blood running down the step, and your father—my poor Harry!— +lying in a pool of it—a veritable pool of it. Ah, Harry, Harry!" +exclaimed Miss Plinlimmon, relapsing into that literary manner which +was second nature with her, "such a moment occurring in the pages of +fiction, may stimulate a sympathetic thrill not entirely disagreeable +to the reader, but in real life I wouldn't go through it again if you +offered me a fortune." +</p> +<p> +"Plinny," I cried—"Plinny, what is this you are telling me about +blood?" +</p> +<p> +"Your poor father, Harry—But be sure their sins will find them out! +Mr. Rogers is setting the runners on track—he is most kind. +Already he has had two hundred handbills printed. We are offering a +hundred pounds reward—more if necessary—and the whole country is +up—" +</p> +<p> +"Plinny dear"—I tried to steady my voice as I stood and faced her— +"are you trying to tell me that—that my father has been murdered?" +</p> +<p> +She bowed her head and cast her apron over it, sobbing. +</p> +<p> +"Excuse me, Harry—but in such moments!—And they have found the +cashbox. It had been battered open, presumably by a stone, and flung +into the brook a hundred yards below Miss Belcher's lodge-gate." +</p> +<p> +"The cashbox?" My brain whirled. +</p> +<p> +"The key was in your father's pocket. He had fetched the box from +his room, it appears, about two hours before, and carried it out to +the summer-house. I cannot tell you with what purpose he carried it +out there, but it was quite contrary to his routine." +</p> +<p> +She poured out a cup of tea, and passed it to me with shaking hands. +She pressed me to eat, and all the time she kept talking, sometimes +lucidly, sometimes quite incoherently; and I listened in a kind of +dream. My father had been well-nigh a stranger to me, and I divined +that I should never sorrow for his loss as those sorrow who have +genuinely loved. But his death, and the manner of it, shocked me +dreadfully, and from the shock my brain kept harking away to Captain +Coffin and his pursuer. Could they have reached Minden Cottage? +And, if so, had their visit any connection with this crime? +Captain Danny had started for Minden Cottage. . . . Had he arrived? +And, if so— +</p> +<p> +I heard Miss Plinlimmon asking: "Would you care to see him—that is, +dear, if you feel strong enough? His expression is wonderfully +tranquil." +</p> +<p> +She led me upstairs and opened the door for me. A sheet covered my +father from feet to chin, and above it his head lay back on the +pillow, his features, clear-cut and aquiline, keeping that massive +repose which, though it might seem to be deeper now in the shade of +the darkened room, had always cowed me while he lived. It seemed to +me that my father's death, though I ought to feel it more keenly, +made strangely little difference to <i>him</i>. +</p> +<p> +"You will need sleep," said Plinny, who had been waiting for me on +the landing. +</p> +<p> +I told her that she might get my bed ready, but I would first take a +turn in the garden. I tiptoed downstairs. The floor of the +summer-house had been washed. The vane on its conical roof sparkled +in the sunlight. I stood before it, attempting to picture the +tragedy of which, here in the clear morning, it told nothing to help +me. My thoughts were still running on Captain Coffin and the French +prisoner. Plinny—for I had questioned her cautiously—plainly knew +nothing of any such man. They might, however, have entered by the +side-gate. I stepped back under the apple-tree by the flagstaff, +measuring with my eye the distance between this side-gate and the +summer-house. As I did so, my foot struck against something in the +tall grass under the tree, and I stooped and picked it up—a pair of +gold-rimmed eyeglasses! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII. +</h2> +<center> +THE BLOODSTAIN ON THE STILE. +</center> +<p> +My father, in erecting a flagstaff before his summer-house, had +chosen to plant it on a granite millstone, or rather, had sunk its +base through the stone's central hole, which Miss Plinlimmon +regularly filled with salt to keep the wood from rotting. Upon this +mossed and weather-worn bench I sat myself down to examine my find. +</p> +<p> +Yet it needed no examination to tell me that the eyeglasses were +Captain Branscome's. I recognized the delicate cable pattern of +their gold rims, glinting in the sunlight. I recognized the ring and +the frayed scrap of black ribbon attached to it. I remembered the +guinea with which Captain Branscome had paid my fare on the coach. +I remembered Miss Plinlimmon's account of the stolen cashbox. +</p> +<p> +The more my suspicions grew, the more they were incredible. +That Captain Branscome, of all men in the world, should be guilty of +such a crime! And yet, with this damning evidence in my hand, I +could not but recall a dozen trifles—mere straws, to be sure—all +pointing towards him. He had been here in my father's garden: that I +might take as proven. With what object? And if that object were an +innocent one, why had he not told me of his intention to visit Minden +Cottage? I remembered how straitly he had cross-examined me, a while +ago, on the topography of the cottage, on my father's household and +his habits. Again, if his visit had been an innocent one, why, last +evening, had he said nothing of it? Why, when I questioned him about +his holiday, had he answered me so confusedly? Yet again, I recalled +his demeanour when Mrs. Stimcoe handed me the letter, and the +impression it gave me—so puzzling at the moment—that he had +foreknowledge of the news. If this incredible thing were true—if +Captain Branscome were the criminal—the puzzle ceased to be a +puzzle; the guinea and the broken cashbox were only too fatally +accounted for. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, and in spite of the guinea, in spite even of the +eyeglass there in my hand, I could not bring myself to believe. +What? Captain Branscome, the simple-minded, the heroic? Captain +Branscome, of the threadbare coat and the sword of honour? Poor he +was, no doubt—bitterly poor—poor almost to starvation at times. +To what might not a man be driven by poverty in this degree? +And here was evidence for judge and jury. +</p> +<p> +I glanced around me, and, folding the eyeglasses together in a +fumbling haste, slipped them into my breeches-pocket. From my seat +beneath the flagstaff I looked straight into the doorway of the +summer-house; but a creeper obscured its rustic window, dimming the +light within; and a terror seized me that some one was concealed +there, watching me—a terror not unlike that which had held me in +Captain Coffin's lodgings. +</p> +<p> +While I stood there, summoning up courage to invade the summer-house +and make sure, my brain harked back to Captain Coffin and the man +Aaron Glass. Captain Coffin had taken leave of me in a fever to +reach Minden Cottage. That was close on sixty hours ago—three +nights and two days. Why, in that ample time, had he not arrived, +and what had become of him? Plinny had seen no such man. +</p> +<p> +I fetched a tight grip on my courage, walked across to the doorway, +and peered into the summer-house. It was empty, and I stepped +inside—superstitiously avoiding, as I did so, to tread on the spot +where my father's body had lain. +</p> +<p> +Ann the cook—so Plinny told me—had found his chair overset behind +him, but no other sign of a struggle. He had been stabbed in front, +high on the left breast and a little below the collar-bone, and must +have toppled forward at once across the step, and died where he fell. +The chair had been righted and set in place, perhaps by Ann when she +washed down the step. A well-defined line across the floor showed +where the cleaning had begun, and behind it the scanty furniture of +the place had not been disturbed. At the back, in one corner stood +an old drum, with dust and droppings of leaf-mould in the wrinkles of +its sagged parchment, and dust upon the drumsticks thrust within its +frayed strapping; in the corner opposite an old military chest which +held the bunting for the flagstaff—a Union flag, a couple of +ensigns, and half a dozen odd square-signals and pennants. I stooped +over this, and as I did so I observed that there were finger-marks on +the dust at the edge of the lid; but, lifting it, found the flags +inside neatly rolled and stowed in order. On the table lay my +father's Bible and his pocket Virgil, the latter open and laid face +downwards. I picked it up, and the next moment came near to dropping +it again with a shiver, for a dry smear of blood crossed the two +pages. +</p> +<p> +Here, not to complicate mysteries, let me tell at once what Ann told +me later—that she had found the book lying in the blood-dabbled +grass before the step, when it must have fallen from my father's +hand, and had replaced it upon the table. But for the moment, +surmising another clue, I stared at the page—a page of the seventh +"Aeneid"—and at the stain which, as if to underline them, started +beneath the words— +</p> +<pre> "Hic domus, haec patria est. Genitor mihi talia namque + (Nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit." +</pre> +<p> +I set down the book as I had found it, stepped forth again into the +sunshine. The scouring of the step had left a moist puddle below it, +where the ground, no doubt, had been dry and hard on the evening of +the murder. At the edge of this puddle the turf twinkled with clean +dew—close, well-trimmed turf sloping gently to the stream which +formed the real boundary of the garden; but Miss Belcher, the +neighbouring land-owner, a person of great wealth and the most +eccentric good-nature, had allowed my father to build a wall on the +far side, for privacy, and had granted him an entrance through it to +her park—a narrow wooden door to which a miniature bridge gave +access across the stream. +</p> +<p> +There were thus three ways of approaching the summer-house; (1) by +the path which wound through the garden from the house, (2) across +the turf from the side-gate, which opened out of a lane, or +woodcutters' road, running at right angles from the turnpike and +alongside the garden fence towards the park; and (3) from the park +itself, across the little bridge. From the bridge a straight line to +the summer-house would lie behind the angle of sight of any one +seated within; so that a visitor, stepping with caution, might +present himself at the doorway without any warning. +</p> +<p> +You may say that, my father being blind, it need not have entered +into my calculations whether his assailant had approached in full +view of the doorway or from the rear. But the assailant—let us +suppose for a moment—was some one ignorant of my father's blindness. +This granted, as it was at least possible, he would be likeliest to +steal upon the summer-house from the rear. I cannot say more than +that, standing there by the doorway, I felt the approach from the +streamside to be most dangerous, and therefore the likeliest. +</p> +<p> +In a few minutes, as I well knew, Plinny would be coming in search of +me, to persuade me back to the house to breakfast and bed. I stepped +down to the streamside, where the beehives stood in a row on the +brink, paused for a moment to listen to the hum within them, and note +that the bees were making ready to swarm, crossed the bridge, and +tried the rusty hasp of the door. It yielded stiffly; but as I +pulled the door inwards it brushed aside a mass of spider's web, +white and matted, that could not be less than a month old. Also it +brushed a clump of ivy overgrowing the lintel, and shook down about +half an ounce of powdery dust into my hair and eyes. I scarcely +troubled to look through. Clearly, the door had not been opened for +many weeks—possibly not since my last holidays. +</p> +<p> +I recrossed the bridge and inspected the side-gate. This opened, as +I have said, upon a lane never used but by the woodmen on Miss +Belcher's estate, and by them very seldom. It entered the park by a +stone bridge across the stream and by a ruinous gate, the gaps of +which had been patched with furze faggots. The roadway itself was +carpeted with last year's leaves from a coppice across the lane— +leaves which the winter's rains had beaten into a black compost; and +almost facing the side-gate was a stile whence a tangled footpath led +into the coppice. +</p> +<p> +I had stepped out into the lane, and was staring over the stile into +the green gloom of the coppice, when I heard Plinny's voice calling +to me from the house, and I had half turned to hail in answer when my +eyes fell on the upper bar of the stile. +</p> +<p> +Across the edge of it ran a dark brown smear—a smear which I +recognized for dried blood. +</p> +<p> +"Harry! Harry dear!" +</p> +<p> +"Plinny!" I raced back through the garden, and almost fell into her +arms as she came along the path between the currant-bushes in search +of me. "Plinny—oh, Plinny!" I gasped. +</p> +<p> +"My dear child, what has happened?" +</p> +<p> +Before I could answer there came wafted to our ears from eastward a +sound of distant shouting, and almost simultaneously, from the +high-road near at hand, the trit-trot of hoofs approaching at great +speed from westward, and the "Who-oop!" of a man's voice, lusty on +the morning air. +</p> +<p> +"That will be Mr. Jack Rogers," said Plinny. "He brings us news, for +certain! Yes; he is reining up." +</p> +<p> +We ran through the house together, and reached the front door in time +to witness a most extraordinary scene. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Jack Rogers's tilbury had run past the house and come to a halt a +short gunshot beyond, where it stood driverless—for Mr. Jack Rogers +had dismounted, and was gesticulating with both arms to stop a man +racing down the road to meet him. A moment later, as this runner +came on, a second hove in sight over the rise of the road behind +him—a short figure, so stout and round that in the distance it +resembled not so much a man as a ball rolling in pursuit. +</p> +<p> +"Hi! Stop, you there!" shouted Mr. Rogers; but the first runner +might have been deaf, for all the attention he paid. +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord!" said I, catching my breath; "it's Mr. George +Goodfellow!" +</p> +<p> +"In the King's name!" Mr. Rogers shouted, making a dash to intercept +him. And a moment later the two had collided, and were rolling in +the dust together. +</p> +<p> +I ran towards them, with Plinny—brave soul!—at my heels, and +arrived to find Mr. Rogers, hatless and exceedingly dishevelled, +kneeling with both hands around the neck of his prostrate antagonist, +and holding his face down in the dust. +</p> +<p> +"You'd best stand up and come along quietly," Mr. Rogers adjured +him. +</p> +<p> +"Gug-gug—how the devil c-can I stand up if you won't lul-lul-let +me?" protested Mr. Goodfellow, reasonably enough. +</p> +<p> +"Very well, then." Mr. Rogers relaxed his grip. "Stand up! +But you're my prisoner, so let's have no more nonsense!" +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to know what's taken ye to pitch into a man like this?" +demanded Mr. Goodfellow in a tone of great umbrage, as he shook the +dust out of his coat and hair. "A fellow I never seen before, not to +my knowledge! Why—hallo!" said he, looking up and catching sight of +me. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said Mr. Rogers, in his turn. "Do you two know each other?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, of course we do!" said Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know where 'of course' comes in." Mr. Rogers eyed him with +stern suspicion. "Why were you running away from the constable?" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow glanced towards the stout, round man, who by this time +had drawn near, mopping, as he came, a face as red as the red +waistcoat he wore. +</p> +<p> +"Him a constable? Why, I took him for a loonatic! They put the +loonatics into them coloured weskits, don't they?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing of the sort. You're thinking of the warders," Mr. Rogers +answered. +</p> +<p> +"Oh? Then I made a mistake," said Mr. Goodfellow, cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Look here, my friend, if you're thinking to play this off as a joke +you'll find it no joking matter. Madam"—he turned to Miss +Plinlimmon—"is this the man who called at the cottage two days ago." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," answered Plinny; "and once before, as I remember." +</p> +<p> +"And on each occasion did you observe something strange in his +manner?" +</p> +<p> +"Very strange indeed. He kept asking questions about the house and +garden, and the position of the rooms and about poor Major Brooks, +and what rent he paid, and if he was well-to-do. And he took out a +measure from his pocket and began to calculate—" +</p> +<p> +"Quite so." Mr. Rogers turned next to the constable. "Hosken," he +asked, "you have been making inquiries about this man?" +</p> +<p> +"I have, sir; all along the road, so far as Torpoint Ferry." +</p> +<p> +"And you learnt enough to justify you in arresting him?" +</p> +<p> +"Ample, y'r worship. There wasn't a public-house along the road but +thought his behaviour highly peculiar. He's a well-known character, +an' the questions he asks you would be surprised. He plies between +Falmouth and Plymouth, sir, once a week regular. So, actin' on +information that he might be expected along early this morning, I +concealed myself in the hedge, sir, the best part of two miles +back—" +</p> +<p> +"You didn't," interrupted Mr. Goodfellow. "I saw your red stomach +between the bushes thirty yards before ever I came to it, and +wondered what mischief you was up to. I'm wondering still." +</p> +<p> +"At any rate, you are detained, sir, upon suspicion," said Mr. Rogers +sharply, "and will come with us to the cottage and submit to be +searched." +</p> +<p> +"Brooks," asked Mr. Goodfellow feebly, "what's wrong with 'em? +And what are you doing here?" +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Rogers," I broke in, "I know this man. His name is Goodfellow; +he lives at Falmouth; and you are wrong, quite wrong, in suspecting +him. But what is more, Mr. Rogers, you are wasting time. +There's blood on the stile down the lane. Whoever broke into the +garden must have escaped that way—by the path through the +plantation—" +</p> +<p> +"Eh?" Mr. Rogers jumped at me and caught me by the arm. "Why the +devil—you'll excuse me, Miss Plinlimmon—but why on earth, child, if +you have news, couldn't you have told it at once? Blood on the +stile, you say? What stile?" +</p> +<p> +"The stile down the lane, sir," I answered, pointing. "And I +couldn't tell you before because you didn't give me time." +</p> +<p> +"Show us the way, quick! And you, Hosken, catch hold of the mare and +lead her round to Miss Belcher's stables. Or, stay—she's dead beat. +You can help me slip her out of the shafts and tether her by the gate +yonder. That's right, man; but don't tie her up too tight. Give her +room to bite a bit of grass, and she'll wait here quiet as a lamb." +</p> +<p> +"What about the prisoner, sir?" asked the stolid Hosken. +</p> +<p> +"D—n the prisoner!" answered Mr. Rogers, testily, in the act of +unharnessing. "Slip the handcuffs on him. And you, Miss Plinlimmon, +will return to the cottage, if you please." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to come, too, if I may," put in Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +"Eh?" Mr. Rogers, in the act of rolling up one of the traces, stared +at him with frank admiration. "Well, you're a sportsman, anyhow. +Catch hold of his arm, Hosken, and run him along with us. Yes, sir, +though I say it as a justice of the peace, be d—d to you, but I like +your spirit. And with the gallows staring you in the face, too!" +</p> +<p> +"Gallows? What gallows?" panted Mr. Goodfellow in my ear a few +moments later, as we tore in a body down the lane. "Hush!" I panted +in answer. "It's all a mistake." +</p> +<p> +"It ought to be." We drew up by the stile, where I pointed to the +smear of blood, and Mr. Rogers, calling to Hosken to follow him, +dashed into the coppice and down the path into the rank undergrowth. +I, too, was lifting a leg to throw it over the bar, when Mr. +Goodfellow plucked me by the arm. "Terribly hasty friends you keep +in these parts, Brooks," he said plaintively. "What's it all about?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, murder!" said I. "Haven't you heard, man?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a syllable! Good Lord, you don't mean—" He passed a shaky +hand over his forehead as a cry rang back to us through the coppice. +</p> +<p> +"Here, Hosken, this way! Oh, by the Almighty, be quick, man!" +</p> +<p> +I vaulted over the stile, Mr. Goodfellow close after me. For two +hundred yards and more—three hundred, maybe—we blundered and +crashed through the low-growing hazels, and came suddenly to a +horrified stand. +</p> +<p> +A little to the left of the path, between it and the stream, Mr. +Rogers and the constable knelt together over the body of a man half +hidden in a tangle of brambles. +</p> +<p> +The corpse's feet pointed towards the path, and I recognized the +shoes, as also the sea-cloth trousers, before Mr. Rogers—cursing in +his hurry rather than at the pain of his lacerated hands—tore the +brambles aside and revealed its face—the face of Captain Coffin, +blue-cold in death and staring up from its pillow of rotted leaves. +</p> +<p> +I felt myself reeling. But it was Mr. Goodfellow who reeled against +me, and would have fallen if Hosken the constable had not sprung upon +one knee and caught him. +</p> +<p> +"If you ask my opinion," I heard Hosken saying as he raised himself +and held Mr. Goodfellow upright, steadying him, "'tis a case o' +guilty conscience, an' I never in my experience saw a clearer." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII. +</h2> +<center> +CLUES IN A TANGLE. +</center> +<p> +"Guilty or not," said Mr. Jack Rogers, sharply, "I'll take care he +doesn't escape. Run you down to Miss Belcher's kennels, and fetch +along a couple of men—any one you can pick up—to help. And don't +make a noise as you go past the cottage; the women there are +frightened enough already. Come to think of it, I heard some fellows +at work as I drove by just now, thinning timber in the plantation +under the kennels. Off with you, man, and don't stand gaping like a +stuck pig!" +</p> +<p> +Thus adjured, Constable Hosken ran, leaving us three to watch the +body. +</p> +<p> +"The man's pockets have been rifled, that's plain enough," Mr. Rogers +muttered, as he bent over it again, and with that I suppose I must +have made some kind of exclamation, for he looked up at me, still +with a horrified frown. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo! You know him?" +</p> +<p> +I nodded. +</p> +<p> +"His name's Coffin. He came here from Falmouth." +</p> +<p> +For a moment Mr. Rogers did not appear to catch the words. His eyes +travelled from my face to Mr. Goodfellow's. +</p> +<p> +"You, too?" +</p> +<p> +"Knew him intimate. Know him? Why, I live but two doors away from +him in the same court." +</p> +<p> +"Look here," said Mr. Rogers, slowly, after a pause, "this is a black +business, and a curst mysterious one, and I wasn't born with the gift +of seeing daylight through a brick wall. But speaking as a +magistrate, Mr. What's-your-name, I ought to warn you against saying +what may be used for evidence. As for you, lad, you'd best tell as +much as you know. What d'ye say his name was?" +</p> +<p> +"Coffin, sir." +</p> +<p> +"H'm, he's earned it. The back of his head's smashed all to pieces. +Lived in Falmouth, you say? And you knew him there?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Then what was he doing in these parts?" +</p> +<p> +"He started to call on my father, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Eh? You knew of his coming?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir. We planned it together." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers, still on his knees, leaned back and regarded me fixedly. +</p> +<p> +"You planned it together?" he repeated slowly. "Well, go on. +He started to call on your father? Why?" +</p> +<p> +"He wanted to show my father something," said I, with a glance at Mr. +Goodfellow. "Are you sure, sir, there's nothing in his pockets?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a penny-piece. I'll search 'em again if you insist, though I +don't like the job." +</p> +<p> +"He carried it in his breast-pocket, sir; there, on the left side." +</p> +<p> +"Then your question's easy to answer." Mr. Rogers turned back the +lapel and pointed. The pocket hung inside out. "But what was it he +carried?" +</p> +<p> +I hesitated, with another glance towards Mr. Goodfellow, who at the +same moment uttered a cry and sprang for a thicket of brambles +directly behind Mr. Rogers's back. Mr. Rogers leapt up, with an +oath. +</p> +<p> +"No, you don't!" he threatened, preparing to spring in pursuit. +</p> +<p> +But Mr. Goodfellow, not heeding him, plunged a hand among the +brambles and drew forth a walking-stick of ebony, carved in rings, +ending with a ferrule in an iron spike—Captain Coffin's +walking-stick. +</p> +<p> +"I glimpsed at it, there, lyin' like a snake," he began, and let fall +the stick with another sudden, sharp cry. "Ur-rh! There's blood +upon it!" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers picked it up and examined it loathingly. Blood there +was—blood mixed with grey hairs upon its heavy ebony knob, and blood +again upon its wicked-looking spike. +</p> +<p> +"This settles all question of the weapon," he said. "The owner of +this—" +</p> +<p> +We cried out, speaking together, that the stick belonged to the +murdered man; and just then a voice hailed us, and Constable Hosken +came panting up, with two of Miss Belcher's woodmen at his heels. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers directed them to fetch a hurdle. Then came the question +whither to carry the corpse, and after some discussion one of the +woodmen suggested that Miss Belcher's cricket pavilion lay handy, a +couple of hundred yards beyond the rise of the park, across the +stream. "At this time of year the lady wouldn't object—" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers shuddered. +</p> +<p> +"And the last time I saw the inside of it 'twas at Lydia's +Cricket-Week Ball—and the place all flags and lanterns, and a good +third of the men drunk! Well, carry him there if you must, but damme +if I'll ever find stomach to dance there again!" +</p> +<p> +The men lifted their burden and carried it out into the lane, where +the rest of us pulled away the furze-bushes stopping he gate into the +park, and so followed the body up the green slope towards the rise, +over which, as we climbed, the thatched roof of the pavilion slowly +hove into sight. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" Mr. Rogers halted and stared at the bearers, who also had +halted. "What the devil noise is that?" +</p> +<p> +The noise was that of a sudden blow or impact upon timber. +After about thirty seconds it was repeated, and our senses told us +that it came from within the pavilion. +</p> +<p> +"I reckon, sir," suggested one of the woodmen, "'tis Miss Belcher +practising." +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord! Come with us, Harry—the rest stay where you are," +Mr. Rogers commanded, and ran towards the pavilion; and as we started +I heard a whizzing and cracking within, as of machinery, followed by +a double crack of timber. +</p> +<p> +"Lydia! Lydia Belcher!" +</p> +<p> +"Hey! What's the matter now?" I heard Miss Belcher's voice demand, as +he burst in through the doorway. "Take care, the catapult's loaded!" +A whiz, and again a crack. "There now! Oh, well fielded, indeed! +Well fiel—Eh? Caught you on the ankle, did it? Well, and you're +lucky it didn't find your skull, blundering in upon a body in this +fashion." +</p> +<p> +The first sight that met me as I reached the doorway was Mr. Jack +Rogers holding one foot and hopping around with a face of agony. +From him my astonished gaze travelled to Miss Lydia Belcher, whom I +must pause to describe. +</p> +<p> +I have hinted before that Miss Belcher was an eccentric; but I +certainly cannot have prepared the reader—as I was certainly +unprepared myself—for Miss Belcher as we surprised her. +</p> +<p> +She wore top-boots, but this is a trifle, for she habitually wore +top-boots. Upon them, and beneath the short skirt of a red flannel +petticoat, she had indued a pair of cricket-guards. Above the red +flannel petticoat came, frank and unashamed, an ample pair of stays; +above them, the front of a yet ampler chemise and a yellow bandanna +kerchief tied in a sailor's knot; above these, a middle-aged face +full of character and not without a touch of moustache on the upper +lip; an aquiline nose, grey eyes that apologized to nobody, a broad +brow to balance a broad, square jaw, and, on the top of all, a +square-topped beaver hat. So stood Miss Belcher, with a cricket-bat +under her arm; an Englishwoman, owner of one of England's "stately +homes"; a lady amenable to few laws save of her own making, and to no +man save—remotely—the King, whose health she drank sometimes in +port and sometimes in gin-and-water. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Jack! Sorry to cut you over with that off-drive; but +you shouldn't have come in without knocking. Eh? Is that Harry +Brooks?" Her face grew grave for a moment before she turned upon Mr. +Rogers that smile which, if usually latent and at the best not +entirely feminine, was her least dubitable charm. "Now, upon my +word. Jack, you have more thoughtfulness than ever I gave you credit +for." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers stared at her. +</p> +<p> +"An hour's knockabout with me will do the child more good than moping +in the house, and I ought to have thought of it myself. Come along, +Harry Brooks, and play me a match at single wicket. Help me push +away the catapult there into the corner. Will you take first +innings, or shall we toss?" +</p> +<p> +The catapult indicated by Miss Belcher was a formidable-looking +engine with an iron arm or rod terminating in a spoon-shaped socket, +and worked by a contrivance of crank and chain. You placed your +cricket-ball in the socket, and then, having wound up the crank and +drawn a pin which released the machinery, had just time to run back +and defend your wicket as the iron rod revolved and discharged the +ball with a jerk. The rod itself worked on a slide, and could be +shortened or extended to vary the trajectory, and the exercise it +entailed in one way and another had given Miss Belcher's cheeks a +fine healthy glow. +</p> +<p> +"Whew!" she exclaimed, tucking the bat under her arm and wiping her +forehead with a loose end of her yellow bandana. "I'm feelin' like +the lady in 'The Vicar of Wakefield'; by which I don't mean the one +that stooped to folly, but the one that was all of a muck of sweat." +</p> +<p> +"My dear Lydia," gasped Mr. Rogers, "we haven't come to play cricket! +Put down your bat and listen to me. There's the devil to pay in this +parish of yours. To begin with, we've found another body—" +</p> +<p> +"Eh? Where?" +</p> +<p> +"In the plantation under the slope here—close beside the path, and +about two gunshots off the lane." +</p> +<p> +"What have you done with it?" +</p> +<p> +"Two of your fellows are fetching it along. I was going to ask you +as a favour to let it lie here for the time while we follow up the +search." +</p> +<p> +"Of course you may. But who is it?" +</p> +<p> +"An old man in sea clothes. Harry knows him; says he hails from +Falmouth, and that his name is Coffin. And we've arrested a young +fellow on suspicion, though I begin to think he hasn't much to do +with it; but, as it happens, he comes from Falmouth too, and knows +the deceased." +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher hitched an old riding-skirt off a peg and indued it over +her red flannel petticoat, fastening it about her waist with a +leathern strap and buckle. +</p> +<p> +"Well, the first thing is to fetch the body along, and then I'll go +down with you and have a look." +</p> +<p> +"I've halted the men about a hundred yards down the hill. I thought +perhaps you'd step straight along with me to the house, so as to be +out of the way when they—But, anyhow, if you insist on coming, we +can fetch across the cricket-field and down to the left, so that you +needn't meet it." +</p> +<p> +"Bless the man!"—Miss Belcher had turned to another peg, taken down +a loose weather-stained gardening-jacket, and was slipping an arm +into the sleeve—"you don't suppose, do you, that I'm the sort of +person to be scared by a dead body? Open the door, please, and lead +the way. This is a serious business, Jack, and I doubt if you have +the head for it." +</p> +<p> +Sure enough, the sight of the dead body on the hurdle shook Miss +Belcher's nerve not at all, or, at any rate, not discernibly. +</p> +<p> +"Humph!" she said. "Take him to the pavilion and cover him decently. +You'll find a yard or two of clean awning in the left-hand corner of +the scoring-box." She eyed Mr. Goodfellow for a couple of seconds +and swung round upon Mr. Rogers. "Is that the man you've arrested?" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers nodded. +</p> +<p> +"Fiddlestick-end!" +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon?" +</p> +<p> +"Fiddlestick-end! Look at the man's face. And you call yourself a +justice of the peace?" +</p> +<p> +"It was thrust upon me," said Mr. Rogers, modestly. "I don't say +he's guilty, mind you; and, of course, if you say he isn't—" +</p> +<p> +"Look at his face!" repeated Miss Belcher; and, turning, addressed +Mr. Goodfellow. "My good man, you hadn't any hand in this—eh?" +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am; in course I hadn't," Mr. Goodfellow answered fervently. +</p> +<p> +"There! You hear what he says?" +</p> +<p> +"Lydia, Lydia! I've the highest possible respect for your judgment; +but isn't this what you might cull a trifle—er—summary?" +</p> +<p> +"It saves time," said Miss Belcher. "And if you're going to catch +the real culprit, time is precious. Now take me to see the spot." +</p> +<p> +But at this point Mr. Goodfellow's emotions overmastered him, and he +broke forth into the language of rhapsody. +</p> +<p> +"O woman, woman!" exclaimed Mr. Goodfellow, "whatever would the world +do without your wondrous instink!" +</p> +<p> +"Bless the man!"—Miss Belcher drew back a pace—"is he talking of +me?" +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am; generally, or, as you might say, of the sex as a whole. +Mind you, I won't go so far as to deny that the gentleman here—or +the constable, for that matter—had some excuse to be suspicious. +But to think o' me liftin' a hand against poor old Danny Coffin! +Why, ma'am, the times I've a-led him home from the public when +incapable is not to be numbered; and only at this very moment in my +little shop, home in Falmouth, I've a corner cupboard of his under +repair that he wouldn't trust to another living soul! And along +comes you an' say, 'That man's innocent! Look at his face!' you +says, which it's downright womanly instink, if ever there was such a +thing in this world." +</p> +<p> +"A corner cupboard!" I gasped. "You have the corner cupboard?" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow nodded. "I took it home unbeknowns to the old man. +Many a time he'd spoken to me about repairin' it, the upper hinge +bein' cracked, as you may remember. But when it came to handin' it +over I could never get him. So that afternoon, the coast bein' clear +and him sitting drunk in the Plume o' Feathers, as again you will +remember—" +</p> +<p> +But here Miss Belcher shot out a hand and gripped my collar to steady +me as I reeled. I dare say that hunger and lack of sleep had much to +do with my giddiness; at any rate, the grassy slope had begun all of +a sudden to heave and whirl at my feet. +</p> +<p> +"Drat the boy! <i>He's</i> beginning now!" +</p> +<p> +"Take me home," I implored her, stammering. "Please, Miss Belcher!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, I'll lay three to one," said Miss Belcher, holding me off and +regarding me, "that no one has thought of giving this child an honest +breakfast. And"—she turned on Mr. Jack Rogers—"you call yourself a +justice of the peace!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV. +</h2> +<center> +HOW I BROKE OUT THE BED ENSIGN. +</center> +<p> +We were seated in council in the little parlour of Minden Cottage— +Miss Belcher, Miss Plinlimmon, Mr. Jack Rogers, Mr. Goodfellow, and +I. Mr. Goodfellow had been included at Miss Belcher's particular +request. Constable Hosken had been despatched to search the +plantation thoroughly and to report. Two other constables had +arrived, and were coping, in front and rear of the cottage, with a +steady if straggling incursion of visitors from the near villages and +hamlets of St. Germans, Hessenford, Bake, and Catchfrench, drawn by +reports of a second murder to come and stand and gaze at the +premises. The report among them (as I learned afterwards) ran that a +second body—alleged by some to be mine, by others to be Ann the +cook's—had been discovered lying in its own blood in the attic; but +the marvel was how the report could have spread at all, since Miss +Belcher had sworn the two woodmen to secrecy. Whoever spread it +could have known very little, for the sightseers wasted all their +curiosity on the house and concerned themselves not at all with the +plantation. +</p> +<p> +From the plantation Miss Belcher had led me straight to the house, +and there in the darkened parlour I had told my story, corroborated +here and there by Mr. Goodfellow. In the intervals of my narrative +Miss Belcher insisted on my swallowing great spoonfuls of hot +bread-and-milk, against which—faint though I was and famished—my +gorge rose. Also the ordeal of gulping it under four pairs of eyes +was not a light one. But Miss Belcher insisted, and Miss Belcher +stood no nonsense. +</p> +<p> +I told them of my acquaintance with Captain Coffin; how he had +invited me to his lodgings and promised me wealth; of his studying +navigation, of his reference to the island and the treasure hidden on +it, and of the one occasion when he vouchsafed me a glimpse of the +chart; of the French prisoner, Aaron Glass, and how we escaped from +him, and of the plan we arranged together at the old windmill; how +Captain Danny had taken boat to board the St. Mawes packet; how the +man Glass had followed; how I had visited the lodgings, and of the +confusion I found there. I described the ex-prisoner's appearance +and clothing in detail, and here I had Mr. Goodfellow to confirm me +under cross-examination. +</p> +<p> +"An' the cap'n," said he, "was afraid of him. I give you my word, +ladies and gentlemen, I never saw a man worse scared in my life. +Put up his hands, he did, an' fairly screeched, an' bolted out o' the +door with his arm linked in the lad's." +</p> +<p> +Three or four times in the course of my narrative I happened to +thrust my hands into my breeches-pocket, and was reminded of the gold +eyeglass concealed there. I had managed very artfully to keep +Captain Branscome entirely out of the story, but twice under +examination I was forced to mention him—and each time, curiously +enough, in answer to a question of Miss Belcher's. +</p> +<p> +"You are sure this Captain Coffin showed the chart to no one but +yourself?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I am pretty sure, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"There was always a tale about Falmouth that Cap'n Danny had struck a +buried treasure," said Mr. Goodfellow. "'Twas a joke in the publics, +and with the street boys; but I never heard tell till now that any +one took it serious." +</p> +<p> +"He was learning navigation," mused Miss Belcher. "What was the name +of his teacher?" +</p> +<p> +"A Captain Branscome, ma'am. He's a teacher at Stimcoe's." +</p> +<p> +"Lives in the house, does he?" +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"A <i>Captain</i> Branscome, you say?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, ma'am. He's a retired packet captain, and lame of one leg. +Every one in Falmouth knows Captain Branscome." +</p> +<p> +"H'm! Wouldn't this Captain Branscome wonder a little that a man of +your friend's age, and (we'll say) a bit wrong in his head, should +want to learn navigation?" +</p> +<p> +"He might, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"He certainly would," snapped Miss Belcher. "And wouldn't this +Captain Branscome know it was perfectly useless to teach such a man?" +</p> +<p> +"I dare say he would, ma'am," I answered, guiltily recalling Captain +Branscome's own words to me on this subject. +</p> +<p> +"Then why did he take the man's money, eh? Well, go on with your +story." +</p> +<p> +I breathed more easily for a while, but by-and-by, when I came to +tell of the discussion by the old windmill, I felt her eyes upon me +again. +</p> +<p> +"Wait a moment. Captain Coffin gave you a key, and this key was to +open the corner cupboard in his lodgings. Wasn't it rather foolish +of him to send you, seeing that this Aaron Glass had seen you in his +company, and would recognize you if he were watching the premises, +which was just what you both feared?" +</p> +<p> +"He didn't count on me to go," I admitted; "at least, not first +along." +</p> +<p> +"On whom, then?" +</p> +<p> +"On Captain Branscome, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Did he send you with that message to Captain Branscome?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Then why didn't you tell us so? Well, when you took the message, +what did Captain Branscome say? And why didn't he go?" +</p> +<p> +"He was not at home, ma'am. Mr. Stimcoe had given us a holiday in +honour of the prisoners." +</p> +<p> +"I see. So Captain Branscome was off on an outing? When did he +return?" +</p> +<p> +"I didn't see him that evening, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"That's not an answer to my question. I asked, When did he return?" +</p> +<p> +"Not until yesterday afternoon." +</p> +<p> +I had to think before giving this answer, so long a stretch of time +seemed to lie between me and yesterday afternoon. +</p> +<p> +"Where had he been spending his holiday meanwhile?" +</p> +<p> +"He didn't tell me, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"At all events, he didn't turn up for school next day, nor the next +again, until the afternoon. Queer sort of academy, Stimcoe's. +Did Mr. Stimcoe make any remark on his under-teacher's absence?" +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"The school went on just as usual?" +</p> +<p> +"No-o, ma'am "—I hesitated—"not quite just as usual. Mr. Stimcoe +was unwell." +</p> +<p> +"Drunk?" +</p> +<p> +"My dear Miss Belcher!" put in the scandalized Plinny. "A scholar, +and such a gentleman!" +</p> +<p> +"Fiddlestick-end!" snapped the unconscionable lady, not removing her +eyes from mine. "Was this man Stimcoe drunk, eh? No; I beg your +pardon," she corrected herself. "I oughtn't to be asking a boy to +tell tales out of school. 'Thou shalt not say anything to get another +fellow into trouble'—that's the first and last commandment—eh, +Harry Brooks? But, my good soul"—she turned on Plinny—"if 'drunk +and incapable' isn't written over the whole of that seminary, you may +call me a Dutchwoman!" +</p> +<p> +"There's a point or so clear enough," she announced, after a pause, +when I had finished my story. +</p> +<p> +"We must placard the whole country with a description of that +prisoner chap Glass," said Mr. Jack Rogers; "and I'd best be off to +Falmouth and get the bills printed at once." +</p> +<p> +"Indeed?" said Miss Belcher, dryly. "And pray how are you proposing +to describe him?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, as for that, I should have thought Harry's description here, +backed up by Mr. Goodfellow's, was enough to lay a trail upon any +man. My dear Lydia, a fellow roaming the country in a red coat, +drill trousers, and a japanned hat!" +</p> +<p> +"It would obviously excite remark: so obviously that the likelihood +might even occur to the man himself." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers looked crestfallen for a moment. +</p> +<p> +"You suggest that by this time he has changed his rig?" +</p> +<p> +"I suggest, rather, that he started by changing it, say, as far back +as St. Mawes. Some one must ride to St. Mawes at once and make +inquiries." Miss Belcher drummed her fingers on the table. +"But the man," she said thoughtfully, "will have reached Plymouth +long before this." +</p> +<p> +"You don't think it possible he went back the same way he came?" +</p> +<p> +"In a world, Jack, where you find yourself a magistrate, all things +are possible. But I don't think it at all likely." +</p> +<p> +"It's a rum story altogether," mused Mr. Rogers. "A couple of +murders in this part of the world, and mixed up with an island full +of treasure! Why, damme, 'tis almost like Shakespeare!" +</p> +<p> +"For my part," observed Miss Plinlimmon, with great simplicity, +"though sometimes accused of leaning unduly toward the romantic, I +should be inclined to set down this story of Captain Coffin's to +hallucination, or even to stigmatize it as what I believe is called +in nautical parlance 'a yarn.'" +</p> +<p> +"And small blame to you, my dear!" agreed Miss Belcher; "only, you +see, when folks go about killing one another, the hallucination +begins to look disastrously as if there were something in it." +</p> +<p> +"Yet I still fail to see," urged Plinny, "why our dear Major should +have fallen a victim." +</p> +<p> +"It's plain as a pikestaff, if you'll excuse me," Mr. Rogers answered +her. "This Coffin carried the chart on him, meaning to deliver it +into the Major's keeping. He came here, entered the garden by the +side-gate, found the Major in the summer-house, told his story, +handed over the chart, and was making his way back to the high-road +through the plantation, when he came full on this man Aaron Glass, +who had tracked him all the way from St. Mawes. Glass fell on him, +murdered him, rifled his pockets, and, finding nothing—but having +some hint, perhaps—pursued his way to the garden here. There in the +summer-house he found the Major, who meanwhile had fetched his +cashbox from the house and locked the chart up in it. What followed, +any one can guess." +</p> +<p> +"Not a bad theory, Jack!" murmured Miss Belcher, still drumming +softly on the table. "Indeed, 'tis the only explanation, but for one +or two things against it." +</p> +<p> +"For instance?" +</p> +<p> +"For instance, I don't see why the Major should want to go to the +house and bring back his cashbox to the garden. Surely the simple +thing was to take the paper, or whatever it was, straight to the +house, lock it up, and leave the cashbox in its usual place? I don't +see, either, what that box was doing, later on, in the brook below my +lodge-gate; for, by every chance that I can reckon, the murderer— +supposing him to be this man Glass—would have pushed on in haste for +Plymouth, whereas my lodge-gate lies half a mile in the opposite +direction." +</p> +<p> +"Are those all your objections?" asked Mr. Rogers. "Because, if so, +I must say they don't amount to much." +</p> +<p> +"They don't amount to much," Miss Belcher agreed, "but they don't, on +the other hand, quite cover all my doubts. However, there's less +doubt, luckily, about the next step to be taken. You send Hosken or +some one to Torpoint Ferry to inquire what strangers have crossed for +Plymouth during these forty-eight hours. You meanwhile borrow my +roan filly—your own mare is dead-beat—clap her in the tilbury, and +off you go to St. Mawes, and find out how this man Glass got hold of +a change of clothes. Take Mr. Goodfellow with you, and while you are +playing detective at St. Mawes, he can cross over to Falmouth and +fetch along the corner cupboard. Harry has the key, and we'll open +it here and read what the captain has to say in this famous roll of +paper. It won't do more than tantalize us, I very much fear, seeing +that the chart has disappeared, and likely enough for ever." +</p> +<p> +But it had not. +</p> +<p> +It so happened that while I stood by my father's bedside that morning +I had noticed a flag, rolled in a bundle and laid upon the chest of +drawers beside his dressing-table. I concluded at once that Plinny +had fetched it from the summer-house to spread over his coffin. +</p> +<p> +Women know nothing about flags. This one was a red ensign, in those +days a purely naval flag, carried (since Trafalgar) by the highest +rank of admirals. Ashore, any one could hoist it, but the flag to +cover a soldier's body was the flag of Union. +</p> +<p> +This had crossed my mind when I caught sight of the red ensign on the +chest of drawers; and again in the summer-house, as I lifted the lid +of the flag-locker and noted the finger-marks in the dust upon it, I +guessed that Plinny had visited it with pious purpose, and, +woman-like, chosen the first flag handy. I had meant to repair her +mistake, and again had forgotten my intention. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Jack Rogers had driven off for St. Mawes, with Mr. Goodfellow in +the tilbury beside him. Constable Hosken was on his way to Torpoint. +Miss Belcher had withdrawn to her great house, after insisting that I +must be fed once more and packed straight off to bed; and fed I duly +was, and tucked between sheets, to sleep, exhausted, very nearly the +round of the clock. +</p> +<p> +Footsteps awoke me—footsteps on the landing outside my bedroom. +I sat up, guessing at once that they were the footsteps of the +carpenter and his men, arrived in the dawn with the shell of my +father's coffin. Almost at once I remembered the red ensign, and, +waiting until the footsteps withdrew, stole across, half dressed, to +my father's room to change it. The faint rays of dawn drifted in +through the closed blinds. The coffin-shell lay the length of the +bed, and in it his body. The carpenter's men had left it uncovered. +In the dim light, no doubt, they had overlooked the flag, which I +felt for and found. Tucking it under my arm, I closed the door and +tiptoed downstairs, let myself out at the back, and stole out to the +summer-house. +</p> +<p> +There was light enough within to help me in selecting the Union flag +from the half-dozen within the locker. I was about to stow the red +ensign in its place when I bethought me that, day being so near, I +might as well bend a flag upon the flagstaff halliards and half-mast +it. +</p> +<p> +So, with the Union flag under one arm, I carried out the red ensign, +bent it carefully, still in a roll, and hoisted it to the truck. +In half-masting a flag, you first hoist it in a bundle to the +masthead, break it out there, and thence lower it to the position at +which you make fast. +</p> +<p> +I felt the flag's toggle jam chock-a-block against the truck of the +staff, and gave a tug, shaking out the flag to the still morning +breeze. A second later something thudded on the turf close at my +feet. +</p> +<p> +I stared at it; but the halliards were in my hand, and before picking +it up I must wait and make them fast on the cleat. Still I stared at +it, there where it lay on the dim turf. +</p> +<p> +And still I stared at it. Either I was dreaming yet, or this—this +thing that had fallen from heaven—was the oilskin bag that had +wrapped Captain Coffin's chart. +</p> +<p> +I stooped to pick it up. At that instant the side-gate rattled, and +with a start I faced, in the half light—Captain Branscome. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV. +</h2> +<center> +CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION—THE MAN IN THE LANE. +</center> +<p> +He opened the gate and came across the turf to me. I observed that +his hand trembled on his walking-cane, and that he dragged his +injured leg with a worse limp than usual; also—but the uncertain +light may have had something to do with this—his face seemed of one +colour with the grey dust that powdered his shoes. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, Harry!" +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, sir," I answered, crushing the oilskin into my pocket +and waiting for his explanation. +</p> +<p> +"You are surprised to see me? The fact is, I have something to tell +you, and could not rest easy till it was off my mind. I have +travelled here by Russell's waggon, but have trudged a good part +of the way, as you see." He glanced down at his shoes. "The pace +was too slow for my impatience. I could get no sleep. Though it +brought me here no faster, I had to vent my energies in walking." +His sentences followed one another by jerks, in a nervous flurry. +"You are surprised to see me?" he repeated. +</p> +<p> +"Why, as to that, sir, partly I am and partly I am not. It took me +aback just now to see you standing there by the gate; and," said I +more boldly, "it puzzles me yet how you came there and not to the +front door, for you couldn't have expected to find me here in the +garden at this time in the morning." +</p> +<p> +"True, Harry; I did not." He paused for a moment, and went on—"It is +truth, lad, that I meant to knock at your front door, by-and-by, and +ask for you. But, the hour being over-early for calling, I had a +mind, before rousing you out of bed, to walk down the lane and have a +look over your garden gate. Nay," he corrected himself, "I do not +put it quite honestly, even yet. I came in search of something." +</p> +<p> +"I can save you the trouble, perhaps," said I, and, diving a hand +into my breech-pocket, I pulled out the gold-rimmed eyeglasses. +</p> +<p> +He made no offer to take them, though I held them out to him on my +open palm, but fell back a step, and, after a glance at them, lifted +his eyes and met mine honestly, albeit with a trouble in his face. +</p> +<p> +"You found them?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"To whom have you shown them?" +</p> +<p> +"To nobody." +</p> +<p> +"Yet there has been some inquiry?" +</p> +<p> +I nodded. +</p> +<p> +"At which you were present?" +</p> +<p> +I nodded again. +</p> +<p> +"And you said nothing of this—this piece of evidence? Why? +</p> +<p> +"Because"—I hesitated for a couple of seconds and then gulped +hesitation down—"because I could not believe that you—that you were +really—" +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, Harry." +</p> +<p> +"All the same, sir, your name was mentioned." +</p> +<p> +"Eh?" He was plainly astonished. "My name mentioned? But why? +How? since no one saw me here, and if, as you say, you hid this only +evidence—" +</p> +<p> +"It came up, sir, when they examined me about Captain Danny. +You know—do you not?—that they have found his body, too." +</p> +<p> +"I heard the news being cried in Truro streets as we came through. +Poor old Coffin! It is all mystery to me—mystery on mystery! +But how on earth should my name have come up in connection with him?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, about your teaching him navigation, sir." +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome passed a hand over his forehead. +</p> +<p> +"Navigation? Yes; to be sure, I taught him navigation—or, rather, +tried to. But what of that?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, sir, Miss Belcher seemed to think it suspicious." +</p> +<p> +He reached out a hand, and, taking the glasses from me, sat down upon +the stone base of the flagstaff and began feebly to polish them. +</p> +<p> +"Impossible!" he said faintly, as if to himself; then aloud: +"The man was a friend of yours, too, wasn't he?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir; if you mean Captain Coffin, he was a friend of mine." +</p> +<p> +"And of mine; and, as you say, he came to me to learn navigation. +Now, what connection there can be between that and his being murdered +a dozen miles inland—" +</p> +<p> +But here he broke off, and we both looked up and across the stream +as, with a click of the latch, the door there creaked and opened, and +Miss Belcher entered the garden. She wore an orange-coloured +dressing-gown, top-boots to guard her ankles from the morning dew, a +red kerchief tied over her brow to keep her iron-grey locks in place, +and over it her customary beaver hat—<i>et vera incessu patit dea</i>. +Even thus attired did Miss Belcher, a goddess of the dawn, come +striding over the footbridge and across the turf to us; and the +effect of the apparition upon Captain Branscome's nerves, after a +night of travel alongside Russell's van, I can only surmise. +I did not observe it, having for the moment no eyes for him. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said Miss Belcher, walking straight up to us, and halting, +with a hand planted, washerwoman fashion, on either hip, as Captain +Branscome staggered to his feet and saluted. "Hallo! who's this?" +</p> +<p> +"Captain Branscome, ma'am," stammered I. +</p> +<p> +"I thought as much. And what is Captain Branscome doing here?" +</p> +<p> +"By your leave, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, "I—I was just +dropping in for a talk here with my friend Harry Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"H'm!" sniffed Miss Belcher, and eyed him up and down for a full ten +seconds with an uncompromising stare. "As an explanation, sir, you +will allow that to be a trifle unsatisfactory. What have you been +eating lately?" +</p> +<p> +"Madam?" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome stared at her in weak bewilderment; and, indeed, +the snort which accompanied Miss Belcher's question seemed to accuse +him of impregnating the morning air with a scent of onions. +</p> +<p> +"You can answer a plain question, I hope?" said she. "When did you +eat last, and what was it?" +</p> +<p> +"To be precise, ma'am—though I don't understand you—it was an +apple, and about—let me see—seven hours ago." +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher turned to me and nodded. +</p> +<p> +"In other words, the man's starving. I don't blame you, Harry +Brooks. One can't look for old heads on young shoulders. But, for +goodness' sake, take him into the house and give him something to +eat!" +</p> +<p> +"Madam—" again began Captain Branscome, still a prey to that mental +paralysis which Mrs. Belcher's costume and appearance ever produced +upon strangers, and for which she never made the smallest allowance. +</p> +<p> +"Don't tell me!" she snapped. "I breed stock and I buy 'em. I know +the signs." +</p> +<p> +"I was about to suggest, ma'am, that—travel-stained as I am—a wash +and a shave would be even more refreshing." +</p> +<p> +"H'm! You're one of those people—eh?—that study appearances?" +(In the art of disconcerting by simple interrogation I newer knew +Miss Belcher's peer, whether for swiftness, range, or variety.) +"Brought a razor with you?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Take him to the house, Harry; but first show me where the hens have +been laying." +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later, as Captain Branscome, washed, brushed, and +freshly shaven, descended to the breakfast-parlour, Miss Belcher +entered the house by the back door, with her hat full of new-laid +eggs. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing like a raw egg to start the day upon," she announced. +"I suck 'em, for my part; but some prefer 'em beaten up in a dish of +tea." +</p> +<p> +She suited the action to the word, and beat up one in the Captain's +teacup while Plinny carved him a slice of ham. +</p> +<p> +"Ladies," he protested, "I am ashamed. I do not deserve this +hospitality. If you would allow me first to tell my story!" +</p> +<p> +"<i>You're</i> all right," said Miss Belcher. "Couldn't hurt a fly, if +you wanted to. There! Eat up your breakfast, and then you can tell +us all about it." +</p> +<p> +The two ladies had, each in her way, a knack of making her meaning +clear without subservience to the strict forms of speech. +</p> +<p> +"It will be a weight off one's mind," declared Plinny, "even if it +should prove to be the last straw." +</p> +<p> +"There's one thing to be thankful for," chimed in Miss Belcher, +"and that is, Jack Rogers has gone to St. Mawes. When there's +serious business to be discussed I always thank a Providence that +clears the men out of the way." +</p> +<p> +I glanced at Captain Branscome. Assuredly he had come with no +intention at all of unbosoming himself before a couple of ladies. +He desired—desired desperately, I felt sure—to confide in me alone. +But Miss Belcher's off-handish air of authority completely nonplussed +him; he sat helplessly fidgeting with his breakfast-plate. +</p> +<p> +"To tell you the truth, ladies," he began, "I had not expected this— +this audience. It finds me, in a manner of speaking, unprepared." +He ran a finger around the edge of his saucer after the manner of one +performing on the musical glasses, and threw a hunted glance at the +window, as though for a way of escape. "My name, ladies, is +Branscome. I was once well-to-do, and commanded a packet in the +service of his Majesty's Postmasters-General. But times have altered +with me, and I am now an usher in a school, and a very poor man." +</p> +<p> +He paused; looked up at Miss Belcher, who had squared her elbows on +the table in very unladylike fashion; and cleared his throat before +proceeding— +</p> +<p> +"You will excuse me for mentioning this, but it is an essential part +of my story." +</p> +<p> +"The Stimcoes," suggested Miss Belcher, "didn't pay up—eh?" +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Stimcoe—though a scholar, ma'am—has suffered from time to time +from pecuniary embarrassment." +</p> +<p> +"—Traceable to drink," interpolated Miss Belcher, with a nod towards +Plinny. "No, sir; you need not look at Harry: <i>he</i> has told us +nothing. I formed my own conclusions." +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Stimcoe, ma'am—for I should tell you she keeps the purse—is +too often unable to make two ends meet, as the saying is. I believe +she paid when she could, but somehow my salary has always been in +arrear. I have used remonstrance with her, before now, to a degree +which it shames me to remember; yet, in spite of it, I have sometimes +found myself on a Saturday, after a week's work, without a loaf of +bread in the cupboard. I doubt, ma'am, if any one who has not +experienced it can wholly understand the power of mere hunger to +degrade a man; to what lengths he can be urged, willy-nilly, as it +were, by the instinct to satisfy it. There were Sabbaths, ma'am, +when to attend divine worship seemed a mockery; the craving drove me +away from all congregations of Christian men and out into the fields, +where—I tell it with shame, ma'am—I have stolen turnips and eaten +them raw, loathing the deed even worse than I loathed the vegetable, +for the taste of which—I may say—I have a singular aversion. +Well, among my pupils was Harry here, whom I discovered to be the son +of an old friend of mine. I dare to call the late Major James Brooks +a friend in spite of the difference between our stations in life—a +difference he himself was good enough to forget. Our acquaintance +began on the <i>Londonderry</i> transport, which I commanded, and in which +I brought him home from Corunna to Plymouth in the January of 1809. +It ended with the conclusion of that short and anxious passage. +But I had always remembered Major Brooks as one who approached, if +ever man did, the ideal of an officer and a gentleman. Now at first, +ladies, the discovery suggested no thought to me beyond the +pleasure of knowing that my old friend was alive and hale, and the +hope of seeing Harry grow up to be as good a man as his father. +But by-and-by I found a thought waking and growing, and awake again +and itching after I had done my best to kill it, that the Major might +be moved by the story of an old shipmate brought so low. God forgive +me, ladies!" Captain Branscome put up a hand to cover his brow. +"The very telling of it degrades me over again; but I came here to +make a clean breast, and there is no other way. I had cross-examined +Harry about the Major and his habits—not always allowing to myself +why I asked him many trivial questions. And then suddenly the +temptation came to a head. Certain Englishmen discharged from the +French war-prisons were landed at Plymouth. The town turned out to +welcome the poor fellows home, and the Mayor entertained them at a +banquet, to which also he invited some two hundred townsmen. +Among the guests he was good enough to include me; for it has been a +consolation to me, ladies, and a source of pride, that my friends in +Falmouth have not withdrawn in adversity the respect which in old +days my uniform commanded." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Branscome is not telling you the half of it," I broke in +eagerly. "Every one in Falmouth knows him to be a hero. Why, he has +a sword of honour at home, given him for one of the bravest battles +ever fought!" +</p> +<p> +"Gently, boy—gently!" Captain Branscome corrected me, with a smile, +albeit a sad one. "Youth is generous, ladies; it sees these things +through a haze which colours and magnifies them, and—and it's a very +poor kind of hero you'll consider me before I have done. Where was +I? Ah, yes, to be sure—the banquet. His Worship can little have +guessed what his invitation meant to me, or that, while others +thanked him for a compliment, to me it offered a satisfying meal such +as I had not eaten for months. Mr. Stimcoe had given the school a +holiday. In short, I attended. +</p> +<p> +"I fear, ladies, that the food and the generous wine together must +have turned my head—there is no other explanation; for when the meal +was over and I sat listening to the speeches, but fumbling with a +glass of port before me, scarcely with the half-crown in my pocket +which must carry me over another week's house-keeping, all of a +sudden the man inside me rose in revolt. I felt such poverty as mine +to be unendurable, and that I was a slave, a spiritless fool, to put +up with it. There must be hundreds of good, Christian folk in the +world who had only to know to stretch out a hand of help and gladly, +as I would have helped such a case in the days of my own prosperity. +Remember, I am not putting this forward as a sober plea. I know it +now to be false, self-cheating, the apology that every beggar makes +for himself, the specious argument that every poor man must resist +who would hold fast by his manhood. But there, with the wine in me +and the juices of good meat, the temptation took me at unawares and +mastered me as I had never allowed it to master me while I hungered. +I saw the world in a sudden rosy light; I felt that my past +sufferings had been unnecessary. I thought of Major Brooks—" +</p> +<p> +"Bless the man!" interjected Miss Belcher. "He's coming to the point +at last." +</p> +<p> +"Your pardon, ma'am. I will be briefer. I thought of Major Brooks. +I took a resolve there and then to extend my holiday; to walk hither +to Minden Cottage, and lay my case before him. The banquet had no +sooner broken up than I started. I reached Truro at nightfall, and +hired a bed there for sixpence. Early next morning I set forward +again. By this time the impulse had died out of me, but I still +walked forward, playing with my intention, always telling myself that +I could relinquish it and turn back to Falmouth, cheating—yes, I +fear deliberately cheating—myself with the assurance until more than +half the journey lay behind me, and to turn back would be worse than +pusillanimous. At St. Austell a carrier offered me a lift, and +brought me to Liskeard. Thence I walked forward again, and in the +late afternoon came in sight of Minden Cottage. +</p> +<p> +"I recognized it at once from Harry's description, and at first +I was minded to walk up and knock boldly at the front door. +But remembering also the lad's account of the garden and how the +Major would spend the best part of his day there—and partly, I +fancy, being nervous and uncertain with what form of words to present +myself—I pulled up at the angle of the house, where the lane comes +up alongside the garden wall to join the road, and halted, to collect +myself and study my bearings. +</p> +<p> +"The time was about twenty minutes after five, and the light pretty +good. But the lane is pretty well overgrown, as you know. I looked +down and along it, and it appeared to end in a tangle or brambles. +I turned my attention to the house, and was studying it through my +glasses, taking stock of its windows and chimneys, and generally +(as you might say) reckoning it up, along with the extent of its +garden, when, happening to take another glance down the lane, to run +a measure of the garden wall—or perhaps a movement caught my eye— +I saw a man step across the path between the brambles, out of the +garden, as you might say, and into the plantation opposite. The path +being so narrow, I glimpsed him for half a second only. But the +glimpse of him gave me a start, for, if to suppose it had been +anywise possible, I could have sworn the man was one I had known in +Falmouth and left behind there." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Coffin!" I exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +"Ay, lad, Captain Coffin—Captain Danny Coffin. But what should he +be doing at Minden Cottage?" +</p> +<p> +"The quicker you proceed, sir," said Miss Belcher, rapping the table, +"the sooner we are likely to discover." +</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> + +[1] Russell's waggons—"Russell and Co., Falmouth to London"—were +huge vehicles that plied along the Great West Road under an escort of +soldiers, and conveyed the bullion and other treasure landed at +Falmouth by the Post Office packets. They were drawn, always at a +foot-pace, by teams of six stout horses. The waggoner rode beside on +a pony, and inside sat a man armed with pistols and blunderbuss. +Poor travellers used these waggons, walking by day, and sleeping by +night beneath the tilt. + +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<a name="2HCH0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVI. +</h2> +<center> +CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION—THE FLAG AND THE CASHBOX. +</center> +<p> +"Well, ma'am," resumed Captain Branscome, "so strong was the likeness +to old Coffin, and yet so incredible was it he should be in these +parts, that, almost without stopping to consider, I turned down the +lane on the chance of another glimpse of the man. This brought me, +of course, to the stile leading into the plantation; but the path +there, as you know, takes a turn among the trees almost as soon as it +starts, and runs, moreover, through a pretty thick undergrowth. +The fellow, whoever he was, had disappeared. +</p> +<p> +"I can't say but what I was still puzzled, though the likeliest +explanation—indeed, the only likely one—seemed to be that my eyes +had played me a trick. I had pretty well made up my mind to this when +I turned away from the stile to have a look at the garden gate on the +other side of the lane; and over it, across the little stretch of +turf, I caught sight of the summer-house and of Major Brooks standing +there in the doorway with a bundle between his hands-a bundle of +something red, which he seemed to be wrapping round with a piece of +cord. +</p> +<p> +"Here, then, was the very man I had come to see; and here was a +chance of getting speech with him and without the awkwardness of +asking it through a servant, perhaps of having to invent an excuse +for my visit. Without more ado, therefore, I made bold to lift the +latch of the gate and step into the garden. +</p> +<p> +"At the sound of the latch—I can see him now—Major Brooks lifted +his head with a curious start, and tucked the bundle under his arm. +The movement was like that of a man taken at unawares, and +straightening himself up to meet an attack. I cannot describe it +precisely, but that was just the impression it made on me, and it +took me aback for a moment, so that I paused as the gate fell-to and +latched itself behind me. +</p> +<p> +"'Halt there!' the Major commanded, facing me full across the turf. +'Halt, and tell me, please, why you have come back!' +</p> +<p> +"This puzzled me worse for a moment, for the light was good, though +drawing towards sunset, and it seemed impossible that, looking +straight at me, he could mistake me for the man who had just left the +garden. Then I remembered what Harry had told me of his father's +blindness. +</p> +<p> +"My silence naturally made him more suspicious. +</p> +<p> +"'Who is it there? Your name, please?' he demanded sharply. +</p> +<p> +"' Sir,' I answered, 'I beg your pardon for coming thus unannounced, +but my name is Branscome, and I had once the honour to be shipmate +with you on board the <i>Londonderry</i> transport.' +</p> +<p> +"For a while he continued to stare at me in his blind way. +</p> +<p> +"'Yes,' he said slowly, at length; 'yes; I remember your voice, sir. +But what in the name of wonder brings you to my garden just now?' +</p> +<p> +"'Your son Harry, sir,' said I, 'some time ago gave me a message from +you. If ever (he said) I found myself in the neighbourhood of Minden +Cottage you would be pleased to receive a visit from me.' +</p> +<p> +"'Yes,' said he, but still with a something in his voice between +wonder and suspicion; 'that's true enough. I have always retained +the highest respect for Captain Branscome, and by your voice you are +he. But—but—' He hesitated, and fired another question point-blank +at me: 'You come from Falmouth?' +</p> +<p> +"'I do, sir.' +</p> +<p> +"'Alone?' +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, sir. I have walked all the way from Falmouth, and without a +companion.' +</p> +<p> +"'Look here, my friend,' he said, after seeming to ponder for a +moment, 'if you mean ill, you must have altered strangely from the +Captain Branscome I used to know, and if you mean well you have timed +your visit almost as strangely.' He paused again. 'Either you know +what I mean, or you do not; if you do not, you will have to forgive a +great deal in this reception; and you will, to begin with, forgive my +asking you, on your word of honour, if on your journey hither you +have overtaken or met or recognized any one hailing from Falmouth. +You do not answer,' he added, after yet another pause. +</p> +<p> +"'Why, as to that, sir,' said I, 'since leaving Falmouth I have +neither met nor overtaken any one of my acquaintance. But, since you +put it to me precisely, I will not swear that I have not recognized +one. A few minutes ago, standing at the head of the lane here, I saw +a man cross it, presumably from this garden, and take the path +leading through the plantation yonder. It certainly strikes me that +I knew the man, and I followed him down the lane here to make sure.' +</p> +<p> +"'Why?' the Major asked me. +</p> +<p> +"'Because, sir,' said I, 'it did not seem possible to me that the +man I mean could have any business here; besides which, an hour or +two before leaving Falmouth I had passed him in the street, and +though he had, indeed, the use of his legs, he was too far gone in +liquor to recognize me.' +</p> +<p> +"'His name?' the Major asked. +</p> +<p> +"'Coffin, sir,' said I; 'usually known as Captain Coffin, or Captain +Danny.' +</p> +<p> +"'A drunkard?' he asked. +</p> +<p> +"'A man given to liquor,' said I, 'by fits and starts; but mild +enough in an ordinary way. You might call him the least bit touched +in the upper story; of a loose, rambling head, at all events, as I +can testify, who have taught him navigation—or tried to.' +</p> +<p> +"The Major, though he could not see me, seemed to study me with his +blind eyes. He stood erect, with the bundle clipped under his left +arm; and the bundle I made out to be a flag, rolled up and strapped +about with its own lanyard. +</p> +<p> +"'One more question, Captain Branscome,' said he. 'This Captain +Coffin, as you call him—is he, to the best of your knowledge, an +honest man?' +</p> +<p> +"I answered that I had heard question of Coffin's sanity, but never +of his honesty. +</p> +<p> +"'His sanity, eh?' said the Major; and I could see he was hung in +stays, but he picked up his wind after a second or two, and paid off +on another tack. 'Well, well,' he said, 'we'll drop talking of this +Coffin, and turn to the business that brings you here. What is it? +For I take it you've walked all the way from Falmouth for something +more than the sake of a chat over old times.' +</p> +<p> +"I remember, ladies, the words he used, though not the tone of them. +To tell the truth, though my ears received 'em, I was not listening. +I stood there, wishing myself a hundred miles away; but his manner +gave me no chance to fob him off with an excuse, or pretend I had +dropped in for a passing call. There was nothing for it but to out +with my story, and into it I plunged somehow, my tongue stammering +with shame. He listened, to be sure, but without offering to help me +over the hard places. Indeed, at the first mention of my poverty, I +saw all his first suspicions—whatever they had been—return and show +themselves in his blind eyes. His mouth was set like a closed trap. +Yet he heard me out, and, when I had done, his suspicions seemed to +have faded again, for he answered me considerately enough, though not +cordially. +</p> +<p> +"'Captain Branscome,' he said, 'I may tell you at once that I never +lend money; and my reason is partly that good seldom comes of it, and +partly that I am a poor man—if you can call a man poor who is by a +few pounds richer than his needs. But I have a great respect for +you'—the ladies will forgive me for repeating his exact words—'and +your voice seems to tell me that you still deserve it; that you have +suffered more than you say before being driven to make this appeal. +I can do something—though it be little—to help an old comrade. +Will you oblige me by stepping into the summer-house here, and taking +a seat while I go to the house? I will not keep you waiting more +than a few minutes.' +</p> +<p> +"He picked up his walking-stick, which rested against a chair, just +within the doorway, and stood for a moment while I stepped past him +and entered the summer-house; and so, with a nod of the head, turned +and walked towards the house, using his stick very skilfully to feel +his path between the bushes, and still keeping the flag tucked under +his left arm. +</p> +<p> +"So I sat and waited, ladies, on no good terms with myself. The way +of the borrower was hard, I found, and the harder because the Major's +manner had not been unkindly, but—if you'll understand my meaning— +only just kindly enough. In short, I don't know but that I must have +out and run rather than endure his charity, had not my thoughts been +distracted by this mystery over Captain Coffin. For the Major had +said too much, and yet not enough. The man I had seen crossing the +lane was certainly Coffin, but to connect him with Minden Cottage I +had no clue at all beyond the faint one, Harry, that you and he were +acquaintances. Besides, I had seen him, the morning before, in the +crowd around the prisoners, and could have sworn he was then—saving +your presence, ladies—as drunk as a fiddler. If vehicle had brought +him, it could not be any that had passed me on the road, or for +certain I should have recognized him. Well, here was a riddle, and I +had come no nearer to guessing it when the Major returned. +</p> +<p> +"He had left his bundle in the house, and in place of it he carried a +cashbox, which he set on the table between us, but did not at once +open. Instead, he turned to me with a complete change of manner, and +held out his hand very frankly. +</p> +<p> +"'I owe you an apology, Captain,' said he. 'To be plain with you, at +the moment you appeared, I was half expecting a different kind of +visitor, and I fear you received some of the welcome prepared for +him. Overlook it, please, and shake hands; and, to get our business +over,'—he unlocked the cashbox—'here are ten guineas, which I will +ask you to accept from me. We won't call it a gift; we will call it +an acknowledgement for the extra pains you have put into teaching my +son. Tut, man!' said he, as I protested. 'Harry has told us all +about that. I assure you the youngster came near to wearying us, +last holiday, with praise of you.'" +</p> +<p> +"And so he did," Plinny here interrupted. "That is to say, sir—I—I +mean we were only too glad to listen to him." +</p> +<p> +"I thank you, ma'am." Captain Branscome bowed to her gravely. +"I will not deny that the Major's words gave me pleasure for the +moment. He, for his part, appeared to be quite another man. +'Twas as if between leaving me and returning to the summer-house a +load had been lifted from his mind. He counted out the guineas, +locked the cashbox again, lit his pipe, and then, seeming to +recollect himself, reached down a clean one from a stack above the +doorway, and insisted upon my filling and smoking with him. +'Twas a long while since I had tasted the luxury of tobacco. +We talked of old days on the <i>Londonderry</i>, of Sir John Moore's last +campaign, of Falmouth and the packets, of the peace and the overthrow +of Bonaparte's ambitions; or, rather, 'twas he that talked and +questioned, while for me 'twas pleasure enough, and a pleasure long +denied me, to sit on terms with a well-read gentleman and listen to +talk of a quality which—" +</p> +<p> +"Which differed from that of the Rev. Philip Stimcoe's," suggested +Miss Belcher, as he hesitated. "Proceed, sir." +</p> +<p> +"I shall add, madam, that the Major very kindly invited me to sleep +that night under his roof. I could pick up the coach in the morning +(he said). But this I declined, professing that I preferred the +night for travelling, and maybe, before tiring myself, would +overtake one of Russell's waggons and obtain a lift; the fact being +that, grateful though I found it to sit and converse with him, my +conscience was accusing me all the while. +</p> +<p> +"Towards the end of our talk he had let slip by accident that he was +by no means a rich man. The money from that moment began to burn in +my pockets, and I had scarcely shaken hands with him and taken my +leave—which I did just as the sun was sinking behind the plantation +across the lane—before his guineas fairly scorched me. I held on my +way for a mile or more. You may have observed, ladies, that I limp +in my walk? It is the effect of an old wound. But, I declare to +you, my limp was nothing to the thought I dragged with me—the +recollection of the Major's face and the expression that had come +over it when I had first confessed my errand. All his subsequent +kindness, his sympathy, his hospitality, his frank and easy talk, +could not wipe out that recollection. I had sold something which for +years it had been my pride to keep. I had forced it on an unwilling +buyer. I had taken the money of a poor man, and had given him in +exchange—what? You remember, ladies, those words of Shakespeare— +good words, although he puts them into the mouth of a villain—that: +</p> +<pre> "' . . . He who filches from me my good name + Robs me of that which not enriches him + And makes me poor indeed.' +</pre> +<p> +"No one had filched my honour—I had sold it to a good man, but yet +without enriching him, while in the loss of it I knew myself poor +indeed. At the second milestone I turned back, more eager now to +find the Major and get rid of the money than ever I had been to +obtain it. +</p> +<p> +"My face was no sooner turned again towards the cottage than I broke +into a run, and so good pace I made between running and walking that +it cannot have been more than an hour from my leaving the garden +before I arrived back at the head of the lane. The evening was +dusking in, but by no means dark as yet, even though a dark cloud had +crept up from the west and overhung the plantation to the right. +I looked down the lane as I entered it, and again—yes, ladies, as +surely as before—I saw a man cross it from the garden gate and step +into the plantation! +</p> +<p> +"Who the man was I could not tell, the light being so uncertain. +Although he crossed the lane just where Coffin had crossed it and +disappeared in just the same manner, I had an impression that he was +not Coffin, and that his gait, for one thing, differed from Coffin's. +But I tell you this for what it is worth: I was startled, you may be +sure, and hurried down the lane after him even quicker than I had +hurried after the first man; but when I came to the stile, he, like +the first man, had vanished, and within the plantation it was +impossible by this time to see more than twenty yards deep. +</p> +<p> +"Again I turned and crossed the lane to the garden gate. A sort of +twilight lay over the turf between me and the summer-house, and +beneath the apple-trees skirting my path to it on the left you might +say that it was night; but the water at the foot of the garden threw +up a sort of glimmer, and there was a glimmer, too, on the vane above +the flagstaff. I noted this and that, though my eyes were searching +for Major Brooks in the dark shadow under the pent of the +summer-house. +</p> +<p> +"Towards this I stepped; but in the dark I must have walked a few +feet wide of the straight line, for I remember brushing against a +low-growing branch of one of the apple-trees, and this must have +caught in my eyeglass-ribbon and torn it, for when I came to fumble +for them a few seconds later to help my sight, the glasses were gone. +</p> +<p> +"By this time I had reached the summer-house and come to a halt, +three paces, maybe, from the doorstep. 'Major Brooks!' I called +softly, and then again, but a thought louder, 'Major Brooks!' +</p> +<p> +"There was no answer, ladies, and I turned myself half about, +uncertain whether to go back up the lane and knock at the front door +or to seek my way to the house through the garden. Just then my boot +touched something soft, and I bent and saw the Major's body stretched +across the step close beside my ankles. I stooped lower and put down +a hand. It touched his shoulder, and then the ground beneath his +shoulder, and the ground was moist. I drew my hand back with a +shiver, and just at that moment, as I stared at my fingers, the heavy +cloud beyond the plantation lifted itself clear of the trees and let +the last of the daylight through—enough to show me a dark stain +running from my finger-tips and trickling towards the palm. +</p> +<p> +"And then, ladies—at first I thought of no danger to myself, but ran +for the gate, still groping as I went, for my eyeglasses; stumbled +across the lane somehow, and over the stile in vain chase of the man +I had glimpsed two minutes before. I say a vain chase, for I had not +plunged twenty yards into the plantation before—short-sighted mole +that I am—I had lost the track. I pulled up, on the point of +shouting for help, and with that there flashed on me the thought of +the Major's guineas in my pocket. If I called for help I called down +suspicion on myself, and suspicion enough to damn me. How could I +explain my presence in the garden? How could I account for the +money—straight from the Major's cashbox?" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome paused and gazed around upon us as if caught once +more in that terrible moment of choice. Miss Belcher met his gaze +and nodded. +</p> +<p> +"So the upshot was that you ran for it? Well, I can't say that I +blame you. But, as it happens, if you had stood still the cashbox +might have helped to clear you; for it was found next morning, half a +mile away in the brook, below my lodge-gate." +</p> +<p> +"And there's one thing," said Plinny, "we may thank God for, if it is +possible to be thankful for anything in this dreadful business. +The murderer, whoever he was, got little profit from his crime, for I +know pretty well the state of your poor father's finances, Harry; and +if, as Captain Branscome tells us, he had taken ten guineas from the +box, there must have been very few left in it." +</p> +<p> +"My good soul," said Miss Belcher, "the man wasn't after money! +He wanted the map this Captain Coffin had left in the Major's +keeping. That's as plain as the nose on your good, dear face. +If the map happened to be in the cashbox, and I'll bet ten to one it +wasn't—" +</p> +<p> +"You may bet ten thousand to one!" I cried. "It was never in the +cashbox at all. It was wrapped up in the flag my father carried into +the house." +</p> +<p> +"Bless the boy," said Miss Belcher; "he's not half a fool, after all! +Yes, yes—where is the flag?" +</p> +<p> +"On the flagstaff," said I. "I hoisted it there this morning." +</p> +<p> +"Eh?" +</p> +<p> +"And here," I panted, jumping up in my excitement, "here is Captain +Coffin's map!" +</p> +<p> +I heard Miss Belcher breathing hard as I lugged out the oilskin +packet, tore open the knotted string which bound it, and, drawing +forth the parchment, spread it, with shaking fingers, on the table. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVII. +</h2> +<center> +THE CHART OF MORTALLONE. +</center> +<p> +While the others drew their chairs closer, and while I spread flat +the parchment—which was crinkled (by the action of salt water, +maybe)—I had time to assure myself that this was the selfsame chart +of which Captain Coffin had once vouchsafed me a glimpse. +I remembered the shape of the island, the point marked "Cape +Alderman," the strange, whiskered heraldical monster depicted in the +act of rising from the waves off the north-western coast, the equally +impossible ship, decorated with a sprit-top-mast and a flag upon it, +and charging up under full sail for the southern entry, the name of +which ("Gow's Gulf") I must have missed to read in the short perusal +Captain Coffin had allowed me. At any rate, I could not recall it. +But I recalled the three crosses which showed (so he had told me) +where the treasure lay. They were marked in red ink, and I explained +their meaning to Miss Belcher, who had pounced upon them at once. +</p> +<p> +"Fiddlestick-end!" said that lady, falling back on her favourite +ejaculation. "Great clumsy crosses of that size! How in the world +could any one find a treasure by such marks, unless it happened to be +two miles long?" +</p> +<p> +She pointed to the scale at the head of the chart, which, to be sure, +gave six miles to the inch. By the same measurement the crosses +covered, each way, from half a mile to three-quarters. Moreover, +each had patently been dashed in with two hurried strokes of the pen +and without any pretence of accuracy. The first cross covered a +"key" or sand-bank off the northern shore of the island; the second +sprawled athwart what appeared to be the second height in a range of +hills running southward from Cape Alderman, and down along the entire +eastern coast at a mean distance of a mile, or a little over, from +the sea; while the third was planted full across a grove of trees at +the head of the great inlet—Gow's Gulf—to the south, and, moreover, +spanned the chief river of the island, which, running almost due +south from the back of the hills or mountains (their size was not +indicated) below Cape Alderman, discharged itself into the apex of +the gulf. +</p> +<p> +"Without bearings of some sort," said Miss Belcher, "these marks are +merely ridiculous." +</p> +<p> +"You may well say so, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, but +inattentively. "Mortallone—Mortallone," he went on, muttering the +word over as if to himself. "It is curious, all the same." +</p> +<p> +"What is curious?" demanded Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"Why, ma'am, I have never myself visited the Gulf of Honduras, but +among seamen there are always a hundred stories floating about. +In a manner of speaking, there is no such shop for gossip as the sea. +In every port you meet 'em, in taverns where sailors drink and brag— +the liquor being in them—and one man talks and the rest listen, not +troubling themselves to believe. It is good to find one's self +ashore, you understand? And a good, strong-flavoured yarn makes +the landlord and all the shore-keeping folk open their eyes—" +</p> +<p> +"Bless the man!" Miss Belcher rapped her knuckles on the table. +"This is not a 'longshore tavern." +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Then why not come to the point?" +</p> +<p> +"The point, ma'am—well, the point is that every one—that is to say, +every seaman—has heard tell of treasure knocking about, as you might +put it, somewhere in the Gulf of Honduras." +</p> +<p> +"What sort of treasure?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, as to that, ma'am, it varies with the story. Sometimes 'tis +bar silver from the isthmus, and sometimes 'tis gold plate and +bullion that belonged to the old Kings of Mexico; but by the tale +I've heard offtenest, 'tis church treasure that was run away with by +a shipful of logwoodmen in Campeachy Bay. But there again you no +sooner fix it as church treasure, and ask where it came from, than +you have to choose between half a dozen different accounts. Some say +from the Spanish islands—Havana for choice; others from the Main, +and I've heard places mentioned as far apart us Vera Cruz and +Caracas. The dates, too—if you can call them dates at all—vary +just as surprisingly." +</p> +<p> +"The date on this chart is 1776," said Miss Belcher, who had been +peering at it while the Captain spoke. +</p> +<p> +"Then, supposing there's something in poor Coffin's secret, that +gives you the year to start from. We'll suppose this is the very +chart used by the man who hid the treasure. Then it follows the +treasure wasn't hidden before 1776, and that rules out all the yarns +about Hornigold, Teach, Bat Roberts, and suchlike pirates, the last +of whom must have been hanged a good fifty years before: though +here's evidence"—Captain Branscome laid a forefinger on the chart— +"that these gentry had dealings with the island in their day. +'Gow's Gulf,' 'Cape Fea'—Gow was a pirate and a hard nut at that; +and Fea, if I remember, his lieutenant or something of the sort; but +they had gone their ways before ever this was printed, and +consequently before ever these crosses came to be written on it. +You follow me, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher gave a contemptuous sniff which, I doubt not, would have +prefaced the remark that an unweaned child would arrive unaided at +the same conclusions; but here I interposed. +</p> +<p> +"Captain Coffin," said I, "told me that a part of the treasure was +church plate, and that he had seen it. He showed me a coin, too, and +said it came from the island." +</p> +<p> +"Hey, lad? What sort of coin?" +</p> +<p> +But to this I could give no answer, except that it was a piece of +gold, and in size perhaps a trifle smaller than a guinea. +</p> +<p> +"That's a pity, lad. The coin might have helped us. You're sure now +that you can't remember? It hadn't a couple of pillars engraved on +it, for instance?" +</p> +<p> +I shook my head. I had taken no particular heed of the stamp on the +coin. +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome sighed his disappointment. +</p> +<p> +"The church plate don't help us at all," he said, "or very little. +Why, I've heard this Honduras treasure dated so far back as Morgan's +time, when he sacked Panama. The tale went that the priests at +Panama or Chagres, or one of those places, on fright of Morgan's +coming, clapped all their treasure aboard ship under a guard of +militia—soldiers of some sort, anyway—and that the seamen cut the +soldiers' throats, slipped cable, and away-to-go. But Morgan! +He must have died before Queen Anne was born—well, not so far back +as that maybe, but then or thenabouts. I tell you, ma'am, this story +hangs around every port and every room where seamen gather and drink +and take their ways again. 'Tis for all the world like the smell of +tobacco-smoke, that tells you some one has come and gone, but leaves +you nothing to get hold of. Hallo!—" +</p> +<p> +As the exclamation escaped him, Captain Branscome, who had casually +picked up a corner of the parchment between finger and thumb, with a +nervous jerk drew the whole chart from under my outspread palms and +turned it over face-downwards. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? But see here!" +</p> +<p> +He fumbled with his glasses, while Miss Belcher and I, snatching at +the chart, almost knocked our heads together as we bent over a corner +of it—the left-hand upper corner—and a dozen lines of writing +scrawled there in faded ink. They ran thus— +</p> +<pre> 1. Landed by cuttar when wee saw a sail. Lesser Kay N. of + Gable. Get open water between two kays S.W. and W. by S., + and N. inner point of Gable (where is green patch, good + watering) in line with white rock (birds), neer as posble. + S. a point E. 3 feet bare, being hurried. + + 2. Bayse of cliff second hill S.S.W. from Cape Alderman. + Here is bank over 2 waterfals. Neer lower fall, 12 paces + back from egge, getting island open N.E. beyond rock W. of + inlet, and first tree Misery Swamp over Crabtree, W.S.W Bush + above rock to rt of fall. Shaddow 1/4 to 4, June 21st, when + we left digging. + + 3. R. bank river, 1 and 1/2 mile up from Gow crikke. Centre + tree in clump 5 branch bearing N. and by E. 1/2 point, two + forks. R. fork 4ft. red cave under hill 457yds. foot of tree + N.N.W. N.B.—The stones here, under rock 4 spans L side. +</pre> +<p> +That was all, except two short entries. The first scribbled aslant +under No. 1, and in Captain Coffin's own handwriting—so Captain +Branscome, who knew it, assured us. +</p> +<pre> N.B.—Took out 5 cases Ap. 5, 1806, besides the boddies. + Avging 3/4 cwt. 1 case jewels. We left the clothes, wh. + were many. +</pre> +<p> +The second entry appeared to have been penned by the same hand as the +original, but more neatly and some while later. The ink, at any +rate, was blacker and fresher. It ran: +</p> +<pre> S.W. ann. aetat. 37. R.I.P. +</pre> +<p> +The handwriting, though rugged—and the indifferent ink may have been +to blame for this—was well formed, and, but for the spelling, might +have belonged to an educated man. +</p> +<p> +The reader, if he choose, may follow our example and discuss the +above directions for half an hour—I will warrant with as little +result. Miss Belcher ended by harking back to the summer-house and +to the latest crime—if we might guess, the latest of many—for which +this document had been responsible. +</p> +<p> +"What puzzles me is this: Since the Major had pockets in his coat, +why should he have hidden the parcel as he did? So small a parcel, +too!" +</p> +<p> +"Captain Coffin," I suggested, "may have known that he was being +followed." +</p> +<p> +"Well?" +</p> +<p> +"And in handing it over he may have warned my father that there was +danger." +</p> +<p> +"I believe the boy is right," said Captain Branscome. "Now I recall +the Major's face at the moment when I rattled the latch, I feel sure +he was on his guard. Yes—yes, he had been warned against carrying +this on his person—he was wrapping it away for the time—" +</p> +<p> +"Why, what ails the man?" demanded Miss Belcher, as Captain Branscome +stopped short with a groan. +</p> +<p> +"I was thinking, ma'am, that but for my visit he might never have +relaxed his guard—that it was I who helped the murderer to take him +at unawares. Nay—worse, ma'am, worse—his last thought may have +been that I was the traitor—that the blow he took was from the hand +he had filled with gold—that I had returned to kill him in his +blindness!" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome bowed his head upon his hands. I saw Plinny—who +all this while had sat silent, content to listen—rise, her face +twitching, and put out a hand to touch the captain's shoulder. +I saw her hand hesitate as her sense of decorum overtook her pity and +seemed to reason with it. And with that I heard the noise of wheels +on the road. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!"—Miss Belcher pricked up her ears. "Here's that nuisance +Jack Rogers turning up again!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. +</h2> +<center> +THE CONTENTS OF THE CORNER CUPBOARD. +</center> +<p> +Mr. Jack Rogers, as he pulled up by the porch and directed +me to stand by the young mare's head, wore a look of extreme +self-satisfaction. Beside him, also beaming, sat Mr. Goodfellow, +with the corner cupboard nursed between his knees. +</p> +<p> +"Capital news, lad!" announced Mr. Rogers, climbing down from the +tilbury. "The filly's pretty near dead-beat, though—must see to her +and cool her down before telling it. Now, then, Mr. Goodfellow, if +you'll hand out the cupboard. By the way, sonny, I hope Miss +Plinlimmon can give us breakfast. I'm as hungry as a hunter, for my +part, and deserve it, too, after a good night's work. With my +fol-de-rol, diddledy—" He started to hum, but checked himself +shamefacedly. "There I go again, and I beg your pardon! 'Tis the +most difficult thing in the world to me to behave myself in a house +of mourning." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow by this time had clambered down, and was embracing the +corner cupboard as though he had parted from it for an age, instead +of for fifty seconds at the farthest. +</p> +<p> +"Carry it indoors, but don't open it till I'm ready," commanded Mr. +Rogers, stooping under the filly to loosen her belly-band. +"I'm a magistrate, remember, and these things must be done in order. +You come along with me, Harry; that is, if you have the key in your +pocket." +</p> +<p> +"I have, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Right! Then come along with me, and you'll be out of harm's way." +</p> +<p> +So, while Mr. Goodfellow carried the cupboard into the house, Mr. +Rogers and I attended to the filly. +</p> +<p> +This took, maybe, twenty minutes; but Mr. Rogers was a sportsman, +and thought of his horse before himself. Not till all was done, +and well done, did he announce again that he was devilish peckish; +nor did I take the measure of his meaning until, returning to the +breakfast-room where Mr. Goodfellow sat before a plate of bread and +cream, he helped himself to a mass of veal pie fit for a giant, and +before attacking it drained a tankard of cider at a single pull, +while he nodded over the rim to Captain Branscome, to whom Plinny +introduced him. +</p> +<p> +"Jack," said Miss Belcher, with a jerk of her thumb towards the +Captain, "I'll lay you two to one in guineas, that our news is more +important than yours!" +</p> +<p> +"I take you," said Mr. Rogers. +</p> +<p> +"It will save time if we tell it while you're eating, and will save +you the trouble of talking with your mouth full." +</p> +<p> +Once or twice, while she abridged Captain Branscome's narrative, +Mr. Rogers set down knife and fork, and stared at her with round +eyes, his jaws slowly chewing. +</p> +<p> +"And I reckon," concluded Miss Belcher, "that you won't dispute your +owing me a guinea." +</p> +<p> +"Wait a bit!" Mr. Rogers pushed his empty plate away, selected a +clean one, and helped himself to six slices of ham. "To begin with, +I've found scent and laid on the hounds." +</p> +<p> +"Where?" +</p> +<p> +"At St. Mawes. Captain Coffin, the murdered man, landed there from +the ferry on the night of the 11th, at a few minutes before nine, and +walked straight to the Lugger Inn, above the quay. There he borrowed +fifteen shillings off the landlord, who knew him well; ordered two +glasses of hot gin-and-water, drank them, paid down sixpence, and +took the road that leads east through Gerrans village. His tale was +that he had a relative to visit at Plymouth Dock, and meant to push +on that night so far as Probus, and there sleep and wait for +Russell's waggon." +</p> +<p> +"But his road," I objected, "wouldn't lie through Gerrans village, +unless he went by the short cut through the field beyond St. Mawes, +and took the ferry at Percuil." +</p> +<p> +"Right, lad; and that is precisely what he did; for—to push ahead a +bit—we overran his track on the main road, and, learning of that +same short cut, drove back along the other side of the creek to +Percuil, and had a talk with the ferryman. The ferryman told us that +at ten o'clock, or thereabouts, he was going to bed having closed the +ferry, when a voice on the other shore began bawling 'Over!' +He slipped on his boots again, rowed across, and took over a man who +was certainly Captain Coffin." +</p> +<p> +"He was alone?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"He came across the ferry alone," said Mr. Rogers, "and I dare say he +had no idea of being followed. But back at St. Mawes, while he was +drinking gin-and-water in the taproom, another man came to the door +of the Lugger. This man sent for the landlord—Bogue by name—and +asked to be shown into a private room. He was dressed in +odds-and-ends of garments, including a soiled regimental coat and +dirty linen trousers." +</p> +<p> +"The French prisoner!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"That's the man. He told Bogue, fair and straight, he was an +ex-prisoner, and off the <i>Wellinboro'</i> transport, arrived that day +in harbour. He had money in his pocket—in Bogue's presence he +pulled out a fistful of gold—and he pitched a tale that he was bound +for his home, a little this side of Saltash, but couldn't face the +road in the clothes he wore. You'll admit that this was reasonable +when you've seen 'em, for I brought the suit along in the tail of the +tilbury. For a pound, Bogue fitted him up with an old suit of his +own—coat and waistcoat of blue sea-cloth, not much the worse for +wear, duck trousers, a tarpaulin hat, and a flannel shirt marked +J. B. (Bogue's Christian name is Jeremiah). The fellow had no shirt +when he presented himself—nothing between the bare buff and the +uniform coat that he wore buttoned across his chest. And here our +luck comes in. He was shy of stripping in Bogue's presence, and, on +pretence of feeling chilly, sent him out of the room for a glass of +hot grog. As it happened, Bogue met the waiting-maid in the passage, +coming out of the bar with a tray and half a dozen hot grogs that had +been ordered by customers in the tap-room. He picked up one, and, +sending the maid back to fetch another to fill up her order, returned +at once to the private room. My gentleman there was standing with +his back to the door, stripped to the waist, with the shirt in his +hand, ready to slip it on. He wasn't expecting Bogue so soon, and he +turned about with a jump, but not before Bogue had sight of his back +and a great picture tattooed across it—Adam and Eve, with the tree +between 'em, and the serpent coiled around it complete." +</p> +<p> +"The man Bogue must have quick sight," commented Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"So I told him, but his answer was that it didn't need more than a +glance, because this picture is a favourite with seamen. Bogue has +been a seaman himself." +</p> +<p> +"That is so," Captain Branscome corroborated. "The man must have +been a seaman, and at one time or another in the Navy. There's a +superstition about that particular picture: tattooed across the back +and loins it's supposed to protect them, in a moderate degree, +against flogging." +</p> +<p> +"Well," said Miss Belcher, "his belonging to the Navy seems likely +enough. It accounts, in one way, for his finding himself in a French +war-prison. Go on, Jack." +</p> +<p> +"The man (said Bogue) faced about with a start, catching his hands— +with the shirt in 'em—towards his chest, and half covering it, but +not so as to hide from Bogue that his chest, too, was marked. +Bogue hadn't time to make out the design, but his recollection is +there were several small ones—ships, foul-anchors, and the like— +besides a large one that seemed to be some sort of a map." +</p> +<p> +"You haven't done so badly, Jack," Miss Belcher allowed. "If the +man hasn't given us the slip at Plymouth you have struck a +first-class scent. Only I doubt 'tis a cold one. You sent word at +once?" +</p> +<p> +"By express rider, and with orders to leave a description of the man +at all the ferries. But there's more to come. The man, that had +seemed at first in a desperate hurry, was no sooner in Bogue's +clothes than he took a seat, made Bogue fetch another glass of grog +and drink it with him, and asked him a score of questions about the +best road eastward. It struck Bogue that, for a man whose home was +Saltash, he knew very little about his native county. All this while +he appeared to have forgotten his hurry, and Bogue was thinking to +make him an excuse to go off and attend to other customers, when of a +sudden he ups and shakes hands, says good night, and marches out of +the house. Bogue told me all this in the very room where it +happened. It opens out on the passage leading from the taproom to +the front door. I asked Bogue if he could remember at what time +Coffin left the house, and by what door; also, if the prisoner-fellow +heard him leave; but at first he couldn't tell me anything for +certain except that Coffin went out by the front door—he remembered +hearing him go tapping down the passage. The old man, it seems, had +a curious way of tapping with his stick." +</p> +<p> +Here Mr. Rogers looked at me, and I nodded. +</p> +<p> +"Where was the landlord when he heard this?" asked Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"That, my dear Lydia, was naturally the next question I put to him. +'Why, in this very room,' said he, 'now I come to think of it.' +'Well, then,' said I, 'how long did you stay in this room after the +prisoner (as we'll call him) had taken his leave?' 'Not a minute,' +said he; 'no, nor half a minute. Indeed, I believe we walked out +into the passage together, and then parted, he going out to the door, +and I up the passage to the taproom.' 'Was Coffin in the taproom +when you reached it?' I asked. 'No,' says Bogue; 'to be sure he +wasn't.' 'Why, then, you thickhead,' says I, 'he must have left +while you were talking with the prisoner; and since you heard him go, +the odds are the prisoner heard him, too.' That's the way to get at +evidence, Lydia." +</p> +<p> +"My dear Jack," said Miss Belcher, "you're an Argus!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I flatter myself it was pretty neat," resumed Mr. Rogers, +speaking with his mouth full; "but, as it happens, we don't need it. +For when, as I've told you, we drove around to the ferry at Percuil, +and the ferryman described Coffin and how he'd put him across, the +first question I asked was 'Did you put any one else across that +night?' He said, 'Yes; and not twenty minutes later.' 'Man or +woman?' I asked. 'Man,' said he, 'and a d—d drunk one'—saving your +presence, ladies. I pricked up my ears. 'Drunk?' I asked. How +drunk?' 'Drunk enough to near-upon drown himself,' said the +ferryman. 'It was this way, sir: I'd scarcely finished mooring the +boat again, and was turning to go indoors, when I heard a splash, +t'other side of the creek, where; the path comes down under the loom +of the trees, and, next moment, a voice as if some person was +drowning and guggling for help. So I fit and unmoored again, and +pushed across for dear life, just in time to see a man scrambling +ashore. He was as drunk as a fly, sir, even after his wetting. +Said he was a retired seaman living at Penzance, had come round to +Falmouth on a lime-barge bound for the Truro river, and must get +along to St. Austell in time to attend his sister's wedding there +next morning. Told me his sister's name, but I forget it. Said he'd +fallen in with some brave fellows at Falmouth just returned from the +French war-prisons, and had taken a glass or two. Gave me half a +crown when I brought him over and landed him,' said the ferryman, +'and too far gone in liquor to understand the mistake if I'd +explained it to him, which I didn't.' He was dressed in what +appeared to be a dark cloth jacket, duck trousers of sea-going cut, +and a tarpaulin hat. 'There was just moon enough,' said the +ferry-man, 'to let a man take notice of his trousers, they being +white; and maybe I took particular notice of his legs, because they +were dripping wet. As for his face, by the glimpse I had of it he +was a middle-aged man that had seen trouble.' I asked if he would +know the man again. He said, 'Yes,' he was pretty sure he would. +So there, Lydia, you have the villain dogging Coffin, tracking him to +Percuil, and shamming drunk to get carried over the ferry in pursuit. +On Bogue's testimony he was as sober as a judge at St. Mawes, and +drank but one glass of grog there, and from St. Mawes to Percuil is +but a step, mainly by footpath over the fields, with no public-house +on the way." +</p> +<p> +"H'm," said Miss Belcher; "and yet he couldn't have been following +the man to murder him, or he must have taken more care to cover up +his traces. All his concern seems to have been to follow Coffin +without being seen by him. Is that all?" +</p> +<p> +"My dear Lydia, consider the amount of time I've had! Almost before +I'd finished with Bogue, and certainly before the filly was well +rested, Mr. Goodfellow here had crossed to Falmouth and was back +again, bringing the cupboard—" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Jack; you have done very well—surprisingly well. But I'll not +hand over my guinea until we've examined the cupboard. Here, Mr. +Goodfellow"—she cleared a space amid the breakfast things—"be so +good as to lift it on to the table. Harry, where's the key?" +</p> +<p> +I produced it. +</p> +<p> +"A nice bit of work—and Dutch, by the look of it," she commented, +pausing to admire the inlaid pattern as she inserted the key. +She turned it, and the door fell back, askew on its broken hinges. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow had carried the cupboard with infinite care, but the +contents, I need not say, had mixed themselves up in wild disorder, +though nothing was broken—not even the pot of guava-jelly. +They included a superannuated watch in a loose silver case, a medal +(in bronze) struck to commemorate Lord Howe's famous victory of the +First of June, two pieces-of-eight and a spade guinea (much clipped); +a small china mug painted with libellous portraits of King George +III. and his consort; a printed pamphlet on Admiral Byng; two strings +of shells; a mourning-ring with a lock of hair set between two pearls +under glass; another ring with a tiny picture of a fountain and urn, +and a weeping willow; a paper containing a baby's caul and a sampler +worked with the A.B.C. and the Lord's Prayer and signed "A.C., +1785;" a gourd, a few glass beads, and a Chinese opium-pipe; and +lastly, a thick paper roll bound in yellow-stained parchment. +The roll was tied about with string, and the string was sealed, in +coarse wax without imprint. +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher dived a hand into a fold of her skirt, and drew forth a +most unladylike clasp-knife. +</p> +<p> +"Now for it!" said Miss Belcher. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIX. +</h2> +<center> +CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG. +</center> +<p> +As she severed the string the roll fell open and disclosed itself as +a book of small quarto shape, bound in limp parchment, with strings +to tie the covers together. Its pages, measuring 9 and 3/4 by 8 in., +were 64, and numbered throughout; but a bare third of them were +written on, and these in an unformed hand which yet was eloquent of +much. A paragraph would start with every letter drawn as carefully +as in a child's copy-book; would gradually straggle and let its words +fall about, as though fainting by the way; and so would tail into +incoherence, to be picked up—next day, no doubt—by a new effort, +which, after marching for half a dozen lines, in its turn collapsed. +There were lacunae, too, when the shaking hand had achieved but a few +weak zigzags before it desisted. The two last pages were scribbled +over with sums—or, to speak more correctly, with combinations of +figures resembling sums. Here is a single example— +</p> +<pre> Ode to W. Bate + + To bacca 9 and 1/2d + Haircutt 1s + Bliddin[1] ...... 18d. + To more bacca Oct. 10th do. + Ditto and shave ditto ditto + ————————- + Mem. do. to him 2s. 6d. +</pre> +<p> +The fly-leaf started bravely with "D. Coffin, His Book." After this +the captain had fallen to practising his signature by way of start. +"D. Coffin," "Danl. Coffin," "Danyel Coffin," over and over, and +once "D. Coffin, Esq.," followed by "Steal not this Book for fear of +shame." +</p> +<pre> Danl. Coffin is my name + England is my nation + Falmth ditto ditto dwelling-place + And hopes to see Salvation. +</pre> +<p> +After these exercises came a blank page, and then, halfway down the +next, abruptly, without title, began the manuscript which I will call +Captain Coffin's statement. +</p> +<p> +"Pass it to Lydia," said Mr. Rogers. "She reads like a parson." +</p> +<p> +"Better than most, I hope," said Miss Belcher, taking the book; and +this—I omit the faults of spelling—is what she read aloud— +</p> +<p> +Mem. Began this August 15th, 1812. +Mem. Am going to tell about the treasure, and what happened. But it +will be no use without the map. If any one tries to bring up +trouble, this is the truth and nothing else. Amen. So be it. +Signed, D. Coffin. +</p> +<p> +My father followed the sea, and bred me to it. He came from +Devonshire, near Exmouth. N.B.—He used to say the Coffins were a +great family in Devonshire, and as old as any; but it never did him +no good. He was an only son, and so was I, but I had an older +sister, now dead. She grew up and married a poultryman in Quay +Street, Bristol. I remember the wedding. Died in childbed a year +later, me being at that time on my first voyage. +</p> +<p> +We lived at Bristol, at the foot of Christmas Stairs, left-hand side +going up, two doors from the bottom. My mother from Stonehouse, +Gloster, where they make cloth, specially red cloth for soldiers' +coats. Her maiden name Daniels. She was a religious woman, and +taught me the Bible. My father was lost at sea, being knocked +overboard by the boom in half a gale, two miles S.W. of Lundy. +I was sixteen at the time, and apprentice as cabin-boy on board the +same ship, the <i>Caroline</i>, bound from Hayle to Cardiff with copper +ore. I went home and broke the news to my mother, and she told me +then what I didn't know before, that she was very poorly provided +for. I will say this, that I made her a good son; and likewise, that +I never had no luck till I struck the Treasure. +</p> +<p> +I was born in the year 1750. My father's death happened 1766. +From that time till my twenty-seventh year, I supported my mother. +She died of a seizure in 1777, and is buried by St. Mary's Redclyf— +we having moved across the water to that parish. Married next year, +Elizabeth Porter, in service with Soames Rennalls, Esquire, Alderman +of the City. She had been brought up an orphan by the Colston +Charity; a good pious woman, and bore me one child, a daughter, +christened Ann—a dear little one. She lived and throve up to the +year 1787, me all the time coming and going on voyages, mostly +coasting, too numerous to mention. Then the small-pox carried her +off with my affectionate wife, the both in one week. At which I +cursed all things, and for several years ran riot, not caring what I +said or did. +</p> +<p> +Was employed, from 1790 on, in the slave trade, by W. S., merchant of +Bristol. Must have made as many as a dozen passages before leaving +him and shipping on the <i>Mary Pynsent</i>, Pink, Bristol-owned by a new +company of adventurers. She was an old boat, and known to me, but +not the whole story of her. I signed as mate. We were bound for the +W. Coast, about 50 leagues E. of Cape Corse Castle, with gunpowder +and old firearms for the natives, that were most always at war with +one another. Ran coastwise and touched at three or four places on +the way, and at each of them peddled powder and muskets, the muskets +being most profitable, by reason the blacks have no notion of +repairing a gun. So we, carrying a gunsmith on board, bought up at +one place the guns that wanted repairs, and sold them at the next for +new pieces. In this way we came to our destination, which was the +mouth of a river full of slime and mosquitoes, and called the Popo +River. There a whole tribe of niggers put out to receive us. +</p> +<p> +They knew the <i>Mary Pynsent</i>, and worse luck. Her last trip, when +owned by Mr. W. S., aforesaid, she had sold them 1500 kegs of sifted +sea-coal dust, passing it off for gunpowder, and had made off with +7000 pounds worth of gold dust, besides ivory, <i>white and black</i>, +before they discovered the trick. We being without knowledge of what +had happened, and having real gunpowder to sell, let the niggers +swarm on board, and welcome. Whereupon, in revenge for past usage, +they attacked us on the spot and clubbed all the crew but me, that +was getting out the boat under the seaward quarter and baling her, +but dived as soon as the murder began, and swam to the shore. +The shore was mudbanks and reeds and mangroves, and all sweating with +heat and mosquitoes. I spent that day in hiding. Towards sunset the +savages rafted a good third of the cargo ashore, and, having stacked +the kegs and built a fire about them, started to dance, making a +silly mock of the powder, till it blew up. Which it did, and must +have killed hundreds. +</p> +<p> +I heard the noise of it at about two miles' distance, having crept +out of my hiding when I saw them busy, and started to tramp it along +shore to Cape Corse Castle. I had no food, and must have died but +that next morning I fell in with a tribe that seemed pleased to see +me; which was lucky, me having no strength left to run. They took me +to their kraal, a mile inland, and to a hut where was a man lying in +a fever. He was a man covered with dirt and vermin, but at first +sight of his face I knew him to be a white man and English. +Ever since my first voyage to these parts I carried a small box in my +pocket, filled with bark of Peru, which is the best cure for coast +fever. I took out some of this bark and managed to make myself +understood that I wanted a fire lit and some water fetched; boiled up +the bark and made him drink it. After that I nursed him for three +days before he died. +</p> +<p> +The second day he sits up and says in English: "Who are you?" +So I told him. Then he says: "Why are you doing this for me? +You wouldn't do it if you knew who I am." "I'd do it," I said, "if +you were the devil." "I am next door to him," he says. "I am +Melhuish, of the Poison Island Treasure." "I never heard of it," +said I. "There's others call it the Priests' Treasure," says he; +"and if you have never heard of it, you cannot have sailed anywhere +near the Bay of Honduras." "Never in my life," I said. "My business +has lain along the coast for years. But what of it?" "What of it?" +he says, sitting up, his eyes all shining with the fever, "why, +nothing, except that I am one of the richest men in the world." +I set this down to raving. "You don't believe me?" he asks after +some time. "Why," I answers him, "this is a funny sort of place for +a nabob, and that you must allow; not to mention," I adds, "that from +here to Honduras is a long step." "You fool!" said he, "that is the +very reason of it. I don't believe in a hell on the t'other shore of +this life, whatever your views may be. You go to sleep and have done +with it—that's my belief. But I believe in hell upon earth, because +I have lived in it. And I believe in a devil upon earth, because I +lived months in his company; but he can't be as clever as the priests +make out, because I came here to hide from him, and hidden I have." +</p> +<p> +With that he fell into cursing and raving, but after a time he grew +quiet again, and said he: "Daniel Coffin, if that is your name, +there's hundreds of thousands of men walking this world would envy +you at this moment. And why? Because I can make you richer than any +Lord Mayor in his coach; and, what's more, I will." +</p> +<p> +He said no more that evening, but next day woke up in his wits, and +asked me to slip a hand under his pillow and take out what I found +there. Which I took out a piece of parchment. He said: "Coffin, I +am going to be as good as my word. That there which you hold in your +hand is a map of the Island of Mortallone, where the treasure lies. +I will tell you how I come by it. +</p> +<p> +"My home," he said, "was St. Mary's, in Newfoundland, which is but a +small harbour and a few wood houses gathered about a factory. +The factory belonged to a firm at Carbonear, and employed, one way +and another, all the people in the place, in number less than two +hundred. The women worked at the fish-curing, along with the +children and some old men, but the able-bodied men belonged mostly to +the Labrador fleet, or manned a two-three small vessels that made +regular voyages to the Island of St. Jago to fetch home salt for the +pickling. My mother, besides working at the factory, kept a +boarding-house for seamen. In this she was helped by my only sister, +a middle-aged woman and single. My mother was a widow. She kept her +house very respectable, but the business was slight, the town being +empty of men most of the year. +</p> +<p> +"In the autumn of 'ninety-eight, arriving home with salt as usual +from St. Jago, I found a stranger lodging in the house. He had come +over from Carbonear with a party of clerks, and had taken a fancy to +the place—or so he said; besides which, it had been recommended to +him for his health, which was delicate. He was a common-spoken man, +aged between fifty and sixty, and looked like a skipper that had +hauled ashore; but he never talked about the sea in my hearing, and +he never mixed with the few seamen who came to the house. He rented +a separate room and kept to it. His habits were simple enough, and +his manner very quiet and friendly, though he spoke as little as he +could help, unless to my sister. My mother liked him because he paid +his way and seemed content with whatever food was put before him. +The only thing he complained about was the cold. +</p> +<p> +"I had been at home for three weeks and a little more when one +evening, as I was passing downstairs from my bedroom in the attic, +this Mr. Shand—that was the name he gave us—called me into his room +and showed me a small bird he had picked up dead on the beach. +He did not know its name, and I was too ignorant to tell him. +He stood there looking at it under the lamp when my sister came +upstairs with a note and word that the messenger was waiting outside +for an answer. Mr. Shand took the note and read it under the lamp. +Then he turned to the fire, and stood with his back to us for a +moment. I saw him drop the note into the fire. He faced round to us +again and said he to my sister: 'Mary, my dear, here is something I +want you to keep for me. Do not look at it to-night; and when you +do, show it to no one but your brother here.' With that he gave her +the very packet you have in your hand, shook hands with us both, and +went downstairs. We never saw him again. The weather was thick, +with some snow falling, and the snow increased towards midnight. +We waited up till we were tired, but he did not return that night or +the next day. Three days later his body was found in a drift of +snow, halfway down a cliff to the west of the town. The right leg +and arm were broken and two ribs on the same side." +</p> +<p> +I asked: "Who was the man that brought the message?" Melhuish said: +"My sister could not tell, except that he was a stranger. +She supposed he belonged to one of two ships that had arrived in +harbour the day before. She saw nothing of his face to remember; his +jacket-collar being turned up against the snow, and the flaps of his +fur cap pulled down over his ears." +</p> +<p> +I asked: "Did the man's chest tell nothing when you came to examine +it?" Melhuish said: "Nothing at all. It was full of new clothes, +and very good clothes; but they had no mark upon them, and, besides +the clothes, there was not so much as a scrap of paper." +</p> +<p> +He went on: "About two weeks later there called a clerk from the +factory to claim the chest, the firm having acted as Mr. Shand's +agents. He was a foreign-looking man, and older than most of the +clerks employed by Davis and Atchison—which was the firm's name. +He gave his own name as Martin. He had been sent over from Carbonear +about ten days before to teach the factory a new way of treating +seal-pelts by means of chemicals. We learnt afterwards that he +earned good wages. He had brought two hands from the factory to +carry the chest, which we gave up to him as soon as he presented a +letter from Mr. Hughes, the firm's chief agent. He said: 'Is this +all you have?' And we said, 'Yes.' We Kept quiet about the map, +which we had examined, but could not make head nor tail of it. +He went away with the chest, and we heard no more of the matter. +The winter closing in, I took service in the factory. I used to run +against this Martin almost every day, but being my superior he never +got beyond nodding to me. +</p> +<p> +"So it went on, that winter. The next spring I sailed with the +salting fleet as usual. I was mate by this time, and had learned to +navigate. I came back, to find Martin seated in the parlour and +talking, and my mother told me he had asked my sister to marry him. +They had met at the factory and fixed it up between them. +He appeared to be very fond of my sister, who was usually reckoned a +plain-featured woman, and there couldn't be a doubt she was fond of +him. Later on, I heard that she had told him all about the chart, +but had not shown it to him, being afraid to do so without my leave. +</p> +<p> +"He opened the subject himself about a week later, during which I +had become very thick with him. He said that, in his belief, there +was money in it, and I was a fool not to take it up. I answered, +What could I do? He said there was ways and means that a lad of +spirit ought to be able to discover. With that he talked no more of +it that day, but it cropped up again, and by little and little he so +worked me up that I took to dreaming of the cursed thing. +</p> +<p> +"This went on for another fortnight, during which time he told me a +deal about himself, very frank—as that he was the son of an English +sea-captain and a Spanish woman, and was born in Havana; that he had +been educated by the Jesuits, who had meant to make a priest of him; +that, not being able to abide the Spaniards, he had chased over to +Port Royal and studied chemistry in the college there. It was there, +he said, he had discovered a preparation for curing the hides of +animals so that the hair never dropped off, but remained as firm and +fresh as life. He told me that for this secret Davis and Atchison +paid him better than any of their clerks. +</p> +<p> +"At the end of a fortnight he sailed for Carbonear. He returned as I +was making ready for the summer trip, and laid a scheme before me +that took my breath away. He had spoken to Mr. Atchison, the junior +partner, and engaged a schooner, the <i>Willing Mind</i>; likewise a crew. +I was to command her, being the only one of the lot that understood +navigation. For the crew he had picked up a mixed lot at Carbonear +and St. John's—good seamen, but mostly unknown to one another. +They were the less likely, he said, to smell out our purpose until we +reached the island, and for the rest I might trust to him. He had +laid our plans before Mr. Atchison, who approved. If I listened to +him without arguing, he would make my fortune and my sister's as +well. +</p> +<p> +"I had never met a man of his quality before. I was a young fool, +yet not altogether such a fool but I had persuaded my sister to hand +the map over to me, and wore it always about me. She told me that +she had shown it twice to Martin, but never for more than two minutes +at a time, and had never let it go out of her hands. I wonder now +that he didn't murder her for it; and the only reason must be that he +reckoned to use me for navigating the ship, and then to get rid of +me. +</p> +<p> +"A fool I was even to the extent of letting him talk me over when I +found he had engaged twelve hands for the cruise. There was no +reason on earth for this number except that these were the gang after +the treasure, and that he was playing with the lot of them, same as +with me. +</p> +<p> +"The upshot was that we said goodbye to my mother and sister, and +crossed over to Carbonear, where I made acquaintance with my crew. +The number of them raised no suspicion in the port, because it was +taken for granted the <i>Willing Mind</i>, an old salt ship, was bound for +St. Jago, where ten or a dozen hands are nothing unusual to work the +salt; and this was the argument he had used to make me carry so many. +Our pretence was we were all bound for St. Jago, and the crew seemed +to take this for understood. I didn't like their looks. Martin said +they were an ignorant lot, and chosen for that reason. All I had to +do was to run south, and he undertook to give them the slip at the +first point we touched. +</p> +<p> +"He had a wonderful command over them, considering that he was but +one plotter in a dozen; and for reasons of his own he kept them off +me and the map. On our way he proposed to me that I should teach him +a little navigation; helped me take the reckonings; and picked it up +as easy as a child learns its letters. But his keeping watch over me +and the map was what broke up the crew's patience. I was holding the +schooner straight down for the Gulf of Honduras, and, by my +reckoning, within a few hours of making a landfall, wondering all the +while that they took the courses I laid without grumbling—though by +this time our course was past all explaining—when the quarrel broke +out. +</p> +<p> +"I was standing by the wheel with a seaman, Dick Hayling by name, a +civil fellow, and more to my liking than the most of them, when we +heard a racket in the forecastle, and by-and-by Martin—he was too +fond, to my taste of going down into the forecastle and making free +with the men—comes up the hatchway, very serious, with half a dozen +behind him. +</p> +<p> +"'Melhuish,' says he, 'there's trouble below. The men will have it +that we are steering for treasure. I tell them that, if you are, +they are bound to know as soon as we sight it, and neither you nor +I—being two to twelve—can prevent their having the game in their +own hands. I have told them, over and above this,' he went on, +pitching his voice loud—but having his back towards them he winked +at me—'that by your reckoning we shall sight land in a few hours at +the farthest, and are willing to serve out a double tot of rum; that, +as soon as ever land is sighted, you will call all hands aft and tell +them our intention, as man to man; and that then, if they have a +mind, they can elect whatever new captain they choose.' +</p> +<p> +"The impudence of this took me fair between wind and water. I saw, +of course, that I was trapped, and naturally my first thought was to +suspect the man speaking to me. I looked at him, and he winked +again, not seeming one bit abashed. +</p> +<p> +"'You may tell them,' said I, with my eyes on his face, 'that as soon +as we sight land I shall have a statement to make to them.' +I wondered what it would be; but I said it to gain time. 'As for the +rum,' I went on, 'they can drink their fill. If we sight land, I +will steer the ship in.' +</p> +<p> +"'Better go and draw the liquor yourself,' said he, and, picking up a +ship's bucket, came aft to me. 'The second barrel in the afterhold,' +he whispered. 'And don't drink any yourself.' +</p> +<p> +"I nodded, as careless as I could. It seemed a rash thing to go down +to the afterhold, where any one might batten me down. But, there +being no help for it, I took the bucket and went. I filled it well +up to the brim from the second cask, returned to deck, and handed it +to the man who stood behind Martin. They took it, pretty +respectfully, and went below, Martin still standing amidships, where +he had stood from the first. +</p> +<p> +"'And now,' said I, turning back to him, 'perhaps you will explain.' +</p> +<p> +"'Keep your eye on the helmsman,' was his answer, 'and pistol him if +he gives trouble.' +</p> +<p> +"He walked forward and stood leaning over the forehatch, seeming to +listen." . . . +</p> +<pre> [1] Qy. "Bleeding." +</pre> +<a name="2HCH0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XX. +</h2> +<h3> + CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG—CONTINUED. +</h3> +<p> +Up to this Melhuish had been making good weather of his tale, though +forced to break off once or twice by reason of his weakness. +But here he came to a dead stop, which at first I set down to the +same. But by-and-by I looks up. He was making a curious noise in +his throat, and fencing with both hands to push something away from +him. +</p> +<p> +"I never done it!" he broke out. "Take them away! I never done it! +Oh, my God! never—never—never!" +</p> +<p> +With that he ran off into a string of prayers and cursings, all mixed +up together, the fever shaking him like a sail caught head-to-wind, +and at every shake he screeched louder. +</p> +<p> +"I won't, I won't!" he kept saying. "Hayling, take that devil off +and cover them up. The boat, Hayling! Fetch the boat and cover them +up!" Then, a little after: "Who says the anchor's fouled? How can I +tell for the noise? Tell them, less noise below. I never done it, +tell them! And take his grinning face out of the way, or you'll +never get it clear! 'Tisn't Christian burial—look at their fins! +D—n them, Hayling, look at their fins! Three feet of sand, or +they'll never stay covered. Who says as I poisoned them? +Hayling knows. Where is Hayling?" +</p> +<p> +I am writing down all I can remember; but there was more—a heap of +it—that I did not catch, being kept busy holding him down till the +strength went out of him and he lay quiet; which he did in time, the +shivers running down through him between my hands, and his voice +muttering on without a stop. +</p> +<p> +For an hour I sat, hoping he would fall asleep; for his voice +weakened little by little, and by-and-by he just lay and stared up at +the roof, with only his lips moving. After that I must have dropped +off in a doze; for I came to myself with a start, thinking that I +heard him speak to me. It was the rattle in his throat. He lay just +the same, with his eyes staring, but, putting out a hand to him, I +knew at once that the man was dead as a nail. +</p> +<p> +I had now to think of myself, for I knew that the niggers in the +kraal had not spared me out of kindness, but only that I might attend +to the white man, who was their friend. They were even ignorant +enough to believe that I had killed him. I worked out my plan: (1) I +must run for it; (2) the village was asleep, and the sooner I ran the +better; (3) they had met me heading for Cape Corse Castle, and would +hunt me in that direction—therefore I had best go straight back on +my steps; (4) they were less likely to chase me that way because it +led into the Popo country, and Melhuish had told me that these men +were Alampas, and afraid of the Popo tribes. True, if I headed back, +there was the river between me and Whydah, the nearest station to +eastward; but to get across it I must trust to luck. +</p> +<p> +I crept out of the hut. The night was black as my hat, almost, and +no guard set. At the edge of the kraal I made a dash for it, and +kept running for three miles. After that I ran sometimes, and +sometimes walked. The sun was up and the day growing hot when I came +to the shore by the river; and there in the offing lay the <i>Mary +Pynsent</i> at anchor, just as if nothing had happened, and the boat +made fast alongside as I had left her. If I could swim out and get +into the boat, my job was done. I had not thought upon sharks while +swimming ashore, but now I thought of them, and it gave me the +creeps. I dare say I sat on the shore for an hour, staring at the +boat before I made up my mind to risk it. There was a plenty of +sharks, too. When I reached the boat and climbed aboard of her, I +took a look around and saw their fins playing about in the shallows, +being drawn off there by the dead bodies the gunpowder had blown into +the water. +</p> +<p> +The boat had a mast and spritsail. I reckoned that I would wait +until sunset, then hoist sail and hold on past the river and along +shore towards Whydah. I counted on a breeze coming off shore towards +evening, which it did, and blew all night, so stiff that at two +miles' distance, which I kept by guess, I could smell the stink of +swamps. I ought to say here that, before starting, I had climbed +aboard the <i>Mary Pynsent</i> and provisioned the boat. The niggers had +left a few stores, but the mess on board made me sick. +</p> +<p> +The breeze held all night, and towards daybreak freshened so that I +reckoned myself safe against any canoe overtaking me if any should +put out from shore; for my boat, with the wind on her quarter, was +making from six to seven knots. She measured seventeen feet. +</p> +<p> +The breeze dried up as the day grew hotter, and in the end I downed +sail and rowed the last few miles. I know Whydah pretty well, having +had dealings there. It is a fine place, with orange-trees growing +wild and great green meadows, and rivers chock full of fish, and the +whole of it full of fever as an egg is of meat. The factory there +was kept by an old man, an Englishman, who pretended to be Dutch and +called himself Klootz, but was known to all as Bristol Pete. +The building stood on a rise at the back of the swamps. It had a +verandah in front, with a tier of guns which he loaded and fired off +on King George's birthday, and in the rear a hell of a barracks, +where he kept the slaves, ready for dealing. He was turned sixty and +grown careless in his talk, and he lived there with nine wives and +ten strapping daughters. Sons did not thrive with him, somehow. +In the matter of men he was short-handed, his habit being to entice +seamen off the ships trading there to take service with him on the +promise of marrying them up to his daughters. It looked like a good +speculation, for the old man had money. But every one of the women +was a widow, and the most of them widowed two deep. The climate +never agreed with the poor fellows, and just now he had over four +hundred slaves in barracks, and only one son-in-law, an Englishman, +to look after them. +</p> +<p> +The old man made me welcome. A father couldn't have shown himself +kinder, and when I told him about the <i>Mary Pynsent</i> he could scarce +contain himself. +</p> +<p> +"If there's one thing more than another I enjoy at my age," said he, +"'tis a salvage job." +</p> +<p> +And he actually left the agent—A. G.—in charge of the slaves for +three days, while he and I and three of the women took boat and went +after the vessel. We found her still at her moorings, and brought +her round to Whydah, he and me working her with the youngest of the +three (Sarah by name), while the two others cleaned ship. I cannot +say why exactly, but this woman appeared superior to her sisters, +besides being the best looking. The old man—he had an eye lifting +for everything—took notice of this almost before I knew it myself, +and put it to me that I couldn't do better than to marry her. +The woman, being asked, was willing. She had lost two husbands +already, she told me, but the third time was luck. Her father read +the service over us, out of a Testament he always carried in his +pocket. As for me, since my poor wife's death I had thoroughly given +myself over to the devil, and did not care. Old Klootz was +first-rate company, too; though living in that forsaken place he +seemed to be a dictionary about every ship that had sailed the seas +for forty years past, and to know every scandal about her. +He listened, too, though he seemed to be talking in his full-hearted +way all the time. And the end was that I told him about Melhuish, +and showed him the map. +</p> +<p> +He had heard about Melhuish, as about everything else; but the map +did truly—I think—surprise him. We studied it together, and he +wound up by saying— +</p> +<p> +"There's a clever fellow somewhere at the bottom of this, and I +should like to make his acquaintance." +</p> +<p> +Said I: "Then you believe there is such a treasure hidden?" +</p> +<p> +"Lord love you," said he, "I know all about that! It happened in the +year '86 at Puerto Bello. A Spaniard, Bartholomew Diaz, that had +been flogged for some trouble in the mines, stirred up a revolt among +the niggers and half-breeds, and came marching down upon the coast +at the head of fourteen thousand or fifteen thousand men, sacking the +convents and looting the mines on his way. He gave himself out to be +some sort of religious prophet, and this brought the blacks like +flies round a honey-pot. The news of it caught Puerto Bello at a +moment when there was not a single Royal ship in the harbour. +The Governor lost his head and the priests likewise. Getting word +that Diaz was marching straight on the place, and not five leagues +distant, they fell to emptying the banks in a panic, stripping the +churches, and fetching up treasure from the vaults of the religious +houses. There happened to be a schooner lying in the harbour—the +<i>Rosaway</i>, built at Marblehead—lately taken by the Spaniards off +Campeachy, with her crew, that were under lock and key ashore, +waiting trial for cutting logwood without licence. The priests +commandeered this Vessel and piled her up with gold, the Governor +sending down a guard of soldiers to protect it; but in the middle +of the night, on an alarm that Diaz had come within a mile of the +gates, the dunderhead drew off half of this guard to strengthen the +garrison. On their way back to the citadel these soldiers were met +and passed in the dark by the <i>Rosaway's</i> crew, that had managed to +break prison, and in the confusion had somehow picked up the +password. Sparke was the name of <i>Rosaway's</i> skipper, a Marblehead +man; the mate, Griffiths, came from somewhere in Wales; the rest, +five in number, being likewise mixed English and Americans. +They picked up a shore-boat down by the harbour, rowed off to the +ship, got on board by means of the password, and within twenty +minutes had knocked all the Spaniards on the head, themselves losing +only one man. Thereupon, of course, they slipped cable and stood out +to sea. Next morning the <i>Rosaway</i> hadn't been three hours out of +sight before two Spanish gun-ships came sailing in from Cartagena, +having been sent over in a hurry to protect the place; and one of +them started in chase. The <i>Rosaway</i>, being speedy, got away for the +time, and it was not till three weeks later that the Spaniards ran +down on her, snug and tight at anchor in a creek of this same island +of Mortallone. She was empty as a drum, and her crew ashore in a +pretty state of fever and mutiny. The Spaniards landed and took the +lot, all but the mate Griffiths, that was supposed to have been +knifed by Sparke, but two of the prisoners declared that he was alive +and hiding. They hanged four, saving only Sparke, keeping him to +show where the treasure was hidden. He led them halfway across the +island, lured them into a swamp, and made a bolt to escape, and the +tale is he was getting clear off when one of the Spanish seamen let +fly with his musket into the bushes and bowled him over like a +rabbit. It was a chance shot, and of course it put an end to all +hope of finding the treasure. They ransacked the island for a week +or more, but found never a dollar; and before giving it up some +inclined to believe what one of the prisoners had said, that the +treasure had never been buried in Mortallone at all, but in the +island of Roatan, some leagues to the eastward. But, if you ask my +opinion, the stranger that took lodgings with Melhuish was the mate +Griffiths, and no other. There has always been rumours that he got +away with the secret. Know about it?" said old Klootz. "Why, there +was even a song made up about it— +</p> +<pre> "'O, we threw the bodies over, and forth we did stand + Till the tenth day we sighted what seemed a pleasant land, + And alongst the Kays of Mortallone!'" +</pre> +<p> +From the first the old man had no doubt but we had struck the secret. +All the way home he was scheming, and the very night we reached +Whydah again he came out with a plan. +</p> +<p> +"Have you ever read your Bible?" said he. +</p> +<p> +"A little," I said, "between whiles; but latterly not much." +</p> +<p> +"The more shame to you," said he, "for it is a good book. But you +ought to have heard of Noah, if you ever read the Book at all, for he +comes almost at the beginning. Well, I've a notion almost as good as +Noah's and not so very different. We will take the <i>Mary Pynsent</i> +and put all the family on board, for we must take A. G. (naming the +Englishman, his other son-in-law), and I don't like to leave the +women alone, here in this wicked place. We will pack her up with +slaves and sail her across to Barbadoes. 'Tis an undertaking for a +man of my years, but a man is not old until he feels old; and I have +been wanting for a long time to see if trade in the Barbadoes is so +bad as the skippers pretend, cutting down my profits. At Barbadoes +we can hire a pinnace. Daniel Coffin, you and me will go into this +business in partnership," says he. +</p> +<p> +The old fellow, once set going, had the pluck of a boy. The very +next night he called in A. G., and took him into the secret, in his +bluff way overriding me, that was for keeping it close between us +two. That the map was mine did not trouble him. He agreed that I +should be guardian of it, but took charge of all the outfit, ordering +me about sometimes like a dog, though, properly speaking, the vessel +herself belonged to me—or, at any rate, more to me than to him. +As for A. G., he didn't count. We filled up and weighed anchor on +August 12, having on board 420 blacks—290 men and 130 women—all +chained, and all held under by us twenty-two whites, of the which +nineteen were women. The weather turned sulky almost from the start, +and after ten days of drifting, with here and there a fluke of wind, +we found ourselves off the Gaboon river. From this we crept our way +to the Island of St. Thomas, three days; watered there, and fetched +down to the south-east trades. The niggers were dying fast, and +between the south-east and north-east trades, six weeks from our +starting, we lost between one and two score every day. I will say +that all the women worked like horses. We reached Barbadoes short of +our complement by 134 negroes and one of Klootz's wives. This last +did not trouble him much. +</p> +<p> +He kept mighty cheerful all the way, although the speculation up to +now had turned out far from cheerful; and all the way he kept singing +scraps about the Kays of Mortallone in a way to turn even a healthy +man sick. I had patched up a kind of friendship with A.G., and we +allowed that, for all his heartiness, the old man was enough to +madden a saint. The slaves we landed fetched about nineteen pounds +on an average. They cost at starting from two pounds to three +pounds; but the ones that had died at sea knocked a hole in the +profits. +</p> +<p> +At Barbadoes Klootz left the womenfolk in a kind of boarding-house, +and hired a pinnace, twenty tons, to take us across to the main, +pretending he wanted to inquire into the market there. Klootz and I +made the whole crew, with A. G., who could not navigate. January 17, +late in the afternoon, we ran down upon Mortallone Island and +anchored off the Kays, north of Gable Point. Next morning we out +with the boat and landed. Time, about three-quarters of an hour +short of low water. +</p> +<p> +The Kays are nothing but sand. At low water, and for an hour before +and after, you can cross to Gable point dry-shod. We spent that day +getting bearings; dug a little, but nothing to reward us. Next day +we got to work early. Had been digging for two hours, when we turned +up the first body. It turned A. G. poorly in the stomach, and he sat +down to watch us. Half an hour later we struck the first of the +chests. It did not hold more than five shillings' worth, and we saw +that somebody had been there before us. +</p> +<p> +The third day we turned up three more bodies, besides two chests, +empty as before, and a full one. We stove it in, emptied the stuff +into the boat, and made our way back to the ship. +</p> +<p> +The fourth day we had scarcely started to dig before Klootz struck on +a second chest that sounded like another full one— +</p> +<p> +Here Miss Belcher turned a page, glanced overleaf, and came to a full +stop. +</p> +<p> +"For pity's sake, Lydia—" protested Mr. Rogers, who sat leaning +forward, his elbows on the table. +</p> +<p> +"There's no more," Miss Belcher announced. +</p> +<p> +"No more?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a word." She fumbled quickly through the remaining blank +leaves. "Not a word more," she repeated. +</p> +<p> +"Death cut short his hand," said Captain Branscome, his voice +breaking in upon a long silence. +</p> +<p> +"Cut short his fiddlestick-end!" snapped Miss Belcher. "The man +funked it at the last moment—started out promising to tell the whole +truth, but refused the fence. Look back at the story, and you can +see him losing heart. Just note that when he comes to A. G.—that's +the man Aaron Glass, I suppose—he dares not write down the man's +name. There has been foul work, and he's afraid of it. That's as +plain as the nose on my face." +</p> +<p> +"But what's to be done?" asked Mr. Rogers, picking up the manuscript +and turning its pages irritably. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me," said a voice, "there is surely but one thing to be done! +We must go and search for ourselves." +</p> +<p> +We all turned and stared at Plinny. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXI. +</h2> +<center> +IN WHICH PLINNY SURPRISES EVERYONE. +</center> +<p> +Everybody stared; and this had the effect of making the dear good +creature blush to the eyes. +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon, ma'am?" said Mr. Jack Rogers. +</p> +<p> +"It—it was not for me to say so, perhaps." Her voice quavered a +little, and now a pair of bright tears trembled on her lashes; but +she kept up her chin bravely and seemed to take courage as she went +on. "I am aware, sir, that in all matters of hazard and enterprise +it is for the gentlemen to take the lead. If I appear forward—if I +speak too impulsively—my affection for Harry must be my excuse." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers stared at Captain Branscome, and from Captain Branscome to +Mr. Goodfellow, but their faces did not help him. +</p> +<p> +"That's all very well, ma'am, but an expedition to the other end of +the world—if that's what you suggest?—at a moment's notice—on +what, as like or not, may turn out to be a wild-goose chase—Lord +bless my soul!" wound up Mr. Rogers incoherently, falling back in his +chair. +</p> +<p> +"I was not proposing to start at a moment's notice," replied Plinny, +with extreme simplicity. "There will, of course, be many details to +arrange; and I do not forget that we are in the house of mourning. +The poor dear Major claims our first thoughts, naturally. Yes, yes; +there must be a hundred and one details to be discussed hereafter—at +a fitting time; and it may be many weeks before we find ourselves +actually launched—if I may use the expression—upon the bosom of the +deep." +</p> +<p> +"<i>We?</i>" gasped Mr. Rogers, and again gazed around; but we others had +no attention to spare for him. "<i>We?</i> Who are 'we'?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, all of us, sir, if I might dare to propose it; or at least as +many as possible of us whom the hand of Providence has so +mysteriously brought together. I will confess that while you were +talking just now, discussing this secret which properly speaking +belongs to Harry alone, I doubted the prudence of it—" +</p> +<p> +"And, by Jingo, you were right!" put in Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"With your leave, ma'am," Plinny went on, "I have come to think +otherwise. To begin with, but for Captain Branscome the map would +never have found its way to the Major's room, where Harry discovered +it; but might—nay, probably would—have been stolen by the wicked +man who committed this crime to get possession of it. Again, but for +Mr. Goodfellow this written narrative would undoubtedly have been +lost to us, and the map, if not meaningless, might have seemed a clue +not worth the risk of following. In short, ma'am"—Plinny turned +again to Miss Belcher—"I saw that each of us at this table had been +wonderfully brought here by the hand of Providence. And from this I +went on to see, and with wonder and thankfulness, that here was a +secret, sought after by many evildoers, which had yet come into the +keeping of six persons, all of them honest, and wishful only to do +good. Consider, ma'am, how unlikely this was, after the many bold, +bad hands that have reached out for it. And will you tell me that +here is accident only, and not the finger of Providence itself? +At first, indeed, we suspected Captain Branscome and Mr. Goodfellow: +they were strangers to us, and, as if that we might be tested, they +came to us under suspicion." Here Mr. Goodfellow put up a hand and +dubiously felt his nose, which was yet swollen somewhat from his +first encounter with Mr. Rogers. "But they have proved their +innocence; Harry gives me his word for them; and I do not think," +said Plinny, "that you, ma'am, can have heard Captain Branscome's +story without honouring him." +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher, thus appealed to, answered only with a grunt, at the +same time shooting from under her shaggy eyebrows an amused glance at +the Captain, who stared at the table-cloth to hide his confusion, +which, however, was betrayed by a pair of very red ears. +</p> +<p> +"All this," pursued Plinny, "I saw by degrees, and that it was +marvellous; but next came something more marvellous still, for I saw +that if one had gone forth to choose six persons to carry out this +business, he could not have chosen six better fitted for it." +</p> +<p> +From the effect of this astounding proposition Miss Lydia Belcher was +the first to recover herself. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, my dear," she murmured; "on behalf of myself and the +company, as they say. It is true that in all these years I have +overlooked my qualifications for a buccaneering job; but I'll think +them out as you proceed." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" exclaimed Plinny, "I wasn't counting on you, ma'am, to +accompany this expedition; nor on Mr. Rogers. You are great folks as +compared with us, and have public duties—a stake in the country— +great wealth to administer. Yet I was thinking that, while we are +abroad, there may happen to be business at home requiring attention, +and that we may perhaps rely on you—who have shown so much interest +in this sad affair." +</p> +<p> +"Meaning that we have been dipping our fingers pretty deep into this +pie. Well, and so we have; and thank you again, my dear, for putting +it so delicately." +</p> +<p> +"But I meant nothing of the sort—indeed I didn't!" protested Plinny. +</p> +<p> +"Tut, tut! Of course you didn't, but it's the truth nevertheless. +Well, then, it appears that Jack Rogers and I are to be the +spotsmen[1] for this little expedition, and that you and Captain +Branscome, and Mr. Goodfellow, and—yes, and Harry, too, I suppose— +are to be the Red Rovers and scour the Spanish Main. All right; only +you don't look it, exactly." +</p> +<p> +"But is not that half the battle?" urged the indomitable Plinny. +"They'll be so much the less likely to suspect us." +</p> +<p> +"They—whoever they may be—will certainly be so far deluded." +</p> +<p> +"And really—if you will consider it, ma'am—what I am proposing is +not ridiculous at all. For what is chiefly wanted for such an +adventure? In the first place, a ship—and thank God I have means to +hire one, in the second place, a trustworthy navigator—and here, by +the most unexpected good fortune, we have Captain Branscome; in the +third place, a carpenter, to provide us with shelter on the island +and be at hand in case of accident to the vessel—and here is Mr. +Goodfellow; while as for Harry—" Plinny hesitated, for the moment +at a loss; then her face brightened suddenly. "Harry can climb a +tree, and the instructions on the back of the map point to this as +necessary. Harry will be invaluable!" +</p> +<p> +I could have wrung her hand; but Plinny, having finished her +justification of the ways of Providence, had taken off her spectacles +and was breathing on them and polishing them with a small silk +handkerchief which she ever kept handy for that purpose. +</p> +<p> +"Captain Branscome," said Miss Belcher, sharply, "will you be so good +as to give us your opinion?" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome lifted his head. "My mind, if you'll excuse me, +ma'am, works a bit slowly, and always did. But there's no denying +that Miss Plinlimmon has given the sense of it." +</p> +<p> +"Hey?" +</p> +<p> +"To be sure," said the Captain, tracing with his finger an imaginary +pattern on the table-cloth, "her courage carries her too far—as in +this talk about hiring a ship. A ship needs a crew; a crew that +could be trusted on a treasure-hunt is perhaps the most difficult to +find in the whole world; and when you've found one to rely upon, your +troubles are only just beginning. The main trouble is with the ship, +and that's what no landsman can ever understand. A ship's the most +public thing under heaven. You think of her, maybe, as something +that puts out over the horizon and is lost to sight for months. +But that helps nothing. She must clear from a port, and to a port +sooner or later she must return; and in both ports a hundred curious +people at least must know all about her business. +</p> +<p> +"I don't say that a ship, once out of sight, cannot be made away +with—though even that, with a crew to tell tales, has beaten some of +the cleverest heads; but to take out a ship and fill her up with +treasure, and bring her home <i>and unload her without any one's +knowing</i>—that's a feat that (if you'll excuse me) I've heard a +hundred liars discuss at one time and another; and one has said it +can be done in this way, and another in that, but never a one in my +hearing has found a way that would deceive a child." +</p> +<p> +"Yet you said, a moment since, that Miss Plinlimmon had given the +sense of it?" +</p> +<p> +"I did, ma'am. I am saying that to fetch this treasure will be +difficult, even if we find it—" +</p> +<p> +"You don't doubt its existence?" +</p> +<p> +"I do not, ma'am. I doubt it so little, ma'am, that I would ten +times sooner engage to find than to fetch it. But I don't even +despair of fetching it, if the lady goes on being as clever as she +has begun." +</p> +<p> +"What?" exclaimed Plinny. "I? Clever?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, indeed, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, still in a slow, +measured voice. "But, indeed, too, I might have been prepared for it +when you started by taking a line that beats all my experience of +landsmen; or perhaps in this case I ought to say lands<i>ladies</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Why, what have I done that is wonderful?" +</p> +<p> +"You took the line, ma'am, that, from here to Honduras, what is it +but a passage? A few months at the most—oh, to be sure, to a seaman +that's no more than nature; but to hear it from any one land-bred, +and a lady too! As a Christian man, I have believed in miracles, +but to-day I seem to be moving among them. And after your saying +<i>that</i>, I had no call to be surprised when you up and suggested a way +that would have taken a seaman twenty years to hit upon! I am not +talking about the ship, ma'am. That part of your plan (if you'll +allow me, as a seaman, to give an opinion) won't work at all. +But the plan in general is a masterpiece." +</p> +<p> +"But I do not see," Plinny confessed, with a small puckering of the +brows, "that I have suggested anything that can be called a plan." +</p> +<p> +"Why, ma'am, you have been talking heavenliest common sense, and once +you've started us upon common sense there's no such thing as a +difficulty. 'Let us go to the island,' you said; and with that at a +stroke you get rid of the worst danger we have to fear, which is +suspicion. For who's to suspect such a company as this present, or +any part of it, of being after treasure? 'Let us make it a pleasure +trip,' said you, or words to that effect; and what follows but that +the whole journey is made cheap and simple? We book our passages in +the Kingston packet. Peace has been declared with France, and what +more natural than that a party of English should be travelling to see +the West Indies? Or what more likely than that, after what has +happened, the doctor has advised a sea-voyage, to soothe your mind? +As for me, I am Harry's tutor; every one in Falmouth knows it, and +thinks me lucky to get the billet. It won't take five minutes to +explain Mr. Goodfellow here, just as easily—" +</p> +<p> +"And as for me," struck in Miss Belcher, "I'm an old madwoman, with +more money than I know what to do with. And as for Jack Rogers, I'm +eloping with him to a coral island." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers checked himself on the edge of a guffaw. +</p> +<p> +"But, I say, Lydia, you're not serious about this?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, Jack. I rather think I am. I'm getting an old woman, +mad or not; and the hours drag with me sometimes up at the house. +But"—and here she looked up with one of those rare smiles that set +you thinking she must have been pretty in her time—"there's this +advantage in having followed my own will for fifty years: that no one +any longer troubles to be surprised at anything I may do. +You're something of an eccentric yourself, Jack. You had better join +the picnic." +</p> +<p> +"I ought to warn you, ma'am," said Captain Branscome gravely, "that +although the West India route has been fairly well protected for some +months now, there <i>is</i> a certain amount of risk from American +privateers." +</p> +<p> +"The Americans are a chivalrous nation, I have always heard." +</p> +<p> +"Extremely so, ma'am; nevertheless, there is a risk, in the event of +the packet being attacked. But I was about to say," pursued Captain +Branscome, "that our being at war with America may actually help us +to get across from Jamaica to the island. Quite a number of old +Colonial families—loyalists, as we should call them—have been +driven from time to time to cross over from the Main and settle in +the West Indies. But of course they have left kinsfolk behind them +in the States; and, in spite of wars and divisions, it is no unusual +thing for relatives to slip back and forth and visit one another— +secretly, you understand. I have even heard of an old lady, now or +until lately residing in St. Kitts, who has made no less than eleven +such voyages to the Delaware—whenever, in short, her daughter was +expecting an addition to her family." +</p> +<p> +"Good," said Miss Belcher. "I have found some one to impersonate; +and that settles it." +</p> +<p> +"I really think, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, "that, once in +Jamaica, we shall have no difficulty in finding, at the western end +of the island, just the ship we require." +</p> +<p> +"Bless my soul!" said Miss Belcher. "Except for the sea-voyage, it +might be a middle-aged jaunt in a po'-shay!" +</p> +<pre> [1] Miss Belcher was here employing a smuggling term. A "spotsman" + is the agent who arranges for a run of goods, and directs the + operation from the shore, without necessarily taking a part in it. +</pre> +<a name="2HCH0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXII. +</h2> +<center> +A STRANGE MAN IN THE GARDEN. +</center> +<p> +Indeed, the longer we weighed the pros and cons the more feasible +appeared the simple adventure. We ran, to be sure, the risk of being +waylaid on our passage by an American privateer; but this was a +danger incident to all who sailed on board his Majesty's Post Office +packets in the year 1814. That anything was to be feared from the +man Glass, none of us (I believe) stopped to consider. We thought of +him only as a foiled criminal, a fugitive from justice, and +speculated only on the chance that, with the hue-and-cry out and the +whole countryside placarded, the Plymouth runners would lay him by +the heels. +</p> +<p> +Undoubtedly he had made for Plymouth. From Torpoint came news that a +man answering to his description had crossed the ferry there on the +morning after the murder. The regular ferryman there had stepped +into a public-house for his regular morning glass of rum-and-water; +and in his absence the small boy who acted as substitute had taken a +stranger across. The stranger, who appeared to be in a sweating +hurry, had rewarded the boy with half a crown; and the boy, rowing +back to the Torpoint side and finding his master still in the tavern, +had kept his own counsel and the money. Now the hue-and-cry had +frightened him into confessing; and his description left no doubt +that the impatient passenger was Aaron Glass. +</p> +<p> +Such a man had been observed, about two hours later, mingling in a +fish auction on the Barbican; and had actually bidden for a boatload +of mackerel, but without purchasing. From the auction he had walked +away in the direction of Southside Street; and from that point all +trace of him was lost. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Rogers, who had posted straight to Plymouth from the inquest, +spent a couple of days in pushing inquiries here, there and +everywhere. But not even the promise of a clue rewarded him. +Two foreign-going vessels and four coasters had sailed from the port +on the morning after the murder. The coasters were duly met, +boarded, and searched at their ports of arrival—two at Liverpool, +one at Milford, and one at Gravesend—but without result. If, as +seemed likely, the man had contrived to ship himself on board the +<i>Hussar</i> brig, bound for Barcelona, or the <i>Mary Harvey</i> barque, for +Rio, the chances of bringing him to justice might be considered nil, +or almost nil; for Mr. Rogers had some hope of the <i>Hussar</i> being +overtaken and spoken by a frigate which happened to be starting, two +days later, to join our fleet in the Mediterranean. +</p> +<p> +During the week or two that followed my father's funeral little was +said of our expedition, although I understood from Plinny that the +start would only be delayed until she and the lawyers had proved the +will and put his estate in order for me. My father's pension had, of +course, perished with him; but he left me a small sum in the funds, +bearing interest between fifty and sixty pounds per annum, together +with the freehold of Minden Cottage. Unfortunately, he had appointed +no trustees, and I was a minor; and even more unfortunately his will +directed that Minden Cottage should be sold "within a reasonably +brief time" after his death, and that the sum accruing should be +invested in Government stock for my benefit; and with this little +tangle to work upon, our lawyers—Messrs. Harding and Whiteway, of +Plymouth—and the Court of Chancery, soon involved the small estate +in complications which (as Miss Belcher put it) were the more +annoying because the fools at both ends were honest men and trying to +do the best for me. +</p> +<p> +Of this business I understood nothing at the time, save that it +caused delay; and I mention it here only to explain the delay and +because (as will be seen) the sale of Minden Cottage, when at length +the Lord Chancellor was good enough to authorize it, had a very +important bearing on the rest of my story. +</p> +<p> +Meanwhile, Captain Branscome had, of course, returned to Falmouth, +and would book our passages on the Kingston packet as soon as my +affairs allowed. We received letters from him from time to time, and +on Saturdays and Mondays a passing call from Mr. Goodfellow, on his +way to and from Plymouth. He had stipulated that, before sailing +with us, he should take his inamorata into his confidence; and this +was conceded after Miss Belcher had taken the opportunity of a day's +marketing in Plymouth to call at the dairy-shop in Treville Street +and make the lady's acquaintance. +</p> +<p> +"A very sensible young person," she reported; "and of the two I'd +sooner trust her than Goodfellow to keep a still tongue. There's no +danger in <i>that</i> quarter!" +</p> +<p> +Nor was there, as it proved. Mr. Goodfellow told us that he could +hardly contain himself whenever he thought of his prospects; "for," +said he, "I was born a parish apprentice; in place of which here I be +at the age of twenty with two fortunes waiting for me, one at each +end of the world." +</p> +<p> +At length, in the last week of July, Messrs. Harding and Whiteway +announced that all formalities were complete; and three days later a +bill appeared on the whitewashed front of Minden Cottage announcing +that this desirable freehold residence with two and a half acres of +land would be sold by public auction on August 6, at 1.30 o'clock +p.m., in the Royal Hotel, Plymouth. Any particulars not mentioned in +the bills would be readily furnished on application at the office +of the vendor's solicitors; and parties wishing to inspect the +premises might obtain the keys from Miss Belcher's lodge-keeper, +Mr. Polglaze—that is to say, from the nearest dwelling-house down +the road. +</p> +<p> +Plinny, with the help of half a dozen of Miss Belcher's men and a +couple of waggons, had employed these three days in removing our +furniture to the great cricket pavilion above the hill; an excellent +storehouse, where, for the time, it would remain in charge of Mr. +Saunders, the head keeper. We ourselves removed to the shelter of +Miss Belcher's lordly roof, as her guests; and Ann, the cook, to a +cottage on the home farm, where that lady—who usually superintended +her own dairy—had offered her the post of <i>locum tenens</i> until our +return from foreign travel. By the morning when the bill-poster came +and affixed the notice of sale, Minden Cottage stood dismantled—a +melancholy shell, inhabited only by memories for us, and for our +country neighbours by mysterious ghostly terrors. +</p> +<p> +This was one of the many grounds on which we agreed that the Lord +Chancellor had acted foolishly in insisting upon a public auction. +His lordship, to be sure, could not be expected to know that recent +events had utterly depreciated the selling value of Minden Cottage +over the whole of the south and east of Cornwall; that the +homeward-trudging labourer would breathe a prayer as he neared it +along the high-road in the dark, and would shut his eyes and run by +it, nor draw breath until he reached the lodge, down the road; that +quite a number of Christian folk who had been used to envy my father +the snuggest little retreat within twenty miles would now have +refused a hundred pounds to spend one night in it. So it was, +however; and the chance of an "out"-bidder might be passed over as +negligible. On the other hand, Miss Belcher had offered Messrs. +Harding and Whiteway a handsome and more than sufficient price for +the property. She wanted it to round off her estate, out of which, +at present, it cut a small cantle and at an awkward corner. +Moreover, if Miss Belcher had not come forward, Plinny was prepared +to purchase. That Miss Belcher would acquire the place no one +doubted. Still, a public sale it had to be. +</p> +<p> +Early in the afternoon of the 5th, she left us for Plymouth, to make +arrangements for the bidding. I did not see her depart, having been +occupied since five in the morning in a glorious otter-hunt, for +which Mr. Rogers had brought over his hounds. The heat of the day +found us far up-stream, and a good ten miles from home; and by the +time Mr. Rogers had returned his pack to Miss Belcher's hospitable +kennels the sun was low in the west. I know nothing that will make a +man more honestly dirty than a long otter-hunt, followed by a +perspiring tramp along a dusty road. From feet to waist I was a cake +of dried mud overlaid with dust. I had dust in my hair, in the +creases of my clothes, in the pores of my skin. I needed ablution +far beyond the resources of Miss Belcher's establishment, which, to +tell the truth, left a good deal to seek in the apparatus of personal +cleanliness; and, snatching up the clean shirt and suit of clothes +which the ever-provident Plinny had laid out on the bed for me, I ran +down across the park to the stream under the plantation. +</p> +<p> +Little rain had fallen for a month past, and, arriving at the pool on +which I had counted for a bath, I found it almost dry. While I stood +there, in two minds whether to return or to strip and make the best +of it, I bethought me that—although I had never bathed there in my +life, the stream would be better worth trying where it ran through +the now deserted garden of Minden Cottage, below the summer-house. +The bottom might be muddy, but the dam which my father had built +there secured a sufficiency of water in the hottest months. +I picked up my clothes again, and, following the stream up to the +little door in the garden wall, pushed open the rusty latch, and +entered the garden. +</p> +<p> +The hour, as I have said, was drawing on to dusk; and though, perhaps +I ought to say, I am by nature not inclined to nervousness (or I had +not ventured so near that particular spot), yet scared enough I was, +as I stepped on to the little foot-bridge, to see a man standing by +the doorway of the summer-house. +</p> +<p> +For an instant a terror seized me that it might be a ghost—or, +worse, the man himself, Aaron Glass. But a second glance, as I +halted on a hair-trigger—so to speak—to turn and run for my life, +assured me that the man was a stranger. +</p> +<p> +He wore a suit of black, and a soft hat of Panama straw with a broad +brim, and held in his hand a something strange to me, and, indeed, as +yet almost unknown in England—an umbrella. It had a dusky white +covering, and he held it by the middle, as though he had been engaged +in taking measurements with it when my entrance surprised him. +</p> +<p> +It appeared to me for the moment that I had not only surprised him +but frightened him, for the face he turned to me wore a yellowish +pallor like that of old ivory. Yet when he drew himself up and +spoke, I seemed to know in an instant that this was his natural +colour. The face itself was large and fleshy, with bold, commanding +features: a face, on second thoughts, impossible to connect with +terror. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo, little boy! What are you doing in this garden?" +</p> +<p> +I answered him, stammering, that I was come to bathe; and while I +answered I was still in two minds about running; for his voice, +appearance, bearing, all alike puzzled me. He spoke genially, with +something foreign in his accent. I could not determine his age at +all. At first glance he seemed to be quite an old man, and not only +old but weary; yet he walked without a stoop, and as he came slowly +across the turf to the bridge-end I saw that his hair was black and +glossy, and his large face unwrinkled as a child's. +</p> +<p> +"Not after the plums, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir; and besides," said I, picking up my courage, "there's no +harm if I am. The garden belongs to me." +</p> +<p> +"So?" He regarded me for some seconds, his hands clasping the +umbrella behind his back. The sight of the bundle of black clothes I +carried apparently satisfied him. "Then you have right to ask +what brings me here. I answer, curiosity. What became of the man +who did it?" he asked, with a glance over his shoulder towards the +summer-house. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody knows, sir," I answered, recovering myself. +</p> +<p> +"Disappeared, hey?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +"I fancy I could put my hand on him," he said very coolly, after a +pause. And I began to think I had to deal with a madman. +</p> +<p> +"Suppose, now, that I do catch him," he went on after a pause. +"What shall I do with him? In my country—for I live a great way +off—we either choke a murderer or cut off his head with a knife." +</p> +<p> +I told him—since he waited for me to say something—how in England +we disposed of our worst criminals. +</p> +<p> +"No, you don't," said he quietly. "You let some of the worst go, and +the very worst (as you believe) you banish to an island, treating +them as the old Romans treated theirs. Now, I'm a traveller; and +where do you suppose I spent this day month?" +</p> +<p> +I could not give a guess. +</p> +<p> +"Why, on the island of Elba. I'm curious, you know, especially in +the matter of criminals, so I came—oh, a tremendous way—to have a +look at Napoleon Bonaparte, there. Now I'll tell you another thing, +he's going to escape in a month or two, when his plans are ready. +I had that from his own lips; and, what's more, I heard it again in +Paris a week later. From Paris I came across to London, and from +London down to Plymouth, and from Plymouth I was to have travelled +straight to Falmouth, to take my passage home, when I heard of what +had happened here, and that the house was for sale. So I stopped to +have a look at it; for I am curious, I tell you." +</p> +<p> +He went on to prove his curiosity by asking me a score of questions +about myself: my age, my choice of a profession, my relatives (I told +him I had none), and my schooling. He drew me (I cannot remember +how) into a description of Plinny, and agreed with me that she must +be a woman in a thousand; asked where she lived at present, and +regretted—pulling out his watch—that he had not time to make her +acquaintance. Oddly enough, I felt when he said it that this was no +idle speech, but that only time prevented him from walking up the +hill and paying his respects. I felt also, the longer we talked, I +will not say a fear of him, for his manner was too urbane to permit +it, but an increasing respect. Crazed he might be, as his questions +were disconnected and now and again bewildering, as when he asked if +my father had travelled much abroad, and again it I really preferred +to remain idle at home instead of returning to finish my education +with Mr. Stimcoe; but his manner of asking compelled an answer. +I could not tell myself if I liked or disliked the man, he differed +so entirely from any one I had ever seen in my life. His questions +were intimate, yet without offence. I answered them all, with a +sense of talking to some one either immensely old or divided from me +by hundreds of miles. +</p> +<p> +In the midst of our talk, and while he was pressing me with questions +about Mr. and Mrs. Stimcoe, he suddenly lifted his head, and stood +listening. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said he. "Here's the coach!" +</p> +<p> +I had heard nothing, though my ears are pretty sharp. But sure +enough, though not until a couple of minutes had passed, the wheels +of the <i>Highflyer</i>, our evening coach to Plymouth, sounded far along +the road. +</p> +<p> +The stranger pulled out a bunch of keys from his pocket. +</p> +<p> +"I will ask you as a favour," said he, "to return these to the +lodge-keeper, from whom I borrowed them. Will you be so kind?" +</p> +<p> +I said that I would do so with pleasure. +</p> +<p> +"I have been over the house. It appears—the lodge-keeper tells me— +that I have been almost the only visitor to inspect it. +That's queer, for I should have thought that to an amateur in crime— +with a taste for discovery—it offered great possibilities. +But never mind, child," said this strange man, and shook hands. +"I have great hopes of finding the scoundrel, and of dealing with +him. Eh? 'How?' Well, if we get him upon an island, he shan't get +away, like Napoleon." +</p> +<p> +With these words, which I did not understand in the least, he turned +and left me, passing out into the lane by the side-gate. A minute +later I heard the coach pull up, and yet a minute later roll on +again, conveying him towards Plymouth. I stole a glance at the +water, at the summer-house, at the tree behind it. Somehow in the +twilight they all wore an uncanny look. On my way home—for I +decided to return and take my bath in the house, after all—my mind +kept running on a story of Ann the cook's, about a man (a relative of +hers, she said) who had once seen the devil. And yet the stranger +had tipped me a guinea at parting, nor was it (except metaphorically) +red hot in my pocket. +</p> +<p> +Next evening Miss Belcher rode back to us from Plymouth with the +announcement that Minden Cottage was hers. She had not attended the +sale in person, but Maddicombe, her lawyer, had started the bidding +(under her instruction) at precisely the sum which she had privately +offered Messrs. Harding and Whiteway. There was no competition. +In fact, Maddicombe reported that, apart from the auctioneers and +himself, but six persons attended the sale. Of these, five were +local acquaintances of his whom he knew to be attracted only by +curiosity. Of the sixth, a stranger, he had been afraid at first, +but the man appeared to be a visitor, who had wandered into the sale +by mistake. At any rate, he made no bid. +</p> +<p> +"What sort of man?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"As to that, Maddicombe had no very precise recollection, or couldn't +put it into words. A tall man, he said, and dressed in black; a +noticeable man—that was as far as he could get—and, he believed, a +foreigner." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. +</h2> +<center> +HOW WE SAILED TO THE ISLAND. +</center> +<p> +The business of the sale concluded, we had nothing to detain us, and +an order was at once sent to Captain Branscome to book our passages +in the next packet for the West Indies. Meanwhile we held long +discussions on details of outfit, for since our impedimenta included +two moderately heavy chests—the one of guns and ammunition, the +other of spades, picks, hatchets, and other tools—and since on +reaching Jamaica we must take a considerable journey on muleback, it +was important to cut our personal luggage down to the barest +necessities. We did not forget a medicine-chest. +</p> +<p> +On August 28 we received word from Captain Branscome that he had +taken berths for us on the <i>Townshend</i> packet, commanded by an old +friend of his, a Captain Harrison. She was due to sail on the 1st. +Accordingly, on August 30 we travelled down by Royal Mail to +Falmouth, Mr. Rogers following that same noon by the <i>Highflyer</i>; +spent a busy day in making some last purchases, and a sleepless night +in the noisiest of hotels; and went on board soon after breakfast, to +be welcomed there by Mr. Goodfellow, who had got over his parting +three days before, at Plymouth, and professed himself to be in the +very jolliest of spirits. At the head of the after-companion Captain +Branscome met us and conducted us below, to introduce us to our +quarters and be complimented on the thought and care he had bestowed +in choosing them and fitting them up—for the ladies' comfort +especially. He himself lodged forward, in a small double cabin which +he shared with Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +I will spare the reader a description of our departure and of the +passage to Jamaica, not only because they were quite uneventful (we +did not even sight a' privateer), but because they have been +celebrated in verse by Plinny, in a descriptive poem of five cantos +and some four thousand lines, entitled "The Voyage: with an +Englishwoman's Reflections on her Favourite Element," a few extracts +from which I am permitted to quote— +</p> +<pre> "We sailed for Kingston in the <i>Townshend</i> packet. + The day auspicious was, and calm the heavens; + Not so the scene on board—oh, what a racket! + And everything on deck apparently at sixes and sevens. + Mail-bags and passengers mixed up in every direction, + The latter engaged with their relatives in fond farewells; + On the one hand the faltering accents of affection, + On the other the unpolisht seamen emitting yells, + With criticisms of a Custom House official + Whose action for some reason they resented as prejudicial. + + "At length the last farewell is said, + The anchor tripped, the gangway clear'd; + 'Twas five p.m. ere past Pendennis Head + Forth to th' unfathomable deep we steer'd. + The bo'sun piped (he wore a manly beard); + And while th' attentive crew the braces trimm'd + (Alluding to the ship's), and while from observation + The coast receded, we with eyes be-dimm'd + Indulged in feelings natural to the situation. + + "Albion! My Albion! So called from the hue + Thy cliffs wear by the Straits of Dover— + Though darker in this neighbourhood—still adieu! + Albion, adieu! I feel myself a rover. + Thy sons instinctively take to the water, + And so will I, albeit but a daughter." +</pre> +<p> +A page later, in more tripping metre (which reflects her gaiety of +spirits), she describes the ship— +</p> +<pre> "The <i>Townshend</i> Packet is a gallant brig + Of one hundred and eighty tons; + 'Tis the Postmaster-General's favourite rig, + And she carries six useful guns. + As she sails, as she sails + With his Majesty's mails, + Hurrah for her long six-pounders! + They relieve our fear + Of a privateer, + But what shall we do if she founders? + I prefer not to think of any such contingency: + She has excellent sailing qualities, + And her captain appears to rule with stringency + And to be averse from minor frivolities. + With the late Admiral Nelson he may not provoke comparison. + But one and all place implicit confidence in Captain Harrison." +</pre> +<p> +While Plinny cultivated the Muse—and with the more zest as, to her +pride and delight, she found herself immune from sea-sickness—I kept +up, through the long mornings, the pretence of studying mathematics +with Captain Branscome, and regularly at noon received a lesson in +taking the ship's bearings. Our fellow-voyagers were mostly +merchants and agents bound for Jamaica, the trade of which had +revived since the restoration of peace; and among them we passed for +a well-to-do family travelling partly for pleasure to visit the +island, but partly also with an idea of buying a plantation and +settling there—which explained the presence of Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +Our captain justified the confidence so poetically expressed above. +He sailed his ship along steadily, taking no risks, and after a +pleasant passage of thirty-six days brought her to anchor in Carlisle +Bay, Barbadoes, where we were due to deliver some bags of mails. +I have said that the trip was uneventful; it was even without +incident save for some fooleries on reaching the Line, and such +trifling distractions as an unsuccessful attempt to shoot an +albatross, and the sighting of some flying-fish and sundry +long-tailed birds which the sailors called boatswains. But, as +Plinny wrote— +</p> +<pre> "Life at sea has a natural monotony + Of which 'twere irrational to complain: + You cannot, for instance, study botany + As in an English country lane. + But the mind is superior to distance + With its own reminiscences stored, + Not to mention the spiritual assistance + We derived from a clergyman on board." +</pre> +<p> +(He was a sallow young man of delicate constitution, and, partly for +his health's sake, had accepted the pastorate of a Genevan church in +Kingston.) +</p> +<p> +From Barbadoes we beat up for Jamaica, and anchored in Kingston +Harbour just forty-five days from home. The next morning we said +farewell to the ship, and were rowed ashore to a good hotel, where we +spent a lazy week in email excursions, while Captain Branscome busied +himself in hiring a mule-train and holding consultations with a firm +of merchants, Messrs. Cox and Roebuck, to whom Miss Belcher came +recommended with a letter of credit. These gentlemen, understanding +that we desired to cross over to the Main to visit some relations of +Miss Belcher resident in Virginia (for that was our pretence), opined +that the matter was not difficult of management, but that we must +needs travel to the extreme west of the island if we would hire a +vessel for the purpose, and they mentioned an agent of theirs at +Savannah-la-Mar—Jacob Paz by name—as the likeliest man for our +purpose. +</p> +<p> +Armed with a letter of introduction to this man, in the early morning +of October 22 we started on muleback, and, travelling without haste +through the exquisite scenery of Jamaica (the main roads of which put +ours of Cornwall to shame), arrived at Savannah-la-Mar on the 27th, a +great part of the way having been occupied by Miss Belcher (who hated +the sight of a negro) in rebuking Plinny's sentimental objections to +slavery, and by Mr. Rogers in begging a collection of humming-birds. +</p> +<p> +It took (I believe) some time at Savannah-la-Mar to convince Mr Paz, +a subtle half-breed, that we were actually fools enough to wish to +purchase one of his vessels, and mad enough to propose working +her alone. He had three boats idle, including a pretty little +fore-and-aft schooner of thirty tons, the <i>Espriella</i>, which Captain +Branscome had no sooner set eyes upon than he decided to be the very +thing for our purpose. She was fitted with a large ladies' cabin aft +of the companion, a saloon, and a small single-berth cabin between it +and the fo'c's'le, which would house three men comfortably. We ended +by purchasing her for three hundred and seventy pounds; and into the +fo'c's'le I went with Mr. Goodfellow and Mr. Jack Rogers, who +insisted on resigning the spare cabin to Captain Branscome— +henceforward, or until we should reach the island, by consent the +leader of the expedition. +</p> +<p> +So on October 30, at six in the morning, after being commended to God +by Mr. Paz, we worked out of Savannah-la-Mar, and, having gained an +offing with a light breeze, hoisted all her bits of canvas, even to a +light jib-topsail we found on board—chiefly, I think, to impress +her late owner, whom we could descry on the shore, watching us. +He had steadfastly refused to believe us capable of handling a boat, +whereas of our party Plinny and Mr. Goodfellow were the only +landlubbers. Miss Belcher could take the helm with the best of us, +and indeed it was reported of her that she had on more than one +occasion played helmswoman to a run of goods upon her own Cornish +estate. Mr. Jack Rogers had once owned a yacht and suffered +from tedium; now, as a foremast hand, he was enjoying himself +amazingly. +</p> +<p> +But the pride above all prides was Captain Branscome's. After many +years he trod a deck again, commander of his own ship; and the +bearing of the man was that of a prince restored after long exile +to his kingdom. Courteous as ever to the ladies, to the rest of us +he behaved as a master, noble but severe, unwearied in explaining the +least minutiae of seamanship, inexorable in seeing that his smallest +instruction was obeyed. Mr. Rogers at the end of the first day +confided to me that he had much ado to refrain from touching his +forelock whenever he heard the skipper's voice. +</p> +<p> +I shall not be believed if I say that in all the five days of +our voyage Captain Branscome never snatched a wink of sleep. +Doubtless he did sleep, between whiles; but doubtless also no one saw +him do it. +</p> +<p> +It was daybreak or thereabouts on the morning of November 5—and a +faint light coming through the decklight over the fo'c's'le—when I, +that had kept the middle watch and was now snoring in my bunk, sat up +at a touch on my shoulder, and stared, rubbing my eyes, into the dim +face of Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +"Skipper wants you on deck," he announced. "We've lifted something +on the starboard bow, and he swears 'tis the Island." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0024"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIV. +</h2> +<center> +WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND. +</center> +<p> +The word fetched me out of my bunk like a shot from a gun. I ran +past him, scrambled up the fo'c's'le ladder, and gained the deck in +time to see Miss Belcher emerge from the after-companion upon the +dawn, her hair in a "bun," her bare feet thrust into loose felt +slippers, her form wrapped in a Newmarket overcoat closely buttoned +over her <i>robe de nuit</i>. +</p> +<p> +"The Island, ma'am!" announced Captain Branscome from the helm; and, +turning there by the fo'c's'le hatch and following the gesture of his +hand, I descried a purplish smear on the southern horizon. To me it +looked but a low-lying cloud or a fogbank. +</p> +<p> +"I'll take your word for it," answered Miss Belcher, calmly. +"You have timed it well, Captain Branscome." +</p> +<p> +"Under Providence, ma'am," the Captain corrected her, and called to +me to take the wheel while he fetched out his chart and unrolled it +for her inspection. "We are running straight down upon the northern +end of it, and our best anchorage (if I may suggest) lies to the +south'ard—in Gow's Creek, as they call it." +</p> +<p> +He laid a finger on the chart. +</p> +<p> +"We rely upon you, sir, to choose." +</p> +<p> +"I thank you, ma'am. If (as I doubt not) we find plenty of water +there, it will be the best anchorage in this breeze; not to mention +that this Gow's Creek runs up, as we are directed, to within a mile +and a half of the No. 3 <i>cache</i>. If you agree, ma'am, I have only to +ask your instructions whether to coast down the east or the west side +of the Island. The wind, you perceive, serves equally well for +both." +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher considered for a moment. +</p> +<p> +"The Keys lie to the west of Gable Point, here. By taking that side +we can have a look at them on our way." +</p> +<p> +"Right, ma'am. Harry!"—he turned to me—"bring her nose round to +sou'-west and by south, and stand by for the gybe." He hauled in the +main-sheet and eased it over. "Now, see here, lad," he called to me +sharply as the little vessel yawed: "where were your eyes just then?" +</p> +<p> +"I was taking a look at the land-fall, sir," I answered truthfully. +</p> +<p> +"Then I'll trouble you to fix your mind on the lubber's-mark and hold +her straight. That's discipline, my boy, and in this business you +may want all you can learn of it." +</p> +<p> +It was not Captain Branscome's habit to speak sharply. I turned my +attention to the card, conscious of a pair of red ears. +</p> +<p> +The sky brightened, and within an hour, as we ran down upon it at +something like eight knots, the Island began to take shape. +A wisp of morning fog floated horizontally across it, dividing its +shore-line from the hills in the interior, which, looming above this +cloudy base, appeared considerably higher than, in fact, they were. +The shore itself along the eastern side showed almost uniformly +steep—a line of reddish rock broken with patches of green, which we +mistook for meadows (but they turned out to be nothing more or less +than sheets of green creepers matted together and overhanging the +cliffs). At its northern extremity, upon which we were closing down +at an acute angle, the land dropped to a low-lying, sandy peninsula +with a backbone of rock almost bare of vegetation, and beyond this we +saw the white surf glittering around the Keys. +</p> +<p> +Our course gave them a fairly wide berth; and at first I took them +for a continuous line of sandbanks running in a rough semicircle +around the low spit which the chart called Gable Point; but as we +drew level they broke up into islets, with blue channels between, and +at sight of us thousands of sea-birds rose in cloud upon cloud, with +a clamour that might have been heard for miles. One of these banks— +the northernmost—showed traces of herbage, grey in colour and dull +by contrast with the verdure of the Island. The rest were but barren +sand. +</p> +<p> +We rounded them at about three cables' length and stood due south, +giving sheet again. Southward from the neck of the peninsula this +western side of the Island differed surprisingly from the other. +Here were no cliffs, but a flat shore and long stretches of beach, +gradually shelving up to green bush, with here a palmetto grove and +there a lagoon of still water within the outer barrier of sand. +Mr. Jack Rogers had relieved me at the helm, and with the Captain's +permission I had stepped below to the saloon, where Plinny was +waiting to give me breakfast, and persuaded the good soul not only to +let me carry it on deck and eat it there, but to postpone washing-up +for a while and accompany me. To this she would by no means consent +until I had brought her the Captain's leave. +</p> +<p> +"You may take her my leave," said he, with a sudden flush on his face, +"and my apologies for having neglected to request the honour of her +company. The fact is," he added, with a hard glance at me, "Miss +Plinlimmon's sense of discipline is so rare a thing that I am always +forgetting to do justice to it. Were it possible to find a whole +crew so conscientious I would undertake to sail to the North Pole." +</p> +<p> +I conveyed this answer to Plinny, and it visibly gratified her. +She retired at once to the ladies' cabin to indue her poke-bonnet +with coquelicot trimmings. Her apron she retained, observing that on +an expedition of this sort one should never be taken at unawares, and +that when at Rome you should do as the Romans did. "By which, my +dear Harry," she explained, "you are not to understand me to refer to +their Papist observances, such as kissing a man's toe. Were such a +request proffered to me even at the cannon's mouth, I trust my +courage would find an answer. 'No, no,' I would say, +</p> +<pre> "'I will not bow within the House of Rimmon: + Yours faithfully, Amelia Plinlimmon.'" +</pre> +<p> +As we reached the head of the companion-ladder Captain Branscome, who +was standing just aft of the wheel, behind Mr. Rogers's shoulder, and +scanning the shore through his glass, made a motion to step forward +and hand her on deck. This was ever his courteous way, and I turned +a moment later in some surprise, to find that, instead of closing the +glass, he had lifted it, and was holding it again to his eye, at the +same time keeping his right shoulder turned to us. +</p> +<p> +While we looked, he lowered it and made his bow, yet with something +of a preoccupied air. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, ma'am. You are very welcome on deck, and I trust that +Harry conveyed the apology I sent by him." +</p> +<p> +"I beg you will not mention it, sir. It is true that I suffered from +the curiosity which outspoken critics have called the bane of my sex; +yet, believe me, I was far from accusing you, knowing how many +responsibilities must weigh on the captain of an expedition, even +though it fare as prosperously as ours." +</p> +<p> +"True, ma'am," Captain Branscome tapped his spyglass absent-mindedly, +and seemed on the point of lifting it again. "Though, with your +permission, I will add 'D.V.'" +</p> +<p> +"Yes—yes"—Plinny smiled a cheerful approval—"we are ever in the +Divine Hand; not more really, perhaps, in the tropics than in those +more temperate latitudes when, though the wolf and lion do not howl +for prey, an incautious step upon a piece of orange-peel has before +now proved equally fatal." +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome bowed again. +</p> +<p> +"You call me the leader of this expedition, Miss Plinlimmon; and so I +am, until we drop anchor. With that, in two or three hours at +farthest, my chief responsibility ends, and I think it time"—he +turned to Mr. Rogers—"that we made ready to appoint my successor. +I shall have a word to say to him." +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense, man!" answered Mr. Rogers, looking up from the wheel. +"If you mean me, I decline to act except as your lieutenant. +You have captained us admirably; and if I decline the honour, you +will hardly suggest promoting Harry, here, or Goodfellow!" +</p> +<p> +"I was thinking that Miss Belcher, perhaps—" +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said Miss Belcher, turning at the sound of her name, and +coming aft from the bows, whence she had been studying the coastline. +"What's the matter with <i>me?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"The Captain," exclaimed Mr. Rogers, "has been tendering us his +resignation." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Rogers misunderstands me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome. +"I merely said that, so far as we have agreed as yet, My authority +ceases an soon as we cast anchor. If you choose to re elect me, I +shall not say 'No'—though not coveting the honour; but I can only +say 'Yes' upon a condition." +</p> +<p> +"Name it, please." +</p> +<p> +"That I have every one's implicit obedience. I may—nay, I shall— +give orders that will be irksome and at the same time hard to +understand. I may be unable to give you my reasons for them; or able +to give you none beyond the general warning that we are after +treasure, and I never yet heard of a treasure-hunt that was +child's-play." +</p> +<p> +He spoke quietly, but with an impressiveness not to be mistaken, +though we knew no cause for it. Miss Belcher, at any rate, did not +miss it. She shot him a keen glance, turned for a moment, and seemed +to study the shore, then faced about again, and said she— +</p> +<p> +"I am not used to be commanded. But I can command myself, and am not +altogether a fool." +</p> +<p> +The Captain bowed. "I was thinking, ma'am, that might be our +difficulty. But if I have your word to try—" +</p> +<p> +"You have." +</p> +<p> +"I thank you, ma'am, and will own that my mind is relieved. It may +even be that, from time to time, I may do myself the honour of +consulting you. Nevertheless—" +</p> +<p> +"I mustn't count on it, eh? Well, as you please; only I warn you +that, while in any case I am going to be as good as my word, if you +treat me like a sensible person I shall probably be a trifle better." +</p> +<p> +For ten seconds, maybe, the pair looked one another in the eyes; then +the Captain bowed once more, and apparently this invited her to step +forward with him to the bows, where they halted and stood conning the +coast, the Captain through his spyglass. +</p> +<p> +As they left us, Plinny and I moved to the waist of the ship, where +we paused by consent, and I resumed my breakfast, munching it as I +leaned against the port bulwarks. We were now rapidly opening Long +Bay (as the chart called it), a deep recess running out squarely at +either extremity, the bight of it crossed by a beach, and a line of +tumbling breakers, that extended for close upon three miles. +Above the beach a forest of tall trees, in height and colour at once +distinguishable from the thick bush we had hitherto been passing, +screened the bases of a range of hills which obviously formed the +backbone of the island; and as the whole bay crept into view we +discerned in the north (or, to be accurate, N.N.E.) corner of this +long recess a marshy valley dividing the scrub from the forest. +The mouth of this valley, where it widened out upon the beach, +measured at least half a mile across. The chart marked it as Misery +Swamp, and indicated a river there. We could detect none, or, at any +rate, no river entrance. If river there were, doubtless it emptied +its waters through the fringe of grey-green weeds, and dispersed over +the flat-looking foreshore; but even at two miles' distance it looked +to be a dismal, fever-haunted spot. +</p> +<p> +By contrast, the noble range of woodland to southward of it and the +rocky peaks that rose in delicate shadow above the tree-tops were +beautiful as a dream, even to eyes fresh from the forest scenery of +Jamaica; and while Plinny leant with me against the bulwarks, I felt +that in the silence immortal verse was shaping itself, which it did +after a while to this effect— +</p> +<pre> "Arrived o'er the limitless ocean + In 16 degrees of N. latitude, + Our lips were attuned to devotion, + Our spirits uplifted in gratitude. + + "Our hearts with poetic afflatus + Took wing and impulsively soared + As the lead-line (a quaint apparatus) + Reported the depth overboard. + + "Oh, oft had I dream'd of the tropics— + But never to see them in person— + So full of remarkable topics + To speculate, sing, and converse on." +</pre> +<p> +It was Mr. Goodfellow who worked the hand-lead, under Captain +Branscome's orders, from a perch just forward of the main rigging; +but at a mile's distance we carried deep water with us past Crabtree +Point, and around the unnamed small cape which formed the +south-western extremity of the island. We rounded this, and, +hauling up to the wind, found (as the reader may discover for himself +by a glance at the chart) that the shore made almost directly E. by +N., with scarcely an indentation, for Gow's Gulf. +</p> +<p> +Here the water shoaled, though for the first mile almost +imperceptibly. The inlet itself resembled the estuary of a mighty +river, its both sides well wooded, though very different in +configuration, the northern rising quietly from shelving beaches of +coral-white sand to some of the most respectable hills in the island, +while that on our starboard hand presented a succession of cliff and +chasm, the cliffs varying, as we judged, from two hundred to two +hundred and fifty feet sheer. +</p> +<p> +In three and a half fathoms (reported by Mr. Goodfellow) the water, +which was exquisitely clear, showed good white sand under us. +Ahead of us the creek narrowed, promising an anchorage almost +completely landlocked and as peaceful as the soul of man could +desire. We drew a short eight feet of water, and with such soundings +(for the tide had not been making above an hour) I expected the old +man to hold on for at least another mile, when, to my surprise, he +took the helm from Mr. Rogers and, sending him forward, shook the +<i>Espriella</i> up in the wind, at the same time calling to Goodfellow +and me to lower the main throat-halliards. +</p> +<p> +"Leave go anchor!" +</p> +<p> +With a splash her anchor plunged over, took the ground, and in +another twenty yards brought us up standing. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" Miss Belcher scanned the shore. "You're giving the boats a +long trip, Captain." +</p> +<p> +"I take my precautions, ma'am," answered Captain Branscome, almost +curtly. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0025"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXV. +</h2> +<center> +I TAKE FRENCH LEAVE ASHORE. +</center> +<p> +In a sweating hurry I helped Mr. Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow to furl +sail, coil away ropes, and tidy up generally. After these tedious +weeks at sea I was wild for a run ashore, and, with the green woods +inviting me, grudged even an hour's delay. +</p> +<p> +We had run down foresail and come to our anchor under jib and +half-lowered mainsail. I sprang forward to take in the jib and carry +it, with the foresail, to the locker abaft the ladies' cabin, when +Captain Branscome sang out to me to be in no such hurry, but to fold +and stow both sails neatly without detaching them—the one along the +bowsprit, the other at the foot of the fore-stay, when they could be +re-hoisted at a moment's notice. +</p> +<p> +These precautions were the more mysterious to me because a moment +later he sent me to the locker to fetch up a tarpaulin cover for the +mainsail, which he snugged down carefully, to protect it (as he +explained) from the night dews—so carefully that he twice +interrupted Mr. Goodfellow to correct a piece of slovenly tying. +The sail being packed at length to his satisfaction, we laced the +cover about it carefully as though it had been a lady's bodice. +</p> +<p> +Our next business was to get out the boats. The <i>Espriella</i> +possessed three—a gig, shaped somewhat like a whaleboat; a useful, +twelve-foot dinghy; and a small cockboat, or "punt" (to use our West +Country name), capable, at a pinch, of accommodating two persons. +This last we carried on deck; but the larger pair at the foot of the +rigging on either side, whence we unlashed and lowered them by their +falls. The punt we moored by a short painter under the bowsprit, so +that she lay just clear of our stem. +</p> +<p> +This small job had fallen to me by the Captain's orders, and I +clambered back, to find him and Mr. Rogers standing by the +accommodation ladder on the port side, and in the act of stepping +down into the dinghy. Indeed, Mr. Rogers had his foot on the ladder, +and seemed to wait only while the Captain gave some instructions to +Mr. Goodfellow, who was listening respectfully. +</p> +<p> +"Are we all to go ashore in the dinghy?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +The Captain turned on me severely, and I observed that he and Mr. +Rogers had armed themselves with a musket apiece, each slung on a +bandolier, and that Mr. Rogers wore an axe at his belt. +</p> +<p> +"Certainly not," said the Captain. "Mr. Rogers and I are going on +shore to prospect, and I was at this moment instructing Mr. +Goodfellow that nobody is to leave the ship without leave from me." +</p> +<p> +"But—" I began, and checked myself, less for fear of his anger than +because I was actually on the verge of tears. I looked around for +the ladies, but they had retired to their cabin. Oh, this was +hard—a monstrous tyranny! And so I told Mr. Goodfellow hotly as the +dinghy pushed off and, Mr. Rogers paddling her, drew away up the +creek and rounded the bend under the almost overhanging trees. +</p> +<p> +"When are they coming back?" I demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Captain didn't say." +</p> +<p> +"You seem to take it easily," I flamed up; "but <i>I</i> call it a +burning shame! Captain Branscome seems to think that this Island +belongs to him; and you know well enough, if it hadn't been for me, +he'd never have set eyes on it. What are you going to do?" +</p> +<p> +"Smoke a pipe," said Mr. Goodfellow, "and watch the beauties o' +Nature." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I'm not," I threatened. "Captain Branscome may be a very good +seaman but he's too much of an usher out of school. This isn't +Stimcoe's." +</p> +<p> +"Not a bit like it," assented Mr. Goodfellow, feeling in his +pockets. +</p> +<p> +"And if he thinks he can go on playing the usher over me, he'll find +out his mistake. Why, look you, whose is the treasure, properly +speaking? Who found it?" +</p> +<p> +"Nobody, yet." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow drew forth a pipe and rubbed the bowl thoughtfully +against his nose. +</p> +<p> +"Well, then, who found the chart? Who put you all on the scent? +Who was it first heard the secret from Captain Coffin? And this man +doesn't even consult me—doesn't think me worth a civil word! +I'll be shot if I stand it!" I wound up, pacing the deck in my +rage. +</p> +<p> +Just then Plinny's voice called up to us from the cabin, announcing +that dinner was ready. +</p> +<p> +"But," said she, "one of you must eat his portion on deck while he +keeps watch; that was Captain Branscome's order." +</p> +<p> +"More orders!" I grumbled; and then, with a sudden thought, I +nodded to Mr. Goodfellow, who was replacing his pipe in his pocket. +"<i>You</i> go. Hand me up a plate and a fistful of ship biscuit, and +leave me to deal with 'em. I'm not for stifling down there under +hatches, whatever your taste may be." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis a fact," he admitted, "that a meal does me more good when I +square my elbows to it." +</p> +<p> +"Down you go, then," said I; "and when you're wanted I'll call you." +</p> +<p> +He descended cheerfully, reappeared to pass up a plate, and descended +again. I gobbled down enough to stay my appetite, crammed my pocket +full of ship biscuit, and, after listening for a moment at the +hatchway, tiptoed forward and climbed out upon the bowsprit. +Then, having unloosed the cockboat's painter, I lowered and let +myself drop into her, and, slipping a paddle into the stern-notch, +sculled gently for shore. +</p> +<p> +The <i>Espriella</i>, of course, lay head-to-tide, and the tide by this +time was making strongly—so strongly that I had no time to get +steerage way on the little boat before it swept her close under the +open porthole through which I heard Miss Belcher inviting Mr. +Goodfellow to pass his plate for another dumpling. Miss Belcher's +voice—as I may or may not have informed the reader—was a baritone +of singularly resonant <i>timbre</i>. It sounded through the porthole as +through a speaking trumpet, and I ducked and held my breath as the +boat's gunwale rubbed twice against the schooner's side before +drifting clear. +</p> +<p> +Once clear, however, I worked my paddle with a will, though +noiselessly; and, the tide helping me, soon reached and rounded the +first bend. Here, out of sight of the ship, I had leisure to draw +breath and look about me. +</p> +<p> +Ahead of me lay a still reach, close upon half a mile in length, and +narrowing steadily to the next bend, when the two shores overlapped +and mingled their reflections on the water. On my right the red +cliffs, their summits matted with creepers, descended sheer into +water many fathoms deep, yet so clear that I could spy the fish +playing about their bases where they met the firm white sand. +On my left the channel shoaled gradually to a beach of this same +white sand, which followed the curve of the shore, here and again +flashing out into broad sunshine from the blue shadow cast by the +overhanging forest. +</p> +<p> +Between these banks the breeze could scarcely be felt, yet, though +the sun scorched me, the heat was not oppressive. The woods, dense +and tangled though they were, threw up no exhalations of mud or +rotting leaves, but a clean, aromatic odour. It seemed to give them +a substance without which they had been but a mirage, a scene painted +on a cloth, so motionless and apparently lifeless they stood, with +the long vines hanging from their boughs, and the hot, rarefied air +quivering above them. +</p> +<p> +At first their silence daunted me; by-and-by I felt (I could hardly +be said to hear) that this silence was intense, and held a sound of +its own, a murmur as of millions of flies and minute winged things— +or perhaps it came from the vegetation itself, and the sap pushing +leaf against leaf and ceaselessly striving for room. +</p> +<p> +With scarcely more noise than the forest made in growing, I let the +cockboat float up on the tide, correcting her course from time to +time with a touch of the paddle astern; and so coming to the +second bend, began to search the shore for a convenient landing. +The Captain and Mr. Rogers, no doubt, had rowed up to the very head +of the creek, and would by this time be prospecting for the clump of +trees which were the key to unlock No. 3 cache. To escape—or, at +any rate, delay—detection, I must land lower down, and preferably at +some point where I could pull up the boat and hide it. +</p> +<p> +With this in my mind, scanning the woods on the north bank for an +opening, I drifted around the bend, and with a shock of surprise +found myself in full view of the end of the creek. Worse than this, +I was bearing straight for the <i>Espriella's</i> dinghy, which lay just +above water on the foreshore, with her painter carried out to a tree +above the bank. Worst of all, some one at that instant stepped back +from the bank and under the shadow of the tree, as if to await me +there. . . . Mr. Rogers, or the Captain? . . . Mr. Rogers certainly; +for I remembered that the Captain wore white duck trousers, and, by +my glimpse of him, this man's clothes were dark. His height and +walk, too! Yes; no doubt of it, he was Mr. Rogers. +</p> +<p> +I stood—a culprit caught red-handed—and let the boat drift me down +upon retributive justice. A while ago I had been mentally composing +a number of effective retorts upon Captain Branscome for his +tyrannical behaviour. Now, of a sudden, all this eloquence deserted +me: I felt it leaking away and knew myself for a law-breaker. +One lingering hope remained—that the Captain had pushed ahead into +the woods, and that, as yet, Mr. Jack Rogers (whose good nature I +might almost count upon) had alone detected me and would pack me home +to the ship with nothing worse than a flea in my ear. +</p> +<p> +His silence encouraged this hope. Half a minute passed and still he +forbore to lift his voice and summon me. He stood, deep in the +shadow, his face screened by the boughs, and made no motion to +advance to the bank. +</p> +<p> +Then suddenly—at, maybe, two hundred yards' distance—I saw him take +another pace backwards and slip away among the trees. +</p> +<p> +"Good man!" thought I, and blessed him (after my first start of +astonishment). "He has pretended not to see me." +</p> +<p> +At any rate he had given me a pretty good hint to make myself scarce +unless I wished to incur Captain Branscome's wrath. I slipped my +paddle forward into a rowlock, picked up the other, and, dropping +upon the thwart, jerked the cockboat right-about-face to head her +back for the schooner. +</p> +<p> +But after a stroke or two I easied and let her drift back +stern-foremost while I sat considering. Mr. Rogers had behaved like +a trump; yet it seemed mean to deceive the old man; and, moreover, it +amounted to striking my colours. I had broken orders deliberately +and because I denied his right to give such orders. I might be a +youngster; but, to say the least of it, I had as much interest +in the success of this expedition as any member of the company. +The shortest way to dissuade Captain Branscome from treating me as a +child was to assert myself from the beginning. I had started with +full intent to assert myself, and—yes, I was much obliged to Mr. +Rogers, but this question between me and Branscome had best be +settled, though it meant open mutiny. I felt pretty sure that Miss +Belcher would support the tyrant; almost equally sure that Plinny +would acquiesce, though her sympathy went with me; and strangely +enough, and unjustly, I felt the angrier with Plinny. But even +against Miss Belcher I had a card to play. "Captain Branscome may be +an excellent leader," I would say; "but I beg you to remember that +you gave me no vote in electing him. I will obey any leader I have +my share in choosing, but until then I stand out." And I had an +inkling that, though the public voice would be against me, I should +establish my claim to be taken into any future counsels. +</p> +<p> +"In for a lamb, in for a sheep," thought I, and began to back the +cockboat towards the corner where the dinghy lay. As I did so it +occurred to me to wonder why the Captain and Mr. Rogers had been so +dilatory. They must have started a full hour ahead of me; they had +left the schooner at a brisk stroke, whereas I had merely floated up +with the tide. Yet either I had all but surprised them in the act of +stepping ashore, or, if they had landed at once, why had Mr. Rogers +loitered on the bank until I was close on overtaking him? +</p> +<p> +They had landed at the extreme head of the creek. Therefore +(I argued) their intent was to follow up the stream here indicated on +the chart and search for the clump of trees which guarded the secret +of No. 3 <i>cache</i>. +</p> +<p> +Sure enough, having beached my boat alongside the dinghy and climbed +the green knoll above the foreshore, I spied their footprints on the +sandy edge of the stream which here fetched a loop before joining the +tidal waters of the creek. They led me along a flat meadow of +exquisitely green turf, fringed with palmetto-trees, to the entrance +of a narrow gorge through which the stream came tumbling in a series +of cascades, spraying the ferns that overhung it. The forest with +its undergrowth pressed so closely upon either bank that after +scrambling up beside the first waterfall I was forced to take off +shoes and stockings and work my way up the irregular bed, now wading +knee-deep, now clambering or leaping from boulder to boulder; and, +even so, to press from time to time through the meeting boughs, +shielding my face from scratches. So, for at least a mile, I climbed +as through a narrow green tunnel, and at the end of it found myself +wet to the skin. Five waterfalls I had passed, and, beside the +fourth, where the bank was muddy, had noted a long, smooth mark, and +recent, such as a man's foot might make in slipping; so that I felt +pretty confident of being on my companions' track, though I wondered +how the Captain, with his lame leg, could sustain such a climb. +</p> +<p> +But above the fifth waterfall the stream divided into two branches, +and at the fork of them I stood for a while in doubt which to choose. +So far as volume of water went, there was, indeed, little or nothing +to choose. If direction counted, the main stream would be that which +came rushing down the gorge straight ahead of me—a gorge which, +however, as my eye followed the V of its tree-tops up to the +sky-line, promised to grow steeper and worse tangled. On the other +hand, the tributary (as I shall call it), which poured down from a +lateral valley on my left, ran with an easier flow, as though drawing +its waters from less savage slopes. I could not see these slopes—a +bend of the hills hid them; but I reasoned that if a clump of trees, +separate and distinguishable, stood anywhere near the banks of +either stream, it might possibly be found by this one. The other +showed nothing but a close mass of vegetation. +</p> +<p> +Accordingly I turned my steps up the channel to the left, and was +rewarded, after another twenty minutes' scramble, by emerging +upon a break in the forest. On one side of the stream rose a +reddish-coloured cliff, almost smooth of face and about seventy or +eighty feet high, across the edge of which the last trees on the +summit clutched with their naked roots, as though protesting +against being thrust over the precipice by the crowd behind them. +The other bank swelled up, from a little above the water's edge, to a +fair green lawn, rounded, grassy, and smooth as a glade in an English +park. At its widest I dare say that, from the stream's edge back to +the steep slope where the forest started again and climbed to a tall +ridge that shut in the glen on the south side, it measured something +over two hundred yards. +</p> +<p> +"Here," thought I, glancing up the glade towards the westering sun, +"is the very spot for our clump of, trees;" and so it was—only no +clump of trees happened to be in sight. The glade, however, +stretched away and around a bend of the stream, and I was moving to +the bank to explore it to its end when my eyes were arrested by +something white not ten paces away. It was a piece of paper caught +against one of the large boulders between which, as through a broken +dam, the water poured into the ravine. I waded towards it and +stooped, steadying myself against the current. +</p> +<p> +It was a paper boat. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0026"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVI. +</h2> +<center> +THE WOMEN IN THE GRAVEYARD. +</center> +<p> +I turned it over in my hand. Yes; it was a boat such as children +make out of paper, many times folded, and "What on earth," thought I, +"put such childishness into the head of Captain Branscome or Mr. Jack +Rogers?" +</p> +<p> +Then it occurred to me that they might be caught in some peril higher +up the stream, and had launched this message on the chance of its +being carried down to the waters of the creek. A far-fetched +explanation, to be sure! But what was I to think? If it were the +explanation, doubtless the paper contained writing, and, carrying it +to the bank, I seated myself and began to unfold it very carefully; +for it was sodden, and threatened to fall to pieces in my hands. +Then I reflected that the two men carried no writing materials, or, +at the best, a lead pencil, the marks of which would be obliterated +before the paper had been two minutes in the water. +</p> +<p> +Yet, as I parted the folds, I saw that the paper had indeed been +scribbled on, though the words were a smear; and, moreover, that the +writing was in ink! +</p> +<p> +In ink! My fingers trembled and involuntarily tore a small rent in +the pulpy mass. I laid it on the grass to dry in the full sunshine, +seated myself beside it, and looked around me with a shiver. +</p> +<p> +A paper boat—the paper written on—and the writing in ink! I could +be sworn that neither Captain Branscome nor Mr. Rogers carried an +inkbottle. The paper, too, was of a kind unfamiliar to me; thin, +foreign paper, ruled with faint lines in watermark. Certainly no one +on board the <i>Espriella</i> owned such writing-paper or the like of it. +But again, the paper could not have been long in the water, and the +writing seemed to be fresh. As the torn edges crinkled in the heat +and curled themselves half-open, I peered between them and +distinguished a capital "R," followed by an "i"; but these letters +ran into a long smear, impossible to decipher. +</p> +<p> +I had flung myself prone on the grass, and so lay, with chin propped +on both palms, staring at the thing as if it had been some strange +beetle—staring till my eyes ached. But now I took it in my fingers +again and prised the edges a little wider. Below the smear came a +blank space, and below this were five lines ruled in ink with a +number of dotted marks between them. . . . A smudged stave of music? +Yes, certainly it was music. I could distinguish the mark of the +treble clef. Lastly, at the foot of the page, as I unwrapped it at +length, came a blurred illegible signature. +</p> +<p> +But what mattered the sense of it? The writing was here, and recent. +No one on board the <i>Espriella</i> could have penned it. The island, +then, was inhabited—now, at this moment inhabited, and the +inhabitants, whoever they might be, at this moment not far from me. +</p> +<p> +I crushed the paper into my pocket, and stood up, slowly looking +about me. For a second or two panic had me by the hair. I turned to +run, but the dense woods through which I had ascended so +light-heartedly had suddenly become a jungle of God knows what +terrors. I remembered that from the first cascade upward I had +scarcely once had a view of more than a dozen yards ahead, so thickly +the bushes closed in upon me. I saw myself retracing my steps +through those bushes, in every one of which now lurked a pair of +watching eyes. I glanced up at the cliff across the stream. +For aught I knew, eyes were watching me from its summit. +</p> +<p> +Needless to say, I cursed the hour of my transgression, the fatal +impulse that had prompted me to break ship. I knew myself for a +fool; but how might I win back to repentance? As repent I certainly +would and acknowledge my fault. Could I keep hold on my nerve to +thread my way back and over those five separate and accursed +waterfalls? If only I were given a clear space to run! +</p> +<p> +At this point in the nexus of my fears it occurred to me, glancing +along the green lawn ahead, that the ridge on its left must run +almost parallel with the creek; that it was sparsely wooded in +comparison with the ravine behind me, and that from the summit of it +I might even look straight down upon the <i>Espriella's</i> anchorage. +Be this as it might, I felt sure, considering the lie of the land, +that here must be a short cut back to the creek; and once beside its +waters I could head back along the beach and regain my boat. +Down there I might dismiss my fears. The upper portion of the beach, +if I mistook not, remained uncovered at the top of any ordinary +tides, and it wanted yet a good two hours to high-water, so that I +had not the smallest doubt of being able to reach the creek-head, no +matter at what point of the foreshore I might descend. From the bank +where I stood I had the whole ridge in view above the dense foliage, +and could select the most promising point to make for; but this would +sink out of sight as I approached the first belt of trees, and beyond +them I must find my way by guesswork. +</p> +<p> +I now observed a sharp notch breaking the line of the ridge, about a +mile to the westward, and walked some few hundred yards forward on +the chance that it might widen as I drew more nearly abreast of it, +and open into a passage between the hills. Widen it did, but very +gradually—the stream curving away from it all the while; and by and +by I halted again, in two minds whether to break straight across for +it or continue this slow process of making sure. +</p> +<p> +I had now reached a point where the tall cliff on the opposite shore +either ended abruptly or took a sharp turn back from the stream. +I could not determine which, and walked forward yet another two +hundred yards to satisfy myself. This brought me in view of a grove +of palmettos, clustering under the very lee of the rock—or so it +appeared at first, but a second look told me that here the stream +again divided, and that the new confluent swept by the base of the +rock, between it and the palmettos, three or four of which (their +roots, maybe, sapped by bygone floods) leaned sideways and almost hid +the junction. +</p> +<p> +I was turning away, resolved now to steer straight for the notch in +the hills, when for the second time a gleam of something white +arrested me, and I stood still, my heart in my mouth. The white +object, whatever it was, stood within the circle of the palmetto +stems, yet not very deep within it—a dozen yards at farthest from +the stream's edge. I stared at it, and the longer I stared the more +I was puzzled, until I plunged into the water and waded across for a +closer look. +</p> +<p> +Gaining the bank, I saw, first, that the white object was but one of +many, disposed behind it in two rows as regular as the tree-stems +allowed; next, that these objects were wooden boards, pained white. +And with that, as I stepped towards the foremost, my foot slipped and +I fell, twisting my ankle and narrowly saving myself from an ugly +sprain. I had stumbled in a hollow, shallow depression between the +mounds. Picking myself up, I saw that to left and right and all +around me the turf was ridged with similar mounds, the whole +enclosure full of them. In a flash I read the meaning of the +white-painted boards. Yes—and there was writing on them, too—no +words, but single letters and dates, roughly painted in black— +"O. M., 1796"—"R. A. S., 1796"—"P d. V. and A. M. d. V., 1800"— +these, and perhaps two score of others. The shape of the mounds +interpreted these inscriptions. +</p> +<p> +I was in a graveyard. +</p> +<p> +I sat helpless for a minute, dreadfully scanning the gloom through +which the massed palmetto-tops admitted but a shaft of light here and +there. The flies, which had been a nuisance across the stream, here +swarmed in myriads so thick that they seemed to hang in clusters from +the boughs; and their incessant buzzing added to the horror of the +place a hint of something foul, sinister, almost obscene. +</p> +<p> +I had a mind to creep away on all-fours, but suddenly forgot my ankle +and sprang erect, on the defensive, at the sound of voices. A grassy +path led through the enclosure, between the graves, and at the end of +it appeared two figures. +</p> +<p> +They were two women; the first a negress, short, squat, and ugly, +wearing a frock of the gaudiest yellow, and for head-dress a scarlet +handkerchief, bound closely about her scalp and tied in front with an +immense bow; the other—but how shall I describe the other? +</p> +<p> +She was white, and she wore a dress of fresh white muslin; a short +dress, tied about the waist with a pale-blue sash, and above the +shoulders with narrow ribbons of the same colour. Her figure was +that of a girl; her ringlets hung loose like a girl's. She walked +with a girlish step; and until she came close I took her for a girl +of sixteen or seventeen. +</p> +<p> +Then, with a shock, I found myself staring into the face, which might +well belong to a woman between sixty and seventy, so faded it was and +reticulated with wrinkles; and into a pair of eyes that wavered +between ingenuousness and a childish cunning; and from them down to +her slim ankles and a pair of dancing-shoes, so fairy-like and +diminutive that they seemed scarcely to press the grass underfoot. +</p> +<p> +The pair had drawn to a halt, while I stood uncertain whether to +brave them or make a bid for escape. I heard the negress cry aloud +in a foreign tongue, at the same time flinging up her hands; but the +other pushed past her and walked straight down upon me, albeit with a +mincing, tripping motion, as if she was pacing a dance. +</p> +<p> +Twice she spoke, and in two different languages (as I recognized, +though able to make nothing of either), and then, halting before me, +she tried for the third time in English. +</p> +<p> +"Boy"—she looked at me inquiringly—"what you do here—will you +tell?" +</p> +<p> +"I come from the ship, ma'am," said I, finding my tongue. +</p> +<p> +"The sheep? He bring a sheep? But why?—and why he bring you?" +</p> +<p> +I stared at her, not understanding. "Ma'am," said I, pointing over +my shoulder, "we came here in a ship—a schooner; and she is lying in +the creek yonder. I landed and climbed up through the woods. On my +way I found this." +</p> +<p> +I held out the paper boat. She caught it out of my hand with a sharp +cry. But the black woman, at the same instant, turned on her and +began to scold her volubly. The words were unintelligible to me, but +her tone, full of angry remonstrance, could not be mistaken. +</p> +<p> +"I am not sorry," said the white woman, speaking in English, with a +glance at me. "No, I do not care for his orders. It was by this +that you came to me?" she asked, turning to me again, and pointing +mincingly at the paper. +</p> +<p> +"I found it in the stream," I replied; "almost a mile below this." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes; you found it in the stream. And you opened it, and read +the writing?" +</p> +<p> +I shook my head. "The writing, ma'am, was blotted—I could read +nothing." +</p> +<p> +"Not even my little song?" She peered into the paper, threw up her +head and piped a note or two, for all the world as a bird chirrups, +lifting his bill, after taking a drink. "La-la-la—you did not +understand, hey? But, nevertheless, you came, and of your own will. +<i>He</i> did not bring you?" +</p> +<p> +I shook my head again, having no clue to her meaning. +</p> +<p> +"So best," she said, changing her tone of a sudden to one of extreme +gravity. "For if he found you here—here of all places—he would +kill you. Yes"—she nodded impressively "for sure we would kill you. +He kill all these." +</p> +<p> +She waved a hand, indicating the grave-mounds. Her voice, at these +dreadful words, ran up to an almost more dreadful airiness; and still +she continued nodding, but now with a sort of simpering pride. +"All these," she repeated, waving her hand again towards the mounds. +</p> +<p> +"Did you see him kill them?" I asked, wondering whom "he" might be, +and scarcely knowing what I said. +</p> +<p> +"Some," she answered, with a final nod and a glance of extreme +childish cunning. "But why you not talking, Rosa?" she demanded, +turning on the negress. "You speak English; it is no use to +pretend." +</p> +<p> +The black woman stared at me for a moment from under her +loose-hanging lids. +</p> +<p> +"You go 'way," she said slowly. "You get no good in these parts." +</p> +<p> +"Very well, ma'am," said I, steadying my voice, "and the sooner the +better, if you will kindly tell me the shortest cut back to the +creek." +</p> +<p> +"<i>And</i>," the woman went on, not seeming to heed the interruption, +"you tell the same to your friends, that they get no good in these +parts. But, of us—and of this"—she pointed to the sodden paper +which she had snatched from her mistress's hands—"you will say +nothing. It might bring mischief." +</p> +<p> +"Mischief?" I echoed. +</p> +<p> +"Mischief—upon <i>her</i>." +</p> +<p> +"But this is nonsense you talk, Rosa!" broke in the little lady. +"At the most, what have I written?—a little song from Gluck, the +divine Gluck! Just a little song of Eurydice calling to Orfeo. +Ah! you should have heard me sing it—in the days before my voice +left me; in the opera, boy, and the King himself splitting his gloves +to applaud us! Eh, but you are young, very young. I should not +wonder to hear you were born after I left the stage. And you are +pretty, but not old enough to be Orfeo yet. I must wait—I must +wait, though I wait till I doubt if I am not changed to Proserpine +with her cracked voice. Boy, if I kissed you—" +</p> +<p> +She advanced a step, but the negress caught her by the wrist +violently, at the same moment waving me off. I felt faint and giddy, +as though some exhalation from the graveyard—not wholly repellent, +but sickly, overpowering, like the scent of a hothouse lily—had been +suddenly wafted under my nostrils. I fell back a pace as the negress +motioned me away. Her hand pointed across the stream, and across the +meadow, to the gap in the ridge. +</p> +<p> +"Fast as you can run," she panted; "and never come this way again." +</p> +<p> +The strong scent yet hung around me and seemed to bind me like a +spell, pressing on my arms and logs. I plunged knee-deep into the +stream. The cool touch of the water brought me to my senses. +I splashed across, waded up the bank, and set off running towards the +gap. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0027"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVII. +</h2> +<center> +THE MAN IN BLACK. +</center> +<p> +Before ever I gained the gap I was panting, and as I panted the blood +ran into my mouth from a deep scratch across the eyebrows. I tasted +it as I ran. My shirt hung in strips, and one stocking flapped open +on a rip from knee to ankle. But on the farther side of the ridge I +ran no longer. I flung myself and fell through the matted ferns +that, veiling the trough of a half-dry watercourse, now checked my +descent as I clutched at them, now parted and let me drop and bruise +myself on the rocky bottom. In the end, I found myself on soft sand +beside the blessed water of the creek, bloodied indeed—for I had +taken a shrewd knock on the bridge of the nose—but with a wrenched +shoulder and a jarred knee-pan for the worst of my hurts. I valued +them nothing in comparison with the terrors left behind in the woods. +The schooner lay in sight, scarcely half a mile below, and I sobbed +with gratitude as I dipped my face in the tide and washed off its +bloodstains. +</p> +<p> +The tide was still at flood, and wanted (as I guessed) less than an +hour of high water; but it left an almost continuous stretch of sand +between me and the creek-head, and I found that the short intervals +where it narrowed to nothing could be waded with ease. At first the +curve of the foreshore and the overhanging woods concealed the spit +of beach where I had made fast my punt beside the dinghy; but at the +corner which brought the boats in sight I was aware of two figures +standing beside them—Captain Branscome and Mr. Rogers. +</p> +<p> +I walked forward hardily enough; I had drunk my fill of terror, and +could have faced the Captain had he been thrice as formidable. +He did not help me at all, but stood with a thunderous frown, very +quiet and self-restrained, while I plodded my way up to him, over the +sand. +</p> +<p> +I think that, as I drew close, my battered appearance must have +shocked him a little. But his frown did not relax, and the muscles +of his mouth grew, if anything, tenser. +</p> +<p> +"You appear to have been in the wars," he said quietly. +"Has anything happened to the schooner?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir; at least not to my knowledge," was my answer; and he must +have; expected it, or he would have shown more perturbation. +"I saw her, not five minutes ago, lying at her moorings," I added, +with a nod towards the bend of the creek which hid her from us. +</p> +<p> +"Then why has Miss Belcher sent you?" +</p> +<p> +"She did not send me, sir." +</p> +<p> +"In other words, you have chosen to disobey orders?" +</p> +<p> +I suppose he read some sullenness in my attitude, for he repeated the +words sharply, in a tone that demanded an answer. +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry, sir; but all the same, it didn't seem fair to me to be +left on board without being consulted." +</p> +<p> +I heard him take a short breath, as though my impudence him in the +wind. For a full half a minute eyed me slowly up and down. +</p> +<p> +"Get into your boat, sir, and return to the ship at once! +Mr. Rogers, this child is impossible. I must do what I would gladly +have avoided, and ask the ladies to give me more authority over him, +since they will not exercise it themselves." +</p> +<p> +At the implied sneer—and perhaps even more at the tone of it, so +foreign to the Captain Branscome that I knew—I blazed up wrathfully. +</p> +<p> +"If you mean by that," said I, "to threaten me with the rope's-end, I +advise you to try it. And if you mean that I'm child enough to be +tied to apron-strings of a couple of women, that's just of a piece +with the whole mistake you're making. No one's disputing your right +to give orders—" +</p> +<p> +"Thank you," he put in sarcastically. +</p> +<p> +"—To those," I went on, "who appointed you captain. But I wasn't +consulted, and until that happens, I shall obey or not, as I choose." +</p> +<p> +Now, this, no doubt, was extremely childish, even wickedly foolish, +and the more foolish, perhaps, because a few minutes ago I would have +given all I possessed, including my prospective share in the +treasure, for Captain Branscome's protection. But somehow, since +sighting the island, I had lost hold of myself, and my temper seemed +to be running all askew. Strange to tell, the Captain appeared to be +affected in much the same way. +</p> +<p> +"Why, you little fool," said he, "are you mistaking this for a +picnic?" +</p> +<p> +"No," I retorted; "I am not. And, if you'll remember, it wasn't I +who led the ladies to look forward to one." +</p> +<p> +He planted himself before me, and said he, looking at me sternly— +</p> +<p> +"See here, my boy, I don't want to make unpleasantness, and if you +force me to appeal to the whole ship's company, you know very well +you will find yourself in a minority of one." +</p> +<p> +"I don't care for that, sir. You'll be acting unfairly, all the +same." +</p> +<p> +"We'll let that pass. You tell here in the act of breaking ship, +that you're of an age to be consulted. Well, you shall have the +benefit of the doubt. You want to know, then, why I'm careful about +letting you run ashore? What would you say if I told you the island +has people upon it?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, first of all, sir, that if you found it out before dropping +anchor, it seems strange—your going ashore with Mr. Rogers and +leaving the rest to take care of themselves. But if you've +discovered it since—" +</p> +<p> +"I have not. I am not sure the island is inhabited; but as we were +running down the coast I saw something through my glasses—a coil of +smoke beyond the hills on the eastern side. Now, if, as seems +certain, this fire was lit by human beings, it almost stands to +reason they must have sighted our ship. Next comes the question Why +did I go ashore and take Mr. Rogers? Well, in the first place, we +didn't come here to lie at anchor and sail away again; and if the +island happened to be inhabited, and by people who don't want us, +why, then, the sooner we nipped ashore and prospected, the better, +for the spot where I sighted the smoke must lie a good five miles +from here as the crow flies, and by the shape of the hills and the +amount of scrub between 'em, those five miles must be equal to +fifteen. But why (say you) did I take Mr. Rogers? I took Mr. +Rogers, after consulting with Miss Belcher—" +</p> +<p> +"Does <i>she</i> know there are people on the island?" +</p> +<p> +"She does. I took Mr. Rogers because, if danger there be, it seemed +likelier we should find it ashore than on board the schooner; and +because, as the shortest way to make sure if these strangers were +after our treasure, we had agreed to make straight for the clump of +trees described on the back of the chart and examine whether the +ground thereabouts had been visited lately or disturbed; and, +further, because our search might require more strength and agility +than I alone, with my lame leg, could command. I felt pretty easy +about the schooner. She can only be attacked by boat, and I searched +the coast pretty narrowly on our way down without sighting one. +If these men possess a boat, she probably lies somewhere on the +eastern side, not far from their camp fire. If she lies nearer, it +must be somewhere under the cliffs to the south, in which case her +owners would have a long journey to reach her, and that journey must +take them around the head of the creek here. But (say you) there may +be two parties on the island—one by the camp fire northward, and +another under the south shore. I'll grant this, though I think it +unlikely; but, even so, to attack the schooner they must bring their +boat up the whole length of the entrance, where our people would have +her in view for at least two miles. This would give ample time for a +signal to recall us, and on the chance of it I left Goodfellow in +charge of two rockets with instructions to touch them off on a hint +of danger." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, oh!" said I. "So Mr. Goodfellow, too, knew of this? +And Plinny, I suppose? And, in fact, you told every one but me?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir," said Captain Branscome, gravely; "I did not trouble Miss +Plinlimmon with these perhaps unnecessary fears. To a lady of her +sensitive nature—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, well, sir," I interrupted and, turning aside pettishly, began to +haul my cockboat down to the water, "since you choose to treat me +like a baby of six, I suppose it's no wonder you take Plinny for a +timorous old fool." +</p> +<p> +"Sir!" exploded Captain Branscome, and glancing back over my shoulder +I saw him leaning on his stick and fairly trembling with wrath. +"This disrespectful language! And of a lady for whom—for whom—" +</p> +<p> +"Disrespect?"—I whistled. "Is it worse to speak disrespect or to +act it? I have known Plinny for years—you for a month or two; and +one of these days, if this expedition gets into a mess—as it likely +will with such handling—that sensitive lady will make you see +stars." +</p> +<p> +I knew, while I uttered it, that my speech was abominably +ill-conditioned; that Captain Branscome had, in fact, been holding +out the olive-branch, and that in common decency I ought to have +caught at it. In short, I felt my boyish temper going from bad to +worse, and yet, somehow, that I could not apply the brake to it. +</p> +<p> +"Why, confound the boy!" ejaculated Mr. Rogers. "What ever bee has +stung him?" And gripping me by the shoulder as I heaved at the boat, +he swung me round to face him. "Look here, young Harry Brooks! +Do you happen to be sickening for something, that you talk like a +gutter-snipe to a gentleman old enough to be your grandfather? +Or, damme, have you and Goodfellow been coming to blows? By the nose +of you and the state of your shirt a man would say you've come from a +street fight; and by your talk, that your head was knocked silly." +</p> +<p> +"It's all very well, Mr. Rogers," said I, sulkily, "and I know I +oughtn't to have spoken like that, but I hate to be tyrannized over. +That's why I didn't take your warning first along and pull back to +the ship—though I thank you for it all the same." +</p> +<p> +"Eh?" said Mr. Rogers. "My warning? What in thunder is the boy +talking about?" +</p> +<p> +"When you saw me sculling for shore, here, about an hour ago," I +explained, "you pretended not to see me, and went after Captain +Branscome; but I saw you, fast enough, standing on the bank yonder, +under the trees." +</p> +<p> +"For a certainty the child is mad!" Mr. Rogers stared at me +round-eyed. "<i>I</i> saw you? <i>I</i> pretended not to? Why, man alive, +from the time we left the ship I never set eyes on you (how should +I?), nor ever guessed you were ashore till we came back and found +your boat beside the dinghy. And as for standing under those trees, +I was never on the bank there for one second—no, nor for the half of +one. The Captain and I walked around the spit together—the tide has +covered our footmarks or I could show 'em to you." +</p> +<p> +"At any rate there <i>was</i> a man," I persisted. "And he couldn't have +been the Captain either, for he was wearing dark clothes—" +</p> +<p> +"The devil! I say, Branscome, listen to this—" +</p> +<p> +"I am listening," answered the Captain, gravely, taking, as he +stepped forward, a long look at the bank above us and at the dense +forest to right and left. "Did you see the man's face, Harry?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir, or I should not have mistaken him for Mr. Rogers. He was +standing there, under the boughs, and seemed to be looking through +them and watching me. I was sculling the boat along with a paddle +slipped in the stern notch, and he let me come pretty close—I +couldn't have been two hundred yards away—when he slipped to the +back of the trees, and I lost him." +</p> +<p> +"You didn't see him again?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir; I didn't land just at once. I had a mind at first to put +about and row to the schooner, thinking that Mr. Rogers had meant it +for a hint. When I brought the boat ashore, five minutes later, he +was gone." +</p> +<p> +"Which way did you take, then?" +</p> +<p> +"I went straight after you, sir, up the waterfalls; but couldn't find +any trace of you except at one spot just beside a waterfall—the +fourth, it was—where some one had slipped a foot—" +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Rogers," the Captain interrupted, "we had best get back to the +<i>Espriella</i> with all speed. I may tell you, Harry, that we never +went up by the waterfalls at all. It was a climb, and my half-pay +leg didn't like the look of it. But, jump into your boat, boy, and +pull ahead of us. You and I must do a little serious talking later +on." +</p> +<p> +We pulled back briskly for the <i>Espriella</i> and reached her just as +she began to swing with the turn of the tide. As we drew close—the +cockboat leading—I glanced over my shoulder and spied Plinny leaning +against the bulwarks by the starboard quarter, in the attitude of one +gently enjoying the sunset scene; but at the sight of my torn shirt +all her composure left her, and she came running to the accommodation +ladder, where she met me with a string of agitated questions. +</p> +<p> +"Excuse me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, as the dinghy fell +alongside and he climbed on deck. "I have no wish to alarm you, and, +indeed, there may be no cause at all for alarm. But Harry has +brought us some serious news. He reports that there is a man—a +stranger—on the Island." +</p> +<p> +"How could Harry have known?" was Plinny's unexpected response. +</p> +<p> +"He is confident that he saw a man, somewhat more than an hour since, +standing at the head of the creek." +</p> +<p> +"Now, that is very curious," said Plinny; "for the gentleman told me +he had borrowed Harry's boat without being observed." +</p> +<p> +"I—I beg your pardon, ma'am!" Captain Branscome stared about him. +"A gentleman, did you say?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and such distinguished manners! He left a message for you—and, +dear me, you should have heard how he praised my coffee!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0028"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII. +</h2> +<center> +THE MASTER OF THE ISLAND. +</center> +<p> +But here, as Captain Branscome leaned back and caught feebly at the +main rigging for support, there appeared above the after companion +(like a cognisance above an escutcheon) a bent fore-arm, the hand +grasping a beaver hat. It was presently followed by the head of Miss +Belcher, who nodded cheerfully, blinking a little in the level light +of the sunset. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" said she, addressing Plinny, while she adjusted the hat upon +her brow. "Have you been telling the Captain about our visitor?" +</p> +<p> +"Miss Plinlimmon, ma'am, has given me a shock, and I won't deny it," +answered the Captain, recovering himself. +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher continued to nod like a china mandarin. +</p> +<p> +"I don't wonder," she agreed. "For my part, you might have knocked +me down with a feather. The fellow came down the creek, cool as you +please, and pulling a nice easy stroke, in Harry's cockboat. +Where is Harry, by the way?"—her eyes lit and fastened upon me— +"Good Lord! what have you been doing to the child?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing, ma'am. He has been exploring, and lost his way; that's +all." +</p> +<p> +"H'm! he seems to have lost it pretty badly. Well, he deserved it. +But, as I was saying, along comes my gentleman, pulling with just the +easy jerk which is the way to make a boat of that sort travel. +Goodfellow was keeping watch. They say that a sailor will recognize +a boat half a mile further off than he'll recognize the man in it, +but Goodfellow isn't a sailor, so that explanation won't fit. +We'll say that he was prepared for the boat returning, but not to +find an entire stranger pulling her. At all events, he let her come +within a couple of gunshots before calling down to the cabin and +giving the alarm. I had my legs up on a locker, and was taking a +siesta over a book—'Parkinson <i>On The Dog</i>'—and, by the way, we +were a set of fools not to bring a dog; but I ran up the companion in +a jiffy, and had the sense to catch up your spyglass as I went. +Goodfellow by this time had begun to dance about the deck in a +flutter. He had the tinder-box in his hand, and wanted to know if he +should touch off a rocket. I ordered him to drop it, and fetch me a +musket, which he did. By this time I could see that the man in the +boat was unarmed, so I put up the musket at the 'present,' got the +sight on him, and called out to know his business. +</p> +<p> +"The man jerked the cockboat round with her stern to the schooner— +these boats come right-about with a single twist—and says he, very +politely lifting his hat, 'You'll pardon me, ma'am, but (as you see) +I have borrowed your young friend's boat. My own was not handy, and +this seemed the quickest way to pay my respects.' 'Indeed?' said I, +'and who may you be?' 'My name, ma'am,' said he, 'is Beauregard—Dr. +Beauregard.' 'I never heard of you,' said I. 'That, ma'am, is +entirely my misfortune,' said he, lifting his hat again; 'but allow +me to say that I am the proprietor of this island, and very much at +your service.' +</p> +<p> +"Well, this was a facer. It never occurred to any of us—eh?—that +this island might have an owner. To tell the truth, I'm a stickler +for the rights of property, at home; but somehow the notion of an +island like this belonging to any one had never entered my head. +Yet the thing is reasonable enough when you come to think it over; +and, of course, I saw that it put an entirely different complexion +upon our business here." +</p> +<p> +"My dear Lydia," put in Mr. Rogers, impatiently, "the man's claim +must be absurd. Why, the island is right in the tropics!" +</p> +<p> +"You wouldn't have thought it a bit absurd if you had heard him," +retorted Miss Belcher. "He appeared to be quite sure of his ground. +Very pleasant about it, too, he was; said that few visitors ever +honoured his out-of-the way home, but that as soon as any arrived he +always made it a matter of—of punctilio (yes, that was the word) to +put off and bid them welcome. He spoke with the slightest possible +foreign accent, but used admirable English: and, I don't know why," +wound up Miss Belcher, ingenuously, "but he seemed to divine from the +first that I was an Englishwoman." +</p> +<p> +"And it wasn't as if we had come here flaunting British colours," +added Plinny. +</p> +<p> +"But what sort of man was he?" asked the Captain. +</p> +<p> +"Height, six foot two or three in his stockings; age, about sixty; +face, clean shaven and fleshy; the features extraordinarily powerful; +hair, jet black, and dyed (if at all) by a process that would make +his fortune if he sold the secret; clothes, black alpaca and well +cut, with silk stockings that would be cheap at two guineas, and +shoes with gold buckles on 'em. I couldn't take my eyes off—no +display about 'em—and yet I doubt if King Louis of France over wore +the like before they cut his head off. Complexion, pale for this +climate, with a sort of silvery shine about it. Manner charming, +voice charming, bearing fit for a grand seigneur; and that's what he +is, or something like it, unless, as I rather incline to suspect, +he's the biggest scoundrel unhung." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Miss Belcher!" protested Plinny. "When you agreed with me that +he might have sat for a portrait of a gentleman of the old school!" +</p> +<p> +"Tut, my dear! When I saw that you had lost your heart to him as +soon as he set foot on deck! Did I say 'of the old school'? +Yes, indeed, and of the very oldest; and, in fact, quite possibly the +Old Gentleman himself." +</p> +<p> +Now, either I had spoiled Captain Branscome's temper for the day, or +something in this speech of Miss Belcher's especially rasped it. +</p> +<p> +"But who is this man?" he demanded, in a sharp, authoritative voice. +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher stepped back half a pace. I saw her chin go up, and it +seemed to grow square as she answered him with a dangerous coldness. +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon. I thought I told you that he gave his name as +Dr. Beauregard." +</p> +<p> +"You had no business, ma'am, to allow him on board the ship." +</p> +<p> +"No business?" +</p> +<p> +"No business, ma'am. I have just been having words with young Harry, +here, over his disobedience this afternoon; but this is infinitely +more serious. We are here to search for treasure. We no sooner drop +anchor than a man visits us, who claims that the island is his. +This at once presupposes his claim upon any treasure that may be +hidden upon it, and consequently that, as soon as he discovers our +purpose, he will be our enemy. It follows, I should imagine, that of +all steps the most fatal was to admit him on board to discover our +weakness." +</p> +<p> +"Our weakness, sir?" asked Miss Belcher, carelessly, as though but +half attending. +</p> +<p> +"Our weakness, ma'am; as it was doubtless to discover our weakness +that he came." +</p> +<p> +"Now, I rather thought," murmured Miss Belcher, "that Miss Plinlimmon +and I had spent a great part of this afternoon in impressing him with +our strength." +</p> +<p> +"To be sure," pursued Captain Branscome, "with such a company as he +found on board, he can scarcely have suspected a treasure hunt. +Still, when he does suspect it—as sooner or later he must—he will +know our weakness." +</p> +<p> +"He could scarcely have dealt with us more frankly than he did, at +any rate," said Miss Belcher, with an air of simplicity; "for he +assured us he was alone on the island." +</p> +<p> +"And you believed him, ma'am?" +</p> +<p> +"I forget, sir, if I believed him; but he certainly knows that we are +here in search of treasure, for I told him so myself." +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome gasped. "You—you told him so?" he echoed. +</p> +<p> +"I did, and he replied that it scarcely surprised him to hear it, +that of the few vessels which found their way to Mortallone, quite an +appreciable proportion came with some idea of discovering treasure. +The proportion, he added, had fallen off of late years, and the +most of them nowadays put in to water, but there was a time when +the treasure-seekers threatened to become a positive nuisance. +He said this with a smile which disarmed all suspicion. In fact, it +was impossible to take offence with the man." +</p> +<p> +But at this point Plinny, frightened perhaps at the warnings of +apoplexy in Captain Branscome's face, laid a hand gently on Miss +Belcher's arm. +</p> +<p> +"Are we treating our good friend quite fairly?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher glanced at her and broke into a ringing laugh. +</p> +<p> +"You dear creature! No, to be sure, we are not; but from a child I +always turned mischievous under correction. Captain Branscome, I beg +your pardon." +</p> +<p> +"It is granted, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"And—for I take you to be on the point of resigning, here and now—" +</p> +<p> +"Ma'am, you have guessed correctly." +</p> +<p> +"I am going to beg you to do nothing of the sort. No, I am not +going to ask it only as a favour, but to appeal to your reason. +You think it extremely rash of me to have entertained this man and +talked with him so frankly? Well, but consider. To begin with, if +I had not told him that we were after the treasure, he would probably +have guessed it; nay, I make bold to say that he guessed it already, +for—I forgot to mention it—he knows Harry Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"Knows <i>me</i>, ma'am?" I cried out, as all the company turned and +stared at me. +</p> +<p> +"He says so, and that he recognized you as you were sculling up the +creek." +</p> +<p> +"Knows <i>me</i>?" I echoed. "But who on earth can he be, then? Not—not +the man Aaron Glass, surely?" +</p> +<p> +"I was wondering," said Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"But—but Aaron Glass wasn't a bit like this man, as you make him +out; a thin, foxy-looking fellow, with sandy hair and a face full of +wrinkles, about the middling height, with sloping shoulders—" +</p> +<p> +"Then he can't be Aaron Glass. But whoever he is, he knows you— +that's the important point—and pretty certainly connects you with +the treasure. He didn't seem to have met Goodfellow before. +Well, now, if he lives alone here—which, I admit, is not likely—we +ought to be more than a match for him. If, on the other hand, he has +men at his call—and I ask your particular attention here, Captain— +it was surely no folly at all, but the plainest common sense, to +admit him on board. He will go off and report that our ship's +company consists of two middle-aged maiden ladies (I occupied myself +with tatting a chair-cover while he conversed); a boy; Mr. Goodfellow +(whatever he may have made of Goodfellow); and two gentlemen ashore +to whose mental and physical powers I was careful to do some +injustice. You will pardon me, Captain, but I laid more than +warrantable stress on your lameness; and us for you, Jack, I depicted +you as a mere country booby"—here Mr. Rogers bowed amiably—"and +added by way of confirmation that I had known you from childhood. +He will go back and report all this, with the certain consequence +that he and his confederates will mistake us for a crew of +crack-brained eccentrics." +</p> +<p> +When she had done, the Captain stood considering for a moment, +rubbing his chin. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," he admitted slowly, "there seems reason in that, ma'am; +reason and method. But 'tis a kind of reason and method outside all +my experience, and you must excuse me if I get the grip of it slowly. +I should like a good look at the man before saying more." +</p> +<p> +"As to that," answered Miss Belcher, "you won't have long to wait +for it. He has invited us all ashore to-morrow, for a picnic. +He charged me to say—if he did not happen to run against you as he +was returning the cockboat—that he would be at the creek-head +punctually at nine-thirty to await us." +</p> +<p> +Two hours later Captain Branscome sent word for me to attend him in +his cabin. +</p> +<p> +"I want to tell you, Harry Brooks," said the old man, turning away +from me while he lit his pipe, "that I have been thinking over what +happened this afternoon." +</p> +<p> +"I was in the wrong, sir." +</p> +<p> +"You were; and I am glad to hear you acknowledge it. Now, what I +want to say is this. Had affairs gone in the least as I expected, I +should have held you to 'strict service,' as we used to say on the +old packets. I never tolerated a favourite on board, and never +shall. But these ladies don't make a favourite of you; that's not +the trouble. The trouble—no, I won't call it even that—is that you +and they all cannot help taking the bit between your teeth. It don't +appear to be your fault; you wasn't bred to the sea, and can't tumble +to sea-fashions. 'So much the worse,' a man might say. The plague +of it is, I can't be sure; and after casting it up and down, I've +determined to let you have your way." +</p> +<p> +"You don't mean, sir, that you're going to resign!" said I, +confounded. +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't. Saving your objections, boy, I was elected captain, +and it don't do away with my responsibility that I choose to let +discipline go to the winds. If mischief comes I shall be to blame, +because I might have stopped it but didn't." +</p> +<p> +I was silent. This should have been the time for me to tell what I +had discovered that afternoon; of the graveyard and the two strange +women. But shame tied my tongue. I saw that this noble gentleman, +in imparting his thoughts to me, was really condescending to ask my +pardon; and the injustice of it was so monstrous that I felt a +delicacy in letting him know the extent of my unworthiness. +I temporized, and promised myself a better occasion. +</p> +<p> +"But are you quite sure, sir, that yours was not the wisest plan, +after all?" +</p> +<p> +"The question is not worth considering," he answered. "My policy— +you would hardly call it a plan, for it wholly depended on +circumstances—no longer exists. The ladies, you see, have forced my +hand." +</p> +<p> +I forbore to tell him that if the ladies had forced his hand his +accepting full responsibility was simply quixotic. +</p> +<p> +"She's a wonderful woman," said I, by way of filling up the pause. +</p> +<p> +"And so womanly!" assented Captain Branscome, to my entire surprise. +</p> +<p> +"Indeed, sir," I stammered. "Well, I <i>have</i> heard people say—Mr. +Rogers for one—that Miss Belcher ought to have been born a man." +</p> +<p> +"Miss Belcher? Why, heavens alive, boy, I was referring to Miss +Plinlimmon!" +</p> +<p> +He dismissed me with a wave of the hand, but called me back as I +turned to the door. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, by the way," said he, "I had almost forgotten the reason why I +sent for you. This man—have you any notion who he can be?" +</p> +<p> +"None, sir." +</p> +<p> +"You've thought over every possible person of your acquaintance? +Well"—as I nodded—"we shall know to-morrow morning, if he keeps his +word. Mr. Rogers has kindly undertaken to stay and look after the +schooner. He has a sense of discipline, by the way, has Mr. Rogers." +</p> +<p> +"If you wish me, sir, to stay with him-" +</p> +<p> +"Thank you," he interrupted dryly, "but we shall need you ashore; in +the first place to indentify this mysterious stranger, and also to +help protect the ladies. Their escort, Heaven knows, is not +excessive. We take the gig, and if the man fails to appear, or +brings even so much as one companion, I give the word to return." +</p> +<p> +But these apprehensions proved to be groundless. As we rowed around +the bend next morning into view of the creek-head the man stood there +alone, awaiting us. He saw us at once, and lifted his hat in +welcome. +</p> +<p> +"Do you know him, Harry?" asked Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"No," said I, pretty confidently, and then—"But, yes—in the garden, +that evening—the day you went up to Plymouth for the sale!" +</p> +<p> +"Eh? The garden at Minden Cottage? What on earth was he doing +there?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing, ma'am—at least, I don't know. He seemed to be taking +measurements, and he gave me a guinea. I rather think, ma'am, he was +the man that attended the auction." +</p> +<p> +"You never saw him until that evening?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Nor afterwards?" +</p> +<p> +"Only that once, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" said Miss Belcher. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0029"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIX. +</h2> +<center> +A BOAT ON THE BEACH. +</center> +<p> +As we drew to shore the stranger stepped down the beach and lifted +his hat again. +</p> +<p> +"Welcome, ladies; and let me thank you and all your party for this +confidence. The boy here—bless my soul, how he has grown in these +few months!—the boy and I have had the pleasure of meeting before. +Eh, Harry Brooks? You remember me? To the Captain I must introduce +myself. Shake hands, Captain Branscome. I am proud to make your +acquaintance. . . . But what is the meaning of these baskets? +You have brought your own provisions? Come, Miss Belcher, that is +unkind of you, when we agreed—yes, surely we agreed?—that you were +to be my guests." +</p> +<p> +"We were not sure, sir—" began Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"That I should keep my word? Worse and worse! Or possibly you +distrusted the entertainment of a solitary bachelor on a desert +island? But I must prove that you did me an injustice." He pointed +to a goodly hamper on the beach and to a frail or carpenter's basket +from which half a dozen bottles protruded their necks, topped with +red and green seals. "As proprietor of Mortallone—you will forgive +my laying stress on it—I may surely claim the right to do the +honours. Stay a moment, my good man," he added, as Mr. Goodfellow +made a motion to lift out our own hamper. "Miss Plinlimmon, I +believe, is an admirer of natural scenery, and, if the ladies will +step ashore for a few minutes, there is a waterfall above which may +reward her inspection; not by any means, ma'am, the grandest our +island can show, yet charming in its way and distant but a short five +minutes' walk. Captain Branscome will bear me out, and Harry, too— +yes, Harry, too, if I mistake not, visited it yesterday." +</p> +<p> +He put out a hand to assist the ladies to disembark, at the same time +hitching back the gun on his bandolier. +</p> +<p> +"You will excuse my having brought a musket. You have brought your +own, I see. Quite right. I carry it habitually; for, to tell you +the truth, the island contains a few wild boars who dispute +possession with me. A very few—we are not likely to meet with one, +so the ladies may reassure themselves! But, as I was about to say, +with the Captain's permission we will not unload here. Rather, after +visiting the waterfall, I would suggest that we row round to the +eastern side, where, if I may guide you, you will find choice of a +dozen delightful spots for a picnic. In this way, too, we shall +cover more ground and get a more general view of the beauties of the +island, which, as I dare say my friend Harry discovered yesterday, is +somewhat too thickly overgrown for easy travelling." +</p> +<p> +The man's manner—at once frank, chatty, and easily polite— +completely disconcerted me, and I could see it disconcerted the +Captain. It seemed to reduce the whole expedition to an ordinary +picnic; and (more astonishing yet) the ladies accepted it for that. +They fell in, one on each side of him, as he led the way to the +waterfall, and for a climax Miss Belcher shook out a parasol which +she had been carrying under her arm and spread it above her beaver +hat! +</p> +<p> +At the waterfall our host surpassed himself. The landscape +hereabouts (he declared) always reminded him of Nicholas Poussin. +He would like Miss Plinlimmon's opinion on the rock-drawing of +Salvator Rosa, a painter whom he gently depreciated. Had Miss +Plinlimmon ever visited the Apennines? He plucked a few of the ferns +growing in the spray and discoursed on them, comparing them with the +common European polypody. He turned to music, and challenged his +fair visitors to guess the note made by the falling water: it hummed +on E natural, rising now and then by something less than a semitone. +</p> +<p> +With all this it was not easy to suspect him of acting, as it was +next to impossible to mistake him for a trifler. His tall figure, +his carriage, the fine pose of his head, his resonant manly voice, +all forbade it, no less than did the wild scenery to which he drew +our attention with an easy proprietary wave of the hand. I observed +that Captain Branscome listened to him with a puzzled frown. +</p> +<p> +The waterfall having been duly admired, we retraced our steps to the +shore. The gig carried a small mast and lugsail, and, the faint wind +blowing fair down the creek, the Captain suggested our hoisting them. +I think it annoyed him to find himself appealing to Dr. Beauregard. +</p> +<p> +"By all means," said the Doctor, affably. "It will save labour till +we reach open water, when I will ask you to lower them. We had best +use the paddles after rounding the point to eastward, and keep close +inshore. I have my reasons for recommending this—reasons which I +shall be happy to explain to you, sir, at the proper time." +Here he bowed to Captain Branscome. +</p> +<p> +Accordingly we hoisted sail, and in a few minutes opened the view of +the lower reach, with the <i>Espriella</i> swinging softly at her cables, +her masts reflected on the scarcely rippled water. Miss Belcher +broke into a laugh at sight of Mr. Rogers wistfully eyeing us from +the deck. Dr. Beauregard echoed it, just audibly. +</p> +<p> +"Well, well, ma'am; it is hard upon Mr.—Rogers, did you tell me? +But we must not blame the Captain for taking precautions. +A very neat craft, Captain, and Jamaica-built, by the look of her." +</p> +<p> +"We picked her up at Savannah-la-Mar," announced Miss Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"After burning your boats, madam? Pardon me, but I find your +frankness as admirable as it is unexpected. Moreover, though Captain +Branscome deprecates it, no policy could be wiser." +</p> +<p> +"I see no reason, sir, for being less than candid with you," said +Miss Belcher. "You know whence we come end you know why we are here. +How we came is a trifling matter in comparison." +</p> +<p> +"Believe me, ma'am, your frankness is all in your favour. +I may repeat what I told you yesterday, that several expeditions have +come to this island seeking treasure; crews of merely avaricious men, +mad with greed, whom I have made it my business to baffle. +<i>You</i>, on the contrary, may almost count on my help; though whether +the treasure will do you much good when you have found it is another +question altogether. But we are not treasure-seeking just now, and I +shall grudge even the pleasure of talking if it steal your admiration +from my island." +</p> +<p> +The shore by which we steered was, indeed, entrancing, and grew yet +more entrancing as we rounded Cape Fea and, downing sail, headed the +gig for the north-east, pulling almost in the shadow of the cliffs; +for the sea lay calm as a pond, and broke in feeblest ripples even on +the beaches recessed here and there in the chasms. We passed +Try-again Inlet, and our wonder grew; for the cliffs now were mere +cliffs no longer but the bases of a range of mountains, broken into +rock slides with matted vines like curtains overhanging their scars; +and in the water, ten fathoms deep below us, we could watch the +coloured fishes at play. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow and I were at the oars; and we had been pulling, as I +judged, for something over an hour, but easily, for the tide could +hardly be felt, when Dr. Beauregard, who had taken the tiller, +steered us in towards a beach which he announced to be the, perhaps, +very choicest in the island for a picnic. +</p> +<p> +Certainly it was a fairy-like spot, with white sand underfoot, green +creepers overhanging, and through the creepers a rill of water +splashing down the cliff; yet we had passed at least a dozen other +beaches, which to me had looked no less inviting. +</p> +<p> +"We will leave the ladies to unpack the hampers," said Dr. +Beauregard. "I speak as a bachelor, but in my experience there is a +half-hour before lunch in which that man is best appreciated who +makes himself scarce. Captain Branscome, if you will not mind a +short scramble over the rocks here, to the left, I can promise you +something worth seeing." +</p> +<p> +He led the way at once, and we followed, the Captain (who appeared +to have lost his temper again) growling that he took no stock in +views. But the distance was not far. We scrambled over two low +ledges of rock and found ourselves looking down upon a beach even +prettier and more fairy-like than the one we had left—and upon +something more—a ship's boat, drawn about thirty feet above +high-water, and resting there on her side. +</p> +<p> +"Yours?" asked Captain Branscome, after a long stare at her. +</p> +<p> +"Certainly not," answered Dr. Beauregard. "And that is why I brought +you here." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0030"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXX. +</h2> +<center> +THE SCREAM ON THE CLIFF. +</center> +<p> +"A boat?" said Captain Branscome, staring again, and slowly rubbing +the back of his head. +</p> +<p> +He took a step forward, to descend to the beach and examine her, but +Dr. Beauregard laid a hand on his arm. +</p> +<p> +"Not so fast, my friend! <i>Qui dit canot dit canotier</i>—a glance will +assure you that she did not beach herself in that position, above +high-water mark, still less furl her own sail and stow it. +Further, if you study the country behind us, you will see that, while +we came unobserved and stand at this moment in excellent cover, by +crossing the beach we expose ourselves to observation and the risk of +a bullet." +</p> +<p> +"I take it, sir," answered Captain Branscome, still puzzled, "you +knew this boat to be here, and have brought us with some purpose." +</p> +<p> +"I knew it, to be sure, and my purpose is simple. We cannot have a +rival party of treasure-seekers on the island. We have ladies in our +charge—gentle, well-bred ladies—and of the crew of that boat, one +man, to my knowledge, is a pretty desperate ruffian. The other +two—" +</p> +<p> +"You have seen them, then?" +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard lifted his shoulders slightly, and took snuff. +</p> +<p> +"My good friend," he answered, "as lord proprietor of Mortallone, I +pay attention to all my visitors. Well, as I was saying, to cross +the beach just now would be venturesome and foolish to boot, seeing +that we hold all the cards and have only to wait." +</p> +<p> +"What of the ladies?" asked the Captain. +</p> +<p> +"We can return at once and join them at luncheon. But the ladies, as +you remind me, complicate the affair. Before you arrived, I had laid +my plans to let these rascals have the run of the island and amuse me +by their activities. I had, in fact, prepared a little deception for +them—oh, a very innocent little trick! I don't know, my dear sir, +if it has struck you how much simpler our amusements tend to become +as we grow older. I had promised myself to watch them, lying perdu, +and in the end to dismiss them with a quiet chuckle. You have read +your <i>Tempest</i>, Captain Branscome? Well, I have no obedient Ariel to +play will-o'-the-wisp with such gentry; yet I would have led them a +very pretty dance. But the ladies—the ladies, to be sure! +We cannot expose them to dangers, nor even to alarms. We must use +more summary methods." He stood for a moment or two reflective, +tapping his snuff-box. "Mr. Goodfellow is a carpenter, I +understand." +</p> +<p> +"At your service, sir." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow's hand went halfway to his waistcoat pocket, as if to +produce his business card. +</p> +<p> +"I seem to remember, Mr. Goodfellow that you carry a bag of tools in +the boat?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Including, no doubt, an auger, or, at any rate, a fair-sized +gimlet?" +</p> +<p> +"Both, sir." +</p> +<p> +"You will greatly oblige me, then, Mr. Goodfellow—always with +Captain Branscome's leave—by returning to the boat and fetching your +auger; if possible, without attracting the ladies' observation. +With this instead of returning direct to us, you will make your way +to the left, towards the head of the beach, keeping well under the +rocks, which will serve you from landward. At the head of the beach +you will bring us into sight a pace or two before you come abreast of +the boat. There, at a signal from me, you will creep down to the +boat—on hands and knees, or on your stomach if you will—and bore me +three small holes close alongside her keelson, using as much +expedition as may consist with neatness. You understand? Then the +quicker you set about it, the less will be the risk." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow touched his forelock, and sped on his errand. +Dr. Beauregard seated himself on the rocks, and loosing the gun from +his bandolier, laid it across his knees. +</p> +<p> +"A simple job," he remarked. "Any one of us could do it as well as +Goodfellow. But it is a practice of mine to take the smallest risks +into account; and if the honest fellow <i>should</i> be detected, why, I +imagine he can be the most easily spared of the party." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow, however, reached the boat without misadventure. +</p> +<p> +"Ah, he displays intelligence!" commented Dr. Beauregard, watching +him as, before setting to work, he lifted the boat's gunwale and +heaved her over on her other side, exposing the bilgepiece on which +she had been resting. "Yes, decidedly, he displays intelligence." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Goodfellow having stripped off his coat, picked up his auger and +bored his three holes very neatly. This done be rubbed them over +with a handful of sand, and smoothed over with sand all traces of +sawdust, heaved the boat back, so that she rested again in her +original position; and retired, sweeping his coat behind him, and +obliterating his footprints as he went. +</p> +<p> +"Couldn't be bettered!" said Dr. Beauregard, smiling cheerfully and +smoothing his gun-barrel. "And now I think we may rejoin the ladies +and pray that these rascals will put off disturbing us until after +luncheon. At one time I feared they might have taken a panic +yesterday morning at sight of your schooner; but they calculated, +maybe, that the chances were all against your discovering their +presence, which, of course, you never suspected." +</p> +<p> +"I suspected something fast enough," said Captain Branscome, "for in +running along the coast I caught sight of smoke rising among the +hills—from a camp-fire, as I reckoned—and no doubt from here or +hereabouts, though I should have put it a mile or two farther south." +</p> +<p> +"The born fools!" said Dr. Beau-regard, laughing. "Well, it's even +possible that in their furious preoccupation they let the schooner +come close without spying her. Ah, Captain, you can hardly imagine— +you, fresh from a civilized country, where folks must keep up +appearances, while they prey upon one another—how this lust of gold +brutalizes a man when, as here, he pursues it without restraint. +And what, after all, will gold purchase?" +</p> +<p> +"Not happiness, I verily believe," said the Captain, "though to the +poor—and I speak as one who has been bitterly poor—it may bring +happiness for a while in the shape of relief from grinding +discomfort." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes; as pleasure lies in mere cessation from pain. But that +does not meet my question. We will take Master Harry here, who seems +a good, ordinary healthy boy. We will suppose him in possession of +the treasure you are here to seek. What in the end can he purchase +with it better than the fun he is getting out of this expedition? +He can indulge all his senses, but for a while only; in the end +indulgence brings satiety, dulls the appetite, takes the savour from +the feast, and so destroys itself. He can purchase power, you say? +But that again moves one difficulty but a step further. For what +will his power give him when he has won it? These are questions, +Captain, which I have asked myself daily here on this island. +I have been asking them ever since, and while I was yet a young man +they came to wear for me a personal application. 'Vanity of +vanities,' Captain—what the Preacher discovered long ago I +discovered again and of my own experience." +</p> +<p> +"The Christian religion, sir—" began Captain Branscome. But here +our strange host laid a hand on his arm. +</p> +<p> +"We forget our politeness," he interrupted, yet gently, and without +suspicion of offence. "We keep the ladies waiting." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Branscome and I," said our host, as he seated himself +beside Miss Belcher, and uncorked one of the green-sealed bottles, +"have been talking platitudes, to which, however, our present +business lends a certain fresh interest. You are here, many +thousands of miles from home, on a hunt for treasure. Now, Heaven +forbid that I should criticise your intentions, seeing that +incidentally I am in debt to them for this delightful picnic; but +before I help you—as, believe me, I am disposed to help—may I ask +what you propose to do with this wealth when you get it?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, sir," answered Miss Belcher, candidly, "we discussed that, you +may be sure, before starting. The bulk of it, after paying expenses, +was to go to young Brooks, here. Circumstances had given him, as we +supposed—and for the matter of that, as we still believe—the clue +to the treasure—" +</p> +<p> +"Pardon me, ma'am, for interrupting you; but did that clue take the +form of a map of the island?" +</p> +<p> +"It did, sir." +</p> +<p> +"A map with three red crosses upon it and some writing on the back? +Nay, I will not press the question. Your faces answer it." +</p> +<p> +"I ought to tell you, Dr. Beauregard, in justice to the boy, that he +came by it honestly, though in very tragic circumstances." +</p> +<p> +"Again, ma'am, your faces would answer for the honesty of your +business. As for the circumstances you speak of, it may save time if +I tell you that I know the whole story. Why, truly," he went on, as +we stared, "there is no mystery about it. I dare say, ma'am, the boy +has found an opportunity to whisper to you that he and I have met +before. It was at Minden Cottage, in his father's garden, and by the +very spot where his father was murdered. He found me there taking +measurements; for I had a theory about the crime—a theory of which I +need only say here that, though right in the main, it missed certain +details of which Harry's engaging conversation put me on the scent. +I had read of the murder quite accidentally; but it happened that I +knew something of Coffin—enough to explain his fate—and of the man +who had murdered him. But of Major Brooks I knew nothing; and what I +gathered by inquiry made the whole affair more and more puzzling. +At length I hit on the explanation that Coffin—who had reasons, and +strong ones, for going in deadly terror of Aaron Glass—had in some +way chosen this Major Brooks for his confessor, and journeyed to +Minden Cottage to deposit the secret with him; and that Glass, +following in pursuit, had surprised and murdered the both of them. +The exact catena of the two crimes mattered less to me than the +question: Had Glass possessed himself of the secret before making +off? At first I saw no room to doubt it. But your young friend's +account of himself sent me to Falmouth, and at Falmouth I began to +have my doubts. My earliest inquiries there were addressed to the +pedagogue—the Reverend Something-or-other Stimcoe—a drunken idiot, +who yielded no information at all; and to his wife, a lady who +persisted in regarding me as sent from heaven for no other purpose +than to discharge her small debts. From her, again, I learned +nothing. But from a talk with one of her pupils—his name was Bates, +if I remember—I discovered that Master Harry had been a particular +crony of Coffin's, and this, of course, threw light on Coffin's visit +to Minden Cottage. Still, there remained the question: Had Glass +managed to lay hands on the chart, or had it found its way, after +all, into the possession of Master Harry Brooks? You'll excuse me, +young sir"—Dr. Beauregard turned to me—"but during our talk in the +garden, your manner suggested to me that you had a card up your +sleeve. Well, whatever the answer, my obvious course was to return +to Mortallone and await it, as for fifteen years already I have been +awaiting it, though question and answer were but now beginning to +take definite form. Here you are then at last, and here am I— +<i>tout vient a point a qui sait attendre</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Then our arrival, sir, did not altogether surprise you?" said Miss +Belcher. +</p> +<p> +"On the contrary, ma'am—though for reasons you will not easily +guess—it surprised me as I have never been surprised in all my life +before; it confounded me, dumfounded me, made chaos of my plans, +and—and—I am delighted to welcome you, ma'am! I desire to be +allowed the honour of taking wine with you." +</p> +<p> +"Willingly!" assented Miss Belcher, holding out her glass to be +replenished; "and the more so because I never drank better Rhone wine +in my life." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard stood up and bowed, his fine features overspread with +a flush of pleased astonishment. +</p> +<p> +"Madam—" began Dr. Beauregard, and I have no doubt he had a +compliment on his lips. But at that moment the hills and the +amphitheatre of cliff behind us, rang out—rang out and echoed—with +two terrible screams. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0031"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXI. +</h2> +<center> +AARON GLASS. +</center> +<p> +The second scream followed the first almost before we could lift our +faces to the cliff. Dr. Beauregard had risen to his feet quickly, +without fuss, and was unstrapping his gun. But Miss Belcher was +quicker. A couple of muskets lay on the sand close beside the +luncheon-cloth, and in a trice she had snatched up one of them, and +held our host covered. +</p> +<p> +"You have deceived us, sir," she said quietly. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard looked along the barrel and into her eyes with an +admiring, half-quizzical smile. +</p> +<p> +"Good," said he. "Good, but unnecessary. That the island is +inhabited I supposed you to know, since Captain Branscome tells me he +reported catching sight of smoke yesterday when off the western +coast; but the fellows—there are, or were, three of them, by the +way—are no friends of mine." +</p> +<p> +"We have only your word for it," said Miss Belcher, without lowering +her musket. +</p> +<p> +"True, ma'am," the Doctor assented, with a bow. "I am about to give +you proof. But first of all oblige me by listening for another +moment." +</p> +<p> +He held up his hand, and while we all listened I looked around from +face to face. Captain Branscome had unslipped his gun, and stood +eyeing the Doctor with a puzzled frown. Plinny stared up at the +cliffs. She was white to the lips, but the lips were firmly set; +whereas Mr. Goodfellow's jaw hung as though loosed from its +tacklings. +</p> +<p> +So we waited for twenty seconds, maybe; but no third scream came down +from the heights. +</p> +<p> +"That makes one accounted for," said Dr. Beauregard. "I have known, +first and last, eleven parties who hunted treasure on this island. +They all quarrelled. They quarrelled, moreover, every one of them, +before getting their stuff—such as it was—to the boats. Now, if +you will permit me to say so, your own success—when you obtain it— +will be a fluke and an absurd fluke. It will stultify every rule of +precaution and violate every law of chance. I have studied this game +for close upon twenty years, and reduced it almost to mathematics; +and I foresee that you will play—nay, you have already played— +ninepins with my most certain conclusions. But you have as +gentlefolks, with all the disabilities of gentlefolks, the one thing +that all these experts have fatally lacked. You have self-command." +</p> +<p> +"It appears to me that we need it, at any rate," said Miss Belcher, +tartly, "if we are to be favoured just now with a lecture." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard smiled. "The purport of my lecture, ma'am, was to +prepare you for a question which I have to put. When these men +arrive, Captain Branscome, Mr. Goodfellow, and I must deal with them. +Are you ladies prepared to exercise strong self-control? Will you, +with Harry Brooks, await us here until our business is over?" +</p> +<p> +"Excuse me, sir, but I must first know what your business is." +</p> +<p> +"That, ma'am, will depend upon circumstances; but it is more than +likely to be serious." +</p> +<p> +"I must trouble you, now and always, to speak to me definitely. +If you propose to shoot these men, kindly say so." +</p> +<p> +"I do not, ma'am. But their boat lies on the next beach, and as soon +as they launch her they will discover us; and as soon as they +discover us it will be life for life." +</p> +<p> +"But they need not discover us. In five minutes we can embark +ourselves and our belongings; in less than fifteen we can round the +point to the south'ard, and beyond it lie two or three small coves +where, as I judged in passing, a boat can lie reasonably safe from +observation." +</p> +<p> +"Admirably reasoned, ma'am. By all means take the boat—take Harry +Brooks with you, and Mr. Goodfellow for protection. But Captain +Branscome and I must stay and see it out with these men." +</p> +<p> +"For my part," put in Plinny, "I cannot see why these men have not as +much right as we to the treasure; and, in any case, if we let them go +they leave us a clear coast to hunt for the rest." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Branscome"—Dr. Beauregard turned to him—"do these ladies, +as a rule, assert a voice in your dispositions?" +</p> +<p> +"They do, sir," answered the Captain, with a tired smile; "and if you +will take my advice, the only way with them is to make a clean breast +of everything." +</p> +<p> +"I will." The Doctor faced about, with a smile. "You must know then, +ladies, that these two ruffians—for by this time there are two +only—will presently be coming down to the next beach to launch their +boat and leave the island. How do I know this? Because my study of +treasure-hunters has given me a kind of instinct; or because, if you +prefer it, I have observed that the moment—the crucial moment—when +these fellows quarrel is always the moment when, having laid hands on +as much as they can carry, they turn to retreat. You doubt my +diagnosis, ma'am?" he asked, turning to Miss Belcher. "Then I can +convince you even more simply. These men are not camping here +to-night; they will not return to-morrow to fetch a second load; and +for the sufficient reason that there is no second load. I know the +amount of treasure hidden where they have been searching. Two men +can lift and carry it easily." +</p> +<p> +"How do you happen to know this?" asked Miss Belcher, eyeing him from +under contracted brows. +</p> +<p> +"For the excellent reason, ma'am, that I put the treasure there +myself." +</p> +<p> +The answer, staggering to the rest of us, seemed to brace her +together. She had lowered her musket at the beginning of the +discussion; but now, throwing up her head with a sharp jerk, she +levelled her eyes on Dr. Beauregard's, as straight as though they +looked along a gun-barrel. +</p> +<p> +"Then it can hardly be for the sake of the treasure, sir, that you +propose to deal with these men." +</p> +<p> +"It is not, ma'am." +</p> +<p> +"Nor solely to protect us from them, since you have brought us here, +where we need never have come." +</p> +<p> +"No, ma'am. I brought you here because I cannot be in two places at +once, and it was necessary to keep both parties under my eye. +Having brought you, I am bound to protect you; but my main business +here, and yours—or at any rate Captain Branscome's—is to punish." +</p> +<p> +"To punish? But why to punish?" +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard hesitated, with a glance at Plinny and at me, who +stood beside her. +</p> +<p> +"A word in your ear, ma'am—if you will allow me?" +</p> +<p> +He stepped close to Miss Belcher, and spoke a sentence or two which I +could not catch. But my eyes were on her face, and I saw it change +colour. The next moment her square mouth shut like a trap. +</p> +<p> +"If that be so, I wait for him along with you," she announced. +"Oh, you may trust me, sir! I have a fairly strong stomach with +criminals, and no sentiment." +</p> +<p> +"It shall be as you please, ma'am. But, for the others, I would +suggest their taking the boat and awaiting us around the point. +See, the tide has risen, and within five minutes she will float. +Mr. Goodfellow, will you accompany Miss Plinlimmon and the boy? +Wait, please, until completely afloat before pushing off; for our +friends must be near at hand by this time, and the grating of her +keel might give them the alarm. For the same reason, ma'am, unless +you have any particular question to ask, we had best start at once, +and, when we have started, keep the strictest silence. Shall I lead +the way?" +</p> +<p> +They set off very cautiously, the Doctor leading, Miss Belcher close +at his heels. Captain Branscome a couple of paces behind her; gained +the ridge, and passed out of sight around an angle of the rocks. +Now, to be left in this fashion was not at all to my mind. +It seemed to me that, when serious business was on hand, every one +conspired to treat me as a baby. I had told Captain Branscome +yesterday that I would not put up with it; and though I stood in far +greater awe of Dr. Beauregard than of the Captain, I felt none the +less mutinous now. Plinny, who in moments of agitation invariably +had recourse to some familiar work for a sedative, was on her knees +repacking the luncheon-baskets. Her back was turned to me, and from +her I glanced towards Mr. Goodfellow, who had stepped down to the +boat, and was leaning over the gunwale to rearrange the gear. +From him I looked up the beach, to the ridge behind which the others +had disappeared, and to the creepers overhanging the cliff. +Suddenly it came into my head that by gaining the upper end of the +ridge, where it met the cliff, I could wriggle under these creepers, +and observe from behind them all that went on, as well on the next +beach as on this. And with another glance at Plinny's back I tiptoed +away. +</p> +<p> +I moved as swiftly as I dared, making no noise, nor looked behind me +until I reached the rocks under the cliff—the path by which Mr. +Goodfellow had crept round to scuttle the boat. +</p> +<p> +I calculated that by working my way along for fifty yards between +them and the rock-face I should gain an opening which, observed from +below, had seemed to promise me an excellent view of the next beach. +But they hung so heavily that I found myself struggling in an almost +impenetrable thicket; and when at length I gained the opening, and +drew breath, above the splash of waves on the beach I heard a sound +which caused me to huddle back like a rabbit surprised in the mouth +of its burrow. +</p> +<p> +Some three yards from my hiding the bank of low cliff bounding the +beach shelved upward and inland in a stretch of short turf, and from +the head of this slope came the thud of footsteps—of heavy footsteps +descending closer and closer. +</p> +<p> +I drew back under the creepers, and held my breath. Between their +thick woven strands my eyes caught only, to the right, a twinkle of +the sea; in front, a yard or two of white shingle glittering beyond +the green shade; and, five seconds later, this patch was blotted out +as two men plunged past my spyhole. They walked abreast, and carried +a box between them. I could hear them panting, so closely they +passed. +</p> +<p> +They halted on the edge of the bank. +</p> +<p> +"The boat's all right," said one; and I heard him jump down upon the +shingle. It seemed to me that I knew his voice. "Here, pass down +the blamed thing . . . d—n it all, man!" +</p> +<p> +"<i>I can't!</i>" whimpered the other. "S'help me, Bill, I can't. . . . +I'm not used to it, and I ain't got the nerve." +</p> +<p> +"Nerve? An' you call yourself a seaman! An' a plucky lot you +boasted the night we signed articles. . . . Nerve? Why, you was the +very man to find fault with him. 'Couldn't stand his temper another +day,' you said; and must do something desprit. Those were your very +words." +</p> +<p> +"I know it. I didn't think—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, to hell with your 'didn't think'! The man's dead, an' cryin' +won't bring him back. Much you'd welcome him, if he <i>did</i> come +back!" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Don't</i>, Bill!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, look you here, Jim Lucky! Stand you up, and help me get this +lot in the boat, and the boat to sea. After that you can lie quiet +and cry yourself sick. . . . You'll be all right to-morrow, fit as a +fiddle. I've been in this business before, and seen how it takes +men, even the strongest. It's the sight o' blood; but the stomach +gets accustomed. . . . By this day week you'll be lively as a flea in +a rug, and lookin' forward to drivin' in your carriage-an'-pair. +I promise you that; but what you've to do at this moment is to stand +up, and help me get down the boat. For if <i>he's</i> anywhere on this +island, God help the pair of us!" +</p> +<p> +"<i>He!</i>" quavered Jim Lucky. +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't wonder." +</p> +<p> +"But you told me he was dead!" +</p> +<p> +"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. That was to keep your spirits up. +But now I don't mind tellin' you that I'm not sure. He <i>ought</i> to +be dead by this time; but 'tis a question if the likes of him ever +die. He's own cousin to the devil, I tell you; and if he's anywhere +alive, like as not he's watching us at this moment." +</p> +<p> +Whatever this meant, it appeared to rouse Jim Lucky, and start him in +a panic. I heard him sob as he helped to lower their burden upon the +beach. All this time they had been standing immediately beneath me, +and I dared not lift my head for a look. But now, as they went +staggering down the beach, I parted the creepers, and stared in their +wake. They carried a heavy sea-chest between them, but my eyes were +neither for the chest nor for Jim Lucky, but for his companion, the +man he called Bill. +</p> +<p> +I knew him before I looked; and as I had recognized his voice, so now +I recognized his narrow, foxy head, and sloping shoulders. +</p> +<p> +It was Aaron Glass. +</p> +<p> +The two men carried the chest along at a rate that perhaps came +easily enough to Jim Lucky, who was a young giant of a seaman, but +was astonishing for a thin, windlestraw of a man such as Glass. +He ploughed his way across the sands like a demon, and had scarcely +set down the chest, a little above the water's edge, before he was +tugging at the boat. I heard him call to Lucky to help, and the pair +heave-y-hoe'd together as they strained at the gunwale to lift her +and run her down. +</p> +<p> +From this ridge, as yet, came no sign. +</p> +<p> +Presently from the boat—they had pulled her down to the water, and +were both stooping over her with their shoulders well inside, busy in +arranging her bottom board—I heard a fearful oath; an oath that rose +in a scream, as the two men faced each other, scared, incredulous. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Scuttled, by God!</i>" +</p> +<p> +It was Glass who screamed it out, and with the sound of it a host of +sea-birds rose from the neighbouring rocks, whitening the sky. +But Jim Lucky cast up both hands and ran. +</p> +<p> +"Stop, you fool! Stop!" +</p> +<p> +I think the poor creature had no notion whither he ran; that he was +merely demented. But, in fact, he headed straight for the ridge, +not turning his head. Twice Glass called after him; then, in a +sudden fury, whipped out a pistol and fired. For the moment I +supposed that he had missed, for the man ran for another six strides +without seeming to falter, then his knees weakened, and he pitched +forward on his face. +</p> +<p> +I believe, on my word, that Glass had either fired in blind passion +or with intent to stop the man rather than to kill him. He stood and +stared; and, while the pistol yet smoked in his hand, I saw Dr. +Beauregard step forth from his shelter, step delicately past the +corpse, and raise his musket; and heard his clear, resonant voice +call out— +</p> +<p> +"Both hands up, Mr. Glass, if you please!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0032"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXII. +</h2> +<center> +WE COME TO DR. BEAUREGARD'S HOUSE. +</center> +<p> +Glass's arm fell limp by his side, as though Dr. Beauregard had +actually pulled the trigger and winged him. He turned half-about as +the pistol slid from his fingers. He gave no cry; only there leached +us a loose, throttling sound such as a steam whistle makes before +fetching its note. It came to us in the lull between two waves that +broke and raised up the sands to ripple round his feet. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Both</i> hands up, Mr. Glass!" +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard advanced a step. +</p> +<p> +But instead of lifting his arms, the man curved them before him, and +held them so, as if to protect his treasure, while he sank on his +knees beside the box. His face was yellow with terror. +</p> +<p> +"You fool!" The Doctor, still holding him covered, advanced step by +step to the box, and bent over it, staring down at him. The rest of +us—that is to say, Miss Belcher, Captain Branscome, and I—under I +know not what compulsion, followed and came to a halt a few paces +behind him. Standing so, I felt, rather than saw, that Plinny and +Mr. Goodfellow, attracted by the report of the pistol, were peering +at us over the ridge of rocks on the right. +</p> +<p> +"You fool!" Dr. Beauregard repeated, and suddenly dropped the butt of +his musket upon the loose cover of the chest. +</p> +<p> +"You fool!" said he, a third time, and tearing aside a splintered +board, dipped his hand and held it up full of sparkling stones. +Opening his fingers slowly, he let a few jewels rattle back upon the +heap, and held out a moderate fistful towards the cowering Glass. +"Did you actually suppose, having proved me once, that I would suffer +such a common cut-throat as you to march off with my treasure? +Look up at me, man! I charge you with having murdered Coffin, even +as you have just murdered that other poor blockhead who trusted you." +He nodded sideways—but still keeping his eyes upon Glass—towards +the body, which lay as it had fallen. "Answer me. Are you guilty? +Yes or no?" +</p> +<p> +The man's mouth worked, but his tongue crackled in his mouth like a +parched leaf. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I know what you would say; that you had some excuse—that +Coffin in his time had stuck at nothing to be quit of you; that he +sold you to the press-gang; that through Coffin you spent eight, +ten—how many years?'—in the war-prisons; that he believed you dead, +as he had taken pains to kill you. Well, we'll grant it. As between +two scoundrels I'll not trouble to weigh the rights against the +wrongs. But look at this boy, here. You recognize him, hey? I +charge you with having murdered his father, Major Brooks, as you +murdered Coffin. You have run up a pretty long account, my friend, +for so clumsy a performer; but I think you have reached the end of +it." +</p> +<p> +Aaron Glass looked at me and blinked. Terror of the man confronting +him had twisted his dumb mouth into a kind of grin horrible to see. +It lifted his lip, like the snarl of a dog, over his yellow teeth. +Dr. Beauregard laughed softly. +</p> +<p> +"And all for what? For an imperfect chart—and for <i>these!</i>" +He thrust his hand close up to Glass's face, and spread his fingers +wide, letting the gems drip between them, and rain back into the +treasure-chest. "What's wrong with them? That's what you'd be +asking—eh?—if your poor tongue could find the words. Well, only +this, my friend—yes, look well at them—that I hid them myself, and +every one of them is false." +</p> +<p> +"False!" I could see Glass's mouth at work, his lips forming to the +echo of the word, as it struck across his terror like a whip. But he +achieved no articulate sound. +</p> +<p> +"I give you my word—" resumed Dr. Beauregard; but a thud interrupted +him. Glass had fallen forward in a faint, striking his forehead +against the edge of the chest, and lay face downward—with the blood +oozing from his temple and discolouring the sand. As the Doctor +paused and bent over him, another wave came rippling up the beach, +throwing a long, thin curve of foam before it, and washed out the +stain. +</p> +<p> +"Is—is he dead?" I heard Plinny's voice quavering. +</p> +<p> +"Not yet, ma'am," answered the Doctor, grimly; and, taking the +inanimate body by the collar, he drew it above reach of the waves, +and turned it over. +</p> +<p> +"You are a doctor, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, ma'am, and have some small skill." He put up a hand to his +breast-pocket, half withdrew it, and hesitated. "You have baulked me +of a pretty little scheme," he said quietly. And still while he +addressed us he seemed to be considering. "Think of this fellow's +face when he got his treasure across to the mainland and attempted to +trade it! To be sure, he gave us some fun for our pains—" +</p> +<p> +"If you call it fun, sir," protested Plinny. +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, ma'am," he answered quietly, kneeling and lifting Glass's +head, and resting it across his thigh. "My humour may be of a +primitive sort, but I confess it tickled by shocking a murderer into +a fainting fit." He felt in his breast-pocket and drew forth a small +phial. "No, sir,"—he turned to Captain Branscome, who had stepped +forward to offer his help—"let me alone, please. I prefer to treat +my patient in my own way. It will be best, on the whole, for +everybody." +</p> +<p> +He forced Glass's mouth wide open, and with one hand poured about +half of the contents of the phial between the patient's teeth, drop +by drop, very patiently, with the other smoothing the gullet between +finger and thumb. +</p> +<p> +We all stood watching while he administered the dose, Miss Belcher +close beside me, with her hand on my shoulder. At the twentieth drop +or so I felt her give a start, as though a thought had suddenly +occurred to her, and I looked up into her face. Her eyes were fixed +inquiringly on Dr. Beauregard, and he, happening also to look up, met +them with a smile. +</p> +<p> +"You will see in a moment," he said, as if answering her thought, +and, reaching forward, he laid two fingers on Glass's pulse. +"Yes, in a moment now." +</p> +<p> +Sure enough, in a moment Glass's eyelids fluttered a little, and he +came back to life with an audible catch of the breath. +</p> +<p> +"In two minutes' time, sir"—the Doctor turned to Captain +Branscome—"I shall be glad of your services, and of Mr. +Goodfellow's, to carry the fellow down to the boat—that is to say, +if, in deference to the ladies, you have really decided not to leave +him here to his fate. He will sleep after this; nay, if you will +listen, he is sleeping already. The other man is dead, I suppose?" +</p> +<p> +"He must have died instantly," answered Captain Branscome, who had +stepped across to the body to assure himself. +</p> +<p> +"I had no doubt of it, by the way he dropped. Well, there is no need +to fetch a spade. Their thoughtfulness provided one. You will find +it in the boat there." +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later we embarked, leaving behind us on the beach a +scuttled boat, a mound of sand, and a chest of false jewellery, over +the top of which the rising tide had already begun to lap. +</p> +<p> +Aaron Glass lay along the bottom boards, asleep and breathing +apoplectically. I pulled the stroke paddle, Mr. Goodfellow the bow, +and the Captain steered. Dr. Beauregard addressed himself to the +ladies, of whom Miss Belcher sat with a corrugated brow, as though +turning a thought over and over in her mind, and Plinny with scared +eyes, staring into vacancy. +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry, indeed, ladies," said the Doctor, "that I could not have +spared you this. The fool shot his mate—you saw it yourselves— +without rhyme or reason. Against madness, and the impulses of +madness, no man can calculate. I might plead, too, that in an +undertaking like this you match yourselves against forces with which +it is not given to ladies to cope. I grant admiringly the courage +that brought you across thousands of miles to Mortallone, as I grant, +and again admiringly, the steadiness of your behaviour this +afternoon. But one thing you did not know—that in the nature of +things you were bound to meet with such men and see such things done. +I have not lived beside treasure all these years without learning +that it attracts such men as carrion attracts the vultures. Hide it +where you will, from the end of the earth <i>some</i> bird of prey will +spy it out, or at least some scent of it will lie and draw such +prowlers as this fellow." Dr. Beauregard touched the sleeping man +contemptuously with the toe of his boot. "I myself have been—shall +we say?—fortunate. I have emptied, or assisted to empty, two caches +of treasure in this island. A third remains, of which you have the +secret, and I believe it to be the richest of all. But before you +attempt it, I have a mind to tell you something of the other two, +that at least you may not attempt it unwarned." +</p> +<p> +"You may spare yourself the pains, sir," said Miss Belcher, +decisively; "since our minds are made up. You might, I doubt not, +succeed in frightening us; but since you will not deter us, I suggest +that the less we hear the better." +</p> +<p> +The Doctor bowed. "Ah, madam," sighed he, "if only Fate had timed +your adventure two years ago; or if, departing with the treasure, you +could even now leave me to regrets—in peace!" +</p> +<p> +"My good sir," said Miss Belcher, sharply, "I haven't a doubt you +mean something or other; but what precisely it is, I cannot +conceive." +</p> +<p> +"You will go, madam, leaving my island twice empty. That is Fate, +and I consent with Fate. But the devil of it is, ma'am—if I may use +the expression—your removing the treasure will not prevent others +coming to look for it, and annoying an old age which has ceased to +set store on wealth, or on anything that wealth can purchase." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him oddly. "Well, now," she confessed, "you are a +mystery to me in half a dozen ways; but if on top of all you mean to +turn pious—" +</p> +<p> +He laughed, and when the laugh was done it seemed to prolong itself +inside him for fully half a minute. +</p> +<p> +"You are right, ma'am. Let us be practical again; and, as the first +practical question, let me ask you, or Captain Branscome, what you +propose to do with this man? Obviously, we cannot take him along +with us after the treasure." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I imagine we are returning to the schooner. He can be left on +board, in charge of Mr. Rogers." +</p> +<p> +"But I was about to suggest that we take Mr. Rogers along with us. +In some ways, he is the most active of the party, and we can hardly +spare him." +</p> +<p> +"Of Goodfellow, then, or whomsoever Captain Branscome may appoint to +take charge of the ship." +</p> +<p> +The Doctor sat silent, as though busy with a thought that had +suddenly occurred to him. After a minute, he lifted his head and +threw a quick glance upward at the sky. +</p> +<p> +"The breeze is freshening again, Captain," he announced. "If you +care to hoist sail, the rowers can take a rest, at least until we +reach Cape Fea." +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome gave permission to hoist sail, and soon we were +running homeward with as much as we could carry. There was no +danger, however, for beyond the northern point of Try-again Inlet the +water lay smooth all along the shore. Dr. Beauregard here called on +Plinny to admire the scenery, and, borrowing her sketchbook and +pencil, dashed off a bold drawing of Cape Fea as, rounding a little +to the westward, we caught sight of it standing out boldly against +the afternoon sun. As he drew it, he guided the talk gently back to +ordinary topics—to England and English scenery, to the charm of +English domestic architecture, and particularly of our great country +seats, to gardens and gardening, of which he professed himself a +devotee. +</p> +<p> +"Ah," he sighed at length, drawing a long breath; "if you, my +friends, only knew how much of what is happiest in life you carry in +your own breasts! I used—forgive me—to laugh at such pleasures as +I am enjoying at this moment, I see that nothing but gaiety and a +simple heart can bring a man peace at the last—and now it is too +late to begin!" +</p> +<p> +Plinny, not understanding in the least, opened wide eyes upon him. +His tone seemed to ask for her pity. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. I have sought hard for pleasure and grudged no price for +it; but the stuff I bought was all flash and sham—like this fool's +diamonds—flash and sham, and the end of it weariness. Well, there +is money left. You shall take it and endow a hospital if you choose, +and that no doubt will increase your happiness and make it thrive. +But the root of the plant lies within you. Pardon me, ma'am"—he +looked towards Miss Belcher—"the question sounds an impudent one, I +know, but are you not, even for England, a well-to-do lady?" +</p> +<p> +"I have a trifle more than my neighbours," owned Miss Belcher. +"But it's almost more plague than blessing; at least I call it so, +sometimes, which is a different thing from being ready to give it +up." +</p> +<p> +"And you, ma'am?" He turned to Plinny. +</p> +<p> +"I have enough for my needs, I thank God," she answered. "But I have +known what it is to be poor." +</p> +<p> +"Quite so," he nodded. "And yet you have come thousands of miles, +you two, in search of treasure!" +</p> +<p> +At the entrance of Gow's Gulf we downed sail and took to our paddles +again. The tide helped us against the breeze and within half an hour +we came in sight of the schooner lying peacefully at anchor as we had +left her. +</p> +<p> +So, at least, and at first glance, it seemed; but as we drew near, +Captain Branscome stood up suddenly, the tiller-lines in his hands. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo! Where's the dinghy?" +</p> +<p> +It was gone; and—what was worse—our repeated hails fetched no +answering hail from the ship. But just as we were beginning to feel +seriously alarmed a voice shouted from the opposite shore, and Mr. +Rogers came sculling out from the shadow of the woods, working the +dinghy towards us with a single paddle overstern. +</p> +<p> +"Sorry, Captain!" he hailed. "Two deserters in two days! Oh, we're +a cheerful team to drive! But I have my excuse ready. The fact +is—" Here, catching sight of Dr. Beauregard, Mr. Rogers stopped +short. +</p> +<p> +"I fancy," said the Doctor, amiably, turning to Captain Branscome, +"your friend has not his excuse so ready as he supposed. Doubtless +he'll impart it to you later on. Meanwhile, I would suggest that we +take him along with us." +</p> +<p> +"But where are we going?" asked Captain Branscome. +</p> +<p> +"To my house. Ah, it is news to you that I have one? You supposed, +perhaps, that the Lord Proprietor of Mortallone roosted at night in +the trees? But where, in that case, would he stack his wine? +My dear sir, I have a house, <i>and</i> cellarage, to the both of which +you shall be made welcome. Even if you decline my hospitality we +have the invalid here to dispose of, and surely you won't condemn a +man of my years to carry him home pick-a-back!" +</p> +<p> +"But the schooner—" +</p> +<p> +"I give you my word of honour, sir, that your ship shall not be +visited nor tampered with in any way. Return when you will, you +shall find her precisely as she lies now. In another two hours even +this faint breeze will have died down, as you are seamen enough to +know. The anchorage is land-locked; the bottom is perfect holding; +and as for unwelcome visitors, there can be none. I am the sole +resident on this island!" +</p> +<p> +I looked up at Dr. Beauregard sharply; and so, it seemed to me, did +Mr. Rogers, who had fallen alongside. +</p> +<p> +"That is to say," continued the Doctor, quietly, without regarding +either of us, "the only male resident." +</p> +<p> +"All the same I don't like it," persisted the Captain, and shook his +head, at the same time lifting his eyes towards Miss Belcher; "and +it's clear against my rule." +</p> +<p> +"Stuff and nonsense!" said Miss Belcher. "We ought to be grateful +to Dr. Beauregard for taking this creature Glass off our hands. +I was thinking a moment ago that for a thousand pounds I'd rather he +was anywhere than on board our ship. The least we can do is to bear +a hand with him; and if we don't like the house we can come away." +</p> +<p> +"And before nightfall, if you insist," added Dr. Beauregard, +genially. "But the afternoon is young, and between now and nightfall +you may all have made your fortunes. Who knows?" +</p> +<p> +Captain Branscome yielded, after a look at Plinny, who backed up Miss +Belcher, declaring herself ardent for new adventures. I began to see +that the Captain was wax in the hands of these two, and it puzzled +me, who had some experience of him both in school and on shipboard. +</p> +<p> +Instead, then, of heading for the ship, we rowed past her and up the +creek—Mr. Rogers following in his dinghy—and disembarked at the +landing-place under the green knoll. While Dr. Beauregard and Mr. +Goodfellow lifted out Aaron Glass, and while the Captain explained to +Mr. Rogers where and how we came by such a passenger, I stared about +me, wondering where the Doctor's house might be and where the +approach to it. For I remembered the narrow gorge leading up to the +waterfalls and the thick, precipitous woods on either hand; and how, +such a party as ours, including two ladies and a sick man, could hope +to penetrate those woods or climb those waterfalls was a puzzle. +</p> +<p> +In ten minutes Mr. Goodfellow had patched up a fairly serviceable +litter with the boat's sail and a couple of paddles. Dr. Beauregard +bestowed the patient in it carefully enough, and when all was ready, +led the way. The two carriers, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow, came +next with the litter between them, and at a nod from the former I +fell in beside him. The Captain and the two ladies brought up the +rear. +</p> +<p> +"Harry," whispered Mr. Rogers, as we wound our way round the knoll, +"is this really the man who—" +</p> +<p> +"This is Aaron Glass," I said. +</p> +<p> +He stared down—for he carried the hinder end of the litter—upon the +villainous, unconscious face. +</p> +<p> +"He looks a pretty bad one," said Mr. Rogers, after a pause. +</p> +<p> +"You should have seen him on the beach," said I. +</p> +<p> +"I've seen something myself," said he. "Closer, boy—there was a +woman came down to the shore just now, waving to the ship and crying. +At first I took her for a child. She was dressed all in white—white +muslin and ribbons, you know—the sort of rig you see at a children's +party; but when I rowed over close to her—" +</p> +<p> +"I know her," I said. "I met her in the woods yesterday." +</p> +<p> +"That explains; though I call it an infernal shame you didn't tell. +I rowed across to find out what ailed her: she stood waving her arms +so, and crying—like a child in distress. When I came near she +called on to me to stop. 'Not you,' she said, 'the little boy! +Where is the little boy?' I told her that we had a boy on board, but +that just now you were off on a cruise; and with that she turned +right about, and ran up through the woods and out of sight; but for +some way I could hear her crying and calling out just as before: +'The little boy!' it was; 'Where is the little boy?'—meaning you, I +suppose." +</p> +<p> +We were now come to the foot of the first waterfall, an obvious +<i>cul de sac</i> for a party which included two ladies and a sick man on +a litter. I stood gazing up at the wet, slippery rocks by which I +had made my ascent yesterday, and searching in vain for a more +practicable path. Dr. Beauregard halted and turned upon me with a +smile. +</p> +<p> +"A moment," said he, "and you will grant that my privacy is rather +neatly protected. But first"—he pointed to the water pouring past +us from the pool beneath the fall—"you may remark that the stream +here has more than twice the volume of the stream you see coming down +the rocks." +</p> +<p> +I looked. The difference was plain enough, and I had been a fool in +failing to observe it. +</p> +<p> +"The reason being," he went on, "that a second and larger stream +flows into the pool under the very stones on which you are standing. +I myself laid that channel for it, almost ten years ago, and Nature +has very kindly helped to disguise it. Now, if you will follow me—" +</p> +<p> +He drew aside a mat of creepers overhanging a bush to the left of the +path, and, stooping, disappeared into a dim, green tunnel, so +artfully contrived that even without its curtain of creepers it +suggested no more than a chance gap in the undergrowth. The tunnel +zigzagged twice at a sharp angle, and then, quite suddenly, the +dimness changed to warm sunlight, and we emerged at his heels upon a +prospect that well excused my gasp of astonishment. +</p> +<p> +We stood at the lower end of a smooth, green glade, through which a +broad stream—a river, almost—came swirling, its murmur drowned in +the thunder of the waterfall behind us, which the bushes now +concealed. The glade was, in fact, a valley-bottom, thinned of +undergrowth and set with tall trees; and the stream such a stream as +tumbles through many an English deer-park. The whole scene might +have been transplanted from England but for a wall of naked cliff, +sharply serrated, which enclosed the valley on the left. And under +it, like a smooth military terrace at the foot of a fortress, the +glade curved upward and out of sight. +</p> +<p> +The scene, I have said, was almost typically English—but to the eye +only. +</p> +<p> +"Faugh!" exclaimed Miss Belcher, looking about her and sniffing +suspiciously. "A pretty place enough, but full of malaria, or I'm a +Dutchwoman! And what a horrible silence!" +</p> +<p> +"Malaria?" said Mr. Rogers, quietly. "There's better scent than +malaria in this valley, and we're hot on it. Here's the river, and— +What does the chart say, boy? Five trees, a mile and a half from the +creek-head? We must have come a mile already. Keep your eyes +skinned, and give me a nudge if you see such a clump." +</p> +<p> +But there was no need to keep my eyes skinned. At the next bend of +the glade he and I caught sight of it simultaneously—a clump of +noble pines that would have challenged notice even had we not been +searching for them. My heart stood still as I counted them. +Yes; there were five! +</p> +<p> +"I haven't often wanted to put a knife into a man's back," grunted +Mr. Rogers, with a gloomy glance ahead at Dr. Beauregard. +</p> +<p> +For an instant I made sure the Doctor had overheard him. He halted +suddenly, and turned to us with a proprietary wave of the hand +towards the trees. +</p> +<p> +"A fine group, sirs, is it not? I have often regretted that +the cliff yonder just cuts off the view of it from my windows. +Indeed, I had almost altered the site of the house to include it. +But health before everything—hey, ladies? There is always a certain +amount of fever in these valleys, and you will own, presently, that +the site I prepared has its compensations." +</p> +<p> +He resumed his way past the trees, and—a quarter of a mile beyond +them—past an angle of the cliff where the ridge bent sharply back +from the river and revealed a narrow gorge, its entrance choked with +pines, running up towards the mountain. Here he paused again, and +with another wave of the hand. +</p> +<p> +High on the right of the gorge, on a plateau above the dark +pine-tops, a white-painted house looked down on us—a long, low house +with a generous spread of shadow under its verandah and a dazzle of +light where the upper windows took the sun. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0033"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXIII. +</h2> +<center> +WE FIND THE TREASURE. +</center> +<p> +"I've a strong sense of the right of property," said Miss Belcher, +sipping her tea. +</p> +<p> +We had gathered in Dr. Beauregard's deep verandah, at the corner +where it took the late afternoon sunshine. The level rays sparkled +on the silver and delicate Worcester china of the Doctor's tea +equipage, and fell through the open French window into the Doctor's +drawing-room. A wonderful room it was, as everything in the house +was wonderful, a spacious, airy room, furnished in white and gold, +with Dresden figures on the mantelshelf; Venetian mirrors, dainty +water-colours sunk into the panels, cases of rare books (among them, +as I remember, a set of the Cabinet des Fees, bound in rose-coloured +morocco and stamped with the Royal arms of France), stands of music, +and a priceless harpsichord inlaid with ivory. Next to the airiness +of the house, which stood high above reach of the valley mists with +their malaria, what most sharply impressed me, and the ladies in +particular, was its exquisite cleanliness. Yet Dr. Beauregard +assured us that he kept but one servant—the negress Rosa. +</p> +<p> +At her master's call she had appeared in the verandah above us as we +mounted the last terrace towards the house, and had stood there +watching our ascent with no trace of surprise, or, indeed, of any +emotion whatever, on her black, inscrutable face. Her eyes met mine +as though she had never seen me before. To her care Dr. Beauregard +had given over the still unconscious Glass, and, with a sign to Mr. +Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow to follow her with their burden, she had +led the way through the house to the bedroom at the back. +There, in a bed between spotlessly clean sheets, they had laid the +patient, and been dismissed by her. It was she who, less than ten +minutes later, had brought our tea to us in the verandah, and with +our tea many little plates heaped with small cakes and sweetmeats— +all fresh, as though she had been expecting us for hours, and could +command the resources of a city. I kept a sharp look-out, but of the +strange lady—the lady of the graveyard—I could detect no trace. +Nothing indicated her presence, unless it were the dainty feminine +furniture of the drawing-room. +</p> +<p> +"I've a strong sense of the right of property," said Miss Belcher, +sipping her tea and touching the oilskin wrapper, which lay in her +lap unopened as Captain Branscome had handed it to her; and so has +Jack Rogers here. You tell me, sir, that you hold Mortallone by +grant, and doubtless you can show your title." +</p> +<p> +"Willingly, madam." Dr. Beauregard rose, and stepped to the French +window. "You can read Spanish?" he asked, turning there and pausing. +</p> +<p> +"Not a word", answered Miss Belcher. The Doctor smiled. "It would +impart nothing it you could," said he, with a smile, "for I will own +to you frankly that Mortallone has always been under suspicion of +containing treasure, and in the grant all treasure-trove is expressly +reserved. I cannot say," he added, smiling again, "that I have +strictly observed the clause; but, as between you and me, it legally +disposes of my claim." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you," said Miss Belcher; "but I don't own an equally tender +conscience towards Governments." Here Mr. Rogers winked at me, for +as a patron of smugglers Miss Belcher enjoyed some reputation, even +for a Cornish landowner. "We will leave Government out of the +question; but as proprietor—lord of the manor, as we should say at +home—you have a right to your share; and that, by English law—which +I suggest we follow—is one-third." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard bowed. "I'm infinitely obliged to you, ma'am, and I +make no doubt that what you so generously promise you will as +honourably give—when I claim it. In truth, I have something more +than enough for my needs. There was a time (I will confess) when I +had sold my soul, if I possessed such a thing, for a glimpse of what +lies written on that parchment. But I am old; and old age—" +He broke off the sentence and did not resume it, but went on +presently, with a change of tone: "However, I still keep a sporting +interest in the treasure, which has baffled me all these years, the +more so because I have a shrewd suspicion that it has lain all the +while within a mile or so of where we sit at this moment." +</p> +<p> +"It does, sir," said Miss Belcher, unfolding the chart and pointing. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Beauregard adjusted a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses and bent +towards it. The writing was indistinct, and he put out a hand as if +to take hold of the edge of the parchment and steady it. The hand, I +noticed, did not tremble at all. +</p> +<p> +"Stay a moment, sir." Miss Belcher turned the chart over. "The clue +is given here, upon the back. Listen." And she translated:— +</p> +<pre> "'Right bank of river a mile and a half up from Gow Creek. + Centre tree in clump of five: branch bearing north and half a + point east: two forks—'" +</pre> +<p> +"My trees!" exclaimed the Doctor. "You remember my halting and +pointing them out to you? Ah, yes, and I, too, remember now that you +appeared to be disconcerted. You recognized them, of course?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, we recognized them," Miss Belcher admitted. But let me +finish:—" +</p> +<pre> "'Right fork, four feet. Red cave under hill, four hundred and + seventy-five yards from foot of tree, N.N.W. The stones here, + under rock four spans, left side'" +</pre> +<p> +"—Which means, I suppose, that the cave lies some way up the face of +the rock, and can only be seen by climbing out upon the right fork of +the tree; and that the stones—that is to say, the jewels—are hidden +under a rock to the left; which rock either measures four spans or +lies, four spans within the entrance of the cave." +</p> +<p> +"I know of no such cave, ma'am," said Dr. Beauregard, bending his +brows. "Though, to be sure, the cliff is of a reddish colour +thereabouts, due to a drip of water and the growth of some small +fungus." +</p> +<p> +"I was a fool," said Captain Branscome, "to leave the tools in the +gig. If we go back to fetch them, sunset will be upon us before we +get to work." +</p> +<p> +The Doctor rose, with a smile. +</p> +<p> +"You might have guessed, sir, that I am not unprovided with spades +and picks, or with ropes and a ladder, which also I foresee we shall +need. Come; if you have drunk your tea, I will ask you to follow me +into the house—the ladies included—and choose your outfit." +</p> +<p> +They went in after him. I was in the act of following—I had, in +fact, taken a couple of steps towards the French window—when a +slight shiver seemed to run through my hair, and I stood still. +</p> +<p> +"Little boy!" +</p> +<p> +The words came in a whisper from the end of the verandah. I stole +back, and, leaning well across the rail, peered around the corner of +the house. +</p> +<p> +"Little boy!" whispered the voice again, and I saw the little lady of +the graveyard. She was standing close back against the +side-boarding, her body almost flattened against it. "Come," she +whispered, beckoning with a timid glance over her shoulder towards +the rear of the house. +</p> +<p> +I looked at her for a second or two, and shook my head. +</p> +<p> +"But you must come," she insisted, still in a whisper, and took a +step or two as if to entice me after her. Then she halted, and, +seeing that I made no motion to follow, came tip-toeing back. +</p> +<p> +"If you do not come," she said, "he will kill you! He will +sar-tain-ly kill you all!" +</p> +<p> +She nodded vehemently, and so, after another glance to right and +left, beckoned to me once again. Her face was white, almost as her +muslin frock, and something in it persuaded me to climb over the +verandah-rail and follow her. +</p> +<p> +About thirty yards from the corner of the house stood a clump of +odorous laurels, the scent of which we had been inhaling while we sat +at tea. For these she broke away at a run, nor looked back until she +was well within their shadow and I had overtaken her. +</p> +<p> +"Good boy!" she said, nodding again and smiling at me with her +desperately anxious face. "I would wish—I would very much wish—to +kiss you. But you mus' not come a-near"—she sighed—"it is not +healthy. Only you come with me. I dream of you, sometimes, all las' +night. 'What a pity!' I dream, 'and you so pe-ritty boy!' +Now you come with me, and I take you away so he never find you." +</p> +<p> +The woman was evidently mad. +</p> +<p> +"Please tell me what you have to say," I urged, "and let me go back. +They will be missing me in a minute or so." +</p> +<p> +"If they miss you, it is no matter now. He will kill them all, he is +so strong . . . as he killed all those others . . . you remember? +See, now, pe-ritty boy, what I have done for you, to save you from +him! He shut me up, in his other house—he has another house away up +in the woods, beyond where we met." She waved a hand towards the +hills. "But I break out, and come here to save you. He would kill +me also, if he knew." +</p> +<p> +Mad though I believed her, I was growing pretty thoroughly +frightened, remembering the graveyard under the trees. "You forget +my friends," said I, speaking very simply, as to a child. "If he +means to kill them, I ought to carry them warning." +</p> +<p> +"He will not kill them till to-night," she answered, shaking her +head. "It is always at night-time, when they are at supper. There +is no hurry, little boy; but he will sar-tain-ly kill them, all the +same." +</p> +<p> +I turned my head, preparing to run, for I heard Captain Branscome's +voice in the verandah, calling my name. +</p> +<p> +"They are starting after the treasure. I must go," I stammered. +</p> +<p> +She drew close, and laid a hand on my arm. Again a dreadful odour +was wafted under my nostrils—an odour as of tuberoses, and I know +not what of corruption—and, as before in the graveyard, it turned me +both sick and giddy. +</p> +<p> +"They will not find it," she said, nodding with an air of childish +triumph. "Shall I tell you why? <i>I</i> have hidden it!" Here she fell +back on her old litany. "He would kill me if he knew . . . I hid +it—oh, years ago! But come, and I will show you; and you shall take +a great deal—yes, as much as you can carry—if only you will go +away, and never be rash again." +</p> +<p> +A second time I heard Captain Branscome's voice calling to me, +demanding to know where I had disappeared. +</p> +<p> +She put a finger to her lips, smiling. "Such treasure you never did +see. . . . Even Rosa does not know. . . . Come, little boy!" +</p> +<p> +She pushed her way through the laurels, and I followed her. The edge +of the shrubbery overhung the dry bed of a torrent, in the cleft of +which, when we had lowered ourselves over the edge, we were +completely hidden from the house. From the edge a slope of loose +stones ran down to the bottom of the cleft, where a thin stream of +water trickled. The stones slid with me, but not dangerously; and as +we scurried down—I in my thick boots, she in her diminutive +dancing-shoes—I heard Plinny's voice join with Captain Branscome's +in calling my name. But by this time I was committed to the +adventure, and by-and-by they desisted, supposing (as Plinny told me +later) that I had taken French leave again, and run off to be first +at the clump of trees. +</p> +<p> +We might not climb the slope directly in face of us; for, by so doing +(even if it had been accessible, which I doubt), we should have +emerged into view. We therefore bent our way to the right up the +bottom of the gorge, to a narrow tongue of rock dividing it, in the +shelter of which we mounted the rough stairway of the torrent bed +from one flat rock to another until we stepped out upon a shallow +plateau where the contour of the hills shut off the house and its +terraces. We stood, as I judged, upon the reverse or northern side +of that ridge which to the south and west overlooked the valley of +the treasure. Above the plateau a stone-strewn scarp of earth led to +the forest, which reached to the very summit of the ridge; and +towards the summit, after pausing for a second or two to pant and +catch her breath, my strange guide continued her climb. +</p> +<p> +"What is your name, little boy?" +</p> +<p> +I told her, and she repeated it once or twice, to get it by heart. +</p> +<p> +"You may call me 'Metta," she said. "<i>He</i> calls me 'Metta always, +when he is pleased with me, and that is almost every day. He is kind +to me; oh, yes, very kind—though terrible, of course. . . . Keep on +my left hand, Harry Brooks; so the breeze here will not blow from me +to you." +</p> +<p> +I drew up in a kind of giddiness, for that dreadful scent of death +had touched me again. She, too, halted with a little cry of dismay, +and a feeble motion of the hands, as if to wring them. +</p> +<p> +"Ah, you must keep wide of me. . . . That is my suffering, Harry +Brooks. I cannot bend over a flower but it withers, and the +butterflies die if they come near my breath . . . and that, too, is +<i>his</i> doing. He would be kind to me, he said, and would een-oculate +me; yes, that is his word—een-oculate me, so that no poison could +ever harm me. He knows the secrets of all the plants, and why people +die of disease. Months at a time he used to leave me alone with +Rosa, and go to Havana, to the hospitals; and there he would study +till his body was wasted away with work; but at the end he would come +back, bringing visitors. Oh, many visitors! for he was rich, and the +house had room for all. There were singers—he loves music—and men +who played all day at cards, and women who made me jealous. But he +would only laugh and say, 'Wait, little one.' So I waited, and in +the end they all died. Rosa said it was the yellow fever; but no." +She held up both hands, and made pretence to pour something from an +imaginary bottle into an imaginary glass. "He can kill with one tiny +drop. In his study he keeps a machine which makes water into ice. +Rosa would carry round the ice with little glasses of curacoa, after +the coffee was served; and all would say: 'What wonders are these? +Ice in Mortallone!' and would drink his health. But <i>he</i> never +touched the ice. You tell that to your friends, little boy. But it +will not save them: for he will find some other way." +</p> +<p> +As we went up the woods these awful confidences poured from her like +childish prattle, interrupted only by little ripples of laughter, +half shy, half silly, and altogether horrible to hear. I hung back, +divided between the impulse to tear myself away and the fearful +fascination of listening—between the urgent need to find and warn my +friends, and the forlorn hope to extract from her something that +might save them. The toil of the climb had bathed me in sweat, and +yet I shivered. +</p> +<p> +I halted. We were close under the summit of the ridge, and had +reached a passing clearing where, between the trees, as I turned +about, I could see the whole gorge in shadow at my feet, the sunlight +warm on its upper eastern slopes, and beyond these the sea. In half +an hour—in twenty minutes, maybe—I might reach the valley there +below, and at least cry my warning. I faced round again to my +companion. +</p> +<p> +She had vanished. +</p> +<p> +My mouth grew dry of a sudden. Was she a ghost? And her prattling +talk—the voice yet singing in my brain— +</p> +<p> +"Little boy! Little boy!" +</p> +<p> +I parted the tall ferns. Beyond them a small hand beckoned, and, +following it, I came face to face with a wall of naked rock from +which she lifted aside the creepers over a deep cleft—a cleft wide +enough to admit a man's body if he turned sideways and stooped a +little. +</p> +<p> +She clapped her hands at my astonishment. "You like my bower?" she +asked gleefully. "Ah, but wait, and I will show you wonders! No one +knows of it, not even Rosa." +</p> +<p> +She wriggled her way through the cleft. I peered in, and went after +her cautiously, expecting, as the curtain of creepers fell behind me, +to find myself in a dark cave or grotto. Dark it was, to be sure, +but not utterly dark; and to my amazement, as my eyes grew accustomed +to the gloom, the faint light came from ahead of me and seemed to +strike upwards from the bowels of the earth. +</p> +<p> +"Do not be afraid, little boy! But hold your head low; and look to +your feet now, for it is steep hereabouts." +</p> +<p> +Steep indeed it was. A kind of shaft, floored for the most part with +slippery earth, but here and there with an irregular stairway of +rock; and still at the lower end of the tunnel shone a faint light. +I would have given worlds by this time to retrace my steps. A slight +draught, blowing up the tunnel from my companion to me, bore the +odour of death upwards under my nostrils; but this, while it dizzied +and sickened me, seemed to clog my feet and take away all will to +escape. I had nearly swooned, indeed, when my feet encountered level +earth again, and she put out a hand to steady me. +</p> +<p> +"Is—is—this the end?" +</p> +<p> +"It goes down—down, little boy; but we need not follow it. +See, there is light, to the left of you; light, and fresh air, +<i>and</i> my pretty bower." +</p> +<p> +I turned as her hand guided me. A puff of wind blew on my cheek, +cold and infinitely pure. I stood blinking in a short gallery that +ended suddenly in blue sky, and, staggering forward, I cast myself +down on the brink. +</p> +<p> +It was as though I lay on the sill of a great open window. Below +me—far below—waved great masses of forest, and beyond these—far +beyond—shone the blue sea. I cannot say to what depth the cliff +fell away below me. It was more than sheer—it was undercut. +I lay as one suspended over the void. +</p> +<p> +"But see, pe-ritty boy! did I not promise you wonders?" +</p> +<p> +As I faced around to the darkness of the gallery, she held aloft +something which, for the moment, I mistook for a great green snake +with lines of fire running from scale to scale and sparkling as she +waved it before me. I rolled over upon my elbow and stared. It was +a rope of emeralds. +</p> +<p> +She flung an end over one shoulder and looped it low over her breast; +then, passing the other end about her neck, she brought it forward +over the same shoulder and let it dangle. It reached almost to her +feet. +</p> +<p> +"Does it become me, little boy?" She made me a mock curtsey that set +the gems dancing with fire. "Come and choose, then!" She put out +both hands to the darkness by the wall, and a whole cascade of jewels +came sliding down and poured themselves with a rush about her feet +and across the floor of the gallery. She laughed and thrust her +hands again into the heap. +</p> +<p> +"All these I found—I myself—and carried up here from the darkness. +Take what you will, little boy, and run back to your ship. +Is it diamonds you will choose, or rubies, or—see here—this chain +of pearls? I do not like pearls, for my part; they mean sorrow. +But—see here, again!—there were boxes and boxes, all heaped to the +brim, and long robes sown all over with pearls. Take what you like— +<i>he</i> will not know. He gives me diamonds sometimes. I adored them +in the old days, in opera. And he remembers and gives me a stone +from time to time, to keep me amused. I laugh to myself, then, when +I think of the store I keep, here in my bower. And he so clever! +But he does not guess. Ah, child, if I had had but these to wear +when I used to sing Eurydice!" +</p> +<p> +She held out two handfuls of diamonds, and began to sing in a high, +cracked voice, while she let them rain through her fingers. +</p> +<p> +"But listen!" I cried suddenly. +</p> +<p> +She ceased at once, and stood with her face half turned to the +darkness behind her, her arms rigid at her sides, the gems dropping +as her hand slowly unclasped them. Below, where the tunnel ran down +into darkness, a voice hailed— +</p> +<p> +"'Metta! Is that 'Metta?" +</p> +<p> +It was the voice of Dr. Beauregard. The poor creature gazed at me +helplessly and ran for the stairway. But her feet sank in the loose +heap of jewels; she stumbled; and, as she picked herself up, I saw +that she was too late; for already a light shone up from the tunnel +below, and before she could gain the exit the Doctor stood there, +lifting a torch, in the light of which I saw Mr. Rogers close behind +his shoulder. +</p> +<p> +"'Metta!" +</p> +<p> +I do not think he would have hurt her. But as the torch flared in +her face and lit up the shining heap of jewels, she threw up both +hands and doubled back screaming. I believed that she called to me +to hide. I put out a hand to catch her by the skirt, seeing that she +ran madly; but the thin muslin tore in my clutch. +</p> +<p> +"'Metta!" +</p> +<p> +On the ledge, against the sky, the voice seemed to overtake and +steady her for a second; but too late. With a choking cry, she put +out both hands against the void, and toppled forward; and in the +entrance was nothing but the blue, empty sky. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0034"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXIV. +</h2> +<center> +DOCTOR BEAUREGARD. +</center> +<p> +"Glass? My dear madam, pardon my remissness; he is dead. +Rosa brought me the news before we sat down to table." +</p> +<p> +I opened my eyes. In the words, as I came back to consciousness, I +found nothing remarkable, nor for a few seconds did it surprise me +that the dark gallery had changed into a panelled, lighted room, with +candles shining on a long, white table, and on flowers and crystal +decanters, and dishes heaped with fruit. The candles were shaded, +and from the sofa where I lay I saw across the cloth the faces of +Miss Belcher and Captain Branscome intent on the Doctor. +He was leaning forward from the head of the table and speaking to +Plinny, who sat with her back to me, darkly silhouetted against the +light. Mr. Rogers, on Plinny's left, had turned his chair sideways +and was listening too; and at the lower end of the board a tall +epergue of silver partially hid the form of Mr. Goodfellow. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, indeed, I ought to have told you," went on the Doctor's voice. +"But really no recovery could be expected. The man's heart was +utterly diseased." +</p> +<p> +His gaze, travelling past Plinny, wandered as if casually towards me, +where I lay in the penumbra. I felt it coming, and closed my eyes; +and on the instant my brain cleared. +</p> +<p> +Yes; Glass was dead, of course, poisoned by this man as ruthlessly as +these my friends would be poisoned if I cried out no warning. . . . +Or perhaps it had happened already. +</p> +<p> +I opened my eyes again, cautiously, little by little. The Doctor was +filling Plinny's glass. Having filled it, he pushed the decanters +towards Mr. Rogers, and turned to say a word to Miss Belcher, on his +right. No; there was time. <i>It</i> had not happened—yet. +</p> +<p> +I wanted to start up and scream aloud. But some power, stronger than +my will, held me down against the sofa-cushion. I had lost all grip +of myself—of my voice and limbs alike. I could neither stir nor +speak, but lay watching with half-closed eyes, while the room swam +and in my ears I heard a thin voice buzzing: "Tell your friends-the +ice—<i>he</i> never touches the ice. But it will not save them. He will +find some other way." +</p> +<p> +The door opened, and its opening broke the spell. On the threshold +stood the tall negress with a tray of coffee-cups, and on the tray a +salver with a number of little glasses and a glass bowl—a bowl of +ice. Her master pushed back the decanters to make room for the tray +before him. She set it down, and the little glasses jingled softly. +</p> +<p> +"Upon my word, sir," said Miss Belcher, "what wonder upon wonders is +this? Ice? And in Mortallone?" +</p> +<p> +"It is Rosa's little surprise, madame, and she will be gratified by +your—" +</p> +<p> +He pushed back his chair and, leaving the sentence unfinished, rose +swiftly and came to me as I staggered up from the sofa. A cry worked +in my throat, but before I could utter it his two hands were on my +shoulders, and he had appealed to the company with a triumphant +little laugh. +</p> +<p> +"Did I not tell you the child would come to himself all right? A +simple sedative—after the fright he had. He's trembling now, poor +boy. No, ma'am"—he turned to Plinny, who had risen, and was coming +forward solicitously; "let him sit upright for a moment, while he +comes to his bearings. Or, better still, when you have finished your +coffee—if Miss Belcher will be kind enough to pour it out for me— +we will take him out into the fresh air. Yes, yes, and the sooner +the better, for I see that Mr. Rogers is fidgeting to be out and +assure himself that the treasure has not taken wings." +</p> +<p> +He forced me gently back to my seat, and walked to the table. +</p> +<p> +"What were we saying? Ah, yes—to be sure—about the ice." +He lifted his coffee-cup with a steady hand, and, his eyes travelling +over it, fixed themselves on me, as though to make sure I was +recovering. "The ice is a surprise of Rosa's, and I assure you she +is proud of it. But (you may go, Rosa) I advise you to content +yourselves with wondering; for the water on these hills, strange to +say, is not healthy." +</p> +<p> +They voted the Doctor's advice to be good, and, having finished their +coffee, wandered out into the fresh air. Plinny took my arm, and, +leading me to the verandah, found me a comfortable seat, where I +could recline and compose myself, for I was trembling yet. +</p> +<p> +"They have stacked the treasure there beyond the last window," Plinny +informed me, nodding towards the end of the verandah, where Captain +Branscome, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Goodfellow were already gathered and +busy in conversation. "In bulk it is less than we expected, but in +value (the Doctor says) it goes beyond everything. Three +hundredweight, they say, and in pure gems! He is to choose his +share, by-and-by; and then we have to contrive how to take it down to +the ship." +</p> +<p> +"Miss Plinlimmon," said the Captain, coming towards us, "you promised +me a word yesterday. I should wish to claim it now—that is, if +Harry can spare you." +</p> +<p> +I observed that his voice shook a little, but this I set down to +excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Did I? Yes, I remember." +</p> +<p> +Miss Plinlimmon's voice, too, was tremulous. She hesitated, and her +eyes in the dim light seemed to seek mine. +</p> +<p> +I assured her that I was recovering fast, here in the fresh air, and +that it would be a kindness, indeed, to leave me alone. She bent +quickly and kissed me. I wondered why, as she stepped past the +Captain and he followed her down the verandah steps. +</p> +<p> +I wished to be left alone. I was puzzled, and what puzzled me +was that neither Miss Belcher nor Dr. Beauregard had left the +dining-room. In fact, as I passed out through the window, happening +to turn my head, I had caught sight of his face, and it had signalled +to her to stay. I knew not why he should intend harm to Miss Belcher +rather than to any other of our party. But I distrusted the man; and +Plinny had scarcely left me before, having made sure that Mr. Rogers +and Mr. Goodfellow were within easy call, I rose up softly, crept to +the dining-room window, and, dropping upon hands and knees close by +the wall, peered into the room. +</p> +<p> +The Doctor and Miss Belcher had reseated themselves, He had poured +himself out another glass of wine and was holding it up to the light +with a steady hand, while she watched him, her elbows on the table +and her firm jaw resting on her clasped fingers. Her face, though it +showed no sign of fear, was pallid. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," he was saying slowly; "it is too late at this hour to be +discussing what the priests would call the sin of it. You would +never convince me; and if you convinced me, I am too old—and too +weary—for what the priests call repentance. I am Martin—the same +man that outwitted Melhuish and his crew—the same that played Harry +with this Glass, and the man Coffin, and a drunken old ruffian they +brought with them from Whydah! The fools! to think to frighten <i>me</i>, +that had started by laying out a whole ship's crew! And now you come +along; and I hold you all in the hollow of my palm. But I open my +hand—so—and let you go." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Why? I have told you. I am tired." +</p> +<p> +"That is not all the truth," answered Miss Belcher, eyeing him +steadily. +</p> +<p> +"No; it is not all the truth. No one tells all the truth in this +world. But I am glad you challenge me, for you shall have a little +more of the truth. I let you go because you were simpletons, and I +had not dealt with simpletons before." +</p> +<p> +"Is <i>that</i> the truth?" she persisted. +</p> +<p> +He laughed and sipped his wine. +</p> +<p> +"No; I let you go because I saw in you—I who have killed many for +wealth and more for the mere pleasure of power—something which told +me that, after all, I had missed the secret. From an outcast child +in Havana I had made myself the sole king of this treasure of +Mortallone. I went back and made slaves of men and women who had +tossed that child their coppers in contemptuous pity. I brought them +here, to Mortallone, to play with them; and as soon as they tired me, +they—went. It was power I wanted; power I achieved; and in power, +as I thought, lay the secret. The tools in this world say that a +poisoner is always a coward: it is one of the phrases with which +fools cheat themselves. For long I was sure of myself; and then, +when the thought began to haunt me that, after all, I had missed the +secret, I sought out the man who, in Europe, had made himself more +powerful than kings; and I found that <i>he</i> had missed the secret too. +Then I guessed that the secret is beyond a man's power to achieve, +unless it be innate in him; that the gods themselves cannot help a +man born in bastardy, as I was, or born with a vulgar soul, as was +Napoleon. One chance of redemption he has—to mate with a woman who +has, and has known from birth, the secret which he has missed. +I guessed it—I that had wasted my days with singing-women, such as +poor 'Metta! Then I met you, and I knew. Yes, madam, you—you, +whose life to-night I had almost taken with a touch—taught me that I +had left women out of account. Ah, madam, if the world were twenty +years younger! . . . Will you do me the honour to touch glasses and +drink with me?" +</p> +<p> +"Not on any account," said Miss Belcher, rising. "Not to put too +fine a point upon it, you make me feel thoroughly sick; but"—she +hesitated on the threshold of the window"—the worst of it is, I +think I understand you a little." +</p> +<p> +I drew back into the shadow. Her stiff skirt almost struck me on the +cheek as she passed, and, crossing the verandah, leant with both +hands on the rail, while her face went up to the sky and the newly +risen moon. +</p> +<p> +A voice spoke to her from the moonlit terrace below. +</p> +<p> +"Hallo!" she answered. "Is that Captain Branscome?" +</p> +<p> +"It is, ma'am: <i>and</i> Miss Plinlimmon—Amelia—as she allows me to +call her." +</p> +<p> +Miss Belcher cut him short with a laugh. It rang out frank and free +enough, and only I, crouching by the wall, understood the hysterical +springs of it. +</p> +<p> +"You two geese!" she exclaimed, and ran down the steps to them. +</p> +<p> +"Was that Lydia?" demanded Mr. Rogers, a moment later, as he came +along the verandah. +</p> +<p> +"It was," I answered. +</p> +<p> +"I don't understand these people," grumbled Mr. Rogers, pausing and +scratching his head. "There was to have been a meeting outside here, +directly after supper, to divide off Doctor Beauregard's share; but +confound it if every one don't seem to be playing hide-and-seek! +Where's the Doctor?" +</p> +<p> +"In the dining-room," said I, nodding towards the window. . . . +</p> +<p> +He stepped towards it. At that moment I heard a dull thud within the +room, and Mr. Rogers, his foot already on the threshold, drew back +with a cry. I ran to his elbow. +</p> +<p> +On the floor, stretched at her master's feet, lay the negress Rosa. +Dr. Beauregard stood by the corner of the table, and poured himself a +small glassful of curacoa. While we gazed at him he reached out a +hand to the icebowl, selected a small piece, and dropped it +delicately into the glass. I heard it tingle against the rim. +</p> +<p> +"Your good health, sirs!" said Dr. Beauregard. +</p> +<p> +He sat back rigid in his chair. +</p> +<center> +THE END. +</center> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Poison Island, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POISON ISLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 16604-h.htm or 16604-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/0/16604/ + +Produced by Lionel Sear + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Poison Island + +Author: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q) + +Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16604] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POISON ISLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Lionel Sear + + + + + +POISON ISLAND. + +By ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH (Q). + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +Chapter. + +I. HOW I FIRST MET WITH CAPTAIN COFFIN. + +II. I AM ENTERED AT COPENHAGEN ACADEMY. + +III. A STREET FIGHT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + +IV. CAPTAIN COFFIN STUDIES NAVIGATION. + +V. THE WHALEBOAT. + +VI. MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CHART. + +VII. ENTER THE RETURNED PRISONER. + +VIII. THE HUNTED AND THE HUNTER. + +IX. CHAOS IN THE CAPTAINS LODGINGS. + +X. NEWS. + +XI. THE CRIME IN THE SUMMER-HOUSE. + +XII. THE BLOODSTAIN ON THE STILE. + +XIII. CLUES IN A TANGLE. + +XIV. HOW I BROKE OUT THE RED ENSIGN. + +XV. CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE MAN IN THE LANE. + +XVI. CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE FLAG AND THE CASHBOX. + +XVII. THE CHART OF MORTALLONE. + +XVIII. THE CONTENTS OF THE CORNER CUPBOARD. + +XIX. CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG. + +XX. CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG (CONTINUED). + +XXI. IN WHICH PLINNY SURPRISES EVERYONE. + +XXII. A STRANGE MAN IN THE GARDEN. + +XXIII. HOW WE SAILED TO THE ISLAND. + +XXIV. WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND. + +XXV. I TAKE FRENCH LEAVE ASHORE. + +XXVI. THE WOMEN IN THE GRAVEYARD. + +XXVII. THE MAN IN BLACK. + +XXVIII. THE MASTER OF THE ISLAND. + +XXIX. A BOAT ON THE BEACH. + +XXX. THE SCREAM ON THE CLIFF. + +XXXI. AARON GLASS. + +XXXII. WE COME TO DR. BEAUREGARD'S HOUSE. + +XXXIII. WE FIND THE TREASURE. + +XXXIV. DOCTOR BEAUREGARD. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +HOW I FIRST MET WITH CAPTAIN COFFIN. + +It was in the dusk of a July evening of the year 1813 (July 27, to be +precise) that on my way back from the mail-coach office, Falmouth, to +Mr. Stimcoe's Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen, No. 7, Delamere +Terrace, I first met Captain Coffin as he came, drunk and cursing, up +the Market Strand, with a rabble of children at his heels. I have +reason to remember the date and hour of this encounter, not only for +its remarkable consequences, but because it befell on the very day +and within an hour or two of my matriculation at Stimcoe's. +That afternoon I had arrived at Falmouth by Royal Mail, in charge of +Miss Plinlimmon, my father's housekeeper; and now but ten minutes ago +I had seen off that excellent lady and waved farewell to her--not +without a sinking of the heart--on her return journey to Minden +Cottage, which was my home. + +My name is Harry Brooks, and my age on this remembered evening was +fourteen and something over. My father, Major James Brooks, late of +the 4th (King's Own) Regiment, had married twice, and at the time of +his retirement from active service was for the second time a widower. +Blindness--contracted by exposure and long marches over the snows of +Galicia--had put an end to a career by no means undistinguished. +In his last fight, at Corunna, he had not only earned a mention in +despatches from his brigadier-general, Lord William Bentinck, but by +his alertness in handling his half-regiment at a critical moment, and +refusing its right to an outflanking line of French, had been +privileged to win almost the last word of praise uttered by his +idolized commander. My father heard, and faced about, but his eyes +were already failing him; they missed the friendly smile with which +Sir John Moore turned, and cantered off along the brigade, to +encourage the 50th and 42nd regiments, and to receive, a few minutes +later, the fatal cannon-shot. + +Every one has heard what miseries the returning transports endured in +the bitter gale of January, 1809. The _Londonderry_, in which my +father sailed, did indeed escape wreck, but at the cost of a week's +beating about the mouth of the Channel. He was, by rights, an +invalid, having taken a wound in the kneecap from a spent bullet, one +of the last fired in the battle; but in the common peril he bore a +hand with the best. For three days and two nights he never shifted +his clothing, which the gale alternately soaked and froze. It was +frozen stiff as a board when the _Londonderry_ made the entrance of +Plymouth Sound; and he was borne ashore in a rheumatic fever. +From this, and from his wound, the doctors restored him at length, +but meanwhile his eyesight had perished. + +His misfortunes did not end here. My step-sister Isabel--a beautiful +girl of seventeen, the only child of his first marriage--had met him +at Plymouth, nursed him to convalescence, and brought him home to +Minden Cottage, to the garden which henceforward he tilled, but saw +only through memory. Since then she had married a young officer in +the 52nd Regiment, a Lieutenant Archibald Plinlimmon; but, her +husband having to depart at once for the Peninsula, she had remained +with her father and tended him as before, until death took her--as it +had taken her mother--in childbirth. The babe did not survive her; +and, to complete the sad story, her husband fell a few weeks later +before Badajoz, while assaulting the Picurina Gate with fifty axemen +of the Light Division. + +Beneath these blows of fate my father did indeed bow his head, yet +bravely. From the day Isabel died his shoulders took a sensible +stoop; but this was the sole evidence of the mortal wound he carried, +unless you count that from the same day he put aside his "Aeneid," +and taught me no more from it, but spent his hours for the most part +in meditation, often with a Bible open on his knee--although his eyes +could not read it. Sally, our cook, told me one day that when the +foolish midwife came and laid the child in his arms, not telling him +that it was dead, he felt it over and broke forth in a terrible cry-- +his first and last protest. + +In me--the only child of his second marriage, as Isabel had been the +only child of his first--he appeared to have lost, and of a sudden, +all interest. While Isabel lived there had been reason for this, or +excuse at least, for he had loved her mother passionately, whereas +from mine he had separated within a day or two after marriage, having +married her only because he was obliged--or conceived himself +obliged--by honour. Into this story I shall not go. It was a sad +one, and, strange to say, sadly creditable to both. I do not +remember my mother. She died, having taken some pains to hide even +my existence from her husband, who, nevertheless, conscientiously +took up the burden. A man more strongly conscientious never lived; +and his sudden neglect of me had nothing to do with caprice, but +came--as I am now assured--of some lesion of memory under the shock +of my sister's death. As an unregenerate youngster I thought little +of it at the time, beyond rejoicing to be free of my daily lesson in +Virgil. + +I can see my father now, seated within the summer-house by the +filbert-tree at the end of the orchard--his favourite haunt--or +standing in the doorway and drawing himself painfully erect, a giant +of a man, to inhale the scent of his flowers or listen to his bees, +or the voice of the stream which bounded our small domain. I see him +framed there, his head almost touching the lintel, his hands gripping +the posts like a blind Samson's, all too strong for the flimsy +trelliswork. He wore a brown holland suit in summer, in colder +weather a fustian one of like colour, and at first glance you might +mistake him for a Quaker. His snow-white hair was gathered close +beside the temples, back from a face of ineffable simplicity and +goodness--the face of a man at peace with God and all the world, yet +marked with scars--scars of bygone passions, cross-hatched and almost +effaced by deeper scars of calamity. As Miss Plinlimmon wrote in her +album-- + + "Few men so deep as Major Brooks + Have drained affliction's cup. + Alas! if one may trust his looks, + I fear he's breaking up!" + +This Miss Plinlimmon, a maiden aunt of the young officer who had been +slain at Badajoz, kept house for us after my sister's death. She was +a lady of good Welsh family, who after many years of genteel poverty +had come into a legacy of seven thousand pounds from an East Indian +uncle; and my father--a simple liver, content with his half-pay--had +much ado in his blindness to keep watch and war upon the luxuries she +untiringly strove to smuggle upon him. For the rest, Miss Plinlimmon +wore corkscrew curls, talked sentimentally, worshipped the manly form +(in the abstract) with the manly virtues, and possessed (quite +unknown to herself) the heart of a lion. + +Upon this unsuspected courage, and upon the strength of her affection +for me, she had drawn on the day when she stood up to my father--of +whom, by the way, she was desperately afraid--and told him that his +neglect of me was a sin and a shame and a scandal. "And a good +education," she wound up feebly, "would render Harry so much more of +a companion to you." + +My father rubbed his head vaguely. "Yes, yes, you are right. I have +been neglecting the boy. But pray end as honestly as you began, and +do not pretend to be consulting my future when you are really +pleading for his. To begin with, I don't want a companion; next, I +should not immediately make a companion of Harry by sending him away +to school; and, lastly, you know as well as I, that long before he +finished his schooling I should be in my grave." + +"Well, then, consider what a classical education would do for Harry! +I feel sure that had I--pardon the supposition--been born a man, and +made conversant with the best thoughts of the ancients--Socrates, for +example--" + +"What about him?" my father demanded. + +"So wise, as I have always been given to understand, yet in his own +age misunderstood, by his wife especially! And, to crown all, unless +I err, drowned in a butt of hemlock!" + +"Dear madam, pardon me; but how many of these accidents to Socrates +are you ascribing to his classical education?" + +"But it comes out in so many ways," Miss Plinlimmon persisted; "and +it does make such a difference! There's a _je ne sais quoi_. +You can tell it even in the way they handle a knife and fork!" + +That evening, after supper, Miss Plinlimmon declined her customary +game of cards with me, on the pretence that she felt tired, and sat +for a long while fumbling with a newspaper, which I recognized for a +week-old copy of the "Falmouth Packet." At length she rose abruptly, +and, crossing over to the table where I sat playing dominoes (right +hand against left), thrust the paper before me, and pointed with a +trembling finger. + +"There, Harry! What would you say to that?" + +I brushed my dominoes aside, and read-- + +"The Reverend Philip Stimcoe, B.A., (Oxon.), of Copenhagen Academy, +7. Delamere Terrace, begs to inform the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry +of Falmouth and the neighbourhood that he has Vacancies for a limited +number of Pupils of good Social Standing. Education classical, on +the lines of the best Public Schools, combined with Home Comforts +under the personal supervision of Mrs. Stimcoe (niece of the late +Hon. Sir Alexander O'Brien, R.N., Admiral of the White, and K.C.B.). +Backward and delicate boys a speciality. Separate beds. Commodious +playground in a climate unrivalled for pulmonary ailments. Greenwich +time kept." + +I did not criticise the advertisement. It sufficed me to read my +release in it; and in the same instant I knew how lonely the last few +months had been, and felt myself an ingrate. I that had longed +unspeakably, if but half consciously, for the world beyond Minden +Cottage--a world in which I could play the man--welcomed my liberty +by laying my head on my arms and breaking into unmanly sobs. + +I will pass over a blissful week of preparation, including a journey +by van to Torpoint and by ferry across to Plymouth, where Miss +Plinlimmon bought me boots, shirts, collars, under-garments, a +valise, a low-crowned beaver hat for Sunday wear, and for week-days a +cap shaped like a concertina; where I was measured for two suits +after a pattern marked "Boy's Clarence, Gentlemanly," and where I +expended two-and-sixpence of my pocket-money on a piratical +jack-knife and a book of patriotic songs--two articles indispensable, +it seemed to me, to full-blooded manhood; and I will come to the day +when the Royal Mail pulled up before Minden Cottage with a merry +clash of bits and swingle-bars, and, the scarlet-coated guard having +received my box from Sally the cook, and hoisted it aboard in a +jiffy, Miss Plinlimmon and I climbed up to a seat behind the +coachman. My father stood at the door, and shook hands with me at +parting. + +"Good luck, lad," said he; "and remember our motto: _Nil nisi recte!_ +Good luck have thou with thine honour. And, by the way, here's half +a sovereign for you." + +"Cl'k!" from the coachman, shortening up his enormous bunch of reins; +_ta-ra-ra!_ from the guard's horn close behind my ear; and we were +off! + +Oh, believe me, there never was such a ride! As we swept by the +second mile stone I stole a look at Miss Plinlimmon. She sat in an +ecstasy, with closed eyes. She was, as she put it, indulging in +mental composition. + + Verses composed while Riding by the Royal Mail. + + "I've sailed at eve o'er Plymouth Sound + (For me it was a rare excursion) + Oblivious of the risk of being drown'd, + Or even of a more temporary immersion. + + "I dream'd myself the Lady of the Lake, + Or an Oriental one (within limits) on the Bosphorus; + We left a trail of glory in our wake, + Which the intelligent boatman ascribed to phosphorus. + + "Yet agreeable as I found it o'er the ocean + To glide within my bounding shallop, + I incline to think that for the poetry of motion + One may even more confidently recommend the Tantivy Gallop." + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +I AM ENTERED AT COPENHAGEN ACADEMY. + +Agreeable, too, as I found it to be whirled between the hedgerows +behind five splendid horses; to catch the ostlers run out with the +relays; to receive blue glimpses of the Channel to southward; to dive +across dingles and past farm-gates under which the cocks and hens +flattened themselves in their haste to give us room; to gaze back +over the luggage and along the road, and assure myself that the rival +coach (the Self-Defence) was not overtaking us--yet Falmouth, when +we reached it, was best of all; Falmouth, with its narrow streets and +crowd of sailors, postmen, 'longshoremen, porters with wheelbarrows, +and passengers hurrying to and from the packets, its smells of pitch +and oakum and canvas, its shops full of seamen's outfits and +instruments and marine curiosities, its upper windows where parrots +screamed in cages, its alleys and quay-doors giving peeps of the +splendid harbour, thronged--to quote Miss Plinlimmon again--"with +varieties of gallant craft, between which the trained nautical eye +may perchance distinguish, but mine doesn't." + +The residential part of Falmouth rises in neat terraces above the +waterside, and of these Delamere Terrace was by no means the least +respectable. The brass doorplate of No. 7--"Copenhagen Academy for +the Sons of Gentlemen. Principal, the Rev. Philip Stimcoe, B.A. +(Oxon.)"--shone immaculate; and its window-blinds did Mrs. Stimcoe +credit, as Miss Plinlimmon remarked before ringing the bell. + +Mrs. Stimcoe herself opened the door to us, in a full lace cap and a +maroon-coloured gown of state. She was a gaunt, hard-eyed woman, +tall as a grenadier, remarkable for a long upper lip decorated with +two moles. She excused her condescension on the ground that the +butler was out, taking the pupils for a walk; and conducted us to the +parlour, where Mr. Stimcoe sat in an atmosphere which smelt faintly +of sherry. + +Mr. Stimcoe rose and greeted us with a shaky hand. He was a thin, +spectacled man, with a pendulous nose and cheeks disfigured by a +purplish cutaneous disorder (which his wife, later on, attributed to +his having slept between damp sheets while the honoured guest of a +nobleman, whose name I forget). He wore a seedy clerical suit. + +While shaking hands he observed that I was taller than he had +expected; and this, absurdly enough, is all I remember of the +interview, except that the room had two empty bookcases, one on +either side of the chimney-breast; that the fading of the wallpaper +above the mantelpiece had left a patch recording where a clock had +lately stood (I conjectured that it must be at Greenwich, undergoing +repairs); that Mrs. Stimcoe produced a decanter of sherry--a wine +which Miss Plinlimmon abominated--and poured her out a glassful, with +the remark that it had been twice round the world; that Miss +Plinlimmon supposed vaguely "the same happened to a lot of things in +a seaport like Falmouth;" and that somehow this led us on to Mr. +Stimcoe's delicate health, and this again to the subject of damp +sheets, and this finally to Mrs. Stimcoe's suggesting that Miss +Plinlimmon might perhaps like to have a look at my bedroom. + +The bedroom assigned to me opened out of Mrs. Stimcoe's own. +("It will give him a sense of protection. A child feels the first +few nights away from home.") Though small, it was neat, and, +for a boy's wants, amply furnished; nay, it contained at least one +article of supererogation, in the shape of a razor-case on the +dressing-table. Mrs. Stimcoe swept this into her pocket with a turn +of the hand, and explained frankly that her husband, like most +scholars, was absent-minded. Here she passed two fingers slowly +across her forehead. "Even in his walks, or while dressing, his +brain wanders among the deathless compositions of Greece and Rome, +turning them into English metres--all cakes especially"--she must +have meant alcaics--"and that makes him leave things about." + +I had fresh and even more remarkable evidence of Mr. Stimcoe's +absent-mindedness two minutes later, when, the sheets having been +duly inspected, we descended to the parlour again; for, happening to +reach the doorway some paces ahead of the two ladies, I surprised him +in the act of drinking down Miss Plinlimmon's sherry. + +The interview was scarcely resumed before a mortuary silence fell on +the room, and I became aware that somehow my presence impeded the +discussion of business. + +"I think perhaps that Harry would like to run out upon the terrace +and see the view from his new home," suggested Mrs. Stimcoe, with +obvious tact. + +I escaped, and went in search of the commodious playground, which I +supposed to lie in the rear of the house; but, reaching a back yard, +I suddenly found myself face to face with three small boys, one +staggering with the weight of a pail, the two others bearing a full +washtub between them; and with surprise saw them set down their +burdens at a distance and come tip-toeing towards me in a single +file, with theatrical gestures of secrecy. + +"Hallo!" said I. + +"Hist! Be dark as the grave!" answered the leader, in a +stage-whisper. He was a freckly, narrow-chested child, and needed +washing. "You're the new boy," he announced, as though he had +tracked me down in that criminal secret. + +"Yes," I owned. "Who are you?" + +"We are the Blood-stained Brotherhood of the Pampas, now upon the +trail!" + +"Look here," said I, staring down at him, "that's nonsense!" + +"Oh, very well," he answered promptly; "then we're the 'Backward Sons +of Gentlemen'--that's down in the prospectus--and we're fetching +water for Mother Stimcoe, because the turncock cut off the company's +water this morning! See? But you won't blow the gaff on the old +girl, will you?" + +"Are you all there is, you three?" I asked, after considering them a +moment. + +"We're all the boarders. My name's Ted Bates--they call me Doggy +Bates--and my father's a captain out in India; and these are Bob +Pilkington and Scotty Maclean. You may call him Redhead, being too +big to punch; and, talking of that, you'll have to fight Bully +Stokes." + +"Is he a day-boy?" I asked. + +"He's cock of Rogerses up the hill, and he wants it badly. +Stimcoes and Rogerses are hated rivals. If you can whack Bully +Stokes for us--" + +"But Mrs. Stimcoe told me that you were taking a walk with the +butler," I interrupted. + +Master Bates winked. + +"Would you like to see him?" + +He beckoned me to an open window, and we gazed through it upon a bare +back kitchen, and upon an extremely corpulent man in an armchair, +slumbering, with a yellow bandanna handkerchief over his head to +protect it from the flies. Master Bates whipped out a pea-shooter, +and blew a pea on to the exposed lobe of the sleeper's ear. + +"D--n!" roared the corpulent one, leaping up in wrath. But we were +in hiding behind the yard-wall before he could pull the bandanna from +his face. + +"He's the bailiff," explained Master Bates. "He's in possession. +Oh, you'll get quite friendly with him in time. Down in the town +they call him Mother Stimcoe's lodger, he comes so often. But, I +say, don't go and blow the gaff on the old girl." + +On our way to the coach-office that evening I felt--as the saying +is--my heart in my mouth. Miss Plinlimmon spoke sympathetically of +Mr. Stimcoe's state of health, and with delicacy of his +absent-mindedness, "so natural in a scholar." I discovered long +afterwards that Mr. Stimcoe, having retired to cash a note for her, +had brought back a strong smell of brandy and eighteen-pence less +than the strict amount of her change. I knew in my heart that my new +schoolmaster and his wife were a pair of frauds, and yet I choked +down the impulse to speak. Perhaps Master Bates's loyalty kept me on +my mettle. + +The dear soul and I bade one another farewell, she not without tears. +The coach bore her away; and I walked back through the crowded +streets with my spirits down in my boots, and my fists thrust deep +into the pockets of my small-clothes. + +In this dejected mood I reached the Market Strand just as Captain +Coffin came up it from the Plume of Feathers public-house, cursing +and striking out with his stick at a mob of small boys. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +A STREET FIGHT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + +He emerged upon the street which crosses the head of Market Strand, +and, dropping his arms, stood for a moment us if in doubt of his +bearings. He was flagrantly drunk, but not aggressively. +He reminded me of a purblind owl that, blundering Into daylight, is +set upon and mobbed by a crowd of small birds. + +The 'longshoremen and loafers grinned and winked at one another, but +forbore to interfere. Plainly the spectacle was a familiar one. + +The man was not altogether repulsive; pitiable, rather; a small, lean +fellow, with a grey-white face drawn into wrinkles about the jaw, and +eyes that wandered timidly. He wore a suit of good sea-cloth-- +soiled, indeed, but neither ragged nor threadbare--and a blue and +yellow spotted neckerchief, the bow of which had worked around +towards his right ear. His hat, perched a-cock over his left eye, +had made acquaintance with the tavern sawdust. Next to his +drunkenness, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about him was his +stick--of ebony, very curiously carved in rings from knob to ferrule, +where it ended in an iron spike; an ugly weapon, of which his +tormentors stood in dread, and small blame to them. + +While he stood hesitating, they swarmed close and began to bay him +afresh. + +"Captain Coffin, Captain Coffin!" "Who killed the Portugee?" +"Who hid the treasure and got so drunk he couldn't find it?" +"Where's your ship, Cap'n Danny?" These were some of the taunts +flung; and as the urchins danced about him, yelling them, the passion +blazed up again in his red-rimmed eyes. + +Amongst the crowd capered Ted Bates. "Hallo, Brooks!" he shouted, +and, catching at another boy's elbow, pointed towards me. +Beyond noting that the other boy had a bullet-shaped head with ears +that stood out from it at something like right angles, I had time to +take very little stock of him; for just then, us Captain Coffin +turned about to smite, a stone came flying and struck him smartly on +the funny-bone. His hand opened with the pain of it, but the stick +hung by a loop to his wrist, and, gripping it again, he charged among +his tormentors, lashing out to right and left. + +So savagely he charged that I looked for nothing short of murder; and +just then, while I stood at gaze, a boy stepped up to me--the same +that Ted Bates had plucked by the arm. + +"Look here!" said he, frowning, with his legs a-straddle. +"Doggy Bates tells me that you told him you could whack me with one +hand behind you." + +I replied that I had told Doggy Bates nothing of the sort. + +"That's all right," said he. "Then you take it back?" + +He had the air of one sure of his logic, but his under lip--not to +mention his ears--protruded in a way that struck me as offensive, and +I replied-- + +"That depends." + +"My name's Stokes," said he, still in the same reasonable tone. +"And you'll have to take coward's blow." + +"Oh, indeed!" said I. + +"It's the rule," said he, and gave it me with a light, back-handed +smack across the bridge of the nose; whereupon I hit him on the point +of the chin, and, unconsciously imitating Captain Coffin's method of +charging a crowd, lowered my head and butted him violently in the +stomach. + +I make no doubt that my brain was tired and giddy with the day's +experiences, but to this moment I cannot understand why we two +suddenly found ourselves the focus of interest in a crowd which had +wasted none on Captain Coffin. + +But so it was. In less time than it takes to write, a ring +surrounded us--a ring of men staring and offering bets. The lamp at +the street-corner shone on their faces; and close under the light of +it Master Stokes and I were hammering one another. + +We were fighting by rule, too. Some one--I cannot say who--had taken +up the affair, and was imposing the right ceremonial upon us. It may +have been the cheerful, blue-jerseyed Irishman, to whose knee I +returned at the end of each round to be freshened up around the face +and neck with a dripping boat-sponge. He had an extraordinarily wide +mouth, and it kept speaking encouragement and good advice to me. +I feel sure he was a good fellow, but have never set eyes on him from +that hour to this. + +Bully Stokes and I must have fought a good many rounds, for towards +the end we were both panting hard, and our hands hung on every blow. +But I remember yet more vividly the strangeness of it all, and the +uncanny sensation that the fight itself, the street-lamp, the crowd, +and the dim houses around were unreal as a dream: that, and the +unnatural hardness of my opponent's face, which seemed the one +unmalleable part of him. + +A dreadful thought possessed me that if he could only contrive to hit +me with his face all would be over. My own was badly pounded; for we +fought--or, at any rate, I fought--without the smallest science; it +was blow for blow, plain give-and-take, from the start. But what +distressed me was the extreme tenderness of my knuckles; and what +chiefly irritated me was the behaviour of Doggy Bates, dancing about +and screaming, "Go it, Stimcoes! Stimcoes for ever!" Five times the +onlookers flung him out by the scruff of his neck; and five times he +worked himself back, and screamed it between their legs. + +In the end this enthusiasm proved the undoing of all his delight. +Towards the end of an intolerably long round, finding that my arms +began to hang like lead, I had rushed in and closed; and the two of +us went to ground together. Then I lay panting, and my opponent +under me--the pair of us too weary for the moment to strike a blow; +and then, as breath came back, I was aware of a sudden hush in the +din. A hand took me by the shirt-collar, dragged me to my feet, and +swung me round, and I stared, blinking, into the face of Mr. Stimcoe. + +"Dishgrashful!" said Mr. Stimcoe. He was accompanied by a constable, +to whom he appealed for confirmation, pointing to my face. +"Left immy charge only this evening, Perf'ly dishgrashful!" + +"Boys will be boys, sir," said the constable. + +"M' good fellow "--Mr. Stimcoe comprehended the crowd with an +unsteady wave of his hand--"that don't 'pply 'case of men. _Ne tu +pu'ri tempsherish annosh_; tha's Juvenal." + +"Then my advice is, sir--take the boy home and give him a wash." + +"He can't," came a taunting voice from the crowd. "'Cos why? +The company 've cut off his water." + +Mr. Stimcoe gazed around in sorrow rather than in anger. He cleared +his throat for a public speech; but was forestalled by the +constable's dispersing the throng with a "Clear along, now, like good +fellows!" + +The wide-mouthed man helped me into my jacket, shook hands with me, +and said I had no science, but the devil's own pluck-and-lights. +Then he, too, faded away into the night; and I found myself alongside +of Doggy Bates, marching up the street after Mr. Stimcoe, who +declaimed, as he went, upon the vulgarity of street-fighting. + +By-and-by it became apparent that in the soothing flow of his +eloquence he had forgotten us; and Doggy Bates, who understood his +preceptor's habits to a hair, checked me with a knowing squeeze of +the arm, and began, of set purpose, to lag in his steps. Mr. Stimcoe +strode on, still audibly denouncing and exhorting. + +"It was all my fault!" Master Bates pulled up and studied my mauled +face by the light of a street-lamp. "The beggar heard me shouting +his own name, silly fool that I was!" + +I begged him not to be distressed on my account. + +"What's the use of half a fight?" he groaned again. "My word, +though, won't Stimcoe catch it from the missus! She sent him out to +get change for your aunt's notes--'fees payable in advance.' I know +the game--to pay off the bailey; and he's been soaking in a +public-house ever since. Hallo!" + +We turned together at the sound of footsteps approaching after us up +the street. They broke into a run, then appeared to falter; and, +peering into the dark interval between us and the next lamp, I +discerned Captain Coffin. He had come to a halt, and stood there +mysteriously beckoning. + +"You--I want you!" he called huskily. "Not the other boy! You!" + +I obeyed, having a reputation to keep up in the eyes of Doggy Bates; +but my courage was oozing as I walked towards the old man, and I came +to a sudden stop about five yards from him. + +"Closer!" he beckoned. "Good boy, don't be afraid. What's your +name, good boy?" + +"Harry Brooks, sir." + +"Call me 'sir,' do you? Well, and you're right. I could ride in my +coach-and-six if I chose; and some day you may see it. How would you +like to ride in your coach-and-six, Harry Brooks?" + +"I should like it finely, sir," said I, humouring him. + +"Yes, yes, I'll wager you would. Well, now--come closer. Mum's the +word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "--he +broke off and cursed horribly--"they're not fit to carry slops to a +bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time +you're in trouble, just pay a call on me. Understand? Mind you, I +make no promises." Here, to my exceeding fright, he reached out a +hand, and, clutching me by the arm, drew me close, so that his breath +poured hot on my ear, and I sickened at its reek of brandy. +"It's _money_, boy--_money_, I tell you!" + +He dropped my arm, and, falling back a pace, looked nervously about +him. + +"Between you and me and the gatepost, eh?" he asked. + +His hand went down and tapped his pocket slily, and with that he +turned and shuffled away down the street. I stared after him into +the foggy darkness, listening to the tap of his stick upon the +cobbles. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +CAPTAIN COFFIN STUDIES NAVIGATION. + +Events soon to be narrated made my sojourn in tutelage of Mr. Stimcoe +a brief one, and I will pass it lightly over. + +The school consisted of four boarders and six backward sons of +gentlemen resident in the town, and assembled daily in a large +outhouse furnished with desks of a peculiar pattern, known to us as +"scobs." Mr. Stimcoe, who had received his education as a +"querister" at Winchester (and afterwards as a "servitor" at Pembroke +College, Oxford), habitually employed and taught us to employ the +esoteric slang--or "notions," as he called it--of that great public +school; so that in "preces," "morning lines," "book-chambers," and +what-not we had the names if not the things, and a vague and quite +illusory sense of high connection, on the strength of which, and of +our freedom from what Mrs. Stimcoe called "the commercial taint," we +made bold to despise the more prosperous Rogerses up the hill. + +Upon commerce in the concrete--that is to say, upon the butchers, +bakers, and other honest tradesmen of Falmouth--Mrs. Stimcoe waged a +predatory war, and waged it without quarter. She had a genius for +opening accounts, and something more than genius for keeping her +creditors at bay. She never wheedled nor begged them for time; she +never compromised nor parleyed, nor condescended to yield an inch to +their claims for decent human treatment. She relied simply upon +browbeating and the efficacy of the straight-spoken lie. A more +dauntless, unblushing, majestic liar never stood up in petticoats. + +She was a byword in Falmouth; yet, strange to say, her victims kept a +sneaking fondness for her, a soft spot In their hearts; while as +sporting onlookers we boys took something like a fearful pride in the +Warrior, as we called her. It was not in her nature to encourage any +such weakness, or to use it. She would not have thanked us for it. +But we had this amount of excuse: that she fed us liberally when she +could browbeat the butcher; and if at times we went short, she shared +our privation. Also, there must have been some good in the woman, to +stand so unflinchingly by Stimcoe. Stimcoe's books had gone into +storage at the pawnbroker's; but in his bare "study," where he heard +our construing of Caesar and Homer, stood a screen, and behind it an +eighteen-gallon cask. A green baize tablecloth covered the cask from +sight, and partially muffled the sound of its running tap when +Stimcoe withdrew behind the screen, to consult (as he put it) his +lexicon. + +His one assistant, who figured in the prospectus as "Teacher of +English, the Mathematics, and Navigation," was a retired +packet-captain, Branscome by name, but known among us as Captain +Gamey, by reason of an injured leg. He had taken the hurt--a +splintered hip-bone--while fighting his ship against a French +privateer off Guadeloupe, and it had retired him from the service of +my lords the Postmaster-General upon a very small pension, and with a +sword of honour subscribed for by the merchants of the City of +London, whose mails he had gallantly saved. These resources being +barely sufficient to maintain him, still less to permit his helping a +widowed sister whom he had partly maintained during his days of +service, he eked them out by school mastering; and a dreadful trade +he must have found it. In person he was slight and wiry, of a clear, +ruddy complexion, with grey hair, and a grave simplicity of manner. +He wore a tightly buttoned, blue uniform coat, threadbare and frayed, +but scrupulously brushed, noticeably clean linen, and white duck +trousers in all weathers. He walked with the support of a malacca +cane, dragging his wounded leg after him; and had a trick of talking +to himself as he went. + +I need scarcely say that we mimicked him; but in school he kept far +better discipline than Stimcoe, for, with all his oddity, we knew him +to be a brave man. Such mathematics as we needed he taught capably +enough and very patiently. The "navigation," so far as we were +concerned, was a mere flourish of the prospectus; and his +qualifications as a teacher of English began and ended with an +enthusiasm for Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas." + +Such was Captain Branscome: and, such as he was, he kept the school +running on days when Stimcoe was merely drunk and incapable. He ever +treated Mrs. Stimcoe with the finest courtesy, and, alone among her +creditors, was rewarded with that lady's respect. + +I knew, to be sure--we all knew--that she must be in arrears with +Captain Branscome's pay; but we were unprepared for the morning when, +on the stroke of the church clock--our Greenwich time--he walked up +to the door, resolutely handed Mrs. Stimcoe a letter, and as +resolutely walked away again. Stimcoe had been maudlin drunk for a +week and could not appear. His wife heroically stepped into the +breach, and gave us (as a geography lesson) some account of her uncle +the admiral and his career--"distinguished, but wandering," as she +summarized it. + +I remember little of this lesson save that it dispensed--wisely, no +doubt--with the use of the terrestrial globe; that it included a +description of the admiral's country seat in Roscommon, and an +account of a ball given by him to celebrate Mrs. Stimcoe's arrival at +a marriageable age, with a list of the notabilities assembled; and +that it ended in her rapping Doggy Bates over the head with a ruler, +for biting his nails. From that moment anarchy reigned. + +It reigned for a week. I have wondered since how our six day-boys +managed to refrain from carrying home a tale which must have brought +their parents down upon us _en masse_. Great is schoolboy honour-- +great, and more than a trifle quaint. In any case, the parents must +have been singularly unobservant or singularly slow to reason upon +what they observed; for we sent their backward sons home to them each +night in a mask of ink. + +Saturday came, and brought the usual half-holiday. We boarders +celebrated it by a raid upon the back yard of Rogerses--Bully Stokes +being temporarily incapacitated by chicken-pox--and possessed +ourselves, after a gallant fight, of Rogerses' football. Superior +numbers drove us back to our own door, where--at the invocation of +all the householders along Delamere Terrace--the constable +intervened; but we retained the spoil. + +At the shut of dusk, as we kicked the football in triumph about our +own back yard, Mrs. Stimcoe sought me out with a letter to be +conveyed to Captain Branscome. I took it and ran. + +The lamplighter, going his rounds, met me at the corner of Killigrew +Street and directed me to the alley in which the captain's lodgings +lay. The alley was dark, but a little within the entrance my eyes +caught the glimmer of a highly polished brass door-knocker, and upon +this I rapped at a venture. + +Captain Branscome opened to me. The house had no passage. Its front +door opened directly upon a whitewashed room, with a round table in +the centre, covered with charts. On the table, too, stood a lamp, +the light of which dazzled me for a moment. On the walls hung the +captain's sword of honour (above the mantelpiece), a couple of +bookshelves, well stored, and a panel with a ship upon it--a brig in +full sail--carved in high relief and painted. My eyes, however, were +not for these, but for a man who sat at the table, poring over the +charts, and lifted his head nervously to blink at me. It was Captain +Coffin. + +While I stared at him Captain Branscome took the letter from me. +It contained some pieces of silver, as I knew from its weight +and the feel of it--five shillings, as I judged, or perhaps +seven-and-sixpence. As his hand weighed it I saw a sudden relief on +his face, and realized how grey and pinched it had been when he +opened the door to me. + +He peised the envelope in his hand for a moment, then broke the seal +very deliberately, took out the coins, and, as if weighing them in +his palm, turned back to the table and laid Mrs. Stimcoe's letter +close under the lamp while he searched for his gold-rimmed +spectacles. (There was a tradition at Stimcoe's, by the way, that +the London merchants, finding a small surplus of subscriptions in +hand after purchasing the sword of honour, had presented him with +these spectacles as a make-weight, and that he valued them no less.) + +"Brooks," said he, laying down the letter and pushing the spectacles +high on his forehead while he gazed at me, "I want to ask you a +question in confidence. Had Mrs. Stimcoe any difficulty in finding +this money?" + +"Well, sir," said I, "I oughtn't perhaps to know it, but she pawned +Stim--Mr. Stimcoe's Cicero this morning, the six volumes with a +shield on the covers, that he got as a prize at Oxford." + +"Good Lord!" said Captain Branscome, slowly. As if in absence of +mind, he stepped to a side-cupboard and looked within. It was bare +but for a plate and an apple. He took up the apple, and was about to +offer it to me, but set it back slowly on the plate, and locked the +cupboard again. "Good Lord!" he repeated quietly, and, linking his +hands under his coat-tails, strode twice backwards and forwards +across the room. + +Captain Coffin looked up from his charts and stared at him, and I, +too, stared, waiting in the semi-darkness beyond the lamp's circle. + +"Good Lord!" said Captain Branscome for the third time. "And it's +Saturday, too! You'll excuse me a moment." + +With that he caught up the letter, and made a dart up the wooden +staircase, which led straight from a corner of the room through a +square hole in the ceiling to his upper chamber. + +"Money again!" said Captain Coffin, turning his eyes upon me and +blinking. "Nothing like money!" + +He picked up a pair of compasses, spread them out on the paper of +figures before him, and looked up again with a sly, silly smile. + +"You won't guess what I'm doing?" he challenged. + +"No." + +"I'm studyin' navigation. Cap'n Branscome's larnin' it to me. Some +people has luck an' some has heads; an' with a head on my shoulders +same as I had at your age, I'd be Prime Minister an' Lord Mayor of +Lunnon rolled into one, by crum!" He reached across for Captain +Branscome's sextant, and held it between his shaking hands. +"_He_ can do it; hundreds o' men--thick-headed men in the ord'nary +way--can do it; take a vessel out o' Falmouth here, as you might say, +and hold her 'crost the Atlantic, as you might put it; whip her along +for thirty days, we'll say; an' then, 'To-morrow, if the wind holds, +an' about six in the mornin',' they'll say, 'there'll be an island +with a two-three palm-trees on a hill an' a spit o' sand bearing +nor'-by-west. Bring 'em in line,' they'll say, 'an' then you may +fetch my shaving-water'--and all the while no more'n ordinary men, +same as you and me. Whereby I allow it must come in time, though my +head don't seem to get no grip on it." + +Captain Coffin stared for a moment at a sheet of paper on which he +had been scribbling figures, and passed it over to me, with a sigh. + +"There! What d'you make of it?" + +At a glance I saw that nothing could be made of it. The figures +crossed one another, and ran askew; here and there they trailed off +into mere illegibility. In the left-hand bottom corner I saw a 3 set +under a 10, and beneath it the result--17--underlined, which, as a +sum, left much to be desired, whether you took it in addition, +subtraction, multiplication, or division. + +"And yet," he went on plaintively, "there's hundreds can do it--even +ord'nary men." + +He reached out a hand and gripped me by the elbow; and again his +brandy-laden breath sickened me as he drew me close. + +"S'pose, now, _you_ was to do this for me? You _could_, you know. +And there's money in it--lashin's o' money!" + +He winked at me, glanced around the room, and with an indescribable +air of slyness dived a hand into his breast-pocket. + +"It's here," he nodded, drawing out a small parcel wrapped about in +what at first glance appeared to me an oilskin bag, tied about the +neck with a tarry string. "Here. And enough to set you an' me up +for life." His fingers fumbled with the string for two or three +seconds, but presently faltered. "You come to me to-morrow," he went +on, with another mysterious wink, "and I'll show you something. +Up the hill, past Market Strand, till you come to a signboard, +'G. Goodfellow. Funerals Furnished'--first turning to the right down +the court, and knock three times." + +Here he whipped the parcel back into his pocket, picked up his +compasses, and made transparent pretence to be occupied in measuring +distances as Captain Branscome came down the stairs from the garret. + +Captain Branscome gave no sign of observing his confusion, but +signalled to me to step outside with him into the alley, where he +pressed an envelope into my hand. By the weight of it, I knew on the +instant that he was returning Mrs. Stimcoe's money, + +"And tell her," said he, "that I will come on Monday morning at nine +o'clock as usual." + +"Yes, sir." + +I turned to go. I could not see his face in the gloom of the alley, +but I had caught one glimpse of it by the lamplight within, and knew +what had detained him upstairs. Honest man, he was starving, and had +been praying up there to be delivered from temptation. + +"Brooks," said he, as I turned, "they tell me your father was once a +major in the Army. Is he, by chance, the same Major Brooks--Major +James Brooks, of the King's Own--I had the honour to bring home in +the _Londonderry_, after Corunna?" + +"That must have been my father, sir." + +"A good man and a brave one. I am glad to hear he is recovered." + +I told him in a word or two of my father's health and of his +blindness. + +"And he lives not far from here?" I remembered afterwards that his +voice shook upon the question. + +I described Minden Cottage and its position on the road towards +Plymouth. He cut me short hurriedly, and remarked, with a nervous +laugh, that he must be getting back to his pupil. Whereat I, too, +laughed. + +"Do you think it wrong of me, boy?" he asked abruptly. + +"Wrong, sir?" + +"He insists upon coming; and he pays me. He will never learn +anything. By the way, Brooks, I have been inhospitable. An apple, +for instance?" + +I declared untruthfully that I never ate apples; and perhaps the lie +was pardonable, since by it I escaped eating Captain Branscome's +Sunday dinner. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE WHALEBOAT. + +A barber's pole protruded beside the ope leading to Captain Coffin's +lodgings. It was painted in spirals of scarlet and blue, and at the +end of it a cage containing a grey parrot dangled over the footway. + +"Drunk again!" screamed the parrot, as I hesitated before the +entrance, for the directing-marks just here were so numerous as to be +perplexing. To the right of the alley the barber had affixed his +signboard, close above the base of his pole; to the left a flanking +slopshop dangled a row of cast-off suits, while immediately overhead +was nailed a board painted over with ornate flourishes and the +legend-- + + "G. Goodfellow. Carpenter and House-Decorator, &c. + Repairs Neatly Executed. Instruction in the Violin. + Funerals at the Shortest Notice. Shipping Supplied." + +"Drunk again!" repeated the parrot. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, kiss +me! Oh, you nasty image! Kiss me, kiss me! Who killed the +Portugee?" + +"He don't mean you," explained the barber, reassuringly, emerging at +that moment from his shop with a pannikin of water for the parrot's +cage, which he lowered very deftly by means of a halliard reeved +through a block at the end of the pole. "He means old Coffin. +Nice bird, hey?" + +He slipped a hand through the cage-door, and caressed him, scratching +his head. + +"If you please, sir," said I, "it's Captain Coffin I'm looking for." + +"Drunk again!" screamed the bird. "Damn my giblets, drunk again!" + +"He don't like Coffin, and that's a fact," said the barber. + +"He don't appear to, sir," I agreed. + +"You'll find the old fellow down the yard. That is, if you really +want him." The barber eyed me doubtfully. "He's sober enough, just +now; been swearin off liquor for a week. I dare say you know his +temper's uncertain at such times." + +I did not know it, but was too far committed to retreat. + +"Well, you'll find him down the yard--green door to the right, with +the brass knocker. He's out at the back, hammering at his ship, but +he'll hear you fast enough: he's wonderful quick of hearing." + +A man, even though he possessed a solid brass knocker, had need to be +quick of hearing in that alley. Without, street-hawkers were bawling +and carts rattling on the cobbled thoroughfare; from the entrance the +parrot vociferated after me as I went down the passage beneath an +open window whence an invisible violin repeated the opening phrase of +"Come, cheer up, my lads!" plaintively and persistently; while from +the far end, somewhere between it and the harbour side, an irregular +hammering punctuated the music. + +I knocked, and the hammering ceased. The rest of the din ceased not, +nor abated. In about a minute the green door opened--a cautious inch +or two at first, then wide enough to reveal Captain Coffin. He wore +a dirty white jumper over his upper garments, and held a formidable +mallet. I observed that either his face was unnaturally white or the +rims of his eyes were unnaturally red, and that sawdust besprinkled +his hair and collar. I recalled the tavern sawdust which had +bepowdered his hat on the night of our first meeting, and jumped to a +wrong conclusion. + +"Eh? It's Brooks--the boy Brooks! Glad to see you, Brooks! +Come inside." + +"Thank you, sir," said I, feeling a strong impulse to bolt as he +shook me by the hand, so hot was his and so dry, and so feverishly +it gripped me. + +"You're sure no one tracked ye here?" he asked, as he closed the door +behind us. + +"There was a barber, sir, at the head of the passage. I stopped to +ask him the way." + +"_He's_ all right, or would be but for that cursed bird of his. +How a man can keep such a bird--" Captain Coffin broke off. +"I had a two-three nails in my mouth when you knocked. Nearly made +me swallow 'em, you did. They was copper nails, too." + +I suppose I must have stared at this, for he paused and peered at me, +drawing me over to the window, through which--so thickly grimed it +was--a very little light dribbled from the courtyard into the room. +Yet the room itself was clean, almost spick and span, with a +seaman-like tidiness in all its arrangements--a small room, crowded +with foreign odds-and-ends, among which I remember a walking-stick +even more singular than the one Captain Coffin carried on his walks +abroad (it was white in colour, with lines of small grey +indentations, and he afterwards told me it was a shark's backbone); +a corner-cupboard, too, painted over with green-and-yellow tulips. + +"Copper nails, I tell you. Nothing but the best'll do for your +friend Coffin." He leaned back, still eyeing me, and tapped me twice +on the chest. "You heard me say that? 'Your friend' was my words." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"But you made me jump, you did--me being that way given when off the +liquor." He hesitated a moment, with a glance over his shoulder at +the tulip-painted cupboard. "Brooks," he went on earnestly, "you and +me being met on a matter of business, and the same needin' +steadiness--head and hand, my boy, if ever business did--what d'ye +say to a tot of rum apiece?" + +Without waiting for my answer, he hobbled off to the cupboard, and +had set two glasses on the table and brimmed them with neat spirit +before I had finished protesting. The bottle-neck trembled on the +rims of the glasses and struck out a sort of chime as he paused. + +"You won't?" he asked, gulping down his own portion; and the liquor +must have been potent, for it brought a sudden water to his eyes. +"Well, so be it--if you've kept off it at your age. But at mine"-- +he drank off the second glassful and wiped his mouth--"I've had +experiences, Brooks. When you've heard 'em, you wouldn't be +surprised, not if it took a dozen to steady me." + +He filled again, and came close to me, holding the glass, yet so +tremulously that the rum spilled over his fingers. + +"Ingots, lad--golden ingots! Bars and wedges of solid gold! +Gems, too, and cath-e-deral plate, with crucifixions and priests' +vestments stiff with pearls and rubies as if they was frozen. +I've seen 'em lyin' tossed in a heap like mullet in a ground-net. +Ay, and blazin' on the beach, with the gulls screamin' over 'em and +flappin', and the sea all around. I seen it with these eyes, boy" He +stood back and shivered. "And behind o' that, the Death! But it +comes equal to all, the Death. Not if a man had learned every trick +the devil can teach could he lay his course clear o' that. Could he, +now?" + +His words, his uncouth gestures, which were almost spasms, and the +changes in his face--from cupidity to terror, and from terror again +to a kind of wistful hope--fairly frightened me, and I stammered +stupidly that death was the common lot, and there couldn't be a doubt +of it; that or something of the sort. But what I said does not +matter. He was not listening, and before I had done he drained and +set down the glass and gripped my arm again. + +"I seen all that--ay, an' felt it!" He drew away and stretched out +both hands, crooking his fingers like talons. "Ay, an' I seen +_him!_" + +"Him?" I echoed. "But you were talking of Death, sir." + +"You may call him that. There's men lyin' around in the sand-- +Did ever you hear, boy, of a poison that kills a man and keeps him +fresh as paint?" + +"No, sir." + +He nodded. "No, I reckon you never did. Fresh as paint it keeps +'em, and white as a figure-head. The first heap as ever I dug, +believin' it to be the treasure--my reckoning was out by a foot or +two--I came on one o' them. Three foot beneath the sand I came on +him, an' the gulls sheevoing all the while over my head. _They_ +knew. And the sea and the dreadful loneliness around us all the +while. There was three of us, Brooks--I mention no names, you +understand--three of us, and _him_. Three to one. Yet he got the +better of us all--as he got the better of the first lot, and _they_ +must ha' been a dozen. Four of them we uncovered afore we struck the +edge of the treasure--uncovered 'em and covered 'em up again pretty +quick, I can tell you. Fresh as paint they were, in a manner o' +speaking, just as though they'd died yesterday; whereas by Bill's +account they must ha' lain there for more'n a year. And the faces on +'em white and shinin'--" + +Here Captain Coffin shivered, and, glancing about him, poured out +another go of rum. + +"You wouldn't blame me for wantin' it, Brooks--not if you'd seen 'em. +That was on the Keys, as they're called--half a dozen banks to +no'thard of the island, and maybe from half a mile to three-quarters +off the shore, which shoals thereabout--sand, all the lot of 'em, and +nothin' but sand; sand and sea-birds, and--what I told you. But the +bulk lies in the island itself, in two caches; and where the bigger +cache lies _he_ don't know, and nobody knows but only Dan Coffin." + +Captain Coffin winked, touched his breast, and wagged his forefinger +at me impressively. + +"That makes twice," he went on. "Twice that devil has got the better +of every one. But the third time's lucky, they say. He may be dead +afore this; he'll be getting an oldish man, anyway, and life on that +cursed island can't be good for his health. We won't go in a crowd +this time, neither; not a dozen, nor yet four of us, but only you an' +me, Brooks. It's the safer way--the only safe way--an' there'll be +the fatter sharin's. Now you know--hey?--why Branscome's givin' me +lessons in navigation." + +He chuckled, and was moving off mysteriously to a back doorway behind +the dresser, but halted and came back to the table beside which I +stood, making no motion to follow him. + +"Look ye here, Brooks," said be. "If there's anything you don't get +the hang of--anything that takes ye aback, so to speak, in what I'm +tellin' you--you just hitch on an' trust to old Dan Coffin; to old +Dan, as'll do for you more than ever your godfathers an' godmothers +did at your baptism. You'll pick up a full breeze as you go on. +Man, the treasure's there! Man, I've handled it, or enough of it to +keep you in a coach-an'-six, with nothing to do but loll on cushions +for the rest o' your days, an' pick your teeth at the crowd. +And look ye here." He waved a hand around the room. "I'm old Danny +Coffin, ain't I? poor old drunken Danny Coffin, eh? Yet cast an eye +about ye. Nice fittin's, ben't they? Hitch down my coat off the peg +there; feel the cloth of it; take it between finger and thumb. +Ay, I don't live upon air, nor keep house an' fixtures upon nothin' +at all. There--if you want more proof!" He dived a hand into his +trouser-pocket, and held out a golden coin under my nose. +"There! that very dollar came from the island, and I'm offerin' you +the fellows to it by the thousand. Why? says you. Because, says I, +you're a good lad, and I've took a fancy to see you in Parlyment. +That's why. An' it's no return I'm askin' you, but just to believe!" + +He made for the back door again, and opened it, letting in the +sunlight; but the sunlight fell in two slanting rays, one on either +side of a dark object which all but filled the entrance, blocking out +my view of the back court beyond. It was the stern of a tall boat. + +The boat, in fact, filled the small back court, leaving an alley-way +scarcely more than two feet wide along either party-wall. She rested +on the stocks, about three-parts finished, in shape very like a +whaleboat, and in measurement--so Captain Coffin informed me, with a +proprietary wave of the hand--some twenty-nix feet over all, with a +beam of nine feet six inches amidships. And even to a boy's eye she +showed herself a pretty model, though (as I say) unfinished, with a +foot and more of her ribs standing up bare and awaiting the top +strakes. + +"Designed her myself, Brooks. Eh, but your friend Dan'l Coffin has +an eye for the shape of a boat, though no hand at pencilling, nor +what you might call the cabinet-making part of the job. There's a +young carpenter lives up the court here--a cleverish fellow. +I got him to help me over the niceties, you understand; but on my +lines, lad. Climb up and cast your eye over the well I've put in +her. That's for the treasure; and there'll be side-lockers round the +stern-sheets, and a locker forward big enough to hold a man. +The fellow don't guess their meanin', an' I don't let him guess. +He thinks they're for air-compartments, to keep her buoyant; says +she'll need more ballast than I've allowed her, and wants to know +what sense there is in buildin' a boat so floatey. _We'll_ ballast +her, Brooks; all in good time. We'll ship her aboard the Kingston +packet, bein' of a size that she'll carry comfortable as deck-cargo; +and soon as we get to Kingstown we'll--" + +"Avast there, cap'n!" interrupted a cheerful voice; and I glanced up, +to see a sandy-haired youth with an extremely good-natured face +nodding at us across the coping of the party-wall. "Avast there! +Busy with visitors, eh? No? Well, I've been thinkin' it over, and +I'll take sixpence an hour." + +"I don't give a ha'penny over fippence," answered Captain Coffin, +patently taken aback by the interruption. + +"Fivepence, then, as a pro-temporary accommodation," said the youth, +and, throwing a leg over the wall, heaved himself over and into the +back yard. "But it's taking advantage of me; and you know that if I +weren't in love and in a hurry it wouldn't happen." + +"You can take fippence, or go to the devil!" said Captain Coffin. +"By the way, Brooks, this is my assistant, Mr. George Goodfellow." + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CHART. + +"Good day," said Mr. George Goodfellow, nodding affably. "I hope I +see you well." + +"Pretty well, thank you, sir," I answered. + +"And where might you come from, makin' so bold?" + +I told him that I was a boarder at Mr. Stimcoe's. + +"Then," said Mr. Goodfellow, taking off his coat and extracting a +pencil and a two-foot rule from a pocket at the back of his +small-clothes, "I'm sorry for you. What a female!" He chose out a +long and flexible plank from a stack laid lengthwise in the alley-way +along the base of the wall, lifted it, set it on three trestles, and +began to measure and mark it off. "She's calculated to destroy one's +belief in human nature, that's what she is! Fairly knocks the gilt +off. Sometimes I can't hardly realize that she and Martha belong to +the same sex. Martha is my young woman." + +"Yes, sir?" + +"Yes. At present she's living in Plymouth, assistant in a +ham-and-beef shop, as you turn down to the Barbican. That's her +conscientiousness, instead of sitting at home and living on her +parents. Don't tell me that women--by which I mean some women--ain't +the equals of men. + +"Because," continued Mr. Goodfellow, after a pause, "I know better. +Ever been to Plymouth?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Live there?" + +"No, sir." + +He seemed to be disappointed. + +"You go past the bottom of Treville Street, and there the shop is, +slap in front of you. You can't miss it, because it has a +plaster-of-Paris cow in the window, and the proprietor's called +Mudge. I go to Plymouth every week on purpose to see her." + +"By coach, sir?" I asked, suddenly interested, and eager to compare +notes with him on the Royal Mail and its rivals, the Self-Defence and +Highflyer. + +"Coach? Not a bit of it. Shank's mare, my boy, every step of the +way; and Martha's worth it. That's the best of bein' in love; it +makes you want to do things. By the way," he asked "you ain't +thinkin' to learn the violin, by any chance?" + +"No, sir." + +"No," he said reflectively. "You wouldn't--not at Stimcoe's. +Not, mind you, that I believe in coddling. Nobody ever coddled +Nelson, and yet what happened?" He shut one eye, put his pencil to +it for an imaginary telescope, and took a nautical survey of the back +premises. + +"That rain-shute's out of order," he said, addressing Captain Coffin. +"Give me a shilling to put it right for you, and you'll save yourself +a lot of trouble." + +"That's the landlord's affair," answered Captain Coffin, "and I'm not +paying you fippence an' hour to talk. + +"But, sir," I put in, "if you walk to Plymouth you must pass the +house where I live--a low-roofed house about three miles this side of +St. Germans village, with a thatch on it, and windows opening right +on the road, and 'Minden Cottage' painted over the door." + +"Know it? Bless my soul, to be sure I know it! Why, the last time +but one I passed that way, taking note that one of the window-hinges +was out of gear, I knocked and asked leave to repair it. A lady with +side-curls opened the door, and after the job was done took me into +the parlour an' gave me a jugful of cider over and above the sixpence +charged. I believe she'd have made it a shillin', too, only when I +told her she lived in a very pretty house, and asked if she owned it +or rented it, she turned very stiff in her manner. Touchy as tinder +she was; and if that comes of being a lady, I'm glad my Martha's more +sociable." + +"That was Plinny--Miss Plinlimmon, I mean. You didn't catch sight of +my father--Major Brooks?" + +"No, I didn't. But I stopped to pass the time o' day with the +landlord of the Seven Stars Inn, a mile along the road, and there I +heard about 'en. So you're Major Brooks's son? Well, then, by all +accounts you've got a thunderin' good father. Old English gentleman, +straight is a ramrod--pays his way, fears God and honours the King-- +such was the landlord's words; and he told me the cottage, as you +call it, was rented at twenty-five pounds a year, with a walled +garden an' a paddock thrown in, which I call dirt cheap." + +"I don't see that it's any business of yours what my father pays for +his house!" said I, my flush of pleasure changing to one of +annoyance. + +I glanced round for Captain Coffin's support, but he had walked +indoors, no doubt in despair of Mr. Goodfellow's loquacity. + +"No?" queried Mr. Goodfellow. "No, I dare say not; but you just wait +till you fall in love. It's a most curious feelin'. First of all it +makes you want to pull off your coat and turn a hand to anything, +from breakin' stones to playing the fiddle--it don't matter what, so +long as you sweat an' feel you're earnin' money. Why, just take a +look at my business card!" He stepped to his coat, pulled one from +his pocket, and glanced over it proudly: 'George Goodfellow, +Carpenter and Decorater--Cabinet Making in all its Branches--Repairs +neatly executed--Funerals and Shipping supplied--Practical Valuer, +and for Probate--Fire Office claims prepared and adjusted--Good +Berths booked on all the Packets, and guaranteed by personal +inspection--Boats built and designed--Instruction in the Violin--Old +instruments cleaned and repaired, or taken in exchange--Rowboat for +hire.' "There, put it in your pocket and take it away with you. +I've plenty more in my desk." + +"That's what it feels like, bein' in love," continued Mr. Goodfellow. +"And, next thing, it makes you take a termenjus interest in houses-- +houses an' furnicher an' the price o' things--right down to butter, +as you might say. I never see a house, now--leastways, a house that +takes my fancy--but I want to be measuring it an' planning out the +furnicher, an' the rent, an' where to stow the firewood, an' sitting +down cosy in it along with Martha--in the mind's eyes, as you may +say--one on each side o' the fire, an' making two ends meet. I pity +any man that ends a bachelor." He glanced towards the house. +"By the way, how do you get along with Coffin?" + +"He--he seems very kind." + +"Tis'n his way with boys as a rule." Mr. Goodfellow tapped his +forehand with the end of his two-foot rule. "Upper story," he +announced. + +"You think so?" + +"Sure of it. Cracked as a bell. Not," said Mr. Goodfellow, picking +up a saw and making ready to cut the plank lengthwise to his +measurements--"not that there's any harm in the man, until he gets +foul of the drink. The tale is he gets his money out o' Government-- +a sort of pension. Was mixed up in the Spithead Mutiny, by one +account, an' turned informer; but there's another tale he earned it +by some hanky-panky over in Lisbon, when the Royal Family there +packed up traps from the Brazils; and that's the story I favour, for +(between you and me) I've seen Portugal money in his possession." + +So, indeed, had I. But Captain Coffin himself cut short the talk at +this point by appearing and announcing from the back doorstep that he +had a treat for me if I would come inside. + +The treat consisted in a dish of tea--a luxury in those times, rarely +afforded even at Minden Cottage--and a pot of guava-jelly, with +Cornish cream and a loaf of white, wheaten bread. Such bread, I need +scarcely say, with wheat at 140 shillings a quarter, or thereabouts, +never graced the table of Copenhagen Academy. But the dulcet, +peculiar taste of guava-jelly is what I associate in memory with that +delectable meal; and to this day I cannot taste the flavour of guava +but I find myself back in Captain Coffin's sitting-room, cutting a +third slice from the wheaten loaf, with the corals and shells of +mother-of-pearl winking at me from among the china on the dresser, +and Captain Coffin seated opposite, with the silver rings in his +ears, and his eyes very white in the dusk and distinct within their +inflamed rims. + +"Nothing like tea," he was saying--"nothing like tea to pull a man +round from the drink and cock him back like a trigger." + +His right hand was at his breast as he spoke. It came out swiftly, +as upon a sudden impulse. His left hand closed upon it and partly +covered it for a moment; then the two hands spread apart and +disclosed an oilskin case. + +"Brooks!" he whispered hoarsely. "Brooks, look at this!" + +His fingers plucked at the oilskin wrapper, uncovered it, unfolded an +inner parcel of parchment, and, trembling, spread it out on the +table. + +I leaned closer, and I saw a chart of the Island of Mortallone in the +Bay of Honduras dated MDCCLXXVII. From the scale on the chart, the +island was some eight to ten miles long in the north-south direction, +and perhaps eight miles broad at the widest point. At the north end +of the island, around a promontory called Gable Point, there were +five small islands called The Keys. To the south was a wide inlet +with a ship seemingly in the act of sailing towards it. +The eastward edge of this inlet was labelled Cape Fea and just around +from this, in an easterly direction wa a small cove called Try-Again +Inlet. In the sea to the west of the island was drawn a mythical +sea-monster. + +Twice, while I leaned across and stared at it, Captain Coffin's +fingers all but closed over the parchment to hide it from me. +The afternoon light was falling dim, and I stood up to walk around +the edge of the table for a better look. As I pushed back my chair +he clutched his treasure away, and hid it away again in the breast of +his jumper, at the same moment falling back and passing a hand over +his damp forehead. + +"No, no, Brooks! You mustn't think--Only you took me sudden. +But my promise I've passed, and my promise I'll stand by. +Come to-morrow, lad." + +Outside in the back yard I could hear Mr. Goodfellow, the slave of +love, sawing for dear life and Martha. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +ENTER THE RETURNED PRISONER. + +Strange to say, although I paid six or eight visits after this to +Captain Coffin, and by invitation, and watched his whaleboat +building, and ate more of his delectable guava-jelly, I saw nothing +more of the chart for several months. + +On each occasion he treated me kindly, and made no secret of his +having chosen me for his favourite and particular friend; but +somehow, without any words, he contrived to set up an understanding +that further talk about the chart and the treasure must wait until +the boat should be ready for launching. In truth, I believe, a kind +of superstitious terror restricted him. He trusted me, yet was +afraid of overt signs of trust. You may put it that during this +while he was testing, watching me. I can only answer that I had no +suspicion of being watched, and that in discussing the boat's +fittings with me--her tanks, wells, and general storage capacity--he +took it for granted that I followed and understood her purpose. +If indeed he was testing me, in my innocence I took the best way to +reassure him; for I honestly looked upon the whole business as +moonshine, and made no doubt that he was cracked as a fiddle. + +Christmas came, and the holidays with it. As Miss Plinlimmon sang-- + + "Welcome, Christmas! Welcome, Yule! + It brings the schoolboy home from school. + [N.B.--Vulgarly pronounced 'schule' in the West of England.] + Puddings and mistletoe and holly, + With other contrivances for banishing melancholy: + Boar's head, for instance--of which I have never partaken, + But the name has associations denied to ordinary bacon." + +Dear soul, she had been waiting at the door--so Sally, the cook, +informed me--for about an hour, listening for the coach, and greeted +me with a tremulous joy between laughter and tears. Before leading +me to my father, however, she warned me that I should find him +changed; and changed he was, less perhaps in appearance than in the +perceptible withdrawal of his mind from all earthly concerns. +He seldom spoke, but sat all day immobile, with the lids of his blind +eyes half lowered, so that it was hard to tell whether he brooded or +merely dozed. On Christmas Day he excused himself from walking to +church with us, and upon top of his excuse looked up with a sudden +happy smile--as though his eyes really saw us--and quoted Waller's +famous lines: + + "The soul's dark cottage, battered and decay'd, + Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made. . . ." + +To me it seemed rather that, as its home broke up, the soul withdrew +little by little, and contracted itself like the pupil of an eye, to +shrink to a pinpoint and vanish in the full admitted ray. + +This our last Christmas at Minden Cottage was a quiet yet a +singularly happy one. It was good to be at home, yet the end of the +holidays and the return to Stimcoe's cast no anticipatory gloom on my +spirits. To tell the truth, I had a sneaking affection for +Stimcoe's; and to Miss Plinlimmon's cross-examination upon its +internal economies I opposed a careless manly assurance as hardly +fraudulent as Mr. Stimcoe's brazen doorplate or his lady's +front-window curtains. The careful mending of my linen, too--for +Mrs. Stimcoe with all her faults was a needlewoman--helped to disarm +suspicion. When we talked of my studies I sang the praises of +Captain Branscome, and told of his past heroism and his sword of +honour. + +"Branscome? Branscome, of the _Londonderry?_" said my father. +"Ay, to be sure, I remember Branscome--a Godfearing fellow and a good +seaman. You may take him back my compliments, Harry--my compliments +and remembrances--and say that if Heaven permitted us to meet again +in this world, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to crack a +bottle with him." + +I duly reported this to Captain Branscome, and was taken aback by his +reception of it. He began in a sudden flurry to ask a dozen +questions concerning my father. + +"He keeps good health, I trust? It would be an honour to call and +chat with the Major. At what hour would he be most accessible to +visitors?" + +I stared, for in truth he seemed ready to take me at my word and +start off at once, and at my patent surprise he grew yet more nervous +and confused. + +"I have kept a regard for your father, Brooks--a veneration, I might +almost call it. Sailors and soldiers, if I may say it, are not apt +to think too well of one another; but the Major from the first +fulfilled my conception of all a soldier should be-a gentleman +fearless and modest, a true Christian hero. Minden Cottage, you say? +And fronting the road a little this side of St. Germans? Tell me, +pray--and excuse the impertinence--what household does he keep?" + +It is hard to write down Captain Branscome's questions on paper, and +divest them, as his gentle face and hesitating kindly manner divested +them, of all offensiveness. I did not resent them at the time or +consider then impertinent. But they were certainly close and minute, +and I had reason before long to recall every detail of his catechism. + +Captain Coffin, on the other hand, welcomed me back to Falmouth with +a carelessness which disappointed if it did not nettle me. +He fetched out the tea and guava-jelly, to be sure, but appeared to +take no interest in my doings during the holidays, and was +uncommunicative on his own. This seemed the stranger because he had +important news to tell me. During my absence he and Mr. Goodfellow +between them had finished the whaleboat. + +The truth was--though I did not at once perceive it--that upon its +completion the old man had begun to drink hard. Drink invariably +made him morose, suspicious. His real goodwill to me had not +changed, as I was to learn. He had paid a visit to Captain +Branscome, and give him special instructions to teach me the art of +navigation, the intricacies of which eluded his own fuddled brain. +But for the present he could only talk of trivialities, and +especially of the barber's parrot, for which he had conceived a +ferocious hate. + +"I'll wring his neck, I will!" he kept repeating. "I'll wring his +neck one o' these days, blast me if I don't!" + +I took my leave that evening in no wise eager to repeat the visit; +and, in fact, I repeated it but twice--and each time to find him in +the same sullen humour--between then and May 11, the day when the +_Wellingboro'_ transport cast anchor in Falmouth roads with two +hundred and fifty returned prisoners of war. + +She had sailed from Bordeaux on April 20, in company with five other +transports bound for Plymouth, and her putting into Falmouth to +repair her steering-gear came as a surprise to the town, which at +once hung out all its bunting and prepared to welcome her poor +passengers home to England with open arm. A sorry crew they looked, +ragged, wild eyed, and emaciated, as the boats brought them ashore at +the Market Stairs to the strains of the Falmouth Artillery Band. +The homes of the most of them lay far away, but England was England; +and a many wept and the crowd wept with them at sight of their +tatters, for I doubt if they mustered a complete suit of good English +cloth between them. + +Stimcoe, I need scarcely say, had given us a whole holiday; and +Stimcoe's and Rogerses met in amity for once, and cheered in the +throng that carried the home-comers shoulder high to the Town Hall, +where the Mayor had arrayed a public banquet. There were speeches at +the banquet, and alcoholic liquors, both affecting in operation upon +his Worship's guests. Poor fellows, they came to it after long +abstinence, with stomachs sadly out of training; and the streets of +Falmouth that evening were a panoramic commentary upon the danger of +undiscriminating kindness. + +Now at about five o'clock I happened to be standing at the edge of +the Market Stairs, watching the efforts of a boat's crew to take a +dozen of these inebriates on board for the transport, when I heard my +name called, and turned to see Mr. George Goodfellow beckoning to me +from the doorway of the Plume of Feathers public-house. + +"It's Coffin," he explained. "The old fool's sitting in the taproom +as drunk as an owl, and I was reckonin' that you an' me between us +might get him home quiet before the house fills up an' mischief +begins; for by the looks of it there'll be Newgate-let-loose in +Falmouth streets to-night." + +I answered that this was very thoughtful of him; and so it was, and, +moreover, providential that he had dropped in at the Plume of +Feathers for two-pennyworth of cider to celebrate the day. + +We found Captain Coffin seated in a corner of the taproom settle, +puffing at an empty pipe and staring at vacancy. "Drunk as an owl" +described his condition to a nicety; for at a certain stage in his +drinking all the world became mirk midnight to him, and he would +grope his way home through the traffic at high noon in profound, +pathetic belief that darkness and slumber wrapped the streets; on +which occasions the dialogue between him and the barber's parrot +might be counted on to touch high comedy. I knew this, and knew also +that in the next stage he would recover his eyesight, and at the same +time turn dangerously quarrelsome. If Mr. Goodfellow and I could +start him home quietly, he would have reason to thank us to-morrow. + +We were bending over him to persuade him--at first, with small +success, for he continued to stare and mutter as our voices coaxed +without penetrating his muddled intelligence--when a party of +'longshoremen staggered into the taproom, escorting one of the +returned prisoners, a thin, sandy-haired, foxy-looking man, with +narrow eyes and a neck remarkable for its attenuation and the number +and depth of its wrinkles. This neck showed above the greasy collar +of a red infantry coat, from which the badges and buttons had long +since vanished; and for the rest the fellow wore a pair of dirty +white drill trousers of French cut, French shoes, and a round +japanned hat; but, so far as a glance could discover, neither shirt +nor underclothing. When the 'longshoremen called for drink he +laughed with a kind of happy shiver, as though rubbing his body round +the inside of his clothes, cast a quick glance at us in our dim +corner, and declared for rum, adding that the Mayor of Falmouth was a +well-meaning old swab, but his liquor wouldn't warm the vitals of a +baby in clouts. + +As he announced this I fancied that our persuasions began to have +effect on Captain Coffin, for his eyes blinked as in a strong light, +and he seemed to pull himself together with a shudder; but a moment +later he relapsed again and sat staring. + +"Hallo!" said one of the 'longshoremen. "Who's that you're a-coaxin' +of, you two? Old Coffin, eh? Well, take the old shammick home, an' +thank 'ee. We're tired of 'en here." + +As I looked up to answer I saw the returned prisoner give a start, +turn slowly about, and peer at us. He seemed to be badly scared, +too, for an instant; for I heard a sudden, sharp click in his +throat-- + +"E-e-eh? Coffin, is it? Danny Coffin? Oh, good Lord!" + +He came towards our corner, still peering, and, as he peered, +crouching to that he spread his palms on his knees. + +"Coffin? Danny Coffin?" he repeated, in a voice that, as it lost its +wondering quaver, grew tense and wicked and wheedling. + +Captain Coffin's face twitched, and it seemed to me that his eyes, +though rigid, expanded a little. But they stared into the stranger's +face without seeing him. + +The fellow crouched a bit lower, and still lower, as he drew close +and thrust his face gradually within a yard of the old man's. + +"Shipmate Danny--messmate Danny--tip us a stave! The old stave, +Danny!-- + + "'And alongst the Keys o' Mortallone!'" + +As his voice lifted to it in a hoarse melancholy minor (times and +again since that moment the tune has put me in mind of sea-birds +crying over a waste shore), I saw the shiver run across Captain +Coffin's face and neck, and with that his sight came back to him, and +he bounced upright from the settle, with a horrible scream, his hands +fencing, clawing at air. + +The prisoner dropped back with a laugh. Mr. Goodfellow, at a choking +sound, put out a hand to loosen Captain Coffin's neckcloth; but the +old man beat him off. + +"Not you! Not you! Harry!" + +He gripped me by the arm, and, ducking his head, fairly charged me +past the 'longshoremen and out through the doorway into the street. +As we gained it I heard the stranger in the taproom behind me break +into a high, cackling laugh. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +THE HUNTED AND THE HUNTER. + +All the drunkenness had gone out of Captain Danny. Gripping my arm, +he steered me rapidly through the knots of loafers, up Market Strand +into the crowded Fore Street, across it and up the hill towards open +country, taking the ascent with long strides which forced me now and +again into a run. Twice or thrice I glanced up at his face, for I +was scared, and badly scared. His mouth worked, and I observed small +beads of sweat on his shaven upper lip; but he kept his eyes fastened +straight ahead, and paid no heed to me. + +At the head of the street the town melted off into a suburb of +scattered houses, modest domiciles of twenty-five pounds or thirty +pounds rentals, detached, each with its garden and narrow +garden-door, for Falmouth in those days boasted few carriage-folk. +He paused once hereabouts, in the roadway between two walls, and +stood listening, while his right hand trembled on his stick; but +presently gripped my arm again and hurried me forward, nor halted +until we reached the summit, and the open country lay before us, with +the Channel and its long horizon on our left. Here, in a cornfield +on the very knap of the hill, and some two hundred yards back from +the road, stood the shell of an old windmill, overlooking the sea-- +deserted, ruinous, without sails, a building many hundreds of years +older than the oldest house in Falmouth, serving now but as a +landmark for fishermen, and on Sundays a rendezvous for courting +couples. At the stile leading into the cornfield, Captain Coffin +released me, climbed over, hurried up the footpath to the windmill, +and, having satisfied himself that the building was empty, motioned +me to seat myself on the side where its long shadow pointed down +across a bank of nettles, and beyond the edge of the green young +barley sheeting the slope towards the harbour. + +"Brooks," he began--but his voice rattled like a dried pea in a pod, +and he had to moisten his under-lip with his tongue before he could +proceed--"Brooks, are you in any way a superstitious kind o' boy?" + +"That depends, sir," said I, diplomatically. + +"After all these years, too," he groaned, "an' agen' all likelihood +o' natur'. But you saw him--hey? You heard what he said, an' that +cussed song, too? Sang it, he did; slapped it out at the top of his +voice in a public tavern. I tell you, Brooks--knowin' what _he_ +knows--a man must have all hell runnin' cold in him to sing them +words aloud an' not care who heard." + +"Why, he sang but a line of it," said I, "and that harmless enough, +though dismal." + +"Is that so, lad--is that so?" Captain Danny put out a hand like a +bird's claw and hooked me by the cuff. "Wasn' there nothing in it +about Execution Dock; nothing about ripe medlars--'medlars a-rottin' +on the tree'? No?"--for I shook my head. "Well, then, I could be +sworn I heard him singin' them words for minutes, an' me sittin' all +the while wi' the horrors on me afore I dared look in his damned +face. An' you tell me he piped but a line of it?" His eyes searched +mine anxiously. "Brooks," he went on, in a voice almost coaxing, +"I'd give five hundred pound at this moment if you could look me in +the face an' tell me the whole scare was nothing but fancy--that _he_ +wasn't there!" + +His grasp relaxed as I shook my head again. Despair grew in his +eyes, and he pulled back his hand. + +"I'll put it to you another way," said he, after seeming to reflect +for a while. "Suppose there was a couple o' men mixed up in an ugly +job--by which I don't mean to say there was any real harm in the +business; leastways not to start with; but, as it went on, these two +men were forced to do something that brought them within reach o' the +law. We'll put it that, when the thing was done, the one o' this +pair felt it heavy upon his mind, but t'other didn' care no more than +a brass button; an' the one that took it serious--as you might say-- +lost sight o' the other for years, an' meantime picked up with a +little religion, an' made oath with hisself that all the profits o' +the job (for there were profits) should come into innocent hands-- +You catch on to this?" + +I nodded. + +"Well, then"--he leant forward, his palm resting amid a bed of +nettles. He did not appear to feel their sting, although, while he +spoke, I saw the bark of his hand whiten slowly with blisters-- +"well, then, you can't go for to argue with me that the A'mighty +would go for to strike the chap that repented by means o' the chap +that didn'. Tisn' reasonable nor religious to think such a thing--is +it now?" + +"He might punish the one first," said I, judicially, "and keep the +other--the wicked man--for a worse punishment in the end. A great +deal," I added, "might depend on what sort of crime they'd committed. +If 'twas a murder, now--" + +"Murder?" He caught me up sharply, and his eyes turned from watching +me, to throw a quick glance back along the footpath, then fastened +themselves on the horizon. "Who's a-talkin' of any such thing?" + +"I was putting a case, sir--putting it as bad as possible. +'Murder will out,' they say; but with smaller crimes it may be +different." + +"Murder?" He sprang up and began to pace to and fro. "How came that +in your head, eh?" He threw me a furtive sidelong look, and halted +before me mopping his forehead. "I'll tell you what, though: Murder +there'll be if you don't help me give that devil the slip." + +"But, sir, he never offered to follow you." + +"Because he reckoned I couldn' run--or wouldn', as I've never run +from him yet. But with you in the secret I must give him leg-bail, +no matter what it costs me. And, see here, Brooks: you're clever for +your age, an' I want your advice. In the first place, I daren't go +home; that's where he'll be watchin' for me sooner or later. Next, +our plans ain't laid for startin' straight off--here as we be--an' +givin' him the go-by. Third an' last, I daren't go carryin' the +secret about with me; he might happen on me any moment, an' I'm not +in trainin'. The drink's done for me, boy, whereas _he_'ve been +farin' hard an' livin' clean." Captain Coffin, with his hands deep +in his pockets, stared down at the transport at anchor below, and +bent his brows. "I can't turn it over to you, neither," he mused. +"That might ha' done well enough if he hadn' seen you in my company; +but now we can't trust to it." + +He took another dozen paces forth and back, and halted before me +again. + +"Brooks," he said, "how about your father?" + +"The very man, sir," I answered; "that is, if you would trust him." + +"Cap'n Branscome tells me he's one in a thousand. I thought first o' +Branscome, but there's folks as know about my goin' to him for +navigation lessons; an' if Glass got hold o' that, 'twould be a hot +scent." + +"Glass?" I echoed. + +"That's his d--d name, lad--Aaron Glass; though he've passed under +others, and plenty of 'em, in his time. Well, now, if I can slip out +o' Falmouth unbeknowns to him, an' win to your father--on the +Plymouth road, I've heard you say and a little this side of +St. Germans--" + +"You might walk over to Penryn and pick up the night coach." + +Captain Coffin shook his head as he turned out his pockets. + +"One shilling, lad, an' two ha'pennies. It won't carry me. An' I +daren' go home to refit; an' I daren' send _you_." + +"I could take a message to Captain Branscome," I suggested; "an' he +might fetch you the money, if you tell him where to look for it." + +"That's an idea," decided Captain Coffin, after a moment's thought. +He unbuttoned his waistcoat, dived a hand within the breast of his +shirt, and pulled forth a key looped through with a tarry string. +This string he severed with his pocket-knife. "Run you down to the +cap'n's lodgings," said he, handing me the key, "an' tell him to go +straight an' unlock the cupboard in the cornder--the one wi' the +toolips painted over the door. You know it? Well, say that on the +second shelf he'll find a small bagful o' money--he needn't stay to +count it--an' 'pon the same shelf, right back in the cornder, a roll +o' papers. Tell him to keep the papers till he hears from me, but +the bag he's to give to you, an' you're to bring it along quick-- +_with_ the key. Mind, you're not to go with him on any account; an' +if you should run against this Glass on your way, give him a wide +berth--go straight home to Stimcoe's--do _anything_ but lay him on to +my trail by comin' back to tell me. Understand? There, now, hark to +the town clock chimin' below there! Six o'clock it is--four bells. +If you're not back agen by seven I shall know what's happened an' +take steps accordin'. An' _you'll_ know that I'm on my way to your +father by another tack. 'What tack?' says you. 'Never you mind,' +says I. If the worst comes to the worst, old Dan Coffin has a shot +left in his locker." + +I took the key and ran. The alley where Captain Branscome lodged lay +a gunshot on this side of the Market Strand; and while I ran I kept-- +as the saying is--my eyes skinned for a sight of the enemy. +The coast, however, was clear. + +But at Captain Branscome's door a wholly unexpected disappointment +awaited me. It was locked, and I had not hammered on its shining +brass knocker before a neighbouring housewife put forth her head from +a window in the gathering dusk, and informed me that the captain was +not at home. He had gone out early in the afternoon, and left his +doorkey with her, saying that he was off on a visit, and would not +return before to-morrow afternoon at earliest. For a moment I was +tempted to disobey Captain Danny's injunctions, and fetch the money +myself, or at least make a bold attempt for it; but, recollecting how +earnestly he had charged me, and how cheerfully at the last he had +assured me that he had still a shot in his locker, I turned and +mounted the hill again, albeit dejectedly. + +The moon was rising as I climbed over the stile into the footpath, +and, recognizing my footstep, the old man came forward to meet me, +out of the shadow on the western side of the windmill, to which he +had shifted his watch. + +My ill-success, depressing enough to me, he took very cheerfully. + +"I was afraid," said he, "you might be foolin' off for the money on +your own account. Gone on a visit, has he? Well, you can hand him +the key to-morrow, with my message. An' now I'll tell you my next +notion. The St. Mawes packet"--this was the facetious name given to +a small cutter which plied in those days between Falmouth and the +small village of St. Mawes across the harbour--"the St. Mawes packet +is due to start at seven-thirty. I won't risk boardin' her at Market +Strand, but pick up a boat at Arwennack, an' row out to hail her as +she's crossin'. She'll pick me up easy, wi' this wind; but if she +don't, I'll get the waterman to pull me right across. Bogue, the +landlord of The Lugger over there, knows me well enough to lend me +ten shillin', an' wi' that I can follow the road through Tregony to +St. Austell, an' hire a lift maybe." + +I could not but applaud the plan. The route he proposed cut off a +corner, led straight to Minden Cottage, and was at the same time the +one on which he was least likely to be tracked. We descended the +hill together, keeping to the dark side of the road. At the foot of +the hill we parted, with the understanding that I was to run straight +home to Stimcoe's, and explain my absence at locking-up--or, as Mr. +Stimcoe preferred to term it, "names-calling"--as best I might. + +Thereupon I did an incredibly foolish thing, which, as it proved, +defeated all our plans and gave rise to unnumbered woes. I was +already late for names-calling; but for this I cared little. +Stimcoe had not the courage to flog me; the day had been a holiday, +and of a sort to excuse indiscipline; and, anyway, one might as well +suffer for a sheep as for a lamb. The St. Mawes packet would be +lying alongside the Market Strand. The moon was up--a round, full +moon--and directly over St. Mawes, so that her rays fell, as near as +might be, in the line of the cutter's course, which, with a steady +breeze down the harbour, would be a straight one. From the edge of +Market Strand I might be able to spy Captain Coffin's boat as he +boarded. Let me, without extenuating, be brief over my act of folly. +Instead of making at once for Stimcoe's, I bent my steps towards +Market Strand. The St. Mawes packet lay there, and I stood on the +edge of the quay, watching her preparations for casting off--the +skipper clearing the gangway and politely helping aboard, between the +warning notes of his whistle, belated marketers who came running with +their bundles. + +While I stood there, a man sauntered out and stood for a moment on +the threshold of the Plume of Feathers. It was the man Aaron Glass, +and, recognizing him, I (that had been standing directly under the +light of the quay-lamp) drew back from the edge into the darkness. +I had done better, perhaps, to stand where I was. How long he had +been observing me--if, indeed, he had observed me--I could not tell. +But, as I drew back, he advanced and strolled nonchalantly past me, +at five yards distance, down to the quay-steps. + +"All aboard for St. Mawes!" called the skipper, drawing in his plank. + +"All but one, captain!" answered Glass, and, disdaining it, without +removing his hands from his pockets, put a foot upon the bulwark and +sprang lightly on to her deck. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +CHAOS IN THE CAPTAIN'S LODGINGS. + +I leave you to guess what were my feelings as foot by foot the +packet's quarter fell away wider of the quay. If, as the skipper +thrust off, I had found presence of mind to jump for her, who knows +what mischief might have been prevented? I could at least--whatever +the consequences--have called a warning to Captain Coffin to give his +enemy a wide-berth. But I was unnerved; the impulse came too late; +and as the foresail filled and she picked up steerage way, I stood +helpless under the lamp at the quay-head--stood and stared after her, +alone with the sense of my incredible folly. + +Somewhere out yonder Captain Coffin was waiting in his shore-boat. +I listened, minute after minute, on the chance of hearing his hail. +A heavy bank of cloud had overcast the moon, and the packet melted +from sight in a blur of darkness. Worst of all--worse even than the +sting of self-reproach--was the prospect of returning to Stimcoe's +and wearing through the night, while out there in the darkness the +two men would meet, and all that followed their meeting must happen +unseen by me. + +This ordeal appeared so dreadful to me in prospect that I began to +cast about among all manner of impracticable plans for escaping it. +Of these the most promising--although I had no money--was to give the +Stimcoes leg-bail and run home; the most alluring, too, since it +offered to deaden the torment of uncertainty by keeping me employed, +mind and body. I must follow the coach-road. In imagination I +measured back the distance. If George Goodfellow walked to Plymouth +and back once a week, why might not I succeed in walking to Minden +Cottage? Home was home. I should get counsel and comfort there; +counsel from my father and comfort most assuredly from Plinny. +I needed both, and in Falmouth just now there was none of either. +Even Captain Branscome, who might have helped me-- + +At this point a sudden thought fetched me up with a jerk. The enemy, +by pursuing after Captain Danny, had at least left me a clear coast. +I was safe for a while against his spying, and consequently the +embargo was off. I had no need to wait for morning. I could go +myself to the old man's lodgings, unlock the corner cupboard, and +bring away the roll of papers. + +I dived my hand into my breech-pocket for the forgotten key. It was +small, and of a curious, intricate pattern. Almost before my fingers +closed upon it my mind was made up. Stimcoe's--that is, if I decided +to return to Stimcoe's--might wait. I might yet decide to break +ship--as Captain Danny would have put it--and make a push for home; +but that decision, too, must wait. Meanwhile, here was an urgent +errand, and a clear coast for it; here was occupation and +inexpressible relief. It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good. + +I set off at a run. On my way I met and passed half a dozen gangs of +hilarious ex-prisoners and equally hilarious townsmen escorting them +to the waterside, where the coxswains of the transport's boats were +by this time blowing impatient calls on their whistles. But the +upper end of the street was well-nigh deserted. A dingy oil lantern +overhung the pavement a few yards from the ope, and above the ope the +barber's parrot hung silent, with a shawl flung over its cage. +I dived into the dark passage, and, stumbling my way to Captain +Danny's door, found that it gave easily to my hand. + +For a moment I paused on the threshold, striving to remember where he +kept his tinder-box and matches. But the room was small. I knew the +geography of it, and could easily--I told myself--grope my way to the +corner, find the cupboard, and, feeling for the keyhole, insert the +key. I was about to essay this when the thought occurred to me that, +as Captain Danny had left the door on the latch, so very likely with +equal foresight he had placed his tinder-box handy--on the table, it +might be. I put out my hand in the direction where, as I +recollected, the table stood. It reached into empty darkness. I +took another step and groped for the table with both hands. +Still darkness, nothing but darkness! I took yet another step and +struck my foot against a hard object on the floor; and, as I bent to +examine this, something sharp and exceeding painful thrust itself +into my groin--a table-leg, upturned. + +Recovering myself, I passed a hand over it. Yes, undoubtedly it was +a table-leg and the table lay topsy-turvy. But how came it so? +Who had upset it, and why? I took another step, sideways, and my +boot struck against something light, and, by its sound, hollow and +metallic. Stooping very cautiously--for by this time I had taken +alarm and was holding my breath--I passed a hand lightly over the +floor. My fingers encountered the object I had kicked aside. +It was a tinder-box. I clutched it softly, and as softly drew myself +upright again. Could I dare to strike a light? The overturned +table: What could be the meaning of it? It could not have been +overturned by Captain Coffin? By whom then? Some one must have +visited the lodgings in his absence. + +Some one, for aught I knew, was in the room at this moment!-- +Some one, back there against the wall, waiting only for me to strike +a light! I declare that at the thought I came near to screaming +aloud, casting the tinder-box from me and rushing out blindly into +the court. + +I dare say that I stood for a couple of minutes, motionless, +listening not with my ears only but with every hair of my head. +Nevertheless, my wits must have been working somehow; for my first +action, when I plucked up nerve enough for it, was an entirely +sensible one. I set the tinder-box on the floor between my heels, +felt for the table, and righted it; then, picking up the box again, +set it on the table and twisted off the lid. I found flint and steel +at once, dipped my fingers into the box to make sure of the tinder +and the brimstone matches, and so, after another pause to listen, +essayed to strike out the spark. + +This, for a pair of trembling hands, proved no easy business, and at +first promised to be a hopeless one. But the worst moment arrived +when, the spark struck, I stooped to blow it upon the tinder, the +glow of which must light up my own face while it revealed to me +nothing of the surrounding darkness. Still, it had to be done; and, +keeping a tight hold on what little remained of my courage, I thrust +in the match and ignited it. + +While the brimstone caught fire and bubbled I drew myself erect to +face the worst. But for what met my eyes as the flame caught hold of +the stick, even the overturned table had not prepared me. + +The furniture of the room lay pell-mell, as though a cyclone had +swept through it. The very pictures hung askew. Of the drawers in +the dresser some had been pulled out bodily, others stood half open, +and all had been ransacked; while the fragments of china strewn along +the shelves or scattered across the floor could only be accounted for +by some blind ferocity of destruction--a madman, for instance, let +loose upon it, and striking at random with a stick. As the match +burned low in my fingers I looked around hastily for a candle, +scanning the dresser, the mantel-shelf, the hugger-mugger of linen, +crockery, wall-ornaments, lying in a trail along the floor. But no +candle could I discover; so I lit a second match from the first and +turned towards the sacred cupboard in the corner. + +The cupboard was gone! + +I held the match aloft, and stared at the angle of the wall; stared +stupidly, at first unable to believe. Yes, the cupboard was gone! +Nothing remained but the mahogany bracket which had supported it. +I gazed around, the match burning lower and lower in my hand till it +scorched my fingers. The pain of it awakened me, and, dropping the +charred end, I stumbled out into the passage, almost falling on the +way as my feet entangled themselves in Captain Coffin's best +table-cloth. + +A moment later I was rapping at Mr. George Goodfellow's door. +I knew that he sometimes sat up late to practice his violin-playing; +and in my confusion of terror I heeded neither that the house was +silent nor that the window over his doorway showed a blank and unlit +face to the night. I knocked and knocked again, pausing to call his +name urgently, at first in hoarse whispers, by-and-by desperately, +lifting my voice as loudly as I dared. + +At length a voice answered; but it came from the end of the passage +next, the street, and it was not Mr. Goodfellow's. + +"D--n my giblets!" it said, in a kind of muffled scream. +"Drunk again! Oh, you nasty image!" + +It was the barber's accursed parrot. I could hear it tearing with +its beak at the bars of its cage, as if struggling to pull off the +cloth which covered it. + +A window creaked on its hinges, some way up the court. + +"Hallo! Who's there?" demanded a gruff voice. + +I took to my heels, and made a dash up the passage for the street. +The cage, as I passed under it, swayed violently with the parrot's +struggles for free speech. + +"Drunk again!" it yelled. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me--here's a +pretty time o' night to disturb a lady!" + +No longer had I any thought of braving the night and the perils of +the road, but pressed my elbows tight against my ribs and raced +straight for Stimcoe's. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +NEWS. + +By great good fortune, Mr. Stimcoe had been drinking the health of +the returned prisoners until his own was temporarily affected. +In fact, as I reached Delamere Terrace, panting and excogitating the +likeliest excuse to offer Mrs. Stimcoe, the door of No. 7 opened, and +the lady herself emerged upon the night, with a shawl swathed +carelessly over her masculine neck and shoulders. + +I drew up and ducked aside to avoid recognition, but she halted under +the lamp and called to me, in no very severe voice-- + +"Harry!" + +"Yes, ma'am!" + +"You are late, and I have been needing you. Mr. Stimcoe is suffering +from an attack." + +"Indeed, ma'am?" said I. "Shall I run for Dr. Spargo?" + +She stood for a moment considering. "No," she decided; "I had better +fetch Dr. Spargo myself. Being more familiar with the symptoms, I +can describe them to him." + +More familiar with the symptoms, poor woman, she undoubtedly was, +though I was familiar enough; and so, for the matter of that, was the +doctor, whose ledger must have registered at least a dozen similar +"attacks." But I understood at once her true reason for not +entrusting me with the errand. It would require all her courage, all +her magnificent impudence, to browbeat Dr. Spargo into coming, for I +doubt if the Stimcoes had ever paid him a stiver. + +"But you can be very useful," she went on, in a tone unusually +gentle. "You will find Mr. Stimcoe in his bedroom--at least, I hope +so, for he suffers from a hallucination that some person or persons +unknown have incarcerated him in a French war-prison, such being the +effect of to-day's--er--proceedings upon his highly strung nature. +The illusion being granted, one can hardly be surprised at his +resenting it." + +I nodded, and promised to do my best. + +"You are a very good boy, Harry," said Mrs. Stimcoe--a verdict so +different from that which I had arrived expecting, or with any right +to expect, that I stood for some twenty seconds gaping after her as +she pulled her shawl closer and went on her heroic way. + +I found Mr. Stimcoe in _deshabille_, on the first-floor landing, +under the derisive surveillance of Masters Doggy Bates, Bob +Pilkington, and Scotty Maclean, whose graceless mirth echoed down to +me from the stair-rail immediately overhead. Ignoring my preceptor's +invitation to bide a wee and take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang +syne, I ran up and knocked their heads together, kicked them into the +dormitory, turned the key on their reproaches, and--these +preliminaries over--descended to grapple with the situation. + +Mr. Stimcoe, in night garments, was conducting a dialogue in which he +figured alternately as the tyrant and the victim of oppression. +In the character of Napoleon Bonaparte he had filled a footbath with +cold water, and was commanding the Rev. Philip Stimcoe to strip--as +he put it--to the teeth, and immerse himself forthwith. As the Rev. +Philip Stimcoe, patriot and martyr, he was obstinately, and with even +more passion, refusing to do anything of the kind, and for the +equally cogent reasons that he was a Protestant of the Protestants +and that the water had cockroaches in it. + +"Of course," said Mr. Stimcoe to me, "if you present yourself as +Alexander of Russia, there is no more to be said, always provided"-- +and here he removed his nightcap and made me a profound bow--"that +your credentials are satisfactory." + +Apparently they were. At any rate, I prevailed on him to return to +his room, when he took my arm, and, seating himself on the bedside, +recited to me the paradigms of the more anomalous Greek verbs with +great volubility for twenty minutes on end--that is to say, until +Mrs. Stimcoe returned with the doctor safely tucked under her wing. + +At sight of me seated in charge of the patient, Dr. Spargo--a mild +little man--lifted his eyebrows. + +"Surely, madam--" he began in a scandalized tone. + +"This is Harry Brooks." Mrs. Stimcoe introduced me loftily. +"If you wish him to retire, be kind enough to say so, and have done +with it. Our boarders, I may say, have the run of the house--it is +part of Mr. Stimcoe's system. But Harry has too much delicacy to +remain where he feels himself _de trop_. Harry, you have my leave to +withdraw." + +I obeyed, aware that the doctor--who had pushed his spectacles high +upon his forehead--was following my retreat with bewildered gaze. +As I expected, no sooner had I regained the dormitory than my +fellow-boarders--forgetting their sore heads, or, at any rate, +forgiving--began to pester me with a hundred questions. I had to +repeat the punishment on Doggy Bates before they suffered me to lie +down in quiet. + +But the interlude, in itself discomposing, had composed my nerves for +the while. I expected no sleep; had, indeed, an hour ago, deemed it +impossible I should sleep that night. Yet, in fact, my head was +scarcely on the pillow before I slept, and slept like a top. + +The town clock awoke me, striking four. To the far louder sound of +Scotty Maclean's snoring, in the bed next to mine, I was +case-hardened. I lay for a second or two counting the strokes, then +sprang out of bed, and, running to the window, drew wide the curtain. +The world was awake, the sun already clear above the hills over St. +Just pool, and all the harbour twinkling with its rays. My eyes +searched the stretch of water between me and St. Mawes, as though for +flotsam--anything to give me news, or a hint of news. For many +minutes I stood staring--needless to say, in vain--and so, the +morning being chilly, crept back to bed with the shivers on me. + +Two hours later, in the midst of my dressing, I looked out of the +window again, and I saw the St. Mawes packet reaching across towards +Falmouth merrily, quite as if nothing had happened. Yet something-- +I told myself--_must_ have happened. + +The Copenhagen Academy enjoyed a holiday that day, for Captain +Branscome failed to present himself, and Mr. Stimcoe lay under the +influence of sedatives. At eleven in the morning he awoke, and began +to discuss the character of Talleyrand at the pitch of his voice. +Its echoes reached me where I sat disconsolate in the deserted +schoolroom, and I went upstairs to the bedroom door to offer my +services. Doggy Bates, Pilkington, and Scotty Maclean had hied them +immediately after breakfast to the harbour, to beg, borrow, or steal +a boat and fish for mackerel; and Mrs. Stimcoe, worn out with +watching, set down my faithful presence to motives of which I was +shamefully innocent. In point of fact, I had lurked at home because +I could not bear company. I preferred the deserted schoolroom, +though Heaven knows what I would not have given for the dull +distraction of work--an hour of Rule of Three with Captain Branscome, +or Caesar's Commentaries with Mr. Stimcoe. But Mr. Stimcoe lay +upstairs chattering, and Captain Branscome appeared to be taking a +protracted holiday. It hardly occurred to me to wonder why. + +It was borne in upon me later that during this interval of anarchy in +the Stimcoe establishment--it lasted two days, and may have lasted +longer for aught I know--I wasted little wonder on the continued +absence of Captain Branscome. I was indeed kept anxious by my own +fears, which did not decrease as the hours dragged by. From the +window of Mr. Stimcoe's sickroom I watched the St. Mawes packet +plying to and fro. I had a mind to steal down to the Market Strand +and interrogate her skipper. I had a mind--and laid more than one +plan for it--to follow up my first impulse of bolting for home, to +discover if Captain Coffin had arrived there. But Mrs. Stimcoe, +misinterpreting my eagerness to be employed, had by this time +enlisted me into full service in the sick-room. After the first hint +of surprised gratitude, she betrayed no feeling at all, but bound me +severely to my task. We took the watching turn and turn about, in +spells of three hours' duration. I was held committed, and could not +desert without a brand on my conscience. The disgusting feature of +this is that I was almost glad of it, at the same time longing to +run, and feeling that this, in a way, exonerated me. + +At about seven o'clock on the evening of the second day, while I sat +by Mr. Stimcoe's bedside, there came a knock at the front door, and, +looking out of the window--for Mrs. Stimcoe had gone to bully another +sedative out of the doctor, and there was no one in the house to +admit a visitor--I saw Captain Branscome below me on the doorstep. + +"Hallo!" said I, as cheerfully as I might, for Mr. Stimcoe was awake +and listening. + +"Is--is that Harry Brooks?" asked Captain Branscome, stepping back +and feeling for his gold-rimmed glasses. But by some chance he was +not wearing them. After fumbling for a moment, he gazed up towards +the window, blinking. Folk who habitually wear glasses look +unnatural without them. Captain Branscome's face looked unnatural +somehow. It was pale, and for the moment it seemed to me to be +almost a face of fright; but a moment later I set down its pallor to +weariness. + +"Mrs. Stimcoe has gone off to the doctor," said I, "and Mr. Stimcoe +is sick, and I am up here nursing him. There is no one to open, but +you can give me a message." + +"I just came up to make sure you were all right." + +"If you mean Stim--Mr. Stimcoe, he's better, though the doctor says +he won't be able to leave his bed for days. How did you come to hear +about it?" + +"I've heard nothing about Mr. Stimcoe," answered Captain Branscome, +after a hesitating pause. "I've been away--on a holiday. Nothing +wrong with you at all?" he asked. + +I could not understand Captain Branscome. Why on earth should he be +troubling himself about my state of health? + +"Nothing happened to upset you?" he asked. + +I looked down at him sharply. As a matter of fact, and as the reader +knows, a great deal had happened to upset me, but that any hint of it +should have reached Captain Branscome was in the highest degree +unlikely, and in any case I could not discuss it with him from an +upstairs window and in my patient's hearing. So I contented myself +with asking him where he had spent his holiday. + +The question appeared to confuse him. He averted his eyes and, +gazing out over the harbour, muttered--or seemed to mutter, for I +could not catch the answer distinctly--that he had been visiting some +friends; and so for a moment or two we waited at a deadlock. Indeed, +there is no knowing how long it might have lasted--for Captain +Branscome made no sign of turning again and facing me--but, happening +just then to glance along the terrace, I caught sight of Mrs. Stimcoe +returning with long, masculine strides. + +She held an open letter in her hand, and was perusing it as she came. + +"It's for you," she announced, coming to a standstill under the +window and speaking up to me after a curt nod towards Captain +Branscome--"from Miss Plinlimmon; and you'd best come down and hear +what it says, for it's serious." + +I should here explain that Mr. and Mrs. Stimcoe made a practice of +reading all letters received or despatched by us. It was a part of +the system. + +"I picked it up at the post-office on my way," she explained, as I +presented myself at the front door and put out a hand for the letter. +"Look here, Harry: I know you to be a brave boy. You must pull +yourself together, and be as brave as ever you can. Your father--" + +"What about my father?" I asked, taking the letter and staring into +her face. "Has anything happened? is he--is he dead?" + +Mrs. Stimcoe lifted her hand and lowered it again, at the same moment +bowing her head with a meaning I could not mistake. I gazed dizzily +at Captain Branscome, and the look on his face told me--I cannot tell +you how--that he knew what the letter had to tell, and had been +expecting it. The handwriting was indeed Miss Plinlimmon's, although +it ran across the paper in an agitated scrawl most unlike her usual +neat Italian penmanship. + + "My dearest Harry, + + "You must come home to me at once, and by the first coach. + I cannot tell you what has happened save this--that you must + not look to see your father alive. We dwell in the midst of + alarms which A. Selkirk preferred to the solitude of Juan + Fernandez; but in this I differ from him totally, and so will + you when you hear what we have gone through. Come at once, + Harry, with the bravest heart you can summon, Such is the + earnest prayer of:" + + "Your sincere friend in affliction," + "Amelia Plinlimmon." + + "P.S.--Pray ask Mrs. Stimcoe to be kind enough to advance the + fare if your pocket-money will not suffice." + +"And I doubt if there's two shillings in the house!" commented Mrs. +Stimcoe, candid for once, "and God knows what I can pawn!" + +Captain Branscome plunged his hand into his pocket and drew out a +guinea. Captain Branscome--who, to the knowledge of both of us, +never had a shilling in his pocket--stood there nervously proffering +me a guinea! + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +THE CRIME IN THE SUMMER-HOUSE. + + +Mrs. Stimcoe, having begged Captain Branscome to take watch for a +while over the invalid, and having helped me to pack a few clothes in +a handbag, herself accompanied me to the coach-office, where we found +the Royal Mail on the point of starting. The outside passengers, +four in number, had already taken their seats--two on the box beside +the coachman, and two on the seat immediately behind; and by the +light of the lamp overhanging the entry I perceived that their heads +were together in close conversation, in which the coachman himself +from time to time took a share, slewing round to listen or interject +a word and anon breaking off to direct the stowage of a parcel or +call an order to the stable-boys. Mrs. Stimcoe had stepped into the +office to book my place, and while I waited for her, watching the +preparations for departure, my curiosity led me forward to take a +look at the horses. There, under the lamp, the coachman caught sight +of me. + +"Whe-ew!" I heard him whistle. "Here's the boy himself! Going along +wi' us, sonny?" he asked, looking down on me and speaking down in a +voice which seemed to me unnaturally gentle--for I remembered him as +a gruff fellow and irascible. The outside passengers at once broke +off their talk to lean over and take stock of me; and this again +struck me as queer. + +"Jim!" called the coachman (Jim was the guard). "Jim!" + +"Ay, ay!" answered Jim, from the back of the roof, where he was +arranging the mail-bags. + +"Here's an outside extry." He lowered his voice, so that I caught +only these words: "The youngster . . . Minden Cottage . . . +I reckoned they'd be sending--" + +"Hey?" + +Jim the guard bent over for a look at me, and scrambled down by the +steps of his dickey, just as Mrs. Stimcoe emerged from the office. +She was pale and agitated, and stood for a moment gazing about her +distractedly, when Jim blundered against her, whereat she put out a +hand and spoke to him. I saw Jim fall back a step and touch his hat. +He was listening, with a very serious face. I could not hear what +she said. + +"Cert'nly, ma'm'," he answered. "Cert'nly, under the circumstances, +you may depend on me." + +He mounted the coach again, and, climbing forward whispered in the +back of the coachman's ear. The passengers bent their heads to +listen. They nodded; the coachman nodded too, and stretched down a +hand. + +"Can you climb, sonny, or shall we fetch the steps for you? +There, I reckoned you was more of a man than to need 'em!" + +Mrs. Stimcoe detained me for a moment to fold me in a masculine hug. +But her bosom might have been encased in an iron corselet for all the +tenderness it conveyed. "God bless you, Harry Brooks, and try to be +a man!" Her embrace relaxed, and with a dry-sounding sob she let me +go as I caught the coachman's hand and was swung up to my seat; and +with that we were off and up the cobble-paved street at a rattle. + +I do not know the names of my fellow-passengers. Now and then one +would bend forward and whisper to his neighbour, who answered with a +grunt or a motion of his head; but for the most part, and for mile +after mile, we all sat silent, listening only to the horses' gallop, +the chime of the swingle-bars, the hum of the night wind in our ears. +The motion and the strong breeze together lulled me little by little +into a doze. My neighbour on the right wore around his shoulders a +woollen shawl, against which after a while I found my cheek resting, +and begged his pardon. He entreated me not to mention it, but to +make myself comfortable; and thereupon I must have fallen fast +asleep. I awoke as the coach came to a standstill. Were we pulling +up to change teams? No; we were on the dark high-road, between +hedges. Straight ahead of us blazed two carriage-lamps; and a man's +voice was hailing. I recognized the voice at once. It belonged to a +Mr. Jack Rogers, a rory-tory young squire and justice of the peace of +our neighbourhood, and the lamps must be those of his famous light +tilbury. + +"Hallo!" he was shouting. "Royal Mail, ahoy!" + +"Royal Mail it is!" shouted back the coachman and Jim the guard +together. + +"Got the boy Brooks aboard?" + +"Ay, ay Mr. Rogers! D'ye want him?" + +"No; you'll take him along quicker. My mare's fagged, and I drove +along in case the letter missed fire." He came forward at a foot's +pace, and pulled up under the light of our lamps. "Hallo! is that +you, Harry Brooks?" He peered up at me out of the night. + +"Yes, sir," I answered, my teeth chattering between apprehension and +the chill of the night. I longed desperately to ask what had +happened at home, but the words would not come. + +"Right you are, my lad; and the first thing when you get home, tell +Miss Plinlimmon from me to fill you up with vittles and a glass of +hot brandy-and-water. Give her that message, with Jack Rogers's +compliments, and tell her that I'm on the road making inquiries, and +may get so far as Truro. By the way"--he turned to Jim the guard-- +"you haven't met anything that looked suspicious, eh?" + +"Nothing on the road at all," answered Jim. + +"Well, so-long! Mustn't delay his Majesty's mails or waste time of my +own. Good night, Harry Brooks, and remember to give my message! +Good night, gentlemen all!" + +He flicked at his mare. Our coachman gathered up his reins, and away +we went once more at a gallop towards the dawn. The dawn lay cold +about Minden Cottage as we came in sight of it; and at first, noting +that all the blinds were drawn, I thought the household must be +asleep. Then I remembered, and shivered as I rose from my seat, +cramped and stiff from the long journey, and so numb that Jim the +guard had to lift me down to the porch. Miss Plinlimmon, red-eyed +and tremulous, opened the door to me, embraced me, and led me to the +little parlour. + +"Is--is my father dead?" I asked, staring vacantly around the room, +and upon the table where she had set out a breakfast. She bent over +the urn for a moment, and then, coming to me, took my hand and drew +me to the sofa. + +"You must be brave, Harry." + +"But what has happened? And how did it happen? Was--was it sudden? +Please tell me, Plinny!" + +She stroked my hand and shivered slightly, turning her face away +towards the window. + +"We found him in the summer-house, dear. He was lying face downward, +across the step of the doorway, and at first we supposed he had +fallen forward in a fit. Ann made the discovery, and came running to +me in the kitchen, when she had only time to cry out the news before +she was overtaken with hysterics. I left her to them," went on Miss +Plinlimmon, simply, "and ran out to the summer-house, when by-and-by, +having pulled herself together, she followed me. By this time it had +fallen dusk--nay, it was almost dark, which accounts for one not +seeing at once what dreadful thing had happened. Your poor father, +Harry--as you know--used often to sit in the summer-house until quite +a late hour, but he had never before dallied quite so late, and in +the end I had sent Ann out to remind him that supper was waiting. +Well, as you may suppose, he was heavy to lift; and we two women +being alone in the house, I told Ann to run up to the vicarage or to +Miss Belcher's, and get word sent for a doctor, and also to bring a +couple of men, if possible, to carry him into the house. I had +scarcely bidden her to do this when she cried out, screaming, that +her hand was damp, and with blood. 'You silly woman!' said I, though +trembling myself from head to foot. But when we fetched a candle, we +saw blood running down the step, and your father--my poor Harry!-- +lying in a pool of it--a veritable pool of it. Ah, Harry, Harry!" +exclaimed Miss Plinlimmon, relapsing into that literary manner which +was second nature with her, "such a moment occurring in the pages of +fiction, may stimulate a sympathetic thrill not entirely disagreeable +to the reader, but in real life I wouldn't go through it again if you +offered me a fortune." + +"Plinny," I cried--"Plinny, what is this you are telling me about +blood?" + +"Your poor father, Harry--But be sure their sins will find them out! +Mr. Rogers is setting the runners on track--he is most kind. +Already he has had two hundred handbills printed. We are offering a +hundred pounds reward--more if necessary--and the whole country is +up--" + +"Plinny dear"--I tried to steady my voice as I stood and faced her-- +"are you trying to tell me that--that my father has been murdered?" + +She bowed her head and cast her apron over it, sobbing. + +"Excuse me, Harry--but in such moments!--And they have found the +cashbox. It had been battered open, presumably by a stone, and flung +into the brook a hundred yards below Miss Belcher's lodge-gate." + +"The cashbox?" My brain whirled. + +"The key was in your father's pocket. He had fetched the box from +his room, it appears, about two hours before, and carried it out to +the summer-house. I cannot tell you with what purpose he carried it +out there, but it was quite contrary to his routine." + +She poured out a cup of tea, and passed it to me with shaking hands. +She pressed me to eat, and all the time she kept talking, sometimes +lucidly, sometimes quite incoherently; and I listened in a kind of +dream. My father had been well-nigh a stranger to me, and I divined +that I should never sorrow for his loss as those sorrow who have +genuinely loved. But his death, and the manner of it, shocked me +dreadfully, and from the shock my brain kept harking away to Captain +Coffin and his pursuer. Could they have reached Minden Cottage? +And, if so, had their visit any connection with this crime? +Captain Danny had started for Minden Cottage. . . . Had he arrived? +And, if so-- + +I heard Miss Plinlimmon asking: "Would you care to see him--that is, +dear, if you feel strong enough? His expression is wonderfully +tranquil." + +She led me upstairs and opened the door for me. A sheet covered my +father from feet to chin, and above it his head lay back on the +pillow, his features, clear-cut and aquiline, keeping that massive +repose which, though it might seem to be deeper now in the shade of +the darkened room, had always cowed me while he lived. It seemed to +me that my father's death, though I ought to feel it more keenly, +made strangely little difference to _him_. + +"You will need sleep," said Plinny, who had been waiting for me on +the landing. + +I told her that she might get my bed ready, but I would first take a +turn in the garden. I tiptoed downstairs. The floor of the +summer-house had been washed. The vane on its conical roof sparkled +in the sunlight. I stood before it, attempting to picture the +tragedy of which, here in the clear morning, it told nothing to help +me. My thoughts were still running on Captain Coffin and the French +prisoner. Plinny--for I had questioned her cautiously--plainly knew +nothing of any such man. They might, however, have entered by the +side-gate. I stepped back under the apple-tree by the flagstaff, +measuring with my eye the distance between this side-gate and the +summer-house. As I did so, my foot struck against something in the +tall grass under the tree, and I stooped and picked it up--a pair of +gold-rimmed eyeglasses! + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +THE BLOODSTAIN ON THE STILE. + +My father, in erecting a flagstaff before his summer-house, had +chosen to plant it on a granite millstone, or rather, had sunk its +base through the stone's central hole, which Miss Plinlimmon +regularly filled with salt to keep the wood from rotting. Upon this +mossed and weather-worn bench I sat myself down to examine my find. + +Yet it needed no examination to tell me that the eyeglasses were +Captain Branscome's. I recognized the delicate cable pattern of +their gold rims, glinting in the sunlight. I recognized the ring and +the frayed scrap of black ribbon attached to it. I remembered the +guinea with which Captain Branscome had paid my fare on the coach. +I remembered Miss Plinlimmon's account of the stolen cashbox. + +The more my suspicions grew, the more they were incredible. +That Captain Branscome, of all men in the world, should be guilty of +such a crime! And yet, with this damning evidence in my hand, I +could not but recall a dozen trifles--mere straws, to be sure--all +pointing towards him. He had been here in my father's garden: that I +might take as proven. With what object? And if that object were an +innocent one, why had he not told me of his intention to visit Minden +Cottage? I remembered how straitly he had cross-examined me, a while +ago, on the topography of the cottage, on my father's household and +his habits. Again, if his visit had been an innocent one, why, last +evening, had he said nothing of it? Why, when I questioned him about +his holiday, had he answered me so confusedly? Yet again, I recalled +his demeanour when Mrs. Stimcoe handed me the letter, and the +impression it gave me--so puzzling at the moment--that he had +foreknowledge of the news. If this incredible thing were true--if +Captain Branscome were the criminal--the puzzle ceased to be a +puzzle; the guinea and the broken cashbox were only too fatally +accounted for. + +Nevertheless, and in spite of the guinea, in spite even of the +eyeglass there in my hand, I could not bring myself to believe. +What? Captain Branscome, the simple-minded, the heroic? Captain +Branscome, of the threadbare coat and the sword of honour? Poor he +was, no doubt--bitterly poor--poor almost to starvation at times. +To what might not a man be driven by poverty in this degree? +And here was evidence for judge and jury. + +I glanced around me, and, folding the eyeglasses together in a +fumbling haste, slipped them into my breeches-pocket. From my seat +beneath the flagstaff I looked straight into the doorway of the +summer-house; but a creeper obscured its rustic window, dimming the +light within; and a terror seized me that some one was concealed +there, watching me--a terror not unlike that which had held me in +Captain Coffin's lodgings. + +While I stood there, summoning up courage to invade the summer-house +and make sure, my brain harked back to Captain Coffin and the man +Aaron Glass. Captain Coffin had taken leave of me in a fever to +reach Minden Cottage. That was close on sixty hours ago--three +nights and two days. Why, in that ample time, had he not arrived, +and what had become of him? Plinny had seen no such man. + +I fetched a tight grip on my courage, walked across to the doorway, +and peered into the summer-house. It was empty, and I stepped +inside--superstitiously avoiding, as I did so, to tread on the spot +where my father's body had lain. + +Ann the cook--so Plinny told me--had found his chair overset behind +him, but no other sign of a struggle. He had been stabbed in front, +high on the left breast and a little below the collar-bone, and must +have toppled forward at once across the step, and died where he fell. +The chair had been righted and set in place, perhaps by Ann when she +washed down the step. A well-defined line across the floor showed +where the cleaning had begun, and behind it the scanty furniture of +the place had not been disturbed. At the back, in one corner stood +an old drum, with dust and droppings of leaf-mould in the wrinkles of +its sagged parchment, and dust upon the drumsticks thrust within its +frayed strapping; in the corner opposite an old military chest which +held the bunting for the flagstaff--a Union flag, a couple of +ensigns, and half a dozen odd square-signals and pennants. I stooped +over this, and as I did so I observed that there were finger-marks on +the dust at the edge of the lid; but, lifting it, found the flags +inside neatly rolled and stowed in order. On the table lay my +father's Bible and his pocket Virgil, the latter open and laid face +downwards. I picked it up, and the next moment came near to dropping +it again with a shiver, for a dry smear of blood crossed the two +pages. + +Here, not to complicate mysteries, let me tell at once what Ann told +me later--that she had found the book lying in the blood-dabbled +grass before the step, when it must have fallen from my father's +hand, and had replaced it upon the table. But for the moment, +surmising another clue, I stared at the page--a page of the seventh +"Aeneid"--and at the stain which, as if to underline them, started +beneath the words-- + + "Hic domus, haec patria est. Genitor mihi talia namque + (Nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit." + +I set down the book as I had found it, stepped forth again into the +sunshine. The scouring of the step had left a moist puddle below it, +where the ground, no doubt, had been dry and hard on the evening of +the murder. At the edge of this puddle the turf twinkled with clean +dew--close, well-trimmed turf sloping gently to the stream which +formed the real boundary of the garden; but Miss Belcher, the +neighbouring land-owner, a person of great wealth and the most +eccentric good-nature, had allowed my father to build a wall on the +far side, for privacy, and had granted him an entrance through it to +her park--a narrow wooden door to which a miniature bridge gave +access across the stream. + +There were thus three ways of approaching the summer-house; (1) by +the path which wound through the garden from the house, (2) across +the turf from the side-gate, which opened out of a lane, or +woodcutters' road, running at right angles from the turnpike and +alongside the garden fence towards the park; and (3) from the park +itself, across the little bridge. From the bridge a straight line to +the summer-house would lie behind the angle of sight of any one +seated within; so that a visitor, stepping with caution, might +present himself at the doorway without any warning. + +You may say that, my father being blind, it need not have entered +into my calculations whether his assailant had approached in full +view of the doorway or from the rear. But the assailant--let us +suppose for a moment--was some one ignorant of my father's blindness. +This granted, as it was at least possible, he would be likeliest to +steal upon the summer-house from the rear. I cannot say more than +that, standing there by the doorway, I felt the approach from the +streamside to be most dangerous, and therefore the likeliest. + +In a few minutes, as I well knew, Plinny would be coming in search of +me, to persuade me back to the house to breakfast and bed. I stepped +down to the streamside, where the beehives stood in a row on the +brink, paused for a moment to listen to the hum within them, and note +that the bees were making ready to swarm, crossed the bridge, and +tried the rusty hasp of the door. It yielded stiffly; but as I +pulled the door inwards it brushed aside a mass of spider's web, +white and matted, that could not be less than a month old. Also it +brushed a clump of ivy overgrowing the lintel, and shook down about +half an ounce of powdery dust into my hair and eyes. I scarcely +troubled to look through. Clearly, the door had not been opened for +many weeks--possibly not since my last holidays. + +I recrossed the bridge and inspected the side-gate. This opened, as +I have said, upon a lane never used but by the woodmen on Miss +Belcher's estate, and by them very seldom. It entered the park by a +stone bridge across the stream and by a ruinous gate, the gaps of +which had been patched with furze faggots. The roadway itself was +carpeted with last year's leaves from a coppice across the lane-- +leaves which the winter's rains had beaten into a black compost; and +almost facing the side-gate was a stile whence a tangled footpath led +into the coppice. + +I had stepped out into the lane, and was staring over the stile into +the green gloom of the coppice, when I heard Plinny's voice calling +to me from the house, and I had half turned to hail in answer when my +eyes fell on the upper bar of the stile. + +Across the edge of it ran a dark brown smear--a smear which I +recognized for dried blood. + +"Harry! Harry dear!" + +"Plinny!" I raced back through the garden, and almost fell into her +arms as she came along the path between the currant-bushes in search +of me. "Plinny--oh, Plinny!" I gasped. + +"My dear child, what has happened?" + +Before I could answer there came wafted to our ears from eastward a +sound of distant shouting, and almost simultaneously, from the +high-road near at hand, the trit-trot of hoofs approaching at great +speed from westward, and the "Who-oop!" of a man's voice, lusty on +the morning air. + +"That will be Mr. Jack Rogers," said Plinny. "He brings us news, for +certain! Yes; he is reining up." + +We ran through the house together, and reached the front door in time +to witness a most extraordinary scene. + +Mr. Jack Rogers's tilbury had run past the house and come to a halt a +short gunshot beyond, where it stood driverless--for Mr. Jack Rogers +had dismounted, and was gesticulating with both arms to stop a man +racing down the road to meet him. A moment later, as this runner +came on, a second hove in sight over the rise of the road behind +him--a short figure, so stout and round that in the distance it +resembled not so much a man as a ball rolling in pursuit. + +"Hi! Stop, you there!" shouted Mr. Rogers; but the first runner +might have been deaf, for all the attention he paid. + +"Good Lord!" said I, catching my breath; "it's Mr. George +Goodfellow!" + +"In the King's name!" Mr. Rogers shouted, making a dash to intercept +him. And a moment later the two had collided, and were rolling in +the dust together. + +I ran towards them, with Plinny--brave soul!--at my heels, and +arrived to find Mr. Rogers, hatless and exceedingly dishevelled, +kneeling with both hands around the neck of his prostrate antagonist, +and holding his face down in the dust. + +"You'd best stand up and come along quietly," Mr. Rogers adjured +him. + +"Gug-gug--how the devil c-can I stand up if you won't lul-lul-let +me?" protested Mr. Goodfellow, reasonably enough. + +"Very well, then." Mr. Rogers relaxed his grip. "Stand up! +But you're my prisoner, so let's have no more nonsense!" + +"I'd like to know what's taken ye to pitch into a man like this?" +demanded Mr. Goodfellow in a tone of great umbrage, as he shook the +dust out of his coat and hair. "A fellow I never seen before, not to +my knowledge! Why--hallo!" said he, looking up and catching sight of +me. + +"Hallo!" said I. + +"Hallo!" said Mr. Rogers, in his turn. "Do you two know each other?" + +"Why, of course we do!" said Mr. Goodfellow. + +"I don't know where 'of course' comes in." Mr. Rogers eyed him with +stern suspicion. "Why were you running away from the constable?" + +Mr. Goodfellow glanced towards the stout, round man, who by this time +had drawn near, mopping, as he came, a face as red as the red +waistcoat he wore. + +"Him a constable? Why, I took him for a loonatic! They put the +loonatics into them coloured weskits, don't they?" + +"Nothing of the sort. You're thinking of the warders," Mr. Rogers +answered. + +"Oh? Then I made a mistake," said Mr. Goodfellow, cheerfully. + +"Look here, my friend, if you're thinking to play this off as a joke +you'll find it no joking matter. Madam"--he turned to Miss +Plinlimmon--"is this the man who called at the cottage two days ago." + +"Yes," answered Plinny; "and once before, as I remember." + +"And on each occasion did you observe something strange in his +manner?" + +"Very strange indeed. He kept asking questions about the house and +garden, and the position of the rooms and about poor Major Brooks, +and what rent he paid, and if he was well-to-do. And he took out a +measure from his pocket and began to calculate--" + +"Quite so." Mr. Rogers turned next to the constable. "Hosken," he +asked, "you have been making inquiries about this man?" + +"I have, sir; all along the road, so far as Torpoint Ferry." + +"And you learnt enough to justify you in arresting him?" + +"Ample, y'r worship. There wasn't a public-house along the road but +thought his behaviour highly peculiar. He's a well-known character, +an' the questions he asks you would be surprised. He plies between +Falmouth and Plymouth, sir, once a week regular. So, actin' on +information that he might be expected along early this morning, I +concealed myself in the hedge, sir, the best part of two miles +back--" + +"You didn't," interrupted Mr. Goodfellow. "I saw your red stomach +between the bushes thirty yards before ever I came to it, and +wondered what mischief you was up to. I'm wondering still." + +"At any rate, you are detained, sir, upon suspicion," said Mr. Rogers +sharply, "and will come with us to the cottage and submit to be +searched." + +"Brooks," asked Mr. Goodfellow feebly, "what's wrong with 'em? +And what are you doing here?" + +"Mr. Rogers," I broke in, "I know this man. His name is Goodfellow; +he lives at Falmouth; and you are wrong, quite wrong, in suspecting +him. But what is more, Mr. Rogers, you are wasting time. +There's blood on the stile down the lane. Whoever broke into the +garden must have escaped that way--by the path through the +plantation--" + +"Eh?" Mr. Rogers jumped at me and caught me by the arm. "Why the +devil--you'll excuse me, Miss Plinlimmon--but why on earth, child, if +you have news, couldn't you have told it at once? Blood on the +stile, you say? What stile?" + +"The stile down the lane, sir," I answered, pointing. "And I +couldn't tell you before because you didn't give me time." + +"Show us the way, quick! And you, Hosken, catch hold of the mare and +lead her round to Miss Belcher's stables. Or, stay--she's dead beat. +You can help me slip her out of the shafts and tether her by the gate +yonder. That's right, man; but don't tie her up too tight. Give her +room to bite a bit of grass, and she'll wait here quiet as a lamb." + +"What about the prisoner, sir?" asked the stolid Hosken. + +"D--n the prisoner!" answered Mr. Rogers, testily, in the act of +unharnessing. "Slip the handcuffs on him. And you, Miss Plinlimmon, +will return to the cottage, if you please." + +"I'd like to come, too, if I may," put in Mr. Goodfellow. + +"Eh?" Mr. Rogers, in the act of rolling up one of the traces, stared +at him with frank admiration. "Well, you're a sportsman, anyhow. +Catch hold of his arm, Hosken, and run him along with us. Yes, sir, +though I say it as a justice of the peace, be d--d to you, but I like +your spirit. And with the gallows staring you in the face, too!" + +"Gallows? What gallows?" panted Mr. Goodfellow in my ear a few +moments later, as we tore in a body down the lane. "Hush!" I panted +in answer. "It's all a mistake." + +"It ought to be." We drew up by the stile, where I pointed to the +smear of blood, and Mr. Rogers, calling to Hosken to follow him, +dashed into the coppice and down the path into the rank undergrowth. +I, too, was lifting a leg to throw it over the bar, when Mr. +Goodfellow plucked me by the arm. "Terribly hasty friends you keep +in these parts, Brooks," he said plaintively. "What's it all about?" + +"Why, murder!" said I. "Haven't you heard, man?" + +"Not a syllable! Good Lord, you don't mean--" He passed a shaky +hand over his forehead as a cry rang back to us through the coppice. + +"Here, Hosken, this way! Oh, by the Almighty, be quick, man!" + +I vaulted over the stile, Mr. Goodfellow close after me. For two +hundred yards and more--three hundred, maybe--we blundered and +crashed through the low-growing hazels, and came suddenly to a +horrified stand. + +A little to the left of the path, between it and the stream, Mr. +Rogers and the constable knelt together over the body of a man half +hidden in a tangle of brambles. + +The corpse's feet pointed towards the path, and I recognized the +shoes, as also the sea-cloth trousers, before Mr. Rogers--cursing in +his hurry rather than at the pain of his lacerated hands--tore the +brambles aside and revealed its face--the face of Captain Coffin, +blue-cold in death and staring up from its pillow of rotted leaves. + +I felt myself reeling. But it was Mr. Goodfellow who reeled against +me, and would have fallen if Hosken the constable had not sprung upon +one knee and caught him. + +"If you ask my opinion," I heard Hosken saying as he raised himself +and held Mr. Goodfellow upright, steadying him, "'tis a case o' +guilty conscience, an' I never in my experience saw a clearer." + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +CLUES IN A TANGLE. + +"Guilty or not," said Mr. Jack Rogers, sharply, "I'll take care he +doesn't escape. Run you down to Miss Belcher's kennels, and fetch +along a couple of men--any one you can pick up--to help. And don't +make a noise as you go past the cottage; the women there are +frightened enough already. Come to think of it, I heard some fellows +at work as I drove by just now, thinning timber in the plantation +under the kennels. Off with you, man, and don't stand gaping like a +stuck pig!" + +Thus adjured, Constable Hosken ran, leaving us three to watch the +body. + +"The man's pockets have been rifled, that's plain enough," Mr. Rogers +muttered, as he bent over it again, and with that I suppose I must +have made some kind of exclamation, for he looked up at me, still +with a horrified frown. + +"Hallo! You know him?" + +I nodded. + +"His name's Coffin. He came here from Falmouth." + +For a moment Mr. Rogers did not appear to catch the words. His eyes +travelled from my face to Mr. Goodfellow's. + +"You, too?" + +"Knew him intimate. Know him? Why, I live but two doors away from +him in the same court." + +"Look here," said Mr. Rogers, slowly, after a pause, "this is a black +business, and a curst mysterious one, and I wasn't born with the gift +of seeing daylight through a brick wall. But speaking as a +magistrate, Mr. What's-your-name, I ought to warn you against saying +what may be used for evidence. As for you, lad, you'd best tell as +much as you know. What d'ye say his name was?" + +"Coffin, sir." + +"H'm, he's earned it. The back of his head's smashed all to pieces. +Lived in Falmouth, you say? And you knew him there?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then what was he doing in these parts?" + +"He started to call on my father, sir." + +"Eh? You knew of his coming?" + +"Yes, sir. We planned it together." + +Mr. Rogers, still on his knees, leaned back and regarded me fixedly. + +"You planned it together?" he repeated slowly. "Well, go on. +He started to call on your father? Why?" + +"He wanted to show my father something," said I, with a glance at Mr. +Goodfellow. "Are you sure, sir, there's nothing in his pockets?" + +"Not a penny-piece. I'll search 'em again if you insist, though I +don't like the job." + +"He carried it in his breast-pocket, sir; there, on the left side." + +"Then your question's easy to answer." Mr. Rogers turned back the +lapel and pointed. The pocket hung inside out. "But what was it he +carried?" + +I hesitated, with another glance towards Mr. Goodfellow, who at the +same moment uttered a cry and sprang for a thicket of brambles +directly behind Mr. Rogers's back. Mr. Rogers leapt up, with an +oath. + +"No, you don't!" he threatened, preparing to spring in pursuit. + +But Mr. Goodfellow, not heeding him, plunged a hand among the +brambles and drew forth a walking-stick of ebony, carved in rings, +ending with a ferrule in an iron spike--Captain Coffin's +walking-stick. + +"I glimpsed at it, there, lyin' like a snake," he began, and let fall +the stick with another sudden, sharp cry. "Ur-rh! There's blood +upon it!" + +Mr. Rogers picked it up and examined it loathingly. Blood there +was--blood mixed with grey hairs upon its heavy ebony knob, and blood +again upon its wicked-looking spike. + +"This settles all question of the weapon," he said. "The owner of +this--" + +We cried out, speaking together, that the stick belonged to the +murdered man; and just then a voice hailed us, and Constable Hosken +came panting up, with two of Miss Belcher's woodmen at his heels. + +Mr. Rogers directed them to fetch a hurdle. Then came the question +whither to carry the corpse, and after some discussion one of the +woodmen suggested that Miss Belcher's cricket pavilion lay handy, a +couple of hundred yards beyond the rise of the park, across the +stream. "At this time of year the lady wouldn't object--" + +Mr. Rogers shuddered. + +"And the last time I saw the inside of it 'twas at Lydia's +Cricket-Week Ball--and the place all flags and lanterns, and a good +third of the men drunk! Well, carry him there if you must, but damme +if I'll ever find stomach to dance there again!" + +The men lifted their burden and carried it out into the lane, where +the rest of us pulled away the furze-bushes stopping he gate into the +park, and so followed the body up the green slope towards the rise, +over which, as we climbed, the thatched roof of the pavilion slowly +hove into sight. + +"Hallo!" Mr. Rogers halted and stared at the bearers, who also had +halted. "What the devil noise is that?" + +The noise was that of a sudden blow or impact upon timber. +After about thirty seconds it was repeated, and our senses told us +that it came from within the pavilion. + +"I reckon, sir," suggested one of the woodmen, "'tis Miss Belcher +practising." + +"Good Lord! Come with us, Harry--the rest stay where you are," +Mr. Rogers commanded, and ran towards the pavilion; and as we started +I heard a whizzing and cracking within, as of machinery, followed by +a double crack of timber. + +"Lydia! Lydia Belcher!" + +"Hey! What's the matter now?" I heard Miss Belcher's voice demand, as +he burst in through the doorway. "Take care, the catapult's loaded!" +A whiz, and again a crack. "There now! Oh, well fielded, indeed! +Well fiel--Eh? Caught you on the ankle, did it? Well, and you're +lucky it didn't find your skull, blundering in upon a body in this +fashion." + +The first sight that met me as I reached the doorway was Mr. Jack +Rogers holding one foot and hopping around with a face of agony. +From him my astonished gaze travelled to Miss Lydia Belcher, whom I +must pause to describe. + +I have hinted before that Miss Belcher was an eccentric; but I +certainly cannot have prepared the reader--as I was certainly +unprepared myself--for Miss Belcher as we surprised her. + +She wore top-boots, but this is a trifle, for she habitually wore +top-boots. Upon them, and beneath the short skirt of a red flannel +petticoat, she had indued a pair of cricket-guards. Above the red +flannel petticoat came, frank and unashamed, an ample pair of stays; +above them, the front of a yet ampler chemise and a yellow bandanna +kerchief tied in a sailor's knot; above these, a middle-aged face +full of character and not without a touch of moustache on the upper +lip; an aquiline nose, grey eyes that apologized to nobody, a broad +brow to balance a broad, square jaw, and, on the top of all, a +square-topped beaver hat. So stood Miss Belcher, with a cricket-bat +under her arm; an Englishwoman, owner of one of England's "stately +homes"; a lady amenable to few laws save of her own making, and to no +man save--remotely--the King, whose health she drank sometimes in +port and sometimes in gin-and-water. + +"Good morning, Jack! Sorry to cut you over with that off-drive; but +you shouldn't have come in without knocking. Eh? Is that Harry +Brooks?" Her face grew grave for a moment before she turned upon Mr. +Rogers that smile which, if usually latent and at the best not +entirely feminine, was her least dubitable charm. "Now, upon my +word. Jack, you have more thoughtfulness than ever I gave you credit +for." + +Mr. Rogers stared at her. + +"An hour's knockabout with me will do the child more good than moping +in the house, and I ought to have thought of it myself. Come along, +Harry Brooks, and play me a match at single wicket. Help me push +away the catapult there into the corner. Will you take first +innings, or shall we toss?" + +The catapult indicated by Miss Belcher was a formidable-looking +engine with an iron arm or rod terminating in a spoon-shaped socket, +and worked by a contrivance of crank and chain. You placed your +cricket-ball in the socket, and then, having wound up the crank and +drawn a pin which released the machinery, had just time to run back +and defend your wicket as the iron rod revolved and discharged the +ball with a jerk. The rod itself worked on a slide, and could be +shortened or extended to vary the trajectory, and the exercise it +entailed in one way and another had given Miss Belcher's cheeks a +fine healthy glow. + +"Whew!" she exclaimed, tucking the bat under her arm and wiping her +forehead with a loose end of her yellow bandana. "I'm feelin' like +the lady in 'The Vicar of Wakefield'; by which I don't mean the one +that stooped to folly, but the one that was all of a muck of sweat." + +"My dear Lydia," gasped Mr. Rogers, "we haven't come to play cricket! +Put down your bat and listen to me. There's the devil to pay in this +parish of yours. To begin with, we've found another body--" + +"Eh? Where?" + +"In the plantation under the slope here--close beside the path, and +about two gunshots off the lane." + +"What have you done with it?" + +"Two of your fellows are fetching it along. I was going to ask you +as a favour to let it lie here for the time while we follow up the +search." + +"Of course you may. But who is it?" + +"An old man in sea clothes. Harry knows him; says he hails from +Falmouth, and that his name is Coffin. And we've arrested a young +fellow on suspicion, though I begin to think he hasn't much to do +with it; but, as it happens, he comes from Falmouth too, and knows +the deceased." + +Miss Belcher hitched an old riding-skirt off a peg and indued it over +her red flannel petticoat, fastening it about her waist with a +leathern strap and buckle. + +"Well, the first thing is to fetch the body along, and then I'll go +down with you and have a look." + +"I've halted the men about a hundred yards down the hill. I thought +perhaps you'd step straight along with me to the house, so as to be +out of the way when they--But, anyhow, if you insist on coming, we +can fetch across the cricket-field and down to the left, so that you +needn't meet it." + +"Bless the man!"--Miss Belcher had turned to another peg, taken down +a loose weather-stained gardening-jacket, and was slipping an arm +into the sleeve--"you don't suppose, do you, that I'm the sort of +person to be scared by a dead body? Open the door, please, and lead +the way. This is a serious business, Jack, and I doubt if you have +the head for it." + +Sure enough, the sight of the dead body on the hurdle shook Miss +Belcher's nerve not at all, or, at any rate, not discernibly. + +"Humph!" she said. "Take him to the pavilion and cover him decently. +You'll find a yard or two of clean awning in the left-hand corner of +the scoring-box." She eyed Mr. Goodfellow for a couple of seconds +and swung round upon Mr. Rogers. "Is that the man you've arrested?" + +Mr. Rogers nodded. + +"Fiddlestick-end!" + +"I beg your pardon?" + +"Fiddlestick-end! Look at the man's face. And you call yourself a +justice of the peace?" + +"It was thrust upon me," said Mr. Rogers, modestly. "I don't say +he's guilty, mind you; and, of course, if you say he isn't--" + +"Look at his face!" repeated Miss Belcher; and, turning, addressed +Mr. Goodfellow. "My good man, you hadn't any hand in this--eh?" + +"No, ma'am; in course I hadn't," Mr. Goodfellow answered fervently. + +"There! You hear what he says?" + +"Lydia, Lydia! I've the highest possible respect for your judgment; +but isn't this what you might cull a trifle--er--summary?" + +"It saves time," said Miss Belcher. "And if you're going to catch +the real culprit, time is precious. Now take me to see the spot." + +But at this point Mr. Goodfellow's emotions overmastered him, and he +broke forth into the language of rhapsody. + +"O woman, woman!" exclaimed Mr. Goodfellow, "whatever would the world +do without your wondrous instink!" + +"Bless the man!"--Miss Belcher drew back a pace--"is he talking of +me?" + +"No, ma'am; generally, or, as you might say, of the sex as a whole. +Mind you, I won't go so far as to deny that the gentleman here--or +the constable, for that matter--had some excuse to be suspicious. +But to think o' me liftin' a hand against poor old Danny Coffin! +Why, ma'am, the times I've a-led him home from the public when +incapable is not to be numbered; and only at this very moment in my +little shop, home in Falmouth, I've a corner cupboard of his under +repair that he wouldn't trust to another living soul! And along +comes you an' say, 'That man's innocent! Look at his face!' you +says, which it's downright womanly instink, if ever there was such a +thing in this world." + +"A corner cupboard!" I gasped. "You have the corner cupboard?" + +Mr. Goodfellow nodded. "I took it home unbeknowns to the old man. +Many a time he'd spoken to me about repairin' it, the upper hinge +bein' cracked, as you may remember. But when it came to handin' it +over I could never get him. So that afternoon, the coast bein' clear +and him sitting drunk in the Plume o' Feathers, as again you will +remember--" + +But here Miss Belcher shot out a hand and gripped my collar to steady +me as I reeled. I dare say that hunger and lack of sleep had much to +do with my giddiness; at any rate, the grassy slope had begun all of +a sudden to heave and whirl at my feet. + +"Drat the boy! _He's_ beginning now!" + +"Take me home," I implored her, stammering. "Please, Miss Belcher!" + +"Now, I'll lay three to one," said Miss Belcher, holding me off and +regarding me, "that no one has thought of giving this child an honest +breakfast. And"--she turned on Mr. Jack Rogers--"you call yourself a +justice of the peace!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +HOW I BROKE OUT THE BED ENSIGN. + +We were seated in council in the little parlour of Minden Cottage-- +Miss Belcher, Miss Plinlimmon, Mr. Jack Rogers, Mr. Goodfellow, and +I. Mr. Goodfellow had been included at Miss Belcher's particular +request. Constable Hosken had been despatched to search the +plantation thoroughly and to report. Two other constables had +arrived, and were coping, in front and rear of the cottage, with a +steady if straggling incursion of visitors from the near villages and +hamlets of St. Germans, Hessenford, Bake, and Catchfrench, drawn by +reports of a second murder to come and stand and gaze at the +premises. The report among them (as I learned afterwards) ran that a +second body--alleged by some to be mine, by others to be Ann the +cook's--had been discovered lying in its own blood in the attic; but +the marvel was how the report could have spread at all, since Miss +Belcher had sworn the two woodmen to secrecy. Whoever spread it +could have known very little, for the sightseers wasted all their +curiosity on the house and concerned themselves not at all with the +plantation. + +From the plantation Miss Belcher had led me straight to the house, +and there in the darkened parlour I had told my story, corroborated +here and there by Mr. Goodfellow. In the intervals of my narrative +Miss Belcher insisted on my swallowing great spoonfuls of hot +bread-and-milk, against which--faint though I was and famished--my +gorge rose. Also the ordeal of gulping it under four pairs of eyes +was not a light one. But Miss Belcher insisted, and Miss Belcher +stood no nonsense. + +I told them of my acquaintance with Captain Coffin; how he had +invited me to his lodgings and promised me wealth; of his studying +navigation, of his reference to the island and the treasure hidden on +it, and of the one occasion when he vouchsafed me a glimpse of the +chart; of the French prisoner, Aaron Glass, and how we escaped from +him, and of the plan we arranged together at the old windmill; how +Captain Danny had taken boat to board the St. Mawes packet; how the +man Glass had followed; how I had visited the lodgings, and of the +confusion I found there. I described the ex-prisoner's appearance +and clothing in detail, and here I had Mr. Goodfellow to confirm me +under cross-examination. + +"An' the cap'n," said he, "was afraid of him. I give you my word, +ladies and gentlemen, I never saw a man worse scared in my life. +Put up his hands, he did, an' fairly screeched, an' bolted out o' the +door with his arm linked in the lad's." + +Three or four times in the course of my narrative I happened to +thrust my hands into my breeches-pocket, and was reminded of the gold +eyeglass concealed there. I had managed very artfully to keep +Captain Branscome entirely out of the story, but twice under +examination I was forced to mention him--and each time, curiously +enough, in answer to a question of Miss Belcher's. + +"You are sure this Captain Coffin showed the chart to no one but +yourself?" she asked. + +"I am pretty sure, ma'am." + +"There was always a tale about Falmouth that Cap'n Danny had struck a +buried treasure," said Mr. Goodfellow. "'Twas a joke in the publics, +and with the street boys; but I never heard tell till now that any +one took it serious." + +"He was learning navigation," mused Miss Belcher. "What was the name +of his teacher?" + +"A Captain Branscome, ma'am. He's a teacher at Stimcoe's." + +"Lives in the house, does he?" + +"No, ma'am." + +"A _Captain_ Branscome, you say?" + +"Yes, ma'am. He's a retired packet captain, and lame of one leg. +Every one in Falmouth knows Captain Branscome." + +"H'm! Wouldn't this Captain Branscome wonder a little that a man of +your friend's age, and (we'll say) a bit wrong in his head, should +want to learn navigation?" + +"He might, ma'am." + +"He certainly would," snapped Miss Belcher. "And wouldn't this +Captain Branscome know it was perfectly useless to teach such a man?" + +"I dare say he would, ma'am," I answered, guiltily recalling Captain +Branscome's own words to me on this subject. + +"Then why did he take the man's money, eh? Well, go on with your +story." + +I breathed more easily for a while, but by-and-by, when I came to +tell of the discussion by the old windmill, I felt her eyes upon me +again. + +"Wait a moment. Captain Coffin gave you a key, and this key was to +open the corner cupboard in his lodgings. Wasn't it rather foolish +of him to send you, seeing that this Aaron Glass had seen you in his +company, and would recognize you if he were watching the premises, +which was just what you both feared?" + +"He didn't count on me to go," I admitted; "at least, not first +along." + +"On whom, then?" + +"On Captain Branscome, ma'am." + +"Oh! Did he send you with that message to Captain Branscome?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Then why didn't you tell us so? Well, when you took the message, +what did Captain Branscome say? And why didn't he go?" + +"He was not at home, ma'am. Mr. Stimcoe had given us a holiday in +honour of the prisoners." + +"I see. So Captain Branscome was off on an outing? When did he +return?" + +"I didn't see him that evening, ma'am." + +"That's not an answer to my question. I asked, When did he return?" + +"Not until yesterday afternoon." + +I had to think before giving this answer, so long a stretch of time +seemed to lie between me and yesterday afternoon. + +"Where had he been spending his holiday meanwhile?" + +"He didn't tell me, ma'am." + +"At all events, he didn't turn up for school next day, nor the next +again, until the afternoon. Queer sort of academy, Stimcoe's. +Did Mr. Stimcoe make any remark on his under-teacher's absence?" + +"No, ma'am." + +"The school went on just as usual?" + +"No-o, ma'am "--I hesitated--"not quite just as usual. Mr. Stimcoe +was unwell." + +"Drunk?" + +"My dear Miss Belcher!" put in the scandalized Plinny. "A scholar, +and such a gentleman!" + +"Fiddlestick-end!" snapped the unconscionable lady, not removing her +eyes from mine. "Was this man Stimcoe drunk, eh? No; I beg your +pardon," she corrected herself. "I oughtn't to be asking a boy to +tell tales out of school. 'Thou shalt not say anything to get another +fellow into trouble'--that's the first and last commandment--eh, +Harry Brooks? But, my good soul"--she turned on Plinny--"if 'drunk +and incapable' isn't written over the whole of that seminary, you may +call me a Dutchwoman!" + + +"There's a point or so clear enough," she announced, after a pause, +when I had finished my story. + +"We must placard the whole country with a description of that +prisoner chap Glass," said Mr. Jack Rogers; "and I'd best be off to +Falmouth and get the bills printed at once." + +"Indeed?" said Miss Belcher, dryly. "And pray how are you proposing +to describe him?" + +"Why, as for that, I should have thought Harry's description here, +backed up by Mr. Goodfellow's, was enough to lay a trail upon any +man. My dear Lydia, a fellow roaming the country in a red coat, +drill trousers, and a japanned hat!" + +"It would obviously excite remark: so obviously that the likelihood +might even occur to the man himself." + +Mr. Rogers looked crestfallen for a moment. + +"You suggest that by this time he has changed his rig?" + +"I suggest, rather, that he started by changing it, say, as far back +as St. Mawes. Some one must ride to St. Mawes at once and make +inquiries." Miss Belcher drummed her fingers on the table. +"But the man," she said thoughtfully, "will have reached Plymouth +long before this." + +"You don't think it possible he went back the same way he came?" + +"In a world, Jack, where you find yourself a magistrate, all things +are possible. But I don't think it at all likely." + +"It's a rum story altogether," mused Mr. Rogers. "A couple of +murders in this part of the world, and mixed up with an island full +of treasure! Why, damme, 'tis almost like Shakespeare!" + +"For my part," observed Miss Plinlimmon, with great simplicity, +"though sometimes accused of leaning unduly toward the romantic, I +should be inclined to set down this story of Captain Coffin's to +hallucination, or even to stigmatize it as what I believe is called +in nautical parlance 'a yarn.'" + +"And small blame to you, my dear!" agreed Miss Belcher; "only, you +see, when folks go about killing one another, the hallucination +begins to look disastrously as if there were something in it." + +"Yet I still fail to see," urged Plinny, "why our dear Major should +have fallen a victim." + +"It's plain as a pikestaff, if you'll excuse me," Mr. Rogers answered +her. "This Coffin carried the chart on him, meaning to deliver it +into the Major's keeping. He came here, entered the garden by the +side-gate, found the Major in the summer-house, told his story, +handed over the chart, and was making his way back to the high-road +through the plantation, when he came full on this man Aaron Glass, +who had tracked him all the way from St. Mawes. Glass fell on him, +murdered him, rifled his pockets, and, finding nothing--but having +some hint, perhaps--pursued his way to the garden here. There in the +summer-house he found the Major, who meanwhile had fetched his +cashbox from the house and locked the chart up in it. What followed, +any one can guess." + +"Not a bad theory, Jack!" murmured Miss Belcher, still drumming +softly on the table. "Indeed, 'tis the only explanation, but for one +or two things against it." + +"For instance?" + +"For instance, I don't see why the Major should want to go to the +house and bring back his cashbox to the garden. Surely the simple +thing was to take the paper, or whatever it was, straight to the +house, lock it up, and leave the cashbox in its usual place? I don't +see, either, what that box was doing, later on, in the brook below my +lodge-gate; for, by every chance that I can reckon, the murderer-- +supposing him to be this man Glass--would have pushed on in haste for +Plymouth, whereas my lodge-gate lies half a mile in the opposite +direction." + +"Are those all your objections?" asked Mr. Rogers. "Because, if so, +I must say they don't amount to much." + +"They don't amount to much," Miss Belcher agreed, "but they don't, on +the other hand, quite cover all my doubts. However, there's less +doubt, luckily, about the next step to be taken. You send Hosken or +some one to Torpoint Ferry to inquire what strangers have crossed for +Plymouth during these forty-eight hours. You meanwhile borrow my +roan filly--your own mare is dead-beat--clap her in the tilbury, and +off you go to St. Mawes, and find out how this man Glass got hold of +a change of clothes. Take Mr. Goodfellow with you, and while you are +playing detective at St. Mawes, he can cross over to Falmouth and +fetch along the corner cupboard. Harry has the key, and we'll open +it here and read what the captain has to say in this famous roll of +paper. It won't do more than tantalize us, I very much fear, seeing +that the chart has disappeared, and likely enough for ever." + + +But it had not. + +It so happened that while I stood by my father's bedside that morning +I had noticed a flag, rolled in a bundle and laid upon the chest of +drawers beside his dressing-table. I concluded at once that Plinny +had fetched it from the summer-house to spread over his coffin. + +Women know nothing about flags. This one was a red ensign, in those +days a purely naval flag, carried (since Trafalgar) by the highest +rank of admirals. Ashore, any one could hoist it, but the flag to +cover a soldier's body was the flag of Union. + +This had crossed my mind when I caught sight of the red ensign on the +chest of drawers; and again in the summer-house, as I lifted the lid +of the flag-locker and noted the finger-marks in the dust upon it, I +guessed that Plinny had visited it with pious purpose, and, +woman-like, chosen the first flag handy. I had meant to repair her +mistake, and again had forgotten my intention. + +Mr. Jack Rogers had driven off for St. Mawes, with Mr. Goodfellow in +the tilbury beside him. Constable Hosken was on his way to Torpoint. +Miss Belcher had withdrawn to her great house, after insisting that I +must be fed once more and packed straight off to bed; and fed I duly +was, and tucked between sheets, to sleep, exhausted, very nearly the +round of the clock. + +Footsteps awoke me--footsteps on the landing outside my bedroom. +I sat up, guessing at once that they were the footsteps of the +carpenter and his men, arrived in the dawn with the shell of my +father's coffin. Almost at once I remembered the red ensign, and, +waiting until the footsteps withdrew, stole across, half dressed, to +my father's room to change it. The faint rays of dawn drifted in +through the closed blinds. The coffin-shell lay the length of the +bed, and in it his body. The carpenter's men had left it uncovered. +In the dim light, no doubt, they had overlooked the flag, which I +felt for and found. Tucking it under my arm, I closed the door and +tiptoed downstairs, let myself out at the back, and stole out to the +summer-house. + +There was light enough within to help me in selecting the Union flag +from the half-dozen within the locker. I was about to stow the red +ensign in its place when I bethought me that, day being so near, I +might as well bend a flag upon the flagstaff halliards and half-mast +it. + +So, with the Union flag under one arm, I carried out the red ensign, +bent it carefully, still in a roll, and hoisted it to the truck. +In half-masting a flag, you first hoist it in a bundle to the +masthead, break it out there, and thence lower it to the position at +which you make fast. + +I felt the flag's toggle jam chock-a-block against the truck of the +staff, and gave a tug, shaking out the flag to the still morning +breeze. A second later something thudded on the turf close at my +feet. + +I stared at it; but the halliards were in my hand, and before picking +it up I must wait and make them fast on the cleat. Still I stared at +it, there where it lay on the dim turf. + +And still I stared at it. Either I was dreaming yet, or this--this +thing that had fallen from heaven--was the oilskin bag that had +wrapped Captain Coffin's chart. + +I stooped to pick it up. At that instant the side-gate rattled, and +with a start I faced, in the half light--Captain Branscome. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE MAN IN THE LANE. + +He opened the gate and came across the turf to me. I observed that +his hand trembled on his walking-cane, and that he dragged his +injured leg with a worse limp than usual; also--but the uncertain +light may have had something to do with this--his face seemed of one +colour with the grey dust that powdered his shoes. + +"Good morning, Harry!" + +"Good morning, sir," I answered, crushing the oilskin into my pocket +and waiting for his explanation. + +"You are surprised to see me? The fact is, I have something to tell +you, and could not rest easy till it was off my mind. I have +travelled here by Russell's waggon,[1] but have trudged a good part +of the way, as you see." He glanced down at his shoes. "The pace +was too slow for my impatience. I could get no sleep. Though it +brought me here no faster, I had to vent my energies in walking." +His sentences followed one another by jerks, in a nervous flurry. +"You are surprised to see me?" he repeated. + +"Why, as to that, sir, partly I am and partly I am not. It took me +aback just now to see you standing there by the gate; and," said I +more boldly, "it puzzles me yet how you came there and not to the +front door, for you couldn't have expected to find me here in the +garden at this time in the morning." + +"True, Harry; I did not." He paused for a moment, and went on--"It is +truth, lad, that I meant to knock at your front door, by-and-by, and +ask for you. But, the hour being over-early for calling, I had a +mind, before rousing you out of bed, to walk down the lane and have a +look over your garden gate. Nay," he corrected himself, "I do not +put it quite honestly, even yet. I came in search of something." + +"I can save you the trouble, perhaps," said I, and, diving a hand +into my breech-pocket, I pulled out the gold-rimmed eyeglasses. + +He made no offer to take them, though I held them out to him on my +open palm, but fell back a step, and, after a glance at them, lifted +his eyes and met mine honestly, albeit with a trouble in his face. + +"You found them?" + +"Yes." + +"To whom have you shown them?" + +"To nobody." + +"Yet there has been some inquiry?" + +I nodded. + +"At which you were present?" + +I nodded again. + +"And you said nothing of this--this piece of evidence? Why? + +"Because"--I hesitated for a couple of seconds and then gulped +hesitation down--"because I could not believe that you--that you were +really--" + +"Thank you, Harry." + +"All the same, sir, your name was mentioned." + +"Eh?" He was plainly astonished. "My name mentioned? But why? +How? since no one saw me here, and if, as you say, you hid this only +evidence--" + +"It came up, sir, when they examined me about Captain Danny. +You know--do you not?--that they have found his body, too." + +"I heard the news being cried in Truro streets as we came through. +Poor old Coffin! It is all mystery to me--mystery on mystery! +But how on earth should my name have come up in connection with him?" + +"Why, about your teaching him navigation, sir." + +Captain Branscome passed a hand over his forehead. + +"Navigation? Yes; to be sure, I taught him navigation--or, rather, +tried to. But what of that?" + +"Well, sir, Miss Belcher seemed to think it suspicious." + +He reached out a hand, and, taking the glasses from me, sat down upon +the stone base of the flagstaff and began feebly to polish them. + +"Impossible!" he said faintly, as if to himself; then aloud: +"The man was a friend of yours, too, wasn't he?" + +"Yes, sir; if you mean Captain Coffin, he was a friend of mine." + +"And of mine; and, as you say, he came to me to learn navigation. +Now, what connection there can be between that and his being murdered +a dozen miles inland--" + +But here he broke off, and we both looked up and across the stream +as, with a click of the latch, the door there creaked and opened, and +Miss Belcher entered the garden. She wore an orange-coloured +dressing-gown, top-boots to guard her ankles from the morning dew, a +red kerchief tied over her brow to keep her iron-grey locks in place, +and over it her customary beaver hat--_et vera incessu patit dea_. +Even thus attired did Miss Belcher, a goddess of the dawn, come +striding over the footbridge and across the turf to us; and the +effect of the apparition upon Captain Branscome's nerves, after a +night of travel alongside Russell's van, I can only surmise. +I did not observe it, having for the moment no eyes for him. + +"Hallo!" said Miss Belcher, walking straight up to us, and halting, +with a hand planted, washerwoman fashion, on either hip, as Captain +Branscome staggered to his feet and saluted. "Hallo! who's this?" + +"Captain Branscome, ma'am," stammered I. + +"I thought as much. And what is Captain Branscome doing here?" + +"By your leave, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, "I--I was just +dropping in for a talk here with my friend Harry Brooks." + +"H'm!" sniffed Miss Belcher, and eyed him up and down for a full ten +seconds with an uncompromising stare. "As an explanation, sir, you +will allow that to be a trifle unsatisfactory. What have you been +eating lately?" + +"Madam?" + +Captain Branscome stared at her in weak bewilderment; and, indeed, +the snort which accompanied Miss Belcher's question seemed to accuse +him of impregnating the morning air with a scent of onions. + +"You can answer a plain question, I hope?" said she. "When did you +eat last, and what was it?" + +"To be precise, ma'am--though I don't understand you--it was an +apple, and about--let me see--seven hours ago." + +Miss Belcher turned to me and nodded. + +"In other words, the man's starving. I don't blame you, Harry +Brooks. One can't look for old heads on young shoulders. But, for +goodness' sake, take him into the house and give him something to +eat!" + +"Madam--" again began Captain Branscome, still a prey to that mental +paralysis which Mrs. Belcher's costume and appearance ever produced +upon strangers, and for which she never made the smallest allowance. + +"Don't tell me!" she snapped. "I breed stock and I buy 'em. I know +the signs." + +"I was about to suggest, ma'am, that--travel-stained as I am--a wash +and a shave would be even more refreshing." + +"H'm! You're one of those people--eh?--that study appearances?" +(In the art of disconcerting by simple interrogation I newer knew +Miss Belcher's peer, whether for swiftness, range, or variety.) +"Brought a razor with you?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Take him to the house, Harry; but first show me where the hens have +been laying." + +Half an hour later, as Captain Branscome, washed, brushed, and +freshly shaven, descended to the breakfast-parlour, Miss Belcher +entered the house by the back door, with her hat full of new-laid +eggs. + +"Nothing like a raw egg to start the day upon," she announced. +"I suck 'em, for my part; but some prefer 'em beaten up in a dish of +tea." + +She suited the action to the word, and beat up one in the Captain's +teacup while Plinny carved him a slice of ham. + +"Ladies," he protested, "I am ashamed. I do not deserve this +hospitality. If you would allow me first to tell my story!" + +"_You're_ all right," said Miss Belcher. "Couldn't hurt a fly, if +you wanted to. There! Eat up your breakfast, and then you can tell +us all about it." + +The two ladies had, each in her way, a knack of making her meaning +clear without subservience to the strict forms of speech. + +"It will be a weight off one's mind," declared Plinny, "even if it +should prove to be the last straw." + +"There's one thing to be thankful for," chimed in Miss Belcher, +"and that is, Jack Rogers has gone to St. Mawes. When there's +serious business to be discussed I always thank a Providence that +clears the men out of the way." + +I glanced at Captain Branscome. Assuredly he had come with no +intention at all of unbosoming himself before a couple of ladies. +He desired--desired desperately, I felt sure--to confide in me alone. +But Miss Belcher's off-handish air of authority completely nonplussed +him; he sat helplessly fidgeting with his breakfast-plate. + +"To tell you the truth, ladies," he began, "I had not expected this-- +this audience. It finds me, in a manner of speaking, unprepared." +He ran a finger around the edge of his saucer after the manner of one +performing on the musical glasses, and threw a hunted glance at the +window, as though for a way of escape. "My name, ladies, is +Branscome. I was once well-to-do, and commanded a packet in the +service of his Majesty's Postmasters-General. But times have altered +with me, and I am now an usher in a school, and a very poor man." + +He paused; looked up at Miss Belcher, who had squared her elbows on +the table in very unladylike fashion; and cleared his throat before +proceeding-- + +"You will excuse me for mentioning this, but it is an essential part +of my story." + +"The Stimcoes," suggested Miss Belcher, "didn't pay up--eh?" + +"Mr. Stimcoe--though a scholar, ma'am--has suffered from time to time +from pecuniary embarrassment." + +"--Traceable to drink," interpolated Miss Belcher, with a nod towards +Plinny. "No, sir; you need not look at Harry: _he_ has told us +nothing. I formed my own conclusions." + +"Mrs. Stimcoe, ma'am--for I should tell you she keeps the purse--is +too often unable to make two ends meet, as the saying is. I believe +she paid when she could, but somehow my salary has always been in +arrear. I have used remonstrance with her, before now, to a degree +which it shames me to remember; yet, in spite of it, I have sometimes +found myself on a Saturday, after a week's work, without a loaf of +bread in the cupboard. I doubt, ma'am, if any one who has not +experienced it can wholly understand the power of mere hunger to +degrade a man; to what lengths he can be urged, willy-nilly, as it +were, by the instinct to satisfy it. There were Sabbaths, ma'am, +when to attend divine worship seemed a mockery; the craving drove me +away from all congregations of Christian men and out into the fields, +where--I tell it with shame, ma'am--I have stolen turnips and eaten +them raw, loathing the deed even worse than I loathed the vegetable, +for the taste of which--I may say--I have a singular aversion. +Well, among my pupils was Harry here, whom I discovered to be the son +of an old friend of mine. I dare to call the late Major James Brooks +a friend in spite of the difference between our stations in life--a +difference he himself was good enough to forget. Our acquaintance +began on the _Londonderry_ transport, which I commanded, and in which +I brought him home from Corunna to Plymouth in the January of 1809. +It ended with the conclusion of that short and anxious passage. +But I had always remembered Major Brooks as one who approached, if +ever man did, the ideal of an officer and a gentleman. Now at first, +ladies, the discovery suggested no thought to me beyond the +pleasure of knowing that my old friend was alive and hale, and the +hope of seeing Harry grow up to be as good a man as his father. +But by-and-by I found a thought waking and growing, and awake again +and itching after I had done my best to kill it, that the Major might +be moved by the story of an old shipmate brought so low. God forgive +me, ladies!" Captain Branscome put up a hand to cover his brow. +"The very telling of it degrades me over again; but I came here to +make a clean breast, and there is no other way. I had cross-examined +Harry about the Major and his habits--not always allowing to myself +why I asked him many trivial questions. And then suddenly the +temptation came to a head. Certain Englishmen discharged from the +French war-prisons were landed at Plymouth. The town turned out to +welcome the poor fellows home, and the Mayor entertained them at a +banquet, to which also he invited some two hundred townsmen. +Among the guests he was good enough to include me; for it has been a +consolation to me, ladies, and a source of pride, that my friends in +Falmouth have not withdrawn in adversity the respect which in old +days my uniform commanded." + +"Captain Branscome is not telling you the half of it," I broke in +eagerly. "Every one in Falmouth knows him to be a hero. Why, he has +a sword of honour at home, given him for one of the bravest battles +ever fought!" + +"Gently, boy--gently!" Captain Branscome corrected me, with a smile, +albeit a sad one. "Youth is generous, ladies; it sees these things +through a haze which colours and magnifies them, and--and it's a very +poor kind of hero you'll consider me before I have done. Where was +I? Ah, yes, to be sure--the banquet. His Worship can little have +guessed what his invitation meant to me, or that, while others +thanked him for a compliment, to me it offered a satisfying meal such +as I had not eaten for months. Mr. Stimcoe had given the school a +holiday. In short, I attended. + +"I fear, ladies, that the food and the generous wine together must +have turned my head--there is no other explanation; for when the meal +was over and I sat listening to the speeches, but fumbling with a +glass of port before me, scarcely with the half-crown in my pocket +which must carry me over another week's house-keeping, all of a +sudden the man inside me rose in revolt. I felt such poverty as mine +to be unendurable, and that I was a slave, a spiritless fool, to put +up with it. There must be hundreds of good, Christian folk in the +world who had only to know to stretch out a hand of help and gladly, +as I would have helped such a case in the days of my own prosperity. +Remember, I am not putting this forward as a sober plea. I know it +now to be false, self-cheating, the apology that every beggar makes +for himself, the specious argument that every poor man must resist +who would hold fast by his manhood. But there, with the wine in me +and the juices of good meat, the temptation took me at unawares and +mastered me as I had never allowed it to master me while I hungered. +I saw the world in a sudden rosy light; I felt that my past +sufferings had been unnecessary. I thought of Major Brooks--" + +"Bless the man!" interjected Miss Belcher. "He's coming to the point +at last." + +"Your pardon, ma'am. I will be briefer. I thought of Major Brooks. +I took a resolve there and then to extend my holiday; to walk hither +to Minden Cottage, and lay my case before him. The banquet had no +sooner broken up than I started. I reached Truro at nightfall, and +hired a bed there for sixpence. Early next morning I set forward +again. By this time the impulse had died out of me, but I still +walked forward, playing with my intention, always telling myself that +I could relinquish it and turn back to Falmouth, cheating--yes, I +fear deliberately cheating--myself with the assurance until more than +half the journey lay behind me, and to turn back would be worse than +pusillanimous. At St. Austell a carrier offered me a lift, and +brought me to Liskeard. Thence I walked forward again, and in the +late afternoon came in sight of Minden Cottage. + +"I recognized it at once from Harry's description, and at first +I was minded to walk up and knock boldly at the front door. +But remembering also the lad's account of the garden and how the +Major would spend the best part of his day there--and partly, I +fancy, being nervous and uncertain with what form of words to present +myself--I pulled up at the angle of the house, where the lane comes +up alongside the garden wall to join the road, and halted, to collect +myself and study my bearings. + +"The time was about twenty minutes after five, and the light pretty +good. But the lane is pretty well overgrown, as you know. I looked +down and along it, and it appeared to end in a tangle or brambles. +I turned my attention to the house, and was studying it through my +glasses, taking stock of its windows and chimneys, and generally +(as you might say) reckoning it up, along with the extent of its +garden, when, happening to take another glance down the lane, to run +a measure of the garden wall--or perhaps a movement caught my eye-- +I saw a man step across the path between the brambles, out of the +garden, as you might say, and into the plantation opposite. The path +being so narrow, I glimpsed him for half a second only. But the +glimpse of him gave me a start, for, if to suppose it had been +anywise possible, I could have sworn the man was one I had known in +Falmouth and left behind there." + +"Captain Coffin!" I exclaimed. + +"Ay, lad, Captain Coffin--Captain Danny Coffin. But what should he +be doing at Minden Cottage?" + +"The quicker you proceed, sir," said Miss Belcher, rapping the table, +"the sooner we are likely to discover." + + +[1] Russell's waggons--"Russell and Co., Falmouth to London"--were +huge vehicles that plied along the Great West Road under an escort of +soldiers, and conveyed the bullion and other treasure landed at +Falmouth by the Post Office packets. They were drawn, always at a +foot-pace, by teams of six stout horses. The waggoner rode beside on +a pony, and inside sat a man armed with pistols and blunderbuss. +Poor travellers used these waggons, walking by day, and sleeping by +night beneath the tilt. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE FLAG AND THE CASHBOX. + +"Well, ma'am," resumed Captain Branscome, "so strong was the likeness +to old Coffin, and yet so incredible was it he should be in these +parts, that, almost without stopping to consider, I turned down the +lane on the chance of another glimpse of the man. This brought me, +of course, to the stile leading into the plantation; but the path +there, as you know, takes a turn among the trees almost as soon as it +starts, and runs, moreover, through a pretty thick undergrowth. +The fellow, whoever he was, had disappeared. + +"I can't say but what I was still puzzled, though the likeliest +explanation--indeed, the only likely one--seemed to be that my eyes +had played me a trick. I had pretty well made up my mind to this when +I turned away from the stile to have a look at the garden gate on the +other side of the lane; and over it, across the little stretch of +turf, I caught sight of the summer-house and of Major Brooks standing +there in the doorway with a bundle between his hands-a bundle of +something red, which he seemed to be wrapping round with a piece of +cord. + +"Here, then, was the very man I had come to see; and here was a +chance of getting speech with him and without the awkwardness of +asking it through a servant, perhaps of having to invent an excuse +for my visit. Without more ado, therefore, I made bold to lift the +latch of the gate and step into the garden. + +"At the sound of the latch--I can see him now--Major Brooks lifted +his head with a curious start, and tucked the bundle under his arm. +The movement was like that of a man taken at unawares, and +straightening himself up to meet an attack. I cannot describe it +precisely, but that was just the impression it made on me, and it +took me aback for a moment, so that I paused as the gate fell-to and +latched itself behind me. + +"'Halt there!' the Major commanded, facing me full across the turf. +'Halt, and tell me, please, why you have come back!' + +"This puzzled me worse for a moment, for the light was good, though +drawing towards sunset, and it seemed impossible that, looking +straight at me, he could mistake me for the man who had just left the +garden. Then I remembered what Harry had told me of his father's +blindness. + +"My silence naturally made him more suspicious. + +"'Who is it there? Your name, please?' he demanded sharply. + +"' Sir,' I answered, 'I beg your pardon for coming thus unannounced, +but my name is Branscome, and I had once the honour to be shipmate +with you on board the _Londonderry_ transport.' + +"For a while he continued to stare at me in his blind way. + +"'Yes,' he said slowly, at length; 'yes; I remember your voice, sir. +But what in the name of wonder brings you to my garden just now?' + +"'Your son Harry, sir,' said I, 'some time ago gave me a message from +you. If ever (he said) I found myself in the neighbourhood of Minden +Cottage you would be pleased to receive a visit from me.' + +"'Yes,' said he, but still with a something in his voice between +wonder and suspicion; 'that's true enough. I have always retained +the highest respect for Captain Branscome, and by your voice you are +he. But--but--' He hesitated, and fired another question point-blank +at me: 'You come from Falmouth?' + +"'I do, sir.' + +"'Alone?' + +"'Yes, sir. I have walked all the way from Falmouth, and without a +companion.' + +"'Look here, my friend,' he said, after seeming to ponder for a +moment, 'if you mean ill, you must have altered strangely from the +Captain Branscome I used to know, and if you mean well you have timed +your visit almost as strangely.' He paused again. 'Either you know +what I mean, or you do not; if you do not, you will have to forgive a +great deal in this reception; and you will, to begin with, forgive my +asking you, on your word of honour, if on your journey hither you +have overtaken or met or recognized any one hailing from Falmouth. +You do not answer,' he added, after yet another pause. + +"'Why, as to that, sir,' said I, 'since leaving Falmouth I have +neither met nor overtaken any one of my acquaintance. But, since you +put it to me precisely, I will not swear that I have not recognized +one. A few minutes ago, standing at the head of the lane here, I saw +a man cross it, presumably from this garden, and take the path +leading through the plantation yonder. It certainly strikes me that +I knew the man, and I followed him down the lane here to make sure.' + +"'Why?' the Major asked me. + +"'Because, sir,' said I, 'it did not seem possible to me that the +man I mean could have any business here; besides which, an hour or +two before leaving Falmouth I had passed him in the street, and +though he had, indeed, the use of his legs, he was too far gone in +liquor to recognize me.' + +"'His name?' the Major asked. + +"'Coffin, sir,' said I; 'usually known as Captain Coffin, or Captain +Danny.' + +"'A drunkard?' he asked. + +"'A man given to liquor,' said I, 'by fits and starts; but mild +enough in an ordinary way. You might call him the least bit touched +in the upper story; of a loose, rambling head, at all events, as I +can testify, who have taught him navigation--or tried to.' + +"The Major, though he could not see me, seemed to study me with his +blind eyes. He stood erect, with the bundle clipped under his left +arm; and the bundle I made out to be a flag, rolled up and strapped +about with its own lanyard. + +"'One more question, Captain Branscome,' said he. 'This Captain +Coffin, as you call him--is he, to the best of your knowledge, an +honest man?' + +"I answered that I had heard question of Coffin's sanity, but never +of his honesty. + +"'His sanity, eh?' said the Major; and I could see he was hung in +stays, but he picked up his wind after a second or two, and paid off +on another tack. 'Well, well,' he said, 'we'll drop talking of this +Coffin, and turn to the business that brings you here. What is it? +For I take it you've walked all the way from Falmouth for something +more than the sake of a chat over old times.' + +"I remember, ladies, the words he used, though not the tone of them. +To tell the truth, though my ears received 'em, I was not listening. +I stood there, wishing myself a hundred miles away; but his manner +gave me no chance to fob him off with an excuse, or pretend I had +dropped in for a passing call. There was nothing for it but to out +with my story, and into it I plunged somehow, my tongue stammering +with shame. He listened, to be sure, but without offering to help me +over the hard places. Indeed, at the first mention of my poverty, I +saw all his first suspicions--whatever they had been--return and show +themselves in his blind eyes. His mouth was set like a closed trap. +Yet he heard me out, and, when I had done, his suspicions seemed to +have faded again, for he answered me considerately enough, though not +cordially. + +"'Captain Branscome,' he said, 'I may tell you at once that I never +lend money; and my reason is partly that good seldom comes of it, and +partly that I am a poor man--if you can call a man poor who is by a +few pounds richer than his needs. But I have a great respect for +you'--the ladies will forgive me for repeating his exact words--'and +your voice seems to tell me that you still deserve it; that you have +suffered more than you say before being driven to make this appeal. +I can do something--though it be little--to help an old comrade. +Will you oblige me by stepping into the summer-house here, and taking +a seat while I go to the house? I will not keep you waiting more +than a few minutes.' + +"He picked up his walking-stick, which rested against a chair, just +within the doorway, and stood for a moment while I stepped past him +and entered the summer-house; and so, with a nod of the head, turned +and walked towards the house, using his stick very skilfully to feel +his path between the bushes, and still keeping the flag tucked under +his left arm. + +"So I sat and waited, ladies, on no good terms with myself. The way +of the borrower was hard, I found, and the harder because the Major's +manner had not been unkindly, but--if you'll understand my meaning-- +only just kindly enough. In short, I don't know but that I must have +out and run rather than endure his charity, had not my thoughts been +distracted by this mystery over Captain Coffin. For the Major had +said too much, and yet not enough. The man I had seen crossing the +lane was certainly Coffin, but to connect him with Minden Cottage I +had no clue at all beyond the faint one, Harry, that you and he were +acquaintances. Besides, I had seen him, the morning before, in the +crowd around the prisoners, and could have sworn he was then--saving +your presence, ladies--as drunk as a fiddler. If vehicle had brought +him, it could not be any that had passed me on the road, or for +certain I should have recognized him. Well, here was a riddle, and I +had come no nearer to guessing it when the Major returned. + +"He had left his bundle in the house, and in place of it he carried a +cashbox, which he set on the table between us, but did not at once +open. Instead, he turned to me with a complete change of manner, and +held out his hand very frankly. + +"'I owe you an apology, Captain,' said he. 'To be plain with you, at +the moment you appeared, I was half expecting a different kind of +visitor, and I fear you received some of the welcome prepared for +him. Overlook it, please, and shake hands; and, to get our business +over,'--he unlocked the cashbox--'here are ten guineas, which I will +ask you to accept from me. We won't call it a gift; we will call it +an acknowledgement for the extra pains you have put into teaching my +son. Tut, man!' said he, as I protested. 'Harry has told us all +about that. I assure you the youngster came near to wearying us, +last holiday, with praise of you.'" + +"And so he did," Plinny here interrupted. "That is to say, sir--I--I +mean we were only too glad to listen to him." + +"I thank you, ma'am." Captain Branscome bowed to her gravely. +"I will not deny that the Major's words gave me pleasure for the +moment. He, for his part, appeared to be quite another man. +'Twas as if between leaving me and returning to the summer-house a +load had been lifted from his mind. He counted out the guineas, +locked the cashbox again, lit his pipe, and then, seeming to +recollect himself, reached down a clean one from a stack above the +doorway, and insisted upon my filling and smoking with him. +'Twas a long while since I had tasted the luxury of tobacco. +We talked of old days on the _Londonderry_, of Sir John Moore's last +campaign, of Falmouth and the packets, of the peace and the overthrow +of Bonaparte's ambitions; or, rather, 'twas he that talked and +questioned, while for me 'twas pleasure enough, and a pleasure long +denied me, to sit on terms with a well-read gentleman and listen to +talk of a quality which--" + +"Which differed from that of the Rev. Philip Stimcoe's," suggested +Miss Belcher, as he hesitated. "Proceed, sir." + +"I shall add, madam, that the Major very kindly invited me to sleep +that night under his roof. I could pick up the coach in the morning +(he said). But this I declined, professing that I preferred the +night for travelling, and maybe, before tiring myself, would +overtake one of Russell's waggons and obtain a lift; the fact being +that, grateful though I found it to sit and converse with him, my +conscience was accusing me all the while. + +"Towards the end of our talk he had let slip by accident that he was +by no means a rich man. The money from that moment began to burn in +my pockets, and I had scarcely shaken hands with him and taken my +leave--which I did just as the sun was sinking behind the plantation +across the lane--before his guineas fairly scorched me. I held on my +way for a mile or more. You may have observed, ladies, that I limp +in my walk? It is the effect of an old wound. But, I declare to +you, my limp was nothing to the thought I dragged with me--the +recollection of the Major's face and the expression that had come +over it when I had first confessed my errand. All his subsequent +kindness, his sympathy, his hospitality, his frank and easy talk, +could not wipe out that recollection. I had sold something which for +years it had been my pride to keep. I had forced it on an unwilling +buyer. I had taken the money of a poor man, and had given him in +exchange--what? You remember, ladies, those words of Shakespeare-- +good words, although he puts them into the mouth of a villain--that: + + "' . . . He who filches from me my good name + Robs me of that which not enriches him + And makes me poor indeed.' + +"No one had filched my honour--I had sold it to a good man, but yet +without enriching him, while in the loss of it I knew myself poor +indeed. At the second milestone I turned back, more eager now to +find the Major and get rid of the money than ever I had been to +obtain it. + +"My face was no sooner turned again towards the cottage than I broke +into a run, and so good pace I made between running and walking that +it cannot have been more than an hour from my leaving the garden +before I arrived back at the head of the lane. The evening was +dusking in, but by no means dark as yet, even though a dark cloud had +crept up from the west and overhung the plantation to the right. +I looked down the lane as I entered it, and again--yes, ladies, as +surely as before--I saw a man cross it from the garden gate and step +into the plantation! + +"Who the man was I could not tell, the light being so uncertain. +Although he crossed the lane just where Coffin had crossed it and +disappeared in just the same manner, I had an impression that he was +not Coffin, and that his gait, for one thing, differed from Coffin's. +But I tell you this for what it is worth: I was startled, you may be +sure, and hurried down the lane after him even quicker than I had +hurried after the first man; but when I came to the stile, he, like +the first man, had vanished, and within the plantation it was +impossible by this time to see more than twenty yards deep. + +"Again I turned and crossed the lane to the garden gate. A sort of +twilight lay over the turf between me and the summer-house, and +beneath the apple-trees skirting my path to it on the left you might +say that it was night; but the water at the foot of the garden threw +up a sort of glimmer, and there was a glimmer, too, on the vane above +the flagstaff. I noted this and that, though my eyes were searching +for Major Brooks in the dark shadow under the pent of the +summer-house. + +"Towards this I stepped; but in the dark I must have walked a few +feet wide of the straight line, for I remember brushing against a +low-growing branch of one of the apple-trees, and this must have +caught in my eyeglass-ribbon and torn it, for when I came to fumble +for them a few seconds later to help my sight, the glasses were gone. + +"By this time I had reached the summer-house and come to a halt, +three paces, maybe, from the doorstep. 'Major Brooks!' I called +softly, and then again, but a thought louder, 'Major Brooks!' + +"There was no answer, ladies, and I turned myself half about, +uncertain whether to go back up the lane and knock at the front door +or to seek my way to the house through the garden. Just then my boot +touched something soft, and I bent and saw the Major's body stretched +across the step close beside my ankles. I stooped lower and put down +a hand. It touched his shoulder, and then the ground beneath his +shoulder, and the ground was moist. I drew my hand back with a +shiver, and just at that moment, as I stared at my fingers, the heavy +cloud beyond the plantation lifted itself clear of the trees and let +the last of the daylight through--enough to show me a dark stain +running from my finger-tips and trickling towards the palm. + +"And then, ladies--at first I thought of no danger to myself, but ran +for the gate, still groping as I went, for my eyeglasses; stumbled +across the lane somehow, and over the stile in vain chase of the man +I had glimpsed two minutes before. I say a vain chase, for I had not +plunged twenty yards into the plantation before--short-sighted mole +that I am--I had lost the track. I pulled up, on the point of +shouting for help, and with that there flashed on me the thought of +the Major's guineas in my pocket. If I called for help I called down +suspicion on myself, and suspicion enough to damn me. How could I +explain my presence in the garden? How could I account for the +money--straight from the Major's cashbox?" + +Captain Branscome paused and gazed around upon us as if caught once +more in that terrible moment of choice. Miss Belcher met his gaze +and nodded. + +"So the upshot was that you ran for it? Well, I can't say that I +blame you. But, as it happens, if you had stood still the cashbox +might have helped to clear you; for it was found next morning, half a +mile away in the brook, below my lodge-gate." + +"And there's one thing," said Plinny, "we may thank God for, if it is +possible to be thankful for anything in this dreadful business. +The murderer, whoever he was, got little profit from his crime, for I +know pretty well the state of your poor father's finances, Harry; and +if, as Captain Branscome tells us, he had taken ten guineas from the +box, there must have been very few left in it." + +"My good soul," said Miss Belcher, "the man wasn't after money! +He wanted the map this Captain Coffin had left in the Major's +keeping. That's as plain as the nose on your good, dear face. +If the map happened to be in the cashbox, and I'll bet ten to one it +wasn't--" + +"You may bet ten thousand to one!" I cried. "It was never in the +cashbox at all. It was wrapped up in the flag my father carried into +the house." + +"Bless the boy," said Miss Belcher; "he's not half a fool, after all! +Yes, yes--where is the flag?" + +"On the flagstaff," said I. "I hoisted it there this morning." + +"Eh?" + +"And here," I panted, jumping up in my excitement, "here is Captain +Coffin's map!" + +I heard Miss Belcher breathing hard as I lugged out the oilskin +packet, tore open the knotted string which bound it, and, drawing +forth the parchment, spread it, with shaking fingers, on the table. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +THE CHART OF MORTALLONE. + +While the others drew their chairs closer, and while I spread flat +the parchment--which was crinkled (by the action of salt water, +maybe)--I had time to assure myself that this was the selfsame chart +of which Captain Coffin had once vouchsafed me a glimpse. +I remembered the shape of the island, the point marked "Cape +Alderman," the strange, whiskered heraldical monster depicted in the +act of rising from the waves off the north-western coast, the equally +impossible ship, decorated with a sprit-top-mast and a flag upon it, +and charging up under full sail for the southern entry, the name of +which ("Gow's Gulf") I must have missed to read in the short perusal +Captain Coffin had allowed me. At any rate, I could not recall it. +But I recalled the three crosses which showed (so he had told me) +where the treasure lay. They were marked in red ink, and I explained +their meaning to Miss Belcher, who had pounced upon them at once. + +"Fiddlestick-end!" said that lady, falling back on her favourite +ejaculation. "Great clumsy crosses of that size! How in the world +could any one find a treasure by such marks, unless it happened to be +two miles long?" + +She pointed to the scale at the head of the chart, which, to be sure, +gave six miles to the inch. By the same measurement the crosses +covered, each way, from half a mile to three-quarters. Moreover, +each had patently been dashed in with two hurried strokes of the pen +and without any pretence of accuracy. The first cross covered a +"key" or sand-bank off the northern shore of the island; the second +sprawled athwart what appeared to be the second height in a range of +hills running southward from Cape Alderman, and down along the entire +eastern coast at a mean distance of a mile, or a little over, from +the sea; while the third was planted full across a grove of trees at +the head of the great inlet--Gow's Gulf--to the south, and, moreover, +spanned the chief river of the island, which, running almost due +south from the back of the hills or mountains (their size was not +indicated) below Cape Alderman, discharged itself into the apex of +the gulf. + +"Without bearings of some sort," said Miss Belcher, "these marks are +merely ridiculous." + +"You may well say so, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, but +inattentively. "Mortallone--Mortallone," he went on, muttering the +word over as if to himself. "It is curious, all the same." + +"What is curious?" demanded Miss Belcher. + +"Why, ma'am, I have never myself visited the Gulf of Honduras, but +among seamen there are always a hundred stories floating about. +In a manner of speaking, there is no such shop for gossip as the sea. +In every port you meet 'em, in taverns where sailors drink and brag-- +the liquor being in them--and one man talks and the rest listen, not +troubling themselves to believe. It is good to find one's self +ashore, you understand? And a good, strong-flavoured yarn makes +the landlord and all the shore-keeping folk open their eyes--" + +"Bless the man!" Miss Belcher rapped her knuckles on the table. +"This is not a 'longshore tavern." + +"No, ma'am." + +"Then why not come to the point?" + +"The point, ma'am--well, the point is that every one--that is to say, +every seaman--has heard tell of treasure knocking about, as you might +put it, somewhere in the Gulf of Honduras." + +"What sort of treasure?" + +"Why, as to that, ma'am, it varies with the story. Sometimes 'tis +bar silver from the isthmus, and sometimes 'tis gold plate and +bullion that belonged to the old Kings of Mexico; but by the tale +I've heard offtenest, 'tis church treasure that was run away with by +a shipful of logwoodmen in Campeachy Bay. But there again you no +sooner fix it as church treasure, and ask where it came from, than +you have to choose between half a dozen different accounts. Some say +from the Spanish islands--Havana for choice; others from the Main, +and I've heard places mentioned as far apart us Vera Cruz and +Caracas. The dates, too--if you can call them dates at all--vary +just as surprisingly." + +"The date on this chart is 1776," said Miss Belcher, who had been +peering at it while the Captain spoke. + +"Then, supposing there's something in poor Coffin's secret, that +gives you the year to start from. We'll suppose this is the very +chart used by the man who hid the treasure. Then it follows the +treasure wasn't hidden before 1776, and that rules out all the yarns +about Hornigold, Teach, Bat Roberts, and suchlike pirates, the last +of whom must have been hanged a good fifty years before: though +here's evidence"--Captain Branscome laid a forefinger on the chart-- +"that these gentry had dealings with the island in their day. +'Gow's Gulf,' 'Cape Fea'--Gow was a pirate and a hard nut at that; +and Fea, if I remember, his lieutenant or something of the sort; but +they had gone their ways before ever this was printed, and +consequently before ever these crosses came to be written on it. +You follow me, ma'am?" + +Miss Belcher gave a contemptuous sniff which, I doubt not, would have +prefaced the remark that an unweaned child would arrive unaided at +the same conclusions; but here I interposed. + +"Captain Coffin," said I, "told me that a part of the treasure was +church plate, and that he had seen it. He showed me a coin, too, and +said it came from the island." + +"Hey, lad? What sort of coin?" + +But to this I could give no answer, except that it was a piece of +gold, and in size perhaps a trifle smaller than a guinea. + +"That's a pity, lad. The coin might have helped us. You're sure now +that you can't remember? It hadn't a couple of pillars engraved on +it, for instance?" + +I shook my head. I had taken no particular heed of the stamp on the +coin. + +Captain Branscome sighed his disappointment. + +"The church plate don't help us at all," he said, "or very little. +Why, I've heard this Honduras treasure dated so far back as Morgan's +time, when he sacked Panama. The tale went that the priests at +Panama or Chagres, or one of those places, on fright of Morgan's +coming, clapped all their treasure aboard ship under a guard of +militia--soldiers of some sort, anyway--and that the seamen cut the +soldiers' throats, slipped cable, and away-to-go. But Morgan! +He must have died before Queen Anne was born--well, not so far back +as that maybe, but then or thenabouts. I tell you, ma'am, this story +hangs around every port and every room where seamen gather and drink +and take their ways again. 'Tis for all the world like the smell of +tobacco-smoke, that tells you some one has come and gone, but leaves +you nothing to get hold of. Hallo!--" + +As the exclamation escaped him, Captain Branscome, who had casually +picked up a corner of the parchment between finger and thumb, with a +nervous jerk drew the whole chart from under my outspread palms and +turned it over face-downwards. + +"Eh? But see here!" + +He fumbled with his glasses, while Miss Belcher and I, snatching at +the chart, almost knocked our heads together as we bent over a corner +of it--the left-hand upper corner--and a dozen lines of writing +scrawled there in faded ink. They ran thus-- + + 1. Landed by cuttar when wee saw a sail. Lesser Kay N. of + Gable. Get open water between two kays S.W. and W. by S., + and N. inner point of Gable (where is green patch, good + watering) in line with white rock (birds), neer as posble. + S. a point E. 3 feet bare, being hurried. + + 2. Bayse of cliff second hill S.S.W. from Cape Alderman. + Here is bank over 2 waterfals. Neer lower fall, 12 paces + back from egge, getting island open N.E. beyond rock W. of + inlet, and first tree Misery Swamp over Crabtree, W.S.W Bush + above rock to rt of fall. Shaddow 1/4 to 4, June 21st, when + we left digging. + + 3. R. bank river, 1 and 1/2 mile up from Gow crikke. Centre + tree in clump 5 branch bearing N. and by E. 1/2 point, two + forks. R. fork 4ft. red cave under hill 457yds. foot of tree + N.N.W. N.B.--The stones here, under rock 4 spans L side. + +That was all, except two short entries. The first scribbled aslant +under No. 1, and in Captain Coffin's own handwriting--so Captain +Branscome, who knew it, assured us. + + N.B.--Took out 5 cases Ap. 5, 1806, besides the boddies. + Avging 3/4 cwt. 1 case jewels. We left the clothes, wh. + were many. + +The second entry appeared to have been penned by the same hand as the +original, but more neatly and some while later. The ink, at any +rate, was blacker and fresher. It ran: + + S.W. ann. aetat. 37. R.I.P. + +The handwriting, though rugged--and the indifferent ink may have been +to blame for this--was well formed, and, but for the spelling, might +have belonged to an educated man. + +The reader, if he choose, may follow our example and discuss the +above directions for half an hour--I will warrant with as little +result. Miss Belcher ended by harking back to the summer-house and +to the latest crime--if we might guess, the latest of many--for which +this document had been responsible. + +"What puzzles me is this: Since the Major had pockets in his coat, +why should he have hidden the parcel as he did? So small a parcel, +too!" + +"Captain Coffin," I suggested, "may have known that he was being +followed." + +"Well?" + +"And in handing it over he may have warned my father that there was +danger." + +"I believe the boy is right," said Captain Branscome. "Now I recall +the Major's face at the moment when I rattled the latch, I feel sure +he was on his guard. Yes--yes, he had been warned against carrying +this on his person--he was wrapping it away for the time--" + +"Why, what ails the man?" demanded Miss Belcher, as Captain Branscome +stopped short with a groan. + +"I was thinking, ma'am, that but for my visit he might never have +relaxed his guard--that it was I who helped the murderer to take him +at unawares. Nay--worse, ma'am, worse--his last thought may have +been that I was the traitor--that the blow he took was from the hand +he had filled with gold--that I had returned to kill him in his +blindness!" + +Captain Branscome bowed his head upon his hands. I saw Plinny--who +all this while had sat silent, content to listen--rise, her face +twitching, and put out a hand to touch the captain's shoulder. +I saw her hand hesitate as her sense of decorum overtook her pity and +seemed to reason with it. And with that I heard the noise of wheels +on the road. + +"Hallo!"--Miss Belcher pricked up her ears. "Here's that nuisance +Jack Rogers turning up again!" + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +THE CONTENTS OF THE CORNER CUPBOARD. + +Mr. Jack Rogers, as he pulled up by the porch and directed +me to stand by the young mare's head, wore a look of extreme +self-satisfaction. Beside him, also beaming, sat Mr. Goodfellow, +with the corner cupboard nursed between his knees. + +"Capital news, lad!" announced Mr. Rogers, climbing down from the +tilbury. "The filly's pretty near dead-beat, though--must see to her +and cool her down before telling it. Now, then, Mr. Goodfellow, if +you'll hand out the cupboard. By the way, sonny, I hope Miss +Plinlimmon can give us breakfast. I'm as hungry as a hunter, for my +part, and deserve it, too, after a good night's work. With my +fol-de-rol, diddledy--" He started to hum, but checked himself +shamefacedly. "There I go again, and I beg your pardon! 'Tis the +most difficult thing in the world to me to behave myself in a house +of mourning." + +Mr. Goodfellow by this time had clambered down, and was embracing the +corner cupboard as though he had parted from it for an age, instead +of for fifty seconds at the farthest. + +"Carry it indoors, but don't open it till I'm ready," commanded Mr. +Rogers, stooping under the filly to loosen her belly-band. +"I'm a magistrate, remember, and these things must be done in order. +You come along with me, Harry; that is, if you have the key in your +pocket." + +"I have, sir." + +"Right! Then come along with me, and you'll be out of harm's way." + +So, while Mr. Goodfellow carried the cupboard into the house, Mr. +Rogers and I attended to the filly. + +This took, maybe, twenty minutes; but Mr. Rogers was a sportsman, +and thought of his horse before himself. Not till all was done, +and well done, did he announce again that he was devilish peckish; +nor did I take the measure of his meaning until, returning to the +breakfast-room where Mr. Goodfellow sat before a plate of bread and +cream, he helped himself to a mass of veal pie fit for a giant, and +before attacking it drained a tankard of cider at a single pull, +while he nodded over the rim to Captain Branscome, to whom Plinny +introduced him. + +"Jack," said Miss Belcher, with a jerk of her thumb towards the +Captain, "I'll lay you two to one in guineas, that our news is more +important than yours!" + +"I take you," said Mr. Rogers. + +"It will save time if we tell it while you're eating, and will save +you the trouble of talking with your mouth full." + +Once or twice, while she abridged Captain Branscome's narrative, +Mr. Rogers set down knife and fork, and stared at her with round +eyes, his jaws slowly chewing. + +"And I reckon," concluded Miss Belcher, "that you won't dispute your +owing me a guinea." + +"Wait a bit!" Mr. Rogers pushed his empty plate away, selected a +clean one, and helped himself to six slices of ham. "To begin with, +I've found scent and laid on the hounds." + +"Where?" + +"At St. Mawes. Captain Coffin, the murdered man, landed there from +the ferry on the night of the 11th, at a few minutes before nine, and +walked straight to the Lugger Inn, above the quay. There he borrowed +fifteen shillings off the landlord, who knew him well; ordered two +glasses of hot gin-and-water, drank them, paid down sixpence, and +took the road that leads east through Gerrans village. His tale was +that he had a relative to visit at Plymouth Dock, and meant to push +on that night so far as Probus, and there sleep and wait for +Russell's waggon." + +"But his road," I objected, "wouldn't lie through Gerrans village, +unless he went by the short cut through the field beyond St. Mawes, +and took the ferry at Percuil." + +"Right, lad; and that is precisely what he did; for--to push ahead a +bit--we overran his track on the main road, and, learning of that +same short cut, drove back along the other side of the creek to +Percuil, and had a talk with the ferryman. The ferryman told us that +at ten o'clock, or thereabouts, he was going to bed having closed the +ferry, when a voice on the other shore began bawling 'Over!' +He slipped on his boots again, rowed across, and took over a man who +was certainly Captain Coffin." + +"He was alone?" I asked. + +"He came across the ferry alone," said Mr. Rogers, "and I dare say he +had no idea of being followed. But back at St. Mawes, while he was +drinking gin-and-water in the taproom, another man came to the door +of the Lugger. This man sent for the landlord--Bogue by name--and +asked to be shown into a private room. He was dressed in +odds-and-ends of garments, including a soiled regimental coat and +dirty linen trousers." + +"The French prisoner!" said I. + +"That's the man. He told Bogue, fair and straight, he was an +ex-prisoner, and off the _Wellinboro'_ transport, arrived that day +in harbour. He had money in his pocket--in Bogue's presence he +pulled out a fistful of gold--and he pitched a tale that he was bound +for his home, a little this side of Saltash, but couldn't face the +road in the clothes he wore. You'll admit that this was reasonable +when you've seen 'em, for I brought the suit along in the tail of the +tilbury. For a pound, Bogue fitted him up with an old suit of his +own--coat and waistcoat of blue sea-cloth, not much the worse for +wear, duck trousers, a tarpaulin hat, and a flannel shirt marked +J. B. (Bogue's Christian name is Jeremiah). The fellow had no shirt +when he presented himself--nothing between the bare buff and the +uniform coat that he wore buttoned across his chest. And here our +luck comes in. He was shy of stripping in Bogue's presence, and, on +pretence of feeling chilly, sent him out of the room for a glass of +hot grog. As it happened, Bogue met the waiting-maid in the passage, +coming out of the bar with a tray and half a dozen hot grogs that had +been ordered by customers in the tap-room. He picked up one, and, +sending the maid back to fetch another to fill up her order, returned +at once to the private room. My gentleman there was standing with +his back to the door, stripped to the waist, with the shirt in his +hand, ready to slip it on. He wasn't expecting Bogue so soon, and he +turned about with a jump, but not before Bogue had sight of his back +and a great picture tattooed across it--Adam and Eve, with the tree +between 'em, and the serpent coiled around it complete." + +"The man Bogue must have quick sight," commented Miss Belcher. + +"So I told him, but his answer was that it didn't need more than a +glance, because this picture is a favourite with seamen. Bogue has +been a seaman himself." + +"That is so," Captain Branscome corroborated. "The man must have +been a seaman, and at one time or another in the Navy. There's a +superstition about that particular picture: tattooed across the back +and loins it's supposed to protect them, in a moderate degree, +against flogging." + +"Well," said Miss Belcher, "his belonging to the Navy seems likely +enough. It accounts, in one way, for his finding himself in a French +war-prison. Go on, Jack." + +"The man (said Bogue) faced about with a start, catching his hands-- +with the shirt in 'em--towards his chest, and half covering it, but +not so as to hide from Bogue that his chest, too, was marked. +Bogue hadn't time to make out the design, but his recollection is +there were several small ones--ships, foul-anchors, and the like-- +besides a large one that seemed to be some sort of a map." + +"You haven't done so badly, Jack," Miss Belcher allowed. "If the +man hasn't given us the slip at Plymouth you have struck a +first-class scent. Only I doubt 'tis a cold one. You sent word at +once?" + +"By express rider, and with orders to leave a description of the man +at all the ferries. But there's more to come. The man, that had +seemed at first in a desperate hurry, was no sooner in Bogue's +clothes than he took a seat, made Bogue fetch another glass of grog +and drink it with him, and asked him a score of questions about the +best road eastward. It struck Bogue that, for a man whose home was +Saltash, he knew very little about his native county. All this while +he appeared to have forgotten his hurry, and Bogue was thinking to +make him an excuse to go off and attend to other customers, when of a +sudden he ups and shakes hands, says good night, and marches out of +the house. Bogue told me all this in the very room where it +happened. It opens out on the passage leading from the taproom to +the front door. I asked Bogue if he could remember at what time +Coffin left the house, and by what door; also, if the prisoner-fellow +heard him leave; but at first he couldn't tell me anything for +certain except that Coffin went out by the front door--he remembered +hearing him go tapping down the passage. The old man, it seems, had +a curious way of tapping with his stick." + +Here Mr. Rogers looked at me, and I nodded. + +"Where was the landlord when he heard this?" asked Miss Belcher. + +"That, my dear Lydia, was naturally the next question I put to him. +'Why, in this very room,' said he, 'now I come to think of it.' +'Well, then,' said I, 'how long did you stay in this room after the +prisoner (as we'll call him) had taken his leave?' 'Not a minute,' +said he; 'no, nor half a minute. Indeed, I believe we walked out +into the passage together, and then parted, he going out to the door, +and I up the passage to the taproom.' 'Was Coffin in the taproom +when you reached it?' I asked. 'No,' says Bogue; 'to be sure he +wasn't.' 'Why, then, you thickhead,' says I, 'he must have left +while you were talking with the prisoner; and since you heard him go, +the odds are the prisoner heard him, too.' That's the way to get at +evidence, Lydia." + +"My dear Jack," said Miss Belcher, "you're an Argus!" + +"Well, I flatter myself it was pretty neat," resumed Mr. Rogers, +speaking with his mouth full; "but, as it happens, we don't need it. +For when, as I've told you, we drove around to the ferry at Percuil, +and the ferryman described Coffin and how he'd put him across, the +first question I asked was 'Did you put any one else across that +night?' He said, 'Yes; and not twenty minutes later.' 'Man or +woman?' I asked. 'Man,' said he, 'and a d--d drunk one'--saving your +presence, ladies. I pricked up my ears. 'Drunk?' I asked. How +drunk?' 'Drunk enough to near-upon drown himself,' said the +ferryman. 'It was this way, sir: I'd scarcely finished mooring the +boat again, and was turning to go indoors, when I heard a splash, +t'other side of the creek, where; the path comes down under the loom +of the trees, and, next moment, a voice as if some person was +drowning and guggling for help. So I fit and unmoored again, and +pushed across for dear life, just in time to see a man scrambling +ashore. He was as drunk as a fly, sir, even after his wetting. +Said he was a retired seaman living at Penzance, had come round to +Falmouth on a lime-barge bound for the Truro river, and must get +along to St. Austell in time to attend his sister's wedding there +next morning. Told me his sister's name, but I forget it. Said he'd +fallen in with some brave fellows at Falmouth just returned from the +French war-prisons, and had taken a glass or two. Gave me half a +crown when I brought him over and landed him,' said the ferryman, +'and too far gone in liquor to understand the mistake if I'd +explained it to him, which I didn't.' He was dressed in what +appeared to be a dark cloth jacket, duck trousers of sea-going cut, +and a tarpaulin hat. 'There was just moon enough,' said the +ferry-man, 'to let a man take notice of his trousers, they being +white; and maybe I took particular notice of his legs, because they +were dripping wet. As for his face, by the glimpse I had of it he +was a middle-aged man that had seen trouble.' I asked if he would +know the man again. He said, 'Yes,' he was pretty sure he would. +So there, Lydia, you have the villain dogging Coffin, tracking him to +Percuil, and shamming drunk to get carried over the ferry in pursuit. +On Bogue's testimony he was as sober as a judge at St. Mawes, and +drank but one glass of grog there, and from St. Mawes to Percuil is +but a step, mainly by footpath over the fields, with no public-house +on the way." + +"H'm," said Miss Belcher; "and yet he couldn't have been following +the man to murder him, or he must have taken more care to cover up +his traces. All his concern seems to have been to follow Coffin +without being seen by him. Is that all?" + +"My dear Lydia, consider the amount of time I've had! Almost before +I'd finished with Bogue, and certainly before the filly was well +rested, Mr. Goodfellow here had crossed to Falmouth and was back +again, bringing the cupboard--" + +"Yes, Jack; you have done very well--surprisingly well. But I'll not +hand over my guinea until we've examined the cupboard. Here, Mr. +Goodfellow"--she cleared a space amid the breakfast things--"be so +good as to lift it on to the table. Harry, where's the key?" + +I produced it. + +"A nice bit of work--and Dutch, by the look of it," she commented, +pausing to admire the inlaid pattern as she inserted the key. +She turned it, and the door fell back, askew on its broken hinges. + +Mr. Goodfellow had carried the cupboard with infinite care, but the +contents, I need not say, had mixed themselves up in wild disorder, +though nothing was broken--not even the pot of guava-jelly. +They included a superannuated watch in a loose silver case, a medal +(in bronze) struck to commemorate Lord Howe's famous victory of the +First of June, two pieces-of-eight and a spade guinea (much clipped); +a small china mug painted with libellous portraits of King George +III. and his consort; a printed pamphlet on Admiral Byng; two strings +of shells; a mourning-ring with a lock of hair set between two pearls +under glass; another ring with a tiny picture of a fountain and urn, +and a weeping willow; a paper containing a baby's caul and a sampler +worked with the A.B.C. and the Lord's Prayer and signed "A.C., +1785;" a gourd, a few glass beads, and a Chinese opium-pipe; and +lastly, a thick paper roll bound in yellow-stained parchment. +The roll was tied about with string, and the string was sealed, in +coarse wax without imprint. + +Miss Belcher dived a hand into a fold of her skirt, and drew forth a +most unladylike clasp-knife. + +"Now for it!" said Miss Belcher. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG. + +As she severed the string the roll fell open and disclosed itself as +a book of small quarto shape, bound in limp parchment, with strings +to tie the covers together. Its pages, measuring 9 and 3/4 by 8 in., +were 64, and numbered throughout; but a bare third of them were +written on, and these in an unformed hand which yet was eloquent of +much. A paragraph would start with every letter drawn as carefully +as in a child's copy-book; would gradually straggle and let its words +fall about, as though fainting by the way; and so would tail into +incoherence, to be picked up--next day, no doubt--by a new effort, +which, after marching for half a dozen lines, in its turn collapsed. +There were lacunae, too, when the shaking hand had achieved but a few +weak zigzags before it desisted. The two last pages were scribbled +over with sums--or, to speak more correctly, with combinations of +figures resembling sums. Here is a single example-- + + Ode to W. Bate + + To bacca 9 and 1/2d + Haircutt 1s + Bliddin[1] ...... 18d. + To more bacca Oct. 10th do. + Ditto and shave ditto ditto + ----------------- + Mem. do. to him 2s. 6d. + +The fly-leaf started bravely with "D. Coffin, His Book." After this +the captain had fallen to practising his signature by way of start. +"D. Coffin," "Danl. Coffin," "Danyel Coffin," over and over, and +once "D. Coffin, Esq.," followed by "Steal not this Book for fear of +shame." + + Danl. Coffin is my name + England is my nation + Falmth ditto ditto dwelling-place + And hopes to see Salvation. + +After these exercises came a blank page, and then, halfway down the +next, abruptly, without title, began the manuscript which I will call +Captain Coffin's statement. + +"Pass it to Lydia," said Mr. Rogers. "She reads like a parson." + +"Better than most, I hope," said Miss Belcher, taking the book; and +this--I omit the faults of spelling--is what she read aloud-- + + +Mem. Began this August 15th, 1812. +Mem. Am going to tell about the treasure, and what happened. But it +will be no use without the map. If any one tries to bring up +trouble, this is the truth and nothing else. Amen. So be it. +Signed, D. Coffin. + +My father followed the sea, and bred me to it. He came from +Devonshire, near Exmouth. N.B.--He used to say the Coffins were a +great family in Devonshire, and as old as any; but it never did him +no good. He was an only son, and so was I, but I had an older +sister, now dead. She grew up and married a poultryman in Quay +Street, Bristol. I remember the wedding. Died in childbed a year +later, me being at that time on my first voyage. + + +We lived at Bristol, at the foot of Christmas Stairs, left-hand side +going up, two doors from the bottom. My mother from Stonehouse, +Gloster, where they make cloth, specially red cloth for soldiers' +coats. Her maiden name Daniels. She was a religious woman, and +taught me the Bible. My father was lost at sea, being knocked +overboard by the boom in half a gale, two miles S.W. of Lundy. +I was sixteen at the time, and apprentice as cabin-boy on board the +same ship, the _Caroline_, bound from Hayle to Cardiff with copper +ore. I went home and broke the news to my mother, and she told me +then what I didn't know before, that she was very poorly provided +for. I will say this, that I made her a good son; and likewise, that +I never had no luck till I struck the Treasure. + +I was born in the year 1750. My father's death happened 1766. +From that time till my twenty-seventh year, I supported my mother. +She died of a seizure in 1777, and is buried by St. Mary's Redclyf-- +we having moved across the water to that parish. Married next year, +Elizabeth Porter, in service with Soames Rennalls, Esquire, Alderman +of the City. She had been brought up an orphan by the Colston +Charity; a good pious woman, and bore me one child, a daughter, +christened Ann--a dear little one. She lived and throve up to the +year 1787, me all the time coming and going on voyages, mostly +coasting, too numerous to mention. Then the small-pox carried her +off with my affectionate wife, the both in one week. At which I +cursed all things, and for several years ran riot, not caring what I +said or did. + +Was employed, from 1790 on, in the slave trade, by W. S., merchant of +Bristol. Must have made as many as a dozen passages before leaving +him and shipping on the _Mary Pynsent_, Pink, Bristol-owned by a new +company of adventurers. She was an old boat, and known to me, but +not the whole story of her. I signed as mate. We were bound for the +W. Coast, about 50 leagues E. of Cape Corse Castle, with gunpowder +and old firearms for the natives, that were most always at war with +one another. Ran coastwise and touched at three or four places on +the way, and at each of them peddled powder and muskets, the muskets +being most profitable, by reason the blacks have no notion of +repairing a gun. So we, carrying a gunsmith on board, bought up at +one place the guns that wanted repairs, and sold them at the next for +new pieces. In this way we came to our destination, which was the +mouth of a river full of slime and mosquitoes, and called the Popo +River. There a whole tribe of niggers put out to receive us. + +They knew the _Mary Pynsent_, and worse luck. Her last trip, when +owned by Mr. W. S., aforesaid, she had sold them 1500 kegs of sifted +sea-coal dust, passing it off for gunpowder, and had made off with +7000 pounds worth of gold dust, besides ivory, _white and black_, +before they discovered the trick. We being without knowledge of what +had happened, and having real gunpowder to sell, let the niggers +swarm on board, and welcome. Whereupon, in revenge for past usage, +they attacked us on the spot and clubbed all the crew but me, that +was getting out the boat under the seaward quarter and baling her, +but dived as soon as the murder began, and swam to the shore. +The shore was mudbanks and reeds and mangroves, and all sweating with +heat and mosquitoes. I spent that day in hiding. Towards sunset the +savages rafted a good third of the cargo ashore, and, having stacked +the kegs and built a fire about them, started to dance, making a +silly mock of the powder, till it blew up. Which it did, and must +have killed hundreds. + +I heard the noise of it at about two miles' distance, having crept +out of my hiding when I saw them busy, and started to tramp it along +shore to Cape Corse Castle. I had no food, and must have died but +that next morning I fell in with a tribe that seemed pleased to see +me; which was lucky, me having no strength left to run. They took me +to their kraal, a mile inland, and to a hut where was a man lying in +a fever. He was a man covered with dirt and vermin, but at first +sight of his face I knew him to be a white man and English. +Ever since my first voyage to these parts I carried a small box in my +pocket, filled with bark of Peru, which is the best cure for coast +fever. I took out some of this bark and managed to make myself +understood that I wanted a fire lit and some water fetched; boiled up +the bark and made him drink it. After that I nursed him for three +days before he died. + +The second day he sits up and says in English: "Who are you?" +So I told him. Then he says: "Why are you doing this for me? +You wouldn't do it if you knew who I am." "I'd do it," I said, "if +you were the devil." "I am next door to him," he says. "I am +Melhuish, of the Poison Island Treasure." "I never heard of it," +said I. "There's others call it the Priests' Treasure," says he; +"and if you have never heard of it, you cannot have sailed anywhere +near the Bay of Honduras." "Never in my life," I said. "My business +has lain along the coast for years. But what of it?" "What of it?" +he says, sitting up, his eyes all shining with the fever, "why, +nothing, except that I am one of the richest men in the world." +I set this down to raving. "You don't believe me?" he asks after +some time. "Why," I answers him, "this is a funny sort of place for +a nabob, and that you must allow; not to mention," I adds, "that from +here to Honduras is a long step." "You fool!" said he, "that is the +very reason of it. I don't believe in a hell on the t'other shore of +this life, whatever your views may be. You go to sleep and have done +with it--that's my belief. But I believe in hell upon earth, because +I have lived in it. And I believe in a devil upon earth, because I +lived months in his company; but he can't be as clever as the priests +make out, because I came here to hide from him, and hidden I have." + +With that he fell into cursing and raving, but after a time he grew +quiet again, and said he: "Daniel Coffin, if that is your name, +there's hundreds of thousands of men walking this world would envy +you at this moment. And why? Because I can make you richer than any +Lord Mayor in his coach; and, what's more, I will." + +He said no more that evening, but next day woke up in his wits, and +asked me to slip a hand under his pillow and take out what I found +there. Which I took out a piece of parchment. He said: "Coffin, I +am going to be as good as my word. That there which you hold in your +hand is a map of the Island of Mortallone, where the treasure lies. +I will tell you how I come by it. + +"My home," he said, "was St. Mary's, in Newfoundland, which is but a +small harbour and a few wood houses gathered about a factory. +The factory belonged to a firm at Carbonear, and employed, one way +and another, all the people in the place, in number less than two +hundred. The women worked at the fish-curing, along with the +children and some old men, but the able-bodied men belonged mostly to +the Labrador fleet, or manned a two-three small vessels that made +regular voyages to the Island of St. Jago to fetch home salt for the +pickling. My mother, besides working at the factory, kept a +boarding-house for seamen. In this she was helped by my only sister, +a middle-aged woman and single. My mother was a widow. She kept her +house very respectable, but the business was slight, the town being +empty of men most of the year. + +"In the autumn of 'ninety-eight, arriving home with salt as usual +from St. Jago, I found a stranger lodging in the house. He had come +over from Carbonear with a party of clerks, and had taken a fancy to +the place--or so he said; besides which, it had been recommended to +him for his health, which was delicate. He was a common-spoken man, +aged between fifty and sixty, and looked like a skipper that had +hauled ashore; but he never talked about the sea in my hearing, and +he never mixed with the few seamen who came to the house. He rented +a separate room and kept to it. His habits were simple enough, and +his manner very quiet and friendly, though he spoke as little as he +could help, unless to my sister. My mother liked him because he paid +his way and seemed content with whatever food was put before him. +The only thing he complained about was the cold. + +"I had been at home for three weeks and a little more when one +evening, as I was passing downstairs from my bedroom in the attic, +this Mr. Shand--that was the name he gave us--called me into his room +and showed me a small bird he had picked up dead on the beach. +He did not know its name, and I was too ignorant to tell him. +He stood there looking at it under the lamp when my sister came +upstairs with a note and word that the messenger was waiting outside +for an answer. Mr. Shand took the note and read it under the lamp. +Then he turned to the fire, and stood with his back to us for a +moment. I saw him drop the note into the fire. He faced round to us +again and said he to my sister: 'Mary, my dear, here is something I +want you to keep for me. Do not look at it to-night; and when you +do, show it to no one but your brother here.' With that he gave her +the very packet you have in your hand, shook hands with us both, and +went downstairs. We never saw him again. The weather was thick, +with some snow falling, and the snow increased towards midnight. +We waited up till we were tired, but he did not return that night or +the next day. Three days later his body was found in a drift of +snow, halfway down a cliff to the west of the town. The right leg +and arm were broken and two ribs on the same side." + +I asked: "Who was the man that brought the message?" Melhuish said: +"My sister could not tell, except that he was a stranger. +She supposed he belonged to one of two ships that had arrived in +harbour the day before. She saw nothing of his face to remember; his +jacket-collar being turned up against the snow, and the flaps of his +fur cap pulled down over his ears." + +I asked: "Did the man's chest tell nothing when you came to examine +it?" Melhuish said: "Nothing at all. It was full of new clothes, +and very good clothes; but they had no mark upon them, and, besides +the clothes, there was not so much as a scrap of paper." + +He went on: "About two weeks later there called a clerk from the +factory to claim the chest, the firm having acted as Mr. Shand's +agents. He was a foreign-looking man, and older than most of the +clerks employed by Davis and Atchison--which was the firm's name. +He gave his own name as Martin. He had been sent over from Carbonear +about ten days before to teach the factory a new way of treating +seal-pelts by means of chemicals. We learnt afterwards that he +earned good wages. He had brought two hands from the factory to +carry the chest, which we gave up to him as soon as he presented a +letter from Mr. Hughes, the firm's chief agent. He said: 'Is this +all you have?' And we said, 'Yes.' We Kept quiet about the map, +which we had examined, but could not make head nor tail of it. +He went away with the chest, and we heard no more of the matter. +The winter closing in, I took service in the factory. I used to run +against this Martin almost every day, but being my superior he never +got beyond nodding to me. + +"So it went on, that winter. The next spring I sailed with the +salting fleet as usual. I was mate by this time, and had learned to +navigate. I came back, to find Martin seated in the parlour and +talking, and my mother told me he had asked my sister to marry him. +They had met at the factory and fixed it up between them. +He appeared to be very fond of my sister, who was usually reckoned a +plain-featured woman, and there couldn't be a doubt she was fond of +him. Later on, I heard that she had told him all about the chart, +but had not shown it to him, being afraid to do so without my leave. + +"He opened the subject himself about a week later, during which I +had become very thick with him. He said that, in his belief, there +was money in it, and I was a fool not to take it up. I answered, +What could I do? He said there was ways and means that a lad of +spirit ought to be able to discover. With that he talked no more of +it that day, but it cropped up again, and by little and little he so +worked me up that I took to dreaming of the cursed thing. + +"This went on for another fortnight, during which time he told me a +deal about himself, very frank--as that he was the son of an English +sea-captain and a Spanish woman, and was born in Havana; that he had +been educated by the Jesuits, who had meant to make a priest of him; +that, not being able to abide the Spaniards, he had chased over to +Port Royal and studied chemistry in the college there. It was there, +he said, he had discovered a preparation for curing the hides of +animals so that the hair never dropped off, but remained as firm and +fresh as life. He told me that for this secret Davis and Atchison +paid him better than any of their clerks. + +"At the end of a fortnight he sailed for Carbonear. He returned as I +was making ready for the summer trip, and laid a scheme before me +that took my breath away. He had spoken to Mr. Atchison, the junior +partner, and engaged a schooner, the _Willing Mind_; likewise a crew. +I was to command her, being the only one of the lot that understood +navigation. For the crew he had picked up a mixed lot at Carbonear +and St. John's--good seamen, but mostly unknown to one another. +They were the less likely, he said, to smell out our purpose until we +reached the island, and for the rest I might trust to him. He had +laid our plans before Mr. Atchison, who approved. If I listened to +him without arguing, he would make my fortune and my sister's as +well. + +"I had never met a man of his quality before. I was a young fool, +yet not altogether such a fool but I had persuaded my sister to hand +the map over to me, and wore it always about me. She told me that +she had shown it twice to Martin, but never for more than two minutes +at a time, and had never let it go out of her hands. I wonder now +that he didn't murder her for it; and the only reason must be that he +reckoned to use me for navigating the ship, and then to get rid of +me. + +"A fool I was even to the extent of letting him talk me over when I +found he had engaged twelve hands for the cruise. There was no +reason on earth for this number except that these were the gang after +the treasure, and that he was playing with the lot of them, same as +with me. + +"The upshot was that we said goodbye to my mother and sister, and +crossed over to Carbonear, where I made acquaintance with my crew. +The number of them raised no suspicion in the port, because it was +taken for granted the _Willing Mind_, an old salt ship, was bound for +St. Jago, where ten or a dozen hands are nothing unusual to work the +salt; and this was the argument he had used to make me carry so many. +Our pretence was we were all bound for St. Jago, and the crew seemed +to take this for understood. I didn't like their looks. Martin said +they were an ignorant lot, and chosen for that reason. All I had to +do was to run south, and he undertook to give them the slip at the +first point we touched. + +"He had a wonderful command over them, considering that he was but +one plotter in a dozen; and for reasons of his own he kept them off +me and the map. On our way he proposed to me that I should teach him +a little navigation; helped me take the reckonings; and picked it up +as easy as a child learns its letters. But his keeping watch over me +and the map was what broke up the crew's patience. I was holding the +schooner straight down for the Gulf of Honduras, and, by my +reckoning, within a few hours of making a landfall, wondering all the +while that they took the courses I laid without grumbling--though by +this time our course was past all explaining--when the quarrel broke +out. + +"I was standing by the wheel with a seaman, Dick Hayling by name, a +civil fellow, and more to my liking than the most of them, when we +heard a racket in the forecastle, and by-and-by Martin--he was too +fond, to my taste of going down into the forecastle and making free +with the men--comes up the hatchway, very serious, with half a dozen +behind him. + +"'Melhuish,' says he, 'there's trouble below. The men will have it +that we are steering for treasure. I tell them that, if you are, +they are bound to know as soon as we sight it, and neither you nor +I--being two to twelve--can prevent their having the game in their +own hands. I have told them, over and above this,' he went on, +pitching his voice loud--but having his back towards them he winked +at me--'that by your reckoning we shall sight land in a few hours at +the farthest, and are willing to serve out a double tot of rum; that, +as soon as ever land is sighted, you will call all hands aft and tell +them our intention, as man to man; and that then, if they have a +mind, they can elect whatever new captain they choose.' + +"The impudence of this took me fair between wind and water. I saw, +of course, that I was trapped, and naturally my first thought was to +suspect the man speaking to me. I looked at him, and he winked +again, not seeming one bit abashed. + +"'You may tell them,' said I, with my eyes on his face, 'that as soon +as we sight land I shall have a statement to make to them.' +I wondered what it would be; but I said it to gain time. 'As for the +rum,' I went on, 'they can drink their fill. If we sight land, I +will steer the ship in.' + +"'Better go and draw the liquor yourself,' said he, and, picking up a +ship's bucket, came aft to me. 'The second barrel in the afterhold,' +he whispered. 'And don't drink any yourself.' + +"I nodded, as careless as I could. It seemed a rash thing to go down +to the afterhold, where any one might batten me down. But, there +being no help for it, I took the bucket and went. I filled it well +up to the brim from the second cask, returned to deck, and handed it +to the man who stood behind Martin. They took it, pretty +respectfully, and went below, Martin still standing amidships, where +he had stood from the first. + +"'And now,' said I, turning back to him, 'perhaps you will explain.' + +"'Keep your eye on the helmsman,' was his answer, 'and pistol him if +he gives trouble.' + +"He walked forward and stood leaning over the forehatch, seeming to +listen." . . . + +[1] Qy. "Bleeding." + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +CAPTAIN COFFIN'S LOG--CONTINUED. + +Up to this Melhuish had been making good weather of his tale, though +forced to break off once or twice by reason of his weakness. +But here he came to a dead stop, which at first I set down to the +same. But by-and-by I looks up. He was making a curious noise in +his throat, and fencing with both hands to push something away from +him. + +"I never done it!" he broke out. "Take them away! I never done it! +Oh, my God! never--never--never!" + +With that he ran off into a string of prayers and cursings, all mixed +up together, the fever shaking him like a sail caught head-to-wind, +and at every shake he screeched louder. + +"I won't, I won't!" he kept saying. "Hayling, take that devil off +and cover them up. The boat, Hayling! Fetch the boat and cover them +up!" Then, a little after: "Who says the anchor's fouled? How can I +tell for the noise? Tell them, less noise below. I never done it, +tell them! And take his grinning face out of the way, or you'll +never get it clear! 'Tisn't Christian burial--look at their fins! +D--n them, Hayling, look at their fins! Three feet of sand, or +they'll never stay covered. Who says as I poisoned them? +Hayling knows. Where is Hayling?" + +I am writing down all I can remember; but there was more--a heap of +it--that I did not catch, being kept busy holding him down till the +strength went out of him and he lay quiet; which he did in time, the +shivers running down through him between my hands, and his voice +muttering on without a stop. + +For an hour I sat, hoping he would fall asleep; for his voice +weakened little by little, and by-and-by he just lay and stared up at +the roof, with only his lips moving. After that I must have dropped +off in a doze; for I came to myself with a start, thinking that I +heard him speak to me. It was the rattle in his throat. He lay just +the same, with his eyes staring, but, putting out a hand to him, I +knew at once that the man was dead as a nail. + +I had now to think of myself, for I knew that the niggers in the +kraal had not spared me out of kindness, but only that I might attend +to the white man, who was their friend. They were even ignorant +enough to believe that I had killed him. I worked out my plan: (1) I +must run for it; (2) the village was asleep, and the sooner I ran the +better; (3) they had met me heading for Cape Corse Castle, and would +hunt me in that direction--therefore I had best go straight back on +my steps; (4) they were less likely to chase me that way because it +led into the Popo country, and Melhuish had told me that these men +were Alampas, and afraid of the Popo tribes. True, if I headed back, +there was the river between me and Whydah, the nearest station to +eastward; but to get across it I must trust to luck. + +I crept out of the hut. The night was black as my hat, almost, and +no guard set. At the edge of the kraal I made a dash for it, and +kept running for three miles. After that I ran sometimes, and +sometimes walked. The sun was up and the day growing hot when I came +to the shore by the river; and there in the offing lay the _Mary +Pynsent_ at anchor, just as if nothing had happened, and the boat +made fast alongside as I had left her. If I could swim out and get +into the boat, my job was done. I had not thought upon sharks while +swimming ashore, but now I thought of them, and it gave me the +creeps. I dare say I sat on the shore for an hour, staring at the +boat before I made up my mind to risk it. There was a plenty of +sharks, too. When I reached the boat and climbed aboard of her, I +took a look around and saw their fins playing about in the shallows, +being drawn off there by the dead bodies the gunpowder had blown into +the water. + +The boat had a mast and spritsail. I reckoned that I would wait +until sunset, then hoist sail and hold on past the river and along +shore towards Whydah. I counted on a breeze coming off shore towards +evening, which it did, and blew all night, so stiff that at two +miles' distance, which I kept by guess, I could smell the stink of +swamps. I ought to say here that, before starting, I had climbed +aboard the _Mary Pynsent_ and provisioned the boat. The niggers had +left a few stores, but the mess on board made me sick. + +The breeze held all night, and towards daybreak freshened so that I +reckoned myself safe against any canoe overtaking me if any should +put out from shore; for my boat, with the wind on her quarter, was +making from six to seven knots. She measured seventeen feet. + +The breeze dried up as the day grew hotter, and in the end I downed +sail and rowed the last few miles. I know Whydah pretty well, having +had dealings there. It is a fine place, with orange-trees growing +wild and great green meadows, and rivers chock full of fish, and the +whole of it full of fever as an egg is of meat. The factory there +was kept by an old man, an Englishman, who pretended to be Dutch and +called himself Klootz, but was known to all as Bristol Pete. +The building stood on a rise at the back of the swamps. It had a +verandah in front, with a tier of guns which he loaded and fired off +on King George's birthday, and in the rear a hell of a barracks, +where he kept the slaves, ready for dealing. He was turned sixty and +grown careless in his talk, and he lived there with nine wives and +ten strapping daughters. Sons did not thrive with him, somehow. +In the matter of men he was short-handed, his habit being to entice +seamen off the ships trading there to take service with him on the +promise of marrying them up to his daughters. It looked like a good +speculation, for the old man had money. But every one of the women +was a widow, and the most of them widowed two deep. The climate +never agreed with the poor fellows, and just now he had over four +hundred slaves in barracks, and only one son-in-law, an Englishman, +to look after them. + +The old man made me welcome. A father couldn't have shown himself +kinder, and when I told him about the _Mary Pynsent_ he could scarce +contain himself. + +"If there's one thing more than another I enjoy at my age," said he, +"'tis a salvage job." + +And he actually left the agent--A. G.--in charge of the slaves for +three days, while he and I and three of the women took boat and went +after the vessel. We found her still at her moorings, and brought +her round to Whydah, he and me working her with the youngest of the +three (Sarah by name), while the two others cleaned ship. I cannot +say why exactly, but this woman appeared superior to her sisters, +besides being the best looking. The old man--he had an eye lifting +for everything--took notice of this almost before I knew it myself, +and put it to me that I couldn't do better than to marry her. +The woman, being asked, was willing. She had lost two husbands +already, she told me, but the third time was luck. Her father read +the service over us, out of a Testament he always carried in his +pocket. As for me, since my poor wife's death I had thoroughly given +myself over to the devil, and did not care. Old Klootz was +first-rate company, too; though living in that forsaken place he +seemed to be a dictionary about every ship that had sailed the seas +for forty years past, and to know every scandal about her. +He listened, too, though he seemed to be talking in his full-hearted +way all the time. And the end was that I told him about Melhuish, +and showed him the map. + +He had heard about Melhuish, as about everything else; but the map +did truly--I think--surprise him. We studied it together, and he +wound up by saying-- + +"There's a clever fellow somewhere at the bottom of this, and I +should like to make his acquaintance." + +Said I: "Then you believe there is such a treasure hidden?" + +"Lord love you," said he, "I know all about that! It happened in the +year '86 at Puerto Bello. A Spaniard, Bartholomew Diaz, that had +been flogged for some trouble in the mines, stirred up a revolt among +the niggers and half-breeds, and came marching down upon the coast +at the head of fourteen thousand or fifteen thousand men, sacking the +convents and looting the mines on his way. He gave himself out to be +some sort of religious prophet, and this brought the blacks like +flies round a honey-pot. The news of it caught Puerto Bello at a +moment when there was not a single Royal ship in the harbour. +The Governor lost his head and the priests likewise. Getting word +that Diaz was marching straight on the place, and not five leagues +distant, they fell to emptying the banks in a panic, stripping the +churches, and fetching up treasure from the vaults of the religious +houses. There happened to be a schooner lying in the harbour--the +_Rosaway_, built at Marblehead--lately taken by the Spaniards off +Campeachy, with her crew, that were under lock and key ashore, +waiting trial for cutting logwood without licence. The priests +commandeered this Vessel and piled her up with gold, the Governor +sending down a guard of soldiers to protect it; but in the middle +of the night, on an alarm that Diaz had come within a mile of the +gates, the dunderhead drew off half of this guard to strengthen the +garrison. On their way back to the citadel these soldiers were met +and passed in the dark by the _Rosaway's_ crew, that had managed to +break prison, and in the confusion had somehow picked up the +password. Sparke was the name of _Rosaway's_ skipper, a Marblehead +man; the mate, Griffiths, came from somewhere in Wales; the rest, +five in number, being likewise mixed English and Americans. +They picked up a shore-boat down by the harbour, rowed off to the +ship, got on board by means of the password, and within twenty +minutes had knocked all the Spaniards on the head, themselves losing +only one man. Thereupon, of course, they slipped cable and stood out +to sea. Next morning the _Rosaway_ hadn't been three hours out of +sight before two Spanish gun-ships came sailing in from Cartagena, +having been sent over in a hurry to protect the place; and one of +them started in chase. The _Rosaway_, being speedy, got away for the +time, and it was not till three weeks later that the Spaniards ran +down on her, snug and tight at anchor in a creek of this same island +of Mortallone. She was empty as a drum, and her crew ashore in a +pretty state of fever and mutiny. The Spaniards landed and took the +lot, all but the mate Griffiths, that was supposed to have been +knifed by Sparke, but two of the prisoners declared that he was alive +and hiding. They hanged four, saving only Sparke, keeping him to +show where the treasure was hidden. He led them halfway across the +island, lured them into a swamp, and made a bolt to escape, and the +tale is he was getting clear off when one of the Spanish seamen let +fly with his musket into the bushes and bowled him over like a +rabbit. It was a chance shot, and of course it put an end to all +hope of finding the treasure. They ransacked the island for a week +or more, but found never a dollar; and before giving it up some +inclined to believe what one of the prisoners had said, that the +treasure had never been buried in Mortallone at all, but in the +island of Roatan, some leagues to the eastward. But, if you ask my +opinion, the stranger that took lodgings with Melhuish was the mate +Griffiths, and no other. There has always been rumours that he got +away with the secret. Know about it?" said old Klootz. "Why, there +was even a song made up about it-- + + "'O, we threw the bodies over, and forth we did stand + Till the tenth day we sighted what seemed a pleasant land, + And alongst the Kays of Mortallone!'" + +From the first the old man had no doubt but we had struck the secret. +All the way home he was scheming, and the very night we reached +Whydah again he came out with a plan. + +"Have you ever read your Bible?" said he. + +"A little," I said, "between whiles; but latterly not much." + +"The more shame to you," said he, "for it is a good book. But you +ought to have heard of Noah, if you ever read the Book at all, for he +comes almost at the beginning. Well, I've a notion almost as good as +Noah's and not so very different. We will take the _Mary Pynsent_ +and put all the family on board, for we must take A. G. (naming the +Englishman, his other son-in-law), and I don't like to leave the +women alone, here in this wicked place. We will pack her up with +slaves and sail her across to Barbadoes. 'Tis an undertaking for a +man of my years, but a man is not old until he feels old; and I have +been wanting for a long time to see if trade in the Barbadoes is so +bad as the skippers pretend, cutting down my profits. At Barbadoes +we can hire a pinnace. Daniel Coffin, you and me will go into this +business in partnership," says he. + +The old fellow, once set going, had the pluck of a boy. The very +next night he called in A. G., and took him into the secret, in his +bluff way overriding me, that was for keeping it close between us +two. That the map was mine did not trouble him. He agreed that I +should be guardian of it, but took charge of all the outfit, ordering +me about sometimes like a dog, though, properly speaking, the vessel +herself belonged to me--or, at any rate, more to me than to him. +As for A. G., he didn't count. We filled up and weighed anchor on +August 12, having on board 420 blacks--290 men and 130 women--all +chained, and all held under by us twenty-two whites, of the which +nineteen were women. The weather turned sulky almost from the start, +and after ten days of drifting, with here and there a fluke of wind, +we found ourselves off the Gaboon river. From this we crept our way +to the Island of St. Thomas, three days; watered there, and fetched +down to the south-east trades. The niggers were dying fast, and +between the south-east and north-east trades, six weeks from our +starting, we lost between one and two score every day. I will say +that all the women worked like horses. We reached Barbadoes short of +our complement by 134 negroes and one of Klootz's wives. This last +did not trouble him much. + +He kept mighty cheerful all the way, although the speculation up to +now had turned out far from cheerful; and all the way he kept singing +scraps about the Kays of Mortallone in a way to turn even a healthy +man sick. I had patched up a kind of friendship with A.G., and we +allowed that, for all his heartiness, the old man was enough to +madden a saint. The slaves we landed fetched about nineteen pounds +on an average. They cost at starting from two pounds to three +pounds; but the ones that had died at sea knocked a hole in the +profits. + +At Barbadoes Klootz left the womenfolk in a kind of boarding-house, +and hired a pinnace, twenty tons, to take us across to the main, +pretending he wanted to inquire into the market there. Klootz and I +made the whole crew, with A. G., who could not navigate. January 17, +late in the afternoon, we ran down upon Mortallone Island and +anchored off the Kays, north of Gable Point. Next morning we out +with the boat and landed. Time, about three-quarters of an hour +short of low water. + +The Kays are nothing but sand. At low water, and for an hour before +and after, you can cross to Gable point dry-shod. We spent that day +getting bearings; dug a little, but nothing to reward us. Next day +we got to work early. Had been digging for two hours, when we turned +up the first body. It turned A. G. poorly in the stomach, and he sat +down to watch us. Half an hour later we struck the first of the +chests. It did not hold more than five shillings' worth, and we saw +that somebody had been there before us. + +The third day we turned up three more bodies, besides two chests, +empty as before, and a full one. We stove it in, emptied the stuff +into the boat, and made our way back to the ship. + +The fourth day we had scarcely started to dig before Klootz struck on +a second chest that sounded like another full one-- + + +Here Miss Belcher turned a page, glanced overleaf, and came to a full +stop. + +"For pity's sake, Lydia--" protested Mr. Rogers, who sat leaning +forward, his elbows on the table. + +"There's no more," Miss Belcher announced. + +"No more?" + +"Not a word." She fumbled quickly through the remaining blank +leaves. "Not a word more," she repeated. + +"Death cut short his hand," said Captain Branscome, his voice +breaking in upon a long silence. + +"Cut short his fiddlestick-end!" snapped Miss Belcher. "The man +funked it at the last moment--started out promising to tell the whole +truth, but refused the fence. Look back at the story, and you can +see him losing heart. Just note that when he comes to A. G.--that's +the man Aaron Glass, I suppose--he dares not write down the man's +name. There has been foul work, and he's afraid of it. That's as +plain as the nose on my face." + +"But what's to be done?" asked Mr. Rogers, picking up the manuscript +and turning its pages irritably. + +"Dear me," said a voice, "there is surely but one thing to be done! +We must go and search for ourselves." + +We all turned and stared at Plinny. + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +IN WHICH PLINNY SURPRISES EVERYONE. + +Everybody stared; and this had the effect of making the dear good +creature blush to the eyes. + +"I beg your pardon, ma'am?" said Mr. Jack Rogers. + +"It--it was not for me to say so, perhaps." Her voice quavered a +little, and now a pair of bright tears trembled on her lashes; but +she kept up her chin bravely and seemed to take courage as she went +on. "I am aware, sir, that in all matters of hazard and enterprise +it is for the gentlemen to take the lead. If I appear forward--if I +speak too impulsively--my affection for Harry must be my excuse." + +Mr. Rogers stared at Captain Branscome, and from Captain Branscome to +Mr. Goodfellow, but their faces did not help him. + +"That's all very well, ma'am, but an expedition to the other end of +the world--if that's what you suggest?--at a moment's notice--on +what, as like or not, may turn out to be a wild-goose chase--Lord +bless my soul!" wound up Mr. Rogers incoherently, falling back in his +chair. + +"I was not proposing to start at a moment's notice," replied Plinny, +with extreme simplicity. "There will, of course, be many details to +arrange; and I do not forget that we are in the house of mourning. +The poor dear Major claims our first thoughts, naturally. Yes, yes; +there must be a hundred and one details to be discussed hereafter--at +a fitting time; and it may be many weeks before we find ourselves +actually launched--if I may use the expression--upon the bosom of the +deep." + +"_We?_" gasped Mr. Rogers, and again gazed around; but we others had +no attention to spare for him. "_We?_ Who are 'we'?" + +"Why, all of us, sir, if I might dare to propose it; or at least as +many as possible of us whom the hand of Providence has so +mysteriously brought together. I will confess that while you were +talking just now, discussing this secret which properly speaking +belongs to Harry alone, I doubted the prudence of it--" + +"And, by Jingo, you were right!" put in Miss Belcher. + +"With your leave, ma'am," Plinny went on, "I have come to think +otherwise. To begin with, but for Captain Branscome the map would +never have found its way to the Major's room, where Harry discovered +it; but might--nay, probably would--have been stolen by the wicked +man who committed this crime to get possession of it. Again, but for +Mr. Goodfellow this written narrative would undoubtedly have been +lost to us, and the map, if not meaningless, might have seemed a clue +not worth the risk of following. In short, ma'am"--Plinny turned +again to Miss Belcher--"I saw that each of us at this table had been +wonderfully brought here by the hand of Providence. And from this I +went on to see, and with wonder and thankfulness, that here was a +secret, sought after by many evildoers, which had yet come into the +keeping of six persons, all of them honest, and wishful only to do +good. Consider, ma'am, how unlikely this was, after the many bold, +bad hands that have reached out for it. And will you tell me that +here is accident only, and not the finger of Providence itself? +At first, indeed, we suspected Captain Branscome and Mr. Goodfellow: +they were strangers to us, and, as if that we might be tested, they +came to us under suspicion." Here Mr. Goodfellow put up a hand and +dubiously felt his nose, which was yet swollen somewhat from his +first encounter with Mr. Rogers. "But they have proved their +innocence; Harry gives me his word for them; and I do not think," +said Plinny, "that you, ma'am, can have heard Captain Branscome's +story without honouring him." + +Miss Belcher, thus appealed to, answered only with a grunt, at the +same time shooting from under her shaggy eyebrows an amused glance at +the Captain, who stared at the table-cloth to hide his confusion, +which, however, was betrayed by a pair of very red ears. + +"All this," pursued Plinny, "I saw by degrees, and that it was +marvellous; but next came something more marvellous still, for I saw +that if one had gone forth to choose six persons to carry out this +business, he could not have chosen six better fitted for it." + +From the effect of this astounding proposition Miss Lydia Belcher was +the first to recover herself. + +"Thank you, my dear," she murmured; "on behalf of myself and the +company, as they say. It is true that in all these years I have +overlooked my qualifications for a buccaneering job; but I'll think +them out as you proceed." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Plinny, "I wasn't counting on you, ma'am, to +accompany this expedition; nor on Mr. Rogers. You are great folks as +compared with us, and have public duties--a stake in the country-- +great wealth to administer. Yet I was thinking that, while we are +abroad, there may happen to be business at home requiring attention, +and that we may perhaps rely on you--who have shown so much interest +in this sad affair." + +"Meaning that we have been dipping our fingers pretty deep into this +pie. Well, and so we have; and thank you again, my dear, for putting +it so delicately." + +"But I meant nothing of the sort--indeed I didn't!" protested Plinny. + +"Tut, tut! Of course you didn't, but it's the truth nevertheless. +Well, then, it appears that Jack Rogers and I are to be the +spotsmen[1] for this little expedition, and that you and Captain +Branscome, and Mr. Goodfellow, and--yes, and Harry, too, I suppose-- +are to be the Red Rovers and scour the Spanish Main. All right; only +you don't look it, exactly." + +"But is not that half the battle?" urged the indomitable Plinny. +"They'll be so much the less likely to suspect us." + +"They--whoever they may be--will certainly be so far deluded." + +"And really--if you will consider it, ma'am--what I am proposing is +not ridiculous at all. For what is chiefly wanted for such an +adventure? In the first place, a ship--and thank God I have means to +hire one, in the second place, a trustworthy navigator--and here, by +the most unexpected good fortune, we have Captain Branscome; in the +third place, a carpenter, to provide us with shelter on the island +and be at hand in case of accident to the vessel--and here is Mr. +Goodfellow; while as for Harry--" Plinny hesitated, for the moment +at a loss; then her face brightened suddenly. "Harry can climb a +tree, and the instructions on the back of the map point to this as +necessary. Harry will be invaluable!" + +I could have wrung her hand; but Plinny, having finished her +justification of the ways of Providence, had taken off her spectacles +and was breathing on them and polishing them with a small silk +handkerchief which she ever kept handy for that purpose. + +"Captain Branscome," said Miss Belcher, sharply, "will you be so good +as to give us your opinion?" + +Captain Branscome lifted his head. "My mind, if you'll excuse me, +ma'am, works a bit slowly, and always did. But there's no denying +that Miss Plinlimmon has given the sense of it." + +"Hey?" + +"To be sure," said the Captain, tracing with his finger an imaginary +pattern on the table-cloth, "her courage carries her too far--as in +this talk about hiring a ship. A ship needs a crew; a crew that +could be trusted on a treasure-hunt is perhaps the most difficult to +find in the whole world; and when you've found one to rely upon, your +troubles are only just beginning. The main trouble is with the ship, +and that's what no landsman can ever understand. A ship's the most +public thing under heaven. You think of her, maybe, as something +that puts out over the horizon and is lost to sight for months. +But that helps nothing. She must clear from a port, and to a port +sooner or later she must return; and in both ports a hundred curious +people at least must know all about her business. + +"I don't say that a ship, once out of sight, cannot be made away +with--though even that, with a crew to tell tales, has beaten some of +the cleverest heads; but to take out a ship and fill her up with +treasure, and bring her home _and unload her without any one's +knowing_--that's a feat that (if you'll excuse me) I've heard a +hundred liars discuss at one time and another; and one has said it +can be done in this way, and another in that, but never a one in my +hearing has found a way that would deceive a child." + +"Yet you said, a moment since, that Miss Plinlimmon had given the +sense of it?" + +"I did, ma'am. I am saying that to fetch this treasure will be +difficult, even if we find it--" + +"You don't doubt its existence?" + +"I do not, ma'am. I doubt it so little, ma'am, that I would ten +times sooner engage to find than to fetch it. But I don't even +despair of fetching it, if the lady goes on being as clever as she +has begun." + +"What?" exclaimed Plinny. "I? Clever?" + +"Yes, indeed, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, still in a slow, +measured voice. "But, indeed, too, I might have been prepared for it +when you started by taking a line that beats all my experience of +landsmen; or perhaps in this case I ought to say lands_ladies_." + +"Why, what have I done that is wonderful?" + +"You took the line, ma'am, that, from here to Honduras, what is it +but a passage? A few months at the most--oh, to be sure, to a seaman +that's no more than nature; but to hear it from any one land-bred, +and a lady too! As a Christian man, I have believed in miracles, +but to-day I seem to be moving among them. And after your saying +_that_, I had no call to be surprised when you up and suggested a way +that would have taken a seaman twenty years to hit upon! I am not +talking about the ship, ma'am. That part of your plan (if you'll +allow me, as a seaman, to give an opinion) won't work at all. +But the plan in general is a masterpiece." + +"But I do not see," Plinny confessed, with a small puckering of the +brows, "that I have suggested anything that can be called a plan." + +"Why, ma'am, you have been talking heavenliest common sense, and once +you've started us upon common sense there's no such thing as a +difficulty. 'Let us go to the island,' you said; and with that at a +stroke you get rid of the worst danger we have to fear, which is +suspicion. For who's to suspect such a company as this present, or +any part of it, of being after treasure? 'Let us make it a pleasure +trip,' said you, or words to that effect; and what follows but that +the whole journey is made cheap and simple? We book our passages in +the Kingston packet. Peace has been declared with France, and what +more natural than that a party of English should be travelling to see +the West Indies? Or what more likely than that, after what has +happened, the doctor has advised a sea-voyage, to soothe your mind? +As for me, I am Harry's tutor; every one in Falmouth knows it, and +thinks me lucky to get the billet. It won't take five minutes to +explain Mr. Goodfellow here, just as easily--" + +"And as for me," struck in Miss Belcher, "I'm an old madwoman, with +more money than I know what to do with. And as for Jack Rogers, I'm +eloping with him to a coral island." + +Mr. Rogers checked himself on the edge of a guffaw. + +"But, I say, Lydia, you're not serious about this?" he asked. + +"I don't know, Jack. I rather think I am. I'm getting an old woman, +mad or not; and the hours drag with me sometimes up at the house. +But"--and here she looked up with one of those rare smiles that set +you thinking she must have been pretty in her time--"there's this +advantage in having followed my own will for fifty years: that no one +any longer troubles to be surprised at anything I may do. +You're something of an eccentric yourself, Jack. You had better join +the picnic." + +"I ought to warn you, ma'am," said Captain Branscome gravely, "that +although the West India route has been fairly well protected for some +months now, there _is_ a certain amount of risk from American +privateers." + +"The Americans are a chivalrous nation, I have always heard." + +"Extremely so, ma'am; nevertheless, there is a risk, in the event of +the packet being attacked. But I was about to say," pursued Captain +Branscome, "that our being at war with America may actually help us +to get across from Jamaica to the island. Quite a number of old +Colonial families--loyalists, as we should call them--have been +driven from time to time to cross over from the Main and settle in +the West Indies. But of course they have left kinsfolk behind them +in the States; and, in spite of wars and divisions, it is no unusual +thing for relatives to slip back and forth and visit one another-- +secretly, you understand. I have even heard of an old lady, now or +until lately residing in St. Kitts, who has made no less than eleven +such voyages to the Delaware--whenever, in short, her daughter was +expecting an addition to her family." + +"Good," said Miss Belcher. "I have found some one to impersonate; +and that settles it." + +"I really think, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, "that, once in +Jamaica, we shall have no difficulty in finding, at the western end +of the island, just the ship we require." + +"Bless my soul!" said Miss Belcher. "Except for the sea-voyage, it +might be a middle-aged jaunt in a po'-shay!" + +[1] Miss Belcher was here employing a smuggling term. A "spotsman" +is the agent who arranges for a run of goods, and directs the +operation from the shore, without necessarily taking a part in it. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +A STRANGE MAN IN THE GARDEN. + +Indeed, the longer we weighed the pros and cons the more feasible +appeared the simple adventure. We ran, to be sure, the risk of being +waylaid on our passage by an American privateer; but this was a +danger incident to all who sailed on board his Majesty's Post Office +packets in the year 1814. That anything was to be feared from the +man Glass, none of us (I believe) stopped to consider. We thought of +him only as a foiled criminal, a fugitive from justice, and +speculated only on the chance that, with the hue-and-cry out and the +whole countryside placarded, the Plymouth runners would lay him by +the heels. + +Undoubtedly he had made for Plymouth. From Torpoint came news that a +man answering to his description had crossed the ferry there on the +morning after the murder. The regular ferryman there had stepped +into a public-house for his regular morning glass of rum-and-water; +and in his absence the small boy who acted as substitute had taken a +stranger across. The stranger, who appeared to be in a sweating +hurry, had rewarded the boy with half a crown; and the boy, rowing +back to the Torpoint side and finding his master still in the tavern, +had kept his own counsel and the money. Now the hue-and-cry had +frightened him into confessing; and his description left no doubt +that the impatient passenger was Aaron Glass. + +Such a man had been observed, about two hours later, mingling in a +fish auction on the Barbican; and had actually bidden for a boatload +of mackerel, but without purchasing. From the auction he had walked +away in the direction of Southside Street; and from that point all +trace of him was lost. + +Mr. Rogers, who had posted straight to Plymouth from the inquest, +spent a couple of days in pushing inquiries here, there and +everywhere. But not even the promise of a clue rewarded him. +Two foreign-going vessels and four coasters had sailed from the port +on the morning after the murder. The coasters were duly met, +boarded, and searched at their ports of arrival--two at Liverpool, +one at Milford, and one at Gravesend--but without result. If, as +seemed likely, the man had contrived to ship himself on board the +_Hussar_ brig, bound for Barcelona, or the _Mary Harvey_ barque, for +Rio, the chances of bringing him to justice might be considered nil, +or almost nil; for Mr. Rogers had some hope of the _Hussar_ being +overtaken and spoken by a frigate which happened to be starting, two +days later, to join our fleet in the Mediterranean. + +During the week or two that followed my father's funeral little was +said of our expedition, although I understood from Plinny that the +start would only be delayed until she and the lawyers had proved the +will and put his estate in order for me. My father's pension had, of +course, perished with him; but he left me a small sum in the funds, +bearing interest between fifty and sixty pounds per annum, together +with the freehold of Minden Cottage. Unfortunately, he had appointed +no trustees, and I was a minor; and even more unfortunately his will +directed that Minden Cottage should be sold "within a reasonably +brief time" after his death, and that the sum accruing should be +invested in Government stock for my benefit; and with this little +tangle to work upon, our lawyers--Messrs. Harding and Whiteway, of +Plymouth--and the Court of Chancery, soon involved the small estate +in complications which (as Miss Belcher put it) were the more +annoying because the fools at both ends were honest men and trying to +do the best for me. + +Of this business I understood nothing at the time, save that it +caused delay; and I mention it here only to explain the delay and +because (as will be seen) the sale of Minden Cottage, when at length +the Lord Chancellor was good enough to authorize it, had a very +important bearing on the rest of my story. + +Meanwhile, Captain Branscome had, of course, returned to Falmouth, +and would book our passages on the Kingston packet as soon as my +affairs allowed. We received letters from him from time to time, and +on Saturdays and Mondays a passing call from Mr. Goodfellow, on his +way to and from Plymouth. He had stipulated that, before sailing +with us, he should take his inamorata into his confidence; and this +was conceded after Miss Belcher had taken the opportunity of a day's +marketing in Plymouth to call at the dairy-shop in Treville Street +and make the lady's acquaintance. + +"A very sensible young person," she reported; "and of the two I'd +sooner trust her than Goodfellow to keep a still tongue. There's no +danger in _that_ quarter!" + +Nor was there, as it proved. Mr. Goodfellow told us that he could +hardly contain himself whenever he thought of his prospects; "for," +said he, "I was born a parish apprentice; in place of which here I be +at the age of twenty with two fortunes waiting for me, one at each +end of the world." + +At length, in the last week of July, Messrs. Harding and Whiteway +announced that all formalities were complete; and three days later a +bill appeared on the whitewashed front of Minden Cottage announcing +that this desirable freehold residence with two and a half acres of +land would be sold by public auction on August 6, at 1.30 o'clock +p.m., in the Royal Hotel, Plymouth. Any particulars not mentioned in +the bills would be readily furnished on application at the office +of the vendor's solicitors; and parties wishing to inspect the +premises might obtain the keys from Miss Belcher's lodge-keeper, +Mr. Polglaze--that is to say, from the nearest dwelling-house down +the road. + +Plinny, with the help of half a dozen of Miss Belcher's men and a +couple of waggons, had employed these three days in removing our +furniture to the great cricket pavilion above the hill; an excellent +storehouse, where, for the time, it would remain in charge of Mr. +Saunders, the head keeper. We ourselves removed to the shelter of +Miss Belcher's lordly roof, as her guests; and Ann, the cook, to a +cottage on the home farm, where that lady--who usually superintended +her own dairy--had offered her the post of _locum tenens_ until our +return from foreign travel. By the morning when the bill-poster came +and affixed the notice of sale, Minden Cottage stood dismantled--a +melancholy shell, inhabited only by memories for us, and for our +country neighbours by mysterious ghostly terrors. + +This was one of the many grounds on which we agreed that the Lord +Chancellor had acted foolishly in insisting upon a public auction. +His lordship, to be sure, could not be expected to know that recent +events had utterly depreciated the selling value of Minden Cottage +over the whole of the south and east of Cornwall; that the +homeward-trudging labourer would breathe a prayer as he neared it +along the high-road in the dark, and would shut his eyes and run by +it, nor draw breath until he reached the lodge, down the road; that +quite a number of Christian folk who had been used to envy my father +the snuggest little retreat within twenty miles would now have +refused a hundred pounds to spend one night in it. So it was, +however; and the chance of an "out"-bidder might be passed over as +negligible. On the other hand, Miss Belcher had offered Messrs. +Harding and Whiteway a handsome and more than sufficient price for +the property. She wanted it to round off her estate, out of which, +at present, it cut a small cantle and at an awkward corner. +Moreover, if Miss Belcher had not come forward, Plinny was prepared +to purchase. That Miss Belcher would acquire the place no one +doubted. Still, a public sale it had to be. + +Early in the afternoon of the 5th, she left us for Plymouth, to make +arrangements for the bidding. I did not see her depart, having been +occupied since five in the morning in a glorious otter-hunt, for +which Mr. Rogers had brought over his hounds. The heat of the day +found us far up-stream, and a good ten miles from home; and by the +time Mr. Rogers had returned his pack to Miss Belcher's hospitable +kennels the sun was low in the west. I know nothing that will make a +man more honestly dirty than a long otter-hunt, followed by a +perspiring tramp along a dusty road. From feet to waist I was a cake +of dried mud overlaid with dust. I had dust in my hair, in the +creases of my clothes, in the pores of my skin. I needed ablution +far beyond the resources of Miss Belcher's establishment, which, to +tell the truth, left a good deal to seek in the apparatus of personal +cleanliness; and, snatching up the clean shirt and suit of clothes +which the ever-provident Plinny had laid out on the bed for me, I ran +down across the park to the stream under the plantation. + +Little rain had fallen for a month past, and, arriving at the pool on +which I had counted for a bath, I found it almost dry. While I stood +there, in two minds whether to return or to strip and make the best +of it, I bethought me that--although I had never bathed there in my +life, the stream would be better worth trying where it ran through +the now deserted garden of Minden Cottage, below the summer-house. +The bottom might be muddy, but the dam which my father had built +there secured a sufficiency of water in the hottest months. +I picked up my clothes again, and, following the stream up to the +little door in the garden wall, pushed open the rusty latch, and +entered the garden. + +The hour, as I have said, was drawing on to dusk; and though, perhaps +I ought to say, I am by nature not inclined to nervousness (or I had +not ventured so near that particular spot), yet scared enough I was, +as I stepped on to the little foot-bridge, to see a man standing by +the doorway of the summer-house. + +For an instant a terror seized me that it might be a ghost--or, +worse, the man himself, Aaron Glass. But a second glance, as I +halted on a hair-trigger--so to speak--to turn and run for my life, +assured me that the man was a stranger. + +He wore a suit of black, and a soft hat of Panama straw with a broad +brim, and held in his hand a something strange to me, and, indeed, as +yet almost unknown in England--an umbrella. It had a dusky white +covering, and he held it by the middle, as though he had been engaged +in taking measurements with it when my entrance surprised him. + +It appeared to me for the moment that I had not only surprised him +but frightened him, for the face he turned to me wore a yellowish +pallor like that of old ivory. Yet when he drew himself up and +spoke, I seemed to know in an instant that this was his natural +colour. The face itself was large and fleshy, with bold, commanding +features: a face, on second thoughts, impossible to connect with +terror. + +"Hallo, little boy! What are you doing in this garden?" + +I answered him, stammering, that I was come to bathe; and while I +answered I was still in two minds about running; for his voice, +appearance, bearing, all alike puzzled me. He spoke genially, with +something foreign in his accent. I could not determine his age at +all. At first glance he seemed to be quite an old man, and not only +old but weary; yet he walked without a stoop, and as he came slowly +across the turf to the bridge-end I saw that his hair was black and +glossy, and his large face unwrinkled as a child's. + +"Not after the plums, eh?" + +"No, sir; and besides," said I, picking up my courage, "there's no +harm if I am. The garden belongs to me." + +"So?" He regarded me for some seconds, his hands clasping the +umbrella behind his back. The sight of the bundle of black clothes I +carried apparently satisfied him. "Then you have right to ask +what brings me here. I answer, curiosity. What became of the man +who did it?" he asked, with a glance over his shoulder towards the +summer-house. + +"Nobody knows, sir," I answered, recovering myself. + +"Disappeared, hey?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I fancy I could put my hand on him," he said very coolly, after a +pause. And I began to think I had to deal with a madman. + +"Suppose, now, that I do catch him," he went on after a pause. +"What shall I do with him? In my country--for I live a great way +off--we either choke a murderer or cut off his head with a knife." + +I told him--since he waited for me to say something--how in England +we disposed of our worst criminals. + +"No, you don't," said he quietly. "You let some of the worst go, and +the very worst (as you believe) you banish to an island, treating +them as the old Romans treated theirs. Now, I'm a traveller; and +where do you suppose I spent this day month?" + +I could not give a guess. + +"Why, on the island of Elba. I'm curious, you know, especially in +the matter of criminals, so I came--oh, a tremendous way--to have a +look at Napoleon Bonaparte, there. Now I'll tell you another thing, +he's going to escape in a month or two, when his plans are ready. +I had that from his own lips; and, what's more, I heard it again in +Paris a week later. From Paris I came across to London, and from +London down to Plymouth, and from Plymouth I was to have travelled +straight to Falmouth, to take my passage home, when I heard of what +had happened here, and that the house was for sale. So I stopped to +have a look at it; for I am curious, I tell you." + +He went on to prove his curiosity by asking me a score of questions +about myself: my age, my choice of a profession, my relatives (I told +him I had none), and my schooling. He drew me (I cannot remember +how) into a description of Plinny, and agreed with me that she must +be a woman in a thousand; asked where she lived at present, and +regretted--pulling out his watch--that he had not time to make her +acquaintance. Oddly enough, I felt when he said it that this was no +idle speech, but that only time prevented him from walking up the +hill and paying his respects. I felt also, the longer we talked, I +will not say a fear of him, for his manner was too urbane to permit +it, but an increasing respect. Crazed he might be, as his questions +were disconnected and now and again bewildering, as when he asked if +my father had travelled much abroad, and again it I really preferred +to remain idle at home instead of returning to finish my education +with Mr. Stimcoe; but his manner of asking compelled an answer. +I could not tell myself if I liked or disliked the man, he differed +so entirely from any one I had ever seen in my life. His questions +were intimate, yet without offence. I answered them all, with a +sense of talking to some one either immensely old or divided from me +by hundreds of miles. + +In the midst of our talk, and while he was pressing me with questions +about Mr. and Mrs. Stimcoe, he suddenly lifted his head, and stood +listening. + +"Hallo!" said he. "Here's the coach!" + +I had heard nothing, though my ears are pretty sharp. But sure +enough, though not until a couple of minutes had passed, the wheels +of the _Highflyer_, our evening coach to Plymouth, sounded far along +the road. + +The stranger pulled out a bunch of keys from his pocket. + +"I will ask you as a favour," said he, "to return these to the +lodge-keeper, from whom I borrowed them. Will you be so kind?" + +I said that I would do so with pleasure. + +"I have been over the house. It appears--the lodge-keeper tells me-- +that I have been almost the only visitor to inspect it. +That's queer, for I should have thought that to an amateur in crime-- +with a taste for discovery--it offered great possibilities. +But never mind, child," said this strange man, and shook hands. +"I have great hopes of finding the scoundrel, and of dealing with +him. Eh? 'How?' Well, if we get him upon an island, he shan't get +away, like Napoleon." + +With these words, which I did not understand in the least, he turned +and left me, passing out into the lane by the side-gate. A minute +later I heard the coach pull up, and yet a minute later roll on +again, conveying him towards Plymouth. I stole a glance at the +water, at the summer-house, at the tree behind it. Somehow in the +twilight they all wore an uncanny look. On my way home--for I +decided to return and take my bath in the house, after all--my mind +kept running on a story of Ann the cook's, about a man (a relative of +hers, she said) who had once seen the devil. And yet the stranger +had tipped me a guinea at parting, nor was it (except metaphorically) +red hot in my pocket. + + +Next evening Miss Belcher rode back to us from Plymouth with the +announcement that Minden Cottage was hers. She had not attended the +sale in person, but Maddicombe, her lawyer, had started the bidding +(under her instruction) at precisely the sum which she had privately +offered Messrs. Harding and Whiteway. There was no competition. +In fact, Maddicombe reported that, apart from the auctioneers and +himself, but six persons attended the sale. Of these, five were +local acquaintances of his whom he knew to be attracted only by +curiosity. Of the sixth, a stranger, he had been afraid at first, +but the man appeared to be a visitor, who had wandered into the sale +by mistake. At any rate, he made no bid. + +"What sort of man?" I asked. + +"As to that, Maddicombe had no very precise recollection, or couldn't +put it into words. A tall man, he said, and dressed in black; a +noticeable man--that was as far as he could get--and, he believed, a +foreigner." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +HOW WE SAILED TO THE ISLAND. + +The business of the sale concluded, we had nothing to detain us, and +an order was at once sent to Captain Branscome to book our passages +in the next packet for the West Indies. Meanwhile we held long +discussions on details of outfit, for since our impedimenta included +two moderately heavy chests--the one of guns and ammunition, the +other of spades, picks, hatchets, and other tools--and since on +reaching Jamaica we must take a considerable journey on muleback, it +was important to cut our personal luggage down to the barest +necessities. We did not forget a medicine-chest. + +On August 28 we received word from Captain Branscome that he had +taken berths for us on the _Townshend_ packet, commanded by an old +friend of his, a Captain Harrison. She was due to sail on the 1st. +Accordingly, on August 30 we travelled down by Royal Mail to +Falmouth, Mr. Rogers following that same noon by the _Highflyer_; +spent a busy day in making some last purchases, and a sleepless night +in the noisiest of hotels; and went on board soon after breakfast, to +be welcomed there by Mr. Goodfellow, who had got over his parting +three days before, at Plymouth, and professed himself to be in the +very jolliest of spirits. At the head of the after-companion Captain +Branscome met us and conducted us below, to introduce us to our +quarters and be complimented on the thought and care he had bestowed +in choosing them and fitting them up--for the ladies' comfort +especially. He himself lodged forward, in a small double cabin which +he shared with Mr. Goodfellow. + +I will spare the reader a description of our departure and of the +passage to Jamaica, not only because they were quite uneventful (we +did not even sight a' privateer), but because they have been +celebrated in verse by Plinny, in a descriptive poem of five cantos +and some four thousand lines, entitled "The Voyage: with an +Englishwoman's Reflections on her Favourite Element," a few extracts +from which I am permitted to quote-- + + "We sailed for Kingston in the _Townshend_ packet. + The day auspicious was, and calm the heavens; + Not so the scene on board--oh, what a racket! + And everything on deck apparently at sixes and sevens. + Mail-bags and passengers mixed up in every direction, + The latter engaged with their relatives in fond farewells; + On the one hand the faltering accents of affection, + On the other the unpolisht seamen emitting yells, + With criticisms of a Custom House official + Whose action for some reason they resented as prejudicial. + + "At length the last farewell is said, + The anchor tripped, the gangway clear'd; + 'Twas five p.m. ere past Pendennis Head + Forth to th' unfathomable deep we steer'd. + The bo'sun piped (he wore a manly beard); + And while th' attentive crew the braces trimm'd + (Alluding to the ship's), and while from observation + The coast receded, we with eyes be-dimm'd + Indulged in feelings natural to the situation. + + "Albion! My Albion! So called from the hue + Thy cliffs wear by the Straits of Dover-- + Though darker in this neighbourhood--still adieu! + Albion, adieu! I feel myself a rover. + Thy sons instinctively take to the water, + And so will I, albeit but a daughter." + +A page later, in more tripping metre (which reflects her gaiety of +spirits), she describes the ship-- + + "The _Townshend_ Packet is a gallant brig + Of one hundred and eighty tons; + 'Tis the Postmaster-General's favourite rig, + And she carries six useful guns. + As she sails, as she sails + With his Majesty's mails, + Hurrah for her long six-pounders! + They relieve our fear + Of a privateer, + But what shall we do if she founders? + I prefer not to think of any such contingency: + She has excellent sailing qualities, + And her captain appears to rule with stringency + And to be averse from minor frivolities. + With the late Admiral Nelson he may not provoke comparison. + But one and all place implicit confidence in Captain Harrison." + +While Plinny cultivated the Muse--and with the more zest as, to her +pride and delight, she found herself immune from sea-sickness--I kept +up, through the long mornings, the pretence of studying mathematics +with Captain Branscome, and regularly at noon received a lesson in +taking the ship's bearings. Our fellow-voyagers were mostly +merchants and agents bound for Jamaica, the trade of which had +revived since the restoration of peace; and among them we passed for +a well-to-do family travelling partly for pleasure to visit the +island, but partly also with an idea of buying a plantation and +settling there--which explained the presence of Mr. Goodfellow. + +Our captain justified the confidence so poetically expressed above. +He sailed his ship along steadily, taking no risks, and after a +pleasant passage of thirty-six days brought her to anchor in Carlisle +Bay, Barbadoes, where we were due to deliver some bags of mails. +I have said that the trip was uneventful; it was even without +incident save for some fooleries on reaching the Line, and such +trifling distractions as an unsuccessful attempt to shoot an +albatross, and the sighting of some flying-fish and sundry +long-tailed birds which the sailors called boatswains. But, as +Plinny wrote-- + + "Life at sea has a natural monotony + Of which 'twere irrational to complain: + You cannot, for instance, study botany + As in an English country lane. + But the mind is superior to distance + With its own reminiscences stored, + Not to mention the spiritual assistance + We derived from a clergyman on board." + +(He was a sallow young man of delicate constitution, and, partly for +his health's sake, had accepted the pastorate of a Genevan church in +Kingston.) + +From Barbadoes we beat up for Jamaica, and anchored in Kingston +Harbour just forty-five days from home. The next morning we said +farewell to the ship, and were rowed ashore to a good hotel, where we +spent a lazy week in email excursions, while Captain Branscome busied +himself in hiring a mule-train and holding consultations with a firm +of merchants, Messrs. Cox and Roebuck, to whom Miss Belcher came +recommended with a letter of credit. These gentlemen, understanding +that we desired to cross over to the Main to visit some relations of +Miss Belcher resident in Virginia (for that was our pretence), opined +that the matter was not difficult of management, but that we must +needs travel to the extreme west of the island if we would hire a +vessel for the purpose, and they mentioned an agent of theirs at +Savannah-la-Mar--Jacob Paz by name--as the likeliest man for our +purpose. + +Armed with a letter of introduction to this man, in the early morning +of October 22 we started on muleback, and, travelling without haste +through the exquisite scenery of Jamaica (the main roads of which put +ours of Cornwall to shame), arrived at Savannah-la-Mar on the 27th, a +great part of the way having been occupied by Miss Belcher (who hated +the sight of a negro) in rebuking Plinny's sentimental objections to +slavery, and by Mr. Rogers in begging a collection of humming-birds. + +It took (I believe) some time at Savannah-la-Mar to convince Mr Paz, +a subtle half-breed, that we were actually fools enough to wish to +purchase one of his vessels, and mad enough to propose working +her alone. He had three boats idle, including a pretty little +fore-and-aft schooner of thirty tons, the _Espriella_, which Captain +Branscome had no sooner set eyes upon than he decided to be the very +thing for our purpose. She was fitted with a large ladies' cabin aft +of the companion, a saloon, and a small single-berth cabin between it +and the fo'c's'le, which would house three men comfortably. We ended +by purchasing her for three hundred and seventy pounds; and into the +fo'c's'le I went with Mr. Goodfellow and Mr. Jack Rogers, who +insisted on resigning the spare cabin to Captain Branscome-- +henceforward, or until we should reach the island, by consent the +leader of the expedition. + +So on October 30, at six in the morning, after being commended to God +by Mr. Paz, we worked out of Savannah-la-Mar, and, having gained an +offing with a light breeze, hoisted all her bits of canvas, even to a +light jib-topsail we found on board--chiefly, I think, to impress +her late owner, whom we could descry on the shore, watching us. +He had steadfastly refused to believe us capable of handling a boat, +whereas of our party Plinny and Mr. Goodfellow were the only +landlubbers. Miss Belcher could take the helm with the best of us, +and indeed it was reported of her that she had on more than one +occasion played helmswoman to a run of goods upon her own Cornish +estate. Mr. Jack Rogers had once owned a yacht and suffered +from tedium; now, as a foremast hand, he was enjoying himself +amazingly. + +But the pride above all prides was Captain Branscome's. After many +years he trod a deck again, commander of his own ship; and the +bearing of the man was that of a prince restored after long exile +to his kingdom. Courteous as ever to the ladies, to the rest of us +he behaved as a master, noble but severe, unwearied in explaining the +least minutiae of seamanship, inexorable in seeing that his smallest +instruction was obeyed. Mr. Rogers at the end of the first day +confided to me that he had much ado to refrain from touching his +forelock whenever he heard the skipper's voice. + +I shall not be believed if I say that in all the five days of +our voyage Captain Branscome never snatched a wink of sleep. +Doubtless he did sleep, between whiles; but doubtless also no one saw +him do it. + +It was daybreak or thereabouts on the morning of November 5--and a +faint light coming through the decklight over the fo'c's'le--when I, +that had kept the middle watch and was now snoring in my bunk, sat up +at a touch on my shoulder, and stared, rubbing my eyes, into the dim +face of Mr. Goodfellow. + +"Skipper wants you on deck," he announced. "We've lifted something +on the starboard bow, and he swears 'tis the Island." + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND. + +The word fetched me out of my bunk like a shot from a gun. I ran +past him, scrambled up the fo'c's'le ladder, and gained the deck in +time to see Miss Belcher emerge from the after-companion upon the +dawn, her hair in a "bun," her bare feet thrust into loose felt +slippers, her form wrapped in a Newmarket overcoat closely buttoned +over her _robe de nuit_. + +"The Island, ma'am!" announced Captain Branscome from the helm; and, +turning there by the fo'c's'le hatch and following the gesture of his +hand, I descried a purplish smear on the southern horizon. To me it +looked but a low-lying cloud or a fogbank. + +"I'll take your word for it," answered Miss Belcher, calmly. +"You have timed it well, Captain Branscome." + +"Under Providence, ma'am," the Captain corrected her, and called to +me to take the wheel while he fetched out his chart and unrolled it +for her inspection. "We are running straight down upon the northern +end of it, and our best anchorage (if I may suggest) lies to the +south'ard--in Gow's Creek, as they call it." + +He laid a finger on the chart. + +"We rely upon you, sir, to choose." + +"I thank you, ma'am. If (as I doubt not) we find plenty of water +there, it will be the best anchorage in this breeze; not to mention +that this Gow's Creek runs up, as we are directed, to within a mile +and a half of the No. 3 _cache_. If you agree, ma'am, I have only to +ask your instructions whether to coast down the east or the west side +of the Island. The wind, you perceive, serves equally well for +both." + +Miss Belcher considered for a moment. + +"The Keys lie to the west of Gable Point, here. By taking that side +we can have a look at them on our way." + +"Right, ma'am. Harry!"--he turned to me--"bring her nose round to +sou'-west and by south, and stand by for the gybe." He hauled in the +main-sheet and eased it over. "Now, see here, lad," he called to me +sharply as the little vessel yawed: "where were your eyes just then?" + +"I was taking a look at the land-fall, sir," I answered truthfully. + +"Then I'll trouble you to fix your mind on the lubber's-mark and hold +her straight. That's discipline, my boy, and in this business you +may want all you can learn of it." + +It was not Captain Branscome's habit to speak sharply. I turned my +attention to the card, conscious of a pair of red ears. + +The sky brightened, and within an hour, as we ran down upon it at +something like eight knots, the Island began to take shape. +A wisp of morning fog floated horizontally across it, dividing its +shore-line from the hills in the interior, which, looming above this +cloudy base, appeared considerably higher than, in fact, they were. +The shore itself along the eastern side showed almost uniformly +steep--a line of reddish rock broken with patches of green, which we +mistook for meadows (but they turned out to be nothing more or less +than sheets of green creepers matted together and overhanging the +cliffs). At its northern extremity, upon which we were closing down +at an acute angle, the land dropped to a low-lying, sandy peninsula +with a backbone of rock almost bare of vegetation, and beyond this we +saw the white surf glittering around the Keys. + +Our course gave them a fairly wide berth; and at first I took them +for a continuous line of sandbanks running in a rough semicircle +around the low spit which the chart called Gable Point; but as we +drew level they broke up into islets, with blue channels between, and +at sight of us thousands of sea-birds rose in cloud upon cloud, with +a clamour that might have been heard for miles. One of these banks-- +the northernmost--showed traces of herbage, grey in colour and dull +by contrast with the verdure of the Island. The rest were but barren +sand. + +We rounded them at about three cables' length and stood due south, +giving sheet again. Southward from the neck of the peninsula this +western side of the Island differed surprisingly from the other. +Here were no cliffs, but a flat shore and long stretches of beach, +gradually shelving up to green bush, with here a palmetto grove and +there a lagoon of still water within the outer barrier of sand. +Mr. Jack Rogers had relieved me at the helm, and with the Captain's +permission I had stepped below to the saloon, where Plinny was +waiting to give me breakfast, and persuaded the good soul not only to +let me carry it on deck and eat it there, but to postpone washing-up +for a while and accompany me. To this she would by no means consent +until I had brought her the Captain's leave. + +"You may take her my leave," said he, with a sudden flush on his face, +"and my apologies for having neglected to request the honour of her +company. The fact is," he added, with a hard glance at me, "Miss +Plinlimmon's sense of discipline is so rare a thing that I am always +forgetting to do justice to it. Were it possible to find a whole +crew so conscientious I would undertake to sail to the North Pole." + +I conveyed this answer to Plinny, and it visibly gratified her. +She retired at once to the ladies' cabin to indue her poke-bonnet +with coquelicot trimmings. Her apron she retained, observing that on +an expedition of this sort one should never be taken at unawares, and +that when at Rome you should do as the Romans did. "By which, my +dear Harry," she explained, "you are not to understand me to refer to +their Papist observances, such as kissing a man's toe. Were such a +request proffered to me even at the cannon's mouth, I trust my +courage would find an answer. 'No, no,' I would say, + + "'I will not bow within the House of Rimmon: + Yours faithfully, Amelia Plinlimmon.'" + +As we reached the head of the companion-ladder Captain Branscome, who +was standing just aft of the wheel, behind Mr. Rogers's shoulder, and +scanning the shore through his glass, made a motion to step forward +and hand her on deck. This was ever his courteous way, and I turned +a moment later in some surprise, to find that, instead of closing the +glass, he had lifted it, and was holding it again to his eye, at the +same time keeping his right shoulder turned to us. + +While we looked, he lowered it and made his bow, yet with something +of a preoccupied air. + +"Good morning, ma'am. You are very welcome on deck, and I trust that +Harry conveyed the apology I sent by him." + +"I beg you will not mention it, sir. It is true that I suffered from +the curiosity which outspoken critics have called the bane of my sex; +yet, believe me, I was far from accusing you, knowing how many +responsibilities must weigh on the captain of an expedition, even +though it fare as prosperously as ours." + +"True, ma'am," Captain Branscome tapped his spyglass absent-mindedly, +and seemed on the point of lifting it again. "Though, with your +permission, I will add 'D.V.'" + +"Yes--yes"--Plinny smiled a cheerful approval--"we are ever in the +Divine Hand; not more really, perhaps, in the tropics than in those +more temperate latitudes when, though the wolf and lion do not howl +for prey, an incautious step upon a piece of orange-peel has before +now proved equally fatal." + +Captain Branscome bowed again. + +"You call me the leader of this expedition, Miss Plinlimmon; and so I +am, until we drop anchor. With that, in two or three hours at +farthest, my chief responsibility ends, and I think it time"--he +turned to Mr. Rogers--"that we made ready to appoint my successor. +I shall have a word to say to him." + +"Nonsense, man!" answered Mr. Rogers, looking up from the wheel. +"If you mean me, I decline to act except as your lieutenant. +You have captained us admirably; and if I decline the honour, you +will hardly suggest promoting Harry, here, or Goodfellow!" + +"I was thinking that Miss Belcher, perhaps--" + +"Hallo!" said Miss Belcher, turning at the sound of her name, and +coming aft from the bows, whence she had been studying the coastline. +"What's the matter with _me?_" + +"The Captain," exclaimed Mr. Rogers, "has been tendering us his +resignation." + +"Why?" + +"Mr. Rogers misunderstands me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome. +"I merely said that, so far as we have agreed as yet, My authority +ceases an soon as we cast anchor. If you choose to re elect me, I +shall not say 'No'--though not coveting the honour; but I can only +say 'Yes' upon a condition." + +"Name it, please." + +"That I have every one's implicit obedience. I may--nay, I shall-- +give orders that will be irksome and at the same time hard to +understand. I may be unable to give you my reasons for them; or able +to give you none beyond the general warning that we are after +treasure, and I never yet heard of a treasure-hunt that was +child's-play." + +He spoke quietly, but with an impressiveness not to be mistaken, +though we knew no cause for it. Miss Belcher, at any rate, did not +miss it. She shot him a keen glance, turned for a moment, and seemed +to study the shore, then faced about again, and said she-- + +"I am not used to be commanded. But I can command myself, and am not +altogether a fool." + +The Captain bowed. "I was thinking, ma'am, that might be our +difficulty. But if I have your word to try--" + +"You have." + +"I thank you, ma'am, and will own that my mind is relieved. It may +even be that, from time to time, I may do myself the honour of +consulting you. Nevertheless--" + +"I mustn't count on it, eh? Well, as you please; only I warn you +that, while in any case I am going to be as good as my word, if you +treat me like a sensible person I shall probably be a trifle better." + +For ten seconds, maybe, the pair looked one another in the eyes; then +the Captain bowed once more, and apparently this invited her to step +forward with him to the bows, where they halted and stood conning the +coast, the Captain through his spyglass. + +As they left us, Plinny and I moved to the waist of the ship, where +we paused by consent, and I resumed my breakfast, munching it as I +leaned against the port bulwarks. We were now rapidly opening Long +Bay (as the chart called it), a deep recess running out squarely at +either extremity, the bight of it crossed by a beach, and a line of +tumbling breakers, that extended for close upon three miles. +Above the beach a forest of tall trees, in height and colour at once +distinguishable from the thick bush we had hitherto been passing, +screened the bases of a range of hills which obviously formed the +backbone of the island; and as the whole bay crept into view we +discerned in the north (or, to be accurate, N.N.E.) corner of this +long recess a marshy valley dividing the scrub from the forest. +The mouth of this valley, where it widened out upon the beach, +measured at least half a mile across. The chart marked it as Misery +Swamp, and indicated a river there. We could detect none, or, at any +rate, no river entrance. If river there were, doubtless it emptied +its waters through the fringe of grey-green weeds, and dispersed over +the flat-looking foreshore; but even at two miles' distance it looked +to be a dismal, fever-haunted spot. + +By contrast, the noble range of woodland to southward of it and the +rocky peaks that rose in delicate shadow above the tree-tops were +beautiful as a dream, even to eyes fresh from the forest scenery of +Jamaica; and while Plinny leant with me against the bulwarks, I felt +that in the silence immortal verse was shaping itself, which it did +after a while to this effect-- + + "Arrived o'er the limitless ocean + In 16 degrees of N. latitude, + Our lips were attuned to devotion, + Our spirits uplifted in gratitude. + + "Our hearts with poetic afflatus + Took wing and impulsively soared + As the lead-line (a quaint apparatus) + Reported the depth overboard. + + "Oh, oft had I dream'd of the tropics-- + But never to see them in person-- + So full of remarkable topics + To speculate, sing, and converse on." + +It was Mr. Goodfellow who worked the hand-lead, under Captain +Branscome's orders, from a perch just forward of the main rigging; +but at a mile's distance we carried deep water with us past Crabtree +Point, and around the unnamed small cape which formed the +south-western extremity of the island. We rounded this, and, +hauling up to the wind, found (as the reader may discover for himself +by a glance at the chart) that the shore made almost directly E. by +N., with scarcely an indentation, for Gow's Gulf. + +Here the water shoaled, though for the first mile almost +imperceptibly. The inlet itself resembled the estuary of a mighty +river, its both sides well wooded, though very different in +configuration, the northern rising quietly from shelving beaches of +coral-white sand to some of the most respectable hills in the island, +while that on our starboard hand presented a succession of cliff and +chasm, the cliffs varying, as we judged, from two hundred to two +hundred and fifty feet sheer. + +In three and a half fathoms (reported by Mr. Goodfellow) the water, +which was exquisitely clear, showed good white sand under us. +Ahead of us the creek narrowed, promising an anchorage almost +completely landlocked and as peaceful as the soul of man could +desire. We drew a short eight feet of water, and with such soundings +(for the tide had not been making above an hour) I expected the old +man to hold on for at least another mile, when, to my surprise, he +took the helm from Mr. Rogers and, sending him forward, shook the +_Espriella_ up in the wind, at the same time calling to Goodfellow +and me to lower the main throat-halliards. + +"Leave go anchor!" + +With a splash her anchor plunged over, took the ground, and in +another twenty yards brought us up standing. + +"Hallo!" Miss Belcher scanned the shore. "You're giving the boats a +long trip, Captain." + +"I take my precautions, ma'am," answered Captain Branscome, almost +curtly. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +I TAKE FRENCH LEAVE ASHORE. + +In a sweating hurry I helped Mr. Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow to furl +sail, coil away ropes, and tidy up generally. After these tedious +weeks at sea I was wild for a run ashore, and, with the green woods +inviting me, grudged even an hour's delay. + +We had run down foresail and come to our anchor under jib and +half-lowered mainsail. I sprang forward to take in the jib and carry +it, with the foresail, to the locker abaft the ladies' cabin, when +Captain Branscome sang out to me to be in no such hurry, but to fold +and stow both sails neatly without detaching them--the one along the +bowsprit, the other at the foot of the fore-stay, when they could be +re-hoisted at a moment's notice. + +These precautions were the more mysterious to me because a moment +later he sent me to the locker to fetch up a tarpaulin cover for the +mainsail, which he snugged down carefully, to protect it (as he +explained) from the night dews--so carefully that he twice +interrupted Mr. Goodfellow to correct a piece of slovenly tying. +The sail being packed at length to his satisfaction, we laced the +cover about it carefully as though it had been a lady's bodice. + +Our next business was to get out the boats. The _Espriella_ +possessed three--a gig, shaped somewhat like a whaleboat; a useful, +twelve-foot dinghy; and a small cockboat, or "punt" (to use our West +Country name), capable, at a pinch, of accommodating two persons. +This last we carried on deck; but the larger pair at the foot of the +rigging on either side, whence we unlashed and lowered them by their +falls. The punt we moored by a short painter under the bowsprit, so +that she lay just clear of our stem. + +This small job had fallen to me by the Captain's orders, and I +clambered back, to find him and Mr. Rogers standing by the +accommodation ladder on the port side, and in the act of stepping +down into the dinghy. Indeed, Mr. Rogers had his foot on the ladder, +and seemed to wait only while the Captain gave some instructions to +Mr. Goodfellow, who was listening respectfully. + +"Are we all to go ashore in the dinghy?" I asked. + +The Captain turned on me severely, and I observed that he and Mr. +Rogers had armed themselves with a musket apiece, each slung on a +bandolier, and that Mr. Rogers wore an axe at his belt. + +"Certainly not," said the Captain. "Mr. Rogers and I are going on +shore to prospect, and I was at this moment instructing Mr. +Goodfellow that nobody is to leave the ship without leave from me." + +"But--" I began, and checked myself, less for fear of his anger than +because I was actually on the verge of tears. I looked around for +the ladies, but they had retired to their cabin. Oh, this was +hard--a monstrous tyranny! And so I told Mr. Goodfellow hotly as the +dinghy pushed off and, Mr. Rogers paddling her, drew away up the +creek and rounded the bend under the almost overhanging trees. + +"When are they coming back?" I demanded. + +"Captain didn't say." + +"You seem to take it easily," I flamed up; "but _I_ call it a +burning shame! Captain Branscome seems to think that this Island +belongs to him; and you know well enough, if it hadn't been for me, +he'd never have set eyes on it. What are you going to do?" + +"Smoke a pipe," said Mr. Goodfellow, "and watch the beauties o' +Nature." + +"Well, I'm not," I threatened. "Captain Branscome may be a very good +seaman but he's too much of an usher out of school. This isn't +Stimcoe's." + +"Not a bit like it," assented Mr. Goodfellow, feeling in his +pockets. + +"And if he thinks he can go on playing the usher over me, he'll find +out his mistake. Why, look you, whose is the treasure, properly +speaking? Who found it?" + +"Nobody, yet." + +Mr. Goodfellow drew forth a pipe and rubbed the bowl thoughtfully +against his nose. + +"Well, then, who found the chart? Who put you all on the scent? +Who was it first heard the secret from Captain Coffin? And this man +doesn't even consult me--doesn't think me worth a civil word! +I'll be shot if I stand it!" I wound up, pacing the deck in my +rage. + +Just then Plinny's voice called up to us from the cabin, announcing +that dinner was ready. + +"But," said she, "one of you must eat his portion on deck while he +keeps watch; that was Captain Branscome's order." + +"More orders!" I grumbled; and then, with a sudden thought, I +nodded to Mr. Goodfellow, who was replacing his pipe in his pocket. +"_You_ go. Hand me up a plate and a fistful of ship biscuit, and +leave me to deal with 'em. I'm not for stifling down there under +hatches, whatever your taste may be." + +"'Tis a fact," he admitted, "that a meal does me more good when I +square my elbows to it." + +"Down you go, then," said I; "and when you're wanted I'll call you." + +He descended cheerfully, reappeared to pass up a plate, and descended +again. I gobbled down enough to stay my appetite, crammed my pocket +full of ship biscuit, and, after listening for a moment at the +hatchway, tiptoed forward and climbed out upon the bowsprit. +Then, having unloosed the cockboat's painter, I lowered and let +myself drop into her, and, slipping a paddle into the stern-notch, +sculled gently for shore. + +The _Espriella_, of course, lay head-to-tide, and the tide by this +time was making strongly--so strongly that I had no time to get +steerage way on the little boat before it swept her close under the +open porthole through which I heard Miss Belcher inviting Mr. +Goodfellow to pass his plate for another dumpling. Miss Belcher's +voice--as I may or may not have informed the reader--was a baritone +of singularly resonant _timbre_. It sounded through the porthole as +through a speaking trumpet, and I ducked and held my breath as the +boat's gunwale rubbed twice against the schooner's side before +drifting clear. + +Once clear, however, I worked my paddle with a will, though +noiselessly; and, the tide helping me, soon reached and rounded the +first bend. Here, out of sight of the ship, I had leisure to draw +breath and look about me. + +Ahead of me lay a still reach, close upon half a mile in length, and +narrowing steadily to the next bend, when the two shores overlapped +and mingled their reflections on the water. On my right the red +cliffs, their summits matted with creepers, descended sheer into +water many fathoms deep, yet so clear that I could spy the fish +playing about their bases where they met the firm white sand. +On my left the channel shoaled gradually to a beach of this same +white sand, which followed the curve of the shore, here and again +flashing out into broad sunshine from the blue shadow cast by the +overhanging forest. + +Between these banks the breeze could scarcely be felt, yet, though +the sun scorched me, the heat was not oppressive. The woods, dense +and tangled though they were, threw up no exhalations of mud or +rotting leaves, but a clean, aromatic odour. It seemed to give them +a substance without which they had been but a mirage, a scene painted +on a cloth, so motionless and apparently lifeless they stood, with +the long vines hanging from their boughs, and the hot, rarefied air +quivering above them. + +At first their silence daunted me; by-and-by I felt (I could hardly +be said to hear) that this silence was intense, and held a sound of +its own, a murmur as of millions of flies and minute winged things-- +or perhaps it came from the vegetation itself, and the sap pushing +leaf against leaf and ceaselessly striving for room. + +With scarcely more noise than the forest made in growing, I let the +cockboat float up on the tide, correcting her course from time to +time with a touch of the paddle astern; and so coming to the +second bend, began to search the shore for a convenient landing. +The Captain and Mr. Rogers, no doubt, had rowed up to the very head +of the creek, and would by this time be prospecting for the clump of +trees which were the key to unlock No. 3 cache. To escape--or, at +any rate, delay--detection, I must land lower down, and preferably at +some point where I could pull up the boat and hide it. + +With this in my mind, scanning the woods on the north bank for an +opening, I drifted around the bend, and with a shock of surprise +found myself in full view of the end of the creek. Worse than this, +I was bearing straight for the _Espriella's_ dinghy, which lay just +above water on the foreshore, with her painter carried out to a tree +above the bank. Worst of all, some one at that instant stepped back +from the bank and under the shadow of the tree, as if to await me +there. . . . Mr. Rogers, or the Captain? . . . Mr. Rogers certainly; +for I remembered that the Captain wore white duck trousers, and, by +my glimpse of him, this man's clothes were dark. His height and +walk, too! Yes; no doubt of it, he was Mr. Rogers. + +I stood--a culprit caught red-handed--and let the boat drift me down +upon retributive justice. A while ago I had been mentally composing +a number of effective retorts upon Captain Branscome for his +tyrannical behaviour. Now, of a sudden, all this eloquence deserted +me: I felt it leaking away and knew myself for a law-breaker. +One lingering hope remained--that the Captain had pushed ahead into +the woods, and that, as yet, Mr. Jack Rogers (whose good nature I +might almost count upon) had alone detected me and would pack me home +to the ship with nothing worse than a flea in my ear. + +His silence encouraged this hope. Half a minute passed and still he +forbore to lift his voice and summon me. He stood, deep in the +shadow, his face screened by the boughs, and made no motion to +advance to the bank. + +Then suddenly--at, maybe, two hundred yards' distance--I saw him take +another pace backwards and slip away among the trees. + +"Good man!" thought I, and blessed him (after my first start of +astonishment). "He has pretended not to see me." + +At any rate he had given me a pretty good hint to make myself scarce +unless I wished to incur Captain Branscome's wrath. I slipped my +paddle forward into a rowlock, picked up the other, and, dropping +upon the thwart, jerked the cockboat right-about-face to head her +back for the schooner. + +But after a stroke or two I easied and let her drift back +stern-foremost while I sat considering. Mr. Rogers had behaved like +a trump; yet it seemed mean to deceive the old man; and, moreover, it +amounted to striking my colours. I had broken orders deliberately +and because I denied his right to give such orders. I might be a +youngster; but, to say the least of it, I had as much interest +in the success of this expedition as any member of the company. +The shortest way to dissuade Captain Branscome from treating me as a +child was to assert myself from the beginning. I had started with +full intent to assert myself, and--yes, I was much obliged to Mr. +Rogers, but this question between me and Branscome had best be +settled, though it meant open mutiny. I felt pretty sure that Miss +Belcher would support the tyrant; almost equally sure that Plinny +would acquiesce, though her sympathy went with me; and strangely +enough, and unjustly, I felt the angrier with Plinny. But even +against Miss Belcher I had a card to play. "Captain Branscome may be +an excellent leader," I would say; "but I beg you to remember that +you gave me no vote in electing him. I will obey any leader I have +my share in choosing, but until then I stand out." And I had an +inkling that, though the public voice would be against me, I should +establish my claim to be taken into any future counsels. + +"In for a lamb, in for a sheep," thought I, and began to back the +cockboat towards the corner where the dinghy lay. As I did so it +occurred to me to wonder why the Captain and Mr. Rogers had been so +dilatory. They must have started a full hour ahead of me; they had +left the schooner at a brisk stroke, whereas I had merely floated up +with the tide. Yet either I had all but surprised them in the act of +stepping ashore, or, if they had landed at once, why had Mr. Rogers +loitered on the bank until I was close on overtaking him? + +They had landed at the extreme head of the creek. Therefore +(I argued) their intent was to follow up the stream here indicated on +the chart and search for the clump of trees which guarded the secret +of No. 3 _cache_. + +Sure enough, having beached my boat alongside the dinghy and climbed +the green knoll above the foreshore, I spied their footprints on the +sandy edge of the stream which here fetched a loop before joining the +tidal waters of the creek. They led me along a flat meadow of +exquisitely green turf, fringed with palmetto-trees, to the entrance +of a narrow gorge through which the stream came tumbling in a series +of cascades, spraying the ferns that overhung it. The forest with +its undergrowth pressed so closely upon either bank that after +scrambling up beside the first waterfall I was forced to take off +shoes and stockings and work my way up the irregular bed, now wading +knee-deep, now clambering or leaping from boulder to boulder; and, +even so, to press from time to time through the meeting boughs, +shielding my face from scratches. So, for at least a mile, I climbed +as through a narrow green tunnel, and at the end of it found myself +wet to the skin. Five waterfalls I had passed, and, beside the +fourth, where the bank was muddy, had noted a long, smooth mark, and +recent, such as a man's foot might make in slipping; so that I felt +pretty confident of being on my companions' track, though I wondered +how the Captain, with his lame leg, could sustain such a climb. + +But above the fifth waterfall the stream divided into two branches, +and at the fork of them I stood for a while in doubt which to choose. +So far as volume of water went, there was, indeed, little or nothing +to choose. If direction counted, the main stream would be that which +came rushing down the gorge straight ahead of me--a gorge which, +however, as my eye followed the V of its tree-tops up to the +sky-line, promised to grow steeper and worse tangled. On the other +hand, the tributary (as I shall call it), which poured down from a +lateral valley on my left, ran with an easier flow, as though drawing +its waters from less savage slopes. I could not see these slopes--a +bend of the hills hid them; but I reasoned that if a clump of trees, +separate and distinguishable, stood anywhere near the banks of +either stream, it might possibly be found by this one. The other +showed nothing but a close mass of vegetation. + +Accordingly I turned my steps up the channel to the left, and was +rewarded, after another twenty minutes' scramble, by emerging +upon a break in the forest. On one side of the stream rose a +reddish-coloured cliff, almost smooth of face and about seventy or +eighty feet high, across the edge of which the last trees on the +summit clutched with their naked roots, as though protesting +against being thrust over the precipice by the crowd behind them. +The other bank swelled up, from a little above the water's edge, to a +fair green lawn, rounded, grassy, and smooth as a glade in an English +park. At its widest I dare say that, from the stream's edge back to +the steep slope where the forest started again and climbed to a tall +ridge that shut in the glen on the south side, it measured something +over two hundred yards. + +"Here," thought I, glancing up the glade towards the westering sun, +"is the very spot for our clump of, trees;" and so it was--only no +clump of trees happened to be in sight. The glade, however, +stretched away and around a bend of the stream, and I was moving to +the bank to explore it to its end when my eyes were arrested by +something white not ten paces away. It was a piece of paper caught +against one of the large boulders between which, as through a broken +dam, the water poured into the ravine. I waded towards it and +stooped, steadying myself against the current. + +It was a paper boat. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +THE WOMEN IN THE GRAVEYARD. + +I turned it over in my hand. Yes; it was a boat such as children +make out of paper, many times folded, and "What on earth," thought I, +"put such childishness into the head of Captain Branscome or Mr. Jack +Rogers?" + +Then it occurred to me that they might be caught in some peril higher +up the stream, and had launched this message on the chance of its +being carried down to the waters of the creek. A far-fetched +explanation, to be sure! But what was I to think? If it were the +explanation, doubtless the paper contained writing, and, carrying it +to the bank, I seated myself and began to unfold it very carefully; +for it was sodden, and threatened to fall to pieces in my hands. +Then I reflected that the two men carried no writing materials, or, +at the best, a lead pencil, the marks of which would be obliterated +before the paper had been two minutes in the water. + +Yet, as I parted the folds, I saw that the paper had indeed been +scribbled on, though the words were a smear; and, moreover, that the +writing was in ink! + +In ink! My fingers trembled and involuntarily tore a small rent in +the pulpy mass. I laid it on the grass to dry in the full sunshine, +seated myself beside it, and looked around me with a shiver. + +A paper boat--the paper written on--and the writing in ink! I could +be sworn that neither Captain Branscome nor Mr. Rogers carried an +inkbottle. The paper, too, was of a kind unfamiliar to me; thin, +foreign paper, ruled with faint lines in watermark. Certainly no one +on board the _Espriella_ owned such writing-paper or the like of it. +But again, the paper could not have been long in the water, and the +writing seemed to be fresh. As the torn edges crinkled in the heat +and curled themselves half-open, I peered between them and +distinguished a capital "R," followed by an "i"; but these letters +ran into a long smear, impossible to decipher. + +I had flung myself prone on the grass, and so lay, with chin propped +on both palms, staring at the thing as if it had been some strange +beetle--staring till my eyes ached. But now I took it in my fingers +again and prised the edges a little wider. Below the smear came a +blank space, and below this were five lines ruled in ink with a +number of dotted marks between them. . . . A smudged stave of music? +Yes, certainly it was music. I could distinguish the mark of the +treble clef. Lastly, at the foot of the page, as I unwrapped it at +length, came a blurred illegible signature. + +But what mattered the sense of it? The writing was here, and recent. +No one on board the _Espriella_ could have penned it. The island, +then, was inhabited--now, at this moment inhabited, and the +inhabitants, whoever they might be, at this moment not far from me. + +I crushed the paper into my pocket, and stood up, slowly looking +about me. For a second or two panic had me by the hair. I turned to +run, but the dense woods through which I had ascended so +light-heartedly had suddenly become a jungle of God knows what +terrors. I remembered that from the first cascade upward I had +scarcely once had a view of more than a dozen yards ahead, so thickly +the bushes closed in upon me. I saw myself retracing my steps +through those bushes, in every one of which now lurked a pair of +watching eyes. I glanced up at the cliff across the stream. +For aught I knew, eyes were watching me from its summit. + +Needless to say, I cursed the hour of my transgression, the fatal +impulse that had prompted me to break ship. I knew myself for a +fool; but how might I win back to repentance? As repent I certainly +would and acknowledge my fault. Could I keep hold on my nerve to +thread my way back and over those five separate and accursed +waterfalls? If only I were given a clear space to run! + +At this point in the nexus of my fears it occurred to me, glancing +along the green lawn ahead, that the ridge on its left must run +almost parallel with the creek; that it was sparsely wooded in +comparison with the ravine behind me, and that from the summit of it +I might even look straight down upon the _Espriella's_ anchorage. +Be this as it might, I felt sure, considering the lie of the land, +that here must be a short cut back to the creek; and once beside its +waters I could head back along the beach and regain my boat. +Down there I might dismiss my fears. The upper portion of the beach, +if I mistook not, remained uncovered at the top of any ordinary +tides, and it wanted yet a good two hours to high-water, so that I +had not the smallest doubt of being able to reach the creek-head, no +matter at what point of the foreshore I might descend. From the bank +where I stood I had the whole ridge in view above the dense foliage, +and could select the most promising point to make for; but this would +sink out of sight as I approached the first belt of trees, and beyond +them I must find my way by guesswork. + +I now observed a sharp notch breaking the line of the ridge, about a +mile to the westward, and walked some few hundred yards forward on +the chance that it might widen as I drew more nearly abreast of it, +and open into a passage between the hills. Widen it did, but very +gradually--the stream curving away from it all the while; and by and +by I halted again, in two minds whether to break straight across for +it or continue this slow process of making sure. + +I had now reached a point where the tall cliff on the opposite shore +either ended abruptly or took a sharp turn back from the stream. +I could not determine which, and walked forward yet another two +hundred yards to satisfy myself. This brought me in view of a grove +of palmettos, clustering under the very lee of the rock--or so it +appeared at first, but a second look told me that here the stream +again divided, and that the new confluent swept by the base of the +rock, between it and the palmettos, three or four of which (their +roots, maybe, sapped by bygone floods) leaned sideways and almost hid +the junction. + +I was turning away, resolved now to steer straight for the notch in +the hills, when for the second time a gleam of something white +arrested me, and I stood still, my heart in my mouth. The white +object, whatever it was, stood within the circle of the palmetto +stems, yet not very deep within it--a dozen yards at farthest from +the stream's edge. I stared at it, and the longer I stared the more +I was puzzled, until I plunged into the water and waded across for a +closer look. + +Gaining the bank, I saw, first, that the white object was but one of +many, disposed behind it in two rows as regular as the tree-stems +allowed; next, that these objects were wooden boards, pained white. +And with that, as I stepped towards the foremost, my foot slipped and +I fell, twisting my ankle and narrowly saving myself from an ugly +sprain. I had stumbled in a hollow, shallow depression between the +mounds. Picking myself up, I saw that to left and right and all +around me the turf was ridged with similar mounds, the whole +enclosure full of them. In a flash I read the meaning of the +white-painted boards. Yes--and there was writing on them, too--no +words, but single letters and dates, roughly painted in black-- +"O. M., 1796"--"R. A. S., 1796"--"P d. V. and A. M. d. V., 1800"-- +these, and perhaps two score of others. The shape of the mounds +interpreted these inscriptions. + +I was in a graveyard. + +I sat helpless for a minute, dreadfully scanning the gloom through +which the massed palmetto-tops admitted but a shaft of light here and +there. The flies, which had been a nuisance across the stream, here +swarmed in myriads so thick that they seemed to hang in clusters from +the boughs; and their incessant buzzing added to the horror of the +place a hint of something foul, sinister, almost obscene. + +I had a mind to creep away on all-fours, but suddenly forgot my ankle +and sprang erect, on the defensive, at the sound of voices. A grassy +path led through the enclosure, between the graves, and at the end of +it appeared two figures. + +They were two women; the first a negress, short, squat, and ugly, +wearing a frock of the gaudiest yellow, and for head-dress a scarlet +handkerchief, bound closely about her scalp and tied in front with an +immense bow; the other--but how shall I describe the other? + +She was white, and she wore a dress of fresh white muslin; a short +dress, tied about the waist with a pale-blue sash, and above the +shoulders with narrow ribbons of the same colour. Her figure was +that of a girl; her ringlets hung loose like a girl's. She walked +with a girlish step; and until she came close I took her for a girl +of sixteen or seventeen. + +Then, with a shock, I found myself staring into the face, which might +well belong to a woman between sixty and seventy, so faded it was and +reticulated with wrinkles; and into a pair of eyes that wavered +between ingenuousness and a childish cunning; and from them down to +her slim ankles and a pair of dancing-shoes, so fairy-like and +diminutive that they seemed scarcely to press the grass underfoot. + +The pair had drawn to a halt, while I stood uncertain whether to +brave them or make a bid for escape. I heard the negress cry aloud +in a foreign tongue, at the same time flinging up her hands; but the +other pushed past her and walked straight down upon me, albeit with a +mincing, tripping motion, as if she was pacing a dance. + +Twice she spoke, and in two different languages (as I recognized, +though able to make nothing of either), and then, halting before me, +she tried for the third time in English. + +"Boy"--she looked at me inquiringly--"what you do here--will you +tell?" + +"I come from the ship, ma'am," said I, finding my tongue. + +"The sheep? He bring a sheep? But why?--and why he bring you?" + +I stared at her, not understanding. "Ma'am," said I, pointing over +my shoulder, "we came here in a ship--a schooner; and she is lying in +the creek yonder. I landed and climbed up through the woods. On my +way I found this." + +I held out the paper boat. She caught it out of my hand with a sharp +cry. But the black woman, at the same instant, turned on her and +began to scold her volubly. The words were unintelligible to me, but +her tone, full of angry remonstrance, could not be mistaken. + +"I am not sorry," said the white woman, speaking in English, with a +glance at me. "No, I do not care for his orders. It was by this +that you came to me?" she asked, turning to me again, and pointing +mincingly at the paper. + +"I found it in the stream," I replied; "almost a mile below this." + +"Yes, yes; you found it in the stream. And you opened it, and read +the writing?" + +I shook my head. "The writing, ma'am, was blotted--I could read +nothing." + +"Not even my little song?" She peered into the paper, threw up her +head and piped a note or two, for all the world as a bird chirrups, +lifting his bill, after taking a drink. "La-la-la--you did not +understand, hey? But, nevertheless, you came, and of your own will. +_He_ did not bring you?" + +I shook my head again, having no clue to her meaning. + +"So best," she said, changing her tone of a sudden to one of extreme +gravity. "For if he found you here--here of all places--he would +kill you. Yes"--she nodded impressively "for sure we would kill you. +He kill all these." + +She waved a hand, indicating the grave-mounds. Her voice, at these +dreadful words, ran up to an almost more dreadful airiness; and still +she continued nodding, but now with a sort of simpering pride. +"All these," she repeated, waving her hand again towards the mounds. + +"Did you see him kill them?" I asked, wondering whom "he" might be, +and scarcely knowing what I said. + +"Some," she answered, with a final nod and a glance of extreme +childish cunning. "But why you not talking, Rosa?" she demanded, +turning on the negress. "You speak English; it is no use to +pretend." + +The black woman stared at me for a moment from under her +loose-hanging lids. + +"You go 'way," she said slowly. "You get no good in these parts." + +"Very well, ma'am," said I, steadying my voice, "and the sooner the +better, if you will kindly tell me the shortest cut back to the +creek." + +"_And_," the woman went on, not seeming to heed the interruption, +"you tell the same to your friends, that they get no good in these +parts. But, of us--and of this"--she pointed to the sodden paper +which she had snatched from her mistress's hands--"you will say +nothing. It might bring mischief." + +"Mischief?" I echoed. + +"Mischief--upon _her_." + +"But this is nonsense you talk, Rosa!" broke in the little lady. +"At the most, what have I written?--a little song from Gluck, the +divine Gluck! Just a little song of Eurydice calling to Orfeo. +Ah! you should have heard me sing it--in the days before my voice +left me; in the opera, boy, and the King himself splitting his gloves +to applaud us! Eh, but you are young, very young. I should not +wonder to hear you were born after I left the stage. And you are +pretty, but not old enough to be Orfeo yet. I must wait--I must +wait, though I wait till I doubt if I am not changed to Proserpine +with her cracked voice. Boy, if I kissed you--" + +She advanced a step, but the negress caught her by the wrist +violently, at the same moment waving me off. I felt faint and giddy, +as though some exhalation from the graveyard--not wholly repellent, +but sickly, overpowering, like the scent of a hothouse lily--had been +suddenly wafted under my nostrils. I fell back a pace as the negress +motioned me away. Her hand pointed across the stream, and across the +meadow, to the gap in the ridge. + +"Fast as you can run," she panted; "and never come this way again." + +The strong scent yet hung around me and seemed to bind me like a +spell, pressing on my arms and logs. I plunged knee-deep into the +stream. The cool touch of the water brought me to my senses. +I splashed across, waded up the bank, and set off running towards the +gap. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +THE MAN IN BLACK. + +Before ever I gained the gap I was panting, and as I panted the blood +ran into my mouth from a deep scratch across the eyebrows. I tasted +it as I ran. My shirt hung in strips, and one stocking flapped open +on a rip from knee to ankle. But on the farther side of the ridge I +ran no longer. I flung myself and fell through the matted ferns +that, veiling the trough of a half-dry watercourse, now checked my +descent as I clutched at them, now parted and let me drop and bruise +myself on the rocky bottom. In the end, I found myself on soft sand +beside the blessed water of the creek, bloodied indeed--for I had +taken a shrewd knock on the bridge of the nose--but with a wrenched +shoulder and a jarred knee-pan for the worst of my hurts. I valued +them nothing in comparison with the terrors left behind in the woods. +The schooner lay in sight, scarcely half a mile below, and I sobbed +with gratitude as I dipped my face in the tide and washed off its +bloodstains. + +The tide was still at flood, and wanted (as I guessed) less than an +hour of high water; but it left an almost continuous stretch of sand +between me and the creek-head, and I found that the short intervals +where it narrowed to nothing could be waded with ease. At first the +curve of the foreshore and the overhanging woods concealed the spit +of beach where I had made fast my punt beside the dinghy; but at the +corner which brought the boats in sight I was aware of two figures +standing beside them--Captain Branscome and Mr. Rogers. + +I walked forward hardily enough; I had drunk my fill of terror, and +could have faced the Captain had he been thrice as formidable. +He did not help me at all, but stood with a thunderous frown, very +quiet and self-restrained, while I plodded my way up to him, over the +sand. + +I think that, as I drew close, my battered appearance must have +shocked him a little. But his frown did not relax, and the muscles +of his mouth grew, if anything, tenser. + +"You appear to have been in the wars," he said quietly. +"Has anything happened to the schooner?" + +"No, sir; at least not to my knowledge," was my answer; and he must +have; expected it, or he would have shown more perturbation. +"I saw her, not five minutes ago, lying at her moorings," I added, +with a nod towards the bend of the creek which hid her from us. + +"Then why has Miss Belcher sent you?" + +"She did not send me, sir." + +"In other words, you have chosen to disobey orders?" + +I suppose he read some sullenness in my attitude, for he repeated the +words sharply, in a tone that demanded an answer. + +"I am sorry, sir; but all the same, it didn't seem fair to me to be +left on board without being consulted." + +I heard him take a short breath, as though my impudence him in the +wind. For a full half a minute eyed me slowly up and down. + +"Get into your boat, sir, and return to the ship at once! +Mr. Rogers, this child is impossible. I must do what I would gladly +have avoided, and ask the ladies to give me more authority over him, +since they will not exercise it themselves." + +At the implied sneer--and perhaps even more at the tone of it, so +foreign to the Captain Branscome that I knew--I blazed up wrathfully. + +"If you mean by that," said I, "to threaten me with the rope's-end, I +advise you to try it. And if you mean that I'm child enough to be +tied to apron-strings of a couple of women, that's just of a piece +with the whole mistake you're making. No one's disputing your right +to give orders--" + +"Thank you," he put in sarcastically. + +"--To those," I went on, "who appointed you captain. But I wasn't +consulted, and until that happens, I shall obey or not, as I choose." + +Now, this, no doubt, was extremely childish, even wickedly foolish, +and the more foolish, perhaps, because a few minutes ago I would have +given all I possessed, including my prospective share in the +treasure, for Captain Branscome's protection. But somehow, since +sighting the island, I had lost hold of myself, and my temper seemed +to be running all askew. Strange to tell, the Captain appeared to be +affected in much the same way. + +"Why, you little fool," said he, "are you mistaking this for a +picnic?" + +"No," I retorted; "I am not. And, if you'll remember, it wasn't I +who led the ladies to look forward to one." + +He planted himself before me, and said he, looking at me sternly-- + +"See here, my boy, I don't want to make unpleasantness, and if you +force me to appeal to the whole ship's company, you know very well +you will find yourself in a minority of one." + +"I don't care for that, sir. You'll be acting unfairly, all the +same." + +"We'll let that pass. You tell here in the act of breaking ship, +that you're of an age to be consulted. Well, you shall have the +benefit of the doubt. You want to know, then, why I'm careful about +letting you run ashore? What would you say if I told you the island +has people upon it?" + +"Why, first of all, sir, that if you found it out before dropping +anchor, it seems strange--your going ashore with Mr. Rogers and +leaving the rest to take care of themselves. But if you've +discovered it since--" + +"I have not. I am not sure the island is inhabited; but as we were +running down the coast I saw something through my glasses--a coil of +smoke beyond the hills on the eastern side. Now, if, as seems +certain, this fire was lit by human beings, it almost stands to +reason they must have sighted our ship. Next comes the question Why +did I go ashore and take Mr. Rogers? Well, in the first place, we +didn't come here to lie at anchor and sail away again; and if the +island happened to be inhabited, and by people who don't want us, +why, then, the sooner we nipped ashore and prospected, the better, +for the spot where I sighted the smoke must lie a good five miles +from here as the crow flies, and by the shape of the hills and the +amount of scrub between 'em, those five miles must be equal to +fifteen. But why (say you) did I take Mr. Rogers? I took Mr. +Rogers, after consulting with Miss Belcher--" + +"Does _she_ know there are people on the island?" + +"She does. I took Mr. Rogers because, if danger there be, it seemed +likelier we should find it ashore than on board the schooner; and +because, as the shortest way to make sure if these strangers were +after our treasure, we had agreed to make straight for the clump of +trees described on the back of the chart and examine whether the +ground thereabouts had been visited lately or disturbed; and, +further, because our search might require more strength and agility +than I alone, with my lame leg, could command. I felt pretty easy +about the schooner. She can only be attacked by boat, and I searched +the coast pretty narrowly on our way down without sighting one. +If these men possess a boat, she probably lies somewhere on the +eastern side, not far from their camp fire. If she lies nearer, it +must be somewhere under the cliffs to the south, in which case her +owners would have a long journey to reach her, and that journey must +take them around the head of the creek here. But (say you) there may +be two parties on the island--one by the camp fire northward, and +another under the south shore. I'll grant this, though I think it +unlikely; but, even so, to attack the schooner they must bring their +boat up the whole length of the entrance, where our people would have +her in view for at least two miles. This would give ample time for a +signal to recall us, and on the chance of it I left Goodfellow in +charge of two rockets with instructions to touch them off on a hint +of danger." + +"Oh, oh!" said I. "So Mr. Goodfellow, too, knew of this? +And Plinny, I suppose? And, in fact, you told every one but me?" + +"No, sir," said Captain Branscome, gravely; "I did not trouble Miss +Plinlimmon with these perhaps unnecessary fears. To a lady of her +sensitive nature--" + +"Oh, well, sir," I interrupted and, turning aside pettishly, began to +haul my cockboat down to the water, "since you choose to treat me +like a baby of six, I suppose it's no wonder you take Plinny for a +timorous old fool." + +"Sir!" exploded Captain Branscome, and glancing back over my shoulder +I saw him leaning on his stick and fairly trembling with wrath. +"This disrespectful language! And of a lady for whom--for whom--" + +"Disrespect?"--I whistled. "Is it worse to speak disrespect or to +act it? I have known Plinny for years--you for a month or two; and +one of these days, if this expedition gets into a mess--as it likely +will with such handling--that sensitive lady will make you see +stars." + +I knew, while I uttered it, that my speech was abominably +ill-conditioned; that Captain Branscome had, in fact, been holding +out the olive-branch, and that in common decency I ought to have +caught at it. In short, I felt my boyish temper going from bad to +worse, and yet, somehow, that I could not apply the brake to it. + +"Why, confound the boy!" ejaculated Mr. Rogers. "What ever bee has +stung him?" And gripping me by the shoulder as I heaved at the boat, +he swung me round to face him. "Look here, young Harry Brooks! +Do you happen to be sickening for something, that you talk like a +gutter-snipe to a gentleman old enough to be your grandfather? +Or, damme, have you and Goodfellow been coming to blows? By the nose +of you and the state of your shirt a man would say you've come from a +street fight; and by your talk, that your head was knocked silly." + +"It's all very well, Mr. Rogers," said I, sulkily, "and I know I +oughtn't to have spoken like that, but I hate to be tyrannized over. +That's why I didn't take your warning first along and pull back to +the ship--though I thank you for it all the same." + +"Eh?" said Mr. Rogers. "My warning? What in thunder is the boy +talking about?" + +"When you saw me sculling for shore, here, about an hour ago," I +explained, "you pretended not to see me, and went after Captain +Branscome; but I saw you, fast enough, standing on the bank yonder, +under the trees." + +"For a certainty the child is mad!" Mr. Rogers stared at me +round-eyed. "_I_ saw you? _I_ pretended not to? Why, man alive, +from the time we left the ship I never set eyes on you (how should +I?), nor ever guessed you were ashore till we came back and found +your boat beside the dinghy. And as for standing under those trees, +I was never on the bank there for one second--no, nor for the half of +one. The Captain and I walked around the spit together--the tide has +covered our footmarks or I could show 'em to you." + +"At any rate there _was_ a man," I persisted. "And he couldn't have +been the Captain either, for he was wearing dark clothes--" + +"The devil! I say, Branscome, listen to this--" + +"I am listening," answered the Captain, gravely, taking, as he +stepped forward, a long look at the bank above us and at the dense +forest to right and left. "Did you see the man's face, Harry?" + +"No, sir, or I should not have mistaken him for Mr. Rogers. He was +standing there, under the boughs, and seemed to be looking through +them and watching me. I was sculling the boat along with a paddle +slipped in the stern notch, and he let me come pretty close--I +couldn't have been two hundred yards away--when he slipped to the +back of the trees, and I lost him." + +"You didn't see him again?" + +"No, sir; I didn't land just at once. I had a mind at first to put +about and row to the schooner, thinking that Mr. Rogers had meant it +for a hint. When I brought the boat ashore, five minutes later, he +was gone." + +"Which way did you take, then?" + +"I went straight after you, sir, up the waterfalls; but couldn't find +any trace of you except at one spot just beside a waterfall--the +fourth, it was--where some one had slipped a foot--" + +"Mr. Rogers," the Captain interrupted, "we had best get back to the +_Espriella_ with all speed. I may tell you, Harry, that we never +went up by the waterfalls at all. It was a climb, and my half-pay +leg didn't like the look of it. But, jump into your boat, boy, and +pull ahead of us. You and I must do a little serious talking later +on." + +We pulled back briskly for the _Espriella_ and reached her just as +she began to swing with the turn of the tide. As we drew close--the +cockboat leading--I glanced over my shoulder and spied Plinny leaning +against the bulwarks by the starboard quarter, in the attitude of one +gently enjoying the sunset scene; but at the sight of my torn shirt +all her composure left her, and she came running to the accommodation +ladder, where she met me with a string of agitated questions. + +"Excuse me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, as the dinghy fell +alongside and he climbed on deck. "I have no wish to alarm you, and, +indeed, there may be no cause at all for alarm. But Harry has +brought us some serious news. He reports that there is a man--a +stranger--on the Island." + +"How could Harry have known?" was Plinny's unexpected response. + +"He is confident that he saw a man, somewhat more than an hour since, +standing at the head of the creek." + +"Now, that is very curious," said Plinny; "for the gentleman told me +he had borrowed Harry's boat without being observed." + +"I--I beg your pardon, ma'am!" Captain Branscome stared about him. +"A gentleman, did you say?" + +"Yes, and such distinguished manners! He left a message for you--and, +dear me, you should have heard how he praised my coffee!" + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +THE MASTER OF THE ISLAND. + +But here, as Captain Branscome leaned back and caught feebly at the +main rigging for support, there appeared above the after companion +(like a cognisance above an escutcheon) a bent fore-arm, the hand +grasping a beaver hat. It was presently followed by the head of Miss +Belcher, who nodded cheerfully, blinking a little in the level light +of the sunset. + +"Hallo!" said she, addressing Plinny, while she adjusted the hat upon +her brow. "Have you been telling the Captain about our visitor?" + +"Miss Plinlimmon, ma'am, has given me a shock, and I won't deny it," +answered the Captain, recovering himself. + +Miss Belcher continued to nod like a china mandarin. + +"I don't wonder," she agreed. "For my part, you might have knocked +me down with a feather. The fellow came down the creek, cool as you +please, and pulling a nice easy stroke, in Harry's cockboat. +Where is Harry, by the way?"--her eyes lit and fastened upon me-- +"Good Lord! what have you been doing to the child?" + +"Nothing, ma'am. He has been exploring, and lost his way; that's +all." + +"H'm! he seems to have lost it pretty badly. Well, he deserved it. +But, as I was saying, along comes my gentleman, pulling with just the +easy jerk which is the way to make a boat of that sort travel. +Goodfellow was keeping watch. They say that a sailor will recognize +a boat half a mile further off than he'll recognize the man in it, +but Goodfellow isn't a sailor, so that explanation won't fit. +We'll say that he was prepared for the boat returning, but not to +find an entire stranger pulling her. At all events, he let her come +within a couple of gunshots before calling down to the cabin and +giving the alarm. I had my legs up on a locker, and was taking a +siesta over a book--'Parkinson _On The Dog_'--and, by the way, we +were a set of fools not to bring a dog; but I ran up the companion in +a jiffy, and had the sense to catch up your spyglass as I went. +Goodfellow by this time had begun to dance about the deck in a +flutter. He had the tinder-box in his hand, and wanted to know if he +should touch off a rocket. I ordered him to drop it, and fetch me a +musket, which he did. By this time I could see that the man in the +boat was unarmed, so I put up the musket at the 'present,' got the +sight on him, and called out to know his business. + +"The man jerked the cockboat round with her stern to the schooner-- +these boats come right-about with a single twist--and says he, very +politely lifting his hat, 'You'll pardon me, ma'am, but (as you see) +I have borrowed your young friend's boat. My own was not handy, and +this seemed the quickest way to pay my respects.' 'Indeed?' said I, +'and who may you be?' 'My name, ma'am,' said he, 'is Beauregard--Dr. +Beauregard.' 'I never heard of you,' said I. 'That, ma'am, is +entirely my misfortune,' said he, lifting his hat again; 'but allow +me to say that I am the proprietor of this island, and very much at +your service.' + +"Well, this was a facer. It never occurred to any of us--eh?--that +this island might have an owner. To tell the truth, I'm a stickler +for the rights of property, at home; but somehow the notion of an +island like this belonging to any one had never entered my head. +Yet the thing is reasonable enough when you come to think it over; +and, of course, I saw that it put an entirely different complexion +upon our business here." + +"My dear Lydia," put in Mr. Rogers, impatiently, "the man's claim +must be absurd. Why, the island is right in the tropics!" + +"You wouldn't have thought it a bit absurd if you had heard him," +retorted Miss Belcher. "He appeared to be quite sure of his ground. +Very pleasant about it, too, he was; said that few visitors ever +honoured his out-of-the way home, but that as soon as any arrived he +always made it a matter of--of punctilio (yes, that was the word) to +put off and bid them welcome. He spoke with the slightest possible +foreign accent, but used admirable English: and, I don't know why," +wound up Miss Belcher, ingenuously, "but he seemed to divine from the +first that I was an Englishwoman." + +"And it wasn't as if we had come here flaunting British colours," +added Plinny. + +"But what sort of man was he?" asked the Captain. + +"Height, six foot two or three in his stockings; age, about sixty; +face, clean shaven and fleshy; the features extraordinarily powerful; +hair, jet black, and dyed (if at all) by a process that would make +his fortune if he sold the secret; clothes, black alpaca and well +cut, with silk stockings that would be cheap at two guineas, and +shoes with gold buckles on 'em. I couldn't take my eyes off--no +display about 'em--and yet I doubt if King Louis of France over wore +the like before they cut his head off. Complexion, pale for this +climate, with a sort of silvery shine about it. Manner charming, +voice charming, bearing fit for a grand seigneur; and that's what he +is, or something like it, unless, as I rather incline to suspect, +he's the biggest scoundrel unhung." + +"Oh, Miss Belcher!" protested Plinny. "When you agreed with me that +he might have sat for a portrait of a gentleman of the old school!" + +"Tut, my dear! When I saw that you had lost your heart to him as +soon as he set foot on deck! Did I say 'of the old school'? +Yes, indeed, and of the very oldest; and, in fact, quite possibly the +Old Gentleman himself." + +Now, either I had spoiled Captain Branscome's temper for the day, or +something in this speech of Miss Belcher's especially rasped it. + +"But who is this man?" he demanded, in a sharp, authoritative voice. + +Miss Belcher stepped back half a pace. I saw her chin go up, and it +seemed to grow square as she answered him with a dangerous coldness. + +"I beg your pardon. I thought I told you that he gave his name as +Dr. Beauregard." + +"You had no business, ma'am, to allow him on board the ship." + +"No business?" + +"No business, ma'am. I have just been having words with young Harry, +here, over his disobedience this afternoon; but this is infinitely +more serious. We are here to search for treasure. We no sooner drop +anchor than a man visits us, who claims that the island is his. +This at once presupposes his claim upon any treasure that may be +hidden upon it, and consequently that, as soon as he discovers our +purpose, he will be our enemy. It follows, I should imagine, that of +all steps the most fatal was to admit him on board to discover our +weakness." + +"Our weakness, sir?" asked Miss Belcher, carelessly, as though but +half attending. + +"Our weakness, ma'am; as it was doubtless to discover our weakness +that he came." + +"Now, I rather thought," murmured Miss Belcher, "that Miss Plinlimmon +and I had spent a great part of this afternoon in impressing him with +our strength." + +"To be sure," pursued Captain Branscome, "with such a company as he +found on board, he can scarcely have suspected a treasure hunt. +Still, when he does suspect it--as sooner or later he must--he will +know our weakness." + +"He could scarcely have dealt with us more frankly than he did, at +any rate," said Miss Belcher, with an air of simplicity; "for he +assured us he was alone on the island." + +"And you believed him, ma'am?" + +"I forget, sir, if I believed him; but he certainly knows that we are +here in search of treasure, for I told him so myself." + +Captain Branscome gasped. "You--you told him so?" he echoed. + +"I did, and he replied that it scarcely surprised him to hear it, +that of the few vessels which found their way to Mortallone, quite an +appreciable proportion came with some idea of discovering treasure. +The proportion, he added, had fallen off of late years, and the +most of them nowadays put in to water, but there was a time when +the treasure-seekers threatened to become a positive nuisance. +He said this with a smile which disarmed all suspicion. In fact, it +was impossible to take offence with the man." + +But at this point Plinny, frightened perhaps at the warnings of +apoplexy in Captain Branscome's face, laid a hand gently on Miss +Belcher's arm. + +"Are we treating our good friend quite fairly?" she asked. + +Miss Belcher glanced at her and broke into a ringing laugh. + +"You dear creature! No, to be sure, we are not; but from a child I +always turned mischievous under correction. Captain Branscome, I beg +your pardon." + +"It is granted, ma'am." + +"And--for I take you to be on the point of resigning, here and now--" + +"Ma'am, you have guessed correctly." + +"I am going to beg you to do nothing of the sort. No, I am not +going to ask it only as a favour, but to appeal to your reason. +You think it extremely rash of me to have entertained this man and +talked with him so frankly? Well, but consider. To begin with, if +I had not told him that we were after the treasure, he would probably +have guessed it; nay, I make bold to say that he guessed it already, +for--I forgot to mention it--he knows Harry Brooks." + +"Knows _me_, ma'am?" I cried out, as all the company turned and +stared at me. + +"He says so, and that he recognized you as you were sculling up the +creek." + +"Knows _me_?" I echoed. "But who on earth can he be, then? Not--not +the man Aaron Glass, surely?" + +"I was wondering," said Miss Belcher. + +"But--but Aaron Glass wasn't a bit like this man, as you make him +out; a thin, foxy-looking fellow, with sandy hair and a face full of +wrinkles, about the middling height, with sloping shoulders--" + +"Then he can't be Aaron Glass. But whoever he is, he knows you-- +that's the important point--and pretty certainly connects you with +the treasure. He didn't seem to have met Goodfellow before. +Well, now, if he lives alone here--which, I admit, is not likely--we +ought to be more than a match for him. If, on the other hand, he has +men at his call--and I ask your particular attention here, Captain-- +it was surely no folly at all, but the plainest common sense, to +admit him on board. He will go off and report that our ship's +company consists of two middle-aged maiden ladies (I occupied myself +with tatting a chair-cover while he conversed); a boy; Mr. Goodfellow +(whatever he may have made of Goodfellow); and two gentlemen ashore +to whose mental and physical powers I was careful to do some +injustice. You will pardon me, Captain, but I laid more than +warrantable stress on your lameness; and us for you, Jack, I depicted +you as a mere country booby"--here Mr. Rogers bowed amiably--"and +added by way of confirmation that I had known you from childhood. +He will go back and report all this, with the certain consequence +that he and his confederates will mistake us for a crew of +crack-brained eccentrics." + +When she had done, the Captain stood considering for a moment, +rubbing his chin. + +"Yes," he admitted slowly, "there seems reason in that, ma'am; +reason and method. But 'tis a kind of reason and method outside all +my experience, and you must excuse me if I get the grip of it slowly. +I should like a good look at the man before saying more." + +"As to that," answered Miss Belcher, "you won't have long to wait +for it. He has invited us all ashore to-morrow, for a picnic. +He charged me to say--if he did not happen to run against you as he +was returning the cockboat--that he would be at the creek-head +punctually at nine-thirty to await us." + + +Two hours later Captain Branscome sent word for me to attend him in +his cabin. + +"I want to tell you, Harry Brooks," said the old man, turning away +from me while he lit his pipe, "that I have been thinking over what +happened this afternoon." + +"I was in the wrong, sir." + +"You were; and I am glad to hear you acknowledge it. Now, what I +want to say is this. Had affairs gone in the least as I expected, I +should have held you to 'strict service,' as we used to say on the +old packets. I never tolerated a favourite on board, and never +shall. But these ladies don't make a favourite of you; that's not +the trouble. The trouble--no, I won't call it even that--is that you +and they all cannot help taking the bit between your teeth. It don't +appear to be your fault; you wasn't bred to the sea, and can't tumble +to sea-fashions. 'So much the worse,' a man might say. The plague +of it is, I can't be sure; and after casting it up and down, I've +determined to let you have your way." + +"You don't mean, sir, that you're going to resign!" said I, +confounded. + +"No, I don't. Saving your objections, boy, I was elected captain, +and it don't do away with my responsibility that I choose to let +discipline go to the winds. If mischief comes I shall be to blame, +because I might have stopped it but didn't." + +I was silent. This should have been the time for me to tell what I +had discovered that afternoon; of the graveyard and the two strange +women. But shame tied my tongue. I saw that this noble gentleman, +in imparting his thoughts to me, was really condescending to ask my +pardon; and the injustice of it was so monstrous that I felt a +delicacy in letting him know the extent of my unworthiness. +I temporized, and promised myself a better occasion. + +"But are you quite sure, sir, that yours was not the wisest plan, +after all?" + +"The question is not worth considering," he answered. "My policy-- +you would hardly call it a plan, for it wholly depended on +circumstances--no longer exists. The ladies, you see, have forced my +hand." + +I forbore to tell him that if the ladies had forced his hand his +accepting full responsibility was simply quixotic. + +"She's a wonderful woman," said I, by way of filling up the pause. + +"And so womanly!" assented Captain Branscome, to my entire surprise. + +"Indeed, sir," I stammered. "Well, I _have_ heard people say--Mr. +Rogers for one--that Miss Belcher ought to have been born a man." + +"Miss Belcher? Why, heavens alive, boy, I was referring to Miss +Plinlimmon!" + +He dismissed me with a wave of the hand, but called me back as I +turned to the door. + +"Oh, by the way," said he, "I had almost forgotten the reason why I +sent for you. This man--have you any notion who he can be?" + +"None, sir." + +"You've thought over every possible person of your acquaintance? +Well"--as I nodded--"we shall know to-morrow morning, if he keeps his +word. Mr. Rogers has kindly undertaken to stay and look after the +schooner. He has a sense of discipline, by the way, has Mr. Rogers." + +"If you wish me, sir, to stay with him-" + +"Thank you," he interrupted dryly, "but we shall need you ashore; in +the first place to indentify this mysterious stranger, and also to +help protect the ladies. Their escort, Heaven knows, is not +excessive. We take the gig, and if the man fails to appear, or +brings even so much as one companion, I give the word to return." + + +But these apprehensions proved to be groundless. As we rowed around +the bend next morning into view of the creek-head the man stood there +alone, awaiting us. He saw us at once, and lifted his hat in +welcome. + +"Do you know him, Harry?" asked Miss Belcher. + +"No," said I, pretty confidently, and then--"But, yes--in the garden, +that evening--the day you went up to Plymouth for the sale!" + +"Eh? The garden at Minden Cottage? What on earth was he doing +there?" + +"Nothing, ma'am--at least, I don't know. He seemed to be taking +measurements, and he gave me a guinea. I rather think, ma'am, he was +the man that attended the auction." + +"You never saw him until that evening?" + +"No." + +"Nor afterwards?" + +"Only that once, ma'am." + +"Oh!" said Miss Belcher. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +A BOAT ON THE BEACH. + +As we drew to shore the stranger stepped down the beach and lifted +his hat again. + +"Welcome, ladies; and let me thank you and all your party for this +confidence. The boy here--bless my soul, how he has grown in these +few months!--the boy and I have had the pleasure of meeting before. +Eh, Harry Brooks? You remember me? To the Captain I must introduce +myself. Shake hands, Captain Branscome. I am proud to make your +acquaintance. . . . But what is the meaning of these baskets? +You have brought your own provisions? Come, Miss Belcher, that is +unkind of you, when we agreed--yes, surely we agreed?--that you were +to be my guests." + +"We were not sure, sir--" began Miss Belcher. + +"That I should keep my word? Worse and worse! Or possibly you +distrusted the entertainment of a solitary bachelor on a desert +island? But I must prove that you did me an injustice." He pointed +to a goodly hamper on the beach and to a frail or carpenter's basket +from which half a dozen bottles protruded their necks, topped with +red and green seals. "As proprietor of Mortallone--you will forgive +my laying stress on it--I may surely claim the right to do the +honours. Stay a moment, my good man," he added, as Mr. Goodfellow +made a motion to lift out our own hamper. "Miss Plinlimmon, I +believe, is an admirer of natural scenery, and, if the ladies will +step ashore for a few minutes, there is a waterfall above which may +reward her inspection; not by any means, ma'am, the grandest our +island can show, yet charming in its way and distant but a short five +minutes' walk. Captain Branscome will bear me out, and Harry, too-- +yes, Harry, too, if I mistake not, visited it yesterday." + +He put out a hand to assist the ladies to disembark, at the same time +hitching back the gun on his bandolier. + +"You will excuse my having brought a musket. You have brought your +own, I see. Quite right. I carry it habitually; for, to tell you +the truth, the island contains a few wild boars who dispute +possession with me. A very few--we are not likely to meet with one, +so the ladies may reassure themselves! But, as I was about to say, +with the Captain's permission we will not unload here. Rather, after +visiting the waterfall, I would suggest that we row round to the +eastern side, where, if I may guide you, you will find choice of a +dozen delightful spots for a picnic. In this way, too, we shall +cover more ground and get a more general view of the beauties of the +island, which, as I dare say my friend Harry discovered yesterday, is +somewhat too thickly overgrown for easy travelling." + +The man's manner--at once frank, chatty, and easily polite-- +completely disconcerted me, and I could see it disconcerted the +Captain. It seemed to reduce the whole expedition to an ordinary +picnic; and (more astonishing yet) the ladies accepted it for that. +They fell in, one on each side of him, as he led the way to the +waterfall, and for a climax Miss Belcher shook out a parasol which +she had been carrying under her arm and spread it above her beaver +hat! + +At the waterfall our host surpassed himself. The landscape +hereabouts (he declared) always reminded him of Nicholas Poussin. +He would like Miss Plinlimmon's opinion on the rock-drawing of +Salvator Rosa, a painter whom he gently depreciated. Had Miss +Plinlimmon ever visited the Apennines? He plucked a few of the ferns +growing in the spray and discoursed on them, comparing them with the +common European polypody. He turned to music, and challenged his +fair visitors to guess the note made by the falling water: it hummed +on E natural, rising now and then by something less than a semitone. + +With all this it was not easy to suspect him of acting, as it was +next to impossible to mistake him for a trifler. His tall figure, +his carriage, the fine pose of his head, his resonant manly voice, +all forbade it, no less than did the wild scenery to which he drew +our attention with an easy proprietary wave of the hand. I observed +that Captain Branscome listened to him with a puzzled frown. + +The waterfall having been duly admired, we retraced our steps to the +shore. The gig carried a small mast and lugsail, and, the faint wind +blowing fair down the creek, the Captain suggested our hoisting them. +I think it annoyed him to find himself appealing to Dr. Beauregard. + +"By all means," said the Doctor, affably. "It will save labour till +we reach open water, when I will ask you to lower them. We had best +use the paddles after rounding the point to eastward, and keep close +inshore. I have my reasons for recommending this--reasons which I +shall be happy to explain to you, sir, at the proper time." +Here he bowed to Captain Branscome. + +Accordingly we hoisted sail, and in a few minutes opened the view of +the lower reach, with the _Espriella_ swinging softly at her cables, +her masts reflected on the scarcely rippled water. Miss Belcher +broke into a laugh at sight of Mr. Rogers wistfully eyeing us from +the deck. Dr. Beauregard echoed it, just audibly. + +"Well, well, ma'am; it is hard upon Mr.--Rogers, did you tell me? +But we must not blame the Captain for taking precautions. +A very neat craft, Captain, and Jamaica-built, by the look of her." + +"We picked her up at Savannah-la-Mar," announced Miss Belcher. + +"After burning your boats, madam? Pardon me, but I find your +frankness as admirable as it is unexpected. Moreover, though Captain +Branscome deprecates it, no policy could be wiser." + +"I see no reason, sir, for being less than candid with you," said +Miss Belcher. "You know whence we come end you know why we are here. +How we came is a trifling matter in comparison." + +"Believe me, ma'am, your frankness is all in your favour. +I may repeat what I told you yesterday, that several expeditions have +come to this island seeking treasure; crews of merely avaricious men, +mad with greed, whom I have made it my business to baffle. +_You_, on the contrary, may almost count on my help; though whether +the treasure will do you much good when you have found it is another +question altogether. But we are not treasure-seeking just now, and I +shall grudge even the pleasure of talking if it steal your admiration +from my island." + +The shore by which we steered was, indeed, entrancing, and grew yet +more entrancing as we rounded Cape Fea and, downing sail, headed the +gig for the north-east, pulling almost in the shadow of the cliffs; +for the sea lay calm as a pond, and broke in feeblest ripples even on +the beaches recessed here and there in the chasms. We passed +Try-again Inlet, and our wonder grew; for the cliffs now were mere +cliffs no longer but the bases of a range of mountains, broken into +rock slides with matted vines like curtains overhanging their scars; +and in the water, ten fathoms deep below us, we could watch the +coloured fishes at play. + +Mr. Goodfellow and I were at the oars; and we had been pulling, as I +judged, for something over an hour, but easily, for the tide could +hardly be felt, when Dr. Beauregard, who had taken the tiller, +steered us in towards a beach which he announced to be the, perhaps, +very choicest in the island for a picnic. + +Certainly it was a fairy-like spot, with white sand underfoot, green +creepers overhanging, and through the creepers a rill of water +splashing down the cliff; yet we had passed at least a dozen other +beaches, which to me had looked no less inviting. + +"We will leave the ladies to unpack the hampers," said Dr. +Beauregard. "I speak as a bachelor, but in my experience there is a +half-hour before lunch in which that man is best appreciated who +makes himself scarce. Captain Branscome, if you will not mind a +short scramble over the rocks here, to the left, I can promise you +something worth seeing." + +He led the way at once, and we followed, the Captain (who appeared +to have lost his temper again) growling that he took no stock in +views. But the distance was not far. We scrambled over two low +ledges of rock and found ourselves looking down upon a beach even +prettier and more fairy-like than the one we had left--and upon +something more--a ship's boat, drawn about thirty feet above +high-water, and resting there on her side. + +"Yours?" asked Captain Branscome, after a long stare at her. + +"Certainly not," answered Dr. Beauregard. "And that is why I brought +you here." + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +THE SCREAM ON THE CLIFF. + +"A boat?" said Captain Branscome, staring again, and slowly rubbing +the back of his head. + +He took a step forward, to descend to the beach and examine her, but +Dr. Beauregard laid a hand on his arm. + +"Not so fast, my friend! _Qui dit canot dit canotier_--a glance will +assure you that she did not beach herself in that position, above +high-water mark, still less furl her own sail and stow it. +Further, if you study the country behind us, you will see that, while +we came unobserved and stand at this moment in excellent cover, by +crossing the beach we expose ourselves to observation and the risk of +a bullet." + +"I take it, sir," answered Captain Branscome, still puzzled, "you +knew this boat to be here, and have brought us with some purpose." + +"I knew it, to be sure, and my purpose is simple. We cannot have a +rival party of treasure-seekers on the island. We have ladies in our +charge--gentle, well-bred ladies--and of the crew of that boat, one +man, to my knowledge, is a pretty desperate ruffian. The other +two--" + +"You have seen them, then?" + +Dr. Beauregard lifted his shoulders slightly, and took snuff. + +"My good friend," he answered, "as lord proprietor of Mortallone, I +pay attention to all my visitors. Well, as I was saying, to cross +the beach just now would be venturesome and foolish to boot, seeing +that we hold all the cards and have only to wait." + +"What of the ladies?" asked the Captain. + +"We can return at once and join them at luncheon. But the ladies, as +you remind me, complicate the affair. Before you arrived, I had laid +my plans to let these rascals have the run of the island and amuse me +by their activities. I had, in fact, prepared a little deception for +them--oh, a very innocent little trick! I don't know, my dear sir, +if it has struck you how much simpler our amusements tend to become +as we grow older. I had promised myself to watch them, lying perdu, +and in the end to dismiss them with a quiet chuckle. You have read +your _Tempest_, Captain Branscome? Well, I have no obedient Ariel to +play will-o'-the-wisp with such gentry; yet I would have led them a +very pretty dance. But the ladies--the ladies, to be sure! +We cannot expose them to dangers, nor even to alarms. We must use +more summary methods." He stood for a moment or two reflective, +tapping his snuff-box. "Mr. Goodfellow is a carpenter, I +understand." + +"At your service, sir." + +Mr. Goodfellow's hand went halfway to his waistcoat pocket, as if to +produce his business card. + +"I seem to remember, Mr. Goodfellow that you carry a bag of tools in +the boat?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Including, no doubt, an auger, or, at any rate, a fair-sized +gimlet?" + +"Both, sir." + +"You will greatly oblige me, then, Mr. Goodfellow--always with +Captain Branscome's leave--by returning to the boat and fetching your +auger; if possible, without attracting the ladies' observation. +With this instead of returning direct to us, you will make your way +to the left, towards the head of the beach, keeping well under the +rocks, which will serve you from landward. At the head of the beach +you will bring us into sight a pace or two before you come abreast of +the boat. There, at a signal from me, you will creep down to the +boat--on hands and knees, or on your stomach if you will--and bore me +three small holes close alongside her keelson, using as much +expedition as may consist with neatness. You understand? Then the +quicker you set about it, the less will be the risk." + +Mr. Goodfellow touched his forelock, and sped on his errand. +Dr. Beauregard seated himself on the rocks, and loosing the gun from +his bandolier, laid it across his knees. + +"A simple job," he remarked. "Any one of us could do it as well as +Goodfellow. But it is a practice of mine to take the smallest risks +into account; and if the honest fellow _should_ be detected, why, I +imagine he can be the most easily spared of the party." + +Mr. Goodfellow, however, reached the boat without misadventure. + +"Ah, he displays intelligence!" commented Dr. Beauregard, watching +him as, before setting to work, he lifted the boat's gunwale and +heaved her over on her other side, exposing the bilgepiece on which +she had been resting. "Yes, decidedly, he displays intelligence." + +Mr. Goodfellow having stripped off his coat, picked up his auger and +bored his three holes very neatly. This done be rubbed them over +with a handful of sand, and smoothed over with sand all traces of +sawdust, heaved the boat back, so that she rested again in her +original position; and retired, sweeping his coat behind him, and +obliterating his footprints as he went. + +"Couldn't be bettered!" said Dr. Beauregard, smiling cheerfully and +smoothing his gun-barrel. "And now I think we may rejoin the ladies +and pray that these rascals will put off disturbing us until after +luncheon. At one time I feared they might have taken a panic +yesterday morning at sight of your schooner; but they calculated, +maybe, that the chances were all against your discovering their +presence, which, of course, you never suspected." + +"I suspected something fast enough," said Captain Branscome, "for in +running along the coast I caught sight of smoke rising among the +hills--from a camp-fire, as I reckoned--and no doubt from here or +hereabouts, though I should have put it a mile or two farther south." + +"The born fools!" said Dr. Beau-regard, laughing. "Well, it's even +possible that in their furious preoccupation they let the schooner +come close without spying her. Ah, Captain, you can hardly imagine-- +you, fresh from a civilized country, where folks must keep up +appearances, while they prey upon one another--how this lust of gold +brutalizes a man when, as here, he pursues it without restraint. +And what, after all, will gold purchase?" + +"Not happiness, I verily believe," said the Captain, "though to the +poor--and I speak as one who has been bitterly poor--it may bring +happiness for a while in the shape of relief from grinding +discomfort." + +"Yes, yes; as pleasure lies in mere cessation from pain. But that +does not meet my question. We will take Master Harry here, who seems +a good, ordinary healthy boy. We will suppose him in possession of +the treasure you are here to seek. What in the end can he purchase +with it better than the fun he is getting out of this expedition? +He can indulge all his senses, but for a while only; in the end +indulgence brings satiety, dulls the appetite, takes the savour from +the feast, and so destroys itself. He can purchase power, you say? +But that again moves one difficulty but a step further. For what +will his power give him when he has won it? These are questions, +Captain, which I have asked myself daily here on this island. +I have been asking them ever since, and while I was yet a young man +they came to wear for me a personal application. 'Vanity of +vanities,' Captain--what the Preacher discovered long ago I +discovered again and of my own experience." + +"The Christian religion, sir--" began Captain Branscome. But here +our strange host laid a hand on his arm. + +"We forget our politeness," he interrupted, yet gently, and without +suspicion of offence. "We keep the ladies waiting." + +"Captain Branscome and I," said our host, as he seated himself +beside Miss Belcher, and uncorked one of the green-sealed bottles, +"have been talking platitudes, to which, however, our present +business lends a certain fresh interest. You are here, many +thousands of miles from home, on a hunt for treasure. Now, Heaven +forbid that I should criticise your intentions, seeing that +incidentally I am in debt to them for this delightful picnic; but +before I help you--as, believe me, I am disposed to help--may I ask +what you propose to do with this wealth when you get it?" + +"Why, sir," answered Miss Belcher, candidly, "we discussed that, you +may be sure, before starting. The bulk of it, after paying expenses, +was to go to young Brooks, here. Circumstances had given him, as we +supposed--and for the matter of that, as we still believe--the clue +to the treasure--" + +"Pardon me, ma'am, for interrupting you; but did that clue take the +form of a map of the island?" + +"It did, sir." + +"A map with three red crosses upon it and some writing on the back? +Nay, I will not press the question. Your faces answer it." + +"I ought to tell you, Dr. Beauregard, in justice to the boy, that he +came by it honestly, though in very tragic circumstances." + +"Again, ma'am, your faces would answer for the honesty of your +business. As for the circumstances you speak of, it may save time if +I tell you that I know the whole story. Why, truly," he went on, as +we stared, "there is no mystery about it. I dare say, ma'am, the boy +has found an opportunity to whisper to you that he and I have met +before. It was at Minden Cottage, in his father's garden, and by the +very spot where his father was murdered. He found me there taking +measurements; for I had a theory about the crime--a theory of which I +need only say here that, though right in the main, it missed certain +details of which Harry's engaging conversation put me on the scent. +I had read of the murder quite accidentally; but it happened that I +knew something of Coffin--enough to explain his fate--and of the man +who had murdered him. But of Major Brooks I knew nothing; and what I +gathered by inquiry made the whole affair more and more puzzling. +At length I hit on the explanation that Coffin--who had reasons, and +strong ones, for going in deadly terror of Aaron Glass--had in some +way chosen this Major Brooks for his confessor, and journeyed to +Minden Cottage to deposit the secret with him; and that Glass, +following in pursuit, had surprised and murdered the both of them. +The exact catena of the two crimes mattered less to me than the +question: Had Glass possessed himself of the secret before making +off? At first I saw no room to doubt it. But your young friend's +account of himself sent me to Falmouth, and at Falmouth I began to +have my doubts. My earliest inquiries there were addressed to the +pedagogue--the Reverend Something-or-other Stimcoe--a drunken idiot, +who yielded no information at all; and to his wife, a lady who +persisted in regarding me as sent from heaven for no other purpose +than to discharge her small debts. From her, again, I learned +nothing. But from a talk with one of her pupils--his name was Bates, +if I remember--I discovered that Master Harry had been a particular +crony of Coffin's, and this, of course, threw light on Coffin's visit +to Minden Cottage. Still, there remained the question: Had Glass +managed to lay hands on the chart, or had it found its way, after +all, into the possession of Master Harry Brooks? You'll excuse me, +young sir"--Dr. Beauregard turned to me--"but during our talk in the +garden, your manner suggested to me that you had a card up your +sleeve. Well, whatever the answer, my obvious course was to return +to Mortallone and await it, as for fifteen years already I have been +awaiting it, though question and answer were but now beginning to +take definite form. Here you are then at last, and here am I-- +_tout vient a point a qui sait attendre_." + +"Then our arrival, sir, did not altogether surprise you?" said Miss +Belcher. + +"On the contrary, ma'am--though for reasons you will not easily +guess--it surprised me as I have never been surprised in all my life +before; it confounded me, dumfounded me, made chaos of my plans, +and--and--I am delighted to welcome you, ma'am! I desire to be +allowed the honour of taking wine with you." + +"Willingly!" assented Miss Belcher, holding out her glass to be +replenished; "and the more so because I never drank better Rhone wine +in my life." + +Dr. Beauregard stood up and bowed, his fine features overspread with +a flush of pleased astonishment. + +"Madam--" began Dr. Beauregard, and I have no doubt he had a +compliment on his lips. But at that moment the hills and the +amphitheatre of cliff behind us, rang out--rang out and echoed--with +two terrible screams. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +AARON GLASS. + +The second scream followed the first almost before we could lift our +faces to the cliff. Dr. Beauregard had risen to his feet quickly, +without fuss, and was unstrapping his gun. But Miss Belcher was +quicker. A couple of muskets lay on the sand close beside the +luncheon-cloth, and in a trice she had snatched up one of them, and +held our host covered. + +"You have deceived us, sir," she said quietly. + +Dr. Beauregard looked along the barrel and into her eyes with an +admiring, half-quizzical smile. + +"Good," said he. "Good, but unnecessary. That the island is +inhabited I supposed you to know, since Captain Branscome tells me he +reported catching sight of smoke yesterday when off the western +coast; but the fellows--there are, or were, three of them, by the +way--are no friends of mine." + +"We have only your word for it," said Miss Belcher, without lowering +her musket. + +"True, ma'am," the Doctor assented, with a bow. "I am about to give +you proof. But first of all oblige me by listening for another +moment." + +He held up his hand, and while we all listened I looked around from +face to face. Captain Branscome had unslipped his gun, and stood +eyeing the Doctor with a puzzled frown. Plinny stared up at the +cliffs. She was white to the lips, but the lips were firmly set; +whereas Mr. Goodfellow's jaw hung as though loosed from its +tacklings. + +So we waited for twenty seconds, maybe; but no third scream came down +from the heights. + +"That makes one accounted for," said Dr. Beauregard. "I have known, +first and last, eleven parties who hunted treasure on this island. +They all quarrelled. They quarrelled, moreover, every one of them, +before getting their stuff--such as it was--to the boats. Now, if +you will permit me to say so, your own success--when you obtain it-- +will be a fluke and an absurd fluke. It will stultify every rule of +precaution and violate every law of chance. I have studied this game +for close upon twenty years, and reduced it almost to mathematics; +and I foresee that you will play--nay, you have already played-- +ninepins with my most certain conclusions. But you have as +gentlefolks, with all the disabilities of gentlefolks, the one thing +that all these experts have fatally lacked. You have self-command." + +"It appears to me that we need it, at any rate," said Miss Belcher, +tartly, "if we are to be favoured just now with a lecture." + +Dr. Beauregard smiled. "The purport of my lecture, ma'am, was to +prepare you for a question which I have to put. When these men +arrive, Captain Branscome, Mr. Goodfellow, and I must deal with them. +Are you ladies prepared to exercise strong self-control? Will you, +with Harry Brooks, await us here until our business is over?" + +"Excuse me, sir, but I must first know what your business is." + +"That, ma'am, will depend upon circumstances; but it is more than +likely to be serious." + +"I must trouble you, now and always, to speak to me definitely. +If you propose to shoot these men, kindly say so." + +"I do not, ma'am. But their boat lies on the next beach, and as soon +as they launch her they will discover us; and as soon as they +discover us it will be life for life." + +"But they need not discover us. In five minutes we can embark +ourselves and our belongings; in less than fifteen we can round the +point to the south'ard, and beyond it lie two or three small coves +where, as I judged in passing, a boat can lie reasonably safe from +observation." + +"Admirably reasoned, ma'am. By all means take the boat--take Harry +Brooks with you, and Mr. Goodfellow for protection. But Captain +Branscome and I must stay and see it out with these men." + +"For my part," put in Plinny, "I cannot see why these men have not as +much right as we to the treasure; and, in any case, if we let them go +they leave us a clear coast to hunt for the rest." + +"Captain Branscome"--Dr. Beauregard turned to him--"do these ladies, +as a rule, assert a voice in your dispositions?" + +"They do, sir," answered the Captain, with a tired smile; "and if you +will take my advice, the only way with them is to make a clean breast +of everything." + +"I will." The Doctor faced about, with a smile. "You must know then, +ladies, that these two ruffians--for by this time there are two +only--will presently be coming down to the next beach to launch their +boat and leave the island. How do I know this? Because my study of +treasure-hunters has given me a kind of instinct; or because, if you +prefer it, I have observed that the moment--the crucial moment--when +these fellows quarrel is always the moment when, having laid hands on +as much as they can carry, they turn to retreat. You doubt my +diagnosis, ma'am?" he asked, turning to Miss Belcher. "Then I can +convince you even more simply. These men are not camping here +to-night; they will not return to-morrow to fetch a second load; and +for the sufficient reason that there is no second load. I know the +amount of treasure hidden where they have been searching. Two men +can lift and carry it easily." + +"How do you happen to know this?" asked Miss Belcher, eyeing him from +under contracted brows. + +"For the excellent reason, ma'am, that I put the treasure there +myself." + +The answer, staggering to the rest of us, seemed to brace her +together. She had lowered her musket at the beginning of the +discussion; but now, throwing up her head with a sharp jerk, she +levelled her eyes on Dr. Beauregard's, as straight as though they +looked along a gun-barrel. + +"Then it can hardly be for the sake of the treasure, sir, that you +propose to deal with these men." + +"It is not, ma'am." + +"Nor solely to protect us from them, since you have brought us here, +where we need never have come." + +"No, ma'am. I brought you here because I cannot be in two places at +once, and it was necessary to keep both parties under my eye. +Having brought you, I am bound to protect you; but my main business +here, and yours--or at any rate Captain Branscome's--is to punish." + +"To punish? But why to punish?" + +Dr. Beauregard hesitated, with a glance at Plinny and at me, who +stood beside her. + +"A word in your ear, ma'am--if you will allow me?" + +He stepped close to Miss Belcher, and spoke a sentence or two which I +could not catch. But my eyes were on her face, and I saw it change +colour. The next moment her square mouth shut like a trap. + +"If that be so, I wait for him along with you," she announced. +"Oh, you may trust me, sir! I have a fairly strong stomach with +criminals, and no sentiment." + +"It shall be as you please, ma'am. But, for the others, I would +suggest their taking the boat and awaiting us around the point. +See, the tide has risen, and within five minutes she will float. +Mr. Goodfellow, will you accompany Miss Plinlimmon and the boy? +Wait, please, until completely afloat before pushing off; for our +friends must be near at hand by this time, and the grating of her +keel might give them the alarm. For the same reason, ma'am, unless +you have any particular question to ask, we had best start at once, +and, when we have started, keep the strictest silence. Shall I lead +the way?" + +They set off very cautiously, the Doctor leading, Miss Belcher close +at his heels. Captain Branscome a couple of paces behind her; gained +the ridge, and passed out of sight around an angle of the rocks. +Now, to be left in this fashion was not at all to my mind. +It seemed to me that, when serious business was on hand, every one +conspired to treat me as a baby. I had told Captain Branscome +yesterday that I would not put up with it; and though I stood in far +greater awe of Dr. Beauregard than of the Captain, I felt none the +less mutinous now. Plinny, who in moments of agitation invariably +had recourse to some familiar work for a sedative, was on her knees +repacking the luncheon-baskets. Her back was turned to me, and from +her I glanced towards Mr. Goodfellow, who had stepped down to the +boat, and was leaning over the gunwale to rearrange the gear. +From him I looked up the beach, to the ridge behind which the others +had disappeared, and to the creepers overhanging the cliff. +Suddenly it came into my head that by gaining the upper end of the +ridge, where it met the cliff, I could wriggle under these creepers, +and observe from behind them all that went on, as well on the next +beach as on this. And with another glance at Plinny's back I tiptoed +away. + +I moved as swiftly as I dared, making no noise, nor looked behind me +until I reached the rocks under the cliff--the path by which Mr. +Goodfellow had crept round to scuttle the boat. + +I calculated that by working my way along for fifty yards between +them and the rock-face I should gain an opening which, observed from +below, had seemed to promise me an excellent view of the next beach. +But they hung so heavily that I found myself struggling in an almost +impenetrable thicket; and when at length I gained the opening, and +drew breath, above the splash of waves on the beach I heard a sound +which caused me to huddle back like a rabbit surprised in the mouth +of its burrow. + +Some three yards from my hiding the bank of low cliff bounding the +beach shelved upward and inland in a stretch of short turf, and from +the head of this slope came the thud of footsteps--of heavy footsteps +descending closer and closer. + +I drew back under the creepers, and held my breath. Between their +thick woven strands my eyes caught only, to the right, a twinkle of +the sea; in front, a yard or two of white shingle glittering beyond +the green shade; and, five seconds later, this patch was blotted out +as two men plunged past my spyhole. They walked abreast, and carried +a box between them. I could hear them panting, so closely they +passed. + +They halted on the edge of the bank. + +"The boat's all right," said one; and I heard him jump down upon the +shingle. It seemed to me that I knew his voice. "Here, pass down +the blamed thing . . . d--n it all, man!" + +"_I can't!_" whimpered the other. "S'help me, Bill, I can't. . . . +I'm not used to it, and I ain't got the nerve." + +"Nerve? An' you call yourself a seaman! An' a plucky lot you +boasted the night we signed articles. . . . Nerve? Why, you was the +very man to find fault with him. 'Couldn't stand his temper another +day,' you said; and must do something desprit. Those were your very +words." + +"I know it. I didn't think--" + +"Oh, to hell with your 'didn't think'! The man's dead, an' cryin' +won't bring him back. Much you'd welcome him, if he _did_ come +back!" + +"_Don't_, Bill!" + +"Now, look you here, Jim Lucky! Stand you up, and help me get this +lot in the boat, and the boat to sea. After that you can lie quiet +and cry yourself sick. . . . You'll be all right to-morrow, fit as a +fiddle. I've been in this business before, and seen how it takes +men, even the strongest. It's the sight o' blood; but the stomach +gets accustomed. . . . By this day week you'll be lively as a flea in +a rug, and lookin' forward to drivin' in your carriage-an'-pair. +I promise you that; but what you've to do at this moment is to stand +up, and help me get down the boat. For if _he's_ anywhere on this +island, God help the pair of us!" + +"_He!_" quavered Jim Lucky. + +"I shouldn't wonder." + +"But you told me he was dead!" + +"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. That was to keep your spirits up. +But now I don't mind tellin' you that I'm not sure. He _ought_ to +be dead by this time; but 'tis a question if the likes of him ever +die. He's own cousin to the devil, I tell you; and if he's anywhere +alive, like as not he's watching us at this moment." + +Whatever this meant, it appeared to rouse Jim Lucky, and start him in +a panic. I heard him sob as he helped to lower their burden upon the +beach. All this time they had been standing immediately beneath me, +and I dared not lift my head for a look. But now, as they went +staggering down the beach, I parted the creepers, and stared in their +wake. They carried a heavy sea-chest between them, but my eyes were +neither for the chest nor for Jim Lucky, but for his companion, the +man he called Bill. + +I knew him before I looked; and as I had recognized his voice, so now +I recognized his narrow, foxy head, and sloping shoulders. + +It was Aaron Glass. + +The two men carried the chest along at a rate that perhaps came +easily enough to Jim Lucky, who was a young giant of a seaman, but +was astonishing for a thin, windlestraw of a man such as Glass. +He ploughed his way across the sands like a demon, and had scarcely +set down the chest, a little above the water's edge, before he was +tugging at the boat. I heard him call to Lucky to help, and the pair +heave-y-hoe'd together as they strained at the gunwale to lift her +and run her down. + +From this ridge, as yet, came no sign. + +Presently from the boat--they had pulled her down to the water, and +were both stooping over her with their shoulders well inside, busy in +arranging her bottom board--I heard a fearful oath; an oath that rose +in a scream, as the two men faced each other, scared, incredulous. + +"_Scuttled, by God!_" + +It was Glass who screamed it out, and with the sound of it a host of +sea-birds rose from the neighbouring rocks, whitening the sky. +But Jim Lucky cast up both hands and ran. + +"Stop, you fool! Stop!" + +I think the poor creature had no notion whither he ran; that he was +merely demented. But, in fact, he headed straight for the ridge, +not turning his head. Twice Glass called after him; then, in a +sudden fury, whipped out a pistol and fired. For the moment I +supposed that he had missed, for the man ran for another six strides +without seeming to falter, then his knees weakened, and he pitched +forward on his face. + +I believe, on my word, that Glass had either fired in blind passion +or with intent to stop the man rather than to kill him. He stood and +stared; and, while the pistol yet smoked in his hand, I saw Dr. +Beauregard step forth from his shelter, step delicately past the +corpse, and raise his musket; and heard his clear, resonant voice +call out-- + +"Both hands up, Mr. Glass, if you please!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +WE COME TO DR. BEAUREGARD'S HOUSE. + +Glass's arm fell limp by his side, as though Dr. Beauregard had +actually pulled the trigger and winged him. He turned half-about as +the pistol slid from his fingers. He gave no cry; only there leached +us a loose, throttling sound such as a steam whistle makes before +fetching its note. It came to us in the lull between two waves that +broke and raised up the sands to ripple round his feet. + +"_Both_ hands up, Mr. Glass!" + +Dr. Beauregard advanced a step. + +But instead of lifting his arms, the man curved them before him, and +held them so, as if to protect his treasure, while he sank on his +knees beside the box. His face was yellow with terror. + +"You fool!" The Doctor, still holding him covered, advanced step by +step to the box, and bent over it, staring down at him. The rest of +us--that is to say, Miss Belcher, Captain Branscome, and I--under I +know not what compulsion, followed and came to a halt a few paces +behind him. Standing so, I felt, rather than saw, that Plinny and +Mr. Goodfellow, attracted by the report of the pistol, were peering +at us over the ridge of rocks on the right. + +"You fool!" Dr. Beauregard repeated, and suddenly dropped the butt of +his musket upon the loose cover of the chest. + +"You fool!" said he, a third time, and tearing aside a splintered +board, dipped his hand and held it up full of sparkling stones. +Opening his fingers slowly, he let a few jewels rattle back upon the +heap, and held out a moderate fistful towards the cowering Glass. +"Did you actually suppose, having proved me once, that I would suffer +such a common cut-throat as you to march off with my treasure? +Look up at me, man! I charge you with having murdered Coffin, even +as you have just murdered that other poor blockhead who trusted you." +He nodded sideways--but still keeping his eyes upon Glass--towards +the body, which lay as it had fallen. "Answer me. Are you guilty? +Yes or no?" + +The man's mouth worked, but his tongue crackled in his mouth like a +parched leaf. + +"Yes, I know what you would say; that you had some excuse--that +Coffin in his time had stuck at nothing to be quit of you; that he +sold you to the press-gang; that through Coffin you spent eight, +ten--how many years?'--in the war-prisons; that he believed you dead, +as he had taken pains to kill you. Well, we'll grant it. As between +two scoundrels I'll not trouble to weigh the rights against the +wrongs. But look at this boy, here. You recognize him, hey? I +charge you with having murdered his father, Major Brooks, as you +murdered Coffin. You have run up a pretty long account, my friend, +for so clumsy a performer; but I think you have reached the end of +it." + +Aaron Glass looked at me and blinked. Terror of the man confronting +him had twisted his dumb mouth into a kind of grin horrible to see. +It lifted his lip, like the snarl of a dog, over his yellow teeth. +Dr. Beauregard laughed softly. + +"And all for what? For an imperfect chart--and for _these!_" +He thrust his hand close up to Glass's face, and spread his fingers +wide, letting the gems drip between them, and rain back into the +treasure-chest. "What's wrong with them? That's what you'd be +asking--eh?--if your poor tongue could find the words. Well, only +this, my friend--yes, look well at them--that I hid them myself, and +every one of them is false." + +"False!" I could see Glass's mouth at work, his lips forming to the +echo of the word, as it struck across his terror like a whip. But he +achieved no articulate sound. + +"I give you my word--" resumed Dr. Beauregard; but a thud interrupted +him. Glass had fallen forward in a faint, striking his forehead +against the edge of the chest, and lay face downward--with the blood +oozing from his temple and discolouring the sand. As the Doctor +paused and bent over him, another wave came rippling up the beach, +throwing a long, thin curve of foam before it, and washed out the +stain. + +"Is--is he dead?" I heard Plinny's voice quavering. + +"Not yet, ma'am," answered the Doctor, grimly; and, taking the +inanimate body by the collar, he drew it above reach of the waves, +and turned it over. + +"You are a doctor, sir?" + +"Yes, ma'am, and have some small skill." He put up a hand to his +breast-pocket, half withdrew it, and hesitated. "You have baulked me +of a pretty little scheme," he said quietly. And still while he +addressed us he seemed to be considering. "Think of this fellow's +face when he got his treasure across to the mainland and attempted to +trade it! To be sure, he gave us some fun for our pains--" + +"If you call it fun, sir," protested Plinny. + +"Well, yes, ma'am," he answered quietly, kneeling and lifting Glass's +head, and resting it across his thigh. "My humour may be of a +primitive sort, but I confess it tickled by shocking a murderer into +a fainting fit." He felt in his breast-pocket and drew forth a small +phial. "No, sir,"--he turned to Captain Branscome, who had stepped +forward to offer his help--"let me alone, please. I prefer to treat +my patient in my own way. It will be best, on the whole, for +everybody." + +He forced Glass's mouth wide open, and with one hand poured about +half of the contents of the phial between the patient's teeth, drop +by drop, very patiently, with the other smoothing the gullet between +finger and thumb. + +We all stood watching while he administered the dose, Miss Belcher +close beside me, with her hand on my shoulder. At the twentieth drop +or so I felt her give a start, as though a thought had suddenly +occurred to her, and I looked up into her face. Her eyes were fixed +inquiringly on Dr. Beauregard, and he, happening also to look up, met +them with a smile. + +"You will see in a moment," he said, as if answering her thought, +and, reaching forward, he laid two fingers on Glass's pulse. +"Yes, in a moment now." + +Sure enough, in a moment Glass's eyelids fluttered a little, and he +came back to life with an audible catch of the breath. + +"In two minutes' time, sir"--the Doctor turned to Captain +Branscome--"I shall be glad of your services, and of Mr. +Goodfellow's, to carry the fellow down to the boat--that is to say, +if, in deference to the ladies, you have really decided not to leave +him here to his fate. He will sleep after this; nay, if you will +listen, he is sleeping already. The other man is dead, I suppose?" + +"He must have died instantly," answered Captain Branscome, who had +stepped across to the body to assure himself. + +"I had no doubt of it, by the way he dropped. Well, there is no need +to fetch a spade. Their thoughtfulness provided one. You will find +it in the boat there." + + +Half an hour later we embarked, leaving behind us on the beach a +scuttled boat, a mound of sand, and a chest of false jewellery, over +the top of which the rising tide had already begun to lap. + +Aaron Glass lay along the bottom boards, asleep and breathing +apoplectically. I pulled the stroke paddle, Mr. Goodfellow the bow, +and the Captain steered. Dr. Beauregard addressed himself to the +ladies, of whom Miss Belcher sat with a corrugated brow, as though +turning a thought over and over in her mind, and Plinny with scared +eyes, staring into vacancy. + +"I am sorry, indeed, ladies," said the Doctor, "that I could not have +spared you this. The fool shot his mate--you saw it yourselves-- +without rhyme or reason. Against madness, and the impulses of +madness, no man can calculate. I might plead, too, that in an +undertaking like this you match yourselves against forces with which +it is not given to ladies to cope. I grant admiringly the courage +that brought you across thousands of miles to Mortallone, as I grant, +and again admiringly, the steadiness of your behaviour this +afternoon. But one thing you did not know--that in the nature of +things you were bound to meet with such men and see such things done. +I have not lived beside treasure all these years without learning +that it attracts such men as carrion attracts the vultures. Hide it +where you will, from the end of the earth _some_ bird of prey will +spy it out, or at least some scent of it will lie and draw such +prowlers as this fellow." Dr. Beauregard touched the sleeping man +contemptuously with the toe of his boot. "I myself have been--shall +we say?--fortunate. I have emptied, or assisted to empty, two caches +of treasure in this island. A third remains, of which you have the +secret, and I believe it to be the richest of all. But before you +attempt it, I have a mind to tell you something of the other two, +that at least you may not attempt it unwarned." + +"You may spare yourself the pains, sir," said Miss Belcher, +decisively; "since our minds are made up. You might, I doubt not, +succeed in frightening us; but since you will not deter us, I suggest +that the less we hear the better." + +The Doctor bowed. "Ah, madam," sighed he, "if only Fate had timed +your adventure two years ago; or if, departing with the treasure, you +could even now leave me to regrets--in peace!" + +"My good sir," said Miss Belcher, sharply, "I haven't a doubt you +mean something or other; but what precisely it is, I cannot +conceive." + +"You will go, madam, leaving my island twice empty. That is Fate, +and I consent with Fate. But the devil of it is, ma'am--if I may use +the expression--your removing the treasure will not prevent others +coming to look for it, and annoying an old age which has ceased to +set store on wealth, or on anything that wealth can purchase." + +She looked at him oddly. "Well, now," she confessed, "you are a +mystery to me in half a dozen ways; but if on top of all you mean to +turn pious--" + +He laughed, and when the laugh was done it seemed to prolong itself +inside him for fully half a minute. + +"You are right, ma'am. Let us be practical again; and, as the first +practical question, let me ask you, or Captain Branscome, what you +propose to do with this man? Obviously, we cannot take him along +with us after the treasure." + +"Well, I imagine we are returning to the schooner. He can be left on +board, in charge of Mr. Rogers." + +"But I was about to suggest that we take Mr. Rogers along with us. +In some ways, he is the most active of the party, and we can hardly +spare him." + +"Of Goodfellow, then, or whomsoever Captain Branscome may appoint to +take charge of the ship." + +The Doctor sat silent, as though busy with a thought that had +suddenly occurred to him. After a minute, he lifted his head and +threw a quick glance upward at the sky. + +"The breeze is freshening again, Captain," he announced. "If you +care to hoist sail, the rowers can take a rest, at least until we +reach Cape Fea." + +Captain Branscome gave permission to hoist sail, and soon we were +running homeward with as much as we could carry. There was no +danger, however, for beyond the northern point of Try-again Inlet the +water lay smooth all along the shore. Dr. Beauregard here called on +Plinny to admire the scenery, and, borrowing her sketchbook and +pencil, dashed off a bold drawing of Cape Fea as, rounding a little +to the westward, we caught sight of it standing out boldly against +the afternoon sun. As he drew it, he guided the talk gently back to +ordinary topics--to England and English scenery, to the charm of +English domestic architecture, and particularly of our great country +seats, to gardens and gardening, of which he professed himself a +devotee. + +"Ah," he sighed at length, drawing a long breath; "if you, my +friends, only knew how much of what is happiest in life you carry in +your own breasts! I used--forgive me--to laugh at such pleasures as +I am enjoying at this moment, I see that nothing but gaiety and a +simple heart can bring a man peace at the last--and now it is too +late to begin!" + +Plinny, not understanding in the least, opened wide eyes upon him. +His tone seemed to ask for her pity. + +"Yes, yes. I have sought hard for pleasure and grudged no price for +it; but the stuff I bought was all flash and sham--like this fool's +diamonds--flash and sham, and the end of it weariness. Well, there +is money left. You shall take it and endow a hospital if you choose, +and that no doubt will increase your happiness and make it thrive. +But the root of the plant lies within you. Pardon me, ma'am"--he +looked towards Miss Belcher--"the question sounds an impudent one, I +know, but are you not, even for England, a well-to-do lady?" + +"I have a trifle more than my neighbours," owned Miss Belcher. +"But it's almost more plague than blessing; at least I call it so, +sometimes, which is a different thing from being ready to give it +up." + +"And you, ma'am?" He turned to Plinny. + +"I have enough for my needs, I thank God," she answered. "But I have +known what it is to be poor." + +"Quite so," he nodded. "And yet you have come thousands of miles, +you two, in search of treasure!" + +At the entrance of Gow's Gulf we downed sail and took to our paddles +again. The tide helped us against the breeze and within half an hour +we came in sight of the schooner lying peacefully at anchor as we had +left her. + +So, at least, and at first glance, it seemed; but as we drew near, +Captain Branscome stood up suddenly, the tiller-lines in his hands. + +"Hallo! Where's the dinghy?" + +It was gone; and--what was worse--our repeated hails fetched no +answering hail from the ship. But just as we were beginning to feel +seriously alarmed a voice shouted from the opposite shore, and Mr. +Rogers came sculling out from the shadow of the woods, working the +dinghy towards us with a single paddle overstern. + +"Sorry, Captain!" he hailed. "Two deserters in two days! Oh, we're +a cheerful team to drive! But I have my excuse ready. The fact +is--" Here, catching sight of Dr. Beauregard, Mr. Rogers stopped +short. + +"I fancy," said the Doctor, amiably, turning to Captain Branscome, +"your friend has not his excuse so ready as he supposed. Doubtless +he'll impart it to you later on. Meanwhile, I would suggest that we +take him along with us." + +"But where are we going?" asked Captain Branscome. + +"To my house. Ah, it is news to you that I have one? You supposed, +perhaps, that the Lord Proprietor of Mortallone roosted at night in +the trees? But where, in that case, would he stack his wine? +My dear sir, I have a house, _and_ cellarage, to the both of which +you shall be made welcome. Even if you decline my hospitality we +have the invalid here to dispose of, and surely you won't condemn a +man of my years to carry him home pick-a-back!" + +"But the schooner--" + +"I give you my word of honour, sir, that your ship shall not be +visited nor tampered with in any way. Return when you will, you +shall find her precisely as she lies now. In another two hours even +this faint breeze will have died down, as you are seamen enough to +know. The anchorage is land-locked; the bottom is perfect holding; +and as for unwelcome visitors, there can be none. I am the sole +resident on this island!" + +I looked up at Dr. Beauregard sharply; and so, it seemed to me, did +Mr. Rogers, who had fallen alongside. + +"That is to say," continued the Doctor, quietly, without regarding +either of us, "the only male resident." + +"All the same I don't like it," persisted the Captain, and shook his +head, at the same time lifting his eyes towards Miss Belcher; "and +it's clear against my rule." + +"Stuff and nonsense!" said Miss Belcher. "We ought to be grateful +to Dr. Beauregard for taking this creature Glass off our hands. +I was thinking a moment ago that for a thousand pounds I'd rather he +was anywhere than on board our ship. The least we can do is to bear +a hand with him; and if we don't like the house we can come away." + +"And before nightfall, if you insist," added Dr. Beauregard, +genially. "But the afternoon is young, and between now and nightfall +you may all have made your fortunes. Who knows?" + +Captain Branscome yielded, after a look at Plinny, who backed up Miss +Belcher, declaring herself ardent for new adventures. I began to see +that the Captain was wax in the hands of these two, and it puzzled +me, who had some experience of him both in school and on shipboard. + +Instead, then, of heading for the ship, we rowed past her and up the +creek--Mr. Rogers following in his dinghy--and disembarked at the +landing-place under the green knoll. While Dr. Beauregard and Mr. +Goodfellow lifted out Aaron Glass, and while the Captain explained to +Mr. Rogers where and how we came by such a passenger, I stared about +me, wondering where the Doctor's house might be and where the +approach to it. For I remembered the narrow gorge leading up to the +waterfalls and the thick, precipitous woods on either hand; and how, +such a party as ours, including two ladies and a sick man, could hope +to penetrate those woods or climb those waterfalls was a puzzle. + +In ten minutes Mr. Goodfellow had patched up a fairly serviceable +litter with the boat's sail and a couple of paddles. Dr. Beauregard +bestowed the patient in it carefully enough, and when all was ready, +led the way. The two carriers, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow, came +next with the litter between them, and at a nod from the former I +fell in beside him. The Captain and the two ladies brought up the +rear. + +"Harry," whispered Mr. Rogers, as we wound our way round the knoll, +"is this really the man who--" + +"This is Aaron Glass," I said. + +He stared down--for he carried the hinder end of the litter--upon the +villainous, unconscious face. + +"He looks a pretty bad one," said Mr. Rogers, after a pause. + +"You should have seen him on the beach," said I. + +"I've seen something myself," said he. "Closer, boy--there was a +woman came down to the shore just now, waving to the ship and crying. +At first I took her for a child. She was dressed all in white--white +muslin and ribbons, you know--the sort of rig you see at a children's +party; but when I rowed over close to her--" + +"I know her," I said. "I met her in the woods yesterday." + +"That explains; though I call it an infernal shame you didn't tell. +I rowed across to find out what ailed her: she stood waving her arms +so, and crying--like a child in distress. When I came near she +called on to me to stop. 'Not you,' she said, 'the little boy! +Where is the little boy?' I told her that we had a boy on board, but +that just now you were off on a cruise; and with that she turned +right about, and ran up through the woods and out of sight; but for +some way I could hear her crying and calling out just as before: +'The little boy!' it was; 'Where is the little boy?'--meaning you, I +suppose." + +We were now come to the foot of the first waterfall, an obvious +_cul de sac_ for a party which included two ladies and a sick man on +a litter. I stood gazing up at the wet, slippery rocks by which I +had made my ascent yesterday, and searching in vain for a more +practicable path. Dr. Beauregard halted and turned upon me with a +smile. + +"A moment," said he, "and you will grant that my privacy is rather +neatly protected. But first"--he pointed to the water pouring past +us from the pool beneath the fall--"you may remark that the stream +here has more than twice the volume of the stream you see coming down +the rocks." + +I looked. The difference was plain enough, and I had been a fool in +failing to observe it. + +"The reason being," he went on, "that a second and larger stream +flows into the pool under the very stones on which you are standing. +I myself laid that channel for it, almost ten years ago, and Nature +has very kindly helped to disguise it. Now, if you will follow me--" + +He drew aside a mat of creepers overhanging a bush to the left of the +path, and, stooping, disappeared into a dim, green tunnel, so +artfully contrived that even without its curtain of creepers it +suggested no more than a chance gap in the undergrowth. The tunnel +zigzagged twice at a sharp angle, and then, quite suddenly, the +dimness changed to warm sunlight, and we emerged at his heels upon a +prospect that well excused my gasp of astonishment. + +We stood at the lower end of a smooth, green glade, through which a +broad stream--a river, almost--came swirling, its murmur drowned in +the thunder of the waterfall behind us, which the bushes now +concealed. The glade was, in fact, a valley-bottom, thinned of +undergrowth and set with tall trees; and the stream such a stream as +tumbles through many an English deer-park. The whole scene might +have been transplanted from England but for a wall of naked cliff, +sharply serrated, which enclosed the valley on the left. And under +it, like a smooth military terrace at the foot of a fortress, the +glade curved upward and out of sight. + +The scene, I have said, was almost typically English--but to the eye +only. + +"Faugh!" exclaimed Miss Belcher, looking about her and sniffing +suspiciously. "A pretty place enough, but full of malaria, or I'm a +Dutchwoman! And what a horrible silence!" + +"Malaria?" said Mr. Rogers, quietly. "There's better scent than +malaria in this valley, and we're hot on it. Here's the river, and-- +What does the chart say, boy? Five trees, a mile and a half from the +creek-head? We must have come a mile already. Keep your eyes +skinned, and give me a nudge if you see such a clump." + +But there was no need to keep my eyes skinned. At the next bend of +the glade he and I caught sight of it simultaneously--a clump of +noble pines that would have challenged notice even had we not been +searching for them. My heart stood still as I counted them. +Yes; there were five! + +"I haven't often wanted to put a knife into a man's back," grunted +Mr. Rogers, with a gloomy glance ahead at Dr. Beauregard. + +For an instant I made sure the Doctor had overheard him. He halted +suddenly, and turned to us with a proprietary wave of the hand +towards the trees. + +"A fine group, sirs, is it not? I have often regretted that +the cliff yonder just cuts off the view of it from my windows. +Indeed, I had almost altered the site of the house to include it. +But health before everything--hey, ladies? There is always a certain +amount of fever in these valleys, and you will own, presently, that +the site I prepared has its compensations." + +He resumed his way past the trees, and--a quarter of a mile beyond +them--past an angle of the cliff where the ridge bent sharply back +from the river and revealed a narrow gorge, its entrance choked with +pines, running up towards the mountain. Here he paused again, and +with another wave of the hand. + +High on the right of the gorge, on a plateau above the dark +pine-tops, a white-painted house looked down on us--a long, low house +with a generous spread of shadow under its verandah and a dazzle of +light where the upper windows took the sun. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +WE FIND THE TREASURE. + +"I've a strong sense of the right of property," said Miss Belcher, +sipping her tea. + +We had gathered in Dr. Beauregard's deep verandah, at the corner +where it took the late afternoon sunshine. The level rays sparkled +on the silver and delicate Worcester china of the Doctor's tea +equipage, and fell through the open French window into the Doctor's +drawing-room. A wonderful room it was, as everything in the house +was wonderful, a spacious, airy room, furnished in white and gold, +with Dresden figures on the mantelshelf; Venetian mirrors, dainty +water-colours sunk into the panels, cases of rare books (among them, +as I remember, a set of the Cabinet des Fees, bound in rose-coloured +morocco and stamped with the Royal arms of France), stands of music, +and a priceless harpsichord inlaid with ivory. Next to the airiness +of the house, which stood high above reach of the valley mists with +their malaria, what most sharply impressed me, and the ladies in +particular, was its exquisite cleanliness. Yet Dr. Beauregard +assured us that he kept but one servant--the negress Rosa. + +At her master's call she had appeared in the verandah above us as we +mounted the last terrace towards the house, and had stood there +watching our ascent with no trace of surprise, or, indeed, of any +emotion whatever, on her black, inscrutable face. Her eyes met mine +as though she had never seen me before. To her care Dr. Beauregard +had given over the still unconscious Glass, and, with a sign to Mr. +Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow to follow her with their burden, she had +led the way through the house to the bedroom at the back. +There, in a bed between spotlessly clean sheets, they had laid the +patient, and been dismissed by her. It was she who, less than ten +minutes later, had brought our tea to us in the verandah, and with +our tea many little plates heaped with small cakes and sweetmeats-- +all fresh, as though she had been expecting us for hours, and could +command the resources of a city. I kept a sharp look-out, but of the +strange lady--the lady of the graveyard--I could detect no trace. +Nothing indicated her presence, unless it were the dainty feminine +furniture of the drawing-room. + +"I've a strong sense of the right of property," said Miss Belcher, +sipping her tea and touching the oilskin wrapper, which lay in her +lap unopened as Captain Branscome had handed it to her; and so has +Jack Rogers here. You tell me, sir, that you hold Mortallone by +grant, and doubtless you can show your title." + +"Willingly, madam." Dr. Beauregard rose, and stepped to the French +window. "You can read Spanish?" he asked, turning there and pausing. + +"Not a word", answered Miss Belcher. The Doctor smiled. "It would +impart nothing it you could," said he, with a smile, "for I will own +to you frankly that Mortallone has always been under suspicion of +containing treasure, and in the grant all treasure-trove is expressly +reserved. I cannot say," he added, smiling again, "that I have +strictly observed the clause; but, as between you and me, it legally +disposes of my claim." + +"Thank you," said Miss Belcher; "but I don't own an equally tender +conscience towards Governments." Here Mr. Rogers winked at me, for +as a patron of smugglers Miss Belcher enjoyed some reputation, even +for a Cornish landowner. "We will leave Government out of the +question; but as proprietor--lord of the manor, as we should say at +home--you have a right to your share; and that, by English law--which +I suggest we follow--is one-third." + +Dr. Beauregard bowed. "I'm infinitely obliged to you, ma'am, and I +make no doubt that what you so generously promise you will as +honourably give--when I claim it. In truth, I have something more +than enough for my needs. There was a time (I will confess) when I +had sold my soul, if I possessed such a thing, for a glimpse of what +lies written on that parchment. But I am old; and old age--" +He broke off the sentence and did not resume it, but went on +presently, with a change of tone: "However, I still keep a sporting +interest in the treasure, which has baffled me all these years, the +more so because I have a shrewd suspicion that it has lain all the +while within a mile or so of where we sit at this moment." + +"It does, sir," said Miss Belcher, unfolding the chart and pointing. + +Dr. Beauregard adjusted a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses and bent +towards it. The writing was indistinct, and he put out a hand as if +to take hold of the edge of the parchment and steady it. The hand, I +noticed, did not tremble at all. + +"Stay a moment, sir." Miss Belcher turned the chart over. "The clue +is given here, upon the back. Listen." And she translated:-- + + "'Right bank of river a mile and a half up from Gow Creek. + Centre tree in clump of five: branch bearing north and half a + point east: two forks--'" + +"My trees!" exclaimed the Doctor. "You remember my halting and +pointing them out to you? Ah, yes, and I, too, remember now that you +appeared to be disconcerted. You recognized them, of course?" + +"Yes, we recognized them," Miss Belcher admitted. But let me +finish:--" + + "'Right fork, four feet. Red cave under hill, four hundred and + seventy-five yards from foot of tree, N.N.W. The stones here, + under rock four spans, left side'" + +"--Which means, I suppose, that the cave lies some way up the face of +the rock, and can only be seen by climbing out upon the right fork of +the tree; and that the stones--that is to say, the jewels--are hidden +under a rock to the left; which rock either measures four spans or +lies, four spans within the entrance of the cave." + +"I know of no such cave, ma'am," said Dr. Beauregard, bending his +brows. "Though, to be sure, the cliff is of a reddish colour +thereabouts, due to a drip of water and the growth of some small +fungus." + +"I was a fool," said Captain Branscome, "to leave the tools in the +gig. If we go back to fetch them, sunset will be upon us before we +get to work." + +The Doctor rose, with a smile. + +"You might have guessed, sir, that I am not unprovided with spades +and picks, or with ropes and a ladder, which also I foresee we shall +need. Come; if you have drunk your tea, I will ask you to follow me +into the house--the ladies included--and choose your outfit." + +They went in after him. I was in the act of following--I had, in +fact, taken a couple of steps towards the French window--when a +slight shiver seemed to run through my hair, and I stood still. + +"Little boy!" + +The words came in a whisper from the end of the verandah. I stole +back, and, leaning well across the rail, peered around the corner of +the house. + +"Little boy!" whispered the voice again, and I saw the little lady of +the graveyard. She was standing close back against the +side-boarding, her body almost flattened against it. "Come," she +whispered, beckoning with a timid glance over her shoulder towards +the rear of the house. + +I looked at her for a second or two, and shook my head. + +"But you must come," she insisted, still in a whisper, and took a +step or two as if to entice me after her. Then she halted, and, +seeing that I made no motion to follow, came tip-toeing back. + +"If you do not come," she said, "he will kill you! He will +sar-tain-ly kill you all!" + +She nodded vehemently, and so, after another glance to right and +left, beckoned to me once again. Her face was white, almost as her +muslin frock, and something in it persuaded me to climb over the +verandah-rail and follow her. + +About thirty yards from the corner of the house stood a clump of +odorous laurels, the scent of which we had been inhaling while we sat +at tea. For these she broke away at a run, nor looked back until she +was well within their shadow and I had overtaken her. + +"Good boy!" she said, nodding again and smiling at me with her +desperately anxious face. "I would wish--I would very much wish--to +kiss you. But you mus' not come a-near"--she sighed--"it is not +healthy. Only you come with me. I dream of you, sometimes, all las' +night. 'What a pity!' I dream, 'and you so pe-ritty boy!' +Now you come with me, and I take you away so he never find you." + +The woman was evidently mad. + +"Please tell me what you have to say," I urged, "and let me go back. +They will be missing me in a minute or so." + +"If they miss you, it is no matter now. He will kill them all, he is +so strong . . . as he killed all those others . . . you remember? +See, now, pe-ritty boy, what I have done for you, to save you from +him! He shut me up, in his other house--he has another house away up +in the woods, beyond where we met." She waved a hand towards the +hills. "But I break out, and come here to save you. He would kill +me also, if he knew." + +Mad though I believed her, I was growing pretty thoroughly +frightened, remembering the graveyard under the trees. "You forget +my friends," said I, speaking very simply, as to a child. "If he +means to kill them, I ought to carry them warning." + +"He will not kill them till to-night," she answered, shaking her +head. "It is always at night-time, when they are at supper. There +is no hurry, little boy; but he will sar-tain-ly kill them, all the +same." + +I turned my head, preparing to run, for I heard Captain Branscome's +voice in the verandah, calling my name. + +"They are starting after the treasure. I must go," I stammered. + +She drew close, and laid a hand on my arm. Again a dreadful odour +was wafted under my nostrils--an odour as of tuberoses, and I know +not what of corruption--and, as before in the graveyard, it turned me +both sick and giddy. + +"They will not find it," she said, nodding with an air of childish +triumph. "Shall I tell you why? _I_ have hidden it!" Here she fell +back on her old litany. "He would kill me if he knew . . . I hid +it--oh, years ago! But come, and I will show you; and you shall take +a great deal--yes, as much as you can carry--if only you will go +away, and never be rash again." + +A second time I heard Captain Branscome's voice calling to me, +demanding to know where I had disappeared. + +She put a finger to her lips, smiling. "Such treasure you never did +see. . . . Even Rosa does not know. . . . Come, little boy!" + +She pushed her way through the laurels, and I followed her. The edge +of the shrubbery overhung the dry bed of a torrent, in the cleft of +which, when we had lowered ourselves over the edge, we were +completely hidden from the house. From the edge a slope of loose +stones ran down to the bottom of the cleft, where a thin stream of +water trickled. The stones slid with me, but not dangerously; and as +we scurried down--I in my thick boots, she in her diminutive +dancing-shoes--I heard Plinny's voice join with Captain Branscome's +in calling my name. But by this time I was committed to the +adventure, and by-and-by they desisted, supposing (as Plinny told me +later) that I had taken French leave again, and run off to be first +at the clump of trees. + +We might not climb the slope directly in face of us; for, by so doing +(even if it had been accessible, which I doubt), we should have +emerged into view. We therefore bent our way to the right up the +bottom of the gorge, to a narrow tongue of rock dividing it, in the +shelter of which we mounted the rough stairway of the torrent bed +from one flat rock to another until we stepped out upon a shallow +plateau where the contour of the hills shut off the house and its +terraces. We stood, as I judged, upon the reverse or northern side +of that ridge which to the south and west overlooked the valley of +the treasure. Above the plateau a stone-strewn scarp of earth led to +the forest, which reached to the very summit of the ridge; and +towards the summit, after pausing for a second or two to pant and +catch her breath, my strange guide continued her climb. + +"What is your name, little boy?" + +I told her, and she repeated it once or twice, to get it by heart. + +"You may call me 'Metta," she said. "_He_ calls me 'Metta always, +when he is pleased with me, and that is almost every day. He is kind +to me; oh, yes, very kind--though terrible, of course. . . . Keep on +my left hand, Harry Brooks; so the breeze here will not blow from me +to you." + +I drew up in a kind of giddiness, for that dreadful scent of death +had touched me again. She, too, halted with a little cry of dismay, +and a feeble motion of the hands, as if to wring them. + +"Ah, you must keep wide of me. . . . That is my suffering, Harry +Brooks. I cannot bend over a flower but it withers, and the +butterflies die if they come near my breath . . . and that, too, is +_his_ doing. He would be kind to me, he said, and would een-oculate +me; yes, that is his word--een-oculate me, so that no poison could +ever harm me. He knows the secrets of all the plants, and why people +die of disease. Months at a time he used to leave me alone with +Rosa, and go to Havana, to the hospitals; and there he would study +till his body was wasted away with work; but at the end he would come +back, bringing visitors. Oh, many visitors! for he was rich, and the +house had room for all. There were singers--he loves music--and men +who played all day at cards, and women who made me jealous. But he +would only laugh and say, 'Wait, little one.' So I waited, and in +the end they all died. Rosa said it was the yellow fever; but no." +She held up both hands, and made pretence to pour something from an +imaginary bottle into an imaginary glass. "He can kill with one tiny +drop. In his study he keeps a machine which makes water into ice. +Rosa would carry round the ice with little glasses of curacoa, after +the coffee was served; and all would say: 'What wonders are these? +Ice in Mortallone!' and would drink his health. But _he_ never +touched the ice. You tell that to your friends, little boy. But it +will not save them: for he will find some other way." + +As we went up the woods these awful confidences poured from her like +childish prattle, interrupted only by little ripples of laughter, +half shy, half silly, and altogether horrible to hear. I hung back, +divided between the impulse to tear myself away and the fearful +fascination of listening--between the urgent need to find and warn my +friends, and the forlorn hope to extract from her something that +might save them. The toil of the climb had bathed me in sweat, and +yet I shivered. + +I halted. We were close under the summit of the ridge, and had +reached a passing clearing where, between the trees, as I turned +about, I could see the whole gorge in shadow at my feet, the sunlight +warm on its upper eastern slopes, and beyond these the sea. In half +an hour--in twenty minutes, maybe--I might reach the valley there +below, and at least cry my warning. I faced round again to my +companion. + +She had vanished. + +My mouth grew dry of a sudden. Was she a ghost? And her prattling +talk--the voice yet singing in my brain-- + +"Little boy! Little boy!" + +I parted the tall ferns. Beyond them a small hand beckoned, and, +following it, I came face to face with a wall of naked rock from +which she lifted aside the creepers over a deep cleft--a cleft wide +enough to admit a man's body if he turned sideways and stooped a +little. + +She clapped her hands at my astonishment. "You like my bower?" she +asked gleefully. "Ah, but wait, and I will show you wonders! No one +knows of it, not even Rosa." + +She wriggled her way through the cleft. I peered in, and went after +her cautiously, expecting, as the curtain of creepers fell behind me, +to find myself in a dark cave or grotto. Dark it was, to be sure, +but not utterly dark; and to my amazement, as my eyes grew accustomed +to the gloom, the faint light came from ahead of me and seemed to +strike upwards from the bowels of the earth. + +"Do not be afraid, little boy! But hold your head low; and look to +your feet now, for it is steep hereabouts." + +Steep indeed it was. A kind of shaft, floored for the most part with +slippery earth, but here and there with an irregular stairway of +rock; and still at the lower end of the tunnel shone a faint light. +I would have given worlds by this time to retrace my steps. A slight +draught, blowing up the tunnel from my companion to me, bore the +odour of death upwards under my nostrils; but this, while it dizzied +and sickened me, seemed to clog my feet and take away all will to +escape. I had nearly swooned, indeed, when my feet encountered level +earth again, and she put out a hand to steady me. + +"Is--is--this the end?" + +"It goes down--down, little boy; but we need not follow it. +See, there is light, to the left of you; light, and fresh air, +_and_ my pretty bower." + +I turned as her hand guided me. A puff of wind blew on my cheek, +cold and infinitely pure. I stood blinking in a short gallery that +ended suddenly in blue sky, and, staggering forward, I cast myself +down on the brink. + +It was as though I lay on the sill of a great open window. Below +me--far below--waved great masses of forest, and beyond these--far +beyond--shone the blue sea. I cannot say to what depth the cliff +fell away below me. It was more than sheer--it was undercut. +I lay as one suspended over the void. + +"But see, pe-ritty boy! did I not promise you wonders?" + +As I faced around to the darkness of the gallery, she held aloft +something which, for the moment, I mistook for a great green snake +with lines of fire running from scale to scale and sparkling as she +waved it before me. I rolled over upon my elbow and stared. It was +a rope of emeralds. + +She flung an end over one shoulder and looped it low over her breast; +then, passing the other end about her neck, she brought it forward +over the same shoulder and let it dangle. It reached almost to her +feet. + +"Does it become me, little boy?" She made me a mock curtsey that set +the gems dancing with fire. "Come and choose, then!" She put out +both hands to the darkness by the wall, and a whole cascade of jewels +came sliding down and poured themselves with a rush about her feet +and across the floor of the gallery. She laughed and thrust her +hands again into the heap. + +"All these I found--I myself--and carried up here from the darkness. +Take what you will, little boy, and run back to your ship. +Is it diamonds you will choose, or rubies, or--see here--this chain +of pearls? I do not like pearls, for my part; they mean sorrow. +But--see here, again!--there were boxes and boxes, all heaped to the +brim, and long robes sown all over with pearls. Take what you like-- +_he_ will not know. He gives me diamonds sometimes. I adored them +in the old days, in opera. And he remembers and gives me a stone +from time to time, to keep me amused. I laugh to myself, then, when +I think of the store I keep, here in my bower. And he so clever! +But he does not guess. Ah, child, if I had had but these to wear +when I used to sing Eurydice!" + +She held out two handfuls of diamonds, and began to sing in a high, +cracked voice, while she let them rain through her fingers. + +"But listen!" I cried suddenly. + +She ceased at once, and stood with her face half turned to the +darkness behind her, her arms rigid at her sides, the gems dropping +as her hand slowly unclasped them. Below, where the tunnel ran down +into darkness, a voice hailed-- + +"'Metta! Is that 'Metta?" + +It was the voice of Dr. Beauregard. The poor creature gazed at me +helplessly and ran for the stairway. But her feet sank in the loose +heap of jewels; she stumbled; and, as she picked herself up, I saw +that she was too late; for already a light shone up from the tunnel +below, and before she could gain the exit the Doctor stood there, +lifting a torch, in the light of which I saw Mr. Rogers close behind +his shoulder. + +"'Metta!" + +I do not think he would have hurt her. But as the torch flared in +her face and lit up the shining heap of jewels, she threw up both +hands and doubled back screaming. I believed that she called to me +to hide. I put out a hand to catch her by the skirt, seeing that she +ran madly; but the thin muslin tore in my clutch. + +"'Metta!" + +On the ledge, against the sky, the voice seemed to overtake and +steady her for a second; but too late. With a choking cry, she put +out both hands against the void, and toppled forward; and in the +entrance was nothing but the blue, empty sky. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +DOCTOR BEAUREGARD. + +"Glass? My dear madam, pardon my remissness; he is dead. +Rosa brought me the news before we sat down to table." + +I opened my eyes. In the words, as I came back to consciousness, I +found nothing remarkable, nor for a few seconds did it surprise me +that the dark gallery had changed into a panelled, lighted room, with +candles shining on a long, white table, and on flowers and crystal +decanters, and dishes heaped with fruit. The candles were shaded, +and from the sofa where I lay I saw across the cloth the faces of +Miss Belcher and Captain Branscome intent on the Doctor. +He was leaning forward from the head of the table and speaking to +Plinny, who sat with her back to me, darkly silhouetted against the +light. Mr. Rogers, on Plinny's left, had turned his chair sideways +and was listening too; and at the lower end of the board a tall +epergue of silver partially hid the form of Mr. Goodfellow. + +"Yes, indeed, I ought to have told you," went on the Doctor's voice. +"But really no recovery could be expected. The man's heart was +utterly diseased." + +His gaze, travelling past Plinny, wandered as if casually towards me, +where I lay in the penumbra. I felt it coming, and closed my eyes; +and on the instant my brain cleared. + +Yes; Glass was dead, of course, poisoned by this man as ruthlessly as +these my friends would be poisoned if I cried out no warning. . . . +Or perhaps it had happened already. + +I opened my eyes again, cautiously, little by little. The Doctor was +filling Plinny's glass. Having filled it, he pushed the decanters +towards Mr. Rogers, and turned to say a word to Miss Belcher, on his +right. No; there was time. _It_ had not happened--yet. + +I wanted to start up and scream aloud. But some power, stronger than +my will, held me down against the sofa-cushion. I had lost all grip +of myself--of my voice and limbs alike. I could neither stir nor +speak, but lay watching with half-closed eyes, while the room swam +and in my ears I heard a thin voice buzzing: "Tell your friends-the +ice--_he_ never touches the ice. But it will not save them. He will +find some other way." + +The door opened, and its opening broke the spell. On the threshold +stood the tall negress with a tray of coffee-cups, and on the tray a +salver with a number of little glasses and a glass bowl--a bowl of +ice. Her master pushed back the decanters to make room for the tray +before him. She set it down, and the little glasses jingled softly. + +"Upon my word, sir," said Miss Belcher, "what wonder upon wonders is +this? Ice? And in Mortallone?" + +"It is Rosa's little surprise, madame, and she will be gratified by +your--" + +He pushed back his chair and, leaving the sentence unfinished, rose +swiftly and came to me as I staggered up from the sofa. A cry worked +in my throat, but before I could utter it his two hands were on my +shoulders, and he had appealed to the company with a triumphant +little laugh. + +"Did I not tell you the child would come to himself all right? A +simple sedative--after the fright he had. He's trembling now, poor +boy. No, ma'am"--he turned to Plinny, who had risen, and was coming +forward solicitously; "let him sit upright for a moment, while he +comes to his bearings. Or, better still, when you have finished your +coffee--if Miss Belcher will be kind enough to pour it out for me-- +we will take him out into the fresh air. Yes, yes, and the sooner +the better, for I see that Mr. Rogers is fidgeting to be out and +assure himself that the treasure has not taken wings." + +He forced me gently back to my seat, and walked to the table. + +"What were we saying? Ah, yes--to be sure--about the ice." +He lifted his coffee-cup with a steady hand, and, his eyes travelling +over it, fixed themselves on me, as though to make sure I was +recovering. "The ice is a surprise of Rosa's, and I assure you she +is proud of it. But (you may go, Rosa) I advise you to content +yourselves with wondering; for the water on these hills, strange to +say, is not healthy." + +They voted the Doctor's advice to be good, and, having finished their +coffee, wandered out into the fresh air. Plinny took my arm, and, +leading me to the verandah, found me a comfortable seat, where I +could recline and compose myself, for I was trembling yet. + +"They have stacked the treasure there beyond the last window," Plinny +informed me, nodding towards the end of the verandah, where Captain +Branscome, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Goodfellow were already gathered and +busy in conversation. "In bulk it is less than we expected, but in +value (the Doctor says) it goes beyond everything. Three +hundredweight, they say, and in pure gems! He is to choose his +share, by-and-by; and then we have to contrive how to take it down to +the ship." + +"Miss Plinlimmon," said the Captain, coming towards us, "you promised +me a word yesterday. I should wish to claim it now--that is, if +Harry can spare you." + +I observed that his voice shook a little, but this I set down to +excitement. + +"Did I? Yes, I remember." + +Miss Plinlimmon's voice, too, was tremulous. She hesitated, and her +eyes in the dim light seemed to seek mine. + +I assured her that I was recovering fast, here in the fresh air, and +that it would be a kindness, indeed, to leave me alone. She bent +quickly and kissed me. I wondered why, as she stepped past the +Captain and he followed her down the verandah steps. + +I wished to be left alone. I was puzzled, and what puzzled me +was that neither Miss Belcher nor Dr. Beauregard had left the +dining-room. In fact, as I passed out through the window, happening +to turn my head, I had caught sight of his face, and it had signalled +to her to stay. I knew not why he should intend harm to Miss Belcher +rather than to any other of our party. But I distrusted the man; and +Plinny had scarcely left me before, having made sure that Mr. Rogers +and Mr. Goodfellow were within easy call, I rose up softly, crept to +the dining-room window, and, dropping upon hands and knees close by +the wall, peered into the room. + +The Doctor and Miss Belcher had reseated themselves, He had poured +himself out another glass of wine and was holding it up to the light +with a steady hand, while she watched him, her elbows on the table +and her firm jaw resting on her clasped fingers. Her face, though it +showed no sign of fear, was pallid. + +"Yes," he was saying slowly; "it is too late at this hour to be +discussing what the priests would call the sin of it. You would +never convince me; and if you convinced me, I am too old--and too +weary--for what the priests call repentance. I am Martin--the same +man that outwitted Melhuish and his crew--the same that played Harry +with this Glass, and the man Coffin, and a drunken old ruffian they +brought with them from Whydah! The fools! to think to frighten _me_, +that had started by laying out a whole ship's crew! And now you come +along; and I hold you all in the hollow of my palm. But I open my +hand--so--and let you go." + +"Why?" + +"Why? I have told you. I am tired." + +"That is not all the truth," answered Miss Belcher, eyeing him +steadily. + +"No; it is not all the truth. No one tells all the truth in this +world. But I am glad you challenge me, for you shall have a little +more of the truth. I let you go because you were simpletons, and I +had not dealt with simpletons before." + +"Is _that_ the truth?" she persisted. + +He laughed and sipped his wine. + +"No; I let you go because I saw in you--I who have killed many for +wealth and more for the mere pleasure of power--something which told +me that, after all, I had missed the secret. From an outcast child +in Havana I had made myself the sole king of this treasure of +Mortallone. I went back and made slaves of men and women who had +tossed that child their coppers in contemptuous pity. I brought them +here, to Mortallone, to play with them; and as soon as they tired me, +they--went. It was power I wanted; power I achieved; and in power, +as I thought, lay the secret. The tools in this world say that a +poisoner is always a coward: it is one of the phrases with which +fools cheat themselves. For long I was sure of myself; and then, +when the thought began to haunt me that, after all, I had missed the +secret, I sought out the man who, in Europe, had made himself more +powerful than kings; and I found that _he_ had missed the secret too. +Then I guessed that the secret is beyond a man's power to achieve, +unless it be innate in him; that the gods themselves cannot help a +man born in bastardy, as I was, or born with a vulgar soul, as was +Napoleon. One chance of redemption he has--to mate with a woman who +has, and has known from birth, the secret which he has missed. +I guessed it--I that had wasted my days with singing-women, such as +poor 'Metta! Then I met you, and I knew. Yes, madam, you--you, +whose life to-night I had almost taken with a touch--taught me that I +had left women out of account. Ah, madam, if the world were twenty +years younger! . . . Will you do me the honour to touch glasses and +drink with me?" + +"Not on any account," said Miss Belcher, rising. "Not to put too +fine a point upon it, you make me feel thoroughly sick; but"--she +hesitated on the threshold of the window"--the worst of it is, I +think I understand you a little." + +I drew back into the shadow. Her stiff skirt almost struck me on the +cheek as she passed, and, crossing the verandah, leant with both +hands on the rail, while her face went up to the sky and the newly +risen moon. + +A voice spoke to her from the moonlit terrace below. + +"Hallo!" she answered. "Is that Captain Branscome?" + +"It is, ma'am: _and_ Miss Plinlimmon--Amelia--as she allows me to +call her." + +Miss Belcher cut him short with a laugh. It rang out frank and free +enough, and only I, crouching by the wall, understood the hysterical +springs of it. + +"You two geese!" she exclaimed, and ran down the steps to them. + + + +"Was that Lydia?" demanded Mr. Rogers, a moment later, as he came +along the verandah. + +"It was," I answered. + +"I don't understand these people," grumbled Mr. Rogers, pausing and +scratching his head. "There was to have been a meeting outside here, +directly after supper, to divide off Doctor Beauregard's share; but +confound it if every one don't seem to be playing hide-and-seek! +Where's the Doctor?" + +"In the dining-room," said I, nodding towards the window. . . . + +He stepped towards it. At that moment I heard a dull thud within the +room, and Mr. Rogers, his foot already on the threshold, drew back +with a cry. I ran to his elbow. + +On the floor, stretched at her master's feet, lay the negress Rosa. +Dr. Beauregard stood by the corner of the table, and poured himself a +small glassful of curacoa. While we gazed at him he reached out a +hand to the icebowl, selected a small piece, and dropped it +delicately into the glass. I heard it tingle against the rim. + +"Your good health, sirs!" said Dr. Beauregard. + +He sat back rigid in his chair. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Poison Island, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POISON ISLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 16604.txt or 16604.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/0/16604/ + +Produced by Lionel Sear + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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