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diff --git a/40555.txt b/40555.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 211f9df..0000000 --- a/40555.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7957 +0,0 @@ - NO MAN'S ISLAND - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: No Man's Island - -Author: Herbert Strang - -Release Date: August 21, 2012 [EBook #40555] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO MAN'S ISLAND *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: Cover] - - - -[Illustration: "THEY RESCUED WHAT THEY COULD." _See page_ 152.] - - - - - NO MAN'S ISLAND - - - BY - - HERBERT STRANG - - - - ILLUSTRATED BY C. E. BROCK - - - - HUMPHREY MILFORD - OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS - LONDON, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW - TORONTO, MELBOURNE, CAPE TOWN, BOMBAY - 1921 - - - - - PRINTED 1921 IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., - PARIS GARDEN, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. - - - - - HERBERT STRANG - - - COMPLETE LIST OF STORIES - - -ADVENTURES OF DICK TREVANION, THE -ADVENTURES OF HARRY ROCHESTER, THE -A GENTLEMAN AT ARMS -A HERO OF LIEGE -AIR PATROL, THE -AIR SCOUT, THE -BARCLAY OF THE GUIDES -BLUE RAIDER, THE -BOYS OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE -BRIGHT IDEAS -BROWN OF MOUKDEN -BURTON OF THE FLYING CORPS -CARRY ON -CRUISE OF THE GYRO-CAR, THE -FIGHTING WITH FRENCH -FLYING BOAT, THE -FRANK FORESTER -HUMPHREY BOLD -JACK HARDY -KING OF THE AIR -KOBO -LONG TRAIL, THE -LORD OF THE SEAS -MOTOR SCOUT, THE -NO MAN'S ISLAND -OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN, THE -ONE OF CLIVE'S HEROES -PALM TREE ISLAND -ROB THE RANGER -ROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN DAYS -SAMBA -SETTLERS AND SCOUTS -SULTAN JIM -SWIFT AND SURE -THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES -TOM BURNABY -TOM WILLOUGHBY'S SCOUTS -WITH DRAKE ON THE SPANISH MAIN -WITH HAIG ON THE SOMME - - - - - CONTENTS - - -CHAP. - - I. NO MAN'S ISLAND - II. BELOW THE BELT - III. PRATTLE - IV. THE FACE IN THE THICKET - V. THE GAME BEGINS - VI. A SCRAP OF PAPER - VII. TIN-TACKS - VIII. PIN-PRICKS - IX. REPRISALS - X. A SOFT ANSWER - XI. INFORMATION RECEIVED - XII. QUEER FISH - XIII. FIRE! - XIV. A CIRCULAR TOUR - XV. UNDERGROUND - XVI. WATERMARKS - XVII. THE TOPMOST ROOM - XVIII. ZERO - XIX. THE PRISONER - XX. THE PACE QUICKENS - XXI. TRAPPED - XXII. A PARLEY - XXIII. "VI ET ARMIS" - XXIV. A LEVY EN MASSE - XXV. SQUARING ACCOUNTS - -EPILOGUE - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -"THEY RESCUED WHAT THEY COULD" (see p. 152) . . . _Frontispiece in -Colour_ - -"'CLEAR UP ALL THIS DISGUSTING LITTER'" - -"THE FOREIGNER CHARGED UPON HIM LIKE AN INFURIATED BULL" - -"THE OTHER WAS DIVING INTO THE STREAM" - -"'GOT A PUNCTURE, OLD MAN?'" - -"THEY SHINNED UP A SMALL TREE" - -"HALF A MINUTE LATER THE CAR RAN PAST" - -"PRATT THREW THE INTRUDER HEAVILY TO THE GROUND" - -"'ZE TOWER? NO, IT IS RUIN, FALL TO PIECES'" - -"THEY LIFTED THE BUNDLES OF GEAR, AND CARRIED THEM INTO THE HUT" - -"'THE BOTTOM'S ONLY ABOUT FIVE FEET DEEP'" - -"THEY SAW A SHORT, STOUT MAN DRAWING SHEETS OF PAPER FROM THE OPENED -PACKAGE" - -"BETWEEN THEM THE TWO BOYS ASSISTED THE MOTHER" - -"HE STRODE UP AND DOWN, HIS LARGE BONY HANDS CLASPED BEHIND HIM" - -"HE REMAINED FOR AN INSTANT IN HIS BENT POSITION, MOTIONLESS" - -"RUSH SWIFTLY ROPED HIS ARMS AND LEGS TOGETHER" - -"HE STAGGERED BACKWARD, AND THE PISTOL WAS KNOCKED FROM HIS HAND" - -"'SQUEEZE INTO THE BOAT'" - -"THE FARMER WAS UPPERMOST" - - - - - CHAPTER I - - NO MAN'S ISLAND - - -One hot August afternoon, a motor-boat, with a little dinghy in tow, was -thrashing its way up a narrow, winding river in Southern Wessex. The -stream, swollen by the drainage of overnight rain from the high moors -that loomed in the hazy blue distance, was running riotously, casting -buffets of spray across the bows of the little craft, and tossing like a -cork the dinghy astern. On either side a dense entanglement of shrubs, -bushes, and saplings overhung the water's edge, forming a sort of -rampart or outwork for the taller trees behind. - -The occupants of the boat were three. Amidships, its owner, Phil -Warrender, was dividing his attention between the engine and the tiller. -Warrender was tall, lithe, swarthy, with crisp black hair which seemed -to lift his cap as an irksome incubus. A little abaft of him sat Jack -Armstrong, bent forward over an Ordnance map: he had the lean, -tight-skinned features, spare frame, and hard muscles of the athlete, -and his hay-coloured hair was cropped as close as a prize-fighter's. In -the bows, on the scrap of deck, Percy Pratt, facing the others, squatted -cross-legged like an Oriental cobbler, and dreamily twanged a banjo. He -was shorter and of stouter build than his companions, with a round, -chubby face and brown curly hair clustering close to his poll, and -caressing the edge of his cap like the tendrils of a creeper. All three -boys were in their eighteenth year, and wore the flannels, caps, and -blazers of their school Eleven. - -"We ought to be nearing this island," remarked Armstrong, looking up -from his map. "I say, Pratt, you've been here before: can't you -remember something about it?" - -Pratt thrummed his strings, smiled sweetly, and sang, in the head notes -of a light tenor-- - - "The roses have made me remember - All that I tried to forget; - The past with its pain comes back again, - Filling my heart with---- - -Sorry, old man, I've pitched it a bit too high. Lend me your ears while -I modulate from G to E flat." - -"Keep your Percy's Reliques for serenading the moon. You were here as a -kid; aren't we nearly there?" - -"'The past with its pain'--fact! It _was_ pain. My old uncle could beat -any beak at licking. He made a very pretty criss-cross pattern on me -that day--all for pinching a peach! Frightful temper he had. My people -said it was due to sunstroke on his travels. Jolly lot of good being a -famous traveller, if it makes you a beast. He was more ratty every time -he came home. I don't wonder my pater had a royal row with him, and -hasn't been near the place since. Rough luck, to have to desert your -ancestral dust-heap. - - "I try, try to forget you, - But I only love you more." - - -"Isn't that the island? Away there to starboard?" Warrender interposed. -"But I thought you said we might camp there, my Percy?" - -"True, sober Philip. We picnicked there in the days of yore." - -"Well, we'd have to do a week's clearing before we camped there now. -Look at it!" - -Pratt swung lazily round on his elbow, and gazed over the starboard -quarter towards the left bank. The river was parted by what was -evidently an island. The channel between it and the left bank was very -narrow, and almost impassable by reason of the low, overhanging -branches, which formed a tunnel of foliage. Warrender steered across the -broader channel towards the right bank, all three scanning the island -intently as they coasted along. - -"Shows how old Tempus fugit," said Pratt. "In the dim and distant ages -when I was a kid that island was a lawn; now it's a wilderness. Think -what your beardless cheeks will be like in ten years' time, Armstrong. -See what Nature will do unless you use the razor. The place seems quite -changed somehow. But I'd never have believed trees could grow so fast. -As we're not dicky birds, we certainly can't pitch our camp there. -Drive on, old shover." - -The island was, indeed, to all appearances, more densely wooded than the -river banks. By the map scale it was about a third of a mile long, and -at its widest part fully half as broad. Nowhere along its whole extent -did they see a spot suitable for camping. - -They ran past the island. The stream narrowed; the wooded character of -the mainland banks was unchanged. - -"We might as well be on the Congo," growled Armstrong. "Are you sure -your uncle didn't bring back a bit of Africa in his carpet bag, Pratt, -and plank it down here?" - - "Let the great big world keep turning, - Never mind, if I've got you," - -hummed Pratt. "Turn your eyes three points a-starboard, Armstrong, and -you'll see, peeping at you through the sylvan groves, the gables of my -ancestors' eligible and beautifully situated riverside residence. It's -pretty nearly a quarter-mile from the river, but that's a detail." - -Warrender slowed down so that they might get a better view of the -stately old house of which they caught glimpses through gaps in the -woodland. - -"You behold that ruined ivy-clad tower about a cable's length away from -it," Pratt went on. "Tradition saith that one of my ancestors -incarcerated there a foeman unworthy of his steel, and forgot to feed -him." - -"Well, I want my tea," said Armstrong. "We had next to no lunch, and I -can't live on memories." - -A sharp crack cut the air. - -"Some one's shooting in the woods ahead," said Warrender. "Perhaps -we'll catch sight of them, and get a direction." - -"Why not make a polite inquiry of that woodland faun or satyr smoking a -clay pipe yonder?" suggested Pratt, pointing with his banjo to the left -bank. - -On a tree-stump near the water's edge sat a thick-set man, square-faced, -beetle-browed, blear-eyed, a cloth cap pushed back on his close-cropped -bullet head, a red cloth tie knotted about his neck. He wore a rusty, -much-rubbed velveteen jacket, corduroy breeches, and a pair of shabby -leggings. Warrender slowed down until the boat just held its own -against the current, and called--"Hi! can you tell us of a clear space -where we can camp?" - -The man looked suspiciously from one to another, chewing the stem of his -pipe. - -"Can't," said he, surlily. - -"Surely there's a stretch of turf somewhere?" Warrender persisted. - -"Bain't. Not hereabouts. Woods, from here to village up along." - -"Nothing back on the island?" - -The man half closed his eyes, and again suspicion lurked in the glance -he gave the speaker. - -"No. No Man's Island be nought but furze and thicket. Nothing -hereabouts. Better go on and doss at the Ferry Inn." - -Then, however, he leered, barely recovering his pipe as it slipped from -between his discoloured teeth. "Ay, I were forgetting," he said with a -chuckle. "There be a patch farther up. Ay, that might suit 'ee. A -party camped there last week. Ay, try en." - -He chuckled again. Warrender opened the throttle, and when the boat had -run a few yards up a guffaw, quickly stifled, sounded astern. - -"Pleasant fellow," remarked Armstrong. - - "When you are near, the dullest day seems bright; - Doubts disappear, my load of care grows light," - -warbled Pratt. "But he didn't say which bank it's on." - -"We can't miss it," said Warrender,--"unless he was pulling our leg." - -Within three minutes, however, they found that the man had not misled -them. There was disclosed, on the right bank, a considerable stretch of -smooth green sward, affording ample space for their bell-tent and the -simple impedimenta of their camp. Warrender ran the boat in, and -hitched it to a sapling; then the three began to transfer their -equipment to the shore. Besides their tent, they had a Primus stove, a -kettle, a couple of saucepans, pots, cups and plates of enamel, pewter -forks and, stainless knives, cases of provisions, three sleeping-bags, -three folding stools, and other oddments. - -While Warrender and Armstrong were stretching and pegging out the tent, -Pratt started the stove, filled the kettle from the river, and assembled -such utensils as they needed for their tea. These operations were -punctuated by renewed sounds of shooting, which were drawing nearer -through the woods that skirted the clearing. - -"I say, you chaps," cried Pratt, "I wonder if I talked nicely, if I -could coax out of them something gamey for supper to-night?" - -"Wouldn't you like to sing for your supper, like little Tommy Tucker?" -said Armstrong. - -"Excellent idea! As you know, I've got a select and extensive -repertoire, and--hallo! Here's my little dog Bingo." - -A retriever came trotting out of the wood, stopped in the middle of the -clearing, and gazed for a moment inquiringly at the tent, just erected; -then turned tail and trotted back. - -"A very gentlemanly dog," said Pratt. "No loud discordant bark, no -inquisitive snuffling; evidence of good breeding and a kind master." - -"Hi, there!" called a loud voice. "What are you doing on my land? Who -the deuce gave you permission to camp?" - -A stout, florid, white-whiskered gentleman of some sixty years, wearing -a loose shooting costume, and carrying a shot-gun under his arm, hurried -across the clearing, the retriever at his heels. - -"I'm sorry, sir," said Warrender, politely. "We've come up the river, -and this is the first suitable place we've found. If we had known----" - -"Known!" interrupted the stranger. "You knew it wasn't common -land--public property. If you didn't know, any one about here would have -told you." - -"Just so, sir. But we understood that a party had camped here a short -while ago, and----" - -"You understood, boy? And where did you get your information?" - -"From a gamekeeper sort of man a little below on the other bank. -He----" - -"That'll do," snapped the sportsman. "Take down that tent. Clear up -all this disgusting litter, and be off. The place reeks with paraffin. -Look alive, now." - -[Illustration: "'CLEAR UP ALL THIS DISGUSTING LITTER.'"] - -In silence Warrender and Armstrong began to loosen the tent guys, while -Pratt put out the stove and started to carry the properties down to the -boat. He alone of the three showed no sign of feeling; his friends -sometimes said that he was perennially happy because he was fat, not, as -he himself explained, because he had music in his soul. Warrender's -mouth had hardened, his face grown pale--sure indications of wrath. -Armstrong, on the contrary, had flushed over the cheek-bones, and -expended his anger in muscular energy, heaving unaided the tent to his -back, and carrying it, the pole, guys, and pegs, with the ease of a -coal-porter. The landowner stood sternly on guard until the place was -cleared. - -The boat moved off. - -"Dashed old curmudgeon!" growled Armstrong. - -"He and my uncle Ambrose would make a pretty pair," remarked Pratt. -"I'd give anything to hear a slanging match between 'em. Anything but -this," he added, taking up his banjo. - - "I had a little dog, - And his name was Bingo. - -His master's name ought to be 'Stingo!' Eh, what?" - -"It happens to be Crawshay," said Warrender, pointing to a tree. Upon -it was nailed a board, facing upstream, and bearing the half-obliterated -legend, "Trespassers will be Prosecuted." Below this, however, in fresh -paint, were the words, "Camping Prohibited.--D. CRAWSHAY." - -"Precisely; D. Crawshay," said Armstrong. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - BELOW THE BELT - - -Something less than a mile up the river they came upon an old-fashioned -gabled cottage of red brick, standing back a few yards from the left -bank. The walls were half-covered with Virginia creeper; a purple -clematis climbed over the porch and round a sign-board bearing the -words, "Ferry Inn." Beyond it, on rising ground some little distance -away, glowed the red-tiled roofs of a straggling village. A ferry boat, -or rather punt, lay alongside of a narrow landing-stage. - -The lads tied the boat to a post, and stepped on to the planking. At -the closed door of the inn, standing with legs wide apart, was a little, -round man whose jolly, rubicund, clean-shaven face and twinkling eyes -bespoke good humour and a contented soul. He was bare-headed, in -shirt-sleeves, and wore an apron. His brown, straight hair was -obviously a wig. In front of him stood a group of villagers. - -"'Tis past opening time, I tell 'ee," one of them was saying. "I can -tell by the feel of my thropple." - -"'Twould be always opening time if you trusted to that, Mick," said the -landlord, with a laugh. "I go by my watch." He pulled out with some -difficulty from the tight band of his apron a large silver timepiece. -"There you are; three minutes to the hour." - -"Well, I reckon you be three minutes slow, and so you could swear to if -so be----" - -A slight jerk of the landlord's head caused the rustic to look along the -road to the right. Strolling towards the inn was the village policeman. - -"He's had me fined once, and I didn't deserve it," the landlord -remarked. "And there's another who'd like to catch me tripping." - -His eyes travelled beyond the policeman, and rested on a thin, -loose-jointed man with a stubbly fair moustache and a close-cut beard, -who was hurrying to catch up with the constable. - -"Ay, Sammy Blevins do have a nature for such," said another of the -rustics. "'Tis my belief he'll be caught tripping himself one o' these -days." - -"Ay, and Constable Hardstone too," said the first. "Birds of a feather. -They be thick as thieves, they two, and no friends o' yours, Joe. Well, -I bain't the man to glory in a friend's tribulation, and so you may keep -your door shut till three minutes past." - -"Say, when is this blamed door opening?" - -The loud, hoarse voice caused a general turning of heads. From round -the corner of the inn sauntered, somewhat unsteadily, his hands in his -pockets, a big burly fellow whose red waistcoat, tight leather breeches, -and long gaiters proclaimed some connection with horseflesh. His accent -was nasal, but there was an undefinable something in his pronunciation -that suggested a European rather than an American origin. A long, fair -moustache drooped round the corners of a wide, straight mouth; his -clean-shaven cheeks were thin and hard; his pale-blue eyes heavy-lidded -and watery. The rustics appeared to fall back a little as he approached. -He leant one shoulder against a post of the porch, and scowled at the -landlord, attitude and gesture indicating that, so far from needing -refreshment, he had anticipated the opening of the door. - -"All in good time, Mr. Jensen," said the landlord, placably. "Law's -law, you know." - -"Law!" scoffed the man. "I'm sober. I want a lemon-squash. See, if -you don't open that door---- Ah! I guess you know me." - -The landlord, consulting his watch, had turned, and now threw open the -door leading into the bar. The foreigner entered behind him, and was -followed by the villagers one by one. A pleasant-faced, motherly woman -came out into the porch, and looked inquiringly at the three lads. They -walked up from the landing-stage, where they had lingered watching the -scene. - -"Can we have some tea?" asked Warrender. - -"Ay sure," replied the woman. "They told me as three young gemmen had -come up along in boat, and I says to myself 'tis tea, as like as not. -Sit 'ee down at thikky table, and I'll bring it out to 'ee." - -"We're pretty hungry," said Armstrong. "What can you give us?" - -"Why, there 'tis--I've nothing but eggs and bacon." - -"Glorious!" said Pratt. "Two eggs apiece, and bacon to match." - -"Ay, I know what young gemmen's appetite be," said Mrs. Rogers, smiling -as she bustled away. - -They sat down at a table placed outside the window. Within they saw -Rogers, the landlord, energetically pulling ale for his customers. He -had laid aside his snuff-coloured wig, revealing a scalp perfectly bald. - -While they were awaiting their meal, a girl, dressed in white, riding a -bicycle, came along the road on the far side of the river, and, -dismounting at the landing-stage, rang her bell continuously as a -summons to the ferryman. An old weather-beaten man emerged from the -back premises of the inn, touched his hat, hobbled down to his boat, and -slowly poled it across. The girl wheeled her bicycle on to it, chatted -to the old man while he recrossed the river, paid him with a silver coin -and smiling thanks, and, having remounted, sped on towards the village. - -"Why didn't I bring up my banjo?" said Pratt, dolefully. "Of course, I -can sing without accompaniment. - - "There's no sunbeam as bright as your smile, - There's no gold like the sheen of your hair---- - -but you do want the one-two-tum, one-two-tum to get the full effect, -don't you, eh?" - -"You sentimental owl!" exclaimed Armstrong, laughing. "Here comes our -tea." - -They had finished their meal, and were leaning back comfortably in their -chairs, when the drone of talk within the inn was suddenly broken by -voices raised in altercation. The clamour subsided for a moment under -the landlord's protest, but burst forth again. There was a noise of -scuffling, then two men appeared in the doorway, struggling together in -the first aimless clinches of a fight. They stumbled over the step; -behind them came the villagers in a group, some of them making -half-hearted attempts by word and act to separate the combatants. -These, reaching the open, shook off restraint, swung their arms as if to -clear a space, and, after a preliminary feint or two, rushed upon each -other. - -Warrender and his friends got up; were there ever schoolboys, even -sixth-formers and prefects, who were not interested in a fight? The -antagonists were not unequally matched. Height and weight were on the -side of the foreigner, but his opponent, apparently a young farmer, -though slighter in build, had clear eyes and a healthy skin, contrasting -with the other's well-marked signs of habitual excess. - -The rustics formed up on one side, looking on stolidly. The three lads -moved round until they faced the inn door. On the step stood the -landlord with arms akimbo. His wife came behind him, slapped his wig on -to his head, and retreated. - -For a minute or two the combatants, displaying more energy than science, -employed their arms like erratic piston-rods, hitting the air more often -than each other's body. Armstrong's lip curled with amusement as he -watched them. Then they appeared to realise that they had started too -precipitately, and drew apart to throw off their coats and recover their -wind. - -"What's the quarrel?" asked Warrender, in the brief interval, of the -nearest bystander. - -"Furriner chap he said as the Germans be better fighters than us -Englishmen, and that riled Henery Drew, he having the military medal and -all. You can see the ribbon on his coat." - -Stripped to their shirts, the combatants faced each other. They sparred -warily for a moment, then the farmer darted forward on his toes, landed -a blow on the foreigner's nose, between the eyes, and, springing back -out of reach, just escaped his opponent's counter. - -"One for his jib!" murmured Armstrong. - -The blow, and the subdued applause of the rustic onlookers, enraged the -foreigner. Swinging his bulk forward he bore down on the slighter -Englishman, appeared to envelop him, and for a few seconds the two men -seemed to be a tangle of whirling arms. Suddenly Armstrong sprang -towards them, shouting, "Foul blow!" At the same moment the farmer -reeled, and the foreigner, following up his advantage, dealt him a -furious body-blow that dropped him flat as a turbot. Angry cries broke -from the crowd, but, before the slower-witted rustics could act, -Armstrong dashed between Jensen and the prostrate man. - -"You hound!" he cried. "You'll deal with me now." - -One arm was already out of its sleeve, but before he could fling off his -blazer the foreigner charged upon him like an infuriated bull. -Armstrong sidestepped, threw his blazer on the ground, and stood firmly, -ready to meet the next onrush. - -[Illustration: "THE FOREIGNER CHARGED UPON HIM LIKE AN INFURIATED -BULL."] - -The big man topped him by a couple of inches, and bore down as if to -smother him by sheer weight. He shot out a long arm; Armstrong ducked, -and quick as lightning got in a counter-hit that took the foreigner by -surprise and caused him to draw back an inch or two. Armstrong said -afterwards that he ought to be shot for mis-timing the blow, which he -had expected to crack the man's wind-box. Already breathing fast, the -foreigner perceived that his only chance of winning was to strike at -once. He lowered his head and swung out his left arm in a lusty drive -at Armstrong's ribs. It was an opening not to be missed by a skilled -boxer. With left foot well forward and body thrown slightly back, -Armstrong dealt him a smashing right upper-cut on the point of the chin. -The man collapsed like a nine-pin, and measured his six feet two on the -ground. - -"Jolly good biff, old man!" cried Pratt. "Won't somebody cheer?" - -The rustics were smiling broadly, but their satisfaction at the close of -the battle found no more adequate mode of expression than a prolonged -sigh and a cry: "Sarve en right!" The farmer, however, a little pale -about the gills, had risen to his feet, and, approaching Armstrong, -said-- - -"Thank 'ee, sir. 'Twas a rare good smite as ever I see, and I take it -kind as a young gentleman should have----" - -"Oh, that's all right," Armstrong interrupted, slipping on his blazer. -"He should have fought fair." - -"True. A smite in the stummick don't give a man a chance. I feel -queerish-like, and I'll get Joe Rogers to give me a thimbleful, and then -shail home-along. That's my barton, on the hill yonder, and if so be -you're stopping hereabout, I'll be main glad to supply you and your -friends with milk _and_ cream." - -Assisted by two of his cronies, the farmer walked into the inn, the rest -of the crowd hanging about and casting sheepish glances of admiration at -Armstrong. - -"You'll come in and take a drop of summat, sir?" inquired the landlord. - -"No, thanks," replied Armstrong. "You might have a look at that fellow, -will you?" - -"And can you give us beds to-night?" asked Warrender. - -"Ay sure, the missus will see to that." - -"Very well; we'll just go on to the village and get a thing or two, and -come back before closing time. You'll give an eye to our boat?" - -The innkeeper having promised to set the ferryman in charge of the boat, -the three struck into the road. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - PRATTLE - - -The one street of the village contained only two shops. One of these, -the forepart of a simple cottage, was post office and general store, -whose window displayed groceries, sweetstuffs, stockings, reels of -cotton, and other articles of a miscellaneous stock. A few yards beyond -it stood a larger, newer, and uglier building, the lower storey of which -was a double-fronted shop, exhibiting on the one side a heterogeneous -heap of old iron, on the other a few agricultural implements, a -ramshackle bicycle, a mangle, tin tea-pots, a can of petrol, a -concertina, and various oddments. Above the door, in crude letters -painted yellow, ran the description: "Samuel Blevins, General Dealer." - -"We must try the post office," said Warrender. "But I don't expect we'll -find anything up to much. Still, there'll be some local views." - -They entered the little shop, filling the space in front of the counter, -and began to examine picture-postcards. The shopkeeper, a middle-aged -woman in a widow's cap, was in the act of handing packets of -baking-powder to a customer--a small man who turned quickly about as the -boys went in, showing a plump, brown face decorated with a tiny, black -moustache and dark, vivacious eyes. - -"And how be your missus?" the woman was saying. - -"She is ver' vell," said the man, swinging round again. "Zat is, not -bad--not bad. She have a cold--yes, shust a leetle cold." - -"I be main glad 'tis nothing worse," said the shopkeeper, drily. -"Rogers did say only this morning as he hadn't seed or heard anything of -her for a week or more--and her his own sister, too, and not that -breadth between 'em. She might as well be in foreign parts. 'Twas -never thoughted when she married you, Mr. Rod; my meaning is, Rogers -believed her'd always be in and out, being so near; whereas the truth is -he sees no more of her than if she lived at t'other end of the kingdom." - -"And now ze isinglass," said the man, with the obvious intention of -turning the conversation. "Vat! No isinglass? Zis is terrible country. -Vell, zat is all, madame. You put every'ing in ze book?" - -"Trust me for that, Mr. Rod. Remember me to Mary, and I hope she'll -soon be rid of her cold." - -The man gathered up his purchases, and left the shop, darting a glance -at each of the boys as he passed them. - -They bought a few postcards and some postage stamps, and issued forth -into the street. Blevins, the general dealer, standing at his shop-door -with his hands under his coat-tails, gave them a hard look. - -"These country folk are as inquisitive as moths," remarked Armstrong. - -"Take us for strolling minstrels, I dare say," rejoined Pratt. "Lucky I -didn't bring my banjo." - -"Our blazers make us a trifle conspicuous," said Warrender. "I say, as -we've plenty of time before dark, and I don't want to run into that -crowd at the inn again, suppose we stroll on." - -They passed the general dealer's, soon left the last of the cottages -behind them, and rambled along the grassy bank of the road, which wound -across a wide and barren heath land. About half a mile from the village -they came to narrower cross-roads, leading apparently to the few -scattered farmsteads of the neighbourhood. A few yards beyond this they -saw, rounding a bend, a girl on a bicycle coasting down a slight hill -towards them. - -"The fair maid in white!" said Pratt. "I think my banjo ought to have -been a guitar, or a lute, whatever that is." - -A loud report startled them all. The bicycle wobbled, stopped, and the -girl sprang lightly from her saddle, and bent down to examine the front -tyre. She rose just before the boys reached her, gave them a fleeting -glance, and started to wheel the machine down the road. - -After a brief hesitation Warrender turned towards her, lifting his cap. - -"Can I be of any assistance?" he asked. - -"Oh, please don't trouble," replied the girl. "It's a frightfully bad -puncture, and I haven't very far to go." - -"Some distance across the ferry?" - -"Well, yes; but this will take a long time, and I really couldn't think -of----" - -"It's no trouble--if you have an outfit." - -"Yes, I have, but----" - -"He's a dab at mending tyres, I assure you," Pratt broke in. "Also at -all sorts of tinkering old jobs. Our engine broke down the other -day--that's our motor-boat, down at the ferry, you know--I dare say you -saw it when you passed an hour ago--or was it two? It seems a jolly -long time. Do let him try his hand; he'll be heartbroken if you don't. -Besides, wheeling a bicycle is no joke; I know from experience; and for -a lady--why, there's a smudge on your dress already. Really----" - -Like many loquacious persons, Pratt was apt to let his tongue run away -with him. The girl had shown more and more amusement with every -sentence that bubbled from his glib lips, and here she broke into a -frank laugh, and surrendered the bicycle to Warrender, who laid it down -on the grass bordering the road, opened the tool pouch and set to work. - -"He may be nervous, and fumble a bit, you know," said Pratt, "if we look -at him. I used to be like that myself, when I was young. Don't you -think we'd better walk on? Perhaps you'd like to be shown over our -boat?" - -"I think I'd prefer to wait for my bicycle," said the girl, demurely. - -"Warrender's quite to be trusted," rejoined Pratt. "He isn't just an -ordinary tramp or tinker. We've none of us chosen our professions yet. -We _have_ been called 'The Three Musketeers' in some quarters." - -"At school, I suppose," the girl put in. - -"Because we're always together, you know," Pratt continued. "We came up -the river to-day--on a holiday cruise--all the joys of nautical -adventure without any of the discomforts. Of course, there are -disappointments; bound to be. We thought of camping on the banks--one of -the banks, I mean--but, as Armstrong said, it might be the Congo, it's -so frightfully overgrown, and as we didn't bring axes or dynamite, or -any of the old things that explorers use, we had to reconcile ourselves -to the shattering of our dreams.... Whew! That was a near thing!" - -At the cross-roads just below, a motor-car, carrying two men, had -emerged suddenly from the right, and run into a country cart which had -been lumbering along the high road from the direction of the village. -The chauffeur had clapped his brakes on in time to avoid a serious -collision, but two spokes of the cart's near wheel had been smashed, and -the wing of the car crumpled. Springing out of the car, the chauffeur, a -dark-skinned little man, rushed up to the carter, who had been trudging -on the off-side at the horse's head, and began to berate him excitedly, -with much play of hands. - -"Vy you not have care?" he shouted, so rapidly that the monosyllables -seemed to form one word. "You take up all ze road; you sink all ze road -belong to you; you not look round ze corner; no, you blind fool, you -crash bang into my car, viss I not know how many pounds of damage." - -"Bain't my fault," said the carter, stoutly. "Can _you_ see round the -corner? Then why didn't you blow your horn?" - -The chauffeur retorted with a torrent of abuse, in which broken English -and expletives in some foreign tongue seemed equally mingled, the carter -keeping up a monotonous chant of "Bain't my fault, I tell 'ee." - -The former appealed to his passenger, a tall man of fair complexion and -straw-coloured moustache and beard. A lull in the altercation between -the other two enabled him to declare that the carter was in the wrong, -and his clear measured words rang with a distinctly foreign intonation -in the ears of the four spectators above. The squabble revived, and was -ended only when the passenger got out of the car, laid a soothing hand -on the chauffeur, and persuaded the carter to give his name, which he -wrote down in a pocket-book. A few seconds later the car snorted away -into the cross-road on the left-hand side. - -Warrender had looked up from his task only for a moment, but the other -three had watched the whole scene in silent amusement. - -"Can you tell us," said Pratt to the girl, "whether the Tower of Babel -is anywhere in this neighbourhood? We've seen four foreigners since we -landed at the ferry an hour or two ago, and, if accent is any guide, -they all hail from different parts." - -"It is funny, isn't it?" said the girl. "And the explanation is funny, -too. They are all servants of a strange old gentleman who lives in a -big house near the river. Some people say he is mad, but I think he's -only very bad-tempered." - -"Very likely the old buffer we saw. But go on, please." - -"His English servants went to him one day in a body and asked him to -raise their wages. It was quite reasonable, don't you think, with all -the labourers and people earning twice as much as they did before the -war? But they say he stormed at them, using the most dreadful language, -dismissed them all, and vowed he would never have an English servant -again. Frightfully, silly of him, but my father says that there's no -telling what extremes a hot-tempered lunatic like Mr. Pratt will----" - -"Who?" ejaculated Pratt. - -"That's his name--Mr. Ambrose Pratt. Perhaps you have heard of him? He -was a great traveller--quite famous, I believe." - -"My aunt! I mean--I'm rather taken by surprise, you know; but--well, -the fact is," stammered Pratt, "he's--he's my uncle." - -"Mr. Pratt is! Oh, I'm so sorry!" - -"So am I!" - -"For calling him such names, I mean." - -"Nothing to what I've called him, I assure you. He gave me an awful -licking once. Not that that matters, of course; we men don't think -anything of a licking; no--what I meant was I'm sorry an uncle of mine -is bringing the ancient and honourable name of Pratt into disrepute. -Why, he must be a regular laughing-stock. Fancy having a menagerie of -foreigners!" - -"But didn't you know? Aren't you staying with him, then?" - -"Rather not. We're not on speaking terms." - -"I remember--you said you were thinking of camping out." - -"Yes; and our dream was shattered. We've had to take beds at the inn. -It's terrible to lose your illusions, isn't it? We all thought nobly of -our fellow-men till this afternoon, and now our hearts are seared, and -we'll be frightful cynics till the end of the chapter. I don't suppose -you know him, but there's a bullet-headed brute of a fellow in a red -choker and a velveteen coat who sits on a tree-stump down the river----" - -"Oh, yes," said the girl. "That's Rush. Every one knows him. I believe -he has been in prison for poaching." - -"Well, it seems to be his business in life now to delude unhappy -mariners; a regular siren luring them to their doom. We asked him to -direct us to a camping-place. At first he protested there was no -suitable spot, but his malignant spirit prompted him to tell us of a -glade where the sward was like velvet, under a charming canopy of -umbrageous foliage. We had just got our tent up, and I was boiling the -kettle for tea, when there broke upon our solitude a man and a -dog--detestable, unnatural creatures both; the dog hadn't a bark in -him--it was all transferred to the man. The old buffer barked and -bellowed and bullied and brow-beat and bundled us off." - -A ripple of laughter from the girl's lips brought Pratt up short. He -looked at her reproachfully. - -"Do forgive me," she said, "but do you know, I'm sure that--old -buffer--was my father!" - -Even the ebullient Pratt was rendered speechless; as Armstrong -afterwards put it, in boxing parlance, "he was fairly fibbed in the -wind." - -"Father is a little hasty, but quite a dear, really," the girl -continued. "He has been frightfully annoyed by trespassers--that man -Rush, for one, and some of Mr. Pratt's servants. But don't you think -perhaps we had better say no more about our relations?" - -"Certainly," said Armstrong, with a solemn air of conviction. It was -the first word he had spoken, and the girl gave him a quick, amused -glance. - -"Umpire gives us both out!" remarked Pratt, his equanimity quite -restored. "We are now back in the _status quo_, Miss Crawshay, with -this difference: that we know each other's name. The Bard of Avon -wouldn't have asked 'What's in a name?' if he had been here five minutes -ago. If you had known my name, and I had known that you were the -daughter of----" - -"That's forbidden ground, Mr. Pratt." - -"Well, is there any ground that isn't forbidden?" Pratt rejoined. "For -our camp, I mean?" - -"Why not try No Man's Island?" - -"Siren Rush told us it's a mere wilderness, 'long heath, brown furze,' -and so on." - -"Oh! That's quite wrong; he must know better than that. There's an -excellent camping place on the narrower channel. We often picnicked -there before my father quarrelled with Mr. P----" - -Smiling, she caught herself up. - -"Call 'em X and Y," suggested Pratt. "It is a sort of simultaneous -equation, isn't it? But the island can't belong to Y unless Y is -generally recognised in the neighbourhood as no man at all." - -"Nobody knows whose it is. The owner died years ago; his cottage there -is falling to ruin; they say it belongs now to a distant relative in the -colonies." - -"Then there's no one to chevy us away, as soon as we've got things -shipshape?" - -"Unless you're afraid of ghosts. There are all sorts of queer tales; -the country folk shake their heads when the island is mentioned; not one -of them will have the courage to set foot on it." - -"A haunted island! How jolly! I've always wanted to meet a spook. -That's an additional attraction, I assure you. Perhaps I can soothe the -perturbed spirits with my banjo. I admit it has the opposite effect on -Armstrong, but----" - -The girl turned suddenly away towards Warrender, who had finished his -job and was pumping up the tyre. - -"You frightful ass!" muttered Armstrong in a savage undertone, heard by -Pratt alone. "You've done nothing but drivel for the last half-hour." - -"All right, old mule," retorted Pratt, grinning. - -"Yes, it will carry you home," Warrender was saying, "but I'm afraid -you'll have to get a new tyre." - -"Thanks so much. It is really awfully good of you," replied the girl. - -"I'm sorry I've been such a time." - -"I've been very well entertained. It hasn't seemed long at all. Thank -you again. Good-bye." - -She mounted the bicycle, beamed an impartial smile upon the three, and -sped away down the road. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE FACE IN THE THICKET - - -When the three friends arrived at the inn it was full to the door. -Rogers, wigless again, caught sight of Warrender over the heads of the -crowd, and came from behind the counter, edging his way outwards through -the press of villagers. - -"Missus have got the rooms shipshape, sir," he said. "She's a rare -woman for making a man comfortable." - -"I'm sure she is," returned Warrender, "and I'm only sorry we shan't -know it by personal experience. The fact is, we're going to camp on No -Man's Island; there's plenty of time before sunset to fix ourselves up." - -"She'll be main sorry, that she will," said the innkeeper, pocketing the -two half-crowns Warrender handed him. "No Man's Island, did 'ee say? -Maybe you haven't heard what folk do tell?" - -"We have heard something, but I dare say it's just talk, you know. -Anyhow, we're going to try it, and we'll let you know in the morning how -we get on." - -"Now, Rogers--drat the man!" cried his wife's voice from behind. She -came out into the porch, flourishing his wig. "How many times have I -told 'ee I won't have 'ee showing yourself without your hair? If you do -be a great baby, there's no need for 'ee to look like one." - -Rogers meekly allowed her to adjust the wig, explaining meanwhile the -intention of the expected guests. She received the news with -disappointment and concern. - -"I hope nothing ill will come o't," she said. "Fists bain't no mortal -use against spirits; 'twould be like hitting the wind. Howsomever, the -young will always go their own gait. 'Tis the way o' the world." She -went back into the inn. - -"That furriner chap was hurt more in his temper than his framework," -said Rogers. "And knowing what furriners be, I'd keep my weather eye -open. There's too many of 'em in these parts." - -"I understand they're servants of Mr. Pratt; they should be fairly -respectable." - -"Ay, that's where 'tis. A gentleman must do as he likes, and we haven't -got nothing to say to't. But we think the more. And I own I was fair -cut up when my sister Molly married the cook; a little Swiss feller he -is." - -"We saw him up at the post office a while ago; the shopwoman inquired -after your sister, I remember." - -"And well she might. I never see the girl nowadays; girl, I say, but -she's gone thirty, old enough to know better. By all accounts Rod's -uncommon clever at the vittles, and the crew down yonder be living on -the fat of the land, while the skipper's a-dandering round in furren -parts." - -"Mr. Pratt's away from home, then?" - -"Ay sure. He haven't been seen a good while, and 'tis just like him to -go off sudden-like. You'd expect he'd be tired of it at his time o' -life, but 'tis once a wanderer, always a wanderer. Well, the evening's -getting on, so I won't keep 'ee. Good luck, sir." - -Warrender rejoined his companions, who had taken over the boat from the -ferryman, and they were soon floating down on the current. They took -the narrow channel on the left of the island which they had avoided on -the way up, and found it less difficult to navigate than it had appeared -at the other end. The dusk was deepening beneath the trees, but in a -few minutes they discovered a wide open space that offered more -accommodation than they needed. Running the boat close to the shore, -they sprang to land, moored to a tree overhanging the stream, and set to -work with a will to make their preparations for the night. - -The clearing was carpeted with long grass, damp from yesterday's rain, -and encircled by dense undergrowth, thicket, and bramble. They pitched -the tent in the centre, beat down a stretch of grass in front of it on -which to place the stove and the bulk of their impedimenta, and by the -time that darkness enwrapped them had everything in order. The moon, -almost at full circle, had risen early, and soon, peering over the -tree-tops on the mainland, flung her silver sheen into the enclosure, -whitening the tent to a snowy brilliance and throwing into strong relief -the massed foliage beyond. A light breeze set the leaves quivering with -a murmurous rustle. The hour and the scene made an appeal to Pratt's -sentimental soul too strong to be resisted. Opening one of the folding -chairs, he lay back in it with crossed legs, gazed up into the serene, -star-flecked heavens, and began with gentle touches of his strings to -serenade the moon. - -Warrender, having slipped on his overalls, kindled a lamp and went down -to tinker with his engine. Unmusical Armstrong, always accused by Pratt -of being "fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils," sauntered, hands in -pockets, across the clearing. Elbowing his way through the undergrowth -he found, after some fifty or sixty yards, that the vegetation thinned. -The lesser shrubs gave way to trees, which grew close together, but with -a regularity that suggested planting on a definite plan. Pursuing his -way, he came by and by to a more spacious clearing than the one he had -quitted; and on the left, in the midst of what had evidently been at one -time a small garden, he saw the shell of a two-storeyed cottage. The -walls were covered with creepers growing in rank disorder; the windows -gaped, empty of glass; the doorless entrance shaped a rectangle of -blackness; and bare rafters, shaggy with unpruned ivy, drew parallel -lines upon the inky gloom of half the upper storey. Ruins, in daylight -merely picturesque, take a new beauty in the cold radiance of the moon, -but present at the same time an image of all that is desolate and -forlorn. Practical, unemotional as Armstrong was, he thrilled to the -impression of vacuity and abandonment, and stood for a while at gaze, as -though unwilling to disturb the loneliness. - -Presently, however, he stepped lightly across the unmown lawn, and the -moss-grown path beyond, and, entering the doorway, struck a match and -looked around. From the narrow hall--strewn with fragments of brick and -mortar, broken tiles, heaps of plaster, and here and there spotted with -fungi--sprang the staircase, whole as to the stairs, but showing gaps in -the banisters. Curling strips of torn discoloured paper hung from the -walls. The match went out; through the open roof the stars glimmered. -Deciding to defer exploration till daylight, lest a tile or brick should -fall on his head, or the staircase give way under him, Armstrong turned -to go out. As he did so he was aware of a low moaning sound, such as a -person inside a house may hear when a high wind soughs under the eaves. -It rose and fell in cadences eerily mournful, as though the spirit of -solitude itself were lonely and in pain. Armstrong shivered and sought -the doorway, and as he felt how gentle was the breeze he met, he -wondered at its having power enough to produce such sounds. The moaning -ceased; he listened for a moment or two; it did not recur, though the -zephyr had not sensibly dropped. Puzzled, he started to retrace his way -to the camp. At the farther side of the clearing the melancholy sound -once more broke upon his car. Almost involuntarily he wheeled round to -look back at the cottage; then, impatient with himself, turned again to -quit the scene. - -His feeling, which was neither awe nor timorousness, but rather a vague -discomfort, left him as soon as his active faculties were again in play. -Pushing his way through the undergrowth, he was inclined to deride his -unwonted susceptibility. All at once, however, without sound or any -other physical fact to account for it, he was seized with the fancy that -some one was behind him. Does every human being move in the midst of an -invisible, intangible aura, that acts as a sixth sense? Whatever the -truth may be, certain it is that we have all, at one time or another, -been conscious of the proximity of some bodily presence, which neither -sight nor sound nor touch has revealed. - -Armstrong swung quickly round, and started, for there in the thicket, -within a dozen yards of him, a shaft of moonlight struck upon a face, -pallid amidst the green. It disappeared in a flash. - -"Who's there?" called Armstrong, sharply; then impulsively started -forward, parting the foliage. - -There was no answer, nobody to be seen. Indeed, within a yard of him -the thicket was so dense, so closely overarched by loftier trees, that -no ray of moonshine percolated into its pitchy blackness. - -Holding the branches apart, peering into the gloom, he listened. -Overhead the leaves softly rustled; within the thicket there was not a -murmur. He let the branches swing back; stood for a few moments -irresolute; then, with an impatient jerk of the shoulders, strode away -towards the camp. - -Armstrong was not what the pathologist would call a nervous subject. -His physical courage had never been questioned; in his healthy life of -work and play his moral courage had never been called upon; his lack of -imagination had saved him from the tremors and terrors that prey upon -the more highly strung. - -To find himself mentally disturbed was a novel experience; it filled him -with a sense of humiliation and self-contempt; it enraged him. Thoughts -of Pratt's mocking glee when the tale should be told made him squirm. -"I say, the old bean's seen a spook"--he could hear the light, ringing -tones of Pratt's voice, see the bubbling merriment in his large, round -eyes. "I swear it _was_ a face!" he angrily told himself. "Dashed if I -don't come in daylight and hunt for the fellow--some tramp, I expect, -who finds a lodging gratis in the ruins." - -By the time he reached the camp he had made up his mind to say nothing -about the incident. Emerging into the silent clearing, he saw Pratt and -Warrender side by side on their chairs, fast asleep, the latter with -folded arms and head on breast, the former holding his banjo across his -knees, his face, the image of placid happiness, upturned to the sky. -Apparently the swish of Armstrong's boots through the long grass -penetrated to the slumbering consciousness of the sleepers. Warrender -lifted his head, unclosed his eyes for a moment, muttered "Hallo!" and -slept again. Pratt, without moving, looked lazily through half-shut -eyelids. - -"'O moon of my delight, who know'st no wane!'" he murmured. "Well, old -bean, seen the spook?" - -"Rot!" growled Armstrong. - -"I believe you have!" cried Pratt, starting up, his face kindling. -"What's she like?" - -"Ass!" - -"Well, what _did_ you see? You don't, as a rule, snap for nothing. -I'll say that for you. Only cats will scratch you for love. What's -upset the apple-cart?" - -"I saw the ruined cottage, if you want to know--a ghastly rotten hole. -I'm dead tired--I'm going to turn in." - -"All right, old chap; you shall have a lullaby." He struck an arpeggio. - - "Sing me to sleep, the shadows fall; - Let me forget the world and all; - Lone is my heart, the day is long; - Would it were come to evensong! - Sing me to sleep, your hand in mine----" - - -Armstrong had fled into the tent. - -"I say, Warrender," murmured Pratt, nudging the somnolent form at his -side, "something's put the old sport in a regular bait." - -"Eh?" returned Warrender, drowsily. - -"Armstrong's got the pip. Never knew him like this. Something's -curdled the milk." - -"Well, it's time to turn in," said Warrender, rising and stretching -himself. "He'll be all right in the morning. Good-night." - -"Same to you. I suppose I must follow you, but it's so jolly under this -heavenly moon." - -And Warrender, undressing within the tent, smiled as he heard the -lingerer's pleasant voice. - - "Dark is life's shore, love, life is so deep: - Leave me no more, but sing me to sleep." - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE GAME BEGINS - - -For all his loquacity, his gamesomeness of temper, Pratt was not without -a modicum of discretion. Next morning, when they had taken their swim -and were preparing breakfast, he did not revive the subject of spooks, -or make any allusion to Armstrong's ill-humour. Armstrong, for his -part, always at his best in the freshness of the early hours, had thrown -off the oppression of the night, and appeared his cheerful, vigorous, -rather silent self. - -"You fellows," said Warrender, as they devoured cold sausages and a -stale loaf, "after I've overhauled the engine, I think of pulling up -stream in the dinghy and getting some new bread at the village----" - -"Rolls, if you can," Pratt interpolated. - -"And some butter and cheese, etcetera. Now we're on this island, we may -as well explore it. You can do that while I'm away." - -"And hand you a neatly written report of our discoveries. All right, -Mr. President." - -"I shan't be gone more than about a couple of hours." - -"Unless you get another tinkering job. By the way, why not call at old -Crawshay's, and ask if she got home safe? I think that would be a very -proper thing to do, and the old buffer would appreciate it. Good for -evil, you know; coals of fire; turning the other cheek, and all that." - -"You can turn your own cheek, Percy. You've got enough of it." - -"Do you allude to my facial rotundity, which is Nature's gift, or to my -urbanity of manner, my----" - -"Dry up, man. It's too early in the morning for fireworks. So long." - -Pratt gave a further proof of his tact when he started with Armstrong on -their tour of exploration. Instead of striking southward, in the -direction of the ruins, he set off to the north-west. "The island's so -small," he reflected, "that we are bound to work round to that cottage, -and then----" - -Daylight showed the undergrowth dense indeed, but not so impenetrable as -it had seemed overnight. At the cost of a few scratches from bramble -bushes laden with ripening blackberries, they pushed their way through -to the western shore, overlooking the broader channel and the right bank -of the river; then they turned south, zigzagging to find the easiest -route. - -Hitherto, except for the whirr of a bird, or the scurry of some small -animal, they had neither seen nor heard anything betokening that the -island had any other visitors than themselves. But not long after their -change of course they came to a spot where the grass had recently been -trampled. - -"Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!" hummed Pratt. - -"Here's a wire snare," exclaimed Armstrong. "Some one's rabbiting." - -"Very likely Siren Rush," Pratt returned. "It wasn't original malice -that prompted him to warn us against the island, but a sophisticated -fear of competition. I dare say he made tons of money out of rabbits in -the lean time during the war; skinned them and the shop people too!" - -Armstrong let this pass; the face he had seen for a brief moment -overnight had not recalled the leering countenance of the poacher. - -They went on, skirted the southern shore, and turned northward. -Presently Pratt caught a glimpse through the trees of the roof of the -ruined cottage. He did not mention it, but struck to the right towards -the narrow channel, and led the way as close as possible to its brink. -A minute or two later, in a shallow indentation of the shore, they -discovered the remains of a small pier or landing-stage. The planks had -rotted or broken away; only a few moss-covered piles and -cross-stretchers were left, still, after what must have been many years, -defying the destructive energy of the stream that swirled around them. -Through the channel, at this spot contracted to half its average width, -the swollen river poured with the force of a millrace. - -"The old chap kept a boat, evidently," said Pratt. "There ought to be a -path from here to the house, but there's no sign of one. Let's strike -inland, and see if we can trace it somewhere." - -They pushed through the thicket, here as closely tangled as anywhere -else, and emerging suddenly into the wilderness garden, in which -perennial plants were stifling one another, they saw the ruined cottage -before them. - -"Jolly picturesque," said Pratt, halting. "I dare say distance lends -enchantment to the view; no doubt it's a pretty dismal place inside; but -the sunlight makes a gorgeous effect with those old walls. The creepers -running over warm red bricks--it's a harmony of colour, old man. I'd -like to make a sketch of it." - -"Houses were built to be lived in," grunted Armstrong. - -Pratt made no reply at once. For the moment the schoolboy was sunk in -the artist. He let his eyes linger on the spectacle--the broken roof; -the one gable that here survived; the creepers straggling round it and -over the glassless window of the room beneath; the heap of shattered -brick-work at the base, half-clothed with greenery and gay with flowers. - -"Of course, it looked very different by moonlight," he said at last. -"You'd lose all the colour. Still----" - -"I saw it from the other side," said Armstrong. "That won't please you -so much--it's not so much ruined." - -"Well, let's go and see." - -He was leading through the riot of untended flowers, Armstrong close -behind him, when he stopped suddenly, and in a tone of voice -involuntarily subdued, asked-- - -"Did you see that?" - -[Illustration: "'DID YOU SEE THAT?'"] - -"What?" said Armstrong, starting in spite of himself. - -"A figure--something--I don't know; at the back of the room." - -The sunlight, slanting from the south-east, shone full upon the cottage, -but left the back of one of the rooms on the ground floor shadowed by -the screen of creepers falling over the gaping window. - -"Well, suppose there was, why the mysterious whisper?" said Armstrong, -his own doubts and remembered tremors disposing him to ridicule Pratt's -excitement. "Why shouldn't there be some one there? _We_ are here--why -not others?" - -"Yes, but--well, I didn't expect it. Perhaps you did." - -"It may have been only the shadow of the creeper on the wall." - -"It may have been your grandmother! Let's get into the place and have a -look round. The window's too high to climb; is the door open?" - -"There's no door." - -"So much the better. Come on." - -They hastened to the front, and through the doorway into the hall. The -house was silent as a tomb. On either side opened a doorless room. -They entered the one on the right--that in which Pratt had believed he -saw a moving figure. It was pervaded by a subdued greenish sunlight, -becoming misty by reason of the dust their footsteps had stirred up. It -held neither person nor thing. They crossed to the opposite room, -which, being out of the sunshine, was in deep gloom. This, too, was -empty. Passing the staircase they arrived at the back premises, a -stone-flagged kitchen and scullery. Both were bare; even the grate had -been removed. - -"Now for upstairs," said Pratt. "They've made a clean sweep down here." - -They mounted the staircase, at first treading carefully, then with -confident steps as they found that the creaking stairs were sound. -There were four rooms on the upper storey, two of them exposed to the -sky. Of these the floors were thick with blown leaves, twigs, birds' -feathers, fragments of tiles and bricks, broken rafters, and the debris -of the ceiling. The other two, roofed and whole, were as bare as the -rooms below. Through the empty casement of one they caught sight of the -tower in the grounds of Mr. Ambrose Pratt's house, and the upper windows -and roof of the house itself. Pratt's appreciative eye was instantly -seized by the prospect--the foreground of low thicket; the glistening -stream; the noble trees beyond, springing out of a waving sea of -sun-dappled bracken; the gentle slope on whose summit stood the -buildings, and in the far background the rolling expanse of purple -moorland. For the moment he forgot the shadowy figure he had seen, and -lingered as if unwilling to miss one detail of the enchanting landscape. - -"There's no one here," said Armstrong, matter-of-fact as ever. - -"I dare say it was an illusion. Look how the sunlight catches the -ripples, Jack. And did you see that kingfisher flash between the -banks?" - -"I'll go and have another look downstairs," Armstrong responded. "I'll -give you a call if I find anything." - -He felt, as he went down, that perhaps he would have done better to be -candid with Pratt. Why make any bones about an incident capable, no -doubt, of a simple explanation? The tramp, if tramp he was, had, of -course, the objection of his kind to being found on enclosed premises, -even though they were a ruin. Yet it was strange that he had left no -tracks--had he not? Armstrong was suddenly aware of something that had -hitherto escaped him. There was no dust, no litter on the stairs. -Singular phenomenon in a long-deserted house! And surely the floor of -the room in which Pratt now stood, unlike the other floors, was clear. -It, and the staircase, must have been swept. Why? Not for tidiness--no -tramp would bother about that. For what, then? Secrecy? Dusty floors -would leave tell-tale marks--and with the thought Armstrong hurried down -to the room in which the figure had been seen, and examined the floor. -Yes! besides the footprints of himself and Pratt between door and -window, there were others along the wall at the back of the room. The -fellow must have slipped out with the speed of a hare. Armstrong -perceived at once the clumsiness of the attempt at secrecy, for the very -fact that some of the floors were swept gave the game away. At the same -time, he was puzzled to account for the man's motive. The island was -deserted; it was no longer the scene of picnics; the villagers avoided -it; why then should a casual visitor--for there was no evidence of -continuous occupation--be at the pains even to try to cover up his -movements? The strange oppression of the previous night returned upon -Armstrong's mind, and he roamed about the lower floor in a mood of -curious expectancy. - -He came once more to the kitchen, and noticed that between it and the -scullery was a closed door--the only door that remained in the house. -Instinctively bracing himself, he turned the handle; the door opened, -disclosing a dark hole and a downward flight of stone steps. He went -down into the darkness, at the foot of the steps struck a match, and -found himself in a low, spacious cellar, empty except for a strewing of -coal dust. As the match flickered out he caught sight of something -white in a corner. Striking another, he crossed the floor and picked up -a jagged scrap of paper, slightly brown along one edge. At the same -moment he observed a little heap of paper ashes. - -Throwing down the match he trod upon it, and turned, intending to -examine the paper in the daylight above. Pratt's voice shouting, and a -sound of some one leaping down the staircase to the hall, caused him to -spring up the steps two at a time. - -"What's up?" he shouted back, unable to distinguish Pratt's words. - -He reached the hall just in time to see Pratt dash through the doorway -and sprint at headlong pace towards the river. Stuffing the paper into -his pocket, Armstrong doubled after him. Pratt was already plunging into -the thicket, and, when Armstrong came within sight of the channel, the -other had flung off his cap and blazer, and was diving into the stream. - -[Illustration: "THE OTHER WAS DIVING INTO THE STREAM."] - -"What mad trick----" - -He cut short his exclamation, for his long strides had brought him to -the pier, and he saw the cause of Pratt's desperate haste. The -motor-boat, broadside to the stream, was drifting down the channel. -Already it was some thirty yards beyond the spot where Pratt had taken -the water, and Pratt was swimming after it with the ease of a water-rat. - -Feeling that there was no reason why himself should get soaked too, -Armstrong forged his way through the vegetation at the brink of the -channel, but made slow progress compared with the swimmer. Pratt was -rapidly overhauling the boat. Watching him, instead of his own steps, -Armstrong tripped over a creeper, and fell headlong. By the time he had -picked himself up, Pratt had disappeared. Armstrong's momentary anxiety -was banished by the sight of the boat moving slowly in towards the shore -of the island. - -"Good man," he shouted. "You headed it off splendidly." - -Pushing and swimming, Pratt was evidently making strenuous efforts to -drive the boat into the bank before the current swept it past the -island. If he failed, Armstrong saw that he would have to change his -tactics and run it ashore on the left bank--his uncle's property. It -would then be necessary for Armstrong to swim across, for Pratt had -never taken the trouble to learn the working of the engine. - -"Stick it, old man," he called. - -In a few moments more Pratt contrived to edge the boat among the low -branches of an overhanging tree. Its downward progress thus partly -checked, he was able to exert more force in the shoreward direction. -When Armstrong, after a rough scramble, arrived at the spot, he had just -rammed the boat's nose securely into a tangled network of branches, and -was clambering, a dripping, bedraggled object, up the bank. - -A prolonged "Coo-ee!" sounded from far up the river. - -"There's old Warrender, shrieking like a bereaved hen," said Pratt, -shaking himself. "And it's all through his not tying the thing up -properly! Armstrong, water is very wet." - -"I say, did you ever know Warrender not tie it up properly?" - -"How else would it break away?" - -"You didn't see it break away?" - -"No, you can't see our camping-place from the ruins. It was a good way -down before I caught sight of it." - -"Well, they've kicked off; the game's begun!" - -"What on earth do you mean?" - -"Wring yourself dry, and we'll talk." - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - A SCRAP OF PAPER - - -Pratt had just stripped off his clothes, and spread them to dry, when -Warrender arrived in the dinghy. - -"What's the game, you chaps?" he inquired. "Why a second bath, Pratt?" - -"Eyes left!" responded Pratt. "The sight of my habiliments basking in -the sunlight will inform you that I have just been performing a cinema -stunt--plunging fully clothed into the boiling torrent to rescue the -heroine, whom the villain----" - -"Dry up!" said Armstrong. - -"Just what I am trying to do. But you are bursting with information, -old chap. Expound. I am all ears." - -"You tied up the boat as usual, Warrender?" Armstrong asked. - -"Of course. Why?" - -"Pratt saw her drifting down the stream, that's all, and had to dive in -to prevent her getting right past the island." - -"That's rum," said Warrender. "The knot couldn't have worked loose. -Who's been monkeying with her?" - -"That's the point," said Armstrong. "There's some one else on the -island, and whoever it is, wants the place to himself. Setting the boat -adrift seemed to him a first step to driving us away, which shows he is -a juggins." - -"Q.E.D.," said Pratt. "Now the corollary, if you please." - -"Wait a bit," Warrender interposed. "It may be only a stupid practical -joke--the sort of thing the intelligence of that poacher fellow might -rise to." - -"It may be, of course," returned Armstrong, "but I think it's more. You -remember what Miss Crawshay and the people at the inn told us about the -island being haunted, you know? Well, rumours of that sort are just what -might be set going by some one who has reasons of his own for keeping -people away. It may be Rush; we found a rabbit-snare this morning; but -if it is, there's some one else in the game. Last night, as I was -returning to camp, I saw a face in the thicket, just for a moment; it -was gone in a flash; but it wasn't Rush's face; it was a different type -altogether." - -"Why on earth didn't you tell us?" asked Warrender. - -"Well, I might have been mistaken; moonlight plays all sorts of tricks; -besides----" - -"Just so, old man," said Pratt. "Are there visions abroad? The -witching hour of night----" - -"Let's keep to cold fact," Warrender put in. "You saw a face, and it -wasn't Rush's; but Rush lied to us about the island to keep us off it; -therefore Rush and some unknown person are in league. What next?" - -"Pratt saw some one in one of the rooms of the ruined cottage as we -approached it an hour or so ago. We hunted through the place, but -couldn't find any one. I noticed one strange fact: that while some of -the rooms are thick with dust, the staircase and one of the rooms -upstairs are pretty clear, although there's no sign whatever of anybody -living there. There's not a stick of furniture. What is the cottage -used for?" - -"Is there anything particular about the upstairs room?" Warrender asked. - -"Nothing that I could see," replied Armstrong. - -"Except that it gives a magnificent view," Pratt added. "You can see my -uncle's grounds, and up and down the river. It was when I was looking -out of the window that I saw the boat adrift." - -"Well, I think I'll have a look at the place," said Warrender, "and if -you'll take my advice, Percy, you'll go up in the dinghy, get into dry -togs, and give an eye to the camp." - -"Righto! There ought to be some one at home to receive callers. You'll -be back to lunch, I suppose?" - -Warrender nodded, and strode off with Armstrong towards the ruins. -Together they explored the house from roof to cellar, seeking, not for -an inhabitant, but for some clue to the puzzle suggested by the partly -cleared floors. No discovery rewarded them. It was not until they were -inspecting the cellar that Armstrong remembered the scrap of paper he -had picked up there. Taking it out of his pocket when they returned to -daylight, he handed it to Warrender. - -"Is it Greek?" he asked. - -"No," replied Warrender. "I fancy it's Russian; a scrap torn from a -Russian newspaper, by the look of it. Pretty old, too, judging by the -colour." - -"I don't know. It's brown at the edge, but that's due to the scorching -it got when the other papers were burned. It's fairly clean everywhere -else. You can't read it, then?" - -"Not a word; how should I? Russian's a modern language; belongs more to -your side than mine. Besides, what if I could? A newspaper wouldn't -tell us anything." - -"Very likely not. But a Russian newspaper would hardly be in the -possession of anybody but a Russian, and what was a Russian ever doing -here?" - -"Ah! I think I see daylight. What if it belonged to one of what Pratt -calls his uncle's menagerie of foreigners? They might come here in -their off times. There's nothing very wonderful about it after all; but -as there's nothing valuable in the ruins, they can't have any object in -trying to keep us out. My belief is that that fellow Rush set the boat -drifting out of sheer mischief, and we'd better keep our eye on him." - -On leaving the ruins it occurred to Armstrong to examine the -surroundings more narrowly than he had yet done. The flower-beds and -the moss-grown path in the direction of the jetty showed the impress of -his own and Pratt's feet, but another path, which they had not trodden, -also bore slight marks of use. Following it up with Warrender, he found -that it led to a narrow track through the undergrowth, leading southward -almost in a straight line. In single file they made their way along -this, and came presently to a shallow indentation in the western shore, -near its southern end. - -"Pratt and I must have crossed this track a while ago," said Armstrong; -"but I didn't notice it, and I'm sure he didn't." - -"Look here," said Warrender, who had bent down to examine the grass and -shrubs growing on the low bank. "Wouldn't you say that a boat had been -run in? In fact, it's been drawn up on to the bank. Here's a distinct -mark of the keel--a small rowing-boat, I should think." - -"Not very recent, is it?" - -"But certainly not very ancient, or it wouldn't be so distinct. It's on -Crawshay's arm of the river, though. D'you know, Armstrong, I shouldn't -be surprised if it turns out we're a set of jackasses. I dare say the -place teems with rabbits, and there are plenty of fellows besides Rush -who'd be glad of getting their dinner for nothing, and would want to -keep other people out of their preserves. Let's be getting back." - -On arriving at their encampment they took the precaution of drawing the -bow of the motorboat well on to the bank, and securing it firmly to a -stout sapling. The dinghy, which Pratt had tied to a projecting root, -they carried ashore, and placed behind the tent. - -Pratt was sitting on his chair, tuning his banjo. - -"You perceive I have not been idle," he said. "You couldn't have carried -the dinghy with such agile ease if I hadn't emptied her first. Your -marketing was a success, Warrender?" - -"Yes, I got everything we wanted except petrol. By the way, Pratt, -there's a rival troubadour in the village." - -"I say! Surely not a banjo?" - -"A banjo it is, and the player is no other than that general dealer -fellow--what's his name? Blevins. I went up to the shop to get a can of -petrol, and heard the tum-ti-tum and a tenor voice as good as your -own----" - -"Don't crush me quite!" - -"Warbling one of your own songs out of the open window above the -shop--'Love me and the world is mine.' Really it might have been you, -only the fellow has a little more of what you call the tremolo, don't -you?" - -"Vibrato--if you want to know. But hang it! The glory is departed. -Another banjo, another tenor--and singing my songs! Pity we're not in -Spain." - -"Why on earth?" asked Armstrong. - -"Because then we'd meet on some delicious moonlit night under the window -of some fair senorita, and after trying to sing each other down like a -couple of cats, we'd have a bit of a turn-up, and I'd have a chance to -show I'm the better man. But how do you know it was the general dealer? -It might have been some fair swain as comely as myself." - -"I'll tell you. I went into the shop, and asked the sheepish young -fellow there for one of the cans of petrol I saw against the wall. He -declared they were all for Mr. Pratt at the Red House. There were at -least half a dozen, and I protested that Mr. Pratt couldn't possibly -want them all at once, and insisted on his fetching his employer. The -singing had been going on all the time. It stopped a couple of seconds -after the fellow had gone into the house, and the man Blevins came into -the shop. It's a fair deduction that he and the singer were one." - -"It is, it is," murmured Pratt, mournfully, throwing a glance across the -river. - -"What _are_ you squinting at?" asked Armstrong. "I've noticed you -several times; what's there to look at?" - -"There's me," replied Pratt, quickly. "Look at me, old chap, or at any -rate, don't look that way; tell you why presently. Well, what about old -Blevins, Warrender? My hat! what a name for a light tenor!" - -"I asked him for one can to go on with. He was very polite--oily, in -fact;--regretted extremely that he couldn't oblige me; the whole supply -had been ordered for Mr. Pratt, and he daren't offend so good a -customer." - -"But I thought my uncle was away from home." - -"Of course. Why didn't I remember that? Anyhow, while he was talking, -in came that little foreign chauffeur we saw yesterday--an Italian, I -fancy: he talked just like those Italian waiters at Gatti's. He had -come to order a car; said that Mr. Pratt's car had broken down, and he -had had to tow it to Dartmouth for repairs. He'd keep Blevins's car -until the repairs were done. Blevins was a bit offhand with me after -that. I suppose it was the regular tradesman's attitude to a less -important customer. Anyhow, he told me rather bluntly that I couldn't -have any petrol till to-morrow, and I came away." - -"Quite right. You couldn't argue with a fellow who sucks up to my -uncle, and sings my songs. I say, I think I shall go in for diplomacy. -Don't you think I'd make a first-class attache, or whatever they call -'em?" - -Astonished at the sudden change of subject, they looked at him. He -winked. - -"You know," he went on--"one of those fellows in foreign capitals whose -job it is to see and hear everything, and look innocent, while inside -they're as wily as the cunningest old serpent. Your chronicle of -Blevins is very small beer, Warrender; and while you've been yarning on -about your old petrol, I've been corking myself up with something vastly -more interesting, and you hadn't the least notion of it. That's why I'm -sure I'd make no end of a hit in the diplomatic corps. Just keep your -eyes fixed on my goodly countenance, will you? and I'll enlighten your -understanding." - -He took up his banjo, which he had laid across his knees, struck a note -or two, then proceeded-- - -"After I'd changed, and carried up your purchases, I sat me down to -beguile the tedium of waiting for you with my unfailing resource. -Happening to glance across the river, I caught sight of some one -watching me from the thick of a shrub, and my lively imagination -conjured up the goose-flesh sensations of old Armstrong last night. -With that presence of mind which will serve me well in my climb up the -diplomatic ladder to a peerage, I hummed a stave of 'Somewhere a voice -is calling,' and turned my head away with the grace of a peacefully -browsing gazelle; but the fellow's been watching me for the last -half-hour, and I bet he doesn't know he's been spotted. Armstrong, -you've got the best eyes. While I go on gassing, just look round as if -you were jolly well bored stiff--no, I've a better idea; go into the -tent, and take a squint through that small tear on the side facing the -river, and fix your eyes on the shrub--I fancy it's a lilac past its -prime--that fills the space between two beeches in the background. I -don't flatter myself that the fellow was attracted by my dulcet strains, -and if he's watching me, you may be sure he's watching all of us." - -Armstrong got up, thrust his hands into his trousers pockets, and -strolled nonchalantly into the tent. In a couple of minutes he returned -in the same unconcerned way. - -"You're right," he said, drawing up his chair beside Pratt's. "I saw a -slight movement among the leaves, and a face. I'm not quite sure, but I -believe it's that poacher fellow. It's certainly not the face I saw -last night." - -"Well, now, what interest do you suppose Siren Rush takes in us? And -what's he doing in my uncle's grounds? D'you think my uncle's a bit -potty, and sets Rush to keep watch like a warder on a tower? Is he -afraid of some one squatting on his land in his absence? I don't -suppose we're far wrong in accusing Rush of setting the boat adrift, but -what's his motive in watching us? It's not mere curiosity; but if not -curiosity, what is it?" - -"We must wait and see," said Warrender. - -"That's very prudent, but it promises poor sport," Pratt rejoined. "By -the way, I suppose you didn't find anything fresh in the ruins?" - -"Nothing. But Armstrong picked up a scrap of paper in the cellar this -morning--a bit of a Russian newspaper. Hand it over, Armstrong." - -"No," said Pratt, quickly. "Don't show it. I don't suppose Siren Rush -can read Russian any more than I can; the paper can't be his, but he'd -better not see us examining anything. Where did you find it, -Armstrong?" - -"In the cellar, by a heap of paper ash." - -"Incriminating documents, as they say in the police courts. But why -Russian? Look here, I know a man in London who reads Russian; he seems -to like it. Give me the paper presently. We'll go into the village this -afternoon and post it to him. I can't see how it will throw any light -on things here, but we can at least get it translated. And now, let's -have lunch." - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - TIN-TACKS - - -That night, Warrender was unusually wakeful. As a rule he slept as -soundly as his companions; but now and then, when he had anything on his -mind, he wooed sleep in vain. The strange incidents of the past two -days had affected him more, psychologically, than either of the others. -Armstrong, as soon as his doubts were removed, would suffer no more -mental disturbance until something fresh, outside his experience, again -upset his balance; while Pratt was one of those happy souls to whom life -itself is a perpetual joy, and events only the changing patterns of a -kaleidoscope. - -Envying the two placid forms stretched on either side of him, Warrender -was trying to grope his way through the labyrinth of mystery in which -they seemed to have been caught, when he was surprised by a sudden -slight rattling sound upon the tent, like the patter of small -hailstones; it ceased in a second or two. The night had been fine, -without any warning of a change of weather; the air was still; it seemed -strange that a storm could have risen so rapidly, without a premonitory -wind. His companions had evidently not been awakened. Moving -carefully, so as not to disturb them, he crept across to the flap of the -tent, and looked out. The stars glittered in a vault of unbroken blue; -the tree-tops were silvered by the sinking moon; not a wisp of cloud -streaked the firmament. - -There was no repetition of the sound, and Warrender, thinking that he -must, after all, have been dreaming, returned to his sleeping-bag. As -often happens in cases of insomnia, the slight exertion of walking had -the effect of inducing sleep, and he woke no more until morning. - -Armstrong, as usual the first to rise, clutched his towel, and sallied -forth barefoot for his dip. He had no sooner passed into the open, -however, than he uttered what, with some exaggeration Pratt called a -fiendish yell. Hurrying out to learn the cause of it, the others saw -him standing on one foot and rubbing the sole of the other. - -"Which of you blighters dropped a tin-tack here?" he asked. - -"Got a puncture, old man?" said Pratt, sympathetically. "Your skin's -pretty tough, luckily. Now, if it had been me--ough!" - -[Illustration: "'GOT A PUNCTURE, OLD MAN?'"] - -He, too, hopped on one foot, and crooked the other leg, his face -contorted for a moment out of its wonted cherubic calm. - -"Told you so," he cried, picking a blue tack from between his toes. -"I'm a very sensitive plant, I can tell you. I see blood. Warrender, -I'd have yours if you weren't such a thundering big lout." - -"Not guilty," said Warrender, who had prudently stood still. "You had -better both come and put your boots on. We haven't any tacks in our -outfit, so--I say!" - -"What do you say?" said Pratt. - -"Last night I heard a sound like a sharp shower of rain or hail on the -tent. Just wait till I pull my boots on." - -In half a minute he was out again, shod, and began to examine the grass -around the tent. - -"As I thought," he said. "There's a regular battalion of the beastly -things; another trick of that blackguard Rush, no doubt. He's trying -frightfulness." - -"I'll wring his neck if I catch him," cried Armstrong. - -"No, you don't, my son," said Pratt. "The law would say 'neck for -neck,' I'm afraid. I shouldn't object to your blacking his eyes. But -when you come to think of it, perhaps Rush isn't the culprit after all. -We've never seen him on this side of the channel. It may have been the -other fellow." - -"What's clear is that some one is making a dead set at us," said -Warrender, "and I don't like it. It will mean our moving camp." - -"You surely won't let this sort of thing drive you away?" said -Armstrong. - -"What's to be done, then? They first monkey with the boat--by Jove! -they may have cut her loose again." - -"No, I spy her nose," said Pratt. "They believe in variety, evidently. -But I quite agree with you. We shall always have to leave one on guard, -and that will spoil the trio. Two's company, three's fun. All the -same, the position is so jolly interesting that I shouldn't like to go -right away and leave the mystery unsolved--I mean their objection to our -company. We haven't had the cold shoulder anywhere else; and here, -first old Crawshay, then these unknown--look here, you fellows, I vote -we take the job up in earnest, and get to the bottom of it. It will -alter the Arcadian simplicity of our holiday, but for my part I'd risk -any amount of brain fag over a good jigsaw puzzle like this." - -"We'll think it over," said Warrender. "The principal thing is not to -lose my boat, and the hundred odd pounds she cost." - -On their way down to the river, Pratt espied a greyish object sticking -in a bush. Shaking it down, he picked up a broken cardboard box on -which was printed a description of "Best quality tin-tacks: British -made." - -"A clue!" he cried. "Sherlock Holmes would have built a whole theory on -this. I don't think I was cut out for diplomacy after all. Criminal -investigation is my forte. I'll go down to remote posterity as the most -brilliant detective of this Pratt lost no time in taking a first step in -his new career. At breakfast Warrender suggested that the tent had -better be removed from its surrounding of tacks, which were too numerous -to be easily collected. - -"Very well," said Pratt. "You and Armstrong are the hefty men. You -won't want my help, so I'll scull the dinghy up to the ferry, and start -my investigations." - -"Don't talk too much," said Armstrong. - -"My dear chap, speech was given us to conceal thought. There's an art, -some ancient said, in concealing art, and I bet I'd say more and tell -less than any old Prime Minister that ever lived." - -Leaving the dinghy in charge of the ferryman, he smiled a greeting to -Rogers, the innkeeper, whose jolly face he caught sight of at the -window, walked on to the village, and entered the general dealer's shop. - -"Fine morning," he said to the aproned youth in attendance. "D'you -happen to have any tenpenny nails?" - -"We've got some nails three a penny, sir." - -"No good at all. You couldn't hang a pirate on one of those, I'm sure. -I suppose the tenpenny nail has gone out of fashion, but perhaps you -have some tin-tacks. I dare say they'll do as well." - -"Ay, we've got some tin-tacks--two sorts, white and blue." - -"Not red?" - -"No; I don't know as ever I seed 'em red." - -"Well, I particularly wanted red; they don't show their blushes, you -know. If you haven't, you haven't. I'll try blue; they won't look any -bluer however hard you hit 'em." The assistant, staring at him like an -amazed ox, handed him a box. "Yes," he went on, "now I look at them, I -couldn't wish for better. They're a most admirable shade of blue, and -exactly match my Sunday socks. I don't suppose there's much demand for -'em; my hosier assured me my socks were a very special line, so, of -course, there couldn't be many people wanting tacks of that colour. I -dare say you haven't sold a box of these since last season." - -"Ah, but we have," said the simple youth, catching at something at last -within his comprehension. "Only yesterday one of they furriners up at -Red House bought three boxes." - -"You don't say so! What an appetite he must have! I suppose it was -that big fellow who talks through his nose? He wears a red waistcoat, -so I dare say he has blue socks." - -"It warn't him. He's the groom. 'Twas the gardener chap." - -"Of course. What was I thinking of? He wanted them to tack up his -vines. They wouldn't be any good for horse-shoes, and there's no -question of socks at all. You needn't wrap it up, the box won't catch -cold in my pocket. Sixpence ha'penny? Dirt cheap. I think they're -worth quite a guinea a box, but you daren't charge that, of course, or -they would haul you up as profiteers. Thanks so much." - -He had noticed that the full box exactly matched the broken one taken -from the bush. - -Elated at the success of his first move, Pratt returned at once to the -camp. - -"You're soon back," said Warrender. "Changed your mind again?" - -"Not a bit. I'm inclined to think diplomats and detectives are of one -kidney. I've been magnificently diplomatic, and I've made a discovery." - -"Well?" - -"My old uncle's as mad as a hatter!" - -"A family failing," Armstrong remarked. "But what's that to do with -it?" - -"Why, this, old tomato. He employs a lot of foreigners; that's mad, to -begin with. He goes away, and leaves them in the house with -instructions to sow tin-tacks on No Man's Island. If that isn't stark -madness, I'd like to know what is." - -"Hadn't you better tell us plainly what you've been about?" said -Warrender. - -"In words of one syllable. I bought a box of tin-tacks. Here it is, -and here's the one we found in the bush. You see, they're twins. They -were bought at the same shop, to wit, the one owned by Samuel Blevins, -general dealer and banjoist, I understand. My uncle's gardener bought -three yesterday. Now, I ask you, would any man's gardener sprinkle -inoffensive campers with tin-tacks unless instructed to? It's all as -plain as a pikestaff. My mad uncle has a morbid horror of trespassers. -He leaves word that they are to be chevied away by means fair or -foul----" - -"But No Man's Island isn't his," Warrender interrupted. - -"Certainly. That proves his madness. He thinks anybody who gets a -footing here has designs on his property. It's a sort of Heligoland. -He employs an ex-poacher to guard his own domains, and the foreigners to -clear his outpost. Nothing could be plainer." - -"Rot!" exclaimed Armstrong. - -"Have it your own way. The facts are undeniable. Rush and the -foreigners are in league to get rid of us, and they can't have any -motive except their master's interest." - -"We don't know that," said Warrender. "Your imagination runs too fast, -young man. We don't even know for certain that Rush and the foreigners -are working together. All we really know is that some one wants to make -the place too uncomfortable for us. The question is, what shall we do?" - -"Stick it," said Armstrong. "It means keeping watch by night; we can -take turns at that. We'll soon find out if----" - -"Ahoy, there!" cried a voice from the river. - -Unperceived, a skiff had run in under the bank, and its occupant, a -stout old gentleman in flannels, was stepping ashore. - -"Old Crawshay!" murmured Pratt. - -They got up to meet their visitor. - -"Good-morning, my lads," said he, genially. "Surprised to see me, I dare -say. We didn't part on the best of terms, but--well, let's shake hands -and forget all about that. My daughter told me that you very kindly -came to her assistance the other day. I'm obliged to you. I'm only -sorry it didn't happen before we--but there, that's wiped up, isn't it? -If you knew how I'd been pestered! By the way, one of you is related to -my neighbour across the river, I understand." - -"Yes, sir, that's me," said Pratt. "We're not on calling terms, -though." - -"Neither am I," rejoined Mr. Crawshay, with a smile. "We don't hit it -together. He's a little----" - -"Potty, sir," said Pratt, as the old gentleman caught himself up. "It's -a sore trial to the rest of the family. We were only talking about his -distressing affliction just before you came. He really ought to be shut -up." - -"Indeed! I wasn't aware that it was as bad as that. That is certainly -very distressing." - -"A most unusual form of mania, too. I never heard anything like it -before. Of course, there are people who crab their own country and -countrymen, but it's more talk than anything else. My poor uncle, -however, goes so far as to employ foreigners, who stick tin-tacks into -people." - -"Bless my soul!" - -"Pratt draws the long bow, sir," said Warrender, thinking it time to -intervene. - -"And hits the bull's-eye every time," Pratt rejoined. "You can't deny -that twenty yards away the grass is simply bristling with tin-tacks." - -"The fact is, sir," said Warrender, "that some one is trying to annoy -us. Yesterday morning our motor-boat was set adrift, and in the night -some one showered a lot of tin-tacks round our tent. The motive seems -to be the wish to drive us away. And Pratt thinks that his uncle gave -instructions to the men at the house to prevent camping either on his -ground or on the island. They've chosen a very annoying way of going -about it." - -"Outrageous! Scandalous!" cried Mr. Crawshay. "He has no rights on the -island. It's criminal. I'm a magistrate, and I'll issue you a warrant -against the ruffians." - -"The difficulty is that we haven't caught any one in the act," Warrender -pursued. "I believe that warrants can't be anonymous. We've seen a -fellow named Rush hanging about----" - -"A notorious gaol-bird. I've had my eye on him." - -"But the tacks were bought at Blevins's shop by my uncle's gardener," -said Pratt. "I pumped that out this morning. I dare say we could find -out the man's name." - -"But it's no crime to buy tin-tacks," said Warrender. "We don't know -who actually scattered them. Indeed, we've no evidence at all; only -inferences." - -"Nothing to act on, certainly," said Mr. Crawshay. "It seems to me you -had better cross the river, and camp on my ground after all; or, better -still, come to the house; I've plenty of room." - -"It's jolly good of you, sir," said Warrender, "but it goes against the -grain to knuckle under. We'd like to catch the fellows, and find out, if -we can, what their game really is. I don't think even Pratt believes -his uncle is responsible, even indirectly." - -"Not responsible for his actions, unfit to plead, to be detained during -His Majesty's pleasure," said Pratt. "We talked it over, and decided to -stick it, sir. It's a matter of pride with me. I'm thinking of taking -up criminal investigation as a profession." - -"Indeed!" - -"He's just cackling, sir," said Armstrong, impelled to utterance at -last. - -"I suspected as much. Well, you've made up your minds, I see. I -understand. At your age I should have done the same. If you want any -help, you've only to row across the river. My house is about half a mile -through the woods and across a field. You must come up one day in any -case, and have lunch or dinner with me, and discuss the situation. And, -by the way, if you're fond of shooting, my coverts are positively -overstocked. I can provide guns, and you're welcome to 'em." - -"Many thanks indeed, sir," said Warrender. - -"And you'll keep me informed? I'll take action the moment you have -evidence. It's atrocious." - -They escorted him to his boat, gave him a shove off, and watched him -until he was out of sight. Returning to the tent, Pratt remarked-- - -"D. Crawshay seems to be a dashed good sort after all." - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - PIN-PRICKS - - -Late that afternoon, Warrender and Pratt started for a spin in the -dinghy to the mouth of the river, intending to return on the tide. In -accordance with their newly formed plan, Armstrong remained on guard in -the camp. - -Just before the scullers gained the river mouth they overtook a -weather-beaten old fisherman leisurely rowing his heavy tub out to sea. -Pratt gave him a cheery hail as they came abreast of him, and learning, -in answer to a question, that he was proceeding to inspect his lobster -pots nearly a mile out, they asked if they might accompany him. - -"Ay sure, I've nothing against it," said the old man. - -"Nor against us, I hope," rejoined Pratt, smiling. - -"Not as I knows on." - -"Then we're friends already. I always make friends in two seconds and a -half, and being, like Caesar, constant as the northern star, I stick -like a limpet. You can't shake me off." - -"Same as a lobster when he gets a grip." - -"Ah! you know more about lobsters than I do. Is that a lobster pot on -the beach there?" - -He indicated a low wooden hut, standing a little above high-water mark, -on the shore curving away to the east. - -"You be a joker, sir," said the fisher, his native taciturnity thawed. -"That be a fisherman's hut. Fisherman, says I, but 'tis little fishing -as goes on hereabouts nowadays. I mind the time when there was a tidy -little fleet in these waters, but that was long ago. There was good -harbourage in those days, but the sea have cast up a bar across the -mouth of the river; we're going over it now; and it makes the passage -dangerous for a boat of any draught. One or two old gaffers like me -goes out now and again, but 'tis not what it was in my young days." - -"That hut looks a bit dilapidated--is it yours?" - -"No, it belongs to Mr. Pratt, up along at the house." - -"You don't say so! I dare say you'll be surprised to hear it, but it -wouldn't be fair to you to keep it a secret; Mr. Pratt is my uncle." - -"Do 'ee tell me that, now?" - -"But I hope you won't think any the worse of me. It's not my fault--I'm -sure you'll admit that." - -"Think the worse of 'ee! I reckon 'tis t'other way about. He be my -landlord, and a rare good 'un; never raised my rent all the thirty years -I've knowed 'un. We thinks a rare lot of 'un in village." - -"I say, do you mean that?" - -"What for not? He never gives us no trouble, and if you can say that of -the landlord as owns best part o' the village, you may reckon there -ain't much wrong with 'un. Not but what he've a bit of a temper, and -can't abide being put upon; but treat him fair, and he'll treat you -fair. Ay, and more. That there hut, now. It do belong to him, but I -doubt he's never been richer for any rent paid him for't." - -"Who rents it, then?" - -"Uses it, I'd say. Nick Rush never paid no rent, that I'd swear." - -"Siren Rush again, Phil," said Pratt, in an undertone, to Warrender. "I -thought Rush was a poacher," he added, to the fisherman. - -The old man made no reply. Pratt guessed that for some reason or other -he was unwilling to commit himself. - -"My uncle, as you say, can't stand being put upon," he went on. "Which -makes it the more surprising that he should allow a rascal like Rush to -use his hut rent free. I wonder he doesn't turn him out." - -"He did, a year or two back," said the fisherman, tersely. - -"That was when Rush went to gaol for poaching, of course?" said Pratt, -with the air of one who was well acquainted with the circumstances. "I -should have done the same myself. No one would be hard on a poor fellow -who kept straight, but when Mr. Crawshay had to sentence him for -poaching, that was the last straw. But how is it that he has been -allowed to come back? Has he turned over a new leaf?" - -"The hut was empty for a year or two, and was falling to pieces," -answered the fisherman. "When Rush came back to these parts he mended -it a bit, and Mr. Pratt having gone to furrin parts again, I reckon his -secretary didn't think it worth while to bother about the feller." - -"I dare say that was it. In these days it's not easy to get rid of an -unsatisfactory tenant, I understand. But my uncle won't be pleased when -he comes home, I'm sure. The secretary ought to know that." - -"Ay, and so he would if 'twas an Englishman, but with these furriners, -there's no accountin' for them. The village do have a grudge against -Mr. Pratt on that score; the folk don't like 'em. I feel a bit strong -about it myself. There's my son Henery, as owns a dairy farm up yonder, -was courting Molly Rogers, sister of Joe at the inn, afore the war; -terrible sweet on she, he was; and everybody thought, give her time, -they'd make a match of it. But bless 'ee, afore he was demobbed, as -they call it, these furriners come along, and daze me if the smallest of -'em weren't Molly's husband inside of a month. And to make matters -worse, it do seem as she've cast off all her old friends, becas nobody -sees nothing of her these days. But there 'tis; you can't never -understand a woman." - -The greater part of this conversation took place while the old man was -lifting his lobster pots--the others lying by. He went on to give them -information about the coast--where good line-fishing could be had, rocks -where crabs could be picked up at low tide. Having bought a couple of -lobsters, Warrender turned the dinghy's head for home. - -The sun was going down as they approached the island. Near its southern -point they met Rush, slowly pulling a tubby boat down stream. He did not -look at them as they passed; his square countenance was expressionless. - -Rowing straight along the narrow channel to their camping-place, they -lifted the dinghy ashore, and carried it towards the tent. Armstrong -was not to be seen. - -"The sentry has deserted his post," remarked Pratt. "But I dare say -he's not far." - -He gave a shrill whistle. An answer came distantly from the woods, and -presently Armstrong appeared, pushing his way through the thickets on -the western side of the clearing. - -"All quiet, old man?" asked Warrender. - -"Until a little while ago," Armstrong replied. "I heard a rustling and -crackling in the thicket yonder. I couldn't see anything, and for a -time I simply kept on the watch; but it went on so long that I got sick -of doing nothing, and started off quietly to investigate, and nab the -fellow if I could. But though I couldn't see him, it's clear he could -see me. What his game was, I don't know; I only know that I could -always hear him moving some little distance ahead of me, and before I -realised how far I had got, I found myself pretty near the farther -shore. I just caught a glimpse of a back among the bushes, but when I -got to the place there was nothing to be seen or heard either. It -occurred to me then that I'd been decoyed away while some one played -hanky-panky here, and I cursed myself for an ass and hurried back, but -things look undisturbed." - -They glanced around the camp and inspected the interior of the tent. -Their various properties appeared to be exactly as they had been left; -nothing was obviously missing. - -"I suppose it was another little freak of Siren Rush," remarked Pratt. -"We met him rowing down as we came up. No doubt he was going to visit -his hut on the beach." - -He retailed the bits of information derived from the fisherman, dwelling -particularly on the surprising fact that, "potty" though he might be, -Mr. Ambrose Pratt was respected, and even liked, by the country folk. - -It was not until they began to make preparations for their evening meal -that a new light was cast on the mysterious movements in the thicket. -Armstrong took their kettle and bucket down to the river. Neither would -hold water. Examining them, he found a hole in the bottom of each, -clean cut as if made by a bradawl. Meanwhile Pratt had discovered that -their tea was afloat in the caddy, and the wick had been removed from -their stove. - -"More pin-pricks," he said. "Any one would think the blighters had -learnt ragging at a public school." - -"Pin-pricks be hanged!" cried Armstrong, wrathfully. "They're much -worse than a jolly good set-to--much more difficult to deal with. If -they'd come out into the open, we'd jolly well settle their hash." - -The others guessed that Armstrong's anger was largely due to his own -failure as a watchman. - -"One thing is clear," said Warrender, considerately. "Whoever played -these tricks, it was not Rush. He couldn't possibly have drawn you to -the shore, cut round here and done the damage, and then got back to his -boat and dropped down stream to where we met him, while you were coming -straight across. On the other hand, if he had got into his boat -directly after he disappeared, he could just have done it. If he was -the decoy, who was the confederate?" - -"'Time's glory is to calm contending kings,'" quoted Pratt, "and among -other stupendous feats, 'to wrong the wronger till he render right.' -But I'm not disposed to leave old Time to his own unaided resources. -These island Pucks are decidedly annoying, but they're also uncommonly -interesting. 'Life is a war,' some one said. Well, it's to be a war of -wits, by the look of it, and I'll back our wits in the end against -sirens or sorcerers, or any old scaramouch. Only I'm bound to confess -that up to the present the enemy is several points up." - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - REPRISALS - - -"What about dividing the night into watches?" asked Armstrong, when they -had cleared away their evening meal. - -"Dark to dawn is about eight hours," responded Warrender. "By -summer-time, nine to five." - -"And three into eight will go with a recurring decimal," added Pratt. -"I don't mind being the recurring decimal, which as a matter of -practicality I take to mean that I'll come on every tenth hour; that is -to say, I'll have ten hours' sleep unbroken, and turn up, fresh as a -lark, at seven in the morning." - -"Very ingenious," said Warrender, "but I prefer my fractions vulgar. -Two-thirds of an hour is forty minutes, and you'll do your two hours -forty minutes like us two. We'll start alphabetically, shall we? -Armstrong first--then the vulgar fraction, then me." - -"I always thought the middleman got the best of it in life," said Pratt. -"Here's an exception, any way. The first and last men will each have -five hours twenty minutes' sleep on end; the middleman won't get any, -because he won't fall asleep at all in the first watch, from -over-anxiety, or in the third, because it won't seem worth while. Still, -if we permutate--APW, PAW and so on--we'll all suffer in turn. I warn -you, when I'm middleman I shan't be able to keep awake without the -solace of my banjo." - -"I bar that," said Armstrong. "It'd give me nightmare." - -"Well, I've warned you. If the Assyrian comes down like a wolf on the -fold, somewhere about midnight, don't blame me." - -But when, about seven o'clock in the morning, they compared notes, they -found that none of them had been disturbed, and Pratt had a good deal to -say on the advantages of the midnight hours for the refreshment of the -inner man. Two empty ginger-beer bottles beside his chair approved his -sentiments. - -"It's only a respite, of course," he said. "They wouldn't have started -their tricks without a reason; they won't give them up until they find -them useless; and they'll make that discovery all the sooner if we open -a defensive offensive. I propose to go into the village after -breakfast; an idea's occurred to me; and I'll call at the post office -and see if any answer has come from the fellow I sent that Russian -newspaper to. You had better come with me, Jack; it's Phil's turn to be -house-dog." - -So it was arranged. Pratt and Armstrong rowed the dinghy to the ferry. -Joe Rogers was standing at his inn door. - -"Morning to 'ee, young gentlemen," he said. "You be Mr. Pratt's nephew, -sir," he added to Pratt. - -"How do you know that?" asked Pratt. - -"Old Gaffer Drew telled me when he came home along last night. He said -as 'twas the young feller whose tongue went like a clapper, so I knowed -'ee at once." - -"Well, I'd rather be known by my tongue than by my finger-prints, -wouldn't you?" - -"Ay, we've all got our weaknesses. Mine is baldness, come of a fever I -took aboardship when we was off Gallapagos. My old woman _will_ make me -wear a wig, though I could do without it this hot weather. And how do -'ee find No Man's Island, sir?" - -"A place of enchantment, equal to Prospero's island. We know there's a -Puck, and we suspect there's a Caliban, but more of that anon." - -"You do talk like a book, sir. Well, I'm glad you be comfortable. Good -day to 'ee." - -They called at the village post office. There was no letter from -Pratt's friend. - -"Let's go on and have a look at my uncle's house," said Pratt, when they -came out. "It's about a mile beyond the village, on that by-road we saw -the other day. The road winds a good deal, and though I don't propose -to leave my card at the house, I'd like to take a peep at it once more, -closer than we can get from the river." - -They went on, turned into the by-road, and after about three-quarters of -a mile came to a brick wall on the right, in which there was a massive -gate, and within it a small lodge. The gate was padlocked, the lodge -closed and shuttered. A few hundred yards beyond was a second gate and -lodge. The latter also was evidently unoccupied, but the gate was open. - -"It's the shortest way from the house to Dartmouth," said Pratt. "We -can't see the house for the trees, but if I remember rightly the -ground's more open a little farther along." - -In a minute or so they came to a spot where, by mounting the wall, they -were able to obtain a clear view of the building. It stood above a -terraced garden some three hundred yards from the road. Fine though the -day was, they were both struck by a sense of gloom. The windows were -all closed; those on the ground floor were shuttered; and but for a thin -wisp of smoke rising from one of the chimneys the house might have been -supposed to be untenanted. - -"The servants' quarters are at the back," said Pratt. "The foreigners -at any rate don't play high jinks in the front rooms while my uncle is -away. But it looks pretty dreary, doesn't it, old man? Makes me think -of Mariana in the moated grange." - -"Don't know the lady," said Armstrong. "But look! there's a car coming -out of the garage at the side." - -"That used to be the stables," said Pratt, as the doors were flung wide, -and an open four-seated touring car emerged. "That's not the car we saw -the other day, though the chauffeur's the same." - -Perched on the wall they remained watching. The chauffeur stopped the -car, got out, and shut the doors of the garage. Meanwhile the big -fellow whom Armstrong had felled came round the other side of the house -carrying a small leather trunk. Behind him walked a short, dapper little -man, wearing a grey Homburg hat and a light overcoat. From his gestures -it appeared that he ordered the big man to strap the trunk on to the -luggage-carrier at the rear of the car. When this was done, the small -man got into one of the back seats, and the chauffeur, already at the -wheel, started the car along the right-hand fork in the drive leading to -the open gate. - -"Down! They mustn't see us," said Pratt. - -They dropped from the wall into the grounds, and shinned up a small tree -whose thick-laden branches overhung the edge of the road. Half a minute -later the car ran past, swung to the right outside the gate, and dashed -rather noisily in the direction of Dartmouth. - -[Illustration: "THEY SHINNED UP A SMALL TREE."] - - -[Illustration: "HALF A MINUTE LATER THE CAR RAN PAST."] - -"The passenger is my uncle's secretary, I suppose," said Pratt. "I -wonder which of the many nations of the world claims him? He might pass -for an Englishman, but you can't tell from a fugitive glance when a -man's clean-shaven." - -"I thought he looked a decent sort of chap," said Armstrong, as they -returned to the road; "not the kind of fellow to consort with a man like -Rush." - -"No. I dare say Rush is playing some game of his own with one of the -underlings. I'll tell you my idea, by the way. Leaving us alone last -night struck me as rather suspicious. They've probably got something in -hand for to-night. Well, it occurred to me that if Rush comes prowling -around our tent, with more tin-tacks or who knows what, it would be -rather a good dodge to trip him up and collar him before he can hook -it." - -"He'll guess we're on the watch. No man would be such an ass as to -suppose we'd let him do the tin-tack trick a second time." - -"That may be. Very likely he kept off last night just for that reason. -As you say, he'd guess we'd be on the watch, and probably thinks we're -all jolly sick to-day because nothing happened, and won't be inclined to -keep vigil again. Anyhow, if he does come again, he won't expect any -danger until he gets near to the tent, and I propose to nab him before -then." - -"How?" - -"Stretch a cord two or three inches above the ground just where the -thicket ends at the edge of the clearing. He wouldn't see it, even by -moonlight, because it would be pretty well hidden by the grass. But -he'd be bound to catch one of his hoofs in it, and a lumbering lout like -that couldn't pick himself up before any one of us three would be down -on him." - -"But how d'you know which way he'd come?" - -"He wouldn't come across the clearing, that's certain. Well, the tent -is about six yards from the thicket behind, and the edge of the thicket -makes a sort of rough half-circle. A cord of fifty or sixty yards would -be plenty long enough. I dare say we'll get one at old Blevins's shop. -We'll pay him a call on the way back." - -The shop was unattended when they entered it, but a rap on the counter -brought Blevins himself, wearing the polite tradesman's smile. - -"Good-morning, Mr. Blevins," said Pratt. "You've a motor-car for hire, I -believe?" - -"Well, yes, sir, I do have as a rule, but 'tis out to-day. In fact, I -don't know when it will be back. 'Tis hired for the Red House, Mr. -Pratt's being under repair." - -"Ah! that's a pity. We'll have to put off our joy-ride. Well, it can't -be helped. Perhaps you could let us have a skipping-rope instead?" - -"A skipping-rope, sir?" - -"Yes. Didn't you know? Skipping is one of the most beneficial -exercises any one could indulge in. It brings into play I forget -exactly how many muscles, develops a perfect co-ordination between the -brain, the eye, the hands and feet; and if you ever go to Oxford, I dare -say you'll see on any college lawn all the brainiest men of the rising -generation skipping about under the eyes of their revered tutors. If -the mountains could skip like rams, as we're told they did, there's -nothing surprising in a future Prime Minister skipping like a giddy -goat, is there? And there are hundreds of future Prime Ministers -imbibing the milk of academic instruction at Oxford to-day." - -Blevins had listened with a stare of puzzlement. The short, chubby youth -appeared to be serious; his companion's face showed no flicker of a -smile; yet the general dealer, remembering what his assistant had told -him, had a dim suspicion that he was dealing either with a joker or with -a lunatic. To get rid of his dilemma he confined himself to the severely -practical. - -"Well, sir," he said, "I don't keep skipping-ropes as such, but I've a -cord which the neighbours do make clothes-line of." - -"The very thing!" cried Pratt. "We haven't made any arrangements about -our washing, and, as laundry prices have gone up beyond all bearing, we -may have to do our own. Of course we shall want a clothes-line for -hanging out our shirts and things on, and as my friends are regular -nuts, and possess a very extensive wardrobe, we shall want a long -line--quite fifty yards. Add ten yards for a skipping-rope, that makes -sixty; we'll take sixty yards, Mr. Blevins; and as you can't possibly -make a neat parcel of that, you'd better twist 'em round the hefty frame -of my friend here; sort of bandolier, you know." - -The man proceeded to measure out the cord from a bale which he rolled -from his back premises. - -"You be camping on No Man's Island, 'tis said," he remarked. - -"We are," replied Pratt. "We're followers of the simple life; fresh -air, cold water, and plain fare. We drink nothing stronger than -ginger-beer, and eat nothing more luxurious than macaroons, and I -suppose we can't get even them in a place like this? What's the -consequence? We never have bad dreams, like people who stuff themselves -and sleep in stuffy rooms." - -"And you haven't been troubled by the sounds, sir?" - -"What sounds?" - -"Well--some folks do talk of terrible groans they've heard if so be -they've rowed past the island by night, and 'tis said the place is -haunted by the spirit of the old gentleman as used to live there." - -"He hasn't disturbed our rest, I assure you. I dare say he's been -soothed by my banjo; I usually tune up a little before I go to bed. You -play the banjo yourself, I hear; you know how grateful and comforting it -is--sweet and low, not like the squeaking scrape of the violin, or the -ear-splitting blast of the cornet. I think you're a man of taste, Mr. -Blevins, and as a fellow-musician I congratulate you.... That's sixty -yards? Now, Armstrong, stick out your chest, and Mr. Blevins and I -between us will rig up your bandolier." - -When they had left the shop, Pratt asked: "I say, what's he mean by -those old groans?" - -"I heard a sort of moaning the night I first saw the cottage," Armstrong -replied; "but I put it down to the wind, of course." - -"There's been no wind to speak of since we settled on the island. I'd -like to hear those sounds. Strikes me they're an acoustical phenomenon. -Sure it wasn't an owl?" - -"Nothing like it; the note was deeper and more prolonged." - -"Well, if it's the wind in the eaves the sound will be heard by day as -well as by night, and I'll trot over to the cottage the first breezy -morning and listen." - -Warrender had nothing to report when they regained the camp. He thought -well of Pratt's idea of a trap, and they spent the greater part of the -day in cutting a number of stout pegs from saplings in the woods. These -they drove into the ground, at intervals of a few feet, in a long -semi-circle at the edge of the clearing, and stretched the clothes-line -upon them about six inches from the ground. One or other of them kept a -careful look-out while the work was in progress, and nothing was seen of -Rush or any other human being. Before dusk the task was completed, and -they had provided themselves in addition with stout cudgels. - -It was Pratt's turn to take first watch that night. On the previous -night each had sat out in the open, but it occurred to Pratt that a -better place would be just within the tent. Accordingly, when the -others encased themselves in their sleeping-bags, he posted himself on -his chair at the entrance, shaded from the moonlight by the projecting -flap. - -More than two hours had passed; he was growing sleepy, frequently -glancing at his watch to see when it would be time to awaken Warrender. -Just before half-past eleven he heard a slight sound from the thicket on -his right. Seizing his cudgel, he looked in the direction of the sound. -The edge of the clearing on that side was deep in shadow. He stood up; -it might be a false alarm; he would not awaken his companions. - -Suddenly there was a heavy thud, followed by smothered curses. Pratt -dashed out of the tent and across the clearing. At the edge of the -thicket a man was struggling to his feet. Even at that moment Pratt was -too much of a sportsman to use his cudgel. He closed with the man, -gripped him by the collar, and hauled him into the moonlight, crying, -"What are you doing here?" The man attempted to wriggle loose. Pratt -dropped his cudgel, got a firm grip with both hands, and with a -dexterous use of his knee threw the intruder heavily to the ground. -Next moment he was struck violently on the left side of his head, and -fell half-stunned. - -[Illustration: "PRATT THREW THE INTRUDER HEAVILY TO THE GROUND."] - -Meanwhile the sounds had wakened Armstrong and Warrender. Heaving -themselves out of their sleeping-bags they rushed in their pyjamas -across the clearing. Pratt was sitting up, dazedly rubbing his head. - -"What's the row?" asked Armstrong. - -"Diamond cut diamond," murmured Pratt. "Help me up, you fellows. -Everything's whirling round." - -They helped him back into the tent and sponged his head. Presently he -was able to tell them what had happened. - -"Was it Rush you collared?" asked Warrender. - -"No, a bigger man, with a broad face, high cheekbones, and a bent-in -nose." - -"The face I saw in the thicket!" exclaimed Armstrong. "Who was the -other chap?" - -"I don't know. I didn't see him, confound the fellow! Just my luck! -And it was my scheme!" - - - - - CHAPTER X - - A SOFT ANSWER - - -There was no more sleep that night for any of the party. When Pratt's -bruised head had been bathed and bandaged the three placed their chairs -at the tent entrance, and sat in the still, warm air, discussing the -situation more seriously than they had yet done. They had learnt -definitely from the recent incident that at least two men were concerned -in the campaign of petty annoyance. One of these--the man whose face -Armstrong had seen in the thicket--looked like a foreigner, and -apparently either lived somewhere on the island or had means of reaching -it from the mainland. What more probable than that the second man was -Rush, and that his boat was placed at the foreigner's disposal? - -"The more I think of it," said Warrender, "the more likely it seems that -Rush and one of the foreigners are playing some private game of their -own. I haven't a notion what the game is, but I can't believe that -Pratt's uncle left instructions to worry trespassers on an island that -isn't his, or that any decent fellow in his secretary's position would -encourage it." - -"That assumes the secretary is a decent fellow," remarked Armstrong. - -"Well, why not?" asked Pratt. "A man may be mad without being a fool, -and my old uncle, though he's mad enough to hate English servants, -wouldn't be such a fool as to engage foreigners without inquiring about -their characters." - -"That fellow Armstrong knocked down wasn't an attractive specimen," said -Warrender. - -"He was drunk," said Pratt. "Some of the most estimable characters--the -most respectable of English butlers, for instance--may now and then take -a drop too much." - -"That fellow is a sot," said Armstrong. "It's marked all over him." - -"Well, I tell you what I think we had better do," said Warrender. "Go -up to the house, see the secretary, and put the case to him. If he's a -decent fellow, and the man you tripped, Pratt, is one of his crew, he'll -put a stop to this foolery. Will you go up with me to-morrow?" - -"Better take Armstrong," Pratt replied. "If my uncle were at home I'd -go and beard him, and jolly well tell him a few things for his good. But -I'd rather not show up in his absence. Besides, I shall have a head -to-morrow, and a swelling the size of a turnip. I feel the growing -pains; I'll be fit for nothing." - -"Rough luck!" said Warrender, commiseratingly. "Very well. Jack and I -will go, and I dare say that'll be the end of our troubles." - -At nine o'clock next morning Armstrong and Warrender rowed off in the -dinghy; at a quarter to ten they entered the grounds of the Red House. -The paths were weedy, the grass untrimmed, the flower-beds untidy. - -"The foreigners don't overwork," remarked Armstrong, as they walked -along the drive towards the house. "The place is a disgrace to the -neighbourhood." - -"It certainly looks very much neglected," said Warrender. "The house -might be uninhabited but for that smoke from one of the chimneys, and -the car waiting at the door." - -"The same car Pratt and I saw yesterday. It belongs to old Blevins. I -wonder whether they use it for joy-riding, or what? The secretary may -be away, by the bye; yesterday he went off with a trunk." - -"A nuisance if he is. But we'll see." - -The front of the house faced south-east, and the drive wound from the -gate in a wide arc to the left. The lower windows were shuttered; at -some of those on the upper storey the blinds were drawn; but as the -visitors approached there appeared at a small upper casement on the side -of the house facing them the form of a woman, At first it seemed that -she had not seen them; she stood looking out in an attitude of idle -immobility. They could not distinguish her features through the small -square panes of the casement; she was stout in build, and dressed in the -print of a domestic servant. - -Suddenly, as her eyes fell on them, she gave a perceptible start. She -turned her head quickly from the window, as if to see whether any one -was behind her; then raised her hands, apparently to undo the catch. -Next moment she dropped them with a gesture of impatience or despair. -The boys saw her shake her head, and, lifting an arm, make a sweeping -movement with it towards the rear of the house. A moment later she left -the window hurriedly, as a servant might do in answering a call. - -"Rummy!" said Warrender. "That's Rogers's sister, I suppose; wife of -the chef, you remember. What did she mean?" - -"It looked as if she wanted to open the window and couldn't," returned -Armstrong. "She wanted to speak to us." - -"That movement of her arm--was it a warning to us to go away?" - -"Too late in any case. That's the secretary coming out; he's seen us." - -The dapper little man whom Armstrong had seen on the day before, dressed -as he was then, was hurrying down the steps from the front entrance when -he caught sight of the boys. He stopped short, gave a swift glance -behind him, then descended the remaining steps and came towards them. -His movements were quick, his step was light, and as he drew nearer they -were aware of a very vivid personality, accentuated by dark eyes of -great brilliance, set rather closely together. - -"Yes, gentlemen," he said, smiling, "what can I do for you?" - -His voice was low and smooth; the intonation, rather than the accent, -alone suggested a foreign origin. - -"Can you give us a few minutes alone?" said Warrender. - -The chauffeur had just come down the steps, carrying a box, and stood -with it still in his arms, beside the car, looking on with an air of -startled curiosity. - -"Certainly," replied the man, "if it is only a question of minutes. As -you see, I am about to drive out, and my time is short. Henrico"--he -addressed the chauffeur--"put the box down and go into the house. Now, -gentlemen." - -"You are Mr. Pratt's secretary, I believe," said Warrender, feeling a -little awkwardness in the situation, and wishing that the voluble -banjoist were in the office of spokesman instead of himself. - -"Yes. My name is Gradoff--Paul Gradoff." - -"Well, Mr. Gradoff, I'm sorry to trouble you, but you may be able to -throw some light on a puzzle that's rather annoying to us." - -"Anything I can do----" - -"We are camping on the island over there, and ever since our arrival -have been the object of annoying and--I'm afraid I must say--malicious -attacks. We have reason to believe that one of the aggressors is not an -Englishman, and knowing that your staff here is largely foreign, we have -come up to--to----" - -"Complain?" suggested Gradoff, as Warrender hesitated. - -"Well, rather to ask if you can help us," Warrender went on. "I should -explain that we fell foul of one of your men on the evening of our -arrival, and it occurs to me that he, or one of his mates, may be -retaliating." - -"Ah yes; I had heard of that little matter from my man, Jensen," said -Gradoff, suavely. "You could hardly expect him to be amiable, could you? -He was insulted by a yokel, very properly chastised him, and was then -suddenly set upon by one of you young men, and before he could defend -himself was seriously hurt." - -"That's nonsense, Mr. Gradoff!" exclaimed Armstrong. "The man dealt a -foul blow, and I stepped in." - -"It was you?" rejoined Gradoff, in his suave, smooth tones. "The -version is different: _tot homines tot sententiae_--being students you -will recognise the allusion. It is so very difficult to reconcile -conflicting stories, especially in common brawls. But, come; it is not -like Englishmen to make a fuss about trifles, and Olof Jensen is not the -man to bear malice. If that is the sum of your complaint----" - -"But it is not," Warrender broke in, nettled by the Russian's suavity -and his Latin. "We hadn't been twelve hours on the island when our -motor-boat was set adrift----" - -"My dear young man, _quandoque dormitat Homerus_--you will correct me if -I do not quote accurately; my schooldays, alas! are a distant past. -Even the most experienced sailors--and I am far from saying I do not -include you among them--may tie a careless knot; make a slip, as you -English say. And the current is strong when swollen by the rain. -Really, my dear sir----" - -"At any rate tin-tacks don't rain from heaven. We had a shower of them -over our tent one night, and in the morning----" - -"_Latet anguis in herba_! Come, come; you were dreaming. I am told -that in the past the island was a favourite resort of trippers, a class -of people who reprehensibly leave behind them much rubbish--paper bags, -bottles, tin cans; why not tin-tacks?" - -Warrender was fuming, irritated by his lack of evidence as well as by -the secretary's manner. He wished that he had ignored the minor -incidents, and confined his statement to the latest. - -"We'd no proof--I know that--till last night," he said. "A fellow -tripped over a rope snare we had rigged up. One of us caught him, and -knocked him out; he was clearly a foreigner----" - -"And you have him in custody? Ah, now we are getting to something -substantial! He was a foreigner; on the principle _ex pede -Herculem_--you recognise the proverb?--you infer that he belongs to my -staff. And you did not bring him with you for confrontation?" - -"He was rescued by----" - -"By another foreigner?" - -"We don't know who by; he gave my friend a blow from behind." - -"That is more serious, truly. But what do you tell me? You are camping -on the island--with permission? No, of course not; is it not No Man's -Island? Well, what is no man's is all men's. What more likely than that -others are camping there also? One of them falls over your rope, and is -knocked out by your friend; your friend is, in turn, knocked out by a -friend of the tripper. It is the _lex talionis_--the term is familiar to -you? That, of course, is only a theory, but I commend it to your -consideration. And now, I take it, I have the sum of your complaints. -I put it to you, do they make a case against my staff?" - -"I wasn't making a case against your staff," said Warrender. "I merely -stated the facts." - -"But with a bias; yes, with a bias, natural enough to youth and hot -blood. I do not blame you; but you will agree that I am somewhat -concerned for the good name of the men under my charge. Lest you should -still harbour doubts about them, I will summon them. You shall see -them. They number four. There is Jensen, the Swede, whom you, -sir"--turning to Armstrong--"so unhappily misjudged. But you shall see -them all. There is a woman, too, the wife of the chef, an amiable -countrywoman of yours. It is perhaps not necessary to summon her? You -do not suspect her of sowing tin-tacks or falling over your rope?" - -He smiled, and without waiting for an answer went to the open house-door -and called his chauffeur, to whom he gave instructions. Meanwhile, the -two boys, chafing under his politeness with its touch of irony, -exchanged looks of silent sympathy. - -"The men will be here immediately," said Gradoff, rejoining them. "What -a delightful summer we are having! _Per aestivam liquidam_--you -remember the line? How I envy you your daily browsing on the Classics! -Ah, here come the four suspects! Two, you perceive, are tall; two are -short. I will align them in order of their heights, as they do in your -army, I believe. Halt, men! Stand in line: Jensen at one end, then -Radewski, then Prutti, last of all, Rod. Now, my dear sirs, inspect the -company." - -"There's no need," said Warrender. "We've seen them all in or about the -village. None of these is the man you saw, Jack?" - -"No," replied Armstrong, shortly. - -"But darkness, even moonlight, is deceptive," said Gradoff, in his -suavest manner. "Really, I am concerned to convince you thoroughly; I -should regret your going away harbouring the least particle of -suspicion. I will interrogate them in turn. Jensen, you do not amuse -yourself by sowing tin-tacks on No Man's Island?--Jensen, I may explain, -is Mr. Pratt's horsekeeper, in particular, and handy-man in general. -Well, Jensen?" - -"Nope," replied the man, gruffly, eyeing Armstrong with a scowl. - -"And you, Radewski?--Radewski is the gardener." The boys recognised him -as the passenger in the car that had collided with the farm-wagon. - -"No, of course not," answered the Pole, smiling. - -"And now you, Prutti?--the chauffeur, as you see." - -"It is silly, stupid; I say ze question----" began the Italian, volubly. - -"Yes, yes; but I want no comments. Just say yes or no," Gradoff -interrupted. - -"No, zen; I say no. I say ze question----" - -"He comes from the south, gentlemen," said Gradoff, deprecatingly. -"Now, Rod, what have you to say?" - -"Sacre nom d'un----" - -"Now, now. Maximilien Rod is the chef, gentlemen, accustomed to the use -of the diction of the menu. Plain English, Rod, if you please." - -"Zen I say zat ze man vat accuse me of so imbecile, so--so--so----" - -"Contain yourself, Rod. Yes or no?" - -"No, no; not at all--no!" - -"Four negatives do not make an affirmative," said Gradoff, turning to -the boys, and smiling with the persistent urbanity they were beginning -to detest. "These are all my staff--with the exception of the excellent -woman, Rod's wife. Would you like to pursue your inquiries?" - -"Thank you, it is unnecessary," replied Warrender, in as even and polite -a tone as he was master of. - -"Then the men may return to their duties, and I may begin my journey. -May I give you a lift as far as the cross-roads? Or, stay! You are -here very near the river. You may prefer to take a short cut through -the grounds, and avoid the long walk on the dusty road." - -"Thank you," said Warrender, ready to accept any suggestion that would -remove him quickly from the presence of Mr. Gradoff; "if some one will -show us the way." - -"Certainly. Quite a happy thought," said the Russian. He called to the -chef, the rearmost of the party filing away. "Rod, show these gentlemen -the shortest way to the river; bring them opposite to the island. -Good-morning, gentlemen. I am sorry you have found me a broken reed. -But I do hope your holiday will not be spoilt; I have such keen memories -of my own happy holidays--_liberatio et vacuitas omnis molestiae_: you -remember your Cicero? _Good_-morning." - -He sprang into the car, in which the chauffeur was already seated, and -with a smile and a wave of the hand was driven away. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - INFORMATION RECEIVED - - -"Sarcastic swine!" muttered Armstrong, savagely, as he set off with -Warrender behind the rotund little chef. - -"So confoundedly polite I could have kicked him," returned Warrender, in -the same undertone. "His beastly Latin, too! What did he take us for?" - -"What we are--a couple of mugs. And Pratt's worse, with his absurd -theories. Of course these chaps aren't in it. Rush is at the bottom of -it, and the other fellow, though he looked like a foreigner, is very -likely only some ugly freak of a Devonian after all." - -"Well, I'll be hanged if I stand any more of Rush's nonsense. Next time -anything happens, I'll get old Crawshay to set that bobby moving we saw -the other day. I'm sick of it." - -Ill-humour had for the moment got the upper hand, and they were -conscious only of their soreness as they followed their guide through -the unkempt grounds. Their attention was attracted presently by the -tower that reared itself out of a thicket some little distance on their -left. It was a square much-dilapidated building of stone, encrusted -with moss and ivy, reaching a height of some fifty or sixty feet. The -window openings were boarded up with deal planks that were evidently -new. - -"Is the tower used for anything now?" Warrender asked the Swiss. - -"Ze tower? No, it is ruin, fall to pieces," replied the man. - -[Illustration: "'ZE TOWER? NO, IT IS RUIN, FALL TO PIECES.'"] - -"I say, we _are_ a couple of lunatics!" cried Armstrong. "We've left -the dinghy at the ferry. What's the good of the short cut? Pratt can't -work the motor." - -"Hang it! I'd clean forgotten." - -"Zen ve go back?" said the guide, eagerly. He had come to the end of the -open grounds; the rest of the way lay through a wilderness of shrubs -that promised laborious walking. - -"No, I'm hanged if we do," said Warrender. "Now we've come so far we'll -not go back." - -"Zen how you cross ze river?" - -"Swim it. You needn't come. We'll forge straight ahead. Thanks." - -He tipped the man, and plunged with Armstrong into the thicket. Ten -minutes' battling with the intricately woven mass of greenery brought -them to the brink of the stream almost exactly opposite to their -camping-place. They stripped, bundled their clothes upon their heads, -and made short work of the thirty-foot channel. - -"My aunt! In native garb!" cried Pratt, as they walked up still -unclothed. "'Here be we poor mariners.' Shipwrecked? Lost the -dinghy?" - -"No, only our tempers," replied Armstrong. "The dinghy's still at the -ferry." - -"I say, my uncle hasn't got back, has he?" asked Pratt. - -"No. Why?" - -"I thought perhaps you had met him, and got a taste of _his_ temper, -that's all. 'Tell me not in mournful numbers'--but tell me anyhow you -like the cause of this Ulyssean exhibition." - -Warrender began the narrative as he towelled himself, continued it -through his dressing, and concluded it when he had dropped into his -chair by Pratt's side. Pratt listened with ever-growing merriment. - -"You priceless old fatheads!" he exclaimed. "When the beggar chucked -Latin at you why didn't you pelt him with Greek, Phil?--or with sines -and hypotenuses, and all that, Jack? Don't you remember how some -Cambridge josser floored a heathen bargee by calling him an isosceles -triangle? I wish I'd gone." - -"I wish you had!" echoed Warrender. "But when a fellow's so dashed -polite----" - -"Polite! I tell you what it is: you're both too serious for this -flighty world. When you consider that it's gyrating at the rate of I -don't know how many thousand miles a minute, it's unnatural, positively -indecent, for any one to be so stuggy. The art of life is to -effervesce. But, you know, the important feature of your morning's -entertainment seems not to have sufficiently impressed you." - -"What's that?" asked Armstrong. - -"Rod's wife. _Cherchez la femme_! You oughtn't to have come away -without having had a word with her." - -"How on earth could we?" said Warrender. "We weren't asked into the -house, and if we had been----" - -"My dear chap, if a fair lady beckoned to me out of her casement window -I'd find some means of receiving her behests. Rod's wife, _nee_ Molly -Rogers, didn't make signs to you for nothing, and I foresee that I shall -have to turn our skipping-rope into a rope ladder, and----" - -"Oh, don't go on gassing," Armstrong interposed, irascibly. "Can't you -be serious?" - -"Solemnity itself. We've got to fetch that dinghy. I want to go to the -post office. Very well, after lunch Phil shall run me up in the -motorboat. I'll have a word with Rogers on the way, and I bet my boots -I won't come back without some little addition to our dossier." - -Pratt's programme was carried out. Warrender and he found Joe Rogers -pulling spring onions in his garden behind the inn. The man had placed -his wig on a pea-stick, and his bald pate glowed in the sunlight like a -pink turnip. - -"Good-afternoon, Joe," said Pratt, genially. "I wonder how it is that -you sailormen so often take to gardening when your sea days are over?" - -"I can't tell 'ee, sir, 'cept it be as we loves the look o' vegetables, -being without 'em so long at a time. The old woman do say it keeps me -out o' mischief." - -"Now, Rogers," called his better half from an upper window, "put on your -hair this minute. Drat the man! Do 'ee want to catch your death of -sunstroke?" - -Rogers gave a sly look at his visitors as he donned his wig. - -"It do make my skull itch terrible," he said. "But she's a good woman." - -"I jolly well hope I shall be looked after as well when my time comes," -said Pratt. "But I'm not thinking of matrimony yet. What age did you -marry at, Joe?" - -"Thirty-one, just the same age as my sister Molly, but not in such a -hurry. My missus took a deal o' courting; 'twas five years' hard -labour; whereas Molly give in in less than a month." - -"He came, he saw--he conquered. Must be something fascinating about -him. Has she lost her cold, by the way? My friends happened to see her -this morning." - -"Well now, if that ain't too bad. She haven't been nigh me for a good -fortnight, and she didn't ought to go about the village without looking -in." - -"They saw her at the house. She seemed to be catching flies or -something at the window. I gather you don't like her husband." - -"I've nothing against him, 'cept his name and furren nature. My missus -told her she was cutting a rod for her own back." - -"Surely he doesn't beat her?" - -"That wasn't her meaning. Rod's his name, and the missus do have a way -of taking up a word and twisting of it about, you may say. 'A rod in -pickle,' says she. 'Tis just a clappering tongue; there's no sense in -it. But it do seem as Molly have turned her back on all her old -friends. 'Tis like this: they furriners bain't favourites in the parish, -and Molly sticks to her husband, as 'tis her duty. That's what I make -of it." - -"Well, I dare say she chose the pick of the bunch. How many are there -of them, by the bye?" - -"Four, leaving out the secretary. They don't go about in the village -much. None of 'em comes here 'cept that feller you saw t'other day, and -he don't come often. _I_ don't get no good of 'em. 'Twas different in -the old days." - -"Things will take a turn," said Pratt, consolingly. "When my--when Mr. -Pratt returns I dare say he'll quarrel with the foreigners, and get -English servants again." - -"And be ye all right on the island, sir?" - -"Having a ripping time. We're always on the look-out for the ghost, but -he seems rather shy. I can sympathise with him, being so bashful -myself." - -"You do seem to have a bit of a bump one side of the head, sir. No -inseck have been poisoning 'ee, I hope." - -"No. Insects love me too well to disfigure me. I'm inclined to think -it was a worm, or something like a leech, perhaps. It's a trifle; a -molehill, not a mountain. To-morrow both sides will be equal, and the -angles subtended at the base as right as ever. Good-bye; keep your hair -on." - -"Well, old man, we've spent a profitable quarter of an hour," said -Pratt, as he went on with Warrender to the village. "The number of -Gradoff s staff is confirmed; therefore the chap I collared is not one -of them. As to Rod's wife, there's no mystery about her. She's -disgusted, as any sensible person would be, at the petty -narrow-mindedness of the natives who dislike her husband simply because -he's of another breed, and so she cuts 'em dead." - -"But what did her movements at the window mean?" asked Warrender. "It -certainly looked as if she wanted help or something." - -"Nothing of the sort, depend upon it. She was waving you off; she's as -careful of Rod as Rogers's missus is of him; she was afraid Armstrong -would go for Rod as he went for the Swede. I'm always ready to own up -when I'm wrong. My old theories won't hold water. I think I'll give up -detecting and go in for the Bar. You only have to stick to your brief; -needn't have an idea of your own." - -"Well, it seems to me we're not much for'arder." - -"Quite a mistake. The issue is narrowed down. Clear our minds of the -foreign menagerie and all that, and concentrate on Rush. That's the -ticket." - -Calling at the post office, he was handed a letter from his London -friend, who reported that the scrap of paper was torn from a copy of the -_Pravda_. Only part of the date of issue was visible--the word June; and -the incomplete paragraph of text appeared to relate to the high prices -of perambulators. - -"There you are," said Pratt. "Much cry and little wool. It proves -nothing except that some one, some time or other, had a Russian -newspaper, which was partly burnt along with other papers, no doubt -equally uninteresting and unimportant. What we have to do is simply to -weave a spider's web for Rush." - -"You change your mind twice a day, and are cock-sure every time," -Warrender remarked. - -"A clear proof that I ought to go in for politics, after all. I'm glad -it's settled at last. Percy Pratt, M.P.--reverse 'em, you get P.M., -Prime Minister; then Sir Percy, Bart.; Baron Pratt, Viscount, Earl--why -not Duke while I'm about it? But do dukes play the banjo, I wonder?" - -"You're better qualified for the part of Mad Hatter, I fancy. Come, -let's step it out." - -The evening of that day turned out rather cool and overcast. A breeze -sprang up in the south-west, refreshing after the still heat. After -early supper, Armstrong, declaring that he was getting flabby for want -of exercise, set off in the dinghy for a pull down the river. Pratt -thought it a good opportunity for testing Armstrong's report of the -sounds he had heard in the cottage, and went off alone, leaving -Warrender on guard at the camp. - -He had not yet come within sight of the ruins when, above the rustle of -the stirred leaves, a strange moaning broke upon his ear. He stopped to -listen. While far more impressionable than Armstrong, he had solid -musical knowledge which his schoolfellow lacked, and he was struck at -once by an unusual quality in the sound he heard. - -"That's not the wind in the eaves," he thought. "It's more like the -whining of an organ pipe when a lazy blower is letting the wind out." - -He hurried on. The sound rose and fell. For some moments it maintained -a steady, pure organ note; then with rising pitch it became almost a -shriek. - -"I don't wonder the rustics are a bit scared," he thought, "but no ghost -could produce a tone like that--unless he'd been a cathedral alto in his -lifetime. It's due, I expect, to some metal chimney-pot that's got -displaced and partly closed. Wonder if I can find it?" - -He entered the ruins, and ran up the staircase. A roseate twilight -suffused the western sky. Led by the persistent sound, he came to the -unroofed room facing the west. The moaning proceeded from some spot -above his head. He tried to clamber up the mass of broken masonry that -littered the floor, but found that he could not gain the level of the -roof except by climbing the jagged brickwork of the broken wall, a feat -too perilous in the half light. - -"That's the worst of being fat," he said to himself. "I believe -Armstrong could do it." - -Leaving the room presently, he went idly, without definite motive, into -the second room, facing east and overlooking the river and his uncle's -grounds. In this direction dusk was already deepening into night; the -nearer trees were still distinguishable, but beyond the river all -individual objects were blurred by the darkness. - -He sat on the paneless window-sill, listening to the strange sound from -above, looking out towards the Red House, wondering whereabouts in the -wide world his uncle was travelling. All at once, far away, almost on a -level with his eyes, he thought he saw a faint red glow. It disappeared -in a moment--so quickly that it seemed an illusion. But there it was -again, indubitably some small luminous body. "Some one with a lamp in -one of the top rooms of the Red House," he thought. Again it -disappeared, only to show again after an interval--a third time--a -fourth. - -To Pratt these phenomena were at first merely sensations of sight, not -perceptions of intelligence. But by and by he was struck by the fact -that the glow always appeared at the same spot, not here and there, like -a lamp carried by a person moving about a room. Then he found himself -mentally measuring the intervals between its appearances, expecting -their occurrence as regularly as the beats of a striking clock. It was -with surprise and a sort of disappointment that he discovered that the -intervals were irregular, and with curiosity, after a while, that they -were regular and irregular both, as it seemed, fitfully; the glow -appeared two or three times at equal intervals, then the intervals -became shorter or longer. "Signals, of course," he thought, when the -impression of order and purpose became fixed in him. "Who is it? Where -is it? What's the game?" - -The alternations continued for several minutes, then finally ceased. -Pratt got up, left the ruins, and made his way with some difficulty back -to camp. - -"Armstrong back?" he asked. - -"Not yet," replied Warrender. "Time he was. This is the darkest -evening we've had. See any one?" - -"Not a soul. All quiet here?" - -"Absolute peace. _You_ weren't here." - -"Thanks. Glad you missed me. Will the sweet, melodious strains of my -gentle banjo disturb your serenity?" - -"Not a bit. Strum away. But hadn't you better turn in? It's past -nine. Old Jack won't get much sleep before second watch if he isn't -here soon; no reason why you shouldn't have your full whack, especially -after last night's affair." - -"I'll stay up till he comes." - -Pratt softly thrummed his strings, musing on his discoveries. Half-past -nine came; ten o'clock. - -"I say, what's happened to Armstrong?" said Warrender. "Surely he -hasn't been carried out to sea? Come and help me shove off; I'll run -down and see if I can find him. You won't turn in, so you won't mind -taking part of my watch." - -"Righto! But I dare say Jack's enjoying himself." - -They were just about to launch the motor-boat when they caught the dull -sound of oars in the distance. They waited. The rising moon struggled -through the rack, and cast a faint light on the stream. Presently the -dinghy appeared from among the overarching foliage. Armstrong was -sculling very quietly. - -"Thought you were lost," said Warrender. "It's past ten; your watch -starts at eleven-forty." - -"All right. Pratt, tie up, will you? Come with me, Warrender." - -Armstrong led the way at a long, rapid stride across the clearing and -into the thicket. He said nothing, and did not pause until he came to -the shore of the western channel. - -"Keep well behind this tree," he said, in a whisper, placing himself in -shadow. - -In a few minutes they heard the splash of oars. A boat emerged from the -shades down stream, lit up fitfully by the transient moonbeams. It -passed close beneath their hiding-place. It held a single oarsman, -whose thickset frame would have been unmistakable even if the moonlight -had not touched his face. He pulled out of sight. - -"What's he been up to?" said Warrender. - -"Let's get back," replied Armstrong. "I wanted a second witness. Pratt -will wish to start a new career now, I expect." - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - QUEER FISH - - -When Armstrong had started in the dinghy for a pull down the river his -intention was to scull easily on the current to the mouth, then to turn -westward, and exercise his muscles more strenuously in a contest with -the wind. On reaching the coastline, however, he found that there was -much more force in the breeze than had appeared inland, and a -considerable swell on the sea, and he contented himself with hugging the -shore, protected in some measure by the cliffs that swept round to a -promontory in the distance. - -After a stiff pull for half an hour or so he turned. The last faint -radiance of sunset was behind him, and as he approached the river mouth, -being himself shadowed by the cliffs, he noticed signs of activity about -the fisher's hut on the beach beyond the farther bank. Two men were -carrying what appeared to be fishing gear down to a boat at the water's -edge. The weather seemed scarcely to promise good fishing, and, knowing -from his friends that the hut was in the occupation, if not the -possession, of Rush, he was sufficiently interested to decide upon -watching the men's proceedings. He pulled a little more closely inshore, -shipped his oars, and lay to under cover of a mass of rock. - -In a few minutes the men got aboard the boat, and pulled out to sea in -the direction of a small tramp steamer which was just visible on the -eastern horizon, and, as the trail of smoke from its funnel showed, was -coming down channel. It seemed to Armstrong a good opportunity for -examining the hut; possibly he might find there some clue to Rush's -mysterious activities. Assured that under the shadow of the cliffs he -would be invisible to the boatmen, he pulled across to the opposite -beach, and ran the dinghy ashore in a small, sheltered cove two or three -hundred yards from the hut. Leaving the boat high and dry, he made his -way back along the beach at the foot of the cliffs, and approached the -hut, which stood on a rocky platform above high-water mark. As he -neared it he was careful to keep it between himself and the boat at sea; -Rush, if he were one of the two, was probably long-sighted. - -By the time he reached the hut the boat was nearly a mile out, and the -men appeared to be letting down a net. He slipped in through the open -door, and threw a glance round the interior, seizing the last moments of -twilight for his rapid scrutiny. He saw, as might have been expected, -the usual fisherman's gear: old nets, lobster pots, cork floats, a -broken oar, part of a rudder, an old sou'wester, baskets, ropes--nothing -that had any particular interest or significance. But, just as he was -about to leave, he noticed in the darkest corner half a dozen tins -strung by the handles upon a length of trailing rope. Their shape -suggested paraffin or petrol rather than any material useful to fishers; -yet they were not the common petrol cans; they were larger and -wider-necked than those that held the ordinary motor-spirit. He lifted -one; it was empty, but very firmly corked, as likewise were the others. - -Armstrong took one of the cans, stretching the rope, towards the door, -to examine it more closely in what was left of the twilight. On the -shoulder, enclosed in a panel, was an embossed description, the -characters reminding Armstrong of the printed letters of the Russian -newspaper. - -"Rummy," he thought. "Gradoff, judging by his name, is a Russian, and -the only Russian hereabouts. Yet we find a Russian newspaper in the -cellar, and Russian petrol tins in Rush's hut. Queer!" - -He replaced the cans, and left the hut. As he did so he saw, out at -sea, the steamer he had noticed as a distant smudge some twenty minutes -before. No smoke was now pouring from her funnel; apparently she had -stopped or slowed down some distance beyond the small boat. While he -was watching, the vessel went ahead. The small boat rowed farther out; -then appeared to beat about for a time; finally stopped, and from the -movements of the figures Armstrong saw aboard, they were lifting -something from the water. The steamer, meanwhile, was proceeding -steadily on her course down channel. - -The growing dusk had rendered it impossible for the watcher to discern -anything clearly; steamer, boat, and men were merely indistinct shapes. -But the boat, without doubt, was the one that he had seen leave the -beach; its movements were strange, and Armstrong decided to await its -return. Who were its occupants? What was their errand? What were they -bringing back with them? - -The enlarging boat was evidently coming ashore. Armstrong looked rapidly -around, and spied, close to the hut, and, between that and his own boat, -a ridge of rock that would give him cover. Posting himself there, he -waited. The dusk deepened. Presently he heard the faint, slow, regular -thuds of oars in the rowlocks, then low voices. He could now discern -the boat as a dark patch on the white crests of the rollers. It came -steadily in, grounded; the two men sprang into the surf. The tide was -going out. They did not haul the boat up, but lifted from it the -bundles of gear and carried them into the hut. But there was no fish. -They passed Armstrong's hiding-place near enough for him to recognise -them. The first of them was Rush; the second--even in the dusk -Armstrong knew again that broad, flat face. It was the face he had seen -in the thicket--the face of the mysterious assailant Pratt had -described. - -[Illustration: "THEY LIFTED THE BUNDLES OF GEAR AND CARRIED THEM INTO -THE HUT."] - -After disposing of their gear in the hut, they returned to the boat. -The stranger, a big man, came up again alone, bent under a bulky -package, to which a string of petrol tins was attached. "Smugglers, by -jiminy!" thought Armstrong. The package appeared to be encased in -tarpaulin. The man halted at the door of the hut, let down his load, -detached the cans, and waited. In a few seconds Rush joined him, helped -him to hoist the package to his back, and bade him a gruff "Good-night." -The man marched heavily up the beach to the east, towards a narrow rift -in the cliff. Rush took the cans into the hut, shut and locked the door, -and, with his hands in his pockets, moved slowly down towards his boat. -Fearing that as he rowed back he might discover the dinghy in the cove, -Armstrong hurried quietly away, shoved off, and had turned into the -river when he heard the splash of Rush's oars. Pulling quickly but -steadily, he was out of sight by the time Rush reached the mouth, and -when he arrived at the camping-place guessed that he and Warrender could -cross to the western shore of the island before Rush rowed past. - - -Such was the story Armstrong quietly told his companions as they sat on -their chairs before the tent. - -"Smugglers!" ejaculated Pratt, lowering his voice as if instinctively. -"I thought the smuggling days were over long ago. D'you think Rush does -a roaring trade in Dutch tobacco, and finds the foreign gang at the -house good customers? Tobacco weighs light for its bulk. How big was -the bundle, Jack?" - -"Two or three feet square, I think," replied Armstrong. "But tobacco is -light, as you say. I fancy this was something else, for Rush had to help -the other fellow lift it." - -"And he took it eastward up the cliff?" - -"Yes, in the direction that would lead to your uncle's house, unless I'm -out in my bearings." - -"Well, I'm hanged! Won't my old uncle rave when he hears what his pet -foreign domestics are up to in his absence! He's a terrible stickler -for law and order, not the kind of man to wink at smuggling, as the -county folk used to do in days of yore. That explains the light I saw." - -"What light?" asked the others. - -"I wended my way to the ruins to hear the spooks groan. They groan -jolly well--a mellow note, mostly on B flat, I fancy, though it -sometimes shrieks up a chromatic scale to what you may call vanishing -point. Of course, it's caused by the wind, but what surprises me is how -the wind can fetch such a musical tone out of a chimney-pot. It must be -a tube of some sort, and what else could it be but a chimney-pot? I -tried to find it, but that required an acrobatic feat too difficult for -a man of my avoirdupois." - -"But the light?" asked Warrender. - -"Oh yes, I was forgetting! I was looking over towards my uncle's place -when I saw a reddish sort of glow, just about the level of the -tree-tops. It came and went, and presently it dawned upon my usually -alert intelligence that it stood a good deal upon the order of its -comings and goings; in fact, that it was a signal. It must have been -just about the time that tramp steamer came in sight." - -"But why on earth should anybody at the house, even if they are -customers of Rush's, signal to the smuggling steamer?" asked Armstrong. -"There aren't any revenue officers about here, and if there were any -about the coast the people at the house wouldn't know anything about -them." - -"My dear chap, there are wheels within wheels," said Pratt, oracularly. -"You have two contemporaneous phenomena--jolly good phrase, that!--the -signal light, and the accosting of a tramp steamer by a poacher and a -burglar. That's circumstantial evidence good enough for me." - -"Well, drop theories, and come to practice," said Warrender. "Whatever -the game is, we're going to find it out. It's time for us to take the -offensive. These fellows have stalked us; it's now for us to stalk -them. I vote we leave the island, and accept old Crawshay's offer. The -enemy will chortle at having succeeded in driving us away, and will very -likely be off his guard. Then we'll chip in." - -"Just so; we'll _reculer pour mieux sauter_--you recognise the phrase, -as your Gradoff would say? Your suggestion smiles to me, Phil. We -carry it unanimously, and we'll strike camp the morn's morn. I say, -listen!" - -The wind had increased in force, and there came from the direction of -the ruins the musical moan which Warrender, alone of the three, had not -yet heard. - -"'The horns of Elfland faintly blowing,'" quoted Pratt. "Really, it -seems a pity, after all, to leave a spot which one can imagine the haunt -of fairies, the seat of an enchanted palace, the----" - -"Don't start the sentimental strain!" Armstrong interposed. "Suppose -your horns of Elfland are a signal, too?" - -"Jehoshaphat! What a synthetic mind you have, old bird! I shouldn't be -surprised if---- But no! it won't wash. A signal that depended on the -wind wouldn't be any good. Leave me some of my illusions, Jack. Let me -revel in my romantic imaginings. Call it Roland's horn, appealing -vainly for succour when the paladin was fighting fearful odds in the -pass of Roncesvaux." - -"I think you'd better turn in, old man," said Warrender. "It's your -last watch to-night. We none of us got much sleep last night, and that -crack on the head----" - -"I'm cracked. All right--wake me at two-twenty." - -He withdrew into the tent. His companions, tired though they were, -resolved to keep each other company, and patrol the neighbourhood of the -camp till it was time to awaken Pratt. Hour after hour passed. Nothing -disturbed them. The wind increased to the force of half a gale, and the -sound from the ruins persisted with scarcely a variation of pitch. When -two-twenty came they agreed to let Pratt sleep on, and kept vigil until -the eastern sky was streaked with dawn. - -"D'you hear the sound?" asked Warrender, suddenly. - -"No; it's stopped. But the wind is higher than ever," Armstrong -replied. - -"That's queer. The wind is in the same direction, too. Darkness and -light oughtn't to make any difference." - -"Perhaps it has blown the old chimney-pot clean off the roof. I'll go -down and have a look presently. I'm dog-tired. We might take a couple -of hours' sleep now, don't you think?" - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - FIRE! - - -About eleven o'clock next morning Warrender and Pratt landed from the -motor-boat at the ferry, and, inquiring of the ferryman the way to Mr. -Crawshay's house, struck up the hilly road that ran westward from the -right bank of the river. Mr. Crawshay, it was true, had invited them to -make straight for the house across the fields; but they had decided that -it would be more becoming, on this first visit, to observe the customary -forms. - -The house stood amid well-kept grounds, about as far west of the river -as Mr. Pratt's was in the opposite direction. - -The apple-cheeked maid-servant who answered their ring announced that -her master was out, and would not return till the afternoon. -Disappointed, they were leaving when Lilian Crawshay, who had recognised -Warrender's voice as she descended the stairs, called to them. - -"You wanted to see my father, Mr. Warrender?" she asked, as they turned -back. - -"Yes; I'm sorry he's out, but we'll call again this afternoon." - -"What a pity, when you have so far to go! Can't I give him a message? -Won't you come in and see Mother?" - -"It's very good of you, but we have some shopping to do in the village, -or Armstrong will get no lunch. It will be no trouble to come again. We -get up and down very quickly in the motor-boat." - -"Well, then come up in time for tea. Father will be home then; he has -only gone on some stupid business of quarter-sessions. And bring Mr. -Armstrong with you. Mother was greatly interested in the 'Three -Musketeers.'" - -"Thank you very much." - -"Good-bye, then, for the present. Tea is at half-past four." - -"Why didn't you tell her we can't all come?" said Pratt, as they walked -away. - -"Because it's clear that the old man hasn't said anything about our -affairs, and I couldn't anticipate him with explanations. We'll toss -for the odd man." - -On returning to the ferry Pratt went on to the village to make some -necessary purchases, leaving Warrender to forestall gossip by informing -Rogers of their change of plan. Warrender rapped on the door. - -"Bain't opening time yet," called a voice from above. Mrs. Rogers's -head appeared at an open window. "Oh, beg pardon; 'tis you, sir. We -have to be that careful; Constable Hardstone be always on the prowl. -You'll find Rogers in the garden, sir--through that little gate. And if -so be you find he haven't got his hair on, I beseech 'ee to mind him of -it; he's that careless of his brains, and I know they'll be broiled some -day." - -The innkeeper, with his wig awry, was pinching out his tomatoes. He -smiled when Warrender told him of the projected removal of the camp. - -"'Tis what I expected--ay, and all the village likewise," he said. - -"We find the island a trifle inconvenient, you know," said Warrender, in -pursuance of the understanding he had come to with his companions that -their real reason should not at present be disclosed. - -"Ay sure, that's what we all said. The neighbours wondered how long -you'd stand it." - -"Stand what?" asked Warrender, wondering whether any whispers of the -truth had got abroad. - -"Why, them sperits. Flesh and blood you can deal with, but when it -comes to sperits they're bound to get the better of you, give 'em time. -You can't get hold of 'em no way. Smite 'em, you might as well smite -the wind. I've been here and there about the world in my time, and I -tell 'ee I wouldn't spend a night on that island not if you doubled my -pension." - -"Well, we did hear some very queer sounds last night. Of course, it was -very windy. I expected rain to-day, but it has cleared up. By the way, -are there any coastguards about here?" - -"There's Lloyd's signal station away at the point yonder. I go over now -and again for a crack and a smoke with an old messmate of mine." - -"How far is it?" - -"Four mile or so. You go past Mr. Crawshay's, then sheer off to the -left and get into the old coastguard track over the cliffs." - -"I'll take a walk out there some day. We haven't seen much of the -neighbourhood yet. There's no signal station in the village, of course." - -"No; we're too far from the sea. Have 'ee heard what they're saying -about Mr. Pratt, sir?" - -"What's that?" - -"Ah, poor gentleman. 'Tis feared he've gone a-lost, or been swallered -by lions, or summat. 'Tis the end of many a poor traveller." - -"Why do they fear that? Is there any news?" - -"No; that's where 'tis; there be no news at all. 'Tis five weeks since -he went off, not a soul knowing, as his way is; and Susan Barter up at -post office was saying only yesterday that there's not been a single -line from him to any o' they people at the house. 'Tis never been -knowed afore. As a rule there's a letter from Paris, or Marseilles, or -Brindisi--ay, from places farther away; but this time not a line. He'll -be missed in the parish, sir, if so be he've gone aloft, like poor Tom -Bowling." - -Rogers proceeded to relate anecdotes of his landlord--instances of his -peppery outbursts and splenetic quarrels with his county neighbours, but -more of kindly deeds and unobtrusive generosity among his poorer -tenants. - -"And your friend be his nephew, to be sure!" he added. "Well, don't -worrit the poor young gent yet awhile. No news is good news; maybe -there'll be word of him one of these days. Susan Barter is sure to tell -us." - -Presently Pratt returned, laden with sundry parcels. The boys took -leave of Rogers, and by half-past twelve were back in camp. Armstrong -had nothing to report. He declined at first to make one of the -tea-party, but when the spin of a coin elected him against Pratt, he -yielded to Warrender's argument that it would appear discourteous if -only one of them accepted the invitation. Promptly at half-past four -the two, wearing grey flannels for the occasion, entered the grounds of -Mr. Crawshay's house, and were met on the drive by the owner himself. - -"Glad to see you, my lads," he said, heartily. "You've something to tell -me? I guessed it. Now, not a word before the ladies. I haven't told -them anything of your troubles; best not to disturb them, you know. -We'll have a talk in private, after tea." - -The consequence was that presently Armstrong found himself left in the -company of Mrs. Crawshay and her daughter, while Warrender was taken by -Mr. Crawshay to his study. - -It had been decided that nothing should be said to the old gentleman -about the visit to the Red House, the mysterious doings of Rush at sea, -or the strange light Pratt had seen among the trees. Determined as the -lads were to probe the mystery to the bottom, they felt that their -purpose might be defeated by any premature activity on the part of the -county magistrate. Accordingly, when Mr. Crawshay and Warrender were -seated in deep armchairs facing each other, and the former said, "Now, -my lad, what is the latest news?" Warrender simply related the incident -of the midnight visit to the camp, concluding-- - -"And so, sir, we have decided to accept your offer of a camping-place on -your land, not merely to escape these annoyances--we should rather like -to hold our ground in regard to them--but because we think we should -stand a better chance of discovering what really is going on." - -"Ah, what does that mean? There's more in it than appears?" - -"If you don't mind, sir, I won't tell you details now; but we have found -out one or two facts that have given rise to certain suspicions. By -removing from the island we feel that we shall be better able to put -them to the test, and when our information is complete we will lay it -before you." - -"Well, I won't press you. Many a rogue has escaped justice because the -case against him has been badly prepared. Tell me all in your own time. -Now as to your camp. There's a little natural dock in my bank of the -river. I'll put on my gardener and odd man to make a small clearing for -you. It's too late to-day; the men knock off at five--eight hours' day, -you know. But you can bring your boat up the river, and put up for the -night with me." - -"Thank you, sir; but we have a little errand at the signal station -before we go back--it might be rather late before we could get -everything packed up. I think we had better wait till the morning." - -"Very well. You may have fresh light on the matter then. I shall -expect all three to lunch to-morrow. On my land you won't need to guard -your camp." - -Taking leave a little later, the boys walked across the cliffs to the -signal station. On inquiry from the man in charge they learnt that the -steamer seen late on the previous evening was the _Katarina_, from -Helsingfors for New York. - -"Did you notice a small boat pull out to her?" asked Armstrong. - -"Rush's boat," replied the man. "It didn't pull out to her; 'twas out -before she came in sight. Rush has some lobster pots out there. He's a -well-known character in these parts." - -They thanked their informant, and retraced their steps. - -"She was a Russian boat," remarked Armstrong. "No secret about her name -or course. All the same--a Russian newspaper, a Russian secretary at the -Red House, Russian petrol cans, a Russian steamer. Queer coincidences, -at the least." - -It was nearly eight o'clock when they regained the camp. Pratt was -humming "I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls" to the accompaniment of -his banjo. - -"And how is the fair lady of the punctured tyre?" he asked. "Did she -deplore my absence?" - -"She did say something about 'that amusing Mr. Pratt,'" Armstrong -replied. "I like her mother." - -"We're all going up to lunch to-morrow," said Warrender, and explained -the arrangements made. - -"Then, as it's our last night on this island of spooks, I vote that -Armstrong and I go to the ruins and track that weird sound," said Pratt. -"The wind is high; we'll have time before dark." - -Armstrong and he set off. The breeze was blowing in the same direction, -and almost as strongly, as on the night before, but no moaning met their -ears. Arriving at the cottage, they heard the characteristic whistle -and hiss of wind playing about the eaves, but not the tuneful, mellow -note that had reminded Pratt of an organ pipe. They searched around the -base of the walls for a recently fallen chimney-pot. There was none. - -"Extraordinary!" said Pratt. "No wonder the rustics are jumpy. Of -course, there must be some simple explanation--some slight change of -direction in the wind, I expect. If you've ever tried to play the penny -whistle you'll know that you can't always get a note, when you're a -beginner. We've had our walk for nothing." - -They were half-way back to the camp; dusk was just merging into -darkness, when the organ-note, riding, as it were, upon the rustle of -the leaves, struck upon their ears. - -"By George!" exclaimed Pratt. "One would think the spook was just -waiting for the dark. Come back. This is an acoustical phenomenon worth -writing about to some scientific rag." - -They hurried back to the ruins, and sprang up the staircase. Pratt -tracked the sound, as before, to the partially unroofed room on the west -side. Armstrong tried to climb up the jagged brickwork of the outer -wall, but found the footing too insecure to persevere. Baffled, they -stood for a while listening. - -"It's no good," said Armstrong at last. "It's a job for daylight. -Besides, it's of no importance; we've got more interesting mysteries to -fathom." - -"True, old matter-of-fact. You haven't a disinterested passion for -science. Well, I'll show you where I saw the light from last night." - -They went into the other room, and looked across the river into the -darkness, faintly patterned by the nearer trees. Suddenly, high up, a -glow appeared, shone for a second, disappeared, recurred. They watched -in silence. Presently Armstrong spoke. - -"They're certainly signals. Keep your eye on them; count them." - -There was a period of complete darkness; it seemed that the signalling -had ceased. Then the glow peered over the tree-tops again; it was -repeated at regular intervals, at first short, then longer, then short -again. - -"It's like Morse," said Armstrong. "Did you count?" - -"Nine times." - -"In groups of three?" - -"Four, three, and two, I thought." - -"So did I. Well, if it's Morse, that spells VGI. What on earth does -that mean?" - -"Goodness knows. It's stopped. Wonder if it'll start again?" - -A minute or two passed. Again the glow appeared, at intervals as -before. Again they counted its appearances. - -"Nine times. Three groups of three--longs and shorts. I make that -ROD." - -"Well, that's a word, at any rate; and the chef's name, by gum! But -what about VGI?" - -"Perhaps I was mistaken. We'll wait for the next." - -But though they remained some ten minutes at the window the glow -appeared no more. - -"A dashed fruitless expedition!" exclaimed Pratt, as they descended the -stairs. "They used to divide science into sound, light, and heat. -We're flummoxed by sound and light; it only wants heat to biff us -altogether." - -Before many hours had passed they had reason to remember that almost -prophetic utterance of Pratt's. It was his turn again to take the -middle watch, and at eleven-forty Armstrong wakened him. - -"Hang you, Jack!" he cried. "I was dreaming I was blowing fire-balloons -out of an organ pipe, and I wanted to see the end of it. All serene?" - -"Not a mouse stirring." - -"Well, the air doesn't bite shrewdly. I cap your quotation, you see. -It's a warm sou'wester. Can you hear that sound?" - -"Just faintly. I say, I believe I understand that signal. I've been -thinking it over. I've had no particular practice in reading signals; -perhaps the fellow signalling is a novice, too. In that case one or -other of us might easily make a mistake. It's clear he made three -letters each time; I fancy they weren't either VGI or ROD." - -"What then?" - -"S.O.S." - -"What-ho! The signal of distress at sea. But, I say, this is on land, -old man." - -"Yes; but I take it that it's a signal for help that any one knowing -Morse might make." - -"But who wants help? In my uncle's grounds? Wait a jiff. It was in the -direction of the house. I have it! What a pudding-head I am! Of -course, Rod's wife. You remember she tried to signal to you and Phil. -She's in trouble. She's being ill-treated, or something. She's calling -for help. We're to be knights-errant--Perseus rescuing Andromeda----" - -"Oh, shut up! Is it likely that an innkeeper's sister would know -Morse?" - -"Mark my words, I'm right. A woman knows everything she wants to. Turn -in, old chap. I wanted something to keep me awake, and I'll cogitate a -plan for rescuing Molly Andromeda from the jaws of the Minotaur." - -Pratt, however, found that cogitation was an ineffectual preventive -against drowsiness. Three disturbed nights in succession was an -experience unknown to him heretofore. He paced about for a little, sat -down and lit a cigarette, dozed over it, started up and walked again. -Once more he sat down, ruminated, nodded--and presently awoke, sniffing. -What was that smell of burning? He looked on the ground, where the -half-smoked cigarette lay. It was dead. He got up. The smell was in -the air. He took a few steps, looking around. His eye caught a flicker -of flame to windward--two, three flickers some yards apart. For a -moment his drowsy intelligence failed to respond to his senses; for a -moment only. Then he shouted-- - -"Hi, you fellows! Fire! Fire!" - -Already the flickers had been whipped by the wind into a wall of flame, -advancing with a hiss and low roar from the thicket across the little -clearing. The heat of the last few days had dried the grass, which, -though much trampled around the tent, was still long. The fire swept -over it like a ruddy tide. Smoke surged across the open space; twigs -and leaves crackled in the surrounding thicket. When Armstrong and -Warrender, awakened by the shouts, the reck, the roar and crackle, -tumbled out in their pyjamas, they choked and spluttered and fell back -before the intolerable heat and smother. - -It was only too clear that the camp was doomed. There was not time to -lower the tent. They rescued what they could. Armstrong dashed into -the tent, and returned dragging the three Gladstones that held their -clothes. Pratt caught up a petrol can and his banjo; Warrender secured -his razor-case and sponge-bag. Driven by the remorseless flames, they -retreated hurriedly towards the river, working round to the right until -they arrived at a spot on the bank that lay out of the course of the -wind. There they stood, coughing, watching the scene, fascinated. -Springing from the south-west, the fire raced across the island, like a -giant cutting with blazing scythe a path through the tough undergrowth. -There was nothing to stay its advance. The low flames danced beneath the -trees, red goblins in a dust of smoke, twigs and branches crackling, the -sappy wood adding rather to the smother than to the blaze. - -"Sound, light, and heat!" murmured Pratt. "What a magnificent -spectacle!" - -"We've paid pretty dearly for our tickets!" said Armstrong, morosely. - -"And some one shall pay pretty dearly before I've done with them!" cried -Warrender. "We're homeless. We'd better run up to the Ferry Inn, and -get Rogers to bed us." - -"We'll be the talk of the village for a hundred years," said Pratt. -"We'll pass into legend; future ages will tell of the three magicians -who exorcised the spooks of No Man's Island with fire." - -"Come and help shove off the boat," said Warrender. "We've still got -that, thank goodness!" - -The fire had burnt itself out at the north-east of the island by the -time the boat passed. At the ferry was assembled a crowd of the -natives. Rogers was in the act of setting off in Fisherman Drew's boat, -along with Blevins, Hardstone, the village constable, and one or two -more. - -"Praise be!" exclaimed the innkeeper, as the motor-boat ran alongside -the stage. "I was afeared as you young gentlemen might be cinders." - -"We're only smoked at present, dry-cured," said Pratt. "Saved our -bacon, you see." - -"I want to know summat about this," said the constable. "I'll have to -make a report. If so be you set fire to that there island, with the -terrible destruction of growing trees, I won't say but 'twill be brought -in arson, and that's five years' penal. Which one of you was it chucked -down the match?" - -"My dear good man," said Pratt, blandly, "we're only too anxious to give -every assistance to the officer of the law; but, as you see, we're in a -great state of nervous agitation. D'you think Shadrach, Meshach, and -Abednego were in a condition to answer questions after their experience -of the fiery furnace? Abed we go, if Mr. Rogers will oblige us. Come -up in the morning, constable; you're all losing your beauty sleep. In -the morning we'll swear affidavits, or whatever it is you want. To-night -we're too tired even to swear. Good-night." - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - A CIRCULAR TOUR - - -Fatigued though they were, the boys lay long awake in the room Mrs. -Rogers provided for them, discussing the situation into which they had -been thrown by the fire, and their plans for the future. They had saved -next to nothing but their clothes. If they were to start another camp a -new tent--almost a complete new outfit--would be necessary. Pratt -suggested that they should accept Mr. Crawshay's offer and take up their -abode with him until the mystery of the island had been solved; but this -idea was opposed by the others, Armstrong in particular pointing out -that they would stand a better chance of success if they remained more -closely in touch with their former encampment. - -"We must do our best to throw the beggars off the scent," he said. "If -we rig up barbed wire round our new camp, they'll imagine we're merely -on the defensive, and the longer we keep up that illusion, the better." - -"I agree," said Warrender. "There can't be the slightest doubt now that -something is going on on the island that they'll stick at nothing to -prevent our discovering. We've got to make them believe we can't see -farther than the ends of our noses, so we must keep quiet, pretend we -think the fire was caused by our cigarettes--anything to put them off -their guard. But, of course, we must take the first opportunity of -making another search in the ruins. It's as plain as a pikestaff that -that moaning sound is artificial; that is to say, they've got some sort -of an instrument rigged up that catches the wind just when they wish, -and only then. And that signal must have something to do with their -schemes; I'm inclined to think you're mistaken, Armstrong, and it's not -S.O.S. at all." - -"Perhaps," replied Armstrong. - -"I stick to it that Molly Rogers or Rod is in distress," said Pratt. -"Rogers was a seaman, and there's nothing unlikely in his sister knowing -something of Morse. I had a passion for ciphers at one time, and my -sister Joan was very keen on it, I can tell you. Anyway, we'll ask -Rogers in the morning." - -They got up to a late breakfast. Rogers brought them their bacon and -eggs, and they were struck by a peculiarity in his appearance. - -"I say, Rogers, what's happened to your beautiful auburn locks?" asked -Pratt. - -The innkeeper looked profoundly depressed. - -"I begged and prayed the missus, but 'twas no good," he answered. "She -will have me wear a nightcap at night, and my hair by day, no matter how -hot it be. I said as every one will laugh at me, and she said as health -comes afore feelings." - -"A very wise woman. Still, as a mere matter of scientific curiosity, -we'd like to know how that brown became apple-green." - -Rogers snatched off his wig and held it out with a gesture of -indignation. - -"'Tis a trick of some blessed young scug in the village, and if I catch -him I'll give him all the colours of the rainbow. I did but set my hair -on a pea-stick while I was digging yesterday, the missus being out for -the day. I own I forgot it, and when, come night, I thought I'd better -put it on, bless me if I could find it. Half an hour after I'd closed -the door the missus came home. 'Here's a parcel on the doorstep,' says -she, and then she undoes it, and gives a shriek. 'You wicked man!' says -she: 'you've done it just to rile me.' As if the cussed thing warn't -bad enough brown, for one to want it green! Of course I telled her as -how I'd put it down and missed it, and she went on like one o'clock, -said I'd have to wear it, green or blue, and I'd better stand out in the -first shower of rain and see if it'd wash clean, and 'twould be a lesson -to me. Don't you never go bald, young gentlemen: 'tis the way to break -up a happy home." - -"Hard luck, Rogers," said Pratt. "But the colour will soon wear off. -You'll be piebald for a bit, I dare say--sort of mottled, you know; but -nobody will think the worse of you. I say, you and your sister were -great pals, weren't you?" - -"Till the missus come along, sir." - -"And no doubt you taught her how to splice ropes and reef sails, and -make signals, and all that?" - -"There you're wrong, sir. The lass don't know more than a babby about -such things; and as for signals, I don't know nothing about 'em myself." - -Pratt looked crestfallen. - -"One theory exploded," remarked Armstrong. - -"Did 'ee signal for help last night?" asked Rogers. - -"Well, we----" Pratt began, but Warrender interrupted him. - -"No, we hadn't time," he said. "The fire came on us too suddenly. By -the way, we shall have to buy some new things. I suppose Blevins can -provide us with a tent?" - -"Surely, sir; he've most everything somewhere about. I always thought -no good 'ud come of camping on that island. There's a fate in it." - -"How long has it had this ill name?" asked Armstrong. - -"Not so long, sir. You see, nobody bothered much about it after the old -man died years ago. It didn't belong to no one, seemingly; there was -nothing to take any of the folk there; and 'twasn't till a month or two -ago that they began to talk of sperits. Nick Rush came in all of a -tremble one night--he'd been away for a bit--and said he was setting a -snare there when he heard most horrible groanings and moanings. He took -some of the folk along, and they heard 'em too, and ever since then the -village have give it a wide berth. You're well out of it, that's what I -say. Not as ghosts carry matches, though; I reckon 'twas one of you -young gentlemen a-smoking as did the mischief." - -"A lesson to us, Rogers," said Pratt, gravely. "Smoking is a very bad -habit, according to our masters at school--who all smoke like -furnaces--they ought to know." - -They had hardly finished breakfast when Mr. Crawshay drove down to the -ferry in a light trap, crossing on foot. - -"It's true, then," he said, as he entered the parlour. "I knew nothing -about it until an hour ago. A lighted match, they say." - -Pratt got up and closed the door. - -"Let them say, sir. We were burnt out." - -"You don't say so! Upon my word, it's time something was done. Have -you lost much?" - -"Almost everything but our clothes." - -"Scandalous! Then you'll come up to the house?" - -"We'd rather keep to our arrangement, sir," said Warrender. "It will -give us a better chance of running the fellows to earth. We think of -making a thorough search on the island. The difficulty is that we can't -do it by daylight; we are sure to be watched, at any rate for a day or -two. There's another difficulty. They're sure to keep their eye on our -motor-boat and dinghy; it will be too risky to use them. Of course, we -could swim the river, but it would be a bit of a nuisance." - -"I can help you there. You had better not use my skiff, but I've an old -Norwegian pram in one of my outhouses----" - -"A what, sir?" asked Pratt. - -"A pram--a sort of abbreviated punt. At one time I used it for fishing -on the river. It's small and very light; two of you could carry it. -You had better fetch it yourselves; my men might talk in the village. I -have set them clearing a camping-place for you, by the way. It's about -half-way between here and the island. But I can't lend you a tent." - -Warrender explained that he proposed to buy one of the general dealer. - -"Very well," said Mr. Crawshay. "I shall expect you to lunch. We'll -talk over things then more at leisure." - -While Warrender went off to do the necessary shopping, Armstrong and -Pratt, in the dinghy, set out for their new camping-place. It lay on -the shore of a little natural bay some fifteen yards deep and about half -that width. Mr. Crawshay's gardeners had already mown the long grass -and lopped some of the lower branches of overhanging trees. A ten -minutes' walk through the wood and across fields brought the two boys to -the house, where Mr. Crawshay had already arrived. Having seen that -none of his men were about, the old gentleman led them to the outhouse -in which he kept his pram; and by the time that Warrender, conveying his -purchases in the motor-boat, reached the new encampment, the others had -carried the odd little craft across the fields, and found a secure -hiding-place for it in the wood a little distance from the bay, almost -opposite to the north end of the island, near a spot convenient for -landing under cover of the trees. With it Mr. Crawshay had lent them a -couple of light oars. - -After erecting their new tent--a sorry specimen compared with the one -that had been destroyed--they went up to the house for lunch, discussed -their plans with Mr. Crawshay privately in his study, and returned to -fence the camp with barbed wire and get things in order. So far there -had been no sign of the enemy; but in the course of the afternoon -Armstrong climbed a tree from which, unobserved himself, he could obtain -a view of the opposite bank of the river, and discovered without -surprise that a spy was lurking among the bushes. No doubt all their -ostensible proceedings had been watched, and they congratulated -themselves on the illusion of mere defensiveness which their -business-like activity must have created. - -During the remainder of the day they were careful not to depart from -their usual procedure. They had an early supper; when they had cleared -away and washed up, they placed three oddly assorted and shabby -deck-chairs, purchased from Blevins, in front of the tent, and while -Armstrong and Warrender read newspapers, Pratt warbled sentimental -ditties to the accompaniment of his banjo. - -Just before dark Pratt and Armstrong went into the tent to go to bed, -while Warrender perambulated the camp armed with a thick club. The spin -of a coin had decided that he should remain on guard while the others -paid a nocturnal visit to the island. - -About midnight, when it was quite dark, the two raiders crept out of the -tent, and striking inland for a little, made their roundabout way to the -spot where the pram was hidden. Reconnoitring carefully, to assure -themselves that their movements had not been followed, they lifted the -pram, lowered it gently into the water, and pushed off, floating on the -tide near the bank, and steering with one oar in the stern. They struck -the shore of the island about midway, seized a projecting branch, and -drawing their craft into the bank, pulled it up among the reeds at the -edge. Then they started to cross the island. - -It was pitch-dark in the thicket. Spreading roots and trailing brambles -tripped their feet; their faces were lashed by the foliage as they -pushed their way through; thorns caught at their clothes. It was -difficult to avoid noise. Twigs snapped underfoot, branches creaked and -rustled, and every now and again there was a strident shriek of rent -clothing as they tore themselves from the embrace of some clinging -bramble. Heedless of the obstacles, hot and weary, they plodded -doggedly on, and presently, after making unconscionably slow progress, -they emerged upon the bank of the river. The stream looked much wider -than they had expected. - -"Whereabouts are we?" whispered Pratt. - -"We've come too far south, I fancy," returned Armstrong. - -They peered up and down, trying vainly to discover some landmark. They -stood listening; there was breeze enough to cause the moaning, but they -heard no sound except the rustle of the leaves and the gentle gurgle of -the tide. They cast about, taking wary steps up stream and down; hoping -in one direction or the other to come upon the wilderness garden. - -Suddenly Pratt whispered: "I say, this isn't a tidal river, is it?" - -"No; it always flows down," replied Armstrong. "Why?" - -"Because----" - -And then he stopped. - -"Look here," he murmured to Armstrong behind him. - -Armstrong looked, and there, at Pratt's feet, was the dark shape of the -pram, nestling in its bed of reeds. - -"Hang!" exclaimed Armstrong. "We've been going in a circle." - -"Just so. Everybody does it!" said Pratt, with a chuckle. "I suspected -it when I noticed the way the stream was flowing." - -"Nothing to chortle about," Armstrong growled. "We've had all our -trouble for nothing. Absolutely waste time!" - -"But look how we've enlarged our experience! I think I'd like to be a -traveller, like my old uncle. I've read about these circular tours often -enough, but never believed in 'em. Why can't one walk straight in the -dark?" - -"Ask your grandmother! I'm fed up; scratched all over, too. I'll not -try this again without a luminous compass. Let's get back." - -It was nearly two o'clock before they trudged wearily into camp. - -"Any luck?" asked Warrender, still doing sentry-go. - -Pratt related what had happened. - -"Well, I'm glad for once I lost the toss," said Warrender, smiling. -"We'll certainly get a luminous compass, and I fancy we'd be the better -for a few lessons from the Boy Scouts." - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - UNDERGROUND - - -The change of camp had relieved the boys of one irksome tie. There was -no longer any need for a constant guard. The barbed wire, and -Warrender's patrolling of the camp, were merely ruses for the deception -of the enemy. Next morning, therefore, for the first time since their -arrival, all three went off together in the motor-boat, to make a trip -down the river and along the coast westward. They threw a keen glance -at Rush's hut as they turned the point. Its door was closed; nobody was -about; and the only human being they saw in the course of their -expedition was one solitary figure moving slowly along the top of the -cliff--possibly a coastguard. - -They lunched on the boat, and did not return until afternoon. Leaving -the others to prepare tea, Warrender went on to the village, bought a -small luminous compass, and an electric torch from Blevins's -miscellaneous stock, and a few buns at the baker's. When he regained -the camp, his companions reported that there was no sign of its still -being kept under observation--by this time the enemy was probably -persuaded that their only wish was to be left alone. While they were -having tea, Rush rowed slowly past, going down stream. He did not turn -his head towards them, but Pratt declared that he had given them a sly -glance out of the tail of his eye. - -To keep up appearances, they decided that one of them should remain on -guard that night as before. The lot fell upon Pratt. At nightfall the -others, equipped with the compass and torch and two short stout sticks, -put off in the pram, and, landing on the island, without much difficulty -struck their old clearing--now clearer than ever, and redolent of smoke -and fire---and wound their way to the ruined cottage. The moaning -sounded more eerie than they had yet heard it, rising and falling with -the fitful gusts. - -When they reached the old garden, they bent low, approached the ruins -under cover of the tallest plants, and waited a while at the foot of the -wall before venturing into the entrance. Warrender kept guard on the -lower floor while Armstrong, who knew the place better, explored the -upper storey thoroughly with the aid of the torch, which he kept -carefully shaded from outside view. Above his head, somewhere on the -roof, the dismal note sounded continually. He went into the eastern -room from which he had seen the signal light. No light was visible. -Returning below stairs, he examined the whole of the premises with equal -care. Everything was as it had been. There was nothing to indicate that -any one had entered the place since his last visit. - -"We shall have to make a night of it," said Warrender. "It was morning -when Pratt saw some one in the lower room. It doesn't follow that he -comes every morning, or, indeed, that he has ever come again; but we had -better wait on the chance." - -"Let us go upstairs, then, and sit against the wall where we can see the -window. I don't believe that signal can be seen from the sea, and the -fact that it can be seen from here seems to show that the signaller -expects some one to be at the cottage. It won't be easy to keep awake, -but we mustn't fall asleep together." - -With backs against the wall, arms folded, and legs stretched on the -floor, they sat watching. No light shone; there was no sound but those -produced by the wind in the leaves and that monotonous, provoking, -doleful wail from the roof. Hour after hour passed. Now and then each -got up in turn to stretch his limbs. One or the other dozed at times. -The still hours crept on; nothing happened; it seemed that their -patience was to meet with no reward. - -It was not until the faint grey tint of early dawn was stealing up the -eastern horizon that a sound below caught Armstrong's attentive ear. He -nudged Warrender dozing by his side. Grasping their sticks, they rose -and tiptoed to the doorway. Some one was clumsily mounting the stairs. -They peeped out. At the farther end of the landing a large, dark shape -rose from the staircase, turned at the head, and went into the western -room. Slipping off his boots, Warrender crept stealthily along the wall -and looked in after the intruder. The room was dark, but, against the -twilight framed by the window-opening, he saw the legs and feet of a man -disappearing upwards outside. In a few moments there came scraping -sounds from the roof; the moaning suddenly ceased, and after a little -the man's feet reappeared; he was lowering himself into the room. -Warrender stole back; at Armstrong's side he watched the man return -across the landing to the staircase, and heard his heavy footsteps as he -descended. - -"Watch from this window; I'll go to the other," whispered Warrender. - -From these posts of observation, commanding almost the whole of the -surroundings of the cottage, they looked for the emergence of the -visitor. He did not appear; nor, after his footsteps had ceased, did -they hear a sound. Had he gone into one of the lower rooms? Leaving -Armstrong to keep watch at his window, Warrender, in his stockinged -feet, stole down the stairs, and peeped into each of the rooms and the -kitchen and scullery in turn. The dawn was growing; but the man was not -to be seen. All was silent. A slight whistle summoned Armstrong; -together the boys quietly and rapidly ranged the lower floor, taking -advantage of the increasing light to search for some secret -hiding-place, some recess or cranny in the wall. There was nothing. The -walls were too thin to enclose space enough for a man to hide. Where -had he gone? He had not left the place by doorway or window; he must be -somewhere within. - -"The cellar!" said Armstrong, remembering the scrap of paper he had -found there. - -Warrender ran upstairs, slipped on his boots, and returned. The door at -the head of the cellar staircase was closed. They opened it gently, -listening. There was no sound from below. Cautiously, step by step, -they descended. At the foot of the staircase they held their breath for -a moment. Then Warrender flashed the torch. The cellar was empty. They -examined every inch of the walls up to the height of a man. The -brick-work was whole; not a brick was displaced, not a seam of mortar -missing. They tramped over the black, dusty floor; everywhere it was -solid; there was no hollow ringing beneath their feet. Scraping away a -little of the coal dust, they found that the floor also was of brick -except at the foot of the steps, where there was a large flagstone. -Something caught Armstrong's eye. He stooped. - -"Look here," he said. The joint between the flagstone and the brickwork -of the floor had a sharp, well-defined edge. The crevice was free from -coal dust. - -"A little suspicious, eh?" said Warrender. "Stamp on the stone." - -"Hold hard! What if that fellow is underneath it?" - -"We've got to the point where we must take risks. But it's not credible -that any one actually lives down below, even if there is a below. Try a -kick or two." - -But there was no ringing sound when Armstrong stamped; the stone was -either laid firmly on the earth, or it was so thick that, if there was a -hollow beneath it, the fact would not be detected. Nor, when Armstrong -trod heavily all over its surface, was there the slightest sign of -movement. - -"Feel along the edge," Warrender suggested. - -Armstrong went down on hands and knees and drew his finger along the -base of the lowest step. - -"A slight crack here, at the left end," he said. - -"Big enough to get your finger in?" - -"No; it can't be more than an eighth of an inch wide. It's upright, -between the step and the wall. Looks as if the stone has shifted." - -"Well, if you can't get your finger in, try your knife blade." - -"Wait a bit, there's another crack, smaller still, right along the edge -of the step, between it and the upright slab." - -They had both lowered their voices to a whisper. Armstrong gave the -upright a push, near the middle. It was firm, unyielding. But pushing -leftwards, he felt a slight movement, and at the extreme end, a very -gentle pressure caused the slab to swing inwards easily, the right half -of it at the same time moving outwards. - -"By gum, it works on a pivot!" exclaimed Armstrong, under his breath. -"We're on the track! But this opening's only about six inches wide; -nobody but a baby could crawl through it." - -For a few moments they held their breath, listening for sounds. All was -silent. Then Warrender dropped on all fours and shone his torch into -the dark gap. The space was empty. Armstrong thrust in his hand, and -felt over the earthen floor, then along the edge of the flagstone, and -finally beneath it. - -"There's a hollow space here," he said. "And, I say, here's a metal -hand-grip just below the flagstone." - -He tugged it; there was no movement. He pushed it on each side in turn, -still without result. Baffled, he sat on his haunches. - -"What's the hand-grip for?" he said. "Obviously for moving something. -Then why doesn't anything move?" - -"Perhaps it can only be operated from below," Warrender suggested. "If -this is an entrance to the cellar, it may be left open when any one -comes this way." - -"That's not likely. An entrance that can only be opened from one side -isn't worth much. No, something sticks, and if that fellow went through -a few minutes ago, it can't be for want of use. _Why_ does it stick, -then?" - -Armstrong pondered for a few moments, then said suddenly, "Possibly it's -my pressure on the stone. Let's try." - -He moved back, so that the weight of his body bore upon the rear instead -of the fore end of the stone. Then, however, he found that he could not -reach the hand-grip. - -"Why not try the other side?" said Warrender. "There may be another grip -there." - -The other side of the staircase was open to the cellar, and Armstrong -was able to thrust his arm into the aperture below the step without -treading on the flagstone. - -"Got it!" he said, a moment later. "There's a grip here. It moves in a -quarter-circle. Something--a disk of stone, I fancy--is revolving." - -He pressed on the flagstone; still there was no distinct movement -downwards, though it seemed to have yielded a trifle. - -"Clearly it won't shift until the other grip is turned," he said. "But -how to get at that?" - -After a little consideration he had another idea. Going a few steps up -the staircase, he turned, and crawled down head first until he was able -to get his hand under the edge of the stone. - -"All right, old man," he said, cheerfully. "I've moved the grip now. -Keep clear of the other end of the stone." - -Lying full stretch on the staircase, he pressed on the stone beneath -him. It sank gently; the other end moved upwards, and in a few seconds -the stone stood upright in the middle of a dark gap. Warrender bent -down, holding the electric torch just above the opening. - -"The bottom's only about five feet deep," he said. "It's the end of -some sort of passage. Come down, old man, and we'll explore it -together." - -[Illustration: "'THE BOTTOM'S ONLY ABOUT FIVE FEET DEEP.'"] - -They dropped lightly into the cavity. By the light of the torch they -saw that on each side a flat circular wheel of stone, lacking one -quadrant, moved on an iron axle in such a way that a half-turn of the -hand-grip removed the support of the flagstone and allowed the corner to -drop down. The flagstone was nicely balanced on a revolving iron rod let -into a socket at each end. This contrivance formed the entrance to a -narrow tunnel about four feet wide, and something over five feet high in -the centre. Neither of the boys could stand upright in it. The floor -was of hard-beaten earth; the walls and the arched roof were of ancient -brick, covered with an incrustation of slimy moss. - -"An old smugglers' tunnel, I'll be bound," said Armstrong. "It will be -very odd if we have struck a lair of modern smugglers. Just look at -your compass and see what direction it takes." - -The needle swung almost perpendicular to the course of the tunnel. - -"Eastward," said Warrender. "That's strange. I thought it probably ran -south, to somewhere near that place at the end of the island where we -saw the marks of a boat the other day." - -"It seems to shelve downward slightly. Looks as if it runs under the -channel." - -"Towards Pratt's uncle's grounds. Let's explore." - -"Better switch off your light, then. We can find our way in the dark by -touching the sides." - -They went forward in single file, stepping gingerly, and bending their -heads to avoid the roof. The air smelt musty and dank, and was -unpleasant and oppressive. For a time the floor sloped gently -downwards, but presently they were aware that it had taken an upward -trend. - -"We've crossed the channel," said Armstrong in a whisper that the -vaulted walls made unnaturally loud. - -A little later they noticed ahead of them a space dimly illuminated. -Moving forward cautiously, they found themselves at the bottom of a -circular shaft. Far above them they saw daylight in parallel streaks. - -"A dry well," murmured Warrender, "roughly boarded over." Consulting -his compass, he added, "Still eastwards. Rummy if the tunnel goes to -the Red House." - -Pursuing their way in utter darkness as before, the floor still rising -very slightly, they became aware by and by that the tunnel had enlarged. -From the centre they could not touch the wall on either side, and the -greater lightness of the air gave them a sense of spaciousness. -Suddenly Armstrong, who was leading, stumbled over something on the -floor and fell forward. His hands, instinctively thrust out, were -arrested by a bundle encased in tarpaulin. He straightened himself. For -a moment or two they waited, straining their ears. There was no sound. - -"A light," murmured Armstrong. - -The light revealed that they had arrived at a small chamber about twelve -feet square and seven or eight feet high. The farther end was broken by -the tunnel. In each side wall, a foot below the roof, were let a couple -of iron rings, deeply rusted. - -"For holding torches," said Armstrong. - -The chamber was empty except for three bundles on the floor. It was -over one of these that Armstrong had stumbled. Two of them were -completely covered with tarpaulin, and roped; the third was partly open -at the top. - -"They're like the bundles I saw Rush and the other fellow carry up from -the boat," said Armstrong. - -"Queer smuggling," said Warrender, bending over the open bale. "It -seems to hold nothing but paper." - -He took up the topmost sheet. It was a thin, semi-transparent paper, -and crackled to the touch. - -"This isn't newspaper," he said. - -"Cigarette paper, perhaps," said Armstrong. "But where's the 'baccy?" - -"Can't smell any. I wonder how much farther the tunnel goes?" - -Entering it at the extreme end of the chamber, Warrender came within a -yard to a contrivance similar to that which gave access from the cellar. - -"Here's the end," he said. "Look, the grips are turned. Shall we risk -lifting the stone?" - -"Dangerous," said Armstrong. "Goodness knows where we'd find -ourselves." - -Scarcely had he spoken when from above came the dull sound of footsteps. -Switching off the light, Warrender backed into the chamber and hastily -crossed it with Armstrong, both moving on tiptoe. They re-entered the -tunnel, crept along for a few yards, then halted, listening -breathlessly. They heard the footsteps of one man in the chamber they -had just left. The footsteps ceased, and were followed by a rustling. -It seemed clear that their presence was unsuspected, and they ventured -to tiptoe back until, near the opening of the tunnel, they were able to -peep into the chamber. By the dim light that came through the aperture -left open by the revolved flagstone on the farther side, they saw a -short, stout man drawing sheets of paper from the opened package. He -counted them as he took them up, and presently turned, carried them -through the opening, and let down the flagstone behind him. There was -not light enough by which to identify him. - -[Illustration: "THEY SAW A SHORT, STOUT MAN DRAWING SHEETS OF PAPER FROM -THE OPENED PACKAGE."] - -The boys re-entered the chamber, and listened until the sound of his -retreating footsteps above had died away. Then Warrender switched on -the light, took a sheet of paper from the top of the bale, folded it, -and put it into his breast pocket. - -"Now for home," he whispered. "We've something for Percy to start a new -theory on." - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - WATERMARKS - - -As they began to retrace their steps through the tunnel, Armstrong -said-- - -"If we count our paces we shall have some sort of an idea where we've -been to. We know the tunnel runs pretty nearly due east from the ruins, -and there must be a building at the end. It seems to me it's a choice -between the Red House and that old tower. There's no other." - -"True. Well, we'll both count. Bet you we don't agree." - -"People never do agree when the count is a long one. Besides, we can't -keep step in the dark, unless we left-right all the way, and I'm hanged -if I do that!" - -They started. Suddenly Warrender stopped. - -"I say, we shall look pretty green if some one has discovered that open -trap in our absence--Rush, for example." - -"Frightful mugs, the two of us. We ought to have closed it. But it's -still very early in the morning. Let's hope Rush isn't up with the -lark. Hang it. I've forgotten how many steps I'd counted. What do you -make it?" - -"Fifty-eight. Concentrate your mind, my son." - -"I'll start at fifty-nine, then. Don't you think we might venture on a -light now?" - -"Not for anything. The tunnel's straight, and if you've ever been in a -straight railway tunnel you'll know a light can be seen for miles. -Better be on the safe side." - -They completed the course in darkness. - -"Well, what's your total?" asked Warrender. - -"Two hundred and eighty-three." - -"Mine's two hundred and ninety-one. Not so bad." - -On emerging into the cellar, they replaced the flagstone and made sure -that the hand-grips were turned as they had found them. Then they -mounted to the upper floor of the cottage. - -"I want to discover how that moaning is caused," said Armstrong. - -"But it means shinning up to the roof," said Warrender. "It's broad -daylight now. You might be seen." - -"So I might. Well, let's take a look over Ambrose Pratt's grounds." - -They went into the eastern room. The tower, a little south of the -house, appeared to be slightly the nearer to them, but, ignorant as they -were of the exact length of their paces, they agreed that the end of the -tunnel might lie beneath either of the buildings. - -Going then into the room facing south, they started back from the -window. Rush was tramping along the weedy path leading to the southern -end of the island. - -"Lucky I didn't climb!" murmured Armstrong. - -They watched the man. He seemed to be a little suspicious, stopping -every now and again to listen and look round. Presently he disappeared -into the thicket. - -"Safe to go now?" asked Armstrong. - -"Let's wait a bit." - -Warrender kept his eyes fixed on the stretch of river which was visible -over the low trees southward. After a while he saw a small boat moving -slowly down stream. - -"All right now," he remarked. "I dare say he's been spying out on our -camp from the north end. Hope he hasn't missed us." - -"Or found our pram! Come on, I want my breakfast." - -They stepped out of the cottage, regained the western shore, discovered -the pram where they had concealed it, and, having crossed the river -unobserved, so far as they knew, laid the craft in its former -hiding-place, and returned to camp. Pratt was busy at the paraffin -stove. - -"What ho!" he exclaimed. "One must feed, even when pain and anguish -wring the brow. I made sure the spooks or some one had got you, and -after fortifying myself with bacon and eggs I was going up to ask old -Crawshay whether an inquest would be necessary. You look very much -washed out. Been on the tiles?" - -"I'll wring your neck if you don't hand over that frying-pan," said -Armstrong. - -"Thy necessity is greater than mine. As you know, I'd lick Philip -Sidney or any other old paladin in chivalry. Eat, drink, and be merry. -There's enough coffee brewed for us all. Make a fair division of the -bacon and eggs between you, and I'll fry some more in a brace of shakes. -I say, I am jolly glad to see you! I've had the deuce of a time!" - -"More pin-pricks?" asked Warrender. - -"No. But I'm blessed--or cursed--with a very vivid imagination, as you -are aware. I stayed up till daybreak, expecting you back every minute, -and when you didn't come I got in a regular stew, saw you tumble from -the roof, and your members all disjected over the garden--horrid sight! -Saw you knocked on the head, trussed and gagged in the cellar; boated -off to France; growing white-haired in a dungeon like that fellow in the -Bastille--you know, finger nails a yard long--mice and rats and toads. -Toads were the last straw, I saw 'em hopping about, and----" - -"That bacon done?" said Armstrong. "How many bottles of ginger-beer did -you drink?" - -"I am not drunk, most noble Festus. But I say, what _did_ happen?" - -"I'd have told you already," said Warrender, "only I couldn't get a word -in." - -"That's the reward of patience! I only twaddled, you juggins, to give -you a chance to feed. You did both look awfully done up. The hue of -health is returning now. Fire away, then!" - -Warrender, between the mouthfuls, related the experiences of the night, -Pratt showing unusual self-restraint as a listener. - -"My poor old uncle!" he exclaimed at the conclusion of the story. "He -can't be convicted as an accessory, can he?" - -"Of course not," replied Warrender. "No one could hold him responsible -for what his foreign crew are doing in his absence. It's a pity you -don't know where he's gone. A cable or a Marconigram would bring him -home post-haste." - -"I might, perhaps, ask Gradoff for his last address." - -"The less we have to do with Gradoff the better, until we have got to -the bottom of the business. Just run down to the boat, will you, and -bring up our map." - -The scale of the map was two inches to the mile. A moment's examination -proved that the tower, marked on the map, lay within a radius of -one-eighth of a mile from the island. - -"There isn't much doubt that the far end of the tunnel is under the -tower," said Warrender. "The house is a trifle beyond. Didn't you ever -hear of the smugglers' passage, Percy?" - -"Never. All I know about it is the tradition that some one was starved -in the tower centuries ago. My sister and I used to play in it as kids; -it was a mere ruin then; no roof, no boarding on the windows." - -"I wonder if a local guide-book would give any information?" said -Armstrong. - -"Good idea! We'll see presently," said Pratt. - -"But we're not studying antiquities," Warrender remarked. "The -essential point is, what are those beggars using the place for now? -What are they doing with those bales of paper? Come into the tent, and -I'll show you the specimen I bagged." - -Within the shelter of the tent he unfolded the sheet, and the others -bent over it curiously, fingering it. - -"It has a sort of parchmenty feel, and it's much too thick for cigarette -paper," said Pratt. "Is there a watermark?" He held it up to the -sunlight. - -"Jiminy!" he exclaimed. Whipping out his pocket-book he took a pound -note, and held it beside the larger sheet. "Look here! The watermark's -almost, but not quite, the same. A dashed clever imitation. Here are -the words, 'One pound,' crowns, diagonal hatchings--everything. The -beggars are forging Bradburys." - -The sinister discovery almost robbed the others of breath. There could -be little room for doubt. Such paper, so marked, could be used for only -one purpose. A flood of light was poured on all the mysterious events -of the past week. The paper was brought from abroad, and landed as a -rule on the island in preference to the coast, to avoid the risk of -interference by coastguards; also, no doubt, for greater ease of -transport. Rush was employed because he was a well-known figure in the -neighbourhood, and could go up and down the river in his boat without -awakening suspicion. He might or might not know the contents of the -bales; what was clear was that the printing of the notes must be done -either in the tower or in Mr. Pratt's house. The foreigners had entered -his service with no other end in view than their criminal work. -Gradoff, the head of the gang, had probably known in advance of Mr. -Pratt's intention to travel, and had astutely seized the opportunity of -carrying on his operations in this remote spot, on the premises of an -eccentric gentleman who was something of a recluse, and prone to quarrel -with his neighbours. - -"They're clever blackguards," said Pratt. "No wonder the island is -haunted! And I say, Molly Rod's peculiar actions the other day are -explained. She has found out what's going on, and being a decent -Englishwoman, wants to stop it, husband or no husband. You may say what -you like, Jack; I'm certain it is she who makes those signals, and, of -course, my poor old uncle is absolutely ignorant of everything. He'll -be in a terrific bait when he knows." - -"What's our next move to be?" asked Warrender. "Inform the police?" - -"Certainly not that fellow who yarned about arson the other night," said -Armstrong. "It's a matter for the Chief Constable." - -"Or Mr. Crawshay? He's a magistrate," suggested Pratt. - -"And an impetuous old hothead," rejoined Armstrong. - -"Plenty of common sense, though," said Warrender. "You remember, he -said a good case is often lost through being ill prepared? Well, we've -still only suspicion to go on. There's no earthly doubt about it, of -course; but wouldn't it be best to catch the forgers in the act before -we call in the law?" - -"It means loss of time," said Armstrong. - -"That doesn't matter to us. You see, if we set the authorities at work -now, they might send a bobby to the house to make inquiries, and give -clever scoundrels like those a chance to get away. But if we can go to -them and say definitely, 'An international gang of forgers is printing -notes in the Red House, and here's one of the forgeries,' the matter -becomes much more important, and they'd take steps to secure the whole -crowd without the possibility of failure. To my mind we'd better keep -everything a dead secret until we've got positive proof." - -"I concur with my learned brother," said Pratt. "Besides, we've got so -far with it that I own I should hate to see it taken out of our hands. -Furthermore and finally, it's good sport, and a ripping holiday -adventure." - -"That's the best argument of the lot," said Armstrong. "The only sound -one. I confess I'd like to get into the tower, and see them at it." - -"We'll go through the tunnel again to-night," said Warrender. "If we -can't find an entry that way, we'll try the outside." - -"I make a third to-night," said Pratt. - -"We must leave some one in camp, if only for appearance's sake," said -Warrender. "I think Armstrong and I had better go again, as we know the -course. Hope you don't mind. Your turn will come, Percy." - -"Well, I'd like to feel myself a martyr, but unluckily I've got a -certain amount of common sense, and I can't help admitting you're right. -Hadn't you better take a snooze, then?" - -"I intend to," said Armstrong. "We'll sleep till lunch; this afternoon -we'll go to the village and get a guide-book. We want some more bacon, -too." - -"And I'll start preparing our case," said Pratt. "We'd better have it in -writing, so I'll draw up an account of our discoveries so far. -Shouldn't wonder if it becomes a classic document in the archives of -Scotland Yard." - -After lunch Armstrong and Warrender set off up the river in the dinghy -for the sake of exercise. They made various purchases in the village, -and obtained a small guide-book at the post office. It contained a few -lines about the tower, which Warrender read aloud as they returned to -the ferry: "In the grounds of the Red House are the remains of a square -tower, believed to date from the troublous times of King Stephen. There -is a tradition that in the thirteenth century a certain baron was -incarcerated there by an ancestor of the present owner, and starved to -death. At one time open to the public, since tourists cut their -initials in the oaken beams it has been closed to sightseers." - -"Not a word about smugglers, you see," remarked Warrender. "The secret -was evidently very well kept." - -Rogers happened to be cleaning his windows as they passed, and they -turned to have a chat with him. Warrender discreetly led the -conversation to the subject of the tower. - -"Ay, 'tis the only old ancient curiosity we've got in these parts," said -the innkeeper. "I know the place, though I haven't been there since I -was a nipper, thirty odd years ago. Us youngsters used to like to climb -the winding stairs; 'twas open in those days. Had no roof then. Mr. -Pratt a few years back did some restoring, as they call it; put on a -flat roof. My friend Saunders, his old butler, told me the top room was -used as a sort of museum; Mr. Pratt kept there a whole lot of -curiosities he'd collected in his travels. I mind as how my neighbour -Parsons, the builder, was affronted because the building job was done by -a firm from Dartmouth, and so far as I know none of the village folk -have been inside the place since. Mr. Pratt was very particular after -he'd rigged up his museum; wouldn't let anybody in except his special -cronies; and 'tis always locked up when he's away, so if you young gents -had an idea of visiting it, I'm afeard you'll be disappointed." - -"We should certainly have liked to see the museum," said Warrender. -"There's nothing else very interesting, apparently. But no doubt the -curiosities are valuable, and Mr. Pratt is quite right to lock up the -place. Have you seen your sister, by the way?" - -"Not a sign of her. She've deserted us quite. She won't even see Henery -Drew's milkman, I suppose becos Henery fought her husband's friend, -Jensen. I call it downright silly, but there, who'd be so bold as to -say what a woman'll do next? There's my missus----" - -"Now, Joe," called Mrs. Rogers from within, "get on with they winders, -my man. There's all the pewters to shine afore opening time." - -Rogers gave the boys his usual rueful smile, and they went on their way. -Rowing with their faces up stream, they did not notice until they pulled -in to the landing-place above the camp that the motor-boat no longer lay -at her moorings. - -"Have those beggars let her drift again?" said Warrender, angrily. -"Pratt!" he called. - -There was no answer. They looked down the river. The boat was not in -sight. Hurrying to the tent, with the expectation of finding Pratt -asleep there, they discovered that it was untenanted. - -"What the dickens!" exclaimed Warrender. "Surely he hasn't gone larking -with the boat? He always prided himself on knowing nothing about her -working!" - -"Seems to me they've run off with him and the boat too," said Armstrong. -"Where's his banjo, by the way?" - -It was neither in the tent nor on the chair outside, where Pratt -sometimes left it. - -They looked blankly at each other for a moment, then Warrender -exclaimed-- - -"Come on! This is serious! I can't believe he's kidnapped. What's the -use of that? Let us row down--perhaps he hasn't gone far." - -They ran to the bank, sprang into the dinghy, and sculled rapidly down -stream, every now and then turning their heads to scan the river, the -banks, the island, for a sign of the motor-boat. They had almost reached -the mouth when Armstrong suddenly cried-- - -"Listen! Isn't that a banjo?" - -They shipped oars. Faintly on the breeze from seaward came the strains -of "Three Blind Mice." A few strokes brought the rowers round the -slight bend. Looking out to sea they descried, about half a mile away, -the motor-boat, stationary, lapped by white-crested wavelets. - -"By George! He's picked up some girls," exclaimed Armstrong. - -There were certainly two parasols, a pink and a blue, at the stern of -the boat. - -"The young dog!" cried Warrender. "And got them stranded on a sandbank. -But 'Three Blind Mice!' He's a rummy idea of entertaining girls." - -The sound of the banjo ceased. "Ahoy!" came from the boat, and the two -parasols were agitated. The scullers pulled on. - -"Heavens! It's Mrs. Crawshay and her daughter," said Warrender, after -glancing over his shoulder. Armstrong grinned. - -"Twig?" he said. "Master Percy has been showing off." - -"Silly young ass! Jolly lucky he hasn't wrecked 'em! I shall have to -talk to him." - -They rowed almost up to the boat, keeping clear of the sandbank. - -"Hullo, old sports," said Pratt. "Really, Phil, you ought to carry a -chart--an up-to-date one, you know, that would show all the coral reefs -and other traps for the hapless navigator. The Admiralty ought to mark -'em with buoys or lightships or something, but you can never expect -anything from the Government. There's no danger, of course. I assured -the ladies that they needn't be the least bit nervous or frightened, but -it's annoying to be pulled up when you don't want to be. I'm sure a -'bus conductor must get frightfully annoyed when the old 'bus is -spanking along and somebody wants to get in or out. I dare say you've -noticed it, Mrs. Crawshay; the conductor is so ratty at being -interrupted that he simply won't see the umbrella you're waving at him -from the kerb. Mrs. Crawshay and Miss Crawshay were kind enough to pay a -call on us at the camp this afternoon. It was just after you had gone, -and as it was far too early for tea, I thought it would be -interesting--what they call a treat, you know"--Pratt's impetuous tongue -had fairly run away with his _savoir faire_--"to take the ladies for a -spin, especially as they had never been in a motor-boat before. I -promised faithfully to bring them back to tea; you got some meringues -and things, of course--and I have a distinct grudge against fate for -making me out to be not a man of my word. There's no armour against----" - -"Oh, Mr. Pratt, please!" Lilian Crawshay implored. "Mr. Warrender, can -you get us off?" - -"I have given up all hope of tea," said Mrs. Crawshay, good-temperedly. -"We have friends coming to dinner, and Mr. Pratt tells me that we must -wait till the tide turns. Will that be long?" - -"Three hours or so, I'm afraid," replied Warrender. - -"Dear, dear! We shall be very late, Lilian," said Mrs. Crawshay. - -"Can't you tug us off?" asked the girl. - -"I'm sorry to say we haven't a hawser. But I think we could pull the -dinghy near enough for you to get into it, if Mrs. Crawshay would -venture?" - -"I'll venture anything rather than wait here three hours," said the -lady, "though Mr. Pratt has been most kind. I have really quite enjoyed -it, but three hours more, you know----" - -"It would be rather awful!" said Warrender, with a glance at Pratt, who -having succeeded in his object, to prevent certain disclosures, was -mopping his brow in the background. Now, however, he came forward. - -"That's right, Phil," he said. "No nearer, or you'll run aground too." - -He leapt overboard, and stood up to his knees in water. "I'll hold the -boat's nose, Mrs. Crawshay. Or perhaps I might take you in my arms -and----" "Bless the boy! You're getting your feet wet. No, no! I don't -think you shall take me in your arms." - -"Or try pick-a-back? Or shall I make myself into a gangway for you to -walk over? I'd stand perfectly firm." - -"If you would give me a hand! Lilian, my dear, jump in first. Then you -can each give me a hand, and I shall manage very nicely. Dear me! What -an adventure for an old woman!" - -"Not at all," said Pratt. "I mean----" - -"I am sure you do," said Mrs. Crawshay, interrupting. "Will you take my -parasol?" - -Pratt meekly relieved her of the parasol, then turned to help the girl -into the dinghy. Lilian, however, sprang in without his aid, and -between them the two boys assisted the mother, who gave a sigh of relief -as she sank down upon the thwart. - -[Illustration: "BETWEEN THEM THE TWO BOYS ASSISTED THE MOTHER"] - -"We'll come back for you presently, Pratt," said Warrender, stiffly. -"Don't attempt to run up, mind." - -"Good-bye, Mr. Pratt," said Mrs. Crawshay. "And thank you so much. When -you come up to dinner, be sure to bring your banjo." - -The two boys pulled off, Pratt climbing back into the motor-boat. - -"What a clever, amusing person Mr. Pratt is," said Mrs. Crawshay to -Armstrong, facing her. "So ready! And an excellent performer on the -banjo! We could never be dull in his company. He talked most amusingly, -then sang us song after song. Don't you think 'Two Eyes of Blue' very -pretty, Mr.----" - -"Rather sentimental, isn't it?" said Armstrong, blushing. - -"All his songs are sentimental. He was playing a very funny tune, -though, when you came round the bend. I was sure his voice was getting -tired, and asked him just to play. The tune was quite unknown to me, -but I thought it very cheering." - -Meanwhile, at the other end of the boat, Lilian had been giving -explanations to Warrender. - -"He intended just to bring us to the mouth of the river, but seemed to -have some difficulty in turning round. I think he said he wanted more -sea-room. At any rate, he ran out to sea, and then we stuck on that -wretched sandbank. He talked and sang to amuse us; he has quite a -pleasant voice, but his songs are dreadfully sentimental, aren't they?" - -"Frightful tosh!" returned Warrender. - -"Well, it was very good of him, especially when he must have been much -annoyed at the mishap, which, of course, wasn't his fault." - -"No, of course not," said Warrender. - -"You speak as if you thought it was." - -"Oh, no. Any one might run on a hidden sandbank. But the fact is----" - -"Yes?" - -"You see, he was in charge of the camp." - -"You mean he oughtn't to have come at all?" - -"Naturally he thought it would please you and Mrs. Crawshay, but----" - -"Oh!" - -The girl said no more. - -"She thought I was jealous, or huffy, or something," Warrender confided -to Armstrong later. "I wonder what she'd have said if I'd told her that -the idiot had never run a motor-boat before?" - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - THE TOPMOST ROOM - - -It was in the evening twilight that Armstrong and Warrender put off in -the pram for their second expedition to the tunnel. On reaching the -ruins, Warrender posted himself in one of the lower rooms, while -Armstrong mounted to the upper floor, intent on discovering the source -of the ghostly moans. Climbing out of the window opening, and pulling -aside the ivy, he found that steps had been made in the brickwork of the -crumbling wall, by means of which any one with a steady head might with -ease ascend to the roof. And there, behind one of the gables, partly -protected from the weather, he came upon a long metal organ pipe laid -flat, and near it a large funnel-shaped object. A strong breeze was -blowing from the south-west, but the organ pipe gave forth no sound. - -Still puzzled as to the manner in which the sound was produced, and -reflecting that Pratt would probably have jumped to it at once, -Armstrong heard a low whistle from below. He scrambled hastily down, -and had only just slipped into the eastern room when he heard lumbering -footsteps upon the stairs. From the doorway he watched the man whom he -had seen in the morning. A minute or two after the new-comer had entered -the western room, the moaning broke out. Armstrong waited until the man -had descended and all was quiet again, then once more climbed upon the -roof. The mystery was solved. The funnel had been so adjusted as to -catch the wind, and direct it with some force into the mouth of the -organ pipe. It turned like a weather-cock, so that the sound was -independent of the veering of the wind. - -Rejoining Warrender, Armstrong informed him of the discovery, and -suggested that he should examine the contrivance for himself. - -"I'll take your word for it," said Warrender, smiling. "I don't care -about steeple-jack feats in half darkness. We'll wait a little before -we follow that fellow through the tunnel. Let's go up and watch for the -signal." - -It was perhaps half an hour later when the light appeared above the -tree-tops. - -"Most certainly it's S.O.S.," said Armstrong, after counting the -recurring glows. - -"I shouldn't wonder if Pratt is right after all, and it's Molly Rod -signalling. He was right about the organ pipe." - -"Doesn't it occur to you that the light may come from the tower?" - -"But if the forgers are at work there, why should any one signal?" - -"Can't we discover whether it's from the tower or the house?" - -"We can't take any bearings in the dark. Stay, though. If we move back -from the window, and go to the side of the room, perhaps we'll find a -spot where the light just becomes invisible. I'll mark that on the -floor, and in daylight there'd be no difficulty." - -Acting on this suggestion, they were not long in discovering the -required spot. Warrender scratched a pencil mark on the floor; then -they descended to the cellar, cautiously lifted the flagstone, and -groped their way through the tunnel until they came to the chamber at -the end. Nothing was altered there, except that the opened bale of -paper had been removed. They had intended to enter the archway on the -farther side, and lift the flagstone which, they suspected, closed the -entrance to another cellar; but from above there came dully a succession -of regular thuds which proved that somebody was about, and active. - -"I dare say that's the press at work," said Warrender in a whisper, -after they had listened for a few minutes. - -"Doing overtime," said Armstrong. "I suppose, not knowing exactly when -Mr. Pratt will return, they want to make the most of their opportunity. -Who knows how many thousands of pounds of spurious money are getting -into circulation? No doubt Gradoff had his trunk full of notes that -morning we saw him driving off in the car." - -They seated themselves on the unopened bales, hoping that work would -presently cease, and the man would leave the tower. But the thuds -continued with monotonous regularity. - -"Every thud means a forged note," said Armstrong. "They may be going on -all night. How long can you stick it?" - -"We'll wait till eleven; then if they're still at it, we'll go back and -reconnoitre the outside." - -"Perhaps they have a sentry." - -"Perhaps; but I fancy they'll feel pretty safe now that they've chevied -us from the island." - -At eleven o'clock the work was still going on. The boys retraced their -course to the ruins, regained the pram, and allowed it to drift on the -current down channel to the south of the island. There they lay to for -a few minutes, listening, peering through the darkness. There was no -moon; the starlight scarcely revealed the outlines of the trees. -Presently, with careful, soundless movements of the sculls, they rowed -across to the left bank, and, pulling the craft out of sight, landed a -little below the island, and laboriously pushed their way through the -thicket, guiding themselves by the compass. Some fifty yards from the -bank the vegetation thinned, and they found themselves in a wood of -taller trees. Here the going was easier, though once or twice they -stumbled over trunks that had been felled and stripped ready for -carting. Emerging from the wood into park-like ground, where there were -large trees only at intervals, they progressed still more rapidly, and -at last caught sight, on their left, of the dim, square shape of the -tower. Behind a broad elm they stood for a minute or two, watching. -There was no light in the tower. Its base was surrounded by a mass of -low-growing shrubs. The doorway, no doubt, was on the farther side from -them. The walls were covered with ivy, except at the window openings, -where the recent boarding was visible as faint grey patches. - -"Now for it," whispered Warrender. - -They stole forward over the long grass. As they drew nearer to the -tower they heard the dull regular thudding; there was no other sound. -Armstrong posted himself at one corner, while Warrender gently pushed a -way through the shrubs to the wall. He examined the boarded window, -apparently an old embrasure much widened. The boards were on the inside; -the outside was protected by cross bars of iron. He went round the -building. There was only one other window opening on the ground floor. -At the north-eastern angle he halted, looking out for a possible sentry, -then crept along until he reached the entrance, a low iron-studded door -flush with the wall. Putting his ear against the wood, he heard more -clearly the metallic thuds, and men's voices. A footstep approached. -He slipped back to the corner, and crouched in the shelter of a shrub. -The door opened outwards, creaking on its hinges, and letting out a -stream of light. A short, stout figure emerged from the tower, carrying -a number of cans which rattled as he walked. - -"_Fermez la porte!_" - -The words, in a savage, half-suppressed shout, sounded from some little -distance away in the direction of the house. The man addressed hastily -closed the door behind him, and went on. Warrender saw another man meet -him. They stopped and exchanged a few words. Rod continued his way to -the house, his progress faintly marked by the rattling cans. The other -man came towards the tower. He opened the door quickly, slipped inside, -and shut it. In the one second during which the light shone out, -Warrender recognised the pale face of Paul Gradoff. - -He hurried round to the spot where Armstrong had remained on guard. - -"All right!" he whispered. "No sentry. Rod has just gone to the house; -Gradoff has gone in." - -"Well," returned Armstrong, "what can we do?" - -"We'll try the door first of all. Come on!" - -They moved with slow, careful steps round the tower, came to the door, -and gently tried the handle. There was no yielding; the door was -fastened. They went on to the western face of the tower. Here also -there was a window opening on the ground floor, as securely boarded up -as the other. At equal intervals above it were two other embrasures, -similarly blocked. - -"No way of getting in," murmured Armstrong. - -The sound of the door creaking sent them scurrying to cover in the -undergrowth. When all was silent again, Warrender whispered-- - -"Come among the trees. We can talk more freely there." - -They crept over the ground, and took post under a tall, thick-leaved -beech nearly a hundred yards away. - -"I don't see any chance of getting in," said Warrender, "and that's a -pity. I wanted to see them actually turning out their forged notes." - -"I suppose it was Gradoff going out again we heard just now," said -Armstrong. "If he and Rod are both away, there can't be more than four -others in the tower, probably not so many. They'll take turns at -night-work." - -"That doesn't matter. Any forcible entry is quite out of the question, -if that's what you're thinking of. I say, isn't that a light up the -tower?" - -More than half-way up the wall a faint streak of light was visible. - -"Evidently there's some one in the top room," said Warrender. "Some one -sleeps there, I suppose. The machine is on the ground floor. Where -light gets out, we should be able to see in. You've done some climbing -already to-night; are you game to clamber up the ivy? There's no other -way." - -"I weigh eleven stone," said Armstrong, dubiously. - -"But ivy's pretty tough. It may support you. You may find foothold in -the wall." - -"Hanged if I don't try. You'll stand underneath and break my fall if I -tumble. I reckon it's about thirty feet up; plenty high enough to break -one's neck or leg." - -They hastened to the foot of the tower. With Warrender's help, -Armstrong got a footing in the lower embrasure. Then, taking firm hold -of the stout main stem of the ivy, he began to swarm up, seeking support -for his feet in the thick, spreading tendrils and in notches of the -stone-work. Warrender watched him hopefully. Slowly, inch by inch, he -ascended. He gained the second embrasure, rested there a few moments, -then climbed again, and was almost half-way to his goal, when he felt -the ivy above him yield slightly. Digging his feet into the wall, he -hung on, but at the first attempt to ascend he felt that the attenuated -stem would no longer support his weight, and began slowly to lower -himself. - -At this moment Warrender heard the door creak, and threw up a warning -whisper. Armstrong stopped, effacing himself as well as he could amongst -the ivy, to which he clung with the disagreeable sensation that he was -dragging it from its supports above. Voices were heard; heavy -footsteps. After a few moments they ceased. Were the men turning to -come back? Had they heard anything? Then came the scratching of a -match. Warrender drew relieved breath; some one had halted, only, it -appeared, to light his pipe or cigarette. The footsteps sounded again, -gradually receding, and finally died away. - -"All safe!" whispered Warrender. - -Armstrong let himself down, and stood beside his friend. - -"A quivery job," he murmured. "My arms ache frightfully. It's not to -be done, Phil. Another foot up and I should have dragged down the whole -lot, possibly a stone or two as well. We're fairly beaten." - -"The sound inside has stopped. They've apparently knocked off work; -it's past midnight. I wonder if any one's left inside?" - -"Why should there be?" - -"Well, there was some one up above. Is the light showing still?" - -They walked some distance away from the tower, and looked up. The thin -streak of light, so faint that it might have escaped casual observation, -still showed at the level of the topmost room. They went to the door and -again gently tried it. It was shut fast. - -"We had better get back," said Warrender. "There's nothing to be done." - -"Unless we try the tunnel again, now that all is quiet inside." - -"If you like." - -They crossed the grounds with the guidance of the compass, and presently -came among the medley of prostrate trunks. - -"I've an idea," said Armstrong. "It'll take a long time to get back -through the tunnel. Why not shift one of these poles, and put it up -against the tower? I could climb then, and take a look in at that upper -window." - -"Good man! We must take care to get one long enough." - -They found a straight fir stem that appeared to be of the required -length, carried it to the tower, and raised it silently until the top -rested in the ivy, just above the left-hand corner of the window. - -"Steady it while I climb," said Armstrong. "Don't let it wobble over." - -He began to swarm up. For the first eighteen or twenty feet it was easy -work; then with every inch upward his difficulties grew, for not only -was there less and less room between the pole and the wall, but the pole -itself showed more and more tendency to roll sideways, in spite of -Warrender's steadying hands below. Slowly, very slowly Armstrong -mounted, maintaining equilibrium partly by clutching the ivy. At last, -gaining the level of the window, he gripped one of the iron bars that -stretched across it, rested one knee on the wide embrasure, and peeped -through a narrow crack between two of the boards. - -He was transfixed with amazement. The first object that caught his eye -was the figure of an elderly man, bald, with thick grey moustache and -beard, seated at a table, resting his head on his hands as he read by -the light of a small paraffin lamp the book open before him. On one end -of the table stood a couple of plates, one holding a half-loaf of bread, -a knife, and a jug. Upon the walls beyond him hung animals' horns, -tusks, savage weapons, necklaces of metal and beads. The remainder of -the room was out of the line of sight. - -As Armstrong gazed, the inmate got up and paced to and fro. He was tall -and lank; his clothes--an ordinary lounge suit--hung loosely upon his -spare frame. There was a worn, harassed look in the eyes beneath a -deeply furrowed brow. He strode up and down, his large bony hands -clasped behind him; sighed, sat down again, and began to take off his -clothes. - -[Illustration: "HE STRODE UP AND DOWN, HIS LARGE BONY HANDS CLASPED -BEHIND HIM."] - -Puzzled as to the identity of this solitary, wondering whether he, and -not Gradoff, was the head of the gang, Armstrong backed down to make his -descent. The pole swayed as his full weight came upon it, and he saved -himself from crashing to the ground only by desperately clinging to the -ivy, and forcing the top of the pole into a tangled mass of the foliage. -Then he slid rapidly down, barking his hands on the rough stem. - -"Quick!" whispered Warrender. "You made too much row." - -He ran backwards, letting down the pole; Armstrong caught up the lower -end, and they hurried away with it, laying it in the wood among the -others. Meanwhile they had heard sounds of movement from the tower. -Some one had come out. There were low voices, footsteps coming towards -them. Without an instant's delay they pushed on in the direction of the -river, thankful for the darkness of the night and the overshadowing -trees. Only when they had gained the shelter of the thicket did they -dare to pause for a moment to consult the compass. On again, but more -slowly, lest the rustling leaves should betray them. - -At length they came to the channel. The island was opposite to them. -Turning southward, they groped along the bank until they stumbled upon -the pram. They launched it, and floated down stream. When they were -well past the southern end of the island they pulled round into the -broader channel, and, closely hugging the right bank, rowed quietly up -the river to their landing-place. - -Only then did Warrender venture a whispered question-- - -"What did you see?" - -"An oldish man, reading." - -"Not one of those we have seen?" - -"No. Can't make it out." - -They returned to camp. It was past two o'clock. Pratt sprang up from -his chair before the tent, and held a small paraffin lamp towards them. - -"Well?" he asked, guessing from their aspect that they brought news. - -"They were working in the tower," said Warrender. "We heard the -machine, and couldn't risk going up from the tunnel. But we came back -and reconnoitred the outside, and Armstrong climbed up and peeped -through a crack in the boarding of the top room. What did you see, -Jack?" - -"An old man reading by the light of a paraffin lamp." - -"Another one of the gang!" exclaimed Pratt. - -"I don't know. Perhaps. He looked haggard and anxious." - -"No wonder. What was he like?" - -"Tall and thin, with grey moustache and beard." - -"A foreigner?" - -"Couldn't tell. He might well have been English. A queer old -johnny--hook-nosed, high bald head: might have been a 'varsity -professor." - -"What!" shouted Pratt. "Bald! Beard! Hook nose! Like a professor! -Great heavens--my uncle!" - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - ZERO - - -A half truth, some one has said, is the greatest of lies: perhaps there -is nothing more staggering to the intelligence than a half discovery--a -discovery which solves one problem only to propound another. - -"My old uncle, for a certainty," said Pratt. "He has been bald as long -as I can remember him: lost his hair in the wilds of Africa, I believe. -Years ago his man stuffed me up with the tale that a lion clawed his -tresses out by the roots. Lucky he didn't marry, or his wife might have -plagued him about wearing a wig, like Mother Rogers. That's the mystery -of the signal solved, then." - -"Is it?" said Armstrong. "No signal was ever shown from the window of -that top room; that I'd swear. The light we saw to-night was the merest -streak: came through a slit certainly not more than a quarter of an inch -wide." - -"But hang it all!--there's the poor old chap a prisoner: who else would -signal for help?" - -"I thought you suggested Molly Rogers," remarked Warrender. - -"I've given that up. Didn't Rogers say she knows nothing about signals? -But that doesn't matter. The point is that those foreign blackguards -have him under lock and key while they're committing a criminal offence -on his premises. I shouldn't wonder if it killed him, or made him clean -potty. He's over sixty, and solitary confinement----" - -"I say, it's very late," Armstrong interrupted. "We've none of us had -much sleep lately. Let's see what's to be done and then get all the -rest we can before morning. I foresee a thick time to-morrow." - -"We must set old Crawshay moving," said Pratt. "No doubt he's hand in -glove with the Chief Constable." - -"We talked about Crawshay before," rejoined Armstrong. "The affair is -complicated now. We've got your uncle's safety to consider. You may be -sure that those ruffians won't stick at trifles, and if any action is -taken against them publicly it's quite on the cards that they'd put a -bullet into the old man. I'm inclined to think it's up to us." - -"What do you mean?" asked Warrender. - -"We know the subterranean entrance to the tower. Can't we get in and -release him ourselves? He'd be valuable outside as a witness." - -"But, my dear chap, if the prisoner disappeared the foreigners would -know the game was up," said Warrender. "They'd clear off before they -could be caught." - -"Look here, old man, he's my uncle," said Pratt earnestly. "The poor -old boy has been cooped up there goodness knows how long. He's over -sixty, accustomed to an active life: imagine what it means to him. It's -just the sort of thing to send him to a lunatic asylum for the rest of -his days. I'd never forgive myself if I didn't make some effort to get -him out of it. If you put it to me, I say I don't care a hang whether -the forgers are caught or not. The personal matter quite outweighs any -other. If we go interviewing magistrates and constables we'll lose -precious time: you know what officials are. The thing is, to rescue my -old uncle without a moment's delay, and let the rest take its chances." - -Pratt's unwonted gravity had its effect upon his companions. - -"Shall we try it?" asked Warrender, turning to Armstrong. - -"I'm game," was the ready reply. "It's risky: no good blinking that. -We are three to six or seven, if we include Rush; and there's not the -least doubt they're armed. Fellows like that always carry automatics. -We've got cudgels! We can't fight 'em; our only chance is to get in -when there are few of them about." - -"That's during the morning," said Warrender. "You remember that Gradoff -has twice gone off in the car, and that morning we went up all the men -were at the house." - -"Except Rush," added Armstrong, "and that ugly fellow we weren't -introduced to." - -"Well, then, I tell you what," said Pratt. "I'll go into the village in -the morning and find out whether the car has left as usual. We want -some eggs, and some spirit for the stove. I'll get that at Blevins's, -and see if I can pump a little information out of him or his assistant. -If Gradoff and the chauffeur are away the odds against us will be -reduced, and with luck we might get into the tower in their absence. -What do you say?" - -"There seems nothing better," said Warrender. "Let us turn in and get -four or five hours' sleep." - -Soon after breakfast next morning Pratt went off alone in the dinghy. - -"By the way," Warrender said as he was pulling away, "bring an ounce of -pepper, and a large tin of sardines. We can't bother about cooking -to-day, and sardines want a little condiment." - -"A packet of mustard, too," called Armstrong. "There's none for -to-morrow's bacon." - -"Righto," shouted Pratt. "I shan't be long." - -Arrived at the village, he made his purchases at the little provision -shop, thrust them into his pocket, and went on to the general dealer's -for a can of spirit. As he approached, he heard a high-pitched, angry -voice from the depths of the yard at the side of the shop. - -"You go at vunce, at vunce, I say. Ve hire your car; vat is ze goot? -Always it break down, one, two, tree times. It is too much." - -"Ay, and you owe me too much already," replied Blevins gruffly. - -Pratt halted, straining his ears towards the altercation. - -"You pay up: that's what I say," Blevins went on. "You've had my car a -week or more, and over-drive, that's what you do. And not a penny piece -have you paid." - -"But zat is all right," expostulated the foreigner. "Mr. Gradoff he pay -at end of ze month. He say so; vell, you vait all right. You have--vat -you call it?--a bike; it is ten mile, but vat is zat? You go quick." - -[Illustration: "'BUT ZAT IS ALL RIGHT.'"] - -"And you think I'm going to ride twenty mile for a commutator. Not me. -What do you want the car for, anyway? Driving in and out nigh every -day, scorching along fit to bust up any machine. What's your game? Do -'ee take me for a fool? You're up to some hanky-panky while your -master's away. Think I didn't know that all along? Nice goings on! A -pretty tale the village 'll have to tell him when he gets back! Spending -his money like I don't know what. Spending, says I; running up bills, -that's what it is. You pay up, and you shall have a commutator. I don't -need to ride no bikes to fetch it: I've got it on the spot; only I'll -see your money first." - -The men had begun to walk up the yard. Pratt slipped into the shop. -Evidently the car would not be used to-day, he thought, if Blevins -remained obdurate. Evidently, also, Blevins was suspicious of the -doings at the Red House, though it was clear that he had no well-defined -idea of what those doings were, or any knowledge of Mr. Pratt's -whereabouts. He went past the shop, still bickering with the Italian. -Pratt had a free field. - -His former acquaintance, the youthful assistant, came forward to attend -to him. - -"Good-morning," said Pratt, genially. "It seems quite an age since I -saw you. I've often thought of that pleasant little conversation we -had. But I'm in rather a hurry to-day. I want some methylated spirit: -that's what you call it, isn't it?--the stuff that burns with a blue -flame. Rummy how often blue comes into business affairs, don't you -think? Last time I was here I wanted blue tacks, I remember. By the -way, I suppose your friend, the gardener at the Red House, hasn't bought -any more tacks?" - -"No friend o' mine," growled the youth. - -"Indeed! It's a pity not to be friends. Friendship oils the machinery -of life, don't you know. Still, I am sure it's not your fault. Why -doesn't he reciprocate the amiable sentiments you cherish towards him?" - -The youth gave Pratt a puzzled stare. "I don't know nothing about -that," he said slowly. "All I do know is, I hate furriners, I do so. -Fair cruel they be. Why, the feller comed in here not a hour ago and -wanted six foot of iron chain--to chain up a dog. 'Twas cruelty to -animals, and so I told 'un." - -"Perhaps the dog feels the heat and gets snappy." - -"But the thickness of it! Look 'ee here, sir; here's the chain I cut. -'Tis thick enough to hold a mad bull. Do 'ee call that a chain for a -dog? He wouldn't have a little small chain, as was proper." - -"Well, after all, you haven't seen the dog. It may be a whopper of a -brute. Give him the benefit of the doubt. You'll feel better now -you've told me." - -He paid for the can of spirit and left the shop. Blevins and the -chauffeur were a little way up the road, still quarrelling. Forgetting -the eggs that were part of his commission, Pratt hastened back to the -ferry, and found that his friends had just arrived in the motor-boat. - -"We saw Rush pulling down stream," said Warrender, "and hurried up to -meet you and save time. He's one less. Any news of the car?" - -"It appears to have broken down," replied Pratt, going on to relate what -he had heard. "Pity Gradoff won't be away. But the Italian is still -squabbling with Blevins, and if we look sharp we may get into the tower -before he returns to the house. That will make them two short." - -He had placed on the deck the can of spirit and the tin of sardines -while he was speaking, then tied the dinghy astern and jumped aboard. - -"Rush wasn't going to the island?" he asked. - -"We watched him row past it," said Warrender. "He's probably off to his -hut. Let's hope that the other fellows are at the house and not at the -tower." - -"It's 'over the top' now," remarked Armstrong, as the boat sidled away -from the landing-stage. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - THE PRISONER - - -Pratt was the only one of the three who had the curiosity to look at his -watch when they descended into the cellar of the ruined cottage. It was -twelve minutes past ten. - -They had tied up the motor-boat at its moorings below the camp, and -after a careful look-out in all directions, had crossed to No Man's -Island by Mr. Crawshay's pram. For weapons Pratt and Armstrong each -carried a short thick cudgel; Warrender at the last moment caught up his -spanner, remarking that he might need a knuckle-duster. - -The flat stone was revolved. They sprang lightly into the cavity below. - -"Shall we leave it open in case we have to come back in a hurry?" asked -Warrender in a whisper. - -"Better close it," said Armstrong. "If Rush or the other fellow turns -up and finds it open we may be fairly trapped." - -Having made all secure they stood for a few moments listening. There -was no sound. - -"Now," said Warrender, moving to the front with his electric torch. -"You're lucky, Pratt; you're the only one of us who can walk upright." - -"'Were I so tall to reach the pole,'" Pratt quoted. - -"Shut up!" said Armstrong, in a murmur. "Every sound carries. You can -recite your little piece when we're through with it." - -Slowly, quietly, in pitch darkness, they groped their way. Warrender -thought it prudent not to switch on his light. At the dry well they -halted to listen once more. On again, until they reached the vaulted -chamber at the end. From overhead came the dull regular thud of the -working machine. This was a disappointment. They wondered how many men -were above. Did the trap here give entrance to a cellar as in the -cottage? Was the printing done in such a cellar, or on a higher floor? -They could not tell. The least movement of the flagstone might be -noticed; they might be overwhelmed before they could emerge; but it was -no time to weigh risks. - -Armstrong went forward, and by a momentary flash from Warrender's torch -saw the positions of the hand-grips. With infinite care he moved them -round, and let the flagstone drop for a fraction of an inch. The sound -from the machine was scarcely louder; only a subdued light shone through -the crack. He lowered the stone noiselessly a little more; again a -little more. The thuds continued; there was no other sound. No longer -hesitating, Armstrong turned the stone over until it stood upright and -peered over the edge of the cavity. He saw a large, dimly lit chamber, -evidently underground, one side of which was filled with packing cases, -crates and boxes. On the other side was a wooden staircase with a short -return, giving access to the room from which came, more distinctly now, -the thud of the printing press. It was only through the opening at the -head of the staircase that light, apparently from a lamp, penetrated -into the chamber. - -Armstrong scrambled up; Warrender was following him, when the thuds -suddenly ceased. The boys held their breath. Had they been heard in -spite of their care? There was no movement above. Warrender signed to -Pratt to clamber up. Whether from excitement, or because he was shorter -than the others, Pratt dropped his stick, which fell with a crack upon -the floor. A voice from above called out two or three words which none -of the boys understood. They had the rising inflection of a question; -the last seemed to be a name. With quick wit Pratt uttered a low-toned -grunt as if in answer. Armstrong flung a glance at his companions--a -look in which they read resolution and a claim for their support. Then -he walked boldly up the stairs. - -On turning the corner he saw the well-remembered figure of Jensen the -Swede in his shirt-sleeves, bending over, examining the platen of a -small hand printing press. No daylight penetrated into the room, which -was illumined by a powerful lamp hanging from the ceiling. Jensen's -back was towards the staircase. He did not at once look up; Pratt's -grunt had apparently satisfied him; but he growled a few words in a -tongue unknown to the boys, as if he was finding fault with the machine. -Receiving no answer, he glanced up. At the sight of Armstrong he -remained for an instant in his bent position, motionless, as though -turned to stone. Then he dashed towards the farther wall, where his -coat hung from a nail. - -[Illustration: "HE REMAINED FOR AN INSTANT IN HIS BENT POSITION, -MOTIONLESS."] - -His momentary hesitation was his undoing. Armstrong sprang after him. -Before the man could withdraw his hand from the coat pocket Armstrong -struck down his left arm, raised instinctively to ward off a blow, with -a smart stroke from his cudgel, following it up with a smashing -left-hander between the eyes, which drove his head against the wall. -While he still staggered, Armstrong seized him about the middle and -flung him to the floor, wrenching from his hand the automatic pistol he -had taken from his pocket. - -"Hold his legs," cried Armstrong to Warrender, who had joined him. -"Pratt, bring up some rope; there's plenty on the packing cases below." - -The Swede heaved and writhed, but the firm hands of Armstrong and -Warrender held him to the floor until Pratt had neatly bound his arms -and legs. He filled the air with curses while the pinioning was a-doing. -Warrender caught up some sheets from the pile of paper that had already -been printed, and twisting them into a wad, stuffed it between the man's -teeth. Laid helpless against the wall, the Swede concentrated all the -bitterness of his rage and resentment in his eyes, which followed every -movement of his captors. - -Armstrong had already shot the stout bolt that defended the heavy oaken -door on the inside. Having disposed of their victim, they threw a hasty -glance at the small hand press, the piles of paper, printed and -unprinted; in their eagerness to achieve their purpose they did not stay -to make a thorough examination. - -"Jack, will you close the trap-door below and remain on guard here?" -said Warrender. "Take this fellow's pistol. You can spy out through a -chink in the boarding, and if you see any of the others coming, sing -out." - -"Righto," said Armstrong. - -Pratt was already through the low doorway in the north-east corner of -the room. Warrender followed him, and found himself at the foot of a -dark stone staircase, which wound so rapidly that Pratt was even now out -of sight. The stairs were much worn in the middle, and in their haste -to ascend the boys were glad to avail themselves of the rope that ran -along the inner wall, supported by rusty iron stanchions. - -When they had mounted a score of steps by the light of Warrender's -torch, they came to an open doorway giving access to a low room lined -with bookcases, except on the eastern wall, where a window, closely -boarded up, looked towards the Red House. A desk stood in the centre of -the floor; there was no other furniture, no occupant, only an array of -small tin cases along one of the walls. Going higher, they presently -halted before a closed door, the top of which was only a few feet below -the massive timbers of the roof. Pratt turned the large iron ring; the -door did not yield. He rapped smartly on the oak: there was no reply. -Stooping, he peeped through the enormous keyhole. The interior of the -room was dark. Warrender held the torch to the hole. - -"The door's four or five inches thick," said Pratt. "No wonder he can't -hear--if this is the room. Bang with your spanner." - -Warrender smote the door vigorously, Pratt listening at the keyhole. -There was no reply, but Pratt declared that he heard a slight movement, -and putting his mouth to the keyhole he cried-- - -"Can you hear? We are friends." - -Still there was no voice in answer. The only sound was a clanking of -metal. - -"Is your uncle deaf?" asked Warrender. - -"He wasn't ten years ago. You try, Phil; your voice may carry better -than mine." - -"Are you Mr. Ambrose Pratt?" Warrender shouted, then turned his ear to -the hole. - -"Yes. Who are you?" - -The words were spoken in tones so low and hollow that Warrender could -scarcely distinguish them. - -"Friends," he replied. "Your nephew Percy. Come to the door." - -"What did you say?" - -"Come--to--the--door!" Warrender bawled, spacing out the words. - -"Why do you mock me? You know I cannot." - -Again came the clanking of metal. - -"He must be deaf," said Pratt. - -"We have come to help you," cried Warrender, slowly and distinctly. -"Can you open the door?" - -"To help me!" The clanking was louder, more prolonged. "Are the -villains gone? Who are you?" - -"This is rotten," said Warrender to Pratt. "Shall I never make him -understand? Please be still and listen," he called. "We are friends. -We have come to let you out. Can you help us?" - -"No. The door is locked. That man Gradoff has the key, and I am -chained." - -"Good heavens!" ejaculated Pratt. "Can we burst in the door?" - -Standing on the narrow top step of the staircase, with winding stairs -behind them, they were unable to bring any momentum to bear, and the -pressure of their shoulders did not cause the heavy timber to yield a -fraction of an inch. Warrender tried to force first the head of his -spanner, then the narrower end of the handle between the door and the -side-post. He failed. - -"Get Jensen's pistol and blow it in," suggested Pratt. - -Warrender hurried down the stairs. Returning with the pistol, he called -through the keyhole-- - -"We will try to blow the lock in. Keep away from the line of fire." - -"Fire away. I am at the side of the room," said the prisoner. - -Warrender placed the muzzle in the keyhole and fired. There was the -crack of shattered metal, but still the door did not yield. He fired a -second time and pushed. - -"It is giving. Shove!" he said. - -Pratt turned his back to the door, and thrusting his feet as firmly as -he could against the curving wall, he drove backwards with all his -force. The fragments of the broken lock clattered upon the floor -within, and the door swinging open suddenly, precipitated Pratt headlong -into the room. - -Warrender flashed his torch upon the scene. Against the left, the -eastern wall, sitting on a roughly contrived bunk supported between two -massive oaken beams that stretched from floor to roof, was the tall lank -figure that Armstrong had described. He was chained by the leg to one -of the beams, the chain forming a loop around it, the last link being -riveted to one in the longer portion. - -Ambrose Pratt gazed in speechless surprise at the two schoolboys. - -"Uncle!" exclaimed Pratt, going forward with outstretched hand. - -Mr. Pratt looked with an expression of utter bewilderment and -incredulity. - -"Don't you remember me? I'm your nephew Percy," said the boy. - -"My nephew!" murmured Mr. Pratt. - -"Let us postpone explanations," said Warrender. "We have to get away. -Hold the chain, Percy. I'll smash it with the spanner." - -But the chain, which the general dealer's assistant had described as -strong enough to hold a mad bull, resisted all the vigorous blows -Warrender rained upon it. - -"Run downstairs, Pratt," he said, "and see if there's a hammer and -chisel below--or any tool about the printing press." - -During Pratt's absence he repeated his efforts with the spanner, but -made no impression on the tough steel. Pratt returned with a long steel -rod which he had found lying near the press, and inserting this in one -of the links, they tried to burst it. - -"No good!" declared Warrender. "Nothing but a chisel and hammer will do -it. I've both in my tool box in the motor-boat. We must have them. -It's the only chance. You had better go for them, Pratt. Jack and I -could tackle the foreigners if they came up." - -"All right," said Pratt. "What's the chisel like?" - -"What's it like?" exclaimed Warrender. "Like a chisel! Hang it! We -can't risk a mistake. I'll go myself. You stay with your uncle. Jack -will keep guard below, with the pistol. The door's strong, and we may -be able to keep the enemy out until I have time to get back, suppose -they come. I'll be as quick as I can: afraid I can't do it under half an -hour. Good luck!" - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - THE PACE QUICKENS - - -"So you are my nephew Percy," said Mr. Pratt when Warrender had gone. -"Light the lamp and let me look at you. I don't recognise you. When -was our last meeting?" - -"About ten years ago," replied Pratt, surprised at his uncle's calm -demeanour. "You tanned me for picking one of your peaches." - -"Did I?" Mr. Pratt smiled. "You were always a mischievous young -ruffian. But how do you come here? Do you bear an olive branch from -that cantankerous father of yours?" - -"I came through the tunnel," Pratt began, ignoring the aspersion upon -his father. Mr. Pratt interrupted him. - -"What tunnel?" - -"The tunnel between No Man's Island and this tower. Didn't you know of -it?" - -"I never heard of it before. Who told you about it?" - -"We discovered it by accident. My chums and I came for a boating -holiday, and camped on the island. We have had----" - -"You saw my signals?" his uncle interposed. - -"Yes, and----" - -"And the police are informed? These villains will be arrested?" - -"Well, as a matter of fact, Uncle," said Pratt, and was again -interrupted. - -"You did not? Then I am afraid you and your companions have tumbled -into a hornets' nest, young man. As we are to have apparently a few -minutes' leisure, I think you had better put me wise, as our American -friends say, about the essential facts of the situation. How many do -you muster?" - -Pratt, in the exalted mood of a rescuer, and himself bursting with -questions, was a little dashed by his uncle's cool matter-of-fact -manner. - -"There are three of us," he said. "We got in through the tunnel, and -found one man below at the printing press." - -"A printing press! Indeed! What literature are my guardians -disseminating?" - -"Forged notes." - -"Forgers!" ejaculated Mr. Pratt, for the first time showing signs of -agitation. "Things are worse than I dreamed. You are sure of what you -say?" - -"Absolutely. We found the watermarked paper." - -"The scoundrels! You had better get away. If these fellows are an -international gang of forgers they will have no scruples. The lives of -you and your companions are not worth a rap. Leave me. Get away while -there is time. Inform the police and leave matters in their hands." - -"It's too late for that," said Pratt. "We have trussed up the man -downstairs. Our only idea was to rescue you. If we left you now the -others would find Jensen and know that the game is up. They might shoot -you. We must get you away now at all costs." - -"It is utter folly. Hare-brained adventuring! I fear you are right; it -is too late. I must join forces with you when this chain is broken. I -blame myself that my signals have let you young fellows into this -terrible trap." - -"We had suspicions before we saw them--in fact, ever since we heard -about your staff of foreign servants." - -"Yes, yes. I have been frightfully deluded. No doubt it is the talk of -the village. I engaged my cook and gardener through an advertisement. -The cook introduced that scoundrel Gradoff as an unfortunate Russian -nobleman driven from his country. The plausible wretch engaged the -others. They seemed a respectable, hard-working set of men. I was -making hurried arrangements for a trip to North Africa via Paris. -Gradoff gave me every assistance. I was on the point of starting. They -kidnapped me and shut me up here. I thought their sole motive was -robbery. Gradoff tried to get me to sign cheques for large amounts. I -flatly refused, of course. They adopted starvation tactics, threatened -to murder me; but I have looked death in the face too often to purchase -life at such a price. They dropped these efforts some time ago, but I -suspected that Gradoff was forging my name, and thought he would -liberate me as soon as he had fleeced me bare." - -"And how did you signal, with the windows boarded up?" asked Pratt. - -"With handfuls of flock from my mattress dipped in paraffin, stuck on a -lath from my bed and poked up the chimney. Gradoff discovered me last -night. I was in the chimney. He had gone to the roof, saw the flame -emerge, and snatched the lath from my hands. He whipped out his pistol -and threatened to shoot me. I laughed at him; asked him whether he -wished to add murder to forgery; he gave me a curious stare at that. I -reminded him that we still retain capital punishment. He cursed me and -left. This morning he brought the chain. No doubt he would have killed -me if there had been anything to gain by my death; but he must have -supposed that the signals had not been seen; they had had no apparent -result. You say you had suspicions before you saw the signals. -Why?--apart from the usual British distrust of foreigners." - -Pratt was beginning to recount the series of incidents that had occurred -since the arrival on No Man's Island when there came a hail from below. -He went to the top of the stairs. - -"What is it, Armstrong?" - -"Can you come down for a moment?" - -Pratt ran downstairs. - -"I didn't want to alarm your uncle," said Armstrong, "but just now, -looking through a chink in the boards, I saw four men coming towards the -tower. What are we to do?" - -Pratt went to the boarded window and looked out. - -"Gradoff and the chauffeur," he said. "The other two I haven't seen -before. We might have tackled two; let 'em in and bagged them. But -four!--probably armed, like Jensen. It's no go." - -"We can only lie low, then, and play for time. The door's a stout piece -of timber, and it's not so easy to blow off a bolt as to blow in a -lock." - -"Don't speak," whispered Pratt, "they're just here." - -The handle of the door was turned. Then came a sharp knock. A pause of -a few seconds; then a more peremptory knock and Gradoff's voice. - -"Jensen!" - -The Swede prostrate against the wall wriggled and emitted a low gurgling -noise through his gag. The boys glanced at him; he was unable to release -his limbs; the sound could not have been heard through the thick door. - -A third time Gradoff knocked. He rattled the door-handle, repeated his -call, with the addition of sundry violent expletives. The boys remained -tensely silent. - -The voices without subsided. Conversation was still carried on, but in -lower tones. - -"Probably they think he is downstairs getting paper," whispered Pratt. -"There's nothing alarming at present." - -"But they'll smell a rat if he doesn't soon answer. What then?" - -"They may think he has fallen ill or something." - -"And then?" - -"Well, I can't answer for the intelligence of Gradoff and company, but -if I were in his shoes I should either break in the door or send some -one round by the tunnel. You see, he can't have the ghost of an idea -what has happened. And if his game were discovered, he wouldn't expect -to find the place merely closed against him." - -"I dare say you're right. But don't you think you had better go through -the tunnel and hurry Phil up? We should be in a pretty tight place if -Gradoff did send a man or two round, and we found, when we had released -your uncle, that the exit at the other end was blocked." - -"I don't care about leaving you alone. Suppose they broke in while I -was away?" - -"Two wouldn't be much better than one against four armed ruffians. And -they'd guess that you and Phil had gone to fetch the police, and I fancy -they'd be too anxious to save their skins to bother much about me. At -any rate, I'll risk it. I think you had better go. In fact, when you -meet Phil, why not go and tell Mr. Crawshay how things stand? Phil and -I will get your uncle away if it's possible, and though I don't suppose -Crawshay could do anything to secure the gang--there's apparently only -one policeman--he might 'phone or wire the authorities, and set every -one on the qui vive for miles around." - -"All right. If I'm going, better go at once, before any one has time to -go round by the cottage. I'll consult Phil about your suggestion, and go -to Crawshay if he agrees. I wish I had the torch. I shall have to grope -my way along the tunnel, but I'll be as quick as I can." - -He ran noiselessly down the stairs. The flagstone was upright, as it -had been left. He jumped into the cavity, crossed the store-room, -entered the tunnel on the farther side, and hurried along as rapidly as -the darkness allowed. Now and again he stopped to strike a match and to -listen for Warrender's footsteps, but he reached the end without having -seen or heard anything of his friend. - -By the light of a match he saw that the flagstone was slightly -depressed. Then he caught sight of Warrender's electric torch lying on -the ground, and was seized with a vague uneasiness. He picked up the -torch. Revolving the stone, he heard something slide with a metallic -rattle along its surface, and felt a smart blow on one of his feet. He -flashed the torch, and saw a hammer and a chisel. Still more uneasy, he -clambered up into the cellar, and without lowering the flagstone, -climbed on to the staircase. - -"You there, Phil?" he called up. - -There was no answer. The door at the top was open. He rushed up, ran -through the kitchen and the corridor to the front of the cottage, and -looked anxiously around. No one was in view. - -"What on earth is he doing?" he thought. - -It was clear that Warrender had fetched the tools from the motor-boat -and returned to the cellar. Why then had he left them there? Where had -he gone? What could have interrupted him? - -Pratt felt himself on the horns of a painful dilemma. He had now the -instruments of his uncle's deliverance; one impulse urged him to hurry -with them back to the tower. On the other hand, Warrender's -disappearance argued that something untoward had happened, and he was -loth to leave the spot without making an attempt to find him. For a few -moments he stood in the doorway, weighing the one course against the -other. A search for Warrender might prove fruitless, and in any case -would take time. Meanwhile affairs at the tower might be developing in a -way that would nullify the prime motive that had actuated them all--the -release of his uncle. It seemed that this had a paramount claim upon -him, and he turned, reluctantly, to retrace his steps to the cellar. - -As he passed the foot of the staircase to the upper floor, it occurred -to him that from the windows there, giving a wider outlook over the -surroundings of the cottage, he might see Warrender approaching: -perhaps, indeed, as the result of an after-thought, he had made a second -visit to the motor-boat. Pratt ran upstairs, and going from room to -room, threw a searching glance upon the prospect. Neither on the eastern -side nor on the western was there anything to attract his attention. -But looking out of the window of the room facing south, he noticed that -the foliage of the thicket beyond the weedy path was violently -disturbed. Some one was moving in it, towards the ruins. He watched -eagerly: surely it was Warrender returning. Presently two legs came into -view; but they were not Warrender's. They were encased in rusty brown -leggings. In another moment the figure of Rush emerged from the thicket -upon the path, and immediately behind him was a second form, that of a -tall and heavily built man with a broad flattish face. When free from -the thicket they quickened their pace. - -Pratt hesitated no longer. The men were evidently making for the ruins: -perhaps they intended to proceed along the tunnel. It was imperative -that he should anticipate them. He hastened downstairs, and had just -reached the cellar when he heard clumping footsteps overhead. Leaping -into the cavity, he swung the stone over, turned the hand-grips, and by -the light of the torch bolted along the tunnel. After running about -twenty yards he switched off the light and stopped. Voices came from -behind him; then he heard two heavy thuds in succession; the men had -jumped into the tunnel. The flagstone banged as it was swung carelessly -into place; the men were coming after him. Without more delay he set -forward with all speed, guiding himself by touching the walls with his -outstretched hands. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - TRAPPED - - -Meanwhile, what had happened to Warrender? - -On entering the cottage by way of the tunnel and the cellar, he went -upstairs to make a careful survey of the surroundings, saw no sign of -the enemy, and hurried across the island to the pram, in which he -crossed the river unobserved. In less than ten minutes he was back at -the cottage with the hammer and chisel taken from his motor-boat. As he -was on the point of re-opening the trap, he found that the electric -torch showed a much feebler light than before, and if it gave out before -Mr. Pratt was brought away, the flight through the tunnel might be -dangerously delayed. It seemed worth while to pay another rapid visit -to the camp for the purpose of getting a small hand lamp or a couple of -candles. Laying the hammer and chisel under the staircase, he went up -again, once more crossed the island, found one candle in the motorboat, -and returned without delay. - -It happened, however, that as he left the cottage on this second -journey, Rush and his big flat-faced companion were approaching it from -the south. Unseen themselves, they caught sight of Warrender as he -emerged from the entrance, watched him until he had disappeared into the -thicket, waited a few minutes, then entered the cottage and descended to -the cellar. They had no light, and Warrender had taken the precaution -of carefully replacing the flagstone; but in his haste he had omitted to -close the upright slab beneath the lowest step, leaving open the access -to the handgrips. Rush was suspicious. The gap might have been left -open, of course, by one of the confederates; on the other hand, it was -possible that the secret passage had been discovered by the boy he had -seen leaving the cottage. The boy might return, and Rush allowed his -curiosity to delay the visit to the tower on which he had been summoned. -It was an error of judgment that had important consequences. - -He posted himself with his companion in a remote corner of the cellar, -and waited. - -Some ten minutes later, Warrender came down the steps. He flashed his -torch to light the opening, retrieved the hammer and chisel, and laid -them down on the flagstone while he inserted his arm in the gap to turn -the hand-grips. All the time his back was towards the men lurking -within twenty feet of him. As he sprawled over the stone, there was a -sudden noise behind him. Hastily withdrawing his hand, he half rose, but -too late. Seized by powerful hands and taken at a disadvantage, he was -helpless. His torch fell into the gap, and in the darkness he was -dragged up the stairs between his captors. - -"Cotched 'en!" chuckled Rush, as they lugged him through the hall. -"What'll we do with 'en, Sibelius?" - -"Kill!" said the Finn. "Throw in river!" - -"No, no, that won't do!" said Rush. "He bain't alone. There's the -other young devils. It bain't safe. I think of my neck. No; we'll take -'en down to the hut and tie 'en up; he'll be out of harm's way there, -and in a few hours it won't matter." - -Like most Englishmen in speaking to a foreigner, he shouted, and the -Finn warned him to speak more quietly: the prisoner would hear all he -said. - -"What do it matter?" laughed Rush. "Let 'en hear--by the time his -friends find 'en we'll be far away. Curious 'tis, that we've cotched -'en the very last day. If it'd a been yesterday, we might have _had_ to -kill 'en. We'll stuff up his mouth, though; t'others may be about." - -Pulling Warrender's handkerchief from his pocket, he rolled it up, and -thrust it between the lad's teeth. Warrender ruefully reflected that -just in such a way had Jensen been gagged that morning. Then the men -hauled him through the thicket towards the point of the island where -Rush moored his boat. - -"I say, Sibelius," remarked Rush, when they were half-way there, "I -reckon we'd better not take 'en to the hut after all. 'Twill take time, -and we don't know where his mates be. Better go and tell the boss all -about it; he'd be fair mad if anything spoilt his game the last moment." - -"What we do, then?" asked the Finn. - -"We'll truss 'en up: plenty of rope in the boat; and put 'en in among -the bushes. He'll be snug enough there." - -He chuckled. Dismayed at the prospect opened before him, Warrender, who -had hitherto offered no resistance, made a sudden dive towards the -ground, at the same time throwing out his leg in an attempt to trip the -bulkier of his captors. But though he succeeded in freeing one arm, and -causing the Finn to stumble, he had no time to wrench himself from -Rush's grip before the other man had recovered his balance and seized -him in a clutch of iron. - -"Best come quiet!" growled Rush, "or there's no saying what we might do -to you. I've got a tender heart," he chuckled, "but my mate 'ud as soon -kill a man as a rat." - -Arrived at the boat, they threw him into the bottom, and the Finn held -him down while Rush swiftly roped his arms and legs together. Then they -carried him a few yards into the thicket, and laid him down in a spot -where he was completely hidden from any one who might pass within arm's -length of him. - -[Illustration: "RUSH SWIFTLY ROPED HIS ARMS AND LEGS TOGETHER."] - -"Now we'll traipse through to the tower," said Rush. "He'll take a deal -of finding, I'm thinking!" - -The men struck away towards the ruins, satisfied that their victim could -not escape, and that his hiding-place was not likely to be discovered -until discovery mattered nothing. They had not noticed, however, that -while the trussing was in progress, Warrender's cap had fallen off, and -now lay between two of the thwarts of the boat. - -Pratt, hurrying along the tunnel with the hammer and chisel, and knowing -that he was pursued, felt that he had done rightly in not making a -prolonged search for Warrender. His sole pre-occupation now was the -necessity of outstripping his pursuers by an interval sufficient to -allow him time to block up their ingress to the tower. If Armstrong was -still unmolested, and Mr. Pratt could be set free, the three were -capable of dealing with the two men in the tunnel, and might make good -their escape before Gradoff and his confederates at the tower door had -any inkling of the true situation. - -He soon understood that he was gaining on the men behind; but he -presently became aware that, not far ahead of him, daylight seemed to -have percolated into the tunnel. For a moment he was nonplussed until -he remembered the dry well. It then occurred to him in a flash that -some one must have removed the boards that had lain across the top of -the well, and he was seized with a misgiving. Had Gradoff, unable to -obtain admittance to the tower, bethought himself of this opening into -the tunnel from above, and lowered one or more of his men, who had -already made their way to the end, and perhaps overpowered Armstrong? - -Taking advantage of the faint illumination of the tunnel, he quickened -his pace. In a moment or two he saw to his consternation a man swing -down the well, and on reaching the ground, begin to release himself from -the rope that was looped under his arms. It was not a time for -hesitation. Pratt dashed forward, flung himself against the man before -he was free from the rope, and drove him doubled up against the wall. -The man yelled; from the top of the well forty feet above them came -excited shouts; and out of the tunnel behind sounded hoarse -reverberating cries from the pursuers, who must have seen what had -happened. Pratt plunged into the tunnel beyond, and, sprinting along -with reckless haste, arrived in a few minutes breathless at the end, -where the flagstone was still raised as he had left it. - -He sprang up, slammed down the flagstone behind him, and let out a lusty -cry for Armstrong to join him. - -"They're after me--at least three of them!" he exclaimed, as Armstrong -came leaping down the stairs. "Help me to lug these boxes on to the -flagstone." - -The crates and boxes ranged along the wall were empty, and their weight -alone would not have sufficed to resist the pressure of determined men -below. But the roof was low-pitched, and the boys saw that by piling -box upon box they could create an obstruction which would defy all -efforts to remove it. With feverish haste they dragged the boxes across -the floor, and had already placed them one upon another when they heard -footsteps beneath, and felt a movement of the flagstone. - -"Another box will do it," said Armstrong. "You must heave it up while I -stand on the stone." - -He placed himself on the half of the stone that moved upwards as it -revolved, and bore down with all his weight. Pratt pulled over a fourth -box, and, standing on the projecting edge of that which formed the base -of the pile, managed with some difficulty to shove it on to the top, -where a space of no more than two or three inches separated it from the -roof. - -"Good man!" said Armstrong, stepping off the stone. - -The pressure below raised it perhaps three inches, then it stuck. - -"We'll put another pile on each side, to make all secure," said -Armstrong. "Then I think we needn't worry." - -With less haste they erected the buttress piles, listening grimly to the -hoarse curses of Rush, and shriller cries from a foreigner by whose -voice they recognised the Italian chauffeur. In a few minutes their -work was done. Short of an explosion, nothing could dislodge the jam of -boxes between the flagstone and the roof. - -Panting from the strain of their exertions, they went up into the tower. - -"Where's Phil?" asked Armstrong. - -"I don't know," replied Pratt, going on to relate rapidly his discovery -at the end of the tunnel. - -"They've got him, I expect," said Armstrong. "Though I can't make out -how they came to leave this hammer and chisel." - -"What has happened here?" asked Pratt. - -"Nothing. Gradoff and the others waited outside for a bit, talking -quietly. I couldn't understand what they said. Then Gradoff sent the -chauffeur towards the house, and by and by went off himself in the -direction of the river, leaving the two strangers behind. Evidently he -had sent the chauffeur for a rope. Perhaps he thought Jensen had drunk -himself silly, and decided to let a man down the well--a much shorter -way than going across to the island and entering by the tunnel. The -fat's in the fire now. If we release your uncle we can't get him away." - -"No," replied Pratt, looking through the chink in the boards. "Here -they come: Gradoff, Rod, the Pole, the whole gang except the fellows -below. It strikes me we are squarely trapped." - -Looking towards the prisoner on the floor, Armstrong fancied he caught a -malignant gleam in the man's eyes. - -"On the whole," he said quietly, "I'm inclined to agree with you." - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - A PARLEY - - -"You're more hefty with tools than I am," said Pratt to Armstrong. "So -if you'll run upstairs and smash that chain off my uncle, I'll keep an -eye on what's happening outside." - -"Right," replied Armstrong. "The hammer strikes me as a bit light for -the job, but one can only try. Yell if you want me." - -Taking the hammer and chisel, he leapt up the winding staircase to the -topmost room. Mr. Pratt was thoughtfully drawing his fingers through -his beard. - -"So you are the third member of the trio," he said. - -"Yes, I'm Armstrong. If you'll kindly stretch the chain tight over the -edge of the bed, I'll do my best to break a link. I'm afraid I shall -jar you, but----" - -"Don't consider that. Make your break as near my leg as you can." - -"I'll break the loop. Are you ready, sir?" - -"Quite." - -For perhaps two minutes the room echoed and re-echoed with the metallic -din of hammering. The chisel was of finely tempered steel, and Armstrong -compensated the lightness of the hammer by the vigour of his blows. A -link snapped, the chain clanked upon the floor, and the prisoner stood -up, free. - -"Very neatly done," said he. "And now I will go below and join you and -your companions in a council of war." - -"There are only two of us now, sir," said Armstrong. "Warrender didn't -come back." - -As they went downstairs he related succinctly the events of the last -three-quarters of an hour. Mr. Pratt made no comment. Entering first -the room at the bottom, he threw a glance on the printing press, the -piles of paper, and the Swede glowering on the floor; then he turned to -his nephew. - -"Well, Percy, what is going on?" he asked. - -"Nothing, Uncle. I haven't seen any of the men. D'you think they see -the game is up, and have bolted?" - -"I think not, judging by what your friend has just told me. It appears -that they have captured the other man--Warrender, I think you called -him--and they know that you two are here. It seems improbable that they -will decamp already. They outnumber you hopelessly, and it is more than -likely that there is a large number of forged notes in the tower which -they will secure if they can." - -"Well, as the coast seems clear, can't we get away?" asked Percy. "We -came to rescue you; our job's done." - -"But, if you'll permit me, mine is just beginning," said Mr. Pratt. "Do -you suppose that I'd be content to walk meekly away, and let the pack of -scoundrels who have made my house a hotbed of crime get off with the -fruits of their villainy?" The old gentleman spoke warmly. "I've -knocked about the world for more than thirty years, been in many tight -corners, and I've never knuckled under to man, beast, or circumstance. -This is the tightest of them all, and, by the Lord Harry, I'll make a -fight for it. You young fellows----" - -"We're with you, sir," cried Armstrong, enthusiastically. - -"Rather!" exclaimed Pratt. "If you're game, Uncle Ambrose----" - -"Let us keep cool," returned his uncle. "I'm no longer under any -illusions as to the character of the wretches I was misguided enough to -employ. They are forgers--that is bad enough--but before they were -forgers they were anarchists, members of that fraternity of fools whose -ideas, put into practice, would turn the world into a hell. There are -no more reckless malefactors than these international gangs who exercise -their criminal propensities under the cloak of political enthusiasm. -Make no mistake, young fellows; in resisting Gradoff and his gang we -take our lives in our hands. In their eyes we are of less value than -rats." - -"We've got to keep 'em out, then," said Percy. - -"Let us keep cool, I repeat. Let us discuss the situation." - -"Yes, sir," said Armstrong, somewhat amazed at the professional manner -of the old gentleman; "but time's flying, and----" - -"Therefore it is vitally important that we should focus our attention. -As I read the situation, we shall have to stand a siege. Gradoff -determines to save his forged notes, if not his accomplice yonder. The -question is, what will he do?" - -"I know what I'd do if I----" began Pratt, but his uncle silenced him -with a gesture. - -"What you would do is not in question. What Gradoff will do we must -infer from the probabilities. His final aim must be to get away quickly -with his booty. His booty is inaccessible while we hold the tower. -Therefore he must either persuade or compel us to let him in. Finding -persuasion, reinforced by menace, futile, he will attempt compulsion. -That is to say, he will bring up all his men and try to force the door. -It is useless for us to blink facts--just peep through the crack, Percy, -and see if he is already moving." - -Percy reported that still there was no one in sight. - -"Then we will continue our calm conference. Gradoff had four men under -him at my house. One of them, Jensen, the Swede, lies there. From what -you tell me he employs also Rush, and another foreigner whom I have -never seen. You tell me that two strangers--by their appearance -foreigners--came with him to the tower to-day. Therefore we are three -against eight." - -"But we are inside," said Percy. - -"As a chicken is inside an egg. The shell can be cracked. That door, -stout as it is, can be hacked through, blown in, or battered down. -Probably they will not risk an explosion; it might attract even our -stolid village policeman to the scene. Defending our position with such -poor weapons as we have, we cannot prevent the enemy from sooner or -later forcing an entrance." - -"These are surely arguments for scuttling, sir, while we have time," -said Armstrong. - -"I am not arguing, but calmly stating facts," returned Mr. Pratt. -"Scuttle! Is it conceivable that I shall scuttle for fear of this -pirate crew, who have half-starved me, chained me up, carried on their -dastardly work under my roof? But let me keep cool," he added, checking -the tide of indignation. "The villains break in, I say, sooner or later. -What then? With your assistance I propose to defend the stairs. The -winding of the staircase is in favour of the defence. In so narrow a -space the assailants lose the advantage of numbers. With resolution we -shall hold our own." - -"But that can't go on indefinitely, Uncle," said Pratt. "They could -starve us out." - -"Hardly; for this reason. You will be missed from your camp. Mr. -Crawshay, you tell me, knows that you are making investigations. Your -prolonged absence will alarm him; he will raise a hue and cry. Gradoff -is perfectly aware that what he has to do must be done quickly. If we -can withstand him for twenty-four hours, he is a beaten man." - -"You think, then, sir, that they will give it up within twenty-four -hours and then bolt?" said Armstrong. - -"That is my forecast. They will save their skins and lose their forged -notes, which are no doubt hidden away somewhere in the tower. Take -another look out, Percy." - -The boy peered through the crack in the boarding, and again reported no -one in sight. - -"Come with me to the roof," said his uncle. "From there we can survey a -wide extent of the park. Armstrong will oblige me by remaining on -guard." - -He led the way up the stairs to the topmost room. Here he opened a low -door in the wall, which gave access to a short flight of steps leading -to the flat roof. Looking out towards the river, they saw a group of -men gathered about the well-head. A moment later they caught sight of -Gradoff and the two strangers approaching the tower from the direction -of the house. Mr. Pratt leant over the parapet in full view, watching -them. One of the strangers noticed him, and caught Gradoff by the arm. -The Russian looked up, halted, and seemed for a moment to be taken -aback. The three men spoke rapidly together, then advanced to the foot -of the tower. Gradoff tried the door. Retreating a few steps, he -called up-- - -"Hola!" - -"Well?" said Mr. Pratt, leaning on the parapet. - -"Come down and open the door. I have a proposition to make." - -"Make it now. I can hear you quite well." - -"You have Olof Jensen in the tower?" - -"He is a prisoner. Yes." - -"I also have a prisoner--one of three boys. I exchange him for Jensen, -on condition that you come out with the other two." - -"And then?" - -"You shall go free, provided you promise to remain quietly in the park -for two hours and do not approach the house." - -"You would accept my promise?" - -"Certainly." - -"And what assurance have I that you would keep yours?" - -"You have my word, witnessed by my friends here." - -"And what is your word worth, by whomsoever witnessed?" - -Gradoff's habitual smoothness left him. Shaking his fist, he shouted-- - -"I will show you what my word is worth. If you do not unbolt the door -we shall kill you like--like a dog. I give you one minute." - -Mr. Pratt leant motionless on the parapet, gazing down at the three men -with a grim smile. Beside him his nephew, tingling with excitement, -felt unbounded admiration for this strange uncle of his. The minute -passed in silence. Gradoff, watch in hand, paced restlessly about. His -friends stood together. - -At the end of the minute Gradoff thrust his watch into his pocket. - -"Look out, Uncle!" cried Percy. - -One of the strangers had whipped out a revolver with extraordinary -rapidity and fired point-blank at the motionless figure above. Mr. -Pratt did not wince--showed neither fear nor agitation. Slowly -unfolding his arms, he stood erect and turned to his nephew. - -"Come," he said, "I think it is time we went below." - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - "VI ET ARMIS" - - -When uncle and nephew regained the lower floor they found that Armstrong -had not been idle. From one side of the room he had hauled a long, stout -table and set it up endwise against the door, between that and the -printing press. - -"Capital!" said Mr. Pratt. "You have doubled the thickness of our -armour. But, in default of sandbags, we must find something to -strengthen our defences still further." - -"I had thought of that, sir," said Armstrong. "There's nothing but this -bale of paper and the sheets already printed. I think they will pretty -well fill the space between the press and the door; if not we can get -some of the boxes from below. They are no longer needed there." - -"Excellent idea! You young fellows set about that while I keep watch." - -In a few minutes the boys had wedged the paper and a number of boxes -into the vacant space, so as to form almost a solid block. Mr. Pratt -meanwhile reported the movements of the enemy without. - -"Gradoff is surrounded by his gang. He is haranguing them. Two of them -have gone away towards the river. Nick Rush looks a little -uncomfortable. No doubt he prefers stealth and secrecy, and has visions -of the interior of a prison cell. Wonderful how brave a man can be if -he thinks he will not be found out. They are taking off their coats. -Aha! They are going to ram us. The two men have returned with a long -pole. A pity I had those trees felled; pity, too, that I had the -parapet so thoroughly repaired, or we might have hurled stones upon our -assailants in the manner of our ancestors. They used boiling oil, too, -molten lead, and various other pleasant devices which are out of our -power. Ah! The performance is about to begin. Six of them have lifted -the pole--a fine, straight piece of timber. One of the strangers, I -observe, is lending a hand. Gradoff is usually so calm and -self-contained that the excitement with which he is now giving orders is -somewhat amusing. What weapons have we, by the way?" - -"I have that fellow Jensen's pistol, sir," said Armstrong. "Besides -that we have only short cudgels." - -"And the hammer and chisel," added Percy. - -"We are unexpectedly well off," said Mr. Pratt. "I think I will take the -pistol; no doubt I am a little more used to that sort of thing than -Armstrong. For the rest--come, my lads, Gradoff has finished. Stand -ready!" - -The position now was that before an entry could be forced, the door must -be broken, and the barricade of table, boxes and paper overthrown. Mr. -Pratt and the boys had just posted themselves beside the printing press, -when there was a thundering crash at the door. The room seemed to -quiver; some of the upper sheets of paper rose and fell as if a wind had -blown upon them; and the vibration caused the printing press to give -forth a low ringing note. But the stout oaken door had not yielded. -There were shouts outside. A few moments passed; then the building -shook under the impact of a second stroke. - -"Heart of oak!" exclaimed Mr. Pratt, with satisfaction. "The door is -oak; the ram, I think, is beech. Listen." - -The tones of Gradoff's voice, soaring to an unnatural pitch, were heard -chiding, urging, encouraging. A third time his men advanced, not with -the cheery unisonal "Yo! ho!" of British tars, but each man raising his -particular cry. - -"More vim in that," remarked Armstrong, as the shattering blow -resounded. "And look, sir." - -About a foot below the upper hinge of the door, which was not covered by -the table, a jagged streak of light shone through. - -"Yes," said Mr. Pratt, coolly. "They have cracked the shell. The -hinges will give. In five or six minutes they will be scrambling over -our barricade. I find I have only four cartridges; they must be -reserved for the critical moment. Percy, run upstairs and bring down the -hammer and chisel--yes, and the chain. I have no objection whatever to -turning the enemy's weapons against him." - -While Percy was absent, the assailants, who had evidently marked the -damage already done, again rammed the door, on the same side. There was -a flood of light through a gap nearly a foot square; splinters of timber -across the upturned end of the table fell at Armstrong's feet. At the -next blow the door split from top to bottom, and the whole of the upper -part fell inwards. Apparently the enemy guessed that some attempt at a -barricade had been made, for their next stroke was delivered lower down, -with such force that it broke through the door, drove the table in, and -sent some of the piled-up boxes toppling. - -"Won't you now try a shot, sir?" said Armstrong. - -"They have drawn back; next time," replied Mr. Pratt. "Stand clear." - -Once more the battering-ram was rushed forward. It could now be seen -that the shorter men held the fore part; the taller men were behind. Mr. -Pratt raised his arm, but before he could take deliberate aim the -forceful stroke carried the remnants of the door inwards, and hurled the -shattered table, broken boxes, and flying sheets of paper in one -indistinguishable mass upon the printing press, which gave way and fell -with a mighty crash upon the floor. Mr. Pratt barely escaped being -overthrown with it. He staggered backward, and the pistol was knocked -from his hand. The small figure of the Italian chauffeur leapt into the -breach, and began to clamber over the wreckage. Armstrong darted -forward, and, before the man had time to swing round, Armstrong's cudgel -descended with a resounding crack upon his skull, and he fell sprawling -among the litter. - -[Illustration: "HE STAGGERED BACKWARD, AND THE PISTOL WAS KNOCKED FROM -HIS HAND."] - -But Maximilien Rod was at his heels. Stumbling over him, the cook -plunged head foremost among the boxes, only his fall saving him from -Armstrong's club. Immediately behind him dashed the tall Pole. Having -no time to swing his cudgel, Armstrong jabbed at him, and catching him -under the chin sent him reeling against the doorpost. Meanwhile Mr. -Pratt had disengaged himself from the obstructing press and regained his -pistol, just as Rush and his big comrade of the island forged through -the opening. The Pole had sprung to his feet with catlike agility. A -revolver cracked. Mr. Pratt recoiled, rapidly changed his pistol from -the right hand to the left, and fired. - -There was a sudden lull. Rush and the Finn had slipped back out of -harm's way. Through the smoke Armstrong saw two men on the floor--the -chauffeur whom he had felled, and the Pole, victim to Mr. Pratt's -pistol. - -"Back to the stairs!" murmured the old gentleman. He tottered. - -"Are you hit, sir?" cried Armstrong, darting to his support. - -"Yes. Leave me and hold the stairs." - -At this moment the entrance was darkened by the forms of the remaining -members of the attacking party, Rush and the Finn, urged forward by -Gradoff and his friends. Armstrong, holding Mr. Pratt, felt that the -game was up. But now came Percy leaping down the winding stairs. Into -the room he dashed, carrying a long bar of iron. Taking in the situation -at a glance, he flung himself at the foremost intruders. Rush doubled -up under his vehement onslaught; Sibelius recoiled upon Gradoff; and the -momentary check gave Armstrong time to haul Mr. Pratt out of the light -to the foot of the dark stairway. Swiftly withdrawing from the heap of -wreckage, Percy had barely joined them and helped to draw his uncle up a -few steps to the protection of the curving wall, when four pistols -cracked, and chips of stone fell clattering upon the stairs. - -Immediately afterwards a burly arm and shoulder showed itself in the -round of the wall. Quick as thought Percy lunged with his iron bar and -jabbed the intruder just below the elbow. The man threw out a hoarse, -savage cry, and disappeared. For a brief space there was silence; then -came the noise of heavy feet kicking aside the debris in the room below, -and rushing towards the stairway. - -"Leave me," said Mr. Pratt again, sitting on one of the steps. - -Armstrong sprang down, and darting in front of Percy, came face to face -with one of the strangers, who was rounding the corner, brandishing a -pistol. Unprepared, apparently, for sudden counter-attack, and -incommoded by the right-hand twist of the narrow staircase, the man let -slip his momentary chance of firing point-blank, but had enough presence -of mind to dodge the blow Armstrong aimed at him. If there had been -room for two abreast on the stairs it might have gone ill with Armstrong -then; he staggered forward and thrust his hands against the wall to save -himself from falling. Behind him, however, Percy had swiftly taken his -cue. With his extemporised pike he caught the stranger in the middle. -The man recoiled upon his companions in the rear. A storm of curses -broke from them, but in a few moments the din subsided, and nothing was -heard except the low voices of the enemy in consultation. - -"Jolly good weapon," whispered Armstrong, indicating the iron bar. -"Where did you get it?" - -"Wrenched it off my uncle's bedstead," replied Percy. - -"Any more?" - -"One." - -"Well, leave me this and go and get it, old chap. It's more useful than -the club." - -"Is there time?" - -"I think so. They won't know quite what to do. But hurry up. I'll -look after your uncle--give him first aid. He ought to go upstairs; by -the time you're down again I'll have him ready to move." - -"Much hurt, Uncle?" asked Pratt, bending down. - -"A furrow ploughed in my forearm; nothing vital. Perhaps one of you will -bind up the wound for me." - -"I'll do that, sir," said Armstrong. "Cut away, Percy." - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - A LEVY EN MASSE - - -To lie on one's back, bitted like a horse, trussed like a chicken, with -flies and midges disporting themselves, unchecked, about one's features, -and ants making adventurous journeys among one's clothes, is a situation -that, to say the least of it, puts a strain upon a man's patience and -equanimity. It is not greatly eased by the liberty of his eyes when -their range is limited by dense overhanging foliage, which stirs in the -breeze, opening tantalising glimpses of a sunbright sky. - -On his turfy couch Warrender lay, groaning inwardly, cursing himself for -delaying his errand, and Fate for bringing his enemies just then upon -the scene; vexing his soul with visions of his companions caught -unawares, and of Mr. Pratt still chained to his post; blaming himself, -with the insight of the afflicted, for having countenanced a scheme that -usurped the functions of the officers of the law. A fly feasted on his -nose; gnats buzzed in and out of his ears; ants chased one another over -his neck and up his arms, causing him to feel one multitudinous and -intricate itch. - -He had tried to wriggle himself free from his bonds, but Rush had not -been poacher and fisher for nothing. Desisting from his vain struggles, -he lay mumbling his gag, shaking his head like a tormented horse, and, -as the minutes passed, sweating with alarm. - -Presently his straining ears caught the faint regular thud of oars -turning in rowlocks. The sound drew nearer. He tried to shout, but was -capable of nothing more than a gurgling grunt. The knowledge that a boat -was rounding the southern end of the island set him a-throb with hope, -anxiety, despair--for what should bring the oarsman to shore? If, -indeed, he should land, what should draw him to this overgrown spot, or -cause him to pry among the bushes? The sound began to recede; the boat -was passing on down the river; his momentary hopefulness was crushed -under the weight of disappointment. - -But after a little while his numb spirit was revivified by the sound of -oars approaching again. He listened with throbbing eagerness. The -movements were not now so regular; they were interrupted; presently they -ceased altogether. Then he heard a rustle, and a slight thud as of some -light-footed person jumping ashore. Again he tried to shout, but only -the feeblest groan issued. All was silent. The new-comer, whoever it -was, had seemingly not moved. But--was that not a cry?--a faint coo-ee, -like an attenuated echo rather than a substantive sound. It came again, -a little louder. After an interval, a third time, louder still. But -there was no footstep, no rustling of branches, or swishing in trodden -grass. - -Frenzied by the thought of some one standing within easy reach of -him--some one, too, who was seeking, if not him, at any rate -somebody--Warrender jerked his jaw until he succeeded in shifting a -little the handkerchief knotted behind his poll; and, blowing out his -cheeks, he fetched from the depth of his throat a note like the boom of -a bull-frog. He heard--or was it fancy?--a muffled exclamation. Again -he boomed. Then--surely he was not mistaken?--a light-toned voice, -asking, with the breathless utterance of surprise, "Who is it?" He -could but reply with his inarticulate bass note. Footsteps came towards -him; then hesitated. He boomed encouragement. - -"Where are you?" - -The words were scarcely above a whisper. Boom, boom! The swishing -footsteps advanced, leaves clashed together, twigs snapped, and -Warrender, feeling that his throat would crack and his cheeks burst, -kept up his hollow note in moto continuo--accelerando--crescendo, as the -hoped-for relief drew nearer. - -Presently, after what seemed an age, the foliage above his head was -gently, timorously parted, and his eyes beheld amazement, concern, -indignation in the face of Lilian Crawshay. - -"Oh!" she exclaimed, pushing through the shrub. "What--why--oh, you -poor thing!" - -She dropped on her knees, lifted his head, and swiftly untied the knot -in the handkerchief. - -"Thank you," he gasped. - -"Who did it? What does it mean? But presently--presently. Your arms!" - -Turning, she sought to untie the knots. They were too firm, the rope -too coarse, for her little fingers. - -"My knife--coat pocket," murmured Warrender. - -In a trice she found the knife; even its keen blade she had to use as a -saw before the bonds were severed. Warrender got up, stiffly. He -stretched his aching arms, shook himself, stamped his feet. - -"I can't thank you enough," he said, the words coming hoarsely through -his parched lips. - -"But who had the wickedness----? Never mind; tell me presently. What -can I do? There is something--something terrible, I know. What can I -do to help?" - -"Will you row me to our camp? As we go, I shall be able to explain. My -voice is coming back." - -"Yes, let us go. Let me help you." - -She took his arm, hurried him on his cramped legs to the skiff that lay -half on the bank, and, hauling this into the water, assisted him to the -stern thwart. Then she turned, ran a few steps to Rush's boat, and -brought from it Warrender's cap. - -"But for this----" she began. "Oh, it's too horrible!" - -Springing to her seat facing him, she unshipped the sculls and began to -pull up stream. - -"I rowed to your camp," she said. "My father gave me a message for you. -I was surprised to find it deserted, and came down, thinking I might see -some of you on the water. But there was no sign of you, and I was -returning when I caught sight of the cap in Rush's boat. I wondered. I -knew it belonged to one of you, and it surprised me to find it there. I -got ashore. Did you hear me coo-ee? It was very soft; I hardly knew -what to think." - -Warrender nodded. - -"Then I heard that strange sound. I was a little frightened; but after -a moment I thought it might be Mr. Pratt; he is funny sometimes. It was -when you didn't answer that I thought something must be wrong, -and--well, you know. I am so glad I didn't run away. How long had you -been in that dreadful position?" - -"I don't know--an age." - -"And was it Rush?" - -"Yes. I must tell you. The foreigners at the Red House----" - -"Oh, I guessed! Dear old Father was so mysterious. Did he tell you to -keep it from me?" - -"Well, yes, he did." - -"I knew it. Why does a man like to play the ostrich? I knew ages ago -there was something strange happening, and we poor women creatures -mustn't be startled, shocked. Daddy is an Early Victorian. Is it so -very horrid?" - -"It's a long story. D'you mind if I tell you later? I want you to -land, if you will, at the camp, and go across to your house as quickly -as possible, and ask Mr. Crawshay to bring every man he can muster, -armed, to the tower in Mr. Pratt's grounds. One thing I had better tell -you at once: the foreigners had Mr. Pratt a prisoner in the tower." - -"Good gracious! Mr. Ambrose Pratt?" - -"Yes. Here we are. Please give my message at once. Mr. Crawshay will -partly understand. Impress on him that speed is vital." - -"And you?" - -"I am going to rush up to the village in the motor-boat." - -"But are you able?" - -"Quite. The stiffness is wearing off. Tell Mr. Crawshay I am taking -some men--all the able-bodied men I can collect--to the tower, and if he -can somehow send a message to the nearest town for the police----" - -"Yes; I understand. We've no telegraph or telephone in this benighted -place, but it shall be done. You are quite sure you can manage alone? I -don't think you are fit for much exertion, you know." - -"I'm quite all right," replied Warrender, smiling as he handed the girl -ashore. "By the way, Pratt and Armstrong are in the tower. Will you -tell Mr. Crawshay that? And speed is all important." - -"I'll run like a hare. Good-bye. I do hope----" - -She left her thought unsaid, and, gathering her skirt, fled across the -field towards her home. - -Ten minutes afterwards, Warrender ran the motor-boat alongside the -landing-stage, sprang ashore, and hurried up to the Ferry Inn. The door -was open--it was the mid-day interval for refreshment--and he saw a good -many familiar figures with their elbows on the bar, or tipping up the -pots which Joe Rogers, in his shirt-sleeves, had drawn for them. His -arrival precisely at this moment could not have happened more luckily. -Rogers greeted him with a smile; Henery Drew and one or two others -nodded and went on drinking. No one spoke; the countryman takes a -minute or two to think of an opening. - -"Rogers, my friends, I want your help," said Warrender. The rustics -looked at him solemnly. He went on, not pausing to choose his words: -"Those foreigners are forging Treasury notes in Mr. Pratt's tower. They -have Mr. Pratt himself a prisoner there." Eyes widened; pots were -suspended in mid course. "My chums have got in and are holding the -place against them. I want every man of you to come with me and lend a -hand. With your help we'll collar the whole gang. There's no time to -lose." - -No one moved. Rogers stood staring, with his hand on the draw-pull. -The others gaped. - -"Don't you understand?" cried Warrender. "Mr. Pratt's in danger. -They're desperate criminals--six or eight of them against three. You, -Mr. Drew--you're a soldier. Rogers----" - -"What have they done to my sister Molly?" shouted Rogers. "Neighbours -all, do 'ee hear? Mr. Pratt, as we thought abroad--'od rabbit it all, -come on!" He darted round the counter. - -"Got a gun, Rogers?" asked Warrender. - -"Ay, there's a fowling-piece in the parlour," cried the man, running -back again. - -"I've got one up along," said Drew. "Do 'ee say now! I'll fetch 'en." - -"Stay!" said Warrender. "There isn't time. You must bring what you can. -Don't delay. Sticks, forks, spades--you've a mattock there," he added, -addressing a man on the settle against the wall. "Bring it along. All -of you bring what you can lay hands on. Mr. Drew, you're an active man. -Run up into the village and collect all the men you can find, and take -them up to the Red House by the road. Set a couple to guard the gate, -lead the rest on to the tower. You others, borrow some garden tools -from Rogers--or anything; and come with me. Here's Rogers." The -innkeeper, minus his wig, came back with his fowling-piece. "You'll lend -your tools?" - -"Ay sure. In the shed, neighbours; you do know the way. My poor -Molly!" - -"I give you five minutes!" cried Warrender. "Come down to the ferry. -I'll wait for you--five minutes only." - -He hurried out, followed by Rogers. The younger men among the rest, -bestirring themselves at last, went round the inn into the garden. -Within five minutes a group of seven, armed with hoe, rake, spade, -mattock, fork, fowling-piece, and coal-hammer, was gathered on the -landing-stage. - -"Squeeze into the boat," said Warrender. "I'll run you down and land you -opposite No Man's Island. You must pack tight." - -[Illustration: "'SQUEEZE INTO THE BOAT.'"] - -They crowded into the boat. Warrender opened the throttle. A shriek -was heard, and Mrs. Rogers came flying out of the inn, flourishing her -husband's wig. - -"Joe, you gawkhammer, you've left your hair behind." - -"Make it into a stew and be jowned to it!" shouted Rogers, as the boat -hummed away. - -Landing on the bank opposite the cottage, the party hurried through the -plantation, Warrender taking the lead. - -"No talking, men," he said. - -They emerged into the park. The tower came in sight. From the roof a -dense column of brown smoke rose straight into the still air. Rogers -groaned. - -"God send we be in time!" he murmured, as he pounded heavily along. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - SQUARING ACCOUNTS - - -Armstrong profited by the enemy's first check to bind his handkerchief -round Mr. Pratt's arm. - -"Hadn't you better go upstairs, sir, out of harm's way?" he asked. - -"Call myself a casualty and slink to the rear? No, thank you, my lad. -Not while I can stand and use my left arm. We must hold our ground here -at all costs." - -"Here, sir?" - -"Yes. They must not drive us beyond the first floor. No doubt they -have released the man you tied up, and the fact that they still attack -us shows there is something upstairs they don't want to leave." - -"I saw some tin cases in the room above." - -"Filled with forged notes, beyond doubt. But what's this? Do you smell -burning?" - -"Smoke--wood smoke. D'you hear the crackling? They have fired the -tower." - -"Not they. They won't burn their notes. They want to drive us above. -It is very ingenious--and very unpleasant." - -The pungent smoke from burning wood rolled up the staircase in -ever-increasing volume. Percy came running down, carrying, not an iron -bar, but an assegai taken from the wall of the top room. - -"Didn't notice it before," he said. - -"Run up again and open the door to the roof," said his uncle. "We may -as well stave off asphyxia as long as we can." - -Armstrong caught sight of a head peering up from the round of the wall -below. He raised his hand suddenly as if to fire. The head -disappeared. - -"Spying to see if we have gone," chuckled Mr. Pratt. - -With the opening of the door above, the smoke rose more rapidly. Mr. -Pratt coughed. - -"I have the misfortune to be a trifle asthmatical," he said. "It is -very unpleasant." - -"May as well cough, too. It will encourage 'em," said Armstrong, with a -grim smile. "Percy, you can manage a churchyard cough." - -They both coughed, at first deliberately, but as the smoke thickened, -involuntarily. - -Suddenly there was a rush of feet below. Armstrong bent forward, -thrusting out his iron bar; but the foremost of the assailants, the -Swede, seemed to have expected the move, for he slipped aside, bent -almost double, crying to his comrade behind him, and sprang towards -Percy. The boy, having just run downstairs and only at that moment -caught up the assegai, was a little late with his lunge. Jensen seized -the head of the weapon and tugged at it, forcing Percy down a step or -two. To save himself, Percy let go; the Swede staggered backward -against Radewski, who was in the act of discharging his revolver at -Armstrong. The jostling of the man's arm spoilt his aim, and the -bullet, which, fired point-blank, would probably have found its billet -in Armstrong's breast, struck him on the right shoulder and spun him -half round. Mr. Pratt had hitherto been unable to use his pistol for -fear of hitting one or other of the boys; but now, seeing that both were -for the moment at a disadvantage, he dashed between them, fired with his -left hand at the Pole, only two steps below, and sent him rolling down -the stairs with a shot in his groin. - -But the enemy were not this time to be denied. Jensen, inspired with -lust of vengeance, had quickly recovered his footing. Immediately below -him Rod and Sibelius, pointing their revolvers, only awaited an -opportunity of firing as soon as there was no risk of hitting their own -comrade. Mr. Pratt, who was weaker than he knew, had just pulled his -trigger without effect; either the chamber was empty or something had -jammed. Armstrong, with a wound in the shoulder, was leaning, for the -moment overcome with pain, against the wall of the staircase. Taking in -the whole scene, Percy felt that all was over. His own weapon was gone; -even if he should seize Armstrong's bar, single-handed he must soon be -overpowered. - -At this crisis, by one of those tricks of the mind which no one can -account for, he suddenly remembered the packet of pepper he had bought -in the village, and one of the uses to which pepper could be put. It -was still in his pocket. Snatching it out, he swiftly unfolded the top -of the cone-shaped paper bag, and holding the bag by the screwed-up end, -he scattered its contents upon the face of Jensen, just rounding the -bend. With a howl of rage and pain the Swede recoiled on his comrades -behind, driving them back upon the remainder of their party at the foot -of the stairs. The volume of wood smoke had lessened when they started -the attack; and now the cloud of pepper, floating down slowly upon the -fumes, spread over the whole width of the staircase. A chorus of -sneezes soared up--a chorus in many parts, from the shrill tenor of -Prutti, the Italian chauffeur, to the resonant bass of the corpulent -Swiss, Maximilien Rod. Gradoff's sneeze was distinguishable from -Jensen's, and the two strangers performed a duet in sternutation. There -were interludes of cursing and yelling; Rush's sense of humour appeared -to be tickled, as well as his nostrils; for Pratt declared that he heard -him guffawing between his sneezes. After all, Rush was an Englishman. - -The performers were still busy--the audience on the stairs was about to -move a little higher up--when there came, from some spot without, a -sound of cheers. Never was applause so unwelcome to a foreign band. -With the sneezes now mingled cries of alarm, the noise of feet scuffling -amid litter, a running to and fro. Percy, with a whoop of delight, -dashed downstairs, picking up his assegai on the way. When he reached -the room below, he was momentarily checked by a sneeze; then, through -the clearing smoke, his streaming eyes beheld two figures struggling on -the floor. A second glance distinguished them as Jensen and his old -enemy, Henery Drew. The farmer was uppermost. - -[Illustration: "THE FARMER WAS UPPERMOST."] - -"Come and see fair play, Jack," Pratt shouted up the stairs to -Armstrong, who had pulled himself together and was following him. - -From outside came fierce shouts, pistol shots, the clash of weapons. -Pratt dashed out. Gradoff and his gang (all but Rush, who had -surrendered at once) were sustaining an unequal struggle with the -infuriated villagers who had closed upon them. On the one side -Warrender, with Rogers and the rest, on the other the group of villagers -collected by Drew--of whom the general dealer, smarting for his unpaid -bill, had constituted himself the temporary leader in rivalry with -Constable Hardstone--a body of some twenty determined men, who were -perhaps a little breathless from haste. Not so with the others. As -Samson lost his strength with his hair, so these international -adventurers, desperate, courageous enough, holding life cheap, became as -children under the debilitating pungency of pepper. A man cannot sneeze -and fight. Some few shots were fired; a bullet grazed Rogers's shining -skull; another struck out of Blevins's hand the mallet he carried; a -third carried away the lobe of an ear from a young carter, who refused -to leave the field until he had found it. Short, sharp, decisive, the -battle ended in a general capitulation. Only one of the foreigners -escaped; Gradoff, seeing that all was lost, kept his last bullet for -himself. - -From the doorway Mr. Pratt had watched the pinioning of the prisoners. -A cheer broke from his neighbours and tenants. And, just as a move -towards the house was being made, Mr. Crawshay and two of his men, armed -with shot-guns, came trotting across the sward. - -"God bless you, Pratt, my dear fellow," cried the old gentleman, -grasping his neighbour by the hand, and shaking it vigorously up and -down. - -Mr. Pratt sneezed. - -"And you, Crawshay," he said. "But try the other hand, my friend; my -right arm bears an honourable wound." - - - - - EPILOGUE - - -It was Saturday afternoon. The spacious lawn in front of Mr. Crawshay's -house was spread with bamboo tables and deck-chairs. At the porch stood -Mr. Crawshay and Mr. Ambrose Pratt side by side, smoking long cigars, -chatting and laughing with the familiarity of old friends. Mr. Pratt's -right arm was in a sling. - -"It's time they came," said Mr. Crawshay, taking out his watch. He wore -a large panama, and his suit of spotless ducks gave him a festal air. - -"They're probably squabbling for precedence," said Mr. Pratt; "not on -social grounds, but for modesty. It's an ordeal, you know, Crawshay; -and when they see your rig, and that purple tie of yours, they'll be -abashed." - -"What'll they say to the women, then?" returned Mr. Crawshay. "Upon my -soul, Pratt, I think you are right to come in your old clothes; they'll -feel more at home. It never occurred to me." - -"Oh, well, you're lord of the manor; I dare say you're right to look the -part. But here they come, in a bunch. Mrs. Rogers is, perhaps, a shade -ahead." - -Mr. Crawshay turned and called through the open door. His daughter, in -a dainty confection of muslin and lace, and a straw hat trimmed with -pink silk, came running out, followed by her mother, an impressive -figure in blue, and our three campers, in flannels and blazers. -Armstrong also had an arm in a sling. - -Grouped in front of the porch they awaited the coming of the party that -had just entered the drive. Mrs. Rogers, in stiff black silk, and a -wonderful bonnet, marched along a little in advance of her husband, -hardly recognisable in his Sunday suit of blue serge and a bowler hat -sitting uneasily on the back of his head. Samuel Blevins, the general -dealer, had affected a long frock coat and a tall hat. Henery Drew, -magnificent in a brown bowler and a suit of large-checked tweed, walked -beside Hardstone, the constable, disguised in habiliments that might -have become a prosperous plumber. The rest of the company, whose names -we do not know, were alike in one respect; all had donned their "Sunday -best." Every face, without exception, wore an air of deep solemnity. - -Mr. Crawshay took a step forward. - -"Glad to see you, neighbours," he said, genially. "We are lucky in a -fine afternoon." - -He shook hands with them individually, a greeting that inflicted on them -various degrees of embarrassment, deepened by the smiling welcome of his -wife and daughter. Mr. Pratt contented himself with a general -salutation; it was not until the boys began to crack jokes with them -that the prevailing gloom lightened. - -"You didn't bring your sister, Rogers?" said Mr. Crawshay to the -innkeeper. - -"True, sir; she bain't come along." - -"She couldn't face 'ee, sir," added Mrs. Rogers. "I always did say as -she was making a rod for her back, though never did I think Rod was such -a downright wicked feller. And Henery Drew, as would have made her a -good husband as far as husbands do go, and now he can't marry her -without committing bigamy." - -"Well, well! We must hope for the best," said Mr. Crawshay. "Now, my -friends, we're all here. Take your seats, and we'll have tea." - -The company seated themselves. Maids brought from the house trays -filled with good things. Mrs. Crawshay poured out tea, and Lilian and -the boys carried round the eatables. Under the influence of good cheer -the villagers' stiffness wore off, and they began to descant upon the -moving events of the past days. For the first time in its history the -village had become a place of importance. Visitors had flocked to it -from all parts; journalists with cameras had interviewed the actors in -the drama, and expressed themselves very freely on Mr. Pratt's refusal -to admit them to his grounds, and to pose for his photograph. His -modesty in this respect was a standing puzzle to his humble neighbours. -Mrs. Rogers, for instance, was extremely proud of the portrait of her -husband that had appeared in the previous day's picture paper. - -"The scar shows beautiful," she said, complacently. - -"Dear me," said Mrs. Crawshay, with a discreet glance at Rogers's broad -face, "I wasn't aware----" - -"Take off your hat, Joe, and show the lady." - -Removing his hat, Rogers displayed a red furrow that ran across his -shiny pate. - -"What a narrow escape!" exclaimed Mrs. Crawshay. - -"Ay sure, ma'am, 'twas so," said Mrs. Rogers. "And I'm certain a widow's -cap wouldn't have suited me." - -"Well, Mrs. Rogers, you won't be so particular about Joe's wig after -this," said Percy Pratt. "You see, if he'd worn his wig, his scalp -wouldn't have been touched; think what millions of people have had the -pleasure of admiring your husband, talking about his bravery, discussing -the track of the bullet across his skull. No one wanted to take my -photograph." - -"They took 'ee unbeknownst, then, becos there you be, next to Joe, with -'Pepper and Salt' printed underneath; very clever, I call it, Joe being -once a sailor." - -"Oh, I say," exclaimed Pratt, "did they get the others too?" - -"No, sir. Not as I think it a very good likeness. You've got your two -eyes half shut, and your mouth is a very queer shape, like as if you was -expecting of somebody to pop something in it--a drop of physic, maybe." - -The villagers looked merely interested, the others frankly amused. -Pratt blushed. - -"He must have caught you when you were singing a particularly -sentimental song, old chap," said Warrender, smiling. - -"That reminds me," said Mrs. Crawshay. "Do bring out your banjo, Mr. -Pratt, and sing us something." - -"Wait a minute," said Mr. Crawshay. "Before we begin -the--entertainment, shall I call it?--I want to say a word or two." - -"Hear, hear!" exclaimed Blevins. "'Tis what I call an event." - -"No heroics, for goodness' sake, Crawshay," murmured Mr. Pratt. - -Mr. Crawshay assumed the look of one determined not to be interfered -with. - -"I just want to say, neighbours," he proceeded, "how glad I am to see -you all here this afternoon, in celebration of what Mr. Blevins rightly -calls an event in the simple history of our little parish. You all had a -part in the frustration of the most nefarious criminal conspiracy that -has ever come within my long experience as a county magistrate. Thanks -to the ingenuity and perseverance of my dear young friends, their -refusal to be intimidated, their sleepless vigils and untiring -watchfulness, the secrets of that criminal conspiracy were laid bare, my -old friend and neighbour was rescued from a most distressing situation, -and you, anticipating the slow operation of the law, but sanctioned by -the presence among you of an officer of the law, were able to secure the -apprehension of the whole band of criminals, who are now awaiting in the -darkness of the county gaol the due reward of their deeds. Our village -is to be congratulated on the visit of three young men, typical products -of our renowned public school system, and on the public spirit of its -own inhabitants, who, when the call for action came, forgetting all -class distinctions, regardless of personal risk, braved the murderous -weapons of unscrupulous villains, and nobly carried out the first duty -of the patriotic citizen. I am speaking the mind of you all," the -worthy magistrate went on, warming to his subject, "when I say that we -shall long treasure the memory of our young friends, their high spirits, -their unfailing cheerfulness under persecution, their courage and -ingenuity; and it is a matter of regret that, yielding to paramount -claims, the claims of parental affection, they are leaving us to-day. -But it will please you all to hear that, in response to my invitation--I -may say to my insistence--they have agreed to visit us again next year; -and I understand from my old friend and neighbour, Mr. Pratt, that he -intends to acquire No Man's Island, so long derelict, and restore the -cottage as a holiday hostel for boys of our public schools." - -Here there were general cheers. - -"Dear old Father!" whispered Lilian to the boys. "He gets so few -chances of making a speech, and he does love it so." - -"I won't detain you longer," Mr. Crawshay went on. "No doubt Mr. Pratt -would like to say a few words." - -"Hate it!" exclaimed Mr. Pratt. "One thing only. I've had a bad time. -I deserved it. I was over-hasty. My old servants are scattered; if any -of you know where they are, tell them to come to me. I'll reinstate -them--if we can agree about wages." - -Under cover of the villagers' applause, Percy seized the opportunity of -unbosoming himself to a select audience, his companions and Lilian -Crawshay. - -"Are we blushing, Miss Crawshay?" he asked. "I don't think we are, -because, you see, we are supremely conscious of each other's merits. We -really are benefactors, you know--public and private. Who would ever -believe that the two old gentlemen were not long ago calling each other -luna----" - -"Now, Mr. Pratt," the girl interrupted. - -"Well, X and Y then," rejoined Pratt. "It's undeniable, isn't it, that -they're reconciled through us? And as for my uncle and me, we're quite -pally; the old feud is healed, and before long I expect my father and -Uncle Ambrose will kiss again with tears. Tennyson, you know. Anyway, -it's been a ripping holiday, and----" - -"Now, Mr. Pratt, we are all waiting," said Mrs. Crawshay, amiably. - -Pratt obediently went into the house, brought out his banjo, and trolled -out ditties of the most sentimental order. Presently Warrender -announced that it was time to go if they meant to reach Southampton -before dark. The whole company trooped down to the bank with them, and -watched them board the motor-boat, already loaded with their camp -equipment. Last good-byes were said; Warrender opened the throttle; and -as the boat panted down stream there came to the ears of the silent -spectators the gentle strumming of the banjo, and Pratt's melodious -tenor-- - - "Our hearts were once divided, - But now they beat as one; - The clouds roll by across the sky, - And yonder shines the sun." - - - - - - THE END - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO MAN'S ISLAND *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40555 - -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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