Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: 'There is something in the man's appearance which seems
familiar to me.' _page 139_]
THE ADVENTURE LEAGUE
BY
HILDA T. SKAE
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.
LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK
TORONTO, AND PARIS
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. WHAT HAPPENED IN ERRICHA
II. 'THE PIRATES' DEN'
III. A SURPRISE
IV. THE COMPACT
V. SUSPENSE
VI. A DISCOVERY
VII. THE SIEGE
VIII. A CRUISE IN THE 'HEROIC'
IX. DISAPPOINTMENT
X. IN WHICH ALLAN IS VERY WISE
XI. A NEAR SHAVE
XII. SURROUNDED
XIII. ANDREW MACPETERS
XIV. CAUGHT
XV. HAMISH TO THE RESCUE
[Illustration: Map of Erricha Island]
THE ADVENTURE LEAGUE
CHAPTER I
WHAT HAPPENED IN ERRICHA.
It was very early on a bright summer morning. Rocks and heather and
green fields lay bathed in sunshine; and round the shores of a small
island on the west coast of Scotland the sea was dancing and splashing,
while in the distance the Highland hills raised their bare crests
towards a cloudless sky.
The sun had not long risen, and it seemed as though no one could be
stirring at this early hour; yet there was an unusual commotion among
the birds nesting on the ledges of a high cliff. The funny little
puffins, with their red, parrot-like bills, were peering anxiously out
of the crevices; while the curious little auks, standing erect in rows
like black and white mannikins, were exceedingly perturbed; and the
kittiwakes flew screaming from the rocky shelves, joining their voices
to the hoarser cries of the guillemots and the booming of the waves
among walls and pillars of rock.
The cause of the birds' agitation was not far to seek. Some figures,
looking very small upon the huge cliff, were crawling on their hands
and knees upon the ledges, gathering eggs. Two were boys; and the red
cap and serge frock of another proclaimed her to be a girl. About
fifty feet below, with nothing between him and the waves which looked
small in the distance, a lad hung suspended by a rope, while the birds
circled and screamed around him.
One of the boys came to where the ledge ended in a sheer drop down to
the sea; and putting something very carefully in his pocket, he rose to
his feet and began to climb upward.
Catching hold of the tufts of heather on the verge of the cliff, he
swung himself on to firm ground, and proved to be a boy of about ten
years of age; thin and wiry, with a dark face and bright twinkling
eyes. His thin brown wrists had grown a long way out of the sleeves of
his jacket; and he had torn a hole in the knee of each knicker.
After rubbing his elbows, which he had grazed against the rocks, he
turned to speak to a little girl who was sitting on a tuft of heather,
looking somewhat forlorn. A handsome collie dog, yellow-brown with a
white ruffle round his neck, was lying impatiently at her feet, every
now and again glancing up at his mistress with bright, inquiring eyes.
'Well, Tricksy,' said the boy; 'tired of waiting, eh?'
'Yes,' replied his sister, 'you've been a long time, and I'm cold. I
don't see why I shouldn't go down the cliffs with the rest of you.
Laddie's tired of waiting too.'
The collie rose upon hearing his name mentioned, and thrust his nose
into the boy's hand, wagging his tail and looking as though he would
say, 'Come along now, do; and tell the others to come; you've played at
that dangerous game long enough; let's all have a jolly scamper after
rabbits!'
A red cap appeared over the edge of the cliff, followed immediately by
a laughing face framed in a crop of fair curly hair; then a girl
scrambled on to firm ground.
'Hulloa, Reggie! are you there already?' she said. 'How many have you
got?'
'Five,' said Reggie, displaying the contents of his pockets; 'an auk's,
two puffin's, and two kittiwake's. Aren't they prettily marked?'
'Beauties,' replied the girl, examining the eggs. 'Better get Neil to
blow them for you; he always does it the best. I have only two, and
another broke as I was getting it out; but oh, it was glorious down on
these ledges! I'd like to have a scramble like this every morning!'
'I daresay,' broke in an exasperated little voice; 'fine fun for you
others to get up at four in the morning when the steamer isn't expected
until six, and go scrambling about on the rocks, getting sea-birds'
eggs, saying that you'll only be five minutes, and then stay an hour!'
The child spoke in little rushes and gushes, and her eyes twinkled and
looked pathetic by turns in her little dark, round face.
'An hour, Tricksy! It can't have been so long as that!'
'Indeed it was, Marjorie, because I have Reggie's watch; he left it
with me, and it has been rather tiresome waiting here, when you know I
mayn't climb the rocks as you do.'
'Poor Tricksy, what a shame! It's too bad of us, leaving you alone all
that time. Just wait until you are a year or two older, and then your
mother will let you climb like the rest of us. Who would have thought
that we had been away so long! Time _does_ go so quickly when you're
scrambling about for eggs!'
She looked around with bright, fearless blue eyes; a tall, slight girl
of fifteen, with a face so tanned by sun and wind as almost to have
lost its extreme fairness, and with the quick, free movements which
speak of perfect health and an open-air life.
'Hulloa,' said Reggie suddenly; 'there's the steamer!'
'Where?' asked both the girls eagerly.
'Over there, just rounding the headland, quite in the distance; you can
see the trail of smoke, She won't be in for some time yet.'
For a minute or two the young people stood watching the grey line upon
the horizon; then Marjorie said--
'She's coming along pretty quickly. Hadn't we better call the others
and let them know?'
'Yes, do,' said Reggie; and hollowing their hands, they shouted,
'Neil!--Hamish!--hulloa!--the steamer!'
Their voices were blown back to them by the wind; but the lad on the
rope happening to look up, the others pointed energetically out to sea,
where the hull of the steamer was now becoming visible.
The boy glanced round; then climbed quickly hand over hand up the rope,
and joined the others.
'The steamer at last,' said Reggie. 'See, she is just rounding Erricha
Point now; she won't be long in coming in. Isn't it jolly about the
measles, Neil?'
'Jolly for those who didn't happen to take them,' suggested Marjorie.
'Allan's holidays began six weeks sooner than they would have done if
the boys hadn't all been sent home,' continued Reggie.
'He is coming just when we're having the best fun,' said Marjorie,
watching the steamer with thoughtful eyes; 'what jolly times we'll have
now. That was an awfully good idea of yours, Neil.'
The tall lad looked gratified. He was a handsome youth of about
seventeen, dressed in the rough clothes of a fisherman, but refined in
appearance, with a straight nose, dark blue eyes, and curly black hair.
'I will be thinking that you and the others had as much to do with it
as I had, Miss Marjorie,' he replied.
'Not at all, old fellow,' said Reggie, who always spoke to his friend
as though he were a boy of his own age; 'not at all; we never could
have made the place what it is if it hadn't been for you. Hulloa,
Hamish, old chap,' he added good-humouredly, as a somewhat
sleepy-looking, fair-haired boy joined the group--'reached the top?'
Marjorie looked angry, as she always did when Reggie Stewart assumed
patronising airs towards her brother.
'Yes,' replied Hamish simply; 'I thought there was no hurry, as the
steamer won't be in for a while, and I was trying to reach down for
these little things. Look, Tricksy, I thought you might like to have
them--two young puffins, not long hatched.'
'O Hamish, what _lovely_ little things!' cried Tricksy, her eyes
growing large and her little round face dimpling with pleasure; 'it
_was_ good of you to get them for me.'
At this moment Laddie, who had been standing impatiently beside the
group, pricked up his ears with a growl, looking at something a short
distance away.
'What's the matter with you, Laddie?' said Reggie.
'He's looking at that man over there,' said Marjorie; 'who is it? He
seems to want to speak to you, Neil.'
Neil looked round and then reddened slightly.
'It will be that poor fellow Gibbie Mackerrach, one of the band of
gipsies who are staying here just now,' he said. 'Go away, Gibbie,' he
added in Gaelic, shaking his head, since it was unlikely that the gipsy
would be able to hear distinctly where he stood; 'I can't come.'
'It's the lad who isn't quite right in his mind, isn't it?' said
Marjorie; 'the one whom you helped when his boat was upset on the loch?'
'Yes, it will be the poor fellow who had the ducking,' replied Neil.
'He will be quite harmless, only a little odd. You will nefer be
seeing him with the others; he will always be wandering about by
himself, and sleeping in all kinds of places. Och! but this will not
do though; he is meddling with our coats that we took off when we were
going to climb. Hi, Gibbie! you must not be touching these things.'
The lad's handsome, foolish face became overspread with a smile as Neil
came towards him.
'Good Neil--kind Neil,' he said, patting him on the arm.
'Now go away, Gibbie; there's a good lad,' said Neil. 'I will have no
time to be talking to you just now, and you must not be touching our
things. You had better go home, Gibbie; they will be looking for you.'
'Be quiet, Laddie,' said Reggie authoritatively to the dog, who was
still growling; 'he is not doing any harm.'
Laddie's remonstrances died away in a disapproving grumble, as though
he were saying that he wasn't satisfied yet, and would renew the
subject upon some future occasion.
'If you don't mind,' said Neil, who had been watching the retreating
form of the gipsy, 'I will be going a bit of the way with him. He iss
trying to cross the Shaking Bog now, and he might be coming to harm in
it.'
'All right, Neil; see you again later,' said the others.
'Tricksy, what's the matter with you?' cried Marjorie; 'you are
trembling like anything, and your teeth are chattering in your head.'
'Cold,' said the little girl, whose small dark face was beginning to
look pinched and unhappy; 'and I'm a little hungry too; we hadn't time
to get anything to eat when you and Hamish came for us so early.'
'Comes of leaving you up there so long,' said Marjorie; 'how careless
we were. Whatever will your mother say if you get ill.'
'Here, Tricksy,' said Hamish, 'take this coat, I don't want it; and
look, the steamer is not far from the pier; she is coming in at a rate.
We'll have to run if we want to get in as soon as she does. Take my
hand, and I'll help you along, and you'll be warm in half a jiff.'
Tricksy smiled in a consoled way as she put her hand into the big
outstretched one of the boy; and the whole party set off to race along
the top of the cliff and down to where the pier jutted out from a small
village nestled in a low part of the shore.
Laddie gave an excited bark and scampered beside the others, wondering
what was going to happen.
The steamer was coming in pretty fast, and the pier being encumbered
with nets and with crans of newly caught fish, they reached the
mooring-place just as the hawser was being thrown ashore.
A bright-looking boy of about fourteen years of age was standing on
deck with his hands in his pockets and a tweed cap on the back of his
head, and a tall, sunburnt gentleman was beside him.
'Hulloa, father! hulloa, Allan!' said Tricksy, dimpling and smiling.
Laddie looked up for a minute; then burst into a joyous barking, and
sprang several feet off the ground, turning round in the air before
once more alighting upon his paws; then he tore up and down the pier
like a dog out of his senses.
In the midst of his excitement the gangway was thrown across, and the
sailors stood aside to let the laird and his son leave the vessel.
Immediately Laddie bounded forward and danced around them, barking
until the rocks echoed, and waving his bushy tail in an ecstasy of
welcome.
'Down, Laddie, down,' said Mr. Stewart sternly; and Laddie, after
looking up pathetically for a minute or two, contented himself with
following Allan as closely as he could.
'How do you do, Marjorie?' said Allan. 'Hulloa, Hamish; glad to see
you! Hulloa, Reggie!--Tricksy, why don't you keep your dog in better
order?'
Tricksy looked hurt.
'He's a very well-trained dog,' she declared. 'He only barks because
he is glad to see you.'
'Tricksy thinks she owns a dog,' said her father, smiling down at the
little girl, 'but in reality the dog owns her.'
'Daddy, you are always teasing me,' said Laddie's eight-year-old
mistress; 'he's a _most_ obedient dog.--Laddie, come here.'
Laddie glanced at her and then looked up adoringly at Allan without
stirring from his side.
'That is so like a dog,' observed Marjorie; 'they always make more fuss
about a boy, even if he hardly notices them, than over a girl who is
always petting them. It's too bad.'
Tricksy looked mortified.
'It's because he's so glad that Allan has come home,' she said. 'Just
wait, Daddy; he'll obey me sometime.'
Mr. Stewart and Hamish smiled; but the others were clustering round
Allan, asking questions.
'Had you a good journey, Allan? The steamer's very late. How are the
measles? Are many of the boys ill? Lucky you didn't take it.'
'It's very jolly that you've got such long holidays, Allan,' said
Tricksy, who was walking on her tip-toes with pleasurable anticipation.
'We've got such a jolly game at present; and Neil's helping us.'
'How is old Neil?' asked Allan.
'First-rate,' said Reggie. 'He was with us this morning, gathering
eggs.'
'Gathering eggs!' said Allan; 'you've been up very early.'
'Yes,' replied Marjorie; 'Reggie and Tricksy heard that you were
expected at six in the morning, so they rode over to ask us to be sure
to come and meet you at the steamer. We got up ever so early--I don't
know when; and what do you think? After we'd come all that long way
those lazy people were still asleep!'
'Yes,' piped Tricksy; 'at four in the morning we were wakened by having
pebbles thrown up at our windows, and we had to get up and dress in a
brace of shakes.' (Reggie's face darkened. Tricksy was fond of using
slang picked up from her brothers, and he felt it his duty to
disapprove.) 'Then we didn't know what to do to fill up the time, so
we went to Neil's mother's cottage, and Reggie knocked at Neil's
window, so that he came out to see what was the matter; and we all went
egg-gathering on the rocks.'
'Where's father?' said Allan suddenly; he has been left behind.'
'Go on--all of you!' called Mr. Stewart, who was engaged in talking to
a respectably dressed man on the pier; 'don't wait for me.--Take Hamish
and Marjorie home, Allan, and give them some breakfast, and tell your
mother I shan't be long.'
'I wonder who that is with father,' said Reggie; 'I can't see his face.
He looks like a stranger. Father is always having people coming to
talk to him now that he has been made a J.P.'
'Allan,' said Marjorie, 'before we go to your house, I think we had
better go into Mrs. MacAlister's and get a scone or a piece of oat-cake
for Tricksy. She has gone far too long without food. You're hungry,
aren't you, Tricksy?'
Tricksy nodded. Her little dark face was very pale, and she was
struggling with a vexatious desire to cry.
'She always _will_ insist upon doing what the rest of us do, that
child,' said Marjorie in an undertone to Hamish; and Hamish looked
kindly at the youngest member of the band.
'She has no end of pluck, the little kid,' he aid.
'We'll go to Mrs. MacAlister's shop,' said Marjorie. 'I am sure she
must be up by now, and we'll be able to get something.'
The young folks pattered along the unevenly paved streets of the little
village, which had the sea on one side and grassy cliffs on the other.
'It's curious what a lot of people are about so early,' said Marjorie,
as they passed some knots of men and women standing in corners and
talking. 'I wonder whether there is anything unusual going on.'
The party stopped at the door of a small shop which had some cakes and
jars of sweets in the window, and a post-box let into the wall.
'Here's Mrs. MacAlister's,' said Marjorie; 'she has her shop open very
early.'
The little place was in confusion. The shutters were down, but the
shop had not been tidied, and Mrs. MacAlister herself, when she came
forward to serve her customers, was pale and had red eyes.
'Is anything the matter, Mrs. MacAlister?' asked Marjorie, while the
others looked at the untidy shop in surprise.
'Indeed, Miss Marjorie, I will just be having my shop broken into this
night; and they will be opening the post-box and taking away a lot of
the letters,' and the woman threw herself into a chair and began
talking and lamenting in Gaelic, while the children crowded together
open-eyed.
'No, Master Reggie--no, Miss Marjorie; do not be touching anything,'
said Mrs. MacAlister hurriedly, as they approached the shattered
letter-box; 'it hass all to remain as it iss until the chief constable
and the laird hev seen it; and they will be bringing the Sheriff from
Stornwell; it iss an unlucky day for a poor woman like me, whateffer.'
'It's a dreadful thing,' said Marjorie; 'I hope they'll catch the
thief, Mrs. MacAlister.'
Mr. Stewart, accompanied by the stranger and the island constable, was
approaching the door, so the young people trooped out into the street,
feeling greatly excited.
'Who do you think has done it, Allan?' asked Tricksy in an awestruck
voice.
Allan did not answer, and Reggie said, 'How can he tell, Tricksy?'
somewhat curtly.
Tricksy subsided, and a cart laden with peats coming by, Allan stopped
the driver and asked him to give them a 'lift.'
The man helped Tricksy into the cart, and the others scrambled in the
best way they could, and settled themselves among the peats.
'It's a dreadful business this,' said Marjorie, her eyes shining
brighter and bluer with excitement.
'I don't believe such a thing has ever happened with us before,' said
Allan; 'our people have always had the credit of being very honest.'
'Who can it have been?' said Hamish, after considering for a minute.
'I can't believe that any of our people would have done it.'
'There will be no end of a row,' said Reggie, speaking for the first
time. 'Father will have his work cut out for him, as he is a J.P. now.'
'Yes, and the Sheriff coming here, and everything,' said Marjorie.
'How will you like to meet your friend the Sheriff again, Tricksy?'
There was no reply.
Tricksy had fallen asleep among the peats, her head pillowed upon her
arm, and her soft, dark waves of hair falling over her face.
The others began to realise how sleepy they were, after having risen
before sunrise and spent several hours in the strong sea air, and in
spite of excitement, conversation languished while the cart jolted
along and finally halted at the gates of Ardnavoir, the manor-house of
the island of Inchkerra.