A DISCOVERY
'Reggie,' said Allan, 'there they are at last.'
Reggie slid down from the garden wall, looked towards the road, and
said, 'Where?'
'They're behind that hill now. They'll be here in no time. You'd
better call Tricksy, and tell her to be ready.'
Reggie went into the house, and called, standing at the foot of the
staircase, 'Tricksy, it's Graham major and Graham minor with their
Pater; and they're almost here.'
Tricksy came downstairs and waited in the hall, somewhat shyly, beside
her brothers.
'Oh, I do hope they will be nice,' she whispered apprehensively to
Reggie, as the dog-cart drew up at the door.
A tall pleasant-faced gentleman was beside the driver, and two boys
were on the back seat wrapped in Inverness capes, and with caps drawn
over their brows as a protection against the wind.
As Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were receiving their guests in the hall, Reggie
and Tricksy had an opportunity of observing the boys. One was dark,
about twelve years of age; thin, alert, with bright, restless hazel
eyes; and the other was about as old as Reggie, with blue eyes and
reddish-golden hair; almost too pretty to be a boy, Reggie thought;
while Tricksy said to herself that he looked rather "nice."'
After greeting the grown-up folk, the new-comers turned to encounter
Tricksy's solemn, dark eyes and Reggie's bright, twinkling ones.
Tricksy shook hands very shyly, and Reggie a little stiffly; then the
visitors were taken upstairs to prepare for lunch.
Tricksy turned to Reggie, whose countenance wore a non-committal
expression; then she looked at Allan and heaved a little sigh.
'What do you think of them, Tricksy?' inquired Allan.
'Well, I think the little one looks rather nice, but the other is a
little proud.'
'Do you think they'd care about our Pirates' Island, and all that?'
asked Reggie doubtfully.
'Of course they would. They're no end of a good sort. Hush, they're
coming downstairs again.'
'Are you tired after the steamer?' Allan asked his guest during lunch.
'A bit, not very,' replied the elder lad, whose name was Harry. 'Feel
a bit as though the floor was rocking.'
'You'll feel like that until you've had a night's rest, anyway,' said
Allan. 'Are you too tired to do anything this afternoon?'
'Not at all,' answered his friend. 'Gerald, you're game to do
something after lunch, aren't you?'
His brother, who had been trying to make a conversation with Reggie,
while Tricksy sat shyly on his other side, looked up with a smile.
'The steamer went close under some fine rocks, not far from the
village,' he said; 'very high ones, with birds sitting in rows, all the
way up, and making an awful screaming.'
'Yes,' said Allan, 'those are the Skegness Cliffs, a great
nesting-place of the birds. We'll take you there after lunch, if it's
not too far.'
The boys looked pleased, and as soon as freed from the restraint of
their elders' presence they ran to fetch their caps and demanded to be
taken to the rocks.
'We had better not go so soon, I think,' said Allan. 'We are expecting
Hamish and Marjorie, our friends from Corranmore, and we'll ask them to
go with us. There's a jolly burn that runs quite near the house;
suppose we go and fish in it until they come.'
Fishing-tackle was found for the entire party, and they proceeded to
the banks of the burn, which trickled down the hill-side and across a
meadow, widening into little pools fringed with ragged-robin and queen
o' the meadow; and finally falling in a little cascade down to the
shore.
'What a fine dog this is of yours,' observed Gerald, caressing Laddie,
who had been fawning upon the new-comers, and now ended by sitting down
between Gerald and Tricksy.
Tricksy looked gratified.
'He's my dog,' she said. 'He likes you, I think.'
Gerald stroked Laddie's head and his white ruffle, and the dog made a
little sound to express gratification.
'Tricksy, keep your dog quiet, he'll frighten away the trout,' sang out
Allan warningly; and Tricksy requested Laddie to 'trust.'
The sun shone down upon green grass and brown pools, and drew out the
perfume of the flowers and heather. Not far distant was the pleasant
noise of the sea, and the calling of the gulls answered the plaintive
cry of the plovers which fluttered about the moor and the meadows.
The day was too bright, and the trout which could be seen at the bottom
of the pools refused to take. After a little while the strong fresh
air and sun began to have a drowsy effect upon the anglers.
Gerald rubbed his eyes once or twice, and stifled a yawn; and Tricksy
found that he was disinclined for conversation.
'Hulloa!' cried a voice from the top of a ridge; and Marjorie and
Hamish came racing down. Laddie's welcoming bark roused Gerald, who
jumped into a sitting posture, and looked about him in a surprised way.
'Hulloa, Marjorie,' said Allan; 'glad you've come. This is Harry
Graham, and this is Gerald.'
Marjorie looked at the new-comers with approval, and Hamish shook hands
good-naturedly.
'Are we going to fish all afternoon,' said Marjorie, 'or shall we take
a scramble?'
'A scramble,' replied Reggie; 'they want to see the rocks.'
'If Gerald isn't too tired,' put in Tricksy considerately; 'he was
asleep a minute ago.'
'No,' protested Gerald, flushing and looking very much vexed; 'I
wasn't. I'm quite ready for a walk.'
'Suppose we take them to the Smugglers' Caves,' suggested Marjorie.
'They're the finest sight in the island, I think.'
At the mention of smugglers Harry's eyes began to sparkle, and Gerald's
blue ones opened very wide.
'Are there--are there any smugglers there now?' asked Harry.
'Sometimes there are,' replied Marjorie, 'but I don't expect we shall
meet any. Smuggling isn't what it used to be,' she added somewhat
regretfully.
'What luck if we could only come across some,' said Harry. 'Let's go
and see the caves anyhow.'
'It's a long walk, across moors and bogs, and steep hills,' said
Marjorie; 'but if you're game, come along.'
Harry, walking beside Reggie, looked at the girl's slight, erect figure
as she went in front with Gerald.
'Does she always do what you fellows do?' he inquired, rather
doubtfully.
'Of course she does,' replied Reggie; 'she's fifteen years old, you
know; a year older than Allan.'
Harry looked at her again, and considered.
'Bit of a tomboy, isn't she?' he inquired again.
'An awful tomboy. We've got her into the way of doing all kinds of
things. She couldn't be much jollier if she was a boy.'
Harry took another look at her.
'Has she a bit of a temper?' he asked unexpectedly.
'A bit,' acknowledged Reggie, somewhat disconcerted, 'when she's
roused, you know. She's fond of her own way; and she and Allan used to
quarrel a good deal at one time; but they seem to have made it up now.'
Reggie added to himself that there was no time to quarrel, now that
every one's thoughts were occupied with Neil.
Harry looked at Marjorie again.
'Does she ever quarrel with you?' he asked.
'N--no, not much,' he replied, his face darkening slightly.
Harry looked at Marjorie's tall young figure, and then at Reggie's
smaller and slighter one, and arrived at the conclusion which
particularly annoyed Reggie; that the girl disdained to quarrel with a
boy so much younger than herself.
Marjorie turned her bright face towards them.
'Find it tiring, walking on the heather?' she said. 'It's very
fatiguing when you're not accustomed to it. We might take a rest after
we've climbed this hill; there's a beautiful view from the top.'
It was a steep climb, and when they reached the summit, all the young
folk were glad to fling themselves down on the short, fragrant heather.
The breeze came laden with the scent of wild thyme and heather and salt
from the sea; and the only live creatures save themselves were the
mountain sheep and the crested plovers, and grey gulls which wheeled
above the heads of the wayfarers.
Harry looked about him with brightening eyes.
'What an awfully jolly place this is of yours,' he said. 'I say, you
_do_ see a lot from the top of this hill.'
He was right. The hill crest commanded a view of nearly the whole
island, with green fields and moors, and the white roads stretching
across them; houses and cottages in their little gardens; and the
village with the pier jutting out into the sea. One or two larger
islands were in the distance; brown rocks and skerries lying like dots
upon the blue water; and away to the east the Highland hills rose among
the clouds.
'It must be awfully jolly, having an island all to yourselves,'
continued Harry.
'Yes,' replied Marjorie, perched on a boulder, 'and it's jollier still
to have an island of your very own, where no one comes but ourselves,
and we can do exactly as we like.'
'Where's that?' inquired Harry.
'I may tell them, mayn't I?' asked Marjorie of the others.
'Of course you may,' replied Allan; 'we must take them there some day
soon.'
Marjorie slipped down from her perch.
'Do you see the little island over there?' she said, pointing
southwards; 'a little black dot on the water, with some bright green in
the middle of it? Well, that's our _own_ island which we have all to
ourselves, and we've made a place in it that we call our secret
hiding-place or Pirates' Den. We must show it to you some day.'
The boys stood up and gazed out to sea, their eyes widening and
brightening.
'I say, this is jolly,' they murmured, rather than said to any one in
particular.
'Hamish,' said Allan, who had been looking at some object on the
southern side of the island; 'is that your father's gig, that has just
stopped before Mrs. Macdonnell's cottage?'
Hamish looked in the direction indicated.
'Yes, I believe it is,' he said. 'It must be true then, what we heard
Duncan say, that Mrs. Macdonnell is very ill.'
Such a grieved silence fell upon the island young people that the
Grahams looked at them inquiringly.
'They said that she would fall ill,' said Marjorie in a low voice,
'if--if she continued to fret so about----'
Allan pushed his cap to the back of his head, and Reggie looked hard in
the direction of the cottage, where the black dot was still standing by
the gate.
'Nothing else found in the ruins?' said Allan in an undertone.
'Nothing yet,' replied Hamish; 'the police are still trying to follow
up the clue----'
Marjorie's eyes encountered those of the guests, and she looked at
Allan and Reggie.
'Are you going to let them know about it?' she asked. 'Might as well,
you know; for they are sure to hear of it before long.'
Allan put his hands in his pockets and reflected; then he consulted
Reggie with a look, after which he turned to Hamish. 'Perhaps we might
as well tell them,' he said, and the others consented.
'Well, Graham major and Graham minor,' he began, to the boys who were
waiting expectantly; 'we are very much bothered about a friend of
ours;' and he told them about the robbery of the post-office and Neil's
flight, while the boys listened with wide-open mouths, throwing
themselves about and uttering exclamations of interest.
'You say that you are quite sure he couldn't have taken the letters?'
asked Harry, drawing himself into an upright position on the heather.
'Perfectly certain,' replied Allan. 'He would no more have done it
than you or I. No one who knows him would believe such a thing of
Neil.'
'Oh!' interposed Tricksy, in a shocked tone, 'I think Dr. MacGregor
believed it.'
Hamish became very red and Marjorie's lips tightened.
'And he's so awfully, awfully jolly,' pursued Harry.
'One of the very jolliest people we know,' answered Marjorie. 'Father
doesn't really believe it of him. He did everything for us, and was up
to all kinds of inventions. We don't seem to have any fun at all
without him.'
'It's a most extraordinary story,' said Harry, jerking himself into a
fresh attitude; and both the new boys sat and pondered.
'What do you say to letting them both join the Compact?' suggested
Reggie.
Marjorie's eyes said yes; and Hamish, whom Allan consulted with a look,
gave a nod.
'What's that; a Compact?' inquired Harry eagerly.
'It's an agreement that we've all made,' said Allan, 'that we'll back
Neil up, and show that he didn't commit the robbery.'
'Hooray, what fun,' said Harry; 'I'm game.'
'You might let Gerald join too,' cried Tricksy from where she sat
beside her new friend; 'he's quite the right sort, and he only wants to
learn a thing or two to be equal to any of us.'
Gerald wriggled, and blushed to the roots of his golden hair.
'Well, then, you must do all you can to help us,' said Allan, 'and see
whether you can find out who really did it.'
'All right,' said Harry; 'I'll help you to catch the thief.'
'And you must sign an agreement like the rest of us, and you can each
have a copy to carry about with you always, as we do. See, this is the
principal copy, that I have to take care of.'
'You can write it out now, with Allan's new fountain pen,' cried
Tricksy; 'this flat stone will do for a desk, and I've got some pieces
of paper that I've been carrying in my pocket in case we might find any
new people to join our Compact;' and she produced with great gravity
some crumpled sheets of note-paper, much soiled at the edges.
'All right,' said Allan, 'this is the agreement; "We hereby promise
never to rest until we show that Neil is innocent and have him brought
home again."'
Reggie held the papers down to keep them from blowing away, while Allan
made out fresh copies of the agreement; then all the documents received
the signature of Harry, who wrote his name with much ceremony and
handed the pen to Gerald.
'What an awful lark,' said Harry, who had clambered on to the boulder
and sat swinging his legs; 'it will be fine fun tracking the thief.'
Allan began to whistle.
'We haven't found much to track yet,' he said; 'neither have the
police, who have been at it nearly three weeks. The less you talk
about it the better, except among ourselves, for it isn't a game, this.'
'Come along,' said Marjorie, springing up, as Harry looked somewhat
crestfallen, 'we've dawdled long enough; let's run down the side of the
hill, and then we shan't take long to get to the cliffs.'
'All right,' said Harry briskly, 'let's go to the Smugglers' Caves; oh,
I say, what a jolly island this is!'
All started to run down the steep descent, bounding from one tuft of
heather to the other, their speed increasing as they neared the bottom.
Allan, Marjorie, and Reggie reached level ground at about the same
time; then they turned to look at Harry and Gerald, who arrived next,
looking somewhat shaken, and Hamish, who had stopped to help Tricksy.
'Not far now to the caves,' said Marjorie encouragingly. 'Do you see
that headland, stretching far out into the sea? They are on the side
farthest away from us. Tired, Tricksy?'
'Not at all,' protested the child, stepping alone and trying to hide a
little roll in her gait, although her small face was beginning to look
pale.
Reggie glanced at her approvingly as Tricksy toiled along beside
Hamish, hoping that no one observed that she was hanging on to big hand.
'Oh, what a height from the ground,' said Gerald in an awed tone of
voice, as the moor ended abruptly and they found themselves gazing down
from the crest of what seemed a sheer precipice, with long lines of
breakers falling upon the strip of sand at the foot. 'What a
disturbance the birds are making, and what strange noises there are.'
'It's the waves echoing among the rocks,' said Marjorie. 'You must
come here some stormy day when the tide is up; the caves get flooded
and the noise is just like thunder.'
'If you'll come a little further along,' said Allan, 'there's a break
in the cliffs where we can get down pretty easily. The tide is out, so
we have lots of time.'
'Can we really climb down there,' said Harry, as they came to where a
chasm opened in the line of cliff, with rough steps and ledges of rock
standing out in the riven walls. Not a bird was to be seen in the
gloomy crevasse; although the skuas and black-backed gulls were flying
about and clamouring before the face of the cliff.
'Come along,' said Allan on the first step. 'Are you a good climber,
Harry?'
'Pretty fair,' replied Harry, with a rather wild look in his eyes.
Gerald said nothing, but swung himself down with a serious countenance.
'If any one wants help, just sing out,' cried Allan, descending by the
rocky steps. 'Don't look down, and you'll be all right.'
'Take my hand, Gerald,' said Tricksy graciously to Gerald, who
hesitated at a perilous-looking gap.
Gerald flushed pink, and pretended not to have heard the offer of
assistance; and the two strangers braced themselves to their
unaccustomed feat.
The way led round the chasm and downward, sometimes approaching the
face of the cliff, where the inquisitive eyes and red bills of the
puffins peered out of the crevices, and whole rows of auks and
kittiwakes were thrown into violent agitation by the sight of the
intruders; and sometimes leading back to the dark interior of the
chasm. The place was full of echoes; the hollow boom of the breakers,
the swirling of water round half-submerged rocks, the hoarse cries of
the gulls and the shrill scream of the smaller sea-birds joining in an
uproar which made the air tremble. Many a time, during the descent, it
cost the new-comers an effort to avoid being overcome by dizziness.
At last Allan reached the last ledge, and swung himself to the ground;
Reggie and Marjorie followed; Tricksy came last, and the Grahams
dropped down with an air of relief.
'Well done for you,' said Allan approvingly; 'it's your first climb of
the kind, and you haven't shown an atom of funk.'
Gerald's cheeks became a little redder, and Harry bore himself with
greater self-consciousness.
'Only Hamish now,' said Allan, looking up at the cliff; 'how cautiously
the old fellow is coming down; he has the steadiest head of the lot of
us although he is so slow.'
'"Sleepy Hamish,"' remarked Harry to Gerald in an aside, repeating a
nickname which he had heard Allan use. Low as the words were spoken,
Marjorie heard them, and turned upon the boy like a flash.
'Some people have more in them than they make a show of,' she said.
'Perhaps you don't understand that kind of thing, though.'
Harry did not chance to have a reply ready, but he observed to Reggie
afterwards that it was a pity Marjorie seemed to be a quick-tempered
kind of a girl.
'Here we are,' said Allan, pausing beneath a great overhanging archway,
and speaking loudly so as to be heard above the din; for the waves and
the clamouring of the birds made a noise which was almost deafening.
'Can we go in?' asked Gerald.
'Of course we can. There's no danger except in a westerly gale. It's
dark after you get in a little way.'
The young people scrambled and slipped over the sea-weed at the mouth
of the cave, and presently found themselves standing on a floor of
light-coloured sand, strewn with shells and sea-drift. The sides of
the cave were black and shiny with wet, and water dripped slowly from
the roof.
'Is this where the smugglers used to come?' asked Gerald in an awed
tone.
'Yes,' replied Allan; 'the schooners used to sail under the rocks on
moonlight nights when the tide was high, and the cargo was stored in
the caves until the people came secretly to take it away. It was very
dangerous work sometimes, for if a storm comes from the west the caves
are often flooded.'
The light which glimmered under the archway did not penetrate far, and
the young people were soon in total darkness. The air was damp and
chilly. Strange draughts crossed each other from unexpected quarters,
and the water dripping from overhead, awoke weird echoes which seemed
to be repeated among far-reaching clefts and passages.
'Strike a light, Hamish,' said Allan, 'and let them see what kind of a
place they're in.'
The match spluttered and blazed, revealing dark rocks gleaming with wet
and the black openings to what appeared to be a series of underground
passages branching off from the main one.
'The caves are all connected with one another,' explained Allan, 'and
have separate openings to the sea. Light up again, Hamish; strike two
this time, and they'll get a better idea.'
Again there was a splutter, and the flare revealed strange shifting
shadows among the rocks, and a circle of faces that looked unnaturally
white in the surrounding darkness.
Reggie's eyes were the sharpest.
'Hullo!' he exclaimed, 'there's something in that passage. What can it
be?'
All crowded to examine the mysterious object, and the light flickered
upon a pile of kegs and bales lying half-concealed behind a corner of
rock.
'Smugglers!' declared Marjorie.
'Looks like it,' said Allan, as Hamish struck fresh matches and the
others crowded round, giving utterance to ohs! and ahs! of excitement.
'They're at their old trade again,' said Allan, examining the barrels;
'I wonder what Pater will say to this?'
'That's the last match, Allan,' said Hamish, as the light flickered out.
The darkness seemed to come down like a weight, and the young people
found themselves groping for each other's hands.
'We had better make the best of our way out of this,' said Allan. 'Try
to move quietly, for we don't know who might be about. Help Tricksy,
Hamish; I think she's by you, and here, Tricksy, give me your other
hand.'
They groped their way towards the entrance, and soon were in the strong
sunshine at the mouth of the caves.
'Well,' said Allan, 'that was an adventure;' and they looked at one
another with varying expressions.
'Do you think they may have had anything to do with the robbery?' said
Marjorie.
'Shouldn't wonder,' replied Allan. 'Anyhow, we'll see what Pater says.'
'In the meanwhile,' said Marjorie, 'we had better be quick; the
breakers are close under the rocks, and we're almost cut off already.'
A stream of foaming, angry-looking water was running up into a hollow
on the shore, and the young folk could only escape by jumping on to a
stone in the middle of the flood, and from thence to the other side.
'Jump, Tricksy,' cried Reggie half impatiently, as his little sister
hesitated.
Tricksy, who was pale and overwrought, sprang, but fell short and
plunged overhead in the water.
Instantly two or three were in the flood, trying to prevent her being
swept out to sea.
Allan secured her; and gasping, struggling, with water running over her
face, Tricksy was pulled on to dry land.
'It isn't so very bad, is it, Tricksy?' inquired Reggie, in a tone of
somewhat forced cheerfulness; 'what a thing to do, to jump in when
you're told to jump over!'
Tricksy tried to smile; a miserable attempt, for her teeth chattered
and her lips were blue with the cold.
'Run to Rob MacLean's cottage, Reggie,' said Hamish, throwing off his
coat and wrapping it round Tricksy; 'ask him to lend us his pony, and
we'll take Tricksy to Corranmore; it's nearer than your house.'
With Hamish running by her side and holding her on to the pony, Tricksy
was not long in reaching Corranmore, and when the others arrived she
was already in bed, with Mrs. MacGregor beside her; the little girl
drinking hot milk and trying to restrain the tears that _would_ roll
down her cheeks, even when she forced herself to laugh.
'Feeling better, Tricksy?' asked Reggie apprehensively.
'She has had a nasty fall,' said Mrs. MacGregor somewhat reproachfully,
'and we may be thankful it is not any worse. She can't possibly go
home to-night; you had better tell your parents that she is safe with
us.'
A look of relief overspread Tricksy's tired features.
'Oh, you _are_ a dear,' she exclaimed, springing up and throwing her
arms round Mrs. MacGregor's neck, forgetting that the lady had once
said that Tricksy Stewart was a spoilt little girl. 'Hooray, I'll
sleep with Marjorie and we can talk about what we have seen to-day!'