THE MAN IN BLACK.
Before ever I gained the gap I was panting, and as I panted the blood
ran into my mouth from a deep scratch across the eyebrows. I tasted
it as I ran. My shirt hung in strips, and one stocking flapped open
on a rip from knee to ankle. But on the farther side of the ridge I
ran no longer. I flung myself and fell through the matted ferns
that, veiling the trough of a half-dry watercourse, now checked my
descent as I clutched at them, now parted and let me drop and bruise
myself on the rocky bottom. In the end, I found myself on soft sand
beside the blessed water of the creek, bloodied indeed--for I had
taken a shrewd knock on the bridge of the nose--but with a wrenched
shoulder and a jarred knee-pan for the worst of my hurts. I valued
them nothing in comparison with the terrors left behind in the woods.
The schooner lay in sight, scarcely half a mile below, and I sobbed
with gratitude as I dipped my face in the tide and washed off its
bloodstains.
The tide was still at flood, and wanted (as I guessed) less than an
hour of high water; but it left an almost continuous stretch of sand
between me and the creek-head, and I found that the short intervals
where it narrowed to nothing could be waded with ease. At first the
curve of the foreshore and the overhanging woods concealed the spit
of beach where I had made fast my punt beside the dinghy; but at the
corner which brought the boats in sight I was aware of two figures
standing beside them--Captain Branscome and Mr. Rogers.
I walked forward hardily enough; I had drunk my fill of terror, and
could have faced the Captain had he been thrice as formidable.
He did not help me at all, but stood with a thunderous frown, very
quiet and self-restrained, while I plodded my way up to him, over the
sand.
I think that, as I drew close, my battered appearance must have
shocked him a little. But his frown did not relax, and the muscles
of his mouth grew, if anything, tenser.
"You appear to have been in the wars," he said quietly.
"Has anything happened to the schooner?"
"No, sir; at least not to my knowledge," was my answer; and he must
have; expected it, or he would have shown more perturbation.
"I saw her, not five minutes ago, lying at her moorings," I added,
with a nod towards the bend of the creek which hid her from us.
"Then why has Miss Belcher sent you?"
"She did not send me, sir."
"In other words, you have chosen to disobey orders?"
I suppose he read some sullenness in my attitude, for he repeated the
words sharply, in a tone that demanded an answer.
"I am sorry, sir; but all the same, it didn't seem fair to me to be
left on board without being consulted."
I heard him take a short breath, as though my impudence him in the
wind. For a full half a minute eyed me slowly up and down.
"Get into your boat, sir, and return to the ship at once!
Mr. Rogers, this child is impossible. I must do what I would gladly
have avoided, and ask the ladies to give me more authority over him,
since they will not exercise it themselves."
At the implied sneer--and perhaps even more at the tone of it, so
foreign to the Captain Branscome that I knew--I blazed up wrathfully.
"If you mean by that," said I, "to threaten me with the rope's-end, I
advise you to try it. And if you mean that I'm child enough to be
tied to apron-strings of a couple of women, that's just of a piece
with the whole mistake you're making. No one's disputing your right
to give orders--"
"Thank you," he put in sarcastically.
"--To those," I went on, "who appointed you captain. But I wasn't
consulted, and until that happens, I shall obey or not, as I choose."
Now, this, no doubt, was extremely childish, even wickedly foolish,
and the more foolish, perhaps, because a few minutes ago I would have
given all I possessed, including my prospective share in the
treasure, for Captain Branscome's protection. But somehow, since
sighting the island, I had lost hold of myself, and my temper seemed
to be running all askew. Strange to tell, the Captain appeared to be
affected in much the same way.
"Why, you little fool," said he, "are you mistaking this for a
picnic?"
"No," I retorted; "I am not. And, if you'll remember, it wasn't I
who led the ladies to look forward to one."
He planted himself before me, and said he, looking at me sternly--
"See here, my boy, I don't want to make unpleasantness, and if you
force me to appeal to the whole ship's company, you know very well
you will find yourself in a minority of one."
"I don't care for that, sir. You'll be acting unfairly, all the
same."
"We'll let that pass. You tell here in the act of breaking ship,
that you're of an age to be consulted. Well, you shall have the
benefit of the doubt. You want to know, then, why I'm careful about
letting you run ashore? What would you say if I told you the island
has people upon it?"
"Why, first of all, sir, that if you found it out before dropping
anchor, it seems strange--your going ashore with Mr. Rogers and
leaving the rest to take care of themselves. But if you've
discovered it since--"
"I have not. I am not sure the island is inhabited; but as we were
running down the coast I saw something through my glasses--a coil of
smoke beyond the hills on the eastern side. Now, if, as seems
certain, this fire was lit by human beings, it almost stands to
reason they must have sighted our ship. Next comes the question Why
did I go ashore and take Mr. Rogers? Well, in the first place, we
didn't come here to lie at anchor and sail away again; and if the
island happened to be inhabited, and by people who don't want us,
why, then, the sooner we nipped ashore and prospected, the better,
for the spot where I sighted the smoke must lie a good five miles
from here as the crow flies, and by the shape of the hills and the
amount of scrub between 'em, those five miles must be equal to
fifteen. But why (say you) did I take Mr. Rogers? I took Mr.
Rogers, after consulting with Miss Belcher--"
"Does _she_ know there are people on the island?"
"She does. I took Mr. Rogers because, if danger there be, it seemed
likelier we should find it ashore than on board the schooner; and
because, as the shortest way to make sure if these strangers were
after our treasure, we had agreed to make straight for the clump of
trees described on the back of the chart and examine whether the
ground thereabouts had been visited lately or disturbed; and,
further, because our search might require more strength and agility
than I alone, with my lame leg, could command. I felt pretty easy
about the schooner. She can only be attacked by boat, and I searched
the coast pretty narrowly on our way down without sighting one.
If these men possess a boat, she probably lies somewhere on the
eastern side, not far from their camp fire. If she lies nearer, it
must be somewhere under the cliffs to the south, in which case her
owners would have a long journey to reach her, and that journey must
take them around the head of the creek here. But (say you) there may
be two parties on the island--one by the camp fire northward, and
another under the south shore. I'll grant this, though I think it
unlikely; but, even so, to attack the schooner they must bring their
boat up the whole length of the entrance, where our people would have
her in view for at least two miles. This would give ample time for a
signal to recall us, and on the chance of it I left Goodfellow in
charge of two rockets with instructions to touch them off on a hint
of danger."
"Oh, oh!" said I. "So Mr. Goodfellow, too, knew of this?
And Plinny, I suppose? And, in fact, you told every one but me?"
"No, sir," said Captain Branscome, gravely; "I did not trouble Miss
Plinlimmon with these perhaps unnecessary fears. To a lady of her
sensitive nature--"
"Oh, well, sir," I interrupted and, turning aside pettishly, began to
haul my cockboat down to the water, "since you choose to treat me
like a baby of six, I suppose it's no wonder you take Plinny for a
timorous old fool."
"Sir!" exploded Captain Branscome, and glancing back over my shoulder
I saw him leaning on his stick and fairly trembling with wrath.
"This disrespectful language! And of a lady for whom--for whom--"
"Disrespect?"--I whistled. "Is it worse to speak disrespect or to
act it? I have known Plinny for years--you for a month or two; and
one of these days, if this expedition gets into a mess--as it likely
will with such handling--that sensitive lady will make you see
stars."
I knew, while I uttered it, that my speech was abominably
ill-conditioned; that Captain Branscome had, in fact, been holding
out the olive-branch, and that in common decency I ought to have
caught at it. In short, I felt my boyish temper going from bad to
worse, and yet, somehow, that I could not apply the brake to it.
"Why, confound the boy!" ejaculated Mr. Rogers. "What ever bee has
stung him?" And gripping me by the shoulder as I heaved at the boat,
he swung me round to face him. "Look here, young Harry Brooks!
Do you happen to be sickening for something, that you talk like a
gutter-snipe to a gentleman old enough to be your grandfather?
Or, damme, have you and Goodfellow been coming to blows? By the nose
of you and the state of your shirt a man would say you've come from a
street fight; and by your talk, that your head was knocked silly."
"It's all very well, Mr. Rogers," said I, sulkily, "and I know I
oughtn't to have spoken like that, but I hate to be tyrannized over.
That's why I didn't take your warning first along and pull back to
the ship--though I thank you for it all the same."
"Eh?" said Mr. Rogers. "My warning? What in thunder is the boy
talking about?"
"When you saw me sculling for shore, here, about an hour ago," I
explained, "you pretended not to see me, and went after Captain
Branscome; but I saw you, fast enough, standing on the bank yonder,
under the trees."
"For a certainty the child is mad!" Mr. Rogers stared at me
round-eyed. "_I_ saw you? _I_ pretended not to? Why, man alive,
from the time we left the ship I never set eyes on you (how should
I?), nor ever guessed you were ashore till we came back and found
your boat beside the dinghy. And as for standing under those trees,
I was never on the bank there for one second--no, nor for the half of
one. The Captain and I walked around the spit together--the tide has
covered our footmarks or I could show 'em to you."
"At any rate there _was_ a man," I persisted. "And he couldn't have
been the Captain either, for he was wearing dark clothes--"
"The devil! I say, Branscome, listen to this--"
"I am listening," answered the Captain, gravely, taking, as he
stepped forward, a long look at the bank above us and at the dense
forest to right and left. "Did you see the man's face, Harry?"
"No, sir, or I should not have mistaken him for Mr. Rogers. He was
standing there, under the boughs, and seemed to be looking through
them and watching me. I was sculling the boat along with a paddle
slipped in the stern notch, and he let me come pretty close--I
couldn't have been two hundred yards away--when he slipped to the
back of the trees, and I lost him."
"You didn't see him again?"
"No, sir; I didn't land just at once. I had a mind at first to put
about and row to the schooner, thinking that Mr. Rogers had meant it
for a hint. When I brought the boat ashore, five minutes later, he
was gone."
"Which way did you take, then?"
"I went straight after you, sir, up the waterfalls; but couldn't find
any trace of you except at one spot just beside a waterfall--the
fourth, it was--where some one had slipped a foot--"
"Mr. Rogers," the Captain interrupted, "we had best get back to the
_Espriella_ with all speed. I may tell you, Harry, that we never
went up by the waterfalls at all. It was a climb, and my half-pay
leg didn't like the look of it. But, jump into your boat, boy, and
pull ahead of us. You and I must do a little serious talking later
on."
We pulled back briskly for the _Espriella_ and reached her just as
she began to swing with the turn of the tide. As we drew close--the
cockboat leading--I glanced over my shoulder and spied Plinny leaning
against the bulwarks by the starboard quarter, in the attitude of one
gently enjoying the sunset scene; but at the sight of my torn shirt
all her composure left her, and she came running to the accommodation
ladder, where she met me with a string of agitated questions.
"Excuse me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, as the dinghy fell
alongside and he climbed on deck. "I have no wish to alarm you, and,
indeed, there may be no cause at all for alarm. But Harry has
brought us some serious news. He reports that there is a man--a
stranger--on the Island."
"How could Harry have known?" was Plinny's unexpected response.
"He is confident that he saw a man, somewhat more than an hour since,
standing at the head of the creek."
"Now, that is very curious," said Plinny; "for the gentleman told me
he had borrowed Harry's boat without being observed."
"I--I beg your pardon, ma'am!" Captain Branscome stared about him.
"A gentleman, did you say?"
"Yes, and such distinguished manners! He left a message for you--and,
dear me, you should have heard how he praised my coffee!"