AARON GLASS.
The second scream followed the first almost before we could lift our
faces to the cliff. Dr. Beauregard had risen to his feet quickly,
without fuss, and was unstrapping his gun. But Miss Belcher was
quicker. A couple of muskets lay on the sand close beside the
luncheon-cloth, and in a trice she had snatched up one of them, and
held our host covered.
"You have deceived us, sir," she said quietly.
Dr. Beauregard looked along the barrel and into her eyes with an
admiring, half-quizzical smile.
"Good," said he. "Good, but unnecessary. That the island is
inhabited I supposed you to know, since Captain Branscome tells me he
reported catching sight of smoke yesterday when off the western
coast; but the fellows--there are, or were, three of them, by the
way--are no friends of mine."
"We have only your word for it," said Miss Belcher, without lowering
her musket.
"True, ma'am," the Doctor assented, with a bow. "I am about to give
you proof. But first of all oblige me by listening for another
moment."
He held up his hand, and while we all listened I looked around from
face to face. Captain Branscome had unslipped his gun, and stood
eyeing the Doctor with a puzzled frown. Plinny stared up at the
cliffs. She was white to the lips, but the lips were firmly set;
whereas Mr. Goodfellow's jaw hung as though loosed from its
tacklings.
So we waited for twenty seconds, maybe; but no third scream came down
from the heights.
"That makes one accounted for," said Dr. Beauregard. "I have known,
first and last, eleven parties who hunted treasure on this island.
They all quarrelled. They quarrelled, moreover, every one of them,
before getting their stuff--such as it was--to the boats. Now, if
you will permit me to say so, your own success--when you obtain it--
will be a fluke and an absurd fluke. It will stultify every rule of
precaution and violate every law of chance. I have studied this game
for close upon twenty years, and reduced it almost to mathematics;
and I foresee that you will play--nay, you have already played--
ninepins with my most certain conclusions. But you have as
gentlefolks, with all the disabilities of gentlefolks, the one thing
that all these experts have fatally lacked. You have self-command."
"It appears to me that we need it, at any rate," said Miss Belcher,
tartly, "if we are to be favoured just now with a lecture."
Dr. Beauregard smiled. "The purport of my lecture, ma'am, was to
prepare you for a question which I have to put. When these men
arrive, Captain Branscome, Mr. Goodfellow, and I must deal with them.
Are you ladies prepared to exercise strong self-control? Will you,
with Harry Brooks, await us here until our business is over?"
"Excuse me, sir, but I must first know what your business is."
"That, ma'am, will depend upon circumstances; but it is more than
likely to be serious."
"I must trouble you, now and always, to speak to me definitely.
If you propose to shoot these men, kindly say so."
"I do not, ma'am. But their boat lies on the next beach, and as soon
as they launch her they will discover us; and as soon as they
discover us it will be life for life."
"But they need not discover us. In five minutes we can embark
ourselves and our belongings; in less than fifteen we can round the
point to the south'ard, and beyond it lie two or three small coves
where, as I judged in passing, a boat can lie reasonably safe from
observation."
"Admirably reasoned, ma'am. By all means take the boat--take Harry
Brooks with you, and Mr. Goodfellow for protection. But Captain
Branscome and I must stay and see it out with these men."
"For my part," put in Plinny, "I cannot see why these men have not as
much right as we to the treasure; and, in any case, if we let them go
they leave us a clear coast to hunt for the rest."
"Captain Branscome"--Dr. Beauregard turned to him--"do these ladies,
as a rule, assert a voice in your dispositions?"
"They do, sir," answered the Captain, with a tired smile; "and if you
will take my advice, the only way with them is to make a clean breast
of everything."
"I will." The Doctor faced about, with a smile. "You must know then,
ladies, that these two ruffians--for by this time there are two
only--will presently be coming down to the next beach to launch their
boat and leave the island. How do I know this? Because my study of
treasure-hunters has given me a kind of instinct; or because, if you
prefer it, I have observed that the moment--the crucial moment--when
these fellows quarrel is always the moment when, having laid hands on
as much as they can carry, they turn to retreat. You doubt my
diagnosis, ma'am?" he asked, turning to Miss Belcher. "Then I can
convince you even more simply. These men are not camping here
to-night; they will not return to-morrow to fetch a second load; and
for the sufficient reason that there is no second load. I know the
amount of treasure hidden where they have been searching. Two men
can lift and carry it easily."
"How do you happen to know this?" asked Miss Belcher, eyeing him from
under contracted brows.
"For the excellent reason, ma'am, that I put the treasure there
myself."
The answer, staggering to the rest of us, seemed to brace her
together. She had lowered her musket at the beginning of the
discussion; but now, throwing up her head with a sharp jerk, she
levelled her eyes on Dr. Beauregard's, as straight as though they
looked along a gun-barrel.
"Then it can hardly be for the sake of the treasure, sir, that you
propose to deal with these men."
"It is not, ma'am."
"Nor solely to protect us from them, since you have brought us here,
where we need never have come."
"No, ma'am. I brought you here because I cannot be in two places at
once, and it was necessary to keep both parties under my eye.
Having brought you, I am bound to protect you; but my main business
here, and yours--or at any rate Captain Branscome's--is to punish."
"To punish? But why to punish?"
Dr. Beauregard hesitated, with a glance at Plinny and at me, who
stood beside her.
"A word in your ear, ma'am--if you will allow me?"
He stepped close to Miss Belcher, and spoke a sentence or two which I
could not catch. But my eyes were on her face, and I saw it change
colour. The next moment her square mouth shut like a trap.
"If that be so, I wait for him along with you," she announced.
"Oh, you may trust me, sir! I have a fairly strong stomach with
criminals, and no sentiment."
"It shall be as you please, ma'am. But, for the others, I would
suggest their taking the boat and awaiting us around the point.
See, the tide has risen, and within five minutes she will float.
Mr. Goodfellow, will you accompany Miss Plinlimmon and the boy?
Wait, please, until completely afloat before pushing off; for our
friends must be near at hand by this time, and the grating of her
keel might give them the alarm. For the same reason, ma'am, unless
you have any particular question to ask, we had best start at once,
and, when we have started, keep the strictest silence. Shall I lead
the way?"
They set off very cautiously, the Doctor leading, Miss Belcher close
at his heels. Captain Branscome a couple of paces behind her; gained
the ridge, and passed out of sight around an angle of the rocks.
Now, to be left in this fashion was not at all to my mind.
It seemed to me that, when serious business was on hand, every one
conspired to treat me as a baby. I had told Captain Branscome
yesterday that I would not put up with it; and though I stood in far
greater awe of Dr. Beauregard than of the Captain, I felt none the
less mutinous now. Plinny, who in moments of agitation invariably
had recourse to some familiar work for a sedative, was on her knees
repacking the luncheon-baskets. Her back was turned to me, and from
her I glanced towards Mr. Goodfellow, who had stepped down to the
boat, and was leaning over the gunwale to rearrange the gear.
From him I looked up the beach, to the ridge behind which the others
had disappeared, and to the creepers overhanging the cliff.
Suddenly it came into my head that by gaining the upper end of the
ridge, where it met the cliff, I could wriggle under these creepers,
and observe from behind them all that went on, as well on the next
beach as on this. And with another glance at Plinny's back I tiptoed
away.
I moved as swiftly as I dared, making no noise, nor looked behind me
until I reached the rocks under the cliff--the path by which Mr.
Goodfellow had crept round to scuttle the boat.
I calculated that by working my way along for fifty yards between
them and the rock-face I should gain an opening which, observed from
below, had seemed to promise me an excellent view of the next beach.
But they hung so heavily that I found myself struggling in an almost
impenetrable thicket; and when at length I gained the opening, and
drew breath, above the splash of waves on the beach I heard a sound
which caused me to huddle back like a rabbit surprised in the mouth
of its burrow.
Some three yards from my hiding the bank of low cliff bounding the
beach shelved upward and inland in a stretch of short turf, and from
the head of this slope came the thud of footsteps--of heavy footsteps
descending closer and closer.
I drew back under the creepers, and held my breath. Between their
thick woven strands my eyes caught only, to the right, a twinkle of
the sea; in front, a yard or two of white shingle glittering beyond
the green shade; and, five seconds later, this patch was blotted out
as two men plunged past my spyhole. They walked abreast, and carried
a box between them. I could hear them panting, so closely they
passed.
They halted on the edge of the bank.
"The boat's all right," said one; and I heard him jump down upon the
shingle. It seemed to me that I knew his voice. "Here, pass down
the blamed thing . . . d--n it all, man!"
"_I can't!_" whimpered the other. "S'help me, Bill, I can't. . . .
I'm not used to it, and I ain't got the nerve."
"Nerve? An' you call yourself a seaman! An' a plucky lot you
boasted the night we signed articles. . . . Nerve? Why, you was the
very man to find fault with him. 'Couldn't stand his temper another
day,' you said; and must do something desprit. Those were your very
words."
"I know it. I didn't think--"
"Oh, to hell with your 'didn't think'! The man's dead, an' cryin'
won't bring him back. Much you'd welcome him, if he _did_ come
back!"
"_Don't_, Bill!"
"Now, look you here, Jim Lucky! Stand you up, and help me get this
lot in the boat, and the boat to sea. After that you can lie quiet
and cry yourself sick. . . . You'll be all right to-morrow, fit as a
fiddle. I've been in this business before, and seen how it takes
men, even the strongest. It's the sight o' blood; but the stomach
gets accustomed. . . . By this day week you'll be lively as a flea in
a rug, and lookin' forward to drivin' in your carriage-an'-pair.
I promise you that; but what you've to do at this moment is to stand
up, and help me get down the boat. For if _he's_ anywhere on this
island, God help the pair of us!"
"_He!_" quavered Jim Lucky.
"I shouldn't wonder."
"But you told me he was dead!"
"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. That was to keep your spirits up.
But now I don't mind tellin' you that I'm not sure. He _ought_ to
be dead by this time; but 'tis a question if the likes of him ever
die. He's own cousin to the devil, I tell you; and if he's anywhere
alive, like as not he's watching us at this moment."
Whatever this meant, it appeared to rouse Jim Lucky, and start him in
a panic. I heard him sob as he helped to lower their burden upon the
beach. All this time they had been standing immediately beneath me,
and I dared not lift my head for a look. But now, as they went
staggering down the beach, I parted the creepers, and stared in their
wake. They carried a heavy sea-chest between them, but my eyes were
neither for the chest nor for Jim Lucky, but for his companion, the
man he called Bill.
I knew him before I looked; and as I had recognized his voice, so now
I recognized his narrow, foxy head, and sloping shoulders.
It was Aaron Glass.
The two men carried the chest along at a rate that perhaps came
easily enough to Jim Lucky, who was a young giant of a seaman, but
was astonishing for a thin, windlestraw of a man such as Glass.
He ploughed his way across the sands like a demon, and had scarcely
set down the chest, a little above the water's edge, before he was
tugging at the boat. I heard him call to Lucky to help, and the pair
heave-y-hoe'd together as they strained at the gunwale to lift her
and run her down.
From this ridge, as yet, came no sign.
Presently from the boat--they had pulled her down to the water, and
were both stooping over her with their shoulders well inside, busy in
arranging her bottom board--I heard a fearful oath; an oath that rose
in a scream, as the two men faced each other, scared, incredulous.
"_Scuttled, by God!_"
It was Glass who screamed it out, and with the sound of it a host of
sea-birds rose from the neighbouring rocks, whitening the sky.
But Jim Lucky cast up both hands and ran.
"Stop, you fool! Stop!"
I think the poor creature had no notion whither he ran; that he was
merely demented. But, in fact, he headed straight for the ridge,
not turning his head. Twice Glass called after him; then, in a
sudden fury, whipped out a pistol and fired. For the moment I
supposed that he had missed, for the man ran for another six strides
without seeming to falter, then his knees weakened, and he pitched
forward on his face.
I believe, on my word, that Glass had either fired in blind passion
or with intent to stop the man rather than to kill him. He stood and
stared; and, while the pistol yet smoked in his hand, I saw Dr.
Beauregard step forth from his shelter, step delicately past the
corpse, and raise his musket; and heard his clear, resonant voice
call out--
"Both hands up, Mr. Glass, if you please!"