MAROONED
In the course of an early pilgrimage in search of an unfrequented spot
where he might work out of doors undisturbed in June before going to
Normandy, Markham had stumbled quite by accident on Thimble Island.
There, to his delight, he had discovered the exact combination of
rocks, foliage and barren he was looking for--the painter's landscape.
The island was separated from the mainland by an arm of the sea, wide
enough to keep at a safe distance the fashionable cottagers in the
adjacent community.
Fire had destroyed the large frame cottage which the Westfields had
occupied, but there was a small bark bungalow of two rooms and a
kitchen that had been used, he learned, as quarters for extra guests,
which would exactly suit his purposes. Somewhat doubtfully, he made
inquiries upon the mainland and communicated with the agents of
Mrs. Westfield in New York, with whom, to his delight, he managed to
make the proper arrangements pending the rebuilding of the house.
He had established himself bag and baggage and at the end of two weeks
a row of canvases along the wall of his room bore testimony to his
diligence. To Markham they had been weeks of undiluted happiness. He
was working out in his own way some theses of color which would in
time prove to others that he knew Nature as well as he knew humanity;
that the brutal truths people saw in his portraits were only brutal
because they were true; and to prove to himself that somewhere in him,
deeply hidden, was a vein of tenderness which now sought expression.
Every day he was learning something. This morning for instance he had
risen before daylight to try an effect in grays that he had missed two
days before.
The day had just begun and Markham stood before his tripod facing to
the westward painting madly, trying, in the few short moments that
remained to him before sunrise, to put upon his canvas the evanescent
tints of the dawn. He painted madly because the canvas was not yet
covered and because he knew that within twenty minutes at the most the
sun would rise behind him and the witching mystery of the half-light
be gone. He stood upright painting at arm's length with a full brush
and broad sweep of wrist and arm. Gobs of paint from the tubes melted
into pearly-grays and purples in the middle of his palette to be
quickly transposed and placed tone beside tone like a pale mosaic
enriched and blended by the soft fingers of Time. His motive was
simple--a rock, some trees, a stretch of sandy waste, backed by a
rugged hill and a glimpse of sea, all bathed in mist; and his brush
moved decisively, heavily at times, lightly, caressingly at others as
the sketch grew to completion, while his dark eyes glowed behind their
hideous goggles, and the firm lines at his mouth relaxed in a smile.
For this moment at least he was tasting immortality--and it was good.
High above him in the air there moved a speck, growing larger with
every moment, but he did not see it or hear the faint staccato sounds
which proclaimed its identity. The speck moved toward the sea and
then, making a wide turn over the beach, swept inland near the earth
noiselessly, and deposited itself with a quivering groan which
startled him, directly in the unfinished foreground of the painter,
throwing its occupant in a huddled heap upon the ground.
It had been a lovely foreground of sand and stubble, iridescent with
the dew, rich with the broken grays and violets of the reflected
heavens. And now--
He dropped his palette and brushes and ran forward, suddenly alive to
the serious nature of the interruption. Upon the grass, stretched
prone, face downward, lay a figure in leather cap, blouse and
leggings. But as his hand touched the leather shoulder, the aviator
moved and then sat upright, facing him. At the same moment the sun,
which had been hesitating for some moments on the brink of the
horizon, came up with a rush and bathed the face of the small person
before him in liquid gold. The leather cap had fallen backward and a
mass of golden hair which now tumbled about the face proclaimed with
startling definiteness the sex of Markham's unexpected guest.
"Sorry to bother you," said the guest weakly. "She missed fire and I
had to 'plane' down."
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
"No, I think not," she replied, running her fingers over her leather
jerkin to reassure herself as to the fact. "Just shaken up a
little--that's all."
Markham stood up and watched her, his arms a-kimbo, a tangle at his
brow. It was quite evident to Hermia Challoner that he hadn't the
slightest recollection of her.
"What are you doing out at this time of day?" he asked. "Don't you
know you might have drowned yourself? Where did you come from? Where
are you going?" The tone of his voice was not unkind--it was even
solicitous for her welfare, but it reminded her unpleasantly of his
attitude toward her the last time they had met.
[Illustration: "Markham stood up and watched her, his arms a-kimbo, a
tangle at his brow."]
"That," she replied, getting rather unsteadily to her feet, "is a
matter of no importance."
The effort in rising cost her trouble and as she moved toward the
machine her face went white, and she would have fallen had not Markham
caught her by the arm.
"Oh, I'm all right," she faltered. But he led her up the hill to the
cabin where he put her on a couch and gave her some whisky and water.
"Here, drink this," he said gently. "It will do you good."
She glanced around the room at the piles of canvases against the wall,
at the tin coffee pot on the wooden table, and then back at his
unshorn face and shock of disorderly hair, the color rising slowly to
her cheeks. But she obeyed him, and drank what remained in the glass
without question, sinking back upon the pillow, her lips firmly
compressed, her gaze upon the ceiling.
"I--I'm sorry to put you to so much trouble," she murmured.
"Oh, that's all right," he muttered. "You got a bad shock. But there
are no bones broken. You'll be all right soon. Go to sleep if you
can."
She tried to sit up, thought better of it and lay back again with eyes
closed, while Markham moved on tiptoe around the room putting things
to rights, all the while swearing silently. What in the name of all
that was unpleasant did this philandering little idiot mean by trying
to destroy herself on the front lawn of his holiday house? Surely the
world was big enough, the air broad enough. He glanced at her for a
moment, then crept over on tip-toe and peered at her secretively. He
straightened and scratched his head, fumbling for his pipe, puzzled.
She resembled somebody he knew or whom he had met. Where? When? He
gave it up at last and strolled out of doors--lighted his pipe and
sauntered down the hill toward the devilish thing of canvas and wire
that had brought her here. He knew nothing of aëroplanes, but
even to his unskilled eye it was apparent that without repairs the
thing would fly no more, for the canvas covering flapped suggestively
in the wind. A broken wing! And the bird was in his cage. His
situation--and hers--began to assume unpleasant definiteness. For
three days at least, until his supply boat arrived, from the mainland,
they would be prisoners here together. A pretty prospect!
He strolled to his belated canvas and stood for a while puffing at his
pipe, his mind still pondering gloomily over his neglected foreground.
then regretfully, tenderly, he undid the clips that fastened the
canvas, unlooped the cords from his stone anchors, wiped his brushes,
shut his paint-box and moved slowly up the hill toward the house, his
mind protestingly adjusting itself to the situation. What was he to do
with this surprising female until the boat arrived. Common decency
demanded hospitality, and of course he must give it to her, his bed,
his food, his time. That was the thing he begrudged her most--the long
wonderful daylight hours in this chosen spot, the hourly calls of sea
and sky in his painters' paradise. Silly little fool! If she had had
to tumble why couldn't she have done it on the West shore where there
were women, doctors and medicines?
He placed the canvas and easel against the corner of his house,
knocked out his pipe on the heel of his boot and cautiously peered
around the jamb of the door to find his unwelcome guest sitting on the
edge of the bed smoking a cigarette. He straightened sheepishly, not
knowing whether to grin or to scowl. Neither of them spoke for a
moment.
"Feeling better?" he asked at last, for the silence embarrassed him.
"Oh, yes, thanks."
She rose and flicked her cigarette out of the window.
"Where are you going?" he asked again.
"Home--to breakfast."
"Impossible!"
"Why?"
"You're not fit--"
"Oh, yes I am--"
"Besides, you can't--"
"Why not?"
"Your aëroplane--it won't fly?"
She stopped in the doorway and glanced anxiously down the slope where
her Bleriot had fallen.
"One wing is broken, you see."
She went down the hill, Markham following. She stood before the broken
machine and looked at it dejectedly.
"Well?" he asked.
"I'm afraid you're right. It will have to be repaired. I'll go back
by boat."
He smiled.
"Of course. But in the meanwhile I'm afraid you'll have to trust to my
hospitality--such as it is."
She turned toward him quickly.
"You mean--"
"The boat--my only means of communication, won't be here until
Thursday."
Her jaw dropped and her blue eyes were quite round in dismay.
"You can't mean it!"
"It's the truth."
"Have you no boats? Does no one come here from the mainland?"
"No. I arranged that. I came here to work and didn't want to be
interrupted--" And hastily: "Of course, I'm glad to be of service to
you, and if you'll put up with what I can offer--"
"Thanks," she said. "I hope it's apparent to you that I'm not stopping
of my own volition." And then, as though aware of her discourtesy, she
turned toward him, a smile for the first time illumining the pallor of
her face.
"I'm afraid there's nothing left for me then but to accept your kind
offer."
When they reached the cabin he brought out a wicker chair and put it in
the shade.
"If you'll sit here and try to make yourself comfortable, I'll see what
can be done about breakfast."
She thanked him with a smile, sat submissively and he disappeared
indoors, where she heard him pottering about in the small kitchen. It
was very quiet, very restful there under the trees and an odor of
cooking coffee, eggs, bacon and toast which the breeze wafted in her
direction from the open window reminded her that the hour of breakfast
was approaching. But, alluring as the odor was, she had no appetite.
Her knee and shoulder hurt her much less than they deserved to, much
less than the state of her mind at finding herself suddenly at the
mercy of this young man who had aroused both her choler and her
curiosity. Last night after her guests had gone to bed she had sat
alone for a long while on the porch which overlooked the bay,
unconsciously surveying with her eye the water which separated Thimble
Island from the mainland. But it was a mad impulse that had sent her
over the sea this morning, a madder impulse that had sent her to
Thimble Island of all places, upon which she had descended with an
audacity and a recklessness which surprised even herself. She
realized that a while ago she had lied glibly to Markham about her
mishap. Her Bleriot had _not_ missed fire. From the perch of her
lofty reconnaissance she had espied the painter working at his canvas,
but her notion of visiting him she knew had been born not this
morning, but last night when she had sat alone on the terrace and
watched the pale moon wreathing fitfully among the clouds which
hovered uncertainly off-shore. She had come to Thimble Island simply
because impulse had led her here, and because she was accustomed, with
possible reservations, to follow her impulses wherever they might lead
her. That they had led her to Markham signified nothing except that
she found herself more curious about him than she had supposed herself
to be.
Her plans for the morning had provided for a brief landing while she
tinkered with the machine, scorning his proffers of help; for a snub,
if he chose to take advantage of their slight acquaintance; and for a
triumphant departure when her pride and her curiosity had been
appeased. Her plans had not included the miscalculation of distance
and the projecting branch of the tree which had been her undoing. She
found it difficult to scorn the proffers of help of a man who helped
without proffering. It was impossible to snub a man for taking
advantage of a slight acquaintance when he refused to remember that
such an acquaintance had ever existed. The triumphant departure now
refused to be triumphant or indeed even a departure. At the present
moment her pride and her curiosity still clamored and Markham in his
worried, absent-minded way was repaying her with kindness--a kindness
every moment of which increased Hermia's obligation and diminished her
importance.
She sang very small now in Markham's scheme of things and sat very
quietly in her chair, like a rebellious child which has been punished
by being put alone in a corner. She listened to his footsteps within,
the clattering of dishes, the tinkle of table service and in a little
while he appeared in the door of the cabin, redolent with the odor of
coffee and bacon, and announced breakfast.