THE VIGIL
Sturgess awoke, too. Soon they were talking freely, and Maseden not only
learned the heart-breaking story of the dozen refugees pent in the
chart-house, but was told how he himself came by the blow on the head
which took away his senses.
Madge Gray, or Forbes, as he must now call her, was moved to thank
Providence for the intervention of the Spanish sailor.
"If that man hadn't picked you up, Mr. Maseden," she said, "you would
have been washed overboard a few seconds later. Then nothing could have
saved any of us."
She seemed to be completely unaware of the sensation she created by
addressing her rescuer by name. Maseden felt Nina's nervous little
start, but Sturgess put his astonishment into words.
"Maseden!" he cried. "You know our friend, then?"
"I--I heard his name before--on the ship," came the faltered answer.
"Well, you heard more than _I_ did.... Are you the mysterious
English-speaking _vaquero_ who lived in the forecastle?" and the
questioner bent a puzzled face sideways to try and discern the other
man's features.
"Yes," said Maseden promptly. "There need be no mystery about it now. I
got into trouble in Cartagena, shot the president-elect, and escaped in
the disguise of a Spanish cowboy."
"Gee!" exclaimed Sturgess.
For some reason best known to himself he displayed no further curiosity
in the matter, though he might well have wondered how Madge Forbes had
come to identify that picturesque-looking person, Ramon Aliones, with
the American whose exploits had set all Cartagena agog the day before
the _Southern Cross_ sailed.
There was an uncomfortable pause, which Maseden broke by a laugh.
"So you see, Mr. Sturgess, I owed you a good turn, though you never
guessed it. By your kindness in letting me carry your bag and share your
boat I got away from my pursuers without attracting attention."
"Gee!" said Sturgess again.
His comment probably denoted bewilderment. It may also have shown that
the speaker had just ascertained something which supplied food for
thought. In the half light Maseden allowed himself to smile, because the
conceit instantly leaped into his mind that his fellow-countryman might
have been told of that amazing marriage, and was now engaged in fitting
together certain pieces of the puzzle.
If, for instance, Sturgess suspected that Madge Forbes was the lady who
figured in that extraordinary episode, he must realize that in paying
her such marked attention during the voyage he had placed himself, if
not her, in a somewhat equivocal position.
"I had reason to believe that the captain recognized me," went on
Maseden. "Probably that is how Miss Forbes came to hear my name."
"Miss Forbes!"
There was no mistaking the new note of surprise, even of annoyance, in
Sturgess's voice. He was gathering information at a rapid rate, and
evidently found some difficulty in assimilating it.
"Yes," broke in Nina Forbes. "That is my sister's name, and my own. Mr.
Gray was our stepfather. We passed as his daughters while traveling. The
arrangement prevented all sorts of misunderstandings. In any event, it
concerned none but ourselves. I only mentioned the fact casually to Mr.
Maseden a few minutes ago."
Some men might have caught a rebuke in the girl's words. Not so
Sturgess.
"I'm tickled to death at hearing it, anyhow," he said cheerfully. "The
one thing I couldn't understand was how you two girls could be that poor
chap's daughters.... Well, now we're all properly introduced, let's talk
as though we really knew one another. Has any one the beginning of a
notion as to the time."
Then Maseden remembered that he was wearing a watch which he had wound
that morning. He produced it, and was able to discern the hands.
"A quarter past two," he announced.
A silence fell on them. Somehow the intimate and homely fact that one of
the little company possessed a watch which had not stopped served rather
to enhance than allay the sense of peril and abandonment which their
brief talk had dispelled for the moment. A soldier who took part in that
glorious but terrible retreat from Mons confessed afterwards that his
spirit quailed once, and that was when he read the route names on a
London suburban omnibus lying disabled and abandoned by the roadside.
The Marble Arch, Edgware Road, Maida Vale and Cricklewood--what had
these familiar localities to do with the crash of shell-fire and the
spattering of bullets on the _pave_? Similarly, the forlorn castaways on
Hanover Island felt that a watch was an absurdly civilized thing among
the loud-voiced savageries of wind and wave.
The moonlight died away, too, with a suddenness that was almost
unnerving. True, the moon had only vanished behind a cloud-bank. But her
face was veiled effectually, and the growing darkness soon showed that
she would not be visible again that night.
They tried to sleep, but the effort failed. Lack of food was a more
serious matter now than mere physical exhaustion. All four were young
and vigorous enough to withstand fatigue, and to wake up refreshed after
the brief repose they had already enjoyed.
But they were stiff and cramped, and their blood was beginning to yield
to a deadly chill. Though they huddled together as closely as possible,
there was no resisting the steady encroachment of the bitter cold.
At last Maseden counseled that they all stand up, and, despite the
urgent need of conserving their energies, obtain some measure of warmth
by stretching their limbs and breathing deeply.
He even suggested that they should sing, but the effort to start a
popular chorus was such a lamentable failure that they laughed dismally.
Then he tried story telling. He judged, and quite rightly, that the
majority of his hearers would be deeply interested in a recital of his
own recent adventures.
Greatly daring, he left out no detail, and, in a darkness which was
almost tangible because of its density, he was well aware how alert was
every ear to catch the true version of an extraordinary marriage.
No one interrupted. They just listened intently. Once, when he asked if
he was wearying them by a too exact description of events at the ranch
after his escape, Nina Forbes said quietly:
"Please tell us everything, Mr. Maseden. I have never heard anything
half so interesting. You have caused me to forget where I am, and I can
give you no higher praise."
At last he made an end, dwelling purposely on the light note of his
troubles with the Spanish sailor who claimed a vested right in him after
the incident of the falling block.
Sturgess put a direct question or two.
"You don't seem to have any sort of a notion as to who the lady was?" he
began.
"I only know that her Christian name was Madeleine," answered Maseden
readily. "She was about to sign the register when the idea of getting
out of the Castle dawned on me, and, from that instant, I thought of
nothing else. I hadn't much time, you know. The plan had to be concocted
and carried out almost in the same breath. And there was no room for
failure. The least slip, either in time or method, and I was a dead
man."
"Madeleine!" mused Sturgess aloud. "She was English, or American, I
suppose?"
"American, I imagine. Undoubtedly one or the other."
"And that fat Steinbaum was the marriage broker! I know Steinbaum--a
thug, if ever there was one.... What are you going to do about it, Mr.
Maseden?"
"Do about what?"
"Well, if you win clear from this present rather doubtful
proposition--and we're backing you in that for all we're worth, ain't
we, girls?--you're tied up to a wife whom you don't know, and I guess
the one place in which you're likely to find her is off the map for you
for keeps."
"I'm not versed in the law," laughed Maseden, "but it will be a queer
thing if I should be compelled to regard myself as married to a lady
whom I have seen, certainly, but do not want."
"How do you know you don't want her?"
"I know nothing whatsoever about her."
"That's just it. That's where you may be hipped. She may be a peach, the
finest ever. Suppose, for the sake of argument, one of these two, Miss
Madge or Miss Nina--"
"The lady's name happened to be Madeleine," put in Madge instantly. "If
the ceremony was meant to be valid she would undoubtedly sign her right
name."
"Just so. You missed my point."
Maseden thought it advisable to come to the rescue. He had conveyed to
the one vitally interested listener that her secret was safe for the
time, and this should suffice.
"I am inclined to think that I shall be proof against my nominal wife's
charms, no matter how great they may be," he said emphatically. "There
is a romantic side to the affair, I admit, but I cannot blind myself to
the fact that it possesses a prosaic one as well. Association with a
skunk like Steinbaum is hardly the best of credentials, in the first
place. Secondly, one asks what motive any woman could have in wishing to
marry a man condemned to die. I'm not flattering myself that my personal
qualifications carried much weight.
"Admittedly, the lady wanted to wed because I was about to disappear. I
give her the credit of believing that she would never have gone through
with the farce if she had the least reason to think that I would not be
dead within the next half hour. But the fact remains that she was
callous and calculating--whether to serve her own ends or some other
person's is immaterial.... No, Mr. Sturgess; when, if ever, I choose a
wife, it is long odds against her name being Madeleine."
Nina Forbes laughed, though her teeth chattered with the cold.
"The calm way in which men speak of 'choosing' a wife always amuses me,"
she said. "If any man told me he had 'chosen' me I should feel inclined
to box his ears."
"It isn't the best of words," put in Sturgess promptly, "but it conveys
a real compliment. A fellow meets a girl, _the_ girl, and some
electrical arrangement jangles at the back of his head. 'This is _it_,'
says a voice. 'Go to it, good and hard,' and he goes. That's the only
sort of choice he's given. The girl can always turn him down, you know.
Still, she can't help feeling flattered. She says to herself, 'That poor
fellow, Charles K. Sturgess, is only a mutt, but he did think me the
best ever, so he had good taste.' What do you think, Miss Madge?"
Then he and the others discovered that Madge was crying. The frivolous
chatter intended to hide a dread reality had failed in its object. They
were shivering with cold again, and ever more conscious of gnawing
hunger. The prospect of escape was more than doubtful. Fate seemed to be
playing a pitiless game with every soul on board the _Southern Cross_,
having swept some to instant death, while retaining others for
destruction by idle whim. The renewed darkness, the continuous uproar
of the reef, had broken the girl's nerve.
Maseden fancied that he had placed too great a strain on her by
detailing with such precision the sequence of events during those
crowded hours at Cartagena.
"I think," he said gravely, "that we ought to lie down again, and await
patiently the coming of daylight. The sun rises, no matter what else may
happen, and dawn cannot be long delayed now."
They obeyed him. They looked to him for guidance, but they were glad he
did not call for any effort. Even the light-hearted, apparently
irresponsible Sturgess, who, if he had to die, would depart this life
with a jest on his lips, was stilled by the sheer hopelessness of their
condition.
After one of those hours which seem to belong to eternity rather than to
time, a quality of grayness made itself felt in the overwhelming gloom.
Soon the serrated edge of the opposite wall of rock became a fixed and
rigid thing against a background of cloud. In this new world of horror
and suffering the break of day, to all appearances, came from the west!
This phenomenon was easily explained. Near by, on the east, rose the
tremendous peaks of the Andes, so the plain of the sea on the western
horizon caught the first shafts of light long before they filtered into
the fiords and gorges of the coast-line tucked in at the base of those
great hills.
Not that it mattered a jot to those desolate ones where the sun rose
that day. They would have given little heed had the earth rolled over on
a new axis, and dawn come from the South Pole!
As soon as daylight was sufficiently advanced to render the rock
fissures clearly visible, Maseden roused his tiny flock from the stupor
of sheer exhaustion. He was a man born to lead, and the necessity to
spur on and exhort others proved his own salvation. He was stiff and
sore, and his head still ached abominably, but he rose to his feet with
an energetic shout that quickened the blood in his hearers' veins.
"Now, folk," he said, "the first order of the day is breakfast, and then
strike camp!"
Breakfast! They thought he was crazy. But he took the bottle of brandy
from a crevice in which he had lodged it securely overnight, and
Sturgess uttered a cackling laugh.
"I'm doing pretty well for a life-long teetotaller," he wheezed. "When a
fellow like me falls off the water-wagon, he generally drops with a dull
thud, but _I_ must have set up a record. After lunching and dining
yesterday on claret, I supped on brandy last night and am about to
breakfast on the same.... Girls, help yourself and pass the decanter!"
Maseden held up the bottle to the light. It had never contained more
than a pint, and nearly half had gone. A small coin served as a measure
to divide the contents into five portions.
"Each of us drinks a _peseta_-worth," he said. "There must be neither
half measures nor extra ones. The last _peseta_-worth remains in the
bottle. Is that agreed?"
"I want very little, please," said Nina Forbes. "Just enough to moisten
my lips and tongue--"
"You're going to do as you're bid," was the gruff answer. "I advise you
to sip your portion, by all means, but you _must_ take it. As a penalty
for disobedience, you'll start."
She made no further protest, but swallowed her dose meekly. Sister Madge
followed. Sturgess was minded to argue, but met Maseden's dour glance,
and took his share. The first mouthful of the spirit acted on him like
an elixir of life. He drank down to the allotted mark, and handed the
bottle to Maseden.
"Now, girls," he chortled, "this is the guy who really needs watching.
If he doesn't play fair let's heave him into the sea."
So three pairs of eyes saw to it that their rescuer had his full
allowance. Then the bottle was put away, and the castaways took stock
of their surroundings.
At first sight the position was grotesquely disheartening. Beneath, to
the left, was the sea. Behind them rose an overhanging wall of rock,
which swung round to the right and cut off the ledge. The cleft itself
was some twelve feet wide, and the opposite wall rose fully ten feet. In
a word, no chamois or mountain goat could have made the transit.
They all surveyed the situation from every point of view afforded by the
fifteen feet of ledge. There was no reason to express opinions. Escape,
in any direction, looked frankly impossible.
Then Maseden examined the cleft beneath.
"We cannot go up," he said quietly. "In that case, as we certainly don't
mean to stay here, I'm going down."
It was feasible, with care, to climb down to sea level, but the huge
rollers breaking over the reef sent a heavy backwash against the cliff.
The swirl of water rose and fell three feet at a time, with enough force
to throw the strongest man off his balance.
"Do you mean that you intend jumping into the sea, Mr. Maseden?" said
Madge Forbes.
She was quite calm now. She put that vital question as coolly as though
it implied nothing more than a swimmer's pastime. Their eyes clashed,
and, for the first time, the man saw that Madge possessed no small share
of Nina's self-control. Her earlier collapse was of the body, not of the
soul.
"It doesn't mean that I shall willingly commit suicide," he answered.
"If it comes to that, I suggest that we all go together. I'm merely
taking a prospecting trip. There's no way out above. I must see what
offers below."
Without another word he sat on the lip of the rock on which they stood,
and lowered himself to a tiny ledge which gave foothold. They watched
him making his way down. It was no easy climb, but he did not hurry.
Twice he advanced, and climbed a little higher to a point whence descent
was more practicable. At last he vanished.
Sturgess, craning his neck over the seaward side of their narrow perch,
could not see him, while the growl of the reef shut out all minor
sounds.
Maseden was not long absent, but the three people whom he had left
confessed afterwards that of all the nerve-racking experiences they had
undergone since the ship struck, that silent waiting was the worst.
At last he reappeared. Nina, farthest up the cleft, was the first to see
him, and she cried shrilly:
"Oh, thank God! He's got a rope!"
A rope! Of what avail was a rope? Yet three hearts thrilled with great
expectation. Why should Maseden bring a rope? It meant something, some
plan, some definite means towards the one great object. They had an
abounding faith in him.
The rope was slung around his shoulders in a noose, and he seemed to be
tugging at some heavy weight which yielded but slowly to the strain.
When he was still below the level of the ledge he undid the noose and
passed it to Sturgess.
"Hold tight!" he shouted. "I've picked up the broken foremast. I'm going
down to clear it off the rocks. When I yell, haul away steadily."
They asked no questions. Maseden simply must be right. They listened
eagerly for the signal, and put all their strength to the task when it
came.
Soon the truck of the foremast appeared. Then the full length of the
spar could be seen, with Maseden guiding it. He had tied the rope at a
point about one-third of the length from the truck. When it was poised
so that lifting alone was required he shouted to them to stop, and
rejoined them, breathless, but bright-eyed.
"There's no means of escape by the sea," he explained, "so we must try
the cliff. This is our bridge. I think it will span the gully. Anyhow,
it is worth trying."
Then they understood, and measuring glances were cast from spar to
opposing crest. It would be a close thing, but, as Maseden said, it was
certainly worth trying.
In a minute, or less, the broken mast was standing up-ended on the
ledge. Then, with its base jammed into a crevice, it was lowered by the
rope across the chasm. It just touched the top of the rock wall.
They actually cheered, but the women's hearts missed a couple of beats
when Maseden began to climb again. He worked his way upward without
haste, found a toe-grip on the rock, raised himself carefully, and again
disappeared from sight.
This time he was not so long away. He looked down on them with a
confident smile.
"There's a chance," he said. "A ghost of a chance. Now I'm coming back!"