THE MONUMENT
For the remainder of that night, whether rushing home on my bicycle,
preparing for rest, lying awake, or even in my sleep, I thought over
the mystery of the disappearance of the speakers in the old chapel.
Certainly I went to sleep on the thought, and woke with it. It never
left me even after breakfast as I rode out towards Crom. It was manifest
that there must be some secret vault or hiding place in the chapel; or
it might be that there was some subterranean passage. If the latter,
where did it lead to? Where else, unless to the castle; such would be
the natural inference. The very thought made my blood run cold; it was
no wonder that it overspread my mind to the exclusion of all else. In
such case Marjory's enemies were indeed dangerous, since they held a
secret way to her at all times; once within the castle it would not be
hard to work evil to her.
I thought that this morning I would do a little prospecting on my own
account. Accordingly I left my bicycle in the wood and went a long
circuit, keeping in the shadow of the woods where possible, and
elsewhere stealing behind the hedgerows, till I got to the far side of
the hill or spur which came nearest to the old chapel. This was one of
the hills up whose base the trees ran in flame-shaped patches. Half way
up, the woods ceased, and there was a belt of barrenness--outcropping
rock fringed with green grass. The top, like most of the hills or
mounds around the castle, was covered with woods, close-growing masses
of pine which made a dusk even in the noonday.
I took my way up the back of the hill and stole through the wood,
carefully keeping a watchful look out all round me, for I feared the
presence of either of the sets of spies. At the very top I came upon a
good sized circle of masonry, low but heavily built of massive stones
completely covered with rich green lichen. The circle was some fifteen
feet diameter, and the top was slightly arched as though forming a
roof. Leaning over it I could hear a faint trickle of water; this was
evidently the source of the castle supply.
I walked round it, examining it carefully; anything which had any direct
communication with the castle was at present of possibly the supremest
importance. There was no flaw or opening anywhere; and from the unbroken
covering of the stones by the lichen, it was apparent that there had
been no disturbance for years.
I sat down on the edge of the stonework and for a long time thought over
matters of probability. If underneath me, as was almost to be taken
for granted, lay the reservoir of the castle, it must have been made
coevally with Crom itself, or even with the older castle on whose
ruins it was built. It must be fed by springs in the rock which formed
the base of the hill and cropped out all over it; and if it was not
approachable from without, there must be some way of reaching the water
from within. It might be that the chamber which contained the reservoir
had some other entrance from the hill top, or from some lower level.
Accordingly I made as I conceived a bee line for the castle, till I
came to the very base of the hill, for I knew that in matters of water
conduit the direct way is always chosen where work has to be done. As
I went, I conned the ground carefully; not merely the surface for that
was an uniform thick coating of brown pine needles, but the general
conformation. Where a trench has been made, there is ever after some
trace of it to be found. Even if the workmen level the trench most
carefully there and then, the percolation of rain through the softer
broken earth will make discovery of the change by shrinkage. Here,
however, there was no such sign; the ground, so far as one could judge,
had never been opened. The trees grew irregularly, and there was no gap
such as would be, had one ever been removed. Here and there particles of
rock cropped out amongst the pine needles just as anywhere else. If any
opening existed it was not on the direct line between the reservoir and
the castle.
Back again I went to the reservoir, and, using it as a base, began to
cast around for some opening or sign. I made circles in all directions,
just as a retriever does when looking for a fallen partridge in a dry
stubble when the scent is killed by heat.
At last I came upon something, though whether or no it might have any
point of contact with my purpose, I could not at once decide. It was a
rude monument of some kind, a boulder placed endwise on a slab of rock
roughly hewn to form a sort of square plinth. This again was surrounded
on the outside, for the whole monument was on the very edge of a
steeply-dipping crag, by a few tiers of rough masonry. The stones were
roughly cut and laid together without mortar; or if mortar or cement
there had ever been, time and weather had washed it away. In one respect
this structure was in contrast to that above the reservoir, there was
not a sign of moss or lichen about it. The trees of the wood came close
up behind it; in front it was shut out from view below by the branches
of a few pine trees which grew crookedly from a precarious foothold
amongst the ledges of rock beneath. As I stood in front of it, I could
see nothing immediately below me; however, when I had scrambled to a
ledge a few feet lower down, the back wall of the old chapel became
visible, though partly obscured by trunks and branches of intervening
trees. I searched all over the monument for some inscription, but could
see none. Then I stood on the plinth to see if there might be any
inscription on the top of the boulder. As I stood, looking over the top
of it from the bank, I could just see through a natural alleyway amongst
the tree tops, the top of one corner of the castle, that on the side of,
and farthest from the old chapel. As I looked, a bright thought struck
me. Here was a place from which one might correspond with the castle,
unseen by any one save at the one spot. I determined then and there,
that Marjory and I should arrange some method of signalling to one
another.
Somehow this place impressed me, possibly because it was the only thing,
except the reservoir, which seemed to have a purpose in the whole scheme
of the hill top. Where there was labour and manifest purpose, there must
surely be some connection. I examined all round the place minutely,
scrambling down the rocks below and on either side, but always keeping
a bright look out in case of spies. The only thing I noticed was that
there seemed a trace of some kind of a pathway through the wood here.
It was not sufficiently marked to allow one to accept it with certainty
as a pathway; but there is something about a place which is even
occasionally trodden, which marks it from its surroundings virgin of
footsteps. I could not find where the path ended or where it began. It
seemed to grow from the monument, but here underfoot was stone and hard
gravel; and the wind coming over the steep slope swept the fallen pine
needles back amongst the shelter of the trees. After a few hundred yards
any suggestion of a pathway disappeared, lost in the aisles of the pine
trees spreading round on every side. There was no need of a pathway here
where all was open. Once or twice as I searched the thought came to me
that there might be some opening here to a secret way or hiding place;
but look how I would, I could not find the faintest trace or suggestion
of any opening. In the end I had to take it that the erection was merely
a monument or mark of some kind, whose original purpose was probably
lost in time.
At last, as the day was well on, I made my way back to where my bicycle
was hidden, always taking care to keep from observation. Then emerging
on the road, I went as usual through the old ruined gateway and the long
winding avenue to the castle.
Marjory met me with an anxious look, and hung on to my arm lovingly as
she said:
"Oh, you are late! I have been quite nervous all the morning lest
anything should have happened to you!" Mrs. Jack, after we had greeted,
discreetly left us alone; and I told my wife of all that I had thought
since we had parted, and of what I had seen on the hill top. She was
delighted at the idea of a means of signalling; and insisted on my
coming at once to the roof to make further arrangements and discoveries.
We found the spot which I had indicated admirably adapted for our
purpose. One could sit on the stone roof, well back from the wall, and
through one of the openings in the castellation see the top of the
monument amongst the tree tops; and could yet be unobserved oneself from
any other spot around. The angles of the castellation of the various
walls shut out the tops of the other hills or mounds on every side.
As the signs of our code were already complete we had only to fix on
some means of signalling 'A' and 'B'. This we did by deciding that by
daylight A should be signified by red and B by white and at night A by
red and B by green. Thus by daylight two pocket handkerchiefs of red
and white or two flowers of white and red; or a piece of paper and
a red leaf or flower would suffice. We fixed on colour as the best
representative, as the distance made simplicity necessary. By night an
ordinary bicycle lamp with the lens covered could be used; the ordinary
red and green side lights could be shown as required. Then and there we
arranged that that very afternoon when I had left the castle I should
steal back to the monument and we should make a trial of our signalling.
Then we talked of other things. Alone there on the roof we could talk
freely; and the moments flew swiftly by in a sweet companionship. Even
if the subjects which we had to discuss were grim ones of danger and
intrigue; of secret passages and malignant enemies; of spies and
possibilities of harm to one or both of us, still mutuality of our
troubles and dangers made their existence to us sweet. That we shared
in common even such matters was dear to us both. I could not but be
conscious of Marjory's growing love for me; and if I had to restrain
myself now and again from throwing my arms round her and pressing her
beautiful body close to me and sweeping her face with kisses, I was
repaid when, as we descended she put both her hands in mine and said:
"Oh Archie! you are good to me! and--and--I love you so!" Then she sank
into my arms and our mouths met in a long, loving kiss.
We decided that as there must be some hidden opening in the old chapel,
we should make search for it the next day. I was to come soon after
sunrise, for this we judged would be the time when the spies of both
kinds would least expect movement from the castle. I was to come by the
grass path between the trees into the old chapel where she would meet
me and we should make our investigations together.
After tea I came away. Marjory came out on the steps with me to see me
off. As we bade each other good-bye she said aloud in case any one might
be listening:
"Remember, you are to come to tea to-morrow and to bring me the book. I
am quite anxious to know how it ends. It is too bad of the librarian not
to send us all the volumes at once!"
When I got to the road I hid my bicycle in the old place, and took
my way secretly to the monument. Marjory had been much struck by the
suggestion of the footpath, and, woman-like, had made up her mind on the
subject. She had suggested that we should test whether any one came or
went by it, and to this end gave me a spool of the finest thread so that
I might lay a trap. Before I should leave the place I was to stretch
threads across it here and there between the tree trunks. If on the next
visit I should find them broken, we might take it that some one had been
there.
From the top of the boulder I made signal and was immediately answered.
My own signal was simply the expression of my heart's feeling:
"I love you, my wife!" The answer came quickly back filling me with joy:
"I love you, my husband! Don't forget me! Think of me!"