Marie was leaning over the low wall of a cottage garden in the
'village,' as a clump of small houses at the meeting of four cross-roads
was called, and waiting for the kail which she had come to buy for the
evening's soup from Mrs. Nevin, who cultivated a little plot of ground
with fruit and vegetables. The back-door of the cottage, which opened on
the garden, was ajar, and she could hear some one enter from the front
with a heavy tread, and call out in a big, jovial voice, "Hullo, Mother,
we're in luck to-day! You'd never guess who's goin' to take me on. Lame
André, he's goin' to give Pierre the sack, and says he'll have me for a
time or two to try. Says I'm strong in the shoulders, and he guesses I
can do him more good than Pierre. I should think I easy could too, a
pinch-faced whipper-snapper like that!"
"And high time it is too that André had his eyes opened," rejoined Mrs.
Nevin; "often it is I've told Marie, as there she stands, that her
father don't ought to trust the fish-sellin' too much to that Pierre: a
lad as could rob his own grandmother the moment the life was out o' her
body."
"Well, Mother, you've often told me about that five franc piece, but
nobody can't say that she hadn't given it him before she died, as he
said--"
"Given it him, I should think so, when she never would have aught to say
to him for all his wheedling ways, and his brother Jacques was her
favourite; and poor old lady if she'd a known that Pierre was goin' to
be alone with her, when she went off suddint in a fit, I guess she'd a
locked up her purse first, I do."
"Well, I must say he turned a queer colour when he heard André say he
didn't want him no more: and you should have seen the look he gave him,
sort of squintin' out of his eyes at him, when he went away. He ain't a
man I would like to meet unawares in a dark lane, if I'd a quarrel with
him."
"Hullo, where's Marie?" cried Mrs. Nevin, coming out of the door with
the kail ready washed in her hand. "She never took offence at what we
was sayin', think you? Folks did say, to be sure, that she and Pierre
was sweet on one another some time since. Well, she's gone, any way,"
and the good woman stood for a few minutes in some dismay, shading her
eyes as she looked down the road.
Marie's slight, girlish figure vanished quickly round the turning in the
lane, and Mrs. Nevin could not see her pass swiftly by her own cottage,
and up the ridge to the old mill. When she reached the point at which
the path began to descend to the cove, she paused and looked down. The
keen glance and alert figure, poised on guard, suggested the idea of a
mother bird watching her nest from afar. The tide had gone out
sufficiently for the boats to be drawn up on the eight or ten feet of
the shelving shore, which was thus laid bare, and the glowing light of
the sunset touched in slanting rays the head and hands of an old man
seated on a rock and bending over some fishing tackle, which he seemed
to be repairing.
Round the extreme point of the headland, which in a succession of
uncouth shapes dropped its rocky outline into the shadowy purple sea,
there was visible, hastily clambering across pathless boulders, another
man, of a young and lithe figure, and with something in the eager,
forward thrust of the head, crouching gait, and swift, deft footing that
resembled an animal of the cat species when about to leap on its prey.
He was evidently making for the cove, but would have to take the rope
path in order to reach it, as there was no way of approaching it on that
side except over the sheer face of rock. Marie was further from the
rope than he was, but her path was easier. The moment her eye caught
sight of the crouching, creeping figure, she sped like a hare down the
path, till she reached a point at which she was on a level with the man,
at a distance of about a hundred feet. There she stood, uncertain a
moment, then turned to meet him. He seemed too intent on his object in
the cove to notice her advance, till she was within speaking distance,
when she suddenly called to him "Pierre!"
Her clear, defiant tone put the meaning of a whole discourse into the
word. The man turned sharply round with an expression of vindictive
malice in his fox-like face.
"Well, what do you want?"
"What are you doing here, please?"
"What's that to you, I should like to know?"
"Come nearer, then I can hear what you say."
"I sha'n't come no nearer than I choose."
"Don't be afraid. I ain't a-goin' to hurt you!"
The taunt seemed to have effect, for he leaped hurriedly along over the
rocky path, with an angry, threatening air that would have frightened
some girls. Marie stood like the rock beneath her.
"Now, Miss, I'll teach you to come interfering with business that's none
o' yourn. What, you thought you'd come after me, did yer? because you
was tired o' waitin' for me to come after you again, I suppose."
"What is that you're carryin' in your belt?" she demanded calmly. A
handle was seen sticking up under his fisherman's blouse. "You believe
its safer to climb the rocks with a butcher's knife in your pocket, do
you? You think in case of an accident it would make you fall a bit
softer, hey?"
"It don't matter to you what I've got in my pocket," he rejoined, but
his tone was uncertain. "I brought it to cut the tackle--we've got a job
of mending to do."
"I don't know whether you think me an idiot," she replied; "but if you
want me to believe your stories you'd better invent 'em more reasonable.
Now, Pierre, this is what you've got to do before you leave this spot.
You've got to promise me solemnly not to go near Daddy, nor threaten him
as you once threatened me on a day you may remember, nor try to
intimidate him into takin' you back. Neither down in the cove, nor
anything else: neither now, nor at any other time."
Her girlish figure as she stood with one arm clasping the rock beside
her, looked a slight enough obstacle in the path.
"Intimidate him! A parcel o' rubbish; who's goin' to intimidate him as
you call it. Get out o' the way, and don't go meddling in men's concerns
that you know nothing about."
He seized her wrist roughly, and with her precarious footing the
position was dangerous enough: but she clung with her other arm like a
limpit to the rock. He attempted to dislodge her, when she suddenly
turned and fled back on her own accord. He hastened after her, and it
was not till he had gone some yards that, putting his hand to his belt,
he found that the knife had gone.
"The jade," he muttered, "she did it on purpose," and even with his
hatred and malice was mingled a gleam of admiration at the cleverness
that had outwitted him. He hurried on towards the cliff path, but the
sunset light was already fading into dusk, and he had to choose his
footing more carefully. When he reached the point where the rope began,
Marie had already gone down and was leaning on the rock beside her
father. Had he been near he might have noticed a strange expression in
her eyes, as she furtively watched the precipitous descent. The purple
shadows now filled both sky and sea, and the island opposite reared its
grand outline solemnly in the twilight depths, as though sitting in
eternal judgment on the transient ways of men. The evening star shone
softly above the sea. Suddenly a crash, followed by one sharp cry, was
heard; then all was still.
"Good God! That's some one fallen down the path--why don't you go and
see, child?" but Marie seemed as if she could not stir. Old André slowly
dragged himself on to his feet, and took her arm, and they went
together. At the foot of the path they found the body of Pierre, dead,
his head having struck against a rock.
"He must have missed his footing in the dark," said André, when they had
rowed round to the fishing village to carry the news, and the solitary
constable had bustled forth, and was endeavouring to collect information
about the accident from the only two witnesses, of whom the girl seemed
to have lost the power of speech.
"He must have missed his footing in the dark; and then the rope broke
with his weight and the clutch he give it. It lies there all loose on
the ground."
"It shouldn't have broken," said the constable. "But I always did say
we'd ought to have an iron chain down there."