TOWARD THE UNKNOWN
When Captain Ichabod left the Island in haste to get medical help for
the unconscious Ethel Marion, Doctor Gifford Garnet stood before the
shack and watched the red skiff as it rose and fell on the billows until
it was well on its way to Beaufort. Then, with a smile of satisfaction,
he turned and entered the abode where the girl was lying with no sign of
life save the gentle rhythm of the bosom as it rose and fell with her
breathing. Now, once again, he knelt by the bedside. For a little, he
stroked the forehead with deft fingers, then touched her wrist and
counted the pulse. It was evident that he found the condition of his
patient satisfactory, for a pleased expression came in place of the
anxiety that had hitherto marked his features.
Leaving the bedside, Doctor Garnet went to the kitchen stove, where he
opened the oven door and took out the batteries he had removed from the
little cedar tender. The intense heat of the oven had thoroughly dried
these, so that they were again in working condition, together with the
spark coil. The Doctor carried the attachments from the shack to the
launch, in which he installed them. This accomplished, he succeeded,
after a great deal of straining effort, in getting launched the small
craft, which had been left high up on the sand. By means of an oar, he
paddled the boat around to the Captain's miniature wharf. He made it
fast here and then busied himself in tuning up the engine. When at last
it was running smoothly, he threw in the clutch, and steered the launch
toward the wreck of _The Isabel_. As he neared the oyster rocks, he
slowed down the engine, and ran directly over the sunken part of the
vessel. There, he peered intently over the side into the depths of the
water. Of a sudden, he drew back as if in fright, and his face became
ghastly pale. He threw in the clutch and steered at full speed back for
the landing. One glimpse of the dead eyes glaring up at him had
sufficed. Though he was a physician, inured to dreadful sights, he
quailed before this hideous spectacle.
At the landing, he hurriedly made the boat fast, and then ran swiftly to
the shack. He disappeared for a moment inside, and then came forth
bearing his medicine case and blankets. He stowed the case in the launch
and spread out the blankets in the bow. This done, he returned to the
shack. When he issued from it again, he staggered under a burden almost
too great for his strength--the unconscious form of Ethel Marion. He
bore her with what haste he could to the landing and gently placed her
within the blankets.
At this moment, Doctor Garnet looked in all reality the part of a wild
man. He was coatless and hatless. The strong breeze made new tangles in
his already disheveled hair. Then, through long seconds, he stood
staring bleakly at the distorted and broken yacht. Abruptly there came
from his lips a weird wail of distress. That cry meant that everything
good in life was over for him. His face set in sullen lines, as he
loosed the painter and seated himself aft by the engine. He opened the
throttle, and, heading to the northward, soon left the sands of
Ichabod's Island and those staring eyes of the dead man far behind.
So absorbed had the Doctor been in his purpose of flight that he failed
even to see the action of Shrimp. Just as the launch began to move away
from the wharf, the rooster leaped lightly to the forward deck. It never
occurred to him that he might be unwelcome. He entered the boat as he
would have the skiff for a voyage with Ichabod. He was a sociable bird,
and fond of a cruise. When the opportunity offered he seized on it with
pleased promptness. By the time that Doctor Gifford Garnet chanced to
observe Shrimp's presence, the launch was at such a distance from the
Island that it would have been folly for him to turn back for the sake
of restoring the creature to its place.
The launch tossed and pitched dangerously when it came into the broad
reaches of Core Sound. It seemed indeed at times that it must inevitably
be swamped. But the Doctor had skill and daring, and now, in the face of
this new danger, he was cool and resourceful. Here there were no rocks
to increase the danger as there had been at Ichabod's Island, and
eventually he guided the launch to safety under the lea of the wooded
shore of the mainland.
The first intention of Garnet was to make a landing in order to await
the coming of night, when, as he knew from past experiences, the wind
would almost certainly fall, after which the voyage could be resumed
without danger and in comparative comfort. The Doctor found, however,
that his plan was impossible of execution. To his discomfiture, he
perceived that the heavily wooded shore was nothing other than a vast
swamp, without anywhere a dry spot on which to step foot. Upon making
this discovery, he allowed the boat to drift a short distance away from
the land, and then dropped overboard the tiny anchor.
After the launch was made secure, the Doctor took from his pocket the
hypodermic syringe. The vial accompanying it, however, was empty. Garnet
searched feverishly through his medicine case, at first in despair, for
he feared that he had no more of the drug. But at last he uttered an
ejaculation of triumph as he drew forth a small bottle of the narcotic.
He removed the cork and dropped the pellets into the palm of his hand.
He counted them rapidly, before replacing all but one in the bottle. The
quantity of the drug was so small as to fill him with the worst
apprehensions. A man held as was Garnet in the clutch of an evil habit
would be placed in a horrible position, were he to run out of his
morphia supply, while thus storm-bound along the desolate shores of Core
Sound. He shuddered at the dreadful thought of such catastrophe. Then he
tried to forget the haunting fear, the while he made his preparations
for loading the syringe. Though his fastidiousness was revolted, he had
no choice but to use the brackish water from over the side to dissolve
the pellet for the shot. When, finally, the task was completed and the
syringe duly charged, he did not again bare the girl's arm for an
injection. Now that his stock was running low, perhaps his selfishness
forbade any bestowal of the drug on another; or, perhaps, his trained
eye told him that the further stupefying of her would react dangerously.
So, the liquid in its entirety was forced into his own arm through the
needle's puncture. It was only a matter of a few minutes before the
efficacy of the drug was made manifest. The nervousness that had marked
the physician's manner fell away from him. His countenance wore a serene
aspect. Presently he settled himself comfortably on an upholstered seat
and then without more ado fell sound asleep.
Garnet did not awaken until the shades of night were fast settling over
the waters. In all probability, he would have slumbered on much longer,
had it not been for his acutely sensitive hearing, which caught the
sound of a tiny voice. It was hardly more than a whisper that issued
from out the blankets in the bow. It was the voice of Ethel Marion
calling him. This was the first time she had spoken since the moment of
semi-consciousness upon the Island when she had been revived by the
ministrations of Captain Ichabod. Now she spoke once, and again, the
single word:
"Doctor!"
Garnet sprang up and hurried to her side.
"Yes, Miss Marion," he exclaimed soothingly as he came to her.
As he knelt by her side, she bade him welcome with a smile in which
pleasure and confidence were blended. Indeed, the girl felt that she was
quite safe from any possibility of harm while in the company of the
trusted family physician. But she realized that she was very weak, and,
too, her mind was by no means clear. She was unaware that she was in
fact hundreds of miles distant from home and friends. She rested in a
reclining position so that the gunwales of the launch were high enough
to shut off a vision of the shore. Otherwise, the luxuriant swamp growth
must have shown her that she was far south of New York Harbor. Ethel was
familiar with the Sound Country from having traversed it in voyaging to
and from Florida points. Could she now have seen, she would have
recognized the giant gum trees and cypress, garnished with festoons of
Spanish moss that swayed gently under the impact of the lessening
breeze.
"Oh, Doctor!" she queried. "Have I been ill? I feel so strange in my
head, and I am so weak, and, oh, so hungry!"
"Yes, Miss Marion," replied Garnet in his most suave manner, "you have
been ill, but are now very much improved. If you will just lie quiet and
try to sleep a little more, I will soon have you where you can have
plenty of good things to eat, and your strength will return as rapidly
as it left you. I'm not going to tell you more at this time. I shall
wait until you've had some nourishment and are strong enough to listen
to a long story."
Ethel forbore further questioning. She simply smiled again and resumed
her sleep. Garnet drew out the hypodermic syringe, then hesitated. He
remembered how limited was his stock of morphia. After a moment more of
doubt, he shook his head decidedly and restored the syringe to his
pocket. It was only too apparent to him that he must husband his supply
with miserly care if he would not suffer the tortures of the damned.
Garnet slipped quietly back to his place by the engine. The sky was now
quite clear again, and as the darkness deepened the wind continued to
fall, until there was almost perfect calm. It was safe enough now for
the little boat to proceed on her way. The Doctor raised the anchor and
started the engine. He steered out from the shore resolutely, without
any sign of wavering, heading toward the northward. But for what port he
sailed was the secret of his own drug-crazed brain alone. Was it his
intention to hide away for a time in some sparsely settled section of
the Sound country, where he could depend upon getting supplies from the
kind-hearted, simple-living coast dwellers? Or did he mean to go back
over the way he had come in this frail craft? To do this, could have but
one ending--the final disaster.
The heavy darkness of the early night hours was soon dispelled. Far to
the eastward, the golden moon at the full came creeping up from behind a
huge sand dune upon Core Banks. Its gentle luminousness fell over the
expanse of water and showed the launch clearly as it voyaged toward the
unknown.... And that same radiance shone upon a lover seeking wildly for
the girl of his heart--and seeking in vain.