THE SILENT VISITORS
Grenville came running across the rock-strewn terrace as if guided by
superinstinct. He fancied a sound like a heavy splash arose from the
base of the shadowy wall, and momentarily sickened to the bottom of his
soul with the thought that Elaine had fallen over.
He saw her darting towards him a moment later, however, and caught her
protectingly in his arms as she stumbled on a rock and plunged headlong
against his breast.
She instantly regained her foothold and clung to his arm, brokenly
stammering her story and facing back the way she had come to show where
the loathsome apparition had appeared above the brink.
Sidney hastened there at once, armed only with a stone. Elaine, in a
violent tremble, stood a few feet only away, having followed in
unabated dread.
Not another sound could Grenville detect as he leaned above the
precipitous plunge attempting to pierce through the shadows and gloom,
as he watched for some movement below. Whether the man had fallen
backward from the lip, to go hurtling down through the darkness, or
whether he had accomplished some swift and silent retreat, Sidney had
no means of ascertaining. Only the ceaseless lap of the tide made a
whisper in the air.
He arose and returned to Elaine.
"I had no idea the cliff was scalable," he told her, quietly. "I doubt
if that means of spying will be attempted again---- It was a beastly
way of showing their intentions towards us, but I'm glad to know what
to expect."
"Where has he gone?" Elaine faintly chattered. "If he should only be
waiting to come again---- Such a horrible fright---- I don't know why
I didn't faint, or what I did. I'm so weak I can hardly walk."
"Oh, you're as right a trivet!" said Grenville, with a ready
comprehension of the need of keeping up her courage. "You can now
retire with a comforting sense of having saved the night."
But Elaine's sense of comfort was a woefully negative quantity. She
was shaken to the center of her nerves. She dreaded to be left for a
moment.
Grenville, however, sent her off to bed in the most peremptory manner.
A realizing sense that their trials had only well begun was his one
deeply settled conviction.
"Cheer up!" he said to her, finally, "the worst is still to come."
"I'll try," she answered, courageously. "But please don't let it come
to-night."
For more than two hours she did not sleep, or even close her eyes.
Then she dragged her couch to a space outside her door. Every movement
made by Grenville, as he watchfully policed the edge of the terrace,
she thus followed for a time, half rising beneath her tiger-skin rug in
her dread to hear him go.
When she finally slept she dreamed once more of the murderous eyes, the
clenched white teeth, and the flame-shaped blade she had seen at the
brink of the cliff. Grenville heard her laboredly call his name as in
her dreams she once more underwent her disturbing ordeal, but he did
not move from his seat.
At dawn she was slumbering more peacefully, a smile on her lips as she
lay there facing his position. What a royal little princess of the
island she appeared with her colorful robe lying out upon the rocks,
her hair so much more golden than the tawny hide, and the warm, healthy
glow restored once more to her cheeks!
Grenville was sure he had never half appreciated the wonder and
abundance of her hair, the darker penciling of her arching brows, the
delicate beauty of her features.
He presently once more bent his attention on the island that rendered
up never a sign.
Neither the jungle, the summits of the further hills, nor the sea that
stretched interminably about them enlightened his searching eyes. Save
for that night experience, it might have seemed preposterous that
enemies existed in the miniature world by which they were surrounded.
He crept in his cautious manner to the crumbling edge where Elaine had
seen the face. There was nothing below in the water. He could readily
follow the bits of shelf and succession of pits in the wall, however,
whereby a daring, barefooted native might grope his way to the summit,
even in the dark. It would doubtless be possible here, he reflected,
to explode a bomb against the pitted surface and break away so large a
cavity as to render all future ascents impossible. But this was a task
to be deferred for a time, since he had no wish to acquaint the
visitors oversoon with the fact that he possessed an explosive.
When he returned to the shelter again, Elaine had waked and carried her
couch to the cave. Despite the fact the hour was early and the sun
only well above the ocean's rim, she declared she had rested much
longer than was either wise or essential.
Yet there was nothing to do for either, now that the day was begun.
Their breakfast of fruits was soon concluded, then of occupation there
was none. Grenville felt it inadvisable to move about too freely on
the terrace, and thereby risk betraying the fact they were only two in
number. A watcher stationed on the second hill could not, as a matter
of fact, examine the entire top of the terrace, or even discern its
principal features, but he might ascertain decidedly too much, should
they carelessly expose themselves to view.
The morning proved for Grenville another exasperation. He thought of
nothing by way of labor he could advantageously perform. Their
defense, though crude, was fairly complete, and could scarcely be
improved. To watch the edge of the jungle, hour after hour, where
never a sign was vouchsafed his vigilance, was a dulling inactivity,
yet a highly essential precaution that was not to be neglected.
By noon he was fairly in a mood to seek out the island's invaders
alone, to hasten some definite action. That the natives intended to
starve them into a visit to the spring seemed all too obvious.
Grenville felt assured, however, the water down in the cavern would
suffice for their needs, if no better could be relied upon, when once
their jars were empty, while gathering fruit would not be wholly
impossible under cover of the night.
With the thought in mind that only the trail would be kept under watch
by the Dyaks, he made up his mind he could readily contrive a
ladder-like platform to extend from the brink, whereby the distance to
the nearest tree might be conveniently bridged to permit easy access to
the jungle. Of creepers and extra bamboo poles he had laid in ample
stock. For the lack of better employment, he began the construction of
his bridge when their meager luncheon had been finished.
His mind, as he worked, spun schemes innumerable for the daily defeat
of the natives. Aware that as long as the terrace could be held
starvation and thirst would be their only unconquerable enemies, he
entertained no end of plans for catching fish without bait and even
trapping or fishing up small animals that might rove at night below the
cliff. From these reflections he returned to the men who prowled about
them after dark.
To secure his cord across the trail and thereby provide an alarm, or
notice of the enemy's approach, from that direction, was a very simple
matter. When he finally invented, in his mind, a singular "rattle" to
guard the approach by the cliff, he dropped all employment on the
bridge at once and began forthwith on the other.
What he made was a series of bamboo buckets, or cuplike sections of the
hollow tube, with stones suspended inside to knock against the walls
when the things were lightly shaken. These he intended to hang, one
beside another, in a line from the brink of the wall, where a climber
must strike them unawares and sound a resonant warning.
But he found, on hanging a pair some ten feet down along the face,
where the man had climbed in the night, that the wind would sway them
to and fro against the rock and constantly ring their hollow tones.
This defect he presently remedied by forming a frame, some ten feet
long and one foot wide, in which all his cups were suspended, or
moored, both top and bottom. They were thus so lightly hung that the
smallest jar against the frame would joggle them all to musical
utterance, while the wind could have no effect on any single one.
The entire frame was lowered down till it rested a bit unevenly on two
projecting shelves of rock, where it leaned a trifle outward like a
picture on a wall, as the creepers that held it from falling were
finally made secure. When Grenville, by way of a trial, nudged it once
with a pole thrust down against it for the purpose, it rattled out a
decisive alarm that one could have heard from the trail.
Grenville thereupon brought out a bomb from his store and lowered it
down below the frame, and six or eight feet to the side. This was
secured not only by the fuse, but likewise by more of the creeper.
Elaine, who during his absence had maintained the watch of the trail,
now ran to the place, at Grenville's signal, for a moment's inspection
of the whole arrangement and instruction concerning its use.
It was while they were there that the haunting wail arose for a gasping
spasm. It had practically failed. Sidney doubted if its loudest note
could have been heard as far as the spring. But still the end of the
tiresome day developed no attack.
Grenville was completely puzzled by the tactics the boatmen had
adopted. That they knew Elaine was present on the terrace there could
be not a shadow of doubt. Even if the man she had thrust away from the
cliff-edge fell to the sea and was dashed to pieces, or drowned, his
friends who had brought him around to the place must have heard her
voice and recognized its feminine quality.
They would likewise know she could hardly be alone, and would guess her
companions were not numerous or likely to be armed. No plundered
wreckage lay about the shore from which castaways could have drawn
ammunition or rifles. It was utterly impossible for any ignorant
natives to imagine the loading of a cannon or the making of bombs from
materials on the place.
What, then, was the reason of their long delay? They could scarcely be
waiting for reinforcements. They would hardly be dreading the island's
"spirit" now, since the sounds had practically ceased, and one man had
dared ascend the cliff with a knife between his teeth. That they
feared an open attack by day and dreaded the tiger by night was the
only tenable theory that Grenville could devise.
Yet the fact of the matter was that, until the cavern "spirit" should
be absolutely silenced, the superstitious Dyaks could only be forced by
the bulldozing threats and ferocity of their fiendish leader to set
foot upon the land. It was he who had sent the climber up the wall,
having thrust a pistol behind the fellow's ear. A certain tragic
outcome of this premature adventure had been wholly attributed by the
victim's companions to the anger of the wailing soul who inhabited the
headland.
The bridge, constructed of bamboo supports, was a simple affair,
completed and ready by sunset. Before the darkness was absolute,
Grenville conveyed it along to the eastern jutting of the cliff, slid
it down to a ledge below the level of the terrace, and easily thrust
the end across to the nearest tree, where it rested securely on the
branches.
He found that it bore his weight remarkably well. With an ordinary
length of pliable ladder he could reach the ground beneath the tree
without the slightest difficulty, thereby escaping all the undergrowth
and broken rock that would render a straight descent from the brink not
only a noisy piece of business, but likewise one of considerable hazard
and discomfort. And descending thus, instead of employing the trail,
he could certainly expect to escape the shrewdest observation on the
part of any native set to watch for some night adventure.
Indeed, so alluring became the prospect of leaving the hill, to conduct
some helpful and informing explorations, that he could scarcely wait
for the shadows of night to settle on the island before he should test
his apparatus.
Elaine was frankly and confessedly alarmed when at length he could
resist the temptation no longer and announced his intentions for
expending a portion of the evening.
He set an alarm at the gate on the trail, however, and, arming himself
with his heavy, cleaver-like implement for chopping, instructed his
worried companion to fire the cannon without delay should attack
develop in his absence.
"I am sure you will have no visitors, but, in case you do, don't wait
to see who it is, or how many," he said; "let the little gun count the
numbers."
"But suppose--it might be you!"
"I shall not return that way. You may look for me back in fifteen or
twenty minutes at the most. I feel it's important to know what is
going on, as well as to gather a bit of fruit, and see what I may be
enabled to do by way of setting some traps for game. If one of my
snares could be brought a trifle closer, it might provide us with the
meat we certainly ought to have."
Without another word, she watched him depart for his bridge and ladder
to the jungle.