Charles went soberly down the green slopes towards the sea, and
presently discovered the dismantled fort they had seen from the
steamer as they ran up the Swinge that morning. And sitting on the
broken wall of a gun platform was a figure which he knew by the dress
to be Miss Penny.
She had evidently been on the look-out for him. She stood up and waved
her hand, and he waved his in reply, and plunged down the slope. His
heart was sore at what had just passed. It turned gratefully to one
whom he knew to be full of sympathy for him.
When he reached the foot of the hill, they were crossing the causeway
which led from the fort to the shore.
"Well, old man, you've got through with it?" said Graeme; and all
their faces showed the anxiety that was in them to know how he had
prospered.
He nodded. "Let's go back and sit there for a few minutes. I feel
like a whipped dog;" and they all went back to the fort, which, in its
dismantlement and ruin, whispered soothingly of the rest and peace
that sometimes lie beyond broken hopes and strenuous times.
"Well, how did you find him?" asked Graeme, as they seated themselves
on the broken wall again, with the fair blue plain of the sea dimpling
and dancing in front.
"Very broken, but as obstinate as ever," said Charles gloomily.
"Wouldn't listen to my proposal, says he's set on redeeming himself,
and so on. I offered him all I could, but it was no use. So I left
him--"
"You never did--" began Miss Penny, with a pained look on her face.
"I did. But I couldn't leave it so. I went back, and he was sitting
with his head in his hands.... I just gave him all I had brought and
came away.... I know it was all wrong--"
"It wasn't. You did quite right," said Miss Penny vehemently.
"I don't suppose any of us would have done differently when it came to
the point. I don't really see what else you could have done," said
Graeme.
"He reminded me of all he had done for me when I was a boy, and so on,
and told me that if I didn't help him there was no hope for him. I did
my best--"
"You have done quite right, Charles," said Margaret. "I do hope he
will get away all right."
As he gave them the details of his interview, their quiet sympathy
restored him by degrees to himself. The bruised, whipped soreness wore
off, to some extent at all events, and there remained chiefly a
feeling of thankfulness that the matter was over, and that, in doing
the only thing possible to him, if he offended against the law, he had
still done what commended itself to his own heart and to those whose
good opinion he chiefly valued.
If there were no signs of merriment about them as they wandered
quietly about the strand, if they still bore something of the aspect
of a funeral party, it was at all events the aspect of a party after
the funeral. Their corpse was laid, so far as they were concerned, and
their thoughts and hearts were more at liberty to turn to other
matters.
They have none of them ever cared greatly for Alderney, and they
always speak of it as a remote, unfriendly, melancholy, and slow
little place, lacking the gem-like beauty and joyous vitality of Sark.
But then one's outlook is always coloured by one's inlook, and an
overcast mind sees all things shadowed.
They lunched at the Scott Hotel, in the garden, and felt better than
they had done for two days when their feet once more trod the deck of
the _Courier_.
The southern cliffs were filmy blue in the distance, Ortach and the
Casquets were dim against the horizon, and Charles and Miss Penny
stood together in the stern looking back over the long straight track
of the boat, and thinking both of the lonely one in the mean little
house in St. Anne. Margaret and Graeme had stood watching for a time,
and had then stolen away forward. Their outlook was ahead, where Sark
was rising boldly out of the blue waters.
"I doubt if we'll ever hear anything more of him," said Charles, with
a sigh at thought of it all.
"You will always remember that you have done your duty by him. You
could not have done more."
"You have been very kind to me all through, very kind, all of you. And
you especially.... Hennie--will you marry me?"
And she looked up at him with a happy face, and said quietly, "Yes, I
will. I believe we can make one another very happy."
"I'm sure we can. Come along and tell the others;" and they also
turned from the past and went forward.