E-text prepared by Lionel Sear
DEAD MAN'S ROCK.
A Romance.
by
Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q).
1887
[This e-text prepared from an edition published in 1894]
To the Memory of My Father I dedicate this book.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.--THE QUEST OF THE GREAT RUBY.
Chapter.
I. TELLS OF THE STRANGE WILL OF MY GRANDFATHER, AMOS TRENOWETH.
II. TELLS HOW MY FATHER WENT TO SEEK THE TREASURE; AND HOW MY
MOTHER HEARD A CRY IN THE NIGHT.
III. TELLS OF TWO STRANGE MEN THAT WATCHED THE SEA UPON POLKIMBRA
BEACH.
IV. TELLS HOW A SONG WAS SUNG AND A KNIFE DRAWN UPON DEAD MAN'S
ROCK.
V. TELLS HOW THE SAILOR GEORGIO RHODOJANI GAVE EVIDENCE AT THE
"LUGGER INN"
VI. TELLS HOW A FACE LOOKED IN AT THE WINDOW OF LANTRIG; AND IN
WHAT MANNER MY FATHER CAME HOME TO US.
VII. TELLS HOW UNCLE LOVEDAY MADE A DISCOVERY; AND WHAT THE TIN
BOX CONTAINED.
VIII. CONTAINS THE FIRST PART OF MY FATHER'S JOURNAL: SETTING FORTH
HIS MEETING WITH MR. ELIHU SANDERSON, OF BOMBAY; AND MY
GRANDFATHER'S MANUSCRIPT.
IX. CONTAINS THE SECOND PART OF MY FATHER'S JOURNAL: SETTING
FORTH HIS ADVENTURES IN THE ISLAND OF CELON.
X. CONTAINS THE THIRD AND LAST PART OF MY FATHER'S JOURNAL:
SETTING FORTH THE MUTINY ON BOARD THE _BELLE FORTUNE_
XI. TELLS OF THE WRITING UPON THE GOLDEN CLASP; AND HOW I TOOK
DOWN THE GREAT KEY.
BOOK II--THE FINDING OF THE GREAT RUBY.
Chapter.
I. TELLS HOW THOMAS LOVEDAY AND I WENT IN SEARCH OF FORTUNE.
II. TELLS OF THE LUCK OF THE GOLDEN CLASP.
III. TELLS AN OLD STORY IN A TRADITIONAL MANNER.
IV. TELLS HOW I SAW THE SHADOW OF THE ROCK; AND HOW I TOLD AND
HEARD NEWS.
V. TELLS HOW THE CURTAIN ROSE UPON "FRANCESCA: A TRAGEDY"
VI. TELLS HOW THE BLACK AND YELLOW FAN SENT A MESSAGE; AND HOW I
SAW A FACE IN THE FOG.
VII. TELLS HOW CLAIRE WENT TO THE PLAY; AND HOW SHE SAW THE
GOLDEN CLASP.
VIII. TELLS HOW THE CURTAIN FELL UPON "FRANCESCA: A TRAGEDY"
IX. TELLS HOW TWO VOICES LED ME TO BOARD A SCHOONER; AND WHAT
BEFELL THERE.
X. TELLS IN WHAT MANNER I LEARNT THE SECRET OF THE GREAT KEY.
XI. TELLS HOW AT LAST I FOUND MY REVENGE AND THE GREAT RUBY.
DEAD MAN'S ROCK.
BOOK I.
THE QUEST OF THE GREAT RUBY.
CHAPTER I.
TELLS OF THE STRANGE WILL OF MY GRANDFATHER, AMOS TRENOWETH.
Whatever claims this story may have upon the notice of the world,
they will rest on no niceties of style or aptness of illustration.
It is a plain tale, plainly told: nor, as I conceive, does its native
horror need any ingenious embellishment. There are many books that
I, though a man of no great erudition, can remember, which gain much
of interest from the pertinent and appropriate comments with which
the writer has seen fit to illustrate any striking situation.
From such books an observing man may often draw the exactest rules
for the regulation of life and conduct, and their authors may
therefore be esteemed public benefactors. Among these I, Jasper
Trenoweth, can claim no place; yet I venture to think my history will
not altogether lack interest--and this for two reasons. It deals
with the last chapter (I pray Heaven it be the last) in the
adventures of a very remarkable gem--none other, in fact, than the
Great Ruby of Ceylon; and it lifts, at least in part, the veil which
for some years has hidden a certain mystery of the sea. For the
moral, it must be sought by the reader himself in the following
pages.
To make all clear, I must go back half a century, and begin with the
strange and unaccountable Will made in the year of Grace 1837 by my
grandfather, Amos Trenoweth, of Lantrig in the County of Cornwall.
The old farm-house of Lantrig, heritage and home of the Trenoweths as
far as tradition can reach, and Heaven knows how much longer, stands
some few miles N.W. of the Lizard, facing the Atlantic gales from
behind a scanty veil of tamarisks, on Pedn-glas, the northern point
of a small sandy cove, much haunted of old by smugglers, but now left
to the peaceful boats of the Polkimbra fishermen. In my
grandfather's time however, if tales be true, Ready-Money Cove saw
many a midnight cargo run, and many a prize of cognac and lace found
its way to the cellars and store-room of Lantrig. Nay, there is a
story (but for its truth I will not vouch) of a struggle between my
grandfather's lugger, the _Pride of Heart_, and a certain Revenue
cutter, and of an unowned shot that found a Preventive Officer's
heart. But the whole tale remains to this day full of mystery, nor
would I mention it save that it may be held to throw some light on my
grandfather's sudden disappearance no long time after. Whither he
went, none clearly knew. Folks said, to fight the French; but when
he returned suddenly some twenty years later, he said little about
sea-fights, or indeed on any other subject; nor did many care to
question him, for he came back a stern, taciturn man, apparently with
no great wealth, but also without seeming to want for much, and at
any rate indisposed to take the world into his confidence.
His father had died meanwhile, so he quietly assumed the mastership
at Lantrig, nursed his failing mother tenderly until her death, and
then married one of the Triggs of Mullyon, of whom was born my
father, Ezekiel Trenoweth.
I have hinted, what I fear is but the truth, that my grandfather had
led a hot and riotous youth, fearing neither God, man, nor devil.
Before his return, however, he had "got religion" from some quarter,
and was confirmed in it by the preaching of one Jonathan Wilkins, as
I have heard, a Methodist from "up the country," and a powerful mover
of souls. As might have been expected in such a man as my
grandfather, this religion was of a joyless and gloomy order, full of
anticipations of hell-fire and conviction of the sinfulness of
ordinary folk. But it undoubtedly was sincere, for his wife Philippa
believed in it, and the master and mistress of Lantrig were alike the
glory and strong support of the meeting-house at Polkimbra until her
death. After this event, her husband shut himself up with the
tortures of his own stern conscience, and was seen by few. In this
dismal self-communing he died on the 27th of October, 1837, leaving
behind him one mourner, his son Ezekiel, then a strong and comely
youth of twenty-two.
This brings me to my grandfather's Will, discovered amongst his
papers after his death; and surely no stranger or more perplexing
document was ever penned, especially as in this case any will was
unnecessary, seeing that only one son was left to claim the
inheritance. Men guessed that those dark years of seclusion and
self-repression had been spent in wrestling with memories of a sinful
and perhaps a criminal past, and predicted that Amos Trenoweth could
not die without confession. They were partly right, from knowledge
of human nature; and partly wrong, from ignorance of my grandfather's
character.
The Will was dated "June 15th, 1837," and ran as follows:--
"I, Amos Trenoweth, of Lantrig, in the Parish of Polkimbra and
County of Cornwall, feeling, in this year of Grace Eighteen
hundred and thirty-seven, that my Bodily Powers are failing and
the Hour drawing near when I shall be called to account for my
Many and Grievous Sins, do hereby make Provision for my Death
and also for my son Ezekiel, together with such Descendants as
may hereafter be born to him. To this my son Ezekiel I give and
bequeath the Farm and House of Lantrig, with all my Worldly
Goods, and add my earnest hope that this may suffice to support
both him and his Descendants in Godliness and Contentment,
knowing how greatly these excell the Wealth of this World and
the Lusts of the Flesh. But, knowing also the mutability of
earthly things, I do hereby command and enjoin that, if at any
time He or his Descendants be in stress and tribulation of
poverty, the Head of our Family of Trenoweth shall strictly and
faithfully obey these my Latest Directions. He shall take ship
and go unto Bombay in India, to the house of Elihu Sanderson,
Esquire, or his Heirs, and there, presenting in person this my
last Will and Testament, together with the Holy Bible now lying
in the third drawer of my Writing Desk, shall duly and
scrupulously execute such instructions as the said Elihu
Sanderson or his Heirs shall lay upon him.
"Also I command and enjoin, under pain of my Dying Curse, that
the Iron Key now hanging from the Middle Beam in the Front
Parlour be not touched or moved, until he who undertakes this
Task shall have returned and have crossed the threshold of
Lantrig, having duly performed all the said Instructions.
And furthermore that the said Task be not undertaken lightly or
except in direst Need, under pain of Grievous and Sore
Affliction. This I say, knowing well the Spiritual and worldly
Perils that shall beset such an one, and having myself been
brought near to Destruction of Body and Soul, which latter may
Christ in His Mercy avert.
"Thus, having eased my mind of great and pressing Anguish, I
commend my soul to God, before Whose Judgment Bar I shall be
presently summoned to stand, the greatest of sinners, yet not
without hope of Everlasting Redemption, for Christ's sake.
Amen.
"AMOS TRENOWETH."
Such was the Will, written on stiff parchment in crabbed and
unscholarly characters, without legal forms or witnesses; but all
such were needless, as I have pointed out. And, indeed, my father
was wise, as I think, to show it to nobody, but go his way quietly as
before, managing the farm as he had managed it during the old man's
last years. Only by degrees he broke from the seclusion which had
been natural to him during his parents' lifetime, so far as to look
about for a wife--shyly enough at first--until he caught the dark
eyes of Margery Freethy one Sunday morning in Polkimbra Church,
whither he had gone of late for freedom, to the no small tribulation
of the meeting-house. Now, whether this tribulation arose from the
backsliding of a promising member, or the loss of the owner of
Lantrig (who was at the same time unmarried), I need not pause here
to discuss. Nor is it necessary to tell how regularly Margery and
Ezekiel found themselves in church, nor how often they caught each
other's eyes straying from the prayer-book. It is enough that at the
year's end Margery answered Ezekiel's question, and shortly after
came to Lantrig "for good."
The first years of their married life must have been very happy, as I
gather from the hushed joy with which my mother always spoke of them.
I gather also that my first appearance in this world caused more
delight than I have ever given since--God forgive me for it!
But shortly after I was four years old everything began to go wrong.
First of all, two ships in which my father had many shares were lost
at sea; then the cattle were seized with plague, and the stock
gradually dwindled away to nothing. Finally, my father's bank
broke--or, as we say in the West, "went scat!"--and we were left all
but penniless, with the prospect of having to sell Lantrig, being
without stock and lacking means to replenish it. It was at this
time, I have since learnt from my mother, that Amos Trenoweth's Will
was first thought about. She, poor soul! had never heard of the
parchment before, and her heart misgave her as she read of peril to
soul and body sternly hinted at therein. Also, her best-beloved
brother had gone down in a squall off the Cape of Good Hope, so that
she always looked upon the sea as a cruel and treacherous foe, and
shuddered to think of it as lying in wait for her Ezekiel's life.
It came to pass, therefore, that for two years the young wife's tears
and entreaties prevailed; but at the end of this time, matters
growing worse and worse, and also because it seemed hard that Lantrig
should pass away from the Trenoweths while, for aught we knew,
treasure was to be had for the looking, poverty and my father's wish
prevailed, and it was determined, with the tearful assent of my
mother, that he should start to seek this Elihu Sanderson, of Bombay,
and, with good fortune, save the failing house of the Trenoweths.
Only he waited until the worst of the winter was over, and then,
having commended us both to the care of his aunt, Elizabeth Loveday,
of Lizard Town, and provided us with the largest sum he could scrape
together (and small indeed it was), he started for the port of
Plymouth one woeful morning in February, and thence sailed away in
the good ship _Golden Wave_ to win his inheritance.