A KNIFE AT A ROPE
Some modern thinkers, I believe--or perhaps, to be quite safe, I had
better say some modern talkers--profess to estimate the value of life
by reference to the number of distinct sensations which it enables
them to experience. Judged by a similar standard, my island had been,
up to the present time, a brilliant success; it was certainly
fulfilling the function, which Mrs Kennett Hipgrave had appropriated
to it, of whiling away the time that must elapse before my marriage
with her daughter and providing occupation for my thoughts during this
weary interval. The difficulty was that the island seemed disinclined
to restrict itself to this modest sphere of usefulness; it threatened
to monopolise me, and to leave very little of me or my friends, by the
time that it had finished with us. For, although we maintained our
cheerfulness, our position was not encouraging. Had matters been
anything short of desperate above ground it would have been madness to
plunge into that watery hole, whose egress was unknown to us, and to
take such a step on the off-chance of finding at the other end the
Cypriote fishermen, and of obtaining from them either an alliance, or,
if that failed, the means of flight. Yet we none of us doubted that to
take the plunge was the wiser course. I did not believe in the extreme
peril of the passage, for, on further questioning, Phroso told us that
the Englishman had come through, not only alive and well, but also
dry. Therefore there was a path, and along a path that one man can go
four men can go; and Phroso, again attired, at my suggestion, in her
serviceable boy’s suit, was the equal of any of us. So we left
considering whether, and fell to the more profitable work of asking
how, to go. Hogvardt and Watkins went off at once to the point of
departure, armed with a pick, a mallet, some stout pegs, and a long
length of rope. All save the last were ready on the premises, and that
last formed always part of Hogvardt’s own equipment; he wore it round
his waist, and, I believe, slept in it, like a mediæval ascetic.
Meanwhile Denny and I kept watch, and Phroso, who seemed out of
humour, disappeared into her own room.
Our idea was to reach the other end of the journey somewhere about
eight or nine o’clock in the evening. Phroso told us that this hour
was the most favourable for finding the fishermen; they would then be
taking a meal before launching their boats for the fishing-grounds.
Three hours seemed ample time to allow for the journey, for the way
could hardly, however rich it were in windings, be more than three or
four miles long. We determined, therefore, to start at five. At four
Hogvardt and Watkins returned from the underground passage; they had
driven three stout pegs into excavations in the rocky path, and built
them in securely with stones and earth. The rope was tied fast and
firm round the pegs, and the moistness of its end showed the length to
be sufficient. I wished to descend first, but I was at once overruled;
Denny was to lead, Watkins was to follow; then came Hogvardt, then
Phroso, and lastly myself. We arranged all this as we ate a good meal;
then each man stowed away a portion of goat--the goat had died the
death that morning--and tied a flask of wine about him. It was a
quarter to five, and Denny rose to his feet, flinging away his
cigarette.
‘That’s my last!’ said he, regretfully regarding his empty case.
His words sounded ominous, but the spirit of action was on us, and we
would not be discouraged. I went to the hall door and fired a shot,
and then did the like at the back. Having thus spent two cartridges
on advertising our presence to the pickets we made without delay for
the passage. With my own hand I closed the door behind us. The secret
of the Stefanopouloi would thus be hidden from profane eyes in the
very likely event of the islanders finding their way into the house in
the course of the next few hours.
I persuaded Phroso to sit down some little way from the chasm and wait
till we were ready for her; we four went on. Denny was a delightful
boy to deal with on such occasions. He wasted no time in
preliminaries. He gave one hard pull at the rope; it stood the test;
he cast a rapid eye over the wedges; they were strong and strongly
imbedded in the rock. He laid hold of the rope.
‘Don’t come after me till I shout,’ said he, and he was over the side.
The lantern showed me his descending figure, while Hogvardt and
Watkins held the rope ready to haul him up in case of need. There was
one moment of suspense; then his voice came, distant and cavernous.
‘All right! There’s a broad ledge--a foot and a half broad--twenty
feet above the water, and I can see a glimmer of light that looks like
the way out.’
‘This is almost disappointingly simple,’ said I.
‘Would your lordship desire me to go next?’ asked Watkins.
‘Yes, fire away, Watkins,’ said I, now in high good humour.
‘Stand from under, sir,’ called Watkins to Denny, and over he went.
A shout announced his safe arrival. I laid down the lantern and took
hold of the rope.
‘I must hang on to you, Hog,’ said I. ‘You carry flesh, you see.’
Hogvardt was calm, smiling and leisurely.
‘When I’m down, my lord,’ he said, ‘I’ll stand ready to catch the
young lady. Give me a call before you start her off.’
‘All right,’ I answered. ‘I’ll go and fetch her directly.’
Over went old Hogvardt. He groaned once; I suppose he grazed against
the wall; but he descended with perfect safety. Denny called: ‘Now
we’re ready for her, Charley. Lower away!’ And I, turning, began to
walk back to where I had left Phroso.
My island--I can hardly resist personifying it in the image of some
charming girl, full of tricks and surprises, yet all the while
enchanting--had now behaved well for two hours. The limit of its
endurance seemed to be reached. In another five minutes Phroso and I
would have been safely down the rope and the party re-united at the
bottom, with a fair hope of carrying out prosperously at least the
first part of the enterprise. But it was not to be. My eyes had grown
accustomed to the gloom, and when I went back I left the lantern
standing by the rope. Suddenly, when I was still a few yards from
Phroso, I heard a curious noise, a sort of shuffling sound, rather
like the noise made by a rug or carpet drawn along the floor. I stood
still and listened, turning my my head round to the chasm. The noise
continued for a minute. I took a step in the direction of it. Then I
seemed to see a curious thing. The lantern appeared to get up, raise
itself a foot or so in the air, keeping its light towards me, and
throw itself over the chasm. At the same instant there was a rasp.
Heavens, it was a knife on the rope! A cry came from far down in the
chasm. I darted forward. I rushed to where the walls bayed and the
chasm opened. The shuffling sound had begun again; and in the middle
of the isolated path I saw a dark object. It must be the figure of a
man, a man who had watched our proceedings, unobserved by us, and
seized this chance of separating our party. For a moment--a fatal
moment--I stood aghast, doing nothing. Then I drew my revolver and
fired once--twice--thrice. The bullets whistled along the path, but
the dark figure was no longer to be seen there. But in an instant
there came an answering shot from across the bridge of rock. Denny
shouted wildly to me from below. I fired again; there was a groan, but
two shots flashed at the very same moment. There were two men there,
perhaps more. I stood again for a moment undecided; but I could do no
good where I was. I turned and ran fairly and fast.
‘Come, come,’ I cried, when I had reached Phroso. ‘Come back, come
back! They’ve cut the rope and they’ll be on us directly.’
In spite of her amazement she rose as I bade her. We heard feet
running along the passage. They would be across the bridge now. Would
they stop and fire down the chasm? No, they were coming on. We also
went on; a touch of Phroso’s practised fingers opened the door for us;
I turned, and in wrath gave the pursuers one more shot. Then I ran up
the stairs and shut the door behind us. We were in the hall again--but
Phroso and I alone.
A hurried story told her all that had happened. Her breath came quick
and her cheek flushed.
‘The cowards!’ she said. ‘They dared not attack us when we were all
together!’
‘They will attack us before very long now,’ said I, ‘and we can’t
possibly hold the house against them. Why, they may open that
trap-door any moment.’
Phroso stepped quickly towards it, and, stooping for a instant,
examined it. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘they may. I can’t fasten it. You spoilt
the fastening with your pick.’
Hearing this, I stepped close up to the door, reloading my revolver as
I went, and I called out, ‘The first man who looks out is a dead man.’
No sound came from below. Either they were too hurt to attempt the
attack, or, more probably, they preferred the safer and surer way of
surrounding and overwhelming us by numbers from outside. Indeed we
were at our last gasp now; I flung myself despondently into a chair;
but I kept my finger on my weapon and my eye on the trap-door.
‘They cannot get back--our friends--and we cannot get to them,’ said
Phroso.
‘No,’ said I. Her simple statement was terribly true.
‘And we cannot stay here!’ she pursued.
‘They’ll be at us in an hour or two at most, I’ll warrant. Those
fellows will carry back the news that we are alone here.’
‘And if they come?’ she said, fixing her eyes on me.
‘They won’t hurt you, will they?’
‘I don’t know what Constantine would do; but I don’t think the people
will let him hurt me, unless--’
‘Well, unless what?’
She hesitated, looked at me, looked away again. I believe that my eyes
were now guilty of neglecting the trap-door which I ought to have
watched.
‘Unless what?’ I said again. But Phroso grew red and did not answer.
‘Unless you’re so foolish as to try to protect me, you mean?’ I asked.
‘Unless you refuse to give them back what Constantine offers to win
for them--the island?’
‘They will not let you have the island,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I
dare not face them and tell them it is yours.’
‘Do you admit it’s mine?’ I asked eagerly.
A slow smile dawned on Phroso’s face, and she held out her hand to me.
Ah, Denny, my conscience, why were you at the bottom of the chasm? I
seized her hand and kissed it.
‘Between friends,’ she said softly, ‘there is no thine nor mine.’
Ah, Denny, where were you? I kissed her hand again--and dropped it
like a red-hot coal.
‘But I can’t say that to my islanders,’ said Phroso, smiling.
Charming as it was, I wished she had not said it to me. I wished that
she would not speak as she spoke, or look as she looked, or be what
she was. I forgot all about the trap-door. The island was piling
sensations on me.
At last I got up and went to the table. I found there a scrap of
paper, on which Denny had drawn a fancy sketch of Constantine (to
whom, by the way, he attributed hoofs and a tail). I turned the blank
side uppermost, and took my pencil out of my pocket. I was determined
to put the thing on a business-like footing; so I began:
‘Whereas’--which has a cold, legal, business-like sound:
‘Whereas,’ I wrote in English, ‘this island of Neopalia is mine, I
hereby fully, freely, and absolutely give it to the Lady Euphrosyne,
niece of Stefan Georgios Stefanopoulos, lately Lord of the said
island--Wheatley.’ And I made a copy underneath in Greek, and, walking
across to Phroso, handed the paper to her, remarking in a rather
disagreeable tone, ‘There you are; that’ll put it all straight, I
hope.’ And I sat down again, feeling out of humour. I did not like
giving up my island, even to Phroso. Moreover I had the strongest
doubt whether my surrender would be of the least use in saving my
skin.
I do not know that I need relate what Phroso did when I gave her back
her island. These southern races have picturesque but extravagant
ways. I did not know where to look while she was thanking me, and it
was as much as I could do not to call out, ‘Do stop!’ However
presently she did stop, but not because I asked her. She was stayed by
a sudden thought which had been in my mind all the while, but now
flashed suddenly into hers.
‘But Constantine?’ she said. ‘You know his--his secrets. Won’t he
still try to kill you?’
Of course he would if he valued his own neck. For I had sworn to see
him hanged for one murder, and I knew that he meditated another.
‘Oh, don’t you bother about that!’ said I. ‘I expect I can manage
Constantine.’
‘Do you think I’m going to desert you?’ she asked in superb
indignation.
‘No, no; of course not,’ I protested, rather in a fright. ‘I shouldn’t
think of accusing you of such a thing.’
‘You know that’s what you meant,’ said Phroso, a world of reproach in
her voice.
‘My dear lady,’ said I, ‘getting you into trouble won’t get me out of
it, and getting you out may get me out. Take that paper in your hand,
and go back to your people. Say nothing about Constantine just now;
play with him. You know what I’ve told you, and you won’t be deluded
by him. Don’t let him see that you know anything of the woman at the
cottage. It won’t help you, it may hurt me, and it will certainly
bring her into greater danger; for, if nothing has happened to her
already, yet something may if his suspicions are aroused.’
‘I am to do all this. And what will you do, my lord?’
‘I say, don’t call me “my lord”; we say “Lord Wheatley.” What am I
going to do? I’m going to make a run for it.’
‘But they’ll kill you!’
‘Then shall I stay here?’
‘Yes, stay here.’
‘But Constantine’s fellows will be here before long.’
‘You must give yourself up to them, and tell them to bring you to me.
They couldn’t hurt you then.’
Well, I wasn’t sure of that, but I pretended to believe it. The truth
is that I dared not tell Phroso what I had actually resolved to do. It
was a risky job, but it was a chance; and it was more than a chance.
It was very like an obligation that a man had no right to shrink from
discharging. Here was I, planning to make Phroso comfortable; that was
right enough. And here was I planning to keep my own skin whole;
well, a man does no wrong in doing that. But what of that unlucky
woman on the hill? I knew friend Constantine would take care that
Phroso should not come within speaking distance of her. Was nobody to
set her on her guard? Was I to leave her to her blind trust of the
ruffian whom she was unfortunate enough to call husband, and of his
tool Vlacho? Now I came to think of it, now that I was separated from
my friends and had no lingering hope of being able to beat Constantine
in fair fight, that seemed hardly the right thing, hardly a thing I
should care to talk about or think about, if I did save my own
precious skin. Would not Constantine teach his wife the secret of the
Stefanopouloi? Urged by these reflections, I made up my mind to play a
little trick on Phroso, and feigned to accept her suggestion that I
should rely on her to save me. Evidently she had great confidence in
her influence now that she held that piece of paper. I had less
confidence in it, for it was clear that Constantine wielded immense
power over these unruly islanders, and I thought it likely enough that
they would demand from Phroso a promise to marry him as the price of
obeying her; then, whether Constantine did or did not promise me my
life, I felt sure that he would do his best to rob me of it.
Well, time pressed. I rose and unbolted the door of the house. Phroso
sat still. I looked along the road. I saw nobody, but I heard the
blast of the horn which had fallen on my ears once before and had
proved the forerunner of an attack. Phroso also heard it, for she sat
up, saying, ‘Hark, they are summoning all the men to the town! That
means they are coming here.’
But it meant something else also to me; if the men were summoned to
the town there would be fewer for me to elude in the wood.
‘Will they all go?’ I asked, as though in mere curiosity.
‘All who are not on some duty,’ she answered.
I had to hope for the best; but Phroso went on in distress:
‘It means that they are coming here--here, to take you.’
‘Then you must lose no time in going,’ said I, and I took her hand and
gently raised her to her feet. She stood there for a moment, looking
at me. I had let go her hand, but she took mine again now, and she
said with a sudden vehemence, and a rush of rich deep red on her
cheeks:
‘If they kill you, they shall kill me too.’
The words gushed impetuously from her, but at the end there was a
choke in her throat.
‘No, no, nonsense,’ said I. ‘You’ve got the island now. You mustn’t
talk like that.’
‘I don’t care--’ she began; and stopped short.
‘Besides, I shall pull through,’ said I.
She dropped my hand, but she kept her eyes on mine.
‘And if you get away?’ she asked. ‘What will you do? If you get to
Rhodes, what will you do?’
‘All I shall do is to lay an information against your cousin and the
innkeeper. The rest are ignorant fellows, and I bear them no malice.
Besides, they are your men now.’
‘And when you’ve done that?’ she asked gravely.
‘Well, that’ll be all there is to do,’ said I, with an attempt at
playful gaiety. It was not a very happy attempt.
‘Then you’ll go home to your own people?’
‘I shall go home; I’ve got no people in particular.’
‘Shall you ever come to Neopalia again?’
‘I don’t know. Yes, if you invite me.’
She regarded me intently for a full minute. She seemed to have
forgotten the blast of the horn that summoned the islanders. I also
had forgotten it; I saw nothing but the perfect oval face, crowned
with clustering hair and framing deep liquid eyes. Then she drew a
ring from her finger.
‘You have fought for me,’ she said. ‘You have risked your life for me.
Will you take this ring from me? Once I tried to stab you. Do you
remember, my lord?’
I bowed my head, and Phroso set the ring on my finger.
‘Wear it till a woman you love gives you one to wear instead,’ said
Phroso with a little smile. ‘Then go to the edge of your island--you
are an islander too, are you not? so we are brethren--go to the edge
of your island and throw it into the sea; and perhaps, my dear friend,
the sea will bring it back, a message from you to me. For I think you
will never again come to Neopalia.’
I made no answer: we walked together to the door of the house, and
paused again for a moment on the threshold.
‘See the blue sea!’ said Phroso. ‘Is it not--is not your island--a
beautiful island? If God brings you safe to your own land, my lord, as
I will pray Him to do on my knees, think kindly of your island, and of
one who dwells there.’
The blast of the horn had died away. The setting sun was turning blue
to gold on the quiet water. The evening was very still, as we stood
looking from the threshold of the door, under the portal of the house
that had seen such strange wild doings, and had so swiftly made for
itself a place for ever in my life and memory.
I glanced at Phroso’s face. Her eyes were set on the sea, her cheeks
had turned pale again, and her lip was quivering. Suddenly came a loud
sharp note on the horn.
‘It is the signal for the start,’ said she. ‘I must go, or they will
be here in heat and anger, and I shall not be able to stop them. And
they will kill my lord. No, I will say “my lord.”’
She moved to leave me. I had answered nothing to all she had said.
What was there that an honourable man could say? Was there one thing?
I told myself (too eager to tell myself) that I had no right to
presume to say that. And anything else I would not say.
‘God bless you,’ I said, as she moved away; I caught her hand and
again lightly kissed it. ‘My homage to the Lady of the Island,’ I
whispered.
Her hand dwelt in mine a moment, briefer than our divisions of time
can reckon, fuller than is often the longest of them. Then, with one
last look, questioning, appealing, excusing, protesting, confessing,
ay, and (for my sins) hoping, she left me, and stepped along the rocky
road in the grace and glory of her youthful beauty. I stood watching
her, forgetting the woman at the cottage, forgetting my own danger,
forgetting even the peril she ran whom I watched, forgetting
everything save the old that bound me and the new that called me. So I
stood till she vanished from my sight; and still I stood, for she was
there, though the road hid her. And I was roused at last only by a
great cry of surprise, of fierce joy and triumph, that rent the still
air of the evening, and echoed back in rumblings from the hill. The
Neopalians were greeting their rescued Lady.
Then I turned, snatched up Hogvardt’s lance again, and fled through
the house to do my errand. For I would save that woman, if I could;
and my own life was not mine to lose any more than it was mine to give
to whom I would. And I recollect that, as I ran through the kitchen
and across the compound, making for the steps in the bank of rocks, I
said, ‘God forgive me!’