Madelaine Van Heldre had seen the object of Uncle Luke's vexation before
he called attention to it; and at the first glance her eyes had lit up
with pleasure, but only to give place to an anxious, troubled look, and
faint lines came across her brow.
"Why, it is only Harry with his friend," said Louise quietly.
"Yes: flopping and splashing about in the boat. There will not be a
fish left when they've done."
"I'll tell them to land at the lower stairs," said Louise eagerly.
"No; let 'em come and do their worst," said the old man, with quite a
snarl. "Why doesn't Harry row, instead of letting that miserable
cockney fool about with an oar?"
"Miserable cockney!" said Duncan Leslie to himself; and his face, which
had been overcast, brightened a little as he scanned the boat coming
from the harbour.
"Mr Pradelle likes exercise," said Louise quietly.
Duncan's face grew dull again.
"Then I wish he would take it in London," said the old man, "jumping
over his desk or using his pen, and not come here."
The water glistened and sparkled with the vigorous strokes given by the
two young men who propelled the boat, and quickly after there was a
grating noise as the bows ground against the rocks of the point and a
young man in white flannels leaped ashore, while his companion after
awkwardly laying in his oar followed the example, balancing himself as
he stepped on to the gunwale, and then, after the fashion of a timid
horse at a gutter, making a tremendous bound on to the rocks.
As he did this his companion made a quick leap back into the bows to
seize the chain, when he had to put out an oar once more and paddle
close up to the rock, the boat having been sent adrift by the force of
the other's leap.
"What a fellow you are, Pradelle!" he said, as he jumped on to a rock,
and twisted the chain about a block.
"Very sorry, dear boy. Didn't think of that."
"No," said the first sourly, "you didn't."
He was a well-knit manly fellow, singularly like his sister, while his
companion, whom he had addressed as Pradelle, seemed to be his very
opposite in every way, though on the whole better looking; in fact, his
features were remarkably handsome, or would have been had they not been
marred by his eyes, which were set close together, and gave him a shifty
look.
"How are you, uncle? How do, Leslie!" said Harry, as he stood twirling
a gold locket at the end of his chain, to receive a grunt from the
fisherman, and a friendly nod from the young mine-owner. "So here you
are then," he continued; "we've been looking for you everywhere. You
said you were going along the west walk."
"Yes, but we saw uncle fishing, and came down to him."
"Well, come along now."
"Come? Where?"
"Come where? Why for a sail. Wind's just right. Jump in."
Duncan Leslie looked grave, but he brightened a little as he heard what
followed.
"Oh, no, Harry."
As she spoke, Louise Vine glanced at her companion, in whose face she
read an eager look of acquiescence in the proposed trip, which changed
instantly to one of agreement with her negative.
"There, Vic. Told you so. Taken all our trouble for nothing."
"But, Harry--"
"Oh, all right," he cried, interrupting her, in an ill-used tone. "Just
like girls. Here's our last day before we go back to the confounded
grindstone. We've got the boat, the weather's lovely; we've been
looking for you everywhere, and it's `Oh no, Harry!' And Madelaine
looking as if it would be too shocking to go for a sail."
"We don't like to disappoint you," said Madelaine, "but--"
"But you'd rather stay ashore," said the young man shortly. "Never
mind, Vic, old chap, we'll go alone, and have a good smoke. Cheerful,
isn't it? I say, Uncle Luke, you're quite right."
"First time you ever thought so then," said the old man shortly.
"Perhaps Miss Vine will reconsider her determination," said the young
man's companion, in a low soft voice, as he went toward Louise, and
seemed to Duncan Leslie to be throwing all the persuasion possible into
his manner.
"Oh no, thank you, Mr Pradelle," she replied hastily, and Duncan Leslie
once more felt relieved and yet pained, for there was a peculiar
consciousness in her manner.
"We had brought some cans with us and a hammer and chisel," continued
Pradelle. "Harry thought we might go as far as the gorns."
"Zorns, man," cried Harry.
"I beg pardon, zorns, and get a few specimens for Mr Vine."
"It was very kind and thoughtful of Harry," said Louise hastily, "and we
are sorry to disappoint him--on this his last day--but--"
"Blessed _but_!" said Harry, with a sneer; and he gave Madelaine a
withering look, which made her bite her lip.
"And the fish swarming round the point," said Uncle Luke impatiently.
"Why don't you go with them, girls?"
"Right again, uncle," said Harry.
The old man made him a mocking bow.
"Go, uncle?" said Louise eagerly, and then checking herself.
Duncan Leslie's heart sank like an ingot of his own copper dropped in a
tub.
"Yes, go."
"If you think so, uncle--"
"Well, I do," he said testily, "only pray go at once."
"There!" cried Harry. "Come, Maddy."
He held out his hand to his sister's companion, but she hesitated, still
looking at Louise, whose colour was going and coming as she saw Pradelle
take off his cap and follow his friend's example, holding out his hand
to help her into the boat.
"Yes, dear," she said to Madelaine gravely. "They would be terribly
disappointed if we did not go."
The next moment Madelaine was in the boat, Louise still hanging back
till, feeling that it would be a slight worse than the refusal to go if
she ignored the help extended to her, she laid her hand in Pradelle's,
and stepped off the rock into the gently rising and falling boat.
"Another of my mistakes," said Duncan Leslie to himself; and then he
started as if some one had given him an electric shock.
"Hullo!" cried the old man. "You're going too?"
"I? going?"
"Yes, of course! To take care of them. I'm not going to have them set
off without some one to act as ballast to those boys."
Louise mentally cast her arms round the old man's neck and kissed him.
Harry, in the same manner, kicked his uncle into the sea, and Pradelle's
eyes looked closer together than usual, as he turned them upon the young
mine-owner.
"I should only be too happy," said the latter, "if--"
"Oh, there's plenty of room, Mr Leslie," cried the girls in duet.
"Pray come."
The invitation was so genuine that Leslie's heart seemed to leap.
"Oh yes, plenty of room," said Harry, "only if the wind drops, you'll
have to pull an oar."
"Of course," said Leslie, stepping in.
Harry raised the boat-hook, and thrust the little vessel away, and then
began to step the mast.
"Lay hold of the rudder, Leslie," he cried. "Send us up some fish for
tea, uncle."
"I'll wait and see first whether you come back," said the old man.
"Good-bye, girls. Don't be uneasy. I'll go and tell the old people if
you're drowned."
"Thank you," shouted back the young man as he hoisted the little sail,
which began to fill at once, and by the time he had it sheeted home, the
boat was swiftly running eastward with the water pattering against her
bows, and a panorama of surpassing beauty seeming to glide slowly by
them on the left.
"There!" cried Harry to his friend, who had seated himself rather
sulkily forward, the order to take the tiller having placed Leslie
between Louise and Madelaine. "Make much of it, Vic: Paddington
to-morrow night, hansom cab or the Underground, and next morning the
office. Don't you feel happy?"
"Yes, now," said Pradelle, with a glance at Louise.
"Easy, Leslie, easy," cried Harry; "where are you going?"
"I beg pardon," said the young man hastily, for he had unwittingly
changed the course of the boat.
"That's better. Any one would think you wanted to give Uncle Luke the
job he talked about."
Madelaine looked up hastily.
"No: we will not do that, Miss Van Heldre," said Leslie smiling. "Shall
I hold the sheet, Vine?"
"No need," said the young man, making the rope fast. "But--"
"Oh, all right. I know what you're going to say--puff of wind might lay
us over as we pass one of the combes. Wasn't born here for nothing."
Leslie said no more, but deferred to the opinion of the captain of the
boat.
"Might as well have brought a line to trail. You'd have liked to fish,
wouldn't you, Vic?"
"Only when we are alone," said Pradelle. "Can you tell me the name of
that point, Miss Vine?"
"Brea," said Louise quietly.
"And that little valley?"
"Tol Du. The old Cornish names must sound strange to any one from
London."
"Oh no," he said, bending forward to engage her in conversation. "This
place is very interesting, and I shall regret going," he added with a
sigh, and a thoughtful look toward the picturesque little group of
houses on either side of the estuary.
"I should think you will," said Harry. "Never mind, we've had a very
jolly time. I say, Maddy," he whispered, "you will write to a fellow,
won't you?"
"No," she said quietly; "there is no need."
"No need?"
"Louie will be writing to you every week, and you will answer her. I
shall hear how you are getting on."
Harry whistled and looked angrily at his sister, who was replying to
some remark made by Leslie.
"Here, Vic," he said, "she's too heavy forward. Come and sit by my
sister. That's better. A little more over to the side, Leslie. Always
trim your boat."
The changes were made, and the little yawl sped rapidly on past the
headland of grey granite hoary and shaggy with moss; past black frowning
masses of slaty shale, over and amongst which the waves broke in
sparkling foam, and on and on by ferny hollows and rifts, down which
trickled tiny streams. The day was glorious, and the reflection of the
sapphire sky dyed the sea tint of a blue that seemed amethystine in its
richer transparent hue. The grey gulls floated overhead, and the tiny
fish they pursued made the sea flash as they played about and showed
their silvery sides.
But the conversation flagged. Possibly the fact of its being the last
day of a pleasant sojourn acted upon the spirits of two of the party,
while the third of the male occupants of the boat rather welcomed the
restraint and silence, for it gave him an opportunity to sit and think
and wonder what was to be his future, and what the animated countenance
of Louise Vine meant as she answered the questions of her brother's
friend.
He was a visitor as well as her brother's companion; he had been staying
at Mr Vine's for a fortnight. They had had endless opportunities for
conversation, and--in short, Duncan Leslie felt uncomfortable.
It was then with a feeling of relief that was shared by both the ladies,
that after a few miles run Henry Vine stood up in the bows, and, keeping
a sharp look out for certain rocks, shouted his orders to Leslie as to
the steering of the boat, and finally, as they neared the frowning
cliffs, suddenly lowered the sail and took up the oars.
They were abreast of a large cave, where the swift grey-winged pigeons
flew in and out over the swelling waves, which seemed to glide slowly on
and on, to rush rapidly after the birds and disappear in the gloom
beneath the arch. Then there was a low echoing boom as the wave struck
far away in the cave, and came back hissing and whispering to be merged
in the next.
"Going to row close in?" said Leslie, scanning the weird, forbidding
place rather anxiously.
"Going to row right in," said Harry, with a contemptuous smile. "Not
afraid, are you?"
"Can't say," replied Leslie. "A little perhaps. The place does not
look tempting. Do you think it is safe to go in?"
"Like to land on the rock till we come back?" said Harry, instead of
answering the question.
"No," said Leslie quietly; "but do you think it wise to row in there?"
"You're not afraid, are you, girls?"
"I always feel nervous till we are outside again," said Louise quietly.
"But you will be very careful, Harry," said Madelaine.
"Think I want to drown myself?" he said bitterly. "I might just as
well, p'raps, as go back to that dismal office in London, to slave from
morning till night."
He rested upon his oars for a minute or two, and perhaps from the
reflection of the masses of ferns which fringed the arch of the cavern,
and which were repeated in the clear waters, Victor Pradelle's face
seemed to turn of a sickly green, while one hand grasped the edge of the
boat with spasmodic force.
"Now then, hold tight," said the rower, as a swell came from seaward,
running right in and raising the boat so that by skilful management she
was borne forward right beneath the arch and then away into the depths
of the cavern, leaving her rocking upon the watery floor, while it sped
on away into the darkness, where it broke with a booming noise which
echoed, and whispered, and died away in sobs, and sighs, and strange
hisses and gasps, as if the creatures which made the cavern their lair
had been disturbed, and were settling down again to sleep.
"There, Vic," cried Harry, "what do you think of this?"
Pradelle was holding tightly by the side of the boat, and gazing
uneasily round.
"Think? Yes: very wild and wonderful," he said huskily.
"Wonderful? I should think it is. Goes in ever so far, only it isn't
wide enough for the boat."
Leslie looked back at the mouth, fringed with the fronds of ferns, and
at the lovely picture it framed of sunny amethystine sea; then at the
rocky sides, dripping with moisture, and here of a rich metallic green,
there covered with glistening weeds of various shades of olive-green and
brown.
"Ahoy-oy!" shouted Harry with all his might, and at the same moment he
let his oars splash in the water.
Pradelle leaped to his feet as there came a strange echo and a whirring
rush, and a dozen pigeons swept past their heads from out of the depths
of the water cave, and away into the brilliant sunshine.
"Oh, if I had a gun," cried Pradelle, to hide his confusion.
"What for--to make a miss?" sneered Harry. "Now then, out with those
cans. Fill every one, and I'll try and knock off a few anemones for the
governor."
As he spoke he laid in his oars, picked a hammer and chisel from out of
the locker in the forepart of the boat, and then worked it along by the
side of the great cave, as from out of the clefts and crannies above and
beneath the water he searched for the semi-gelatinous sea-anemones that
clustered among barnacles, and the snail-like whorl molluscs whose home
was on the weedy rocks.
The girls aided all they could, pointing out and receiving in the tins a
many-rayed creature, which closed up till it resembled a gout of blood;
now still adhering to the rock which Harry chipped off, a beautiful
_Actinia_ of olive-green with gem-like spots around the mouth and amid
its fringe, of turquoise blue.
Duncan Leslie eagerly lent his help; and, not to be behindhand, Pradelle
took up the boat-hook and held on, but with the smoothness and care of a
sleek tom-cat, he carefully avoided wetting his hands.
"Nothing very new here," said Harry at last, as the waves that kept
coming in made the boat rise and fall gently; "there's another better
cave than this close by. Let's go there; or what do you say to stopping
here and having a smoke till the tide has risen and shut us in?"
"Is there any risk of that?" said Pradelle anxiously.
"Oh, yes, plenty."
Leslie glanced at Louisa and thought that it would be very pleasant to
play protector all through the darkness till the way was open and
daylight shone again. He caught her eyes more than once and tried to
read them as he wondered whether there was hope for him; but so surely
as she found him gazing rather wistfully at her, she hurriedly continued
the collecting, pointing out one of the beautiful objects they sought
beneath the surface, and asking Pradelle to shift the boat a little
farther along.
"All my vanity and conceit," said Leslie to himself with a sigh; "and
why should I worry myself about a woman? I have plenty to do without
thinking of love and marriage. If I did, why not begin to dream about
pleasant, straightforward Madelaine Van Heldre? There can be nothing
more than a friendly feeling towards Master Harry here."
"Now then, sit fast," cried the latter object of his thoughts; "and if
we are capsized, girls, I'll look after you, Maddy. Pradelle here will
swim out with Louie, and I shall leave you to bring out the boat,
Leslie. You can swim, can't you?"
"A little," said the young man dryly.
Pradelle looked rather more green, for the light within the cave was of
a peculiar hue, and he began to think uneasily of bathing out of a
machine at Margate, holding on to a rope, and also of the effort he once
made to swim across a tepid bath in town. But he laughed heartily
directly after as he realised that it was all banter on his friend's
part, while, in spite of himself, he gave a sigh of relief as, riding
out on the crest of a broken wave, they once more floated in the
sunshine.
Ten minutes' careful rowing among the rocks, which were now four or five
feet beneath the water, now showing their weedy crests above, brought
them to the mouth of another cave, only approachable from the sea, and
sending the boat in here, the collection went on till it was deemed
useless to take more specimens, when they passed out again, greatly to
Pradelle's satisfaction.
"How's time?" said Harry. "Half-past four? Plenty of time. High tea
at six. What shall we do--sail right out and tack, or row along here in
the smooth water among the rocks?"
"Row slowly back," said Louise; and Pradelle took an oar.
At the end of half a mile he ceased rowing.
"Tired?" said Harry.
"No; I have a blister on my hand; that's all."
"Come and pull, Leslie," said Harry. "You'd better steer, Louie, and
don't send us on to a rock."
The exchange of places was made, and once more they began to progress
with the boat, travelling far more swiftly as they glided on close in to
the mighty cliff which rose up overhead, dappled with mossy grey and
patches of verdure, dotted with yellow and purple blooms.
"To go on like this for ever!" thought Leslie as he swung to and fro,
his strong muscles making the water foam as he dipped his oar, watching
Louise as she steered, and seemed troubled and ready to converse with
Pradelle whenever she caught his eye.
"Starn all!" shouted Harry suddenly, as about three miles from home they
came abreast of a narrow opening close to the surface of the water.
The way of the boat was checked, and Harry looked at the hole into which
the tide ran and ebbed as the swell rose and fell, now nearly covering
the opening, now leaving it three or four feet wide.
"Bound to say there are plenty of good specimens in there," he said.
"What do you say, Vic, shall we go in?"
"Impossible."
"Not it. Bound to say that's the opening to quite a large zorn. I've
seen the seals go in there often."
"Has it ever been explored?" said Leslie, who felt interested in the
place.
"No; it's nearly always covered. It's only at low tides like this that
the opening is bared. If the girls were not here I'd go in."
"How?" said Pradelle.
"How?--why swim in."
"And be shut up by the tide and drowned," said Louise.
"Good thing too," said Harry, with the same look of a spoiled boy at
Madelaine. "I don't find life go very jolly. Boat wouldn't pass in
there."
He had risen from his seat and was standing with one foot on the
gunwale, the other on the thwart, gazing curiously at the dark orifice
some forty yards away, the boat rising and falling as it swayed here and
there on the waves, which ran up to the face of the cliff and back, when
just as the attention of all was fixed upon the little opening, from
which came curious hissing and rushing noises, the boat rose on a
good-sized swell, and as it sank was left upon the top of a weedy rock
which seemed to rise like the shaggy head of a huge sea monster beneath
the keel.
There was a bump, a grinding, grating noise, a shout and a heavy splash,
and the boat, after narrowly escaping being capsized, floated once more
in deep water; but Harry had lost his balance, gone overboard, and
disappeared.
Madelaine uttered a cry of horror, and then for a few moments there was
a dead silence, during which Louise sat with blanched face, parted lips,
and dilated eyes, gazing at the spot where her brother had disappeared.
Pradelle held on by the side of the boat, and Leslie sprang up, rapidly
stripped off coat and vest, and stood ready to plunge in.
Those moments seemed indefinitely prolonged, and a terrible feeling of
despair began to attack the occupants of the boat as thought after
thought, each of the blackest type, flashed through their brains. He
had been sucked down by the undertow, and was being carried out to sea--
he was entangled in the slimy sea wrack, and could not rise again--he
had struck his head against the rocks, stunned himself, and gone down
like a stone, and so on.
Duncan Leslie darted one glance at the pale and suffering face of the
sister, placed a foot on the gunwale, and was in the act of gathering
himself up to spring from the boat, when Harry's head rose thirty yards
away.
"Ahoy!" he shouted, as he began to paddle and tread water. "Hallo,
Leslie, ready for a bathe? Come out! Water's beautiful. Swim you back
to the harbour."
There was a long-drawn breath in the boat which sounded like a groan, as
the terrible mental pressure was removed, and the young man began to
swim easily and slowly towards his friends.
"Mind she doesn't get on another rock, Leslie," he cried.
"Here, catch hold of this," cried Pradelle, whose face was ashy, and he
held out the boat-hook as far as he could reach.
"Thank ye," said Harry mockingly, and twenty yards away. "Little
farther, please. What a lovely day for a swim!"
"Harry, pray come into the boat," cried Louise excitedly.
"What for? Mind the porpoise."
He gave a few sharp blows on the water with his hands, raising himself
up and turning right over, dived, his legs just appearing above the
surface, and then there was an eddy where he had gone down.
"Don't be frightened," whispered Madelaine, whose voice sounded a little
husky.
"Here we are again!" cried Harry, reappearing close to the boat and
spluttering the water from his lips, as with all the gaiety of a boy he
looked mirthfully at the occupants of the boat. "Any orders for pearls,
ladies?"
"Don't be foolish, Harry," cried Louise, as he swam close to them.
"Not going to be. I say, Leslie, take the boat-hook away from that
fellow, or he'll be making a hole in the bottom of the boat."
As he spoke, he laid a hand upon the gunwale and looked merrily from one
to the other.
"Don't touch me, girls. I'm rather damp," he said. "I say, what a
capital bathing dress flannels make!"
"Shall I help you in?" said Leslie.
"No, thank ye, I'm all right. As I am in, I may as well have a swim."
"No, no, Harry, don't be foolish," cried Louise.
"There, you'd better hitch a rope round me, and tow me behind, or I
shall swamp the boat."
"Harry! what are you going to do?" cried Madelaine, as he looked his
hold of the gunwale, and began to swim away.
"Wait a bit and you'll see," he cried. "Leslie, you take care of the
boat. I shan't be long."
"But, Harry--"
"All right, I tell you."
"Where are you going?"
"In here," he shouted back, and he swam straight to the low opening at
the foot of the massive granite cliff, paddled a little at the mouth
till the efflux of water was over, and then as a fresh wave came, he
took a few strokes, gave a shout, and to the horror of the two girls
seemed to be sucked right into the opening.
As he disappeared, he gave another shout, a hollow strange echoing
"Good-bye," and a few moments after there was a run back of the water
and a hollow roar, and it needed very little exercise of the imagination
to picture the rugged opening as the mouth of some marine monster into
which the young man had passed.
Volume 1, Chapter III.