THE FINDING
The two men followed her out into the darkness and across the turfed
slope towards the Keg of Butter. The Commandant, amid much that was
bewildering, guessed that her boat lay moored there, and that she meant
them to accompany her, either to Saaron or to Inniscaw. There was no
danger of meeting anyone by the way, either on the hill or down by the
shore; for the search had drawn off all the coastguard. Nevertheless,
though he carried a lantern, he did not light it.
The moon would not be up for an hour yet, but the nor'-westerly breeze
had blown the sky clear of clouds. The stars--bright as always when the
wind sets over the Islands from that quarter--lent a pale radiance by
which Sir Ommaney managed to steer his way, and at a fair pace, beside
his more expert companion, and the Commandant, when they reached the
cliff-path, lent him a hand.
"But you don't tell me you have come over from Saaron in that
cockleshell of yours?" asked the Commandant, peering down into the
darkness for a glimpse of the boat.
Vashti, who was leading the way down the track, turned with a laugh.
"No, and for a very good reason. I could not take you two back in her,
for she would not carry you, and I could not borrow yours and leave her
here for the coastguard to discover; and again the wind, though it has
fallen, is against us--we shall have to pull, and there would be no
sense in towing a boat, even a little one, for we are in a hurry. So I
sailed across in Eli's. But please do not deride my poor cockleshell,
as you call it; for without her I had never such news as I bring you."
"When are we to hear it?"
She laughed again as she stooped and found the shore-line of
Tregarthen's boat. "Not yet. No, and you need not light the lantern. We
shall want it just before our journey's end; not until then."
The Commandant helped her to draw in the boat, and they clambered on
board.
"But surely you don't expect me to steer!" protested Sir Ommaney,
gazing blankly around at the darkness, as Vashti directed him to take
his seat in the stern sheets.
"No, I have unshipped the rudder, and you will have nothing to do but
sit still and wonder." She snugged away the sail. "Now, will you take
bow oar or stroke?" she asked the Commandant. "Better perhaps leave me
the bow oar and the steering."
"Might one ask whither?"
"For Inniscaw, and for the landing beneath the Great House. It will
give us the farther to walk, but towards the north of the Island we
shall find ourselves in a press of boats. To be sure, no one is likely
to suspect us; it will be supposed that we are joining the search.
Still, I would rather run no risks, and the southern landing is almost
certainly deserted."
She shipped her oar; and as the Commandant set the stroke she took it
up with a will. At the fifth or sixth stroke she began to sing--not a
set song, but little trills and snatches of melody, as though health,
happiness, the joy of living, the delight of swinging to the oar in the
cool night air--these together or something compounded of them
all--filled her being and bubbled over.
"You are silent, you two." She said it almost reproachfully, pausing to
throw a glance over her shoulder and direct the steering.
"And with excuse." Sir Ommaney answered. "Who is not mute when
Mademoiselle Cara sings? And who, an hour ago, could have promised me
that I should hear her sing, in this place, beneath the stars?"
"Few will hear her any more," said Vashti, lightly. "She is tired of
the stage and thinks of marrying."
"Indeed, mademoiselle? And whom are we to congratulate? Who is it that
selfishly appropriates what was meant for mankind?"
"Faith, sir, I cannot tell you," she answered again, still in the same
light tone. "But I came, just now, to kidnap the Commandant!"
Without giving a chance of reply, she broke into singing again; the
air, _Ah, fors é lui_. It gushed from her lips like a very fountain of
happiness, irrepressible, springing towards the stars in jets and
spurts of melody, falling with a ripple in which the music of the stars
themselves seemed to echo; almost in the moment of its fall rising
again, as though it panted with joy--not with weariness, for the spirit
of it called impetuously to life. The two men listened, marvelling. Nor
when the song ended was the spell broken; for still, as she pulled
towards the looming shadow of Inniscaw, sinking her voice almost to a
murmur, she took up the melody as though in echo, caressing, repeating
it, loth to let it go.
They came to the dark landing-quay. Sir Ommaney, stepping ashore,
stretched out a hand; but she disregarded it, as she disregarded the
Commandant's, held out to take the painter and make fast.
"Thank you"--she stooped, apparently groping among the bottom-boards.
"I will moor the boat myself. But wait: I have something for each of
you to carry."
In the darkness she passed up a double tackle and a coil of rope. "I
fetched these from Saaron on my way to you," she explained. "We shall
need them. Have you fairly strong heads for a climb? Very well,
then"--she sprang ashore with the painter in her hand, made it fast to
a ring above the quay steps, and picked up the lantern. "Now forward!
And no talking, please, until we are well past the house and out of
hearing!"
Sir Ommaney picked up the tackle, the Commandant the coil of rope, and
the pair followed her one behind the other. In Indian file they stole
up through the plantations, almost to the foot of the glimmering
terrace; thence, bearing to the left, along dim paths through the mazes
of the gardens, thence again through the north-west plantation, and out
upon the path which the Lord Proprietor had taken, on his way to North
Inniscaw. Here, on the uplands, the breeze met them, and at his feet
Sir Ommaney, for the first time, saw spread the wonderful circle of the
great sea lights. Smaller lights twinkled like a thread of gems along
the north and north-eastern horizon. They belonged to the boats still
prosecuting the search.
From the first Vashti had led the way without faltering or appearing to
hesitate for a moment. Even when clear of the woods her companions
observed the prohibition she had laid upon them at the start, and
exchanged scarcely a word.
"You have followed well," said Vashti, as they reached the foot of Pare
Coppa. She pointed to the mass of shadow ahead, and the granite blocks
on the summit faintly touched by the starlight. "I know now what it
feels like to command soldiers, and it feels good. There, by that high
rock to the left, our march ends."
They breasted the slope and arrived at the rock panting, after seven or
eight minutes' climb. It was the same on which Sam Leggo had last seen
the Lord Proprietor sitting with his gun across his knees. But why she
had brought them to this spot the two men were as far as ever from
guessing; for almost straight beneath them lay the sea.
After a minute's rest Vashti lowered herself over the western edge of
the rock, at the same time warning them to follow with extreme caution;
and so all three came to the ledge of the adit. But their business did
not lie here. Indeed, in the darkness neither Sir Ommaney nor the
Commandant observed the opening, and Vashti had no leisure to call
their attention to it. Clambering, still to the left, across a boulder
which fairly overhung the sea, she struck a match, lit the candle in
her lantern, and held it up before a dark hole--a second adit--pierced
in the cliff-side and running west, as the other ran south-by-east.
"Be careful, now!" she warned them again, and ducked her head as she
entered the tunnel, which was scarcely more than five feet high. They
stooped and followed down the slope of it for about thirty yards, and
halted behind her as she waved the lantern over what appeared at first
to be a terrific chasm, opening at her feet.
"Eli, ahoy! Ahoy, there!" she called.
"Ahoy!" the voice came up from the depths. "Ahoy, there, Vashti!"
"I have brought the Commandant, with a friend--and the tackle. Shall I
fix it here?"
"That's no work for you, my dear," called up Eli. "Let them come down
if they've heads for it, and afterwards I can climb up and fix it. Or,
stay! Let the one come down, and the other bide aloft, to help me."
"Do you dare?" Vashti asked the Commandant, pointing down to the pit,
and then with a wave of her lantern indicating the stairway by which he
must descend. It was a ladder of rope, suspended from an iron bar
driven into the solid rock about a foot above the floor-level on which
they stood. It dangled down into darkness, and the Commandant perceived
to his horror that its iron rungs lay close against the cliff.
"Surely you are never going down that way?" he asked.
But Vashti was already stooping to slip off her shoes.
"You need not follow unless you choose."
"Where you go, I go. Let me lead the way."
But while he unlaced and kicked off his boots she had already grasped
the iron bar and swung herself out over the abyss, feeling with her
toes for a rung and a good foothold.
"For my part," said Sir Ommaney, controlling with some difficulty the
tremor of his voice as he saw her anchored safely for the moment, "I am
content to smoke a pipe here and wait. For God's sake be careful you
two!" he added, as the Commandant also gripped the bar, then a rung,
and began to lower himself.
Far below the Commandant could see a light glimmering, drawing faint
twinkles from the wet rock around him. Just beneath him he could hear
Vashti's hands rhythmically catching at the rungs--down, down.... Once
his feet slipped from the staves, and he hung for a moment by his
hand-grip only. Twice Vashti spoke up to him, warning him to press a
knee against the rock, and so make room for his toes to catch the
rungs.... At length they reached a point where the ladder hung clear of
the cliff; but here a hand from below caught it and held it steady.
"Nervous work, sir!" said Eli Tregarthen, as the Commandant, with a
gasp of relief, felt his feet touch solid rock.
"But where are we?" demanded the Commandant; for close at hand sounded
the boom of heavy waves.
"In Piper's Hole."
The Commandant stared aloft. Slowly the explanation dawned on him. The
adit, piercing its way from the cliff top, broke through the wall of
the cave, high up, close to the roof. He turned, and his eyes followed
Vashti, who had caught up Eli's lantern, and was picking her way across
the rocky floor. Presently she bent to a kneeling posture, as the rays
fell on what at first appeared to be a long bundle. He hurried after
her, but stopped short with a cry.
"Sir Cæsar!"
"Even so, my friend. Alive, thanks to our friends here; and, but for a
shaking and a twisted ankle, sound as well as safe. Yes, and the ankle
is mending, thanks to Miss Cara's skill and a plenty of salt-water
bandages."
The Lord Proprietor's face was pale as he leaned on his elbow and
stared at the Commandant across the lantern. It was scratched, too, and
scarred; but it was the face of a sound man.
"But how in the world----?"
"Easily enough. I was leaning over the cliff above here, with my gun
beside me, when a piece of earth gave way under my head. I went down
the slope head foremost, as I guess, and my coat must have caught in
the gun's trigger-guard. At any rate, it went off, and by the mercy of
Heaven without wounding me; but either the noise of it stunned me or
the fall must have knocked me foolish, for tumbling among the bushes
that grow in the hollow above the cave's entrance, I had not the sense
to catch hold, but slid through them, and clean over the edge into the
sea."
"Eh? But pardon me, how can you possibly remember this?" stammered the
Commandant.
"I saw it," said Vashti, quietly.
"Oh!" The Commandant stared at her, and began to understand. "So you
_were_ the mermaid!"
She nodded. "I happened to be on the rock, outside the entrance, with
my small boat lying in a low spot under its eastern shelter, and so I
put off to him at once. There was a strong run of water into the cave;
the depth was not above three feet when the waves ran back. So I
clutched hold of him--though making sure he was dead--and drew him into
the cave, above high-water mark. It was hard work, though not so hard
as dragging the boat after us."
"Why should you want to drag the boat so far?... You don't mean to tell
me that you have been hiding here, on purpose, while the search has
been going on all around you!"
Vashti laughed. "Why, of course we have! I heard you and Mr. Rogers
last night. You were standing together on the very spot over which I
had hauled the boat: only I had taken the precaution to smooth the sand
over the track of her keel. From the ridge of rock there I launched her
on the freshwater pool, and paddled her across with the Lord Proprietor
safe on board. I was dreadfully afraid, while I listened to your
voices, that you would cross the pool and discover her.
"It lies close?"
"About thirty yards from where we stand."
"To confess the truth," put in the Lord Proprietor, "my fall seems to
have knocked some daylight into me, or else Miss Vashti is a witch.
While she bound up my hurts we had some conversation together----"
"It was I who did the talking," interposed Vashti.
"And that, perhaps, explains why in so short a while I learnt so much.
I learnt enough, sir, at any rate, of you and of Eli Tregarthen to make
me suspect that I had done you both some injustice. I was willing to
hear more; to prolong the adventure which"--he bowed after a fashion
towards Vashti, and not ungallantly--"had its--er--romantic side. I
decided that if Miss Cara spoke with knowledge, it would do me good to
see myself for a brief while as others in the Islands see me, even to
hear what they said of me by way of obituary criticism."
He paused at a sound on the far side of the cave. It came from the
ladder; the sound of Eli's hobnailed boots, rung upon rung, as he
climbed aloft towards the adit, to fasten the tackle there.
"It seems a monstrous height to be swung in air, helpless as a babe.
But Tregarthen says it can be done, and I am willing to trust him. If
at the top you can rig up some kind of litter for me, and convey me
home without noise ... I have a fancy, and it is also Miss Cara's, that
we keep the main part of this mystery to ourselves. But who is the
helper aloft there?"
"Sir Ommaney Ward."
"Hey?"
"Sir Ommaney Ward."
"The devil! And I sent for him! Forgive me, Commandant----"
"And excuse me, Sir Cæsar, but I prefer to believe he is here because
my letter brought him."
The Lord Proprietor held out his hand.
"Will you take it, Commandant? Miss Cara has told me of that letter.
You are a good man, and I have wronged you."