Poison Island
Page 29
CHAPTER XXIX.
A BOAT ON THE BEACH.
As we drew to shore the stranger stepped down the beach and liftedhis hat again.
"Welcome, ladies; and let me thank you and all your party for thisconfidence. The boy here--bless my soul, how he has grown in thesefew months!--the boy and I have had the pleasure of meeting before.Eh, Harry Brooks? You remember me? To the Captain I must introducemyself. Shake hands, Captain Branscome. I am proud to make youracquaintance. . . . But what is the meaning of these baskets?You have brought your own provisions? Come, Miss Belcher, that isunkind of you, when we agreed--yes, surely we agreed?--that you wereto be my guests."
"We were not sure, sir--" began Miss Belcher.
"That I should keep my word? Worse and worse! Or possibly youdistrusted the entertainment of a solitary bachelor on a desertisland? But I must prove that you did me an injustice." He pointedto a goodly hamper on the beach and to a frail or carpenter's basketfrom which half a dozen bottles protruded their necks, topped withred and green seals. "As proprietor of Mortallone--you will forgivemy laying stress on it--I may surely claim the right to do thehonours. Stay a moment, my good man," he added, as Mr. Goodfellowmade a motion to lift out our own hamper. "Miss Plinlimmon, Ibelieve, is an admirer of natural scenery, and, if the ladies willstep ashore for a few minutes, there is a waterfall above which mayreward her inspection; not by any means, ma'am, the grandest ourisland can show, yet charming in its way and distant but a short fiveminutes' walk. Captain Branscome will bear me out, and Harry, too--yes, Harry, too, if I mistake not, visited it yesterday."
He put out a hand to assist the ladies to disembark, at the same timehitching back the gun on his bandolier.
"You will excuse my having brought a musket. You have brought yourown, I see. Quite right. I carry it habitually; for, to tell youthe truth, the island contains a few wild boars who disputepossession with me. A very few--we are not likely to meet with one,so the ladies may reassure themselves! But, as I was about to say,with the Captain's permission we will not unload here. Rather, aftervisiting the waterfall, I would suggest that we row round to theeastern side, where, if I may guide you, you will find choice of adozen delightful spots for a picnic. In this way, too, we shallcover more ground and get a more general view of the beauties of theisland, which, as I dare say my friend Harry discovered yesterday, issomewhat too thickly overgrown for easy travelling."
The man's manner--at once frank, chatty, and easily polite--completely disconcerted me, and I could see it disconcerted theCaptain. It seemed to reduce the whole expedition to an ordinarypicnic; and (more astonishing yet) the ladies accepted it for that.They fell in, one on each side of him, as he led the way to thewaterfall, and for a climax Miss Belcher shook out a parasol whichshe had been carrying under her arm and spread it above her beaverhat!
At the waterfall our host surpassed himself. The landscapehereabouts (he declared) always reminded him of Nicholas Poussin.He would like Miss Plinlimmon's opinion on the rock-drawing ofSalvator Rosa, a painter whom he gently depreciated. Had MissPlinlimmon ever visited the Apennines? He plucked a few of the fernsgrowing in the spray and discoursed on them, comparing them with thecommon European polypody. He turned to music, and challenged hisfair visitors to guess the note made by the falling water: it hummedon E natural, rising now and then by something less than a semitone.
With all this it was not easy to suspect him of acting, as it wasnext to impossible to mistake him for a trifler. His tall figure,his carriage, the fine pose of his head, his resonant manly voice,all forbade it, no less than did the wild scenery to which he drewour attention with an easy proprietary wave of the hand. I observedthat Captain Branscome listened to him with a puzzled frown.
The waterfall having been duly admired, we retraced our steps to theshore. The gig carried a small mast and lugsail, and, the faint windblowing fair down the creek, the Captain suggested our hoisting them.I think it annoyed him to find himself appealing to Dr. Beauregard.
"By all means," said the Doctor, affably. "It will save labour tillwe reach open water, when I will ask you to lower them. We had bestuse the paddles after rounding the point to eastward, and keep closeinshore. I have my reasons for recommending this--reasons which Ishall be happy to explain to you, sir, at the proper time."Here he bowed to Captain Branscome.
Accordingly we hoisted sail, and in a few minutes opened the view ofthe lower reach, with the _Espriella_ swinging softly at her cables,her masts reflected on the scarcely rippled water. Miss Belcherbroke into a laugh at sight of Mr. Rogers wistfully eyeing us fromthe deck. Dr. Beauregard echoed it, just audibly.
"Well, well, ma'am; it is hard upon Mr.--Rogers, did you tell me?But we must not blame the Captain for taking precautions.A very neat craft, Captain, and Jamaica-built, by the look of her."
"We picked her up at Savannah-la-Mar," announced Miss Belcher.
"After burning your boats, madam? Pardon me, but I find yourfrankness as admirable as it is unexpected. Moreover, though CaptainBranscome deprecates it, no policy could be wiser."
"I see no reason, sir, for being less than candid with you," saidMiss Belcher. "You know whence we come end you know why we are here.How we came is a trifling matter in comparison."
"Believe me, ma'am, your frankness is all in your favour.I may repeat what I told you yesterday, that several expeditions havecome to this island seeking treasure; crews of merely avaricious men,mad with greed, whom I have made it my business to baffle._You_, on the contrary, may almost count on my help; though whetherthe treasure will do you much good when you have found it is anotherquestion altogether. But we are not treasure-seeking just now, and Ishall grudge even the pleasure of talking if it steal your admirationfrom my island."
The shore by which we steered was, indeed, entrancing, and grew yetmore entrancing as we rounded Cape Fea and, downing sail, headed thegig for the north-east, pulling almost in the shadow of the cliffs;for the sea lay calm as a pond, and broke in feeblest ripples even onthe beaches recessed here and there in the chasms. We passedTry-again Inlet, and our wonder grew; for the cliffs now were merecliffs no longer but the bases of a range of mountains, broken intorock slides with matted vines like curtains overhanging their scars;and in the water, ten fathoms deep below us, we could watch thecoloured fishes at play.
Mr. Goodfellow and I were at the oars; and we had been pulling, as Ijudged, for something over an hour, but easily, for the tide couldhardly be felt, when Dr. Beauregard, who had taken the tiller,steered us in towards a beach which he announced to be the, perhaps,very choicest in the island for a picnic.
Certainly it was a fairy-like spot, with white sand underfoot, greencreepers overhanging, and through the creepers a rill of watersplashing down the cliff; yet we had passed at least a dozen otherbeaches, which to me had looked no less inviting.
"We will leave the ladies to unpack the hampers," said Dr.Beauregard. "I speak as a bachelor, but in my experience there is ahalf-hour before lunch in which that man is best appreciated whomakes himself scarce. Captain Branscome, if you will not mind ashort scramble over the rocks here, to the left, I can promise yousomething worth seeing."
He led the way at once, and we followed, the Captain (who appearedto have lost his temper again) growling that he took no stock inviews. But the distance was not far. We scrambled over two lowledges of rock and found ourselves looking down upon a beach evenprettier and more fairy-like than the one we had left--and uponsomething more--a ship's boat, drawn about thirty feet abovehigh-water, and resting there on her side.
"Yours?" asked Captain Branscome, after a long stare at her.
"Certainly not," answered Dr. Beauregard. "And that is why I broughtyou here."