Poison Island

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

  CHAPTER XXX.

  THE SCREAM ON THE CLIFF.

  "A boat?" said Captain Branscome, staring again, and slowly rubbingthe back of his head.

  He took a step forward, to descend to the beach and examine her, butDr. Beauregard laid a hand on his arm.

  "Not so fast, my friend! _Qui dit canot dit canotier_--a glance willassure you that she did not beach herself in that position, abovehigh-water mark, still less furl her own sail and stow it.Further, if you study the country behind us, you will see that, whilewe came unobserved and stand at this moment in excellent cover, bycrossing the beach we expose ourselves to observation and the risk ofa bullet."

  "I take it, sir," answered Captain Branscome, still puzzled, "youknew this boat to be here, and have brought us with some purpose."

  "I knew it, to be sure, and my purpose is simple. We cannot have arival party of treasure-seekers on the island. We have ladies in ourcharge--gentle, well-bred ladies--and of the crew of that boat, oneman, to my knowledge, is a pretty desperate ruffian. The othertwo--"

  "You have seen them, then?"

  Dr. Beauregard lifted his shoulders slightly, and took snuff.

  "My good friend," he answered, "as lord proprietor of Mortallone, Ipay attention to all my visitors. Well, as I was saying, to crossthe beach just now would be venturesome and foolish to boot, seeingthat we hold all the cards and have only to wait."

  "What of the ladies?" asked the Captain.

  "We can return at once and join them at luncheon. But the ladies, asyou remind me, complicate the affair. Before you arrived, I had laidmy plans to let these rascals have the run of the island and amuse meby their activities. I had, in fact, prepared a little deception forthem--oh, a very innocent little trick! I don't know, my dear sir,if it has struck you how much simpler our amusements tend to becomeas we grow older. I had promised myself to watch them, lying perdu,and in the end to dismiss them with a quiet chuckle. You have readyour _Tempest_, Captain Branscome? Well, I have no obedient Ariel toplay will-o'-the-wisp with such gentry; yet I would have led them avery pretty dance. But the ladies--the ladies, to be sure!We cannot expose them to dangers, nor even to alarms. We must usemore summary methods." He stood for a moment or two reflective,tapping his snuff-box. "Mr. Goodfellow is a carpenter, Iunderstand."

  "At your service, sir."

  Mr. Goodfellow's hand went halfway to his waistcoat pocket, as if toproduce his business card.

  "I seem to remember, Mr. Goodfellow that you carry a bag of tools inthe boat?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Including, no doubt, an auger, or, at any rate, a fair-sizedgimlet?"

  "Both, sir."

  "You will greatly oblige me, then, Mr. Goodfellow--always withCaptain Branscome's leave--by returning to the boat and fetching yourauger; if possible, without attracting the ladies' observation.With this instead of returning direct to us, you will make your wayto the left, towards the head of the beach, keeping well under therocks, which will serve you from landward. At the head of the beachyou will bring us into sight a pace or two before you come abreast ofthe boat. There, at a signal from me, you will creep down to theboat--on hands and knees, or on your stomach if you will--and bore methree small holes close alongside her keelson, using as muchexpedition as may consist with neatness. You understand? Then thequicker you set about it, the less will be the risk."

  Mr. Goodfellow touched his forelock, and sped on his errand.Dr. Beauregard seated himself on the rocks, and loosing the gun fromhis bandolier, laid it across his knees.

  "A simple job," he remarked. "Any one of us could do it as well asGoodfellow. But it is a practice of mine to take the smallest risksinto account; and if the honest fellow _should_ be detected, why, Iimagine he can be the most easily spared of the party."

  Mr. Goodfellow, however, reached the boat without misadventure.

  "Ah, he displays intelligence!" commented Dr. Beauregard, watchinghim as, before setting to work, he lifted the boat's gunwale andheaved her over on her other side, exposing the bilgepiece on whichshe had been resting. "Yes, decidedly, he displays intelligence."

  Mr. Goodfellow having stripped off his coat, picked up his auger andbored his three holes very neatly. This done be rubbed them overwith a handful of sand, and smoothed over with sand all traces ofsawdust, heaved the boat back, so that she rested again in heroriginal position; and retired, sweeping his coat behind him, andobliterating his footprints as he went.

  "Couldn't be bettered!" said Dr. Beauregard, smiling cheerfully andsmoothing his gun-barrel. "And now I think we may rejoin the ladiesand pray that these rascals will put off disturbing us until afterluncheon. At one time I feared they might have taken a panicyesterday morning at sight of your schooner; but they calculated,maybe, that the chances were all against your discovering theirpresence, which, of course, you never suspected."

  "I suspected something fast enough," said Captain Branscome, "for inrunning along the coast I caught sight of smoke rising among thehills--from a camp-fire, as I reckoned--and no doubt from here orhereabouts, though I should have put it a mile or two farther south."

  "The born fools!" said Dr. Beau-regard, laughing. "Well, it's evenpossible that in their furious preoccupation they let the schoonercome close without spying her. Ah, Captain, you can hardly imagine--you, fresh from a civilized country, where folks must keep upappearances, while they prey upon one another--how this lust of goldbrutalizes a man when, as here, he pursues it without restraint.And what, after all, will gold purchase?"

  "Not happiness, I verily believe," said the Captain, "though to thepoor--and I speak as one who has been bitterly poor--it may bringhappiness for a while in the shape of relief from grindingdiscomfort."

  "Yes, yes; as pleasure lies in mere cessation from pain. But thatdoes not meet my question. We will take Master Harry here, who seemsa good, ordinary healthy boy. We will suppose him in possession ofthe treasure you are here to seek. What in the end can he purchasewith it better than the fun he is getting out of this expedition?He can indulge all his senses, but for a while only; in the endindulgence brings satiety, dulls the appetite, takes the savour fromthe feast, and so destroys itself. He can purchase power, you say?But that again moves one difficulty but a step further. For whatwill his power give him when he has won it? These are questions,Captain, which I have asked myself daily here on this island.I have been asking them ever since, and while I was yet a young manthey came to wear for me a personal application. 'Vanity ofvanities,' Captain--what the Preacher discovered long ago Idiscovered again and of my own experience."

  "The Christian religion, sir--" began Captain Branscome. But hereour strange host laid a hand on his arm.

  "We forget our politeness," he interrupted, yet gently, and withoutsuspicion of offence. "We keep the ladies waiting."

  "Captain Branscome and I," said our host, as he seated himselfbeside Miss Belcher, and uncorked one of the green-sealed bottles,"have been talking platitudes, to which, however, our presentbusiness lends a certain fresh interest. You are here, manythousands of miles from home, on a hunt for treasure. Now, Heavenforbid that I should criticise your intentions, seeing thatincidentally I am in debt to them for this delightful picnic; butbefore I help you--as, believe me, I am disposed to help--may I askwhat you propose to do with this wealth when you get it?"

  "Why, sir," answered Miss Belcher, candidly, "we discussed that, youmay be sure, before starting. The bulk of it, after paying expenses,was to go to young Brooks, here. Circumstances had given him, as wesupposed--and for the matter of that, as we still believe--the clueto the treasure--"

  "Pardon me, ma'am, for interrupting you; but did that clue take theform of a map of the island?"

  "It did, sir."

  "A map with three red crosses upon it and some writing on the back?Nay, I will not press the question. Your faces answer it."

  "I ought to tell you, Dr. Beauregard, in justice to the boy, that hecame by it honestly, though in very tragic circ
umstances."

  "Again, ma'am, your faces would answer for the honesty of yourbusiness. As for the circumstances you speak of, it may save time ifI tell you that I know the whole story. Why, truly," he went on, aswe stared, "there is no mystery about it. I dare say, ma'am, the boyhas found an opportunity to whisper to you that he and I have metbefore. It was at Minden Cottage, in his father's garden, and by thevery spot where his father was murdered. He found me there takingmeasurements; for I had a theory about the crime--a theory of which Ineed only say here that, though right in the main, it missed certaindetails of which Harry's engaging conversation put me on the scent.I had read of the murder quite accidentally; but it happened that Iknew something of Coffin--enough to explain his fate--and of the manwho had murdered him. But of Major Brooks I knew nothing; and what Igathered by inquiry made the whole affair more and more puzzling.At length I hit on the explanation that Coffin--who had reasons, andstrong ones, for going in deadly terror of Aaron Glass--had in someway chosen this Major Brooks for his confessor, and journeyed toMinden Cottage to deposit the secret with him; and that Glass,following in pursuit, had surprised and murdered the both of them.The exact catena of the two crimes mattered less to me than thequestion: Had Glass possessed himself of the secret before makingoff? At first I saw no room to doubt it. But your young friend'saccount of himself sent me to Falmouth, and at Falmouth I began tohave my doubts. My earliest inquiries there were addressed to thepedagogue--the Reverend Something-or-other Stimcoe--a drunken idiot,who yielded no information at all; and to his wife, a lady whopersisted in regarding me as sent from heaven for no other purposethan to discharge her small debts. From her, again, I learnednothing. But from a talk with one of her pupils--his name was Bates,if I remember--I discovered that Master Harry had been a particularcrony of Coffin's, and this, of course, threw light on Coffin's visitto Minden Cottage. Still, there remained the question: Had Glassmanaged to lay hands on the chart, or had it found its way, afterall, into the possession of Master Harry Brooks? You'll excuse me,young sir"--Dr. Beauregard turned to me--"but during our talk in thegarden, your manner suggested to me that you had a card up yoursleeve. Well, whatever the answer, my obvious course was to returnto Mortallone and await it, as for fifteen years already I have beenawaiting it, though question and answer were but now beginning totake definite form. Here you are then at last, and here am I--_tout vient a point a qui sait attendre_."

  "Then our arrival, sir, did not altogether surprise you?" said MissBelcher.

  "On the contrary, ma'am--though for reasons you will not easilyguess--it surprised me as I have never been surprised in all my lifebefore; it confounded me, dumfounded me, made chaos of my plans,and--and--I am delighted to welcome you, ma'am! I desire to beallowed the honour of taking wine with you."

  "Willingly!" assented Miss Belcher, holding out her glass to bereplenished; "and the more so because I never drank better Rhone winein my life."

  Dr. Beauregard stood up and bowed, his fine features overspread witha flush of pleased astonishment.

  "Madam--" began Dr. Beauregard, and I have no doubt he had acompliment on his lips. But at that moment the hills and theamphitheatre of cliff behind us, rang out--rang out and echoed--withtwo terrible screams.