Poison Island
Page 31
CHAPTER XXXI.
AARON GLASS.
The second scream followed the first almost before we could lift ourfaces to the cliff. Dr. Beauregard had risen to his feet quickly,without fuss, and was unstrapping his gun. But Miss Belcher wasquicker. A couple of muskets lay on the sand close beside theluncheon-cloth, and in a trice she had snatched up one of them, andheld our host covered.
"You have deceived us, sir," she said quietly.
Dr. Beauregard looked along the barrel and into her eyes with anadmiring, half-quizzical smile.
"Good," said he. "Good, but unnecessary. That the island isinhabited I supposed you to know, since Captain Branscome tells me hereported catching sight of smoke yesterday when off the westerncoast; but the fellows--there are, or were, three of them, by theway--are no friends of mine."
"We have only your word for it," said Miss Belcher, without loweringher musket.
"True, ma'am," the Doctor assented, with a bow. "I am about to giveyou proof. But first of all oblige me by listening for anothermoment."
He held up his hand, and while we all listened I looked around fromface to face. Captain Branscome had unslipped his gun, and stoodeyeing the Doctor with a puzzled frown. Plinny stared up at thecliffs. She was white to the lips, but the lips were firmly set;whereas Mr. Goodfellow's jaw hung as though loosed from itstacklings.
So we waited for twenty seconds, maybe; but no third scream came downfrom the heights.
"That makes one accounted for," said Dr. Beauregard. "I have known,first and last, eleven parties who hunted treasure on this island.They all quarrelled. They quarrelled, moreover, every one of them,before getting their stuff--such as it was--to the boats. Now, ifyou will permit me to say so, your own success--when you obtain it--will be a fluke and an absurd fluke. It will stultify every rule ofprecaution and violate every law of chance. I have studied this gamefor close upon twenty years, and reduced it almost to mathematics;and I foresee that you will play--nay, you have already played--ninepins with my most certain conclusions. But you have asgentlefolks, with all the disabilities of gentlefolks, the one thingthat all these experts have fatally lacked. You have self-command."
"It appears to me that we need it, at any rate," said Miss Belcher,tartly, "if we are to be favoured just now with a lecture."
Dr. Beauregard smiled. "The purport of my lecture, ma'am, was toprepare you for a question which I have to put. When these menarrive, Captain Branscome, Mr. Goodfellow, and I must deal with them.Are you ladies prepared to exercise strong self-control? Will you,with Harry Brooks, await us here until our business is over?"
"Excuse me, sir, but I must first know what your business is."
"That, ma'am, will depend upon circumstances; but it is more thanlikely to be serious."
"I must trouble you, now and always, to speak to me definitely.If you propose to shoot these men, kindly say so."
"I do not, ma'am. But their boat lies on the next beach, and as soonas they launch her they will discover us; and as soon as theydiscover us it will be life for life."
"But they need not discover us. In five minutes we can embarkourselves and our belongings; in less than fifteen we can round thepoint to the south'ard, and beyond it lie two or three small coveswhere, as I judged in passing, a boat can lie reasonably safe fromobservation."
"Admirably reasoned, ma'am. By all means take the boat--take HarryBrooks with you, and Mr. Goodfellow for protection. But CaptainBranscome and I must stay and see it out with these men."
"For my part," put in Plinny, "I cannot see why these men have not asmuch right as we to the treasure; and, in any case, if we let them gothey leave us a clear coast to hunt for the rest."
"Captain Branscome"--Dr. Beauregard turned to him--"do these ladies,as a rule, assert a voice in your dispositions?"
"They do, sir," answered the Captain, with a tired smile; "and if youwill take my advice, the only way with them is to make a clean breastof everything."
"I will." The Doctor faced about, with a smile. "You must know then,ladies, that these two ruffians--for by this time there are twoonly--will presently be coming down to the next beach to launch theirboat and leave the island. How do I know this? Because my study oftreasure-hunters has given me a kind of instinct; or because, if youprefer it, I have observed that the moment--the crucial moment--whenthese fellows quarrel is always the moment when, having laid hands onas much as they can carry, they turn to retreat. You doubt mydiagnosis, ma'am?" he asked, turning to Miss Belcher. "Then I canconvince you even more simply. These men are not camping hereto-night; they will not return to-morrow to fetch a second load; andfor the sufficient reason that there is no second load. I know theamount of treasure hidden where they have been searching. Two mencan lift and carry it easily."
"How do you happen to know this?" asked Miss Belcher, eyeing him fromunder contracted brows.
"For the excellent reason, ma'am, that I put the treasure theremyself."
The answer, staggering to the rest of us, seemed to brace hertogether. She had lowered her musket at the beginning of thediscussion; but now, throwing up her head with a sharp jerk, shelevelled her eyes on Dr. Beauregard's, as straight as though theylooked along a gun-barrel.
"Then it can hardly be for the sake of the treasure, sir, that youpropose to deal with these men."
"It is not, ma'am."
"Nor solely to protect us from them, since you have brought us here,where we need never have come."
"No, ma'am. I brought you here because I cannot be in two places atonce, and it was necessary to keep both parties under my eye.Having brought you, I am bound to protect you; but my main businesshere, and yours--or at any rate Captain Branscome's--is to punish."
"To punish? But why to punish?"
Dr. Beauregard hesitated, with a glance at Plinny and at me, whostood beside her.
"A word in your ear, ma'am--if you will allow me?"
He stepped close to Miss Belcher, and spoke a sentence or two which Icould not catch. But my eyes were on her face, and I saw it changecolour. The next moment her square mouth shut like a trap.
"If that be so, I wait for him along with you," she announced."Oh, you may trust me, sir! I have a fairly strong stomach withcriminals, and no sentiment."
"It shall be as you please, ma'am. But, for the others, I wouldsuggest their taking the boat and awaiting us around the point.See, the tide has risen, and within five minutes she will float.Mr. Goodfellow, will you accompany Miss Plinlimmon and the boy?Wait, please, until completely afloat before pushing off; for ourfriends must be near at hand by this time, and the grating of herkeel might give them the alarm. For the same reason, ma'am, unlessyou have any particular question to ask, we had best start at once,and, when we have started, keep the strictest silence. Shall I leadthe way?"
They set off very cautiously, the Doctor leading, Miss Belcher closeat his heels. Captain Branscome a couple of paces behind her; gainedthe ridge, and passed out of sight around an angle of the rocks.Now, to be left in this fashion was not at all to my mind.It seemed to me that, when serious business was on hand, every oneconspired to treat me as a baby. I had told Captain Branscomeyesterday that I would not put up with it; and though I stood in fargreater awe of Dr. Beauregard than of the Captain, I felt none theless mutinous now. Plinny, who in moments of agitation invariablyhad recourse to some familiar work for a sedative, was on her kneesrepacking the luncheon-baskets. Her back was turned to me, and fromher I glanced towards Mr. Goodfellow, who had stepped down to theboat, and was leaning over the gunwale to rearrange the gear.From him I looked up the beach, to the ridge behind which the othershad disappeared, and to the creepers overhanging the cliff.Suddenly it came into my head that by gaining the upper end of theridge, where it met the cliff, I could wriggle under these creepers,and observe from behind them all that went on, as well on the nextbeach as on this. And with another glance at Plinny's back I tiptoedaway.
I moved as swiftly as I dared, making
no noise, nor looked behind meuntil I reached the rocks under the cliff--the path by which Mr.Goodfellow had crept round to scuttle the boat.
I calculated that by working my way along for fifty yards betweenthem and the rock-face I should gain an opening which, observed frombelow, had seemed to promise me an excellent view of the next beach.But they hung so heavily that I found myself struggling in an almostimpenetrable thicket; and when at length I gained the opening, anddrew breath, above the splash of waves on the beach I heard a soundwhich caused me to huddle back like a rabbit surprised in the mouthof its burrow.
Some three yards from my hiding the bank of low cliff bounding thebeach shelved upward and inland in a stretch of short turf, and fromthe head of this slope came the thud of footsteps--of heavy footstepsdescending closer and closer.
I drew back under the creepers, and held my breath. Between theirthick woven strands my eyes caught only, to the right, a twinkle ofthe sea; in front, a yard or two of white shingle glittering beyondthe green shade; and, five seconds later, this patch was blotted outas two men plunged past my spyhole. They walked abreast, and carrieda box between them. I could hear them panting, so closely theypassed.
They halted on the edge of the bank.
"The boat's all right," said one; and I heard him jump down upon theshingle. It seemed to me that I knew his voice. "Here, pass downthe blamed thing . . . d--n it all, man!"
"_I can't!_" whimpered the other. "S'help me, Bill, I can't. . . .I'm not used to it, and I ain't got the nerve."
"Nerve? An' you call yourself a seaman! An' a plucky lot youboasted the night we signed articles. . . . Nerve? Why, you was thevery man to find fault with him. 'Couldn't stand his temper anotherday,' you said; and must do something desprit. Those were your verywords."
"I know it. I didn't think--"
"Oh, to hell with your 'didn't think'! The man's dead, an' cryin'won't bring him back. Much you'd welcome him, if he _did_ comeback!"
"_Don't_, Bill!"
"Now, look you here, Jim Lucky! Stand you up, and help me get thislot in the boat, and the boat to sea. After that you can lie quietand cry yourself sick. . . . You'll be all right to-morrow, fit as afiddle. I've been in this business before, and seen how it takesmen, even the strongest. It's the sight o' blood; but the stomachgets accustomed. . . . By this day week you'll be lively as a flea ina rug, and lookin' forward to drivin' in your carriage-an'-pair.I promise you that; but what you've to do at this moment is to standup, and help me get down the boat. For if _he's_ anywhere on thisisland, God help the pair of us!"
"_He!_" quavered Jim Lucky.
"I shouldn't wonder."
"But you told me he was dead!"
"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. That was to keep your spirits up.But now I don't mind tellin' you that I'm not sure. He _ought_ tobe dead by this time; but 'tis a question if the likes of him everdie. He's own cousin to the devil, I tell you; and if he's anywherealive, like as not he's watching us at this moment."
Whatever this meant, it appeared to rouse Jim Lucky, and start him ina panic. I heard him sob as he helped to lower their burden upon thebeach. All this time they had been standing immediately beneath me,and I dared not lift my head for a look. But now, as they wentstaggering down the beach, I parted the creepers, and stared in theirwake. They carried a heavy sea-chest between them, but my eyes wereneither for the chest nor for Jim Lucky, but for his companion, theman he called Bill.
I knew him before I looked; and as I had recognized his voice, so nowI recognized his narrow, foxy head, and sloping shoulders.
It was Aaron Glass.
The two men carried the chest along at a rate that perhaps cameeasily enough to Jim Lucky, who was a young giant of a seaman, butwas astonishing for a thin, windlestraw of a man such as Glass.He ploughed his way across the sands like a demon, and had scarcelyset down the chest, a little above the water's edge, before he wastugging at the boat. I heard him call to Lucky to help, and the pairheave-y-hoe'd together as they strained at the gunwale to lift herand run her down.
From this ridge, as yet, came no sign.
Presently from the boat--they had pulled her down to the water, andwere both stooping over her with their shoulders well inside, busy inarranging her bottom board--I heard a fearful oath; an oath that rosein a scream, as the two men faced each other, scared, incredulous.
"_Scuttled, by God!_"
It was Glass who screamed it out, and with the sound of it a host ofsea-birds rose from the neighbouring rocks, whitening the sky.But Jim Lucky cast up both hands and ran.
"Stop, you fool! Stop!"
I think the poor creature had no notion whither he ran; that he wasmerely demented. But, in fact, he headed straight for the ridge,not turning his head. Twice Glass called after him; then, in asudden fury, whipped out a pistol and fired. For the moment Isupposed that he had missed, for the man ran for another six strideswithout seeming to falter, then his knees weakened, and he pitchedforward on his face.
I believe, on my word, that Glass had either fired in blind passionor with intent to stop the man rather than to kill him. He stood andstared; and, while the pistol yet smoked in his hand, I saw Dr.Beauregard step forth from his shelter, step delicately past thecorpse, and raise his musket; and heard his clear, resonant voicecall out--
"Both hands up, Mr. Glass, if you please!"