Chevalier orsomething, and could look a woman through and through. What money hehad was made, the Lord knows where, not out of fiddling, I'll be bound,for his was no music to set the tongue lilting. He'd been in thePacific a while, they say, and was a Jack-of-all-trades in America.That's how he came across these islands, you may imagine--slap in thesea-way to Yokohama as they are. There's been many a good ship ashoreon Ken's Island, lad, believe me, and there'll be many another. 'Tis nolikely place to bring a young wife to, and none but a madman would havedone it."
I told him all this just in a natural way, as one man speaking toanother of something which troubled his mind. Not that he made much ofit--how should he?--for there were a hundred things to look at, and hiseyes were here and there and everywhere; now up at the great blackrocks above us; now peering into a deep gorge, over which a littlewooden bridge carried us, just for all the world like a scaffold thrownfrom tree to tree of the wood. It was a rare picture, I admit, and whenwe came out of the thicket at last and saw the lower island spreadbefore us like a chart, with its fields of crimson flowers, itswaterfalls, its bits of pasture, and its blue seas beyond, a man mightwell have stood to tell himself that Nature never made a fairer place.For my part, I began to believe again that Edmond Czerny knew what hewas about when he built a house for Miss Ruth on such a spot; and I wasjust about to tell the lad as much when a man came running up the pathand, hailing us in a loud voice, asked us where the devil we were goingto--or something not more civil. And, at this, I brought to and lookedhim up and down and answered him as a seaman should.
"To the devil yourself," said I; "what's that to do with you, and whatmay your name happen to be?"
He was a big man, dressed in blue serge, with a peak cap and a seaman'sblouse. He had a long brown beard and a pock-marked face, and hecarried a spy-glass under his arm. He had come up from the grassyvalley below--and there I first saw the roof of a low bungalow, and thegardens about it. That was Ruth's home, I said, and this fellow was oneof Czerny's yacht hands.
"Not so fast, not so fast," cried he; "do you know that this is privateland, and you've no business ashore here?"
"Why," says I, "haven't we come ashore to see you, my beauty, anddoesn't the spectacle reward us? 'Bout ship," says I, "and have donewith it. My business is with your mistress, whom I knew before yourbrother was hanged at 'Frisco."
He swore a big oath at this, and, I do believe, was half of the mind totry which was the better man; but when he had looked down at thegardens of the bungalow, and a white figure was plainly to be seenthere, he seemed to think better of it, and changed his tone entirely.
"Avast," cries he, with a bit of a laugh, "you're one of the rightsort, and no mistaking that! And where would you be from, and whatwould you be wanting here?" he asks, grown civil as a bagman with a bitof ribbon to sell.
"Shipmate," says I, "if I'm one of the right sort, my port'sSouthampton and my flag's the ensign. Take me down to Mme. Czerny, whomI see among the flower-beds yonder, and you shall know enough about mein five minutes to bring the tears to your beautiful eyes. And come,"says I, chaffing him, "are there any girls in this bit of a paradise?If so," says I, "I should call 'em lucky when I look at you."
Well, he took it sourly enough, but I could see he was mighty curiousto hear more about me, and as we went down a winding path to thebungalow in the valley he put many questions to me, and I tried toanswer them civilly. Like all seamen he had no silent wits of his own,and every word he thought, that he must speak.
"The guv'nor's not here," he said; "gone to 'Frisco. Lucky for you, forhe don't like strangers. Aye," he goes on, "he's a wonderful man forhis own way; to be sure he is. You'll be aboard and away before sunset,or you might see him. Take my advice and put about. The shore'sunwholesome," says he.
"By the looks of you," says I, "you've nothing more than jaundice, andthat I can put up with. As for your guv'nor, I remember him well whenhe and I did the light fandango together in European ports. He wasalways a wonder with the fiddle. My mistress could lead him like apug-dog. I don't doubt she's a bit of a hand at it still."
Now, this set him thinking, and he put two and two together, I suppose,and knew pretty well who I was.
"You'll be Jasper Begg that sailed the lady's yacht Manhattan?" sayshe. "Well, I've heard of you often, and from her own lips. She'll bepleased to see you, right enough--though what the guv'nor might say isanother matter. You see," he went on, "this same island is a paradise,sure as thunder; but it's lonely for women-kind, and your mistress, shedon't take to it kindly. Not that she's complaining, or anything ofthat sort. A lady who has rings for her fingers and bells for her toes,and all real precious, same as any duchess might wear, she don'tcomplain long. Why, my guv'nor could make his very teeth out of diamondsand not miss 'em, come to that! But his missus is always plaguing himto take her to Europe, and that game. As if he don't want a wife in hisown home, and not in another man's, which is sense, Mister Begg, thoughit is spoke by a plain seaman."
I said, "Aye, aye," and held my tongue, knowing that he would go onwith it. We were almost down at the house now, and the cliffs stoodlike a great cloud of solid rock, above which a loom of smoke wasfloating. Dolly walked at my heels like a patient dog. My own feelingsare not for me to tell. I was going to see Ruth Bellenden again. Why,she was there in yonder garden, and nothing between us but this greathulking yellow boy, who took to buttonholing me as a parson buttonholeshis churchwarden when he wants a new grate in his drawing-room.
"Now," says he, standing before me as one who had half a mind to blockthe road, "you be advised by me, Mister Begg, and cut this job short.Don't you be listening to a woman's parley, for it's all nonsense. I'vedone wrong to let you ashore, perhaps--perhaps I haven't; but, ashoreor afloat, it's my business to see that the guv'nor's orders is carriedout, and carried out they will be, one man or twenty agen 'em. Do youtake a plain word or do you not, Mister Begg?"
"I take whatever's going, and don't trouble about the sugar," says I;and then, putting him aside, I lifted the latch of the garden gate, andwent in and saw Miss Ruth.
CHAPTER III
IN WHICH JASPER BEGG MAKES UP HIS MIND WHAT TO DO
Now, she was sitting in the garden, in a kind of arbour built ofleaves, and near by her was her relative, the rats'-tailed old lady weused to call Aunt Rachel. The pair didn't see me as I passed in, but aChinese servant gave "Good-day" to the yellow man we'd picked up comingdown; and, at that, Miss Ruth--for so I call her, not being able to getMme. Czerny into my head--Miss Ruth, I say, stood up, and, the colourtumbling into her cheeks like the tide into an empty pool, she stoodfor all the world as though she were struck dumb and unable to say aword to any man. I, meanwhile, fingered my hat and looked foolish; forit was an odd kind of job to have come twelve thousand miles upon, andwhat to say to her with the hulking seaman at my elbow, the Lordforgive me if I knew.
"Miss Ruth," says I at last, "I'm here according to orders, and theship's here, and we're waiting for you to go aboard----"
Well, she seemed to hear me like one who did not catch the meaning ofit. I saw her put her hand to her throat as though something werechoking her, and the old lady, the one we called Aunt Rachel, cried,"God bless me," two or three times together. But the yellow man was thenext to speak, and he crossed right over to our Miss Ruth's side, andtalked in her ear in a voice you could have heard up at the hills.
"You'll not be going aboard to-day, lady. Why, what would the masterhave to say, he coming home from foreign parts and you not ashore tomeet him? You didn't say nothing about any ship, not as I can remember,and mighty pleased the guv'nor will be when he knows about it. Shall Itell this party he'd better be getting aboard again, eh, ma'am? Don'tyou think as he'd better be getting aboard again?"
He shouted this out for all the world like a man hailing from one shipto another. I don't know what put it into my head, but I knew from thatmoment that my mistress was afraid, aye, deadly afraid, as it is givenfew to fear in this life. Not that she spoke of it, or showed it by
anysign a stranger might have understood; but there was a look in her eyeswhich was clear to me; "and by my last word," said I to myself, "I'llknow the truth this day, though there be one or a hundred yellow boys!"None the less, I held my tongue as a wise man should, and what I saidwas spoken to the party with the beard.
"You've a nice soft voice for a nightingale, that you have," says I;"if you'd let yourself
The House Under the Sea: A Romance Page 4