The House Under the Sea: A Romance

by Max Pemberton

sometimes."

  She held my hand again and touched it with her cheek. I think that Iforgot all the place about, the sea and the men, the distant shore andthe island's shape, the still night and the dawn to come; and knowingnothing save that Ruth, little Ruth, was by my side, I went intodreamland and said, "It shall be forever."

  _Monday. At six o'clock._

  I cannot sleep and I have come to keep watch on the rock. OldClair-de-Lune is with me, but silence is in the house below, where somesleep and some are seeking sleep. Of all who can discuss our futurebravely, none speaks better sense than this simple old man; and if herebukes my own confidence he rebukes it justly. I ask him when thesleep-time will pass and the sun-time come. He shakes his head, he willnot prophesy.

  "God forbid that it should pass," says he. "They will go ashore to theisland, and we--we perish," says he. "Pray that it shall not be,captain. We have food for three week--month; but what come after? Youpick up by ship, you say. But not so. When your ship come here thedevils set trap, and all is wreck and burn and steal! They take yourship and you perish, you starve. Ah, monsieur, pray that the sun-timedo not come."

  I lay back upon the rock and thought of it. This old man, surety, wasright. Let the fog drift from Ken's Island, the woods awake, life stiragain, and how stood we--where was our benefit?

  "It is a fearful position," said I, "and Heaven alone knows what theend of it will be. That something has happened to Mister Jacob and myship I can no longer doubt, Clair-de-Lune. The Southern Cross is on therocks, be sure of it, and good men with her. Take it that they arepicked up and set on the American coast. What then? Who finds the moneyfor another steamer? It is not to be thought of: we must dismiss itfrom our minds. You say that we have food for three weeks, and thecondensers down below will give us water. But it won't be three weeksbefore we are in or out of it, my friend. If we are starving, othersare starving--those out yonder by Czerny's yacht. He'll give them foodto-day; but how long will they drift like cattle for the rain to beaton? Your sense will tell you that they won't drift long, but will beasking questions and wanting their answers. Aye, Clair-de-Lune, we'lllisten with all our ears when that begins!"

  He had a glass with him and he began to scan the yacht very closely andthe ship's boats about it. I had not noticed that there was an unusualstir in the anchorage, but he remarked it now and drew his ownconclusions.

  "They give rogue man arms and cutlass, captain; he go overboard too. Isee them pass from boat to boat. Ah, there he is, the bread and thebiscuit. They get breakfast and then come here, captain. What else youlook for? They not lie there all the days. They too much devil forthat. We few and little; they big and strong. Why shall they not takethe house? Some die, but other mans remain. Czerny he say to them,'Great much price if you kill the English captain.' He know that allhis money is locked up down here. Why shall he not come, captain?"

  I could not tell him why. My own glasses showed me the things he mademention of and others beside. Arms, I saw, were being passed down fromthe yacht to the small boats clustered about it. There was no sunlightto glisten upon the bright barrels of the rifles, but I coulddistinguish them nevertheless; and cutlasses were handed from boat toboat--a good fifty of them I counted, and there were more to come. Whatthe meaning of it was a child might have told you. Truce prevailedbetween master and man in their common desire of possession. The lastgreat attack was to be made upon us--the rock to be rushed. Even awoman would have divined as much.

  "Clair-de-Lune," said I, "the end is coming at last; and it won't bevery long. We're dealing with a remarkable man, and it is not to besupposed that he'll sail away and leave us here without one good blowfor it. Aye, it's a great mind altogether, and there's the plain truth.Who else but the cleverest would have thought of this place, and comehere like a human vulture to feed upon ships and men? There have beenmany Edmond Czernys in the world; but this man I name chief among them,and others will name him also. We set ourselves against a hand in amillion; stiff backs we need to wrestle with that; but we'll do it, oldcomrade, we'll see it through yet!"

  It was a wild boast, yet, God knows, a well meant one. Perhaps, if hehad pushed me to the confession, I would have told him that I was farfrom believing my own prophecies, and that, in truth, I realized, as hedid, the perilous hazard of our position and all that defeat might meanto us. Just as he knew, so did I know that before the night came downdead men might lie on the rocks about me and be engulfed in that seawhich beat so gently upon the lonely shore; that living men from theboats yonder would swarm in the galleries below, and women's cries beheard, and something follow which even I dare not contemplate. Thedreadful truth, perhaps, kept our tongues away from it; we talked ofother things, of Czerny and his house, and of what we would do if thebest should befall.

  "He wonderful man," old Clair-de-Lune went on, standing, like some oldNeptune of the sea, bolt upright on the pinnacle of rock; "wonderfulman, and none like him! Thirteen year ago he first find this place, andthirteen year he wreck the ships. I know, for there was a day when hetell me much and I listen. He say, 'Make great fortune and no troubleto earn him. If sailor man drown, more fool he.' All the years back,hundreds of years, ships perish on Ken's Island. Czerny he hear thestory in Japan, and he come to see the place for himself. They say heonce sleep through the fog and mad afterwards. He no longer have rightor wrong or care about the world. He come to Ken's Island and growrich. Then his engineers find this rock. Once, long time ago, it havebeen part of the island, captain. The--what you say?--volocano, heshoot fire into the sea; but that was before the peoples. Czerny, he godown into the rock and he discover great cavern and little cavern, andhe say, 'I live here in the sleep-time.' Plenty of money make finehouse. He shut out the sea wherever he would come in; he build greatwindows in the rock; his _mecanicien_, he put up engine and draw airfrom the skies. Long year Czerny live here alone. Then one day comemadame--ah, captain, I was sorry when I saw madame come! 'She willsuffer here,' I said; she have suffered much already. Czerny is not asother men. If madame say to him, 'You good man; you and I live herealways,' then she have everything, she go where she will, she becomethe master. But I say when I see her, 'No, never she will not say that.She good woman.' And then I fear for her, captain; I fear greatly. Idid not know she have the English friend who will save her."

  He turned to me wistfully, and I read in his eyes of that deepaffection which little Ruth Bellenden has never failed to win from allwho know and learn to love her.

  _Monday. At three o'clock._

  We held a council of war in the great hall at this hour, and came upona plan to meet the supreme attack which must be made upon us tonight.We are all of one mind, that Czerny will seek to rush the house undercover of the darkness, and in this the sunless day must help him. Wecannot look for any moon or brightness of the stars which shall aid oureyes when the sun has set. It will be a dark night, cloudy and,perhaps, tempestuous. If the storm should break and nature be our ally,then the worst is done with already and the end is sure. But we have noright to hope for that. We must face the situation like thinking men,prepared for any eventuality.

  Now, I had slept a little at the height of the day, and the first newsthat they brought to me when I waked was of the surrender of the twothat remained in the caverns below, and of the fidelity of the otherfour of Czerny's men who already had joined us. So far as I can makeout there may be but one living man in the lower story of the house,and for him and his goodwill we care nothing.

  The rest of the crowd we fought, seeing, perhaps, that fortune goeswith us so far, will themselves stand on fortune's side and serve usfaithfully. That much, at least, I put to my fellows as we sat roundthe table in the hall and made those plans which reason dictated.

  "They'll serve," said I, "as long as we are on the winning side. We'llput them in the engine room, where they'll keep the fires going fortheir own sakes. If they so much as look false, then shoot them down.It is in my mind, Captain Nepeen," said I, "that we'll have need ofsuch a man as you, and three g
ood fellows with you, at the lesser gate.You should find cover on the rocks while we hold the near sea for you.If Czerny gets a foothold there and beats that door in, I need not tellyou how it will go with us. For the rest, I leave two men at thestairs-head and two in this hall to be at Miss Ruth's call. Peter Blighand Dolly Venn go up with me to work the gun. If they rush it--well,twenty there won't keep them back with rifles. But I count upon thecoward's part, and I say that a man will think twice about dying forsuch as Czerny and his ambitions. Let that be in all your minds, andremember--for God's sake remember--what you are fighting for."

  "For women's honour and good men's lives," said Captain