pushing his headinside, and hanging up his lantern on the ridge-pole nail. "I justlooked in for a smoke. I suppose--"
He glanced round, caught the eye of Dr. Silence, and stopped. He put hispipe back into his pocket and began to hum softly--that underbreathhumming of a nondescript melody I knew so well and had come to hate.
Dr. Silence leaned forward, opened the lantern and blew the light out."Speak low," he said, "and don't strike matches. Listen for sounds andmovements about the Camp, and be ready to follow me at a moment'snotice." There was light enough to distinguish our faces easily, and Isaw Maloney glance again hurriedly at both of us.
"Is the Camp asleep?" the doctor asked presently, whispering.
"Sangree is," replied the clergyman, in a voice equally low. "I can'tanswer for the women; I think they're sitting up."
"That's for the best." And then he added: "I wish the fog would thin abit and let the moon through; later--we may want it."
"It is lifting now, I think," Maloney whispered back. "It's over thetops of the trees already."
I cannot say what it was in this commonplace exchange of remarks thatthrilled. Probably Maloney's swift acquiescence in the doctor's mood hadsomething to do with it; for his quick obedience certainly impressed mea good deal. But, even without that slight evidence, it was clear thateach recognised the gravity of the occasion, and understood that sleepwas impossible and sentry duty was the order of the night.
"Report to me," repeated John Silence once again, "the least sound, anddo nothing precipitately."
He shifted across to the mouth of the tent and raised the flap,fastening it against the pole so that he could see out. Maloney stoppedhumming and began to force the breath through his teeth with a kind offaint hissing, treating us to a medley of church hymns and popular songsof the day.
Then the tent trembled as though some one had touched it.
"That's the wind rising," whispered the clergyman, and pulled the flapopen as far as it would go. A waft of cold damp air entered and made usshiver, and with it came a sound of the sea as the first wave washed itsway softly along the shores.
"It's got round to the north," he added, and following his voice came along-drawn whisper that rose from the whole island as the trees sentforth a sighing response. "The fog'll move a bit now. I can make out alane across the sea already."
"Hush!" said Dr. Silence, for Maloney's voice had risen above a whisper,and we settled down again to another long period of watching andwaiting, broken only by the occasional rubbing of shoulders against thecanvas as we shifted our positions, and the increasing noise of waves onthe outer coast-line of the island. And over all whirred the murmur ofwind sweeping the tops of the trees like a great harp, and the fainttapping on the tent as drops fell from the branches with a sharp pingingsound.
We had sat for something over an hour in this way, and Maloney and Iwere finding it increasingly hard to keep awake, when suddenly Dr.Silence rose to his feet and peered out. The next minute he was gone.
Relieved of the dominating presence, the clergyman thrust his face closeinto mine. "I don't much care for this waiting game," he whispered, "butSilence wouldn't hear of my sitting up with the others; he said it wouldprevent anything happening if I did."
"He knows," I answered shortly.
"No doubt in the world about that," he whispered back; "it's this'Double' business, as he calls it, or else it's obsession as the Bibledescribes it. But it's bad, whichever it is, and I've got my Winchesteroutside ready cocked, and I brought this too." He shoved a pocket Bibleunder my nose. At one time in his life it had been his inseparablecompanion.
"One's useless and the other's dangerous," I replied under my breath,conscious of a keen desire to laugh, and leaving him to choose. "Safetylies in following our leader--"
"I'm not thinking of myself," he interrupted sharply; "only, if anythinghappens to Joan to-night I'm going to shoot first--and pray afterwards!"
Maloney put the book back into his hip-pocket, and peered out of thedoorway. "What is he up to now, in the devil's name, I wonder!" headded; "going round Sangree's tent and making gestures. How weird helooks disappearing in and out of the fog."
"Just trust him and wait," I said quickly, for the doctor was already onhis way back. "Remember, he has the knowledge, and knows what he'sabout. I've been with him through worse cases than this."
Maloney moved back as Dr. Silence darkened the doorway and stooped toenter.
"His sleep is very deep," he whispered, seating himself by the dooragain. "He's in a cataleptic condition, and the Double may be releasedany minute now. But I've taken steps to imprison it in the tent, and itcan't get out till I permit it. Be on the watch for signs of movement."Then he looked hard at Maloney. "But no violence, or shooting, remember,Mr. Maloney, unless you want a murder on your hands. Anything done tothe Double acts by repercussion upon the physical body. You had bettertake out the cartridges at once."
His voice was stern. The clergyman went out, and I heard him emptyingthe magazine of his rifle. When he returned he sat nearer the door thanbefore, and from that moment until we left the tent he never once tookhis eyes from the figure of Dr. Silence, silhouetted there against skyand canvas.
And, meanwhile, the wind came steadily over the sea and opened the mistinto lanes and clearings, driving it about like a living thing.
It must have been well after midnight when a low booming sound drew myattention; but at first the sense of hearing was so strained that it wasimpossible exactly to locate it, and I imagined it was the thunder ofbig guns far out at sea carried to us by the rising wind. Then Maloney,catching hold of my arm and leaning forward, somehow brought the truerelation, and I realised the next second that it was only a few feetaway.
"Sangree's tent," he exclaimed in a loud and startled whisper.
I craned my head round the corner, but at first the effect of the fogwas so confusing that every patch of white driving about before the windlooked like a moving tent and it was some seconds before I discoveredthe one patch that held steady. Then I saw that it was shaking all over,and the sides, flapping as much as the tightness of the ropes allowed,were the cause of the booming sound we had heard. Something alive wastearing frantically about inside, banging against the stretched canvasin a way that made me think of a great moth dashing against the wallsand ceiling of a room. The tent bulged and rocked.
"It's trying to get out, by Jupiter!" muttered the clergyman, rising tohis feet and turning to the side where the unloaded rifle lay. I sprangup too, hardly knowing what purpose was in my mind, but anxious to beprepared for anything. John Silence, however, was before us both, andhis figure slipped past and blocked the doorway of the tent. And therewas some quality in his voice next minute when he began to speak thatbrought our minds instantly to a state of calm obedience.
"First--the women's tent," he said low, looking sharply at Maloney, "andif I need your help, I'll call."
The clergyman needed no second bidding. He dived past me and was out ina moment. He was labouring evidently under intense excitement. I watchedhim picking his way silently over the slippery ground, giving the movingtent a wide berth, and presently disappearing among the floating shapesof fog.
Dr. Silence turned to me. "You heard those footsteps about half an hourago?" he asked significantly.
"I heard nothing."
"They were extraordinarily soft--almost the soundless tread of a wildcreature. But now, follow me closely," he added, "for we must waste notime if I am to save this poor man from his affliction and lead hiswerewolf Double to its rest. And, unless I am much mistaken"--hepeered at me through the darkness, whispering with the utmostdistinctness--"Joan and Sangree are absolutely made for one another. AndI think she knows it too--just as well as he does."
My head swam a little as I listened, but at the same time somethingcleared in my brain and I saw that he was right. Yet it was all so weirdand incredible, so remote from the commonplace facts of life ascommonplace people know them; and more than once it flashed upon me t
hatthe whole scene--people, words, tents, and all the rest of it--weredelusions created by the intense excitement of my own mind somehow, andthat suddenly the sea-fog would clear off and the world become normalagain.
The cold air from the sea stung our cheeks sharply as we left the closeatmosphere of the little crowded tent. The sighing of the trees, thewaves breaking below on the rocks, and the lines and patches of mistdriving about us seemed to create the momentary illusion that the wholeisland had broken loose and was floating out to sea like a mighty raft.
The doctor moved just ahead of
Three More John Silence Stories Page 20