Collected works of j s f.., p.604
Collected Works of J S Fletcher, page 604
One by one I carefully examined these images. They were fashioned of some sort of stuff the like of which I had never seen: I could not make out if it was stone, or marble, or an artificial product. It seemed softish to the touch; anyway, you could scrape it with your finger-nail, indenting it easily. One figure — that which Pepita had found — was broken in jagged fashion, as if from a fall; the other appeared to me to have been deliberately broken, or cut — I fancied I could detect the marks of a knife-blade. But in each there was a similar and curious feature. Each contained a hollow space, rounded and smoothed, big enough in both cases to hold something as big, say, as a blackbird’s egg. But if there had been anything in these hollows a careful search in the grass and weeds round about failed to reveal it to us.
This puzzled me even more than the throwing away of the Kang-he vase. But I refrained from saying anything of my amazement and my speculations to Pepita. Instead, I carefully put together the pieces of the vase and the broken halves of the idols, wrapped them all up in the shavings, bundled the lot into the old bag, and hid that behind a clump of thick ivy at the foot of the wall.
“That’s safe enough!” said I. “We shall know where to find it, if need be, in days to come. And now let’s see about that other matter — the boat, if there is one. But of course there is, and we must try to — —”
I came to a dead stop there, and as my tongue checked itself, Pepita gave a sharp, startled cry and made a grasp at my left arm. Instinctively, my right hand shot into my side pocket and drew the automatic pistol which I had taken from Getch’s dead body. Hand and pistol rose in the air — there, right before us, between us and the wood, stood a man who carried a shot-gun in the crook of his elbow.
He was a medium-sized, stoutly-built, brown-skinned, brown-bearded man, a seafaring man every bit of him, in sea-going garments and sea-boots — a middle-aged man, amiable of expression, and in spite of my threatening attitude, mild of eye. He stared as I raised my pistol, shook his head, and smiled faintly.
“No need for that, young master!” he said quickly. “No harm intended to anybody — by me, anyhow. See!”
He dropped his shot-gun to the grass at his side as he spoke, and moved away from within reach of it as if wishing to prove the truth of his word by corroborative action. And again he smiled.
“What’s it all about?” he asked. “Seems to me there’s strange things afoot, on this here island! Have a care with that gun o’ yours, young man! — they’re ticklish things to play with!”
I dropped the automatic pistol into my pocket, and drew a deep breath — I think of intense relief.
“Strange things!” I exclaimed. “I should think there are strange things! — stranger than you’d think. You’re from that steamer, on the south side, aren’t you? Will you tell me — this girl and I are all alone here — what you came ashore for?”
Staring steadily first at Pepita and then at me, he slowly took a pipe and tobacco pouch from his pockets and leisurely filled the one from the other. He took his time, too, about applying a match to the tobacco, and it was not until he had it in full blast and had blown out a blue cloud of it that he spoke.
“Ah, just so!” he answered. “And what might you be a-doing of, yourselves, now? For I’ll swear you didn’t come here on no picnic party!”
I hesitated. But not for long — something told me that whoever he was, and whatever his trade, he was a man you could speak to with candour.
“I’ll tell you!” I replied suddenly. “We were kidnapped!”
He showed no surprise. Instead, he nodded two or three times, as a man nods who has just heard something that he expected to hear. “From the mainland?” he asked, abruptly.
“If you want to know, from a house called the Shooting Star, at Wreddlesham,” I replied, watching him narrowly. “That is on the mainland.”
Again he nodded — with still more evidence of comprehension.
“Aye!” he said quietly. “Just so! Then I expect you poked your nose — or maybe fell accidental — into a situation where your presence wasn’t desirable? — just so!”
“That’s about it,” I answered. “All the same — —”
“Carried off so that you couldn’t split, eh?” he interrupted, with a grin. “To be sure! I see! And from the Shooting Star? Then you’ll know Getch?”
I gave him a look which had a meaning in it that he didn’t take.
“Yes!” I said.
“And may be you’ll know a friend — sort of partner of his — called Krevin?” he went on. “A fat man?”
“I know him!” I replied.
“Do you know where they are now?” he inquired. “I make it that Getch carried you out here, and I’ve no doubt Krevin was with him. Now where is Getch?”
I heard Pepita catch her breath at my side, and I pressed the arm which she had slipped through mine when the stranger appeared.
“I’ll tell you!” I answered. “He’s on the beach, about thirty or forty yards away, down there, the other side of those ruins — dead!”
Not the slightest sign of surprise came from him: he only looked at me a little more closely, and repeated my last word, inquiringly. “Dead?”
“Knifed!” I replied. “It must have been during last night. I found him this morning. Cold, then.”
He continued to look at me for a minute or so; then he nodded.
“Aye!” he said, ruminatively. “Just so! Well, as regards Getch, now, it’s the kind of news that them who knew him would never be surprised — Getch being the sort of man he was — to be hearing ‘most any time. Dead? — um! But Krevin? Where’s he? For I reckon he’d be with you.”
“I don’t know where he is,” I said. “He was in that tower this morning: we left him there. He sent us out to look for a brown man that’s got on the island somehow and that’s after him!”
“After him?” he said. “A brown man?”
“A Hindu,” I answered. “It may have been he that killed Getch — I don’t know. Anyway, Krevin’s made off from that tower, and I believe the Hindu chap’s stalking him. I thought Krevin was down on the south shore somewhere — I heard what I believed to be a shot from his pistol down there, some time ago.”
“We heard that, aboard our vessel,” he remarked. “And we came off. But we’ve heard nothing, and seen nothing.”
“I think he’s hiding in some hole or other, and the Hindu’s spotted him and is watching him,” I said. “The Hindu went down that way. I watched him go across the heather — he’s a patch of bright scarlet in his turban and he was easy to trace by that.”
“What’s this Hindu fellow after Krevin for?” he inquired. “And why should he kill Getch?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “It’s all part of a mass of mystery! What I know is that Krevin wants to get away from here, and that he told me Getch had arranged for a vessel to put in here to take him off. That’ll be yours, I suppose?”
He made no answer to this. For awhile he seemed to be thinking deeply. Suddenly he looked from one to the other of us.
“Where might you young people belong to, when you’re at home?” he asked. “Somewheres on the mainland, these parts?”
“Middlebourne — right opposite this island,” I answered. “Do you know it?”
“Never been there in my life!” he said. “But I’ve heard of it. In the newspapers, of late, though I haven’t seen one of ’em for some days. ’Twas there they found a man — Sol Cousins by name — tied up to an old gibbet-post, wasn’t it?”
“Yes!” I assented.
“Think that had anything to do with all this?” he asked, meaningly. “All this Hindu chap business, and Getch being knifed, and you kidnapped, and so on — what?”
“I should say it’s everything to do with it,” I replied. “All of a piece!”
He ruminated a little over that, and then moved towards his shotgun, as if he meant to pick it up.
“Well, I ain’t a-going to get myself mixed up in things o’ that sort, young master,” he said. “I put in to this here island in consequence of a letter what I got from Getch at a certain port I was in, down Channel, a-purpose to give a passage to Krevin, and maybe to Getch. And as Getch is dead, and Krevin’s having a brown-faced man a-hunting of him, I shall just go my ways! I can stand a good deal, but being a plain man I dislikes mysteries, and I can’t abide murder!”
“You won’t leave this girl and me to be murdered, will you?” I exclaimed. “Come, now!”
He stopped on the instant.
“Do you think there’s the danger of it?” he asked. “Honest?”
“I think there’s great danger of it — or, at any rate, of other trouble,” I answered. “Just see how we’re situated! Nobody ever comes to this island — —”
“I know that, well enough!” he murmured. “You’re right there.”
“Our friends don’t seem to have the least notion that we’re here,” I continued. “We’re utterly defenceless — —”
“Not with that gun of yours!” he interrupted.
“I might be caught unawares,” I said. “And, anyway, we’ve no food. Getch and Krevin brought food and liquor with us to the tower, but either Krevin or the Hindu set fire to the stores this afternoon and everything’s burnt. We’re absolutely helpless! Look here! — can’t you take us off in your steamer? Look at this girl! — just think — —”
He looked at Pepita. And Pepita looked at him. She did more — she held out her hands and turned on the full battery of her dark eyes.
“Do, please, take us away!” she said in her most enticing tones. “Please!”
I could see that he was touched. He nodded at her — appreciatively.
“Aye, aye, missie!” he said. “Just so, to be sure! And I ain’t unwilling — I’m a soft-hearted man, I am, and always had that nature, and oft suffered from it. But the thing is — how to do it?”
“How?” I exclaimed. “Why, there can’t be any difficulty about that! Couldn’t you take us off and put us ashore at Kingshaven — —”
He gave me a look which indicated a lot.
“No, I couldn’t!” he said, promptly. “Not by no means!”
“Well, any port along Channel — either way,” I suggested.
“Not at present,” he answered. “Not — convenient!”
But I was not going to give up.
“Well, couldn’t you take us — whichever way you like, east or west — and put us off in a boat, on the coast somewhere?” I pleaded.
“We’d make our way home — never fear!”
“Do!” urged Pepita. “Please!”
He took off his cap and scratched his head for awhile. Then he put his cap on again.
“You see!” he said. “There’s my mates! I’m nominally skipper — but it’s a partnership affair. And we’re on a special voyage — not to these parts at all. And I don’t suppose you young people carry money — and you couldn’t very well send money when you got to your friends, because circumstances is such that I couldn’t give you any address, d’ye see? — and, well, my mates — not me, ‘cause, as I say, I’m soft-hearted, uncommon — —”
A sudden notion shot into my brain — an inspiration. With a whispered word of re-assurance to her, I slipped Pepita’s hand out of my arm, and motioning the soft-hearted one to follow me, walked to the end of the moat.
“Look here!” I whispered to him. “Not a word to my young lady, but I’ll tell you something, to be kept a dead secret between you and me — for ever! I found Getch’s body, and I covered it with sea-weed and laid stones on that — you’ll find it if you go straight down there on to the shore; it’s in a corner of some tall black rocks. And Getch’s pockets are full of gold! Sovereigns, you understand? There must be a couple of hundred pounds’ worth, I should think. So is it a bargain, and a secret?”
“Not another word, young master!” he murmured. “I take your meaning! Right! — straight ahead, is it?”
He went quickly away towards the shore, and with a signal to Pepita to stay where she was, I waited for him. He came back within ten minutes, and as he drew near me, he gave me a highly satisfied nod, and slapped various parts of his garments.
“That’s all right, master!” he said quietly. “Now you come along of me!”
CHAPTER XXI. I HEAR STRANGE THINGS
WE WENT WILLINGLY with this man. There was something about him — his quiet smile, the slightly humorous twinkle of his eye, a certain knowingness in his manner — that inspired confidence in both of us; we felt sure that he spoke truth when he declared himself to be soft-hearted. Moreover, as for myself, I felt that he and I were now sharers in a deed, and joint-keepers of a secret, for I had helped him to appropriate the gold in Getch’s pockets. I suppose it was a very wrong thing to do! — but I have never experienced any prick of conscience about it, up to now, and I don’t believe I ever shall! I had Pepita to think of, and our new friend had hinted that his partners would wish to be remembered; in plain words, to be squared — and there was the money, by which, no doubt, Getch himself had not come over honestly, and it was far better to benefit living folk by it than to leave it there with the dead. And I was truly thankful that I had thought of it as a means of salvation — now, we should get away from the island.
But when we had crossed the covert and faced the open moorland which lay between its edge and the south shore, I had a sudden pang of fear, that made me turn quickly to our companion.
“I say!” I exclaimed. “Supposing — supposing we meet Krevin?”
I had not told our friend that Krevin was my kinsman, and I wasn’t going to tell him — I saw no need: I preferred to leave that matter alone. He nodded, as if he understood what I was after.
“Aye, just so!” he responded. “Exactly! but I’d thought of that. Likely to be somewheres about, down this part, you think?”
“Somewhere,” said I. “And, according to what he told me, he’s expecting you to take him off. What if he meets us, down here?”
“He’ll be disappointed!” he answered, quietly. “I ain’t going to have any truck with Krevin — after what I’ve learnt — and seen, especially seen. Business — such as I might have done — and expected to do — with him and Getch, is one thing, but murder and the like o’ that is another. I ain’t going to have no Krevin’s aboard my ship — now! What I’ve promised to do, young master, I will do! — and that’s to put you and the young lady ashore on the mainland, safe and sound. And look here!” he continued, as we came to a rise in the undulating surface of the moor, from which there was a wide prospect of the Channel and of the mainland. “We’d best to take an observation from this bit of a height and consider where the likeliest place would be. You’ll understand that I don’t want to go near no ports, nor nowhere where there’s much sea-trade, or — coastguardsmen?”
“What do you propose, then?” I asked. “It’s for you to say.”
“What I propose is this here,” he replied. “We’ll steam out into the Channel and cruise about a bit — anywheres — up or down — east or west — till after night falls. Then we’ll run in to some convenient point, and we’ll land you and missie in a boat. But what point? You’ll be knowing this coast?”
“Every inch of it!” said I. “From beyond Wreddlesham to Kingshaven.”
I motioned him to turn northward, and stretched a hand towards the west. “Do you see that point running into the sea across there?” I asked. “And the bit of a village half-way along it? That’s Summerstead — three miles from our own village. If you could put us ashore there — —”
“How near could we get in?” he asked. “Do you know the channels?”
“Yes, well enough!” said I. “I can pilot you in — to within half-a-mile of the beach. Deep water!”
“Then that’s settled!” he agreed. “Summerstead Point it is — after dusk. And you’ll be within three miles of your house? How’ll you manage that?”
“We can get a horse and trap at Summerstead,” I answered. “And even if we couldn’t, we could walk! — anything to get on the mainland!”
“You’ll be there, right enough,” he observed, reassuringly. “And now let’s see if my mates have heard or seen anything of Krevin.”
We went down to the south beach and to the boat. One of its guardians was fast asleep; the other was smoking his pipe. He had neither seen anybody nor heard anybody; he stared at Pepita and myself with considerable curiosity; so, too, did the sleeper, when awakened. And our man took both aside and began a whispered conversation with them: I made a pretty good guess at its subject.
“Do you think we shall be safe with these men, Ben?” asked Pepita. “I don’t mean with the man we’ve come along with, but the others?”
I knew what she meant. The other two were decidedly picturesque — and just as decidedly unprepossessing. They would have been vastly improved by some acquaintance with soap and water and a visit to a barber — in each case the hair and beard had not been cut or trimmed for a long time. As to their garb, they looked as if they had been left on a reef or rock in mid-ocean for many months, without needle or thread: still, I scarcely shared in Pepita’s whispered opinion that they looked like pirates.
“More like castaways, I think,” I murmured. “Anyway, we must take our chance. If only we can get ashore on the mainland — —”
The three men came towards us; our friend motioning us into the boat, and the others making ready to put off to the steamer.
“That’s all right!” the first man whispered to me as he followed us and took the tiller. “Good notion, that of yours, telling me about that little matter that lay in Getch’s pockets! — there’s a deal of persuasion in a bit of money, young master, and ’twas lucky for you that Getch left home with his pockets well lined. And don’t you or the young lady have any fear! — you’ll be well done to aboard my ship.”
