CHAPTER XXI
MAROONED
To each of these three young people this was the most surprising momentwhich life had yet afforded. It was an astonishing thing to find a fellowmortal there at all, but to find that mortal was the Scarhaven estateagent was literally short of marvellous. What was also astounding was tosee Chatfield's only too evident distress. Swathed in a heavy,old-fashioned ulster, with a plaid shawl round his shoulders and adeerstalker hat tied over head and ears with a bandanna handkerchief hesat on the beach nursing his knees, slightly rocking his fleshy figure toand fro and moaning softly with the regularity of a minute bell. His eyeswere fixed on the dark expanse of waters at his feet; his lips, when hewas not moaning, worked incessantly; as he rocked his body he beat histoes on the shingle. Clearly, Chatfield was in a bad way, mentally. Thathe was not so badly off materially was made evident by the presence of ahalf-open kit bag which obviously contained food and a bottle of spirits.
For any notice that he took of them, Audrey, Vickers, and Copplestonemight have been no more than the pebbles on which they stood. In spite ofthe fact that Vickers shone the light on his fat face, and that threeinquisitive pairs of eyes were trained on it, Chatfield continued tostare moodily and disgustedly out to sea and to take no notice of hisgratuitous company. And so utterly extraordinary was his behaviour andattitude that Audrey suddenly and almost involuntarily stepped forwardand laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Mr. Chatfield!" she exclaimed. "What 's the matter? Are you ill?"
The emphasis which she gave to the last word roused some quality ofChatfield's subtle intellect. He flashed a swift look at hisquestioner--a look of mingled contempt and derision, spiced with a dashof sneering humour. And he found his tongue.
"Ill!" he snorted. "Ill! She asks if I'm ill--me, a respectable manwhat's maltreated and robbed before his own eyes by them as ought to fallin humble gratitude at his feet! Ill!--aye, ill with something that'sworse nor any bodily aches and pains--let me tell you that! But not donefor, neither!"
"He's all right," said Copplestone. "That's a flash of his old spirit.You're all right, Chatfield, aren't you? And who's robbed and maltreatedyou--and how and when--especially when--did you come here?"
Chatfield looked up at his old assailant with a glare of dislike.
"You keep your tongue to yourself, young feller!" he growled. "Ishouldn't never ha' been here at all if it hadn't been for the likes ofyou--a pokin' your nose where it isn't wanted. It's 'cause o' you threecomin' aboard o' that there yacht last night as I am here--a castaway!"
"Well, we're castaways, too, Mr. Chatfield," said Audrey. "And we can'thelp believing that it's all your naughty conduct that's made us so. Whydon't you tell the truth?"
Chatfield uttered a few grumpy and inarticulate sounds.
"It'll be a bad day for more than one when I do that--as I will," hemuttered presently. "Oh aye, I 'll tell the truth--when it suits me! ButI'll be out o' this first."
"You'll never get out of this first or last, until you tell us how yougot in," said Vickers, assuming a threatening tone. "You'd better tell usall about it, you know. Come now!--you know me and my firm."
Chatfield laughed grimly and shook his much-swathed head.
"I ought to," he said. "I've given 'em more than one nice job and saidnaught about their bills o' costs, neither, my lad. You keep a civiltongue in your mouth--I ain't done for yet, noways! You let me get offthis here place, wherever it is, and within touch of a telegraph office,and I'll make somebody suffer!"
"Andrius, of course," said Copplestone. "Come now, he put you ashorebefore he sent us off, didn't he? Why don't you own up?"
"Never you mind, young feller," retorted Chatfield. "I was feeling verycast down, but I'm better. I've something that'll keep me going--revenge!I'll show 'em, once I'm off this place--I will so!"
"Look here, Chatfield," said Vickers. "Do you know where this place is?What is it? Is it on the mainland, or is it an island, or where are we?It's all very well talking about getting off, but when and how are we toget off? Why don't you be sensible and tell us what you know?"
The estate agent arose slowly and ponderously, drawing his shawl abouthim. He looked out seawards. In that black waste the steady beat of theyacht's propellers could be clearly heard, but not a gleam of light camefrom her, and it was impossible to decide in which direction she wasgoing. And Chatfield suddenly shook his fist at the throbbing sound whichcame in regular pulsations through the night.
"Never mind!" he said sneeringly. "We aren't at the North Poleneither--I ain't a seafaring man, but I've a good idea of where we are!And perhaps there won't be naught to take me off when it's daylight, andperhaps there won't be no telegraphs near at hand, nor within a hundredmiles, and perhaps there ain't such a blessed person as that thereMarconi and his wireless in the world--oh, no! Just you wait, my finefellers--that's all!"
"He's not addressing us, Vickers," said Copplestone. "You're decidedlybetter, Chatfield--you're quite better. The notion of revenge and ofcircumvention has come to you like balm. But you'd a lot better tell uswho you're referring to, and why you were put ashore. Listen,Chatfield!--there's property of your own on that yacht, eh? That it?Come, now?"
Chatfield gave his questioner a look of indignant scorn. He stooped forthe kit-bag, picked it up, and turned away.
"I don't want to have naught to do with you," he remarked over hisshoulder. "You keep yourselves to yourselves, and I'll keep myself tomyself. If it hadn't been for what you blabbed out last night, themungrateful devils 'ud never have had such ideas put into their heads!"
As if he knew his way, Chatfield plodded heavily up the beach and waslost in the darkness, and the three left behind stood helplessly staringat each other. For a long time there was silence, broken only by theagent's heavy tread on the shingle--at last Vickers spoke.
"I think I can see through all this," he said. "Chatfield's crypticutterances were somewhat suggestive. 'Robbed'--'maltreated'--'them asought to have fallen in humble gratitude at his feet'--'vengeance'--'revenge'--'Marconi telegrams'--'ungrateful devils'--ah, I see it!Chatfield had associates on the _Pike_--probably the impostor himselfand Andrius--probably, too, he had property of his own, as you suggestedto him, Copplestone. The whole gang was doubtless off with their loot tofar quarters of the globe. Very good--the other members have shelvedChatfield. They've done with him. But--not if he knows it! That man willhunt the _Pike_ and her people--whoever they are--relentlessly when hegets off this."
"I wish we knew what it is that we're on!" said Copplestone.
"Impossible till daybreak," replied Vickers. "But I've an idea--this isprobably one of the seventy-odd islands of the Orkneys: I've sailed roundhere before. If I'm right, it's most likely one of the outlying anduninhabited ones. Andrius--or his controlling power--has dropped us--andChatfield--here, knowing that we may have to spend a few days on thisisland before we succeed in getting off. Those few days will mean a greatdeal to the _Pike_. She can be run into some safe harbourage on thiscoast, given a new coat of paint and a new name, and be off before we cando anything to stop her. I allow Chatfield to be right in this--that myperhaps too hasty declaration to Andrius revealed to that gentleman howhe could make off with other people's property."
"Nothing will make me believe that Andrius is the solely responsibleperson for this last development," said Copplestone, moodily. "There wereother people on board--cleverly concealed. And what are we going to do?"
Audrey had stepped away from the circle of light made by the lanthorn andwas gazing steadily in the direction which Chatfield had taken.
"Those are cliffs, surely," she said presently. "Hadn't we better go upthe beach and see if we can't find some shelter until morning?Fortunately we're all warmly clad, and Andrius was considerate enough tothrow rugs and things into the boat, as well as provisions. Comealong!--after all, we're not so badly off. And we have the satisfactionof knowing that we can keep Chatfield under observation. Remember that!"
But in the m
orning, when the first gleam of light came across the sea,and Vickers, leaving his companions to prepare some breakfast from thestore of provisions which had been sent ashore with them, set out to makea first examination of their surroundings, the agent was not to be seen.What was to be seen was a breach of rock, sand, shingle, not a mile inlength, lying at the foot of high cliffs, and on the grey sea in frontnot a sign of a sail, nor a wisp of smoke from a passing steamer. Theapparent solitude and isolation of the place was as profound as thesilence which overhung everything.
Vickers made his way up the cliffs to their highest point and from itssummit took a leisurely view of his surroundings. He saw at once thatthey were on an island, and that it was but one of many which lay spreadout over the sea towards the north and the west. It was a wedge-shapedisland this, and the cliffs on which he stood and the beach beneathformed the widest side of it; from thence its lines drew away to a pointin the distance which he judged to be two miles off. Between him and thatpoint lay a sloping expanse of rough land, never cultivated sincecreation, whereon there were vast masses of rock and boulder but no signof human life. No curling column of smoke went up from hut or cottage;his ears caught neither the bleating of sheep nor the cry ofshepherd--all was still as only such places can be still. Nor could heperceive any signs of life on the adjacent islands--which, to be sure,were not very near. From the sea mists which wrapped one of them he sawprojecting the cap of a mountainous hill--that hill he recognized asbeing on one of the principal islands of the group, and he then knew thathe and his companions had been set down on one of the outlying islandswhich, from its position, was not in the immediate way of passing vesselsnor likely to be visited by fishermen.
He was turning away from the top of the cliff after a long and carefulinspection, when he caught sight of a man's figure crossing the rockyslope between him and this far-off point. That, he said to himself, wasChatfield. Did Chatfield know of any place at that point visited byfishing craft from the other islands? Had Chatfield ever been in theOrkneys before? Was there any method in his wanderings? Or was he, too,merely examining his surroundings--considering which was the likeliestpart of the island from which to attract attention? In the midst of thesespeculation a sudden resolution came to him--one or other of the threemust keep an eye on Chatfield. Night or day, Chatfield must be watched.And having already seen that Copplestone and Audrey had an unmistakableliking for each other's society and would certainly not object to beingleft together, he determined to watch Chatfield himself. Hurrying downthe cliffs, he hastily explained the situation to his companions, tooksome food in his hands, and set out to follow the agent wherever he went.