The Mystery of the Sea

  CHAPTER XIV

  A SECRET SHARED

  "There is so much to tell" I said "that I hardly know where to begin.Perhaps I had better tell you all here, where we are alone and notlikely to be disturbed. We have come so fast that we have lots of timeand we need not hurry. When you have had your lunch I shall tell youall."

  "Oh please don't wait till then," she said, "I am all impatience. Let meknow right away."

  "Young woman" I said sternly "you are at present insincere. You _know_you are ravenously hungry, as you should be after a twenty mile ride;and you are speaking according to your idea of convention and not out ofyour heart. This is not convention; there is nothing conventional in thewhole outfit. Eat the food prepared for you by the thoughtfulness of avery beautiful and charming girl!" She held up a warning finger andsaid:

  "Remember '_Bon Camarade_--without prejudice.'"

  "All right" I answered "so it shall be. But if the lady wants to hold meup for criminal libel I shall undertake to repeat the expression when,and where, and how she will. I shall repeat the assertion and abide bythe consequences." She went on eating her sandwiches, not, I thought,displeased. When we had both finished she turned to me and said:

  "Now!" I took from my pocket the rescript of Don Bernardino deEscoban's narrative and handed it to her. She looked at it, turned overthe pages, and glanced at them as she went. Then she returned to thebeginning, and after reading the first few lines, said to me with aneager look in her eyes:

  "Is this really the translation of the secret writing? Oh, I am so gladyou have succeeded. You are cute!" She took out her watch, and havinglooked at it, went on: "We have loads of time. Won't you read it for me?It will be so much nicer! And let me ask you questions."

  "Delighted!" I answered, "But would it not be better if I read it rightthrough first, and then let you ask questions! Or better still you readit yourself right through, and then ask." I had a purpose in this. If Ihad to read it, my eyes must be wholly engrossed in my work; but if sheread, I need never take them off her face. I longed to see the varyingexpression with which she would follow every phase of the strange story.She thought for a few seconds before answering, and as she thoughtlooked me straight in the eyes. I think she read my secret, or at anyrate enough of it to fathom my wish; nothing else could account for thegentle blush that spread over her face. Then she said in quite a meektone:

  "I shall read it myself if you think it best!"

  I shall never forget that reading. Her face, always expressive, was tome like an open book. I was by this time quite familiar with deEscoban's narrative, as I had with infinite patience dug it out letterby letter from the cipher in which it had been buried for so long. Asalso I had written it out fair twice over, it was little wonder thatI knew it well. As she read I so followed that I could have told to asentence how far she had got in the history. Once she unconsciously puther hand to her throat and felt the brooch; but immediately drew itaway again, glancing for a moment at me from under her eyelashes to seewhether I had observed. She saw I had, shook her head with a smile, andread on.

  When she had finished reading, she gave a long sigh and then held outher hand to me saying:

  "Bravo! I congratulate you with all my heart!" Her touch thrilled me;she was all on fire, and there was a purposeful look in her face whichwas outside and beyond any joy that she could have with regard to anysuccess of mine. This struck me so much that I said impulsively:

  "Why are you so glad?" She answered instinctively and without thought:

  "Because you will keep it from the Spaniards!" Then she stoppedsuddenly, with a gesture of self repression.

  I felt a little piqued. I would have thought that her concern would havebeen rather individual than political. That in such a matter even beforeracial hatred would have come gladness at the well-doing of even such afriend--without prejudice--as I was. Looking at me, she seemed to seethrough me and said

  "With her two white hands extended, as if praying one offended:"

  "Oh, I am sorry! I did not mean to hurt you. I can't explain yet; notto-day, which is for comradeship only.--Yes without prejudice"--for shesaw my look and answered it "But some day you will understand." She wasso evidently embarrassed and pained at having for some reason which Idid not comprehend to show reticence to me who had been so open withher, that I felt it my duty to put her at ease. This I tried to do byassuring her that I quite understood that she had some good reason,and that I was quite content to wait. I could not help adding before Istopped: "This is a small thing to have to wait for after all; when Ihave to wait for something so much more important." The warning fingerwas held up again with a smile.

  Then we went over the whole of the narrative again, I reading this timeand she stopping to ask me questions. There was not much to ask; all thestory was so plain that the proceeding did not take very long. Then sheasked me to explain how I had come to decipher the cryptogram. I tookout my pocket book and proceeded to make a key to the cipher, explainingas I went on the principle. "To me," I said, "it is very complete, andcan be used in an infinity of ways. Any mode of expression can be usedthat has two objects with five varieties of each." Here she interruptedme. As I was explaining I was holding out my hands with the fingersspread as a natural way of expressing my meaning. She saw at once whathad escaped me, and clasping her hands exclaimed impulsively:

  "Like your two hands! It is delightful! Two hands, and five fingerson each. We can talk a new deaf and dumb alphabet; which no one butourselves can understand!" Her words thrilled through me. One moresecret to share with her; one more secret which would be in perpetualexercise, in pursuance of a common thought. I was about to speak whenshe stopped me with a gesture. "Sorry!" she said. "Go on; explain to me!We can think of variety later!" So I continued:

  "So long as we have means that are suitable, we have only to translateinto the biliteral, and we who know this can understand. Thus we have adouble guard of secrecy. There are some who could translate into symbolswith which they are familiar, symbols with which they are not; but inthis method we have a buffer of ignorance or mystery between the knownand the unknown. There is also this advantage; the cipher as it standsis sufficiently on a basis of science or at any rate of order, that itskey is easily capable of reproduction. As you have seen, I can makea key without any help. Bacon's biliteral cipher is scientificallyaccurate. It can, therefore, be easily reproduced; the method ofexclusions is also entirely rational, so that we need have no difficultyin remembering it. If two people would take the trouble to learn thesymbols of the biliteral, as kept after the exclusions and which areused in this cipher, they might with very little practice be able towrite or read off-hand. Indeed the suggestion, which you have just made,of a deaf-and-dumb alphabet is capital. It is as simple as the daylight!You have only to decide whether the thumb or the little finger means 1or 2; and then reproduce by right hand or left, and using the fingersof each hand, the five symbols of the amended biliteral, and you cantalk as well and as easily as do the deaf mutes!" Again she spoke outimpulsively:

  "Let us both learn off by heart the symbols of our cipher; and then weshan't want even to make a key. We can talk to each other in a crowd,and no one be the wiser of what we are saying."

  This was very sweet to me. When a man is in love, as I was, anythingwhich links him to his lady, and to her alone, has a charm beyond words.Here was a perpetual link, if we cared to make it so, and if the Fateswould be good to us.

  "The Fates!" With the thought came back Gormala's words to me at thebeginning. She had told me, and somehow I seemed to have always believedthe same, that the Fates worked to their own end and in their own way.Kindness or unkindness had no part in their workings; pity had no placeat the beginning of their interest, no more than had remorse at the end.Was it possible that in the scheme of Fate, in which Gormala and I andLauchlane Macleod had places, there was also a place for Marjory? TheWitch-woman had said that the Fates would work their will, though forthe doing of it came elements out of past centurie
s and from the ends ofthe earth. The cipher of Don de Escoban had lain hidden three centuries,only to be revived at its due time. Marjory had come from a nation whichhad no existence when the Don had lived, and from a place which in histime was the far home of the red man and the wolf and the bison and thebear.

  But yet what was there to connect Marjory with Don de Escoban and hissecret? As I thought, I saw Marjory who had turned her back to me,quietly take something from her throat and put it into her pocket. Herewas the clue indeed.

  The brooch! When I had taken it up from the sea at the Sand Craigs I hadreturned it to her with only a glance; and as I had often seen it since,without any mystery, I had hardly noticed it. It rushed in on my mindthat it was of the same form as that described by Don de Escoban ashaving been given by the Pope. I had only noticed a big figure and alittle one; but surely it could be none other than a figure of St.Christopher. I should have liked to have asked Marjory about it at once;but her words already spoken putting off explanation, and her recentact, of which I was supposed to know nothing, in putting it out ofsight, forbade me to inquire. All the more I thought, however; and othermatters regarding it crowded into my mind.

  The chain was complete, the only weak link being the connection betweenMarjory and the St. Christopher brooch. And even here there was amystery, acknowledged in her concealment, which might explain itselfwhen the time came.

  Matters took such a grave turn for me with my latest surmise, that Ithought it would be well to improve the occasion with Marjory, in so faras it might be possible to learn something of her surroundings. I wasbarred from asking questions by her own wish; but still I did not liketo lose the chance without an effort, so I said to her:

  "We have learned a lot to-day, haven't we?"

  "Indeed we have. It hardly seems possible that a day could make such achange!"

  "I suppose we should take it that new knowledge should apply newconditions to established fact?" I said this with some diffidence; and Icould see that the change in my tone, much against my will, attractedher attention. She evidently understood my wish, for she answered withdecision:

  "If you mean by 'new conditions' any alteration of the compact madebetween us for to-day--yes, I remember 'without prejudice'--there isnothing in our new knowledge to alter the old ones. Do remember, sir,that this day is one set apart, and nothing that is not a very gravematter indeed can be allowed to alter what is established regarding it."

  "Then," said I, "at all events let us learn the cipher--our cipher asyou very properly called it."

  "Oh no! surely?" this was said with a rising blush.

  "Indeed, yes--I am glad to say!"

  "Take care!" she replied, meaningly, then she added:

  "Very well! Ours let it be. But really and truly I have no right to itsdiscovery; it makes me feel like a fraud to hear you say so."

  "Be easy," I replied. "You helped me more than I can say. It was yoursuggestion to reduce the terms of the biliteral; and it was by thatmeans that I read the cipher. But at any rate when we call it 'ours' itwill content me if the word 'ours'"--I could not help repeating the wordfor it was delight to me; it did not displease her either, though itmade her blush--"is applied not to invention but to possession!"

  "All right," she said. "That is good of you. I cannot argue with you.Amendment accepted! Come, let us get on our wheels again. You have thekey of _our_ cipher with you; you can tell me the items one by one, andwe will learn them as we go along."

  And so as we swept round Davan Lake, with the wind behind us driving usalong except just before we regained the high road at Dinnet, I repeatedthe symbols of the reduced biliteral. We went over and over them againand again, till we were unable to puzzle each other questioning up anddown, 'dodging' as the school-boys say.

  Oh, but that ride was delightful! There was some sort of consciousequality between us which I could see my comrade felt as well as myself.Down the falling road we sped almost without effort, our wheels seemingto glide on air. When we came to the bridge over the railway just aboveAboyne, where the river comes north and runs in under a bank of shaleand rock, we dismounted and looked back. Behind us was our last view ofthe gorge above Ballater, where the two round hills stood as portals,and where the cloud rack hanging above and beyond made a mystery whichwas full of delightful fascination and no less delightful remembrance.Then with a sigh we turned.

  There, before us lay a dark alley between the closing pines. No lessmysterious, but seemingly dark and grim.