The Watchers: A Novel

  CHAPTER VI

  MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO

  I walked that day into Rockbere, and taking the advice of theinnkeeper with whom I lodged, I hired a hack and a guide from him thenext morning and struck across country for the sea; for he assured methat I should most likely find a fishing smack at Topsham whose masterwould put me over to the Scillies, and that if the wind did but favourme I should reach the islands sooner that way than if I had thequickest horse under me that was ever foaled. It was of the greatesturgency that I should set foot on Tresco before Cullen Mayle. I had torisk something to achieve that object, and I risked the wind. It wasin the northeast when I started from Rockbere and suited my purposefinely if it did but hold; so that I much regretted I was not alreadyon the sea, and rode in a perpetual fear lest it should change itsquarter. I came to Honiton Clyst that night, and to Topsham the nextday, where I was fortunate enough to find a boat of some thirty tonsand to come to an agreement with its master. He had his crew ready tohis hand; he occupied the morning in provisioning the smack; and westood out of the harbour in the evening, and with a steady wind on ourquarter made a good run to the Start Point. Shortly after we passedthe Start the wind veered round into the north, which did us no greatharm, since these boats sail their best on a reach. We reached thenwith a soldier's breeze, as the saying is, out to the Eddystone Rockand the Lizard Point.

  It was directly after we had sighted the Lizard that the wind began tofall light, and when we were just off the Point it failed usaltogether. I remember that night as well as any other period in thecourse of these incidents. I was running a race with Cullen Mayle, andI was beginning to think that it was not after all only on account ofhis peril that it was needful for me to reach Tresco before he did.These last two days I had been entirely occupied with the stimulationof that race and the inspiriting companionship of the sea. The wavesfoaming away from the bows and bubbling and hissing under the lee ofthe boat, the flaws of wind blistering the surface of the water asthey came off the land towards us, making visible their invisibleapproach; the responsive spring of the boat, like a horse under thetouch of a spur--these mere commonplaces to my companions had for mean engrossing enchantment. But on that evening at the Lizard Point thesea lay under the sunset a smooth, heaving prism of colours; we couldhear nothing but the groaning of the blocks, the creaking of theboom's collars against the masts; and the night came out from behindthe land very peaceful and solemn, and solemnly the stars shone out inthe sky. All the excitement of the last days died out of me. We swungup and down with the tide. Now the lights of Falmouth were visible tous at the bottom of the bay, now the Lizard obscured them from us. Iwas brought somehow to think of those last years of mine in London.They seemed very distant and strange to me in this clean air, and thepavement of St. James's Street, which I had daily trodden, became anunacceptable thing.

  About two o'clock of the morning a broad moon rose out of the sea, andtowards daybreak a little ruffing breeze sprang up, and we made agentle progress across the bay towards Land's End; but the breeze sankas the sun came up, and all that day we loitered, gaining a littleground now and then and losing it again with the turn of the tide. Itwas not until the fifth evening that we dropped anchor in the roadbetween St. Mary's Island and Tresco.

  I waited until it was quite dark, and was then quietly rowed ashorewith my valise in the ship's dinghy. I landed on Tresco near to theharbour of New Grimsby. It was at New Grimsby that Dick Parmiterlived, Clutterbuck had told me, and the first thing I had to do was tofind Dick Parmiter without arousing any attention.

  Now on an island like Tresco, sparsely inhabited and with no commerce,the mere presence of a stranger would assuredly provoke comment. Iwalked, therefore, very warily towards the village. One house I sawwith great windows all lighted up, and that I took to be the PalaceInn, where Adam Mayle and Cullen used to sit side by side on thesettle and surprise the visitors by their unlikeness to one another.There was a small cluster of cottages about the inn with a lanestraggling between, and further away, round the curve of the littlebay, were two huts close to the sea.

  It would be in one of these that Dick Parmiter lived, and I crepttowards them. There was no light whatever in the first of them, butthe door stood open, and a woman and a man stood talking in thedoorway. I lay down in the grass and crawled towards them, if by anychance I might hear what they said. For a while I could distinguishnothing of what they said, but at last the man cried in a clear voice,"Good-night, Mrs. Grudge," and walked off to the inn. The woman wentin and closed the door. I was sure then that the next cottage was theone for which I searched. I walked to it; there was a light in thewindow and the sound of voices talking.

  I hesitated whether to go in boldly and ask for Dick. But it would beknown the next morning that a stranger had come for Dick; no doubt,too, Dick's journey to London was known, and the five men watching thehouse on Merchant's Point would be straightway upon the alert. BesidesDick might not have reached home. I walked round the hut unable todecide what I should do, and as I came to the back of it a lightsuddenly glowed in a tiny window there. I cautiously approached thewindow and looked through. Dick Parmiter was stripping off his jersey,and was alone.

  I tapped on the window. Dick raised his head, and then put out thelight, so that I could no longer see into the room; but in a momentthe window was slowly lifted, and the boy's voice whispered:

  "Is that you, Mr. Mayle?"

  I drew a breath of relief. I was ahead of Cullen Mayle, though he hadstolen my horse.

  "No," said I; "but I have come on Cullen Mayle's business."

  The boy leaned out of the window and peered into my face. But voiceswere raised in the room beyond this cupboard, and a woman's voicecried out, "Dick, Dick!"

  "That's mother," said Dick to me. "Wait! I will come out to you."

  He closed the window, and I lay down again in the grass, and waitedthere for perhaps an hour. A mist was coming up from the sea andthickening about the island; the starlight was obscured; wreaths ofsmoke, it seemed, came in puffs between myself and the house, and atlast I heard the rustling of feet in the grass.

  "Dick," said I in a whisper, and the lad came to me.

  "I remember you," he said. "You were at Lieutenant Clutterbuck's. Whyhave you come?"

  "Upon my word," said I, "I should find it difficult to tell you."

  Indeed, it would have taken me half the night to explain the motiveswhich had conjoined to this end.

  "And now that you are come, what is it you mean to do?"

  "Dick," I returned, "you ask the most disconcerting questions. Youtramp up to London with a wild story of a house watched----"

  "You come as a friend, then," he broke in eagerly.

  "As your friend, yes."

  Dick sat silent for a moment.

  "I think so," he said at length.

  "And here's a trifle to assure you," I said. "Cullen Mayle is not veryfar behind me. You may expect him upon Tresco any morning."

  Dick started to his feet.

  "Are you sure of that? You do not know him. How are you sure?"

  "Clutterbuck described him to me. I overtook him on the road, andstayed the same night with him at an inn. He robbed me and robbed thelandlord. There was a trick at the cards, too. Not a doubt of it,Cullen Mayle is close on my heels. Are those five men still watchingthe house?"

  "Yes. They are still upon Tresco. They lodge here and there with thefishermen, and make a pretence to burn kelp or to fish for theirliving; but their business is to watch the house, as you will seeto-night. There are six of them now, not five."

  He led me as he spoke towards the "Palace Inn," where a light stillburned in the kitchen. The cottages about the inn, however, were bythis time dark, and we could advance without risk of being seen. Dickstopped me under the shadow of a wall not ten yards from the inn. Ared blind covered the lower part of the window, but above it I couldsee quite clearly into the kitchen.

  "Give me a b
ack," whispered Dick, who reached no higher than myshoulder. I bent down and Dick climbed on to my shoulders, whence hetoo could see the interior of the kitchen.

  "That will go," said he in a little, and slid to the ground. "Can yousee a picture on the wall?"

  "Yes."

  "And a man sitting under the picture--a squat, squabby man with whitehair and small eyes very bright?"

  "Yes."

  "That is the sixth man. He came to Tresco while I was in London. Ifound him here when I came back two days ago. But I had seen himbefore. He had come to Tresco before. His name is George Glen."

  "George Glen!" said I. "Wait a bit," and I took another look at theman in the kitchen. "He was quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah,eh? He is the stranger you brought over to St. Mary's Church on theday when Cullen Mayle sat in the stocks."

  "Yes," said Dick, and he asked me how I knew.

  "Clutterbuck told me," I replied.

  From the inn we walked some few yards along a lane until we were freeof the cottages, and then leaving the path, mounted inland up a hillof gorse. Dick gave me on the way an account of his journey homewardsand the difficulties he had surmounted. I paid only an indifferentattention to his story, for I was wholly occupied with George Glen'spresence upon the island. Glen had come first of all to visit AdamMayle, and was now watching for Cullen. What link was there betweenhis two visits? I was inclined to think that George Glen was the clueto the whole mystery. In spite of my inattention, I gathered this muchhowever from Dick. That tramp of his to London was well knownthroughout the islands. His mother had given him up for dead when hewent away, and had thrashed him soundly when he returned, but the nextday had made him out a great hero in her talk. She did not know why hewent to London, for Dick had the discretion to hold his tongue uponthat point.

  So much Parmiter had told me when he suddenly stopped and listened. Icould hear nothing, however much I strained my ears, and in a momentor two Dick began to move on. The mist was very thick about us--Icould not see a yard beyond my nose; but we were now going down hill,so that I knew we had crossed the ridge of the island and weredescending towards the harbour of New Grimsby and the house underMerchant's Rock.

  We had descended for perhaps a couple of hundred yards; then Dickstopped again. He laid a hand upon my arm and dragged me down amongthe gorse, which was drenched with the fog.

  "What is it?" said I.

  "Hush," he whispered; and even as he whispered I saw a sort of brownradiance through the fog a long way to my left. The next instant aspeck of clear light shone out in the heart of this radiance: it wasthe flame of a lantern, and it seemed miles away. I raised myself uponmy elbows to watch it. Dick pulled my elbow from beneath me, andpressed me down flat in the grass; and it was fortunate that he did,for immediately the lantern loomed out of the fog not a dozen yardsaway. I heard it rattle as it swung, and the man who carried ittramped by so near to me that if I had stretched out my hand I couldhave caught him by the ankle and jerked him off his feet. It was thepurest good fortune that he did not detect us, and we lay very stilluntil the rustle of the footsteps had altogether died away.

  "Is that one of them?" I asked.

  "Yes; William Blads. He lodges with Mrs. Crudge next to our cottage."

  We continued to descend through the gorse for another quarter of anhour or so until an extraordinary sound at our feet brought us both toan halt. It was the strangest melancholy screeching sound that ever Ihad heard: it was so harsh it pierced the ears; it was so wild andeerie that I could hardly believe a voice uttered it. It was like ashrill cry of pain uttered by some live thing that was hardly human.It startled me beyond words, and the more so because it rose out ofthe fog directly at our feet. Dick Parmiter trembled at my side.

  "Quick," he whispered in a shaking voice; "let us go! Oh, let us go!"

  But he could not move for all his moaning. His limbs shook as thoughhe had the fever; terror chained him there to the ground. Had I notknown the boy under other circumstances, I should have set him downfor a coward.

  I took a step forward. Dick caught hold of my arm and mutteredsomething, but his voice so wavered and gasped I could not distinguishwhat he said. I shook his arm off, and again stepped forward for one,two, three paces. As I took the third pace the ground suddenly sloped,my feet slipped on the wet grass; I let go of my valise, and I fell tomy full length upon my back, and slid. And the moment I began to slidemy feet touched nothing. I caught at the grass, and the roots of itcame away in my hands. I turned over on my face. Half my body was nowhanging over the edge. I hung for a second by my waist, and as I feltmy waist slipping, I struck out wildly upon each side with my arms. Myright arm struck against a bush of gorse; I seized hold of it, and itbent, but it did not break. I lifted a knee carefully, set it on theedge, and so crawled up the slope again.

  Dick was lying on his face peering down towards me.

  "My God," said he, "I thought you had fallen;" and reaching out hishands, he caught both my arms as though he was afraid I should slipagain. "Oh, quick," he said, "let us go!"

  And again I heard the shrill screech rise up from that hollow intowhich I had so nearly fallen. It was repeated and repeated with aregular interval between--an interval long enough for Dick toreiterate his eager prayer.

  "It has begun again," said I.

  "It has never ceased since we first heard it," said Dick, and no doubthe spoke the truth; only I had been deaf to it from the moment my footslipped until now. "Let us go," and picking up my valise he hurried meaway, turning his head as he went, shuddering whenever he heard thatcry.

  "But it may be some one in distress--some one who needs help."

  "No, no," he cried; "it is no one. I will tell you to-morrow."

  We skirted the top of the hollow, and once more descended. The fogshowed no sign of clearing, but Parmiter walked with an assured tread,and in a little time he began to recover his spirits.

  "We are close to the house," said he.

  "Dick, you are afraid of ghosts," said I; and while I spoke he uttereda cry and clung to my arm. A second later something brushed past myhand very quickly. I just saw it for an instant as it flitted past,and then the darkness swallowed it up.

  Dick blurted out this fable: the souls of dead drowned sailormen keptnightly tryst on Castle Down.

  "That was no spirit," said I. "Play the man, Dick. Did you ever meet aspirit that trod with the weight of a body?"

  I could hear the sound of feet rustling the grass beneath us. Dicklistened with his hand to his ear.

  "The tread is very light," said he.

  "That is because it is a woman who treads."

  "No woman would be abroad here in this fog at this time," heprotested.

  "Nevertheless, it was a woman; for I saw her, and her dress brushedagainst my hand. It was a woman, and you cried out at her; so that ifthere is any one else upon the watch to-night, it is very likely weshall have him upon our heels."

  That argument sobered him, and we went forward again without speakingto each other, and only halting now and again to listen. In a veryshort while we heard the sea booming upon the beach, and then Dickstepped forward yet more warily, feeling about with his hands.

  "There should be a fence hereabouts," said he, and the next moment Ifell over it with a great clatter. A loud whistle sounded from thebeach--another whistle answered behind us, and I heard the sound of aman running up from the sand. We both crouched in the grass close bythe palisade, and again the fog saved us. I heard some one beatingabout in the grass with a stick, but he did not come near us, and atlast he turned back to the sea.

  "You see," said Dick, "I told Lieutenant Clutterbuck the truth. Thehouse is watched."

  "Devil a doubt of it," said I. "Do you go forward and see if you canget in."

  He came back to me in a little space of time, saying that the door wasbarred, and that he could see no light through any chink. He hadstolen all round the house; he had rapped gently here and there at awindow, but there was no one waking.
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  "And what are we to do now?" said he. "If I make a clatter and rousethe house, we shall rouse Cullen's enemies, too."

  "It would not be wise to put them on the alert, the more particularlysince Cullen Mayle may be here to-morrow. I will go back to the'Palace' Inn, sleep the night there, and come over here boldly in themorning." And I got up and shouldered my valise again. But Dickstopped me.

  "I have a better plan than that," said he, "for George Glen is stayingat the 'Palace' Inn. What if you slept in the house here to-night! Ican come over early to-morrow and tell Miss Helen who you are, and whyyou have come."

  "But how am I to get into the house, without you rouse the household?"

  "There is a window. It is the window of Cullen Mayle's room. You couldget through it with my help."

  It seemed in many ways the best plan that could be thought of, butcertain words of Clutterbuck's that my meddling at all in the matterwould be nothing but an impertinence came back very forcibly to me.But I heard Dick Parmiter speaking, and the thought slipped instantlyfrom my mind.

  "I helped Cullen Mayle through the window, the night his father drovehim from the house," said he, "and----"

  "What's that you say?" I asked eagerly. "The night that Cullen Maylewas driven from the house, he climbed back into his room!"

  "Yes!"

  "Tell me about it, and be quick!" said I. I had my own reason forurging him, and I listened with all my attention to every word hespoke. He told me the sequel of the story which Clutterbuck hadrelated in my lodging at St. James's Street.

  "I was waiting for him outside here on the beach," said he; "and whenthe door was closed behind him, he came straight towards me. 'Andwhere am I to sleep to-night, Dick?' said he. I told him that he couldhave my bed over at New Grimsby, but he refused it. 'I'm damned if Isleep in a rat-hole,' he said, 'when by putting my pride in my pocketI can sleep in my own bed; and with my help he clambered on to anouthouse, and so back into his own room."

  "When did he leave the island, then?" I asked. "The next morning? Butno one saw him go?"

  "No," answered Dick. "I sailed him across the same night. About threeo'clock of the morning he came and tapped softly upon my window, justas you did to-night. It was that which made me think you were Cullencome back. He bade me slip out to him without any noise, and togetherwe carried my father's skiff down to the water. I sailed him across toSt. Mary's. He made me swear never to tell a word of his climbing backinto his room."

  "Oh, he made you swear that?"

  "Yes, he said he would rip my heart out if I broke my oath. Well, I'vekept it till to-night. No one knows but you. I got back to Trescobefore my father had stirred."

  "And Cullen?"

  "A barque put out from St. Mary's to Cornwall with the first of theebb in the morning. I suppose he persuaded the captain to take him."

  Parmiter's story set me thinking, and I climbed over the palisadeafter him without further objection. He came to a wall of planks; Dickset himself firmly against it and bent his shoulders.

  "This is an outhouse," said he. "From my shoulders you can reach theroof. From the roof you can reach the window. You can force the catchof the window with a knife."

  "It will be an awkward business," said I doubtfully, "if I wake thehouse."

  "There is no fear of that," answered Dick. "With any other window Iwould not say no. The other rooms are separated only by a thinpanelling of wood, and at one end of the house you can almost hear amouse scamper at the other. Mr. Cullen's room, however, is a roombuilt on, its inner wall is the outer wall of the house, it is the oneroom where you could talk secrets and run no risk of being overheard."

  "Very well," said I slowly, for this speech too set me thinking. "Iwill risk it. Come over early to-morrow, Dick. I shall cut an awkwardfigure without you do," and getting on to his shoulder, I clambered upon to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushedback the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it,threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. Theroom was very dark, but my eyes were now accustomed to the gloom. Icould dimly discern a great four-poster bed. I shut the window withoutnoise, set my valise in a corner, drew off my boots and lay down uponthe bed.