Cursed be the treasure
But what came upon my vision with a shock, at first of rapture, then of
strange fear, and lastly whirling me in a maze of mystified wonder, was
a face very white against the shadow, with wide terrible eyes fixed on
mine as though in a frenzy. For the face was the face of Dirk.
Forgetting my gag I raised my voice to cry his name, and the sudden
checking of my breath sent the blood surging dizzily to my head, so
that my eyes clouded with a gush of darkness and I nearly swooned. But
as my sight cleared terror began to settle on my heart, for Dirk faced
me with eyes blazing with such a madness of hate, and his lips curled
into such a leer of malice, that the dreadful vision framed white
against the darkness was like some emanation from a terrible dream.
And slowly he drew nearer, his eyes fixed on mine, till at length his
face almost touched me, and I could feel his breath curl hotly about my
brow. And all the while I was too numbed and stupefied to ask myself
what it could mean.
Then I noticed a change come over his face. He drew back; the tension
of his evil glare relaxed, and a puzzled wavering loosened his lips.
Then he suddenly darted his face once more at mine, searching my eyes
for I knew not what. And then he turned me about to the light, and with
an oath began fingering the gag about my mouth, and tore it violently
off, staring at me like a madman.
"Dirk!" I croaked out faintly, "save me, Dirk!"
"Devil of hell!" he cried. "It's Tommy!"
He drew his knife and slashed feverishly at the rope beneath my arms,
cursing at the strands that foiled his impatient onslaught. But at last
they came away in his hands; then stooping he set to work to release
my feet, while I half fell on top of him, supporting myself as well
as I could on the unsteady raft, till one by one the cords that bound
me were cut away. With a wonderful sense of freedom I kicked my legs
and waved my arms, then collapsed on to the raft half delirious from
the sudden relief. Dirk lifted me into his boat; and so overpowering
was the good thought of life again, and the clean air after the stuffy
suffocation of the gag and the sacking, and the feel of the blood
flushing along my numbed limbs and tingling in my feet and fingers,
that I lay in the rocking boat and sobbed like a child.
Presently I looked up through my tears, smiling I think, to see Dirk
seated above me, his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees,
still gazing at me half frenziedly, till I began to wonder whether the
veil had lifted only to fall again.
I stopped my crying, and laying my hands on his knees said, "Dirk, what
is it? Why do you want to kill me?"
"Little kid Tommy" was all he could say, repeating it over and over.
He thrust a hand through my hair, tenderly enough for such a great
rough fellow, and bending my head back looked at me earnestly and
enquiringly. At last he fetched a heavy breath and said, "Yus, it's
little kid Tommy, an' no mistake. But it beats me; it beats me."
I understood nothing of the matter that was troubling him. I was
utterly without a clue to the mystery. I could only say, "Tell me,
Dirk; what is it?"
It was a long time before he answered, "Wull, kiddy, I was on his
track, an' I thought I'd got him at last; but it was you I nabbed,
though hell knows how it chanced."
"Who was he?" I asked. But before he replied I knew whom he meant.
"Have you forgotten, kiddy?" he asked. "The King's Man."
"You found him?" I questioned.
"I've hunted him high an' low," he replied, "an' I've had my fingers
on him, _so_!" He clawed the air about my throat. "But he's slipped
through every time, blast him! He's got as many shapes as a cloud in a
gale, an' as many voices as the wind; so when they telled me you was
only a nipper I grinned to meself an' said nothing. You see I thought I
had him safe. But it beats me, it does."
He shook his head sorrowfully.
I was beginning to understand something of the mystery, and suddenly
everything seemed clear as though I had followed it in a book. "Dirk,"
I cried, "I know how it was. He was hiding in the corner. He was
chasing me. An officer, you know. I'd run away from school. Then I
suppose he heard you after him, and lay low. And I heard you and
thought it was him. So I hid there in the doorway. And then I felt him
there and got frightened, and jumped out, and you nabbed me instead." I
ended breathlessly: "You see, you see."
He scratched his head somewhat bewildered, and said, "Here, kiddy, just
say that lot again."
So I began at the beginning, and explained how the officers were after
me, and how I had heard footsteps and taken cover, till comprehension
dawned on him at last. "That's him," I concluded, "that's the King's
Man; the officer who was waiting there for me."
Dirk sat there weighing the matter in his mind, and presently
exclaimed, "An' it were you, Tommy, I've been keeping in that filthy
hole, starving you an' gagging you an' frightening you an' all."
"Nothing," I said, "nothing," and to ease his mind added: "Don't you
see, if you hadn't nabbed me the officer would have had me instead, and
I should have been back in the cells again."
"That's a brave thing to say, kiddy," he exclaimed fervently, and
seized my hand, till I nearly cried with the pain of a friendly grip.
"Wull," he added releasing me, and thumping his fist on his knee, "I'll
go an' find him again, an' I'll catch him next time. An' then I'll....
You know what I meant doing?" he broke off fiercely.
"Yes," I said.
"Ha!" he cried, grinning evilly, "I'll tear him limb from limb; slowly,
kiddy, _slowly_!" He stressed the word lingeringly. "An' I'll sit just
here an' watch his eyes, same as I meant to this morning."
He sat motionless awhile, gazing terribly before him as though
witnessing his cruel revenge in actual progress.
"Six hours," he said. Then with an oath he dashed his hand across his
eye as though to obliterate the picture, and smiling more pleasantly
said, "Wull, let's row in for a bit, an' then for something wet at the
_Dolphin_."
"The _Dolphin_!" I cried.
I gazed about me, and realized where we were. It was the very spot
where the betrayal had been committed which was to have been so
horribly expiated. We were by the Smugglers' Gate in Ebb-Tide Cave.
Ebb-Tide Cave!
"Dirk," I cried in sudden excitement, "is this the first of May?"
"Ay, kiddy," he answered, "it is that."
My father's song came into my mind. I could almost hear him singing it:
"'Twas at Ebb-Tide Cave by the Smuggler's Gate,
At the dawn of a summer's day;
And there those happy lovers met,
All on the first of May."
So vivid was the fancy that I could actually hear my father's voice
that I sat motionless, listening, till Dirk asked what ailed me.
"Oh, Dirk," I said, "you must have fallen from Heaven. I've got to meet
my father here to-day; and you've brought me."
"Fallen from Heaven!" he repeated, his lips curling bitterly. "Yus, I
reckon I have that. An' I don't see myself climbing back again. An'
so," his voice changed, "your dad's coming, is he? Wull, I'll be off
an' leave you to him then. An' if I see him at the _Dolphin_ I'll let
him know there's a surprise packet down this way."
He rowed me out into the Pool, where a great wind greeted us, and
landed me on the rocks, then turned to row in up the Smugglers' Tunnel,
for the tide was still almost at the full. But I suddenly remembered
my knife and pistol. I think he understood my gesture as I clapped my
hands to my sides feeling for them. He smiled darkly and nodded at my
waist. I looked down; and there they were tucked in my belt, and in
my excitement I hadn't noticed them. He didn't explain the mystery,
but I thought I understood it: the sight of them there, to hand, yet
useless, would have been an added torment to the perishing victim. So
he left me and I watched him vanish, then clambered up the cliff so
that I could see if any boat were making for the shore, and also if any
one appeared from above, for I didn't know whether my father would come
by sea or land; but that he would come I held for a certainty.
Half-way up I found a good lookout point, and sat down and waited, my
heart in a whirl of excitement at the prospect of seeing my father
again. Indeed the joy of meeting him was so great that I hardly had a
thought to bestow on the extraordinary way I had been spirited to the
rendezvous.
So I sat there gazing out to sea, glorying in the huge bursting rollers
that strained and pounded at the rocks beneath me; for a south-west
gale was racing in across the white-streaked waters, dewing my face
with the spray in its breath and slapping my hair in heavy, damp
tangles against my forehead. Before me lying out at anchor in the
heaving sea was the brig that had brought me there; and away to the
east the sky was reddening with the coming of the sun.
CHAPTER XXI
ALL ON THE FIRST OF MAY
For a while I sat there in a delicious waking dream. The shadows of the
past fell away from me, and the future held no visible menace. Indeed I
didn't think of the future. The present was all my concern, or at least
only so much of the future as would bring my father back to me. Beyond
that I didn't look. Already my schooling in adventures and surprises
was teaching me to live in to-day and let to-morrow shift for itself.
So much could happen in a single hour that foresight and circumspection
were a wasted labour.
So I yielded to blissful anticipation, so near as it seemed to
immediate realization, and saw no cloud in the sky of my contentment.
Even the day was such as I loved. The hallooing of the wind, the
bursting of the waves, the salt-laden scent of the racing air, the
bounding vitality and keen stinging sweetness of it all, were like a
triumphal chant of the blood and the breath. It was as though the earth
and sea were living things, and my spirit was exalted at the rapture of
their boisterous play.
It wasn't immediately that I realized the meaning of certain pebbles
and clods of earth that came rolling down the cliff to either side of
me. I was too preoccupied to look up all at once. But when a heavier
lump came bounding down almost at my elbow I turned to see what the
cause of it might be. It was merely somebody climbing down the cliff,
and rolling stones at me, either to have a game with me or to attract
my attention. I thought probably it was the latter, for when he saw me
gazing up at him he stopped and began waving to me; and it looked as
though he were shouting, but the wind was in his teeth and I couldn't
catch a sound.
And then I sprang to my feet and gazed with a searching scrutiny at the
waving figure, for it was none other than Worthing.
Just for a moment I stood vacantly wondering how he had found me out,
but dismissing the question I accepted the fact of his presence, and
started scrambling up the sloping track towards him, the great wind
heaving me upwards from behind like a huge helping hand.
"Why, Worthing!" I panted as I reached him and seized his hand.
"Worthing!..."
The question I would have put to him was implied in my cry of
astonishment.
"It's quite simple," he answered me. "I knew where you would go, and I
followed."
I didn't stop to explain the amazing way in which I had reached my
destination. That story would keep. What I wanted to know was what had
happened to him when my escape had been discovered, and why he had left
school. I put the questions to him, not very coherently, for a sense
of shame prevented me from asking, "What did they do to you?" But he
took my meaning, and answered me, "They said a lot of things about me;
publicly, of course. And they flogged me."