The Stowaway Girl Part 16

"I had no notion that such a monster could move with so great elegance.

I think I would rather be eaten by a shark than lie at the bottom of the sea like our poor vessel there."

"Even a shark would appreciate the compliment," he said.

Her eyes continued to watch the terrifying apparition until it prowled into hidden depths again.

"I am not sorry I have seen it," she murmured. "It helps one to understand. We are glib concerning the laws of nature, and seem to regard them much as the printed regulations stuck on hackney carriages, whatsoever they may be. Yet, how cruelly just they are! I suppose that the finding of the s.h.i.+p's booty by that huge creature has given a new span of life to some weaker fish."

Hozier did not know whether or not she had realized the shark's real quest. Her next words enlightened him.

"If we follow the others, will the soldiers throw our dead bodies into the sea?" she asked.

"I want you to believe that you will be absolutely safe if we escape being discovered during the crossing of the narrow strip of water that separates this rock from the island," he hastened to say. "That is your only risk, and it is a light one. Senhor De Sylva is sure that the troops will not keep the keenest lookout to-night. They are still convinced that the insurgent steamer is sunk. Our chief danger will date from to-morrow's dawn. Marcel reports that a systematic search of the island was begun to-day. It will be continued to-morrow, but on new lines, because, by that time, they will have learnt the truth. The _Andros-y-Mela_ is not lying in pieces at the foot of this rock, the President has not escaped, and every practicable inch of Fernando Noronha and the adjacent islands will be scoured in the hope of finding him. At first sight, that looks like being in our favor; in reality, it means the end if we are discovered here. The soldiers will shoot first and inquire afterwards. I have not the slightest doubt but that plenty of evidence will be forthcoming that we were a set of desperadoes who had unlawfully interfered in the affairs of a foreign state."

She appeared to be weighing this argument, sitting in judgment on De Sylva and his theories.

"I want to do that which is for the good of all," she said at length.

"Do you ask me to go to this convict's house, Mr. Hozier?"

"I urge it on you with the utmost conviction. With you off our hands, we can act freely. We must deliver an attack to-night. G.o.d in Heaven, you cannot think that we would expose you to the perils of a desperate fight!"

His sudden outburst was unexpected, even by himself. He trembled in an agony of pa.s.sion. Iris placed a timid hand on his shoulder.

"I will go," she whispered. "Please do not be distressed on my account. I will go. I brought you here, not to discuss my own fate, but yours. These Brazilians will not scruple to make use of you, and then throw you aside if it suits their purpose. That man, De Sylva, does not care how he attains power, and I know that he and the officer entertain some plan which they have not revealed to you."

"You . . . _know_."

"Yes. I understand a little of their language. I have a mere glimpse of its sense, as one sees a landscape through a mist. When De Sylva told you to-day that San Benavides was with you heart and soul, he was lying. There were things said about a s.h.i.+p, and midnight, and a boat.

I watched the officer's face. He was wholly opposed to the landing to-night. My mind is not so vague now. I think I can grasp his meaning. Was it not to-night that the _Andros-y-Mela_ was to appear?"

"Yes."

"Well, may they not hope secretly that she will keep to the fixed hour?

Once you and I and the others are on the island, and an alarm is given, the Brazilians could slip away unnoticed. Yes, that is it. I do not trust them any more than I trusted Captain c.o.ke. Don't you realize that he brought the _Andromeda_ to this place in order to wreck her more easily? It was to supply a pretext for the visit that he made undrinkable the water in the s.h.i.+p's tanks."

That appealing hand still rested on Philip's shoulder. Its touch affected him profoundly. With a lightning dart of memory his thoughts went back to the moment when she lay, inert and half-fainting, in his arms on the bridge, after he had taken her from the lazarette. But he controlled his voice sufficiently to say:

"You may be right; indeed, I know you are right, so far as c.o.ke is concerned. When I went aft to find out if one of the boats could not be cleared, I noticed that a steering-gear box had been prised open again. I had time for only a second's glance, but I was sure the damage had not been done by a bullet. So the _Andromeda_ was doomed to be lost, no matter what happened. By ----, forgive me, Miss Yorke, but this kind of thing makes one savage."

"Perhaps it is matterless now. c.o.ke will stand by the rest of us in our struggle for life, at any rate. But the Brazilians----"

"Have no fear of them. I, too, have watched San Benavides. I don't like the fellow, and wouldn't place an ounce of faith in him, but De Sylva has brains, and he knows well enough that no s.h.i.+p from Brazil will come to Fernando Noronha in his behalf. In fact, he dreads a visit by a Government vessel, in which event our frail chance of seizing that launch----"

She felt, rather than saw, that he had suddenly grown rigid. His right arm flew out and drew her to him.

"Sh-s-s-h!" he breathed, and pulled her behind a rock. Her woman's heart yielded to dread of the unseen. It pulsed violently, and she was tempted to scream. Despite his warning, she must at least have whispered a question, but her ears caught a sound to which they were now well accustomed. The light chug-chug of an engine and the flapping of a propeller came up to them from the sea. The steam launch was approaching. Perhaps they had been seen already! As if to emphasize this new peril, there was an interval of silence. Steam had been shut off. Philip touched the girl's lips lightly with a finger. Then he lay flat on the ledge and began to creep forward. It was impossible that he should run and warn the others, but it was essential, above all else, that he should ascertain what the men on the launch were doing, and the extent of their knowledge.

He found a tuft of the gra.s.s that clung to a crevice where its roots drew hardy sustenance from the crumbling rock; he ventured to thrust his head through this screen, following Domingo's example some hours earlier. Almost directly beneath, his eager glance found the little vessel. She was floating past with the current. He peered down on to her deck as if from the top of a mast. A few cigarette-smoking officers were grouped in her bows. Apparently, they were more interested in the remains of the _Andromeda_ than in the natural fortress overhead. Cl.u.s.tered round the hatch were some twenty soldiers, also smoking.

One of the officers pointed to the ledge; he was excited and emphatic.

Philip could not imagine that they had detected him, but he feared lest Iris, in her agitation, might have moved. In that clear, calm air, not even the growing dusk would hide the flutter of a skirt or the altered position of a white face. A man in charge of the wheel replied to the officer with a laugh. The first speaker turned, glanced at the Brothers reef, behind which the _Andromeda's_ boat had vanished that morning, and nodded dubiously. The man at the wheel growled an order, and the engine started again. Though Hozier knew not what was said, the significance of this pantomime was not lost on him. The local pilot was afraid of these treacherous waters in the dark, but next day Frade de Francez (which is the islanders' name for the Grand-pere Rock) would surely be explored if a landing could be made. At a guess, the silent watcher took it that the steersman had declined to make a circuit of the rock until the light was good.

Away bustled the launch, but Hozier did not move until there was no risk of his figure being silhouetted against the sky. Even then, he wormed his way backward with slow caution. Iris was crouched where he had left her, wide-eyed, motionless.

"Good job we came here," he said. "It is evident they mean to maintain a patrol until there is news of De Sylva one way or the other. It will be interesting now to hear what the gallant San Benavides says. If any s.h.i.+p comes to Fernando Noronha to-night she will be seen from the island long before any signal is visible at this point."

"Do you think the others saw the launch?" she asked.

"No--not unless some of the men strayed down the gully, which they were told not to do. The breakers would drown the noise of the engines and screw."

There was a slight pause.

"Will you tell them?" she went on.

"Why not?"

This time the pause was more eloquent than words. Quite unconsciously, Iris replied to her own question.

"Of course, as you said a little while ago, we owe our lives to Dom Corria De Sylva," she murmured, as if she were reasoning with herself.

By chance, probably because Hozier stooped to help her to her feet, his arm rested lightly across her shoulders.

"I will not pretend to misunderstand you," he said. "If the Brazilians do not mean to play the game, it would be a just punishment to let them rush on their own doom. But De Sylva may not agree with this fop of an officer, and, in any event, we must go straight with him until he shows his teeth."

"You seem to dislike Captain San Benavides," she said inconsequently.

"I regard him as a brainless a.s.s," he exclaimed.

"Somehow, that sounds like a description of a dead donkey, which one never sees."

"Mademoiselle!" came a voice from the lip of the ravine.

"One can hear him, though," laughed Hozier, with a warning pressure that suspiciously resembled a hug. These two were children, in some respects, quicker to jest than to grieve, better fitted for mirth than tragedy.

They moved out from their niche, and San Benavides bl.u.s.tered into vehement French.

"We are going to the landing-place before it is too dark," he muttered angrily. "We must not show a light; in a few minutes the path will be most dangerous. Please make haste, mademoiselle. We did not know where you had gone."

"The men knew," suggested Hozier in the girl's ear. He dared not trust either his temper or his vocabulary.

"We shall lose no time, now, monsieur," said Iris, hurrying on.

"This way then. No, we do not pa.s.s the cave. We go right round the cliff. Permit me, mademoiselle. I am acquainted with each step."

He took her hand. Philip followed. He was young enough to long for an opportunity to tell San Benavides that he was a puppy, a mongrel puppy.

Just then he would have given a gun-metal case, filled with cigars--the only treasure he possessed--for a Portuguese dictionary.

After a really difficult and hazardous descent, they found the others awaiting them in a rock-shrouded cove. The barest standing-room was afforded by a patch of s.h.i.+ngle and detritus. Alongside a flat stone lay three broad planks tied together with cowhide. The center plank was turned up at one end. This was the catamaran, which de Sylva had dignified by the name of boat. The primitive craft rested in a black pool in which the stars trembled, though they were hardly visible as yet in the brighter sky. The water murmured in response to the movement of the tide, but to the unaided eye there was no vestige of a pa.s.sage through the volcanic barrier that reared itself on every hand.