Priscilla's Spies Part 32

"That's all right then. I thought perhaps you wouldn't. I always heard they rather despised French at boys' schools, which is idiotic of course and may not be true."

Frank recollected a form master with whom, at one stage of his career at school he used to study the adventures of the innocent Telemaque. This gentleman refused to read aloud or allow his cla.s.s to read aloud the text of the book, alleging that no one who did not suffer from a malformation of the mouth could p.r.o.nounce French properly. Still even this master must have attached some meaning to the phrase "double entendre," though he might not have used it in precisely Priscilla's sense.

"Flanagan has probably been over to Curraunbeg," said Priscilla, "to see how his old boat is looking. After what Jimmy Kinsella is sure to have told him about the way they're treating her he's naturally a bit anxious. I wonder will he have the nerve to charge them anything extra at the end for dilapidations. It's curious now that we don't see the tents on Curraunbeg. I saw them yesterday from Craggeen. Perhaps they've moved round to the other side of the island."

"There's a boat coming out from behind the point now," said Frank.

"Perhaps they're moving again."

Priscilla leaned over the gunwale and stared long at the boat which Frank pointed out.

"There's a man and a woman in her," he said.

"It's not Flanagan's old boat though," said Priscilla. "I rather think it's Jimmy Kinsella. I hope Miss Rutherford hasn't been hunting them on her own, under the impression that they're German spies. We oughtn't to have told her that. She's so frightfully impulsive you can't tell what she'd do."

Jimmy Kinsella had recognised the _Tortoise_ shortly after he rounded the point of Curraunbeg. He dropped his lug sail and began to row up to windward evidently meaning to get within speaking distance of Priscilla.

The boats approached each other at an angle. Miss Rutherford stood up in the stern of hers, waved a pocket handkerchief and shouted. Priscilla shouted in reply. Frank threw the _Tortoise_ up into the wind and Jimmy Kinsella pulled alongside.

"They've gone," said Miss Rutherford. "They've escaped you again."

"You've frightened them away," said Priscilla. "I wish you wouldn't."

"No," said Miss Rutherford, "I didn't Honour bright! They'd gone before I got there. The people on the island said they packed up early this morning and when they saw Flanagan pa.s.sing in his new boat they hailed him and got him to take them off."

"Wasn't that the boat we saw just now?" said Frank.

"Yes," said Priscilla. "Frightfully annoying, isn't it?"

"Never mind," said Miss Rutherford. "I know where they're gone. The people on the island told me. To Inishminna. Wasn't Inishminna the name, Jimmy?"

"It was, Miss."

"Climb on board," said Priscilla. "That is to say if you want to come.

We must be after them at once. We'll follow Flanagan. Jimmy can row through Craggeen pa.s.sage and pick you up afterwards."

Miss Rutherford tumbled from her own boat into the _Tortoise_.

"Thanks awfully," she said. "I want to see you arrest those spies more than anything."

"They're not spies," said Priscilla.

"We never really thought they were," said Frank.

"The truth is??" said Priscilla.

She stopped abruptly and looked round. Jimmy Kinsella was some distance astern heading for Craggeen. He appeared to be quite out of earshot.

Nevertheless Priscilla lowered her voice to a whisper.

"We're on an errand of mercy," she said.

"Oh," said Miss Rutherford, "not vengeance. I'm disappointed."

"Mercy is a much nicer thing," said Priscilla, "besides being more Christian."

"All the same," said Miss Rutherford, "I'm disappointed. Vengeance is far more exciting."

"To a certain extent," said Priscilla, "we're taking vengeance too.

At least Frank is, on account of his ankle you know. So you needn't be disappointed."

"That cheers me up a little," said Miss Rutherford, "but do explain."

"It's quite simple really," said Priscilla. "Though it may seem a little complicated. You explain, Cousin Frank, and be sure to begin at the beginning or she won't understand."

"Lord Torrington," said Frank, "is Secretary of State for War, and his daughter, Lady Isabel?but perhaps I'd better tell you first that as I was coming over to Ireland I met??"

"'Now who be ye would cross Lochgyle," said Priscilla, waving her hands towards the sea, "'this dark and stormy water?'"

"'Oh I'm the chief of Ulva's Isle, and this Lord Ullin's daughter.' You know that poem, I suppose."

"I've known it for years," said Miss Rutherford.

"Well, thats it," said Priscilla. "You have the whole thing now."

"I see," said Miss Rutherford, "I see it all now, or almost all. This is far better than spies. How did you ever think of it?"

"It's true," said Priscilla.

"Lord Torrington," said Frank, "is over here stopping with my uncle, and he came specially to find his daughter who's run away."

"'One lovely hand stretched out for aid,'" said Priscilla, "'and one was round her lover.' That's what we want to avoid if we can. I call that an errand of mercy. Don't you?"

"It's far and away the most merciful errand I ever heard of," said Miss Rutherford. "But why don't you hurry? At any moment now her father's men may reach the sh.o.r.e."

"We can't," said Priscilla, "hurry any more than we are. The wind's dropping every minute. Luff her a little bit, Frank, or she won't clear the point. The tide's taking us down, and that point runs out a terrific distance."

"The only thing I don't quite see yet," said Miss Rutherford, "is where the vengeance comes in."

"That's to be taken on her father," said Priscilla.

"Quite right," said Miss Rutherford, "as a matter of abstract justice; but I rather gathered from the way you spoke, Priscilla, that Frank had some kind of private feud with the old gentleman."

"He shoved me off the end of the steamer's gangway," said Frank, "and sprained my ankle. He has never so much as said he was sorry."

"Good," said Miss Rutherford. "Now our consciences are absolutely clear.

What we are going to do is to carry off the blus.h.i.+ng bride to some distant island."

"Inishbawn," said Priscilla.

The _Tortoise_ had slipped through the pa.s.sage at the south end of Finislaun. She was moving very slowly across another stretch of open water. On her lee bow lay Inishbawn. The island differs from most others in the bay in being twin. Instead of one there are two green mounds linked together by a long ridge of grey boulders. Tides sweep furiously round the two horns of it, but the water inside is calm and sheltered from any wind except one from the south east On the slope of the northern hill stands the Kinsellas' cottage, with certain patches of cultivated land around it. The southern hill is bare pasture land roamed over by bullocks and a few sheep which in stormy weather or night cross the stony isthmus to seek companions.h.i.+p and shelter near the cottage.