Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/725

19, 1863.] flashing the glass in that way. Does he think there are no eyes in the castle yonder sharp enough to see that the reflection is not from the the water? Here, Catty, bring me your looking-glass! Be quick, or that owlish lover of yours will have the Philistines upon him.”

The young woman he called to was lying beside a fire which was burning on the shore a few yards behind him. She jumped up instantly, ran into the tent, and returned with a small round looking-glass, which she handed to the captain, who immediately directed it towards the sun, and sent a stream of intense light across the sea in the direction of a boat, which was only just visible from where he stood. The signals from the boat were not renewed; and after waiting two or three minutes, apparently to satisfy himself that this was the case, he said—“We may as well get some breakfast. It will be two hours before it is high-water, and by that time Turner will have run into the bay.” He turned as he said this, and grasping a handful of the curls which hung from the young gipsy’s head in a caressing familiar manner, as though she were a child, approached the fire where the breakfast was preparing. There was in this action, simple in itself, that which told of a confidence between the two based on something stronger than a similarity of interest. On the part of the man it might have been nothing more than a feeling of brotherly regard; but the deep-red flush which glowed in her cheek, and the moist brightness which darkened the always dark eyes of the girl, showed that the feeling of affection with which she regarded him was very strong indeed. As she was a principal instrument in the plot which was being organised, it is necessary to say that she had not only the beauty which is conferred by the possession of regular features, dark-brown eyes, surmounted by narrow, arched, well-defined black eyebrows, a small mouth with full rosy lips, and a mass of black curls which rested on her shoulders and back; but she had, in addition, that attractive expression which seems to spring from a growing consciousness of beauty, and a sense of some mysterious happiness to be enjoyed in the future, the precise nature of which is unknown to the maiden who is just entering womanhood. The adventurous roving life she had been accustomed to, being natural to her, had merely given her a confident hearing, without that air of effrontery which would have been perceptible had she quitted a different sphere to enter on a gipsy’s life from choice.

By the time breakfast was finished, the boat, with Turner and two other men, was rounding Plate Roque; and as soon as she was made fast, one of them filled a basket with fish and went away in the direction of Mont Orgueil Castle; while the other two, having filled a second basket, carried it to the gipsy encampment, as though their object was simply to trade with the gipsies. Turner was one of the latter; the other was a gipsy belonging to the gang, and not a regular boatman. Captain Whitehead advanced to meet Turner, and the two sat down on a rock at some distance from the gipsy tent. The Captain was the first to speak.

“Well, Turner,” he began eagerly, “have you arranged with Clinton where he is to lie with the brig?”

“Yes.”

“And he thoroughly understands the instructions I gave you for him with respect to the signals?”

“I suppose so. He told me I should know the position of his vessel by seeing three lanterns one above the other, and I was to steer for them if anything happened to you; that as regarded the other signals you might reckon on his keeping a sharp lookout.”

“What else did he say?”

“That on Sunday night he would lie off the castle as short a distance from the outermost rock as would keep the brig safe and allow him to set all sail at an instant’s notice without risk of striking. Also, that he would have a boat manned, and ready to push off from the side the moment he saw the signal you had mentioned.”

“That part of the business is settled, then. Now, let me tell you what has been done since you sailed; for no time must now be lost in making the grand stroke which will make us rich if successful, and, what I care for most, give me a chance of paying off an old score.”

“To tell you the truth, I wish you were going into the business without having any old score on your mind. Those things only blind the judgment at the critical moment; though I cannot deny that it is apt to suggest ingenious schemes for effecting the desired object.”

“May theWell, there is no use in talking of that now. Catty is admitted into the castle to sing and dance whenever she pleases. Charles himself wanted to dance with her once, but he has got some careful guardians he is too much afraid of to disobey, who objected. However, a king never wants tools, and there is a young fellow among the soldiers who has asked her repeatedly to come up, on the nights when he is on duty—which is pretty often, on account of the smallness of the garrison—as Charles is anxious to see her dance in his private apartment.”

“But how will that assist your scheme?”

“In this way. You know there is a low door about five feet from the rock on the seaward side of the tower which faces the sea?” (Turner made a sign in the affirmative.) “That door opens on a staircase which leads up to a little cell, and passing through a door which opens into this cell you enter a narrow passage, from which there is a short staircase, leading right into the room which Charles uses as a sleeping-room. Catty is as surefooted as a goat, and she will manage to get the man to let her in by this door, under the pretence that she is not likely to be seen by her people in that case. Any excuse will do, especially as it will suit him better than letting her in by the postern.”

“And has Catty agreed to do this?” interrupted Turner, eagerly.

“Oh, you need not be alarmed on the score of her morals,” answered the other. “The moment the door is opened for her to enter we jump in after her. The rest you know; and you see how easy our adventure is made by Charles’s own weakness.”