The Sea Wolves/Chapter 13

was now near to mid-day, and the sun beat upon the glassy sea with intolerable strength. While the men rowed from the shore they could see the fiery light glowing upon the caps of the barren hills and lighting even the crannies of the deeper valleys. Over the more open sweeps of grass, which lay among the lower pine-woods, herds of swine were roving; and a few sheep hugged the shelter of the spreading woods. But the light was blue with a brilliancy which was dazzling, and the driven men, worn with fatigue and doubt and danger, pulled mechanically, and by unspoken consent, to the river's mouth and the shade which it promised to them.

As they came nearer to the neck of the bay they had the better sight of their haven and of its possibilities. The stream fell from a great height of the mountains to the sea, but there was a deep blue pool where it struck the shore, and about this wooded slopes flanked so steeply that the trees upon their heights hung over the bay; and many a cove, roofed with clinging creeper and sheltering bush, offered harbourage from the outer waters. Into one of these, whose mouth was almost hidden by trailing shrubs, the men pulled the life-boat, to find themselves in that which was almost a cave, though it had a roof of fibrous wood and palm-like leaves, and was the home of a myriad of insects. Here all observation from within or without was impossible; soft light streamed down through a trellis of green; the air was deliciously cool, and for the first time since they had come to Spain the survivors of the Semiramis could think, not alone of their immediate circumstances, but of that overwhelming ill which had set them thus upon an inhospitable shore, with the vast treasure for which they had dared such hazards lying, it might be, upon the rocky bed of the reef, or even then swept by the strength of currents into the deeper sea, whence no man should raise it.

In the shadow of the cove Messenger pursued again the only idea which had engrossed him since he came ashore.

"Burke," said he, "I was thinking that the tide will be full low about four in the morning. Is that so?"

"It should be," replied Burke, "if tides here ain't as queer as the company."

"In that case we might pull out a little after midnight and see what luck we get then. The thing is,—if we should have any luck, what are we to do with the stuff, and how are we to hold it? To me it seems plain enough; we must get a ship—buy one up at the nearest port, which you call Ferrol, I believe—and lie low here with the freight until the man that goes for the ship picks us up. It's most cursedly unfortunate that we had a brush with those fellows; but that we must forget. I don't suppose they'll follow us across the bay here, and this seems to me just the place to lie in, while we search every yard of the reef we can reach, working always by the dark. There is no earthly reason, providing our suppositions are right—why we should not do well of the venture now. You won't forget that there are less to share"

"I was remembering that all along," said Kenner. "There's three in it now, and if half of the load remains, we're rich men. For my part, I've a notion, though, that you might as well seek out yonder for greenbacks as for kegs—why, look at the current! Who's seen the like of that?"

"There's current enough," interrupted Burke, as he drew the boat further up the cove and hitched the painter to a root which sprang from the bank, "but that don't concern us. Any child ken see ez the aft cabin is riz up just like a load in a cradle. Whether the money lies there or is swep' away you'll learn by looking, and not by talking; and you won't look till the dark falls."

"Meanwhile," hazarded Fisher, who lay his length in the bow of the ship and listened—"Meanwhile we shall have to forage for victuals, as you call them, Burke; my clock strikes lunch!"

"Put me down for that," said Kenner; "lunch and another bottle of Spanish vinegar, if it's on tap!—eh, Joe, what are you going to cook for lunch?"

The half-caste had curled himself up astern during the row across the bay, but now he woke up at the mention of cookery, and said—

"Be gor! you cook odd man out, sahs! You cook yourselves by-and-the-by."

"Has any one thought of searching the locker?" asked Messenger of a sudden. "I suppose you found the rifle there, Joe?"

"Jess so, sah," said Joe; "I take the liberty to kick him open, and drink your rum, sahs—very good rum; nice long bottle, gemmelen"

"And a nice long throat!" said Messenger, as he held up a flask of spirit which had lain in the locker of the ship, together with a large provision of biscuits, tinned meats, and ammunition both for a pair of Winchester rifles and for Colt's army revolvers. All the boats of the Semiramis had been charged thus against peril of the sea; but never did provision come in more handily. There was food enough in this water-tight garner against a week of concealment; and the spirit in particular helped Kenner against his ailments and to strength. Indeed, the meal under the shade of the green haven was near to a merry one, and was flavoured with that salt of excitement and expectancy which in some measure moved them all.

About four of the clock, when the power of the sun had fallen away, and the men had slept heavily upon the hard boards of the boat, they awoke in better hope than they had known since they came to the shore. There was now more suppleness of limb and mind, a greater readiness for activity among them; and they listened to Messenger, who had naturally assumed a dictatorship, with willing ears.

"It's time now," said he, "that we had a look round us shoreward as well as to sea. I am proposing that Fisher and I make our way carefully to the heights here and prospect, while, you three have watch of the boat. A gunshot on either side means that help is wanted; but any man who shows himself when he can lie low deserves what he gets. What I want to find out is if there's a village within two miles of here; and if so, whether it's a place where we're likely to get help or the other thing."

They all agreed to this readily, and Fisher, having taken a dozen cartridges from the water-proof box in the locker, he left with Messenger on the outpost work. To quit the cave of branches was no easy task—unless they had pulled into the cove, which they did not wish to do; but they contrived to force a path through the trellis of green where it met the bank, and then by climbing nimbly they came up to a verdurous wood which ran by the shore, and into this they plunged.

The wood was dark in the shade of great chestnut trees, and alive with the hum of myriads of gnats and flies and with the note of birds. It was a strange contrast with the barren hills beyond; but thus is all Galicia, the province, or, rather, four provinces, of tropical valley and sterile upland, of fine pasturage and iron mountain. The two men, following the shelter of the thicket for some half-a-mile, could see in the more open glades the herding swine and cattle, with here and there a shepherd lying his length upon the sward; but, beyond the one castle-like building, which now presented a fine face, they had no sight either of village or of habitation.

At a distance, it might be, of a mile from the cove Messenger, who was going before Fisher, came upon a bridle-path, there being a second branching from this, and leading downward to the valley. He stopped at the divergent ways, and, speaking in a whisper, said—

"You take the lower road; but do not show yourself in the open unless you see an object. If you want me, fire once; but you won't do that unless you're in any danger, and that isn't likely unless you run against the men we saw this morning. I trust to you."

Fisher nodded his head for agreement, put his hand upon his pistol to see that it was ready, and went swiftly down the ravine toward the more open woodland. If the truth be written, he had been overcome by no mind for the business since the beginning of it upon the yacht; and the subsequent days did not turn him to affection for it, but left him n doubt if there was one honest man among the company. The business of the money he did not in any way understand; but his faith in Messenger was no longer unquestioning; and although he had no proof to warrant him, he yet knew that a gulf had opened between his one friend and himself, and that nothing coming after could ever bridge it over again. Yet, for the moment, the common necessities of the company compelled him to participate in its actions. He had no manner of proof against the men he judged, no support for his conjecture; he could but theorize, and his theory, being honest, drove him to close action with the survivors of the yacht.

As he thought of these things, descending into the woody valley, which lay on the hither side of the mountains, he came, after a sharp walk, into a sylvan glen of the thicket, a shady bower of moss and fern and grass, with a burn splashing in the middle of it and a fringe of low trees set prettily upon its banks. The place was one for concealment, and gave no promise of habitation; but his surprise was very great when a dog, a Dane of prodigious size, ran up to him enquiringly and forbade advance or even retrogression. No sooner, however, had he drawn back a pace into the wood than the mistress of the dog, a vivacious girl in a cotton frock and an English-looking straw hat, was at the collar of the hound, patting him with a gentle caress and drawing him away to the tree-trunk whereon she had been sitting. Fisher, looking at her across the glade, bethought him that he knew her face; a moment's reflection assured him that he had seen her often before. She was the Spanish girl he had watched curiously at Monaco, the daughter of the woman who had inspired Kenner to such gloomy thoughts and Messenger to such light humour!

This discovery set the lad much at his ease. Messenger, he remembered, had told him to conceal himself from all those who were about the coast, but here at least was a civilized being; Spanish, perhaps, yet none the less to be welcomed in that dismal haven. He had last seen the girl in the whirl of life at Monaco; it must be confessed that he had watched her often interestedly—yet here was she in this wild haven, and surely her presence promised help for the party. In any case, he determined to speak to her, believing that the Prince would approve the act; and he advanced from the thicket readily, thinking as he did so what a sorry figure he must cut with his washed-out clothes, his dank hair, and his collarless shirt; and as the girl stood looking at him amazedly he said in very ill French, since he had no Spanish—

"I hope I don't frighten you, but I am one of the survivors of a yacht that's been wrecked off here, and I'm looking for the nearest village or something civilised. I thought perhaps you might help me."

The girl heard him with luminous black eyes very wide open. When she answered, it was in good English, as good as his own, though just touched with an accent that gave to it a potent charm.

"I can speak your language," said she, "better than I can speak French. I was educated at Isleworth, near London. I remember you at Monaco; you were with the dark Englishman there. My mother is still in Italy, but the big house over there is ours, and we expect her back every day."

"We seem to be in luck!" cried Fisher. "Our yacht went ashore on the bar of the bay, and, so far as we know, there are only five of us left alive. We've had a hard time, and the three men we met on the shore were so glad to see us that they began to shoot when we landed. I was looking for some shelter when I met you, and perhaps some of your people can put us in the way of getting it."

The girl looked up at him timorously, stroking the great hound, but hesitating to speak. When she answered, it was with restrained voice, and shyly.

"I am afraid," said she, "that you will find little hospitality in the village of Espasante or anywhere here. There is a coast-guard station at Carnero, and the watchman would be the safest man to go to; or you might ask in the village for the priest, who is named Semello. Our own house is shut up; and even to-day a stranger is not quite safe alone in this wild place. Have you a boat with you?"

"Yes," said Fisher, "the yacht's longboat was washed up sound upon the sand, and if it hadn't been for the biscuit in it, we should have wanted a dinner to-day. I should have thought, though, that there would have been some house near where we could have got food and rest just for the day."

"That is because you don't know the coast," said she earnestly; "it's a dreadful place, though I say it, who have lived half my life here. If you would listen to me, you would not stay another day here—not another hour—when you can get away."

The girl seemed to speak so earnestly that Fisher, with her words in his ears, bethought him that there was something, at any rate, for Messenger to know, and to know without loss of time. The recollection made him a little abrupt in thanking her who had advised him, and, with a curt word, he turned upon his heel and re-entered the wood. But he had not gone many steps before he heard the Spanish girl's voice, and when he looked round, she was running after him with a light pannier of straw in her hands. This she offered to him without a word, though she spoke pity with her great eyes, and her cheeks flushed with the effort she made. Then she ran off again as she had come; and presently he found the basket to be full of fruit, and a bottle of wine with some fine oatmeal biscuits lay in the bottom of it. His first impulse of the gift was to sit upon the sward and slake his thirst with the luscious grapes; yet he remembered the others and their need, and went straight on toward the shore.

Scarce, however, was he in the dark place of the wood before he heard a crackling of the bushes ahead of him, and, as he stood a moment, a great Spaniard appeared upon the path and held up a cudgel as a signal for him to stop.