Poison Island

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  THE MASTER OF THE ISLAND.

  But here, as Captain Branscome leaned back and caught feebly at themain rigging for support, there appeared above the after companion(like a cognisance above an escutcheon) a bent fore-arm, the handgrasping a beaver hat. It was presently followed by the head of MissBelcher, who nodded cheerfully, blinking a little in the level lightof the sunset.

  "Hallo!" said she, addressing Plinny, while she adjusted the hat uponher brow. "Have you been telling the Captain about our visitor?"

  "Miss Plinlimmon, ma'am, has given me a shock, and I won't deny it,"answered the Captain, recovering himself.

  Miss Belcher continued to nod like a china mandarin.

  "I don't wonder," she agreed. "For my part, you might have knockedme down with a feather. The fellow came down the creek, cool as youplease, and pulling a nice easy stroke, in Harry's cockboat.Where is Harry, by the way?"--her eyes lit and fastened upon me--"Good Lord! what have you been doing to the child?"

  "Nothing, ma'am. He has been exploring, and lost his way; that'sall."

  "H'm! he seems to have lost it pretty badly. Well, he deserved it.But, as I was saying, along comes my gentleman, pulling with just theeasy jerk which is the way to make a boat of that sort travel.Goodfellow was keeping watch. They say that a sailor will recognizea boat half a mile further off than he'll recognize the man in it,but Goodfellow isn't a sailor, so that explanation won't fit.We'll say that he was prepared for the boat returning, but not tofind an entire stranger pulling her. At all events, he let her comewithin a couple of gunshots before calling down to the cabin andgiving the alarm. I had my legs up on a locker, and was taking asiesta over a book--'Parkinson _On The Dog_'--and, by the way, wewere a set of fools not to bring a dog; but I ran up the companion ina jiffy, and had the sense to catch up your spyglass as I went.Goodfellow by this time had begun to dance about the deck in aflutter. He had the tinder-box in his hand, and wanted to know if heshould touch off a rocket. I ordered him to drop it, and fetch me amusket, which he did. By this time I could see that the man in theboat was unarmed, so I put up the musket at the 'present,' got thesight on him, and called out to know his business.

  "The man jerked the cockboat round with her stern to the schooner--these boats come right-about with a single twist--and says he, verypolitely lifting his hat, 'You'll pardon me, ma'am, but (as you see)I have borrowed your young friend's boat. My own was not handy, andthis seemed the quickest way to pay my respects.' 'Indeed?' said I,'and who may you be?' 'My name, ma'am,' said he, 'is Beauregard--Dr.Beauregard.' 'I never heard of you,' said I. 'That, ma'am, isentirely my misfortune,' said he, lifting his hat again; 'but allowme to say that I am the proprietor of this island, and very much atyour service.'

  "Well, this was a facer. It never occurred to any of us--eh?--thatthis island might have an owner. To tell the truth, I'm a sticklerfor the rights of property, at home; but somehow the notion of anisland like this belonging to any one had never entered my head.Yet the thing is reasonable enough when you come to think it over;and, of course, I saw that it put an entirely different complexionupon our business here."

  "My dear Lydia," put in Mr. Rogers, impatiently, "the man's claimmust be absurd. Why, the island is right in the tropics!"

  "You wouldn't have thought it a bit absurd if you had heard him,"retorted Miss Belcher. "He appeared to be quite sure of his ground.Very pleasant about it, too, he was; said that few visitors everhonoured his out-of-the way home, but that as soon as any arrived healways made it a matter of--of punctilio (yes, that was the word) toput off and bid them welcome. He spoke with the slightest possibleforeign accent, but used admirable English: and, I don't know why,"wound up Miss Belcher, ingenuously, "but he seemed to divine from thefirst that I was an Englishwoman."

  "And it wasn't as if we had come here flaunting British colours,"added Plinny.

  "But what sort of man was he?" asked the Captain.

  "Height, six foot two or three in his stockings; age, about sixty;face, clean shaven and fleshy; the features extraordinarily powerful;hair, jet black, and dyed (if at all) by a process that would makehis fortune if he sold the secret; clothes, black alpaca and wellcut, with silk stockings that would be cheap at two guineas, andshoes with gold buckles on 'em. I couldn't take my eyes off--nodisplay about 'em--and yet I doubt if King Louis of France over worethe like before they cut his head off. Complexion, pale for thisclimate, with a sort of silvery shine about it. Manner charming,voice charming, bearing fit for a grand seigneur; and that's what heis, or something like it, unless, as I rather incline to suspect,he's the biggest scoundrel unhung."

  "Oh, Miss Belcher!" protested Plinny. "When you agreed with me thathe might have sat for a portrait of a gentleman of the old school!"

  "Tut, my dear! When I saw that you had lost your heart to him assoon as he set foot on deck! Did I say 'of the old school'?Yes, indeed, and of the very oldest; and, in fact, quite possibly theOld Gentleman himself."

  Now, either I had spoiled Captain Branscome's temper for the day, orsomething in this speech of Miss Belcher's especially rasped it.

  "But who is this man?" he demanded, in a sharp, authoritative voice.

  Miss Belcher stepped back half a pace. I saw her chin go up, and itseemed to grow square as she answered him with a dangerous coldness.

  "I beg your pardon. I thought I told you that he gave his name asDr. Beauregard."

  "You had no business, ma'am, to allow him on board the ship."

  "No business?"

  "No business, ma'am. I have just been having words with young Harry,here, over his disobedience this afternoon; but this is infinitelymore serious. We are here to search for treasure. We no sooner dropanchor than a man visits us, who claims that the island is his.This at once presupposes his claim upon any treasure that may behidden upon it, and consequently that, as soon as he discovers ourpurpose, he will be our enemy. It follows, I should imagine, that ofall steps the most fatal was to admit him on board to discover ourweakness."

  "Our weakness, sir?" asked Miss Belcher, carelessly, as though buthalf attending.

  "Our weakness, ma'am; as it was doubtless to discover our weaknessthat he came."

  "Now, I rather thought," murmured Miss Belcher, "that Miss Plinlimmonand I had spent a great part of this afternoon in impressing him withour strength."

  "To be sure," pursued Captain Branscome, "with such a company as hefound on board, he can scarcely have suspected a treasure hunt.Still, when he does suspect it--as sooner or later he must--he willknow our weakness."

  "He could scarcely have dealt with us more frankly than he did, atany rate," said Miss Belcher, with an air of simplicity; "for heassured us he was alone on the island."

  "And you believed him, ma'am?"

  "I forget, sir, if I believed him; but he certainly knows that we arehere in search of treasure, for I told him so myself."

  Captain Branscome gasped. "You--you told him so?" he echoed.

  "I did, and he replied that it scarcely surprised him to hear it,that of the few vessels which found their way to Mortallone, quite anappreciable proportion came with some idea of discovering treasure.The proportion, he added, had fallen off of late years, and themost of them nowadays put in to water, but there was a time whenthe treasure-seekers threatened to become a positive nuisance.He said this with a smile which disarmed all suspicion. In fact, itwas impossible to take offence with the man."

  But at this point Plinny, frightened perhaps at the warnings ofapoplexy in Captain Branscome's face, laid a hand gently on MissBelcher's arm.

  "Are we treating our good friend quite fairly?" she asked.

  Miss Belcher glanced at her and broke into a ringing laugh.

  "You dear creature! No, to be sure, we are not; but from a child Ialways turned mischievous under correction. Captain Branscome, I begyour pardon."

  "It is granted, ma'am."

  "And--for I take you to be on the point of resignin
g, here and now--"

  "Ma'am, you have guessed correctly."

  "I am going to beg you to do nothing of the sort. No, I am notgoing to ask it only as a favour, but to appeal to your reason.You think it extremely rash of me to have entertained this man andtalked with him so frankly? Well, but consider. To begin with, ifI had not told him that we were after the treasure, he would probablyhave guessed it; nay, I make bold to say that he guessed it already,for--I forgot to mention it--he knows Harry Brooks."

  "Knows _me_, ma'am?" I cried out, as all the company turned andstared at me.

  "He says so, and that he recognized you as you were sculling up thecreek."

  "Knows _me_?" I echoed. "But who on earth can he be, then? Not--notthe man Aaron Glass, surely?"

  "I was wondering," said Miss Belcher.

  "But--but Aaron Glass wasn't a bit like this man, as you make himout; a thin, foxy-looking fellow, with sandy hair and a face full ofwrinkles, about the middling height, with sloping shoulders--"

  "Then he can't be Aaron Glass. But whoever he is, he knows you--that's the important point--and pretty certainly connects you withthe treasure. He didn't seem to have met Goodfellow before.Well, now, if he lives alone here--which, I admit, is not likely--weought to be more than a match for him. If, on the other hand, he hasmen at his call--and I ask your particular attention here, Captain--it was surely no folly at all, but the plainest common sense, toadmit him on board. He will go off and report that our ship'scompany consists of two middle-aged maiden ladies (I occupied myselfwith tatting a chair-cover while he conversed); a boy; Mr. Goodfellow(whatever he may have made of Goodfellow); and two gentlemen ashoreto whose mental and physical powers I was careful to do someinjustice. You will pardon me, Captain, but I laid more thanwarrantable stress on your lameness; and us for you, Jack, I depictedyou as a mere country booby"--here Mr. Rogers bowed amiably--"andadded by way of confirmation that I had known you from childhood.He will go back and report all this, with the certain consequencethat he and his confederates will mistake us for a crew ofcrack-brained eccentrics."

  When she had done, the Captain stood considering for a moment,rubbing his chin.

  "Yes," he admitted slowly, "there seems reason in that, ma'am;reason and method. But 'tis a kind of reason and method outside allmy experience, and you must excuse me if I get the grip of it slowly.I should like a good look at the man before saying more."

  "As to that," answered Miss Belcher, "you won't have long to waitfor it. He has invited us all ashore to-morrow, for a picnic.He charged me to say--if he did not happen to run against you as hewas returning the cockboat--that he would be at the creek-headpunctually at nine-thirty to await us."

  Two hours later Captain Branscome sent word for me to attend him inhis cabin.

  "I want to tell you, Harry Brooks," said the old man, turning awayfrom me while he lit his pipe, "that I have been thinking over whathappened this afternoon."

  "I was in the wrong, sir."

  "You were; and I am glad to hear you acknowledge it. Now, what Iwant to say is this. Had affairs gone in the least as I expected, Ishould have held you to 'strict service,' as we used to say on theold packets. I never tolerated a favourite on board, and nevershall. But these ladies don't make a favourite of you; that's notthe trouble. The trouble--no, I won't call it even that--is that youand they all cannot help taking the bit between your teeth. It don'tappear to be your fault; you wasn't bred to the sea, and can't tumbleto sea-fashions. 'So much the worse,' a man might say. The plagueof it is, I can't be sure; and after casting it up and down, I'vedetermined to let you have your way."

  "You don't mean, sir, that you're going to resign!" said I,confounded.

  "No, I don't. Saving your objections, boy, I was elected captain,and it don't do away with my responsibility that I choose to letdiscipline go to the winds. If mischief comes I shall be to blame,because I might have stopped it but didn't."

  I was silent. This should have been the time for me to tell what Ihad discovered that afternoon; of the graveyard and the two strangewomen. But shame tied my tongue. I saw that this noble gentleman,in imparting his thoughts to me, was really condescending to ask mypardon; and the injustice of it was so monstrous that I felt adelicacy in letting him know the extent of my unworthiness.I temporized, and promised myself a better occasion.

  "But are you quite sure, sir, that yours was not the wisest plan,after all?"

  "The question is not worth considering," he answered. "My policy--you would hardly call it a plan, for it wholly depended oncircumstances--no longer exists. The ladies, you see, have forced myhand."

  I forbore to tell him that if the ladies had forced his hand hisaccepting full responsibility was simply quixotic.

  "She's a wonderful woman," said I, by way of filling up the pause.

  "And so womanly!" assented Captain Branscome, to my entire surprise.

  "Indeed, sir," I stammered. "Well, I _have_ heard people say--Mr.Rogers for one--that Miss Belcher ought to have been born a man."

  "Miss Belcher? Why, heavens alive, boy, I was referring to MissPlinlimmon!"

  He dismissed me with a wave of the hand, but called me back as Iturned to the door.

  "Oh, by the way," said he, "I had almost forgotten the reason why Isent for you. This man--have you any notion who he can be?"

  "None, sir."

  "You've thought over every possible person of your acquaintance?Well"--as I nodded--"we shall know to-morrow morning, if he keeps hisword. Mr. Rogers has kindly undertaken to stay and look after theschooner. He has a sense of discipline, by the way, has Mr. Rogers."

  "If you wish me, sir, to stay with him-"

  "Thank you," he interrupted dryly, "but we shall need you ashore; inthe first place to indentify this mysterious stranger, and also tohelp protect the ladies. Their escort, Heaven knows, is notexcessive. We take the gig, and if the man fails to appear, orbrings even so much as one companion, I give the word to return."

  But these apprehensions proved to be groundless. As we rowed aroundthe bend next morning into view of the creek-head the man stood therealone, awaiting us. He saw us at once, and lifted his hat inwelcome.

  "Do you know him, Harry?" asked Miss Belcher.

  "No," said I, pretty confidently, and then--"But, yes--in the garden,that evening--the day you went up to Plymouth for the sale!"

  "Eh? The garden at Minden Cottage? What on earth was he doingthere?"

  "Nothing, ma'am--at least, I don't know. He seemed to be takingmeasurements, and he gave me a guinea. I rather think, ma'am, he wasthe man that attended the auction."

  "You never saw him until that evening?"

  "No."

  "Nor afterwards?"

  "Only that once, ma'am."

  "Oh!" said Miss Belcher.