Foul Play

by Charles Reade

  CHAPTER XL.

  "THERE," said he. "Now the latitude I must guess at by certaincombinations. In the first place, the slight variation in the length ofthe days. Then I must try and make a rough calculation of the sun'sparallax. And then my botany will help me a little; spices furnish aclew; there are one or two that will not grow outside the tropic. It wasthe longitude that beat me, and now we have conquered it. Hurrah! Now Iknow what to diffuse, and in what direction; east, southeast; the duckshave shown me that much. So there's the first step toward the impossibleproblem."

  "Very well," said Helen; "and I am sure one step is enough for one day. Iforbid you the topic for twelve hours at least. I detest it because italways makes your poor head so hot."

  "What on earth does that matter?" said Hazel, impetuously, and almostcrossly.

  "Come, come, come, sir," said Helen authoritatively; "it matters to me."

  But when she saw that he could think of nothing else, and that oppositionirritated him, she had the tact and good sense not to strain herauthority, nor to irritate her subject.

  Hazel spliced a long, fine-pointed stick to the mast-head, and set aplank painted white with guano at right angles to the base of the mast;and so, whenever the sun attained his meridian altitude, went into adifficult and subtle calculation to arrive at the latitude, or as near itas he could without proper instruments. And he brooded and brooded overhis discovery of the longitude, but unfortunately he could not advance.In some problems the first step once gained leads, or at least points, tothe next; but to know whereabouts they were, and to let others know it,were two difficulties heterogeneous and distinct.

  Having thought and thought till his head was dizzy, at last he tookHelen's advice and put it by for a while. He set himself to fit andnumber a quantity of pearl-oyster shells, so that he might be able toplace them at once, when he should be able to recommence his labor oflove in the cavern.

  One day Helen had left him so employed, and was busy cooking the dinnerat her own place, but, mind you, with one eye on the dinner and anotheron her patient, when suddenly she heard him shouting very loud, and ranout to see what was the matter.

  He was roaring like mad, and whirling his arms over his head like ademented windmill.

  She ran to him.

  "Eureka! Eureka!" he shouted, in furious excitement.

  "Oh, dear!" cried Helen; "never mind." She was all against her patientexciting himself.

  But he was exalted beyond even her control. "Crown me with laurel," hecried; "I have solved the problem." And up went his arms.

  "Oh, is that all?" said she, calmly.

  "Get me two squares of my parchment," cried he; "and some of the finestgut."

  "Will not after dinner do?"

  "No; certainly not," said Hazel, in a voice of command. "I wouldn't waita moment for all the flesh-pots of Egypt."

  Then she went like the wind and fetched them.

  "Oh, thank you! thank you! Now I want--let me see--ah, there's an oldrusty hoop that was washed ashore, on one of that ship's casks. I put itcarefully away; how the unlikeliest things come in useful soon or late!"

  She went for the hoop, but not so rapidly, for here it was that the firstfaint doubt of his sanity came in. However, she brought it, and hethanked her.

  "And now," said he, "while I prepare the intelligence, will you be sokind as to fetch me the rushes?"

  "The what?" said Helen, in growing dismay.

  "The rushes! I'll tell you where to find some."

  Helen thought the best thing was to temporize. Perhaps he would be betterafter eating some wholesome food. "I'll fetch them directly afterdinner," said she. "But it will be spoiled if I leave it for long; and Ido so want it to be nice for you to-day."

  "Dinner?" cried Hazel. "What do I care for dinner now? I am solving myproblem. I'd rather go without dinner for years than interrupt a greatidea. Pray let dinner take its chance, and obey me for once."

  "For once!" said Helen, and turned her mild hazel eyes on him with such alook of gentle reproach.

  "Forgive me! But don't take me for a child, asking you for a toy; I'm apoor crippled inventor, who sees daylight at last. Oh, I am on fire; and,if you want me not to go into a fever, why, get me my rushes."

  "Where shall I find them?" said Helen, catching fire at him.

  "Go to where your old hut stood, and follow the river about a furlong.You will find a bed of high rushes. Cut me a good bundle, cut them belowthe water, choose the stoutest. Here is a pair of shears I found in theship."

  She took the shears and went swiftly across the sands and up the slope.He watched her with an admiring eye; and well he might, for it was thevery poetry of motion. Hazel in his hours of health had almost given upwalking; he ran from point to point, without fatigue or shortness ofbreath. Helen, equally pressed for time, did not run; but she went almostas fast. By rising with the dawn, by three meals a day of animal food, byconstant work, and heavenly air, she was in a condition women rarelyattain to. She was _trained._ Ten miles was no more to her than tenyards. And, when she was in a hurry, she got over the ground by a grandbut feminine motion not easy to describe. It was a series of smoothundulations, not vulgar strides, but swift rushes, in which the loinsseemed to propel the whole body, and the feet scarcely to touch theground. It was the vigor and freedom of a savage, with the grace of alady.

  And so it was she swept across the sands and up the slope,

  _"Et vera incessu patuit Dea."_

  While she was gone, Hazel cut two little squares of seals' bladder, onelarger than the other. On the smaller he wrote: "An English lady wreckedon an island. W. longitude 103 deg. 30 min., S. latitude between the 33dand 26th parallels. Haste to her rescue." Then he folded this small, andinclosed it in the larger slip, which he made into a little bag, and tiedthe neck extremely tight with fine gut, leaving a long piece of the gutfree.

  And now Helen came gliding back, as she went, and brought him a largebundle of rushes.

  Then he asked her to help him fasten these rushes round the iron hoop.

  "It must not be done too regularly," said he; "but so as to look as muchlike a little bed of rushes as possible."

  Helen was puzzled still, but interested. So she set to work, and, betweenthem, they fastened rushes all round the hoop, although it was a largeone.

  But, when it was done, Hazel said they were too bare.

  "Then we will fasten another row," said Helen, good-humoredly. And,without more ado, she was off to the river again.

  When she came back, she found him up, and he said the great excitementhad cured him--such power has the brain over the body. This convinced herhe had really hit upon some great idea. And, when she had made him eathis dinner by her fire, she asked him to tell her all about it.

  But, by a natural reaction, the glorious and glowing excitement of mindthat had battled his very rheumatic pains was now followed by doubt anddejection.

  "Don't ask me yet," he sighed. "Theory is one thing; practice is another.We count without our antagonists. I forgot they will set their witsagainst mine; and they are many, I am but one. And I have been so oftendefeated. Do you know I have observed that whenever I say beforehand, NowI am going to do something clever, I am always defeated. Pride reallygoes before destruction, and vanity before a fall."

  The female mind, rejecting all else, went like a needle's point at onething in this explanation. "Our antagonists?" said Helen, looking sadlypuzzled. "Why, what antagonists have we?"

  "The messengers," said Hazel, with a groan. "The aerial messengers."

  That did the business. Helen dropped the subject with almost ludicroushaste; and, after a few commonplace observations, made a nice comfortabledose of grog and bark for him. This she administered as an independenttransaction, and not at all by way of comment on his antagonists, theaerial messengers.

  It operated unkindly for her purpose; it did him so much good that helifted up his dejected head, and his eyes sparkled again, and he set towork, and, by sunset, prepared two mo
re bags of bladder with inscriptionsinside, and long tails of fine gut hanging. He then set to work, and,with fingers far less adroit than hers, fastened another set of rushesround the hoop. He set them less evenly, and some of them not quiteperpendicular; and, while he was fumbling over this, and examining theeffect with paternal glances, Helen's hazel eye dwelt on him with furtivepity; for, to her, this girdle of rushes was now an instrument that borean ugly likeness to the scepter of straw, with which vanity run to seedsways imaginary kingdoms in Bedlam or Bicetre.

  And yet he was better. He walked about the cavern and conversedcharmingly; he was dictionary, essayist, _raconteur,_ anything she liked;and, as she prudently avoided and ignored the one fatal topic, it was adelightful evening. Her fingers were as busy as his tongue. And, when heretired, she presented him with the fruits of a fortnight's work, aglorious wrapper made of fleecy cotton inclosed in a plaited web offlexible and silky grasses. He thanked her, and blessed her, and retiredfor the night.

  About midnight she awoke and felt uneasy. So she did what since hisillness she had done a score of times without his knowledge--she stolefrom her lair to watch him.

  She found him wrapped in her present, which gave her great pleasure; andsleeping like an infant, which gave her joy. She eyed him eloquently fora long time; and then very timidly put out her hand, and, in her qualityof nurse, laid it lighter than down upon his brow.

  The brow was cool, and a very slight moisture on it showed the fever wasgoing or gone.

  She folded her arms and stood looking at him; and she thought of all theytwo had done and suffered together. Her eyes absorbed him, devoured him.The time flew by unheeded. It was so sweet to be able to set her facefrom its restraint, and let all its sunshine beam on him; and, even whenshe retired at last, those light hazel eyes, that could flash fire attimes, but were all dove-like now, hung and lingered on him as if theycould never look at him enough.

  Half an hour before daybreak she was awakened by the dog howlingpiteously. She felt a little uneasy at that; not much. However, she gotup, and issued from her cavern, just as the sun showed his red eye abovethe horizon. She went toward the boat, as a matter of course. She foundPonto tied to the helm. The boat was empty, and Hazel nowhere to be seen.

  She uttered a scream of dismay.

  The dog howled and whined louder than ever.