His Unknown Wife

by Louis Tracy

  CHAPTER XV

  THE SIMPLE LIFE

  Who found the boat? The question has not been answered to this day. Fourpeople held and vehemently expressed different opinions; if they had notagreed ultimately to pool the credit, the foundations of six very firmfriendships might have been endangered, because even the sisters were atlogger-heads on the point.

  No one could dispute the fact that it was Nina Forbes who, withoutstretched hand and pointing finger, exclaimed dramatically:

  "What is that?"

  But the other three yielded her no prior right on that account. Werethey not all looking at it, and thinking that which Nina said?

  Each could establish a most reasonable claim if the matter wereadjudicated by a prize court. Firstly, Maseden had ordered a closesurvey of the coast, and, if this very proper precaution had not beentaken, the boat would be rotting yet on an uncharted beach. Secondly, ifSturgess had not slipped on a rock and scarified his chin rather badlythere would, thirdly, have been no need for Madge to suggest that heshould wash the wound in fresh water, and even insist that this shouldbe done.

  Lastly, there was Nina, who literally demanded an explanation of a long,low strip of taut canvas visible above a small sand hill on which tuftsof coarse grass were struggling for life.

  The simplest way out of the difficulty was to admit that sheer,unadulterated good luck brought about an incident which probably changedthe whole course of events, though a white and shining patch of skin onSturgess's left leg testifies to this day that his accident wasprimarily responsible for it.

  Two fair-sized streams ran from the hills into the straits on that side.Near the first was pitched the camp. Well hidden near the second was theboat.

  Now, these rivulets, though fairly deep and swift, were not torrents;that is to say, they drained a watershed by no means so steep as HanoverIsland. Their volume was more regular, inasmuch as they were not whollythe outcome of the latest downpour of rain. To avoid the necessity offording them, one had to walk a long way seaward until their watersbegan to spread over the reef in a hundred little runnels, and one couldleap from rock to rock.

  Indeed, it was while Sturgess was so doing that he barked his shin, amost painful if not dangerous operation; in this instance, it evokedlanguage which the girls pretended not to hear.

  Having crossed the stream, however, Madge examined the damage, and wouldhave it that the sufferer take off his boot and sock, and forthwith lavethe wound in fresh water.

  What he really wanted to do was to wander away out of earshot andrelieve his feelings by the spoken word. He obeyed, however, and allfour went up the right bank (which, as Sturgess and Madge jointly citedin their contention, they certainly would not have done otherwise) to apoint where the river was free of salt-water.

  In the result, curiously enough, Sturgess's excoriated wound was leftabsolutely to its own devices. Both he and Madge, not to mention theother two, were startled out of any further thought of such a minorcasualty by coming full tilt on to a ship's boat, trimly sheeted in graycanvas, dry-docked, one might say, behind a sandhill.

  After an incredulous stare, Maseden answered Nina's eager question.

  "It is one of the life-boats of the _Southern Cross_," he said, and hisvoice was hushed, almost reverent. "There is her number, with the ship'sname. She was carried on the starboard side, just behind the forwardrail on the promenade deck. I used to look up at her and admire herlines."

  By this time they had raced up alongside the craft. She appeared to beundamaged. Maseden unlaced a portion of the canvas cover. She was dryas a bone inside.

  "Say, Alec, d'you know that every boat was stocked with provisions andwater for twenty people for fourteen days? I heard the captain give theorder."

  Sturgess was so excited that he almost yelped the words.

  "I saw the stewards putting the stuff on board," said Maseden.

  "There's tea, and coffee, and condensed milk, and butter, and tins ofmeat and jam," cried Nina.

  "And ship's biscuits, and a spirit stove, and matches, and barrels ofwater," chimed in Madge.

  Maseden was tapping the planks and peering at so much of the keel aswas visible, but he could find no sign of injury. The smart white painthad been badly scraped amidships and in the bows, but the wood wasnot splintered. To the best of his belief the craft was thoroughlyseaworthy. She carried her full complement of oars, a mast, and lugsail.In fact, she was almost in the exact condition in which she had left theship.

  Two pulleys and a part of a broken davit showed how she had beenwrenched bodily from her berth and flung into the sea by the first greatwave that crashed over the _Southern_ _Cross_ when the steamship swungbroadside on to the reef under the pull of the aft anchor.

  "Come along, everybody!" shouted Maseden, and the ring of triumph in hisvoice revealed the depth of his feelings. "We start building a new campat once. Within less than a fortnight the spring tides which brought herhere will be with us again, and we must be ready for them."

  "Can't we launch her on rollers?" demanded Sturgess.

  "I doubt it. She was docked here by a backwash which does not occur veryoften, judging by the herbage growing among the sand. She is a heavycraft, too. I don't think the four of us could move her. We'll haverollers in readiness, of course, but we must cut a channel for the tide,and so make sure of floating her.... By Jove! _What_ a piece of luck!"

  It took them an hour or more to sober down. For once, Maseden's orderswere tacitly ignored, even by himself. Instead of helping in theconstruction of another hut the girls were busy with the lashings of thecanvas cover. Every true woman has the instinct of the good housewife,and these two could not rest content until they had examined andclassified the stores.

  None of them could resist the temptation of a bottle of coffee extract,some condensed milk and a tin of biscuits. The spirit-stove waslighted, some water boiled and they drank hot coffee and ate wheat forthe first time in seventeen days.

  Their greatest surprise was the quantity and variety of stores on board.There were knives and forks, enameled plates and cups, even such minorrequisites as salt, pepper and mustard.

  Of course, the chief steward of the _Southern Cross_ had been given manyhours in which to make preparations. Being a resourceful man, when thelockers were packed with their regulation supplies he stuffed "extras"into odd corners.

  Poor fellow! The pity was that an adverse fate had denied him anybenefit from his own foresight.

  * * * * *

  Although the castaways entered with good heart upon their secondcampaign against the forces of nature, the immense advantages nowenjoyed as compared with their condition on Hanover Island did not blindthem to the difficulties yet to be faced and conquered ere the haunts ofcivilized man might be reached. There was no gainsaying the cogency ofMaseden's logic; the absence of aborigines from a spot so favored asRotunda Bay (the name allotted to their new location), supplied positiveproof of the impracticable nature of all approaches by sea.

  How far the barriers might extend they had no means of knowing. Theycould guess how forbidding they were from the character of the northerlychannel, and it was easy to believe that one such dangerous passagealone would not have deterred tribesmen accustomed to navigate theseperilous waters.

  So, in the intervals of labor, they gave close heed to the tides andtheir action. For instance, Maseden would knock together a small raft,launch it at high water and watch its subsequent course. He found, atfirst, that it stranded invariably. Then he took it to the tiny estuaryof the second river, waited until the ebb was well established, and letit swing out with the current.

  This time, as he anticipated, it was carried swiftly southward, and wasseen no more, thus confirming his belief that the rise and fall of thetide set up a circular movement of an immense body of water alwaystending in the same southerly direction, retarded during the flow, withresultant acceleration during the ebb.

  One day, when observation farther afield was desired, the
y all four setoff soon after dawn, and were close to the southern narrows at highwater. Then, as the shore gradually became practicable, they followedthe receding tide until farther advance became dangerous. Seen from adistance, one of the cliffs offered a not impossible climb, and closerinspection showed that, by hard work, and some roping, they could reachthe summit.

  The girls, who had positively refused to be left "at home," were nowequally determined to make the ascent. The soles of their light bootshad long since given out, but each and all now wore moccasins ofsealskin, and very serviceable and comfortable footgear these proved,being impervious to the jars of the roughest rock surface, and mostexcellent for climbing.

  After an hour's hard work they stood on a narrow saddle overlookinga seaward precipice, and the vista before their eyes was at onceawe-inspiring and disheartening. Mile after mile, nothing but brokenwater met the eye. The reefs were countless. In fact, the resistancethey offered to the incoming tide direct from the Pacific was such that,in all likelihood, it accounted for the delay which set up theextraordinary race past Hell Gate.

  Even Sturgess was upset by the far-flung chaos. A strong wind wasblowing up there, and he sank his voice in the hope that his wordswould reach Maseden only.

  "Rotten!" he said. "It would knock the stuffing out of a brass dog."

  "No secrets, please," cried Madge promptly. "What did you say, C. K.?Are you telling Alec that there is no way out?"

  "Yep," was the disconsolate reply.

  "We have not quite determined that fact yet," said Maseden coolly."Having done a stiff climb, suppose we get our money's worth, and sitdown? Never mind the unpleasant prospect in front. Let's keep a sharplook-out for a log traveling in mid-stream, and watch it as long aspossible."

  Nina, who was endowed with excellent good sight, was the first to detecta nearly submerged tree-trunk bobbing about in the channel, nearly amile distant. The atmosphere happened, however, to be unusually clearthat day, so they could follow the progress of the derelict for anothermile or more. As soon as it emerged from the actual channel between thetwo headlands, it swung away to the left, or eastward, and kept on thatcourse until lost in the waste of waters.

  Maseden whistled in sheer vexation when he gave up the attempt to followthis floating index any longer.

  "What is it now, son?" inquired Sturgess.

  "The worst," snapped the other vindictively.

  "Great Scott! Didn't you like the look of that log. I thought itlolloped along in a devil-may-care style that was rather attractive."

  "But it turned towards the land, and not towards the sea."

  "I guess that's so."

  "And doesn't that convey any meaning to you?"

  "Sure. The tides hereabouts go all ways for Sundays. Before that thingreaches Nelson Straits it has to round the eastern end of the islandopposite.... Yes, yes, Alec. You've wised me up on heaps of thingsI didn't give a hooraw in Hades for at one time. I can tell the timeby the sun, skin an eel, or a seal, or a teal, open oysters likea bar-keep, and read an eddy like a Mississippi pilot. And, to myreckoning, our boat, or any boat, has as much chance of winning throughthat proposition out there as a lump of butter in a fiery furnace. Inever did hold very strongly by that story about Shadrack, Mesack andAbednego. I've a notion we haven't got the complete facts. One day inPittsburg--"

  "Silence, please, for the passing of the next log, which happens to bea boat!"

  Nina's voice rang out clearly. She well knew the astounding significanceof the words, but the daily round of hardship and adventure were moldingher character on new and stronger lines. She was not, nor ever could beagain, the somewhat conventional young lady who had sailed from San Juanlittle more than a month ago. She could face now, with an unflinchingand critical eye, perils which then would have blanched her cheek andset the blood pulsing in her veins.

  Even her sister, who had not made out the object to which Nina hadcalled attention, put an alarming question quite calmly.

  "A boat!" she cried. "Oh, Nina, not _our_ boat?"

  So many seemingly impossible things had occurred that the stoutlife-boat they left tied securely in a small dock which was floodedby each tide might conceivably have broken loose.

  "No," came the reassuring answer. "Not our boat. It looks like one ofthe native coracles Alec has told us of. But it is empty. At any rate,there is no one sitting upright in it."

  By this time the others had seen the craft, which she was the first todetect. In their anxiety and excitement they stood up, one by one, asthough the couple of feet thus gained would give a better view-point.There could not be the least doubt that they were looking at aroughly-fashioned but distinctly seaworthy boat, which danced along onthe crest of a rapid current, and whirled around, as though in sport,when some black rock thrust its obstructing fangs into the tide-way.Apparently, it was traveling quite safely.

  Then, as if to give them a really useful object lesson, it was caughtbetween two rocks and turned clean over. A second somersault rightedit, and, like the log, it sped away to the east.

  Maseden brought back the dazed and troubled wits of his companions tothe particular business in hand.

  "See that you are properly roped," he said. "We're heading for camp, asquickly as we can get there. Don't hurry over the first part of thedescent, however. There are two bad places on the rock face."

  They reached the shore safely, unroped, and set off to walk three hardmiles in record time. As they neared their refuge they saw the boat, nowaground in its tiny canal. Near at hand were the white embers of theirfire, which would soon be ablaze when fresh logs were added. Somewashing, stretched on a line, lent a strangely domestic touch to theencampment.

  But the one profoundly relieving fact was self-evident. No party ofmarauding Indians had swooped down on their ark and its stores. Whereverthe derelict boat had come from, its occupants were not to be seen inany part of Rotunda Bay. As Maseden put it tersely:

  "We found it hard enough to get here. Others seemed to have tried andfailed."

  Still he and Sturgess decided to mount guard that night. The girls werenot supposed to know of this new arrangement, until Maseden was aboutto awaken Sturgess for his second spell of sentry-go. Then Nina emergedfrom the rear portion of the shack.

  "Lend me your watch, Alec," she said pleasantly. "I'll take thesetwo hours.... No, you mustn't argue, there's a dear--fellow--"the concluding word was added rather hurriedly, being an obviousafterthought. "I'll call Madge next, and it will be broad daylightby the time her spell is ended."

  "I'm not sleepy," he murmured, sinking his voice so as not to disturbthe others. "I was only going to rouse C. K. because he will be annoyedif I don't stick to schedule."

  "I haven't slept at all," the girl confessed. "If you're not going torest, let us talk. Or, perhaps, that is not quite the right thing todo."

  "Not if there was any real fear of an attack," said Maseden, leading herto the small sand hillock near the boat. "I am convinced we are safeenough, but I should never forgive myself if the camp were rushed owingto our negligence.... Sit here. The tide is rising. We can distinguishthe water-line, and remain unseen ourselves. Of course, we should speakhardly above a whisper."

  Some inequality in the sloping surface brought them rather closetogether when they sat down. Nina moved, with a little laugh ofapology. Her action was quite involuntary, but it nettled Maseden.

  "I don't want to flirt with you, if that is what you are afraid of," hegrunted. "In present conditions spooning would be rather absurd. Notthat my particular sort of marriage tie would restrain me. Don't thinkit. Enforced obedience of that sort is foreign to my nature."

  "I gather that you really want to quarrel with me," was the glib answer.

  Of course, any woman of average wit could have put a man in the wrong atonce with equal readiness though given a far less vulnerable opening,but Maseden realized his blunder and drew back.

  "A too strenuous life seems to have spoiled my temper," he said. "I usedto be regarded as a some
what easy-going person."

  "Probably that was because you had things all your own way."

  "You may be right. A man is the poorest judge of his own virtues orfaults. For instance, I have always prided myself on a certain qualityof quick decision, once my mind was made up. But of late I find myselflacking even in that respect."

  "Isn't it possible you are not actually sure of your own mind?"

  "Shall I submit the case to you?"

  "Would that be wise? I would remind you of your own phrase--in presentconditions."

  "But I think you ought to know," he persisted. "Weeks ago, on the dayyou shot the sea-lion, in fact, C. K. told me he meant to marry Madge,if the lady is willing, that is. The statement startled me, to put itmildly. I rather scoffed at it, which nettled him, naturally. I was onthe point of acquainting him with the facts, but was stopped by thegun-shot. Since then he has never mentioned the matter again, and I havebeen averse from pulling it in by the scruff of the neck--"

  "Why do so now?" put in the girl quickly.

  He could not see her face, but the note of alarm in her voice was noteven disguised.

  "Because, day by day, I see more and more clearly that our friend's loveof your sister is a very real thing. I see, too, or think that I see, aresponse on her part. From a common sense point of view, what else couldone expect? Two young people, each eminently agreeable, are throwntogether by fate in circumstances of great and continuous personaldanger. The artificial intercourse of civilized life is impossible fromthe outset. They see each other as they really are. Each has to dependon real characteristics, not on shams. Can one imagine a more idealmethod of choosing one's future partner than those in which we havelived during the past month?"

  This was what lawyers call a leading question, and Nina shied at itinstantly.

  "Everything you have said may be true, Alec," she said, "but you haveadvanced no reason whatever for disturbing our pleasant relations.Surely all these problems may be allowed to settle themselves when, ifever, we re-enter the everyday world?"

  "That is just my difficulty," continued Maseden doggedly; he wasresolved now to have an irritating hindrance to pleasant relationssettled once and for all. "Is it fair to Sturgess to let him believethere is no bar to his wooing? Of course, my marriage was a farce, andcan be dismissed as such. But what will C. K. think, what will he say,when he hears of it? Won't our silence--yes, _our_ silence--you cannotshirk a part of the responsibility--be open to misinterpretation? May itnot bring about the very catastrophe we want to avoid?"

  "I really don't understand," said the girl in a frightened way.

  "Then I must make my meaning clear, even though it hurts," he saiddeterminedly. "If I tell Sturgess now about the Cartagena ceremony,though rather late in the day, it is not too late; whereas, if I waittill we reach New York, how astounded and mystified he will be by thelegal process which I must set on foot to secure your sister's freedomand my own! Why, the result might be tragic. If C. K. knows now, he can,if he chooses, seek from Madge an explanation of the whole mad business.She may give or withhold it--that is for her to decide. But at least weshall all be acting squarely and above-board. I put it to you strongly,for the sake of each one of us, that Sturgess should be told the wholetruth."

  For a little while there was silence. Nina seemed to be weighing thepros and cons of the matter with much care.

  "I think you are right," she said at last. "I differ from you only in asmall but--to a woman--very important particular. Madge, not you, shouldtell C. K. what happened in Cartagena. It is her privilege. It will comebetter from her. In the morning, when opportunity offers, she and I willtalk things over. I am sure I can persuade her as to the course sheshould adopt.

  "Leave it to me, Alec. Before to-morrow evening C. K. shall have heardthe full story of that unfortunate marriage. He will tell you sohimself. After that, I suppose, your troubled conscience will be atrest, and the matter need not be discussed further until it comes beforethe courts."

  "I seem to have annoyed you pretty badly by raising the point now," saidMaseden.

  "No, indeed! It is not so. In a sense, I am glad. My sister and I arevery dear to one another, Alec, and no one likes to parade the familyskeleton, even in such a remote place as Rotunda Bay."

  Maseden felt that he had bungled the whole business rather badly, but hesaw no advantage in leaving anything unsaid.

  "What I cannot make out," he muttered savagely, "is how I ever came toregard you and Madge as being so much alike. Of course, you resembleeach other physically, but in temperament you are wide apart as thepoles."

  "Dear me! This is really interesting. In what respects do we differ?"

  "Madge is emotional, you are self-contained. She would have cried had Ispoken to her about you as I have spoken of her to you, but you surveythe problem coolly, and solve it, probably on the best lines. Sometimes,you puzzle, at others, vex me. You are ready and willing to confide inSturgess, but refuse me your confidence. I find Madge easy to read; youremain an enigma. I believe you would almost die rather than enlightenme as to the true history of my marriage."

  "Oh, bother your marriage! Can't you talk of something else?"

  "I am prepared to talk about you during the next hour."

  "How boring for both of us."

  "Only a minute ago you welcomed my efforts as an analyst."

  "I was mistook, as the children say. These personal matters seemineffably stupid when one sees the dawn appearing over the walls of ourprison. We may never get away from here, or lose our lives in theattempt. It will be of very small significance then as to why asorely-tried girl agreed to marry a man she had never seen, and who wasunder sentence to die before the ink was dry in the register.... Still,Alec, I'm pleased we have had such a candid discussion. I have comeround to your point of view, too. It is _not_ fair to C. K. to keep himin the dark. To-morrow, as ever is, if you don't work us so hard that wehave no time for chatter, I promise you that Madge shall tell himeverything."

  "And me nothing?"

  "That is implied in the bargain, is it not? Does it really concern you?You were speaking for C. K., not for yourself.... Oh, no, we're notgoing to re-open the argument. Just let matters remain where they are,please. I want you to satisfy a woman's curiosity on a matter of moreimmediate importance. When do you purpose leaving here? Shouldn't westart soon? At this season we have fine weather of a sort. Don't weincur a good deal of risk by each week of delay?"

  "Hullo, you two!" came a cherry voice. "A nice bunco game you've playedon me! There was I, snoring like a hog, while you were spooning underthe stars. Wise Alec and Naughty Nina! But wait till I tell your poordeluded sister. A whole tribe of Indians could have crept up andtomahawked you where you sat."

  They started apart, almost guiltily. Each shared the same thought. Howmuch, or how little, had Sturgess heard?