"You saw nothing else?" he asked, facing round and looking into my eyes.
"No, sir."
"Nor anybody?"
"n.o.body, sir."
"You are sure you saw n.o.body but me? You didn"t happen to see a tall man with black hair, and rings in his ears?"
"Oh, no, sir."
"You"ll swear you saw no such man? Swear it now; say, "So help me, G.o.d, I haven"t seen anybody on the beach but you.""
I swore it.
"Say, "Strike me blind if I have!""
I repeated the words after him, and, with a hurried look around, he set off running again towards the rock. I had much ado to keep from tumbling, and even from crying aloud with pain, so tight was his grip. Fast as we went, the man"s teeth chattered and his limbs shook; his wet clothes flapped and fluttered in the cold morning breeze; his face was drawn and pinched with exhaustion, but he never slackened his pace until we reached Dead Man"s Rock. Here he stopped and looked around again.
"Is there any place to hide in hereabouts?" he suddenly asked.
The oddness of the question took me aback: and, indeed, the whole conduct of the man was so strange that I was heartily frightened, and longed greatly to run away. There was no help for it, however, so I made shift to answer--
"There is a nice cave in Ready-Money Cove, which is the next cove to this, sir. The smugglers used to use it because it was hidden so, but--"
I suppose my eyes told him that I was wondering why he should want to hide, for he broke in again--
"Well, show me this cap. Out on the face of this rock, you say-- what"s the name? Dead Man"s Rock, eh? Well, it"s an ugly name enough, and an ugly rock enough!" he added, with a shiver.
I climbed up the rock, and he after me, until we gained the ledge where I had stood before. I looked down. The cap was still lying there, and the tide had ebbed still further.
My companion looked for a moment, then, with a short cry, scrambled quickly down and picked it up. To me it had looked like any ordinary sailor"s cap, but he examined it, fingered it, and pulled it about, muttering all the time, so that I imagined it must be his own, though at a loss to know why he made so much of recovering it. At last he climbed up again, holding it in his hands, and still muttering to himself--
"His cap, sure enough; nothing in it, though. But he was much too clever a devil. However, he"s gone right enough; I knew he must, and this proves it, curse him! Well, I"ll wear it. He"s not left behind as much as he thought, but mad enough he"d be to think I was his heir. I"ll wear it for old acquaintance" sake. Sit down, boy," he said aloud to me; "we"re safe here, and can"t be seen. I want to talk with you."
The rocky ledge on which we stood was about seven feet long and three or four in breadth. On one side of it ran down the path by which we had ascended; the other end broke off with a sheer descent into the sea of some forty feet in the present state of the tide. High above us rose an unscaleable cliff; at our feet lay a short descent to the ledge on which the cap had rested, and after that another precipice.
It was not a pleasant position in which to be left alone with this strange companion, but I was helpless, and perhaps the trace of weakness and a something not altogether evil in his face, gave me some courage. Little enough it was, however, and in mere desperation I sat down on the side by the path. My companion flung himself down on the other side, with his legs dangling over the ledge, and so sat for a minute or two watching the sea.
The early sun was now up, and its oblique rays set the waves dancing with a myriad points of fire. Above us the rock cast its shadow into the green depths below, making them seem still greener and deeper.
To my left I could see the shining sands of Polkimbra, still desolate, and, beyond, the purple line of cliffs towards Kynance; on my right the rock hid everything from view, except the open sea and the gulls returning after the tempest to inspect and pry into the fresh ma.s.ses of weed and wreckage. I looked timidly at my companion.
He was still gazing out towards the sea, apparently deep in thought.
The cap was on his head, and his legs still dangled, while he muttered to himself as if unconscious of my presence. Presently, however, he turned towards me.
"Got anything to eat?"
I had forgotten it in my terror, but I had, as I crossed the kitchen, picked up a hunch of bread to serve me for breakfast. This, with a half-apologetic air, as if to deprecate its smallness, I produced from my pocket and handed to him. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it without a word, and ate it ravenously, keeping his eye fixed upon me in the most embarra.s.sing way.
"Got any more?"
I was obliged to confess I had not, though sorely afraid of displeasing him. He turned still further towards me, and stared without a word, then suddenly spoke again.
"What is your name?"
Truly this man had the strangest manner of questioning. However, I answered him duly--
"Jasper Trenoweth."
"G.o.d in heaven! What?"
He had started forward, and was staring at me with a wild surprise.
Unable to comprehend why my name should have this effect on him, but hopeless of understanding this extraordinary man"s behaviour, I repeated the two words.
His face had turned to an ashy white, but he slowly took his eyes off me and turned them upon the sea, almost as though afraid to meet mine. There was a pause.
"Father by any chance answering to the name of Ezekiel--Ezekiel Trenoweth?"
Even in my fright I can remember being struck with this strange way of speaking, as though my father were a dog; but a new fear had gained possession of me. Dreading to hear the answer, yet wildly anxious, I cried--
"Oh, yes. Do you know him? He was coming home from Ceylon, and mother was so anxious; and then, what with the storm last night and the cry that we heard, we were so frightened! Oh! do you know --do you think--"
My words died away in terrified entreaty; but he seemed not to hear me. Still gazing out on the sea, he said--
"Sailed in the _Belle Fortune_, barque of 600 tons, or thereabouts, bound for Port of Bristol? Oh, ay, I knew him--knew him well.
And might this here place be Lantrig?"
"Our house is on the cliff above the next cove," I replied.
"But, oh! please tell me if anything has happened to him!"
"And why should anything have happened to Ezekiel Trenoweth?
That"s what I want to know. Why should anything have happened to him?"
He was still watching the waves as they danced and twinkled in the sun. He never looked towards me, but plucked with nervous fingers at his torn trousers. The gulls hovered around us with melancholy cries, as they wheeled in graceful circles and swooped down to their prey in the depths at our feet. Presently he spoke again in a meditative, far-away voice--
"Ezekiel Trenoweth, fair, broad, and six foot two in his socks; why should anything have happened to him?"
"But you seem to know him, and know the ship he sailed in. Tell me-- please tell me what has happened. Did you sail in the same ship?
And, if so, what has become of it?"
"I sailed," said my companion, still examining the horizon, "from Ceylon on the 12th of July, in the ship _Mary Jane_, bound for Liverpool. Consequently, if Ezekiel Trenoweth sailed in the _Belle Fortune_ we couldn"t very well have been in the same ship, and that"s logic," said he, turning to me for the first time with a watery and uncertain smile, but quickly withdrawing his eyes to their old occupation.
But he had lifted a great load from my heart, so that for very joy at knowing my father was not among the crew of the _Mary Jane_ I could not speak for a time, but sat watching his face, and thinking how I should question him next.
"Sailed in the _Mary Jane_, bound for Liverpool," he repeated, his face twitching slightly, and his hands still plucking at his trousers, "sailed along with--never mind who. And this boy"s Ezekiel Trenoweth"s son, and I knew him; knew him well." His voice was husky, and he seemed to have something in his throat, but he went on: "Well, it"s a strange world. To think of him being dead!" looking at the cap--which he had taken off his head.
"What! Father dead?"
"No, my lad, t"other chap: him as this cap belonged to. Ah, he was a devil, he was. Can"t fancy him dead, somehow; seemed as though the water wasn"t made as could have drowned him; always said he was born for the gallows, and joked about it. But he"s gone this time, and I"ve got his cap. "Tis a hard thought that I should outlive him; but, curse him, I"ve done it, and here"s his cap for proof--why, what the devil is the lad staring at?"
During his muttered soliloquy I had turned for a moment to look across Polkimbra Beach, when suddenly my eyes were arrested and my heart again set violently beating by a sight that almost made me doubt whether the events of the morning were not still part of a wild and disordered dream. For there, at about fifty yards" distance, and advancing along the breakers" edge, was another man, dressed like my companion, and also watching the sea.