Emily looked at Alan with grim reproach when she was shown into his study, and as soon as they were alone she began with her usual abruptness, "Mr. Douglas, why have you given up coming to Four Winds?"
Alan flinched.
"You must ask Lynde that, Miss Oliver," he said quietly.
"I have asked her--and she says nothing."
"Then I cannot tell you."
Anger glowed in Emily"s eyes.
"I thought you were a gentleman," she said bitterly. "You are not. You are breaking Lynde"s heart. She"s gone to a shadow of herself and she"s fretting night and day. You went there and made her like you--oh, I"ve eyes--and then you left her."
Alan bent over his desk and looked the old woman in the face unflinchingly.
"You are mistaken, Miss Oliver," he said earnestly. "I love Lynde and would be only too happy if it were possible that I could marry her. I am not to blame for what has come about--she will tell you that herself if you ask her."
His look and tone convinced Emily.
"Who is to blame then? Lynde herself?"
"No, no."
"The Captain then?"
"Not in the sense you mean. I can tell you nothing more."
A baffled expression crossed the old woman"s face. "There"s a mystery here--there always has been--and I"m shut out of it. Lynde won"t confide in me--in me who"d give my life"s blood to help her. Perhaps I can help her--I could tell you something. Have you stopped coming to Four Winds--has she made you stop coming--because she"s got such a wicked old scamp for a father? Is that the reason?"
Alan shook his head.
"No, that has nothing to do with it."
"And you won"t come back?"
"It is not a question of will. I cannot--must not go."
"Lynde will break her heart then," said Emily in a tone of despair.
"I think not. She is too strong and fine for that. Help her all you can with sympathy but don"t torment her with any questions. You may tell her if you like that I advise her to confide the whole story to you, but if she cannot don"t tease her to. Be very gentle with her."
"You don"t need to tell me that. I"d rather die than hurt her. I came here full of anger against you--but I see now you are not to blame.
You are suffering too--your face tells that. All the same, I wish you"d never set foot in Four Winds. She wasn"t happy before but she wasn"t so miserable as she is now. Oh, I know Anthony is at the bottom of it all in some way but I won"t ask you any more questions since you don"t feel free to answer them. But are you sure that nothing can be done to clear up the trouble?"
"Too sure," said Alan"s white lips.
The autumn dragged away. Alan found out how much a man may suffer and yet go on living and working. As for that, his work was all that made life possible for him now and he flung himself into it with feverish energy, growing so thin and hollow-eyed over it that even Elder Trewin remonstrated and suggested a vacation--a suggestion at which Alan merely smiled. A vacation which would take him away from Lynde"s neighbourhood--the thought was not to be entertained.
He never saw Lynde, for he never went to any part of the sh.o.r.e now; yet he hungered constantly for the sight of her, the sound of her voice, the glance of her luminous eyes. When he pictured her eating her heart out in the solitude of Four Winds, he clenched his hands in despair. As for the possibility of Harmon"s return, Alan could never face it for a moment. When it thrust its ugly presence into his thoughts, he put it away desperately. The man was dead--or his fickle fancy had veered elsewhere. Nothing else could explain his absence.
But they could never know, and the uncertainty would forever stand between him and Lynde like a spectre. But he thought more of Lynde"s pain than his own. He would have elected to bear any suffering if by so doing he could have freed her from the nightmare dread of Harmon"s returning to claim her. That dread had always hung over her and now it must be intensified to agony by her love for another man. And he could do nothing--nothing. He groaned aloud in his helplessness.
One evening in late November Alan flung aside his pen and yielded to the impulse that urged him to the lake sh.o.r.e. He did not mean to seek Lynde--he would go to a part of the sh.o.r.e where there would be no likelihood of meeting her. But get away by himself he must. A November storm was raging and there would be a certain satisfaction in breasting its buffets and fighting his way through it. Besides, he knew that Isabel King was in the house and he dreaded meeting her.
Since his conviction that she had written that letter to Lynde, he could not tolerate the girl and it tasked his self-control to keep from showing his contempt openly. Perhaps Isabel felt it beneath all his outward courtesy. At least she did not seek his society as she had formerly done.
It was the second day of the storm; a wild northeast gale was blowing and cold rain and freezing sleet fell in frequent showers. Alan shivered as he came out into its full fury on the lake sh.o.r.e. At first he could not see the water through the driving mist. Then it cleared away for a moment and he stopped short, aghast at the sight which met his eyes.
Opposite him was a long low island known as Philip"s Point, dwindling down at its northeastern side to two long narrow bars of quicksand.
Alan"s horrified eyes saw a small schooner sunk between the bars; her hull was entirely under water and in the rigging clung one solitary figure. So much he saw before the Point was blotted out in a renewed downpour of sleet.
Without a moment"s hesitation Alan turned and ran for Four Winds, which was only about a quarter of a mile away around a headland. With the Captain"s a.s.sistance, something might be done. Other help could not be obtained before darkness would fall and then it would be impossible to do anything. He dashed up the steps of Four Winds and met Emily, who had flung the door open. Behind her was Lynde"s pale face with its alarmed questioning eyes.
"Where is the Captain?" gasped Alan. "There"s a vessel on Philip"s Point and one man at least on her."
"The Captain"s away on a cruise," said Emily blankly. "He went three days ago."
"Then nothing can be done," said Alan despairingly. "It will be dark long before I can get to the village."
Lynde stepped out, tying a shawl around her head.
"Let us go around to the Point," she said. "Have you matches? No?
Emily, get some. We must light a bonfire at least. And bring Father"s gla.s.s."
"It is not a fit night for you to be out," said Alan anxiously. "You are sheltered here--you don"t feel it--but it"s a fearful storm down there."
"I am not afraid of the storm. It will not hurt me. Let us hurry. It is growing dark already."
In silence they breasted their way to the sh.o.r.e and around the headland. Arriving opposite Philip"s Point, a lull in the sleet permitted them to see the sunken schooner and the clinging figure.
Lynde waved her hand to him and they saw him wave back.
"It won"t be necessary to light a fire now that he has seen us," said Lynde. "Nothing can be done with village help till morning and that man can never cling there so long. He will freeze to death, for it is growing colder every minute. His only chance is to swim ash.o.r.e if he can swim. The danger will be when he comes near sh.o.r.e; the undertow of the backwater on the quicksand will sweep him away and in his probably exhausted condition he may not be able to make head against it."
"He knows that, doubtless, and that is why he hasn"t attempted to swim ash.o.r.e before this," said Alan. "But I"ll meet him in the backwater and drag him in."
"You--you"ll risk your own life," cried Lynde.
"There is a little risk certainly, but I don"t think there is a great one. Anyhow, the attempt must be made," said Alan quietly.
Suddenly Lynde"s composure forsook her. She wrung her hands.
"I can"t let you do it," she cried wildly. "You might be drowned--there"s every risk. You don"t know the force of that backwater. Alan, Alan, don"t think of it."
She caught his arm in her white wet hands and looked into his face with pa.s.sionate pleading.
Emily, who had said nothing, now spoke harshly.
"Lynde is right, Mr. Douglas. You have no right to risk your life for a stranger. My advice is to go to the village for help, and Lynde and I will make a fire and watch here. That is all that can be expected of you or us."