"In the second place you came with my release, and to bring me news, and--with what purpose beside?"
"Why, with a message for the ship, to be sure."
"The ship?" I stared at him. "What ship?"
"Why, the _Gauntlet_ ketch! You don"t tell me," said Billy, with a glance westward, where, however, the hills intervened and hid the coast from us--"you don"t tell me you haven"t sighted her!
But she"s here, lad--she _must_ be here! Your father sent home word by her that she was to be back wi" reinforcements by the first day of November; and did you ever in your life know your uncle disappoint him?"
"Marc"antonio," said I, "what is this I hear from Billy about a ship?"
Marc"antonio gave a start, and looked from me to Billy in evident confusion.
"Truly, cavalier, there was a ship. I spied her there three days ago, at sunset, making for the island."
"Was she the same ship that first brought us to the island?"
"She was very like," he answered unwillingly. "Yes, indeed, cavalier, I have no doubt she was the same ship."
"And you never told me! Nay, I see now why for these three days we have been hunting to the east of our camp, and always where the coast was hidden. Yes, yes, I see now a score of tricks you have played me while I trusted to your better knowledge--Marc"antonio," I said sternly, "did you indeed believe so ill of me as that at sight of the ship I should forget my parole?"
"It was not that, cavalier; believe me, it was not that. I feared--"
"Speak on, man."
"I feared you might forget our talks together, and, when your release came, forget also that other adventure on which I had hoped to bind you. The Princess--"
"Then your fear, my friend, did me only a little less injustice.
You have heard how my father perseveres for a woman"s sake; and I am my father"s son, I hope. As for the Princess--"
"She is in worse case than ever, cavalier, since they have contrived to get rid of Stephanu."
"On the contrary, my friend, her case is hopeful at length; since this release sets us free to help her."
We trudged back to the camp, pausing on the way while Marc"antonio skewered the deer"s legs and slung him on a pole between us.
As we started afresh Billy observed for the first time that I walked with a limp.
"A broken leg," said I, carelessly; for it would not have done to tell him all the truth.
"Well, well," said he, content with the explanation, "accidents will happen to them that travel; and a broken leg, they say, is stronger when well set."
"If that"s so," said I, "I"ve a double excuse to be thankful"--which he did not understand, as I did not mean him to.
Darkness fell on us a little before we reached the camp. From the first I had recognized there could be no chance to-day of visiting the sh.o.r.e and seeking the _Gauntlet_ at her anchorage. We were weary, too, and hungry, and nothing remained to do but light the camp fire, cook our supper, and listen to Billy"s tale of his adventures, a good part of which will be found in the following chapter. I ought to say, rather, that Billy and I conversed, while Marc"antonio--for we spoke in English--sat by the fire busy with his own thoughts; and, by his face, they were gloomy ones.
"What puzzles me, Billy," said I, as we parted for the night, "is who can be aboard of the ketch. Reinforcements? Why, what reinforcements could my uncle send?"
"The devil a one of me knows, as the Irishman said," answered Billy, cheerfully. "But sent "em he has, and, if I know anything of Mr. Gervase, they"re good ones."
I was up before dawn, and the sun rose over the shoulder of our mountain to find me a mile and more on my way down the track which led to the sea. I pa.s.sed the clearing and the copse where Nat had taken his wound, and the rock, high on my right, where I had stood and spied him running, the _macchia-filled hollows and dingles, the wood, the village (still desolate), the graveyard where we had first encamped; and so came to the meadow below it, where Mr. Fett had gathered his mushrooms. It was greener than I remembered it, owing to the autumn rains.
I pulled up with a start. At the foot of the meadow, where the stream ran in a curve between it and the woods, stood a man.
He held a fishing-rod in his hand, and was stepping back to make a cast; but, at a cry from me, paused and turned slowly about.
"Uncle Gervase!"
"My _dear_ Prosper!" He dropped his rod and advanced, holding out his hands to me. "Why lad, lad, you have grown to a man in these months!"
"And it really is you, uncle!" I cried again, as yet scarcely believing it, though I clasped him by both hands. "And what are _you_ doing here?"
"Why," said he, quizzically, ""tis a monstrous confession for this time of the year, but I was fishing for trout; and, what is more, I have taken two, with Walton"s number two June-fly, lad--Mr. Grylls"s variety--the wings, if you remember, made of the black drake"s feathers, with a touch of grey horsehair on the shank. I wished to know, first, if a Corsican trout would answer to a Cornish fly, and, next, if they keep the same seasons as in England. They do, Prosper--there or thereabouts. To tell you the truth--though, as they say an angler may catch a fish, but it takes a fisherman to tell the truth about him--I found them woundily out of condition, and restored them, as Mr. Grylls would put it, to their native element."
"You don"t tell me that the Vicar is here, too?" I asked, prepared at this time to be surprised at nothing.
"He is not, lad, though I pleaded with him very earnestly to come, being, as you may guess, put to my wits" end by your father"s message."
"But how, then, have you managed?"
"Pretty well, Prosper--pretty well. But come and see for yourself.
The _Gauntlet_ lies at her old anchorage--or so Captain Pomery tells me--and "tis but a step down the creek to where my boat is waiting."
We walked down beside the stream, my uncle, as we went, asking a score of questions about our adventures and about my father and his plans--questions which I was in no state of mind to answer coherently. But this mattered the less since he had no leisure to listen to my answers.
I felt, as I said just now, ready to be surprised at nothing.
But in this I was mistaken, as I found when we rounded the corner by the creek"s head, and my eyes fell on a boat waiting, a stone"s throw from the landing-place, and on the crew that manned her.
"Good Lord!" I cried, and stood at a halt.
They were seven--six rowers and a c.o.xswain--and all robed in russet gowns that reached to their ankles. The Trappist monks!
CHAPTER XXI.
OF MY FATHER"S ANABASIS; AND THE DIFFERENT TEMPERS OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN AND A WILD SHEEP OF CORSICA.
"Bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty, and generous honesty are the gems of n.o.ble minds; wherein (to derogate from none) the true heroick English Gentleman hath no peer."--SIR THOMAS BROWNE.
"La domesticite n"a eu aucune influence sur le developpement intellectuel des _mouflons_ que nous avons possedes. . . .
Les hommes ne les effrayaient plus; il semblait meme que ces animaux eussent acquis plus de confiance dans leur force en apprenant a nous connaitre. Sans doute on ne peut point conclure de quelques individus a l"espece entiere; mais on peut a.s.surer sans rien hasarder, que le _mouflon_ tient une des dernieres places parmis les mammiferes quant a l"intelligence.--"
SAINT-HILIAR ET CUVIER, _Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes_.
"You will find them very good fighters," said my uncle. "The most of them, as I understand from Dom Basilio, were soldiers at one time or another before they embraced their present calling."