"Do you see your way?" asked Merton.
"I must have time to think it out," said Logan. "It is rather mixed.
When was Bude to return from his cruise to "The Seven Hunters"?"
"Perhaps to-night," said Merton. "We cannot be sure. She is a very swift yacht, the _Flora Macdonald_."
"I"ll think it all over, Bude may give us a tip."
No more would Logan say, beyond asking questions, which Merton could not answer, about the transatlantic past of the vanished heiress.
They loitered back towards the hotel and lunched. The room was almost empty, all the guests of the place were out fishing. Presently the motor returned from Lairg, bringing Mr. Gianesi and a large box of his electrical appliances. Merton rapidly told him all that he did not already know through Mr. Macrae"s telegrams. He was a reserved man, rather young, and beyond thanking Merton, said little, but pushed on towards Castle Skrae in the motor. "Some other motors," he said, "had arrived, and were being detained at Lairg." They came later.
Merton and Logan followed in the tandem, Logan driving; they had handed to Gianesi a sheaf of telegrams for the millionaire. As to the objects of interest on the now familiar road, Merton enlightened Logan, who seemed as absent-minded as Merton had been, when instructed by Dr.
MacTavish. As they approached the Castle, Merton observed, from a height, the _Flora Macdonald_ steaming into the sea loch.
"Let us drive straight down to the cove and meet them," he said.
They arrived at the cove just as the boat from the yacht touched the sh.o.r.e. The Budes were astonished and delighted to see their old friend, Logan, and his dog, Bouncer, a tawny black muzzled, bow-legged hero, was admired by Lady Bude.
Merton rapidly explained. "Now, what tidings?" he asked.
The party walked aside on the sh.o.r.e, and Bude swiftly narrated what he had discovered.
"They _have_ been there," he said. "We drew six of the islets blank, including the islet of the lighthouse. The men there had seen a large yacht, two ladies and a gentleman from it had visited them. They knew no more. Desert places, the other isles are, full of birds. On the seventh isle we found some Highland fishermen from the Lewis in a great state of excitement. They had only landed an hour before to pick up some fish they had left to dry on the rocks. They had no English, but one of our crew had the Gaelic, and interpreted in Scots. Regular Gaels, they did not want to speak, but I offered money, gold, let them see it. Then they took us to a cave. Do you know Mackinnon"s cave in Mull, opposite Iona?"
"Yes, drive on!" said Merton, much interested.
"Well, inside it was pitched an empty corrugated iron house, quite new, and another, on the further side, outside the cave."
"I picked up this in the interior of the cave," said Lady Bude.
"This" was a golden hair-pin of peculiar make.
"That"s the kind of hair-pin she wears," said Lady Bude.
"By Jove!" said Merton and Logan in one voice.
"But that was all," said Bude. "There was no other trace, except that plainly people had been coming and going, and living there. They had left some empty bottles, and two intact champagne bottles. We tasted it, it was excellent! The Lewis men, who had not heard of the affair, could tell nothing more, except, what is absurd, that they had lately seen a dragon flying far off over the sea. A _dragon volant_, did you ever hear such nonsense? The interpreter p.r.o.nounced it "draigon." He had not too much English himself."
"The Highlanders are so delightfully superst.i.tious," said Lady Bude.
Logan opened his lips to speak, but said nothing.
"I don"t think we should keep Mr. Macrae waiting," said Lady Bude.
"If Bude will take the reins," said Merton, "you and he can be at the Castle in no time. We shall walk."
"Excuse me a moment," said Logan. "A word with you, Bude."
He took Bude aside, uttered a few rapid sentences, and then helped Lady Bude into the tandem. Bude followed, and drove away.
"Is your secret to be kept from me?" asked Merton.
"Well, old boy, you never told _me_ the mystery of the Emu"s feathers!
Secret for secret, out with it; how did the feathers help you, if they _did_ help you, to find out my uncle, the Marquis? _Gifgaff_, as we say in Berwickshire. Out with your feathers! and I"ll produce my _dragon volant_, tail and all."
Merton was horrified. The secret of the Emu"s feathers involved the father of Lady Fastcastle, of his old friend"s wife, in a very distasteful way. Logan, since his marriage, had never shown any curiosity in the matter. His was a joyous nature; no one was less of a self-tormentor.
"Well, old fellow," said Merton, "keep your dragon, and I"ll keep my Emu."
"I won"t keep him long, I a.s.sure you," said Logan. "Only for a day or two, I dare say; then you"ll know; sooner perhaps. But, for excellent reasons, I asked Bude and Lady Bude to say nothing about the hallucination of these second-sighted Highland fishers. I have a plan. I think we shall run in the kidnappers; keep your p.e.c.k.e.r up. You shall be in it!"
With this promise, and with Logan"s jovial confidence (he kept breaking into laughter as he went) Merton had to be satisfied, though in no humour for laughing.
"I"m working up to my _denouement_." Logan said. "Tremendously dramatic! You shall be on all through; I am keeping the fat for you, Merton. It is no bad thing for a young man to render the highest possible services to a generous millionaire, especially in the circ.u.mstances."
"You"re rather patronising," said Merton, a little hurt.
"No, no," said Logan. "I have played second fiddle to you often, do let me take command this time--or, at all events, wait till you see my plot unfolded. Then you can take your part, or leave it alone, or modify to taste. Nothing can be fairer."
Merton admitted that these proposals were loyal, and worthy of their old and tried friendship.
"_Un dragon volant_, flying over the empty sea!" said Logan. "The Highlanders beat the world for fantastic visions, and the Islanders beat the Highlanders. But, look here, am I too inquisitive? The night when we first thought of the Disentanglers you said there was--somebody. But I understood that she and you were of one mind, and that only parents and poverty were in the way. And now, from what you told me this morning at Inchnadampf, it seems that there is no understanding between you and _this_ lady, Miss Macrae."
"There is none," said Merton. "I tried to keep my feelings to myself--I"m ashamed to say that I doubt if I succeeded."
"Any chance?" asked Logan, putting his arm in Merton"s in the old schoolboy way.
"I would rather not speak about it," said Merton. "I had meant to go myself on the Monday. Then came the affair of Sunday night," and he sighed.
"Then the somebody before was another somebody?"
"Yes," said Merton, turning rather red.
"Men have died and the worms have eaten them, but not for love," muttered Logan.
IV. The Adventure of Eachain of the Hairy Arm
On arriving at the Castle Logan and Merton found poor Mr. Macrae comparatively cheerful. Bude and Lady Bude had told what they had gleaned, and the millionaire, recognising his daughter"s hair-pin, had all but broken down. Lady Bude herself had wept as he thanked her for this first trace, this endearing relic, of the missing girl, and he warmly welcomed Merton, who had detected the probable meaning of the enigmatic "Seven Hunters."
"It is to _you_," he said, "Mr. Merton, that I owe the intelligence of my daughter"s life and probable comfort."
Lady Bude caught Merton"s eye; one of hers was slightly veiled by her long lashes.
The telegrams of the day had only brought the usual stories of the fruitless examination of yachts, and of hopes unfulfilled and clues that led to nothing. The outermost islets were being searched, and a steamer had been sent to St. Kilda. At home Mr. Gianesi had explained to Mr.
Macrae that he and his partner were forced, reluctantly, by the nature of the case, to suspect treason within their own establishment in London, a thing hitherto unprecedented. They had therefore installed a new machine in a carefully locked chamber at their place, and Mr. Gianesi was ready at once to set up a corresponding recipient engine at Castle Skrae. Mr.