"Perfectly."
I had something to think about on my way home to lunch.
IX
AN ALLY
After lunch I set out by myself with pretty high hopes. It seemed to me inconceivable that men (or even one man for the sake of argument, though I felt sure there must be more), who were lurking here on the business this gang were engaged upon, would actually take no steps one way or the other to deal with a stranger who knew of their existence, and who to all seeming was one of their own kidney. I flattered myself by this time that every report they could have heard and every observation they might have made must incline them to the view that it was their duty to get in touch with me again. And now I proposed to take a solitary ramble along the very sh.o.r.e where I had stumbled upon my oil-skinned friend, and give them a chance of getting in touch.
It was an afternoon of sunshine and gleaming seas. At first the air was redolent of clover, and then--as I drew near the sh.o.r.e--of seaware. On this day of rest there was hardly any one to be seen about, so that a quiet meeting by the beach could be simply arranged. Only a meeting implies two, and though I walked right along the coast till I got within a stone"s throw of the Scollays" farm I remained as solitary as when I started.
I turned back and slowly retraced my steps for a mile or so, my hopes fading and my perplexity increasing.
"What ought I to have done that I haven"t done?" I asked myself. "And what have I done that I oughtn"t to?"
I paused and sat down on the crisp sea turf with a rough stone wall to landward, and below me the shelving rocks and the gla.s.sy ocean, and it was then the idea struck me that I might do something to attract attention to my presence. A thoughtful aunt had presented me with a revolver when I got my commission, and as anything to do with hitting things, from cricket b.a.l.l.s to pheasants, has always amused me, I used to carry it in my hip pocket regardless of chaff (one happily inspired wag dubbed me "jolly Roger"). I took it out now, descended to the beach, set up a stone as a mark, and proceeded to combine business with pleasure by doing a little fancy shooting. The thing made just enough noise to attract anybody fairly near at hand without scandalising the inhabitants, and as I chanced to be in good form I quite enjoyed myself.
I had just brought off a pretty sequence of snap shots and was thinking regretfully that in one of the happy lands which still encouraged the duel I should be a much more respected member of society, when I suddenly realised that I had a spectator of my prowess. He was standing on the turf above me, a little indistinct owing to the wall at his back, and for an instant my heart leapt and I thought I had met the friend I was seeking at last. And then I saw that it was only poor Jock.
I waved to him and he came scrambling down to the beach, his mouth wide open as usual and wreathed in smiles. As he approached a wild thought struck me. He was bearded, thickset, and of medium height. Wrap him in an oilskin, and there you were! I mention all my inspirations to show that I really did cover the ground pretty thoroughly in that blessed island. It is true that the conduct of my oil-skinned acquaintance was scarcely that of a congenital idiot; still, I was resolved to leave no stone unturned.
"Shoots, shoots!" he babbled in his curious thick voice. "Jock heard shoots!"
I looked at him fixedly and in a serious voice replied in a German accent you could have cut with a knife,
"I vant to know zomezing about sheeps, Herr Jock, not about shoots. How many sheeps are zere in zis island, eh?"
Did I see a gleam of intelligence for an instant in Jock"s eye? I cannot honestly say. I only know that he looked not unnaturally surprised, and then thickly answered what sounded like "A hundred and six." Anyhow it was nothing that seemed to illuminate the subject very brightly.
"And how many wax matches?" I enquired.
Jock hooted with laughter. He sounded so cheerful, that I perforce laughed too, and then I gazed at him sombrely.
"Jock," I said, "you are a fraud and a disappointment."
He laughed again, and then all at once a much more sensible idea struck me. He was not a very promising ally, but he might prove better than none at all.
"Jock," said I, "I am a stranger."
He nodded and seemed to understand.
"Have you seen any other strangers in this island of yours?" I asked.
He seemed a little confused.
"No, no," he began, and then altered it into "Yes, yes."
Which did he mean, or did he mean anything at all.
"A man in an oilskin coat, with a moustache on his lip--here," I went on, touching my own lip. "Who goes out at night and walks along the sh.o.r.e; have you seen any one like that?"
Again he seemed to look intelligent, but he only shook his head vaguely.
"Well," I said, "if you do see any one like that let me know, and you will see some more shoots. Also I shall give you this."
I held up a new half crown and he laughed so joyfully that I began to have a faint hope he might prove of some use after all.
And yet when I had left him and resumed my walk back to the Rendalls"
house, my spirits were not very high. As an ally Jock did not impress me with a feeling of great confidence, while his failure to recognise my description of the oil-skinned man depressed me unreasonably. I told myself that the opinion of the parish idiot on the subject of strangers was of small value. Besides, quite likely the oilskinned man would not be a stranger to the people in the neighbourhood. They might know him familiarly as a prosperous farmer or a hardy fisherman--or as their own doctor or their doctor"s guest, or--no, he could not be their laird for Mr. Rendall was too tall. In short my talk with Jock had proved nothing one way or the other.
And yet my whole failure to come upon any trace of the gang in spite of all my ingenuity did set me thinking. Could it possibly be that my entire adventure had been an hallucination? I confessed frankly to myself that I have a pretty lively imagination, and I recalled vividly how I had almost collapsed on my way to the Scollays under the strain of an intense reaction, how my brain had whirled, and how I peopled the farm kitchen with full thrice the number of persons actually a.s.sembled. I had been conscious of all that, but supposing my brain had actually begun to whirl half an hour sooner, before I had become conscious of it? Might I not have imagined my whole mysterious adventure?
It was a nasty thought, for in that case what a superfluous fool I had made of myself since! But I faced it manfully, and sternly asked myself what the opinion of the average hard-headed, soberly reasoning man would be, if he were given the facts and requested to p.r.o.nounce his verdict on them. What would be my own verdict if I were told such a yarn? Would I swallow it without demur?
"Be hanged if I would!" I said candidly.
By the time I got back to the big house, I had very nearly ceased to believe in the tale myself.
X
THE COAST PATROL
That evening we were all three sitting in the library (the same old-world room into which I had first been shown), when a servant entered and gave a message to Mr. Rendall. He rose and went out, leaving his daughter and myself each apparently immersed in a book. She may genuinely have been, but I was making the covers of mine a screen for inward debate. Had I made a mere fool of myself and should I make a clean breast of everything to my hosts? Or should I wait a little longer before deciding? I went on thinking after the laird had left the room, and Miss Jean still kept her eyes immovably on her page. I frankly confess I have never cut less ice with any woman--especially one who decidedly attracted me.
In a few minutes her father returned and said to her:
"John Howiseon has cried off to-night. I must go myself."
She started up with a word of expostulation, but he merely smiled in his grim way, nodded at her (not at me, I noticed) and was gone. With a little sigh she sat down again and plunged into her book, but my curiosity had been roused and in a moment I enquired,
"Is your father going out for long?"
Her concern seemed to have broken down her reticence
"All night," she said. "I wish he wouldn"t!"
"What"s the matter?" I asked.
"The coast patrol," said she.
"The coast patrol!" I exclaimed. "What"s that?"
She seemed to look at me for an instant a little doubtfully before she answered,