"The cheeld"s right enough somewheres," said another. ""Tis a man"s body we"ve got. Stand out of the way, for shame!"
But Lizzie, who as a rule shrank away from men and kept herself hidden, pressed nearer, turning her tragical face upon each in turn.
Her eyes met George"s, but she appealed to him as to the others.
"He"s wandered off. Oh, say you"ve seen en, somebody!"
Catching sight of Taffy, she ran and gripped him by the arm.
"_You"ll_ help! It"s my Joey. Help me find en!"
He turned half about, and almost before he knew what he sought his eyes met George"s. George stepped quietly to his side.
"Let me get my mare," said George, and walked away toward the light-house railing where he had tethered her.
"We"ll find the child. Our work"s done here, Mr. Saul!"
Taffy turned to the Chief Officer. "Spare us a man or two and some flares."
"I"ll come myself," said the Chief Officer. "Go you back, my dear, and we"ll fetch home your cheeld as right as ninepence.
Hi, Rawlings, take a couple of men and scatter along the cliffs there to the right. Lame, you say? He can"t have gone far."
Taffy, with the Chief Officer and a couple of volunteers, moved off to the left, and in less than a minute George caught them up, on horseback.
"I say," he asked, walking his mare close alongside of Taffy, "you don"t think this serious, eh?"
"I don"t know. Joey wasn"t in the crowd, or I should have noticed him. He"s daring beyond his strength." He pulled a whistle from his pocket, blew it twice, and listened. This had been his signal when firing a charge; he had often blown it to warn the child to creep away into shelter.
There was no answer.
"Mr. Vyell had best trot along the upper slope," the Chief Officer suggested, "while we search down by the creek."
"Wait a moment," Taffy answered. "Let"s try the wreck first."
"But the tide"s running. He"d never go there."
"He"s a queer child. I know him better than you."
They ran downhill toward the creek, calling as they went, but getting no answer.
"But the wreck!" exclaimed the Chief Officer. "It"s out of reason!"
"Hi! What was that?"
"Oh, my good Lord," groaned one of the volunteers, "it"s the crake, master! It"s Langona crake calling the drowned!"
"Hush, you fool! Listen--I thought as much! Light a flare.
Mr. Saul--he"s out there calling!"
The first match spluttered and went out. They drew close around the Chief Officer while he struck the second to keep off the wind, and in those few moments the child"s wail reached them distinctly across the darkness.
The flame leaped up and shone, and they drew back a pace, shading their eyes from it and peering into the steel-blue landscape which sprang on them out of the night. They had halted a few yards only from the cliff, and the flare cast the shadow of its breast-high fence of tamarisks forward and almost half-way across the creek, and there on the sands, a little beyond the edge of this shadow, stood the child.
They could even see his white face. He stood on an island of sand around which the tide swirled in silence, cutting him off from the sh.o.r.e, cutting him off from the wreck behind.
He did not cry any more, but stood with his crutch planted by the edge of the widening stream, and looked toward them.
And Taffy looked at George.
"I know," said George quietly, and gathered up his reins.
"Stand aside, please."
As they drew aside, not understanding, he called to his mare.
One living creature, at any rate, could still trust all to George Vyell. She hurtled past them and rose at the tamarisk-hedge blindly.
Followed silence--a long silence; then a thud on the beach below and a scuffle of stones; silence again, and then the cracking of twigs as Taffy plunged after, through the tamarisks, and slithered down the cliff.
The light died down as his feet touched the flat slippery stones; died down, and was renewed again and showed up horse and rider scarce twenty yards ahead, labouring forward, the mare sinking fetlock deep at every plunge.
At his fourth stride Taffy"s feet, too, began to sink, but at every stride he gained something. The riding may be superb, but thirteen stone is thirteen stone. Taffy weighed less than eleven.
He caught up with George on the very edge of the water. "Make her swim it!" he panted. "Her feet mustn"t touch here." George grunted.
A moment later all three were in the water, the tide swirling them sideways, sweeping Taffy against the mare. His right hand touched her flank at every stroke.
The tide swept them upwards--upwards for fifteen yards at least, though the channel measured less than eight feet. The child, who had been standing opposite the point where they took the water, hobbled wildly along sh.o.r.e. The light on the cliff behind sank and rose again.
"The crutch," Taffy gasped. The child obeyed, laying it flat on the brink and pushing it toward them. Taffy gripped it with his left hand, and with his right found the mare"s bridle. George was bending forward.
"No--not that way! You can"t get back! The wreck, man!--it"s firmer--"
But George reached out his hand and dragged the child towards him and on to his saddle-bow. "Mine," he said quietly, and twitched the rein. The brave mare snorted, jerked the bridle from Taffy"s hand, and headed back for the sh.o.r.e she had left.
Rider, horse, and child seemed to fall away from him into the night.
He scrambled out, and s.n.a.t.c.hing the crutch ran along the brink, staring at their black shadows. By-and-by the shadows came to a standstill. He heard the mare panting, the creaking of saddle-leather came across the nine or ten feet of dark water.
"It"s no go," said George"s voice; then to the mare, "Sally, my dear, it"s no go." A moment later he asked more sharply:
"How far can you reach?"
Taffy stepped in until the waves ran by his knees. The sand held his feet, but beyond this he could not stand against the current.
He reached forward holding the crutch at arm"s length.
"Can you catch hold?"
"All right." Both knew that swimming would be useless now; they were too near the upper apex of the sand-bank.
"The child first. Here, Joey, my son! reach out and catch hold for your life."
Taffy felt the child"s grip on the crutch-head, and drawing it steadily toward him hauled the poor child through. The light from the cliff sank and rose behind his scared face.
"Got him?"