CHAPTER XIII
ANDREW MACPETERS
For a moment no one stirred; then Allan braced himself to meet thedifficulty.
'I'm sorry, Father; but I can't tell you that,' he said.
Mr. Stewart looked at him in astonishment.
'You can't tell me? You mean you don't know?'
Allan was silent.
Mr. Stewart waited.
Tricksy crept closer to Marjorie and trembled with dismay.
'You associate with people that you cannot tell your parents about,'said Mr. Stewart in great displeasure; 'and you allow him to associatewith your little sister and with Marjorie. I am sorry that I mustforbid the use of the boat until you tell me who was with you thismorning.'
Allan waited with a white face until his father had left the room; thenhe turned to the others.
'No one is to let out who it was,' he said. 'You have all signed theCompact, and any one breaking it will have me to reckon with.'
Reggie's brown face wore an expression which showed that he, at least,meant to be trustworthy; and Marjorie's lips set themselves firmly.The Grahams, major and minor, had said little, but now Harry's eyessparkled, and Gerald flushed, as he always did when he was trying to bebrave.
'But, Allan,' said Tricksy in a trembling voice, 'wouldn't it be betterto tell Father about it and ask him to let us have the boat for Neil?We must get him away from the island, you know.'
'Can't tell Pater, Tricksy,' replied Allan. 'It would be all right ifthey hadn't made him a Justice of the Peace; that's some kind of ajudge, you know. He couldn't help any one like Neil; indeed I'm notsure that he wouldn't have to telegraph for the Sheriff and let himknow that Neil is here, and it would be a dreadful thing for Father tohave to do that.'
'Then how are we going to get Neil away from the Den,' said Tricksy.'They'll find him if he stays there.'
'Allan,' said Marjorie firmly, 'Hamish and I will go. We haven't beenforbidden the use of the boat.'
'We'll go too,' said Harry. 'We aren't his children, and Mr. Stewartdidn't say anything to us.'
'All right, Marjorie,' said Allan; 'you'd better all go, for Neil's oldboat is pretty heavy to get through the water. Quick, there isn't aminute to lose.'
Little was said as the old herring-boat was pushed off and manned, foreven Harry was feeling subdued.
'It's all right, Neil,' said Marjorie as the boat landed and Neillooked inquiringly for the others; 'they've been kept at home by theirfather. We'll land you at the Skegness Cliffs as there's least chanceof being seen there.'
The passage was accomplished without incident, but as Neil stood up tospring ashore Hamish uttered an exclamation and pointed to the top ofthe cliff. All looked up. A man was standing on the verge, andlooking down.
'It's Andrew MacPeters again,' said Hamish.
'Let's land somewhere else,' said Marjorie.
'No use, Miss Marjorie,' said Neil. 'If he means ill by me he willgive the alarm; it will be better for me to be landing while there issstill a chance. I'm not afraid if I only have him to deal with.'
He stood up once more, then turned to the others. 'Remember,' he said,'whatever happens, my mother iss to be told that I haf left the island.Miss Marjorie, you promise?'
'I promise,' answered Marjorie; then Neil sprang on shore and vanishedbehind a mass of rock.
For a minute or two they remained looking up at the cliff, but nothingwas to be seen of Andrew MacPeters; then they rowed slowly back to theplace where the Craft had been moored.
'Well?' said Allan and Reggie, who met them half-way on the road toArdnavoir.
The others gave a brief account of what had taken place.
'Bad luck,' said Allan when they had described the encounter withAndrew MacPeters. 'I'd back Neil against Andrew any day; he won'tinterfere with Neil himself, but then the fellow's quite capable ofgiving the alarm to the police.'
They wandered disconsolately a little farther.
'It seems horrid to have to give Mrs. Macdonnell that message,' saidMarjorie; 'but it will have to be done, I suppose, since we promised.'
'Yes, Marjorie,' said Hamish, 'it will have to be done. It would beenough to kill her if she knew that Neil was in danger.'
Who was to be entrusted with the message? Every one looked atMarjorie, who became red and looked unhappy as she realised what wasexpected of her.
'You will have to do it,' said Allan.
'Me?' said Marjorie; 'no, you go, Allan.'
'No,' said Allan decidedly; 'it's not the kind of thing for a fellow.It needs a girl, so it will have to be you.'
'Allan is quite right, Marjorie,' joined in Hamish; 'there is no onebut you who can do it. Mind you don't let her see that you are nottelling the truth.'
Marjorie looked very distressed, but saw she must make up her mind.
'Well, you come with me as far as the cottage,' she said; and theentire party set off.
Arrived at the gate, Allan threw it open, and Marjorie walked up thepath and disappeared inside the cottage.
The others sat down on the heather and waited.
A long time seemed to pass, and then Marjorie reappeared looking verysubdued.
'All right, Marjorie?' inquired Allan.
Marjorie nodded without speaking, and others judged it best to refrainfrom asking questions.
For some time they walked in silence, and then Tricksy quietly slippedinto the place next to Marjorie.
After a while, finding that the boys were out of earshot. Tricksysidled closer, and ventured to ask Marjorie very gently how Mrs.Macdonnell had received the message.
'I--I--I--she was in bed,' said Marjorie, 'and I went to her, and itwas rather dark, and after I had asked how she was and all that,I--I--I just told her. She never thought I was saying what wasn'ttrue, for she said "Thank God for that."'
Marjorie ended with a little tearless sob, and neither of the girlscould find anything to say for a little while.
When the boys came beside them again Tricksy walked on silently for alittle way, then she suddenly burst out--
'I don't care, but what's the use of a Compact if we can't do anythingto help Neil? There he is, in great danger, and Mrs. Macdonnell mayhear of it any day, and if she does it will kill her; and we haven'tdone anything that's of any use.'
'What do you think we can do?' replied Reggie gruffly.
'Why, bustle about until we find out who stole the letters. Here weare, and we find little bits of paper which ought to tell us somethingif we had any sense, but we don't get further. Seven of us and wecan't help poor Neil when he is in trouble.'
Nobody seemed to have anything to say, and Tricksy burst out again--
'You say you know who was the real thief?'
'We think we do, Tricksy,' interposed Hamish; 'but we don't know forcertain.'
'Then why don't we make sure?'
'How would you do it, Tricksy?' asked Allan, while the others trudgedsteadily onwards.
'Why, watch him wherever he goes; and we'd soon find out where he keptthe papers if he had taken them.'
There was no answer for a moment.
Then Allan said gravely, 'That wouldn't be honourable, Tricksy. Wemust play fair, you know.'
'Honourable! Honourable to a thief!--But yes, of course we must.Well, I don't know what's to be done then,' and Tricksy concluded by abig sigh.
When the coastguard station came in view a man was standing at thegate, scanning the road with a telescope. Upon catching sight of theyoung people he lowered the glass and came forward.
'Euan Macdonnell,' said Reggie, quickening his pace; 'let's hearwhether he has any news.'
'I was on the lookout for you, young ladies and gentlemen,' said Euan.'We've just got a telephone message from the Corrachin lighthouse sentby Rob MacLean. We were to tell you that Neil has reached the cavesand is safe for the meanwhile, and he supposes that you, young ladiesand gentlemen, have remembered the message to his mother.'
'If only Andrew hasn't s
een him,' said Marjorie after the firstexclamations of thankfulness.
Euan looked grave as he heard how Andrew had witnessed the landing.
'I don't trust that fellow for an instant,' he said. 'He would thinknothing of putting the police on the alert if he had a mind to. We canonly hope that he hasn't recognised Neil, or that Rob will find a wayof getting the poor lad out of the island before any harm comes.'
When the young people had reached Ardnavoir, weary and discouraged, Mr.Stewart was in the hall. 'I know who was with you this morning,' hesaid abruptly. 'Was it by accident that you met?'
'Yes,' said Allan.
'Your boat was stranded on the Reachin Skerry,' went on Mr. Stewart,'and the men have brought her home. You may have the use of her again.'
'Thank you, Father,' said Allan.
They all scanned Mr. Stewart's face to read, if possible, hisintentions regarding Neil; but nothing was to be gathered.
'Isn't Father a dear?' said Tricksy, when they had wandered out to thecricket-ground. 'He knows we couldn't betray our friend, not even forhim.'
'Yes,' said Reggie; 'but the question is whether he will have to dosomething himself, since he's a J.P.'
The question was not answered that day, and during the next they werestill in ignorance.
On the third day it was discovered that detectives were in the islandagain, and Euan brought the news that every boat was watched bothcoming and going.
The days dragged on in suspense, and still Neil was in the caves. RobMacLean had a plan for conveying him away by night and landing himsomewhere on the coast of Scotland, from whence the lad was to tramp tosome large town and stow himself away on a vessel bound for America;but the bright, full moon rendered any such attempts impossible for themeanwhile.
'Isn't it too bad?' broke out Marjorie one day; 'I think the law iscruel if it forces Mr. Stewart to have Neil arrested. I wonder how hecould do it. He knows as well as we do that Neil isn't a thief.'
'It wasn't Father,' said Allan. 'I happen know that he's lying low andwon't take any notice. All our people are bound together not to betrayNeil, but some one has been a traitor; they don't know who. Neil has asecret enemy in the place.'
They all thought they knew who this was, but no one could bring thedeed home to the culprit. All desire for fun and adventure seemed tohave left them, and the boys and girls wandered about disconsolately orsat in groups talking about plans which they were unable to carry out;or later, ceased to find anything at all to suggest. Even the dogsseemed to know that something was the matter, for they would liequietly beside the children for hours, and sometimes Laddie wouldthrust his nose into some one's hand and look up with his honest,affectionate eyes full of sympathy.
The weather became more broken, and sometimes all intercourse betweenArdnavoir and Corranmore was cut off during the greater part of a day.
When the rain ceased, Andrew MacPeters, looking up from his work, wouldfind Reggie's dark eyes contemplating him as their owner sat astrideupon a dyke, or Allan considering him with hands in his pockets, and athoughtful countenance; or else it was the Grahams who regarded himwith a mixture of interest and aversion, or Tricksy with her great eyesresting upon him with an expression of sorrow that any one could be sodreadfully wicked.
The lad would look up with a surly expression in his red-lidded eyes;but watch as they might, they never detected in him any expression ofguilt or embarrassment.