CHAPTER 13
AN INTERVIEW
No human creature stirred to go or come, No face looked forth from shut or open casement,No chimney smoked, there was no sign of home From parapet to basement--_Hood_
And so the days went on, until there came to be but two nights morebefore we were to leave our cave. Now I have said that the delay chafedus, because we were impatient to get at the treasure; but there wassomething else that vexed me and made me more unquiet with every day thatpassed. And this was that I had resolved to see Grace before I left theseparts, and yet knew not how to tell it to Elzevir. But on this evening,seeing the time was grown so short, I knew that I must speak or drop mypurpose, and so spoke.
We were sitting like the sea-birds on the ledge outside our cave, lookingtowards St. Alban's Head and watching the last glow of sunset. Theevening vapours began to sweep down Channel, and Elzevir shrugged hisshoulders. 'The night turns chill,' he said, and got up to go back to thecave. So then I thought my time was come, and following him inside said:
'Dear Master Elzevir, you have watched over me all this while and tendedme kinder than any father could his son; and 'tis to you I owe my life,and that my leg is strong again. Yet I am restless this night, and begthat you will give me leave to climb the shaft and walk abroad. It is twomonths and more that I have been in the cave and seen nothing but stonewalls, and I would gladly tread once more upon the Down.'
'Say not that I have saved thy life,' Elzevir broke in; ''twas I whobrought thy life in danger; and but for me thou mightst even now belying snug abed at Moonfleet, instead of hiding in the chambers of theserocks. So speak not of that, but if thou hast a mind to air thyself anhour, I see little harm in it. These wayward fancies fall on men as theyget better of sickness; and I must go tonight to that ruined house ofwhich I spoke to thee, to fetch a pocket compass Master Ratsey was to putthere. So thou canst come with me and smell the night air on the Down.'
He had agreed more readily than I looked for, and so I pushed thematter, saying:
'Nay, master, grant me leave to go yet a little farther afield. You knowthat I was born in Moonfleet, and have been bred there all my life, andlove the trees and stream and very stones of it. And I have set my hearton seeing it once more before we leave these parts for good and all. Sogive me leave to walk along the Down and look on Moonfleet but this once,and in this ploughboy guise I shall be safe enough, and will come back toyou tomorrow night'
He looked at me a moment without speaking; and all the while I felt hesaw me through and through, and yet he was not angry. But I turned red,and cast my eyes upon the ground, and then he spoke:
'Lad, I have known men risk their lives for many things: for gold, andlove, and hate; but never one would play with death that he might see atree or stream or stones. And when men say they love a place or town,thou mayst be sure 'tis not the place they love but some that live there;or that they loved some in the past, and so would see the spot again tokindle memory withal. Thus when thou speakest of Moonfleet, I may guessthat thou hast someone there to see--or hope to see. It cannot be thineaunt, for there is no love lost between ye; and besides, no man everperilled his life to bid adieu to an aunt. So have no secrets from me,John, but tell me straight, and I will judge whether this secondtreasure that thou seekest is true gold enough to fling thy life into thescale against it.'
Then I told him all, keeping nothing back, but trying to make him seethat there was little danger in my visiting Moonfleet, for none wouldknow me in a carter's dress, and that my knowledge of the place would letme use a hedge or wall or wood for cover; and finally, if I were seen, myleg was now sound, and there were few could beat me in a running matchupon the Down. So I talked on, not so much in the hope of convincing himas to keep saying something; for I durst not look up, and feared to hearan angry word from him when I should stop. But at last I had spoken all Icould, and ceased because I had no more. Yet he did not break out as Ihad thought, but there was silence; and after a moment I looked up, andsaw by his face that his thoughts were wandering. When he spoke there wasno anger in his voice, but only something sad.
'Thou art a foolish lad,' he said. 'Yet I was young once myself, and myways have been too dark to make me wish to darken others, or try to chillyoung blood. Now thine own life has got a shadow on't already that I havehelped to cast, so take the brightness of it while thou mayst, and getthee gone. But for this girl, I know her for a comely lass andgood-hearted, and have wondered often how she came to have _him_ for herfather. I am glad now I have not his blood on my hands; and never wouldhave gone to take it then, for all the evil he had brought on me, butthat the lives of every mother's son hung on his life. So make thy mindat ease, and get thee gone and see these streams and trees and stonesthou talkest of. Yet if thou'rt shot upon the Down, or taken off to jail,blame thine own folly and not me. And I will walk with thee to PurbeckGates tonight, and then come back and wait. But if thou art not hereagain by midnight tomorrow, I shall believe that thou art taken in somesnare, and come out to seek thee.'
I took his hand, and thanked him with what words I could that he had letme go, and then got on the smock, putting some bread and meat in mypockets, as I was likely to find little to eat on my journey. It wasdark before we left the cave, for there is little dusk with us, and thedivision between day and night sharper than in more northern parts.Elzevir took me by the hand and led me through the darkness of theworkings, telling me where I should stoop, and when the way was uneven.Thus we came to the bottom of the shaft, and looking up through fernsand brambles, I could see the deep blue of the sky overhead, and a greatstar gazing down full at us. We climbed the steps with the soap-stoneslide at one side, and then walked on briskly over the springy turfthrough the hillocks of the covered quarry-heaps and the ruins of thedeserted cottages.
There was a heavy dew which got through my boots before we had gone halfa mile, and though there was no moon, the sky was very clear, and I couldsee the veil of gossamers spread silvery white over the grass. Neither ofus spoke, partly because it was safer not to speak, for the voice carriesfar in a still night on the Downs; and partly, I think, because thebeauty of the starry heaven had taken hold upon us both, ruling ourhearts with thoughts too big for words. We soon reached that ruinedcottage of which Elzevir had spoken, and in what had once been an oven,found the compass safe enough as Ratsey had promised. Then on again overthe solitary hills, not speaking ourselves, and neither seeing light inwindow nor hearing dog stir, until we reached that strange defile whichmen call the Gates of Purbeck. Here is a natural road nicking thehighest summit of the hill, with walls as sharp as if the hand of man hadcut them, through which have walked for ages all the few travellers inthis lonely place, shepherds and sailors, soldiers and Excisemen. Andalthough, as I suppose, no carts have been through it for centuries,there are ruts in the chalk floor as wide and deep as if the cars ofgiants used it in past times.
So here Elzevir stopped, and drawing from his bosom that silver-buttedpistol of which I have spoken, thrust it in my hand. 'Here, take it,child,' he said, 'but use it not till thou art closely pressed, and thenif thou _must_ shoot, shoot low--it flings.' I took it and gripped hishand, and so we parted, he going back to Purbeck, and I making along thetop of the ridge at the back of Hoar Head. It must have been near threewhen I reached a great grass-grown mound called Culliford Tree, thatmarks the resting-place of some old warrior of the past. The top isplanted with a clump of trees that cut the skyline, and there I satawhile to rest. But not for long, for looking back towards Purbeck, Icould see the faint hint of dawn low on the sea-line behind St. Alban'sHead, and so pressed forward knowing I had a full ten miles to cover yet.
Thus I travelled on, and soon came to the first sign of man, namely aflock of lambs being fed with turnips on a summer fallow. The sun waswell up now, and flushed all with a rosy glow, showing the sheep and theroots they eat white against the brown earth. Still I saw no shepherd,nor even dog, and about seven o'clock stood safe on Weatherbeech Hillthat looks do
wn over Moonfleet.
There at my feet lay the Manor woods and the old house, and lower downthe white road and the straggling cottages, and farther still the WhyNot? and the glassy Fleet, and beyond that the open sea. I cannot sayhow sad, yet sweet, the sight was: it seemed like the mirage of thedesert, of which I had been told--so beautiful, but never to be reachedagain by me. The air was still, and the blue smoke of the morningwood-fires rose straight up, but none from the Why Not? or Manor House.The sun was already very hot, and I dropped at once from the hill-top,digging my heels into the brown-burned turf, and keeping as much as mightbe among the furze champs. So I was soon in the wood, and made straightfor the little dell and lay down there, burying myself in the wildrhubarb and burdocks, yet so that I could see the doorway of the ManorHouse over the lip of the hill.
Then I reflected what I was to do, or how I should get to speak withGrace: and thought I would first wait an hour or two, and see whether shecame out, and afterwards, if she did not, would go down boldly and knockat the door. This seemed not very dangerous, for it was likely, from whatRatsey had said, that there was no one with her in the house, and ifthere was it would be but an old woman, to whom I could pass as astranger in my disguise, and ask my way to some house in the village. SoI lay still and munched a piece of bread, and heard the clock in thechurch tower strike eight and afterwards nine, but saw no one move in thehouse. The wood was all alive with singing-birds, and with the calling ofcuckoo and wood-pigeon. There were deep patches of green shade andlighter patches of yellow sunlight, in which the iris leaves gleamed witha sheeny white, and a shimmering blue sea of ground-ivy spread allthrough the wood. It struck ten, and as the heat increased the birds sangless and the droning of the bees grew more distinct, and at last I gotup, shook myself, smoothed my smock, and making a turn, came out on theroad that led to the house.
Though my disguise was good, I fear I made but an indifferent badploughboy when walking, and found a difficulty in dealing with my hands,not knowing how ploughboys are wont to carry them. So I came round infront of the house, and gave a rat-tat on the door, while my pulse beatas loud inside of me as ever did the knocker without. The sound ran roundthe building, and backwards among the walks, and all was silent asbefore. I waited a minute, and was for knocking again, thinking theremight be no one in the house, and then heard a light footstep comingalong the corridor, yet durst not look through the window to see who itwas in passing, as I might have done, but kept myself close to the door.
The bolts were being drawn, and a girl's voice asked, 'Who is there?' Igave a jump to hear that voice, knowing it well for Grace's, and had amind to shout out my name. But then I remembered there might be some inthe house with her besides, and that I must remain disguised. Moreover,laughing is so mixed with crying in our world, and trifling things withserious, that even in this pass I believe I was secretly pleased to haveto play a trick on her, and test whether she would find me out in thisdress or not. So I spoke out in our round Dorset speech, such as theytalk it out in the vale, saying, 'A poor boy who is out of his way.'
Then she opened one leaf of the door, and asked me whither I would go,looking at me as one might at a stranger and not knowing who it was.
I answered that I was a farm lad who had walked from Purbeck, and soughtan inn called the Why Not? kept by one Master Block. When she heard that,she gave a little start, and looked me over again, yet could make nothingof it, but said:
'Good lad, if you will step on to this terrace I can show you the WhyNot? inn, but 'tis shut these two months or more, and Master Block away.'
With that she turned towards the terrace, I following, but when wewere outside of ear-shot from the door, I spoke in my own voice,quick but low:
'Grace, it is I, John Trenchard, who am come to say goodbye before Ileave these parts, and have much to tell that you would wish to hear. Arethere any beside in the house with you?'
Now many girls who had suffered as she had, and were thus surprised,would have screamed, or perhaps swooned, but she did neither, onlyflushing a little and saying, also quick and low, 'Let us go back to thehouse; I am alone.'
So we went back, and after the door was bolted, took both hands and stoodup face to face in the passage looking into one another's eyes. I wastired with a long walk and sleepless night, and so full of joy to see heragain that my head swam and all seemed a sweet dream. Then she squeezedmy hands, and I knew 'twas real, and was for kissing her for very love;but she guessed what I would be at, perhaps, and cast my hands loose,drawing back a little, as if to see me better, and saying, 'John, youhave grown a man in these two months.' So I did not kiss her.
But if it was true that I was grown a man, it was truer still that shewas grown a woman, and as tall as I. And these recent sufferings hadtaken from her something of light and frolic girlhood, and left her witha manner more staid and sober. She was dressed in black, with longerskirts, and her hair caught up behind; and perhaps it was the mourningfrock that made her look pale and thin, as Ratsey said. So while I lookedat her, she looked at me, and could not choose but smile to see mycarter's smock; and as for my brown face and hands, thought I had beenhiding in some country underneath the sun, until I told her of thewalnut-juice. Then before we fell to talking, she said it was better weshould sit in the garden, for that a woman might come in to help her withthe house, and anyway it was safer, so that I might get out at the backin case of need. So she led the way down the corridor and through theliving-part of the house, and we passed several rooms, and one littleparlour lined with shelves and musty books. The blinds were pulled, butlet enough light in to show a high-backed horsehair chair that stood atthe table. In front of it lay an open volume, and a pair of horn-rimmedspectacles, that I had often seen on Maskew's nose; so I knew it was hisstudy, and that nothing had been moved since last he sat there. Even nowI trembled to think in whose house I was, and half-expected the oldattorney to step in and hale me off to jail; till I remembered how all mytrouble had come about, and how I last had seen him with his face turnedup against the morning sun.
Thus we came to the garden, where I had never been before. It was a greatsquare, shut in with a brick wall of twelve or fifteen feet, big enoughto suit a palace, but then ill kept and sorely overgrown. I could spendlong in speaking of that plot; how the flowers, and fruit-trees,pot-herbs, spice, and simples ran all wild and intermixed. The pink brickwalls caught every ray of sun that fell, and that morning there was ahushed, close heat in it, and a warm breath rose from the strawberrybeds, for they were then in full bearing. I was glad enough to get out ofthe sun when Grace led the way into a walk of medlar-trees and quinces,where the boughs interlaced and formed an alley to a brick summer-house.This summer-house stands in the angle of the south wall, and by it twofig-trees, whose tops you can see from the outside. They are well knownfor the biggest and the earliest bearing of all that part, and Graceshowed me how, if danger threatened, I might climb up their boughs andscale the wall.
We sat in the summer-house, and I told her all that had happened at herfather's death, only concealing that Elzevir had meant to do the deedhimself; because it was no use to tell her that, and besides, for all Iknew, he never did mean to shoot, but only to frighten.
She wept again while I spoke, but afterwards dried her tears, and mustneeds look at my leg to see the bullet-wound, and if it was allsoundly healed.
Then I told her of the secret sense that Master Ratsey's words put intothe texts written on the parchment. I had showed her the locket before,but we had it out again now; and she read and read again the writing,while I pointed out how the words fell, and told her I was going away toget the diamond and come back the richest man in all the countryside.
Then she said, 'Ah, John! set not your heart too much upon this diamond.If what they say is true, 'twas evilly come by, and will bring evil withit. Even this wicked man durst not spend it for himself, but meant togive it to the poor; so, if indeed you ever find it, keep it not foryourself, but set his soul at rest by doing with it what he m
eant to do,or it will bring a curse upon you.'
I only smiled at what she said, taking it to be a girlish fancy, and didnot tell her why I wanted so much to be rich--namely, to marry her oneday. Then, having talked long about my own concerns as selfishly as a manalways does, I thought to ask after herself, and what she was going todo. She told me that a month past lawyers had come to Moonfleet, andpressed her to leave the place, and they would give her in charge to alady in London, because, said they, her father had died without a will,and so she must be made a ward of Chancery. But she had begged them tolet her be, for she could never live anywhere else than in Moonfleet,and that the air and commodity of the place suited her well. So they wentoff, saying that they must take direction of the Court to know whethershe might stay here or not, and here she yet was. This made me sad, forall I knew of Chancery was that whatever it put hand on fell to ruin, aswitness the Chancery Mills at Cerne, or the Chancery Wharf at Wareham;and certainly it would take little enough to ruin the Manor House, for itwas three parts in decay already.
Thus we talked, and after that she put on a calico bonnet and picked me adish of strawberries, staying to pull the finest, although the sun wasbeating down from mid-heaven, and brought me bread and meat from thehouse. Then she rolled up a shawl to make me a pillow, and bade me liedown on the seat that ran round the summer-house and get to sleep, for Ihad told her that I had walked all night, and must be back again at thecave come midnight She went back to the house, and that was the mostsweet and peaceful sleep that ever I knew, for I was very tired, and hadthis thought to soothe me as I fell asleep--that I had seen Grace, andthat she was so kind to me.
She was sitting beside me when I awoke and knitting a piece of work. Theheat of the day was somewhat less, and she told me that it was past fiveo'clock by the sun-dial; so I knew that I must go. She made me take apacket of victuals and a bottle of milk, and as she put it into mypocket the bottle struck on the butt of Maskew's pistol, which I had inmy bosom. 'What have you there?' she said; but I did not tell her,fearing to call up bitter memories.
We stood hand in hand again, as we had done in the morning, and she said:'John, you will wander on the sea, and may perhaps put into Moonfleet.Though you have not been here of late, I have kept a candle burning atthe window every night, as in the past. So, if you come to beach on anynight you will see that light, and know Grace remembers you. And if yousee it not, then know that I am dead or gone, for I will think of youevery night till you come back again.' I had nothing to say, for my heartwas too full with her sweet words and with the sorrow of parting, butonly drew her close to me and kissed her; and this time she did not stepback, but kissed me again.
Then I climbed up the fig-tree, thinking it safer so to get out over thewall than to go back to the front of the house, and as I sat on the wallready to drop the other side, turned to her and said good-bye.
'Good-bye,' cried she; 'and have a care how you touch the treasure; itwas evilly come by, and will bring a curse with it.'
'Good-bye, good-bye,' I said, and dropped on to the soft leafy bottomof the wood.