CHAPTER VI
SOME EXPLANATIONS
Fierce emotions are necessarily transient, but for the hour theyexhaust the psychic capacity. The sailor had gone through such mentalstress before it was yet noon that he was benumbed, wholly incapable offurther sensation. Seneca tells how the island of Theresaea arose in amoment from the sea, thereby astounding ancient mariners, as well itmight. Had this manifestation been repeated within a cable's lengthfrom the reef, Jenks was in mood to accept it as befitting the neworder of things.
Being in good condition, he soon recovered his physical powers. He wasoutwardly little the worse for the encounter with the devil-fish. Theskin around his mouth was sore. His waist and legs were bruised. Onesweep of the axe had cut clean through the bulging leather of his leftboot without touching the flesh. In a word, he was practicallyuninjured.
He had the doglike habit of shaking himself at the close of a fray. Hedid so now when he stood up. Iris showed clearer signs of the ordeal.Her face was drawn and haggard, the pupils of her eyes dilated. She wasgazing into depths, illimitable, unexplored. Compassion awoke at sightof her.
"Come," said Jenks, gently. "Let us get back to the island."
He quietly resumed predominance, helping her over the rough pathway ofthe reef, almost lifting her when the difficulties were great.
He did not ask her how it happened that she came so speedily to hisassistance. Enough that she had done it, daring all for his sake. Shewas weak and trembling. With the acute vision of the soul she sawagain, and yet again, the deadly malice of the octopus, the divinedespair of the man.
Reaching the firm sand, she could walk alone. She limped. Instantly hercompanion's blunted emotions quickened into life. He caught her arm andsaid hoarsely--
"Are you hurt in any way?"
The question brought her back from dreamland. A waking nightmare washappily shattered into dim fragments. She even strove to smileunconcernedly.
"It is nothing," she murmured. "I stumbled on the rocks. There is nosprain. Merely a blow, a bit of skin rubbed off, above my ankle."
"Let me carry you."
"The idea! Carry me! I will race you to the cave."
It was no idle jest. She wanted to run--to get away from that inkyblotch in the green water.
"You are sure it is a trifle?"
"Quite sure. My stocking chafes a little; that is all. See, I will showyou."
She stooped, and with the quick skill of woman, rolled down thestocking on her right leg. Modestly daring, she stretched out her footand slightly lifted her dress. On the outer side of the tapering limbwas an ugly bruise, scratched deeply by the coral.
He exhibited due surgical interest. His manner, his words, becameprofessional.
"We will soon put that right," he said. "A strip off your muslin dress,soaked in brandy, will----"
"Brandy!" she exclaimed.
"Yes; we have some, you know. Brandy is a great tip for bruised wounds.It can be applied both ways, inside and out."
This was better. They were steadily drifting back to the commonplace.Whilst she stitched together some muslin strips he knocked the head offa bottle of brandy. They each drank a small quantity, and the generousspirit brought color to their wan cheeks. The sailor showed Iris how tofasten a bandage by twisting the muslin round the upper part of hisboot. For the first time she saw the cut made by the axe.
"Did--the thing--grip you there?" she nervously inquired.
"There, and elsewhere. All over at once, it felt like. The beastattacked me with five arms."
She shuddered. "I don't know how you could fight it," she said. "Howstrong, how brave you must be."
This amused him. "The veriest coward will try to save his own life," heanswered. "If you use such adjectives to me, what words can I find todo justice to you, who dared to come close to such a vile-lookingcreature and kill it. I must thank my stars that you carried therevolver."
"Ah!" she said, "that reminds me. You do not practice what you preach.I found your pistol lying on the stone in the cave. That is one reasonwhy I followed you."
It was quite true. He laid the weapon aside when delving at the rock,and forgot to replace it in his belt.
"It was stupid of me," he admitted; "but I am not sorry."
"Why?"
"Because, as it is, I owe you my life."
"You owe me nothing," she snapped. "It is very thoughtless of you torun such risks. What will become of me if anything happens to you? Mypoint of view is purely selfish, you see."
"Quite so. Purely selfish." He smiled sadly. "Selfish people of yourtype are somewhat rare, Miss Deane."
Not a conversation worth noting, perhaps, save in so far as it istypical of the trite utterances of people striving to recover from sometremendous ordeal. Epigrams delivered at the foot of the scaffold havealways been carefully prepared beforehand.
The bandage was ready; one end was well soaked in brandy. She movedtowards the cave, but he cried--
"Wait one minute. I want to get a couple of crowbars."
"What for?"
"I must go back there." He jerked his head in the direction of thereef. She uttered a little sob of dismay.
"I will incur no danger this time," he explained. "I found riflesthere. We must have them; they may mean salvation."
When Iris was determined about anything, her chin dimpled. It puckereddelightfully now.
"I will come with you," she announced.
"Very well. I will wait for you. The tide will serve for another hour."
He knew he had decided rightly. She could not bear to be alone--yet.Soon the bandage was adjusted and they returned to the reef. Scramblingnow with difficulty over the rough and dangerous track, Iris wassecretly amazed by the remembrance of the daring activity she displayedduring her earlier passage along the same precarious roadway.
Then she darted from rock to rock with the fearless certainty of achamois. Her only stumble was caused, she recollected, by an absurdeffort to avoid wetting her dress. She laughed nervously when theyreached the place. This time Jenks lifted her across the interveningchannel.
"Is this the spot where you fell?" he asked, tenderly.
"Yes; how did you guess it?"
"I read it in your eyes."
"Then please do not read my eyes, but look where you are going."
"Perhaps I was doing that too," he said.
They were standing on the landward side of the shallow water in whichhe fought the octopus.
Already the dark fluid emitted by his assailant in its finaldiscomfiture was passing away, owing to the slight movement of thetide.
Iris was vaguely conscious of a double meaning in his words. She didnot trouble to analyze them. All she knew was that the man's voiceconveyed a subtle acknowledgment of her feminine divinity. Theresultant thrill of happiness startled, even dismayed her. Thisincipient flirtation must be put a stop to instantly.
"Now that you have brought me here with so much difficulty, what areyou going to do?" she said. "It will be madness for you to attempt toford that passage again. Where there is one of those horrible thingsthere are others, I suppose."
Jenks smiled. Somehow he knew that this strict adherence to businesswas a cloak for her real thoughts. Already these two were able todispense with spoken word.
But he sedulously adopted her pretext.
"That is one reason why I brought the crowbars," he explained. "If youwill sit down for a little while I will have everything properlyfixed."
He delved with one of the bars until it lodged in a crevice of thecoral. Then a few powerful blows with the back of the axe wedged itfirmly enough to bear any ordinary strain. The rope-ends reeved throughthe pulley on the tree were lying where they fell from the girl's handat the close of the struggle. He deftly knotted them to the rigid bar,and a few rapid turns of a piece of wreckage passed between the twolines strung them into a tautness that could not be attained by anyamount of pulling.
Iris watched the operation in silence. The sailor always
looked at hisbest when hard at work. The half-sullen, wholly self-containedexpression left his face, which lit up with enthusiasm and concentratedintelligence. That which he essayed he did with all his might. Willpower and physical force worked harmoniously. She had never before seensuch a man. At such moments her admiration of him was unbounded.
He, toiling with steady persistence, felt not the inward spur whichsought relief in speech, but Iris was compelled to say something.
"I suppose," she commented with an air of much wisdom, "you arecontriving an overhead railway for the safe transit of yourself and thegoods?"
"Y--yes."
"Why are you so doubtful about it?"
"Because I personally intended to walk across. The ropes will serve toconvey the packages."
She rose imperiously. "I absolutely forbid you to enter the wateragain. Such a suggestion on your part is quite shameful. You are takinga grave risk for no very great gain that I can see, and if anythinghappens to you I shall be left all alone in this awful place."
She could think of no better argument. Her only resource was a woman'sexpedient--a plea for protection against threatening ills.
The sailor seemed to be puzzled how best to act.
"Miss Deane," he said, "there is no such serious danger as you imagine.Last time the cuttle caught me napping. He will not do so again. Thoserifles I must have. If it will serve to reassure you, I will go alongthe line myself."
He made this concession grudgingly. In very truth, if danger stilllurked in the neighboring sea, he would be far less able to avoid itwhilst clinging to a rope that sagged with his weight, and thus workinga slow progress across the channel, than if he were on his feet andprepared to make a rush backwards or forwards.
Not until Iris watched him swinging along with vigorous overheadclutches did this phase of the undertaking occur to her.
"Stop!" she screamed.
He let go and dropped into the water, turning towards her.
"What is the matter now?" he said.
"Go on; do!"
He stood meekly on the further side to listen to her rating.
"You knew all the time that it would be better to walk, yet to pleaseme you adopted an absurdly difficult method. Why did you do it?"
"You have answered your own question."
"Well, I am very, very angry with you."
"I'll tell you what," he said, "if you will forgive me I will try andjump back. I once did nineteen feet three inches in--er--in a meadow,but it makes such a difference when you look at a stretch of water thesame width."
"I wish you would not stand there talking nonsense. The tide will beover the reef in half an hour," she cried.
Without another word he commenced operations. There was plenty of rope,and the plan he adopted was simplicity itself. When each package wassecurely fastened he attached it to a loop that passed over the linestretched from the tree to the crowbar. To this loop he tied thelightest rope he could find and threw the other end to Iris. By pullingslightly she was able to land at her feet even the cumbrousrifle-chest, for the traveling angle was so acute that the heavier thearticle the more readily it sought the lower level.
They toiled in silence until Jenks could lay hands on nothing more ofvalue. Then, observing due care, he quickly passed the channel. For aninstant the girl gazed affrightedly at the sea until the sailor stoodat her side again.
"You see," he said, "you have scared every cuttle within miles." And hethought that he would give many years of his life to be able to takeher in his arms and kiss away her anxiety.
But the tide had turned; in a few minutes the reef would be partlysubmerged. To carry the case of rifles to the mainland was a manifestlyimpossible feat, so Jenks now did that which, done earlier, would havesaved him some labor--he broke open the chest, and found that theweapons were apparently in excellent order.
He snapped the locks and squinted down the barrels of half a dozen totest them. These he laid on one side. Then he rapidly constructed asmall raft from loose timbers, binding them roughly with rope, and tothis argosy he fastened the box of tea, the barrels of flour, thebroken saloon-chair, and other small articles which might be of use. Heavoided any difficulty in launching the raft by building it close tothe water's edge. When all was ready the rising tide floated it forhim; he secured it to his longest rope, and gave it a vigorous push offinto the lagoon. Then he slung four rifles across his shoulders, askedIris to carry the remaining two in like manner, and began to manoeuvrethe raft landwards.
"Whilst you land the goods I will prepare dinner," announced the girl.
"Please be careful not to slip again on the rocks," he said.
"Indeed I will. My ankle gives me a reminder at each step."
"I was more concerned about the rifles. If you fell you might damagethem, and the incoming tide will so hopelessly rust those I leavebehind that they will be useless."
She laughed. This assumption at brutality no longer deceived her.
"I will preserve them at any cost, though with six in our possessionthere is a margin for accidents. However, to reassure you, I will goback quickly. If I fall a second time you will still be able to replaceany deficiencies in our armament."
Before he could protest she started off at a run, jumping lightly fromrock to rock, though the effort cost her a good deal of pain.Disregarding his shouts, she persevered until she stood safely on thesands. Then saucily waving a farewell, she set off towards the cave.
Had she seen the look of fierce despair that settled down upon Jenks'sface as he turned to his task of guiding the raft ashore she might havewondered what it meant. In any case she would certainly have behaveddifferently.
By the time the sailor had safely landed his cargo Iris had cookedtheir midday meal. She achieved a fresh culinary triumph. The eggs werefried!
"I am seriously thinking of trying to boil a ham," she stated gravely."Have you any idea how long it takes to cook one properly?"
"A quarter of an hour for each pound."
"Admirable! But we can measure neither hours nor pounds."
"I think we can do both. I will construct a balance of some kind. Then,with a ham slung to one end, and a rifle and some cartridges to theother, I will tell you the weight of the ham to an ounce. To ascertainthe time, I have already determined to fashion a sun-dial. I rememberthe requisite divisions with reasonable accuracy, and a littleobservation will enable us to correct any mistakes."
"You are really very clever, Mr. Jenks," said Iris, with childlikecandor. "Have you spent several years of your life in preparing forresidence on a desert island?"
"Something of the sort. I have led a queer kind of existence, full ofuseless purposes. Fate has driven me into a corner where my odds andends of knowledge are actually valuable. Such accidents make menmillionaires."
"Useless purposes!" she repeated. "I can hardly credit that. One usessuch a phrase to describe fussy people, alive with foolish activity.Your worst enemy would not place you in such a category."
"My worst enemy made the phrase effective at any rate, Miss Deane."
"You mean that he ruined your career?"
"Well--er--yes. I suppose that describes the position with fairaccuracy."
"Was he a very great scoundrel?"
"He was, and is."
Jenks spoke with quiet bitterness. The girl's words had evoked a suddenflood of recollection. For the moment he did not notice how he had beentrapped into speaking of himself, nor did he see the quiet content onIris's face when she elicited the information that his chief foe was aman. A certain tremulous hesitancy in her manner when she next spokemight have warned him, but his hungry soul caught only the warmsympathy of her words, which fell like rain on parched soil.
"You are tired," she said. "Won't you smoke for a little while, andtalk to me?"
He produced his pipe and tobacco, but he used his right hand awkwardly.It was evident to her alert eyes that the torn quick on his injuredfinger was hurting him a great deal. The exciting events of the m
orninghad caused him temporarily to forget his wound, and the rapid coursingof the blood through the veins was now causing him agonized throbs.
With a cry of distress she sprang to her feet and insisted upon washingthe wound. Then she tenderly dressed it with a strip of linen wellsoaked in brandy, thinking the while, with a sudden rush of color toher face, that although he could suggest this remedy for her slighthurt, he gave no thought to his own serious injury. Finally she pouncedupon his pipe and tobacco-box.
"Don't be alarmed," she laughed. "I have often filled my father's pipefor him. First, you put the tobacco in loosely, taking care not to useany that is too finely powdered. Then you pack the remainder quitetightly. But I was nearly forgetting. I haven't blown, through the pipeto see if it is clean."
She suited the action to the word, using much needless breath in theoperation.
"That is a first-rate pipe," she declared. "My father always said thata straight stem, with the bowl at a right angle, was the correct shape.You evidently agree with him."
"Absolutely."
"You will like my father when you meet him. He is the very best manalive, I am sure."
"You two are great friends, then?"
"Great friends! He is the only friend I possess in the world."
"What! Is that quite accurate?"
"Oh, quite. Of course, Mr. Jenks, I can never forget how much I owe toyou. I like you immensely, too, although you are so--so gruff to me attimes. But--but--you see, my father and I have always been together. Ihave neither brother nor sister, not even a cousin. My dear mother diedfrom some horrid fever when I was quite a little girl. My father iseverything to me."
"Dear child!" he murmured, apparently uttering his thoughts aloudrather than addressing her directly. "So you find me gruff, eh?"
"A regular bear, when you lecture me. But that is only occasionally.You can be very nice when you like, when you forget your past troubles.And pray, why do you call me a child?
"Have I done so?"
"Not a moment ago. How old are you, Mr. Jenks? I am twenty--twenty lastDecember."
"And I," he said, "will be twenty-eight in August."
"Good gracious!" she gasped. "I am very sorry, but I really thought youwere forty at least."
"I look it, no doubt. Let me be equally candid and admit that you, too,show your age markedly."
She smiled nervously. "What a lot of trouble you must have hadto--to--to give you those little wrinkles in the corners of your mouthand eyes," she said.
"Wrinkles! How terrible!"
"I don't know. I think they rather suit you; besides, it was stupid ofme to imagine you were so old. I suppose exposure to the sun createswrinkles, and you must have lived much in the open air."
"Early rising and late going to bed are bad for the complexion," hedeclared, solemnly.
"I often wonder how army officers manage to exist," she said. "Theynever seem to get enough sleep, in the East, at any rate. I have seenthem dancing for hours after midnight, and heard of them pig-stickingor schooling hunters at five o'clock next morning."
"So you assume I have been in the army?"
"I am quite sure of it."
"May I ask why?"
"Your manner, your voice, your quiet air of authority, the very way youwalk, all betray you."
"Then," he said sadly, "I will not attempt to deny the fact. I held acommission in the Indian Staff Corps for nine years. It was a hobby ofmine, Miss Deane, to make myself acquainted with the best means ofvictualing my men and keeping them in good health under all sorts offanciful conditions and in every kind of climate, especially undercircumstances when ordinary stores were not available. With that objectin view I read up every possible country in which my regiment might beengaged, learnt the local names of common articles of food, andascertained particularly what provision nature made to sustain life.The study interested me. Once, during the Soudan campaign, it wasreally useful, and procured me promotion."
"Tell me about it."
"During some operations in the desert it was necessary for my troop tofollow up a small party of rebels mounted on camels, which, as youprobably know, can go without water much longer than horses. We werealmost within striking distance, when our horses completely gave out,but I luckily noticed indications which showed that there was waterbeneath a portion of the plain much below the general level. Half anhour's spade work proved that I was right. We took up the pursuitagain, and ran the quarry to earth, and I got my captaincy."
"Was there no fight?"
He paused an appreciable time before replying. Then he evidently madeup his mind to perform some disagreeable task. The watching girl couldsee the change in his face, the sharp transition from eager interest toangry resentment.
"Yes," he went on at last, "there was a fight. It was a rather stiffaffair, because a troop of British cavalry which should have supportedme had turned back, owing to the want of water already mentioned. Butthat did not save the officer in charge of the 24th Lancers from beingseverely reprimanded."
"The 24th Lancers!" cried Iris. "Lord Ventnor's regiment!"
"Lord Ventnor was the officer in question."
Her face crimonsed. "Then you know him?" she said.
"I do."
"Is he your enemy?"
"Yes."
"And that is why you were so agitated that last day on the_Sirdar_, when poor Lady Tozer asked me if I were engaged to him?"
"Yes."
"How could it affect you? You did not even know my name then?"
Poor Iris! She did not stop to ask herself why she framed her questionin such manner, but the sailor was now too profoundly moved to heed theslip. She could not tell how he was fighting with himself, fiercelybeating down the inner barriers of self-love, sternly determined, onceand for all, to reveal himself in such light to this beautiful andbewitching woman that in future she would learn to regard him only asan outcast whose company she must perforce tolerate until relief came.
"It affected me because the sudden mention of his name recalled my owndisgrace. I quitted the army six months ago, Miss Deane, under verypainful circumstances. A general court-martial found me guilty ofconduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. I was not even given achance to resign. I was cashiered."
He pretended to speak with cool truculence. He thought to compel herinto shrinking contempt. Yet his face blanched somewhat, and though hesteadily kept the pipe between his teeth, and smoked with studiedunconcern, his lips twitched a little.
And he dared not look at her, for the girl's wondering eyes were fixedupon him, and the blush had disappeared as quickly as it came.
"I remember something of this," she said slowly, never once avertingher gaze. "There was some gossip concerning it when I first came toHong Kong. You are Captain Robert Anstruther?"
"I am."
"And you publicly thrashed Lord Ventnor as the result of a quarrelabout a woman?"
"Your recollection is quite accurate."
"Who was to blame?"
"The lady said that I was."
"Was it true?"
Robert Anstruther, late captain of Bengal Cavalry, rose to his feet. Hepreferred to take his punishment standing.
"The court-martial agreed with her, Miss Deane, and I am a prejudicedwitness," he replied.
"Who was the--lady?"
"The wife of my colonel, Mrs. Costobell."
"Oh!"
Long afterwards he remembered the agony of that moment, and winced evenat the remembrance. But he had decided upon a fixed policy, and he wasnot a man to flinch from consequences. Miss Deane must be taught todespise him, else, God help them both, she might learn to love him ashe now loved her. So, blundering towards his goal as men always blunderwhere a woman's heart is concerned, he blindly persisted in allowingher to make such false deductions as she chose from his words.
Iris was the first to regain some measure of self-control.
"I am glad you have been so candid, Captain Anstruther," she commenced,but he broke in abru
ptly--
"Jenks, if you please, Miss Deane. Robert Jenks."
There was a curious light in her eyes, but he did not see it, and hervoice was marvelously subdued as she continued--
"Certainly, Mr. Jenks. Let me be equally explicit before we quit thesubject. I have met Mrs. Costobell. I do not like her. I consider her adeceitful woman. Your court-martial might have found a differentverdict had its members been of her sex. As for Lord Ventnor, he isnothing to me. It is true he asked my father to be permitted to pay hisaddresses to me, but my dear old dad left the matter wholly to mydecision, and I certainly never gave Lord Ventnor any encouragement. Ibelieve now that Mrs. Costobell lied, and that Lord Ventnor lied, whenthey attributed any dishonorable action to you, and I am glad that youbeat him in the Club. I am quite sure he deserved it."
Not one word did this strange man vouchsafe in reply. He startedviolently, seized the axe lying at his feet, and went straight amongthe trees, keeping his face turned from Iris so that she might not seethe tears in his eyes.
As for the girl, she began to scour her cooking utensils with muchenergy, and soon commenced a song. Considering that she was compelledto constantly endure the company of a degraded officer, who had beenexpelled from the service with ignominy, she was absurdly contented.Indeed, with the happy inconsequence of youth, she quickly threw allcare to the winds, and devoted her thoughts to planning a surprise forthe next day by preparing some tea, provided she could surreptitiouslyopen the chest.