The Adventure League

by Hilda T. Skae

CHAPTER VIII

A CRUISE IN THE 'HEROIC'

'I can't understand Allan at all,' declared Marjorie. She and Reggie, armed with large pocket-knives, were engaged in cutting heather on the moor, which stretched, a mass of purple, to the verge of the cliffs. A pile of heather lay beside them, the result of an hour's hard sawing of the wiry stems.

Marjorie's remark had interrupted a busy silence.

Reggie looked up with a twinkle in his eyes. He had been growing thinner and browner during the summer, and his wrists came further beyond the sleeves of his jacket.

'What's the matter with Allan?' he asked.

'Why,' said Marjorie impatiently, 'he is going on so oddly. First of all, he wasn't to be found when we came here this morning—had been away for hours—and he isn't usually in such a hurry to get up in the holidays. Then when he comes back we all have to go off and get heather to patch up the roof of the Pirates' Den. I can't make out why he has grown so particular all of a sudden.'

Reggie looked at her with a provoking smile.

'I thought it was you who wanted the place kept water-tight,' he suggested, 'in case we might be storm-stayed some evening and have to spend the night there——'

'That's all very well,' interrupted Marjorie, 'but that's not what's making you and Allan so busy just now. Why did you go off together yesterday, and stay away for such a time, leaving us to entertain your guests? You're busy with something that you don't want us to know about and I'd just like to find out what it is. It always irritates me when people make mysteries out of nothing.'

Reggie was looking grave, and his dark eyes studied Marjorie intently.

'Hullo, you two,' said Allan, coming up; 'how are you getting on?'

Marjorie rose up from the ground, and seated herself upon the pile of cut heather.

'I've just been telling Reggie that I know that you and he have a secret between you,' she said, looking boldly at Allan. 'I'd just like to know what it is. Hardly fair, I call it; keeping something from the other members of the Compact——'

She broke off upon seeing the grave, concerned expression in Allan's eyes.

'It's all right,' she said, looking fixedly out to sea; 'it's something that you know you ought to keep from me, and I'm not going to find out what it is.'

She had become flushed, and her heart was beating fast as a suspicion forced itself upon her. She turned, and stooping down, took up her armful of heather.

'I'm going to carry this to the boat,' she remarked, without looking round.

The boys looked after her retreating figure.

'H'm,' said Allan, 'not bad for a girl.'

Marjorie's reflections were interrupted by a about, and Harry came running down the hill and caught her by the arm.

'Well, what's the matter?' she asked irritably.

'Look!' he panted, pulling her round. 'Look at that! Well, if you're so cross you needn't, but you must be a duffer if you don't care to see what's coming round that headland——'

Marjorie's eyes followed in the direction pointed out by his shaking finger, and her face cleared.

A large vessel was gliding into view.

Tricksy came running as fast as her little short legs would carry her, the two dogs barking in her wake.

'Marjorie,' she gasped, it's a man-o'-war; oh, don't you hope it's that nice one that came last year!'

By this time the vessel had been sighted by the others, who came down to discuss the situation.

'Perhaps she's a stranger,' suggested Hamish, feeling that it might be better to prepare for a disappointment.

'She's a fine big vessel, whatever she is,' said Harry.

'She's like the one that was here last year,' said Marjorie.

'Oh, don't you hope she's the same,' sighed Tricksy.

'You are right, Marjorie,' said Reggie, whose eyes were the best; 'I'm certain it's the old Heroic.'

'What fun!' said Marjorie; while Tricksy sighed 'Oh, how nice!'

'I wonder whether the same men are on board,' said Reggie, whose serious expression had changed.

'Don't know,' said Allan briefly, looking out to sea with his hands in his pockets and a thoughtful face.

His lack of enthusiasm caused all the others to look at him, and Marjorie felt her fears revive.

The man-of-war came to a standstill in Ardnavoir Bay and a boat put off from her side.

'Look, oh look,' cried Tricksy, 'they're coming on shore.'

'Do you think they'll speak to us if they meet us?' inquired Harry, whose eyes had never ceased to sparkle since the first discovery of the vessel.

'We'll go down to the landing-place as soon as the boat comes in,' said Allan.

'Can I go too?' asked Tricksy.

Allan looked at her.

'I think you two girls had better stay up here,' he said; and Tricksy's face showed her disappointment.

The boat was rapidly coming nearer, and soon she grounded near the spot where the Pirate Craft lay beached.

'There,' said Allan; 'there are three officers in the boat, and they're getting out.'

The young people clustered at the edge of the rocks and looked down.

'We had better wait until they are gone,' said Allan; 'don't let them see that we are watching them.'

'They are going in the direction of Ardnavoir,' said Marjorie; 'I believe they are going to call for your father and mother!'

'Oh,' sighed Tricksy after the breathless pause during which they were uncertain whether the officers were really going to enter the gate or would pass by; 'they've gone in. I saw that nice one who came here last year. Do you think they can be going to invite us to come on board?'

This question being rather difficult to answer, Allan suggested that the boys should go down to the shore and see if any of their old friends were in the boat.

'Marjorie,' said Tricksy, as the two girls remained looking down from above; 'do you think we should have better fun if we were boys?'

Marjorie's reply was forestalled by a shout from below; and the girls scrambled down to the beach.

'Come along, you two,' said Allan; 'here's Jim Macdonnell, Euan's twin brother, and a lot of the men who were here last year.'

Greetings were exchanged with the pleasant-faced young blue-jacket and his companions; and then the boys and girls sat down on the stones to talk with their friends.

The men could not come on shore, as no leave had yet been given, but they hoped to be allowed to land on the following day.

'You will be glad to see Euan,' said Marjorie to Jim Macdonnell.

'Yes, Miss Marjorie,' replied the lad, but his handsome face clouded; and Marjorie knew that he was thinking of his cousin Neil, once the favourite of the island.

'We were going to ask you, Mr. Allan,' he said, 'whether you young gentlemen would come and have tea on board this afternoon; just with us men, you know, sir.'

'Thank you very much,' replied Allan, while all the boys looked gratified; 'it would be no end jolly, and we'll come if Father will let us. I'm sure he will. May we bring our friends too, Harry and Gerald Graham?'

'To be sure, sir,' replied Jim; 'we'll be glad to see the young gentlemen. Are you fond of the sea, sir?' he inquired, turning to Harry.

Yes,' replied Harry, 'and I'm going into the navy.'

'That's good,' said Jim. 'Perhaps I'll see you as a midshipman next time we meet.'

'Perhaps,' said Harry; 'and I hope I'll be a captain before very long.'

'I hope you will be an admiral some day, sir, I'm sure,' answered Jim gravely.

'Thank you,' said Harry; 'yes, I daresay I shall be.'

Allan turned his head away, and a smile gleamed out for an instant upon Marjorie's face. Harry saw it and did not feel pleased, and he remarked to Gerald afterwards that he was afraid Marjorie thought a great deal too much of herself.

'And what are you going to be, air?' inquired another of the men, turning to Gerald, who was sitting by with a thoughtful face.

'I'm going into the army, I think,' answered Gerald; 'but I don't know if I can pass the exams. They're very difficult, but I'm going to try.'

'Here are the gentlemen coming back again,' said Jim.

'Then we'll leave you now,' said Allan; 'but we'll see you again in the afternoon.'

'Right you are, sir,' replied Jim; 'we'll send a boat to fetch you.'

'You are lucky,' said Marjorie to the boys. 'How I wish we could go too. Do you think they meant to invite us?'

Allan looked doubtful.

'I don't know,' he said. 'I don't think they thought of it. But I daresay they would be glad to see you if you came.'

'It's no good, I'm afraid,' answered Marjorie; 'I'd have to ask Mother and she'd be sure to say no. But there is the boat going away, and listen, isn't that the horn?'

They hearkened for a moment, and it was unmistakably the old ram's horn which was sounded at Ardnavoir to summon those at a distance when any notable event was about to take place.

'I wonder what it can be,' said Tricksy, as they scampered in the direction of the mansion-house; 'do you think it can have anything to do with the Heroic, Allan?'

Mrs. Stewart was in the doorway.

'We are invited to luncheon on board the Heroic,' she announced. 'The officers have signalled to ask Dr. and Mrs. MacGregor to come too, and we have telephoned to say that Marjorie can get ready here, if Mrs. MacGregor will bring her things with her.'

The young people did not look so pleased as Mrs. Stewart had anticipated.

'How many of us are asked, Mummie?' inquired Tricksy.

'As many as care to come,' answered Mrs. Stewart. 'The boys may come too if they like.'

All the boys looked unwilling.

'Don't you want to go?' asked Mrs. Stewart in surprise.

'Yes, Mother,' answered Allan; 'but the men have invited us already.'

'And would you rather go with them?'

The boys' faces showed that they would, and Mrs. Stewart gave permission with a laugh.

Tricksy sidled up to her mother.

'Mummie, don't you think that Marjorie and I could go too?' she asked.

'No, I am quite sure that it wouldn't do,' replied Mrs. Stewart; and the girls looked disappointed.

'You had better go upstairs and begin to get ready,' said Mrs. Stewart. 'Marjorie can brush her hair'—looking dubiously at the tangled mass of curls, in which bits of grass and heather had become intermixed, 'and perhaps by that time her other frock and her hat will have arrived.'

The girls turned to go upstairs, but paused to look at Carlo, who came running down the steps, wriggling his small body, and whining as though he were in pain.

'What's the matter with the poor little dog?' they cried.

Every one turned round as Carlo landed on the rug, and stood yelping distressfully.

'Whatever is the little brute going on about?' said Reggie, looking at him with curiosity.

'Something is hurting him,' said Hamish.

'I never saw him go on like that before,' remarked Allan.

Laddie sprang forward, wagging his tail and running to every one in turn, trying to explain that his little friend needed help.

'Look how he bites his tail,' cried Mrs. Stewart, 'why do you do that, Carlo?'

'Hydrophobia, perhaps,' suggested Allan; and some of the bystanders edged a little farther away.

'Poor little dog,' said Gerald soothingly; 'tell us what's the matter with you.'

At the sound of the pitying voice the little dog gathered up his ears, then sat up and uttered a doleful howl, accompanied by agitated movements of his fore-paws.

'There's something clinging to his tail,' cried Reggie suddenly, pouncing upon him. 'Why, just look at this; it's a couple of small crabs!'

'Where can he have got them from?' asked Mrs. Stewart, looking bewildered; 'he came from upstairs.'

'Oh, it's—it's—I know,' stuttered Gerald, flushing deeply. 'It's—I'll put it all right, you needn't come.'

The remainder of the sentence was lost as he hurried upstairs.

'Whatever is he about?' said Marjorie; 'let's go and see.'

Gerald became very red again as he was discovered in the room which he shared with Harry, collecting some small objects from the floor.

You needn't have come,' he said. 'It's—it's only my collection, and they've been escaping——'

'Ha, ha!' laughed Harry; 'it's those snails and things that he has been gathering on the beach, and they've crawled all over the place!'

Gerald stood, flushing to the roots of his hair, and shrinking from the mirth of the others.

His treasures had been trying to make themselves at home in their new quarters. The little crabs and lobsters had scattered in search of water, and the shell-fish had crawled over the floor or attached themselves to the wall, where they waited with tilted shells for the tide that failed to come.

'Never mind, Gerald,' said Marjorie, as tears began to start in the boy's eyes; 'it's very nice making a collection, and I've got a nice pail with a lid that I'll give you to keep the things in.'

'And now,' said Mrs. Stewart, 'I see the pony cart coming up the drive, with Mrs. MacGregor in it; run and get ready, girls, or we shall be late.'

After about a quarter of an hour's tidying, Marjorie was released from her mother's hands, dressed in a cream serge frock and a large hat, and with her hair brushed out and neatly arranged.

Feeling unlike herself and hardly satisfied with the change, she peeped in the glass as soon as her mother's back was turned.

Her own reflection caused her to start and colour with surprise.

Blue eyes, bright with suppressed excitement, a wild rose face framed in short fair curls and set off by the light colours of her attire, slender hands and neat ankles—'and that's me,' said Marjorie to herself in bewilderment.

Tricksy came into the room, wearing a white hanging frock with a big floppy white hat.

'Dear me,' said Marjorie to herself, taking another glance in the mirror, after the eyes of the two girls had met in silent approval of one another; 'curious that we've never thought of it before—perhaps it's because we so seldom have bothered to look in the glass—but it strikes me that we're actually a pair of very pretty girls—with our hair brushed and our faces washed!'

They went downstairs without speaking, and encountered the boys in the hall.

All eyes were attracted to them; then an approving expression came into the boys' faces, and as the girls passed they moved somewhat aside to look at them from another point of view.

Despite the anxiety which had brooded over her since morning, Marjorie began to feel her spirits rise.

'Marjorie,' said Tricksy solemnly, as Duncan was driving them to the landing-stage, 'which do you think is the best fun, being a boy or being a girl?'

Marjorie had been lost in thought, but at Tricksy's question her eyes began to dance.

'I think it's best of all to be a tomboy,' she said, 'and then you can be a bit of both!'

When the sailors had shipped their oars, and the boat glided under the side of the great war-vessel, first the ladies, and then the girls were assisted on deck and greeted by the captain, erect and broad-shouldered, and by the officers, the youngest of whom was Tricksy's friend of the year before. Dr. MacGregor and the laird and Mr. Graham were already on board.

'Hullo, Miss Tricksy, how do you do?' said a voice, and Tricksy looked up to see the Sheriff, who was smiling at her with outstretched hand.

Tricksy looked solemnly up in his face.

'Well, aren't you going to shake hands, Tricksy?' said the Sheriff.

'No,' said Tricksy deliberately.

The Sheriff's expression altered.

'And why not, Miss Tricksy, if I might inquire?' he said.

Tricksy met his grim smile with a solemn stare of disapproval.

'Because you let a great friend of ours be put in prison when he didn't deserve it,' she replied. 'That was why I sent back the big box of chocolates that you sent me by post. Mother did not know that it had come. We can't be friends until you've owned yourself in the wrong. We've all joined a Compact to get our friend back again and to show that it wasn't he who did it. I've got it with me,' and Tricksy began to fumble in her pocket.

The smile was beginning to twitch at the corners of the Sheriff's lips again when he was addressed by one of the officers. The little scene had passed unobserved by all save Marjorie, as the captain suggested that, the weather being fine and time at their disposal, the Heroic should take their visitors on a tour round Inchkerra.

'Certainly, certainly,' said the Sheriff at haphazard, and Tricksy slipped away.

'In the meanwhile I think lunch is ready,' said Captain Redwood, and each of the officers took a lady downstairs, Tricksy falling to the share of the youngest.

'Dear me, this isn't half so exciting as I expected,' said Marjorie to herself. 'What stupid grown-up things they are talking about; I am sure they wouldn't be interested if I were to tell them about the things we do, riding bare-backed ponies, and about the Craft and the Den, and finding the smugglers; and I have nothing else to talk to them about. They haven't taken much notice of Tricksy and me after all; they weren't a bit surprised when they saw us; we're pretty, but not any prettier than lots of other girls, and it isn't enough to make a fuss about.'

She wondered what Tricksy was finding to say to Lieutenant Jones, the young officer by whose side she was sitting, and who appeared to be greatly entertained by the little girl.

After lunch they returned on deck to see a boat bring the boys on board; then the screw was set in motion and the water began to churn itself into foam round the vessel's sides.

'It isn't bad,' said Marjorie to herself as the Heroic ploughed her way past the well-known shores, 'but it's a bother not having anything to do. I've seen all this before, and it isn't as though we were rowing for all we were worth in the old Mermaid—I mean, the Craft—and in danger of getting into currents and being swept away to I don't know where. Now I have no doubt the boys are having no end of a good time, going into the engine-room and getting themselves dirty, and climbing all over the place, and listening to the sailors' yarns. Once I get out of this, catch me bother any more about looking nice, and being grown-up, and all the rest of it—it will be time enough when I'm so old that I get no fun out of being a tomboy any more.'

Lieutenant Jones left Tricksy and came to sit beside Marjorie for a turn.

'I suppose you are quite accustomed to sailing as you live in an island, Miss MacGregor?' he said.

'Yes,' replied Marjorie, 'we are all very fond of boating, the boys and Tricksy and I,' and after talking for a little while she began to think that a grown-up man was nearly as good company as a boy once you got him upon the right subject.

'Now,' said the Sheriff, coming up with his spy-glass, 'we are coming near the finest bit of rock scenery on the island; one of the finest, in my opinion, on this part of the West Coast.'

The Heroic was just rounding the point which concealed the Smugglers' Caves from view.

'The Corrachin Crags,' continued the Sheriff; 'the caves are remarkably fine; interesting, too, as in former times they are said to have been used for smuggling purposes, and as hiding-places for pirates and other lawless characters——'

'Now!' burst from the lips of the gazers as the lofty cliffs came in view, with the waves tumbling at their base.

Captain Redwood had issued orders to slacken speed, and as the vessel steamed slowly past, a fine view was obtained of bold masses of rock and the black openings to the caves, with the startled birds rising in clouds and screaming.

'If all stories are true, the caves are still sometimes put to their old uses,' observed Mrs. MacGregor as the Heroic's engines throbbed through the smooth swell of the water; 'for all we know, the most thrilling adventures may be taking place there.'

'A score of men might lie in hiding without discovering one another's presence,' said the laird; 'the caves form a regular network, and stretch a long way underground. The entire headland is said to be honeycombed with them——'

'Hullo, good people!' cried a soft little voice from overhead, followed by a triumphant laugh.

Every one looked round, and half-way up the mast Tricksy was discovered, who having become annoyed at her desertion by Lieutenant Jones, was indulging in an exploring expedition on her own account. Her little round face smiled mischievously from between a large white hat and tumbled frock, and she sat swinging her heels in perfect contentment.

Jim Macdonnell's duties having brought him to the quarter-deck at this moment, the captain made him a sign almost without pausing in the sentence which he was addressing to Mrs. Stewart.

The sailor climbed into the rigging and removed Tricksy very gently from her perch, tucked her under one arm with her head hanging in front and her heels behind, slid down the ropes and deposited the little girl on the deck.

Tricksy stood and looked at every one in speechless wrath. Her dignity, being as great as her anger, prevented her from giving way to an outburst before she should have discovered who deserved it most.

Lieutenant Jones crossed over to her.

'I suppose you have been round all this place before, Miss Tricksy,' he said in a conversational tone.

Tricksy looked at him with mistrust.

'I believe you are great explorers and rock-climbers, you and your brothers, Miss Tricksy,' continued the officer, as though being carried down from a mast before a crowd of people were a matter of everyday occurrence; 'I envy you your opportunities——'

This sounded quite like the way the other officers had been talking to the grown-up ladies, and Tricksy found her stiffness begin to forsake her.

The most important point was to discover whether the Sheriff had seen what had occurred. If he had not been a witness, Tricksy felt that she might allow herself to get over it.

Her eyes sought her enemy, but that magistrate was, or affected to be, engrossed in trying to bring his telescope to bear upon the caves, and the episode had apparently escaped him.

'Talking of people hiding in the caves,' he said suddenly; 'Mrs. MacGregor, do you see the figure of a man at the mouth of the one which we are now opposite? From his attitude he might be a fugitive from justice or any other of these interesting desperadoes about whom we have been talking——'

Marjorie's face flushed, and she began to tremble from head to foot.

'Wait a minute, Mrs. MacGregor,' said the Sheriff, 'I will get my glasses adjusted. Curious; there is something in the man's appearance which seems familiar to me——'

He was about to take another look when the air was rent by the shrill whistle of a siren.

They all turned round in astonishment, and when they looked towards the rocks again the figure had disappeared.

The captain's face had become stern, but the culprit proved to be only a small boy in a jacket whose sleeves were too short for him.

Marjorie had seen more, however; she had seen that it was Jim Macdonnell who had made Reggie blow the siren.

During the rest of the afternoon things seemed to be swimming before Marjorie's eyes, and she heard only a confused murmur of voices.

When the voyage was over she went straight to Allan.

'Allan,' she said abruptly, 'I may as well tell you that I know your secret. Neil is in Inchkerra—and he is in hiding.'