“Oh, Rob, yes! I’ll tell you! It was a secret, but I must tell some one, I must have some one to consult.” And then in hurried accents she confided to him her promise to Mrs Asplin, and the sad reason which made it so necessary to preserve her from alarm. “You see, Rob, it is very serious,” she said in conclusion. “It may be a case of life and death, for the doctor said she couldn’t bear any strain, and when I promised, knowing so well all that it meant, she will feel she has good reason for fear, if we do not return. All the night long, and both her girls here! Oh, Rob, think what it will be! I feel as if I could not bear it; is if I could run all the way home to comfort her. You always helped me, Rob; you used to find a way for me out of my old childish troubles—do help me now! Think of some way by which we can get back.”
Rob looked at her fixedly, and his lips smiled, but his eyes were grave and steady.
“I’ll try, Peggy,” he said, “I’ll do my best. There is nothing I would not do for Mrs Asplin and—you! Remember always, whatever happens, that nothing you could have done for me to-day would have made me so happy as asking my help in your trouble.” He turned away as he spoke the last word, for the rest of the party were now approaching along the sands, bearing with them a branch of a tree, and the table-cloth which had been used for lunch. It had occurred to Arthur that if a flag could be erected at this particular spot, it might possibly catch the eyes of the fishermen, and attract them to call at the island on their way to the shore, and the idea had been enthusiastically welcomed by his friends. It is astonishing how speedily the charms of a situation are minimised when that situation becomes a necessity instead of a choice. Before the discovery of the missing boat, the island had seemed all that was charming and romantic; now it seemed suddenly to have become chilly and forsaken, a bank of sand in a waste of water; a prison-house rather than a pleasure-ground. Eunice began to shiver, Mrs Bryce felt certain that the grass was damp, and the professor was full of anxiety about his fiancée. One and all they were thankful for the occupation of erecting the flagstaff, and Arthur had no lack of assistants in his task. The hole was dug out to the proper depth with the assistance of such motley tools as the ferrules of sticks and parasols, and the stones which were scattered along the beach, while the cloth was sewed to the stick by the careful Esther, who never by any chance travelled about without a needle full of cotton in her pocket, in company with such other usefuls as sticking-plaster, hair-pins, and camphor pills. The camphor pills were brought forth now, and received a very different welcome from that which would have been afforded them an hour before. Even Peggy took her turn with the rest, and though the men drew the line at such an exhibition of weakness, they hinted that an additional cup of tea would be acceptable in its stead.
“We have done all we can, so now let us go back to our meal, and be as jolly as we can,” said Arthur.
“We will brew a fresh lot of tea and drown our sorrows in the bowl; and if the viands give out, Mellicent can get us bread from the bread-trees and milk from the cocoanuts. Rob can climb up and bring one down, as he is accustomed to savage regions. Where is Rob, by the bye? He was here ten minutes ago.”
“He walked over to the other end of the island. I’ll go round and give him a call,” Hector said; and in default of anything better to do his companions followed in a long, straggling line, but no sign of Rob did they find, only a little heap of clothing on the shore—a pair of boots, a coat, and waistcoat, and a sailor hat, which told their own tale plainly enough, even without the sight of the dark head which could presently be observed bobbing up and down between the waves. Rob had swum off to try to recover the boat, and was risking his life in the effort!—For a moment horror held his friends dumb, then the men broke into a chorus of denunciations.
“He’ll never do it! He had no right to go off like that without consulting us—without saying a word to a soul! A foolhardy trick!”
“He knew we would not let him try it. He is a capital swimmer, but it’s a stiff pull, and he can’t catch her up, for she will drift with the tide further and further away.”
“Will she? Are you sure? Does she seem to you any further off now than she was a quarter of an hour ago? I don’t think she is. I can see her just as distinctly. Ah! I believe I understand it now. She has drifted on to a sandbank, and is not moving at all. Good old Rob! He knows what he is about. If he can only hold out, he’ll get her sure enough.”
“If—yes, but if he does not? If he gets cramped or exhausted, there is no one to help him. We should have to stand here helpless, and see him sink. It was mad—mad—he should not have risked it! I’ll give him a piece of my mind when he gets back!” cried Arthur hotly, and then, “Good old Rob!” he added in another voice. “Good old Rob! Just like him to steal away without saying a word to a soul. Just like him to think of every one else before himself. Give him a cheer, boys! Give him a cheer to help him along.”