Lord of the Far Island (29 page)

I heard a shout and it was as though my prayer had been answered, but I dared not turn to look towards the shore for fear I should lose my grip on the boat.

The shout came to me over the water. old on, Miss Ellen. I be on the way.

Slack!

He was near to me now. I knew that he swam like a fish; I had seen him twisting and turning in the water, as much at home there as he was on land.

Tis all right, Miss Ellen. I be here now.

How small he was! How fragile! He had the body of a child, but of course he was not much more.

here now. Here I be.His voice was soothing, comforting, as though I were a wounded bird.

ow now, I be taking e to the shore.

I still clung to the boat.

can swim very well, Slack.

ever e mind, Miss Ellen. I be here.

I released my grip on the boat and for a moment was submerged. I was on the surface again and I felt Slack hand under my chin holding my head above the water.

The boat had moved away from us and the shore seemed a long way off.

How can this delicate boy bring me safely ashore? I wondered.

Then I heard Jago voice.

coming.

Then I knew that everything was going to be all right.

I remember vaguely being brought onto the land. I remember Jago strong arms about me as he carried me to the castle. I remember being laid on my bed and soothing drinks being brought to me. I was wrapped in blankets and hot-water bottles were placed round me. I was told I was to stay there for a day or two. I had had a shock which was greater than I would realize at the time. I had come near to death by drowning.

As I lay in my bed I could not stop thinking of the terrifying moment when I had noticed that the boat was leaking. I knew that could have been the end of me if Slack had not been therend later Jago. I still wondered whether little Slack could have brought me in; and I rejoiced that Jago had come. The moment I had heard his voice I had ceased to be afraid.

Jago came and sat by my bed.

hat happened?he asked. o you feel you can talk about it, Ellen?

f course. Everything seemed all right until suddenly I noticed that the boat was leaking.

hat should never have happened. You must have struck something when you brought her in. The boats ought to be thoroughly examined before they are taken out.

t was all right at first. I had been in it for about ten minutes. I was drifting away from the shore when suddenly I noticed.

t has happened on other occasions. Thank God I came along when I did.

lack too.

es, he a good boy but he a weakling. He might not have been strong enough to bring you in.

felt my wet clothes dragging me down.

es, that was where the great danger lay. My dear Ellen, if anything had happened to you His face was distorted with real emotion. t a lesson to us though. We have to be very careful in future.

re you going to suggest that I give up rowing alone?

t mightn be a bad idea. At the moment I going to suggest that you stay in bed for a while. The effects of this sort of thing can be greater than you realize.

haven said hank youfor saving my life.

He rose and bent over me. ll the thanks I need is to see you safe. Don forget I your guardian.

hank you, Jago.

He stooped and kissed me.

I was glad that he went out then for my emotion was hard to hide. I am in a weak state, I told myself. Anyone would be after such an adventure.

Gwennol came to see me.

ou had an unpleasant experience,she said. nd you don swim very well, do you?

ow did you know?

ou told me. My mother made me take swimming lessons. She said that living on an island everyone should.

was fortunate.

erhaps you were born lucky.

like to think I was.

ell, youl be more careful in future, won you?

really didn realize I was being careless. Who would have thought a boat like the Ellen would have sprung a leak?

ny boat might. She hasn come in yet. I expect she drifting out to sea. I wonder if shel ever come back. If we had a gale she would no doubt be broken up. Perhaps one day a spar of wood with just the word llenon it will turn up.

nd people will say: ho was Ellen?

heyl know it was part of a boat and therefore the name of it.

h, but they might wonder who the Ellen was for whom the boat was named.

There was restraint between us which we were trying to pretend did not exist. I sensed that she was longing to ask me if I had seen Michael recently. She would want to know what had happened on that day I had spent on the mainland in his company, for I was sure Jenifry had seen us together and would have told her daughter. But Gwennol couldn bring herself to ask. The rift between us made us both uneasy and she didn stay long with me.

Jenifry came, her face puckered into an expression of concern.

ow are you feeling, Ellen?she asked. y goodness, you gave us all a turn. I couldn believe my eyes when Jago brought you in. For the moment I thought you were dead.

very healthy,I said. t would take a lot to kill me.

hat a comforting thought,she replied. e brought you a drink. It a concoction of herbs and things and is said to be very good for shock. My old nurse always gave it to me when she thought I needed it.

t kind of you to bring it to me now.

ome, drink it. Youl be surprised how well youl feel afterwards.

I took the glass and then I looked up and saw her eyes on me and I had the same uneasy feeling which I had experienced when I had seen her face in the mirror.

couldn drink anything,I said. feel sick.

his will make you better.

ater,I insisted, and set it down on the table beside my bed.

She sighed. know it will make you feel better.

so tired,I said, half closing my eyes but so that I could still see her through my lashes. She looked at me for a few seconds in silence.

l leave you then,she said. ut don forgeto take the tonic.

I nodded sleepily and she went quietly from the room. I lay listening.

There was something stealthy about her, something which had made me feel uneasy right from the first day 1 had seen her. I heard her footsteps going down the corridor and I picked up the glass and sniffed the liquid. I could smell the herbs and they were not unpleasant. I put it to my lips. Then I thought suddenly of old Tassie and I heard her voice saying: Be watchful.

Why should I have thought of that now? Thoughts were beginning to stir in my mind and I was too tired to consider them now. You have come very close to death, I reminded myself. It has made you fanciful and suspicious.

Suspicious I was, for I rose from my bed and went to the window, taking the glass with me. I tipped the liquid out of the window and watched it trickle down the castle walls.

I climbed back into my bed and lay there thinking.

The Island Necklace

The next day I felt fully recovered and the strange ideas which had beset me on the previous night receded. The first thing I wanted to do was to go to the dovecotes and thank Slack for coming to my rescue.

He was there as though expecting me.

hank you, Slack,I said, or coming to my rescue.

could have brought you in on my own,he said.

sure you could, but Mr. Jago happened to be there.

may not be big but I have the Power. I could have saved e, Miss Ellen, like I save the little birds.

hank you, Slack. I know.

t bothers me what happened.

oats do spring leaks sometimes, I suppose.

He shook his head and said: hat did e see, Miss Ellen?

ee? Well, I suddenly noticed that the water was coming in. I thought there was something sticky there like sugar and then I didn have time to think of anything but how I was going to get to the land.

ticky.His brows were wrinkled. ike sugar, did e say? I wonder what sugar could have been doing at the bottom of the Ellen?

expect I was wrong. I was frightened, I suppose.

ittle bits of seaweed, perhaps.

erhaps. But I safe and I can tell you, Slack, how pleased I was to hear your voice calling me.

was the Power. I had this feeling. Go along down to the shore. I heard the voice telling me. You be needed there. Tis sometimes so when some little bird or some animal do need me.

ell then, I have to thank the Power as well as you, Slack.

ye, Miss Ellen. Don ever forget the Power. Miss Ellen, you say you did see sugar then?

ell, that what it looked like to me then a few grains of sugar.

is a strange thing. Don e fret though. I be going to look after you, Miss Ellen. If you do need me, Il know.

The pale eyes had changed. There was a look about them which was almost fanatical.

The servants tapped their heads significantly when they spoke of Slack. I had heard the whispered comment: ot all there.

But there was something there, I was sure. Dear Slack. I was glad he was my friend.

The incident of the boat had brought me closer to Slack. Understandably for a week or so after the accident I had no desire to go to sea, certainly not alone. There had been no need for Jago to warn me against that. So I stayed on the Island and I took to going to the dovecotes when Slack was feeding the pigeons.

He would give me a bowl filled with maize and we stand together with the birds fluttering round us.

Once he said: id e say sugar, Miss Ellen?

I wondered what he meant for a moment, then I said: h, you mean when the boat started to sink. I didn have time to consider very much. I thought I saw what looked like a few grains of it on the bottom of the boat where it hadn, at that time, been touched by the water. And then as the water swelled up there seemed to be some grains floating in it. I was too upset though to think much about it. It just flashed into my mind. You understand. It was a horrible moment, Slack.

His brow was furrowed. ugar takes a little time to dissolve in cold water. Now salt would dissolve quicker.

ow could it have been sugar? How could that have got there?

ouldn have got there if it hadn been put, Miss Ellen.

lack, what do you mean!

here be the boat? If we had the boat and her weren broken up.

ou wouldn find the sugar now.

o, but we see the hole it come through.

e know that must have been there.

ut how did it come to be there? That be what I want to know.

lack, what are you thinking?

hat if the hole were put there by someone as filled it with sugar? There the Demerara kind brown and coarse grained, the kind that takes time to dissolve specially in cold salt water. Ie heard it said hereabouts more than once that it would hold a leak for a while if you happened to be not too far out to sea and supposing you had a packet of such with you which is hardly likely.His eyes shone with the intensity of his feelings. ou wouldn see it when you started out and when it did dissolve you have a hole, don e, what the sugar was bunging up. And the water could get in, couldn it, where it couldn when you started out.

oue suggesting that someone

don rightly know what I mean, but terrible things can happen. I do know that. It don do to forget it. I reckon we don want to laugh at it and say He floundered and tapped his head, implying that I might be thinking as others did that he was ot all there.

What he was suggesting seemed absurd. Did he really think that someone had tampered with the boaty boat, which no one took out but menowing that sooner or later I should be at sea in it and almost certainly alone!

It was too farfetched. Who would possibly do such a thing!

Gwennol was jealous because Michael Hydrock had been friendly towards me. Jenifry was angry on her daughter account. I had always felt uneasy about Jenifry since that first night. I had often laughed at myself about that. Just because her reflection in an old mirror had looked momentarily malevolent I had started to endow her with all sorts of sinister motives. And now of course there was this aspect of my friendship with Michael Hydrock. But no. It was too flimsy. It was not as though Michael had asked me to marry him and I had accepted. I could understand that there would have been acute jealousy then. But it was not so. I liked him and it was quite obvious that he liked me. He was just a very courteous and kindly gentleman who had been helpful and hospitable. Gwennol had no reason to be jealous on my account.

And yet our relationship had changed since she had discovered that I had met him before I came to the Island. She had been prepared to be very friendly before that discovery; now she was cautious as though she were trying to trap me into admissions. I imagined that every time I went out she wondered whether I was going to meet Michael Hydrock. As for Jenifry, she had no doubt set her heart on Michael as a son-in-law and indeed he was undoubtedly the most desirable party in the neighborhood man any mother might have been expected to want for her daughter.

So this matter of the sugar was the wildest conjecture and I wished I hadn mentioned it to Slack.

ou must be careful, Miss Ellen,he said very seriously.

shall. I shall examine any boat thoroughly before I attempt to go out in it.

ightn be a boat next time.

ext time?

don know what put that in me mouth, Miss Ellen. I want to look after e, you see like I looked after Miss Silva.

ow did you look after her?

He smiled slowly. he always come to me. She used to get fits, Miss Ellen. Oh, not so she lie down and do damage to herself not they sort of fits. Fits of sadness and fits of wildness when she wanted to do things that would hurt herself. Then she come and talk to me and the Powers would show me how to soothe her.

ou must have known as much about her as anybody did.

eckon so.

nd that night when she went away It was a stormy night and yet she took a boat and tried to cross to the mainland.

I saw the shutter come down.

Tis something all marveled at,he agreed.

id you know she was going?

He hesitated, then he said: es, I knew she were going.

hy didn you try to stop her? You must have known the chances were against her reaching land safely.