We cannot telegraph for help, for theoffice is in
the village and it has been destroyed. There the cliffs were at least two hundred
feet high, andsmooth as the side of a cut loaf.
I smiled and nodded and put my handon my heart, and
he smiled back. I took out mypistol, cleaned and reloaded it, and told Janni to look
to his. That is to say, suchwas his intention, but he missed his aim and only grazed
my littlefinger. The situation had marched clean outside human powerto control it.
Rivers of narcissus and iris andanemone flooded over the crest and spilled into the
hollow.
They had theirpistols, but they had no thought of
using them. But first I stripped and had a bathe, whichdid something to cool the
fret of my nerves.
If he hadcome along the downs and the shore Janni
would have seen him. Evidently he did, for he made no protest when I got both hands
onthe gunwale again.
And then apicture flashed into my mind which
enabled me to recover my wits. That was the best Icould make of him, but of that
precious master he refused to speaka syllable. I smiled and nodded and put my handon
my heart, and he smiled back. They had theirpistols, but they had no thought of
using them. More,some change had been wrought in the seaward wall of the
House.
When Istaggered into camp, where the placid Janni
was playing dice, itwas close on five oclock. Butfor all the comfort it gave me I
might have been stretched onfrozen bricks in a dungeon.
But I scarcely thought of him, formy trouble was
with myself.
The coat was an aquascutum so old thatthe makers
tab had long since gone from it.
The whole world seemed hard and gem-like and
unrelenting.
Pity and fear for the girlmade me clench my hands
and gnaw my lips.
It behoved me forthwith to find that
out.
Before we lay down to snatch a little sleep, we
made a rough plan.
At first it was not easy to distinguish it from a
rock, for therewas no riding light shown. He seemed in no waysurprised to see us,
but there was that about him which made mecatch my breath. Also he had a quantity of
caporal cigaretteswith which I filled my pockets.