The Watchers

sea; for he assured me that I should most likely find a fishing smack at Topsham whose master would put me over to the Scillies, and that if the wind did but favour me I should re

n Clyst that night, and to Topsham the next day, where I was fortunate enough to find a boat of some thirty tons and to come to an agreement with its master. He had his crew ready to his hand; he occupied the morning in provisioning the smack; and we stood out of the harbour in the evening, and with a stead

away from the bows and bubbling and hissing under the lee of the boat, the flaws of wind blistering the surface of the water as they came off the land towards us, making visible their invisible approach; the responsive spring of the boat, like a horse under the touch of a spur--these mere commonplaces to my companions had for me an engrossing enchantment. But on that evening at the Lizard Point the sea lay under the sunset a smooth, heaving prism of colours; we could hear nothing but the groaning of the blocks, the creaking of the boom's collars aga

ess across the bay towards Land's End; but the breeze sank as the sun came up, and all that day we loitered, gaining a little ground now and then and

landed on Tresco near to the harbour of New Grimsby. It was at New Grimsby that Dick Parmiter lived, Clutte

e house I saw with great windows all lighted up, and that I took to be the Palace Inn, where Adam Mayle and Cullen used to sit side by side on the settle and surprise the visitors by their unl

in the grass and crawled towards them, if by any chance I might hear what they said. For a while I could distinguish nothing of what they said, but at last the man cried in a clear voice, "Good-night, Mrs. Grudge," a

ive men watching the house on Merchant's Point would be straightway upon the alert. Besides Dick might not have reached home. I walked round the hut unable to decide what I should do, and

e light, so that I could no longer see into the room; but in a mo

you, Mr

was ahead of Cullen Mayle,

I have come on Cull

ace. But voices were raised in the room beyond this c

Dick to me. "Wait! I

coming up from the sea and thickening about the island; the starlight was obscured; wreaths of smoke, it

a whisper, and t

You were at Lieutenant Clutt

I, "I should find it

lf the night to explain the motiv

are come, what is

oncerting questions. You tramp up to Londo

riend, then," he

r frien

silent fo

o," he sai

. "Cullen Mayle is not very far behind me.

rted to

t? You do not know h

im at an inn. He robbed me and robbed the landlord. There was a trick at the cards, too. Not a

d make a pretence to burn kelp or to fish for their living; but their business is

, were by this time dark, and we could advance without risk of being seen. Dick stopped me under the shadow of a wall not ten

an my shoulder. I bent down and Dick climbed on to my shou

tle, and slid to the ground. "Ca

es

re--a squat, squabby man with whit

es

I found him here when I came back two days ago. But I had seen hi

chen. "He was quartermaster with Adam Mayle at Whydah, eh? He is the stranger you

k, and he asked

k told me,"

d with George Glen's presence upon the island. Glen had come first of all to visit Adam Mayle, and was now watching for Cullen. What link was there between his two visits? I was inclined to think that George Glen was the clue to the whole mystery. In spite of my inattention, I gathered this much however from Dick. That tra

r two Dick began to move on. The mist was very thick about us--I could not see a yard beyond my nose; but we were now going down hill, so th

n Dick stopped again. He laid a hand upon my arm and dragge

s it?"

f upon my elbows to watch it. Dick pulled my elbow from beneath me, and pressed me down flat in the grass; and it was fortunate that he did, for immediately the lantern loomed out of the fog not a dozen yards away. I heard it rattle as it swung, and the man who carried

ne of them

lodges with Mrs. Crudg

creeching sound that ever I had heard: it was so harsh it pierced the ears; it was so wild and eerie that I could hardly believe a voice uttered it. It was like a shrill cry of pain

n a shaking voice; "let

had the fever; terror chained him there to the ground. Had I not known t

on the wet grass; I let go of my valise, and I fell to my full length upon my back, and slid. And the moment I began to slide my feet touched nothing. I caught at the grass, and the roots of it came away in my hands. I turned over on my face. Half my body was now hanging over the edge. I hu

his face peering

out his hands, he caught both my arms as though he was afr

had so nearly fallen. It was repeated and repeated with a regular interva

egun agai

I had been deaf to it from the moment my foot slipped until now. "Let us go," and picking up m

one in distress--som

"it is no one. I wil

fog showed no sign of clearing, but Parmiter walked with an ass

e to the hou

clung to my arm. A second later something brushed past my hand very quickly. I ju

souls of dead drowned sailormen k

e man, Dick. Did you ever meet a spiri

stling the grass beneath us. Dick

is very lig

se it is a wom

ad here in this fog at

hand. It was a woman, and you cried out at her; so that if there is any one els

only halting now and again to listen. In a very short while we heard the sea booming up

her whistle answered behind us, and I heard the sound of a man running up from the sand. We both crouched in the grass close by the palisade, and a

d Lieutenant Clutterbuck the

id I. "Do you go forward

nd that he could see no light through any chink. He had stolen all round the hou

If I make a clatter and rouse the house

be here to-morrow. I will go back to the 'Palace' Inn, sleep the night there, and come over h

he 'Palace' Inn. What if you slept in the house here to-night! I can come o

to the house, without y

dow of Cullen Mayle's room. You c

's that my meddling at all in the matter would be nothing but an impertinence came back very fo

indow, the night his father drove hi

he night that Cullen Mayle was driven from

es

d I listened with all my attention to every word he spoke. He told me the sequel

leep to-night, Dick?' said he. I told him that he could have my bed over at New Grimsby, but he refused it. 'I'm damned if I sleep in a rat-hole,' he s

, then?" I asked. "The next m

u did to-night. It was that which made me think you were Cullen come back. He bade me slip out to him without any noise, and together we carried

ade you s

ath. Well, I've kept it till to-night. No one knows but

Cul

with the first of the ebb in the morning. I

de after him without further objection. He came to a wall of pl

can reach the roof. From the roof you can reach the win

siness," said I doubtfull

lling of wood, and at one end of the house you can almost hear a mouse scamper at the other. Mr. Cullen's room, however, is a room buil

to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushed back the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it, threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. The room w