CHAPTER XXI.
TROUBLE AHEAD FOR THE PLOTTERS.
It was a strange fatality that had brought Craven Black to Inverness at the very time when his enemies were there, engaged in a search for him.
The cold weather had set in early in his Highland retreat, and already a foretaste of winter reigned in the Wilderness. Octavia’s cold had settled upon her lungs, and she coughed dismally, and in a way that made Artress tremble lest the wealth upon which they all counted and Octavia’s life should die out together. Medicine was needed imperatively, and so were all manner of winter supplies: and it was for these things Craven Black had ventured from his stronghold like some beast of prey, and when he should have obtained them he intended to return to the Wilderness, and there wait patiently until Neva should yield to his infamous demands that she should wed his son.
He sprang nimbly from the boat on reaching the wharf, and taking the cigar from his mouth, said, in a voice loud enough to convey his words to the ears of Lord Towyn, whom he had not even seen:
“I am going up among the shops, boys, to make my purchases. I shall go nowhere except to the shops, for I don’t want to incur any risks. Be guarded, and say nothing to any one about your business or employer. I sha’n’t go aboard under two or three hours, and you can spend the time in some gin-shop. Here’s a crown to divide between you, but don’t get drunk. Remember, we must get all our stores aboard early and be off at daybreak in the morning. Be back at the boat here in a couple of hours.”
The men assented and took the money given them, hurrying away. Craven Black walked in an opposite direction, and was soon lost to view.
Lord Towyn turned his gaze on the yacht. He saw that a man had been left in charge of the yacht, for the captain stood on the deck smoking a pipe.
A waterman was rowing along the river near the wharves, and Lord Towyn signalled him. He came up swiftly to the edge of the wharf upon which the young earl stood, and doffed his tarpaulin.
“Row me out to the yacht yonder,” said Lord Towyn, springing into the boat. “I’ll board her on the further side.”
He sat down and the waterman pulled lustily out into the stream. In a very brief space of time the boat had crept into the shadow of the yacht on its further side, and the young earl climbed lightly to the deck.
The captain approached him, scowling.
“Hallo, you there; what do you want?” he demanded gruffly. “This here’s a private yacht, sir.”
“So I supposed,” said his lordship coolly. “It belongs to Mr. Craven Black, doesn’t it?”
The pipe fell from the captain’s hands. He changed color.
“I don’t know as it makes no difference who it belongs to,” he said blustering. “I work for pay, and it makes no difference to nobody who I work for. Get out of this, young man!”
“Come, come,” said Lord Towyn sternly, his blue eyes blazing with a light that terrified the captain. “None of your bluff, fellow. It won’t work with me. I know with whom I am dealing. You are the servant of Craven Black, and what have you to urge against my having you indicted with him for the abduction of Miss Wynde?”
The captain fairly gasped for breath. He looked helplessly toward the shore.
“I haven’t done nothing,” he muttered presently, quailing under the steady, fixed and stern gaze of the earl’s blue eyes. “I’ve hired as cap’n, and I am cap’n; but that’s all. On my soul, I an’t no party to no abduction.”
“Your past character will be examined to throw light upon your present motives and doings,” said the earl, with a telling random shot.
The captain winced and quavered.
“Now see here, my man,” said Lord Towyn, following up his advantage. “If you have done anything wrong in the past, it will be like a leaden weight to drag you down when the officers of the law arrest you for assisting in the abduction of Miss Wynde. It makes no difference to you whom I am. Your game is up. The officers of the law have accompanied us up from London. There are four of us in all upon the trail of Craven Black. Refuse to do as I tell you, and I’ll call yonder policeman on the wharf and give you up on the charge of abducting a lady of rank and fortune.”
“What do you want of me?” the captain asked falteringly. “I haven’t had my pay from Mr. Black, and he’ll kill me if I betray him.”
“He need not know that you have betrayed him,” said our hero. “You need not leave this vessel. All that you have to do to secure your safety is this: Tell me exactly the whereabouts of Miss Wynde, and her friends will follow the yacht at a safe distance, quite out of sight from your deck, and you can remain on board and collect your pay of Mr. Black. He need not suspect that you have betrayed him.”
“And what will I gain by betraying him?”
“Your freedom from arrest. You see the policeman still stands on the wharf? So sure as you refuse to speak, and speak quickly, I’ll call him!”
Lord Towyn meant what he said, and the captain comprehended the fact. He saw that Craven Black had been caught in a trap, and with the usual instinct of villainy, he resolved to save himself from the general ruin.
“You swear that I shall be protected if I tell the truth?” he asked.
“I do.”
“I suppose it’s penal servitude for abducting a young lady,” said the captain. “Jack said so last night. Blamed if I haven’t been sick of the job, anyhow. I don’t mind a mutiny at sea, when there’s cause, but I can’t relish making war on a helpless girl, and I haven’t from the first.”
“Come to the point. Where is Miss Wynde?”
“At a place up in the mountains owned by Mr. Black, and called the Wilderness.”
“Miss Wynde is there, and Mrs. Craven Black?”
“Yes; and the servants, and Mrs. Artress.”
“How far from here is the Wilderness?”
“About twenty miles, if you could go direct, which you can’t. It’s forty miles by water. You know Cromarty Frith, up in Ross—and—Cromarty?”
Lord Towyn assented.
“You go about half-way up the Frith and turn into a river that leads up among the mountains. The stream grows narrower as you ascend, but the water remains deep, and at last your boat fetches into a small loch lying at the foot of the mountains and surrounded by them. A steep mountain rises right before you. Half-way up its side lies a wide ledge, and on that the house is built. It’s a wild-looking spot, sir, and a dreary one. It’s mighty cold up there, and I haven’t relished the prospect of spending the winter there, not by no means.”
The earl asked several questions, to make himself conversant with the route, and also to make sure that the man was not lying to him. Assured on this point, he said:
“Craven Black intends to return home in the morning. He must not suspect that you have betrayed him. Keep the secret, and we will do so.”
The captain’s look of fear showed conclusively that he would be careful not to allow his employer to suspect his treachery.
After a few further words, Lord Towyn re-entered his boat and returned to the shore.
“Anything more, sir?” asked the waterman, as the boat ground against the wharf.
“Nothing more—unless,” added the earl, with a sudden thought, “you could direct me to a small vessel, a fast sailer, that I could hire for a day or two. I should want a couple of men to take charge of her.”
“I don’t know of any such boat,” said the waterman, scratching his head. “And yet The Lucky might suit you, sir, though it isn’t a gentleman’s boat. She’s built for a fishing vessel, is brand-new, and had a trial sail the day afore the gale, when she went like a bird.”
“I’d like to see her. Take me out to her.”
The Lucky lay out in the stream, half a mile further inland. Lord Towyn rowed out to her, and found her joint-owners, two brothers, on board. He went over the vessel, and found it new and clean, and in fine order. The owners were willing to let the little craft with their services, and the young earl hired it for a week, paying in advance twice the sum the thrifty Scotsmen demanded for it.
“She must be provisioned immediately,” said Lord Towyn. “Her destination is a secret, which I will tell you in the morning. I have three friends who will make the excursion with me. We shall want blankets, and all kinds of cooked meats and stores. We must leave Inverness at day-break. Come ashore with me, one of you, and I will select the stores we are likely to need.”
One of the brothers accompanied the earl ashore, and conducted him to various shops, Lord Towyn keeping a keen look-out for Craven Black, in order to avoid him.
Blankets and mattresses and bed linen were sent down to The Lucky; various kinds of cooked meats, including rounds of roast beef, roasted chickens, meat puddings, ham and veal pies, smoked salmon and boiled ham, were packed in hampers and sent aboard; and Lord Towyn added baskets of fruits, both dried and fresh, and jams and confitures of every sort in abundance, besides boxes of biscuits of every description.
“It looks like a v’y’ge to Ingy,” said Macdonald, the one of the two brothers who had accompanied Lord Towyn ashore, contemplating the array of stores with kindling eyes. “We can provision a ship’s crew to Australy.”
“Whatever is left, you will be welcome to,” said the earl, smiling.
The young lord saw his new purchases deposited on board The Lucky, and himself attended to the arrangement of the little cabin, and then paying his waterman liberally, he returned to his hotel.
The day had passed swiftly, and he found that it was nearly five o’clock of the short afternoon, and the street lamps were lighted, when he entered his hotel and went up stairs, two steps at a time, to his sitting-room.