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"Whist, boy," said a voice; "I've news for you." Ranulph recognised the voice as that of Dormy Jamais. Dormy plucked at his sleeve. "Come with me, boy," said he. "Come inside if you want to tell me something," answered Ranulph. "Ah bah, not for me! Stone walls have ears. I'll tell only you and the wind that hears and runs away." "I must speak to my father first," answered Ranulph.
If he had but known it, that very morning as he passed Mattingley's house Ranulph had looked down at him with infinite scorn and loathing but with triumph too, for the Chevalier had just shown him a certain page in a certain parish-register long lost, left with him by Carterette Mattingley. Philip knew naught of Ranulph save the story babbled by the islanders.
He fell back from the edge to a place in the grass where, tying the rope round his body, and seating himself, he could brace his feet against a ledge of rock. Then he pulled on the rope. It was round Carterette's waist! Carterette had told her falsehood without shame, for she was of those to whom the end is more than the means. She began climbing, and Ranulph pulled steadily.
That second stage once passed, the ascent thence to the top would be easier; for though nearly as steep, it had more ledges, and offered fair vantage to a man with a foot like a mountain goat. Ranulph had been aloft all weathers in his time, and his toes were as strong as another man's foot, and surer. He started.
Had she done what was best for the child? Misgiving upon this point made her heart ache bitterly. Was life then but a series of trist condonings at the best, of humiliating compromises at the worst? She repeated her question to Ranulph now. "You haven't ambition any longer?" "I'm busy building ships," he answered evasively. "I build good ships, they tell me, and I am strong and healthy.
"All my life," answered Ranulph, "and, by your leave, I will tell you how." Not waiting for permission, after the manner of his country, he told Richambeau of his Jersey birth and bringing up, and how he was the victim of the pressgang. "Very good," said Richambeau. "You Jersey folk were once Frenchmen, and now that you're French again, you shall do something for the flag.
"And who," I asked, "was the fellow who brought her in to lunch a relative or a lover?" "Oh, no, no relation and certainly not a lover. I doubt if she would have him if he wanted her, in spite of his position." "I don't wonder at that a perfect clown! And who is he?" "Oh, didn't you know! Sir Ranulph Damarell." "Good Lord!" I gasped. "That your great man lord of the manor and what not!
She felt that, man though he was, he might divine something of the truth. In any case he knew that Philip had deserted her. After a moment he said: "I'll find Mr. Dow if he is alive, and the register too. Then the boy shall have his rights." "No, Ranulph," she answered firmly, "it shall be in my own time. I must keep the child with me. I know not when I shall speak; I am biding my day.
A human voice had at last pierced the awful exhaustion of the deadly labour, the peril and strife, which had numbed the brain while the body, in its instinct for existence, still clung to the rocky ledges. It had called the man back to earth he was no longer a great animal, and the rock a monster with skin and scales of stone. "Ranulph! Maitre Ranulph! Ah, Ranulph!" called the voice.
A human voice had at last pierced the awful exhaustion of the deadly labour, the peril and strife, which had numbed the brain while the body, in its instinct for existence, still clung to the rocky ledges. It had called the man back to earth he was no longer a great animal, and the rock a monster with skin and scales of stone. "Ranulph! Maitre Ranulph! Ah, Ranulph!" called the voice.
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