Do ye see yon scart upo the water? he inquired; yon ane wast the gray stane? Ay? Weel, itll no be like a letter, wull it?
Certainly it is, I replied. I have often remarked it. It is like a C.
He heaved a sigh as if heavily disappointed with my answer, and then added below his breath: Ay, for the Christ-Anna.
I used to suppose, sir, it was for myself, said I; for my name is Charles.
And so ye sawt afore?, he ran on, not heeding my remark. Weel, weel, but thats unco strange. Maybe, its been there waitin, as a man wad say, through a the weary ages. Man, but thats awfu. And then, breaking off: Yell no see anither, will ye? he asked.
Yes, said I. I see another very plainly, near the Ross side, where the road comes down an M.
An M, he repeated very low; and then, again after another pause: An what wad ye make o that? he inquired.
I had always thought it to mean Mary, sir, I answered, growing somewhat red, convinced as I was in my own mind that I was on the threshold of a decisive explanation.
But we were each following his own train of thought to the exclusion of the others. My uncle once more paid no attention to my words; only hung his head and held his peace; and I might have been led to fancy that he had not heard me, if his next speech had not contained a kind of echo from my own.
I would say naething o thae clavers to Mary, he observed, and began to walk forward.
There is a belt of turf along the side of Aros Bay, where walking is easy; and it was along this that I silently followed my silent kinsman. I was perhaps a little disappointed at having lost so good an opportunity to declare my love; but I was at the same time far more deeply exercised at the change that had befallen my uncle. He was never an ordinary, never, in the strict sense, an amiable, man; but there was nothing in even the worst that I had known of him before, to prepare me for so strange a transformation. It was impossible to close the eyes against one fact; that he had, as the saying goes, something on his mind; and as I mentally ran over the different words which might be represented by the letter M misery, mercy, marriage, money, and the like I was arrested with a sort of start by the word murder. I was still considering the ugly sound and fatal meaning of the word, when the direction of our walk brought us to a point from which a view was to be had to either side, back towards Aros Bay and homestead, and forward on the ocean, dotted to the north with isles, and lying to the southward blue and open to the sky. There my guide came to a halt, and stood staring for awhile on that expanse. Then he turned to me and laid a hand on my arm.
Ye think theres naething there? he said, pointing with his pipe; and then cried out aloud, with a kind of exultation: Ill tell ye, man! The deid are down there thick like rattons!
He turned at once, and, without another word, we retraced our steps to the house of Aros.
I was eager to be alone with Mary; yet it was not till after supper, and then but for a short while, that I could have a word with her. I lost no time beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly what was on my mind.
Mary, I said, I have not come to Aros without a hope. If that should prove well founded, we may all leave and go somewhere else, secure of daily bread and comfort; secure, perhaps, of something far beyond that, which it would seem extravagant in me to promise. But theres a hope that lies nearer to my heart than money. And at that I paused. You can guess fine what that is, Mary, I said. She looked away from me in silence, and that was small encouragement, but I was not to be put off. All my days I have thought the world of you, I continued; the time goes on and I think always the more of you; I could not think to be happy or hearty in my life without you: you are the apple of my eye. Still she looked away, and said never a word; but I thought I saw that her hands shook. Mary, I cried in fear, do ye no like me?
O, Charlie man, she said, is this a time to speak of it? Let me be, a while; let me be the way I am; itll not be you that loses by the waiting!
I made out by her voice that she was nearly weeping, and this put me out of any thought but to compose her. Mary Ellen, I said, say no more; I did not come to trouble you: your way shall be mine, and your time too; and you have told me all I wanted. Only just this one thing more: what ails you?
She owned it was her father, but would enter into no particulars, only shook her head, and said he was not well and not like himself, and it was a great pity. She knew nothing of the wreck. I havenae been near it, said she. What for would I go near it, Charlie lad? The poor souls are gone to their account long syne; and I would just have wished they had taen their gear with them poor souls!
This was scarcely any great encouragement for me to tell her of the Espirito Santo; yet I did so, and at the very first word she cried out in surprise. There was a man at Grisapol, she said, in the month of May a little, yellow, black-avised body, they tell me, with gold rings upon his fingers, and a beard; and he was speiring high and low for that same ship.
It was towards the end of April that I had been given these papers to sort out by Dr. Robertson: and it came suddenly back upon my mind that they were thus prepared for a Spanish historian, or a man calling himself such, who had come with high recommendations to the Principal, on a mission of inquiry as to the dispersion of the great Armada. Putting one thing with another, I fancied that the visitor with the gold rings upon his fingers might be the same with Dr. Robertsons historian from Madrid. If that were so, he would be more likely after treasure for himself than information for a learned society. I made up my mind, I should lose no time over my undertaking; and if the ship lay sunk in Sandag Bay, as perhaps both he and I supposed, it should not be for the advantage of this ringed adventurer, but for Mary and myself, and for the good, old, honest, kindly family of the Darnaways.
CHAPTER III. LAND AND SEA IN SANDAG BAY
I was early afoot next morning; and as soon as I had a bite to eat, set forth upon a tour of exploration. Something in my heart distinctly told me that I should find the ship of the Armada; and although I did not give way entirely to such hopeful thoughts, I was still very light in spirits and walked upon air. Aros is a very rough islet, its surface strewn with great rocks and shaggy with fernland heather; and my way lay almost north and south across the highest knoll; and though the whole distance was inside of two miles it took more time and exertion than four upon a level road. Upon the summit, I paused. Although not very high not three hundred feet, as I think it yet outtops all the neighbouring lowlands of the Ross, and commands a great view of sea and islands. The sun, which had been up some time, was already hot upon my neck; the air was listless and thundery, although purely clear; away over the north-west, where the isles lie thickliest congregated, some half-a-dozen small and ragged clouds hung together in a covey; and the head of Ben Kyaw wore, not merely a few streamers, but a solid hood of vapour. There was a threat in the weather. The sea, it is true, was smooth like glass: even the Roost was but a seam on that wide mirror, and the Merry Men no more than caps of foam; but to my eye and ear, so long familiar with these places, the sea also seemed to lie uneasily; a sound of it, like a long sigh, mounted to me where I stood; and, quiet as it was, the Roost itself appeared to be revolving mischief. For I ought to say that all we dwellers in these parts attributed, if not prescience, at least a quality of warning, to that strange and dangerous creature of the tides.