CHAPTER XIV

THE FIND

WE had no time to scream. He seized hold of both of us, and then, it was very strange—all my fright went, and I knew I must keep my head very very clear, and not funk a little tiny bit.

He was a stranger to us, but he wasn't a German, that I was thankful for, and he didn't look any different from the fishermen close to us, who were always kind to us.

"Where be ye from noo?" he said angrily.

"We often come over here in our boat," I said, trying to speak carelessly; "who are you? We've never seen you before?"

"What may ye be doin' in yon passage?" he demanded.

"Playing about in it," I said, and as I spoke I looked warningly at Lynette.

It's all very well to take a rope out to tie up a big man like this, and accuse him to his face of being a traitor, but when you're actually in his power, you know you can't do these things!

[Illustration: WE HAD NO TIME TO SCREAM—HE SEIZED HOLD OF BOTH OF US.]

He looked at us with scowling suspicious eyes.

Then Lynette took heart. She knew she must play the game too, and she laughed her merry laugh.

"What are you afraid of?" she said. "We shan't hurt you? Are you fishing here? We're just going home."

"And who else be wi' ye?" he asked.

"Nobody," I said. "Why are you asking us all these questions?"

He did not answer; he had us in his grip, one each side of him. And he made us walk along the beach with him till he came to the farther entrance of the caves. Then he looked in, and he saw the boards had been moved away.

"Ye've been meddlin' with my property," he said; "how daur ye! I've come ower here to paint up my boat, and ye've been meddlin' with my paint-pots."

"As if we want your old paint-tins!" I said scornfully. "We just peeped in behind the boards, but we never touched one of your paint-pots. What should we want with them!"

"Now look ye here!" the man said, scowling harder than ever. "I'd think nothin' of droppin' both of ye into the sea for meddlin' with my affairs! I be come ower here, as I say, to be quiet and paint me boat, and I dinna want the other chaps to—to ken where I be. 'Tis a bit of a wager 'twixt me and my mate, and I be gettin' the better of him in the paintin' way. If either o' you young leddies let drop a single wor-rd of my bein' ower here, I'll come an' murder ye in yer beds sure enough, and not a body will kep ye from my vengeance!"

"What a lot of fuss about painting a boat!" I said. "We shan't say a word about that of course. Why should we?"

"Ye swear?"

"I swear," I said firmly.

And Lynette hastily repeated after me "I swear too."

"Then off ye go!" said the man, releasing us.

"But I'll reckon with you, if I hang for it, if you daur to breek your word!"

He marched us back to where our boat was. We got in, and both of us kept brave faces to the last. Our rowing was very shaky. We hardly dared look at each other as long as he stood on the beach watching us.

But, as we got away from the island, Lynette began to sob.

"I want to roar and cry!" she said.

"Oh, don't! He may change his mind and come after us. Row for your life, Lynette! I've been praying all the time that we might escape! But we must row our hardest!"

So Lynette fought with her feelings, and we never rowed so hard and fast in all our lives as we did then. It seemed quite strange to hear our stable clock sounding over the water and striking four. It seemed as if we had been away days, instead of only a couple of hours.

The tide was on the turn, but we got back safely at last, and when we got upon the beach, and had driven our boat in on the shingle, I said: "We must thank God for having saved us, Lynette."

She nodded. Then we knelt down behind a rock where nobody could see us, and thanked Him, and then we took hold of each other's hands and raced up to the house as fast as we could.

"I suppose—" gasped Lynette, as she ran, "I suppose he wasn't painting a boat!"

"Not he!" I said. "Why should he have been so angry at seeing us? Now we'll go and tell grandfather at once if he's in. He is a magistrate, so he'll know what to do."

"But—but—supposing if the man is caught," said Lynette, "I'll never sleep in my bed in comfort again. I feel sure he will come and murder us. You were very clever how you swore, Grisel; of course we needn't say a word about his painting a boat, but that's only a clever way of cheating him!"

"What does it matter," I said, "what happens to us! If we prevent a submarine from getting that oil, Lynette, it will prevent them sinking some of our ships. We've always wanted to die for our country, so that would be the way that we should die! Besides, if the man is caught, he will be imprisoned or shot, and how can he hurt us then?"

"He might escape."

Lynette drew a long breath.

"Well, I won't be a coward, but it's not a pleasant thing to think about."

"Don't think about it. We must do what is right, and God guards us every night, Lynette. He won't let us be killed unless it's really the best thing for us!"

So then we went into the house and asked Peggy if grandfather was in. She said he was resting from his drive, and no one must disturb him.

But we knew we must disturb him, for not a moment must be lost; so we crept quietly downstairs past Aunt Isobel's room, and then knocked boldly at the library door.

"He'll have to put his teeth in first," said Lynette with a little frightened giggle. "I'm just as frightened of grandfather, when he's angry, as of that old sailor man!"

There was no answer. We knocked again louder, and then—I'm sorry to write it—but grandfather spoke angry words. Still, he didn't tell us to come in. We waited a moment, then we knocked again, and this time turned the door-handle and walked boldly in.

Grandfather was sitting up in his arm-chair; he had his teeth in. He scowled at us, and asked us what we meant by disturbing him at this hour.

It was funny how frightened Lynette was of him. She shrank behind me, but I was so worked up that I didn't mind his crossness a bit. I only thought of the oil upon the island, and how we must prevent a submarine getting it.

"We have something very important to tell you, grandfather," I said; "it has to do with our country, and something ought to be done at once."

"Speak out!" snapped grandfather.

Then I said:

"Lynette and I have discovered a lot of hidden oil in the caves on the island, and it's just waiting there for a submarine to fetch it!"

"Bosh!" said grandfather.

But he listened to me.

I told him how Lynette and I had gone out in the boat, and found the tins and barrels stored away.

"It's just your fancy—a few old empty tins perhaps."

Lynette was angry that he should treat it so lightly, and she forgot to be frightened. "There's a strange man over there with it," she said.

Then grandfather sat up straight in his chair and began to question us, and cross-examine us. I pity the people who come before him to be tried. He wanted to know every word that the man had said to us, and we tried not to tell him. Then at last I said desperately:

"He pretended to us that he was using those tins for a purpose of his own, but we can't tell you what that purpose was, because he made us swear we wouldn't tell, and we swore we wouldn't. But we didn't swear we wouldn't tell that the oil-tins were there, and we thought you could send for the police and let them go over. They could soon find out if it is true. And the sooner they go, the better."

"It's all a pack of nonsense," said grandfather testily. "Here, let me get to the telephone. I'll set Major Streatfield on to it!"

Major Streatfield is the Chief Constable of our part of the world, and he's one of grandfather's friends. I was quite relieved when grandfather told him about it through the telephone. We didn't hear what he said, for it was a one-sided shout through the tube, but we guessed from what we heard that the major was going to do something. And then grandfather sat back in his chair and looked at us.

"You had better keep a quiet tongue in your heads over this business. If there's anything in it, we don't want it proclaimed all over the village. Can you keep your mouths shut, do you think?"

"We have managed to keep them shut, grandfather, even to you about one thing," said Lynette, who had quite recovered her assurance. "Grisel and I want to keep it quiet. And if that man is caught, he will escape and murder us; he said he would. So you'll know who has done it, when it is done!"

Lynette's voice was tragic, and grandfather laughed for the first time. Then he sent us away.

We couldn't settle to anything for the rest of that day. We longed that the boys were home, for they would have gone out with the police to take away the oil. Nobody could have prevented them being in it. That is the worst of girls: whatever they do, and however brave they try to be, nobody thinks anything of them when real danger comes.

We sat in the schoolroom and talked over our adventure; it was all we could do. We tried to think what we could have done better. If we had only found his boat, before we found the man, we might have made a hole in the bottom of it, or let it loose and drift out to sea. But then he would have taken ours, if he had found it out before we had left.

"And all our preparations for emergencies were no good," said Lynette. "Our matches and paper and food and rope were all of no use; they just came back again with us."

"Things never happen exactly as we think," I said, "but the wonderful thing is that the oil was really there just as we imagined it. I really think God made us think of it. I have prayed so much that we might be given some work to do for our country!"

"Perhaps it isn't oil," said Lynette.

"It must be—it must be. Oh, I wish we could know what they're doing."

But we didn't know, and though it was a dark still night, and we stayed at our bedroom windows till we were too sleepy to hold our heads up any more, we saw no lights, nor boats, nor heard any noise at all.

When I fell asleep, I dreamt of that sailor running after us with a hatchet in his hand. I had awful dreams all the night through! I was quite glad to wake up in the morning and find myself safe and well.

After our breakfast, grandfather sent us a message to say that he wanted to see us. We were delighted, for we hoped to hear news. And when he saw us, there was a pleased smile on his face, and we knew that our story had proved true.

"Streatfield has just phoned through," he said; "I thought you would like to know. They captured the oil, but there was no man. He's coming round at ten o'clock, and wants you to describe the man to him."

"Oh," I said, "then we have done some good, grandfather."

"You have indeed."

"I only hope the man isn't hiding there still," said Lynette. "He really will come and kill us, if he knows we sent the police. Grisel says it doesn't matter about us, but I'd rather be shot in battle than murdered in my bed."

"Tut!" said grandfather impatiently. "Be a sensible lass, and don't be frightened of a man's idle threat. He is away without a doubt, for there is no boat, they say. Streatfield knows those caves well."

"Why haven't the men been watching them then?" I said.

"There's carelessness somewhere," said grandfather. "Don't chatter any more, but be ready to see Major Streatfield when he comes."

"Aren't we important people!" Lynette said as she skipped out of the room.

In a very little time we were down again, but this time it was in the library, and grandfather was up and dressed. He had told Aunt Isobel about it, and she cautioned us before we saw the major that we must be most accurate and careful in what we said.

"It's like a police court!" said Lynette.

Major Streatfield was very jolly with us. Not a bit like grandfather. And we described the man as well as we could. He nodded his head as we finished.

"That's the chap. He was implicated in the other affair higher up the coast, but he's a beggar for escaping. I think we shall catch him this time though."

And then Lynette showed him the pipe she had picked up. She had forgotten all about it till now.

Major Streatfield was awfully interested in it. He took it over to the window and examined it, and then took a magnifying glass out of his pocket, and looked at it, and then he made grandfather look, and they nodded their heads together.

"Well, I have him safe in custody," the major said. "I don't know if he's deeply implicated in it, or whether, for a bribe, he promised to keep clear of that part."

We asked whose pipe it was, and grandfather's answer was:

"David Grier's. His name is scratched upon it."

We gasped.

"But he may have been walking along innocently like us," I said, "and dropped his pipe."

"If he had been doing his duty, would he not have discovered what you did?" said Major Streatfield. "We only got it away in the nick of time. What do you think we found, sir?"

And he turned to grandfather as he spoke:

"We found a light with a slow-burning fuse attached, set in one of the open clefts in the cave. Grier ought to have seen that light. He ought to have stationed his men where they had command of that beach."

Lynette and I were not allowed to stay much longer, but Major Streatfield shook hands with us before we went out of the room, and said:

"You showed great courage and presence of mind. Your grandfather must be proud of you!"

And Lynette and I came up to the schoolroom, and felt awfully pleased with ourselves.

Now the oil was secured, there was not so much secrecy wanted. We were allowed to tell Miss Garton all about it when she came back, and she was most interested.

But that evening, Lynette nearly got into trouble again. When grandfather and Aunt Isobel were at dinner, she actually crept down to the hall and unfastened some of the bits of armour that were on the wall. She got hold of a shield and a kind of collar and was bringing it upstairs, when she stumbled and fell, and the shield went crashing down the stairs with an awful clanging noise. Miss Garton and I rushed out, and grandfather and Aunt Isobel, and then there was an awful row, and Lynette stood up in front of grandfather red and defiant.

"I deserve to have it! You oughtn't to grudge it to me. I was going to wear it under my nightdress in bed every night to save me from being murdered! Grisel and I will always go to sleep in fear of our lives. And you know why, grandfather!"

Grandfather began to laugh. But he wouldn't let Lynette have the armour. And, as I told her, it was not as if the man had been caught. I dare say he thought the oil had been taken off by the submarine. That was why the police tried to keep it as quiet as possible.

After a few nights, Lynette left off being nervous. And I never was at all. Because I know that God has me fast in His Hand. And I told Lynette that she ought to look at her foot and remember the letters on it.

"Yes," she said, "but I'm not so good as you, and I take my hand out of God's a hundred times a day. I forget so, and I'm in such a hurry to do what I want, that I never stop to think whether God wants me to do it, and generally He doesn't!"

We wondered if anything would be said in the newspapers about us and the oil, but there wasn't a word except one local paper which said:

"We understand that our Chief Constable is very active on our coast, and has had reason to suspect in more than one place connivance with the enemy. We can safely trust him to guard all exposed points."

Miss Garton said so much was suppressed now, and she thought it was very wise to be cautious.

"Yes," said Lynette, who had never forgotten the strange sailor; "and it wouldn't do for him to see it in the papers, would it, Grisel? But I should like for once in my life to see my name in the paper. It would sound so lovely. It might be headed:

"Two heroic defenders of our shores!"

She wrote a long letter to Denys and Aylwin about it. We thought there was no harm in doing that, and we had some awfully jolly letters from them wishing that they had been here to join in the fun.

Old David Grier quietly disappeared, and another coastguardsman took his place. The fishermen said he was too old for his job, but we knew a little more than they did.

Aunt Grisel heard about it, and when we went over to her, she was the only one who praised us up to the skies! She's getting her soldiers now, but they are five wounded officers, and we don't think them as interesting as the men.

Yet if Pat or Denys got wounded, we should think them interesting. But we know them, and strange officers are different. They would look upon us as children, and I should be afraid to go near them.

Miss Garton is teaching us to make swabs for the hospital. Lynette and I are getting quite clever at it. The war keeps us busy, but it seems to get more and more awful. I never knew that war could be so horribly cruel!