Priscilla's Spies Part 36

"No," he said. "I don't carry revolvers."

"I think you ought to," said Priscilla. "I mean whenever you happen to be running away with the daughter of the First Lord of the War Office or any one like that. But, of course, being a clergyman may make a difference. It's awfully hard to know exactly what a clergyman ought to do when he's eloping. At the same time it's jolly awkward you're not having a revolver, for Jimmy Kinsella says he won't go to Inishbawn and we can't all fit in the _Tortoise_."

"Leave him to me," said Frank. "Just bring him over here, Priscilla, and I'll deal with him."

"I'll not take you to Inishbawn," said Jimmy.

Priscilla handed him over to Frank. It was a long time, more than two years, since Frank had acquired some reputation as a master of men in the form Room of Remove A.; but he retained a clear recollection of the methods he had employed. He seized Jimmy Kinsella's wrist and with a deft, rapid movement, twisted it round. Jimmy had not enjoyed the advantages of an English public school education. Torture of a refined kind was new to him. He uttered a shrill squeal.

"Will you go where you're told," said Frank, "or do you want more?"

"I dursn't take yez to Inishbawn," said Jimmy whimpering. "My da would beat me if I did."

Frank twisted his arm again.

"My da will cut the liver out of me," said Jimmy.

"Stop that," said Mr. Pennefather. "I cannot allow bullying."

"It's for your sake entirely that it's being done," said Priscilla.

"You're the most ungrateful beast I ever met. It would serve you jolly well right if we left you here to have your own arm twisted by Lord Torrington."

Miss Rutherford was kneeling in front of a beautiful canteen, fitting aluminium plates and various articles of cutlery into the places prepared for them. She stood up and brandished a large carving fork.

"This," she said, "will be just as effective as a revolver. You take it, Frank, and sit close to him in the boat. The moment he stops rowing or tries to go in any direction except Inishbawn you??"

She made a vicious stab in the air and then handed the fork to Frank.

A quarter of an hour later the party started. Mr. Pennefather and Lady Isabel refused to be separated. Priscilla took them in the _Tortoise_.

They sat side by side near the mast and held each other's hands.

Priscilla, after one glance in their direction, looked resolutely past them for the rest of the voyage. Miss Rutherford sat in the bow of Jimmy Kinsella's boat. Jimmy sat amids.h.i.+ps and rowed. Frank, with the carving fork poised for a thrust, sat in the stern. The wind, following the departed thunderstorm, blew from the east. Priscilla set sail on the _Tortoise_. Jimmy hoisted his lug, but was obliged to row as well as sail in order to keep in touch with his consort. The boats grounded almost together on the s.h.i.+ngly beach of Inishbawn.

Joseph Antony, who had made his way home through the thunderstorm, put his hand on the bow of the _Tortoise_.

"It'll be better for you not to land," he said.

"I know all about that," said Priscilla. "You needn't bother to invent anything fresh."

"You can't land here," said Joseph Antony. "Aren't there islands enough in the bay? Jimmy, will you push that boat off from the sh.o.r.e and take the lady and gentleman that's in her away out of this."

The carving fork descended an inch towards Jimmy's leg. His father menaced him with a threatening scowl. Jimmy sat quite still. Like the leader of the House of Lords during the last stage of a recent political crisis, he had ceased to be a free agent.

"I don't want to land on your beastly island," said Priscilla. "If there wasn't as much as a half-tide rock in the whole bay that I could put my foot on I wouldn't land here, and you can tell your wife from me that if that baby of hers was to die for the want of a bit of flannel, I won't steal another sc.r.a.p from Aunt Juliet's box to give it to her."

"Sure you know well enough, Miss," said Joseph Antony, "that there's ne'er a one would be more welcome to the island than yourself. But the way things is at present??"

"I've a pretty good guess at the way things are," said Priscilla, "and the minute I get back tonight I'm going to tell Sergeant Rafferty."

Joseph Antony smiled uneasily.

"You wouldn't do the like of that," he said.

"I will," said Priscilla, "unless you allow me to land these two at once."

Joseph Antony looked long and carefully at Mr. Pennefather.

"What about the other young gentleman?" he said, "the one that has the sore leg?"

"He doesn't want to set foot on Inishbawn," said Priscilla.

"And the young lady," said Joseph Antony, "that does be taking the water in the little boat along with Jimmy?"

"She'll let Jimmy row her off to any corner of the bay you like," said Priscilla, "if you'll allow the other two to land."

Joseph Antony looked at Mr. Pennefather again.

"I wouldn't say there was much harm in him," he said.

"There's none," said Priscilla, "absolutely none. Isn't he paying 4 a week for that old boat of Flanagan's. Doesn't that show you the kind of man he is?"

"Unless," said Joseph Antony, "it could be that he's signed the pledge for life."

"Have you signed the pledge for life, Barnabas?" said Priscilla. "Let go of her hand for one minute and answer the question that's asked you."

"Does he mean a temperance pledge?" said Mr. Pennefather.

"I do," said Joseph Antony. "Are you a member of the Total Abstinence Sodality?"

"I take a little whisky after my work on Sunday evenings," said Mr.

Pennefather, "and, of course, when I'm dining out I??"

"That'll do," said Joseph Antony. "A man that takes it one time will take it another. I suppose now you're not any ways connected with the police?"

"He is not," said Priscilla. "Can't you see he's a clergyman?"

"It's beyond me," said Joseph Antony, "what brings you to Inishbawn at all."

"The way things are with you at present," said Priscilla, "it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a clergyman staying with you on the island. It would look respectable."

"It would, of course," said Joseph Antony.

"If any question ever came to be asked," said Priscilla, "about what's going on here, it would be a grand thing for you to be able to say that you had the Rev. Barnabas Pennefather stopping along with you."

"It would surely," said Joseph Antony.

Priscilla jumped out of the boat and drew Kinsella a little way up the beach.

"If anything was to come out," she whispered, "you could say that it was the strange clergyman and that you didn't know what was going on."