The Mystery of the Green Ray Part 14

"What is it?" he asked, looking rather anxiously at me.

"I want to tell you," I said, "that in the event of Myra not regaining her sight I should like your permission to marry her as soon as she herself wishes it. As you know, I have a small private income, which is sufficient for my needs in London, and would be more than I should require up here. If Myra is to be blind, I should like to marry her in order that I may always be able to take care of her, and I should propose to settle down somewhere near you. I dabble in contributory journalism, and I could extend that as far as possible, and I might even do pretty well at it. Both she and you would know then that, in the event of anything happening to you, she would be cared for by someone she loves."

"My dear Ronald," exclaimed the old man, affectionately laying a hand on my shoulder, "I'm very glad to hear you say that. As a matter of fact, whatever happens, I don't care how soon you marry my dear girl.

She wants it with all her heart, and I have always been fond of you myself. The only thing that has held me back up to now is the question of money, and, possibly, a little selfishness. I'm not a rich man, as you know, and if it were not for my pension I couldn't even live in my father's house. But now my one desire is to see my poor little girl happy, and we'll sc.r.a.pe together a s.h.i.+lling or two somehow. Shake hands, my boy."

We both of us forgot all about the terrible war, and, naturally enough, the mysterious trouble which faced us then was sufficient for the moment. Having settled that question at last, I conducted the old man to the small cove where we had made our first discovery, but we began by visiting the coach-house. I daresay that to the trained eye there may have been valuable evidence lying under our very noses, but the only confused marks which we found on the surrounding ground conveyed nothing to either of us. Later, on our way back to the house, from what we now called "the embarking-point," we came upon a spot where the heather had been cut off in fairly large quant.i.ties. The old man stood, and contemplated the shorn stumps for a moment, and shook his head solemnly. It was not that he had any sentimental regret for the heather which grew on almost every inch of ground for hundreds of miles round, but he objected to the sign of visitors, or, as he would have said, "trippers."

"Who would want to cut heather here?" I asked, for I could not see the slightest reason for gathering anything which could be obtained at your door wherever you lived in the Highlands.

"Holiday-makers," he said ruefully. "They take rooms in the village, and get it into their heads that the heather in one spot is better than anything else for miles round, so they walk out to that spot, and cut some to take away with them when they go back home. I wish they'd always go back home and stop there."

When I showed the General the keel-marks in the cove and explained to him in detail how Garnesk had arrived at his conclusions, the old man was quite awed.

"'Pon me soul, he must be thundering clever, thundering clever," he muttered. "But it's not healthy, you know, Ronald; in fact, it's begad unhealthy. I've always been a bit scared of these people who see things that are not there. Still, I suppose it's the modern way; reading all these detective yarns and so on does it, no doubt."

He was still marvelling at this new mystery when we got back to the house to find Myra sitting on the verandah with the specialist, who was keeping her in fits of laughter with anecdotes of some of his wealthy women patients.

He sprang up as he saw us approaching, and ran down to meet us.

"I'm certain of one thing," he said excitedly, as he walked between us, and answered the General's question. "We have got to solve the mystery, and she will see again. This is something new, but it has a very simple solution, which we must find out by hook or by crook.

When I know how Miss McLeod lost her sight I shall very likely be able to find out how to restore it, and I shall also know something that perhaps no other oculist has ever dreamed of. There isn't the slightest sign of any organic disease, which probably means that Nature will a.s.sert herself, and she will eventually regain her sight naturally. But we mustn't wait for that. We've got to be up and doing.

I tell you, sir, I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Have you been exploring?"

"We've been having a look at those marks which meant so much to you and conveyed nothing whatever to me, although I was once considered something of a scout," the General admitted.

"Did you find anything fresh?"

"No, only some trippers, as the General calls them, had been cutting heather," I replied.

"That's not likely to help us much," the oculist agreed, "unless they were not trippers at all, and were cutting the heather as a blind.

What were they like?"

"Oh, we didn't see them. We only saw the results of their iconoclasm.

The heather was recently, but not freshly, cut," I replied, and the old man glanced at me with some slight suspicion, as if he feared I, too, was about to take up the deduction business.

"Recent, but not fresh?" muttered Garnesk.

"Now, why should a man who wanted----Good heavens! I've got it."

"What _are_ you dear people getting so excited about?" Myra asked, for by this time we had almost reached the verandah.

"We'll tell you in a minute, dear," I called, and waited for Garnesk to explain.

"Of course," he continued, as if thinking aloud, "it's obvious. The man came ash.o.r.e in a small boat, picked some heather, and carried it in his arms. Anyone who noticed him would have noticed his load of heather. Then he stole Sholto, concealed him under the heather, and was still apparently only carrying a bundle of innocent heath. Why!

they seem to have thought of everything, and made no mistake."

"Except that the man was wandering about the country-side, gathering wild flowers, in his stockinged soles," I pointed out.

"Still, it was almost dark, and he chanced that," said Garnesk.

"What I don't understand about it is this," the General joined in: "Where did he come from to gather this heather? A man must know that if he is seen to come ash.o.r.e and pick heather and get into his boat again he is doing a very curious thing. That boat can only have come from Knoydart or Skye at the farthest, and everybody knows you wouldn't take heather there."

"Yes, I'm afraid you're right, General," Garnesk admitted, with a sigh of regret, and I was compelled to agree with him.

"I know where he came from, then."

It was said so quietly that it startled us all, though it was Myra who spoke.

"Where, then?" we all asked together.

"He must have come from a yacht."

CHAPTER X.

THE SECRET OF THE ROCK.

We made exhaustive inquiries everywhere, but no one had seen a yacht anch.o.r.ed or otherwise resting off the point the previous night. One or two vessels had been noticed pa.s.sing the mouth of Loch Hourn during the evening, but they were mostly recognisable as belonging to residents in the neighbourhood, and in any case not one of them had been seen to drop the two men in a boat who were causing us so much anxiety. When Garnesk and I went up the river to the Chemist's Rock we were equally unsuccessful there.

"Look here," I said, "suppose you were to go blind, Mr. Garnesk? I can't allow you to run any risks of that sort. We have every reason to know that there is something gruesome and uncanny about this spot, and I should feel happier if you would keep at a safe distance."

"How about yourself?" he replied.

"It's a personal affair with me," I pointed out, "but I can't let your kindness in a.s.sisting us as you are doing run the length of possible blindness."

"Nonsense, my dear fellow," he exclaimed; "we're in this together. I am just as keen to get to the bottom of this matter as you are. But it behoves us both to be careful. It is most important that you should take care of yourself at the present moment. What would happen to Miss McLeod if I carried you back to the house in a state of total blindness?"

"Oh, I shall be all right," I declared confidently. "But, of course, your point is a good one, and I shall not run any risks."

"And yet you start by careering up the river here when we have very excellent reasons for supposing that it is hardly the place to spend a quiet afternoon."

"You don't really believe that there is anything curious about the river itself, do you?" I asked. "We have agreed that some human agency is responsible for the tragic affliction that has fallen upon poor Myra. In that case we are not safe anywhere."

"That's true enough," he agreed, "but everything that has happened so far has happened here. Sooner or later, no doubt, the operations will be extended to some other region, but at present we know there is a possibility of our being overcome by some strange peril between the Chemist's Rock and Dead Man's Pool."

"Well, as we don't know how to deal with the danger when it does arrive," I suggested, "suppose we see as much as we can from the banks. I will go up the centre of the stream and report to you, if you like, but you stay here."

"You'll do nothing of the sort," he cried. "I can't imagine what we can possibly learn by standing on that rock, but if either of us goes, we go together, or I, in my capacity of bachelor unattached, go alone."

Naturally, I could only applaud such generous sentiments, and at the same time refuse to countenance his proposal. So we sat among the heather, some distance above the bank, and awaited developments.

"It is four-twenty now," said my companion presently, looking at his watch. "If anything is going to happen it should happen soon."

"Don't you think it was mere coincidence that Myra's blindness and the General's strange illusion occurred about this time? Why should this green ray only be visible between four and five?"