Carette of Sark Part 48

"It's what was in my mind. I'll see Amice Le Couteur at once."

"B'en! and give the word to all you see, George," she called after him.

"And bid the women and children to the Gouliots if they hear they are coming--the upper chamber above the black rock. It won't be just hide-and-seek this time."

"Good idea!" Uncle George called back over his shoulder.

"Common sense," said Aunt Jeanne. "I'd undertake to hold the Gouliots against the lot of them if the tide was at flood."

"And you really think they may come across here again, Aunt Jeanne?" I asked.

"Ma fe, yes, I do. They were angry men before, but if the Guernsey men have smoked them out they'll be simply devils, and it's just as well to look ahead. How is that arm of yours?"

"The other one's all right. I can do my share."

"You'll be wanted if they come. I doubt if we can muster more than thirty men at most, and there may be more than that left of them, and madmen at that."

"We won't let them land."

"You can't close every door with thirty men, mon gars."

"One at the Coupee, if they make for Gorey. Three at Dos d'Ane. Three at Havre Gosselin. Half a dozen at the Creux--"

"Ta-ta! What about Eperquerie and Dixcart, my boy? Those are the open doors, and they know it just as well as you do. They're not going to climb one by one when they can come all in a heap. Mon Dieu, non!" she said, shaking her head ominously. "If they come there'll be rough work, and the readier we are for it the better."

Carette's face had shadowed at this gloomy talk, when she had been hoping that our troubles were over. And I could find little to rea.s.sure her, for it seemed to me more than likely that Aunt Jeanne's predictions would be fulfilled.

"I'll go along to Moie de Mouton and keep a look-out," I said.

"I also," said Carette, and we went off over the knoll together.

We sat in the short sweet gra.s.s of the headland, just as we had sat many a time when we were boy and girl, when life was all as bright as the inside of an ormer sh.e.l.l and we were friends with all the world.

The sun was dropping behind Herm into a dark bank of clouds which lay all along the western sky. Behind the clouds the heavens seemed ablaze with a mighty conflagration. Long level shafts of glowing gold streamed through the rifts, like a hot fire through the bars of a grate, and our faces and all the bold Sercq cliffs were dyed red. The sun himself looked like a fiery clot of blood. Everything was very still, as with a sense of expectation.

Tintageu, and the Platte, and Guillaumesse, and the gleaming Autelets, and La Grune, and on the other side the great black Gouliot rocks, and Moie Batarde, and the long dark side of Brecqhou all seemed straining with wide anxious eyes to learn what was coming. There was a dull growl of surf from below, and low harsh croakings and mewings from the gulls down in Port a la Jument. And we seemed to be all waiting for what should come out of Herm along the red path of the sun.

Carette shivered inside my arm.

"Cold, dearest?" I asked.

"My heart is heavy. Oh, but I wish it was the day after to-morrow, Phil."

"It will come. But we look like having a storm first. Those black clouds--"

"G.o.d's storms I do not mind. It is that black Herm--Hark!" and we heard the sound of guns again along the wind. "Do you think they will come here, Phil?"

"I think it quite likely, dear. But we are forearmed and we fight for our homes. If they come, they are a beaten crew bent only on mischief. We shall beat them again."

"You won't go and get yourself killed, Phil dear, just when you've come back to me?"

"That I won't. And when they've come and gone--" and I comforted her with warmer things than words. And Tintageu, and the black Gouliot rocks, and all the straining headlands seemed to look at us for a moment, and then turned and stared out anxiously at Herm.

And then I jumped up quickly, and stood for a moment staring as they stared.

"Tiens!--Yes--they are coming! Allons, ma cherie!" and we set off at a run for Beaumanoir to give the alarm. For, out of the shadow of Herm, half a dozen black objects had crept and were making straight for Sercq, and I understood that the look-out boats, and the boats of those who had hurried across from Sercq, had been left on the sh.e.l.l beach because the channel was probably blocked, and that the broken remnants of Herm had fled across the Island and were coming down to take a bite at us, as Aunt Jeanne had predicted.

A dozen of the neighbours, who had gathered about the gate of Beaumanoir, came running to meet us--the two Guilles from Dos d'Ane and Clos Bourel, Thomas De Carteret from La Vauroque, Thomas G.o.dfray of Dixcart, and Henri Le Masurier from Grand Dixcart, Elie Guille from Le Carrefour, Jean Vaudin, and Pierre Le Feuvre, and Philippe Guille from La Genetiere. George Hamon and Amice Le Couteur, the Senechal, from La Tour, were just coming down the lane, and every man carried such arms as he could muster.

"They're coming!" I shouted, and Amice Le Couteur, panting with his haste from the north, took command in virtue of his office, since Peter Le Pelley, the Seigneur, was away in London.

"How many, Phil Carre?" he asked.

"I counted six boats, but they were too far off to see how many in them."

"So! Run on, you, Jean Vaudin and Abraham Guille, and tell us how they are heading. They won't try to land hereabouts. They may try Gorey, but not likely. They have tasted the Coupee already. All the same, you, Pierre, run and warn the folks on Little Sercq. They had better come over here. Then stop on the Coupee and let no man across. I have bidden the women and children to the Gouliots here. Thomas Hamon of Le Fort is collecting them.

The rascals are most likely to try the Eperquerie or Dixcart. You, Elie Guille, see them all safely into the upper cave above the black rock, and sit in the mouth and let no one in. But I don't think you will be troubled.

We shall beat them off. Now, my friends, to the Head and watch them, and let every man do his duty by Sercq this night!" And they moved off in a body to Moie de Mouton, while Carette and I went on into Beaumanoir, she to join Aunt Jeanne, I to find a weapon, which I was doubtful of finding at home.

"Must I go underground again, Phil?" asked Carette. "I would far sooner stop here and take the risk, if there is any."

"You must go with the rest, my dear. We may have our hands full. It will be a vast relief to know you are all safe out of sight. If any of these rascals should get past us they will spare no one. Their only idea in coming is to pay off scores because they are beaten. They will be very angry men."

Aunt Jeanne, as might have been expected, was packing baskets of food with immense energy.

"Ah, b'en!" she cried at sight of us. "Carry those baskets down to Saut de Juan, you two. I'll be with you in a minute."

"Give me something to fight with, Aunt Jeanne."

"There's my old man's cutla.s.s, and there are his pistols, but, mon Dieu, they haven't been loaded this twenty years, and moreover there's no powder."

I strapped the cutla.s.s round me and stuck the pistols in the belt.

"What about M. Le Marchant and Martin?" I asked.

"They are in the cellar. No one will find them. The Gouliots was too far for them."

Women and children were running past towards Saut de Juan, the women anxious for their men, the children racing and skipping as if it were a picnic. I handed over my basket to willing hands, at the head of the path that leads down by the side of the gulf to the Gouliots, and gave Carette a hearty kiss before them all, which set some of the women smiling in spite of their forebodings.

"Ah-ha!" chuckled one old crone. "Bind the f.a.ggot if it's only for the fire."

"f.a.ggot without band is not complete," I laughed. "See you take care of my f.a.ggot, Mere Tanquerel, or I'll want to know why;" and I ran on along the heights to fetch my mother from Belfontaine.

As I came down the slope towards Port a la Jument I met her and George Hamon hurrying along, and her face was full of anxious surprise still, while Uncle George's had in it a rare tenderness for her which I well understood.

"I was just coming for you, mother," I said.

"It is good to be so well looked after," she smiled through her fears. "If only we knew that your grandfather was all right--"

"Philip will be here before long," said Uncle George confidently. "When he sees which way they've taken he will guess what they're up to and will bring on some of the Guernsey men. If we can't keep them at arm's length till then we're a set of lubbers."