The Adventure League Part 14

Marjorie looked at the new-comers with approval, and Hamish shook hands good-naturedly.

'Are we going to fish all afternoon,' said Marjorie, 'or shall we take a scramble?'

'A scramble,' replied Reggie; 'they want to see the rocks.'

'If Gerald isn't too tired,' put in Tricksy considerately; 'he was asleep a minute ago.'

'No,' protested Gerald, flushing and looking very much vexed; 'I wasn't. I'm quite ready for a walk.'

'Suppose we take them to the Smugglers' Caves,' suggested Marjorie.

'They're the finest sight in the island, I think.'

At the mention of smugglers Harry's eyes began to sparkle, and Gerald's blue ones opened very wide.

'Are there--are there any smugglers there now?' asked Harry.

'Sometimes there are,' replied Marjorie, 'but I don't expect we shall meet any. Smuggling isn't what it used to be,' she added somewhat regretfully.

'What luck if we could only come across some,' said Harry. 'Let's go and see the caves anyhow.'

'It's a long walk, across moors and bogs, and steep hills,' said Marjorie; 'but if you're game, come along.'

Harry, walking beside Reggie, looked at the girl's slight, erect figure as she went in front with Gerald.

'Does she always do what you fellows do?' he inquired, rather doubtfully.

'Of course she does,' replied Reggie; 'she's fifteen years old, you know; a year older than Allan.'

Harry looked at her again, and considered.

'Bit of a tomboy, isn't she?' he inquired again.

'An awful tomboy. We've got her into the way of doing all kinds of things. She couldn't be much jollier if she was a boy.'

Harry took another look at her.

'Has she a bit of a temper?' he asked unexpectedly.

'A bit,' acknowledged Reggie, somewhat disconcerted, 'when she's roused, you know. She's fond of her own way; and she and Allan used to quarrel a good deal at one time; but they seem to have made it up now.'

Reggie added to himself that there was no time to quarrel, now that every one's thoughts were occupied with Neil.

Harry looked at Marjorie again.

'Does she ever quarrel with you?' he asked.

'N--no, not much,' he replied, his face darkening slightly.

Harry looked at Marjorie's tall young figure, and then at Reggie's smaller and slighter one, and arrived at the conclusion which particularly annoyed Reggie; that the girl disdained to quarrel with a boy so much younger than herself.

Marjorie turned her bright face towards them.

'Find it tiring, walking on the heather?' she said. 'It's very fatiguing when you're not accustomed to it. We might take a rest after we've climbed this hill; there's a beautiful view from the top.'

It was a steep climb, and when they reached the summit, all the young folk were glad to fling themselves down on the short, fragrant heather.

The breeze came laden with the scent of wild thyme and heather and salt from the sea; and the only live creatures save themselves were the mountain sheep and the crested plovers, and grey gulls which wheeled above the heads of the wayfarers.

Harry looked about him with brightening eyes.

'What an awfully jolly place this is of yours,' he said. 'I say, you _do_ see a lot from the top of this hill.'

He was right. The hill crest commanded a view of nearly the whole island, with green fields and moors, and the white roads stretching across them; houses and cottages in their little gardens; and the village with the pier jutting out into the sea. One or two larger islands were in the distance; brown rocks and skerries lying like dots upon the blue water; and away to the east the Highland hills rose among the clouds.

'It must be awfully jolly, having an island all to yourselves,'

continued Harry.

'Yes,' replied Marjorie, perched on a boulder, 'and it's jollier still to have an island of your very own, where no one comes but ourselves, and we can do exactly as we like.'

'Where's that?' inquired Harry.

'I may tell them, mayn't I?' asked Marjorie of the others.

'Of course you may,' replied Allan; 'we must take them there some day soon.'

Marjorie slipped down from her perch.

'Do you see the little island over there?' she said, pointing southwards; 'a little black dot on the water, with some bright green in the middle of it? Well, that's our _own_ island which we have all to ourselves, and we've made a place in it that we call our secret hiding-place or Pirates' Den. We must show it to you some day.'

The boys stood up and gazed out to sea, their eyes widening and brightening.

'I say, this is jolly,' they murmured, rather than said to any one in particular.

'Hamish,' said Allan, who had been looking at some object on the southern side of the island; 'is that your father's gig, that has just stopped before Mrs. Macdonnell's cottage?'

Hamish looked in the direction indicated.

'Yes, I believe it is,' he said. 'It must be true then, what we heard Duncan say, that Mrs. Macdonnell is very ill.'

Such a grieved silence fell upon the island young people that the Grahams looked at them inquiringly.

'They said that she would fall ill,' said Marjorie in a low voice, 'if--if she continued to fret so about----'

Allan pushed his cap to the back of his head, and Reggie looked hard in the direction of the cottage, where the black dot was still standing by the gate.

'Nothing else found in the ruins?' said Allan in an undertone.

'Nothing yet,' replied Hamish; 'the police are still trying to follow up the clue----'