He could fancy a half-dozen pairs of maliciously glittering eyes
fastened even now upon the crest and edges of the terrace, all hidden
by the thickets. Had the poisoned dart from a blowpipe come winging
swiftly up from the shadows of the foliage, he should not have been
surprised.
But not a leaf below him was disturbed. Not a sound arose to warn his
eager ears. With a sense of bitter rage and humiliation in all his
system, he finally crept once more to the trail, and beyond it to the
cliff's final shelving.
From this extremity of the heights new aspects of the island were in
view, as well as different expanses of the sea. His keen eyes searched
the jungle and the clearings first, with no more results than before.
It was not until he gazed afar, on the darkening silver of the waters,
that his search was at all rewarded. Even then, for a moment he was
not wholly convinced that what he saw was not a spearlike leaf of
foliage projected beyond the clean-cut edge of the farthest of the
island's tufa towers.
But the angle of color detached itself and receded in far perspective.
It was plainly the sail of the visiting craft, previously hidden from
his sight by the hill at the island's end. It was already far on a
northern course, where he should not have thought to find it. The
freshening breeze was heeling it over gracefully; it would vanish in
less than half an hour.
He wondered instantly--had they towed away his boat? Or might they
have left it moored in some inlet of the island, to be taken upon some
future visit?
Stifling an impulse to hasten down the trail, and aware that one, or
even more, of the natives might have been left concealed upon the
place, to ambush himself and Elaine, or anyone else suspected of being
present on the rock, he remained behind his barrier of stones, no less
cautious than before.
The fact that the entire morning passed in apparent security, with
never the flicker of a leaf below to advertise a lurking menace, could
not suffice to render Grenville careless or overconfident. He had told
Elaine of their loss--which worried her less than himself. Together
they maintained an all-day vigilance, half expectant of the
sailing-craft's return and keyed to the highest tension of expectancy
at every stirring of a shrub below them in the jungle.
Grenville finally armed himself with his bow and straightest arrow, to
descend the trail, go quietly over to the spring, and then to the spot
from which his boat had vanished. About the pool of crystal water
there was not so much as a track of human boots or feet, other than his
own. There were none to be seen about the foot of the trail, where
there was ample dust in which they might have been recorded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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