Mona, in a fever of excitement, affected certain knowledge that
Kisseck's men must be captured. She recommended the police to go down to
the shore and wait quietly for their friends. But at that moment they
caught sight of Danny's fire on the Lockjaw Head. They suspected
mischief, and declared their intention of going off to it.
At the same moment Mona's quicker eyes, now preternaturally quick,
caught sight of a boat clearing the west coast of the Castle Rock, and
sailing fast toward the Lockjaw. It was Christian's boat. Again Mona
felt an impulse to scream.
And now there came loud shouts from the castle. At the sign of Mona's
lantern, Kinvig and his followers had leaped out of their ambush, only
to find their men gone. Then they had run off to the creek in which they
had left their boat, meaning to give chase--only to find that the boat
had disappeared. There had been treachery somewhere. They were
imprisoned on the Castle Rock, and so they shouted, loud and long, to
their comrades on the cliff.
Mona thought she would have laughed yet louder and longer had she dared.
But the police were still with her, and the desire to laugh was quickly
swallowed up in fresh fear. She took the strangers to the high path that
led to the Lockjaw. "Follow this," she said, "and take no other, as you
value your limbs and necks." She told them to be very careful as they
passed the open shaft of the old lead mine. It would lie three yards on
their right. Away they went.
What had happened to the merchantman? She had seen danger, and was
already beating down the bay. She and her crew were safe. Putting down
the lantern on the hillside, Mona ran with all speed to Kisseck's
cottage. In the darkness she almost stumbled down the little precipice
on to the back of the roof. Running round the path, she pushed her way
into the house. Bridget Kisseck was there. In breathless haste Mona told
the woman that the police were after Kisseck and his friends; urged her
to get pipes, tobacco, cards, ale, spirits, and the like on the table.
The men would be here in three minutes. They must make pretense that
they had never been out.
Then Mona ran back to the angle of the two mountain paths, the high path
and the low one.
Bridget, who had not comprehended Mona's instructions, took fright at
her intelligence, put on her shawl and bonnet, and, without waiting for
her husband, hurried away to the town.
CHAPTER XIV
"BILL IS GONE TO BED"
What was happening to Danny at the Lockjaw Creek?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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