Hilderman, however, managed to reach the shelter of a ridge of rock,
and I watched him as he scuttled up the mountain side, and made
straight for a long grey rock which protruded from the foot of a steep
crag. And as I looked, and saw him go to the rock and open a door in
it, I realised that it was really a great, grey, lean-to shed,
cunningly concealed. Hilderman had scarcely opened the door when a
huge, dark shadow seemed to fall out of the shed and envelop him. It
was Sholto. Blind, and half-mad with fury, he sprang at Hilderman's
throat with the unerring aim of his breed. The wretched man staggered
and fell, and Sholto----.
I turned away from the sickening sight, and looked over the side, and
saw Myra standing up, waving to me, as they drew alongside the wrecked
_Fiona_.
And then I'm afraid I must have fainted.
* * * * *
I lay on the sofa in Myra's den, and Myra--God bless her!--was
kneeling beside me. Sholto was with us too, looking incredibly wise in
a pair of motor-goggles.
"So you see, darling," said Myra, "the glasses cured me completely,
and I can see just as well as ever." And I shall not repeat what I
said in reply to such glorious news.
"Tell me, dear," I asked shortly, "what exactly happened with Dennis?
I haven't quite got that."
"Well, he saw me on my way to Glasnabinnie," she explained, "and was
determined to follow. He couldn't find a boat of any kind, so he swam!
Angus saw him in the water and ran and told daddy. When they found
there was no boat they went and fetched the one on the loch, carried
it down to the sea, and called Hamish. Then they pulled across. Then,
you see, when Dennis had his heart attack, I thought he was only
pretending. I thought he saw that we should never be able to get away
again, and that if he pretended to be dead they would leave us alone.
So I followed his lead. I was terribly frightened when I couldn't make
him answer me after they had gone, but before I could do anything
daddy and the men arrived. Angus stopped with me, and told me where
the _Fiona_ had gone. We took the _Baltimore_ because she is much
faster than our boat. He must have been a duffer to lose that race we
had. And then daddy and Hamish took Dennis--I refuse to call him Mr.
Burnham after this--and brought him here and sent for Dr. Whitehouse."
"I'm thankful he's out of danger," I said fervently.
"But the doctor says he must take it very, very gently for a long
time, and he won't be able to walk much for months. Did he know he
had this heart trouble?"
I had scarcely finished explaining the extent of Dennis's heroism when
Garnesk arrived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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