What I saw when I cautiously peered over the rim of that little hollow
was (beginning at the top) a vast expanse of pale-blue sky, with fleecy
clouds down near the horizon already tinged with pink reflections from
the sunset far off behind my back. Then came a shining glimpse of the
North Sea; then a rim of green islands, rising on the right to high
heather hills; then the land-locked waters and the grey ships now
getting blurred and less distinct; then some portions of the green land
that sloped up to where I lay; and among these fields, and not far away
from me, the steep roof and gable-top of a grey, old-fashioned house.
It was the parish manse, the pacific abode of the professional exponent
and exemplar of peace--the parish minister; and yet, curiously enough,
it was that house which my eyes devoured.
The single ship had now ceased firing and anchored with her consorts,
the fleet had grown too indistinct to note anything of its composition,
and there was nothing to distract my attention from the house. I
looked at it hard and long and studied the lie of the ground between it
and me, and then I lay down on a couch of soft heather and began to
think.
So far as I could see I had done nothing yet to draw suspicion to this
particular spot, for no one at all seemed to have seen me, but it was
manifest that there would be a hard and close hunt for the mysterious
motor-cyclist on the morrow. I began to half regret that I had cut
that telegraph wire and advertised myself so patently for what I was.
Now it was quite obvious that for some days to come motor-cycling would
be an unhealthy pastime in these islands. Even at night how many ears
would be listening for my "phut-phut-phut," and how many eyes would be
scanning the dark roads? A few judiciously placed and very simple
barricades--a mere bar on two uprights, with a sentry beside each--and
what chance would I have of getting back to that distant bay,
especially as I had just been seen so near it?
"However," I said to myself, "that is looking too far ahead. It was
not my fault I brought this hornet's nest about my ears. Just bad luck
and a clumsy sailor!"
Just then I heard something approaching on the road below me, and in a
minute or two it became unmistakably the sound of a horse and trap. At
one place I could catch a glimpse of this road between the hummocks of
heather, and I raised myself again and looked out. In a moment the
horse and trap appeared and I got a sensation I shall not soon forget.
Not that there seemed to the casual passer-by anything in the least
sensational about this equipage. He would merely have noticed that it
contained, besides the driver, a few articles of luggage and a
gentleman in a flat-looking felt hat and an overcoat--both of them
black. This gentleman was sitting with his back to me (he was in a
small waggonette), but I could scarcely doubt who it was. But only
arriving to-night!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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