第 14 页

"You've left the money to that girl, I suppose?"

"Of course."

"Even after she wouldn't marry you?"

"My dear boy, the boot was on the other leg. I wouldn't marry her. I got to know from a doctor at home that I was lungy, and I wasn't going to be brute enough to marry a girl with that hanging over me."

"So you went and deliberately "

The sick man snapped out Shut up," and flushed scarlet. " Well, I suppose I'd better own up," he said a minute later, " as it's only to you. But a man has to do something if he wants to break off an engagement with a girl who's very fond of him, and I couldn't think of any better way than getting into a mess with another woman who . . . Oh, you know the whole dirty tale. I hadn't the brains to invent a cleverer way. Working up that mean, paltry, cold-blooded scandal was the only thing that occurred to me. I'm a bit of a thick-head."

Addingham stretched out and gripped his hand rather shamefacedly for a second, and then turned away. "You're a decent sort, you know," he said.

"Oh, drop that," said Tennant, fretfully. " Use your head and get me out of this mess. Can't you remember that she's as poor as a rat, and will have to remain poor, or dress on the doles that some rich husband pinches out to her, unless you manage to think of a way to make me outlive that ancient wreck of a cousin of mine?"

"Well," said Addingham, " it seems to resolve itself into this: War is going to be declared between America and Spain, whether you like it or not; Spain knows that she will be badly licked, and Spaniards are mad accordingly; the local Spaniard hates you personally, and will find an opportunity to scupper you as soon as war starts; and so Las Palmas district ceases to be healthy for you from now on. You say that it would be fatal for you to leave the island just now; so it seems to me that the only alternative is to go and live en perdu up amongst the hills of the interior."

"By Jove! that's just the very notion. Only, how am I alone, I mean to "

"Oh, if I hadn't intended to come along too and nursery-maid you," said Addingham, brusquely, "I should never have suggested such a mad picnic. Well, as this sort of idea seems to chime in with your notions, I'll just be off one-time (as those West African fellows say) and make some prepa rations. We shall have to take grub and clothes and things, and a transport system's got to be arranged for by which our retreat can't be traced. It would never do to let the general public know which way we might be found, or we'd have your mule-beating friend and his cronies round with their knives before the week was out."

Now, Addingham was a man who knew Grand Canary thoroughly. He had visited it for the first time eight years before, and, as was custom ary, the charm of the island grew upon him, and he had returned to it again at least once every year since. He knew every peak and every cinder slide; he had explored every one of the great barrancos; he knew personally every vineyard, every tomato garden, and every banana farm in the circle of the island; and, finally, he probably knew more about the Guanche caves than any Englishman living. He had visited all the mummy caves, the store caves, and the living caves of that dead race which were already known to exist, and during his ramblings amongst the lava cliffs and the dry, crumbling hills he had found others whose existence he kept to himself, lest vandal tourists, and more vandal museum col lectors, might desecrate those few remaining sig natures of the past. He had grown to have a feeling akin to comradeship for those long-forgot ten dead, and on the rare occasions when he thought about the matter in such an aspect, he congratulated himself that at least he had never done anything to rip more of the cloak from their decent past for the vulgar stares of the ten days' tourist.

Incidentally, in wandering about the island, Addingham had learned the Canary patois of Span ish, the intricacies of local paths and transport, and a list of the needs for a residence in the highlands of the interior; and so, on the day after the subject was broached between them, he was able to get Tennant away from the hotel, and through Las Palmas, and out past Monte and Santa Brigida, without his journey being in any way noticed.

It is forbidden by doctor's law for consump tives to be exposed to the air of evening, and so that night they stayed under a roof, and Ten nant coughed in a tempered atmosphere; but next morning, when the sun had made the air benign, they left their carriage and set off again, this time with one pack-mule and another for riding, and left the road finally behind them. They were none too soon either. War had been declared the previous night; and though Madrid, and even Spain itself, might be calm and unemotional, the towns and villages of Grand Canary were in a seethe of patriotic ferment. Even the locally-known Addingham would have been in considerable personal danger, and as for the unpopular Tennant, with his foreign preju dices against beating a mere worn-out mule to death, his life would not have been worth ten minutes' purchase.

The way they traversed I also have trod; but as I am under pledge of secrecy, it will not be described here. Indeed, without a map, it would be hard to direct a traveller so that he might refind it. There are so many stony barrancas, leading to so many barren valleys, in the interior of the isle of Grand Canary; and each one at times has the same semi-tropical sun blazing with gen ial warmth overhead, and the same euphorbia bushes growing from the austere cinders under foot, and the same dwelling caves, and store caves, and mummy caves of those long-dead Guanches discreetly screened behind ingenious rocks.

They journeyed on and on, up and down and up, till the weak sick man on the jolting mule was nearly at the end of his meagre strength, game though he might be in uncomplaining en durance; and then the two beasts were hobbled in a tiny dell of coarse grasses (where moisture accumulated from the slope above), and there remained before the men a climb too steep even for a Spanish mule. The Guanche of those dead old years had his enemies, and so he delved his house at some spot where he would have full advertisement of an enemy's approach.

Addingham clapped a sturdy arm round Tennant's waist, and half-dragged, half-carried him up the inclines; and Tennant, with vicious en ergy, thrust out the last embers of his strength to help. " You're sweating like a pig," he gasped, as they grappled their way up the rocks, " and so am I. By the Lord, it's fine to do a climb, just once again."

"You stay here and get back your wind," said Addingham, when at last they scrambled through the hole which made the entrance, and sprawled on the floor of the cave. " I'll go down and bring up the furniture and the grub to fit out this desirable residence."

It took him four journeys to bring the contents of the mule's pack up the rocks, and when the work was finished night had fallen, and Tennant was sleeping a calm sleep of exhaustion. The mountain air was cool and sweet and fresh, and slightly tinged with salt from the South-East Trade; a great globe of moon hung above their valley, lighting the lava cliffs and the harsh cinders in stern black and white; and behind him, in the ramifications of the cave, Addingham fancied he could hear the ghosts of goatskin-clad mummies, passing the news in whispers concerning these strange men of non-Guanche race who had arrived out of space to visit them.

"Men have been born in these caves," Adding ham mused, " and have lived here all their days, and have died here, and have been buried in the caves beyond, where their dust and parchment still remain; and presently I suppose another man will die where those others have died before him. For me it will be to look on, and watch helplessly whilst he coughs himself into the next world. We're friends, I know, and I suppose it's my duty to stay on and watch, and help, but--" He broke off in his definite musing, and shuddered at a vague horror of thought. The caves and the valley were lonely beyond words, and the idea of his isolation, and of the man dying by inches close by, shook him and unstrung his nerves. " I suppose it was a foolish thing to do after what poor old Tennant told me, and after what he's done himself, but I'm glad I wrote that letter to the girl. Bah! what a miserable coward a man can be when he's got a bad sickness to nurse!"

Addingham woke with the first of the dawn, and saw that the sick man was still warm and sleeping. He lit a candle, and rambled away into the dark of the caves, returning presently with a stone measure full of grain and a primi tive quern, also of stone. He toasted the grain, pinch by pinch, over a spirit stove, and then, after sprinkling it with salt, ground it in the quern. Then he kneaded it with water into a dough, and prepared to make his breakfast.

Tennant woke and saw him. " What's that stuff you've got there?" he asked.

"Gofio. All the country people in the Canaries eat it, and for a change I like it myself."

"I didn't know you'd brought up any corn with you on the mule."

"I didn't. This was stored up by the last tenant of these caves a thousand years ago, in a stone rat-proof chest, which I'll show you directly if you like. The original storer doesn't want it now, and as the stuff's as good to-day as it was the hour it was put there, I'm robbing him. I didn't expect you were going to wake yet. However, I'll set to and make your breakfast now. Have a nip of cod-liver oil just as an appetiser?"

"Hang the cod-liver oil! Give me some of that gofio stuff."

Addingham looked doubtful. " It's hardly grub a man would care for if he feels a bit chippy."

"Respect an invalid's whims," said Tennant, sitting up and stretching out a hand. " Surren der your breakfast, my dear boy, and make your self some more. I'm as hungry as a wolf. No, hang coffee too. If we're going to play at being Guanches, let's do the thing thoroughly and drink water. It won't be typhoidy up here."

He ate his meal with appetite. " I don't wonder at this gofio being the principal food that's eaten in the Canaries without break for Lord knows how many thousand years. It's fine; especially if you're hungry. I say, Mr. Caterer, you've a small notion of one's capacity. Look here, show me how, and let me help cook some more. I'm feeling frightfully energetic just now."

Now, it is no place here to give a diary of the existence of those two men, the sick and the sound, in those Guanche caves in the centre of the isle of Grand Canary. They lived on the stores they had brought up; on banana bunches and other fruits, which Addingham raided under cover of night from plantations on the lower ground; on occasional chickens, which probably came from the same source; and especially on the hoard of grain stored up by that forgotten savage in the rat-proof coffer in one of the inner caves. Some days Tennant was worse, and counted up with calm cynicism the inroads which were being made into his allotted five months and a half; and some days he was better, and talked of swindling the doctors and upsetting current wages. And as time went on the percentage of the hopeful days increased, as Addingham's strained mind was quick to notice.

Of the Spanish-American war and its defeats and successes they heard no word; but from one sign and another Addingham learned that the Canarios were still excited, and that they must continue to live en Guanche if Tennant was to be safe from the knife of the injured tartana, driver. Addingham had also another thing which weighed on his mind, and that was the letter he had written on the day of their flight from Las Palmas. Until it could reach England, and be answered in person, he was merely troubled in spirit and took no other move; but when that time had elapsed, he made his nightly raids the excuse for calling at a rendezvous which he had named in the letter, but every night found it cold and unvisited.

The weeks grew on into a month, the month into several months, and still there was no news at the rendezvous. Tennant was quite confident now of outliving his cousin with the Bright's disease, and at times suggested that he would "have to be shot when his date arrived, so as to keep up the doctor's reputation for accuracy." He developed a large interest in the bygone Guanche race and their doings, and ate gofio made from prehistoric wheat with an appetite that was fre quently wolfish. Day by day Addingham watched him with wonderment and growing satisfaction.

But at last there came the event which Ad dingham had now begun to dread. He went out one midnight as usual to the rendezvous, and from that moment Tennant did not see him at the Guanche cave again. Instead, there came with the first rays of morning a woman, who crawled in through the tiny en trance- way of the cave, and threw herself upon him, and woke him with her kisses.

He got up, kissed her once, and then thrust her from him. " Oh, go," he said, " go. It's hard enough to die without having you here. That brute Addingham must have written to you. I'll never forgive him for this."

"I was travelling in India," she said, " and his letter followed after me. That is why I was so long in coming to you, my dear. What a fool I was not to see through your dear old stupid ruse before!"

Tennant gave a whimsical laugh. " That scandal with er that other woman? Oh, I chucked you and cared for her just then. I'm very changeable."

She lifted his arms and tucked them round her neck and looked him in the eyes. " Are you?" said she. " You don't seem to have changed your way of looking at me."

"'Man can't help his unfortunate personal appearance." He took his arms resolutely from her neck, and deliberately moved away from her to the opposite side of the cave. "Mary," he said, " I found out I was in a galloping consumption, and as I knew you'd have some silly notion that you ought to stick to me, I just used my brilliant head to invent a definite order for you to clear out. It was luck on Mrs. er the other woman, of course; but she doesn't deserve much consideration any way."

"My darling," she said, " I would rather be your widow than the wife of any other man in all the world. But I am going to be your wife, and remain your wife. You are not going to die. Addingham told me you had been very ill, but he said you were marvellously better. He said it was the mountain air or something, and that he was convinced that the consumption had stopped. My sweetheart, you shall not die. Listen to me; I tell you you shall not. You shall live on. I must have you."