A Loose End | Page 4

suggested the idea of
a mother bird watching her nest from afar. The tide had gone out
sufficiently for the boats to be drawn up on the eight or ten feet of the
shelving shore, which was thus laid bare, and the glowing light of the
sunset touched in slanting rays the head and hands of an old man seated
on a rock and bending over some fishing tackle, which he seemed to be
repairing.

Round the extreme point of the headland, which in a succession of
uncouth shapes dropped its rocky outline into the shadowy purple sea,
there was visible, hastily clambering across pathless boulders, another
man, of a young and lithe figure, and with something in the eager,
forward thrust of the head, crouching gait, and swift, deft footing that
resembled an animal of the cat species when about to leap on its prey.
He was evidently making for the cove, but would have to take the rope
path in order to reach it, as there was no way of approaching it on that
side except over the sheer face of rock. Marie was further from the rope
than he was, but her path was easier. The moment her eye caught sight
of the crouching, creeping figure, she sped like a hare down the path,
till she reached a point at which she was on a level with the man, at a
distance of about a hundred feet. There she stood, uncertain a moment,
then turned to meet him. He seemed too intent on his object in the cove
to notice her advance, till she was within speaking distance, when she
suddenly called to him "Pierre!"
Her clear, defiant tone put the meaning of a whole discourse into the
word. The man turned sharply round with an expression of vindictive
malice in his fox-like face.
"Well, what do you want?"
"What are you doing here, please?"
"What's that to you, I should like to know?"
"Come nearer, then I can hear what you say."
"I sha'n't come no nearer than I choose."
"Don't be afraid. I ain't a-goin' to hurt you!"
The taunt seemed to have effect, for he leaped hurriedly along over the
rocky path, with an angry, threatening air that would have frightened
some girls. Marie stood like the rock beneath her.
"Now, Miss, I'll teach you to come interfering with business that's none

o' yourn. What, you thought you'd come after me, did yer? because you
was tired o' waitin' for me to come after you again, I suppose."
"What is that you're carryin' in your belt?" she demanded calmly. A
handle was seen sticking up under his fisherman's blouse. "You believe
its safer to climb the rocks with a butcher's knife in your pocket, do you?
You think in case of an accident it would make you fall a bit softer,
hey?"
"It don't matter to you what I've got in my pocket," he rejoined, but his
tone was uncertain. "I brought it to cut the tackle--we've got a job of
mending to do."
"I don't know whether you think me an idiot," she replied; "but if you
want me to believe your stories you'd better invent 'em more reasonable.
Now, Pierre, this is what you've got to do before you leave this spot.
You've got to promise me solemnly not to go near Daddy, nor threaten
him as you once threatened me on a day you may remember, nor try to
intimidate him into takin' you back. Neither down in the cove, nor
anything else: neither now, nor at any other time."
Her girlish figure as she stood with one arm clasping the rock beside
her, looked a slight enough obstacle in the path.
"Intimidate him! A parcel o' rubbish; who's goin' to intimidate him as
you call it. Get out o' the way, and don't go meddling in men's concerns
that you know nothing about."
He seized her wrist roughly, and with her precarious footing the
position was dangerous enough: but she clung with her other arm like a
limpit to the rock. He attempted to dislodge her, when she suddenly
turned and fled back on her own accord. He hastened after her, and it
was not till he had gone some yards that, putting his hand to his belt, he
found that the knife had gone.
"The jade," he muttered, "she did it on purpose," and even with his
hatred and malice was mingled a gleam of admiration at the cleverness
that had outwitted him. He hurried on towards the cliff path, but the

sunset light was already fading into dusk, and he had to choose his
footing more carefully. When he reached the point where the rope
began, Marie had already gone down and was leaning on the rock
beside her father. Had