The Obstacle Race | Page 2

capable. The lips that held the cigarette were
delicately moulded also, but they had considerable character.
"If I were Lady Joanna Farringmore, I suppose I should say something
rather naughty in French, Columbus, to relieve my feelings. But you
and I don't talk French, do we? And we have struck the worthy Lady Jo
and all her crowd off our visiting-list for some time to come. I don't
suppose any of them will miss us much, do you, old chap? They'll just
go on round and round in the old eternal waltz and never realize that it
leads to nowhere." She stretched out her arms suddenly towards the
horizon; then turned and lay down by Columbus on the shingle. "Oh,
I'm glad we've cut adrift, aren't you? Even without cigarettes, it's better
than London."

Again Columbus signified his agreement by kissing her hair, in a rather
gingerly fashion on account of the smoke; after which, as she seemed to
have nothing further to say, he got up, shook himself, and trotted off to
explore the crannies in the cliffs.
His mistress pillowed her dark head on her arm, and lay still, with the
sea singing along the ridge of shingle below her. She finished her
cigarette and seemed to doze. A brisk wind was blowing from the shore,
but the beach itself was sheltered. The sunlight poured over her in a
warm flood. It was a perfect day in May.
Suddenly a curious thing happened. A small stone from nowhere fell
with a smart tap upon her uncovered head! She started, surprised into
full consciousness, and looked around. The shore stretched empty
behind her. There was no sign of life among the grass-grown cliffs,
save where Columbus some little distance away was digging
industriously at the root of a small bush. She searched the fringe of
flaming gorse that overhung the top of the cliff immediately behind her,
but quite in vain. Some sea gulls soared wailing overhead, but no other
intruder appeared to disturb the solitude. She gave up the search and lay
down again. Perhaps the wind had done it, though it did not seem very
likely.
The tide was rising, and she would have to move soon in any case. She
would enjoy another ten minutes of her delicious sun-bath ere she
returned for the midday meal that Mrs. Rickett was preparing in the
little thatched cottage next to the forge.
Again she stretched herself luxuriously. Yes, it was better than London;
the soft splashing of waves was better than the laughter of a hundred
voices, better than the roar of a thousand wheels, better than the voice
of a million concerts ... Again reverie merged into drowsy absence of
thought. How exquisite the sunshine was!...
It fell upon her dark cheek this time with a sharp sting and bounced off
on to her hand--a round black stone dropped from nowhere but with
strangely accurate aim. She sprang up abruptly. This was getting
beyond a joke.

Columbus was still rooting beneath the distant bush. Most certainly he
was not the offender. Some boy was hiding somewhere among the
humps and clefts that constituted the rough surface of the cliff. She
picked up her walking-stick with a certain tightening of the lips. She
would teach that boy a lesson if she caught him unawares.
Grimly she set her face to the cliff and to the narrow, winding passage
by which she had descended to the shore. Her dreams were wholly
scattered! Her cheek still smarted from the blow. She left the sea
without a backward glance. She sent forth a shrill whistle to Columbus
as she began to climb the slippery path of stones. She was convinced
that it was from this that her assailant had gathered his weapons.
With springing steps she mounted, looking sharply to right and left as
she did so! And in a moment, turning inwards from the sea, she caught
sight of a movement among some straggling bushes a few yards to one
side of the path.
Without an instant's hesitation she swung herself up the steep incline,
climbing with a rapidity that swiftly cut off the landward line of retreat.
She would give her assailant a fright for his pains if nothing better.
And then just as she reached the level, very sharply she stopped. It was
as if a hand had caught her back. For suddenly there rose up before her
a figure so strange that for a moment she felt almost like a scared child.
It sprang from the bushes and stood facing her like an animal at bay--a
short creature neither man nor boy, misshapen, grotesquely humped,
possessing long thin arms of almost baboon-like proportions. The head
was sunken into the shoulders. It was flung back and the face
upraised--and it