Silverdale

“ Sir Clinton commented ironically. “Now what about the rest of the affair, Inspector? If you accept Miss Deepcar's evidence, then the bottom's out of your case against Silverdale. He couldn't be with her and at the bungalow simultaneously.”
“Why should we accept her evidence at all?” Flamborough demanded crossly. “She had as much interest in getting Mrs. Silverdale out of the way as Silverdale himself had. Their interests are absolutely at one in the affair. It's more than an even chance that she was his accomplice in the business—standing ready with this tale of hers to prove an alibi for him. ”

“ He can have an influence with my poor Alice without holding her hand and whispering to her. He’s a flirt, and I don’t like flirts, especially those who wrap up their nonsense in religion. Can’t you do something to stop it? He’s always coming here, isn’t he? I don’t like all that pawing and touching, and saying it is spiritual influence.’
Mrs Keeling felt shocked at this positively carnal view of Mr Silverdale’s tendernesses. ”

“ Silverdale explained. “She's one of my private assistants. I have several girls who do routine work; but Miss Hailsham and Miss Deepcar—the girl who came in here a moment ago—are a shade better than the usual run.”
“Could you make an excuse to let me have a look at Miss Hailsham?” Flamborough inquired.
“She's not here to-day,” Silverdale answered. “Off with a sore throat, or something of that sort. But if you'll come back another time, I can take you to her room if you wish. You can pose as a visitor whom I'm showing round, if you don't want to appear officially.”
“Very good, sir. ”

“ The first was that the light would almost certainly awaken her mother, who, by beginning to talk again, as she always did when a nap had refreshed her, would put an end to Alice’s private reflections which flourished best in dusk and in silence. A second reason was that it was more than likely that Mr Silverdale would presently drop in for tea, and it was decidedly more interesting to be found sitting at work, with her profile outlined against the smouldering glow of sunset, than to be sitting under the less becoming glare of{99} an electric lamp. ”

“ He could even joke in a discreet manner with poor Alice about it, and gratify her by so doing.
‘Well, all you ladies who are so much in love with him ought to be able to manage him,’ he said.
Alice bent over her work (she had eventually{283} induced Mr Silverdale to sanction the creation of a pair of slippers) with a pleased, lop-sided smile.
‘Father, you don’t know him,’ she said. ‘He’s quite, quite unmanageable. You never saw any one so naughty.’
‘Punish him by not giving him his slippers. ”

“ Silverdale was always leaving his cigarette holder lying about the lab. He'd put it down on a bench or a desk and wander off, leaving the cigarette smouldering. That happened continually. That very afternoon, he'd left the thing in my room and I'd pocketed it, meaning to give it back to him when I saw him again. There it was, in my vest-pocket.
“In this world, it's a case of every man for himself. My business was to get out of the hole I was in. If Silverdale got into a hole himself, it was his affair to get out of it. Besides, he'd probably have an alibi, whereas I hadn't. ”

“ It was getting dark, and Cullom paused with his head and shoulders above the hatch to bawl forward, as I guessed, to tell the cabin boy to light up. We could not see his face when he came down, and for several moments he stood puffing and snarling as if to himself.
“What's wrong?” I asked.
“Hell's wrong ...” he growled. “That de'il Silverside. I sent a boat ashore to see was there aught to eat or drink. The bungalow was locked, and no sooner had they set foot on the threshold than there cam' twa shots fra' the bush, and here was a couple o' my best hands gone to glory.” ”

“ Silverside went away, and mother brought the schooner here. She had been taught how to navigate by Daniel Fairfax, and Keowa Harry was mate.”
“Keowa Harry,” I cried, for I remembered the Kanaka boy as my father's right hand man. It was big Keowa Harry who had taught me to swim and fish and handle a canoe and many other island accomplishments.
“Yes,” said Delphine. “Silverside got him. All the rest of the crew are Kanakas also, and very good men. We built this bungalow, and got the pearl oysters with diving armour. ”

“ KATY GOES TO SILVERTON. A summer day in Silverton—a soft, bright August day, when the early rare-ripes by the well were turning their red cheeks to the sun, and the flowers in the garden were lifting their heads proudly, and nodding to each other as if they knew the secret which made that day so bright above all others. Old Whitey, by the hitching-post, was munching at his oats and glancing occasionally at the covered buggy standing on the green sward, fresh and clean as water from the pond could make it ”

“ He entered by a round hole, more neatly pierced than a man could do it with a gimlet, and he seems to have spent his life in cutting out the interior of the plank, but whether as a dwelling or a store-house, I could never find. When I used to lie in bed in the morning for a rest—we had no easy-chairs in Silverado—I would hear, hour after hour, the sharp cutting sound of his labours, and from time to time a dainty shower of sawdust would fall upon the blankets. There lives no more industrious creature than a bore. ”

“ I rose before any one else, lit the stove, put on the water to boil, and strolled forth upon the platform to wait till it was ready. Silverado would then be still in shadow, the sun shining on the mountain higher up. A clean smell of trees, a smell of the earth at morning, hung in the air. Regularly, every day, there was a single bird, not singing, but awkwardly chirruping among the green madronas, and the sound was cheerful, natural, and stirring. ”

“ Hawkyard stepped in at the door, remaining close to it, and said, "Go and stand against the opposite wall, George Silverman. As far off as you can. That'll do. How do you feel?"
I told him that I didn't feel cold, and didn't feel hungry, and didn't feel thirsty. That was the whole round of human feelings, as far as I knew, except the pain of being beaten.
"Well," said he, "you are going, George, to a healthy farm-house to be purified. Keep in the air there as much as you can. Live an out-of-door life there, until you are fetched away. ”

“ It inspired me to draw pictures, and day after day, month after month I used to draw its people on the smooth surface of the pine boxes that brought dry goods to the town, and, strangely, many of them I mounted on fiery Arabian steeds, and the strangest part of Silverton is that it never releases me a day from its hold. A day never passes that I don’t hurry over its streets and see its last remaining pioneers, and in my vision replace those that have gone. ”

“ There was every class of people in Silverton but negroes; there were Chinamen, and Indians lived there in small numbers; but, for some strange reason, no coons. The founders of Silverton were all old pioneers that came mostly in 1851, and most of them came from Ohio and Illinois.
No city, no matter what size, could have the glare and good times that the people of Silverton enjoyed. But the main population were highly educated people, and very prosperous, as they are to this day. The population still varies, owing to what’s coming off in town. ”

“ As for Silverside, the best thing to be said for him was that he had undoubtedly acted with no thought to his own profit, but solely in the interests of Therese Fairfax. The man's devotion to the woman had become a fixed idea—an obsession. I did not believe that he was quite sane.
At any rate, Von Bulow had him in the toils, and I wondered what would become of Silverside after he had piloted the yawl to the pearl island. It seemed probable that Sam Lung would return him to the comprador, who might very likely, being content to have found the pearls, let him go about his business. ”

“ The road crosses the ridge, just in the nick that Kelmar showed me from below, and then, without pause, plunges down a deep, thickly wooded glen on the farther side. At the highest point a trail strikes up the main hill to the leftward; and that leads to Silverado. A hundred yards beyond, and in a kind of elbow of the glen, stands the Toll House Hotel. We came up the one side, were caught upon the summit by the whole weight of the wind as it poured over into Napa Valley, and a minute after had drawn up in shelter, but all buffeted and breathless, at the Toll House door. ”

“ Fairfax interrupted curtly.
“Then Silverside and the women are on the island ... with the blacks?” She turned to Connor. “We must arm and go ashore at once,” said she. 'I think that I know where the women are hiding. Keowa Harry took me once to a cave which he had found on the other side of the crater while hunting goats. He said at the time that if we should ever need a refuge it would be a perfect place, as there is a sort of labyrinth inside. The women knew of the place.” She looked at me. “Did Silverside tell you why Cullom was so anxious to destroy him?” ”

“ He palms dull goods upon them, for they dare not refuse to buy; he goes and dines with them when he is on an outing, and no man is loudlier welcomed; he is their family friend, the director of their business, and, to a degree elsewhere unknown in modern days, their king.
For some reason, Kelmar always shook his head at the mention of Pine Flat, and for some days I thought he disapproved of the whole scheme and was proportionately sad. One fine morning, however, he met me, wreathed in smiles. He had found the very place for me—Silverado, another old mining town, right up the mountain. ”

“ I have scarcely seen one of the faces that used to be familiar in the Bois two winters ago.”
“Paris isn’t as bad as London for change,” Silverlake remarks. “In town there’s a lot of cads who suddenly appear—no one knows whence—make a great flare up with carriages, horses, opera boxes, powdered footmen, and as suddenly disappear, goodness knows where, and sink into utter oblivion. Cads who speculate, you know, make fortunes by some species of swindling, and then lose them again.”
“People who are not cads manage to get through their money pretty well,” drawls Shropshire.
At which Delaval laughs. ”

“ Mescal, what do you think of Silvermane now? Can he run? Can he outrun Bolly?”
“Yes—yes. Oh! Jack! how I'll love him! Look back again. Are we safe? Will we ever be safe?”
It was still daylight when they rounded the portal of the oasis and entered the lane with the familiar wall on one side, the peeled fence-pickets on the other. Wolf dashed on ahead, and presently a chorus of barks announced that he had been met by the other dogs. Silvermane neighed shrilly, and the horses and mustangs in the corrals trooped noisily to the lower sides and hung inquisitive heads over the top bars. ”

“ I asked, in a sick voice, and Silverside made no answer. He had wound the belt of cartridges around his neck, and hung his rifle in the crotch of a mangrove. Standing there in water, chest deep, he stared at me moodily from his dark, deep-set eyes.
“You say that you love Therese,” said I, bitterly, “and God knows that up to now you have proved it. Yet you will not try a desperate chance to save what must be dearer to her than life itself, and let me, a stranger, tackle it alone. Suppose we do fail; isn't that better than living on in the knowledge that we let a fighting chance go by? ”

“ But just as a hare by its shrieking excites a dog, Silverside's panic seemed to rouse some unregenerate passion in the Oriental. His face darkened, his eyes began to glitter and his thin lips set in a cruel line, while the muscles of his jaw bulged ominously.
“Von Bulow say one piecey islan' seben-day sail,” he croaked. “We got fai' wind allee time.”
Silverside found his voice with an effort.
“We come slow,” he answered, weakly. “S'ppose coolie man no steer straight? Yawl go this way....” And he made a zigzag motion with his hand.
Sam Lung scowled. ”

“ Sylvia said to herself that she would turn homewards when she came within sight of this cove,—Headlington Cove, they called it. All the way along she had met no one since she had left the town, but just as she had got over the last stile, or ladder of stepping-stones, into the field from which the path descended, she came upon a number of people—quite a crowd, in fact; men moving forward in a steady line, hauling at a rope, a chain, or something of that kind; boys, children, and women holding babies in their arms, as if all were fain to come out and partake in some general interest. ”

“ Small danger that ye will wi' the lagoon swarmin' as it does wi' sharks. My black boys will ferret out Silverside, and ask no better sport. When I have the craychure where he can do no more mischief, then we will consider the pearls ... and other things.” He shot a look at Jean Berdou. “No doubt brither Gaston and I can come to terms,” said he. Jean did not answer. Cullom hove himself to his feet, stepped to a state-room door, and flung it open.
“Ye may berth here,” said he. “There are two bunks, and friend Antonio will not be needin' the one nor the other, thanks to that reptile Silverside. ”

“ Meanwhile, in this altered night, we proceeded on our way among the scents and silence of the forest, reached the top of the grade, wound up by Hanson’s, and came at last to a stand under the flying gargoyle of the chute. Sam, who had been lying back, fast asleep, with the moon on his face, got down, with the remark that it was pleasant “to be home.” The waggon turned and drove away, the noise gently dying in the woods, and we clambered up the rough path, Caliban’s great feat of engineering, and came home to Silverado. ”