Part 55 (2/2)

Her eyes were wide and bright with excitement. She pointed towards the pipe.

”I could not rest!” she cried. ”No, I could not sleep and know that rescue might be pa.s.sing by. I have worked at the staff ceaselessly and now! Now it is gone!”

He sprang towards her.

”Gone!” he repeated. ”Gone!”

”They are there--above us--men--men who know we are here. They pulled it up, out of my hands!” She made a gesture which pled for silence.

”Listen!” she cried. ”Listen!”

A tinkling sound came from the pipe and then a tiny bottle sank into view, dangling from a string. He seized it. It was warm.

”Soup!” he cried. ”Food! That is their first thought for us! And I had forgotten that I was starving. I had forgotten it absolutely!”

He held it to her lips. She put out her hand in protest, but his gesture was inexorable. She gave a queer little laugh, shrugged her shoulders, and drank. He took the half she left him and drank in his turn. He tied the bottle again to the string and shook it. It disappeared and was lowered again, this time with wine. And half a dozen little rolls dropped at their feet. They ate, they waked the child and fed him, they sat, and from above the sound of pick and mattock in the hands of men who toiled furiously thundered down to them. They speculated how and whence the first sight of rescue would appear. They laughed in high, excited tones. Expectancy had them in its grip to the exclusion of all other emotions.

And then, with a sudden roar and crash, an avalanche of rubble poured into the hole which they had dug into the ma.s.s of debris. And with it came a man in sailor uniform who mixed anathema and congratulation in excited but fluent French. He wept, he fell upon Aylmer's neck and embraced him, he kissed the child and Claire's hand. Slowly they toiled at his heels, helped by a dangling rope, out into the red glare of a dozen torches which were held by seamen of the French Marine.

And one of the two officers who directed them called upon the name of G.o.d and all His saints to emphasize his amazement.

It was Rattier who held and shook their hands a hundred times. Rattier, incoherent, swearing, every vestige of his taciturnity ravished from him by emotion, plying them with a thousand questions, raining tears upon little John Aylmer's wondering face.

They reached the market square. They looked upon the ruin which covered the devastated earth in the wan light of the slowly coming dawn.

Five miles away, swinging at her mooring opposite the ruined port of Messina was a white-hulled boat--a boat which they looked at with wistfully incredulous eyes. They whispered her name.

”_The Morning Star?_” they wondered. ”_The Morning Star?_”

”What else?” cried the commandant, exultantly. ”That Spanish torpedo boat--did you think nothing was to be heard from her? You disappeared.

Two days later comes the news from Malaga of a felucca, going east with prisoners on board. Would that not induce your father, Mademoiselle, to put two and two together? The Melilla port authorities supplied the name of that felucca and her destination--Sicily. He arrived two days back. I have seen him, we spoke together, and then G.o.d knows all our energies and thoughts have been with these poor wretches ash.o.r.e. Down in Messina your own countrymen and the Russians are doing marvels. The _Diomede_ was the only French s.h.i.+p, alas, in harbor, but we have others coming from Tunis, from Algiers, from Ma.r.s.eilles. We need every worker we can get. What you have suffered thousands are suffering still.”

Aylmer gave a quick, decided little nod. He looked at Claire.

”You will let one of these sailors see you on board?” he said. ”Paul will spare one to escort you.”

She looked at him, startled, a little bewildered, even.

”And you?” she asked. ”And you?”

He made a gesture towards the chaos which covered sh.o.r.e and hill.

”Can I leave the work which calls me, knowing what I know?” he asked.

”Paul has put my duty into words. What I have suffered, others are suffering yet. Would you think well of me, if I left it?”

She looked at him with a smile that told of appreciation, approval, of something (or was hope a lying gla.s.s?) more than these.

”No!” she said quietly. ”No!” She hesitated a moment.

<script>