第41章

The third day of her waiting isolation was broken upon by another intrusion.The morning had been threatening, with an opaque, motionless, livid arch above, which had taken the place of the usual flying scud and shaded cloud masses of the rainy season.The whole outlying ocean, too, beyond the bar, appeared nearer, and even seemed to be lifted higher than the Bay itself, and was lit every now and then with wonderful clearness by long flashes of breaking foam like summer lightning.She knew that this meant a southwester, and began, with a certain mechanical deliberation, to set her little domain in order against the coming gale.She drove the cows to the rude shed among the scrub oaks, she collected the goats and young kids in the corral, and replenished the stock of fuel from the woodpile.She was quite hidden in the shrubbery when she saw a boat making slow headway against the wind towards the little cove where but a moment before she had drawn up the dingey beyond the reach of breaking seas.It was a whaleboat from Saucelito containing a few men.As they neared the landing she recognized in the man who seemed to be directing the boat the second friend of Colonel Marion--the man who had come with the Secretary to take him off, but whom she had never seen again.In her present horror of that memory she remained hidden, determined at all hazards to avoid a meeting.When they had landed, one of the men halted accidentally before the shrubbery where she was concealed as he caught his first view of the cottage, which had been invisible from the point they had rounded.

"Look here, Bragg," he said, turning to Marion's friend, in a voice which was distinctly audible to Mrs.Bunker."What are we to say to these people?""There's only one," returned the other."The man's at sea.His wife's here.She's all right.""You said she was one of us?"

"After a fashion.She's the woman who helped Marion when he was here.I reckon he made it square with her from the beginning, for she forwarded letters from him since.But you can tell her as much or as little as you find necessary when you see her.""Yes, but we must settle that NOW," said Bragg sharply, "and Ipropose to tell her NOTHING.I'm against having any more petticoats mixed up with our affairs.I propose to make an examination of the place without bothering our heads about her.""But we must give some reason for coming here, and we must ask her to keep dark, or we'll have her blabbing to the first person she meets," urged the other.

"She's not likely to see anybody before night, when the brig will be in and the men and guns landed.Move on, and let Jim take soundings off the cove, while I look along the shore.It's just as well that there's a house here, and a little cover like this"--pointing to the shrubbery--"to keep the men from making too much of a show until after the earthworks are up.There are sharp eyes over at the Fort.""There don't seem to be any one in the house now," returned the other after a moment's scrutiny of the cottage, "or the woman would surely come out at the barking of the dog, even if she hadn't seen us.Likely she's gone to Saucelito.""So much the better.Just as well that she should know nothing until it happens.Afterwards we'll settle with the husband for the price of possession; he has only a squatter's rights.Come along;we'll have bad weather before we get back round the Point again, but so much the better, for it will keep off any inquisitive longshore cruisers."They moved away.But Mrs.Bunker, stung through her benumbed and brooding consciousness, and made desperate by this repeated revelation of her former weakness, had heard enough to make her feverish to hear more.She knew the intricacies of the shrubbery thoroughly.She knew every foot of shade and cover of the clearing, and creeping like a cat from bush to bush she managed, without being discovered, to keep the party in sight and hearing all the time.It required no great discernment, even for an inexperienced woman like herself, at the end of an hour, to gather their real purpose.It was to prepare for the secret landing of an armed force, disguised as laborers, who, under the outward show of quarrying in the bluff, were to throw up breastworks, and fortify the craggy shelf.The landing was fixed for that night, and was to be effected by a vessel now cruising outside the Heads.

She understood it all now.She remembered Marion's speech about the importance of the bluff for military purposes; she remembered the visit of the officers from the Fort opposite.The strangers were stealing a march upon the Government, and by night would be in possession.It was perhaps an evidence of her newly awakened and larger comprehension that she took no thought of her loss of home and property,--perhaps there was little to draw her to it now,--but was conscious only of a more terrible catastrophe--a catastrophe to which she was partly accessory, of which any other woman would have warned her husband--or at least those officers of the Fort whose business it was to-- Ah, yes! the officers of the Fort--only just opposite to her! She trembled, and yet flushed with an inspiration.It was not too late yet--why not warn them NOW?

But how? A message sent by Saucelito and the steamboat to San Francisco--the usual way--would not reach them tonight.To go herself, rowing directly across in the dingey, would be the only security of success.If she could do it? It was a long pull--the sea was getting up--but she would try.