Chapter Eight

Gus, unable to retrieve the bag of gems from Hetty’s keeping, had to proceed, empty-handed, to his promised rendezvous with Amanda in the old cemetery. The cemetery was not a place anyone would choose to visit voluntarily, even by daylight. It hadn’t been used for years. Brush had crept amongst the gravestones, and tree branches hung low, plucking at those who passed underneath. A desolate gloom seemed to hang in the very air.

A chill, damp wind moaned in from off the water, making twigs rattle and tree branches scrape against each other. Gus, carrying a lantern, had had to stumble through brambles and step over gravestones to reach a relatively level spot. When he hung the lantern from a tree branch, it cast an inadequate yellow glow by which he paced nervously and rubbed his hands together in an effort to keep warm. The fact that he was there at all was testimony to his courage and his infatuation with Amanda. As the wind gusted erratically, heralding a storm, Gus shivered inside his jacket. He fervently hoped it was only Amanda he was going to meet in such a spooky place.

A crack behind him made him start. “Miss Stone?” he called out, peering into the blackness. “Miss Stone?”

Though he got no answer, he was convinced something was there. He squared his young shoulders valiantly.

“If that’s you, Rutherford, come out and face me!” Considering that Rutherford could pick him up and toss him with one hand, this challenge showed quite a lot of bravado on Gus’s part.

The crackle came again, this time closer As Gus pushed a branch back, a form came flying out of the darkness and knocked him backwards, sprawling on the ground Luckily for Gus, the figure was furry all over and intent only on licking his face Gus laughed aloud with sheer relief.

“Digger! Digger! Come to keep me company? That’s a boy.”

As Gus scratched Digger’s ears in rough camaraderie, Amanda herself stepped into the circle of lantern light Gus leapt hurriedly to his feet How could she just appear like that, out of nowhere?

Amanda and Digger weren’t Gus’s only audience. From only a few gravestones away, other eyes observed the scene. Eyes that belonged to Felix, Sara and Felicity, who were crouching down behind a large, crumbling monument. Drawn by Digger’s flight and the glow of the lantern, the children had stumbled upon the-scene in the cemetery and taken cover. Scarcely daring to breathe, they listened to every word between Gus and Amanda.

“Why does Digger always go straight for Gus at night?” Sara whispered. This was the second time that Digger had dragged them through the dark over to the boy.

“Gus always had lots of fish guts around,” Felix supplied.

“So?”

“Digger loves to roll in them.”

The two girls made a face.

Several yards away, Amanda glided warily towards Gus. “Is it safe?” she inquired, tremulously.

Affected by her nearness, Gus struck a stalwart pose. “That Rutherford fella tried to scare me off of helping you. But I ain’t afraid of him.”

Amanda’s eyes opened wide in what appeared to be genuine alarm.

“You should be afraid of Rutherford, Gus. Oh, but I appreciate your help and your trust.”

“Why, just by the looking a man can see you are a woman of virtue and kindness,” Gus declared, turning pink with pleasure. Amanda approached Gus alluringly and placed light fingers on his shoulder. Gus turned pinker still and didn’t know what to do with his hands.

Crouched behind the gravestone, Felicity seethed. “If she’s a woman of virtue then I’m the Queen of Sheba!”

“He’ll rue the day he messes with Gus Pike, I tell ya,” Gus announced, quite unhinged by Amanda’s inebriating gaze. And no wonder. When Amanda fluttered her lashes so fetchingly, the toughest renegade could have been forgiven for taking leave of his senses.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it!” she breathed, fairly melting with admiration of Gus’s manly fortitude. “But if you’ll just give me the gems, then I can escape to the mainland tonight.”

There were ships to be caught, even at that late hour, for those who knew where to find them— and Amanda was in a tearing hurry. She barely restrained her impatience as she waited for Gus to produce the gems from his pocket. Swallowing hard, Gus had to admit his failure.

“Oh, they’re locked up at the post office, locked up in the safe, Miss Stone I’ll get them for you tomorrow.”

Amanda barely managed to stifle a cry of disappointment and frustration Gus was still in possession of her treasure. So long as he had gems, Amanda was in Gus’s power.

“The jewels are hers!” Sara whispered from her hiding place.

“Rutherford thwarts me at every turn!” Amanda. lamented, actually looking as though she were going to tear her artistically coiffed hair. She was behaving as though Rutherford had been the one to put the jewels in the post office safe.

“No, no,” explained Gus, “it’s Miss Hetty King that’s the thwarter.” Then, passionately he declared, “I’ll do whatever it takes to help you, Miss Stone!”

That helping Amanda might involve being mangled by the ferocious Rutherford seemed not to bother Gus one whit. It was almost worth coming Without the jewels tonight if it meant the delectable Miss Stone was going to hang on his every word like that.

“See how noble Gus is?” Sara said to her companions. She prided herself on having spotted Gus’s fine qualities the first time she saw him in Avonlea.

Felicity clenched her jaw, unimpressed. “He’s smitten is what he is!”

“Until tomorrow then,” Amanda murmured to Gus. “But Master Pike, be on your guard. Tangling with Rutherford might mean you leaving Avonlea forever!” Gus did not shrink from this drastic prospect. Everything precious to him in Avonlea was whirled clean out of his head by Amanda’s tantalizing proximity. Visions of himself defending the lady as she fled from refuge to refuge clutching her family heirlooms quite swept him away.

“If I was with you, I wouldn’t mind a bit!”

At this blatant defection, Felicity gasped aloud. And she gasped again as Amanda sidled even closer and planted a whopping kiss on Gus’s ardent, love-struck face as a reward for his gallantry. Sara was dumbstruck and, as for Felix, Felicity tried unsuccessfully to clamp her hands over his saucer-sized eyes.

“The tramp!” Felicity exploded, “taking advantage of poor Gus like that.”

“He doesn’t seem to be struggling,” Sara commented as Gus remained motionless in Amanda’s grip.

Felix was awestruck.

“He must be breathing through his ears,” he squeaked, wondering how Gus could be kissed like that and still get oxygen.

Finally, Amanda released a wobbly Gus and, disappeared into the night.

Felicity sprang to her feet, the light of battle blazing in her eye. Obviously, if Gus couldn’t look after himself with scheming seductresses, someone else was going to have to do it for him.

“I’m going to follow that hussy and demand she leave Gus alone!”

As Felicity raged off after Amanda, Sara recovered enough of her senses to realize that Felicity needed a cohort. In her present state of mind, Felicity might have a go at tearing Amanda limb from limb!

“Felix, you stay with Gus!” Sara ordered hurriedly.

Before Felix could so much as open his mouth in protest, Sara had also, dashed away into the darkness. Felix was in no way equipped to deal with matters of the heart, Sara felt, and it was best he not mix himself in them at all. Generously, she left the dog to keep Felix company.

Felix screwed up his face. “All this skull and daggery and no supper...”

Digger suddenly turned and began to growl at the cemetery gate. A flash of lightning illuminated a horse and rider galloping into the burying ground. The stark silhouette so resembled the illustration in the magazine the children had been reading that Felix felt his heart get ready to drop out.

The snorting horse was being driven hard. It almost ran Gus down before it could be pulled to a halt near the lantern. By the light, Gus could see that the cloaked figure was Rutherford, brandishing the heavy stick he always carried in his hand.

The horse was so spooked by nearly slamiTLing jtO Gus that it began to rear and plunge, threatening to pitch off its rider. Rutherford recognized Gus at once and began to wave the stick furiously.

“I’m out of patience boy. Out of my way!” Gus stumbled off balance among the roots and brush of the cemetery. But when he regained his feet, he stood firm, actually trying to grasp at the bridle of Rutherford’s horse. Rutherford had clearly come in pursuit of Amanda, and Gus intended to stop him on the spot

“Come down off there,” he challenged recklessly, still drunk from Amanda’s kiss “Let’s go at it, man to man!”

“You’re a thick-skulled whelp,” Rutherford shouted back. And to prove it, he struck Gus a resounding smack across the head with his stick. Though the pain made Gus stagger, the courageous lad did not give up his ground. Rutherford lifted his arm, getting ready to slash down a second time.

But before he could, Digger exploded from the darkness and sank his fangs into the attacker’s boot. Swearing, Rutherford kicked the dog away and spurred his horse, making Gus once again leap aside to avoid being trampled. The horse’s powerful shoulder knocked Gus sideways down to the rough earth. In a moment, Rutherford was galloping off into the darkness—in exactly the same direction Amanda had gone.

Felix came running out from behind the gravestone to where Gus lay sprawled.

“Oh Gus, are you all right?”

Gus stumbled to his feet, shaking his head from the pain of the blow. Digger leapt at his knees, trying to lick his face.

“What are you doing here?” Gus asked, astonished to see Felix in such a deserted place at such an hour.

Felix was too shaken up to be other than perfectly honest.

“Spying on you while Felicity and Sara watch your friend,” he told Gus, spilling everything at a single go.

Urgency flooded Gus as he realized which way Rutherford was going. “I have to go warn Amanda.” He started off, expecting Felix to follow.

“But I haven’t had any supper tonight,” Felix complained, seeing himself about to be drawn into another unfed expedition that had nothing at all to do with himself. “I promised I’d protect her with my life.” Gus’s words cried shame to anyone so crass as to think of his stomach when such high purpose called.

Holding his bruised head with one hand and the lantern with the other, Gus was soon bounding away among the gravestones. Felix either had to go with him or stay by himself in the pitch-black, stormy cemetery. The wind shook skeleton branches, reminding Felix of the many real skeletons buried just beneath his feet

“You didn’t promise her my life,” Felix yelled out reproachfully, starting after Gus as fast as his young legs would carry him.

Had Gus but known enough to stay at the lighthouse instead of hanging about graveyards, he could have collected Amanda’s jewels for her that night after all. After he had left Rose Cottage in defeat that afternoon, Hetty and Olivia had exchanged words over the matter of possession. The outcome of this somewhat heated discussion was that Hetty and Olivia, clutching a lantern between them, were marching as fast as they could along the path towards the lighthouse.

“Hetty, returning the gems to Gus is the right thing to do,” Olivia said encouragingly as they stumbled over half-frozen clods of earth and avoided slippery tongues of snow.

Unable to prevent herself from casting fearful glances over her shoulder, Hetty had other concerns. Like the children, she had tales of Lord Doom percolating in her head. She wouldn’t put it past the fellow to spring out of the blackberry bushes, red-eyed as a newt, ravening for flesh.

“Two women ... a handful of jewels ... in the middle of the night: it’s absurd! How did I let you talk me into this ... ridiculous gesture?”

“Hetty, if you treat Gus as a responsible adult he’ll behave responsibly,” Olivia argued.

Their speed had taken them right to the lighthouse steps, where Olivia hammered on the door, first politely, then urgently. The windows were dark and not a movement was heard inside.

“Oh, I don’t believe he’s home,” Olivia said, disappointed.

“Well, I suppose we could leave him a note,” Hetty suggested sardonically. “Dear Gus, your treasure is hidden here beneath the door mat.” Of course, he doesn’t even have a doormat.”

The two women looked at each other, stuck with a fortune in jewels in their pockets and no place to leave it. Olivia brightened with a sudden idea.

“I know. We’ll just keep them for him overnight.”

“We will?” The lantern twitched in Hetty’s hand as she contemplated babysitting such valuables stones. “I shan’t sleep a wink. Oh, where is that dratted boy anyway?”

“Hetty, you worry too much. This is Avonlea, not some wild place full of thieves. Come on.”

Hetty resolved to keep them under her pillow For certain, no thief would disturb them there.

Apprehensively, the two started back along the murky path, which, seen from a deserted lighthouse with the sea rolling in below, might very well have been peopled with mad counts intent on wreaking havoc. Flickers of lightning from the impending storm only served to throw the leafless trees into relief against the purple sky. At a growl of thunder, the two woman doubled their pace. Then a distant, wolfish howl, probably from a lonely farm dog, caused them both to jump with nerves, give in to their terrors and start running back towards Rose Cottage just as fast as they could drag their skirts behind them.