THE ENEMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE ENEMY

BY V. L. SPURLING

Ever since Maureen could remember Patrick Docherty and her father had been sworn enemies. Whatever .triviality had been the cause of the rupture in the first instance had long since been forgotten, and the passing of the years failed to pour oil upon the troubled waters; rather they but served to deepen the feud that raged between the houses of O'Hara and Docherty. As a very small girl Maureen had looked upon the Dochertys—both father and son —as monsters of iniquity and had gone so far as to sit on the fence that divided their respective properties and protrude her little red tongue at Docherty, jun., and in tones of derision call him " Gingertop." Docherty, jun.,' had been a big awkward youth who either grinned amicably at her taunts or ignored them as altogether beneath his notice. With very little fuel to feed the enmity she felt it her bounden duty to foster, Maureen slipped from childhood to girlhood without having aroused anything but good-natured contempt from Garrick Docherty. His apathy had during her iinmaturo years roused her to more scornful efforts; as a girl it had left her furious and baffled; and now, on the threshold of womanhood, it stirred a curious determination to make him notice her, wake him from the attitude of amicable indifference he had always displayed and bring him to her feet, as it were. Lying in the shade of a gnarled poliutukuwa, looking down to where the breakers thundered on the rocky below, Maureen smiled to herself and knew that she had at last succeeded. It gave her a little thrill of triumph to remember the look of eager interest and astonished admiration he had bestowed upon her only a few weeks ago. His last remembrance of her had no doubt been of a scowling, ill-mannered, gawky schoolgirl, and this new bewilderingly lovely young woman who smiled at him and offered him the hand of friendship must rather have taken his breath away. "So you've decided to bury the family hatchet P " ho had asked, gripping her hand so tightly that it hurt. She had noticed in that instant that his eyes were incredibly blue and the hair that she remembered as ginger glistened like burnished copper where the sun touched it. " That all depends," she had answered, feeling the admiration of his glances and letting two dimples appear in her checks. " It takes two to make a quarrel," he reminded her, and they had both laughed, remembering her futile childish outbursts. Ft was astonishing how often they had met since then. He soon discovered her haunts. I 1 hey explored the rocks together, went fishing when the tide was favourable and he had taught her how to shoot the great breakers on his surfing-board. All this they did with a growing delight in each other's company, regardless of discovery by their feudal parents. Above the moan of the sea and the sigh of the wind, as it swept above the warm hollow where she lay, she heard another sound—one that brought a sudden flush to her check. A tall shadow wavered across the hollow; a boyish whistle ceased abrutly. " Hello, enemy! " she said, looking up. " You've had quite a search, haven't you? " " Maureen, you little tease, you've been watching." " And now you've found me, well! " " You must have heard me calling." " I couldn't fail to, and thought how indiscreet you were with dad roaming the beach like a lost soul. Sit down, Garry. You're blocking the sunlight." "So this is your latest hidingplace? " he asked, flinging his long length beside her. " It's rather nice, I think, Garry. It has such a wonderful outlook. See the locks down there, and the surf. Just smell the ground with the sun on it. Isn't it intoxicating? " She laid her soft cheek against the earth and smiled at him in a way that set his pulses raciug. Obediently ho sniffed the ground, and sneezed. "Weil, I'm going fishing, Maureen. 1 climbed this cliff for the special purpose of asking you to come." " Where to, Garry? " " Murray's Leap. The tide will be just right m half an hour." " But you can't fish there, can you ?" " Rather! You cross the Leap and climb the rocks to the point." " Alright. I'll come. It sounds rather jolly." He took her hands and lifted her to her feet. For a minute their touch lingered, while Garry's breath quickened. They climbed the slope with easy strides and skirted a patch of windblown manuka that brought them out facing a deep rift that ran inland for some yards. Hand in hand they picked their way over the boulders that strewed the ground till they came to where the rift narrowed to easy leaping distance. " Here we are, Maureen. Wo cross now, and climb the rocks to that point." What a horrible, uncanny place," shuddered Maureen, looking over the edge to the dark, surging water where it rose and fell with a hideous sucking motion. "Ugh! It's a beastly place, Garry. I suppose you expect mo to leap across that gap? Not for all the fishing in the world. I'll stay here." Garry threw back his head and laughed. " hy, you can almost step across, Maureen. I've seen you jump twice as far as that." " Very likely. But I'm not attempting that." He came close and looked down into her face. " If you'd n.ther not, we'll go somewhere else. But I've been across dozens of times. It's the easiest jump in the world. Just watch." He took a short run, leapt and landed neatly on the farther rock. " You see," he luughed. " Nothing easier. It doesn't take a scrap of effort. Now I'm over this side I'll collect a few mussels for bait." Prising them off the rocks with his knife he threw them across the intervening space while Maureen idly collected thorn. How it happened she never knew. She saw Garry make a short run, knew that ho leapt, larided on tho rock, stumbled and slipped. The next minute sho stood alo.no, gazing with fascinated, unbelieving eyes at the spot where he had disappeared. For a short spaco sho stood, unable to move or scream, then like one in a dream she drew slowly to the edge of the cleft, knelt down, and peered fearfully ..over. " Maureen! Maureen!" sho heard his voice in a compelling shout. Lying flat and craning forward she was just able to see his head several feet below. "Garry!", she cried. "Garry! Are vou.hurt?" "No, thank God!" came back his voice. ",I'm hanging on to a knob of rock and I've got niy toes in a cleft. But it's dashed slippery. Go for help Maureen. .1 can't climb up from here, there's not enough foothold. Bring, a rope and hurry. The tide will soon bo on the turn." " I'll go like the wind, Garry. Hang on. You mustn't lot go. Garry, you mustn't t. r ".''

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She sprang to her feet, leaping the boulders in her path and raced across the slope up which they had climbed but a short time before, and began to ascend the cliff to the beach. It would take fifteen minutes at least to reach home. That meant half an hour before she got back to where Garry was clinging for his life. Then she remembered the old shed at tho boundary of their property where her father stowed away odds and ends of all sorts. She ran along tho beach, round the base of a sandhill, through a patch of lupins and up a steep incline to a dilapidated shed standing with its broken door hanging by a hinge. She had seen a coil of rope there only a few days ago. Looking round she saw it lying beneath a tangle of barbed wire, and seizing the end, sho pulled. It was a good, long length of rope, stout and strong enough to support a man's weight. Coiling it as she ran she commenced tho return journey. Sho gave a little sob as looking at her watch, sho siaw she had been gone twenty minutes. Would Garry have been able to hang on? Would he still be there when sho got hack? She hurried on, and round the sandhill, cannoned full into the arms of her father. "Father!'- she gasped, pushing him aside. "Garry! Fallen down Murray's Leap. Help me to save him. I'll go on." She tied along hearing only his astonished " Garry!" Tho rest was lost in the pounding of her heart, the moan of the surf and the wind. She reached the slope that rose steeply to tho rift, panting, and with the blood drumming in her ears. ; It .seemed she would never finish climbing, never reach the summit of that dreadful cliff. Up! Up! Just another yard or two. The wind at the top met her hot | face like a blow. "Garry! Save him, God!" she sobbed as she reached the rocky ground that led to the cleft. Where could she tie the rope? No trees; nothing but rocks. Sho called his name as she slipped tho ropo round a boulder firmly embedded in the cliff. With desperate fingers she made it fast, tested it, and found it held. Taking the end she ran with it to the rift. Lying fiat, she peered over the edge and called. An answering " Maureen " reached her ears. She shouted again and heard his voice to her left. V . , . Carefully she lowered the rope, paying it out to its full length. " The rope, % Garry," she cried. Can you reach it?" " To the left," he answered. "Hurry, Maureen. The tide." ' Sho leaned perilously out and caught a glimpse of his head well to the left. Up came the rope, dripping water, and again she lowered it. "Right," she heard him shout. "I've got it. Is she taut?" " Yes," she answered. "Be careful, Garry, be careful! " She could do nothing now to help but sit back and pray that the rope would hold and that he would not slip. How cruelly dark the water looked as it surged and receded. How greedily it rose, licking the rocky crevices with hungry lips and sucking away again, dragging the kelp with it. Where was Garry? She did not dare to look with that hideous water lapping as if in angfrr to drag him back. Thank God the rope was strong and the boulder cemented to the rock by good Mother Nature. She remembered how she had once tried to prise away a small pebble from a rock, and that even the hammer she had used had not moved it from its foundation. She heard him clamhering, heard the slither of his feet on the rock surface, saw his bright head, then his face, crimson with exertion. His hand grasped the edge, he heaved himself up, clawed at the rock face, and fell, panting and breathless, beside her. Reaching out his cut and bleeding hands lie touched her trembling one and in his eyes was a great wonder aud a great love. "Maureen!" he said slowly. "Oh Maureen." "Garry, you're wet." Maureen found herself struggling to repress a rising sob. "The tide reached you. I thought you'd get washed off before I got back." " So did I, but I managed to hold on; somehow. Ho-w did you get back so soon. " I got a rope from our shed. It seemed hours and hours." " And you did all this for me." " Why, .yes, Garry! Of course." Her eyes met his, lingered, and fell before tho adoration of his glance. She felt his arms closing about her, heard him murmur brokenly. A startled exclamation made them both look up. Docherty Senior, hot and panting, j and clasping a coil of rope, stood, surveying them in amazement. " What in the name of the saints." ho began. " O'Hara told me you'd fallen down the gap." " So I had, but Maureen rescued me. It was a pretty close call, father." " She rescued you, the little lady there, did she? O'Hara's daughter, isn't it?" " Yes father. I can't tell you how wonderful she's been." " I can see that, me boy. Well, she's mv hearty thanks, too. To think of it, that little slip of a thing. I suppose you're wanting to break the news that she's to be my daughter-in-law, eh?" Maureen raised a flushed face. " He hasn't said so yet, Mr.. Docherty. but I know you won't object to my being a sort of hostage to keep the peace between our two families, will you?" Something between a splutter, a roar, and a startled oath made them all turn round. Hugging a length of ropo, very empurpled of countenance and perspiring freely, Daniel O'Hara walked scowling towards them. " Maureen!" he stuttered. What does this mean?" " Now Daddy dear, don't get angry or excited, please. We've just been making friends, Mr. Docherty and 1. " It's a fine little daughter you ve got here O'Hara. She rescued me boy from the gap only a few. minutes before I got hero. It's & woiiu'jrrul tG«ini they'll be making together, Tm tliJnkTeam!'' shouted O'Hara. ''What the divil are you talking abou^P... 1 " Shu re, man, can't ye see ror: yourself that they're crazy, .about each other. Just bo looking at them. . Occasionally it did occur to Daniel O'Hara to wonder what hiis daughter did with herself through the long golden days, but it never entered his thoughts that perhaps the seeds of feudalism ho had taken such pains to implant in his daughter might have proved barren of fruit.' Ho was growing old, and youth,.with its passion for the unbidden, had g'rown dim with the years. .. ' . Only that moruing ho had found fresh grievance against the rascally Docherty. " Drove his. pigs to browso in my orchard," he shouted to Mnuroen, "And the divil of a clearance tho creatures have made of the best apples," " But, father dear,"- argued Maureen, " you said only yesterday you were going to cut them down because pf the moth." ' >*' • ' " That's nothing to do with it, retorted Daniel furiously. "My fruit's not going to fatten his swine." Maureon smiled to herself. It was rather thrilling having won the enemy—one of thorn, at least —OVOI' to her side. She never had been able to hate him properly, even in her most vicious moments.