Outlaw and Lawmaker/Chapter 33
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ENTRAPPED.
When she came to herself she thought for a few moments that she must be in a dream, so strange was the scene upon which her eyes opened. She was no longer in darkness. The sun shone high in the heavens, and its rays fell upon what seemed to be a grassy meadow, green with a greenness rivalled only by the cultivation paddock at Tunimba. She was not sure that this was not a cultivation paddock. There were young oats certainly springing close to her. She seemed to be lying on the grass, and her head was resting on a roll of soft blankets. And there was a patch of Indian corn, and here was a stack of hay built against a wall. Her eyes went upward. What a high wall it was! It seemed to reach to the sky. And there were green things growing out of it, and it had a wavy outline against the blue, sharp and jagged here and there, like rocky teeth. Then her gaze came down and moved onward. There was another wall opposite, with the field between—a wall of rock all round. She was in some gigantic room without a roof, and with a floor that was like a cultivation paddock, and in the very centre of the paddock she saw a waterhole clear and darkly blue. She also saw that there were several horses grazing in the paddock—and one or two penned in a small stockyard at the further end of this natural enclosure.
Where could she be? She tried to think back. And she became conscious of a deadly nausea which made her feel like fainting, but which passed presently. She became aware also of that horrid sickly odour which clung to her. And this recalled to her the scene of the cave, and the expedition with Trant.
She staggered to her feet and turned to find Trant leaning against the wall close beside her, and watching her anxiously. He was very pale, and his face was set and determined. Elsie understood everything now. This was the meaning of his melodramatic words. This was his plot for carrying her off. To this end had he used his knowledge of this natural hiding-place, with the secret of which only the blacks were acquainted. With what devilish cleverness and apparent innocence he had carried out his purpose! She was helpless as a trapped animal. She looked wildly round. The mountain was her prison. How was she to escape; and even if she succeeded in making her escape from this prison, how find her way through the wider prison of the bunya scrub and down the trackless gorges to human habitation. Elsie's heart sank with deadly fear. But she had a brave spirit, and she determined that she would never yield. She remembered her pistol, and felt for it at her waist. It was gone. Fool that she had been to show Trant her weapon!
"I have taken it from you," he said quietly. "I don't think I was in much danger of being shot by you; but I didn't want to run the risk."
"If I had failed to shoot you," she said, "I should have shot myself. I understand everything now. This is what all your wild bravado about carrying me off meant; a base cowardly plot to decoy a helpless girl. Mr. Trant, I am ashamed for you; you, whom I trusted, thinking you were a man of honour."
"Don't taunt me," he said with an almost sad quietude. "I deserve everything that you could say; every reproach you could hurl at me. I have acted like a coward and a villain. But my excuse is this: I love you, Elsie; and there was no other way."
"You love me," she repeated, "and you fancy that you can make me care for you by this means? Don't you know that you are making me hate you?"
"No," he said, "you won't hate me, because you will see that though I can do a desperate thing to win a woman's love, I can also restrain myself to act like a gentleman. I shall treat you with the respect that I should pay to a queen—to my own sister. I can't say more."
Elsie flushed deeply, and was silent for a moment. "I thank you for that at least," she said. "Will you prove your words by taking me back to—to my future husband?"
"No," he cried, passionately. "Do you want to madden me? I will not take you back to your future husband. You are with your future husband. I don't intend to let you leave this place till you go with me to be married."
"Mr. Trant, this is madness—this is sheer absurdity. Do you imagine that you can keep me shut up here—do you suppose that the whole district won't rise to search for me? Do you suppose that they will not find me?"
"Let them try," said he calmly. "I have no doubt that the district, headed by Mr. Frank Hallett, will come out in search of you; but I don't think they are at all likely to find their way here. No one knows the secret of this place but those whom I can trust not to betray it."
"You said that Captain Macpherson had been here."
"No, I did not say so. Captain Macpherson would as soon think of searching for you—or for Moonlight—on the topmost peak of Burrum."
"Then it is only Sam Shehan and the half-castes who know it?"
"Yes."
"And Mr. Blake?" she asked eagerly. "Tell me does Mr. Blake know it?"
"I cannot tell you." A change came over Trant's face.
"No," he added, deliberately lying. "Blake does not know it."
Elsie believed him; How should Blake know it? How should he lend himself to such a scheme of iniquity?
"Mr. Trant," she said, "you know that you cannot keep me here. The idea is nonsense. You are only trying to frighten me into making you some promise, or perhaps you are only playing some practical joke on me. Tell me, is that it?"
"Oh, no," he answered. "I assure you I am playing no practical joke. I'm in deadly earnest."
"You will never frighten me into making you any promise," she said firmly. "You may think I'm only a weak girl, but I've got plenty of pluck, I'm not going to give in."
"I know you have got plenty of pluck," he said, looking at her admiringly. "That's one reason why I love you."
"You think that I should be afraid of getting lost in the bush. But I tell you that I am not. I shall get out, and I shall find my way to Tunimba."
"Try," he said, "I give you full leave. I sha'n't handcuff. you. I sha'n't chain you. Roam about as you please, and try to find your way out of your prison."
She moved from him a few steps and walked on examining the rocky wall. Then she realized how faint and weak she was. She attributed this to the chloroform. Her indignation rose.
"You have made me sick with that horrible stuff—and you call yourself a gentleman! Oh! Mr. Trant, how dared you—how could you do so mean a thing?"
"Yes, it was a mean thing. I own it, and I am ashamed of it. But I wish to tell you this. I did not take one little advantage of your helplessness beyond carrying you here in my arms. I might have kissed you, and I was tempted to do it, but I didn't. I kept my promise."
She made no answer. "Elsie," he said, "I was afraid that I should never bring you to. You were so long insensible that I was afraid. I tried to make you swallow some brandy. Take some now."
He held out the cup of his flask to her. She felt need of the restorative, but stopped as she stretched out her hand.
"How do I know that you have not drugged it?"
"I swear to you that I have not. And if it comes to that, are you going to starve yourself, and die of thirst? Everything I give you might be drugged."
"That is true," she said, "and I shall need my strength." She drank the brandy. "What time is it?" she asked suddenly. He looked at his watch. "It is exactly mid-day."
"And they were to start back at eleven. But they won't leave the Fall. They'll miss me and they will hunt for me. They'll coo-ee, and they'll hear me answering back." She began to send out long ineffectual coo-ees.
"You may save your breath," he said. "It would be simply impossible to hear you through the thickness of the mountain. And they will naturally suppose that we have gone on towards the camp."
Elsie gave a faint groan, "Oh! Frank," she cried helplessly; "Oh! Ina—Horace!"