The Sea Wolves/Chapter 21
While he stood, no longer crouching, but upright with defiance of the danger, Messenger took a swift survey of his environment. Immediately above him the rock rose to a height of thirty feet, but with a sheer face which forbade any attempt to swarm it; in front was the abyss, with a throng of men gesticulating and roaring like wolves who hunger at the bottom of it. His first thought, naturally, was one which hesitated about a return by the ravine which led to the haven, lest that should disclose their hiding-place; but, failing this, there was only the path twenty feet below him, and whether or no this would, even could they reach it, bring them to the sea he knew not. A rifle shot, which rang past his head and struck the rock with a sharp "ping," decided him.
"It must be the gate or nothing," said he; "and we'll have to run for it when we get down. Over you go, Hal, or they'll be hitting you!"
The fear of the latter words was not justified. The projection of the roof put the men momentarily out of sight, and Fisher was in comparative security when he grasped to pull himself up. One mighty haul he gave with his brawny arms, but not a second; for the spike had cut the strands of the line, and the lad rolled upon his back with a short length of it still in his hands.
In the face of this new disaster the two, for the moment, stood without idea or speech. So steep, indeed, so overhanging, was the rock on the hither side of the gate that it was idle even to venture the effort of climbing it; and no words from one man to the other were needed to express the whole of the danger. There it was in all its nakedness. Before them was the rock; below them was the chasm; and, as they soon learned, there were men now coming up the goat path toward the house in which they were. But at this Messenger began to run distractedly up and down the roof again, and as soon as he showed himself another bullet struck against the parapet; and the howls of the savage horde were louder and more fierce.
Now at this supremity of the crisis, and when two of the men running upon the path were within fifty paces of the stone house, but fortunately bearing no arms, Messenger looked up at the cliff above the end of the building which was furthest from the gate, and saw that it was less steep than the precipice which forbade his return to the haven. At any other time he would have deemed a man who attempted to climb it nothing less than a lunatic; but now, with a desperation which was born of the position, he clutched at this straw and dared the hazard.
"Hal," said he, "I'm going up the cliff, there. Will you come?"
"I'll try," said Fisher laconically; but the Prince gave him no opportunity for answer. He had already sprung up at the rock, clutching it with a fierce, nervous grip, and pulling himself from bush to bush with a frenzy which reckoned with no danger and was swift in its success. Indeed, before the lad himself could move, the other was half-way to the summit, hanging, as it seemed, against the perpendicular face of the rock, and above a precipice two hundred feet in depth; and still he went on where one would have said no man could go—on where a false step would have sent him reeling down to death on the crags below—and Fisher's head whirled at the sight, and be declared to himself that he could not follow, though his life hung upon the venture.
For my own part, I am led to believe that the younger man would never have dared this flight had it not been for the sudden appearance of one of the Spaniards at the trap-door in the roof. Just as he was in the throes of his hesitation, and stood trembling with his doubt, the head of a huge shoreman came up through the aperture and a deep exclamation burst from the fellow when he saw his prey. But Fisher was prompted only to action, and now, aroused to his situation, he took a running kick at the head, and as the Spaniard withdrew it, shouting horribly with his pain, the lad put his foot upon a protuberance of the rock and began boldly to climb it.
For the first few steps the way was easy, yet carried him from the shelter of the intervening roof, so that, had he cared to look, his eyes could have fathomed the whole depth of the chasm. But when, working from ledge to ledge until he had mounted some twenty feet of the forty, he came of a sudden to a bulging shelf which forced the upper part of his body from the rock, he thought that he must let go; and he seemed in his mind already to be whirling through the air and waiting the final shock of death. He had hoped that the strip of path running to the stone house would have hid the whole of the ravine's depth from him, but that was cut in this place under a projection of the cliff, and did not help him. And now he came to a ledge where he could neither go on nor retrace his steps; and as he held to a branch of a bush which began to tremble at its roots he knew that if he moved so much as a foot he would fall inevitably. In his terror he closed his eyes, and, with his head whirling as a sick man's, he waited for the end—and was very near to death when something hard struck him upon the arm, and he looked up, to see a short bar of iron with a rope swinging before him. At this he clutched, and three minutes after he was upon the bank above, lying flat, and feeling the ground with his hands to be sure that fancy had not cheated him.
"I'll give you a minute to get your head, and no more," said Messenger, who bent over him. "You should send a letter of thanks to the woman who owns this place for roping in the cliff with lines and posts. I pulled the last post up, and let the cord swing down to you. But we'll have to run for it; I can see men moving in the woods already."
"AT THIS HE CLUTCHED" (p. 224)
Fisher sat up at the last words, and perceived that they were upon the sward of a great park, with the cliffs of the sea stretching upon their right hand, but bordered thickly with woods of pines; while greater woods, principally of chestnut-trees, environed them upon their left. Between the coverts there was a great open space of grass, and behind them, at the distance of a third of a mile, the castle which they had seen from the other bay shone brightly in the first light of the sun. It was from a wood which ran almost to the very door of this rugged building that twenty or more men now appeared, shouting to the two, and running hard across the great green, which had the smoothness of a lawn.
"Come," said Messenger, when the men stood out plain to their sight, "I was something of a runner at Cambridge, and I know you are. You've got to do a mile now, and under 'five;' I'll trouble you to make the pace."
"I'll make it fast enough for a Spaniard, any way," said Fisher, as he started; and for the next ten minutes the men ran like hares, hearing wild shouts, but no reports of guns, behind them. When at length they came to the woods, the pursuing party was two-thirds of a mile away; but Messenger still held on, forcing his way through untrodden brushwood and thick coverts of thorns, until at last they came within view of the sea, and both stood to pant like horses that have run a race. Then they doubled back through the wood, but kept parallel with the shore, until at last they plunged into the dry bed of that which was never more than a rivulet; and finding it roofed with a thick canopy of leaves, they followed its course for some quarter of a mile. The gully carried them at length to a deeper pit, all fenced about with shrubs and saplings, and here they lay listening to distant shouting in the thickets, and to the call of men to men for directions or for orders.
During the whole of the heat of the mid-day hour, and on through the terrible afternoon, the two lay in their place of concealment, the furze thick above them, their bodies flat upon the ground as the bodies of the dead. Often they heard the voices of men quite near to them, and the crackling of the brushwood about spoke of the continuance of the search; but in the later afternoon the sounds ceased, and thence onward a rustling of aspens and the music of leaves alone disturbed the silence of the woodland.
It must have been very near to the hour of nine o'clock before Messenger, being well assured that the wood immediately about them was free of men, ventured to stand up and take a swift survey of his environment. Twilight had then almost given place to the dark of night; the sky was wanting clouds, and tree and wood and hill-land stood plain to be seen; there was stillness of the air which gave to every sound, even of an insect buzzing or a bat winging, a distinctness of poor omen to the two who lay hid. Yet the time for action had come, nor could it be delayed any longer, as both of them knew.
"Hal," whispered Messenger, when he had crawled once right round the pit, "I've lost my bearings altogether, man. There's north right between the thickets yonder, and the cove should lie a little to the east of it—but we're to find a path, God knows."
"And the place will swarm with men," said fisher.
"Of course, if they haven't thought better of it and gone to bed. But that's to be learnt. Do you see the hill with the big furze bush on the crest of it? I'm going as near to the top of that as I can get without drawing shot. While I'm gone, you crawl up to the green between the thickets there, and use your eyes for all you're worth. But you won't forget that if you're seen, you may as well say your prayers at once."
"How long shall you be gone?" asked Fisher, with a disregard to the question which showed that he was aware of its importance.
"Just as short a time as will tell me if I sleep here to-night or alongside old Burke."
"And if men should sight us?"
"Why, just run for it. A shot would bring a regiment down on us. You must use your wits, man; you can't be laying it down like lines upon a plan. But I'm hoping the road's clear."
All this he said in whisper, and at the last word he threw himself flat again, and began to crawl through the brushwood with a supple cleverness which was wonderful But Fisher did not wait to watch his path, seeking to imitate his litheness, and to reach the high thickets which lay to the north of the stream's bed. His was the fairer work, for he passed through a plantation of young trees which gave shelter to his movements, and the grass below him was almost free of briar. Yet he went with infinite caution, and his heart quaked at every snap of crag or rustle of leaf. When at the last he had come to the summit of the wooded hill, he felt his face wet with perspiration; and he lay for many minutes fighting for his breath before he looked out upon the scene below him.
It was as he had thought. From the place by the thicket there was view of the sea, then shining with silvery light, and unruffled; but the beach was not to be observed. And the lower lands around, both the park and the woods bordering upon it, were very clearly visible, no men being about them, nor any sign of watch or camp. And this was so plain that he had intention immediately to return to the place of the pit, when the sudden flash of a light between the trees compelled him to throw himself down once more, and to watch the path of the lantern (for so he judged it to be) with all the fear and expectancy he had known so often since the stranding of the yacht.
Whence came the light? By whom was it carried? An older man than he would have said that one of low stature bore it, since it swung but a handsbreadth from the ground; and in like manner it was plain that whoever carried the lantern had no thought of concealment, but advanced quickly through the thicket, as the dancing light gave witness. Presently, the rays went darting here and there upon fern and flower with lurches, which told that the one who used it ran; and there was much crushing of the dead leaves, and the sound of quick breathing. But the lad listening lay closer than eve r at this; and as the light steps were more clearly audible, it seemed to him that by a miracle alone could he escape observation and all that must accompany it.
When the lad was wondering, as we wonder in danger, where he would be, and under what conditions, in an hour's time, the lantern suddenly cast an aureola about him; and in the shadow he saw the face and figure of the girl of Monaco. She was passing swiftly, a mantilla half hiding her pretty head, her dress drawn up about her knees, in her right hand a whip, the great Dane at her heels—but at the lad's word, which he could not hold back, she stopped of a sudden, and thus they stood face to face. For a long time she did not speak, but the colour heightened upon her cheek as she saw upon whom she had come, and the lace upon her breast rose and fell while she listened to his rapid words.
"I saw your light," said Fisher bluntly, assuming that she knew of his situation, "and feared that the gang was upon us again. My friend and I are lying down in the brushwood yonder, but we are nearly dead with fatigue and want of food. If you could show us a safe road to the shore, I could not thank you enough."
They stood, as I have said, face to face, the boy and the girl; and yet there was between them that understanding which flashes up instinctively in the young day of life; and they knew that words were not wanting upon the seal of their confidence. He, for his part, put his safety into her hands as readily as he would have put it into the hands of one he had known since childhood; and when she answered him, she did so without any fear or pretence of ignorance.
"I know all your story," said she. "They were saying at the house that you had gone into the woods by the other bay, and they are searching for you there. But I saw you come here from my window this morning, and I waited for the dark to help you. They are still watching upon the beach, but that is a mile from here."
She extinguished the lantern with her words, but not before he had asked her—
"Why do you do this for us?"
"I do it for you," she replied quite simply; "you cannot understand, but I have never had a friend. My own people are a shame to me. My life is all loneliness. God only knows what it is"
She spoke with such an infinite tenderness that Fisher caught her hand in his, and held it to his lips; and the touch of it sent him trembling.
"Would to God I could repay you," said he, "but I have nothing to offer but my gratitude, and what that is words could not tell you. I shall remember it to my last day"
"And I shall remember you," said she, still permitting him to hold her; "I could never forget you have given me happiness, and I have known so little."
Her note of sorrow struck in the lad a whole chord of fine chivalry. Standing as he did with her hand in his, and her hot breath upon his cheeks, almost feeling the rapid beating of her heart as she pressed against him, looking down into eyes that glowed with Southern passion, he vowed that he would return again whatever lot fate put upon him; and telling her this, regardless of time or place, he of a sudden drew her yet closer to him, and their lips met in the first kiss he had ever put upon the lips of woman. And for long moments she clung to him with tears upon her cheeks, and gladness at her heart, while the fire-flies played and the leaves trembled in the first flush of a warm breeze, and the woods were still in all the beauty of a summer's night.
The moment was long drawn, yet she, disengaging herself from his embrace, was the first to come to her senses.
"We are both forgetting," said she; "and we stand where we must not forget. I am going to lead you through the private garden to the shore. I can do no more, and if the men return from the other end of the bay, it may only be leading you to danger. But it is all I can do."
"I am sure of it," said Fisher, "and we must take our chance. I shall tell Messenger all you have done."
"Indeed no," said she, "it was done for you. If you do not forget, that is all I ask."
There was no need for his answer. Yet he vowed again and again, as men vow, that he would never forget, and that he would come again to thank her, as he could not thank her then. Thus, hand in hand, they crept towards the hill whereon Messenger's watch had been, and to him it seemed that he told her the history of his life, and that he had found one who had caused a whole world of dreams to open before him enchantingly. But she, going on with quick steps, led him at last to the hill, and to the man who was already coming towards the thicket for an understanding of the delay.
"Well," said Messenger, observing the two, "you appear to be occupied. Is this the young lady you spoke of a week ago?"
"Yes," said Fisher simply; "this is the second time she has done us a service. She has just promised to take us through the private garden to the beach, which she thinks is free of men."
The Prince, looking upon the pair, did not even ask himself is it safe to go? He had reckoned up the chances at a thought, as the lad and the Spanish girl came towards him; and now he only thanked her with that infinite courtesy he was master of at any moment. But this being done, she led them quickly through the nearer of the woods until they came to a great wall of stone; and in this she unlocked a great iron door, and so they passed through a garden in which there were many arbours and fountains, until they stood at the summit of a rough flight of stone stairs; and here she left them before the man could speak another word to her, or the lad could touch her hand again.
The steps brought them upon the beach, which they found quite deserted; but walking quickly towards their own haven, as they judged, they presently saw the dark shape of a ship's boat; and they observed instantly that it was the longboat, in which the nigger, Joe, rowed, and Burke sat at the tiller.
At this sight, the fact being clear beyond dispute, Messenger stood quite still and stamped angrily with his foot upon the sand.
"Curse them!" said he; "they're showing full in the light!" With this he began to run along the shore, and the skipper, seeing him, gave a low whistle and put the boat's head toward the beach. She touched a moment later; but as the four greeted each other a great shout rose up from the sand, and a horde of men, swarming fiercely about the party, had laid the whole of them flat upon their backs and bound them before they realized even whence the attack came.