"I am so weak, my child," sighed Mrs Hallam, "that my heart fails me.
What shall I do?"
Julia stood over her dressed for flight, and a chill of despair seized
her.
"Oh, mother, try--try," she whispered.
"I am trying, Julie. I am fighting so hard, but you cannot realise the
step I am trying to take; you cannot see it, my child, as it is spread
before me."
"Let us stay then," whispered Julie, "and to-morrow I will appeal to Sir
Gordon to come to our help."
"No," said Mrs Hallam, firmly, as if the words of her child had given
her strength, "we can ask help of no one in such a strait as this,
Julie; the act must be mine and mine alone; but now the time has come,
my child, I feel that it is too much."
"Mother!" sobbed Julie, "that man horrifies me. You heard all that my
father said. I would sooner die than become his wife."
Mrs Hallam caught her arm with a sharp grip, and remained silent for a
few moments. "Yes," she said at last, "and much as I love you, my own,
I would sooner see you dead than married to such a man as he. You have
given me the courage I failed in, my darling. For myself, I would live
and bear until the end; but I am driven to it--I am driven to it.
Come."
They were standing in the dark, and now for the time being Mrs Hallam
seemed transformed. Gathering her cloak about her, she went quickly to
the door and listened, and then turned and whispered to Julia.
"Come at once," she said. "Follow me down." Julia drew a long breath
and followed her, trembling, the boards of the lightly-built house
cracking loudly as she passed quickly to the stairs. And again in the
silence and darkness these cracked as they passed down.
In the hall Mrs Hallam hesitated for a moment, and then, putting her
lips to Julia's ear:
"Stop!" she whispered.
Julia stood listening, and with her eyes strained towards where a light
shone beneath the ill-fitting study-door from which, in the stillness,
the heavy stertorous breathing of Hallam could be heard. She could
hear, too, the faint rustle of Mrs Hallam's dress as she paced along
the hall; and as Julia gazed in the direction she had taken, the light
that streamed from beneath, and some faint rays from the side, showed
indistinctly a misty figure which sank down on its knees and remained
for a few moments.
The silence was awful to the trembling girl, who could not repress a
faint cry as she heard a loud cough coming from beyond the dining-room.
But she, too, drew her breath hard, and set her teeth as if the nearness
of her enemy provoked her to desperate resistance, and she stood waiting
there firmly, but wondering the while whether they would be able to
escape or be stopped in the act of flight by Crellock, whom she knew to
be watching there.
She dare not call, though she felt that her mother was again overcome by
the terrors of the step they had resolved to take, and the moments
seemed interminable before there was a change in the light beneath the
door, and a faint rustle mingled with the heavy breathing. Then her
hand was clasped by one like ice in its coldness, and, as if repeating
the prayer she had been uttering, Julia heard her mother say in a faint
whisper:
"It is for her sake--for hers alone."
Julia drew her into the drawing-room as they had planned, and closed the
door. Then Mrs Hallam seemed to breathe more freely.
"The weakness has passed," she said softly. "We must lose no time."
They crossed the room carefully to where a dim light showed the French
window to be, and Mrs Hallam laid her hand upon it firmly, and turned
the fastening after slipping the bolt.
"Keep a good heart, my darling," she said. "You are not afraid?"
"Not of our journey, mother," said Julia in agitated tones; "but of--a
listener."
"Hist!" whispered Mrs Hallam, drawing back; and the window which she
had opened swung to with a faint click, as the firm pace of Crellock was
heard coming along the verandah; and as they stood there in the darkness
they could see the dim figure pass the window.
Had he stretched forth a hand, he would have felt the glass door yield,
and have entered and found them there; and, knowing this, they stood
listening to the beating of their hearts till the figure passed on and
they heard the step of the self-constituted sentry grow faint on the
other side of the house.
"Julie, are you ready?"
"Yes, mother; let us go--anywhere, so that I may not see that man
again."
Mrs Hallam uttered a sigh of relief, for her child's words had supplied
her once more with the power that was failing.
"It is for her sake," she muttered again. Then, in a low whisper:
"Quick! your hand. Come." And they stepped out into the verandah, drew
the door to without daring to stop to catch it, and the next minute they
were threading their way amongst the trees of the garden, and making for
the gate.
The darkness was now intense, and though the faint twinkling of lights
showed them the direction of the town, they had not gone far before they
found themselves astray from the path, and after wandering here and
there for a few minutes, Mrs Hallam paused in dread, for she found that
there was now another enemy in her way upon which she had not counted.
She spoke very calmly, though, as Julia uttered a gasp.
"The wind is rising," she said, "and it will soon grow lighter. Let us
keep on."
They walked on slowly and cautiously in and out among the trees of what
was, in the darkness, a complete wilderness. At times they were
struggling through bushes that impeded their progress, and though time
after time the track seemed to be found, they were deceived. It was as
if Nature were fighting against them to keep them within reach of Hallam
and his friend, and, though they toiled on, a second hour had elapsed
and found them still astray.
But now, as they climbed a steep slope, the wind came with a gust, the
clouds were chased before it, there was the glint of a star or two, and
Mrs Hallam uttered an exclamation.
"There!" she cried, "to the left. I can see the lights now."
Catching Julia's hand more firmly, she hurried on, for the night was now
comparatively light, but neither uttered a word of their thoughts as
they gave a frightened glance back at a dim object on the hill behind,
for they awoke to the fact that they had been wandering round and about
the hill and gully, returning on their steps, and were not five hundred
yards away from their starting-point.
At the end of a quarter of an hour the stars were out over half the
vault of heaven, and to their great joy the path was found--the rough
track leading over the unoccupied land to the town.
"Courage! my child," whispered Mrs Hallam; "another hour or two and we
shall be there."
"I am trying to be brave, dear," whispered back Julia as the track
descended into another gully; "but this feeling of dread seems to chill
me, and--oh! listen!"
Mrs Hallam stopped, and plainly enough behind them there was the sound
of bushes rustling; but the sound ceased directly.
"Some animal--that is all," said Mrs Hallam, and they passed on.
Once more they heard the sound, and then, as they were ascending a
little eminence before descending another of the undulations of the
land, there came the quick beat of feet, and mother and daughter had
joined in a convulsive grasp.
"We are followed," panted Mrs Hallam. "We must hide."
As she spoke they were on the summit of the slope, with their figures
against the sky-line to any one below, and in proof of this there was a
shout from a short distance below, and a cry of "Stop!"
"Crellock!" muttered Mrs Hallam, and she glanced from side to side for
a place of concealment, but only to see that the attempt to hide would
be only folly.
"Can you run, Julie?" she whispered.
For answer Julia started off, and for about a hundred yards they ran
down the slope, and then stopped, panting. They could make no further
effort save that of facing their pursuer, who dashed down to them
breathless.
"A pretty foolish trick," he cried. "Mercy I found you gone, and came.
What did you expect would become of you out here in the night?"
"Loose my hand," cried Julia angrily; "I will not come back."
"Indeed, but you will, little wifie. There, it's of no use to struggle;
you are mine, and must."
"Julia, hold by me," cried Mrs Hallam frantically. "Help!"
"Hah!"
That ejaculation was from Crellock, for as Mrs Hallam's appeal for help
rang out amongst the trees of the gully into which they had descended,
there was the dull sound of a heavy blow, and their assailant fell with
a crash amongst the low growth of scrub.
"This way," said a familiar voice. "Do you want to join Thisbe King?"
"Yes, yes," cried Julia, sobbing now; "but how did you know?"
"How did I know!" was the reply, half sadly, half laughingly. "Oh, I
have played the spy: waiting till you wanted help."
"Christie Bayle!" wailed Mrs Hallam; "my friend in need."
He did not answer. He hardly heard her words as Mrs Hallam staggered
on by his side, for two little hands were clinging to his arm, Julia's
head was resting against him, as she nestled closer and closer, and his
heart beat madly, for it seemed to him as if it was in his breast that
Julia Hallam would seek for safety in her time of need.