"What did you observe, Wingate?"
"That there be a rain storm threatening o' the grandest sort. There's
flood enough now; but afore long it'll be all over the meadows."
"Why do you think that? I see no sign. The sky's very much clouded
true; but it has been just the same for the last several days."
"'Tan't the sky as tells me, Captain."
"What then?"
"The _heequall_."
"The heequall?"
"Yes. It's been a cacklin' all through the afternoon and evenin'--
especial loud just as the sun wor settin'. I niver know'd it do that
'ithout plenty o' wet comin' soon after."
Ryecroft's interest is aroused, and for the moment forgetting his
misery, he says:--
"You're talking enigmas, Jack! At least they are so to me. What is
this barometer you seem to place such confidence in? Beast, bird, or
fish?"
"It be a bird, Captain? I believe the gentry folks calls it a
woodpecker; but 'bout here it be more generally known by the name
_heequall_."
The orthography is according to Jack's orthoepy, for there are various
spellings of the word.
"Anyhow," he proceeds, "it gies warnin' o' rain, same as a
weather-glass. When it ha' been laughin' in the mad way it wor most
part o' this day, you may look out for a downpour. Besides, the owls
ha' been a-doin' their best, too. While I wor waiting for ye in that
darksome hole, one went sailin' up an' down the backwash, every now an'
then swishin' close to my ear and giein' a screech--as if I hadn't
enough o' the disagreeable to think o'. They allus come that way when
one's feelin' out o' sorts--just as if they wanted to make things worse.
Hark! Did ye hear that, Captain?"
"I did."
They speak of a sound that has reached their ears from below--down the
river.
Both show agitation, but most the waterman; for it resembled a shriek,
as of a woman in distress. Distant, just as one he heard across the
wooded ridge, on that fatal night after parting with Mary Morgan. He
knows now, that must have been her drowning cry, and has often thought
since whether, if aware of it at the time, he could have done aught to
rescue her. Not strange, that with such a recollection he is now
greatly excited by a sound so similar!
"That waren't no heequall; nor screech-owl neyther," he says, speaking
in a half whisper.
"What do you think it was?" asks the Captain, also _sotto voce_.
"The scream o' a female. I'm 'most sure 'twor that."
"It certainly did seem a woman's voice. In the direction of the Court,
too!"
"Yes; it comed that way."
"I've half a mind to put back, and see if there be anything amiss. What
say you, Wingate?"
"Gie the word, sir! I'm ready."
The boatman has his oars out of water, and holds them so, Ryecroft still
undecided. Both listen with bated breath. But, whether woman's voice,
or whatever the sound, they hear nothing more of it; only the monotonous
ripple of the river, the wind mournfully sighing through the trees upon
its banks, and a distant "brattle," of thunder, bearing out the portent
of the bird.
"Like as not," says Jack, "'twor some o' them sarvint girls screechin'
in play, fra havin' had a drop too much to drink. There's a Frenchy
thing among 'em as wor gone nigh three sheets i' the wind 'fores I left.
I think, Captain, we may as well keep on."
The waterman has an eye to the threatening rain, and dreads getting a
wet jacket.
But his words are thrown away; for, meanwhile, the boat, left to itself,
has drifted downward, nearly back to the entrance of the bye-way, and
they are once more within sight of the kiosk on the cliff. There all is
darkness; no figure distinguishable. The lamps have burnt out, or been
removed by some of the servants.
"She has gone away from it," is Ryecroft's reflection to himself. "I
wonder if the ring be still on the floor--or, has she taken it with her!
I'd give something to know that."
Beyond he sees a light in the upper window of the house--that of a
bedroom no doubt. She may be in it, unrobing herself, before retiring
to rest. Perhaps standing in front of a mirror, which reflects that
form of magnificent outline he was once permitted to hold in his arms,
thrilled by the contact, and never to be thrilled so again! Her face in
the glass--what the expression upon it? Sadness, or joy? If the
former, she is thinking of him; if the latter of George Shenstone.
As this reflection flits across his brain, the jealous rage returns, and
he cries out to the waterman--
"Row back, Wingate! Pull hard, and let us home!"
Once more the boat's head is turned upstream, and for a long spell no
further conversation is exchanged--only now and then a word relating to
the management of the craft, as between rower and steerer. Both have
relapsed into abstraction--each dwelling on his own bereavement.
Perhaps boat never carried two men with sadder hearts, or more bitter
reflections. Nor is there so much difference in the degree of their
bitterness. The sweetheart, almost bride, who has proved false, seems
to her lover not less lost, than to hers she who has been snatched away
by death!
As the _Mary_ runs into the slip of backwater--her accustomed
mooring-place--and they step out of her, the dialogue is renewed by the
owner asking--
"Will ye want me the morrow, Captain?"
"No, Jack."
"How soon do you think? 'Scuse me for questionin'; but young Mr Powell
have been here the day, to know if I could take him an' a friend down
the river, all the way to the Channel. It's for sea fishin' or duck
shootin' or somethin' o' that sort; an' they want to engage the boat
most part o' a week. But, if you say the word, they must look out for
somebody else. That be the reason o' my askin' when's you'd need me
again."
"Perhaps never."
"Oh! Captain; don't say that. 'Tan't as I care 'bout the boat's hire,
or the big pay you've been givin' me. Believe me it ain't. Ye can have
me an' the _Mary_ 'ithout a sixpence o' expense--long's ye like. But to
think I'm niver to row you again, that 'ud vex me dreadful--maybe more'n
ye gi'e me credit for, Captain."
"More than I give you credit for! It couldn't, Jack. We've been too
long together for me to suppose you actuated by mercenary motives.
Though I may never need your boat again, or see yourself, don't have any
fear of my forgetting you. And now, as a souvenir, and some slight
recompense of your services, take this."
The waterman feels a piece of paper pressed into his hand, its crisp
rustle proclaiming it a bank-note. It is a "tenner," but in the
darkness he cannot tell, and believing it only a "fiver," still thinks
it too much. For it is all extra of his fare.
With a show of returning it, and, indeed, the desire to do so, he says
protestingly--
"I can't take it, Captain. You ha' paid me too handsome, arredy."
"Nonsense, man! I haven't done anything of the kind. Besides, that
isn't for boat hire, nor yourself; only a little douceur, by way of
present to the good dame inside the cottage--asleep, I take it."
"That case I accept. But won't my mother be grieved to hear o' your
goin' away--she thinks so much o' ye, Captain. Will ye let me wake her
up? I'm sure she'd like to speak a partin' word, and thank you for this
big gift."
"No, no! don't disturb the dear old lady. In the morning you can give
her my kind regards, and parting compliments. Say to her, when I return
to Herefordshire--if I ever do--she shall see me. For yourself, take my
word, should I ever again go rowing on this river it will be in a boat
called the _Mary_, pulled by the best waterman on the Wye."
Modest though Jack Wingate be, he makes no pretence of misunderstanding
the recondite compliment, but accepts it in its fullest sense,
rejoining--
"I'd call it flattery, Captain, if't had come from anybody but you. But
I know ye never talk nonsense; an' that's just why I be so sad to hear
ye say you're goin' off for good. I feeled so bad 'bout losin' poor
Mary; it makes it worse now losin' you. Good night!"
The Hussar officer has a horse, which has been standing in a little
lean-to shed, under saddle. The lugubrious dialogue has been carried on
simultaneously with the bridling, and the "Good night" is said as
Ryecroft springs up on his stirrup.
Then as he rides away into the darkness, and Jack Wingate stands
listening to the departing hoof-stroke, at each repetition more
indistinct, he feels indeed forsaken, forlorn; only one thing in the
world now worth living for--but one to keep him anchored to life--his
aged mother!
Volume Two, Chapter XII.