WAT SWIMS THE WATER CAVERN
Whereupon, refreshed and invigorated, Wat proceeded to reconnoitre. He
set about his inquiries with the utmost circumspection and caution,
for it occurred to him that if Barra's first line of defence--that of
the whirls and glides of the Suck of Suliscanna--had proved itself so
effective, it was likely that he had made other dispositions equally
dangerous in the event of that line being forced. Wat Gordon pushed his
boat into the water and clambered on board. But he soon found that,
damaged and water-logged as she was, she would move but sluggishly
through the water, and must prove but little under command in any
seaway. It was manifestly impossible therefore for Wat, with his single
sculling oar, to venture out again into the tide-race which threshed
and tore its way past the eastern side of the island.
Wat's harbor of refuge was on the northern shore, in the safest nook of
the little sandy haven in which he had first brought his boat ashore.
He was resolved, so soon as it should grow a little dusk, that he would
endeavor to turn the angle of his small isle, and see if by any means
he could find a landing-place along the western side of Suliscanna.
When, therefore, the sun had dipped beneath the sea-line, and the
striped rose and crimson of the higher clouds faded to gray, Wat
slipped into his boat and pushed off. He guided her slowly, sculling
along the inner side of the sandy reef which protected the northern bay
of Fiara.
As Wat sailed farther to the west he could hear the surf hammering in
the caves which look towards the Atlantic--a low, continuous growl
of sound, mostly reverberating like the distant roaring of many wild
beasts, but occasionally exploding with a louder boom as a full-bodied
green roller from mid-ocean fairly caught the mouth of a cave, for a
moment gagged and compressed the imprisoned air within it, and then
sent it shooting upward through some _creux_ or gigantic blow-hole in a
burst of foam and white water which rose high into the air. The wonder
and solemnity of this ceaseless artillery at the hour of evening,
and with the Atlantic itself lying like a sea of glass outside,
impressed the landwardborn Wat greatly. For he had never before dwelt
in the midst of such sea-marvels, nor yet upon the shores of such a
rock-bound, wave-warded prison as this inhospitable isle of Suliscanna.
The heavy boat slowly gathered way under the pressure of the broad
oar-blade wielded by Wat's very vigorous young arms. And all went well
while he kept the inner and protected side of the reef, but so soon as
he had begun to clear the lofty cliffs of Suliscanna, and to bethink
himself of attempting to cross the belt of turbid and angry waters
interposed between the quiet inner haven and the cool, green lift of
the ocean waves without, the boat stuck in the sand and heeled over,
first with an oozy glide, and then with a sharper "rasp," as though
the knife-edge of a basalt reef were masked beneath. Her head fell
sharply away, and the waves coming over the bar in brown-churned foam
threatened every moment to swamp her.
Wat felt the depth of the water with his oar, and promptly leaped
overboard. His feet sank dangerously into the slushy ooze of the bank,
but the boat, relieved of his weight, rose buoyantly on the swell,
and Wat, clasping his hands about her prow, was dragged clear, and
presently, drenched and dripping for the third time that day, he found
himself aboard again.
Clearly there was nothing further to be obtained by persevering in that
direction, at least with a boat so unwieldy as that in which Scarlett
and he had come over from the main-land. So Wat resolved to try if he
could not find a smooth and safe passage by hugging the shore of Fiara,
thus avoiding the sweep of the tide-race, and in the end reaching the
still, deep strait lying between the rocks of his isle and the huge,
lowering cliffs of Lianacraig, which so tantalizingly shut out from his
view all that he wished to see of the spot on which, as he believed,
his love waited for him.
Full of this thought, Wat turned the prow of the boat and struck
confidently along the shore, past the bay where he had first brought
the derelict ashore, and on towards the projecting eastern ness of
Suliscanna. But here there was no projecting bar, and Wat promptly
found himself in the same uneasy, boiling swirl which had so
disastrously ended his former voyage. Nevertheless, he persevered for
some distance, for indeed he saw no other way of reaching the southern
isle. But suddenly, not ten yards in front of his boat, appeared the
turbulent, arched back of a yet more furious tide-race. The prow of the
boat was snatched around in an instant; two or three staggering blows
were dealt her on the quarter as she turned tail. The oar was almost
dragged from his hand, and in another moment Wat found himself floating
in the smooth water at the tail of the reef, not far from where he had
started. He almost laughed, so suddenly and completely had the proof
been afforded him that there was no outgate east or west for a heavy
craft so undermanned as his was.
It was with a heavy heart, therefore, that Wat had perforce to give up
the boat as a means of reaching the southern island. After his defeat
he went ashore and sat gloomily watching the pale lilac light of the
evening fade from the rocks above the narrow strait. Beneath him the
waters of the deep sound were still, and only beat with a pleasant,
clappering sound on the rocks. A quick and desperate resolve stirred in
Wat's heart.
He stripped himself of his upper clothes, and, leaving all but his
shirt and his knee-breeches among the rocks, he bound these upon his
head, fastening them with his soldier's belt under his chin.
Then, without pausing a moment to give his resolution time to cool, he
dropped into the water and swam straight across the narrow, rock-walled
strait towards the black rampart line of the cliffs of Lianacraig.
He was well aware that he had taken his life in his hand, for from the
side of the sea these grim crags had apparently never been scaled by
human foot. But Wat had another idea than climbing in his mind. As he
had watched the waves glide without sound or rebound into the great
square arch which yawned in the midst of the rocky face, a belief had
grown into certainty within him that the passage must be connected with
another arm of the sea at the farther side of the cliffs. With quick,
characteristic resolve he determined to discover if this supposition
were correct. He found no difficulty in swimming across the narrow
strait of Fiara, in spite of a curious dancing undertow which now threw
him almost out of the water, and anon mischievously plucked him by the
feet as if to drag him bodily down to the bottom. Presently, however,
he found himself close underneath the loom of the cliffs, and the great
black archway, driven squarely into their centre, yawned above him.
By this time Wat's eyes had become somewhat accustomed to the darkness,
and he could make out that the line where the sea met the rocks was
brilliantly phosphorescent, and that this pale green glimmer penetrated
for some distance into the dark of the rock-cut passage.
Wat did not hesitate a moment, but whispering "_For her sake!_" he
pushed, with a full breast-stroke, straight into the midst of that
sullen, brooding blackness and horror of unsteady water. Outside in
the sound he had been conscious of the brisk, changeful grip of winds
fretting the water, the swift pull of currents fitful as a woman's
lighter fancies, the flash of iridescent silver foam defining and yet
concealing the grim cliff edges. But inside there was nothing but the
blackness of darkness, made only more apparent by a pervading greenish
glimmer which, perhaps because it existed more in the eyes of the
swimmer than in the actual illumination of the cavern, revealed nothing
tangible, but on the contrary seemed only to render the gloom more
tense and horrible.
But Wat had made up his mind and was not to be turned aside. He would
follow this sea-pass to its end--even if that end should bring death
to himself. For at all hazards he was resolved to break a way to his
sweetheart, if indeed she yet lived and loved him.
The silence of the cave was remarkable. Wat could feel as he swam the
slow, regular pulse-beat of the outer ocean-swell which passed up
beneath him, and which at each undulation heaved him some way towards
the roof. But he could hear no thundering break as it arched itself
on the clattering pebbles or broke on the solid rock bottom as it
would have done if the cavern had come soon to an end. He oared his
way therefore in silence through the midst of the darkness, keeping
his place in the centre of the tunnel by instinct, and perhaps also
a little by the faint glimmer of phosphorescence which pursued him
through the cave.
The way seemed endless, but after a while, though the wall of rock
continued to stand up on either hand, it grew perceptibly lighter
overhead. Wat chanced to look downward between his arms as he swam. A
disk of light burned in the pure water beneath him. He turned on his
back and glanced up, and there, at the top of an immense black cleft
with perpendicular walls, lo! the stars were shining. Without knowing
it he had come out of the tunnelled cavern into one of the "goës" or
narrow fiords which cut into the Lianacraig fortress of basalt to its
very foundations.
The passage still kept about the same width, and the water within it
heaved and sighed as before, but the rock wall seemed gradually to
decrease in height as Wat went on. Also the direction of the "goë"
changed every minute, so that Wat had to steer his way carefully in
order to avoid striking upon the jutting, half-submerged rocks at the
corners.
Presently the passage ended, and Wat came out again on a broader
stretch of water, over which the free, light breezes of the night
played chilly. He found himself quite close to the beach of Suliscanna.
There was a scent of peat-reek and cheerful human dwellings in the
air--of cattle also, the acrid tang of goats, and, sweetest of all to
a shipwrecked man, the indescribable kindly something by which man
advertises his permanent residence to his fellows amid all the world of
inhuman things.
After the darkness of the "goë" it seemed almost lucid twilight here,
and Wat could see a black tower relieve itself against the sky, darker
than the intense indigo padding in which the stars were set that
moonless night. He stood on shore and rubbed himself briskly all over
with the rough cloth of his knee-breeches before clothing himself in
them. Then he donned the shirt and belt which he had brought over with
him on his head by way of that perilous passage through the rocky
gateway of Suliscanna, whose virgin defences had probably never been
violated in such a manner before.
Being now clothed and in the dignity of his right mind, Wat cautiously
directed his way upward towards the bulk of a tower which he saw loom
dark above him.