PASSAGE PERILOUS
"Now let us get out of this," said Scarlett, who had grown palpably
uneasy. "One cooling experience of the Suck of Suliscanna is enough for
me."
Their smaller boat came about just in time. They could see the derelict
snatched like a feather and whirled away by the rush of imperious
water. The noise of the roaring of the Suck became almost deafening.
To seaward they still caught glimpses of their late consort, rolling
this way and that amid numberless jets and hillocks of sparkling and
phosphorescent water. Now she ascended with a dancing motion. Anon
the fountains of the deep boiled and hissed and curled over her as
she lumbered on to her doom. Then as she gradually took in water she
lurched more and more heavily, till at last they saw her stern stand
black against the sky, for a moment shutting out the stars, as she
filled and sank.
"Handsomely done! Now straight for the entrance of the water-cave, and
ho for the isle of Fiara!" cried Wat, who began with every stroke to
feel himself drawing clear of the multiplied dangers of the night. Yet
the most difficult part of the passage was still to come.
All the while Kate sat silent and watchful in the stern. Wat and
Scarlett were at the oars. Scarlett used the unconscious Jan for an
excellent stretcher as he laid himself to his work. So strong was the
north current even there that they had to pull hard for a moment or two
lest they should be carried past the goë which formed the entrance to
the water-cavern through which they must pass to their city of refuge.
"There!" at last cried Wat, indicating the dark break in the cliff-line
with a certain pride, as they came almost level with the mouth of the
passage, and saw vast sombre walls rising solemnly on either side of
that black lane of sea-water, sown with phosphorescent sparks, which
stretched before them.
Presently they were shut within, as it had been by the turning of a
wrist. The stars went out above. The waters slept. The air was still as
in a chamber. The soughing roar of the Suck of Suliscanna died down to
a whisper and then was heard no more.
"Stand up, Jack, and paddle for your life!" commanded Wat. He had often
enough crossed Loch Ken in this manner, after having read Captain John
Smith's Adventures in Virginia with profit and pleasure.
"'Fore the prince!" cried Scarlett, indignantly; "I had just learned
one way of it, sitting with my nose to the rear-guard, which as soon as
I can make shift to do without the oar taking me in the stomach--lo, I
am sharply turned about and bidden begin all over again with my face to
the line of advance!"
"Stop talking--get up and do it!" cried Wat, impatiently; "grumble when
we get through. This is no sham fight on the common of Amersfort with
the white-capped young frows sitting on benches at their knitting."
Obediently Scarlett rose, grasped his oar short in his hands, and
imitated as best he could in the darkness Wat's long sweeping stroke
past the side of the boat, as he stood and conned the passage from the
stem.
The tunnel seemed long to Wat, who had formerly swum it swiftly enough
with thoughts of Kate singing in his head. The dark dripping walls
on either side of them stretched on interminably. Ever a denser dark
seemed to envelop them. The gloom and weight of rocks above them shut
them in. They had dived, as it seemed, into the very earth-bowels as
soon as ever the boat swam noiselessly into the arched blackness of the
water-cavern.
"Now take your oar by the middle and stand by to push off if we come
too near to the rocks on either side," commanded Wat, from the prow.
"Aye, aye, sir," cried Scarlett, taking good-humoredly the sailor's
tone and using words he had heard on his sea voyages. "Belay the
binnacle and part the ship's periwig abaft the main-mast!"
He muttered the last part of the sentence below his breath, and Wat,
who straddled in the narrow angle of the stem, peering eagerly ahead
and paddling to either side, was far too anxious to give heed.
Suddenly the boat bumped heavily on a hidden obstacle. Scarlett went
forward over a thwart and his oar fell overboard, and doubtless the
latter would have floated away but for Kate's ready hand, which rescued
it and brought it aboard, dripping sea-water from blade to handle.
"Let me help," she said; "I can see very well in the dark."
"Agreed," answered Scarlett, with infinite relief. "Old Jack is noways
fond of butting at his enemies with a steering-oar in a rabbit-hole."
So he took Kate's place in the stern, while the girl stood erect and
picked the words of command from Wat--sometimes even venturing to
advise him when with her more delicate perceptions she felt, more
than saw, that they were approaching the shadowy-green phosphorescent
glimmer where the water floor met the walls of the cave.
No sooner had they struck than a cloud of sea-fowl flew out about them,
their wings beating in their faces, and the birds themselves stunning
them with deafening cries. But presently, with protesting calls and
roopy whistlings, the evicted inhabitants settled back again to their
roosting-places.
As they went on the boat began to feel the incoming heave of the outer
swell. A new freshness, too, came to them in the air which blew over
the low island of Fiara straight into the great archway out of which
they were presently floating.
So with Wat and his sweetheart standing erect paddling the boat,
they passed out of the rock-fast gloom into the heartsome clatter
of the narrow Sound of Fiara. On either side of it the cliffs rose
measurelessly above them, and Fiara itself was a blue-black ridge
before them. But Wat had crossed the strait too often to have any fear,
so bidding Kate sit down, he settled the oars in the rowlocks to cross
the stronger current to be expected there.
Presently, and without further difficulty, they came to the little
indentations in the rock, almost like rudely cut steps, where Wat had
slipped into the water to swim across when first he made his venture
towards Suliscanna.
"Here we will disembark the stores," said he.
And Scarlett was safely put ashore to receive them as Wat handed them
out, while Kate held the boat firmly with the boat-hook to the side
of the little natural pier. Then the still unconscious Jan was tossed
behind a bowlder to sleep off his strong waters, with as scant ceremony
as if he had been a bale of goods.
"Now, Kate," said Wat when all had been landed.
The girl took Scarlett's hand and lightly leaped ashore. Her eyes
served her better in the dark than those of either of the men.
But a new danger occurred to Wat.
"We cannot leave the boat here," he said; "it might be driven away,
or, what is worse, spied from the top of the tall rocks of Lianacraig.
Listen, Scarlett. I am going to paddle it across to the cave, anchor
it out there in a safe place, and swim back. I shall not be away many
minutes. Look to Kate till I return."
"Better say 'Kate, look to old blind Jack!'" muttered Scarlett. "He is
good for nought in this condemnable dark but to stumble broadcast and
bark his poor bones. But I'll take my regimental oath the lass sees
like a marauding grimalkin at midnight."
Wat was half-way across the strait or thereby by the time Scarlett had
finished, and again the darkness of the great rock-shaft swallowed him
up. Being arrived within the archway, he searched about for a recess
wide enough to let the boat swing at her stem and stern anchors without
knocking her sides against the rock. He was some time in finding one,
but at last a fortunate essay to the left of the entrance conducted him
into a little landlocked dock just large enough for his purpose. Here
he concealed and made fast his prize before once more slipping into the
water to return to the island of Fiara. Wat swam back with a glad and
thankful heart. He had now brought both his sweetheart and his friend
to the isle of safety--safety which for the time at least was complete.
He had a vessel on either side of his domains, and the enemy on the
larger island possessed no boat which would enable them to reach his
place of shelter--that is, supposing them as ignorant as the Suliscanna
islanders of the wondrous rock-passage underneath Lianacraig. Truly he
had much reason to be proud of his night's work.
Kate was standing ready to give him her hand as he drew himself out
of the water upon the rocks. He could see her slender figure dark
against the primrose flush of the morn. But he wasted no time either
in love-making or salutations. They must have all their stores carried
over the southern beach by daybreak, and safely housed from wind and
weather in the rocky hall where Wat had arranged the couch of heather
tops.
So without a word Kate and Wat loaded themselves happily and
contentedly with the gifts of their late kind hostess--a bag of meal,
home-cured hams, a cheese, together with stores of powder and shot
for their pistols. They could see the figure of the master-at-arms
stumbling on in front of them, and could hear, borne faintly back on
the breeze, the sound of his steady grumbling.
Wat and Kate smiled at each other through the dusk, and the kindred
feeling and its mutual recognition cheered them. The night had been
anxious enough, but now the morning was coming and they could look on
each other's faces. So they plodded on as practically and placidly as
if they had been coworkers of an ancient partnership, sharers of one
task, yoke-fellows driving the same plough-colter through the same
furrow.
When they had arrived at the northern side of the island, Wat showed
his companions where to stow the goods in the large open hall of rock,
at the sheltered end of which he had arranged Kate's sleeping-chamber.
The place was not indeed a cave, but only a large opening in an old sea
cliff, which had been left high and dry by the gradual accumulation
of the sand and mud brought down by the tide-race of the Suck. The
entrance was completely concealed by the birches and rowan bushes which
grew up around it and projected over it at every angle, their bright
green leaves and reddening berries showing pleasantly against the dark
of the interior.
Wat immediately started off again to make one final trip, to see that
nothing had been left at the southern landing-place. Finding nothing,
he came back much elated so thoroughly to have carried through his
purposes in the space of a summer's night, and at last to have both
Kate and Scarlett safe with him on the isle of Fiara.
As for Wise Jan, he was left to sleep in peace behind the bowlder by
the landing-place till his scattered senses should return.