PAYING THE PENALTY
When Madeline Grover got used to the cliffs they did not seem nearly so
forbidding or dangerous as at the first. Exploring the caves and
crannies for sea shells and lichen and gulls' eggs became a favourite
pastime of hers. To stay within the precincts of Trewinion Park she
declared was like being in prison. To wander across the level lawns, or
through the woods by well-kept paths, was an exercise altogether too
tame and unexciting. She loved something that had in it a spice of
adventure. To do something that nobody else had ever done was very much
more to her taste.
Sir Charles took her to task gently on several occasions. It was not
quite the proper thing to go out alone and unattended. She would need to
put a curb on her exuberant and adventurous spirit. She would have to
remember that she was no longer in America, where, in his judgment,
girls had far too much freedom. She must learn to fall into English ways
and customs, with a good deal more to the same effect.
Madeline always listened patiently and good-humouredly to all Sir
Charles had to say, and even promised him that she would be all he could
desire; but she generally forgot both the lecture and the promise five
minutes later. She had been used all her life to go her own way. At
home, in America, she received her own friends of both sexes without
reference to her father or mother. A liberty of action had been allowed
her that seemed almost shocking to Sir Charles and Lady Tregony, and now
that she had come to live in England for an indefinite period it was all
but impossible for her to drop into English ways at once.
As a matter of fact, she did not try very much. She told Beryl Tregony
that she had no desire to be a tame kitten, and since she was
responsible to no one, she followed in the main the prompting of her own
heart.
It was by no means difficult to slip away unobserved, and to be absent
for hours on the stretch without being missed. She had her own rooms at
the big house, and often when she was supposed to be quietly reading
somewhere, she was out on the cliffs or down on the shore searching for
rare flowers or shells, or else talking to the fishermen.
She found life terribly dull after her return from London. Yet, on
the whole, she was not unhappy. The great sweep of the Atlantic had
an unfailing attraction for her. The cliffs were glorious, and
offered infinite scope for adventure. While the people of St.
Gaved--particularly the fishermen--caught her fancy amazingly, and
she became a prime favourite with them all.
Here was a young lady of the upper circle, a distant relative of the
squire, who was not in the least exclusive or proud; who went in and out
among the ordinary toiling folk as though she was one of them, and who
had always a smile and a cheery word for the humblest. It was so
different from the Tregony tradition, that it took their honest hearts
by storm.
Rufus Sterne considered himself particularly unfortunate that when she
came into St. Gaved he always missed her. Three or four times he heard
of her being in the town--it was really only a big village, but the St.
Gavedites all spoke of it as a town; but he was either in his workshop
or away directing the operations of others; consequently, she came and
went without giving him a chance of renewing their acquaintance.
"Not that it mattered," he said to himself. She was nothing to him. She
belonged to a circle far removed from his. Yet for some reason he was
curious to look again into her bright, laughing eyes, and listen to her
naive and unconventional talk. Moreover, when he heard people talking
about her, and praising her good looks and charming freeness of manner,
he had a feeling that he had been cheated out of something to which he
was justly entitled.
What added to the interest excited by the pretty young American was the
fact that nobody had been able to find out the exact relationship in
which she stood to the Tregony family. Neither had anybody been able to
discover why she had come, or how long she intended to stay.
Any number of guesses had been hazarded, but they were only guesses at
best. Some said she had been sent to England by her parents simply to
learn society ways and manners. Others, that her parents were dead, and
that her mother being related to Sir Charles, the latter had taken her
out of charity. Mrs. Tuke, who, in the one glimpse she got of her, had
been greatly impressed by the richness of her attire, ventured the
opinion that she was an heiress in her own right, and that Sir Charles,
who was not noted for his generosity, had not undertaken to be her
guardian for nothing. But all these guesses lacked the essential thing,
and that was authority. Sir Charles was as close as an oyster about his
own family affairs. Moreover, he would no more think of talking to
anyone in St. Gaved about his visitors than of taking a journey to the
moon. And if he thought they were so impertinent as to desire to know,
that would be a double reason why he should, under no circumstances,
allude to the matter.
Madeline might have given the information desired if her new
acquaintances had had the courage to question her. But they were
a little shy in her presence as yet; in some instances they were
completely over-awed. She was so bright, so quick, so confident,
that she almost took their breath away. They felt like fools in
her presence.
This was how matters stood when Rufus discovered her on a narrow ledge
of rock high up the cliffs, unable either to advance or retreat. She had
slipped away from the Hall unobserved after going to her own room
ostensibly to write letters. Consequently, she had not been missed, and
was not likely to be until the family met for dinner.
As usual the sea had been "calling her," as she expressed it; and after
a short ramble on the beach she turned her attention to the serrated
cliffs that loomed high above her. A sea-gull first attracted her
attention, then a large patch of lichen, then a path that seemed to
zig-zag to the top of the cliff.
Wise people think first and act afterwards, but wisdom comes with
experience and experience with age. Madeline was quite young, and made
no pretension to wisdom, hence she frequently reversed the recognised
order, and acted first and did the thinking afterwards.
Seeing the path she began to climb. It was an exhilarating ascent. Had
it been free from danger it would have been humdrum and fatiguing. And
yet it was neither so dangerous nor so difficult as to frighten her
away. Indeed, the higher she got, the less dangerous it seemed, and the
more she was fascinated by the adventure. She did not think of looking
back. Had she done so she might have been warned in time.
Looking up, the rim of the cliff came perceptibly nearer, and she
conceived the wild idea of reaching the top. Why not? Because nobody had
ever done it that was no proof that it could not be done. If fifty feet
could be scaled, why not a hundred? Besides, it would be an achievement
to be proud of. If she could do what never had been done before she
would become something of a hero in her own eyes, and perhaps in the
eyes of other people.
The path took a horizontal turn at length along the uneven face of the
cliff. She was higher up than she knew, and the foothold was less secure
than she suspected. It was all over in a moment. She had not time even
to scream; before even her thoughts could take shape she was brought up
with a jerk, and when she dared turn her head she discovered that she
was perched on a narrow ledge of rock with the cliff shelving away
underneath her. For a moment she felt sick and faint, and was in
imminent danger of falling off the ledge, which would mean almost
certain death.
After a while she made an effort to regain her feet and reach the path
from which she had slipped, but almost with the first movement her head
swam and a mist came up before her eyes that blotted out everything.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to remain perfectly still until
she had recovered her nerve.
But every minute seemed an hour as she lay perched on that dangerous
ledge, and yet every time she opened her eyes and looked into the
yawning gulf below, her heart failed her, and she became more and more
convinced that she would never get down alive. Instead of her nerve
steadying she got increasingly excited and terrified.
She had plenty of time for reflection now, but her reflections brought
her no satisfaction. She discovered--what most people discover sooner or
later--that it is easy to be wise after the event.
"Oh, how foolish I have been," she said to herself. "Why did I refuse to
take advice? Sir Charles warned me, and that handsome young man I met on
the cliffs told me how dangerous they were. Now I am paying the penalty
of my foolishness and obstinacy."
She became so terrified at last that she screamed for help at the top of
her voice, but the only answer that came was the weird and plaintive cry
of the gulls startled from their perches.
She began to wonder, at length, how long her strength would hold out,
and whether, if consciousness left her, she would roll off into
eternity. The ledge was so narrow that she dared not move in any
direction, and she was becoming stiff and cramped from remaining so long
in one position.
For the most part she kept her eyes tightly shut, and tried to forget
the yawning gulf beneath her. Every time she looked down her head grew
dizzy. It scarcely seemed possible to her that she had climbed to such a
height.
She began to count her heart-beats so that she might get some conception
of the flight of time. The Tregonys dined at half-past seven; until that
hour the chances were she would not be missed. Then a search would be
made through the house and grounds--that would take up the best part of
an hour. By the time anybody reached the cliffs it would be well on to
nine o'clock, and too dark to see a single object.
"I shall never hold out till then," she said to herself; "never! I
believe I am slipping nearer the edge all the time. I wonder if the fall
will kill me outright?"
She clutched at the rough wall of rock with desperation, and at length
found a narrow crevice into which she thrust her hand and held on with
the tenacity of despair. The fear of falling off the ledge was less for
a little while, but in time her arm and hand began to ache intolerably,
and the old terror came back with redoubled force. So appalling was the
situation that she was severely tempted to end it at once and for ever.
The deep below fascinated while it terrified. She shrank back with
horror from the brink of the ledge, and yet the abyss seemed to draw her
like a magnet. If she opened her eyes she felt certain that no power of
will she possessed would keep her from falling over.
She called at intervals for help, but her voice became as feeble as that
of a tired child. Then suddenly the blood began to leap in her veins and
her heart to throb with a new hope. From the heights above an answering
voice came to her cry--a strong, resolute voice that seemed to beat back
her fears and to assure her of deliverance. She recognised the voice in
a moment, and the warm blood surged in a torrent to her neck and face.
She could be patient now. She lay quite still and waited. How her
deliverance was to be effected she did not know. She did not trouble to
debate the question. She gave herself up unconsciously to a stronger
will and a stronger personality. He had heard her call and _he_ was
coming to save her.
Who the _he_ was she did not know. She had seen him only once. She did
not even know his name. But she felt instinctively that he was a brave
man. He had a strong face, a stern yet tender mouth, and kind and
sympathetic eyes.
The task might be difficult, but, of course, he would succeed. He was
strong of limb as well as resolute in purpose. Moreover, a face like
his bespoke a resourceful mind. He was no common man. She felt that the
moment she saw him; her instinct told her also that he was an honourable
man, or she would never have dared to speak to him. Women know without
being told when they are in the presence of bad men.
She had thought of him scores of times since their one and only meeting.
Had wondered who he was and what he was, and had speculated on the
chances of meeting him again. He was the only man she had met since her
arrival in England who had impressed her. She had enjoyed her
conversations with the fishermen and the farmers and the small
shopkeepers, had sampled the curate and the vicar and the few county
people who had called at the Hall; but her second thought and her third
thought had been given to the lonely man who sat on the cliffs, with his
big dreamy eyes fixed on the sunset.
She was glad for some reason that it was he who had found her, and not
Sir Charles. Sir Charles would fume and scold and declare there was no
possible way of saving her. The "lonely man" might not talk very much,
but he would act.
It seemed a long time since he had responded to her cry, but she was not
in the least impatient. Confidence was coming steadily back into her
heart, and the fascination of the abyss was slowly passing away. She did
not dare open her eyes yet. She would wait till the stranger called her
again. Her hand and arm were very cramped; she was uncomfortably near
the lip of the ledge. Her strength--in spite of the new hope--was a
steadily diminishing quantity, but she was quite sure she would be able
to hold on a good many minutes yet.
Then clear and distinct came the voice again--from below this time,
instead of from above. How wildly her heart throbbed in spite of all her
efforts to be calm, but she flung her answer back as cheerily as
possible. She would not make herself appear a greater coward than she
really was.
"How did you get there?" The question was abrupt, and the voice sounded
almost close to her ears.
"My foot slipped and I fell," she replied.
"You fell?" he questioned, in a tone of incredulity, and he swept the
face of the cliff above her.
"Oh! I see," he went on a moment later. "You took a path further to the
south."
"Cannot you reach me?" she called with an undertone of anxiety in her
voice.
For a moment he did not answer. He was anxious not to discourage her,
and yet he could see no chance of getting her down alive.
"Can you hold on much longer?" he asked at length.
"Not much," she replied, frankly. "I guess I'm near the end."
"No, don't say that," he said, encouragingly; "keep your heart up a
little longer. I must try another tack."
"You cannot reach me?" the question ended almost in a cry.
"Not from this point," he answered, cheerfully. "But we've not got to
the end of all things yet," and he began to retrace his steps.
"Are you leaving me?" she called, feebly.
"Never," he answered, and there was something in his tone that made her
heart leap wildly.
"I see the path you took," he said a moment later, but though he spoke
cheerfully he had no real hope of saving her.