'Nell!' I said, and could say no more.
'Ay, Launce--just Nell!' she said. And she came in without taking my
hand. But for all that she was not abashed nor shame-faced. But she
remained as direct and simple in her demeanour as she had been about
Culzean, in the old days before sorrow fell upon the house, and, indeed,
upon us all.
'Take me up the stairs to the Dominie,' she said. And I took her hand
and kept it tightly as we went upwards. But I tried after no greater
favours at that time, for I knew that her mood leaned not towards the
desires of a lover.
'Ah, Dominie,' said Nell, when she reached the top, 'this Ailsa is a
strange place to keep school in. Yet I warrant you that geese are not
more numerous here than they were in Maybole!'
But the Dominie could only gaze at her, thus daffing with him, so fixed
had he been in his fantasy. Then when he was somewhat come to himself,
we waited expectantly for Nell to reveal her errand and to relate her
adventure, and she did not keep us long waiting.
'You must instantly leave Ailsa and come back with me,' she said. 'My
sister Marjorie is lost from Auchendrayne, and we three must find her.
I fear that the Mures have done her a mischief, being afraid of the
things that she might reveal.'
'How knew you of that, Nelly?' I asked, for, indeed, it was a thing I
could make no guess at myself.
'It was one morning at Kirrieoch,' said Nell, 'as we were bringing in
the kye out of the green pastures by the waterside, that a messenger
rode up with a letter from Marjorie. She asked me to meet her at
Culzean and to bring you and any other faithful men whom I could trust
along with me. And thus the letter ended: '"_For gin I once win clear
out of Auchendrayne, we have them all in the hollow of our hand, I have
found him that carried the letter_."'
'She means the letter to John Mure that took your father to the tryst of
death,' I said.
The Dominie seemed to awake at the words.
'That will be young William Dalrymple she has fallen on with,' he cried,
in much excitement.
I rose, and hastened down to put our belongings together, which were
scattered about the castle. As soon as I returned Nell went on with her
tale.
'Then because I knew not where you were,' she said, 'I was in much
distress. But your father donned his war graith and rode with me to the
house of Culzean, where he yet abides. As for me, I could noways rest,
so I set myself to trace you. And here I have found you. Pray God we
may find our Marjorie as safely!'
'But how did you manage to trace us?' I asked, for the Dominie and I
thought that we had well hidden our tracks.
'Oh, I got the kindly side of the goodwife of Chapeldonnan,' said Nell,
lightly. And when I heard that, I did not wonder any more, for she
could get the kindly side of anyone, if so she chose. Because Nell
Kennedy, in spite of her taunting and teasing, had ever a coaxing,
winsome way with her which was vastly taking.
Then we fell to making our plans. It would not do for us to be seen
leaving the Craig by day, for our position was plainly in view of keen
eyes along all the Girvan shore and at Chapeldonnan or Girvanmains as
well. And worse enemies than these might put out a dozen boats to
intercept us, or simply lie in wait to take us as we landed. Besides,
all this day and part of the night there befel a storm which lashed the
waves to white foam about our abode.
With more than a woman's ordinary forethought in adventure, Nell had
left her boat in a cove to the right of the landing-place. And indeed
I, that somewhat prided myself upon my wisdom, had not taken as great
precautions myself--which, among other things, was the cause of our
present position on the Craig. So we three spent all the day in
cheerful talk, thinking that so soon as we could find Marjorie, we
should come to the end of our perplexities, and have the guilty in our
power. But in this we spoke without knowledge of the manifold shifts
and stratagems of our arch enemy.
*CHAPTER XXXVIII*
*A RESCUE FROM THE SEA*
While we thus waited and planned, Nell told us how that she had remained
at Culzean till there seemed no more hope of Marjorie's coming. Then
there arrived a lass of the Cochranes who had been Marjorie's tiring
maid at Auchendrayne. From her Nell learned how, after a fierce and
bitter scene with the elder Mure, Marjorie had fled from Auchendrayne
none knew whither, escaping all their toils and passing their inner and
outer guard under silence of night. Then so soon as she had heard this,
fearing all evil to her sister, Nell set out to find me--believing that,
in the absence of any hope of help from her brothers, I might aid her to
find her sister and to clear some of the ever deepening mysteries.
It was the dusk of an evening, sweet and debonnair, when we left the
castle which had been so long our home, and descended the perilous
steeps to the foot of Ailsa. Here we found Nell's boat safe in its cove,
and immediately we pushed out, having placed therein all our weapons and
belongings. Nell sat in the stern, and the Dominie and I took the oars.
The storm of the night and morning had abated, and there was now no more
than an oily swell upon the water.
There was little talk between us as we went, for we felt that our lives
were in our hands and that we might be only running into greater perils.
I supposed that the Dominie was thinking of the love he had lost by
black, unnatural murder, on that dangerous shore to which we were making
our way. We kept well to the south of Girvan, because I had twice gone
there on errands which did not tend to make us favourites with the
Bargany Kennedies and their supporters, of whom the townsfolk were
mostly composed. Besides, I remembered the word of the rascal whom I
had held at my mercy in the house of Mistress Allison, the Grieve's wife
at Culzean. 'The treasure of Kelwood is in the cave of Sawny Bean on
the shore of Bennanbrack over against Benerard.' And this, though not a
clear direction, pointed to some promontory south of Girvan and north of
Ballantrae.
And though the discovery of my master's death was, I trust, first in my
mind, I need not deny that I was also mindful of the treasure for which
so much had been adventured first and last.
It was a high tide and a calm sea when we got over into the loom of the
cliffs. We had a making wind and the tide was with us, so that we had
been able to set the sail part of the way--for a little mast which would
carry a lug sail lay snugly under the thwarts of the boat.
The Dominie, who in his rambling youth had followed the sea, both
steered and managed the sheet as we drew nearer the shore, while I lay
over the bow and kept a look-out ahead. We steered towards a light
which went wavering along the top of the rocks, for we opined that it
must be some shepherd wandering with a lantern to look for a lost sheep.
Now it dipped into clefts, now it mounted to the summit of the crags,
and anon it was lost again behind the screes and tumbled cliffs of the
coast.
Suddenly from high above us, where we had last seen the light, we heard
sounds as of pain and despair--a woman's cry in her extremity--not
weeping or beseeching, but crying only, being, as it seemed, utterly in
distress.
''Tis our Marjorie! I ken her voice!' cried Nell, and we all strained
our eyes upwards to the dark heuchs. The lantern had come to a
standstill almost directly above us.
The Dominie silently took down the mast and let it rest in the bottom of
the boat. Our speed slackened till we floated without motion on the
gently heaving water. I continued to peer into the gloom. Yet how
Marjorie Kennedy could have come to be in danger upon the shore of
Benane was far beyond my comprehending at that time.
'Marjorie! Sister Marjorie!' cried Nell, as loudly as she could. And
almost as she spoke I saw something white descending towards us from the
cliff, like a poised bird that closes its pinions and dives into the
water. The smitten waters sprang up white not twenty feet from our
bows.
I stood erect on the stern, scarce knowing what might hap, yet to be
ready for anything, balancing on both feet for a spring. And as soon as
I had a glimpse of something white which rose from the black water, I
sprang towards it ere it had time to sink again. For Nell was with me
in the boat, and it was my opportunity to let her see that Launce
Kennedy did not do all his deeds standing thread-dry on the solid land.
I declare, so much was I affected and worked upon by her crying to her
sister, that had it been Sawny Bean himself I had grappled with him
there in the salt water.
But it was a braver weight and shape that I held in my arm--even the
slim form of a woman. I felt a thrill run through me when I found that
her arms had been tied closely behind her back both at wrist and elbow.
Nevertheless, I gripped the cords which confined her, and struck out for
the boat, which I saw black like a rock above me.
It was no more than a minute that I supported the girl in the water, but
to me it seemed to be a year, for I was hill born, and had learned the
swimming since I came in my youth to Culzean. And this never makes a
strong nor yet a long swimmer like the shore-bred boy, who has been half
in and half out of the tide all day long every summer season since he
could walk.
But the Dominie speedily brought the boat about, for indeed there was
little way on her at anyrate. In a moment more his strong hands and
long fingers were lifting Marjorie Kennedy on board, and laying her, all
wet as she was, in the arms of her sister Nell.
Then he gave me a hand over the bow, and we cowered low in the boat,
letting her drift inward with the tide till we were close under the loom
of the land and in the very darkest of the shadow. We knew well that
they who had tied Marjorie's hands would be on the look-out for her
rescuers. So on the black water we lay and waited.
Nor had we long to wait, for in a short time voices echoed here and
there among the rocks, and the lantern, with others which we had not
previously seen, appeared far down near the edge of the sea. At the
same time, from the other direction, came the noise of oars roughly
thrown into a boat and the clambering of men over the side. Then we
were, indeed, in sore jeopardy, for the wind had died to nothing under
the land, and the grey sea lay outside the shadow of the cliffs with
quite enough light upon it to trace us by, if we rowed out in that
direction.
And all the while Marjorie lay silent in her sister's arms. I had cut
the cords and chafed her hands as well as I could, but still she did not
speak.
The pursuers closed rapidly upon us from both sides, and ere we could
think of a plan, we saw the boats pushing out with torches held at their
prows by the hands of dark and stalwart men. And then the Dominie and I
looked to our pistols and swords, resolving, if it came to the sharp
pinch, to make a good fight for it. For when the two boats came
together they could not choose but find us.
*CHAPTER XXXIX*
*THE CLEFT IN THE ROCK*
'Let us get in nearer to the land,' said the Dominie; ''tis the sole
chance that remains to us.'
So seizing each of us an oar, the sea being perfectly calm and a full
tide lapsing as smoothly upon the cliffs as the water in a tub wherein
good wives wash their duds, we risked the matter and rowed in closer to
the rock. We sought if by good chance there might be found some inlet
where we could land, or some cave which might conceal us from the cruel
men who were seeking our lives.
Nor was our adventuring in vain, for as we cautiously advanced into the
blackness, the wall of the cliff seemed to retire before us, so that the
prow of the boat actually appeared to push it steadily back. A denser
darkness, a very night of Egypt, surrounded us. Gradually the noise of
the pursuers dulled, sank, and died away. We lost sight of the grey,
uneasy plain of the sea behind us, and continued to advance through a
long water passage walled with rock, the sides of which we could
sometimes feel with our hands and sometimes fail to touch with our oars.
This I took at the time to be a marvellous dispensation of Providence on
our behalf, as without doubt it was. But now we know that all that
shoreward country, owing to the abundance of soft stone by the seaside,
is honeycombed with caves, so that it was well-nigh impossible to miss
at least one of these in every half mile of cliff all about the Heads of
Benerard. Yet that we should strike this one of all others appeared a
thing worthy of admiration, as presently you shall hear, and showed the
same dispensing and favourable Providence which has throughout been on
the side of Culzean and against our enemies of Bargany.
Marjorie and Nell still sat together in the stern, but so dense was the
dark that we could see nothing of them. The Dominie and I took our oars
from the rullocks and pushed onward into the cave, hoping to come in
time to some wider space, where we could either disembark or find a
passage out upon the land above us.
And so presently we came to a place wonderful enough in itself, yet no
more than the gateway to other and greater marvels.
The waves which had scarcely been visible out on the open sea ran into
the cave at regular intervals, and in the narrow places formed
themselves into a considerable swell of water. Before us we could hear
them break with a noise like thunder upon some hidden strand or beach.
This somewhat terrified us in that place of horrid darkness, for the
noise was loud as is a waterfall in the time of spate, the echoing of
the cave and the many contracted passages and wide halls deceiving the
ear.
So our boat, being poised upon the crest of one of these smooth steeps
of water which rolled onward into the cave, advanced swiftly into a more
spacious cavern, where the oar could be used without touching the rock
at either side. The sounds now came back to us also from high aloft,
and we had the feeling of much air and a certain spacious vastness above
us. Yet the imprisoning darkness, confused with the lashing of the
waves, wrought a kind of invincible melancholy which weighed down all
our spirits.
Presently, however, the prow of the boat took the slushy sand in a coign
more retired, where the waves did not, as in other places, fall with an
arching dash, but rather lapsed with a gentler wash as upon a regular
beach. Being in the bow, I lost no time in leaping ashore, and in a few
moments I had the boat fast to a natural pier of rock, behind which the
water was quiet as in a mill pond.
Here in the darkness we helped each other out, and feeling ourselves now
somewhat more safe from our enemies, we shook one another by the hand
and made many congratulation on our escape, which had indeed been
marvellous.
Even thus we waited for the day to reveal to us whether there were any
passage by which we could ascend from the deeps of the Cimmerian pit
wherein we were enclosed, without adventuring out again in our boat upon
the water, where our enemies watched for us.
We drew close together upon the rocky pier, and Marjorie told us of her
escape from the Auchendraynes, the strange tale of which shall hereafter
be given at length in its own place. Also she confirmed the message
which she had sent to her sister, that she had discovered all the
wickedness and certain guilt of the Mures in the death of her father,
and in many other crimes. So we saw before us in plain case their
condemnation, if once we could escape from this snare and bring their
iniquity to light before the King and the Council. Yet all the while it
was a marvel to me how Marjorie had so completely forgotten James Mure
the younger, who was her wedded husband, even though she had never
rendered to him the love and duty of a wife.
But we were by no means yet won out of the wood. And, at the best, our
case was not a particularly comfortable one. The Dominie and I had,
indeed, provided Marjorie with such wrappings and covertures as were in
our power, which we had brought with us from the isle. But we had
mainly to trust to the virtues of the strong waters of France, which the
Dominie always carried about with him, as well as to the mildness of the
night, that she should take no harm from her fearful plunge from the
cliffs into the salt water.
But it is certain that the perturbation of one's spirit at such a time
is so great, that many things pass without penalty to the health which
at another season might induce disease and death.
Presently we found that our boat was being left high and dry, the water
ebbing swiftly away from us towards the mouth of the cave. We had, as
it happened, entered at the height of the tide, and now the water was
upon the turn. But this affected us little, for we judged that either
it would go so far back that we might find a way of escape by clambering
over the rocks out upon the land; or else, at the worst, we knew that,
by waiting till the next tide, we should be able to return the way we
had come. At all events, for that time at least, we thought ourselves
to have outwitted our pursuers and to stand no longer in their danger.
But we were briskly to learn another way of it, for the oftenest slip is
made upon the threshold of safety.
Marjorie and Nell bore themselves through all these dangers and
discomforts with the greatest courage. Never had this come home to me
so strongly before, for the maid's shamefacedness had died out of
Marjorie Kennedy; and now she seemed wholly set with a fierce jealousy
of hate to compass the punishment of her father's enemies.
The water being in this manner retired, and our boat lying high and dry
upon a shelving beach, I proposed that the Dominie and myself should
attempt some exploration of the place where we found ourselves--while we
left Nell and her sister by the boat to make such dispositions of their
cleading as would countervale the discomfort of Marjorie's rescue from
death.
So the Dominie and I felt with our hands all round the wide amphitheatre
which had so lately been filled with the salt water. We had no
difficulty in discovering the narrow passage by which we had come, for
down its narrow gullet the water was now retreating with great
swiftness. But we seemed to be at the sack's end in every other way, so
that we looked for nothing else but having to return to the same place,
and in the same way by which we came, after our enemies had retired. So
swiftly did the tide run back, that it seemed as if it might be possible
for us to walk out upon our own feet. And so indeed we did, but in a
very strange fashion.
For in one of my gropings I came upon a projection of the rock, which
caught my foot and threw me forward upon my face. As I fell, my hands
touched something like a flight of rough steps which led up from the
sanded floor of the cavern. Without waiting to call out to Dominie Mure
I mounted, with my heart beating fast with anticipation, and at the top
I came into a narrower passage than any we had yet entered, which led me
forward a long way. As I went the air felt unaccountably lighter. It
smelled most like a well-fired room, dry and pleasant, so that I waited
only to ascertain that the passage ended in another apartment before
going back to communicate my fortunate discovery to Marjorie and Nell.
When I reached the boat I found that, by the skilful management of her
sister, Marjorie had been made somewhat more comfortable, and that the
Dominie on his part had discovered nothing of importance, of which I was
glad, for it became me to be the leader of our expedition. So I bade
him take his weapons, and with what provender we could carry upon our
backs we proceeded all of us together to the rocky stairway leading to
the drier inner cave.
The Dominie had as usual brought his pipes over his shoulder, from
which, indeed, he refused to be parted even for a moment. And but for
the fear of the noise reaching our enemies, I think that there and then
he would have played us both reels and strathspeys--that is, if we had
given him any encouragement, so pleased was he, and, indeed, all of us,
to leave the dark cavern and oozy sand upon which we had first landed.
We were not long in ascending the stairs, and, as I had foretold, we
found ourselves speedily in the warmer and drier air, like that of a
habited house, which was so great a change from the dripping damp of the
lower sea-cave that we rejoiced greatly, though quite unable to discover
the cause.
Yet there was something--we knew not what--about the inner cavern which
took us all by the throat. Indeed, we had not gone far when Marjorie
Kennedy gasped for breath and said, 'Let us go back! I do not like the
place!
But this I took to be no more than the dashing of her spirit by the
adventures of the night, and the terrors through which, as she had
already told us, she had come in the dreary and dangerous house of
Auchendrayne.
For the passage broadened out into a wider hall with a firm floor of
hard earth, as if it had been beaten or trampled. We had hardly been in
this place longer than a few moments when a strangely persistent and
pervading smell began to impress us with the deadliest loathing. It was
sharp, pungent, and familiar. Yet could none of us tell whence it came,
nor in what place we had smelled it before.
'I am faint unto death,' said Marjorie, leaning heavily on me. 'Let me
go back, Launcelot, while I can.'
But this, for the sake of the dryness and comfort, I was not willing to
do. So, stumbling now over one thing and now over another in the
darkness, I made shift to find a further passage.
I chanced to put down my hand, when my foot struck something heavier and
more massive than before, and, lo! to my horror, I touched the side of a
wooden tub or vat. And scarce had I moved from the place where I was,
before something cold and soft brushed my face, as if it had been
suspended from the roof. My heart trembled, for we were plainly in a
place of habitation of some unknown and terrible sort.
'Stand still where you are,' I cried to my companions. For I was afraid
that they also might come against one of these obstructions, which were
good evidence of others having been in this abode of horror and darkness
as well as ourselves.
Immediately I set to the groping again, and went stumbling from one
thing to another till I came to a branching passage which ascended away
from the hall. And since here, in the roomy alcove high above the floor
of the cave, there were (so far as I could find) none of the vats or
other furniture which I had encountered about the sides of the greater
cave, I decided to use it as a place of temporary shelter.
So I made my way back to where they were all standing close together,
and I pinched the Dominie's arm in token that he was to ask no
questions. Then very slowly and stealthily we felt our way to the
little alcove which I had found. And as often as I stumbled against
anything, I pretended to clatter some of the stuff which I carried upon
my back, having laden myself with it at the boat. And so passed the
matter off.
At last we came to the hiding-place which had been my latest discovery,
and found that the rock was cut, as it had been, into seats all round
about, while the path ascended upwards at the back yet higher into the
stone, by which I judged that we had not yet come to the end of the
cavern. Here in the high alcove or gallery above the main cave we
accommodated ourselves, and disposed our belongings as well as we could
for the darkness. The Dominie set himself to arrange them, while Nell
and Marjorie lay covered up together in our plaids upon the stone bench
which ran about the place, and which appeared to have been hewn out at
some past time by the rude art of man. But I myself, to whom it came as
natural to be stirring as to breathe, set about making a further
exploration.
Now my disappointment was great when I found that we had indeed come to
the limit of the cavern. Search which way I would, my hands encountered
nothing but rock. Nevertheless, I continued my circuit, standing upon
the stone ledge and groping above me, for it was possible that there was
some fresh passage which from this alcove might lead to the outer air.
Suddenly, while I was searching with my hands at the top of the steps of
stone, and, without the least warning, my finger tips fell upon
something which felt colder than the stone. I touched metal--then the
projection of a keyhole, then the iron corners of a chest. I ran my
hand along the pattern of the metal bands which bound the lid. What
wonder that my heart beat vehemently, for I knew in that moment that I
had my hand upon the Treasure of Kelwood!
*CHAPTER XL*
*THE CAVE OF DEATH*
For a moment there in the darkness I stood dazed, and my head swam, for
I bethought me of the Earl's words, as well as of the words of the
Minister of Edinburgh, and I knew that my fate stood upon tip-toe. For
here in the finding of this box lay all my life, and it might be my love
also. But again another thought crossed the first, damming back and
freezing the current of hot blood which surged to my heart. The caird's
words in the Grieve's kitchen also came back to me, 'You will find the
Treasure of Kelwood in the cave of Sawny Bean in the head of Bennanbrack
over against Benerard.'
If this were so, there was little doubt but that we stood in the most
instant and imminent danger of our lives. Yet I could not bring myself
to leave the treasure. Doubtless I ought to have done so, and hastened
our escape for the sake of the girls, Nell and Marjorie. But I thought
it might be possible to convey the chest out, and so bring both our
quests to an end at once--that for treasure, by the recovery of the box
which had been lost and found, and then lost again upon the Red Moss,
and that of vengeance, by the certain condemnation of the Auchendraynes
upon Marjorie's evidence.
The next moment mighty fear took hold on me. All that I had heard since
my childhood, about the unknown being who dwelled upon the shore-side of
Benane and lived no man knew how, ran through my mind--his monstrous
form, his cloven feet that made steads on the ground like those of a
beast, his huge, hairy arms, clawed at the finger ends like the toes of
a bear. I minded me of the fireside tales of travellers who had lost
their way in that fastness, and who, falling into the power of his
savage tribe, returned no more to kindlier places. I minded also how
none might speak to the prowler by night, nor get answer from him--how
every expedition against him had come to naught, because that he was
protected by a power stronger than himself, warned and advised by an
intelligence higher than his own. Besides, none had been able to find
the abode, nor yet to enter into the secret defences where lurked the
man-beast of Benerard.
And it was in this abode of death that I, Launce Kennedy, being, as I
supposed, in my sane mind, had taken refuge with two women, one the
dearest to me on earth. The blood ran pingling and pricking in my veins
at the thought. My heart cords tightened as though it too had been shut
in a box and the key turned.
Hastily I slipped down, and upon a pretext took the Dominie aside to
tell him what it was that I had found.
'Ye have found our dead warrant then. I wish we had never seen your
treasures and brass-banded boxes!' said he roughly, as if I had done it
with intent.
And in troth I began to think he was right. But it was none of my
fault, and, so far as I could see, we had been just as badly off in that
place, if I had not found it at all.
After that I went ranging hither and thither among all the passages and
twinings of the cave, yet never daring to go very far from the place
where we were, lest I should not be able to find my way back. For it
was an ill, murderous, uncanny abode, where every step that I took
something strange swept across my face or slithered clammily along my
cheek, making me grue to my very bone marrows. I am as fond of a nimble
fetch of adventures as any man, as every believing reader of this
chronicle kens well by this time, but I want no more such darkling
experiences--specially now that I am become a peaceable man, and no
longer so regardlessly forward as I once was, in thrusting myself into
all stirs and quarrels up to the elbows.
Then in a little I went soft-footed to where Marjorie and Nell had
bestowed themselves. When I told them how we had run into danger with a
folly and senselessness that nothing could have excused--save the great
necessity into which, by the hellish fury of our enemies, we had been
driven--it was indeed cheerful to hear their words of trust and their
declarations that they could abide the issue with fortitude.
So a little heartened, we made such preparations as we could--as
preparing our pistols and loosening our swords. Yet all had to be done
by touch, in that abode of darkness and black, un-Christian deeds.
It was silent and eerie beyond telling in the cave. We heard the water
lapping further and further from us as it retreated down the long
passage. Now and then we seemed to catch a gliff of the noise of human
voices. But again, when we listened, it seemed naught but the wind
blowing every way through the passages and halls of the cave, or the
echoed wing-beatings of the uncanny things that battened in the roofs
and crevices of this murtherous cavern, unfathomed, unsounded, and
obscure.
But we had not long to wait ere our courage and resolution were tested
to the uttermost. For presently there came to us, clearly enough,
though faintly at first, the crying and baying of voices fearful and
threatening. Indeed they sounded more like the insensate howling of dogs
or shut-up hungry hounds in a kennel than kindly human creatures. Then
there was empty silence, through which the noise came in gusts like the
sudden, deadly anger of a mob. Again it came, more sharp and
double-edged with fear, like the wailing of women led to unpitied doom.
And the sound of this inhuman carnival, approaching, filled the cave
with shuddering.
This direful crying came nearer and nearer, till we all cowered paleface
together, save Marjorie alone--who, having been, as it were, in hell
itself, feared not the most merciless fiends that might have broken
loose therefrom. She stood a little apart from us, so far that I had
not known her presence but for the draught of air that blew inward,
which carried her light robe towards me, so that its texture touched my
face, and I was aware of the old subtle fragrance which in happy days
had well-nigh turned my head in the gardens of Culzean.
But Nell Kennedy stood close to me, so close that I could hear her heart
beating and the little nervous sound of the clasping and the unclasping
of her hands--which thing made me somewhat braver, especially when she
put both her palms about my arm and gripped it convulsively to her, as
the noises of the crying and howling waxed louder and nearer.
'I am vexed that I flouted you, Launce,' she whispered in my ear. 'I do
not care a docken what you said to Kate Allison. After all, she is not
such a truth-telling girl, nor yet by-ordinary bonny.'
I whispered to her that I cared not either, but that I was content to
die for her.
'Oh, but you might have lived for me,' she moaned, 'if I had not led you
into all this trouble.'
'Nay, Nell, my dear,' said I, hastily, 'speak not so. You have ever been
our saviour and our best fortune hitherto, and so shall be yet.'
Then (mock us not) in the darkness of the cave we kissed each other once
or twice, amorously and willingly, and the savour of it was passing
sweet even when we looked for naught but death.
'Give me a dagger,' Nell said to me, and I gave mine own to her, which
she put away in her bosom, as I judged, and again took my hand.
Then the horrid brabblement filled all the cave, and sounded louder and
more outrageous, being heard in darkness. Suddenly, however, the murky
gloom was shot through with beams of light, and a rout of savages, wild
and bloody, filled the wide cave beneath us. Some of them carried rude
torches, and others had various sorts of back-burdens, which they cast
down in the corners. I gat a gliff of one of these, and though in
battle I had often seen things grim and butcherly, my heart now sprang
to my mouth, so that I had well-nigh fainted with loathing. But I
commanded myself, and thrust me before Nell, who from where she sat
could only see the flickering skarrow of the torches upon the roof and
walls--for the place seemed now, after the former darkness of Egypt,
fairly bursting with light.
Then I knew that these execrable hell-hounds must be the hideous crew
who called Sawny Bean lord and master. They were of both sexes and all
ages, mostly running naked, the more stalwart of them armed with knives
and whingers, or with knotted pieces of tree in which a ragged stone had
been thrust and tied with sinew or tags of rope. The very tottering
children were striking at one another, or biting like young wolves, till
the blood flowed. In the corner sat an old bleared hag, who seemed of
some authority over them, for she pointed with her finger, and the
uproar calmed itself a little. The shameless naked women-crew began to
bestir themselves, and heaped broken driftwood upon the floor, to which
presently a light was set.
Then the red climbing flame went upward. The wood smoke filled the
cave, acrid and tickling, which, getting into our throats, might have
worked us infinite danger, had it not been that the clamour of the
savages was so great that it never stilled for a moment. But in time we
became accustomed to the reek, and it disturbed us not.
More by luck than good guiding, the place where we sat was, as I have
said, favourably situate for seeing without being seen--being a kind of
natural balcony or chamber in the wall, like a swallow's nest plastered
under the eaves of a barn. We learned afterwards that it was a place
forbidden by Sawny Bean, the head of the clan, and so kept sacred for
himself when it should please him to retire thither for his ease and
pleasure, with whomsoever he would of his unholy crew. And to this no
doubt we owed our safety, for the young impish boys roamed everywhere
else, specially swarming and yelling about our boat, which they had just
discovered. I noted, also, that when any of these came in the way of
the men, he was knocked down incontinent with a hand, a knife, or a
stick, as was most convenient. Sometimes the lad would lie a minute or
two where he had been struck, then up again, and to the playing and
disport he fell, as though nothing had happened.
All this was horrid enough, but that was not the worst of it, and I own
that I hesitate to write that which I saw. Yet, for the sake of the
truth, tell I must and will. The cavern was very high in the midst, but
at the sides not so high--rather like the sloping roof of an attic which
slants quickly down from the rooftree. But that which took my eye amid
the smoke were certain vague shapes, as it had been of the limbs of
human beings, shrunk and blackened, which hung in rows on either side of
the cave. At first it seemed that my eyes must certainly deceive me, for
the reek drifted hither and thither, and made the rheum flow from them
with its bitterness. But after a little study of these wall adornments,
I could make nothing else of it, than that these poor relics, which hung
in rows from the roof of the cave like hams and black puddings set to
dry in the smoke, were indeed no other than the parched arms and legs of
men and women who had once walked the upper earth--but who by misfortune
had fallen into the power of this hideous, inconceivable gang of
monstrous man-eaters. Then the true interpretation of all the tales
that went floating about the countryside, and which I had hitherto
deemed wholly vain and fantastical, burst upon me.
But there was that nearer to me which smote me down like a blow taking a
man at unawares. As I stood up to look, gripping nervously at my sword
and peering over, there came a gust off the sea, roaring up the passages
of the cavern. For with the moon the wind had risen without. The fire
on the floor flickered upward and filled the place with light. I felt
something touch my cheek. Speedily I turned, and, lo! it was a little
babe's hand that swung by a cord. The wind had caught it, so light it
was, and it had rubbed my cheek. By the Lord, it was enough and more
than enough. I sank down and the spirit within me became water because
of that soft, sliding little hand. Had the naked devils come on to me
then, I declare I had not found power to lift my hand against them, nor
so much as to set a finger to the latch of a pistol.
But in a little while I was strengthened, for now, as though I had never
seen her before, I saw the true face of the brave lass Nell Kennedy.
And it is passing sweet, even in the presence of death, to see the eyes
of the beloved for the first time after declared and unashamed love has
come into them. She never took her sad, steadfast regard from my face,
and, as I say, I was infinitely strengthened thereby.
I could also mark Marjorie Kennedy. And since she stood erect, I knew
that she had seen all the blasting horrors I had witnessed--except,
perhaps, the babe's hand a-swing by its cord. Yet there was no
blanching of her face. Rather, she stood and eyed the scene with a calm
and assured countenance, like to a stake-kissing martyr ere the flames
are lit.
If ever any soul had cast out fear it was that of Marjorie Kennedy, for
unfathomed hate can do that as well as perfect love--and especially in a
woman.
But when my eyes fell on Dominie Mure, I got a yet greater start. The
little, thickset man, who had been my brave companion through such a
multitude of dangers, seemed to be transformed. A still and biting fury
sat inexorably on his lips. He gripped his blade as if he would spring
straight over the wall of rock upon the bestial crew. So afraid was I
to look upon him and read his intent in his burning eyes, that I undid
for a moment the clasp of Nell's hand upon my shoulder and crawled to
him.
'Have a care what you do, Dominie,' I whispered in his ear. 'Remember,
it is of the women we have to think.'
For as clearly as if I had read it in print, I saw his desire and his
determination. He thought of young Mary Torrance, the lass that had
been spirited away. And the red stain on the grass, and the ghastly
garniture about the walls of the monster's cave, had revealed to him the
conclusion of the untold tale.
But my words stopped him dead, like a bullet in the heart of a springing
wild cat on the bough. He looked just once at me, and his eyes had the
same wild glare. But there came that into them which told me of a
thought greater than the stark revenge on which he had been all intent
but a few moments before.