THE MANIAC'S CURSE.
"Her wretched brain gave way,
And she became a wreck at random driven,
Without one glimpse of reason or of heaven."--LALLA ROOKH.
The schooner Evening Star lay at anchor in a little rock-bound inlet,
on the northern side of the island previously referred to. A boat
had just put off from her, containing Captain Guy Campbell, Mr.
Willard Drummond, Sibyl Campbell, and the sick passenger, Richard
Grove. He lay on a sort of mattress, half supported by Captain
Campbell; and in the pale, cold moonlight, looked wan and emaciated
to a fearful degree. The features, sharply defined, were like those
of a skeleton, and, in their ghastly rigidity, seemed like those of a
corpse. But life, intensely burning life, shone in the wild,
troubled eyes. Willard Drummond and Sibyl sat talking together, in
low tones, at the other end of the boat, fearful of disturbing the
dying man.
As the boat touched the shore, Drummond leaped out, and extended his
hand to Sibyl; but the wild sea-nymph, declining the needless aid,
sprang lightly out, and stood beside him.
The figure of a woman, who had been standing on a rock, watching
their approach, now came forward, exclaiming delightedly:
"Laws-a-massy, Miss Sibyl! Who ever s'posed we'd see you here again?
Where hev you been to this long time?"
"My dear Mrs. Tom!" said Sibyl, smilingly, holding out her hand; "I
am delighted to see you. Where I have been is a troublesome question
to answer, seeing I have been almost everywhere you could mention."
"Laws, now! hev you? 'Spect you had nice times sailin' round, though
it does seem odd how you could stand all the sea-sickness you must
have come through. 'Tain' every young critter would do it. But then
you allus was different from most young folks. Jemimi! how you've
growed, an' how handsome you've got! Jest as pooty as a picter! An'
that, I s'pose, is young Master Guy!" continued the loquacious
new-comer, eagerly, as the young captain leaped lightly ashore.
Sibyl nodded, and blushed slightly, as she encountered the gaze of
Drummond, who stood watching Mrs. Tom, with a half-smile of amusement
on his fine face.
"Master Guy!" said the officious Mrs. Tom, bustling forward; "you
hain't forgotten your old aunty, I hope? My gracious! you've got as
tall as a hop-pole! Growed out of my knowledge altogether!"
"Why, Mrs. Tom, is it possible?" exclaimed Captain Guy, catching her
hand in his hearty grasp. "Looking as young and smart as ever, too,
and as fresh and breezy as a May morning! 'Pon my word, I'm
delighted to see you looking so well! How is pretty Christie and
Master Carl?"
"Oh, Christie is well enough, and pootier than ever; and, what's
more, she's as good as she's handsome. But Carl--oh, Master Guy!
that there young limb'll break my heart yet! I hain't the slightest
doubt of it. Of all the thrif'less, good-for-nothing lazy-bones--"
"Oh, well, Mrs. Tom, he'll outgrow that. The best thing you can do
is to let me take him to sea with me the next time I go, and that
will cure him of his laziness, if anything will. In the meantime, I
have a patient for you to take care of, if you have no objection. He
can't last much longer, poor fellow, and you are a better nurse than
Sibyl. What do you say, Mrs. Tom? Shall I send him up to your
house?"
Mrs. Tom was a brown faced, black-eyed, keen-looking, wide-awake,
gossiping little woman, of four feet high, with a tongue that could,
and did, say sharp things sometimes; but with a heart so warm and
large that it is a wonder how it ever found room in so small a body.
However, I have been told, as a general thing, little people are, by
far, cleverer and warmer-hearted than their tall neighbors--as if
nature were anxious to atone for their shortened stature by giving
them a double allowance of heart and brains.
Nursing was Mrs. Tom's peculiar element. Nothing delighted her more
than to get possession of a patient, whom she could doctor back to
health. But unfortunately this desire of her heart was seldom
gratified; for both Carl and Christie were so distressingly healthy
that "yarb tea" and "chicken broth" were only thrown away upon them.
Her frequent visits to the mainland, however, afforded her an
opportunity of physicking indiscriminately certain unfortunate little
wretches, who were always having influenza, and measles, and
hooping-cough, and other little complaints too numerous to mention,
and which fled before Mrs. Tom's approach and the power of her "yarb
tea." Of late there had been a "plentiful scarcity" even of these
escape-valves, so her eyes twinkled now with their delight at the
prospect of this godsend.
"Send him up? Sartinly you will, Master Guy. I'll take care of him.
This here's the best road up to the side of the rocks; 'tain't so
rough as it is here."
"Lift him up," said Captain Campbell to the sailors who had rowed
them ashore, "Gently, boys," he said, as the sick man groaned.
"Don't hurt him. Follow Mrs. Tom to her cottage--that's the way.
I'll be down early to-morrow to see him, Mrs. Tom. This way,
Drummond; follow me. I'll bid you good-night, Mrs. Tom. Remember me
to Christie."
And Captain Campbell sprang up the rocks, followed by Sibyl and
Drummond, in the direction of Campbell's Castle.
Mrs. Tom, with a rapidity which the two sturdy seamen found it
difficult to follow, burdened as they were, walked toward her cottage.
The home of Mrs. Tom was a low, one-story house, consisting of one
large room and bed-room, with a loft above, where all sorts of lumber
and garden implements were thrown, and where Master Carl sought his
repose. A garden in front, and a well-graveled path, led up to the
front door, and into the apartment which served as kitchen, parlor,
dining-room, and sleeping-room for Christie and Mrs. Tom. The
furniture was of the plainest description, and scanty at that, for
Mrs. Tom was poor, in spite of all her industry; but, as might be
expected from so thrifty a housewife, everything was like waxwork.
The small, diamond-shaped panes in the windows flashed like jewels in
the moonlight; and the floors and chairs were scrubbed as white as
human hands could make them. Behind the house was a large vegetable
garden, nominally cultivated by Carl, but really by Mrs. Tom, who
preferred doing the work herself to watching her lazy nephew.
As the men entered with their burden, Mrs. Tom threw open the
bed-room door, and the sick man was deposited on the bed. Lights
were brought by Carl, a round-faced, yellow-haired, sleepy-looking
youth, of fifteen, with dull, unmeaning blue eyes, and a slow,
indolent gait; the very opposite in every way of his brisk, bustling
little aunt.
"Be off with you to bed!" said Mrs. Tom. "It's the best place for
any one so lazy as you are. Clear out, now, for I'm going to sit up
with this here sick man, and want quiet."
With evident willingness Carl shuffled off, leaving Mrs. Tom alone
with her patient.
The little woman approached the bed, and looked at his pinched,
sallow features with an experienced eye. It was evident to her he
could not survive the night.
"I wonder if he knows his end's so near at hand?" said Mrs. Tom to
herself. "He ought to know, anyhow. I'll tell him when he awakes,
'cause it's no use for me trying to do anything with him."
The man was not asleep. As she spoke he opened his large,
wild-looking black eyes, and gazed around vacantly.
"Mister," began Mrs. Tom, "I don't know your name, but 'taint no
odds. Do you know how long you have to live?"
"How long?" said the man, looking at her with a gaze so wild that,
had Mrs. Tom been the least bit nervous, would have terrified her
beyond measure.
"Not three hours," said Mrs. Tom gravely.
A sort of wild horror overspread the face of the dying man.
"So soon! oh, Heaven, so soon!" he murmured, "and with all
unconfessed still. I cannot die with this crime on my soul. I must
reveal the miserable secret that has eaten away my very life."
Mrs. Tom listened to this unexpected outburst in wonder and amazement.
"Listen," said the man, turning to Mrs. Tom, and speaking rapidly in
his excitement. "One night, about thirteen years ago, as I was
returning home from my day's labor, I was overtaken by a violent
storm. I was a considerable distance from home, and there was no
house near where I could remain for the night. It was intensely
dark, and I staggered blindly along in the drenching rain until, by a
sudden flash of lightning, I chanced to espy the ruins of an old
house, that had long been deserted. Thankful even for this refuge
from the storm, I entered it, and, retreating into a corner, I sat on
an empty box waiting for the tempest to abate.
"Suddenly I heard the sound of voices in an adjoining room, talking
in low whispers. There were, at the time, certain suspicious
characters prowling about, and the unexpected sound startled me.
Still, I felt they might be only weather-bound wayfarers, like
myself; but, before joining them, I thought it might be prudent to
discover who they were, and I cautiously drew near the wall to listen.
"The partition dividing us was thin, and in the lull of the storm I
could catch here and there a few words of their conversation.
"'I tell you he killed himself,' said one. 'I saw him. He stabbed
him to the heart with his knife.'
"'What does he intend doing with--?' Here a sudden rush of wind and
rain prevented me from hearing what followed.
"'And serves the jade right, too,' were the next words I heard. 'She
might have known what it was to rouse the anger of that devil
incarnate.'
"'Where are we to find this fellow he wants?' said the second voice.
"'At Minton, on the coast, half a mile from here. His name's Dick
Grove. I know him.'
"I started in alarm, as well I might, for the name was mine.
"'How do you know he'll agree?'
"'If he doesn't, said the first, with an oath that made my blood run
chill, 'a little cold steel will settle the business. But the terms
are easier than that; he's to be well paid for holding his tongue,
and as he's a poor devil, he'll do anything for money. Oh, he'll
agree; there's no trouble about that.'
"The increasing noise of the storm now drowned their voices
altogether. I stood for a moment rooted to the ground with terror.
That some terrible crime had been, or was to be perpetrated, in
which, by some means, I was to be implicated, I plainly saw; and my
only idea now was to escape. I started forward, but, as my unlucky
fate would have it, I stumbled in the darkness and fell heavily to
the ground with a violence that shook the old house.
"I heard, as I lay half stunned, an ejaculation of alarm from the
inner room and quick footsteps approaching where I lay. All was now
up with me, so I scrambled to my feet just as two men, wearing black
crape masks over their faces, entered. Each carried pistols, and one
held a dark-lantern, the light of which flashed in my face.
"'Who are you, sir?' fiercely exclaimed one; and I saw him draw a
sword that made my blood curdle.
"I essayed to answer, but my teeth chattered so with terror that I
could not utter a word.
"'Ha!' exclaimed the other, who all this time had been holding the
lantern close to my face. 'This is the very fellow we were in search
of. Your name is Richard Grove?'
"'Yes,' I managed to say, quaking with mortal fear.
"'You are a mason by trade, and live in Minton?' said, or rather
affirmed, my fierce questioner.
"I replied in the affirmative, for I saw there was no use in
attempting a lie.
"'All right, Tom. You go for the carriage; I will take care of our
friend here until you return.'
"The one with the knife left the house, and the other, drawing a
pistol, the disagreeable click of which made me jump, sat down before
me, keeping his eyes immovably riveted on my face. I did not dare to
move. I scarcely dared to breathe, as I stood with my eyes fixed, as
if fascinated, on the deadly weapon. Nearly ten minutes passed thus
in profound silence, when the sound of carriage-wheels was heard; and
the instant after, the man called Tom entered, his mask off, but his
hat pulled so far down over his eyes, and his coat-collar turned so
far up, that I could see nothing but a pair of dark, sinister eyes.
"'The carriage is here,' he said.
"'Then go on; and you, my man, follow him--I will walk behind.'
"I did not venture to utter a word, and was about going out, when he
called me back, exclaiming;
"'I came near forgetting a very necessary precaution. Here, my good
fellow, let me tie this bandage over your eyes.'
"'Where are you taking me to?' I ventured to say, as he very coolly
proceeded to tie a handkerchief tightly over my eyes.
"'That you had better not know. And hark ye, friend, ask no
questions. Least said soonest mended. Move on, Tom.'
"Holding my hand to prevent me from falling, my guide led me out. I
felt myself assisted into a carriage and placed in a seat. One of
the men got in after me, and closed the door; the other mounted the
box, and off we drove.
"I am quite sure they took a long, roundabout way and went here and
there, in various directions, and came back to the same place again,
to make me believe the distance was much longer than it really was.
For nearly an hour we drove thus, and then the coach stopped, and I
was helped out. I knew I was on the shore, for I could hear the
waves dashing inward, and foaming and breaking over the rocks. Then
they assisted me into a boat, which was pushed off and rowed rapidly
away. The boat was large and strong, but it tossed and pitched
dreadfully in the heaving sea, and I was forced to hold on with the
grasp of desperation to the side.
"I am sure we were fully two hours, tossing thus on the surf, when
the boat struck the shore so suddenly, that I was thrown forward on
my face in the bottom. With a loud laugh of derision, the men helped
me up and assisted me to land, and then conducted me up a long,
slippery beach until we reached a hard road. We walked rapidly on
for nearly a quarter of an hour, and then I heard a key turn in a
rusty lock, and I was led into a house. Taking first the precaution
of locking the door after him, my guide led me through a long hall,
up a longer winding staircase, and through another hall, and up two
other flights of stairs. It seemed to me he would never stop, when,
at last, I heard him open a door, thrust me in, and retreat again,
locking the door after him.
"My first care was to tear off the bandage and look around; but the
room was so intensely black I could see nothing. The darkness could
be almost felt as I thrust out my hand and essayed to walk. I had
not advanced a dozen steps, when my foot slipped on some wet, slimy
substance, and I fell, and struck violently against something lying
on the floor. Trembling with horror, I put out my hand,
and--merciful Heaven! I shudder even now to think of it--it fell on
the cold, clammy face of a corpse!"
"Laws-a-massy!" ejaculated the horror-struck Mrs. Tom, as the dying
man paused, every feature convulsed at the recollection.
"I think I fainted," he went on, after a pause, "for when I next
recollect anything, I was supported by my masked conductor, who was
sprinkling, or, rather, dashing handfuls of water in my face, and
there was a light burning in the room. I looked around. There, on
the floor, lay the dead body of a man, weltering in blood, which
flowed from a great, frightful gash in his side!"
"The sight nearly drove me mad, for I sprang with a wild cry to my
feet. But my conductor laid his hand on my shoulder and said, in a
tone so fierce and stern that I quailed before him:
"Hark ye, sirrah, have done with this cowardly foolery, or, by
heaven, you shall share the same fate of him you see before you! No
matter what you see to-night, speak not, nor ask any questions, under
peril of instant death. If you perform your duty faithfully, this
shall be your reward."
As he spoke he displayed a purse filled up with bright, yellow
guineas.
"Before I could reply, a shriek that seemed to come from below
resounded through the room, a shriek so full of wild horror, and
anguish, and despair, that even my companion gave a violent start,
and stood as if listening intently. As for me, my very life-blood
seemed curdling as the wild, piercing cries of agony came nearer and
nearer. A heavy footstep ascended the stairs, and I could hear the
sound of some body being dragged up.
"Closer and closer came those appalling screams, and a man entered,
masked likewise, dragging after him the convulsed form of a young
girl.
"To this day I have never seen a more beautiful creature,
notwithstanding her face was distorted with fear and horror. As she
entered, her eyes fell on the form of the dead man on the floor.
With supernatural strength she broke from the man who held her, and
bent for an instant over the lifeless body. It sufficed to tell her
he was quite dead; and then, throwing up her white arms, she fled
round the room, shrieking as I never heard any living being shriek
before. Great Heaven! those awful cries are ringing in my ears yet.
"The man who had led her in sprang forward and caught her by both
wrists. She struggled like one mad, but even the unnatural strength
of frenzy failed to free her from his iron grasp. I could see her
delicate wrists grow black in the cruel grasp in which he held her.
"The man beside me said something to him in a foreign tongue--French,
I think--to which the other nodded, without speaking. My guide then
went and unlocked a door at the farther end of the apartment, from
which he drew forth a great heap of bricks and mortar, and all the
implements necessary for building a wall.
"A light began to dawn upon me. The body of this murdered man was to
be walled up here.
"My suspicion was correct. Making a sign for me to assist him, the
man raised the head, and not daring to refuse, I took the body by the
feet, and we carried it into the inner room, which proved to be a
small dark closet without a window, and with immensely thick walls.
Even in my terror for my own safety, I could not repress a feeling of
pity for this murdered youth--for he was only a boy--and the
handsomest I ever saw.
"All this time the woman's wild shrieks were resounding through the
room, growing louder and louder each moment, as she still struggled
to free herself from his hold. All in vain. He forced her into the
inner room, but before he could close the door she had burst out,
and, clasping his knees, screamed for mercy.
"He spurned her from him with a kick of his heavy boot, and then she
sprang up and spat at him like one possessed of an evil spirit.
Flying to the farthest corner of the room, she raised her right hand
to Heaven, crying, in a voice that might have made the stoutest heart
quail:
"'I curse you! I curse you! Living, may Heaven's wrath follow my
curse--dead, may it hurl you into eternal perdition! On your
children and on your children's children, may----'
"With a fierce oath, he sprang upon her ere she could finish the
awful words that pealed through the room like the last trump, and
seizing her by the throat, hurled her headlong into the dark inner
room where the murdered man lay. Then, closing the massive oaken
door, and locking it, he turned to me, and speaking for the first
time, commanded me, in a voice fairly convulsed with passion, to wall
up the door.
"I would have prayed for mercy, but my tongue clove to the roof of my
mouth. The man beside me saw my indecision, and, catching me by the
arm, said, in a stern whisper:
"Fool! do you want to share their fate? Do as you are told!
"I shrank from the crime, but life was dear to me, and I obeyed. As
men work only for their lives, I worked with those two mysterious
masks looking on. All was still as the grave within that closet-door
now. Once only I heard a sound as of some one trying to rise, and
then a heavy fall--and I worked on with redoubled energy.
"Not a word was spoken by any of us in the deep silence of the solemn
midnight, in which the awful crime was perpetrated.
"It was completed at last; where the door had been was a wall of
solid masonry, which her death-cries could never penetrate.
"'It is well!' said he who appeared to me the superior. 'Give him
the reward I told you of.'
"The other silently handed me the purse.
"'And now swear never to reveal what you have this night seen till
your dying day!'
"'I swear!' said I, for I dared not refuse.
"'That will do. Take him away,' said the speaker, leaving the room.
"My guide blindfolded me as I had been before, and led me out,
locking the door on the awful secret.
"As I had been brought up, I was led to the beach. The boat was in
waiting, and I was taken away, landed, conveyed into the carriage,
which for upward of half an hour drove round some circuitous route.
Then I was assisted out and left standing alone. I tore the bandage
from my eyes and looked around, but the carriage was gone; and I
never heard or discovered aught more of the event of that night.
"From that day my peace of mind was gone. Years passed, but it
haunted me night and day, till I became a morose and dreaded man.
Then I traveled from land to land, but nothing ever could banish from
my ears that woman's dying shrieks and despairing eyes.
"In Liverpool I felt ill. I felt I mast die, and wanted to come and
be buried in my native land. Captain Campbell brought me here. And
now that I have told all, I can die in peace. In peace--never! never
until that woman's face is gone! Oh, Heaven!" he cried, raising
himself up with a shriek, and pointing to the window, "_she is
there!_"
With a scream almost as wild as his own, Mrs. Tom started up and
looked.
A pale, wild, woeful face, shrouded in wild black hair, was glued for
a moment to the glass, and then was gone.
Paralyzed with terror, Mrs. Tom turned to the sick man. His jaw had
dropped, his eyes were protruding from their sockets, and he was
_dead_.