THE EYES OF THE DEAD
As I knelt with the dead woman's hands in one of mine and the other over
her eyes, I seemed to be floating high up in the air; and with amazing
vision to see all round for a great distance. The fog still hung thick
over the water. Around, the vast of the air and the depths of the sea
were as open as though sunshine was on them and I was merely looking
through bright water. In the general panorama of things, so far as the
eye could range, all lay open. The ships on the sea, and the floor under
it; the iron-bound coast, and the far-lying uplands were all as though
marked on a picture chart. Far away on the horizon were several craft,
small and large. A few miles out was a ship of war; and to the north of
her but much closer in shore lay a graceful yacht, slowly moving with
the tide and under shortened sail. The war ship was all alert; on every
top, and wherever there was a chance of seeing anything, was the head of
a man on the look-out. The search-light was on, and sea and sky were lit
alternately with its revolving rays. But that which drew my eyes, as
the magnet draws the iron, was a clumsily rigged ship close in shore,
seemingly only a few hundred yards beyond the Dunbuy Rock. She was a
whaler I knew, for on her deck were the great boats for use in rough
seas, and the furnace where the blubber was melted. With unconscious
movement, as though my soul were winged as a bird, I hung poised over
this vessel. It was strange indeed, but she seemed all as though
composed of crystal; I could see through her, and down into the deep
below her where her shadow lay, till my eyes rested on the patches of
bare sand or the masses of giant seaweed which swayed with the tide
above the rocks on which it grew. In and out amongst the seaweed the
fishes darted, and the flower-like limpets moved ceaselessly outside
their shells on the rocks. I could even see the streaks on the water
which wind and current invariably leave on their course. Within the
ship, all was clear as though I were looking into a child's toy-house;
but a toy-house wrought of glass. Every nook and cranny was laid bare;
and the details, even when they did not interest me, sank into my mind.
I could evermore, by closing my eyes, have seen again anything on which
in those moments of spiritual vision the eyes of my soul had rested.
All the time there was to me a dual consciousness. Whatever I saw before
me was all plain and real; and yet I never lost for a moment the sense
of my own identity. I knew I was on shore amid the rocks under the
cliff, and that Gormala's dead body was beside me as I knelt. But there
was some divine guiding principle which directed my thought--it must
have been my thought, for my eyes followed as my wishes led, as though
my whole being went too. They were guided from the very bow of the ship
along the deck, and down the after hatchway. I went down, step by step,
making accurate and careful scrutiny of all things around me. I passed
into the narrow cabin, which seemed even to me to smell evilly. The rank
yellow light from the crude oil lamp with thick smoky wick made the
gloom seem a reality, and the shadows as monstrous. From this I passed
aft into a tiny cabin, where on a bunk lay Marjory asleep. She looked
pale and wan; it made my heart sick to see the great black circles round
her eyes. But there was resolution in her mouth and nostrils; resolution
fixed and untameable. Knowing her as I did, and with her message "I can
die" burned into my heart, it did not need any guessing to know what was
in the hand clenched inside the breast of her dress. The cabin door was
locked; on the outside was a rough bolt, newly placed; the key was not
in the lock. I would have lingered, for the lightning-like glimpse made
me hungry for more; but the same compelling force moved me on. In the
next cabin lay a man, also asleep. He was large of frame, with a rugged
red beard streaked with grey; what hair remained on his head, which was
all scarred with cicatrices, was a dull red turning white. On a rack
above him, under the chronometer--which marked Greenwich time as
2.15,--ready to his hand, were two great seven shooters; from his pocket
peeped the hilt of a bowie knife. It was indeed strange to me that
I could look without passion or vindictiveness on such a person so
disposed. I suppose it was the impersonal spirit within me which was at
the moment receptive, and that all human passion, being ultimately of
the flesh, was latent. At the time, though I was conscious of it, it did
not strike me as strange; no more strange than that I could see far and
near at the same glance, and take in great space and an impossible
wilderness of detail. No more strange, than that all things were for me
resolved into their elements; that fog ceased to deaden or darkness
to hide; that timber and iron, deck and panel and partition, beam and
door and bulkhead were as transparent as glass. In my mind was a vague
intention of making examination of every detail which could bear on the
danger of Marjory. But even whilst such an idea was in its incipient
stage, so swift is the mechanism of thought, my eyes beheld, as though
it were through the sides of the ship, a boat pass out from a watercave
in the cliffs behind the Rock of Dunbuy. In it I saw, with the same
seeing eye which gave me power in aught else, seven men some of whom I
knew at a glance to be those whom Marjory had described in the tunnel.
All but one I surveyed calmly, and weighed up as it were with
complacency; but this one was a huge coal-black negro, hideous, and of
repulsive aspect. A glimpse of him made my blood run cold, and filled my
mind at once with hate and fear. As I looked, the boat came towards the
ship with inconceivable rapidity. It was not that she moved fast through
the water, for her progress was in reality slow and laboured. The wind
and the sea had risen; half a gale was blowing and the seas were running
so high that the ship rose and fell, pitched and rolled and tossed
about like a toy. It was, that time, like distance, was in my mind
obliterated. Truly, I was looking with spirit eyes, and under all
spiritual conditions.
The boat drew close to the whaler on the port side, and I saw, as if
from the former, the faces of several men who at the sound of oars came
rushing from the other side of the ship and leaned over the bulwarks. It
was evident that they had expected arrival from the starboard. With some
difficulty the boat got close, for the sea was running wilder every
moment; and one by one the men began to climb the ladder and disappear
over the bulwark. With the extraordinary action of sight and mind and
memory which was to me at present, I followed each and all of them at
the same time. They hurriedly rigged up a whip and began to raise from
the boat parcels of great weight. In the doing of this one of them, the
negro, was officious and was always trying to examine each parcel as it
came on board; but he was ever and always repulsed. The others would not
allow him to touch anything; at each rebuff he retired scowling. All
this must, under ordinary conditions, have taken much time, but to my
spirit-ruled eyes it all passed with wondrous rapidity....
I became conscious that things around me were growing less clear. The
fog seemed to be stealing over the sea, as I had seen it earlier in the
evening, and to wrap up details from my sight. The great expanse of the
sea and the ships upon it, and all the wonders of the deep became lost
in the growing darkness. I found, quicker and quicker, my thoughts like
my eyes, centred on the deck of the ship. At a moment, when all others
were engaged and did not notice him, I saw the great negro, his face
over-much distorted with an evil smile, steal towards the after hatchway
and disappear. With the growing of the fog and the dark, I was losing
the power to see through things opaque and material; and it came to me
as an actual shock that the negro passed beyond my vision. With his
going, the fear in my heart grew and grew; till, in my frantic human
passion, all that was ethereal around me faded and went out like a dying
flame....
The anguish of my soul, in my fear for my beloved, tore my true spirit
out of its phantom existence back to stern working life....
I found myself, chilled and sick at heart, kneeling by the marble-cold,
stiffening body of Gormala, on the lone rock under the cliff. The rising
wind whistled by me in the crannies above, and the rising sea in angry
rushes leaped at us by the black shining rocks. All was so dark around
me that my eyes, accustomed to the power given in my vision of making
their own light, could not pierce the fog and the gloom. I tried to look
at my watch, but could only see the dial dimly; I could not distinguish
the figures on it and I feared to light a match lest such might betray
my presence. Fortunately my watch could strike the hours and minutes,
and I found it was now half past one o'clock. I still, therefore, had
three-quarters of an hour, for I remembered the lesson of the whaler's
chronometer. I knew there would be no time nor opportunity to bring
Gormala's body to the top of the cliff--at present; so I carried her up
to the highest point of the underlying rock, which was well above high
water mark.
Reverently and with blessing I closed her dead eyes, which still looked
up at the sky with a sort of ghostly curiosity. Then I clambered up
the steep pathway and made my way as quickly as I could round to the
other side of the Haven, to try if I could discover any trace of the
blackmailers, or any indication of the water-cave in which their boat
was hidden. The cliffs here are wofully steep, and hang far over the
sea; so that there is no possibility of lying on the cliff edge and
peering over. Round here also the stark steepness forbids the existence
of even the tiniest track; a hare could not find its way along these
beetling cliffs. The only way of making search of this channel would be
to follow round in a boat. The nearest point to procure one would be at
the little harbour beside the Bullers O'Buchan, and for this there was
not time. I was in dire doubt as to what was best to do; and I longed
with a sickening force for the presence of Montgomery or some of our
party who would know how to deal with such a situation. I was not
anxious for the present moment; but I wanted to take all precautions
against the time which was coming. Well I knew that the vision I had
seen with the eyes of the dead Gormala was no mere phantasm of the mind;
that it was no promise of what might be, but a grim picture of what
would be. There was never a doubt in my mind as to its accuracy. Oh! if
I could have seen more of what was to happen; if I could have lingered
but a few instants longer! For with the speed at which things had
passed before my inner eye in that strange time, every second might have
meant the joy or sorrow of a lifetime. How I groaned with regret, and
cursed my own precipitancy, that I could not wait and learn through the
medium of the dead woman's spiritual eyes the truths that were to be
borne in mind!
But it was of no use to fret; action of some sort would be necessary if
Marjory was to be saved. In one way I might help. Even alone I might
save her, if I could get out to the whaler unknown to her crew. I knew I
could manage this, for anyhow I could swim; for a weapon which the water
could not render useless I had the dagger I had taken from Don
Bernardino. Should other weapons be necessary I might be able to lay
hands on them in the cabin next Marjory's, where the red-bearded man lay
asleep. I did not know whether it would be better to go in search of
some of my comrades, or to wait the arrival of the Don, who was to be
back within an hour of the time of leaving. I was still trying to make
up my mind when the difficulty was settled for me by the arrival of the
Spaniard, accompanied by one of the young American naval officers.
When I told them of my vision I could see, even in the darkness which
prevailed, that neither of them was content to accept its accuracy
in blind faith. I was at first impatient; but this wore away when I
remembered that neither of them had any knowledge of my experiences in
the way of Second Sight, or indeed of the phenomenon at all. Neither in
Spain nor America does such a belief prevail; and I have no doubt that
to both of them came the idea that worry and anxiety had turned my
brain. Even when I told them how I meant to back my belief by swimming
out beyond the Dunbuy Rock in time to reach the ship before the boat
would arrive, they were not convinced. The method of reception of the
idea by each was, however, characteristic of his race and nation. To
the high-bred Spaniard, whose life had been ruled by laws of honour and
of individual responsibility, no act done in the cause of chivalry could
be other than worthy; he did not question the sanity of the keeping of
such a purpose. The practical American, however, though equally willing
to make self-sacrifice, and to dare all things in the course of honour
and duty, looked at my intention with regard to its result; was I taking
the step which would have the best result with regard to the girl whom
we were all trying to save. Whilst the Spaniard raised his hat and said:
"May God watch over your gallant enterprise, Senor; and hold your life,
and that of her whom you love, in the hollow of His hand!" The American
said:
"Honest injun! old chap, is that the best you can do? If it's only a man
and a life you want, count me in every time. I'm a swimmer, too; and I'm
a youngster that don't count. So far as that goes, I'm on. But you've
got to find the ship, you know! If she was there now, I should say 'risk
it'; and I'd come with you if you liked. But there's the whole North Sea
out there, with room for a hundred million of whalers without their
jostling. No, no! Come, I say, let us find another way round; where we
can help the girl all together!" He was a good young fellow, as well
as a fine one, and it was evident he meant well. But there was no use
arguing; my mind was made up, and, after assuring him that I was in
earnest, I told him that I was taking a couple of rockets with me which
I would try to keep dry so that should occasion serve I would make
manifest the whereabouts of the whaler. He already knew what to do with
regard to signalling from shore, in case the boats of the whaler should
be seen.
When we had made what preparations we could for the work each of us had
in hand, the time came for my starting on my perilous enterprise. As
my purpose became more definite, my companions, who I think doubted in
their hearts its sincerity, became somewhat more demonstrative. It was
one thing to have a vague intention of setting out on a wild journey of
the kind, and even here common sense rebelled. But on the edge of the
high cliff, in the dark, amid the fog which came boiling up from below
as the wind puffs drove it on shore; when below our feet the rising
waves broke against the rocks with an ominous sound, made into a roar by
the broken fastnesses of the cliffs, the whole thing must have seemed as
an act of madness. When through a break in the fog-belt we could catch
a glimpse of the dark water leaping far below into furious, scattering
lines of foam, to dare the terrors of such a sea at such a time was like
going deliberately to certain death. My own heart quailed at moments;
when I saw through the fog wreaths the narrow track, down which I must
again descend to where Gormala's body lay, fading into a horrid gloom;
or when the sound of breaking water drove up, muffled by the dark mist.
My faith in the vision was strong, however, and by keeping my mind
fixed on it I could shut out present terrors. I shook hands with my two
friends, and, taking courage from the strong grip of their hands, set
myself resolutely to my journey down the cliff. The last words the young
navy man said to me were:
"Remember, if you do reach the whaler, that a gleam of light of any kind
will give us a hint of where you are. Once the men of the _Keystone_ see
it, they'll do the rest at sea; as we shall on land. Give us such a
light when the time comes--if you have to fire the ship to get it!"
At the foot of the cliff path the prospect was almost terrifying. The
rocks were so washed with the churning water, as the waves leaped at
them, that now and again only black tops could be seen rising out of
the waste of white water; and a moment after, as the wave fell back,
there would be a great mass of jagged rocks, all stark and grim, blacker
than their own blackness, with the water streaming down them, and great
rifts yawning between. Outside, the sea was a grim terror, a wildness of
rising waves and lines of foam, all shrouded in fog and gloom. Through
all came a myriad of disconcerting sounds, vague and fearsome, from
where the waves clashed or beat into the sounding caverns of Dunbuy.
Nothing but the faith which I had in the vision of Marjory, which came
to me with the dead eyes of the western Seer, could have carried me out
into that dreadful gloom. All its possibilities of horror and danger
woke to me at once, and for a moment appalled me.
But Faith is a conquering power; even the habit of believing, in which I
had been taught, stood to me in this wild hour. No sceptic, no doubter,
could have gone forth as I did into that unknown of gloom and fear.
I waited till a great wave was swept in close under my bare feet. Then,
with a silent prayer, and an emboldening thought: 'For Marjory!' I
leaped into the coming water.