"Yes, sir. Our town's bigger nor Wandsbro'--more go-ahead like. It
didn't use to be so, you see, but when them works at Wandsbro' were shut
up, why, then it fell back and we went ahead, sir."
So spake the loquacious waiter in the coffee-room of the "Silver Fleece
Inn," at Battisford, as he skipped, napkin in hand, round the only
guest, who was dining early, for it was Sunday. A finely-proportioned
man of, apparently, about sixty, and wearing a bushy iron-grey beard and
dark-tinted spectacles, it would be difficult to guess at his rank in
life. He might be a peer of the realm, or he might be a detective, and
he was dressed with perfect simplicity, though well.
"Indeed?" he replied carelessly. "I just remember being at Wandsborough
many years ago, when I was almost a boy. By the way, what's that
remarkably fine place I passed driving over here? It stood back in a
park, where there were any amount of deer."
"Was it against the hill, sir? 'Cos that's Cranston 'All--Gen'ral
Dorrien's. Yes, that is a fine place, sir."
"Dorrien did you say? Dorrien? Now that's strange. Fact is, I used to
know someone of that name, but I'm certain he hadn't ever been in the
army. Has this one any sons?"
"Oh, yes, sir. There's--"
"Ah! The one I knew hadn't. He was a bachelor."
"That must 'ave been the old squire, sir--the Gen'ral's brother. 'E was
a bachelor. But this one--well, sir, I don't mind tellin' you, 'e's a
terribly cross-tempered gentleman, and they do say as how none of his
fam'ly can live with him."
"Indeed? How's that?"
"Well, sir, I believe it's this way," went on the loquacious waiter,
delighted at the prospect of whiling away a goodly portion of this dull
Sunday afternoon at his favourite pastime. Here, too, was a stranger,
one who seemed to listen to him with interest. So he plunged at once
into his lecture, with the utter disregard of his class for sequence or
order in narration, and the stranger was favoured among other incidents
with a highly-coloured version of the fracas which had taken place in
the Dorrien family some months earlier.
"And then, you see, sir, the General was that savage with the poor young
Squire, 'cos he not only wanted to marry the parson's young lady, but it
seemed he hadn't been playing quite on the square with a gal in Cranston
village--Steve Devine's gal, that was--he as is now keeper at Colonel
Neville's. And now they say he's took up with her in London. She's a
play-actress up there, they say."
If the slightest possible change came over the listener's countenance at
this announcement, to have discovered it would have taken a very close
observer indeed, which the waiter was not.
"H'm! A sort of Don Juan this young Dorrien seems to have been,"
remarked the stranger more to himself than to the other, and pronouncing
the name in the usual British and erroneous way.
"Yessir--I daresay, sir--King John--wasn't 'e the party that 'ad eight
wives and cut their 'eads off as fast as he got tired of them?"
"Well, what sort of a girl was this?"
"A fine gal, sir. A reelly fine, purty gal, and Gipsy Steve, he looked
after her orlways and led her a life of it, if any young chap so much as
looked at her. And now, sir, 'ere's a bit of queer human natur'," went
on the gossip, sinking his voice and looking preternaturally wise.
"There's some wot sez they don't believe the gal's with Mr Roland at
all, but that his brother started the story. Ah! he's a bad lot, is
young Mr Hubert."
"Well, but why the deuce should he tell such an infernal lie as that?"
The loquacious one looked at him for a moment pityingly, and his voice
grew even more confidential.
"Bless your 'art. Don't you see, sir? The young one wants to stick to
all the swag. If the other comes back, well, of course, it'll make all
the difference to this one. And so 'e says 'e sor his brother and
Lizzie in London together, and the General's more furious than ever
about it."
"And what do they think in Wandsborough?"
"Well, sir, there's them as believes it and there's them as doesn't.
For my part I dunno wot to think, though, of course, it's no concern o'
mine."
"H'm!" The stranger yawned and deliberately stretched himself, and
began to show signs of moving, and the loquacious one perceived that his
fill of gossip was over for the present.
"Beg pardon, sir," he remarked, "but are you 'Igh Church?"
"What? Why?" answered the stranger, starting from a reverie.
"Because, sir, if you are, there's a big 'Igh Church over at
Wandsborough, and lots of folks go from here on a Sunday evening. I've
been myself once or twice, but couldn't make nothing out of it. But
it's very gorjus."
"Well, it'd be something to do. How long does it take to walk over?"
"Nearly an hour, sir, if you walk very quick. But the walk's jest
lovely, and so's the music."
"All right. I may go over. Now I'm going upstairs," and escaping from
the running fire of enquiries by which he was pursued, the stranger made
his way to his bed-room. Once there, and the door locked, a restless
sigh escaped him. He threw open the window, and kept consulting his
watch from time to time. Then he sat down and fell into deep thought,
with knitted brows and fixed gaze. He was thinking over all he had just
heard. The thoughtless chatter of busybodies, like this talkative
waiter, often reflected public opinion with marvellous accuracy. After
a while he rose, and pulling on a warm overcoat and taking a stout
walking-stick in his hand, he went out.
About half a mile outside Wandsborough there is a certain stile leading
from the high road into the footpath to Minchkil Bay. Anyone commanding
a view of this stile might have witnessed a curious spectacle on this
dark, wintry afternoon. They might have descried an elderly stranger,
grey-bearded and spectacled, leaning over the stile, his gaze riveted on
the cliff path; and our concealed witnesses would opine that the said
stranger had one foot in the grave. Then through the gloom rang out a
clash of bells upon the damp, chilly atmosphere; a joyous, musical peal,
that seemed to tell of light and warmth and peaceful homes. And the
lonely man standing there, with his eyes wandering over the darkening
wold, heard it, and his face wore an expression such as might rest upon
the countenances of the lost. Yes, he seemed dreadfully ill, hardly
able to stand, in fact; for presently he sank down into the rimy grass
in a half-faint.
For long he sat thus. Then, suddenly starting to his feet, he walked
rapidly towards the town, and in a few minutes stood within the church
porch. The change from darkness to the brilliantly-lighted interior was
bewildering. Mechanically he slipped into the place shown him by the
civil verger, heedless of the screwed-round heads and curious glances
inseparable from the event. How familiar it all seemed! The stately
altar lighted by its six tall tapers; the rows of white-clad choristers,
and the celebrant in his rich cope; the solemn chanting and the fragrant
fumes of the incense--what memories it seemed to bring back! And around
him many a familiar face--yet none knew him.
Mechanically again he took the hymn-book which the good-natured verger
put into his hands, and--held it upside down. After the singing, a
priest in surplice and stole entered the pulpit and began his sermon,
evoking in the stranger's face a momentary gleam of recognition. But
his thoughts soon wandered. Our friend Turner, indeed, was a pulpit
bore of the first water, but had he been a very Chrysostom he would have
met with scant attention from this stranger, who had walked all the way
from Battisford to attend the evening service.
The function over, the stranger hastened not to depart, but lingered,
half-concealed, in the shadow of a pillar, apparently intent on studying
the framed list of notices there hung up--in reality, his keen eyes
narrowly scanned the dispersing congregation. One group stood chatting
in a low voice just inside the west door, and, as his eye fell upon it,
again that white, haggard look came into his face.
"Brown," said a low, sweet, woman's voice, addressing the verger, who
was intent on putting out the lights. "Please tell Mr Mason that I
shall be happy to take his organ duties to-morrow, and even the next
day, if he wishes it. So that'll be a weight off his mind."
"Very good, Miss Olive. I know he'll be glad. I'll be sure to tell
him. Good-night, ladies."
Then the unknown, with a nod and a "good-evening" to the friendly
verger, passed out into the street, keeping within a dozen yards behind
the first speaker. Immediately a dark figure passed him hurriedly, and
gaining the side of her whom he was watching, a cordial greeting ensued,
and the two dropped a little behind the rest. The cassock and cloak
which he wore denoted one of the parish clergy, and as he passed under
the light of a lamp, the watcher recognised the features of Turner, the
curate.
An overpowering desire came over the stranger to learn the burden of
their conversation. That a strong bond of mutual sympathy existed
between them he had no difficulty in perceiving, and his mind leaped to
its own conclusions. Then with noiseless step he overtook the pair and
passed them slowly.
But what the sad, soft voice was saying, as well as the answer, was
inaudible to the listener. A loud, harsh hammering was sounding in his
brain, and he felt faint and dizzy. Fearful of betraying himself, he
crossed the road, and leaned against the wall for a few moments to
recover. When he looked up again the street was empty.
He wandered out of the town, and still lost in his reflections, hardly
noticed where he was till he reached the stile where he had rested a
short while previously. Then, instead of continuing his way along the
high road, he turned off across the fields, and began to ascend the
bleak heights which lay above the cliffs.
And it was a weird and desolate scene, that winter expanse of sea and
land upon which the wanderer's glance was bent. On all sides to seaward
the mist-wrack was rolling back like a curtain, and a red half-moon
slowly rose in the heavens, pouring a pale, spectral light upon the
silent waters and the great mysterious cliffs. A murmur of waves
breaking on the beach was upborne to his ears, as he strode rapidly on
through the rimy heather plants and the chill, bracing whiff of the salt
sea. Minchkil Beacon is left behind, and the rugged brow overhanging
Hadden's Slide, and still he keeps on his way, stopping now and again to
gaze upon the solemn grandeur of the moonlit coastline.
It is cold, but the pedestrian is in a glow of warmth after his hard,
uphill exercise, for he pauses occasionally to rest and wipe his heated
brow. What then makes him start and shiver violently, as though chilled
to the very marrow!
Cleaving the still and frosty air comes a deep-toned, lugubrious howl,
long-drawn, and proceeding apparently from the sea itself--a dismal,
unearthly baying, not loud, but with a carrying vibration that renders
the sound no less felt than heard. The listener standing alone on the
cliff feels an icy perspiration break out upon his forehead, and his
dilated gaze is riveted upon two rock pinnacles rising out of the sea
beneath. The crest of the highest is hidden in a dark cloud.
Stay! A strange phenomenon, that! There is not a vestige of cloud
nearer than the horizon. Yet down yonder a dark wreath broods over the
summit of one of those rock-turrets. And the highest of The Skegs is
far below the brow of the cliff.
The contour of the coast is perfectly outlined in the clear and
searching moonlight. The silver surface of the sea is deserted. But
darker than ever, and seeming to take shape beneath the watcher's gaze,
the cloud rests upon that turret-rock, and from its black folds again
and again sounds forth upon the silent night the terrible Death Portent.