The lady began walking at a great rate, being in a vast hurry to find
Rollo. She descended to the shore, knowing that if she kept on the
heights she should arrive at the precipices which would forbid all
access to the caves below.
The tide was going down; and as soon as she reached the sands of a
little cove she was pleased to see a good many shell fish. Her first
thought was that she would collect some and carry them up for Annie
Fleming's breakfast; but she immediately remembered that this would add
to her fatigues, and consume her precious time; and she gave up the
thought, and began picking up cockles for herself--large blue cockles,
which she thought would afford her an excellent breakfast, if only she
could meet with some fresh bread and butter in some nook in the island.
She turned up her skirt--the skirt of the country woman's gown which she
wore--and made a bag of it for her cockles, rejoicing for the moment
that it was not one of her own silks. Then she remembered that she had
seen at the widow's a light and strong frail basket, made of the
sea-bent which grew in the sands. This basket would be useful to her:
so she would, after all, go up--carry some cockles for Annie, and borrow
the basket. She did so, and came away again without awakening the
widow.
At first, Lady Carse thought that Annie was right, and that the island
was not so dreary after all. The morning breeze was fresh and
strengthening; the waves ran up gaily upon the sands, and leaped against
the projecting rocks, and fell back with a merry splash. And the
precipices were so fine, she longed for her sketch-book; and the romance
of her youth began to revive within her. Here was a whole day for
roving. She would somehow make a fire in a cave, and cook for herself.
She was sure she could live among these caves; and if she was missing
for a considerable time, the Macdonalds would think she had escaped, or
was drowned; and she could slip away at last, when some vessel put into
the harbour. She stopped and looked round; but on all the vast stretch
of waters there was no vessel to be seen but the sloop in the harbour;
while on shore there was no human being visible, nor any trace of
habitation. The solitude rather pressed on her heart; but she hastened
on, and rounded the point which would shut out from her the land view,
and prevent her being seen by any one from Macdonald's. She had no fear
of her return being cut off by the tide. She had the whole day before
her, and could climb the rocks to a safe height at any time.
These were caves indeed! At sight of them her heart was in a sort of
tumult very different from any it had experienced for long. She eagerly
entered the first, and drew deep breath as the thunder of the waters and
the echoes together almost confounded her senses. At the lowest tides
there was some depth of water below, in a winding central channel. In
the evening how black that channel must be! how solemn the whole place!
Now the low sun was shining in, lighting up every point, and disclosing
all the hollows, and just catching a ripple now and then, which, in its
turn, made a ripple of light on the roof; and, far in, there was an
opening--a gaping chink in the side of the cave--which gave admission to
a second rocky chamber.
Lady Carse was bent on reaching this opening; and did so, at last. She
could not cross the clear deep water in the channel below her. It was
just too wide for a safe leap. But she found a footing over the rocks
which confined it; and on she went--now ascending, now descending almost
to the water--amidst dancing lights and rising and falling echoes; on
she went, her heart throbbing, her spirits cheered--her whole soul full
of a joy which she had not experienced for long. She stepped over the
little chasm to which the waters narrowed at last, and, reaching the
opening thrust herself through it.
She seemed to have left light and sound behind her. Dim, cool, and
almost silent was the cavern she now stood in. Its floor was thickly
strewn with fine sand, conveying the sensation that her own footsteps
were not to be heard. Black pillars of rock rose from a still pool
which lay in her way, and which she perceived only just in time to
prevent her stepping into it. These pillars and other dark masses of
rock sprang up and up till her eye lost them in the darkness; and if
there was a roof, she could not see it. A drip from above made a plash
about once in a minute in the pool; and the murmur from without was so
subdued--appeared to be so swallowed up in vastness and gloom--that the
minute drop was loud in comparison. Lady Carse lay down on the soft
sand, to rest, and listen, and think--to ponder plans of hiding and
escape. All her meditations brought her round to the same point: that
three things were necessary to any plan of escape--a supply of food, a
boat, and an accomplice. She arose, chilled and hungry, determined to
try whether she could not meet with one or all of these this very day.
As she slowly proceeded round the pool, she became aware that it was not
so perfectly still as hitherto; and a gurgle of waters grew upon the
ear. It was only that the tide was coming up, and that the pool was
being fed by such influx as could take place through a few crannies.
She perceived that these crannies had let in a glimmering of light which
was now sensibly darkened. She had no fear--only the delicious awe
which thrills through the spirit on its admission to the extreme
privacies of nature. There was some light, and safe opportunity of
return by the way she had come. She would not go back till she had
tried whether she could get on.
On she went--more than once in almost total darkness--more than once
slipping on a piece of wet and weedy rock where she expected to tread on
thick sand--more than once growing irritable at little difficulties, as
hungry people of better tempers than hers are apt to do in strange
places. A surprise awaited her at last. She had fancied she perceived
a glimmer of light before her; and she suddenly found herself at the top
of a steep bank of sand, at the bottom of which there was an opening--a
very low arch--to the outer air. While she was sliding down this bank,
she heard a voice outside. She was certain of it. Presently there was
a laugh, and the voice again. If she had found Rollo, there was
somebody else too; and if Rollo was not here, there was the more to hope
something from.
Now the question was whether she could get through the arch. She pushed
her basket through first, and then her own head; and she saw what made
her lie still for some little time. The arch opened upon a cove, deep
and narrow, between projecting rocks. A small raft rose and fell on the
surface of the water; and on the raft stood a man, steading himself with
his legs wide apart, while he held a rope with both hands, and gazed
intently upwards. The raft was in a manner anchored; tied with ropes to
masses of rock on each side of the cove; but it still pitched so much
that Lady Carse thought the situation of the man very perilous: and she,
therefore, made no noise, lest she should startle him. She little
dreamed how safe was his situation compared with that of the comrade he
was watching.
In a short time the man changed his occupation. He relaxed his hold of
the rope, fastened it to a corner of the raft, gazed about him like a
man of leisure, and then once more looked upwards, holding out his arms
as if to catch something good. And immediately a shower of sea-birds
began to fall: now one, now three, now one again: down they came, head
foremost, dead as a stone. Two fell into the water; but he fished them
up with a stick with a noose of hair at the end, and flung them on the
heap in the middle of the raft.
When the shower began to slacken, Lady Carse thought it the time to make
herself heard. She put her head and shoulders through the low arch, and
asked the man if he thought she could get through. His start at the
voice, his bewildered look down the face of the rock, and the scared
expression of his countenance when he discovered the face that peeped
out at the bottom, amused Lady Carse extremely. She did not remember
how unlike her fair complexion and her hair were to those of the women
of these islands, nor that a stranger was in this place more rare than a
ghost. And as for the man--what could he suppose but that the handsome
face that he saw peeping out, laughing, from the base of the precipice,
was that of some rock spirit, sent perhaps for mischief? However, in
course of time the parties came to an explanation; that is, of all that
the lady said, the man caught one word--Macdonald; and he saw that she
had a basket of cockles, and knew the basket to be of island
manufacture. Moreover he found, when he ventured to help her out, that
her hand was of flesh and blood, though he had never before seen one so
slender and white.
When she stood upright on the margin of the creek, what a scene it was!
Clear as the undulating waters were, no bottom was visible. Their
darkness and depth sent a chill through her frame. Overhead the
projecting rocks nearly shut out the sky, while the little strip that
remained was darkened by a cloud of fluttering and screaming sea-birds.
The cause of their commotion was pointed out to her. A man, whom she
could scarcely have distinguished but for the red cap on his head, was
on the face of the precipice; now appearing still, now moving, she could
not tell how, for the rock appeared to her as smooth up there as the
wall of a house. But it was not so--there were ledges; and on one of
these he stood, plundering the nests of the sea fowl, which were
screaming round his head.
"Rollo?" the lady asked, as she turned away, her brain reeling at the
sight she had seen.
"Rollo," replied the man, now entirely satisfied. No spirit would want
to be told who anyone was.
And now Rollo was to descend. His comrade again stepped upon the raft,
pushed out to the middle of the channel, secured the raft, grasped the
rope, and steadied himself. Lady Carse thought she could not look; but
she glanced up now and then, when there was a call from above, or a
question from below, or when there was a fling of the rope or a pause in
the proceedings. When Rollo at last slid down upon the raft, hauled it
to shore, and jumped on the rock beside her, he was as careless as a
hedger coming home to breakfast, while she was trembling in every limb.
And Rollo was thinking more of his breakfast than of the way he had
earned it, or of the presence of a stranger. He was a stout, and now
hungry, lad of eighteen, to whom any precipice was no more startling
than a ladder is to a builder. And, as his mother had taught him to
speak English, and he had on that account been employed to communicate
with such strangers as had now and then come to the island during
Macdonald's absence, he was little embarrassed by the apparition of the
lady. He was chiefly occupied with his pouchful of eggs, there being
more than he had expected to find so late in the season. It was all
very well, he said, for their provision to-day; but it was a sign that
somebody knew this cove as well as themselves, and that it was no longer
a property to himself and his comrade.
"How so?" inquired the lady. "How can you possibly tell by the eggs
that anyone has been here?"
Rollo glanced at his comrade, in a sort of droll assurance that it could
be no voice from the grave, no ghostly inhabitant of a cave, who could
require to have such a matter explained. He then condescendingly told
her that when the eggs of the eider-duck are taken she lays more; and
this twice over, before giving up in despair. Of course, this puts off
the season of hatching; and when, therefore, eggs are found fresh so
late in the season, it is pretty plain that someone has been there to
take those earlier laid. Rollo seemed pleased that the lady could
comprehend this when it was explained to her. He gave her an
encouraging nod, and began to scramble onward over the rocks, his
companion being already some paces in advance of him. The lady followed
with her basket as well as she could; but she soon found herself alone,
and in not the most amiable mood at being thus neglected. She had not
yet learned that she was in a place where women are accustomed to shift
for themselves, and precedence is not thought of, except by the
fireside, with aged people or a minister of the Gospel in presence.
She smoothed her brow, however, when she regained sight of the young
men. They were on their knees in the entrance of a cavern, carefully
managing a smouldering peat so as to obtain a fire. It was ticklish
work; for the peat had been left to itself rather too long; and chips
and shavings were things never seen in these parts. A wisp of dry
grass, or a few fibres of heather, were made to serve instead; and it
was not easy to create with these heat enough to kindle fresh peats. At
last, however, it was done; and eggs were poked in, here and there, to
roast. The cockles must be roasted, too; and two or three little
mouse-coloured birds, the young of the eider-duck, were broiled as soon
as plucked. So much for the eating. As for the drinking, there was
nothing but pure whisky, unless the lady could drink sea-water. Thirsty
as she was she thought of the drip in the cave; but, besides that it was
far to go, and scanty when obtained, she remembered all the slime she
had seen, and she did not know whence that drip came. So she gulped
down two or three mouthfuls of whisky, and was surprised to find how
little she disliked it, and how well it agreed with her after her walk.
As soon as Rollo could attend to her, she told him where she had spent
the night--how she had resolved to live with his mother, and in sight of
the harbour--and how she wanted two or more rooms built for her at the
end of the widow's cottage, unless, indeed, she could get a boat built
instead, to take her over to the main, for which she would engage to pay
hereafter whatever should be asked. Rollo told his companion this; and
they both laughed so at the idea of the boat, that the lady rose in
great anger, and walked away. Rollo attended her, and pointed to his
raft, saying that there was no other such craft as even that in the
island; and people did not think of boats, even in their dreams, though
he could fancy that any lady in the south might, for he had heard that
boats were common in the south. But, he went on to say, if she could
not have a boat, she might have a house.
"Will you help to build it?" asked the lady. "Will your companion--will
all the people you know--help me to build it?"
"Why, yes," Rollo replied. "We shall have to build some sort of a
cottage for the minister that is coming--for the minister and his wife;
and we may as well--"
"Minister! Is there a minister coming?" cried the lady.
"O thank God, whose servant he is! Thank God for sending me
deliverance, as He surely will by these means!" She had sunk on her
knees. Rollo patted her on the shoulder and said the folk were
certainly coming. What to make of Rollo she did not know. He treated
her as if she were a child. He used a coaxing way of talking, explained
to her the plainest things before her eyes, and patted her on the
shoulder. She drew away, looking very haughtily at him, but he only
nodded.
"Why was I not told before that the minister and his wife were coming?
Macdonald did not tell me. Your mother did not tell me."
"They do not know it yet. They seldom know things till I tell them; and
I did not want to be kept at home to build a house till I had got some
business of my own done."
He would not tell how he had obtained his information; but explained
that it was the custom for a minister to live for some time on each of
the outlying islands, where there were too few people to retain a
constant pastor. This island was too little inhabited to have had a
minister on its shores since the chapel had gone to ruin, a hundred
years before--but the time was at hand at last. There had been a
disappointment in some arrangements in the nearest neighbour islet; and
Mr Ruthven and his wife were appointed to reside here for a year or
more, as might appear desirable. Rollo considered this great news.
Children and betrothed persons would be brought hither to be baptised
and married--arriving perhaps more than once in the course of the year;
and it would be strange if the minister were not, in that time, to be
sent for in a boat to bury somebody. Or, perhaps, a funeral or two
might come to the old chapel. Some traffic there must be; and that
would make it a great year for Rollo. And, to begin with, there would
be the house to build; and he might be sent for materials. He should
like that, though he did not much fancy the trouble of the building.
After a moment's thought the lady asked him if he could not keep the
secret of the minister's coming till the last possible hour. She would
reward him well if he would get the house built as for her. Seeing how
precious was the opportunity, she gave Rollo her confidence, showed him
how it would tend to satisfy Macdonald if she appeared to be settling
herself quietly in the island; whereas, if he knew of the approach of
vessels with strangers, he would probably imprison her, or carry her
away to some yet wilder and more remote speck in the ocean. Rollo saw
something of her reasons, and said patronisingly, "Why, you talk like an
island woman now. You might almost have lived here, by the way you
understand things."
Yet better did he apprehend her promises of vast rewards, if he would do
exactly as she wished. There was an air about her which enabled him to
fancy her some queen or other powerful personage; and as it happened to
suit him to keep the secret till the last moment, he promised, for
himself and his comrade, to be discreet, and obey orders.
This settled, the lady turned homewards, with a basket full of eggs, and
fish, and young birds, and news for the widow that her son was safe, and
not far off, and about to come home to try his hand at building a house.