It was after many hours of stupor, and when Doctor Asher, the physician
of Danmouth, had gone back to the Fort, from a hurried visit to his
injured patient, that Isaac Woodham unclosed his eyes, and lay gazing at
the pale, agony-drawn face of his wife, upon which the light of the
solitary candle fell.
"What's the matter?" he said hoarsely.
"Ike, husband," whispered the suffering woman.
"Oh, yes; I remember now," he said, with a piteous groan. "I always
knew it would come."
"Ike, dear, can I do anything?" said his wife tenderly.
"Yes."
"Tell me what, dear?"
"I'll tell you soon," groaned the man. "I knew it would come; I always
felt it. Ah, my girl, my girl, I've preached to them often, and talked
about the end of a good Christian man, but it's very, very hard to die."
"Die! oh, Isaac, don't say that."
"Yes; and to die through him--through that tyrant, and all to make him
rich."
"No, no; you'll get better, dear, as Roberts did, and Jackson, who were
worse than you."
"Hah!" he cried, making a gesticulation, as if to cast aside his wife's
vain words; and then, with a sudden access of force that was startling,
he caught at her hand.
"Sally, my lass," he whispered harshly, "Gartram has murdered me."
"Isaac, my poor husband, don't say that."
"It was all his doing. He always thwarted me, and interfered when I had
to blast."
"Pray, pray be still, dear. You are so bad and weak. The doctor said
you were to be kept quiet, and not to talk."
"Doctor knew it was all over. I am a dying man."
"No, no, my darling."
"Yes, I'll say it, and more too while I have time. But for Gartram, I
should be well and strong now. Oh, how I hate him! Curse him for a
dog!"
"Isaac!--darling husband."
"Yes; I always hated him, the oppressor and tyrant. He made me mad
about blasting that bit of rock, and I felt I must do it--my way; but he
bullied me till my hands were all of a tremble, and I was thinking about
what he said till I wasn't myself, and the stuff went off too soon. But
it was his doing. He murdered me; and if it hadn't been for him, I
should have been right."
"Oh, my darling!"
"Hush, don't cry, my lass. It's all over now, but I can't die peaceful
like yet."
"Let me put your poor hands together, Ike, and I'll pray for you."
"Yes, my lass, but not yet. I'm dying, Sally--fast."
"No, no, Ike. There, let me give you a drop of the stuff the doctor
left. It'll do you good."
"Nothing'll do me good but you."
"Ike, dear, be still and I'll run and fetch the doctor; he's at the
Fort. Gartram has had a bad fit."
"Curse him!"
"No, no, dear, don't curse. You make me shiver."
There was a terrible silence in the gloomy cottage room, where the
ghastly face of the injured man seemed to loom out of the darkness, and
looked weird and strange. The woman tried to quit his side, but he held
her tightly as he lay gazing straight up at her, his breath coming in a
laboured way, as if he had to force each inspiration, suffering agony
the while; and if ever the stamp of death was set-plainly upon human
countenance, it was upon his.
"Sally," he gasped, and his voice was changing rapidly. "Sally!"
"Yes, dear."
"Don't leave me. Where are you?"
"Here, darling; holding your hands."
"Why did you put out the light?"
"Isaac, my own dear man!"
"Listen. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, dear, yes."
"I'm dying fast, and I shall never rest without--without you do what I
say."
"Yes, dear, I'll do anything you tell me--you know I will."
"That's right. Quick, before it's too late."
"Oh, if help would only come," moaned the woman.
"No help can come, my lass. Now, put your hand under me and lift my
head on your shoulder. That's right. Ah!"
He uttered a groan of agony, and lay speechless as she raised him; and
the wife turned cold with horror, as it seemed to her that he was dead,
but his lips moved again.
"Now," he said, "I can talk without feeling strangled. Gartram has made
an end of me, and it's a dying man speaking to you. It's almost a voice
from the dead telling you what to do."
"Yes, dear, tell me. What shall I do?"
"You'll swear to do what I tell you?"
"Yes, Isaac, anything."
"You're in the presence of death, wife, with the good and evil all about
us, and what you say is registered against you."
"Yes, dear," said the woman, shuddering.
"You swear, so help you God, to obey my last words?"
"Yes, dear," cried the woman, with her eyes lighting up, and a look of
exultation in every feature; "I'll swear to obey you."
"Then you will measure out to Norman Gartram, and pay back to him all he
has paid to me."
"Isaac!"
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, as it says in the Holy Book."
"Husband!"
"You have sworn to do it, woman, and there is no drawing back. As he
murdered me, so you shall cut short his cursed life."
"Isaac, I cannot."
"Woman, you have sworn to the dying; you are the instrument, the chosen
vessel to execute God's wrath upon this man. For he shall not live to
do more wrong to the suffering people he has been grinding under his
heel."
"No, no: I could not do this thing, Isaac, it is too terrible."
"She has sworn to do it. She has heard the message, and his days will
come to an end as mine have come, and he will go on no longer in his
wickedness, piling up riches. Ha! ha! ha! Thou fool--this night shall
thy--wife--are you there?"
"Isaac! Husband!"
"Ah, yes. Good wife, my last words. Words from the other world. You
will not rest till you have fulfilled your sacred task. I shall not
rest till then--you--the chosen vessel--His wrath against the
oppressor--as I have been--cut off--so shall Gartram be--cut off--yours
the chosen hand, wife--quick--your hand--upon my head--you swear--that
you will do my bidding--the bidding of--"
He paused, and she saw his eyes gazing wildly in hers, and it seemed as
if the words she whispered were dragged from her--a voice within her
seeming to utter them, and the belief that she was but the instrument of
a great punishment upon a sinful man appeared to strengthen within her
breast.
"Quick," gasped the dying man; "your hand upon my head, wife--your lips
close to me--let me hear you speak."
"Isaac! Husband!" she groaned; "must I do this dreadful thing?"
"It is a message from--"
There was a terrible silence in the narrow chamber, and the dying man's
eyes were fixed upon hers as she laid her hand upon his brow and spoke
firmly,--
"I swear."
"Hah!"
A low, rattling expiration of the breath, and as Sarah Woodham gazed in
her husband's eyes, the wild, fiery look died slowly out, to become
grave and tender. Then it seemed to her that the look was fixed and
strange. She had been prepared, but not for so sudden a shock as this.
"Ike!" she cried, lowering him upon the pillow. "Ike! Why don't you
speak? Do you hear me?" and her voice sounded peremptory and harsh; "do
you hear me?"
She had seized him by the shoulders as she bent over him, and her voice
grew more excited and strange.
"You are doing this to frighten me--to keep that oath--but I will do it.
Ike, dear, do you hear me? Don't play with me. It hurts my poor
heart--to see you--so fixed and strange--Ike! Husband! Speak!"
In her horror and agony she gripped his shoulders more tightly and shook
him.
Then the horrible truth refused to be kept longer at bay, and, starting
back from the couch where the fixed, grave eyes seemed to follow her,
reminding her of her oath, she stood with her hands raised, staring
wildly for a few moments before an exceeding bitter cry escaped her
lips.
"No," she cried; "it can't be. My darling, don't leave me here alone in
the weary world. Isaac, my own! My God! he's dead."
She reeled, caught at the table to save herself, the ill-supported
candle dropped from the stick, and she fell with a thud upon the floor,
as the candle rolled from the table close to her face, flickered for a
few moments to display its ghastly lineaments, and then died out.
But it was not quite dark.
A faint light stole in beside the drawn-down blind, the chill air of
morning sighed round the house, and a low murmur came from the waves
fretting among the broken granite far below; and it was as if the night,
too, were dead, and the low sigh died away in a hushed silence.
Then _pink, pink, pink, pink_ came the sharp cry of the blackbird from
the tangle of bramble and whortleberry high up the cliff slope, and from
the grassy level above, the clear loud song of the lark, as it rose high
in the pale morning sky, telling that come sorrow come joy, the world
still goes round, and that Nature will have her way, even though murder
be on the wing.
Volume One, Chapter VIII.