ON THE LEDGE.
"This must be looked into," said Harry, resolutely. "Who will go with
me to the ledge?"
"No--no--do not go," pleaded Mary, "see how the fire rages! The peak
may explode before you come down, and you be swallowed up in the
flames!"
Harry however was determined to go.
"If nobody will go with me," said he, "I will go alone."
Mary advanced to his side.
"I will go with you," said she; "if you are to perish, I will die with
you."
The young man, however, would not permit the girl to accompany him.
"If what was seen was mortal," said Turk, "why, then, I'd go with you;
but I don't care to have anything to do with spirits and sich like,
which can give you a poke in the stomach, do you see, and yet you not
be able to square off to 'em."
"Very well, then, I go alone," said Harry, as he sprang away.
He had not reached the foot of the cliff, when he felt a hand on his
arm, and turned to behold Turk.
"Fact is," said the latter, "I won't see ye go alone, but if there's
any fightin' to do with ghosts, you mustn't expect me to help you, for
when I aim at a nose, I like to hit it, which is impossible with the
noses of goblins and sich like, as your fist will go right through
'em."
The two soon were at the foot of the cliff, which both now commenced
to ascend. As they advanced, the rumbling beneath them seemed to
increase, shaking the cliff to its foundation.
At length they arrived near the ledge, where the heat was almost
unbearable. On one side of them there was a wide cleft, in which a
line of fire was seen, glowing like a red hot iron. The slightest
mis-step on the part of the adventurers in their endeavors to reach
the ledge, must precipitate them into the cleft.
To get to their destination, they must move along a narrow ridge not
more than two inches wide, with nothing at the side of the rock to
clutch except a slightly rugged surface which must afford them a very
insecure hold.
"This is dang'rous traveling," remarked Turk, "worse than walkin' on a
railroad track over a rottin bridge."
The two kept on, carefully making progress, until finally they were
close to the ledge, upon which a sudden spring carried them.
Winding round the cliff, they could now see another ledge, but no sign
of the strange figure. They clambered the rocky surface, exploring it
on all sides, but saw no sign of what they were after.
"To my notion," said Turk, "that goblin has gone down to take a
siesta, do you see, preparatory to comin' up agin, which, I take it,
is a good hint fur us to make leg-bail."
"What is this?" inquired Harry suddenly, stooping and picking up a
singular object.
It was a cocoanut branch twisted into an odd shape, bearing some
resemblance to a pronged fork.
"Ay, ay, now, there's the pitchfork for sartin!" exclaimed Turk; "that
goblin has left his instrumental be--behind him, and we may yet come
upon his tail!"
"Hark, Turk," said Harry, somewhat sternly, "you must not talk in
that way. This is in fact, no time for joking. See there," pointing
above them as he spoke, to where lurid flames were shooting out from
crevices in the rock, thus preventing their ascent.
Gazing below them they beheld the dark tops of the trees, far beneath.
There was no means by which they could reach the ground.
The flames meanwhile burning brighter and longer, every moment, until
finally they scorched the flesh of the two men, whose situation from
the intense heat, was becoming intolerable.
For a moment they stood looking at each other, puzzled to know what to
do.
Then a sudden thought flashed across Harry's mind.
"There are coils of rope in the schooner," said he; "we can start from
here to Brand, who, probably, is watching us, telling him to bring up
and lower to us one of those coils of rope."
"Ay, ay, if he ain't afraid," answered Turk.
The two men shouting with united voices, pronounced the captain's name.
"Halloa!" was the response.
"We cannot get back the way we came. Bring us a rope from the
schooner's wreck, and lower it to us."
Brand shuddered and turned pale.
Mary, who was near, besought him to hurry.
"No," he answered, in husky voice, "I do not care to go aboard that
schooner!"
"Then I will go!" cried Mary, and away she went.
Bad as he was, Brand was yet man enough not to permit this girl to
undertake such a difficult task.
He sprang after her, and soon boarding the schooner, advanced with
lighted candle into the hold, casting fearful glances around him.
He saw nothing, however, to excite alarm, and so seizing a small coil,
he emerged with it on deck.
He was about climbing over the bulwarks, when, chancing to turn his
head towards the schooner's bows, he fancied he saw the phantom face
of the drowned passenger as it was hastily withdrawn!
"P'shaw, this is mere imagination," muttered the captain, as he
sprung over the rail to the beach, where he found Mary anxiously
waiting for him.
"Quick! make haste!" exclaimed the young girl.
It almost seemed to Brand, as he encountered the gaze of those wild
eyes, that he beheld a second phantom, so alike were the eyes of
father and daughter.
Throwing the coil over his shoulders, he hurried along to the cliff
and commenced the ascent, followed by Mary, who, in her anxiety for
her lover's safety, would almost have followed the man into the very
flames.
In a short time they were at a point, whence the rope might be lowered
to the two imperiled men upon the ledge.
Brand, therefore, uncoiling the line, lowered the end to them at a
point where the flames could not come into contact with it, fastening
the other part to a spur.
It was evident, however, that the two must make good speed, else the
strands would become so weakened by the heat that there would be
danger of their giving way.
The two men found the rope, where they lowered it over the edge of the
rocky shelf, long enough to reach to the ground, about one hundred and
fifty feet beneath them.
Then Turk commenced the descent, succeeding in reaching the ground
safely.
By this time the strands were so weakened that Brand was obliged to
haul the rope up, to prevent its parting, and secure another turn
around the rocky spur.
Then Harry, grasping the lower part, commenced to descend. He had got
within about one hundred and twenty feet of the ground and within a
few feet of the top of one of the trees, when from the branches, the
captain, whose position afforded him a good view of the trees revealed
in the volcano's lurid light, uttered a sudden wild cry, that rang
above the din of the roaring fire.
Protruding from the foliage of the tree, towards which Harry was being
lowered, the man beheld the long, lean neck and ghastly countenance
of the apparition he so dreaded.
So great was the effect of this vision upon him that he let go the
rope which descended swift as a shot.
Where now was Harry Glenville?