"Two days since they rode hence under escort of three of the Captain's
men."
"And whither went they?"
"The Captain knows. Follow him and you shall find them."
"Look you here," said I, "if what you say be true, you shall have your
life. If not--"
"I'm no liar," said he, "and I curse the English."
"Then," said I, "help me and my men to save your chief's daughter, and
slay yonder Captain."
He pricked up his ears at that.
"'Tis too late, I doubt," said he. "The villain works quickly. 'Twere
better to find the maids dead. It took him not many hours to rob this
house of all its light."
"'Tis not too late so long as a breath is in this body," said I. "Come,
take us to him, as you are a loyal clansman."
"I know no more than I have told you," answered he. "He is gone to
Tyrone's country, and the maids have been carried thither before him. I
will guide you so far."
Without more words he came, springing at our sides over the heather and
along the mountain paths at a pace that put our nags to shame. 'Twas
easy to follow the tracks of the soldiers on the wet ground; and once,
towards evening, as we mounted a tall ridge, I fancied I could descry on
the crest opposite some figures that moved.
At our first halting-place, where we paused but to give our horses and
ourselves a hasty meal, we heard that about mid-day certain English
soldiers had passed the place at full gallop. And two days back, as
night fell, some travellers, amongst whom rode two women, had likewise
hurried by, westward.
With news such as this we could scarce afford our weary horses the rest
they needed, before we set forth again. Our guide led us down a steep
track into the valley, and then, striking straight across, we toiled up
the mountain path which ascended the high ridge opposite.
He checked our pace as we neared the top, advising us to await daylight
for the descent.
When at length at our backs rose the glorious sun over the eastern
hills, flashing his light past us into the valley below, we saw,
stretched out, a great plain like a map, through which the windings of a
river sparkled; while, beyond, rose another ridge of hills higher still
than that on which we stood.
Our guide beckoned us to a place whence we could look-out without being
exposed to the view of any one in the valley. For awhile we searched
the plain in vain. Only a few herds drove their cattle afield; and now
and then the sharp bark of a dog broke the stillness. At length, on the
slope of the hill opposite, we saw a flock of sheep break suddenly into
panic flight; and there appeared, crawling up the ascent, a body of
horsemen, who, by the occasional glancing of the sun upon steel, we knew
to be soldiers.
Whether they were the troops we sought, and whether amongst them they
carried the captive maidens, 'twas too far to determine. But at sight
of them we plunged with new hope towards the valley.
Half-way down, in a wood, we found a wounded trooper prone on the ground
and gasping for breath; while beside him grazed his horse. He was
bleeding from his side, and too faint to turn his head as we came up.
Our guide started as he saw him, and whispered:
"This is one of Merriman's men."
I knelt beside him and tried, in my clumsy way, to bind his wound, and
help him back to life. But 'twas plain we were all too late for that.
He lay gasping in my arms, his eyes, already glazed, looking vacantly
skyward, and his arms feebly tossing in his battle for breath. Twas no
time for questions. I ventured but one:
"Where is O'Neill's daughter?" I asked in his ear.
He turned his head and stopped his panting for a moment.
"I could not save her," he gasped; "Merrim--" and here he fell back in
my arms a dead man.
We covered him hastily with the fallen leaves, and, taking his horse for
our guide's use, spurred grimly on.
There was no doubt now. The villain's plot had succeeded only too well,
and the fair innocents were already delivered over to his clutches.
At a little cluster of houses in the valley we halted a moment longer.
"Has a troop passed this way?" asked our guide of a cow-herd.
"Surely," said he, "they will scarce be over the hill by now."
"Carried they two women in their company?"
He laughed and said no.
"Have not two women been carried this way lately?"
"I'll be hanged if there was a sign of a woman," said he.
We looked blank at one another. The fellow seemed to speak true. Yet
his story agreed not with that of the dying man.
There was naught but to spur on, and by all means come level with the
villain, wherever he was.
As we commenced the steep ascent, we could discern the moving figures of
horsemen on the skyline above--as it seemed to us, in two bands, one of
which suddenly disappeared on the other side, while the other, numbering
some half-dozen men, made southward along the ridge. As we came higher
we saw these last still there, moving hurriedly to and fro, as though
seeking what they found not. It could hardly be us they looked for, for
their faces were set southward, nor was it till we came within a mile of
where they stood that they turned and suddenly perceived us. Then they
too vanished below the skyline and we lost them.
By the time we reached the ridge top, the first party was clattering far
down the plain, raising a cloud of dust at their heels, and, as it
seemed, pushing on with all speed to their journey's end.
Of the other party for a while we saw nothing, till presently our guide
pointed to them as they stole from out a wood below us and suddenly
broke into a canter in a southward direction.
It seemed to us their desire was, by doubling on their track, to regain
once more the ridge on which we had first discovered them. Whereupon,
smelling mischief, I called to my men, and, turning after them, gave
chase.
'Twas a fool's errand! For, whatever their purpose had been, they
abandoned it, and half-an-hour later we spied them striking westward
once more, as in haste to overtake their fellows. So near upon them
were we by this time, that not only could we count their number, which
was seven, but could spy the feather on their leader's hat, by which I
knew for certain that this was indeed the man I sought. For an hour and
more we followed close on his heels, sighting him now, missing him now,
and neither nearer nor further for all our riding.
At last, towards afternoon, when, after swimming a strong river and
skirting a town, we already stood, as our guide told us, in Tyrone's
country, we could see the party suddenly halt and hold a hurried parley.
The result was that while the leader rode on, his six men stood, and,
spreading themselves across the road, waited for us. 'Twas a spot not
ill chosen for standing at bay. For, on either side of the steep track,
the land fell away in desolate bog, on which we scarce dare venture; so
that there was nought to do but either fall back ourselves or come face
to face with those who stood in the way.
"Men," said I, "for me there is but one goal, and that is yonder flying
villain. I keep my sword for him. Look you well to the others. They
must not hinder me."
And before the lurkers had time to prepare for our coming, we charged in
upon them full tilt, and I, slashing right and left, cut my way to the
far side, while those who followed me held them there in hand-to-hand
fight.
How that battle betwixt Englishmen and Englishmen sped I know not, for
before it was at an end I was a mile on the road, with my prey little
farther beyond. Yet, to my woe, I perceived him to be better mounted
than I, and better acquainted with the roads. So that every hour the
distance betwixt us widened, till at last, when night fell, I could see
him disappear, with a defiant wave of his hand, over a hill well-nigh a
league ahead.
I know not how my wearied horse ever carried me that night; but when at
sunrise I staggered into the yard of a wayside farm, he sunk dead-beat
beneath me. Therefore my vaunted boast not to quit my saddle till I had
met my man went the way of other boasts, and came to the ground too.
The lad who came out of the barn to meet me told me that an hour since a
soldier had gone through at a hand's pace bound for the coast, where
already, it was said, the Spaniard had landed and was devouring the land
like locusts. Of women, either to-day or for many a day, he had seen or
heard nothing.
My faithful beast was too feeble, even after a halt, to carry me
farther, and I had perforce to proceed on foot. My one hope was that
ere long the Captain might find himself in a like plight. But that was
not to be for many an hour yet.
Towards night the wind, which had been blowing in gusts over the hill-
tops and along the valleys, gathered into a gale; and in it I could hear
the distant boom of surf on an iron-bound coast. Ever and again I met
country folk hurrying inland, with now and then a soldier in their
company. And once, as I passed a lonely moor, there slunk past me a
fellow who by his swarthy face and black flashing eyes I knew to be a
Spaniard.
As hour passed hour through the night the storm raged fiercer, till
presently I could scarce make head against it and sank for an hour on
the turf, praying only that this weariness might befall mine enemy also.
When at dawn I struggled to the hill-top and looked out, I dreaded to
find him vanished. But no. My prayer must surely have been answered,
for he staggered on scarce a mile ahead of me down towards the valley.
Twas a narrow valley, with a swampy tract below, and rising again
sharply to the hill opposite. Half-way along that hill, through a
narrow gap, I, standing on higher ground, could catch a glimpse of the
grey ocean beyond, sending its white horses in on the land, and moaning
with a cry that mingled dismally with the rush of the wind. Surely our
long journey was near its end now.
Looking again towards the gap, I perceived--what my enemy below must
have missed--the form of a man who stood there, motionless, clear cut
against the sky, with his back on us as he gazed seaward. He was too
far off for me to see if he were a soldier or only a peasant. Yet I
remember marking that he was great of stature; and as he stood there,
with his hair floating in the wind, he seemed some image of a giant god
set there to stand sentinel and brood over the wild landscape.
Then, as the sun broke out from behind the sweeping clouds, it flashed
on a sword in his hand, and I concluded this must be an English soldier
placed there to keep the road inland against the invading Spaniard.
'Twas a fine post of defence, verily; for, looking round, I perceived
that the hills on every hand seemed to close in and stand like the walls
of a basin, with no outlet save the crest on which I stood on the one
hand, and a gap where he stood on the other; while betwixt us stretched
the moist plain, across which the Captain was even now spurring.
So intent had I been on the solitary sentinel, and the strange form of
this wild hollow, that I had forgot for a moment my quest. But I
remembered it as the sun suddenly fell on the form of my enemy labouring
heavily through the swamp below.
A sudden fierceness seized me as I flung myself forward in pursuit; I
shouted to him with all my might to stand and face me where he stood.
I can remember seeing the form of the soldier in the gap turn quickly
and look my way. Next moment there rose, below me, a yell; and I stood
where I was, like a man petrified.
For the Captain, having spurred his jaded steed some way into the bog,
reined up suddenly, and tried to turn back. The horse's legs were
already sunk to the knees, and in his struggle to get clear plunged yet
a yard or two farther towards the middle. Then he sank miserably on his
side, throwing his rider to the ground. The man, with a wild effort,
managed to fling himself on the flank of the fast sinking beast; but
'twas a short-lived support. With a yell that rings in my ears as I
write, he struggled again to his feet and tried to run. But the bog
held him and pulled him down inch by inch--so quickly that, before I
could understand what was passing, he was struggling waist-deep like a
man swimming for his life. Next moment I saw his hands cast wildly
upwards. After that, the bog lay mirky and silent, with no record of
the dead man that lay in its grip.
Before I could fling off the awful spell that held me and rush to the
place, the man on the other side of the valley had uttered a cry and
dashed in the same direction.
And, as we stood thus, parted by the fathomless depth of the dead man's
grave, we looked up and knew one another.
For this was Ludar.