WEARY WATCHING.
The evening wore on. They were all on the beach,--Trafford and the
Culm fishermen,--and now a beacon fire streamed up into the darkness,
and made the night seem even more black and intense. They had piled
their heap of driftwood somewhat in the shelter of a great rock, and
around it the men were huddled, muttering and whispering to each
other, and casting sober glances at Trafford, who stood apart from
them in the shadow. Not a word had he spoken since the fire was
kindled, but, grim and silent as a statue, had stood there, with his
eyes looking upon the gleaming sea, and the rain beating in his face.
He had worked desperately while gathering driftwood.
"The master be crazed, like," Dirk had whispered to the men as they
came in with armfuls of fuel. "D'ye see his eyes? D'ye see the way he
be runnin' up an' down, poor man?"
"Ay, an' his lad be where many o' your'n an' mine ha' been, eh, Dirk?"
said Hark Harby. "Mabby he ken tell what 'tis ter be losin' his own,
an' no help fur it, eh?"
"Sh!" said Dirk; "the sea ben't able ter get sech a lad as his every
day. If he be lost, 'tis a losin' fur more'n he, yender."
This was before the beacon was kindled. Now they huddled in a gloomy
circle about the hissing, sputtering fire, some crouching close to the
rock to save themselves from the rain, and the others drawing their
heads down into their wide-collared jackets, that bade defiance to the
wet. The wind whirled and raved, and the sea thundered on. The fire
cast a little pathway of light through the darkness, down to the sea's
edge, and they could see its waves all beaten to foam as white as
milk, flecking the sand in great patches. It was an awful waiting.
By and by Hagar came down along the sand in a great hood-cloak that
gave her a most weird and witchlike appearance. The fishermen looked
at her with startled, suspicious eyes as the bent old figure suddenly
emerged from the darkness into the full glare of the firelight. The
old negress passed on to where Trafford was standing.
"I's here, Mas'r Dick," she said, touching his arm, as if fain to
assure him of her presence and sympathy.
He did not repel her, but said, with much of kindness in his tone,
"This is no place for you, Hagar."
"De Lord's here," said Hagar, quietly, "an' I's gwine ter stay. I
isn't feared, Mas'r Dick."
Trafford looked in her wrinkled, time-worn old face yearningly. This
black, ignorant old woman had something within her heart that gave her
a peace and serenity in this fearful hour that he envied. He felt the
truth of this as he had never felt it before. She was stayed and
upheld by some invisible hand. Somehow, in her humble life, this old
negress had found some great truth which all his own study and
research had failed to teach him. He turned about and made her a seat
of boards on an old spar which lay on the sand, under the shelter of
the rock by the fire.
"T'ank ye, Mas'r Dick," said Hagar, tremulously, as she sat down. This
unusual kindness touched her. It was like his old-time thoughtfulness
and gentleness, when he was her own blithe, merry schoolboy, she
thought.
The rain began to fall less heavily. Only now and then a great drop
fell with a hiss and sputter into the fire; but the wind grew fiercer
as the evening waned, and the thunder and pounding of the sea was
deafening. The spray dashed higher and higher, quite up to the backs
of the men who huddled about the fire, and its fine mist sifted even
into Hagar's face and grizzled locks.
"'Tain't nuffin tu what dat bressed boy is suff'rin'," she sighed,
wiping the cold drops off her cheeks; "'pears as ef dis ole heart 'ud
split'n two, thinkin' ob it. O good Lord, bress de chile!--bress
him,--bress him!--dat's all Hagar ken say."
It was a weary watching. As the war of the sea grew louder and the
wind fiercer, the Culm fishermen gathered into a yet closer group, and
looked with awed and sober faces in the fire. For all that these men
followed the sea, and it was almost a native element to them, they
seemed to have a great dread and awe of it. Trafford yet stood apart
from them with his eyes looking into the dense night, and Hagar, all
muffled in her great cloak, swayed slowly to and fro with her face
hidden. Oh, the suspense and agony of those minutes!--the weary
watching and waiting for--what?
It came at last. In the short space of silence between the bursting of
two great waves, there rose a cry from out the great waste of darkness
beyond their little length and breadth of light. Trafford started and
sprang forward. The men around the fire were startled from their
crouching positions by this shrill, sudden shout, and looked in one
another's faces and--waited. But the cry was not repeated. Then Dirk
said,--
"It wur the skipper, sure. O Lord, men! but I be feared the 'Gull' be
on the rocks, yender."
The sweat stood in drops on his forehead, and he slowly clinched and
unclinched his great brawny hands. Trafford heard his words, and a
sudden faintness like death smote him. But it passed away, and in
sudden frenzy and despair he rushed up to Dirk, exclaiming,--
"How do you know, man? How can you tell? There was only a cry!"
Before Dirk could answer, there rose, clear and distinct, that one
solitary voice from out the darkness,--a fearful, appealing cry for
aid from some human heart out there in the awful presence of death.
And that thrilling cry was all. It never came again. Trafford beat his
breast with agony. Then he turned upon the fishermen.
"Why do you stand here," he cried, furiously, "when they are perishing
out there? My boy is there!--my boy that's done so much for you and
yours! Will you let him drown without lifting a hand to save him?"
"It be no use to try," said the men, pointing to the surf; "boat's ud
crack like a gull's shell out there."
"But try,--only try!" shouted Trafford, in an agonized tone. "If money
will tempt you, you shall have all of mine! You shall have more than
ever your eyes saw before! I will make you all rich!--only try,--only
try!"
"We'd try soon enough for the young master's sake, an' ye might keep
yer gold," said Dirk; "but it wud be no use, an' only losin' of life.
The lad be beyont our help or yer gold, either."
"'Tain't de money nor de lands dat'll do, now," moaned Hagar; "it's
only de Lord!"
"But think of it, you ungrateful wretches!" cried Trafford,
frantically,--"the lad has done more for you and yours than you can
ever repay! He went across the sea this time to do you good, and it's
for your sakes that he's out in the peril yonder! Will you let him
drown without even an attempt to save him? Will you?"
Dirk shook his head. "It be no use," he said, "but we ken try. I be
not one to hev it said that I be unthankful. Here, lads, give us a
hand! Ef I'll be riskin' my life fur any one, 'tis fur the lad
yender."
They dragged a boat down to the curling line of foam, and watching for
a favorable opportunity, launched it. Trafford sprang in with them,
and they pushed into the darkness. It seemed hardly three minutes to
those who stood around the fire, before a great wave came riding in
and threw the boat and its load upon the sand. Dirk sprang up and
seized Trafford before the returning flood had engulfed him. He
pointed to the rent ribs of the boat, saying, as he shook himself,--
"It be as I told ye. Yer lad be beyont yer gold or yer help."
They made no more attempts. Trafford gave up the idea of a rescue, and
paced up and down the sand in the very face of the surf that drenched
him at every tumble. Utterly helpless! The cold, cruel sea mocked his
despair and frenzy. It was great and mighty, and even now was
swallowing his treasure, he thought, which lay almost within his power
to save. So near!--and yet death between! The thought made him half
wild with despair and horror. Yet there was no help,--nowhere to turn
for aid or succor,--not the faintest hope of saving the boy's life.
The sea must swallow him.
The fishermen looked askance at the wild, desperate figure that rushed
up and down the sand as if it sought to burst through the sea and save
its treasure, and whispered gloomily among themselves. Suddenly the
man wheeled about and came up to the fire, crying, fiercely,--
"Hagar, you have a God! I cannot find him. Pray to him,--pray to him!
Quick, woman!--pray to him before it's too late!"
"Lord help ye, Mas'r Dick!" said Hagar, "I's jes' prayin' fur de dear
chile ebery minnit! Don't ye know it? But de Lord's out
thar!"--pointing with her skinny finger to the depths of darkness
which shrouded the sea, with such vehemence as to startle the
fishermen; "he's wid dat boy, and thar can't nuffin kill his soul.
It's only goin' to glory quicker'n de rest ob us. Don't ye know it,
Mas'r Dick?--can't ye feel it? What's de winds or de waves, so long as
de Lord's got ye in his arms, holdin' ye up?--as he's got dat boy ob
your'n. Oh, Mas'r Dick! jes' humble yerself 'fore de Lord, right off.
What's de use ob stribin' to fight him?--what's de use? 'Tain't no
use!--ye knows it dis minnit!--ye knows it all ober! Call on de Lord
yerself, Mas'r Dick!--call on de Lord 'fore it's too late!"
"I cannot, I cannot!" groaned Trafford, dropping down on the sand by
his old nurse; "I don't know him, and he will not hear me. Oh, my boy,
my boy!"
He gave up then. Hagar knew by the way he sank back upon the sand, all
the wildness and fierceness gone out of his face, and the crushed,
broken-hearted manner in which his head drooped, that he had given up
the boy. She gathered his head on her knee, as she had often done when
he was a youth, and stroked it tenderly, saying, as her tears
dropped,--
"Poor chile, poor honey! Hagar's sorry fur ye. It's a dreadful t'ing
not ter know de Lord; ain't it, chile? Can't do nuffin widout him,
somehow. But Hagar hopes ye'll find him; she hopes ye'll find him dis
berry night. 'Pears like he ain't fur off dis awful night; an', O Lord
Jesus!"--folding her hands reverently, and looking toward the sea as
if she saw her Redeemer walking there,--"come an' bress dis poor
broken heart dat can't find ye. It's jes' waitin' fur de bressin',
an' 'pears like 'twould faint ter def ef ye didn't come. Come, Lord,
come."
The night wore slowly on. The "Gull" began to break in pieces and
float ashore. The fishermen had enough to do to snatch the boxes and
bales which the sea hurled up. As yet, none of the "Gull's" more
precious freight of life had made its way through the sea to the
shore. Dirk was watching keenly for it. A half-dozen draggled, fearful
women had stolen down from their houses, and were standing by the
fire, whispering and talking in undertones, with many glances of pity
at the figure lying prone on the sand with its head in the old black
woman's lap.
"Alack!" said Dirk, with a great sigh, "it wur a fine lad. I never
knowed kinder nor better. Ye ken all say that, women, an' this be the
sorriest night I ever knowed, 'cept when my little gal died. He wur
good to my little gal, the lad wur, an' he giv' me a bit o' flower to
put on the sand where she be sleepin', an' it growed an' growed an'
blossomed, an' the blossom wur like a great blue eye,--like my little
gal's eye,--an' many's the night after fishin' I've gone up ter the
buryin'-place ter look at it. An' now the lad himself be gone," said
Dirk, wiping his eyes and snuffling.
"Ay, it be a heavy night!" moaned the women, wiping their eyes with
the corners of their aprons.
A great heap of bales and boxes and bits of the "Gull's" timbers was
accumulating on the sand by the fire. The women sat down on them,
keeping up their low talk and whispers, and watching the two silent
figures the other side of the fire. The man moved not a muscle. The
old negress bent over him, stroking his forehead and whispering and
crooning. Only once he had said, chokingly, "My Noll!--all that was
left to me," and now lay passive and unheeding, overwhelmed and
crushed by the sense of his loss and the consciousness that the sea
had quenched the brave, bright life forever.