Lochinvar: A Novel

by S. R. Crockett

  CHAPTER XXXIX

  SATAN SPIES OUT PARADISE

  As he had expected, Wat found the boat safely anchored in its rockyhaven, where the water lay dead and still as in a tank. He drew himselfon board, dripping salt-water all over the inside from his lithe bodyand scanty clothing. He was busying himself loosening the oars andmast, which had been tied along the side, when he heard, faintly butunmistakably, the sound of a human voice speaking.

  At first Wat, busy with his work, paid no heed. He supposed it must beScarlett talking to Wise Jan, and idly wondered why he spoke so loud.But in a moment he remembered that the rocks of Fiara and the deepSound lay between him and his companions.

  Yet quite clearly and continuously some one was certainly speaking, andat no great distance either. As before, the cave was not quite dark,for the moon had risen, and the boat lay close by the entrance whichgave upon the Sound. Wat hastened to climb up on one of the rocky wallswhich formed the edge of the tiny haven in which the vessel floated.The water-way which constituted the floor of the cave slept blackbeneath, a long, almost invisible heave passing up from without, whichwas just the great Atlantic Sea breathing in its sleep. But so smoothwere these undulations that hardly a swish on the projections of thewalls told of their passage. Outward from where Wat stood the greatlane of water gradually brightened to the huge square of the sea-door.Inward it grew blacker and more gloomy, till the young man's eye couldnot trace it farther into the solemn bosom of the rock. It was out ofthis inner gloom that the voice was proceeding.

  Presently the single voice became two, and Wat could hear the wordsof one speaker, who spoke low and almost delicately, and then ofanother who more gruffly and briefly replied. From the darkness of theinner cavern a new sound was borne to Wat's ear--the panting of menin exertion, and the little splash made by the swimmer as he changesposition, or when a wavelet, running diagonally, laps against hisbreast. It is an unmistakable sound, and yet it is no louder than theplunge of a leaping fish that falls back again into the water.

  Wat lay motionless on his ledge. He had lifted the moorings from thestern of the boat in the rock basin behind him, and he could hearthat she had swung round and that her timbers were rasping gentlyagainst the stone pier. Wat prayed that the swimmers might not hear thenoise. The uneasy water pavement of the cavern swayed beneath him withmeasured undulations, glimmering with that pale phosphorescence whichis the deceiving ghost of true illumination. Yet it was light enoughfor Wat to observe the heads of the men who swam, as they emerged intoits glow out of the perfect darkness of the inner cave.

  There was one who led, swimming a good half-dozen strokes in advance ofthe others.

  "We cannot be far from the north gate now, surely," said a voice, whichWat instantly recognized as that of Barra, "if the _cailleach_ hathtold the truth and her man did really find his way to the island ofFiara by this passage."

  The man who swam in the middle of the three who followed Barra onlygrunted in reply. Wat could see the shapeless round of his head butdimly; nevertheless, he knew that it was the featureless, scarredvisage of Haxo the Bull which glared like a death's-head above thewater in the wake of his arch-enemy. And he had no doubt that on eitherside of him swam the Calf and the Killer, the other members of thatnoble trinity.

  The heads on the water grew smaller and blacker as they passed him, andthe men swam on towards the outer entrance of the cave. Presently theycame underneath the great span of the arch. Wat could see Barra draghimself out of the water and clamber on a rocky point which jutted outinto the Sound. The three followers lifted themselves after him, andsank on the rocks in attitudes of fatigue. But Barra stood erect, hisslim figure so black against the dim moonlight without that he mighthave been wearing his court suit of sable velvet, although actually hewas naked to the waist.

  So there on the pinnacle he stood, gazing silently on the sleeping isleof Fiara, even as Satan might have gazed (so Wat Gordon thought) on thegarden--close to that first delicious Paradise in which all unconsciousAdam wandered with his Eve.

  Long he stood thus, fixed in contemplation, revolving evilest thoughtsand intents, his three attendant fiends crouched behind him in ashapeless mass upon the dark rocks, none of them daring to interrupthis musings.

  Then quite abruptly Barra descended and plunged once more into thewater. Lochinvar in his turn stood erect and made ready to follow him,for he feared that his enemies were about to cross the Sound and attackon the instant the little company waiting his own return under thecliffs of the northern shore.

  But he heard Barra say, "It is enough for to-night. Let us return tothe harbor. The _cailleach_ spoke the truth."

  Then without further speech between them, the four men swam past himand disappeared, faint wreathings and smears of phosphorescencetrailing after them out of the gloom into which they had vanished.

  Wat drew a long breath as they were lost to sight. He knew that he hadbeen assisting at one of the last scenes in Barra's complete and minuteexploration of the isle--every cave and passage, every entrance toand outgate from it. It was just such an undertaking as he might haveexpected from a man so resolute as Barra, with a retinue as desperateas Haxo the Bull, his Calf, and his Killer.

  Now, indeed, he was aware that there was no time to be lost in gettingaway from this isle of Fiara, which had brought him so many happyhours. Adam knew that the spoiler had looked upon his demi-Paradise,and that Eve herself was in danger.

  Wat waited a while before he dared to bring out the boat and row acrossthe Sound to the place where Scarlett and Kate were waiting for him. Hefound Scarlett philosophically seated with his back against a rock, butKate moved uneasily about upon the shore, clasping her hands in greatanxiety.

  "O Wat," she said, "my dear, my dear, I thought some ill chance hadbefallen you. Wellnigh had I come to seek you, but for your command tobide with Scarlett."

  "And it is indeed well, Kate," he answered, smiling a little, "that youwere thus mindful of my words."

  Then Wat told them all that he had seen and heard, till even Scarlettwas impressed by the imminence of their needs. So without delaying amoment the three took such burdens as they could carry, and set out tocross the ridge of Fiara to the place where Wise Jan Pettigrew waitedbeside their first boat with everything ready to push off. But beforethey left the boat which Wat had brought out of the water-cavern, Watbade Scarlett help him to load her with stones from the beach.

  With a mallet he knocked out the plug under the stern seat, and, asbefore, sunk her in mid-channel. Then he swam ashore, and followed Kateand Scarlett over to the northern side of the island.

  The moon was just dipping below the horizon when, with Kate in thestern and Wise Jan handling the boat to a marvel, they left thebeautiful island behind them.

  Kate drew in a long breath, and her hand rested a moment on Wat's inthe darkness. It was the isle of her first assurance and her dawninghappiness. No place could ever be quite the same to her. There itlay, Fiara, the Isle of Bliss, looming gray against the dark, solemn,bird-haunted front of Lianacraig. Should she ever see it more? Therewas the dear rowan-tree at the angle of the wall where they had sooften sat, and there was the sweet sickle-sweep of white sand by whichthey had so often walked. A little farther over the dusk and sleepingSound was Suliscanna, on which stood Bess Landsborough's house, andthat smoky inner room where her love had first taken her to his heart,coming to her like a vision out of the night.

  But to all Kate's questionings there came back no answer save thehoarse threatening growl of the Suck of Suliscanna arching itselfangrily to the right, the gentle flap of the small sheet above, and thetalking clatter of the wavelets below the stem as they glided away outinto the night.

  Behind them the surf was roaring on the rocks which, like the blackfins of sharks, jutted, toothed and threatening, from the tail-end ofthe Suck of Suliscanna. There came also a chill sough of wind fromthe west, and with it, rising as it were from the ocean depths, thedead sea-mist, which swelled and eddied about the boat of our
fourtravellers. Presently the bright reflection of the stars on the crestof each coming wave, as Wat lay in the stern and watched, dimmeditself. The twinkling rays were shorn. Their diffused sparkling firstdulled to a point, and then became extinguished altogether as thevoyagers were enveloped in the gray uncanny smother.

  It was their first touch of ill-luck. Since Wat and Scarlett had leftHolland on their quest, save for their shipwreck all had gone wellwith them. But now, on the verge of success, they were caught by thesea-mist, and in that place of dangerous currents and deadly rocksthey had to submit to be carried they knew not where, nor yet intowhat unseen dangers of the deep. Wise Jan set his hand high over theside, and the sea-fog ran visibly through his fingers like water in amill-race. Evidently they were moving fast in some direction, and thecurrent was carrying them swiftly and strongly onward without theirbeing able to alter or amend their destination.

  Wat went astern and sat beside Kate. Wise Jan had taken down the sail.It was useless to them till they could see in what direction they werebeing carried. Scarlett grumbled steadily and inarticulately amidships;but Wat and Kate sat with their hands locked in each other's, silentall through the night.

  The morn came slowly. The salt, steamy vapor rolled and swirledabout them, brightening and darkening with alternate threat andpromise--both, however, equally illusive.

  It was broad day when the lift of heaven suddenly cleared. The sunlooked slantways in upon them, opening a way into the heart of themist, like a rapier thrust by a master's wrist. The clouds dispersedbefore the clear shining, as though it needed but that single stabto prick the airy bladder of their pretension. The wreaths of vaportrailed themselves away, breaking into steamy garlands and flat patcheswith scalloped edges as they went. The blue sky stooped over on eitherside and hooked itself permanently on to the blue sea-floor.

  And lo! there they were at the south end of Suliscanna, and there wasthe schooner _Sea Unicorn_ just coming out from her anchorage underfull sail within two hundred yards of them.

  It was no use to row or to set the sail. Our three were so taken withdeadly apprehension that they sat quite still as the vessel approached.The captain hailed them from his station by the helm, but neither Watnor Scarlett had the heart to reply. A boat was lowered, and in a fewmoments Wat and Kate were being received on board the _Sea Unicorn_, ofPoole, by Captain Smith, her owner and master.

  And there before them, as they looked across the deck from the sideup which they had come, were seated three people--a man of statelypresence, gray-headed and erect, a lady of doubtful years and charmsnot wholly departed--and Barra.

  The old man rose and came forward towards Kate with a strangeexpression of apology and appeal on his face.

  "Kate, my lass!" said he.

  "My father!" cried the girl, taking, however, no step towards him, butkeeping her hold of Wat Gordon's hand.

  But Wat was staring at the lady who sat beside Barra.

  "My Lady Wellwood!" he said, in utter astonishment.

  Barra smiled his thin, acrid, unmoved smile.

  "You mistake, sir," he said; "not now my Lady Wellwood, but the fairbride of Roger McGhie and the very charming mistress of his mansion ofBalmaghie."