Prisoners of Chance

by Randall Parrish

  CHAPTER XIX

  DEMON, OR WHAT?

  I have been free from superstitious terror as most men, yet there werefew in those days who did not yield to the sway of the supernatural.Occasionally, among those of higher education, there may have beenleaders of thought who had shaken off these ghostly chains of the darkages, seeking amid the laws of nature a solution for all the seemingmysteries in human life. Yet it could scarcely be expected a plainwood-ranger should rise altogether above the popular spell which stillmade of the Devil a very potent personality.

  Consequently, as my anxious eyes uplifted toward the spot where DeNoyan pointed, it need be no occasion for wonder that my blood turnedto ice in my veins, and I felt convinced I looked upon His SatanicMajesty. The vast wall of rock, arising a sheer hundred feet directlyopposite to where we lay, appeared densely black now in the shadow, butas my glance swept higher along its irregularity, the upper edge,jagged from outcropping stones, stood clearly revealed in the fullsilver sheen of the moon, each exposed line, carven as from marble,standing distinctly forth in delicate tracery against the background ofthe night sky.

  Appearing to my affrighted eyes the gigantic form of two men strangelymerged into one, there uprose on that summit a figure so odd, weird,and grimly fantastic, it was small wonder I gazed, never thinking itcould be other than the Evil One. It was unclothed from head to heel,and, gleaming ghastly white beneath the moonbeams, it brought no Indiansuggestion to mind. High above the head, causing the latter to appearhideously deformed, arose something the nature of which I could notrightly judge. It reminded me of a vast mat of hair sticking directlyupward, ever waving back and forth to the breath of the night wind.Nor did this horrid figure remain one moment still. There upon thevery edge of the precipice, it would leap high into the air, flingingaloft long gaunt arms, even appearing to float bodily forth into thespace above us, to disappear instantly, like some phantom ofimagination, amid the shrouding gloom of those rock shadows--flittingswiftly, and as upon wings, along the crest; now showing directly inour front, looming like a threatening giant, mocking with wild, furiousgestures; then dancing far to right or left, a vague shade in thesheen, a mere nothing in the shadow, yet ever returning, the sameweird, unnatural, spectral figure, wildly gyrating upon the air,leering down upon our speechless misery.

  My eyes, wide-opened by terror, followed these movements, marking thisghastly shape. I listened vainly for the slightest sound to connect itwith aught human. The mantle of the night's solemn silence, the dreadstillness of wilderness solitudes, rested everywhere. I heard themournful sighing of the wind amid jagged rocks and among the swayingbranches of the cedars; the dull roar of the little river, even thestentorian breathing of the Puritan lying asleep behind us, but thatwas all. That hideous apparition dancing so madly along the cliffsummit emitted no sound of foot or voice--yet there it hung, forebodingevil, gesticulating in mockery; a being too hideous for earth, everplaying the mad antics of a fiend.

  My gaze rested questioningly upon De Noyan's upturned face, and saw itghost-like in lack of color, drawn and haggard. Mine no doubt was thesame, for never have I felt such uncontrollable horror as that which,for the moment, fairly paralyzed me in brain and limb. It is themysterious that appals brave men, for who of earth might hope tostruggle against the very fiends of the air?

  "_Mon Dieu_!" whispered my comrade, his voice shaking as if from anague fit. "Is it not Old Nick himself?"

  "If not," I answered, my words scarce steadier, "then some one musttell me what; never before did I gaze on such a sight. Has it beenthere long?"

  "I know not whence it came, or how. I was not watching the crest.After I bathed at the stream to open my eyes better, I beganoverhauling the commissary for a bite with which to refresh the innerman. I was sitting yonder, my back against the big stone, munchingaway contentedly, humming the words of a song to keep me awake, when Ichanced to glance up to mark the position of the moon, and there thathell's imp danced in the sheen as he has been dancing ever since._Sacre_! it was the bravest deed of my life to crawl here and awakenyou; the devilish thing did charm me as a snake does a bird."

  The mere sound of human speech put new heart into me, yet I found itdifficult to avert my eyes from that fantastic figure.

  "If that is the Devil," I said more composedly, still enthralled by thebaleful presence, "surely we have neither of us done so much evil as tomake us especially his victims."

  As I concluded these words, my courage creeping back, a sudden rustlingamong the pines at our back startled us to glance around. Out of thegloom of the rock shelter a figure uplifted itself on all fours, andthe faint light of a star glimmered directly down upon an upraised,terror-stricken face. Before either De Noyan or myself could mutter ahasty warning, the half-awakened preacher sent his great, gruff voicebooming out into the air:

  "O Lord God of Israel deliver Thy servant from destruction and theclutch of the Evil One. O Lord God of----"

  I flung myself on him, clutching his brawny throat, throttling hisspeech into a vain gurgle. The fellow made so fierce a struggle,mistaking me for an assistant of the fiend, my fierce hold was jerkedloose, and I was hurled heavily backward at full length upon thestones, striking with no pleasant force upon my shoulder.

  "Verily have I overcome the Devil by Thy strength, O Lord!" he beganfervently.

  "Be still, you red-headed Connecticut fool," I commanded sharply, nowthoroughly aroused. "Stop, or I 'll drive into you a leaden slug tosilence that blundering tongue of yours for good and all. Get up fromyour knees there, and play the man. If needs be you must pray, keepgrip on that bull voice of yours."

  "It makes small odds now," chimed in De Noyan with easier tone. "TheDevil, or what, has disappeared from the rock."

  I glanced up at his words, to find them true. The sky was assuming afaint grayish tinge, as if the dawn were near. The vanishing of thatspectral figure relieved us greatly, while the steady coming ofdaylight revived those spirits upon which the haunted night had restedgrimly. Nevertheless I felt it incumbent to speak somewhat harshly tothe yet sulking sectary for such untimely uproar.

  "Did you mistake this for a conventicle, Master Cairnes," I askedgrimly, "an assembly of crop-eared worshippers, that you venture tolift your voice in such a howl when you wake? It will be better if youlearn to keep still at such a time, if you hope to companion long withme."

  "You!" he scarcely deigned to lift his eyes to regard me. "You are butan unbelieving and damned heretic. Had it not been in all theearnestness of a contrite spirit I besought the Lord in prayer,wrestling even as did David of old, 'tis not likely the foul fiend Ibeheld on yonder crest would have departed so easily. I tell you, youunregenerated son of iniquity, it is naught save the faith of theelect, the prayer of the redeemed, which overcomes the wiles of theDevil, and relieves the children of God from his snares."

  It was useless arguing with the fanatic; yet much of my previoussuperstitious terror at our unwelcome visitant had already vanished,there growing upon my mind a firm conviction that the apparition wasnot a denizen of the sulphurous regions of the damned, but was composedof flesh and blood, even as ourselves. I think Madame had been awakethrough the greater part of the commotion, as I noted her stir slightlyeven when De Noyan first informed me of the strange presence. Yet shespoke not a word. Realizing her judgment was ever clearer than that ofeither of my male companions, I turned to awaken her to some expression.

  "And do you also, Madame, believe that we have been honored by a visitfrom His Satanic Majesty in person?" I asked, wondering as I spoke thatshe should appear so undisturbed in midst of our turmoil.

  "It would be less terrifying to me could I so believe," she repliedgravely, her eyes questioning my face, as if to read therein whatanswer I desired. "I have that about my person," and I marked that herfingers toyed with the beads of a rosary at her throat, "which wouldprotect me from his touch."

  "What then did you make of that fantastic figure? I was so gravelystartl
ed myself by the apparition I saw double, scarcely retainingsufficient strength for the uplifting of a hand. So speak, Madame, andplainly, for our comforting,--was that flesh and blood, or was it someghastly visitant from the unknown?"

  "I believe," she answered firmly, "it was human. To my eyes a wildman, partially arrayed in white skins, decorated with a multitude ofgreat feathers, appearing ghastly tall, and weirdly distorted in themoonlight--a fiend, indeed, yet not of the upper air."

  "An Indian?"

  "I know not what other name to choose. A savage surely, yet possessinga skin strangely fair in the sheen for one of the red race."

  My roving, unsatisfied eyes met those of De Noyan.

  "Blessed Mother!" he ejaculated with a short, uneasy laugh. "I neverwould have thought it in the night. Holy Saints preserve me, if I wasever more a child! Yet now the dawn brings me new heart of courage,and I would not swear but Eloise may be right."

  "And you, friend Cairnes?" In a few, brief English sentences I retoldto the sectary this opinion expressed by Madame. "Does your mind agreewith ours?"

  He stared at me gloomily, his hands knotting into each other, and hislips moving oddly ere he found speech.

  "Nay," he muttered at last, "you know little about such matters. Itell you again that it was the Devil my eyes saw. Twice have I lookedupon him, and each time, in response to prayer, has the good Lorddelivered His servant from the bondage of sin, the snares of thefowler. Not by carnal weapons of the flesh are we bidden to overcome,but by spiritual wrestling; even as did he of old wrestle with theangel, are we to master the adversary of souls."

  "Madame possesses that also," and I pointed to the rosary at her whitethroat, "by which she is able to resist the contamination of evil."

  He sniffed disdainfully, his coarse red hair appearing to bristle allover his bullet head.

  "'T is a foul device designed to rob men of the true power of prayer,"he declared angrily. "I say to you, it was the voice of prayer whichcaused that foul fiend to fly away to his own. The prayer of therighteous availeth much."

  "True, friend," I admitted as he paused for breath, amused to behold aman thus played upon. "If it is a comfort to you, we all confess itwas your voice which put an end to the dancing. Yet if there is a timefor prayer, so there is time also for action, and the latter must behere now. Whatever adventure awaits us before nightfall, we shall meetit no less bravely if we first have food. So let us break our fast,and depart from this accursed spot."

  It was not a cheerful meal, our nerves being still at high tension, andwe partook more from duty than any feeling of enjoyment. I must exceptthe old Puritan, however, who would have eaten, I believe, had thatsame figure been dancing at his elbow. Many anxious looks were castupward at the rock crest, every unwonted sound causing us to start andglance about in nervous terror. It seems to me now Eloise remained themost self-controlled among us, and I have felt sincerely ashamed atyielding to my weaker nature in thus betraying nervousness before thatcompany. Yet had she been in safety I would have proven more of a man,as by this time no haunting superstition remained to burden my heart.I realized we were leaguered by flesh and blood, not by demons of theair, and had never counted my life specially valuable in Indiancampaign. But to be compelled to look into her fair face, to feelconstantly the trustful gaze of her brown eyes, knowing well what wouldbe her certain fate should she fall into savage hands, operated inbreaking down all the manliness within me, leaving me like a helplesschild, ready to start at the slightest sound. De Noyan barely touchedthe food placed in front of him, and, long before Cairnes had completedhis meal, the Chevalier was restlessly pacing the rocks beside thestream, casting impatient glances in our direction.

  "_Mon Dieu_!" he ejaculated at last, "it is not the nature of aFrenchman to remain longer cooped in such a hole. I beg you, Benteen,bid that gluttonous English animal cease stuffing himself like ananaconda, and let us get away; each moment I am compelled to bide hereis torture."

  Experiencing the same tension, I persuaded the Puritan to suspend hisonslaught, and, undisturbed by sight or sound, we began a slow advance,clambering across the bowlders strewing the narrow way, discovering aswe moved forward that those towering cliffs on either side werebecoming lower, although no possibility of scaling them becameapparent. We travelled thus upwards of a quarter of a mile, ourprogress being necessarily slow, when a dull roar stole gradually uponour hearing. A moment later, rounding a sharp edge of projecting rock,and picking our way cautiously along a narrow slab of stone extendingout above the swirling water, we came forth in full view of a vastcliff, with unbroken front extending from wall to wall across thegorge, while over it plunged the stream in a magnificent leap of fullyone hundred and fifty feet. It was a scene of rare, romantic beauty,the boiling stream surging and dancing madly away from its foot, andthe multicolored mists rising up like a gauzy veil between us and thecolumn of greenish-blue water. Yet it pleased us little then, for itbarred our progress northward as completely as would a hostile army.

  Our depth of disappointment at facing this barrier was beyondexpression. We could but stand in silence, gazing upon the broad,impassable sheet of water, blocking further advance. De Noyan wasearliest to recover power of speech.

  "_Le Diable_!" he swore, half unconsciously. "This cursed place issurely damned! Yet it has some consolation to my mind, for that willdrive us backward into the lowlands, out of this demon-haunted defile."

  "Your judgment is right," I returned gravely enough, not unrelievedmyself by the thought. "There is no other course open to us. We shallbe compelled to retrace our steps, and if we desire to reach the openbefore another night, we need be at it. May the good God grant us freepassage, with no skulking enemies in ambuscade, for never saw I poorerspot for defence than along this narrow shelf."

  Fortunately, the way proved easier travelling as we proceeded downward,and we were not long in passing beyond our haunted camp of the previousnight. Below this spot--which was passed in painful anxiety--weentered into that narrower, gloomy gorge leading directly toward theplain beyond. The little river foamed and leaped in deep black wavesupon our left, the rocks encroaching so near that we were compelled topass in single file, picking a way with extreme caution lest we slipupon the wet stones, and having neither time nor breath for speech.The Puritan led, bearing the Spaniard's naked rapier in his hand.Suddenly, from where I brought up the rear, his voice sounded sonoisily I made haste forward fearing he had been attacked.

  He stood halted, staring like a demented man at a massive rock, a hugemonster with sheer, precipitous front, filling every foot of space fromthe cliff wall to the river, completely closing, as by a wall ofmasonry, the narrow foot-path along which we had advanced unhinderedthe day before. It was easy to see from whence that rock mass came;the great fresh scar on the overhanging cliff summit high above toldthe fatal story of its detachment. Yet how had it fallen so suddenlyand with such deadly accuracy across the path? Was it a strangeaccident, a caprice of fate, or was it rather the hellish work ofdesign?

  None knew at that moment; yet we stood there stupefied, staring intoeach others' despairing faces, feeling we were hopeless prisonersdoomed to perish miserably within the gloom confines of that ghastly,haunted hell.