Lochinvar: A Novel
Page 39
CHAPTER XXXVI
PASSAGE PERILOUS
"Now let us get out of this," said Scarlett, who had grown palpablyuneasy. "One cooling experience of the Suck of Suliscanna is enough forme."
Their smaller boat came about just in time. They could see the derelictsnatched like a feather and whirled away by the rush of imperiouswater. The noise of the roaring of the Suck became almost deafening.To seaward they still caught glimpses of their late consort, rollingthis way and that amid numberless jets and hillocks of sparkling andphosphorescent water. Now she ascended with a dancing motion. Anonthe fountains of the deep boiled and hissed and curled over her asshe lumbered on to her doom. Then as she gradually took in water shelurched more and more heavily, till at last they saw her stern standblack against the sky, for a moment shutting out the stars, as shefilled and sank.
"Handsomely done! Now straight for the entrance of the water-cave, andho for the isle of Fiara!" cried Wat, who began with every stroke tofeel himself drawing clear of the multiplied dangers of the night. Yetthe most difficult part of the passage was still to come.
All the while Kate sat silent and watchful in the stern. Wat andScarlett were at the oars. Scarlett used the unconscious Jan for anexcellent stretcher as he laid himself to his work. So strong was thenorth current even there that they had to pull hard for a moment or twolest they should be carried past the goe which formed the entrance tothe water-cavern through which they must pass to their city of refuge.
"There!" at last cried Wat, indicating the dark break in the cliff-linewith a certain pride, as they came almost level with the mouth of thepassage, and saw vast sombre walls rising solemnly on either side ofthat black lane of sea-water, sown with phosphorescent sparks, whichstretched before them.
Presently they were shut within, as it had been by the turning of awrist. The stars went out above. The waters slept. The air was still asin a chamber. The soughing roar of the Suck of Suliscanna died down toa whisper and then was heard no more.
"Stand up, Jack, and paddle for your life!" commanded Wat. He had oftenenough crossed Loch Ken in this manner, after having read Captain JohnSmith's Adventures in Virginia with profit and pleasure.
"'Fore the prince!" cried Scarlett, indignantly; "I had just learnedone way of it, sitting with my nose to the rear-guard, which as soon asI can make shift to do without the oar taking me in the stomach--lo, Iam sharply turned about and bidden begin all over again with my face tothe line of advance!"
"Stop talking--get up and do it!" cried Wat, impatiently; "grumble whenwe get through. This is no sham fight on the common of Amersfort withthe white-capped young frows sitting on benches at their knitting."
Obediently Scarlett rose, grasped his oar short in his hands, andimitated as best he could in the darkness Wat's long sweeping strokepast the side of the boat, as he stood and conned the passage from thestem.
The tunnel seemed long to Wat, who had formerly swum it swiftly enoughwith thoughts of Kate singing in his head. The dark dripping wallson either side of them stretched on interminably. Ever a denser darkseemed to envelop them. The gloom and weight of rocks above them shutthem in. They had dived, as it seemed, into the very earth-bowels assoon as ever the boat swam noiselessly into the arched blackness of thewater-cavern.
"Now take your oar by the middle and stand by to push off if we cometoo near to the rocks on either side," commanded Wat, from the prow.
"Aye, aye, sir," cried Scarlett, taking good-humoredly the sailor'stone and using words he had heard on his sea voyages. "Belay thebinnacle and part the ship's periwig abaft the main-mast!"
He muttered the last part of the sentence below his breath, and Wat,who straddled in the narrow angle of the stem, peering eagerly aheadand paddling to either side, was far too anxious to give heed.
Suddenly the boat bumped heavily on a hidden obstacle. Scarlett wentforward over a thwart and his oar fell overboard, and doubtless thelatter would have floated away but for Kate's ready hand, which rescuedit and brought it aboard, dripping sea-water from blade to handle.
"Let me help," she said; "I can see very well in the dark."
"Agreed," answered Scarlett, with infinite relief. "Old Jack is nowaysfond of butting at his enemies with a steering-oar in a rabbit-hole."
So he took Kate's place in the stern, while the girl stood erect andpicked the words of command from Wat--sometimes even venturing toadvise him when with her more delicate perceptions she felt, morethan saw, that they were approaching the shadowy-green phosphorescentglimmer where the water floor met the walls of the cave.
No sooner had they struck than a cloud of sea-fowl flew out about them,their wings beating in their faces, and the birds themselves stunningthem with deafening cries. But presently, with protesting calls androopy whistlings, the evicted inhabitants settled back again to theirroosting-places.
As they went on the boat began to feel the incoming heave of the outerswell. A new freshness, too, came to them in the air which blew overthe low island of Fiara straight into the great archway out of whichthey were presently floating.
So with Wat and his sweetheart standing erect paddling the boat,they passed out of the rock-fast gloom into the heartsome clatterof the narrow Sound of Fiara. On either side of it the cliffs rosemeasurelessly above them, and Fiara itself was a blue-black ridgebefore them. But Wat had crossed the strait too often to have any fear,so bidding Kate sit down, he settled the oars in the rowlocks to crossthe stronger current to be expected there.
Presently, and without further difficulty, they came to the littleindentations in the rock, almost like rudely cut steps, where Wat hadslipped into the water to swim across when first he made his venturetowards Suliscanna.
"Here we will disembark the stores," said he.
And Scarlett was safely put ashore to receive them as Wat handed themout, while Kate held the boat firmly with the boat-hook to the sideof the little natural pier. Then the still unconscious Jan was tossedbehind a bowlder to sleep off his strong waters, with as scant ceremonyas if he had been a bale of goods.
"Now, Kate," said Wat when all had been landed.
The girl took Scarlett's hand and lightly leaped ashore. Her eyesserved her better in the dark than those of either of the men.
But a new danger occurred to Wat.
"We cannot leave the boat here," he said; "it might be driven away,or, what is worse, spied from the top of the tall rocks of Lianacraig.Listen, Scarlett. I am going to paddle it across to the cave, anchorit out there in a safe place, and swim back. I shall not be away manyminutes. Look to Kate till I return."
"Better say 'Kate, look to old blind Jack!'" muttered Scarlett. "He isgood for nought in this condemnable dark but to stumble broadcast andbark his poor bones. But I'll take my regimental oath the lass seeslike a marauding grimalkin at midnight."
Wat was half-way across the strait or thereby by the time Scarlett hadfinished, and again the darkness of the great rock-shaft swallowed himup. Being arrived within the archway, he searched about for a recesswide enough to let the boat swing at her stem and stern anchors withoutknocking her sides against the rock. He was some time in finding one,but at last a fortunate essay to the left of the entrance conducted himinto a little landlocked dock just large enough for his purpose. Herehe concealed and made fast his prize before once more slipping into thewater to return to the island of Fiara. Wat swam back with a glad andthankful heart. He had now brought both his sweetheart and his friendto the isle of safety--safety which for the time at least was complete.He had a vessel on either side of his domains, and the enemy on thelarger island possessed no boat which would enable them to reach hisplace of shelter--that is, supposing them as ignorant as the Suliscannaislanders of the wondrous rock-passage underneath Lianacraig. Truly hehad much reason to be proud of his night's work.
Kate was standing ready to give him her hand as he drew himself outof the water upon the rocks. He could see her slender figure darkagainst the primrose flush of the morn. But he wasted no time eitherin l
ove-making or salutations. They must have all their stores carriedover the southern beach by daybreak, and safely housed from wind andweather in the rocky hall where Wat had arranged the couch of heathertops.
So without a word Kate and Wat loaded themselves happily andcontentedly with the gifts of their late kind hostess--a bag of meal,home-cured hams, a cheese, together with stores of powder and shotfor their pistols. They could see the figure of the master-at-armsstumbling on in front of them, and could hear, borne faintly back onthe breeze, the sound of his steady grumbling.
Wat and Kate smiled at each other through the dusk, and the kindredfeeling and its mutual recognition cheered them. The night had beenanxious enough, but now the morning was coming and they could look oneach other's faces. So they plodded on as practically and placidly asif they had been coworkers of an ancient partnership, sharers of onetask, yoke-fellows driving the same plough-colter through the samefurrow.
When they had arrived at the northern side of the island, Wat showedhis companions where to stow the goods in the large open hall of rock,at the sheltered end of which he had arranged Kate's sleeping-chamber.The place was not indeed a cave, but only a large opening in an old seacliff, which had been left high and dry by the gradual accumulationof the sand and mud brought down by the tide-race of the Suck. Theentrance was completely concealed by the birches and rowan bushes whichgrew up around it and projected over it at every angle, their brightgreen leaves and reddening berries showing pleasantly against the darkof the interior.
Wat immediately started off again to make one final trip, to see thatnothing had been left at the southern landing-place. Finding nothing,he came back much elated so thoroughly to have carried through hispurposes in the space of a summer's night, and at last to have bothKate and Scarlett safe with him on the isle of Fiara.
As for Wise Jan, he was left to sleep in peace behind the bowlder bythe landing-place till his scattered senses should return.