Nedra

by George Barr McCutcheon

  CHAPTER XVII

  WAS THE SEA KIND?

  He lost consciousness in the attempt to drag himself and his companionfarther up the beach. His arms and legs refused to move in response tohis efforts, and the last he remembered was that his body was stiff andhe was absolutely powerless. When he again opened his eyes he was lyingon a grassy sward with spreading green branches above him. For someminutes he lay perfectly still, dimly sensible that he was alive, bututterly unable to fix his whereabouts. Through his brain there stillroared the awful waves; in his eyes there still lingered the vision ofthe sea as it was when dawn first developed the picture.

  Fearing that he could not lift his head, he rose to his trembling elbow.His wide eyes swept the view before him. There was the sea not twohundred yards down the slope, rushing and booming upon the stretch ofsand which reached within fifty feet of his grassy bed. Behind him grewa forest of queer, tropical trees, the like of which he never had seenbefore. His jacket had been rolled up as a pillow for his head; hisshoes and stockings were off, his shirt bosom unbuttoned. Two soggy lifepreservers lay near by.

  At last he caught sight of a woman, alone, forlorn, the picture ofdespondency. Far down the beach to his right there rose a rugged, stonyformation, extending into the sea and rising several hundred feet in theair. At the base of this rocky promontory a multitude of great boulderslay scattered, some quite large and jagged, others insignificantin size.

  Upon one of the smaller stones, well up the slope, sat the figure of thewoman he had drugged from the sea and whom he had hated with his lastconscious breath. Her head was lying against the sheer wall that ran upalongside, and he could tell that she was staring out toward the sea,which roared against the rocks so close by that the spray must havereached her feet. The distance to this rock was fully three hundredyards. There was a fascination about her loneliness that held himimmovable for a long time. Finally he struggled to a sitting posture,faint and dizzy. At the same moment she slowly turned her head andlooked in his direction. Half rising, she made a movement as if to cometoward him, first peering intently. Then she sank back upon the rock andsent her gaze out to the sea again.

  With all the haste he could command he scrambled eagerly toward therocks, carrying the crumpled jacket in his hand. Not once did she takeher eyes from the breakers. Tired and faint, he at last came to the edgeof the rocky pile. Here his strength failed him and he sank tremblingwith exhaustion upon the first friendly stone, still a hundred feet fromwhere she sat. In his bitter rage against her he strove to shout, butthe effort was little more than a hoarse whisper. Lying thereimpotently, he studied her attitude as the minutes crept by, and therecame at last into his heart a touch of pity that swelled with thesight of her.

  Pain-racked but determined, he again started toward the elevation,crawling over and around the boulders that intervened. He was withinfive feet of her before he spoke, and then not until he had studied herface for some moments, steadying himself against a large rock. She wasmore beautiful than ever with her black hair awry and matted, brushedaway from the pure white face and fastened recklessly with the shellcombs she had worn on board the _Tempest Queen_. Her blue eyes lookedmournfully from beneath their long lashes. The slender white hands laylistlessly in the lap of the once white dress, now water-stained,wrinkled and shapeless. In spite of all that dreadful buffeting by thewind and water she was still the beautiful creation of nature he hadfound so charming in a realm where nature seldom presents herself.

  "Lady Tennys," he called hoarsely. "You do not know how I thank God youare alive."

  She turned slowly, as if she had known all along of his tortuousapproach. Her voice was low and thrilling.

  "'LADY TENNYS, ... YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW I THANK GOD YOUARE ALIVE'"]

  "I prayed for hours, it seemed, after we were dashed upon this shore,that you might live and that I might die. The knowledge that you savedme through mistake, that you were battling so long and so bravely allthrough the night for the one you cherished more than all in the world,made me pray from the first that I could be dead before you discoveredthe horrid error. You picked me up when the crash came and I was tooterrified to even think of crying aloud in protest. Then we were in thatawful, awful water. It was not until hours afterward that I felt wemight escape find that I should have to face your grief." He reached upand clasped her hand.

  "Don't--don't talk like that now," he groaned. "I hated you thismorning, but--God, it is a relief to have you here to share all thiswith me. God threw us into the sea and He has saved us. I would to God Icould have gone down with--with her, but--but--" and he broke down, hishead falling upon his outstretched arms at her feet. A deep sob fromLady Tennys caused him to lift his haggard eyes to hers. "It would havebeen so much better than to live without her," he cried.

  "Why did you not let me go when you found who I was?" she cried almostfiercely. "I wanted to drown, I was hungry to go to the bottom, to bewashed away to the end of the ocean, anywhere but here with you when youthought you were saving her. You had forgotten that I existed until thatawful moment in the breakers. I heard her cry out to you as we wentoverboard. All through the night I heard that cry of 'Hugh! Hugh!' Itwas worse than the worst of deaths!"

  At the mention of Grace's piteous cry, even though heard inimagination, Hugh sank limply to the rock, his mouth falling open andhis eyes bulging forth in agony. Every drop of blood in his veins seemedfrozen with the realization that he had deserted her in that hour whenshe had most needed him, that he had left her to go down to deathwithout being by her side, that she had cried out to him for help,--hadreached out to him in agony. Crazed by a sudden impulse, he sprang tohis feet and glared out over the tumbling waves,--ever moving mountainsthat reached as far as the eye could see. She arose also, tremblingand alarmed.

  "Where is she? Where is she?" he cried fiercely. "My God! Look at thatwater! Grace, Grace! My darling, how could I have left you alone to diein that hell of water! Let me come to you now, dearest. I will save you.I will come! Hugh is coming, dearest! Look! She must be out theresomewhere. I can reach her if I try. I must go!"

  Insane with despair, he leaped to his feet and would have dashed downthe steep into the death-dealing breakers had not his companion, with asharp cry, clutched his arm. He turned fiercely, ready to strike her inhis frenzy. His glaring eyes met hers, sweet, wide, and imploring, andtheir influence told at once upon him. A rush of quiet almost benumbedhim, so immediate was the reaction from violence to submission.

  "You must not do that!" she cried in horror.

  "Let me save her, for God's sake. I cannot leave her to the sea."

  "Be calm!" she wailed. "Hours ago I would have leaped into the seamyself, but the thought came to me that she may not be lost after all.There is something for you to live for."

  "There is nothing. She is lost," he cried.

  "As I stood here, I wondered if she might not have been saved asmiraculously as we. Wonder grew into hope and hope took the shape ofpossibility. Hugh, she may be alive and as safe as we!"

  His eyes brightened like a flash; his breath came quickly; he tried tospeak, but could not for the joy of hope.

  "The hope that she may have been saved and may yet be given back to youkept me from ending the life that did not belong to me, but to her. HughRidgeway, I have spent a thousand years on these rocks, trying to findcourage to live. But for me she would be standing here with you. Youwould have saved her had I not been in the way last night," shewhispered. He could see that she suffered, but he was again blind toeverything but his own great despair.

  "Yes," he cried savagely, "but for you I would have saved her. Oh, Icould curse you--curse you!" She shrank back with a low moan, coveringher eyes with her hands.

  "Don't say that!" she murmured piteously. "I would to God I could havegone down with the ship." His eyes softened and a wave of remorseswept over him.

  "Forgive me," he groaned, "I am mad or I could not have said that toyou. I did not mean it." He placed his hand on hers, clasping thefing
ers firmly. "Forget that I spoke so cruelly. I devoutly thank Godthat your life was spared. We both loved the one who was left behind."

  She glanced down at his face doubtingly, unbelievingly, at first. Then agleam of joy flooded her tired eyes, illumined her face. Sinking downbeside him, she placed her head upon his shoulder and wept softly. Hedid not move from his position on the rock below. His heart was full oftenderness for the living and grief for the dead. His eyes stared outover the sea wistfully.

  "I cannot look at that water!" he suddenly shrieked, drawing back inabject terror. "It is horrible! Horrible!"

  He left her side and dashed madly away, strength having come with suddenabhorrence. She looked after him in alarm, her eyes wide with the fearthat he was bereft of reason. Down the rocks and up the beach he fled,disappearing among the strangely shaped trees and underbrush that markedthe outskirts of the jungle. Again she leaned back against the rock andlooked at the unfriendly billows beyond, a feeling that she sat desertedforever on that barren shore plunging her soul into the very lowest pitsof wretchedness.

  Hours afterward he crept painfully from the cool, lonely jungle intothe bright glare of the beach,--calmer, more rational, cursing no more.A shudder swept over him, a chill penetrated to the marrow of his bonesas he looked again upon the sea. His eyes sought the rocks upon which hehad left her; his heart was full of an eagerness to comfort her and becomforted in return.

  She still sat upon the rock and he hurried toward her. As on his firstapproach, she did not move. When he drew quite close, he discovered thatshe was lying limply back against the supporting boulder. The fear thatshe was dead and that he was left alone almost struck him to the ground.He reached her side, pale and panting, and then breathed a prayer ofrejoicing.

  Lady Tennys, her dark lashes resting tranquilly upon her cheek, waslying easily against the staunch old rock, fast asleep.