CHAPTER XIX. THE WHITE LEECH
I woke one morning from a profound sleep, with one of my hands verypainful. The back of it was much swollen, and in the centre of theswelling was a triangular wound, like the bite of a leech. As the daywent on, the swelling subsided, and by the evening the hurt was all buthealed. I searched the cave, turning over every stone of any size, butdiscovered nothing I could imagine capable of injuring me.
Slowly the days passed, and still the body never moved, never openedits eyes. It could not be dead, for assuredly it manifested no sign ofdecay, and the air about it was quite pure. Moreover, I could imaginethat the sharpest angles of the bones had begun to disappear, thatthe form was everywhere a little rounder, and the skin had less of theparchment-look: if such change was indeed there, life must be there! thetide which had ebbed so far toward the infinite, must have begun againto flow! Oh joy to me, if the rising ripples of life's ocean were indeedburying under lovely shape the bones it had all but forsaken! Twentytimes a day I looked for evidence of progress, and twenty times a day Idoubted--sometimes even despaired; but the moment I recalled the mentalpicture of her as I found her, hope revived.
Several weeks had passed thus, when one night, after lying a long timeawake, I rose, thinking to go out and breathe the cooler air; for,although from the running of the stream it was always fresh in the cave,the heat was not seldom a little oppressive. The moon outside was full,the air within shadowy clear, and naturally I cast a lingering look onmy treasure ere I went. "Bliss eternal!" I cried aloud, "do I see hereyes?" Great orbs, dark as if cut from the sphere of a starless night,and luminous by excess of darkness, seemed to shine amid the glimmeringwhiteness of her face. I stole nearer, my heart beating so that I fearedthe noise of it startling her. I bent over her. Alas, her eyelids wereclose shut! Hope and Imagination had wrought mutual illusion! my heart'sdesire would never be! I turned away, threw myself on the floor of thecave, and wept. Then I bethought me that her eyes had been a littleopen, and that now the awful chink out of which nothingness had peered,was gone: it might be that she had opened them for a moment, and wasagain asleep!--it might be she was awake and holding them close! Ineither case, life, less or more, must have shut them! I was comforted,and fell fast asleep.
That night I was again bitten, and awoke with a burning thirst.
In the morning I searched yet more thoroughly, but again in vain. Thewound was of the same character, and, as before, was nearly well by theevening. I concluded that some large creature of the leech kind cameoccasionally from the hot stream. "But, if blood be its object," I saidto myself, "so long as I am there, I need hardly fear for my treasure!"
That same morning, when, having peeled a grape as usual and taken awaythe seeds, I put it in her mouth, her lips made a slight movement ofreception, and I KNEW she lived!
My hope was now so much stronger that I began to think of some attirefor her: she must be able to rise the moment she wished! I betook myselftherefore to the forest, to investigate what material it might afford,and had hardly begun to look when fibrous skeletons, like those of theleaves of the prickly pear, suggested themselves as fit for the purpose.I gathered a stock of them, laid them to dry in the sun, pulled apartthe reticulated layers, and of these had soon begun to fashion two loosegarments, one to hang from her waist, the other from her shoulders.With the stiletto-point of an aloe-leaf and various filaments, I sewedtogether three thicknesses of the tissue.
During the week that followed, there was no farther sign except that shemore evidently took the grapes. But indeed all the signs became surer:plainly she was growing plumper, and her skin fairer. Still she did notopen her eyes; and the horrid fear would at times invade me, that hergrowth was of some hideous fungoid nature, the few grapes being nowisesufficient to account for it.
Again I was bitten; and now the thing, whatever it was, began to pay meregular visits at intervals of three days. It now generally bit me inthe neck or the arm, invariably with but one bite, always while I slept,and never, even when I slept, in the daytime. Hour after hour would Ilie awake on the watch, but never heard it coming, or saw sign of itsapproach. Neither, I believe, did I ever feel it bite me. At lengthI became so hopeless of catching it, that I no longer troubled myselfeither to look for it by day, or lie in wait for it at night. I knewfrom my growing weakness that I was losing blood at a dangerous rate,but I cared little for that: in sight of my eyes death was yielding tolife; a soul was gathering strength to save me from loneliness; we wouldgo away together, and I should speedily recover!
The garments were at length finished, and, contemplating my handiworkwith no small satisfaction, I proceeded to mat layers of the fibre intosandals.
One night I woke suddenly, breathless and faint, and longing after air,and had risen to crawl from the cave, when a slight rustle in the leavesof the couch set me listening motionless.
"I caught the vile thing," said a feeble voice, in my mother-tongue; "Icaught it in the very act!"
She was alive! she spoke! I dared not yield to my transport lest Ishould terrify her.
"What creature?" I breathed, rather than said.
"The creature," she answered, "that was biting you."
"What was it?"
"A great white leech."
"How big?" I pursued, forcing myself to be calm.
"Not far from six feet long, I should think," she answered.
"You have saved my life, perhaps!--But how could you touch the horridthing! How brave of you!" I cried.
"I did!" was all her answer, and I thought she shuddered.
"Where is it? What could you do with such a monster?"
"I threw it in the river."
"Then it will come again, I fear!"
"I do not think I could have killed it, even had I known how!--I heardyou moaning, and got up to see what disturbed you; saw the frightfulthing at your neck, and pulled it away. But I could not hold it, and washardly able to throw it from me. I only heard it splash in the water!"
"We'll kill it next time!" I said; but with that I turned faint, soughtthe open air, but fell.
When I came to myself the sun was up. The lady stood a little way off,looking, even in the clumsy attire I had fashioned for her, at oncegrand and graceful. I HAD seen those glorious eyes! Through the nightthey had shone! Dark as the darkness primeval, they now outshone theday! She stood erect as a column, regarding me. Her pale cheek indicatedno emotion, only question. I rose.
"We must be going!" I said. "The white leech----"
I stopped: a strange smile had flickered over her beautiful face.
"Did you find me there?" she asked, pointing to the cave.
"No; I brought you there," I replied.
"You brought me?"
"Yes."
"From where?"
"From the forest."
"What have you done with my clothes--and my jewels?"
"You had none when I found you."
"Then why did you not leave me?"
"Because I hoped you were not dead."
"Why should you have cared?"
"Because I was very lonely, and wanted you to live."
"You would have kept me enchanted for my beauty!" she said, with proudscorn.
Her words and her look roused my indignation.
"There was no beauty left in you," I said.
"Why, then, again, did you not let me alone?"
"Because you were of my own kind."
"Of YOUR kind?" she cried, in a tone of utter contempt.
"I thought so, but find I was mistaken!"
"Doubtless you pitied me!"
"Never had woman more claim on pity, or less on any other feeling!"
With an expression of pain, mortification, and anger unutterable, sheturned from me and stood silent. Starless night lay profound in thegulfs of her eyes: hate of him who brought it back had slain theirsplendour. The light of life was gone from them.
"Had you failed to rouse me, what would you have done?" she askedsuddenly without movin
g.
"I would have buried it."
"It! What?--You would have buried THIS?" she exclaimed, flashing roundupon me in a white fury, her arms thrown out, and her eyes darting forksof cold lightning.
"Nay; that I saw not! That, weary weeks of watching and tending havebrought back to you," I answered--for with such a woman I must be plain!"Had I seen the smallest sign of decay, I would at once have buriedyou."
"Dog of a fool!" she cried, "I was but in a trance--Samoil! what afate!--Go and fetch the she-savage from whom you borrowed this hideousdisguise."
"I made it for you. It is hideous, but I did my best."
She drew herself up to her tall height.
"How long have I been insensible?" she demanded. "A woman could not havemade that dress in a day!"
"Not in twenty days," I rejoined, "hardly in thirty!"
"Ha! How long do you pretend I have lain unconscious?--Answer me atonce."
"I cannot tell how long you had lain when I found you, but there wasnothing left of you save skin and bone: that is more than three monthsago.--Your hair was beautiful, nothing else! I have done for it what Icould."
"My poor hair!" she said, and brought a great armful of it round frombehind her; "--it will be more than a three-months' care to bring YOUto life again!--I suppose I must thank you, although I cannot say I amgrateful!"
"There is no need, madam: I would have done the same for any woman--yes,or for any man either!"
"How is it my hair is not tangled?" she said, fondling it.
"It always drifted in the current."
"How?--What do you mean?"
"I could not have brought you to life but by bathing you in the hotriver every morning."
She gave a shudder of disgust, and stood for a while with her gaze fixedon the hurrying water. Then she turned to me:
"We must understand each other!" she said. "--You have done me the twoworst of wrongs--compelled me to live, and put me to shame: neither ofthem can I pardon!"
She raised her left hand, and flung it out as if repelling me. Somethingice-cold struck me on the forehead. When I came to myself, I was on theground, wet and shivering.
Lilith: A Romance Page 19