The Night Land & Other Romances

by William Hope Hodgson; Jeremy Lassen

  And yet, so far as the results of my work went, I was failing to stop the smuggling, for the up-country men still reported goods coming in duty-free; but how it was done I could not imagine, and I had almost decided to send for more men, and put out a couple of patrol gigs, when I got a hint that put me on the track.

  A note was slipped under my door one night, with this single line printed across it:

  Pride, before Fallin’, Watch the Squire’s Leddies Bathin’.

  It was certainly a curious composition, and was obviously written by some woman of the people who had reasons to hate the Miss Rossets. To me it meant one thing— the explanation of the mystery. The secluded little cove where the Squire’s daughters went for their daily bathe was quite near, comparatively speaking, to my house, so that it had never appeared necessary to have a patrol over a place that was practically always under my own eye; and, of course, during the time of the girls’ bathing, I had been walking with Miss Ruth. Moreover, since I had discovered the heartlessness of the girl, I had taken very good care to avoid that part of the cliff-path during the hours when the girls would be likely to appear, and so, of course, unconsciously doing the particular thing that they desired.

  The morning of the following day I kept a watch for the coming of the Miss Rossets, and as soon as I had seen them go down the cliff-path to their bathing cove I took six of my men and placed them on the upper path, with orders not to move unless I whistled twice. Then I took the lower path down into the cove, and went quietly. At the bend, from which a view could be had downward, I came upon the girls’ maid, who ran up to me in a great fluster to tell me that the “leddies” were bathing below, and ’twould not do for me to go down. This, of course, in the ordinary way would have been sufficient to send back any proper-feeling man; but I had come with a set intention, and I meant to go down into that cove though there had been a thousand ladies there disporting themselves. When the maid saw that I took no heed of her warning she made to run before me to warn her mistresses, but I caught her in a moment and set my hand over her mouth to quieten her. Then I went backward up the path with her, and left her in the charge of my coxswain, telling him to plug her mouth if she attempted to shout. A minute later I was back again at the bend of the lower path, and looking below me into the cove. Down there the six maidens were laughing and splashing about in the shallow water in costumes less complete than had before occurred to me, for it was obvious that they had never so much as imagined that they would be intruded upon. And there, as I looked, the whole mystery of the later smuggling was solved; for the six maidens were gleefully rolling and hauling dozens of exceedingly small casks out of the shallows at the foot of the cliff, and dragging them into the mouth of a cave which was evidently only uncovered at low water. The whole method was now clear to me. On suitable nights, Tom Rosset—I presume—and his gang would bring in their stuff quietly and dump it in the water at the foot of the cliff, in the bight of the little cove where his sisters came for their bathe. They, on their part, would make a search each day for any contraband that might have been dumped, and, finding it, they would draw it safely into the low-water cave, from which it could be removed at leisure. And this they had done safely in broad daylight; for who would have suspected them of such a thing? Moreover, all my men were on their patrols, or asleep at the station, and they had accounted for me by the heartless method which Miss Ruth had put into practice.

  All the casks, I noticed, appeared to be loosely roped together in the way common to this method of hiding “free goods,” but with more line than usual between each cask, evidently done purposely to make them easier handling by the girls, who worked with zest at their unlawful task, their laughter rising up to me clear and shrill through the splashing of the water.

  And all the while I was coming clown quickly and silently upon them. I reached the narrow strip of beach that bordered one side of the cove where the cliff-path ended; then I hailed the girls, sternly bidding them come ashore and submit to the law. On the instant there were loud screams, and immediately all of the maidens had hidden themselves up to their necks in the water, and were looking at me, some very red in the face, and some so scared that they were red one moment and white the next; but when I looked at Miss Ruth, she was white and hopeless-seeming, and looked only at the water.

  I bid them come ashore and dress, but they would not until I had threatened to whistle for my men to come and carry them from the water, for I meant to give them the taste of their own mercilessness, that they might learn the meaning of mercy, and know that a man’s love is not to be used as merchandise, neither his heart as a toy, for all had been in the plot with Miss Ruth to use my love to their own miserable ends.

  Then, when the Squire’s daughters saw that I meant truly to use the law upon them and to have no pity, some taunted me bitterly from where they hid in the water, and some broke into weeping; but when I looked at Miss Ruth, she was only white and silent. Then she looked up at me and beckoned to the others to be still, and asked me in a low voice to go out of the cove whilst her sisters and she came ashore and dressed, for she would .give her word that they would not try to escape. But to this I gave only refusal, and told her that I dared not value her word. This set a look of despair into her face, so that I told them of my true intention, which was that they come ashore singly, whilst I would stand behind a rock near by. When each one was dressed, she was to come to me, and I would signal for the next to come ashore. And with this they had to be content, for I was so stern that they felt in their hearts that I would truly call my men if they did not obey.

  Presently, as I stood behind the rock, the eldest sister presented herself to me, fully-dressed and defiant, but obviously frightened. I bid her hold out her hands, which at first she refused to do, until I drew my whistle from my pocket to show that my patience was nearly gone; then she held them out with a kind of fierce scorn and fear, and I immediately snapped one of the pairs of handcuffs on her wrists which. I had brought for the purpose. At that her face whitened, and suddenly she broke into crying and turned from me. Then I signalled for the next maid to come from the water; and as each one in turn presented herself to me I put the irons on her wrists, and some, would whiten and some would redden, but all came to tears in the end, for suddenly the realisation was brought home to them that they had truly put themselves within the power of the law, and that they had no reason at all to expect mercy from me.

  The last one to come from the water was Miss Ruth, and when presently she came round the rock dressed, and saw how her sisters stood, all ironed, I knew that she gave a little start; then, quietly and without waiting for me to tell her, she held out her hands for the irons, and I snapped them on her little wrists with the strangest feelings stirring at my heart.

  Afterwards, I gave the order to march, and took them all up out of the cove by a sheep-track, which they were glad enough to follow, that they might avoid everyone. They went in a sort of quiet despair, save for odd sobbings, for they knew that if they disobeyed I should simply call my men, and this was of all things the thing they dreaded. I brought them up over the cliff, and so into the country-lands beyond, and thence by secluded paths towards the town, where the assizes were held. For three long miles I took them in this direction, and then, suddenly, their despair culminated, for they stopped on the path and gathered round Miss Ruth, and I knew that they were begging her to intercede with me. I stood a little way off from them, and when, presently, the girl came out from among them and walked quietly over to me, I looked at her sternly but silently whilst she made her request, which was that I would let her and her sisters go free, for they had learned such a lesson as should keep, them law-abiding for all their lives to come; but that if any must be punished, let her be punished, and she would come obediently with me, if I would but let her sisters go free. And even as I stood there, looking so grim upon her, I could near have wept to hear her plead so prettily, for I loved her yet so great.

  For a moment or two I stood
as if pondering, then turning to the maidens where they stood in a miserable group, I told them that I hoped they had learned their lesson, and that in future not only their actions but their influence would be on the side of law and order. Afterwards I took the key of the irons from my pocket and set them free, bidding them go home. But when I came to unlock Miss Ruth, who had remained to the last, she refused me quietly, and, turning to her sisters, asked them to go on, as she wished to speak to me.

  For a minute or so she stood before me, until her sisters were a good distance off, then, without a word, she slipped the handcuffs from her little hands, for whilst her sisters were big-made women, she was small and dainty.

  I looked at her with a sudden new feeling thrilling in me, for I knew that she had kept them on only for strange reasons. Yet, though I looked always at her, she, on her part, looked only downward, and I saw that her hands were trembling a little.

  “Miss Rosset,” I said abruptly, “you are free to go. But will you tell me why you kept the irons on?”

  “Because I was your prisoner,” she said in a low voice, and still looking down.

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Well, you are free now,” I replied.

  “No,” she said, in the quietest voice possible, so that I could hardly hear her, and making no attempt to go from me, “I am still your prisoner.”

  I came over to her with three quick steps.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, almost savagely. “Is this more of your jilt’s play?”

  “Oh!” she said, breaking into a sudden sobbing, “I shall never be free again. Never, never, never!”

  I had her into my arms.

  “I loved you without knowing,” she said, perhaps half-an-hour later. “I never meant those things I said to Tom; but he made me so angry. Oh, but I’ve known ever since!”

  And I said nothing; for she was still in my arms.

  In the Wailing Gully

  Do you know,” said a clear girlish, voice, quite near to me, “I think I should like you if you weren’t so conceited.” I turned from my painting and stared in among the rocks and great boulders to my right. Then I saw her, a pretty girl of about sixteen, leaning over the top of a large boulder, with her chin resting on her hands. She was regarding me with queer, half-amused mischief.

  I stood up gravely and bowed. Then I sat down again on my painting-stool.

  “Come and talk to me,” I said. “Conceit was always my besetting sin. Help me to fight it.”

  “You think I’m only a child,” she replied quaintly, and came out from among the rocks. “Nobody realises that I’m grown up. I’m seventeen.”

  I made as if I would rise again to bow; but she checked me with a little gesture.

  “Don’t be an ass,” she said; and I sat down quickly, striving to obey.

  “You know,” she said, pausing to look at my work, “you knew that I was looking all this time; and you tried to seem unconscious. You thought I was thinking what a nice-looking man you are.”

  I screwed round on my stool to face her.

  “I’m sure I didn’t!” I said quite indignantly. “I never dreamt that there was anyone within a mile of me. I understood the natives kept away from the Wailing Gully, as they call it.”

  “There you go again!” she replied. “Because you’re conceited you think all the natives are fools. Why, there’s no place all along the shore where people come more. We’re always searching round here and in the gully for the treasure, on the sly.”

  “If you were a boy,” I said with decision, “I’d like to shake you. You’ve no right to say I’m conceited. You don’t know!”

  “You!” she said, and laughed wickedly. “Why, you’re a painter. You couldn’t shake anyone. I don’t think you even paint very well. Look how you’ve foreshortened that rock!”

  And then, before I could reply, she was off again among the rocks, and gone from my sight.

  “Well!” I said to myself, “of all the— Of all the young— Of all the— Who the deuce is she?” I looked suddenly at my painting of the Wailing Gully. “By Jove!” I muttered, “she’s right. Who the deuce is she? She’s got eyes, and she knows.”

  After that I sat quiet for a bit. I was only twenty-two, and her suggestion that I was a boneless artist-chap had really annoyed me; for I had been an athlete all my life, and not a toy one either. But after a little while I was not half so much annoyed as curious and stimulated. Who was she, on this lonely piece of Devonshire coast, apparently quite alone and utterly unconventional? She had a sound backing of culture behind all her unusualness; this had been apparent to me. I sat idle for a long time, thinking, Then I climbed on to one of the biggest rocks near by and had a good look lip and down the coast; but only the desolation of the lonely shore met me on every side.

  “And the treasure,” I said with a sudden memory. “What did she mean? What treasure?” I leaned over the edge of the great gully which goes winding for a mile among the huge rocks and boulders. What treasure? Surely it had been some obscure local jest? The sea went bubbling and making strange cries and eddyings in the deep holes, which one could believe had never been uncovered through a thousand years. Doubtless it was this same curious noise of the tide in the great gut which had given it the local name of the Wailing Gully. I could imagine that it would be a dree place to come near at night.

  Why, I asked myself, had the “locals,” or natives, given me to understand that it was a place avoided, when, as the girl had told me, everybody came round on the quiet searching for some treasure? Either they or she had been taking a gentle rise out of me, or the “locals” had been genuinely desirous of keeping me from prowling about there. Perhaps they thought I was a treasure prospector in disguise. As a matter of fact, however, I did not really believe either of these things. I thought it far more likely that if any treasure-hunting were being done, it was carried out very slyly, and each man supposed he was the only one on the hunt; with the result that everyone tried to keep up the illusion that the Wailing Gully was avoided, because each believed that this impression was general, and served to keep other people away. In other words, each man was willing to believe that his neighbours were fools, and he the only wise and unsuperstitious human in that district. Which is a very common form of delusion.

  Presently, finding that I could not concentrate again on my work, I went back to my rooms in the “Black Bat Inn” at Dreesthorp, which is the nearest village, about twenty-seven miles from the nearest station. Here, at first, I had intended to make inquiries about the pretty girl who wandered alone among the rocks and spoke her mind so frankly to strangers (or, at least, to this particular one); but somehow, in the end, I could not fancy digging my information about her out of the stolid landlord; so after one or two rather pointless questions on my part, and equally pointless and apparently bewildered replies on his, I desisted, and determined to be back at my painting in good time the next morning, when I hoped that the pretty maid would come again to the attack.

  The following day I carried my gear over the intervening desolation of the shore until I came again to my old sketching-place. Here, having set up my easel, I tried hard for a couple of hours to work; but it was impossible, for I could not keep my attention fixed. All the time I was wondering whether the maid would appear; and a hundred times in the hour I would glance round, expecting to see her looking mischievously at me from among the rocks; but never a sign was there.

  Abruptly, away down the gully, I saw something flashing in the sunlight. As I stared, I realised that it was the hand and arm of a swimmer. For ten minutes I watched it draw nearer; and suddenly I knew that it was my girl friend of the previous day, coming on up the gully with the easy, strong, swinging stroke of the real swimmer. I stood up in amazement and almost anxiety; for the eddies and swirls of the tide in the great gully made it a dangerous place.

  A few minutes later the girl came opposite to where I stood, and, catching at a jutting piece of
rock, pulled herself out of the water and sat down some distance below me. She took her hair down and wrung it out, looking upward at me mischievously, but without saying a word.

  “Is it safe?” I said at last. “I don’t know who you are; but I’m sure your people would be very anxious if they knew. Look at the eddies!”

  The girl put her head a little more on one side and looked up at me with a pretty grimace. She began to re-coil her hair upon her head.

  “I’ve come to apologise,” she said at last. “Though you really needed it.”

  Then, with a quick, lithe movement, she slipped into the water, swam a dozen yards below the surface, and came up in the middle of the gully.

  “Stop!” I shouted foolishly, but she was swimming steadily with the tide, and so in a few minutes was gone out of my sight around the great rocks and boulders.

  I did no real work that day, and the evening found me thoughtful. Later in the day I had followed the course of the Wailing Gully to where it opens out wildly into the sea; but there were nowhere any signs of the girl, nor of any other living creature.

  The following morning I was beside the Wailing Gully at an early hour. I had my day’s provisions with me, and I resolved to get in a few hours’ good solid work before there should be any chance of the maid appearing to disturb my thoughts; for there is no doubt that she was much in my mind, at the expense of my working.

  Yet, as it chanced, I could not concentrate; and, finally, I got my bathing suit out of my knapsack and determined to try the eddies of the gully, which was here quite twenty yards across, though in places it narrowed down to about a dozen feet. As soon as I plunged in I found the plucking and pulling of the eddies very upsetting; so that I should have been tempted to climb out at once if I had not seen the girl swim through it all. Later, I found that at certain states of the tide the gully was really dangerous; and, indeed, I felt then that a weak swimmer would have been drawn under and ground against the rocks very quickly. Presently, after I had swum down for about half a mile, I found the plucking of the eddies to ease, and I turned about and came up in the still water; for it was now close upon the “still,” between the tides. I climbed out again opposite to my easel, and sat for a minute or two on the rocks in the sun. It was whilst I was sitting here that I noticed suddenly that I could see the bottom of the gully; for the surface of the water had grown temporarily quiet because of the “still” and the utter lack of wind. The bottom, I saw, was formed of masses of round stones as round as big marbles, though some were as big as cricket balls. These seemed to be lying in worn hollows of the rocky bottom. A little upward of the gully I saw a worn, twisted portion of ironwork, and I thought I would go down to examine it. I dived in, and swam under water until I came to the place; but there was nothing peculiar about the ironwork, for it was merely the battered fragment of a ship’s iron rail, which had been jammed into a crevice of the rock. Near it I saw that there was a battered and twisted piece of copper-work, which was all verdigris. The design looked old, and I pulled at it, to take it up with me; but it also was jammed tight, evidently by the action of the tide. As I turned to swim back I saw a worn mass of iron, evidently a portion of an old anchor, which had been brought up by the scour of the tide. Then I was at the surface, panting; for I must have been under water for nearly two minutes. I climbed out and dried and dressed. As I was doing so I noticed suddenly that the eddying movement of the water in the gully had recommenced, so that the bottom was now invisible. I had just finished dressing, and was wringing out my swimming costume, when someone spoke close to me. I jumped and turned quickly. The girl was sitting quietly on a rock, about a dozen feet away, quietly and critically looking at me.