The Light of Scarthey Part 56

Oh, hurry, hurry, hurry!

And as she turned again, there, upon the waters out in the offing, glimmered a light, curtseying with the swell of the waves; the sails of a s.h.i.+p caught the moonbeams. She could see the vessel plainly and that it was bearing full for the island. Alas! This might scarcely be the little Shearman boat manned by two fishermen only; even she, unversed in sea knowledge could tell that. It was as large as the _Peregrine_ itself--certainly as large as the cutter.

The _cutter_!

She caught her breath, and clapped her hands to her lips to choke down the wild scream of fear that rose to them.

At the same instant, a dull thud of oars, a subdued murmur of a deep voice rose from the other side of the island.

They were coming, coming from the landward, these rescuers of her beloved. And yonder, with swelling canvas, came the h.e.l.l s.h.i.+p from out the open sea, sent by Rupert's infernal malice and cleverness, to make their help of no avail; to seize him, in the very act of flight.

She ran in the direction of the sound, and with all her strength called upon the new-comers to speed.

"Here--here, for G.o.d's sake! Hasten or it will be too late!"

Her voice seemed to her, in the midst of the endless s.p.a.ce, weak as a child's; but it was heard.

"Coming!" answered a gruff shout from afar. And the oar beat came closer, and fell with swifter rhythm. Stumbling, catching in her skirts, careless of pool or stone beneath her little slippered feet, Lady Landale came flying round the ruins: a couple of boats crashed in upon the s.h.i.+ngle, and the whole night seemed suddenly to become alive with dark figures--men in uniform, with gleams upon them of bra.s.s badges and s.h.i.+ning belts, and in their hands the gleam of arms.

For the moment she could not move. It was as if her knees were giving way, and she must fall.

None of them saw her in the shadow; but as they pa.s.sed, she heard them talking to each other about the signal, the signal which they had been told to look for, which had been brought to them ... the signal _she_ had made. Then with a wave of rage, the power of life returned to her.

This was Rupert's work! But all was not lost yet. The other boat was coming, the other boat must be the rescue after all; the Shearman's boat, or--who knows?--if there was mercy in Heaven, the _Peregrine_, whose crew might have heard of their captain's risk.

Back she raced to the seaward beach, hurling--unknowing that she spoke at all--invectives upon her husband's brother.

"Serpent, blood-hound, devil, devil, you shall not have him!"

As she reached the landing-place, breathless, a boat was landing in very truth. Even as she came up a tall figure jumped out upon the sand, and crunched towards her with great strides.

She made a leap forward, halted, and cried out shrilly:

"Adrian!"

"Molly--wife! Thank G.o.d!" His arms were stretched out to her, but he saw her waver and shudder from him, and wring her hands. "My G.o.d, what has happened? The light out, too! What is it?"

She fastened on him with a sudden fierceness, the spring of a wild cat.

"Come," she said, drawing him towards the peel, "if you would save him, lose not a second."

He hesitated a moment, still; she tugged at him like one demented, panting her abjurations at him, though her voice was failing her.

Then, without a word, he fell to running with her towards the keep, supporting her as they went.

The great door had swung back on its hinges, and the men were pressing, in a dark body, into the dim-lit recesses, when Sir Adrian and his wife reached the entrance.

The sight of the uniforms only confirmed the homecomer in his own forebodings anent the first act of the drama that was being enacted upon his peaceful island. He needed no further pus.h.i.+ng from the frantic woman at his side. Lost in bringing her back, perhaps, his only friend! Lost by his loyalty and his true friends.h.i.+p!

They dashed up the stone stairs just as the locked door of the living-room burst with a crash, under the efforts of many stalwart shoulders; they saw the men crush forwards, and fall back, and herd on again, with a hoa.r.s.e murmur that leaped from mouth to mouth.

And Rene came running out from the throng with the face of one that has seen Death. And he caught his mistress by the arm, and held her by main force against the wall. He showed no surprise at the sight of his master--there are moments in life that are beyond surprise--but cried wildly:

"She must not see!"

She fought like a tigress against the faithful arms, but still they held her, and Sir Adrian went in alone.

A couple of men were dragging Captain Jack to his feet, forcing his hands from the dead man's throat; it seemed as if they had grown as rigid and paralysed in their clasp like the corpse hands that had now, likewise, to be wrenched from their clutch of him.

He glanced around, as though dazed, then down at the disfigured purple face of his dead enemy, smiled and held out his hands stiffly for the gyves that were snapped upon them.

And then one of the fellows, with some instinctive feeling of decency, flung a coat over the slain man, and Captain Jack threw up his head and met Adrian's horror-stricken, sorrowful eyes.

At the unexpected sight he grew scarlet; he waved his fettered hands at him as they hustled him forth.

"I have killed your brother, Adrian," he called out in a loud voice, "but I brought back your wife!"

Some of the men were speaking to Sir Adrian, but drew back respectfully before the spectacle of his wordless agony.

But, as Molly, with a shriek, would have flung herself after the prisoner, her husband awoke to action, and, pus.h.i.+ng Rene aside, caught her round the waist with an unyielding grip: his eyes sought her face.

And, as the light fell on it, he understood. Aye, she had been brought back to him. But how?

And Rene, watching his master's countenance, suddenly burst out blubbering, like a child.

CHAPTER x.x.x

HUSBAND AND WIFE

Tout comprendre-- c'est tout pardonner.

Staring straight before her with haggard, unseeing eyes, her hands clasped till the delicate bones protruded, her young face lined into sudden agedness, grey with unnatural pallor, framed by the black ma.s.ses of her dishevelled hair, it was thus Sir Adrian found his wife, when at length he was free to seek her.

He and Rene had laid the dead man upon the bed that had been occupied by his murderer, and composed as decently as might be the hideous corpse of him who had been the handsomest of his race. Rene had given his master the tale of all he knew himself, and Sir Adrian had ordered the boat to be prepared, determined to convey Lady Landale at once from the scene of so much horror. His own return to Pulwick, moreover, to break the news to Sophia, to attend to the removal of the body and the preparation for the funeral was of immediate necessity.

As he approached his wife she raised her eyes.

"What do you want with me?" she asked, with a stony look that arrested him, as he would gently have taken her hand.

"I would bring you home."

"Home!" the pale lips writhed in withering derision.

"Yes, home, Molly," he spoke as one might to a much-loved and unreasonable sick child--with infinite tenderness and compa.s.sion--"your own warm home, with your sister. You would like to go to Madeleine, would not you?"

She unclasped her hands and threw them out before her with a savage gesture of repulsion.

"To Madeleine?" she echoed, with an angry cry; and then wheeling round upon him fiercely: "Do you want to kill me?" she said, between her set teeth.