The Northern Iron Part 34

A confidence, entailing the close proximity of this desirable lady, was an unlooked-for delight.

"My dear niece is very young--a mere child, you understand me, unformed, gauche, what you call shy. You will make excuse for her want of manner."

The apology was necessary. In Una's face, if he had eyes for it at all, Captain Twinely might have seen something more than shyness. There was an expression of loathing on the girl's lips and in her eyes when he stepped up to her, hat in hand.

"Una," said the Comtesse, "the dear captain will take pity on us. He will send one of his men back to the house to fetch a cold chicken and some wine--and all the delightful things we are to eat and drink. Give him a note to the butler, Una, we will go on with Captain Twinely."

Una, puzzled, but obedient to a quick glance from her aunt, wrote the note. The troopers, leading Captain Twinely's horse, rode back to Dunseveric House. The Comtesse, still leaning on the captain's arm, picked up her bundle of bathing clothes.

"Allow me to carry that for you," said the captain, "allow me to carry all the bundles."

"Oh, but no. Have we got a cavalier with such trouble and shall we turn him into a beast of burden, a--how do you say it?--a baggage a.s.s? The good Hannah will carry my bundle.'"

The good Hannah became a baggage animal, but she was not an a.s.s. She was, indeed, struggling with suppressed mirth. She was confirmed in her opinion that the Comtesse possessed a subtlety not unlike that of the serpent in Eden.

The Comtesse led the way, chatting to Captain Twinely, saying things more charmingly provocative than any which poor Twinely had ever heard from a woman's lips. Her eyes flashed on him, drooped before his gaze, sought his again with shy suggestiveness. She even succeeded, when his glance grew very bold, in blus.h.i.+ng. They reached the little cove where Maurice's boat lay.

The Comtesse sat down, and then lolled back on the short gra.s.s. Her motions and her att.i.tudes were the most easy and natural possible, yet her pose was charming. There was not a fold of her skirt but fell round her gracefully. From the challenging smile on her lips to the point of the little shoe which peeped out beneath her petticoat, there came an invitation to Captain Twinely--a suggestion that he, too, should sit gracefully on the gra.s.s.

"Now, Una," she said, "go and have your bathe, if you must do anything so foolish. We will wait for you here, the captain will amuse me till you return. Kiss me, child, before you go."

Una bent over her.

"I'll keep him," whispered the Comtesse, "I'll keep him, even if I have to allow the animal to embrace me. But, dear Una, do not be very long."

Una sped away. Hannah, heavily laden, and laughing now outright, followed her.

"I never seen the like," she said. "Didn't I say to Master Neal last night that she was an early one? Eh, Miss Una, did you no take notice of the eyes of her? She'd wile the fishes out of the sea, or a bird off a bush, so she would, just by looking sweet at them. It's queer manners they have where she comes from. I'm thinking that silly gowk of a captain's no the first man she's beguiled. I was counted a braw la.s.s myself in me day, and one that could twine a lad round my thumb as fine as any, but I couldna have done thon, Miss Una."

Una gave a little shudder of disgust.

"How could she bear to? How could she touch such a man?"

"Ay, I was wondering that myself, her that's so high falutin' in her ways, and no like a common la.s.sie. Not but what thon captain's a clever enough cut of a man for them as thinks of nothing but a clean figure and a good leg. He's no that ill-looking; but, eh, there's a glint in his eye I wouldna trust. I pity the la.s.sie that loves him. But there's no fear of thon lady falling into sic a snare. She can mine herself well, I'm thinkin'."

They reached the cliff above the Pigeon Cave, and Una began her downward climb. Hannah stared at her in horror.

"Mind yourself, Miss Una. You're never going down there, are ye? And you expect me to break my old bones going after you, do ye? Faith and I willna avaw, I'd rather be back rolling my eyes at the captain and letting on to him that I wanted a kiss than go down yon cliff."

"Come," said Una, "it looks worse than it is. Come, Hannah, you must come. Would you have the poor boy starve in the cave?"

The appeal was too strong to be resisted. Hannah, with much grumbling, climbed down. Una carried the bundles one by one to the shelf of rock from which Neal had slipped into the dark water the night before. She took the straps from them, and unwound the sheets and bathing clothes.

Within was store of food--parcels of oatcake, baps, cold meat, b.u.t.ter, cheese, a bottle of wine, a flask of whisky and water, a package of candles. She had determined that Neal should feast royally in his hiding-place, and that he should not sit in the dark, though he had to sit alone. She floated the raft of corks, and very carefully loaded it with her good things. Then, with a piece of cord, she moored it to the rock.

"Are ye no afeard, Miss Una?" said Hannah. "Eh, but it's well to be young and strong, I wouldna go in there, not for all the gold and silver and the spices that King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba. I wouldna go in a boat, let alone swimming. Miss Una, could you no shout, and let him come for the food himself?"

Una looked at her with a wondering reproach in her eyes.

"Am I the only one that's to do nothing for him? Didn't Maurice get him free in the town of Antrim? Didn't you chase the yeomen from him last night? Isn't Aunt Estelle sitting with that Captain Twinely now? And may I not do something, too? I think mine's the easiest thing of the four."

"You're a venturesome la.s.sie, so you are. I dinna like the looks of thon water. It's over green for me, so it is. I can see right down to the bottom of it, and that's no natural in the sea, and it so deep, too. And thon cave, Miss Una, with the smooth, red, clampy sides to it. What call has the rocks to be red? I'm thinking when G.o.d made the rocks black, and maybe white, it's black and white he meant them to be and no red. I wouldna say but what there's something no just canny about a cave with red sides to it higher than a man can stretch. Eh, but you've the chiney white feet, Miss Una. Mind now you dinna scrab them on the wee sh.e.l.ls.

Bide now, bide like a good la.s.sie, till I spread the sheet for you to tread on. You will no be for going right intil the cave? Would it no do you to shout when you got to the mouth of it? I dinna like that cave with the red sides till it. I'm thinking maybe there was red sides to the cave where the witch of Endor dweft. Are you no sure that there isna something of that kind, something no right in the gloom beyond there?"

"Neal's in it," said Una, "what's to frighten me?"

"Ay, sure enough, he's there, the poor bairn. Lord save us, and keep us! The la.s.sie's intil the water, and it up ower her head, and she's drownded. No, but she's up again, and she's swimmin' along like as if she was a sea maiden with hair all wet. Eh, but she swims fine, and she's gotten hold of the wee boatie wi' the laddie's dinner on it. Look at the white arms of her moving through the water, they're like the salmon fish slithering along when the net is pulled in. She's bonny, so she is. See till her now! See till her if she hasna lighted on some kind of a rock. She's standing up on it, and the sea no more than up to the knees of her. The water is running off her, and she's shaking herself like a wee dog. She doesna mind it. She's waving her hand to me and her in the very mouth of thon awful cave. Mine yourself, Miss Una, take heed now, like a good la.s.s. Dinna go further, you're far enough. Bide where you are, and shout till him. Lord save us, she's off again, and the wee boatie in front of her. I've known a wheen o' la.s.sies in my time that would do queer things for the lads they had their hearts set on, but ne'er a one as venturesome as her. I'm thinking Master Neal himself would look twice e'er he swam into thon dark hole. Eh, poor laddie, but there'll be light in his eyes when he sees the white glint of her coming till him where he's no expecting her or the like of her."

Indeed, Una was not so brave as she seemed. Her heart beat quicker as she struck out into the gloom of the cave. The water was colder, or seemed colder, than it had been outside. The splas.h.i.+ng of drops from the roof, and the echoing noise of the sea's wash awed her. She felt a tightening in her throat. She swam with faster and faster strokes. The sides of the cave loomed huge about her. The roof seemed immensely, remotely, high. The water was dark now. It was a solemn thing to swim through it. She began to wonder how far it was to the end of the cave.

A sudden terror seized her. Suppose, after all, that Neal was not in the cave, suppose that she was swimming in this awful place alone. She shouted aloud--

"Neal, Neal, Neal Ward, are you there?"

The cave echoed her cries. A thousand repet.i.tions of the name she had shouted came to her from above, from behind, from right, from left. The rocks flung her words to each other, bandied them to and fro, turned them into ridicule, turned them into thundering sounds of terror, turned them into shrill shrieks. The frightened pigeons flew from their rocky perches; their wings set new echoes going. Una swam forward, and, reckless with fright now, shouted again. She heard some one rus.h.i.+ng down to meet her from the remote depths of the cave. The great stones rolled and crashed under his feet with a noise like the firing of guns. Then, amid a babel of echoes, came a shout answering her's.

"I'm coming to you, Una."

She felt the bottom with her feet. She stood upright. At the sound of Neal's voice all her fears vanished. She could see him now. He was stumbling down over the slippery stones which the ebb tide left bare. He reached the water and splashed in.

"Stay where you are, you must not come any further."

"Una," he said, "dear Una, you have come to me."

She laughed merrily.

"Don't think I've come to live with you here, Neal, like a seal or a mermaid. No, no. I've brought you something to eat. Here, now, don't upset my little boat." She pushed the raft towards him. "Isn't it just like the boats we used to make long ago when we were little? Oh! do you remember how angry the salmon men were when you and Maurice stole all the corks off their net? But I can't stay talking here, I'm getting cold, and you, Neal, go back to dry land. What's the use of standing there up to your knees in water? There's no sun in here to dry your clothes afterwards. No, you must not come to me, I won't have it. You'd get wet up to your neck. Keep quiet, now. I've something to say to you.

Maurice has gone to Glasgow to see that funny Captain Getty, who made you both so angry the day we took your uncle from the brig. He is arranging for the brig to lie off here and pick you up. Maurice and I will take you out in the boat. We will come in to the mouth of the cave and shout to you unless it's rough. If it's rough, Neal, you must swim out and hide somewhere among the rocks. But I hope it will stay calm.

Maurice may be back to-morrow or next day. I've given you enough to eat for two days. I may not be able to come to-morrow."

"Do come again, Una, it's very lonely here."

"I will if I can, Neal. Good-bye. Keep a good heart. Good-bye. Oh, but it's hard to be leaving you in this dark place, but I think it's safe, and the country is full of yeomen. Good-bye, Neal. G.o.d bless you."

When Una and Hannah reached the little cove again, they found luncheon spread out on the gra.s.s ready for them. The troopers who had brought the baskets from Dunseveric House sat on their horses at the end of the rough track which led to the strand. The Comtesse reclined on a cloak spread for her on the gra.s.s. Captain Twinely, a wors.h.i.+pper with bold eyes and stupid tongue, sat at her feet and gazed at her. He had ceased even to wonder at his own good fortune in captivating so fair a lady. He had forgotten all about the angular daughter of a neighbouring squire, who was waiting for him to marry her. He was hopelessly, helplessly, fascinated by the woman in front of him. Estelle de Tourneville had never made an easier conquest. And she was already exceedingly weary of the flirtation. The man bored her because he was dull. He disgusted her because he was amorous.

"Oh, Una," she cried, "how quick you've been! It hardly seems a moment since you left. Captain Twinely and I have had such a delightful talk. I was telling him about the Jacobins in Paris, and how they wanted to cut my head off in the Terror. My dear, your hair is all wet. You look just like a seal with your sleek head and your brown eyes. Just fancy, Una, Captain Twinely thought that we were in sympathy with the rebels here.

He had actually told his men to watch us in case we should try to help some horrid _sans-culotte_ who is hiding somewhere. Just think of his suspecting me--me, of all people."

She cast a glance at Captain Twinely. Her eyes were full of half serious reproach, of laughter and enticement.

"I'm very hungry after my swim," said Una, "let us have our lunch."

Captain Twinely, awkward but anxious to please, was on his feet in an instant. He waited on the ladies, waited even on Hannah, whom he supposed to be Una's maid. He did not notice that Una shrank from him.

He probably would not have cared even if he had seen that she avoided touching his hand as she might have avoided some loathsome reptile. His thoughts and his eyes were all for the Comtesse. She did not shrink from him. Her wonderful eyes thrilled him again and again. He touched her hand, her hair, her clothes, as he handed her this or that to eat or drink. He grew hot and cold in turns with the excitement of her nearness. He was ecstatically, ridiculously happy.

He walked back to Dunseveric House with her. He promised to call on her the next day. He promised to leave troopers on guard round the house all night in case a fugitive rebel, wandering in the demesne, might frighten the Comtesse. He suggested another pic-nic. At last, reluctantly, lingeringly, he bade her farewell.

"Adieu, Monsieur le Capitaine," said the Comtesse, "we shall expect you to-morrow then."

She stretched out her hand to him. He stooped and kissed it. Then she turned from him and ran up the avenue after Una and Hannah. The captain watched her. He pulled himself together, rea.s.sumed his habitual swagger, tried to persuade himself that he looked on the Comtesse as he had long been accustomed to look on other women.