Clear the Track! Part 19

"Danger? I did not think of that! You thought I would not dare to follow this path, or, at best give up and go back in five minutes. What say you now?"

She gave him a challenging glance,--now, at last, a word of admiration must come from those stern lips! But there came only the cool counter-question:

"Do they know of your expedition at Odensburg, n.o.ble lady?"

"Why, no!" cried the young lady laughing. "Then they would have confined me to the house or at least set a guard over my going out and coming in. I set off this morning betimes, while they were all asleep, slipped away secretly, had the horses. .h.i.tched up and drove to Crownwood. From there the road can hardly be missed, and, you see I have found it."

"Alone? That was more than incautious! If you had made a false step, if you had fallen, no help was at hand and then----"

"Dear me? Do not you begin to preach at me," interrupted she impatiently. "I shall hear enough of lectures when I get back to Odensburg."

"I have neither the purpose nor the right to preach to you, Fraulein von Wildenrod, that is for Eric to do, if any one."

"And he is the very last from whom I would take it."

"What, not from your future husband?"

"Just on that very account. I have made up my mind to rule in the establishment."

"That would not be hard to do in this case, Eric is of a gentle, yielding temper. He will never try to resist you."

"Resist?" repeated Cecilia, provoked and amused at the same time. "You seem to consider our marriage as on a war-basis--a flattering compliment to me."

"I beg pardon, if I now inspect the cross," said Egbert, interrupting the Baroness. "I came up here, solely on that account, you know. The thing is to hinder the possibility of an accident, the results of which might be fatal."

Cecilia bit her lip at this rejection of the confidential tone, which she had found good to adopt, and an angry glance was hurled at the man who dared to treat her thus.

Cecilia looked silently on as Runeck proceeded to the cross, which stood on the extreme verge of the precipice upon the side facing the valley, and tested it. He did this thoroughly and scientifically, and probably ten minutes elapsed ere he turned around again.

"Those gentlemen were mistaken," said he quietly. "The cross is standing perfectly firm and secure, and there is no fear of its falling. Perhaps you will have the goodness to report this at Odensburg. I shall not get there until day after to-morrow, and I take it for granted that you have no idea of making a secret of your adventure."

"On the contrary, I am fully purposed to boast freely of it. Do not look so astounded, Herr Runeck. You see this lace veil does not exactly belong to my tourist's equipment: I have brought it with me on purpose to prove that I really have been on the top of the Whitestone. I could have no idea that I should meet you here, and did not therefore calculate upon having your testimony to the feat." And so saying Cecilia loosened the white veil, that was flung loosely around her shoulder and waist, and advanced towards the cross.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked Egbert, looking after her in surprise.

"I have already told you,--to leave behind, a token, so that they may believe at Odensburg, that I actually performed the achievement. My veil is to wave from the cross yonder."

"For what? It is rashness, foolhardiness! Come back, please!"

His call sounded commanding, frenzied, but Cecilia paid no heed to it.

Standing immediately on the verge of the precipice, she flung her veil around the cross. It was an agonizing spectacle--one single incautious movement, and she would lie crushed at the base.

"Fraulein von Wildenrod, come back! I implore you!" The voice of the young engineer was m.u.f.fled and full of emotion. He seemed to suffer the agonies of a life-time in that moment.

Cecilia turned around and smiled. "Can you really beg, Herr Runeck? I am coming directly, only one more look into that chasm, which has its fascination for me." And, with her arm slung around the cross, she actually bent over the abruptly precipitous wall of rock, and looked fearlessly down.

Egbert involuntarily took one step forward, his arm quivered, as though he would drag her away by force from her dangerous position. He did not, however, but every drop of blood seemed to have left his face, when she finally left her place and came to him again.

"Do you believe now in my fearlessness?" she asked, tauntingly.

"That rash sport was really not necessary to convince me of it," said he harshly, and yet he drew a sigh of relief, when he once more saw the foolhardy girl on firm ground. "A misstep on that spot and you would have been lost!"

She recklessly shrugged her shoulders. "I never get dizzy, and just wanted for once to feel that deliciously thrilling sensation of standing up there, close over the precipice. One feels something like a demoniacal drawing to the bottom, it is as though one must rush to destruction, whether or no. Have you ever felt anything like it?"

"No," said Egbert coldly. "One must have a great deal of--time, to indulge themselves in such feelings."

"Which you deem objectionable."

"Unhealthy, to say the least. He who needs his life for work, knows how to prize it, and risks it only at the call of duty."

This reproof sounded very rude, and if it had come from the lips of any other person, Cecilia would probably have turned her back upon the "insolent creature," in silent contempt. Here she said nothing, for a minute perhaps, and at the same time scanned the sunburnt countenance of the young man, that had not by any means recovered its color as yet.

Then she smiled again. "Thanks for the lesson. We just do not understand one another, Herr Runeck."

"I have told you so already--we belong to two different worlds----"

"And yet we stand so near together on the narrow s.p.a.ce furnished by Whitestone's crest," mocked Cecilia. "As for the rest, I have enjoyed this unique pleasure long enough. I must go down now."

"Then permit me to attend you! The descent is far more dangerous than the ascent, and I could not answer to Erie for letting you go alone."

"To Eric? That indeed!" Her lips curled haughtily at the mention of her betrothed; then she cast a look up at the cross, where the loose hanging ends of the veil were fluttering in the morning breeze.

"That old weather-beaten cross has never been dressed up so before! I present it to the guardian spirits of the Whitestone; may be, out of grat.i.tude, they will open their caverns to me and give me a sight of their buried treasures."

With a light laugh she turned to go. Silently Runeck led the way. He was right, the greater danger lay in the descent.

From time to time, at especially critical places, he exhorted her to be cautious, with a few words, or by a movement of the arm offered his a.s.sistance, which, however, was not accepted. His beautiful companion walked along over the giddy, steep path, as carelessly as over the smoothest of roads. Her light foot carried her over the rubble-stones, where Egbert's heavier tread found no good hold, and where there was climbing or leaping to do, with the help of her staff, she would swing herself from rock to rock. There was a bewitching grace in every moment of her slender white form, although, at the same time, that bold rash sport with danger that sets foresight at defiance.

They had already accomplished the greatest part of the way, already the bright green of the little mountain meadow was smiling a welcome, when Cecilia heedlessly again set her foot upon a loose rubble-stone, but this time it gave way, and rolled into the chasm; she lost her balance, tottered, stumbled--now the horrible instant of her fall, a loud shriek of dismay, then it grew dark before her eyes.

But the next second she was seized and held. Flinging his stout staff from him, Egbert had turned around as quick as lightning, and propping himself with gigantic strength against the cliff, he caught up the girl's trembling form and convulsively held her tight in his arms.

Cecilia had hardly lost her consciousness for more than a minute, almost immediately it was restored to her, and her large, dark eyes were shyly lifted up to her deliverer's face, that was bent over her.

She saw that it was deadly pale, saw the expression of unspeakable agony upon his usually cold features, and felt the wild, stormy beating of the heart against which her head rested! _She_ was the one who had been in peril, but upon _his_ countenance was stamped the agony of death!

Thus they tarried awhile, motionless, when Runeck slowly let his arm drop. "Rest upon my shoulder," said he softly. "Right firmly--look not to the right nor left, only upon the path in front of you--I am holding you."

He picked up his staff and then put his right arm about her, so as best to give her support. Cecilia pa.s.sively obeyed; that horrible danger, the nature of which she now, for the first time, realized, had broken her spirit of opposition; she still trembled in every limb and her head swam. Thus they slowly continued the descent. That light, delicate figure could hardly have been felt as a burden by so strong a man, and yet his breath came quickly and heavily, and a dark flush glowed upon his cheek.

Finally, the solid ground was reached, and they stood in the meadow.

All the way down they had exchanged not a single word, but now Cecilia straightened herself up. She was still pale, but she tried to smile as she offered her hand to the man who had saved her life.

"Herr Runeck--I thank you."

There was a strange ring in those words, something that told of a genuinely warm heart and overflowing grat.i.tude, but Egbert only touched lightly the proffered hand, and immediately let it drop again.

"I deserve no thanks, lady. I would have done the same service to any other whom I had seen in such peril. When you have recovered somewhat from your fright, I shall conduct you to Crownwood, where you said you had left your carriage and horses. Even that is tolerably far."

Cecilia looked at him in surprise, almost in dismay. Was that the same man, who had awhile ago bent over her in such tender solicitude, whose whole being had quivered in wild, feverish excitement as he had borne rather than led her down the mountain? There stood he before her, with stolid features, speaking with the same old calm composure, as though the memory of those last fifteen minutes had already been expunged from his memory. But they had been, nevertheless--a pair of dark eyes had looked into depths. .h.i.therto strongly locked up and knew not what it concealed.