'What do you mean, Eric? You are mad!'
'No more mad than you are, Abel Behenna. You go, that's your chance! Istay, that's mine! I don't mean to let the grass grow under my feet.Sarah cared no more for you than for me five minutes ago, and she maycome back to that five minutes after you're gone! You won by a pointonly--the game may change.'
'The game won't change!' said Abel shortly. 'Sarah, you'll be true tome? You won't marry till I return?'
'For a year!' added Eric, quickly, 'that's the bargain.'
'I promise for the year,' said Sarah. A dark look came over Abel'sface, and he was about to speak, but he mastered himself and smiled.
'I mustn't be too hard or get angry tonight! Come, Eric! we played andfought together. I won fairly. I played fairly all the game of ourwooing! You know that as well as I do; and now when I am going away, Ishall look to my old and true comrade to help me when I am gone!'
'I'll help you none,' said Eric, 'so help me God!'
'It was God helped me,' said Abel simply.
'Then let Him go on helping you,' said Eric angrily. 'The Devil isgood enough for me!' and without another word he rushed down the steeppath and disappeared behind the rocks.
When he had gone Abel hoped for some tender passage with Sarah, butthe first remark she made chilled him.
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bsp; 'How lonely it all seems without Eric!' and this note sounded till hehad left her at home--and after.
Early on the next morning Abel heard a noise at his door, and on goingout saw Eric walking rapidly away: a small canvas bag full of gold andsilver lay on the threshold; on a small slip of paper pinned to it waswritten:
'Take the money and go. I stay. God for you! The Devil for me!Remember the 11th of April.--ERIC SANSON.' That afternoon Abel wentoff to Bristol, and a week later sailed on the _Star of the Sea_ boundfor Pahang. His money--including that which had been Eric's--was onboard in the shape of a venture of cheap toys. He had been advised bya shrewd old mariner of Bristol whom he knew, and who knew the ways ofthe Chersonese, who predicted that every penny invested would bereturned with a shilling to boot.
As the year wore on Sarah became more and more disturbed in her mind.Eric was always at hand to make love to her in his own persistent,masterful manner, and to this she did not object. Only one letter camefrom Abel, to say that his venture had proved successful, and that hehad sent some two hundred pounds to the bank at Bristol, and wastrading with fifty pounds still remaining in goods for China, whitherthe _Star of the Sea_ was bound and whence she would return toBristol. He suggested that Eric's share of the venture should bereturned to him with his share of the profits. This proposition wastreated with anger by Eric, and as simply childish by Sarah's mother.
More than six months had since then elapsed, but no other letter hadcome, and Eric's hopes which had been dashed down by the letter fromPahang, began to rise again. He perpetually assailed Sarah with an'if!' If Abel did not return, would she then marry him? If the 11thApril went by without Abel being in the port, would she give him over?If Abel had taken his fortune, and married another girl on the head ofit, would she marry him, Eric, as soon as the truth were known? And soon in an endless variety of possibilities. The power of the strongwill and the determined purpose over the woman's weaker nature becamein time manifest. Sarah began to lose her faith in Abel and to regardEric as a possible husband; and a possible husband is in a woman's eyedifferent to all other men. A new affection for him began to arise inher breast, and the daily familiarities of permitted courtshipfurthered the growing affection. Sarah began to regard Abel as rathera rock in the road of her life, and had it not been for her mother'sconstantly reminding her of the good fortune already laid by in theBristol Bank she would have tried to have shut her eyes altogether tothe fact of Abel's existence.
The 11th April was Saturday, so that in order to have the marriage onthat day it would be necessary that the banns should be called onSunday, 22nd March. From the beginning of that month Eric keptperpetually on the subject of Abel's absence, and his outspokenopinion that the latter was either dead or married began to become areality to the woman's mind. As the first half of the month wore onEric became more jubilant, and after church on the 15th he took Sarahfor a walk to the Flagstaff Rock. There he asserted himself strongly:
'I told Abel, and you too, that if he was not here to put up his bannsin time for the eleventh, I would put up mine for the twelfth. Now thetime has come when I mean to do it. He hasn't kept his word'--hereSarah struck in out of her weakness and indecision:
'He hasn't broken it yet!' Eric ground his teeth with anger.
'If you mean to stick up for him,' he said, as he smote his handssavagely on the flagstaff, which sent forth a shivering murmur, 'welland good. I'll keep my part of the bargain. On Sunday I shall givenotice of the banns, and you can deny them in the church if you will.If Abel is in Pencastle on the eleventh, he can have them cancelled,and his own put up; but till then, I take my course, and woe to anyonewho stands in my way!' With that he flung himself down the rockypathway, and Sarah could not but admire his Viking strength andspirit, as, crossing the hill, he strode away along the cliffs towardsBude.
During the week no news was heard of Abel, and on Saturday Eric gavenotice of the banns of marriage between himself and Sarah Trefusis.The clergyman would have remonstrated with him, for although nothingformal had been told to the neighbours, it had been understood sinceAbel's departure that on his return he was to marry Sarah; but Ericwould not discuss the question.
'It is a painful subject, sir,' he said with a firmness which theparson, who was a very young man, could not but be swayed by. 'Surelythere is nothing against Sarah or me. Why should there be any bonesmade about the matter?' The parson said no more, and on the next dayhe read out the banns for the first time amidst an audible buzz fromthe congregation. Sarah was present, contrary to custom, and thoughshe blushed furiously enjoyed her triumph over the other girls whosebanns had not yet come. Before the week was over she began to make herwedding dress. Eric used to come and look at her at work and the sightthrilled through him. He used to say all sorts of pretty things to herat such times, and there were to both delicious moments oflove-making.
The banns were read a second time on the 29th, and Eric's hope grewmore and more fixed though there were to him moments of acute despairwhen he realised that the cup of happiness might be dashed from hislips at any moment, right up to the last. At such times he was full ofpassion--desperate and remorseless--and he ground his teeth andclenched his hands in a wild way as though some taint of the oldBerserker fury of his ancestors still lingered in his blood. On theThursday of that week he looked in on Sarah and found her, amid aflood of sunshine, putting finishing touches to her white weddinggown. His own heart was full of gaiety, and the sight of the woman whowas so soon to be his own so occupied, filled him with a joyunspeakable, and he felt faint with languorous ecstasy. Bending overhe kissed Sarah on the mouth, and then whispered in her rosy ear--
'Your wedding dress, Sarah! And for me!' As he drew back to admire hershe looked up saucily, and said to him--
'Perhaps not for you. There is more than a week yet for Abel!' andthen cried out in dismay, for with a wild gesture and a fierce oathEric dashed out of the house, banging the door behind him. Theincident disturbed Sarah more than she could have thought possible,for it awoke all her fears and doubts and indecision afresh. She crieda little, and put by her dress, and to soothe herself went out to sitfor a while on the summit of the Flagstaff Rock. When she arrived shefound there a little group anxiously discussing the weather. The seawas calm and the sun bright, but across the sea were strange lines ofdarkness and light, and close in to shore the rocks were fringed withfoam, which spread out in great white curves and circles as thecurrents drifted. The wind had backed, and came in sharp, cold puffs.The blow-hole, which ran under the Flagstaff Rock, from the rocky baywithout to the harbour within, was booming at intervals, and theseagulls were screaming ceaselessly as they wheeled about the entranceof the port.
'It looks bad,' she heard an old fisherman say to the coastguard. 'Iseen it just like this once before, when the East Indiaman_Coromandel_ went to pieces in Dizzard Bay!' Sarah did not wait tohear more. She was of a timid nature where danger was concerned, andcould not bear to hear of wrecks and disasters. She went home andresumed the completion of her dress, secretly determined to appeaseEric when she should meet him with a sweet apology--and to take theearliest opportunity of being even with him after her marriage. Theold fisherman's weather prophecy was justified. That night at dusk awild storm came on. The sea rose and lashed the western coasts fromSkye to Scilly and left a tale of disaster everywhere. The sailors andfishermen of Pencastle all turned out on the rocks and cliffs andwatched eagerly. Presently, by a flash of lightning, a 'ketch' wasseen drifting under only a jib about half-a-mile outside the port. Alleyes and all glasses were concentrated on her, waiting for the nextflash, and when it came a chorus went up that it was the _LovelyAlice_, trading between Bristol and Penzance, and touching at all thelittle ports between. 'God help them!' said the harbour-master, 'fornothing in this world can save them when they are between Bude andTintagel and the wind on shore!' The coastguards exerted themselves,and, aided by brave hearts and willing hands, they brought the rocketapparatus up on the summit of the Flagstaff Rock. Then they bur
nedblue lights so that those on board might see the harbour opening incase they could make any effort to reach it. They worked gallantlyenough on board; but no skill or strength of man could avail. Beforemany minutes were over the _Lovely Alice_ rushed to her doom on thegreat island rock that guarded the mouth of the port. The screams ofthose on board were faintly borne on the tempest as they flungthemselves into the sea in a last chance for life. The blue lightswere kept burning, and eager eyes peered into the depths of the watersin case any face could be seen; and ropes were held ready to fling outin aid. But never a face was seen, and the willing arms rested idle.Eric was there amongst his fellows. His old Icelandic origin wasnever more apparent than in that wild hour. He took a rope, andshouted in the ear of the harbour-master:
'I shall go down on the rock over the seal cave. The tide is runningup, and someone may drift in there!'
'Keep back, man!' came the answer. 'Are you mad? One slip on that rockand you are lost: and no man could keep his feet in the dark on such aplace in such a tempest!'
'Not a bit,' came the reply. 'You remember how Abel Behenna saved methere on a night like this when my boat went on the Gull Rock. Hedragged me up from the deep water in the seal cave, and now someonemay drift in there again as I did,' and he was gone into the darkness.The projecting rock hid the light on the Flagstaff Rock, but he knewhis way too well to miss it. His boldness and sureness of footstanding to him, he shortly stood on the great round-topped rock cutaway beneath by the action of the waves over the entrance of the sealcave, where the water was fathomless. There he stood in comparativesafety, for the concave shape of the rock beat back the waves withtheir own force, and though the water below him seemed to boil like aseething cauldron, just beyond the spot there was a space of almostcalm. The rock, too, seemed here to shut off the sound of the gale,and he listened as well as watched. As he stood there ready, with hiscoil of rope poised to throw, he thought he heard below him, justbeyond the whirl of the water, a faint, despairing cry. He echoed itwith a shout that rang into the night. Then he waited for the flash oflightning, and as it passed flung his rope out into the darkness wherehe had seen a face rising through the swirl of the foam. The rope wascaught, for he felt a pull on it, and he shouted again in his mightyvoice: