"Hard to starboard; we are running on shore!" The ship answered at once,and we began to run across the wind, feeling the tide at the same time.But as we went, a searchlight flashed on the fog before us. We could notstop or change quick enough to quite avoid the ship from which it came,but the helm was put hard to starboard again and we ran close along sidea great war ship. I could see her tower with protruding cannon as we ranby. A voice came through a speaking trumpet, and I could just catch thefirst words as the vessel swept by us:
"Rocks ahead!" The instinct of the seaman spoke, even at such a time, tokeep another vessel from harm. The answer from our vessel was a volleyof curses. Then the searchlight swept our deck, and we could see all ourenemies. They were round us in a great ring and closing in upon us. Theysaw us, too, and with a shout began to run in. I took Marjory by thewaist and ran with her to the bow of the ship; I flung her up on thebulwark and jumped up beside her. Don Bernardino joined us in a moment,and we saw the searchlight as it passed us and pierced into the fogahead. Already the bulk of the battleship was almost lost in the mist;there was only a faint indication of her presence in a monstrous massbehind the searchlight, and the end of a spar rising above the fog. Infront of us there was a great roaring of
water and that sharp rushingsound which comes from the back sweep of a broken wave. Our skipper sawthe danger, and in a voice like a trumpet gave his orders.
But it was too late to do anything. As the searchlight again swept ourdeck, I saw the ring of men break up and scatter; almost at the samemoment the rays passing beyond us, fell on a low rock rising from thesea up whose sides great waves were dashing. We were rushing to it,borne by wind and tide in a terrible haste.
At that instant we struck a rock below the water. With the shock wethree were thrown forward into the sea. I heard a despairing shoutbehind us; and then the water closed over my head.
When I rose it was in a wild agony of fear for Marjory. She had beensitting to my left on the bulwark and must therefore have fallen toseaward of me. I raised myself as well as I could and looked around;and, by God's grace, saw two hands rising above the water a few yardsfrom me. With all my might I struggled towards them, and was able todrag my wife up to the surface. When I had her with me, though my terrorand anxiety increased, I could think. At such moments the mind acts withlightning speed, and in a second or two I came to the conclusion thatthe rock we had struck must be amongst the Skares. If so, the onlychance was to edge in with the tide and try to avoid striking any of theunderlying rocks which I knew well were so deadly. Had not I seenLauchlane Macleod come to his death through them.
It was a desperate struggle before us. The tide was racing amongst therocks, and even were there no waves it would have been a difficult taskto have won through it into shore. For myself I was a strong enoughswimmer to have found my way in, even if I had had to round the outerrock and keep up to the harbour of Whinnyfold. But with Marjory to carefor, too--Marjory who had only lately learned to swim.... The prospectwas indeed a terrible one. We must not lose a chance, and so I made mywife loose her skirts which fell away in the drag of the water; shecould then swim more freely and to the best of her power.
The wind beat fiercely, and the tops of the breaking waves nearly chokedus as they flew. There was just light enough down on the water level tosee rocks a few yards ahead; the line of the shore rose like one dimopaque mass. In the darkness and the stress of the tide race there waslittle I could do, save keep Marjory's head and my own above the waterand let the current bear us on. I must avoid the rocks as well as Icould, and let all my efforts tend to bring us shorewards. There was nottime for fears or doubting, or hoping; the moments must pass and thestruggle be made, never-ending though it seemed to be.
After a few minutes I began to tire; the strain of the last few days andmy late effort in reaching the whaler had begun to tell on me. I had nowand again a passing thought of Don Bernardino and the friends who hadbeen helping us; but they were all far off. The Spaniard I shouldprobably never seen again; the others might never see us.... I wasrelapsing into the lethargy of despair.
With a violent effort I woke to the task before me, and kept sternly onmy way. Marjory was striving her utmost; but her strength was failing.Her weight was becoming deader.... That nerved me to further effort,and I swam on so frantically that I drew closer to the mainland. Herethere was shelter of a kind; the waves broken by the outer rockswere less forceful. The crested tops which the wind had driven on uswere weakening also. There was hope in this and it kept me up. On Ifought--on--on--on. Oh! would the struggle never end! I shut my teeth,and forged on fiercely. I could feel that we were going with the rush ofthe waves through a gully between sunken rocks.
Joy! there was shore beneath my feet, rough pebbles which rolled andworked against each other. The wave pulled us back. But my heart wasrenewed again. I made one more frantic effort, and swam closer to theland. Then as I saw the wave began to recoil I put down my feet, andwith the last of my strength lifting Marjory in my arms I foughtfiercely with the retreating wave. Staggering over the screamingpebbles, exhausted to the point of death, I bore her high up on thebeach and laid her down. Then I sank lifeless beside her cold body.
The last thing I remember was the faint light of the coming dawn,falling on her marble-white face as she lay on the shore.
CHAPTER LIII
FROM THE DEEP
It could not have been more than a few minutes before I recoveredconsciousness, if indeed I were ever absolutely unconscious. It wasrather the inevitable yielding to a strain on nerve and muscle andbrain, than a time of oblivion. I think that I always knew that I wasby the sea, and that Marjory was beside me and in trouble; but that wasall. I was in the nightmare stage, when one can understand danger andrealise terror; and when the only thing impossible to one is to doanything. Certainly, when I came to myself I was fully conscious of mysurroundings. I was even surprised that I did not see on Marjory's paleface, the cold faint gleam of light which had been there when last I sawher. The general light had, however, increased. The strand and the rockslooked now not black, but inexpressibly drear in the uniform grey whichseemed to make all colour and shape and distance into one sad flatscreen. My first work was of course to attend Marjory. For a while Ifeared that she was dead, so white was she amid the surrounding grey.But her heart still beat, and her breast moved, though very slightly,with her breathing. I could now see that we were in Broad Haven and, so,close to my own home. I could see through the pierced rock called the"Puir Mon." I took my wife in my arms and carried her, though withinfinite difficulty for I was sorely exhausted, up the steep path, andbrought her into the house. I had to break the door in again, but therewas no one to help me or to interfere in the matter. I got some brandyand poured a few drops into her mouth, and laid her in a pile of rugswhilst I lit the fire. The supply of whin bushes in the wood house wasnot exhausted, and very soon there was a roaring fire. When Marjoryopened her eyes and looked around the room, a certain amount ofconsciousness came to her. She imagined the occasion of her being withme was the same as when we had escaped from the flooded cave; holdingout her arms she said to me with infinite love and sweetness:
"Thank God, dear, you are safe!" A moment later she rubbed her eyes andsat up, looking wildly around as one does after a hideous dream. In hersurvey, however, her eyes lit on her own figure, and a real wave ofshame swept over her; she hastily pulled the rug round her shoulders andsank back. The habit of personal decorum had conquered fear. She closedher eyes for a moment or two to remember, and when she opened them wasin full possession of all her faculties and her memory.
"It was no dream! It is all, all real! And I owe my life to you,darling, once again!" I kissed her, and she sank back with a sigh ofhappiness. A moment later, however, she started up, crying out to me:
"But the others, where are they? Quick! quick! let us go to help them ifwe can!" She looked wildly round. I understood her wishes, and hurryinginto the other room brought her an armful of her clothes.
In a few minutes she joined me; and hand in hand we went out on the edgeof the cliff. As we went, I told her of what had happened since shebecame unconscious in the water.
The wind was now blowing fiercely, almost a gale. The sea had risen,till great waves driving amongst the rocks had thrashed the whole regionof the Skares into a wild field of foam. Below us, the waves dashingover the sunken rocks broke on the shore with a loud roaring, and washedhigh above the place where we had lain. The fog had lifted, and objectscould be seen even at a distance. Far out, some miles away, lay a greatship; and by the outermost of the Skares a little to the north of thegreat rock and where the sunken reef lies, rose part of a broken mast.But there was nothing else to be seen, except away to south a yachttossing about under double-reefed sails. Sea and sky were of a leadengrey, and the heavy clouds that drifted before the gale came so low asto make us think that they were the fog belts risen from the sea.
Marjory would not be contented till we had roused the whole village ofWhinnyfold, and with them had gone all round the cliffs and looked intoevery little opening to see if there were trace or sign of any of thosewho had been wrecked with us. But it was all in vain.
We sent a mounted messenger off to Crom with a note, for we knew in whatterrible anxiety Mrs. Jack must be. In an incredibly short time thegood lady was with us; and was rocking Marjory in her arms, crying andlaughing over her wildly. By and bye she got round the carriage from thevillage and said to us:
"And now my dears, I suppose we had better get back to Crom, where youcan rest yourselves after this terrible time." Marjory came over to me,and holding my arm looked at her old nurse lovingly as she said withdeep earnestness:
"You had better go back, dear, and get things ready for us. As for me, Ishall never willingly leave my husband's side again!"
* * * * *
The storm continued for a whole day, growing rougher and wilder witheach hour. For another day it grew less and less, till finally the windhad died away and only the rough waves spoke of what had been. Then thesea began to give up its dead. Some seamen presumably those of the_Wilhelmina_ were found along the coast between Whinnyfold and OldSlains, and the bodies of two of the blackmailers, terribly mangled,were washed ashore at Cruden Bay. The rest of the sailors and of thedesperadoes were never found. Whether they escaped by some miracle, orwere swallowed in the sea, will probably never be known.
Strangest of all was the finding of Don Bernardino. The body of thegallant Spanish gentleman was found washed up on shore behind the LordNelson rock, just opposite where had been the opening to the cave inwhich his noble ancestor had hidden the Pope's treasure. It was asthough the sea itself had respected his devotion, and had laid him bythe place of his Trust. Marjory and I saw his body brought home to Spainwhen the war was over, and laid amongst the tombs of his ancestors. Wepetitioned the Crown; and though no actual leave was given, no objectionwas made to our removing the golden figure of San Cristobal whichBenvenuto had wrought for the Pope. It now stands over the Spaniard'stomb in the church of San Cristobal in far Castile.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
"In the First Edition of his work "The Two Bookes of Francis Bacon,of the proficience and advancement of Learning, divine and humane"published at London in 1605, the Author only alludes briefly to hisBi-literal Cipher. Speaking of Ciphers generally (Booke II) he says: