"Oh, how you love me, dear!" Cheered by her words, and even more by hertone, I went on with renewed courage. There was no halting, no falteringin my intention now:
"You and I, my dear, were ordained for each other. I cannot help it thatyou had already suffered before I knew you. It may be that there may befor you still suffering that I may not prevent, endurance that I may notshorten; but what a man can do is yours. Not Hell itself will stop me,if it be possible that I may win through its torments with you in myarms!"
"Will nothing stop you, then?" Her question was breathed as softly asthe strain of an AEolian harp.
"Nothing!" I said, and I heard my own teeth snap together. There wassomething speaking within me stronger than I had ever known myself to be.Again came a query, trembling, quavering, quivering, as though the issuewas of more than life or death:
"Not this?" She held up a corner of the shroud, and as she saw my faceand realized the answer before I spoke, went on: "With all it implies?"
"Not if it were wrought of the cerecloths of the damned!" There was along pause. Her voice was more resolute when she spoke again. It rang.Moreover, there was in it a joyous note, as of one who feels new hope:
"But do you know what men say? Some of them, that I am dead and buried;others, that I am not only dead and buried, but that I am one of thoseunhappy beings that may not die the common death of man. Who live on afearful life-in-death, whereby they are harmful to all. Those unhappyUn-dead whom men call Vampires--who live on the blood of the living, andbring eternal damnation as well as death with the poison of theirdreadful kisses!
"I know what men say sometimes," I answered. "But I know also what myown heart says; and I rather choose to obey its calling than all thevoices of the living or the dead. Come what may, I am pledged to you.If it be that your old life has to be rewon for you out of the very jawsof Death and Hell, I shall keep the faith I have pledged, and that here Ipledge again!" As I finished speaking I sank on my knees at her feet,and, putting my arms round her, drew her close to me. Her tears raineddown on my face as she stroked my hair with her soft, strong hand andwhispered to me:
"This is indeed to be one. What more holy marriage can God give to anyof His creatures?" We were both silent for a time.
I think I was the first to recover my senses. That I did so was manifestby my asking her: "When may we meet again?"--a thing I had neverremembered doing at any of our former partings. She answered with arising and falling of the voice that was just above a whisper, as softand cooing as the voice of a pigeon:
"That will be soon--as soon as I can manage it, be sure. My dear, mydear!" The last four words of endearment she spoke in a low butprolonged and piercing tone which made me thrill with delight.
"Give me some token," I said, "that I may have always close to me to easemy aching heart till we meet again, and ever after, for love's sake!"Her mind seemed to leap to understanding, and with a purpose all her own.Stooping for an instant, she tore off with swift, strong fingers afragment of her shroud. This, having kissed it, she handed to me,whispering:
"It is time that we part. You must leave me now. Take this, and keep itfor ever. I shall be less unhappy in my terrible loneliness whilst itlasts if I know that this my gift, which for good or ill is a part of meas you know me, is close to you. It may be, my very dear, that some dayyou may be glad and even proud of this hour, as I am." She kissed me asI took it.
"For life or death, I care not which, so long as I am with you!" I said,as I moved off. Descending the Jacob's ladder, I made my way down therock-hewn passage.
The last thing I saw was the beautiful face of my Lady of the Shroud asshe leaned over th
e edge of the opening. Her eyes were like glowingstars as her looks followed me. That look shall never fade from mymemory.
After a few agitating moments of thought I half mechanically took my waydown to the garden. Opening the grille, I entered my lonely room, whichlooked all the more lonely for the memory of the rapturous moments underthe Flagstaff. I went to bed as one in a dream. There I lay tillsunrise--awake and thinking.
BOOK V: A RITUAL AT MIDNIGHT
RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_.
_June_ 20, 1907.
The time has gone as quickly as work can effect since I saw my Lady. AsI told the mountaineers, Rooke, whom I had sent on the service, had madea contract for fifty thousand Ingis-Malbron rifles, and as many tons ofammunition as the French experts calculated to be a full supply for ayear of warfare. I heard from him by our secret telegraph code that theorder had been completed, and that the goods were already on the way.The morning after the meeting at the Flagstaff I had word that at nightthe vessel--one chartered by Rooke for the purpose--would arrive atVissarion during the night. We were all expectation. I had always nowin the Castle a signalling party, the signals being renewed as fast asthe men were sufficiently expert to proceed with their practice alone orin groups. We hoped that every fighting-man in the country would in timebecome an expert signaller. Beyond these, again, we have always a fewpriests. The Church of the country is a militant Church; its priests aresoldiers, its Bishops commanders. But they all serve wherever the battlemost needs them. Naturally they, as men of brains, are quicker atlearning than the average mountaineers; with the result that they learntthe code and the signalling almost by instinct. We have now at least onesuch expert in each community of them, and shortly the priests alone willbe able to signal, if need be, for the nation; thus releasing for activeservice the merely fighting-man. The men at present with me I took intoconfidence as to the vessel's arrival, and we were all ready for workwhen the man on the lookout at the Flagstaff sent word that a vesselwithout lights was creeping in towards shore. We all assembled on therocky edge of the creek, and saw her steal up the creek and gain theshelter of the harbour. When this had been effected, we ran out the boomwhich protects the opening, and after that the great armouredsliding-gates which Uncle Roger had himself had made so as to protect theharbour in case of need.
We then came within and assisted in warping the steamer to the side ofthe dock.
Rooke looked fit, and was full of fire and vigour. His responsibilityand the mere thought of warlike action seemed to have renewed his youth.
When we had arranged for the unloading of the cases of arms andammunition, I took Rooke into the room which we call my "office," wherehe gave me an account of his doings. He had not only secured the riflesand the ammunition for them, but he had purchased from one of the smallAmerican Republics an armoured yacht which had been especially built forwar service. He grew quite enthusiastic, even excited, as he told me ofher:
"She is the last word in naval construction--a torpedo yacht. A smallcruiser, with turbines up to date, oil-fuelled, and fully armed with thelatest and most perfect weapons and explosives of all kinds. The fastestboat afloat to-day. Built by Thorneycroft, engined by Parsons, armouredby Armstrong, armed by Crupp. If she ever comes into action, it will bebad for her opponent, for she need not fear to tackle anything less thana _Dreadnought_."
He also told me that from the same Government, whose nation had justestablished an unlooked-for peace, he had also purchased a whole park ofartillery of the very latest patterns, and that for range and accuracythe guns were held to be supreme. These would follow before long, andwith them their proper ammunition, with a shipload of the same to followshortly after.
When he had told me all the rest of his news, and handed me the accounts,we went out to the dock to see the debarkation of the war material.Knowing that it was arriving, I had sent word in the afternoon to themountaineers to tell them to come and remove it. They had answered thecall, and it really seemed to me that the whole of the land must thatnight have been in motion.
They came as individuals, grouping themselves as they came within thedefences of the Castle; some had gathered at fixed points on the way.They went secretly and in silence, stealing through the forests likeghosts, each party when it grouped taking the place of that which hadgone on one of the routes radiating round Vissarion. Their coming andgoing was more than ghostly. It was, indeed, the outward manifestationof an inward spirit--a whole nation dominated by one common purpose.
The men in the steamer were nearly all engineers, mostly British, wellconducted, and to be depended upon. Rooke had picked them separately,and in the doing had used well his great experience of both men andadventurous life. These men were to form part of the armoured yacht'screw when she should come into the Mediterranean waters. They and thepriests and fighting-men in the Castle worked well together, and with azeal that was beyond praise. The heavy cases seemed almost of their ownaccord to leave the holds, so fast came the procession of them along thegangways from deck to dock-wall. It was a part of my design that thearms should be placed in centres ready for local distribution. In such acountry as this, without railways or even roads, the distribution of warmaterial in any quantity is a great labour, for it has to be doneindividually, or at least from centres.
But of this work the great number of mountaineers who were arriving madelittle account. As fast as the ship's company, with the assistance ofthe priests and fighting-men, placed the cases on the quay, the engineersopened them and laid the contents ready for portage. The mountaineersseemed to come in a continuous stream; each in turn shouldered his burdenand passed out, the captain of his section giving him as he passed hisinstruction where to go and in what route. The method had been alreadyprepared in my office ready for such a distribution when the arms shouldarrive, and descriptions and quantities had been noted by the captains.The whole affair was treated by all as a matter of the utmost secrecy.Hardly a word was spoken beyond the necessary directions, and these weregiven in whispers. All night long the stream of men went and came, andtowards dawn the bulk of the imported material was lessened by half. Onthe following night the remainder was removed, after my own men hadstored in the Castle the rifles and ammunition reserved for its defenceif necessary. It was advisable to keep a reserve supply in case itshould ever be required. The following night Rooke went away secretly inthe chartered vessel. He had to bring back with him the purchased cannonand heavy ammunition, which had been in the meantime stored on one of theGreek islands. The second morning, having had secret word that thesteamer was on the way, I had given the signal for the assembling of themountaineers.