THE NOVELIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1503, 4 September 1880, Page 24

THE NOVELIST.

Jfct in a Mvtx £*»♦

By B. L, FARJEON.

Chapter XXTV. A Perilous Discoyery. WAS not likely soon to forget this singular adventure, to which perhaps I attached an undue importance because of its connection with the statue of Evangeline ; but there was another reason for remembrance in the parallel which suggested itself between the childless womanand Clarice. I paid a second visit to the market-place at midnight, and again metthe woman, who was almostasmuch an outcast among the islanders ad myaelf. She claimed me as an old-time friend, and again asked me to accompany her to the grave of her child. I humoured her, being curious to learn the particulars " of her story, bHt she did not gratify my curiosity until we met for the third time in the same place. " 'I asked her,' said Bertha, pointing to the statue, ' whether it was right for me to meet you here and talk to you ; she aaid I could trust you. Tell me your name.' "'Ranf.' "'Mine is Bertha.' " ' That night she told me; her story. There was nothiug new in it^' ao far as regarded herself. She trusted and was deceived, and the man who brought disgrace upon her was killed in open fight by her father. "'My mother was dead,' aaid Bertha, and my father turned me from his house. He had no other children ; he might have been kinder to me. But he was a man who always acted rightly, ao the islanders said. Then it is right never to forgive. I had friends, as I thought, girls, and men, and children. Not one of them had a heart, not one. Is it not strange to go through the world so — to kiss and embrace you, and then to thrust you away ! And for a father to turn from his child 1 Ido not understand it. Why, if my baby lived, and grew to be a woman, and did wrong unconsciously, or was unhappy in any way, in disgrace with all the world, I should take her to my bosom and comfort her, and whisper to her, "Do not grieve, my child ; your mother loveayou, though all the world is against you !' And we should be happy again ; it would not then be always night ; there would be sometimes a bright cloud in our lives.' " I allowed her to talk without interruption, and presently she spoke^again of her lover. " ' I knew that my father was seeking him ; I had been told so, not out of kindness, but out of malice. " There will be blood ahed," they said, and they looked upon me with horror, as though the crime were mine. I tried to find him and warn him. All the day and far into the night I wandered from place to place, seeking him, and at length I saw him lying dead upon the ground. It drove me almost mad. I ran to my father's houae ; I beat my hands against the door till the blood came ; he opened a window above, and asked me what I wanted. " There has been murder done J" I cried. " The guilty has been punished," my father said sternly, and he bade me go from his house and never dare to set eyes on him again, fer he no longer had a daughter. I was overwhelmed, and sat down on the doorstep, in the dread hope that the world was coming to an end. And all the while my baby was in my arms, sleeping peacefully, and as I looked at her sweet face in the dim light, I thought, " What does it matter? We have each other." I took her to her father, and waking her, made her kißs him ; I kissed him also, for the last time., and have never seen him since. I do not know where they have buried him ; they would not tell me.' " We were walking to the grave of her child, and she stopped and looked around with wandering eyes, seeking the shadow of the man she had loved too well. "'I was alone in the world/ she said, as we walked onward again, ( no one to speak to, except my baby ; no one to love except my baby. Every one had fallen off from me, every one ; only my baby remained. Then it happened that I came in the night to the market-place, and discovered what no other person in the isle but you and I suapect— that what they call a statue lives and apeak 3. When she first smiled upon me it was like rain upon a parched field. My eyes had been scorched and dried up with grief; ah, what pain ! what anguish ! And when Evangeline smiled, the tears came and relieved my heart. She spoke to me, and comforted me, and prevented me from going mad. We are sisters, and by-and-by we shall know each other better in the spirit land, where I shall have my baby again in my arms. And my father will be there, and baby's father, too. Will my father, when he sees me there, say, " Come to me, my daughter, all is forgiven." What if I answered him, " Had you been merciful to me, my baby might have lived, and I should not have been condemned to wander night after night and day after day from valley to valley, from field to field, in search of a! kind look or word." Then, if there be justice, the priests will be dumb. Do yon like them?' " s The priests V " ' Yea. Do you like them V "'I have no reason to,* I answered slowly. " « I am glad, because you are not like

the others, and you strengthen my belief, j What do they mean when they say, i " God is love." Then He will know I have done no wrong, and He will take i my little one to His bosom, and me, from j whom she drew life. I shall wait — I shall wait — and on the judgment day 111 1 shall say to the priests, " You told me i that God is love, and you tried to prove j to me that He is hate." Yes, it is true. \ | They did not pour oil into my wounds, j ■ Would you believe that they would not j j bury my innocent baby in consecrated ground 1 But a soul is a soul, and they conld not rob her of that, nor me of Divine love and mercy. So I am .satisfied to wait, but not too long — not 100 long .' I must die before I grow old. Look at me ; I am pretty ; I dont want to grow ugly, and then die. Baby might not know me, and that would be too terrible to bear. Where do you live V " ' On the mountain.' " She looked at me and retreated a few steps, impelled by some instinct of repugnance ; but she came quietly to my side again, and took my hand. " ' And your name is Ranf , you told me. 1 1 did not think at the time. You are the ! being I hare heard of and was warned against, and never saw till the other night. Tiat proves what men are. Let me whisper to you ; there are people here who abhor you, and yet you are the only one who has given me a kind word since my baby died. ' She kissed my hand passionately. ' And you live on the mountain — Evangeline' s | mountain. She lies too in ground that has not been consecrated. I shall come and see you on the mountain. 1 " ' You will be the first who has dared.' " •' O, I shall dare I ' " 'Best to keep away,' I said ; ' I prefer to live alone.' " ' The mountain is free ; I shall come ; lam not frightened . E vangeline is there, and her heavenly messengers !' ; " I repeated in wonder, ' Her heavenly messengers V " ' The pretty birds that fly to and fro. I have watched them, and hope one day they will bring me a message from Heaven or Evangeline. You see, £know you do not live alone. Have you not goats and dogs V "'Yes.' " ( It must be a fine life. I shall come and see you.' "I left her that night, fas on other nights, whispering to the wild flowers which grow on her child's grave, and kissing the cold earth which mercifully hides what is dearest to her in this world and the next. " Her piteous story drew me to her, and from that night we were friends. A fancy of mine impelled me to place some roots of the dream-flower on the grave of her child, and when I told her the name of the flower she thanked me earnestly; and said that Heaven had directed me to bring the sweet comfort to her soul. " What is most beautiful in her is , her devotion to her dead baby. As the leaf loves the light so does she love her child. "Her father lives now a life of seclusion, pitied and not condemned by his comrades. And yet he has broken a holy commandment. It is hard to thread one's way through these labyrinths — not for me, for others ; my mind is no longer in a state of doubt upon mortal matters. The woman who most needs pity receives none ; Bhe is shunned and avoided by all. Hard as granite are the islanders in their notions of morality. "I hare already set down here how, when I slipped over the precipice and nearly met my death, I was saved by the j branch of a tree which grew out of the rocks, and how, by this means, I discovered a path which led me to a place of safety, from whence I crawled to my hut and nursed my wounds. I determined then, when I was strong, to convince myself whether the path was made by nature or by man. If by man, but one being could have formed it — the Cain of the Silver Isle, who in a paroxysm of jealous love treacherously killed hi 3 brother. " Anxious to make myself acquainted with every detail of the tragedy that at this distance of time could be gathered together, 1 enlisted Joseph Sylvester, who was most industrious in collecting all the hearsay connected with the subject. Such a story transmitted from generation to generation, of course becomes twisted and dotted with fantastic features ; but the main points remain, and can be eliminated from the fanciful creations, and ! these I have taken and pieced with clearness and consistency. I cannot well j explain my motive, except that the tragedy appeared to be directly connected with the task I had set myself. Joseph naturally took great interest in the story, partly for its own sake as a wild and gloomy episode in human life, but chiefly because the girl's name was Evangeline. This was sufficient to enchain his imagination, and it also captivated the imagination of our own Evangeline, from whom Joseph hides nothing. She tells me that she sometimes dreams of her namesake. I have endeavoured, without success, to make light of the subject in my conversations with Evangeline ; I did not vish her to dwell morbidly upon it ; but I cannot wonder that she should often speak of it when my own mind is so continually dwelling upon the theme. " Other matters, after I got well, preventing the immediate execution of my purpose, it was quite three months before I was enabled to apply myself seriously to my task. I felt that it was likely to prove a difficult one, and I wished to have a clear time before me. Some parts of this mountain are subject to landslips, and although I am not aware of an avanlanche

of any magnitude occurring, I have had myself to guard against convulsions slight iujthemselves, but sufficient to prove fatal to life " One morning I set forth from my hut, accompanied by my dog Leontine. I strapped a blanket round my shoulders in case I should be benighted, and I provided myself with food, and a gourd for water. Alight axe and. a, short-handled shovel completed my equipments. "It was not without difficulty that I found the narrow path which led to the outer surface of the rocks. When I first discovered it I was in pain and great excitement, and my only aim was to reach my hut in safety. I paid then no attention to its conformation, and even the circumstance that for some distance it had been tunnelled had escaped my memory, perhaps even my notice. Since I last passed through the tunnel a quantity of loose earth had fallen ; this I cleared away, and in the course of the afternoon, after much labour, I emerged from the tunnel into open daylight. From the mouth of the tunnel the path stretched onwards for about twenty yards, and there i terminated — of necessity, for the sheer surface of the rock was reached. I recognised the tree whose stout branches had preserved me from being cut to pieces on the jutting stones, and tired with my exertions, I sat down, with my face to the sea, and partook of ths food I had brought, Leontine sharing with me. The meal being over, I lay full length onaflat surface of rock, and with my hand round Leontine's neck, uttered my thoughts aloud. The dog listened to me with an appearance of sagacity, and at the 'same time with a watchful eye for my safety. I had chosen a perilous resting-place ; an enemy creeping up behind me with a, light push might have sent me rolling to the bottom of the cliffs ; but no enemy was near, and my hand was steady,' my eye true, and my mind clear. I could not 1 help smiling at the thought of what might I occur were Harold, Mauvain, and I imprisoned on this spot; with old grudges to satisfy, and holding each other in bitter contempt. - - " ' It -would be a rare test of courage,' I said aloud. *If something most precious depended upon life or death, how. then, Leontine? There is truth in wine, they say. So when a man's soul is racked and tempest-tossed, his true nature is revealed. The many rave and threaten ; the few endure, and smile at fate.' ! "Autumn flowers grew evey where around me; various coloured grasses wavedj in the breath, of light breezes ; insects with gossamer wings threw -fairy shadows over the velvet moss which carpeted the trunk of the ancient I tree. Nature is bounteous in her gifts,- and clothes the loneliest spots with beauty. " f Impossible to say,' I said to my dog, when, after a contemplation of these eternal miracles my thoughts returned to my project, 'impossible to say ; at this distance of time whether the road we have just traversed was formed by Nature or man. If by man, there must have been a purpose in view. What purpose, Leontine, and did his work end here] It is scarcely probable it was undertaken to arrive at this barren result. Certainly there is from this point a • very fine prospect, and one can enjoy it without fear of observation on the part; of the islanders ; but that is not a great advantage, for the prospect ia equally fine from the top of the mountain, and one is not likely to be interrupted by the intrusion of his kind. What discovery might one make in this lonely spot, more secluded even than our mountain huts 1 I might split open an ancient rock and release a toad, which would not thank me for bringing it into the light ; or a spirit might guide us by a safe road to the mysterious depths in which Evangeline and her bridegroom found their grave. Such is life, Leontine ; one day smiling and happy, and the next embedded in grief which time aloue can kill. "Sour eyes are fixed on that beetle whose burnished scales reflect gorgeous colours of green and gold and purple. A handsome fellow, Leontine, beyond the painter's art. How lovely is the sea, with the sunlight playing on it. An ocean of living jewels ! It stretches to shores I have trodden in pain and weariness. A bitter world lies beyond these seas ; but for the matter of that there is bitterness enough within this girdle. There is a taint in our blood, my dog ; we fret and faint with desire ; we lay our heavy hand upon the weak, and hold them down while they suffer. It proves our own righteousness,Leontine. What have you found, dumb friend ? A treasure ? " Leontine was busy scratching the earth from a spot nearer even to the edge of the precipice than the rock on which I lay, and presently she came to my side, and in a way I understood besought my assisti ance. I shifted to the spot which had | interested her, and saw that she had scratched the earth away from what looked like a piece of rusty iron. At first I regarded it with no interest, but suddenly it flashed upon me that if it was iron which Leontine had partly laid bare it was an evidence of man's work. The moment this occurred to me I started to my feet and dug my pick into the rock to complete the discovery ; the consequence was that I almost lost my balance, there was so little room to swing the arm with freedom. The danger escaped, I proceeded with greater caution, and loosening the rock and earth around and above the metal, saw that it was part of a chain which must have lain buried for many scores of years. My journey was not destined to be fruitless ; man had been here before me. "My interest being now thoroughly

awakened, I went to work with a will. Link by link I forced from the rock a chain at least sixty feet in length, and coming to the last link found that it was fixed to an iron ring which was firmly imbedded in the rock. With all my strength I strove to detach the ring, but could uofc move it, ao well had the work been done. I When 1 wa3 convinced that I could not I remove the ring from the rock, I blamed myself for my folly injattempting it. Had I succeeded I should have placed a difficulty in my own way ; for was it not likely that this chain was an important step in the discovery of a secret which had been hidden from human knowledge for generations 1 "It had been no light task to fix it ao firmly in the rock ; it was a seriouswork, seriously performed, with a distinct and definite motive. Of what nature was this motive ? " As I considered, playing with the coils of the chain with my foot, it slipped over the rock with a startling crash, and huno* sheer down. Quickly I tested whether it would bear the weight of a man. There was no doubt of it. It would bear the weight of two such men as I. Without further thought I grasped it firmly, and commenced to descend. That there was danger in what I was doing did not occur to me ; I was, indeed, animated by a spirit of exhilaration. I remember now, and shall remember to the last day of my life, the .expression in Leontine's face aa I looked up and saw her peering down upon" me. ' The expression was almost human in its intense sympathy with my exploit, and as I descended, looking upwards at my dog, with the sky flying'from me into illimitable heights, I exulted in the thought that there was one creature in the 'world who would be faithful to me to the death. I had but to call 'Leontine P and she would leap into the void without fear at the sound of my voice. She would meet her certain death . Well, a faithful death ranks next to a faithful life. And man and beast can die but dree. 1 It is but a question of a little time j the day will be sure to come when there will be no to-morrow. {To be continued— Commenced in JVo. UTOJ.