He said with quiet bitterness: "It"s too late to say what a fool I am. Their camouflage took me in; that"s all--"
He fired again; a rattling volley came storming among the rocks.
"We"re all right here," he said tersely. But in his heart he was terrified, for he had only the cartridges in his clips.
Presently he motioned her to bend over very low. Then, taking her hand, he guided her along an ascending gulley, knee-deep in fern and brake and brier, to a sort of little rocky pulpit.
The lake lay behind them, lapping the pulpit"s base. There was a man in a boat out there. McKay fired at him and he plied both oars and fled out of range.
"Lie down," he whispered to Miss Erith. The girl mutely obeyed.
Now, crouched up there in the deepening dusk, his pistol extended, resting on the rock in front of him, his keen eyes searched restlessly; his ears were strained for the minutest stirring on the moor in front of him; and his embittered mind was at work alternately cursing his own stupidity and searching for some chance for this young girl whom his own incredible carelessness had probably done to death.
Presently, between him and Isla Water, a shadow moved. He fired; and around them the darkness spat flame from a dozen different angles.
"d.a.m.nation!" he whispered to himself, realising now what the sunlit moors had hidden--a dozen men all bent on murder.
Once a voice hailed him from the thick darkness promising immunity if he surrendered. He hesitated. Who but he should know the Boche?
Still he answered back: "If you let this woman go you can do what you like to me!" And knew while he was saying it that it was useless--that there was no truth, no honour in the Boche, only infamy and murder. A hoa.r.s.e voice promised what he asked; but Miss Erith caught McKay"s arm.
"No!"
"If I dared believe them--"
"No, Kay!"
He shrugged: "I"d be very glad to pay the price--only they can"t be trusted. They can"t be trusted, Yellow-hair."
Somebody shouted from the impenetrable shadows:
"Come out of that now, McKay! If you don"t we"ll go in and cut her throat before we do for you!"
He remained silent, quite motionless, watching the darkness.
Suddenly his pistol flashed redly, rapidly; a heavy, soft bulk went tumbling down the rocks; another reeled there, silhouetted against Isla Water, then lurched forward, striking the earth with his face.
And now from every angle slanting lines of blood-red fire streaked the night; Isla Craig rang and echoed with pelting lead.
"Next!" called out McKay with his ugly careless laugh. "Two down. No use to set "em up again! Let dead wood lie. It"s the law!"
"Can they hear the shooting at the house?" whispered Miss Erith.
"Too far. A shot on the moors carries only a little way."
"Could they see the pistol flashes, Kay?"
"They"d take them for fireflies or witch lights dancing on the bogs."
After a long and immobile silence he dropped to his knees, remained so listening, then crept across the Pulpit"s ferny floor. Of a sudden he sprang up and fired full into a man"s face; and struck the distorted visage with doubled fist, hurling it below, crashing down through the bracken.
After a stunned interval Miss Erith saw him wiping that hand on the herbage.
"Kay?"
"Yes, Yellow-hair."
"Can you see your wrist-watch?"
"Yes. It"s after midnight."
The girl prayed silently for dawn. The man, grim, alert, awaited events, clutching his partly emptied pistols. He had not yet told her that they were partly empty. He did not know whether to tell her. After a while he made up his mind.
"Yellow-hair?"
"Yes, dear Kay."
His lips went dry; he found difficulty in speaking: "I"ve--I"ve undone you. I"ve bitten the hand that saved me, your slim white hand, I"m afraid. I"m afraid I"ve destroyed you, Yellow-hair."
"How, Kay?"
"My pistols are half empty. ... Unless dawn comes quick--"
Again one of his pistols flashed its crimson streak across the blackness and a man began scrambling and thrashing and screaming down there in the whinns. For a little while Miss Erith crouched beside McKay in silence. Then he felt her light touch on his arm:
"I"ve been thinking.",
"Aye. So have I."
"Is there a chance to drop into the lake?"
He had not thought so. He had figured it out in every possible way.
But there seemed little chance to swim that icy water--none at all--with that man in the boat yonder, and detection always imminent if they left the Pulpit. McKay shook his head slightly:
"He"d row us down and gralloch us like swimming deer."
"But if one goes alone?"
"Oh, Yellow-hair! Yellow-hair! If you only could!"
"I can."
"Swim it?"
"Yes."
"It"s cold water. Few can swim Isla Water. It"s a long swim from Isla Craig to the house."
"I can do it, I think."
After a terrible silence he said: "Yes, best try it, Yellow-hair....