"d.a.m.n her, I"ll lay my soul that craythur is at the bottom of it all."
Danny"s dilated eyes flashed fire. But he was otherwise outwardly quiet and calm.
"Where"s that other fellow--Christian?" said Kisseck. "_He_ has led me into all this cursed mess."
"That"s a lie," said Danny, with the color gone from his cheeks.
Kisseck walked across to him with uplifted arm. Never flinching, the lad waited for the blow. Kisseck dropped his hand. Curling his lip in biting mockery, he said, "What for is that she-devil sthrowling around here?"
One bright spot of blood came into the lad"s face, and as he drew in his breath it went through his teeth. But he was silent still.
"She has the imperience of sin," said Kisseck. "If she comes here she"ll suffer for it."
Danny walked to the door and pushed the bolt. Kisseck laughed bitterly.
"I knew it," he said. "I knew she was in it. But I"ll punish her. Out of the way, you idiot waistrel."
There was a hurried step on the road outside.
Danny put his back to the door. His eyes melted, and he cried beseechingly:
"You"ll not do that, Uncle Bill?"
"Out of the road, you young pauper," cried Kisseck; and he took hold of Danny and thrust him aside.
"You _shall not_ do it," screamed the lad, running to the hearth and s.n.a.t.c.hing up a poker.
All Danny"s unnatural quiet had forsaken him.
There was a knock at the door, and an impatient footstep to and fro.
Kisseck walked into an inner room, and came back with a pistol in his hand.
"Men, don"t you see it plain? That woman is at the bottom of it all," he said, turning to Corteen and Killip, and pointing, as he spoke, to the door. "She brought us here to trap us, and now she has come to see if we are at home. She has the men from Castle Rushen behind her; but she shall pay for it with her life. Out of the way, I say.
Out--of--the--way."
Danny was standing again with his back to the door. He had the poker in his hand. Kisseck put the pistol on a table, and closed with Danny to push him aside. There was a terrible struggle. Amid curses from Kisseck and shouts from Corteen and Killip, the poker was wrenched from Danny"s grasp and thrown on the floor. The lad himself was dragged away from the door, and the bolt was drawn.
Then in an instant Danny rushed to the table and picked up the pistol.
There was a flash, a deafening explosion, a shriek, a heavy fall, and Kisseck rolled on the floor dead.
Danny staggered back to the door, the hot pistol still in his hand. He was petrified. His great eyes seemed to leap out of his head. When the smoke cleared he saw what he had done. His lips moved, but no words came from him. The other men were speechless. There was a moment of awful silence. Then, once more, there came a knock at the door against which Danny leaned.
Another knock. No answer. Another--louder. Still no reply.
"Bridget," cried a voice from without. It was Mona"s voice.
"Bridget, let me in. What has happened?"
No one stirred.
"Bridget, they are coming. Tell the men to go off to sea."
None spoke or moved. The latch was lifted, but in vain.
"Bridget--Christian--Christian!"--(knocking continued).
"Kisseck--Kisseck--Bill Kisseck--Bill!"
At last one of the men found his voice:
"Bill is gone to bed," he said, hoa.r.s.ely.
CHAPTER XV
A RESURRECTION INDEED
"The night is long that never finds the day."--_Macbeth_
The shaft of the old lead-mine down which Christian leaped was forty-five feet deep, yet he was not killed; he was not even hurt. At the bottom were fifteen feet of water, and this had broken his dreadful fall. On coming to the surface, one stroke in the first instant of dazed consciousness had landed him on a narrow ledge of rock that raked downward with the seam. But what was his position when he realized it?
It seemed to be worse than death itself; it was a living death; it was life in the arms of death; it was burial in an open grave. He heard steps overhead, and in the agony of fear he shouted. But the steps went by like a swift breath of wind, and no one answered. Then he reflected that these must have been the footsteps of the police. Thank G.o.d they had not heard his voice. To be rescued by them must have been ruin more terrible than all. Doubtless they knew of his share in to-night"s attempted crime. Knowing this they must know by what fatality he was buried here. Christian now realized that death encircled him on every side. To remain in this pit was death; to be lifted out of it was death no less surely. To escape was hopeless. He looked up at the sky. It was a small square patch of leaden gray against the impenetrable blackness of his prison walls.
Standing on the ledge of rock, and steadying himself with one hand, he lifted the other stealthily upward to feel the sides of the shaft. They were of rock and were precipitous, but had rugged projecting pieces on which it was possible to lay hold. As he grasped one of these, a sickening pang of hope shot through him and wounded him worse than despair. But it was swift; it was gone in an instant. The piece of rock gave way in his hand and tumbled into the water below him with a hollow splash! The sides of the shaft were of a crumbling stone.
Now, indeed, he knew how hopeless was his plight. He dare not cry for help. He must stand still as death in this deep tomb. To attract attention would of itself be death. To remain down the shaft would also be certain death. To climb to the surface was impossible. Christian"s heart sank. His position was terrible.
This conflict of soul did not last long. The heart soon clung to the nearest hope. Cry for help he must; be dragged out of this grave he should, let the issue be what it could or would. To lie here and die was not human. To live in the living present was the first duty, the first necessity, be the price of life no less than future death.
Christian reflected that the police, when he heard their footsteps, had been running to Lockjaw Creek. It would take them five minutes to reach it. When they got there and saw the boats on the shingle they would know that their men had escaped them. Then they would hasten back. In ten minutes they would pa.s.s the mouth of the shaft again. Five of these ten minutes must have gone already. If he were to be rescued he must know nearabouts when they ought to return, so that he might shout when they were within hail. He remembered that their footsteps had gone from him like the wind. The long shaft and sixty feet of dull dead rock and earth had carried them off in an instant.
Christian began to reckon the moments. His thoughts came too fast. He knew they must deceive him as to time. Minutes in this perilous position might count with him for hours. He took out his watch, meaning to listen for the beat of its seconds. The watch had stopped. No doubt it was full of water. Christian"s heart beat loud enough. Then he began to count--one, two, three. But his mind was in a whirl. He lost his reckoning. He found that he had stopped counting and forgotten the number. Whether five minutes or fifty had pa.s.sed he could not be sure.
Hark! He heard something overhead. Were they footsteps, those thuds that fell on the ear like the first rumble of a distant thunder-cloud? Yes, some one was near him. Now was his time to call, but his tongue was cleaving to his mouth. Then he heard words spoken at the mouth of the shaft. They rumbled down to him like words shouted through a hollow black pillar.
"Here, men," said one, "let"s tumble him into the lead mine. No harm will it do him now, poor craythur."
But another voice, laden with the note of fearful agony, cried, "No, no, no!"
"We must do something. No time to lose now. The fac"s is agen us. Let"s make a slant for it, anyway. Lift again--up!"
Christian shuddered at the sound of human voices. Buried, as he was, sixty feet beneath the earth, they came to him like the voice that the wind might make on a tempestuous night if, as it reached your ear, it whispered words and fled away.
The men were gone. Christian"s blood was chilled. What had happened? Was some one dead? Who was it? Christian shuddered at the thought of what might have occurred if the dead body had been tossed over him into the pit. Had the police overstepped their duty? _Were_ they the police? Did he not remember one of the voices--or both? Christian"s entempest soul was overwhelmed with agony. He could not be sure that in very truth he was conscious of anything that occurred.