A pause, during which Nest and Ellis hung breathless.
"My father is dead, Nest."
Nest caught her breath with a sharp gasp.
"G.o.d forgive him!" said she, thinking on her babe.
"G.o.d forgive ME!" said Owen.
"You did not--" Nest stopped.
"Yes, I did. Now you know it. It was my doom. How could I help it?
The devil helped me--he placed the stone so that my father fell. I jumped into the water to save him. I did, indeed, Nest. I was nearly drowned myself. But he was dead--dead--killed by the fall!"
"Then he is safe at the bottom of the sea?" said Ellis, with hungry eagerness.
"No, he is not; he lies in my boat," said Owen, shivering a little, more at the thought of his last glimpse at his father"s face than from cold.
"Oh, husband, change your wet clothes!" pleaded Nest, to whom the death of the old man was simply a horror with which she had nothing to do, while her husband"s discomfort was a present trouble.
While she helped him to take off the wet garments which he would never have had energy enough to remove of himself, Ellis was busy preparing food, and mixing a great tumbler of spirits and hot water.
He stood over the unfortunate young man and compelled him to eat and drink, and made Nest, too, taste some mouthfuls--all the while planning in his own mind how best to conceal what had been done, and who had done it; not altogether without a certain feeling of vulgar triumph in the reflection that Nest, as she stood there, carelessly dressed, dishevelled in her grief, was in reality the mistress of Bodowen, than which Ellis Pritchard had never seen a grander house, though he believed such might exist.
By dint of a few dexterous questions he found out all he wanted to know from Owen, as he ate and drank. In fact, it was almost a relief to Owen to dilute the horror by talking about it. Before the meal was done, if meal it could be called, Ellis knew all he cared to know.
"Now, Nest, on with your cloak and haps. Pack up what needs to go with you, for both you and your husband must be half way to Liverpool by to-morrow"s morn. I"ll take you past Rhyl Sands in my fishing- boat, with yours in tow; and, once over the dangerous part, I"ll return with my cargo of fish, and learn how much stir there is at Bodowen. Once safe hidden in Liverpool, no one will know where you are, and you may stay quiet till your time comes for returning."
"I will never come home again," said Owen, doggedly. "The place is accursed!"
"Hoot! be guided by me, man. Why, it was but an accident, after all!
And we"ll land at the Holy Island, at the Point of Llyn; there is an old cousin of mine, the parson, there--for the Pritchards have known better days, Squire--and we"ll bury him there. It was but an accident, man. Hold up your head! You and Nest will come home yet and fill Bodowen with children, and I"ll live to see it."
"Never!" said Owen. "I am the last male of my race, and the son has murdered his father!"
Nest came in laden and cloaked. Ellis was for hurrying them off.
The fire was extinguished, the door was locked.
"Here, Nest, my darling, let me take your bundle while I guide you down the steps." But her husband bent his head, and spoke never a word. Nest gave her father the bundle (already loaded with such things as he himself had seen fit to take), but clasped another softly and tightly.
"No one shall help me with this," said she, in a low voice.
Her father did not understand her; her husband did, and placed his strong helping arm round her waist, and blessed her.
"We will all go together, Nest," said he. "But where?" and he looked up at the storm-tossed clouds coming up from windward.
"It is a dirty night," said Ellis, turning his head round to speak to his companions at last. "But never fear, we"ll weather it?" And he made for the place where his vessel was moored. Then he stopped and thought a moment.
"Stay here!" said he, addressing his companions. "I may meet folk, and I shall, maybe, have to hear and to speak. You wait here till I come back for you." So they sat down close together in a corner of the path.
"Let me look at him, Nest!" said Owen.
She took her little dead son out from under her shawl; they looked at his waxen face long and tenderly; kissed it, and covered it up reverently and softly.
"Nest," said Owen, at last, "I feel as though my father"s spirit had been near us, and as if it had bent over our poor little one. A strange chilly air met me as I stooped over him. I could fancy the spirit of our pure, blameless child guiding my father"s safe over the paths of the sky to the gates of heaven, and escaping those accursed dogs of h.e.l.l that were darting up from the north in pursuit of souls not five minutes since.
"Don"t talk so, Owen," said Nest, curling up to him in the darkness of the copse. "Who knows what may be listening?"
The pair were silent, in a kind of nameless terror, till they heard Ellis Pritchard"s loud whisper. "Where are ye? Come along, soft and steady. There were folk about even now, and the Squire is missed, and madam in a fright."
They went swiftly down to the little harbour, and embarked on board Ellis"s boat. The sea heaved and rocked even there; the torn clouds went hurrying overhead in a wild tumultuous manner.
They put out into the bay; still in silence, except when some word of command was spoken by Ellis, who took the management of the vessel.
They made for the rocky sh.o.r.e, where Owen"s boat had been moored. It was not there. It had broken loose and disappeared.
Owen sat down and covered his face. This last event, so simple and natural in itself, struck on his excited and superst.i.tious mind in an extraordinary manner. He had hoped for a certain reconciliation, so to say, by laying his father and his child both in one grave. But now it appeared to him as if there was to be no forgiveness; as if his father revolted even in death against any such peaceful union.
Ellis took a practical view of the case. If the Squire"s body was found drifting about in a boat known to belong to his son, it would create terrible suspicion as to the manner of his death. At one time in the evening, Ellis had thought of persuading Owen to let him bury the Squire in a sailor"s grave; or, in other words, to sew him up in a spare sail, and weighting it well, sink it for ever. He had not broached the subject, from a certain fear of Owen"s pa.s.sionate repugnance to the plan; otherwise, if he had consented, they might have returned to Penmorfa, and pa.s.sively awaited the course of events, secure of Owen"s succession to Bodowen, sooner or later; or if Owen was too much overwhelmed by what had happened, Ellis would have advised him to go away for a short time, and return when the buzz and the talk was over.
Now it was different. It was absolutely necessary that they should leave the country for a time. Through those stormy waters they must plough their way that very night. Ellis had no fear--would have had no fear, at any rate, with Owen as he had been a week, a day ago; but with Owen wild, despairing, helpless, fate-pursued, what could he do?
They sailed into the tossing darkness, and were never more seen of men.
The house of Bodowen has sunk into damp, dark ruins; and a Saxon stranger holds the lands of the Griffiths.