"Daddy," said Myra reproachfully, "you"re not to call yourself names."
"All right, then; I won"t," he laughed. "You young people will excuse me, I"m sure. I should like to join you; but I have a lot of letters to write, and I daresay you"d rather be by yourselves. Eh?--you young dog!"
It was a polite fiction between father and daughter that when the old fellow felt too unwell to join her or his guests he "had a lot of letters to write." And occasionally, when he was in the mood to overtax his strength, she would never refer to it directly, but often she would remark, "You know you"ll miss the post, daddy." And they both understood. So we set out by ourselves, and I naturally preferred to be alone with Myra, much as I liked her father. We went out on to the verandah, and while I unpacked my kit Myra rewound her line, which had been drying on the pegs overnight.
"Are you content with small mercies, Ron?" she asked, "or do you agree that it is better to try for a salmon than catch a trout?"
"It certainly isn"t better to-day, anyway," I answered. "I want to be near you, darling. I don"t want the distance of the pools between us.
We might walk up to the Dead Man"s Pool, and then fish up stream; and later fish the loch from the boat. That would bring us back in nice time for dinner."
"Oh! splendid!" she cried; and we fished out our fly-books. Her"s was a big book of tattered pig-skin, which reclined at the bottom of the capacious "poacher"s pocket" in her jacket. The fly-book was an old favourite--she wouldn"t have parted with it for worlds. Having followed her advice, and changed the Orange I had tied for the "bob"
to a Peac.o.c.k Zulu, which I borrowed from her, we set out.
"Just above the Dead Man"s Pool you get a beautiful view of Hilderman"s hideous hut," Myra declared as we walked along. I may explain here that "Dead Man"s Pool" is an English translation of the Gaelic name, which I dare not inflict on the reader.
"See?" she cried, as we climbed the rock looking down on the gorgeous salmon pool, with its cool, inviting depths and its subtle promise of sport. "Oh! Ronnie, isn"t it wonderful?" she cried. "Almost every day of my life I have admired this view, and I love it more and more every time I see it. I sometimes think I"d rather give up my life than the simple power to gaze at the mountains and the sea."
"Why, look!" I exclaimed. "Is that the window you meant?"
"Yes," Myra replied, with an air of annoyance, "that"s it. You can see that light when the sun shines on it, which is nearly all day, and it keeps on reminding us that we have a neighbour, although the loch is between us. Besides, for some extraordinary reason it gets on father"s nerves. Poor old daddy!"
It may seem strange to the reader that anyone should take notice of the sun"s reflection on a window two and a quarter miles away; but it must be remembered that all her life Myra had been accustomed to the undisputed possession of an unbroken view.
"Anyhow," she added, as she turned away, "we came here to fish. One of us must cross the stream here and fish that side. We can"t cross higher up, there"s too much water, and there"s no point in getting wet. I"ll go, and you fish this side; and when we reach the loch we"ll get into the boat. See, Sholto"s across already."
And she tripped lightly from boulder to boulder across the top of the fall which steams into the Dead Man"s Pool, while I stood and admired her agile sureness of foot as one admires the graceful movements of a beautiful young roe. Sholto was pawing about in a tiny backwater, and trying to swallow the bubbles he made, until he saw his beloved mistress was intent on the serious business of fishing, and then he climbed lazily to the top of a rock, where he could keep a watchful eye on her, and sprawled himself out in the sun. I have fished better water than the Malluch river, certainly, and killed bigger fish in other lochs than the beautiful mountain tarn above Invermalluch Lodge; but I have never had a more enjoyable day"s sport than the least satisfying of my many days there.
There was a delightful informality about the sport at the Lodge. One fished in all weathers because one wanted to fish, and varied one"s methods and destination according to the day. There was no sign of that hideous custom of doing the thing "properly" that the members of a stockbroker"s house-party seem to enjoy--no drawing lots for reaches or pools overnight, no roping-in a gillie to add to the chance of sending a basket "south." When there was a superfluity of fish the crofters and tenants were supplied first, and then anything that was left over was sent to friends in London and elsewhere. At the end of the day"s sport we went home happy and pleased with ourselves, not in the least depressed if we had drawn a blank, to jolly and delightful meals, without any formality at all. And if we were wet, there was a great drying-room off the kitchen premises where our clothes were dried by a housemaid who really understood the business. As for our tackle, we dried our own lines and pegged them under the verandah, and rewound them again in the morning, made up our own casts, and generally did everything for ourselves without a retinue of attendants. And thereby we enjoyed ourselves hugely.
Angus and Sandy, the two handy-men of the place, would carry the lunch-basket or pull the boats on the loch or stand by with the gaff or net--and what experts they are!--but the rest we did for ourselves.
By the time I had got a pipe on and wetted my line, Myra was some fifty yards or so up stream making for a spot where she suspected something. She has the unerring instinct of the inveterate poacher! I cast idly once or twice, content to revel in the delight of holding a rod in my hand once more, intoxicated with the air and the scenery and the sunshine (What a good thing the fish in the west "like it bright!"), and after a few minutes a sudden jerk on my line brought me back to earth. I missed him, but he thrilled me to the serious business of the thing, and I fished on, intent on every cast.
I suppose I must have fished for about twenty minutes, but of that I have never been able to say definitely. It may possibly have been more. I only know that as I was picking my way over some boulders to enable me to cast more accurately for a big one I had risen, I heard Myra give a sharp, short cry. I turned anxiously and called to her.
I could not distinguish her at first among the great gray rocks in the river. Surely she could not have fallen in. Even had she done so, I hardly think she would have called out. She was extraordinarily sure on her feet, and, in any case, she was an expert swimmer. What could it be? Immediately following her cry came Sholto"s deep bay, and then I saw her. She was standing on a tall, white, lozenge-shaped rock, that looked almost as if it had been carefully shaped in concrete. She was kneeling, and her arm was across her face. With a cry I dashed into the river, and floundered across, sometimes almost up to my neck, and ran stumbling to her in a blind agony of fear. Even as I ran her rod was carried past me, and disappeared over the fall below.
"Myra, my darling," I cried as I reached her, and took her in my arms, "what is it, dearest? For G.o.d"s sake tell me--what is it?"
"Oh, Ronnie, dear," she said, "I don"t know, darling. I don"t understand." Her voice broke as she lifted her beautiful face to me. I looked into those wonderful eyes, and they gazed back at me with a dull, meaningless stare. She stretched out her arm to grasp my hand, and her own hand clutched aimlessly on my collar.
In a flash I realised the hideous truth.
Myra was blind!
CHAPTER IV.
THE BLACK BLOW.
"Oh, Ronnie, darling," Myra asked, in a pitiful voice that went to my heart. "What can it mean? I--I--I can"t see--anything at all."
"It"s the sun, darling; it will be all right in a minute or two.
There, lie in my arms, dear, and close your poor eyes. It will be all right soon, dearest."
I tried to comfort her, to a.s.sure her that it was just the glare on the water, that she would be able to see again in a moment, but I felt the pitiful inadequacy of my empty words, and it seemed that the light had gone out of my life. I pray that I may never again witness such a harrowing sight as that of Myra, leaning her beautiful head on my shoulder, suddenly stricken blind, doing her best to pacify her dog, who was heart-broken in the instinctive knowledge of a new, swift grief which he could not understand.
I must ask the reader to spare me from describing in detail the terrible agony of the next few days, when the hideous tragedy of Myra"s blindness overcame us all in its naked freshness. I cannot bring myself to speak of it even yet. I would at any time give my life to save Myra"s sight, her most priceless possession. I make this as a simple statement of fact, and in no spirit of romantic arrogance, and I think I would rather die than live again the gnawing agony of those days.
I took Myra in my arms, and carried her back to the house. Poor child; she realised almost immediately that I was as dumbfounded as she was herself at the terrible blow which had befallen her, and that I had no faith in my empty a.s.surances that it would soon be all right again, and she would be able to see as well as ever in an hour or two, at most. So she at once began to comfort me! I marvelled at her bravery, but she made me more miserable than ever. I felt that she might have a sort of premonition that she would never see again. As we crossed the stream above the fall I saw again the reflected light from Hilderman"s window, and a pang shot through me as I remembered her words on that very spot--that she would rather die than be unable to see her beloved mountains.
I clutched her in my arms, and held her closer to me in dumb despair.
"Am I very heavy, Ron, dear?" she asked presently. "If you give me your hand, dear, I could walk. I think I could even manage without it; but, of course, I should prefer to have your hand at any time." She gave a natural little laugh, which almost deceived me, and again I marvelled at her pluck. I had known Myra since she was four, and I might have expected that she would meet her tragic misfortune with a smile.
"You"re as light as a feather, dearest," I protested, "and, as far as that goes, I"d rather carry you at any time."
"I"m glad you were here when it happened, dear," she whispered.
"Tell me, darling, how did it happen?" I asked. "I mean, what did it seem like? Did things gradually grow duller and duller, or what?"
"No," she answered; "that was the extraordinary part of it. Quite suddenly I saw everything green for a second, and then everything went out in a green flash. It was a wonderful, liquid green, like the sea over a sand-bank. It was just a long flash, very quick and sharp, and then I found I could see nothing at all. Everything is black now, the black of an intense green. I thought I"d been struck by lightning.
Wasn"t it silly of me?"
"My poor, brave little woman," I murmured. "Tell me, where were you then?"
"Just where you found me, on the Chemist"s Rock. I call it the Chemist"s Rock because it"s shaped like a cough-lozenge. I was casting from there; it makes a beautiful fishing-table. I looked up, and then--well, then it happened."
"We"re just coming to the house," said Myra suddenly. "We"re just going to turn on to the stable-path."
"Darling!" I cried, nearly dropping her in my excitement; "you can see already?"
"Oh, Ronnie, I"m so sorry," she said penitently. "I only knew by the smell of the peat stacks." I could not restrain a groan of disappointment, and Myra stroked my face, and murmured again, "I"m sorry, dearest."
"Will you please put me down now?" she asked. "If daddy saw you carrying me to the house he"d have a fit, and the servants would go into hysterics." So I put her tenderly on her feet, and she took my arm, and we walked slowly to the house. She could see nothing, not even in the hazy confusion of the nearly blind; yet she walked to the house with as firm a step and as natural an air as if she had nothing whatever the matter with her.
"You had better leave dad to me, Ron," she suggested. "We understand each other, and I can explain to him. You would find it difficult, and it would be painful for you both. Just tell him that I"m not feeling very well, and he"ll come straight to me. Don"t tell him I want to see him. Give me your arm to my den, dear."
I led her to her "den," a little room opening on to the verandah.
There was a writing-table in the window covered with correspondence in neat little piles, for Myra was on all the charity committees in the county, and the rest of the room was given up to a profusion of fishing tackle, shooting gear, and books. Sholto followed us, every now and then rubbing his great head against her skirt. I left her there, and turned into the hall, where I met the General. He had heard us return.
"You"re back early, my boy," he remarked.
"Yes," I said, taking out my cigarette-case to give myself an air of a.s.surance which was utterly unknown to me. "Myra is not feeling very well. She"s resting for a bit."
"Not well?" he exclaimed, in surprise. "Very unusual, very unusual indeed." And he turned straight into Myra"s room without waiting for an answer to his quiet tap on the door. With a heavy heart I went upstairs to the old schoolroom, now given over to Mary McNiven, Myra"s old nurse.