CHAPTER XVIII.THE RUNNING MAN.
Ambroseimmediately after bade me rise and make ready to follow him; for he had in charge, he said, to take me to theCloisters.
I was nothing loth. The curiosity I had to learn more of the island, was now, indeed, swollen to the highest pitch; so, within a brief space, we went from the cell, coming into a passage of stone.
This passage was in all points like to that which the Englishman had given me an account of. There was, however, this difference in our experiences: that, whereas he had started in darkness to come by degrees into the shining of a dazzling white light, I, on the contrary, did meet with that strange illumination at the outset, finding it to decrease as we proceeded, until ’twas but a glimmer; and so on into thickest darkness.
But soon, in the distance, appeared a faint brightness, like to the dim reflection of a mirror. We went a little farther. ’Twas the light of day. A door stood wide at the end of the corridor.
So came I forth from that mysterious prison-house, and stood again under the open heaven.
Before and on either side were thick woods, behind was the cavernous entry—yet having no appearance of masonry, for a tangle of many-blossomed creepers covered all.
But Ambrose, looking to see that I followed, stepped straightway to that which had all the look of a pathless thicket. When, however, we were gotten within, brushing aside bush and brake, there opened before us a path of the woods—yet so slender a path, that ’twas scarce to be discerned. Following it the distance of about a quarter of a mile, we came forth upon the cliff.
A battery stood against the sea, a huge rampart long and large, hewed out of the rock, and pierced at intervals in embrasures to accommodate the great brass guns—they were, indeed, of prodigious size—that bore upon the waters, fifty feet below. The guns were mounted upon carriages of iron, so as they could be turned this way or that, to bear at large upon the sea. About thirty feet behind them, stood a long house, built of massive blocks of stone, divided into store-rooms for the powder. The roof of it was thatched with wattle and felt, against the rains. Beside it, on end, stood another house, wherein were many pipes of muskets.
At the other end of the rampart, men wrought to extend it. A crew of bandits they were, dressed very slovenly and gay in silk and Indian cotton-stuff of many bright colours. Amongst them, I saw divers of our men, who wrought along with the others; and, spying us, one or twohallooed to me with hearty good cheer. But some looked ill at ease and very sullen.
We turned, making to the norward along the cliffs, having thick woods on our landward.
I looked to the sea-board, but could spy no ships. I asked Ambrose concerning theTiger; he told me men were at work upon her, getting ashore her guns, munition, and such other things as the Doctor needed.
I heard him to my small content. “But the men will not brook this,” said I. “They’ll rise.”
“They must brook it,” said he. “As to rising, the Doctor, be sure, has not failed to provide himself for that.”
“What force hath he?” asked I.
“If you mean as to the number of his men,” replied he, “not much, and yet abundance for your matter. But his strength is not in numbers.”
“In what, then?” asked I.
“You’ll learn that by observation,” said he shortly.
Hereupon, being come to a place where the ground slanted steeply up, we turned and went inland beneath the slope.
“Say, are you learned?” asked Ambrose. “Can you read Latin?”
“Indifferent well,” said I. “But why? Hath Doctor Copicus, peradventure, a charity-school in his island?”
He laughed his singular laugh. “Charity-school,” said he, “is good! Yea, we shall put you to school! And do you see to it that you be industrious. Behold the marks of the rod!”
And, suddenly baring his forearm, he stretched it forth before me.The flesh was scarred with the marks of heated irons!
“Merciful Heaven!” cried I.
“Take warning, then!” said Ambrose, “take warning!” and covered his arm again.
This put a fear upon me, and I went on in a heavy muse. Suddenly I was aroused sufficiently! There had come, on a sudden, a most dreadful roaring sound, long drawn out, and proceeding, as it should seem, from the abysms of the earth: as if the earth had given tongue, like a great, savage wild beast, and was ready to open her jaws and swallow us in a moment!
Shaking as with an ague, I asked him what it was.
“You are pale,” said he, “nor do I wonder, if this is the first time you have heard it. ’Tis the voice of the Mount of Dread.”
“A volcan!” cried I, with swift understanding, “there is, then, a volcan in the island. But where? I see no height of a great mountain.”
“The mightiness of the Mount of Dread,” replied Ambrose, “appeareth not by height. Greatest and mightiest things look mean and ordinary—is’t not so?”
“With high spiritual things,” said I, “it may often be so; but with common things——”
“Nay, nay,” said he, “you are in the wrong. Consider gunpowder, that sooty grain—how much of it, think you, should suffice to uproot and shake to pieces the firm foundation on which we stand?”
We were now come to woods in low land. We entered in, following a secret path.
Fain would I tell you of the beauty of these woods; but, unless you could behold them, ’twere impossible you would understand.
I passed through them entranced. The woods on the shore of the Island of Hispaniola were beautiful, but not as these were; the foliage was not so shining green, nor so delicately rare. How can I tell you of the immense, massy leaves of the breadfruit trees? Of the great feathery ferns? Of the climbing ferns, knit in a network between the polished stems of the cocoa-palms, or hanging in air on their long, tremulous, hair-like trails?
Here and there, the undergrowth was decked with blossoming shrubs, pale primrose and gorgeous crimson. High overhead, close and intertwined, hung the fronds of the palm trees, gently stirred by the breeze, glinting and flashing in the green sunlight, like a roof wrought in jade.
As we passed, a bevy of blue and scarlet birds started in the thicket amongst the tall grasses, and flew scattering up through the palm-fronds like winged blossoms, but with scarce any cry. Indeed, as I learnt after, all the birds in the island were dumb. But there came continually a humming and chirruping of insects, and sudden stirrings and rustlings, as little creatures of the undergrowth took flight.
Our way was entangled with cross-shoots, and the snake-like tendrils of creepers.
“The Doctor would like this ill,” said Ambrose, as he lopped a branch off. “I shall warn Barleycorn. ’Tis like to save his life.”
“Who is Barleycorn?” asked I.
“He who has’t in charge to keep the paths of the woods,” said he.
Presently we reached the heart of the wood, which was a tangle of great stalks and creepers in marshy ground. Here plants did grow on the very boughs of the trees having the strangest flowers that ever I saw. For one was in shape like a jug; another like a panakin; others were as monstrous insect-creatures seen in dreams. The trees looked starved and wan. The air was hot and heavy, as in a close sick-chamber.
Soon the wood became clearer and lighter; and, coming presently round a thicket, I spied a glimmering portal of day.
As we emerged, there came a man running. His clothes were ragged and slovenly. He came on, running and panting, like a hunted creature. His face shone with sweat that glistened upon his beard in drops, like dew. His eyes were bright, and roamed about.
Thus he came on directly towards me; and, had I not stepped to one side, he would have run me down. He went on without taking any notice of us.
“He hath been terror-struck,” said Ambrose, as I stood staring round on the man. “He was a traitor. ’Twas his punishment.”
And he told me the man had tried to escape by night to a merchant-ship that lay off theisland, and that the ghost had appeared to him while he swam in the sea.
The running man was now screened by a promontory of the wood, but his voice sounded intermittently in a sort of shrieking very horrible to hear.
I felt a weight come over me, and a sort of horror of the sunlight.