Chapter XVIII: Coquette Sails to the North

In the darkness the yellow lights of the yacht were shining on the spars and the rigging; the water that lapped against her side sparkled with stars of phosphorescent fire; and a slight wind, coming through the gloom, told of the rustling of ferns and bushes on the hillside--when certain dusky figures appeared on deck, and began to converse in whispers. The Whaup was yawning dreadfully, and perhaps wishing there was not a seal in the world; but he had proposed the adventure, to which Lord Earlshope had good-naturedly acceded, and so he felt himself bound in honour not to retract.

With their guns in their hands they got down into the dinghy which was waiting for them, and the two men began to pull away gently from the yacht. The blades of the oars struck a flash of silver deep into the water; and the white stars of the waves burned even more keenly than the other reflected stars which, farther away, were glittering on the black surface of the sea. Towards the land some vague and dusky forms that were scarcely visible were known to be the iron-bound coast; and in uncomfortable proximity the Whaup could hear the waves heaving in upon the rocks. There was no other sound but that and the measured rowing. Overhead the innumerable stars burned clear; there were flickerings of the reflected light on the moving plain of the sea; and in there at the shore a vague darkness, and the dashing of unseen waves.

When they had thus proceeded a certain distance along the coast, the bow of the boat was turned shore-ward, and the men pulled gently in toward the rocks. In the starlight the outlines of the hills above now became dimly visible; but underneath blackness universal seemed to hide both shore and sea. The noise all around them, however, told the Whaup that they must be near land; and in a few minutes the boat was cautiously run in, one of the men jumping out and holding her bow. With a double-barrelled gun in his right hand, the Whaup now found himself struggling over a series of rocks that were treacherously covered with seaweed; while, as he got on to higher ground, these rocks increased in size, and the gaps between them were plunged in even profounder darkness. Presently he heard Earlshope calling on him to halt; and shortly thereafter one of the sailors, who had landed, appeared clambering over the boulders in order to take the lead.

Their course was now a sufficiently perilous one. The great masses of tumbled rock that here form the coast line appeared to go precipitately down into the sea--a great black gulf which they could hear splashing beneath them; while ever and anon they came to deep ravines in the sides of the hill, down which small streamlets could be heard trickling. Their progress along these rough precipices--generally some fifty or a hundred feet above the sea--was picturesque but uncomfortable. The Whaup found that, in spite of all his wild plunges and daring leaps, the sailor distanced him considerably: and ahead of him he could only indistinctly see a black figure which sometimes rose up clear and defined against the star-lit sky, and at other times was vaguely seen to crawl along the surface of a grey shelf of rock like some dusky alligator. Now he found himself up to the neck among immense brackens; again he was plunged into some mossy hole, in which his boots were like to remain. Not unfrequently he had to go on hands and knees across some more than usually precipitous shelf; the stock of his gun making sore work of his knuckles as he clambered up the rough surface.

Another halt was called. When the small bay around Battle Island--where the seals were expected to be found--had nearly been reached, it was determined, to prevent noise, that they should take off their boots and creep along the rocks on their stocking-soles. The stars were now paling; and, as the faint light of dawn would soon appear, every precaution was necessary that the seals should not become aware of their approach. No sooner, indeed, had the Whaup removed his boots than he danced a wild dance of exultation, so delighted was he to find that the soles of his stockings caught so easily and surely on the surface of the boulders. There was now far less risk of a sudden tumble headlong into the sea--although, to be sure, even up here among the rocks, it was not pleasant, in the cold of the night, to find one's feet go down into a pool of mossy water.

"Do you regret having come?" said Lord Earlshope.

"Regret it!" said the Whaup. "I'd wade a mile up to my neck to shoot a seal."

Then he added, with his usual frankness--

"I didn't expect you'd have been able to keep up with us."

"Why?"

"Well," said the Whaup, seeing before him the outline of a tall, lithe, slim figure, "I didn't think you were much good for this sort of rough work."

Earlshope laughed--not very loudly.

"Perhaps not," he said; he did not think it worth while to astonish Master Tom with tales of what he had done in the way of muscular performances. "But you should not be severe on me. I rather fancy this is a piece of folly; and I have undertaken it merely to interest you."

The Whaup noticed at this moment that his companion had in his hand the heavy rifle, which he carried in a very easy and facile manner.

"You may be stronger than you look," observed the Whaup--throwing out this qualification from mere good-humour. He still retained an impression that Earlshope, with his lady-like fingers, and his pretty moustache, and his delicate jewellery, was something of a milksop.

Absolute silence was now the watchword as they advanced: there was no scraping of heels on the grit of the rocks--no clink of a trigger-guard in putting down the hand for safety's sake. In a thief-like fashion they stole along the high and rugged coast, now clambering over huge blocks of stone, and again fighting their way through fern and bush, with their heads low and their footfalls light. At length the sailor stopped, and motioned to Lord Earlshope and the Whaup to descend. Great was the joy of the latter on perceiving that at last there was a level bit of shore towards which they were making their way. Having gone down, in a snake-like fashion, over the mighty boulders, they now crept on towards the beach; and at length took up their position behind two pieces of rock, from which they could see the channel in front of them, lying between the land and the dusky object which they knew to be Battle Island.

Very still and weird was this place in the dark of the morning, with the cold air from the sea stirring in the brushwood overhead, and with the ceaseless plash of the waves echoing all along the solitary coast. A faint film of cloud had come over the sky, and hid the stars; but in the east there seemed to be a pallid grey far across the dark water towards Ardlamont Point. And, by-and-by, as they crouched behind the boulders, and waited, there was visible--whence it had come no one could say--a brilliant planet, burning like gold in the wan mist above the eastern sea; and they knew that it was the star of the morning. Slowly the dawn approached--slowly the dark outline of Battle Island became more defined; and the black hollows of the waves that crept in towards the shore had now a pale hue between them, that scarcely could be called light.

Patiently they waited, scanning the outline of the island-rocks, and watching all the water around for the rolling of the seals. There was no sign. Perhaps the grey in the east was waxing stronger--it was impossible to tell, for their eyes had grown bewildered with the constant motion of the tumbling waves and the eager scrutiny of these black lines and hollows.

Suddenly there was a quick chirp just beside them, and the Whaup's heart leapt with alarm. He turned to find a sea-lark running quite near him; and, at the same moment that he perceived this first symptom of awakening life, he became aware that it had grown lighter out by Ardlamont Point.

And now, with a strange and rapid transition, as if the world had begun to throb with the birth of the new day, there arose in the eastern sky a great smoke of red--a pink mist that mounted and spread as if from some mighty conflagration beyond the line of the sea. All in the west--by the far shores of Knapdale and up the long stretch of Lochfyne--there brooded a dull and mysterious fog, in which hills and islands lay like gloomy clouds; but over there at the eastern horizon there was a glow of rose-coloured smoke, which as yet had no reflection on the sea. And while they looked on it, half forgetting the object of their quest in the splendour of this sight--the perpetual wonder and mystery of the dawn--the red mist parted, and broke into long parallel swathes of cloud, which were touched with sharp, jewel-like lines of fire; and as the keenness of the crimson waxed stronger and stronger, there came over the sea a long and level flush of salmon-colour, which bathed the waves in its radiance, leaving their shadows an intense dark green. The glare and the majesty of this spectacle lasted but for a few minutes. The intensity of the colours subsided; the salmon-coloured waves grew of a pale neutral tint; a cold twilight spread over the sky; and with the stirring of the wind came in the new life of the world--the crowing of some grouse far up in the heather, the chirping of birds in the bushes, the calling of curlew, and the slow flapping of a pair of herons coming landward from the sea.

Suddenly Lord Earlshope, who had been peering over the edge of the rock before him, touched his companion's arm. The Whaup went forward on his knees, and stealthily looked over in the direction pointed out. He could see nothing but the dark rocks of Battle Island, in the midst of the greyish-green water. He was about to express his disappointment, when it seemed to him that the outline of a bit of rock at the end of the island was moving. Could it be the undulations of the waves which were surging all around; or was that motion of the black line the motion of an animal that had got up on it from the water?

Lord Earlshope handed his rifle to the Whaup, with a hurried gesture. But the arrangement had been that, while the one had a rifle and the other a double-barrelled fowling-piece loaded with heavy shot, the distance of the seal was to decide which should fire. Accordingly, the Whaup refused to take the rifle.

"It is your shot," he whispered.

"I don't want to kill the beast: why should I?" said Earlshope, carelessly.

Even as the Whaup was in the act of putting the barrel of the rifle cautiously over the rock, he remembered what Coquette had said; and also that he had made the haphazard guess that Earlshope would probably say the same. But there was little chance to think of such things. His breath was coming and going at double-quick time, and he held his teeth tight as he brought the sight of the barrel up to the line of rock. It rested there for a moment--there was a spurt of fire--a bang that echoed and re-echoed up among the rocky hills--and then Lord Earlshope rose, glad to be able to stretch his limbs at last.

"You have either missed altogether or shot him dead; there was no movement whatever when you fired."

"By Jove, then," said the Whaup, with tremendous eagerness, "I have shot him dead if there was a seal there at all--for I know the muzzle of the rifle was as steady as a rock when I fired."

"We shall see presently," said his companion. "They will bring the boat up now."

Presently, the two men were seen pulling round the point; and then Lord Earlshope and the Whaup went to the edge of the water, got into the boat, and were pulled out to the island. Very anxiously did one of them, at least, regard that small, dark promontory; but there was nothing visible. They drew nearer--they now saw the surface of the rocks clearly--and that was all.

"Very sorry," said Lord Earlshope, "but you seem to have missed."

"I didn't miss!" the Whaup insisted. "Let us land, and see."

So, at a convenient spot, they ran the boat in, and got out among the seaweed, and then made their way along to the end of the island. Suddenly the Whaup uttered a piercing yell of delight, and began to clamber along the rocks in the most reckless fashion. Lord Earlshope, following after him, found him grasping with both his hands a round-headed, fat, and limp-looking animal, which he was endeavouring to drag up to the higher platform.

"There--did I miss?" he cried.

"Well, since you have got him, what do you mean to do with him?" said Lord Earlshope, with a smile. "You have had the satisfaction of killing him, and the much rarer satisfaction of getting him after killing him--but what then?"

The Whaup dropped the seal on to the rocks again; and looked at the unfortunate creatures with some disappointment mingled with his pride.

"What do they make of these brutes? You can't get seal-skin waistcoats out of that soapy-looking stuff?"

"You may eat him, if you like--I suppose he is not much oilier than a solan. However, we may as well lug him into the boat, and get back to Maol-Daroch. It is singular we have seen none of his companions, though."

The men approached the slippery animal with much more caution than the Whaup had displayed--they were evidently not quite sure that the whiskered mouth might not open and proceed from a bark to a bite. He was got into the boat at last; Earlshope and the Whaup followed; and again the fall of the oars was heard along the lonely coast. It was now broad daylight; and when they reached Maol-Daroch Bay, the sun was shining on the green hill-side, and on the white beach, and on the far blue plain of the sea.

Coquette was standing at the stern of the yacht as they approached, with the sunlight colouring her cheek and gleaming on the white handkerchief she waved to them.

"Have you had a success?" she said. "Oh, how very miserable you look!"

"It isn't half as meeserayble as we feel," remarked the Whaup, who was sleepy, and hungry, and stiff.

"You have not shot nothing!" said Coquette, clapping her hands, "or you would come home proud and fierce--like the old north warriors when they did come home from the sea. What is that in the boat? Ah! You shoot one?--yes! It is beastly-looking--I mean it is hideous--horrid!"

The seal was allowed for the present to remain in the small boat, and Earlshope and the Whaup came on deck. To the sleepy eyes of the Whaup, who was cold and wretched in spite of his triumph, his cousin seemed quite offensively cheerful, and bright, and comfortable.

"Have you had breakfast yet?" said Lord Earlshope.

"No," she answered. "I have made friends with your steward, and he has given me two apples and a big bunch of grapes. I am sorry I have eaten all--I cannot give you one."

"Thank you," said he. "But I suppose your cousin will follow my example, get down below, and have a sleep. Good-bye till lunch-time, Miss Cassilis--I presume by then we shall be up at Ardrishaig."

So they went below; and Coquette sat down, and took up a book she had been carrying with her. But she could not read; for there was sunlight abroad, and the fluttering of wind through the thin ropes that stretched up into the blue, and the ripple of the bright water all around. They were about to set out now on their voyage northward--that far wandering into the unknown Western Isles of which she had dreamed--and he had spoken no word of his leaving them. Would he go all the way, then, and spend all this happy time with them, afar from the dull routine-life and the harsh-thinking people of the land? As she thought of the fair prospect that was thus opened out before her, the pages of the book that lay in the sunshine were filled with pictures--wonderful landscapes that burned in the brightest of colours, and had the stirring of wind and of light in them. Lady Drum came on deck, and was surprised to find the girl sitting all alone, looking so wonderfully pleased and happy.

"To-day we set sail," said Coquette, almost laughing with pure gladness, "and go away--away beyond all you can think of--among hills, and mountains, and the sea."

"Perhaps you would be glad not to come back?" said Lady Drum, looking into the happy face, and holding both the girl's hands.

"Yes--I should be glad not to come back--it is so pleasant here--and where we are going, will not that be far more pleasant?"

"That is what young folks always think," said Lady Drum--"always looking forward with hope in their eyes. But we who have got older, and have gone farther on the voyage--we look back."

And while these two and Mr. Cassilis were at breakfast, they heard the sails being hoisted above; and when they went on deck, they found the great breadths of white canvas lying over before a southerly breeze; and there was a hissing of water at the bow and along the side; and, while Maol-Daroch Bay, and Tarbert, and all the rocks and islands about were slowly receding to the south, before them there opened up the great blue breadth of Lochfyne, with the far, faint hills shining mistily in the sun.