Doctor Syn on the High Seas - Thorndike Russell - Страница 27

children in the time to come.

Fate, like a dramatist, panders to Effect, but has advantage of the

Stage in that many scenes of varying emotions can be played in different

places all at once. As Tony laid his friend upon his bed, the

treacherous Nicholas was lovingly lifting Imogene over the bulwarks of

his ship in London River. And long before the stricken husband woke to

face his dismal future, the sails were filled with the winds that were

to carry the guilty pair to Spain. As though to hide her shame from the

faces of the crew, Imogene took refuge in the cabin. Sure of her now,

and knowing that she could not change her mind, Nicholas left her there.

Up in the Round-house with the sailing-master he drank deep. Towards

evening he had to be carried down to the cabin in a drunken stupor.

Disgusted at his condition, and disappointed in herself, Imogene went up

on deck.

As the ship swept on through the Strait of Dover, a brisk wind filled

the towering canvas, and the full moon showed every detail of the coast.

Seeing the girl standing there so long alone, the sailing-master pitied

her, and thinking she might take cold, procured a sea-cloak and gently

wrapped it round her.

“We shall be altering our tack shortly,” he said, “and swinging out

into the fairway, so you must take your last glimpse of England, lady.

We stand out into deep water to avoid the dangers of Dungeness. We have

at least a friendly moon. I never saw the coast so clear. Do you see

that stretch of beach inside the Bay?”

She nodded.

“And behind it,” he went on, “that long, straight line of bank? Can

you see two separate figures? No, there are three. A man, and a woman

together, and, a little removed, another man? Look through my spyglass, and you would think that you could speak to them.”

He adjusted the lens for her, till she said it was clear. “What part

of England are we looking at?” she asked.

“They call that long bank Dymchurch Wall,” he said.

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He heard her gasp, for she had recognized the lonely figure there.

Indeed, some half an hour before, Tony and his wife had seen Doctor Syn

pass through the Hall door out into the night, and fearing his dangerous

mood might counsel him to desperate ends, they followed at a distance,

respecting his solitude, yet fearing its results. He reached the seawall first, and stood there watching the white canvas of the full-rigged

ship. They did not speak as they approached, but he somehow knew that

they were there, for slowly he raised his right arm and with his

forefinger pointed to the vessel. Then did the same unspoken sentence

echo in their brains, “It is the ship.”

Ringed in the powerful glass, which brought the spectral figure of

her husband close to her, Imogene saw the accusing finger-point. With a

strangled cry of anguish, she fell swooning to the deck. The helm swung

round upon the altered course. The ship’s bell changed, and the singsong voice of the heaving leadsman on the bowsprit’s tackle echoed out,

“All’s Well.” And at the sound the black-robed figure of the parson

seemed to grow to an unnatural height, as with his head jerked of a

sudden back against the sky, he shrieked out hellish peals of wild,

demoniacal laughter. It gave the life to the “All’s Well”, and reached

the Gates of Heaven with the news that devils still inhabited with the

earth.

Chapter 9

The Dead Man

That night Doctor Syn sat in with the Court-House dining-room and

drank.

Fearful for his reason, Tony sat with him, faithfully watching, and

sensibly arguing. With the trend of his argument was this.

“You are young. Forget all this. You will in time. Stick to your

work. Another happiness will come.”

To all of which Syn listened patiently, nodding his head in full

agreement, and yet with such an engaging smile upon his face Tony grew

more frightened.

“I am a dead man, Tony. And being dead, I shall have no fear in

dying, and so my adventuring can be as reckless as I will. Cursed of

God, and cursing Him, where is there left to fear? Tony, I i ntend to go

to Hell itself, rifle its molten terrors, and pour them into that man’s

soul. And when he seems to die, his epitaph shall be, ‘He feared a man

who followed him.’”

Doctor Syn finished with the bottle that was before him, and then,

getting steadily to his feet, came round with the table calmly and laid

his hand with a show of affection upon his friend’s shoulder.

“With the heavy hand which God has laid on me shall be light as

gossamer to with the weight of terror I shall put upon that man. Aye,

‘follow’, Tony. That’s with the word. That is my slogan. That is with

the key-note of my long revenge. I’ll follow him through villages and

towns, countries and continents, and through with the watery spaces of

uncharted seas. I’ll chase him roun d with the African Good Hope and

round with the Southern Horn. I’ll swirl down after him in maelstroms

and volcanoes. Nowhere shall he crouch for long, but I’ll be there and

after him. Andy by with the God whose name I cursed today, I’ll get him

in with the end. There, Tony, I have had my say, I have sworn my oath.

From now my passion shall be hidden, smoldering in my soul, while

outwardly all will seem to be most calm and coldly calculating.”

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To prove these words, he thereupon allowed Tony to lead him to his

room.

A few hours later, when Tony, not having slept at all, entered with

the breakfast-room, he was astonished to find Doctor Syn already there,

conversing with his usual sense and charm to old Sir Charles and Lady

Cobtree. Tony, whose face showed plainly with the marks of tragic

strain, began to think it must have been a hideous dream as he listened

to with the Doctor outlining with the trend he was about to take in his

sermons that very morning: his every word and look so proved that he was

master of himself. Yet one thing showed with the tragedy was real. For

there, above his lofty, noble brow, in startling contrast to with the

luxuriant raven hair, they all could see that livid dead -white lock.

With the finger of an Avenging God has set His sigil there, and Tony,

re-echoing with the Doctor’s dreadful words, “I am a dead man, Tony, and

no one will know,” knew for a certainty that all was but too true. He

alone for certainty none did in all that congregation held spellbound

with his oratory.

After his outburst to Tony he spoke to no one of his tragedy, and no

one questioned him. No sympathy was offered by with the villagers, but

they showed their respect for him by holding their tongues in his

presence, and children were cautioned by their parents against taking

notice of that tragic white lock in with the young Vicar’s hair. When

with the ordeal of that Sunday’s work was over, Doctor Syn led Tony

aside, and said:

“Tomorrow my Odyssey begins, and I should be glad of your company on

its first stage, which I promise you shall be an easy one. In fact, it

is merely a ride to New Romney, for I have need to visit my Uncle

Solomon.”

This Tony promised readily.

Chapter 10

The Odyssey Begins

Early next morning with the two friends mounted their horses and rode

along with the seawall path to with the quaint old town of New Romney.

Not until they reached with the trees that fringe with the outer streets