Commodore Junk

“Yes; and you will escape. And in the future, when you are away – and happy – don’t curse me – think of me as a poor lost woman, driven by fate – to what I am – but who saw and loved you, Humphrey Armstrong, as woman has seldom loved before.”

“Oh, hush!” he said huskily. “For Heaven’s sake don’t speak like that!”

“No,” she said gently, after listening for a few moments; but all was still. “I will not speak. It is nearly over now. You will forgive me?”

“Forgive you – yes!”

She uttered a low sigh, full of thankfulness, as she still clung to his hand.

“It is enough,” she said. “Now, go! You know the way. Be cautious, be patient, and bide your time; and then Heaven speed you safely home! – He has forgiven me,” she sighed to herself, and the pressure upon his hand seemed to increase.

“Well,” she said after a few moments’ pause, “why do you stay?”

Her voice startled him in its intensity, for it seemed to echo through the place; and his hand had, as it had been for many minutes past, grasped hers with crushing force as the tide rose to its fullest height and bore him on.

“And you!” he said. “What will you do?”

“I!” she said with a faint laugh; “I shall wait here until they come.”

“Wait here!” cried Humphrey. “They will kill you!”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Then why not share my flight? Come with me now while there is time. I will protect you and take you where you will. I cannot leave you like this!”

“Not leave me?” she said with a sob.

“No. Do you think me such a cur that I could leave you to the mercy of these wretches?”

“It is too late,” she said. “Go!”

“Go?”

“Yer, while there is time.”

“But you can hide as well as I!” he cried excitedly. “Come!”

“It is too late,” she said, and he felt her hand tremble in his grasp.

“And leave you?” he cried. “I would sooner die!”

“Then you do love me?” she cried wildly, as she half rose from the altar, but sank back.

“Love you!” he cried passionately. “I have fought with it, I have battled with it till I have been nearly mad! Love you, Mary, my brave, true heroine! I love you with all my heart!”

She uttered a wild cry of joy as he threw himself upon his knees and clasped her to his heart, his face buried in her breast and her two arms clung tightly round his neck, as she uttered a low moan of mingled joy and pain.

“Love you!” he whispered, as he raised his face, and his lips sought hers; “my darling! words will not tell my love! Come, what is the world to us? You are my world, my own, my love! Come!”

She clung to him passionately for a few moments.

“At last!” she said softly, as if to herself; “the love of one true noble man! Ah!”

A low deep sigh escaped her, and then, as if roused to a sense of her position, she thrust him back and listened.

“Hark!” she said, as a low shout arose. “They are coming back – they will be here soon! Quick! lose no time! You must escape!”

“And you?” he said, wildly.

She took his hand and laid it slowly upon her bosom, to press it there, so that he could fool the heavy dull throb of her heart.

For a moment even then he did not realise what she meant. Then, with a wild cry he leaped to his feet, for his hand was wet with the warm blood which welled from a terrible wound.

“You are hurt?” he cried.

“To the death, Humphrey. Oh, my love, my love! Take me in your arms once more and hold me to your heart. Tell me that you will remember me, and then lay me here, upon this old stone, with your kiss wet upon my lips. Death will be easy then!”

“Death easy! I leave you! If you must die it shall be together!” he panted, as he once more enfolded her in his arms.

“This is madness,” she whispered, as she struggled feebly in his embrace. “Go, for pity’s sake – go!”

“My place is here!” he said in a low fierce voice, as he took up the sword she had let fall upon the pavement. “We shall not die alone. Whose cowardly hand inflicted that wound?”

“You need not ask,” she said feebly. “He missed before – the blow was true this time.”

“The fiend! The devil!” groaned Humphrey, as the sword quivered in his grasp. “Well, we shall want a slave to open the gates of death. His shall be the task!”

She clung to him with failing strength, and drew herself up by him till she could once more rest upon his breast, with her arms tightly clasped about his neck.

“You told me at last you loved me,” she panted. “You said the words I have so hungered to hear – words I thought that I should have died and never heard pass your lips. Now that I know it, and that it is true, do not embitter my last moments by showing me that I have tried in vain.”

“I could not live without you now!” he cried passionately, as he held her to him more tightly still.

“They are coming. It is too late for me. Let me die in peace, knowing that you are saved.”

He raised her in his arms and bore her to the great stone, and, as he laid her gently down, the noise of the coming gang could be heard.

There was not a moment to lose, and any slip in his instructions would have resulted in destruction; but as he pressed against the stone it easily revolved, and he stooped once more and raised the fainting woman in his arms, to bear her down into the tomb-like structure and place her at the foot of the broad stone stairs which led into the vault.

As he loosened her arms from about his neck and passed quickly up again, there were heavy steps in the long corridor, and lights flashed through the openings of the great curtain. So close were the men that Humphrey saw their faces as he stood on the upper step, and dragged at the slab by two great hollows underneath, made, apparently, by the olden masons for the mover’s hands.

For the moment Humphrey, as he bent down there beneath the place on which he had so often slept or lain to think, felt certain that he must have been seen; but the muffled voices came close up, the steps trampled here and there, sounding dull and hollow, and there was no seizing of the great stone, no smiting upon its sides.

He held his breath as he stood bending down and listening for some indication of danger; but it seemed as if the men had coursed all over the place, searching in all directions, and were about to go, when, all at once, there was a shout close to the place where he had raised Mary from the altar.

The shout was followed by a muffled sound of many voices, and he listened, wondering what it meant. Some discovery had evidently been made, but what?

He shuddered, and a chill of horror shot through him, for he knew directly after.