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INSCRIBED TO
D. A. S.
IN MEMORY OF DAYS NEAR FIDRA
CHAPTER I
TELLS HOW I CAMPED IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD, AND BEHELD
A LIGHT IN THE PAVILION
I WAS a great solitary when I was young. I made it
my pride to keep aloof and suffice for my own enter-
tainment; and I may say that I had neither friends nor
acquaintances until I met that friend who became my
wife and the mother of my children. With one man
only was I on private terms ; this was R. Northmour,
Esquire, of Graden Easter, in Scotland. We had met at
college; and though there was not much liking between
us, nor even much intimacy, we were so nearly of a
humour that we could associate with ease to both. Mis-
anthropes, we believed ourselves to be; but I have
thought since that we were only sulky fellows. It was
scarcely a companionship, but a coexistence in unso-
ciability. Northmour's exceptional violence of temper
made it no easy affair for him to keep the peace with
anyone but me; and as he respected my silent ways,
and let me come and go as I pleased, I could tolerate his
presence without concern. I think we called each other
friends.
When Northmour took his degree and I decided to
leave the university without one, he invited me on a
long visit to Graden Easter; and it was thus that I first
became acquainted with the scene of my adventures. The
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mansion house of Graden stood in a bleak stretch of
country some three miles from the shore of the German
Ocean. It was as large as a barrack ; and as it had been
built of a soft stone, liable to consume in the eager air
of the seaside, it was damp and draughty within and
half ruinous without. It was impossible for two young
men to lodge with comfort in such a dwelling. But
there stood in the northern part of the estate, in a wilder-
ness of links and blowing sand-hills, and between a
plantation and the sea, a small Pavilion or Belvedere, of
modern design, which was exactly suited to our wants ;
and in this hermitage, speaking little, reading much, and
rarely associating except at meals, Northmour and I
spent four tempestuous winter months. I might have
stayed longer; but one March night there sprang up
between us a dispute, which rendered my departure ne-
cessary. Northmour spoke hotly, I remember, and I sup-
pose I must have made some tart rejoinder. He leaped
from his chair and grappled me ; I had to fight, without
exaggeration, for my life ; and it was only with a great
effort that I mastered him, for he was near as strong in
body as myself, and seemed filled with the devil. The
next morning, we met on our usual terms; but I judged
it more delicate to withdraw ; nor did he attempt to dis-
suade me.
It was nine years before I revisited the neighbourhood.
I travelled at that time with a tilt cart, a tent, and a cook-
ing-stove, tramping all day beside the wagon, and at
night, whenever it was possible, gipsying in a cove of
the hills, or by the side of a wood. I believe I visited
in this manner most of the wild and desolate regions
both in England and Scotland; and, as I had neither
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friends nor relations, I was troubled with no correspon-
dence, and had nothing in the nature of head-quarters,
unless it was the office of my solicitors, from whom I
drew my income twice a year. It was a life in which
I delighted ; and I fully thought to have grown old upon
the march, and at last died in a ditch.
It was my whole business to find desolate corners,
where I could camp without the fear of interruption;
and hence being in another part of the same shire, I be-
thought me suddenly of the Pavilion on the Links. No
thoroughfare passed within three miles of it. The near-
est town, and that was but a fisher village, was at a dis-
tance of six or seven. For ten miles of length, and from
a depth varying from three miles to half a mile, this belt
of barren country lay along the sea. The beach, which
was the natural approach, was full of quicksands. In-
deed I may say there is hardly a better place of conceal-
ment in the United Kingdom. I determined to pass a
week in the Sea-Wood of Graden Easter, and making a
long stage, reached it about sundown on a wild Sep-
tember day.
The country, I have said, was mixed sand-hill and
links; links being a Scottish name for sand which has
ceased drifting and become more or less solidly covered
with turf. The pavilion stood on an even space; a little
behind it, the wood began in a hedge of elders huddled
together by the wind ; in front, a few tumbled sand-hills
stood between it and the sea. An outcropping of rock
had formed a bastion for the sand, so that there was
here a promontory in the coast-line between two shallow
bays; and just beyond the tides, the rock again cropped
out and formed an islet of small dimensions but strik-
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ingly designed. The quicksands were of great extent at
low water, and had an infamous reputation in the country.
Close in shore, between the islet and the promontory,
it was said that they would swallow a man in four
minutes and a half; but there may have been little
ground for this precision. The district was alive with
rabbits, and haunted by gulls which made a continual
piping about the pavilion. On summer days the out-
look was bright and even gladsome; but at sundown in
September, with a high wind, and a heavy surf rolling
in close along the links, the place told of nothing but
dead mariners and sea disasters. A ship beating to
windward on the horizon, and a huge truncheon of
wreck half buried in the sands at my feet, completed the
innuendo of the scene.
The pavilion it had been built by the last proprietor,
Northmour's uncle, a silly and prodigal virtuoso pre-
sented little signs of age. It was two stories in height,
Italian in design, surrounded by a patch of garden in
which nothing had prospered but a few coarse flowers ;
and looked, with its shuttered windows, not like a house
that had been deserted, but like one that had never been
tenanted by man. Northmour was plainly from home;
whether, as usual, sulking in the cabin of his yacht, or
in one of his fitful and extravagant appearances in the
world of society, I had, of course, no means of guessing.
The place had an air of solitude that daunted even a
solitary like myself; the wind cried in the chimneys
with a strange and wailing note; and it was with a
sense of escape, as if I were going indoors, that I turned
away and driving my cart before me entered the skirts
of the wood.
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The Sea-Wood of Graden had been planted to shelter
the cultivated fields behind, and check the encroach-
ments of the blowing sand. As you advanced into it
from coastward, elders were succeeded by other hardy
shrubs; but the timber was all stunted and bushy; it
led a life of conflict; the trees were accustomed to
swing there all night long in fierce winter tempests ; and
even in early spring, the leaves were already flying, and
autumn was beginning, in this exposed plantation. In-
land the ground rose into a little hill, which, along with
the islet, served as a sailing mark for seamen. When
the hill was open of the islet to the north, vessels must
bear well to the eastward to clear Graden Ness and the
Graden Bullers. In the lower ground, a streamlet ran
among the trees, and, being dammed with dead leaves
and clay of its own carrying, spread out every here and
there, and lay in stagnant pools. One or two ruined
cottages were dotted about the wood; and, according
to Northmour, these were ecclesiastical foundations,
and in their time had sheltered pious hermits.
I found a den, or small hollow, where there was a
spring of pure water; and there, clearing away the
brambles, I pitched the tent, and made a fire to cook
my supper. My horse I picketed farther in the wood,
where there was a patch of sward. The banks of the
den not only concealed the light of my fire, but sheltered
me from the wind, which was cold as well as high.
The life I was leading made me both hardy and frugal.
I never drank but water, and rarely ate anything more
costly than oatmeal ; and I required so little sleep, that,
although I rose with the peep of day, I would often lie
long awake in the dark or starry watches of the night.
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Thus in Graden Sea- Wood, although I fell thankfully
asleep by eight in the evening, 1 was awake again before
eleven with a full possession of my faculties, and no
sense of drowsiness or fatigue. I rose and sat by the
fire, watching the trees and clouds tumultuously tossing
and fleeing overhead, and hearkening to the wind and
rollers along the shore ; till at length, growing weary of
inaction, I quitted the den, and strolled towards the
borders of the wood. A young moon, buried in mist,
gave a faint illumination to my steps ; and the light grew
brighter as I walked forth into the links. At the same
moment, the wind, smelling salt of the open ocean and
carrying particles of sand, struck me with its full force,
so that I had to bow my head.
When I raised it again to look about me, I was aware
of a light in the pavilion. It was not stationary ; but
passed from one window to another, as though some
one were reviewing the different apartments with a lamp
or candle. I watched it for some seconds in great sur-
prise. When I had arrived in the afternoon the house
had been plainly deserted ; now it was as plainly occu-
pied. It was my first idea that a gang of thieves might
have broken in and be now ransacking Northmour's
cupboards, which were many and not ill supplied. But
what should bring thieves to Graden Easter? And,
again, all the shutters had been thrown open, and it
would have been more in the character of such gentry
to close them. I dismissed the notion, and fell back
upon another. Northmour himself must have arrived,
and was now airing and inspecting the pavilion.
I have said that there was no real affection between
this man and me ; but, had I loved him like a brother, I
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was then so much in love with solitude that I should
none the less have shunned his company. As it was, I
turned and ran for it; and it was with genuine satisfac-
tion that I found myself safely back beside the fire. I
had escaped an acquaintance; I should have one more
night in comfort. In the morning, I might either slip
away before Northmour was abroad, or pay him as short
a visit as I chose.
But when morning came, I thought the situation so
diverting that I forgot my shyness. Northmour was at
my mercy; I arranged a good practical jest, though I
knew well that my neighbour was not the man to jest
with in security ; and, chuckling beforehand over its suc-
cess, took my place among the elders at the edge of the
wood, whence I could command the door of the pavilion.
The shutters were all once more closed, which I remem-
ber thinking odd ; and the house, with its white walls
and green Venetians, looked spruce and habitable in the
morning light. Hour after hour passed, and still no sign
of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard in the morn-
ing; but, as it drew on towards noon, I lost my patience.
To say the truth, I had promised myself to break my fast
in the pavilion, and hunger began to prick me sharply.
It was a pity to let the opportunity go by without some
cause for mirth; but the grosser appetite prevailed, and
I relinquished my jest with regret, and sallied from the
wood.
The appearance of the house affected me, as I drew
near, with disquietude. It seemed unchanged since
last evening; and I had expected it, I scarce knew why,
to wear some external signs of habitation. But no:
the windows were all closely shuttered, the chimneys
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breathed no smoke, and the front door itself was closely
padlocked. Northmour, therefore, had entered by the
back; this was the natural, and, indeed, the necessary
conclusion ; and you may judge of my surprise when,
on turning the house, I found the back door similarly
secured.
My mind at once reverted to the original theory of
thieves ; and I blamed myself sharply for my last night's
inaction. I examined all the windows on the lower
story, but none of them had been tampered with ; I tried
the padlocks, but they were both secure. It thus be-
came a problem how the thieves, if thieves they were,
had managed to enter the house. They must have got,
I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse where North-
mour used to keep his photographic battery ; and from
thence, either by the window of the study or that of my
old bedroom, completed their burglarious entry.
1 followed what I supposed was their example; and,
getting on the roof, tried the shutters of each room.
Both were secure; but I was not to be beaten; and,
with a little force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it
did so, the back of my hand. I remember, I put the
wound to my mouth, and stood for perhaps half a min-
ute licking it like a dog, and mechanically gazing behind
me over the waste links and the sea; and, in that space
of time, my eye made note of a large schooner yacht
some miles to the north-east. Then I threw up the
window and climbed in.
1 went over the house, and nothing can express my
mystification. There was no sign of disorder, but, on
the contrary, the rooms were unusually clean and pleas-
ant. I found fires laid, ready for lighting; three bed-
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rooms prepared with a luxury quite foreign to Ncrth-
mour's habits, and with water in the ewers and the beds
turned down ; a table set for three in the dining-room ;
and an ampte supply of cold meats, game and vegeta-
bles on the pantry shelves. There were guests ex-
pected, that was plain ; but why guests, when North-
mour hated society ? And, above all, why was the
house thus stealthily prepared at dead of night ? and
why were the shutters closed and the doors padlocked ?
I effaced all traces of my visit, and came forth from
the window feeling sobered and concerned.
The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and
it flashed for a moment through my mind that this
might be the Red Earl bringing the owner of the pavil-
ion and his guests. But the vessel's head was set the
other way.
CHAPTER II
TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FROM THE YACHT
I RETURNED to the den to cook myself a meal, of which
I stood in great need, as well as to care for my horse,
whom I had somewhat neglected in the morning. From
time to time I went down to the edge of the wood ; but
there was no change in the pavilion, and not a human
creature was seen all day upon the links. The schooner
in the offing was the one touch of life within my range
of vision. She, apparently with no set object, stood off
and on or lay to, hour after hour; but as the evening
deepened, she drew steadily nearer. I became more
convinced that she carried Northmour and his friends,
and that they would probably come ashore after dark ;
not only because that was of a piece with the secrecy
of the preparations, but because the tide would not have
flowed sufficiently before eleven to cover Graden Floe
and the other sea quags that fortified the shore against
invaders.
All day the wind had been going down, and the sea
along with it; but there was a return towards sunset of
the heavy weather of the day before. The night set in
pitch dark. The wind came off the sea in squalls, like
the firing of a battery of cannon ; now and then there
was a flaw of rain, and the surf rolled heavier with the
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rising tide. I was down at my observatory among the
elders, when a light was run up to the masthead of
the schooner, and showed she was closer in than when
I had last seen her by the dying daylight. I concluded
that this must be a signal to Northmour's associates on
shore; and, stepping forth into the links, looked around
me for something in response.
A small footpath ran along the margin of the wood,
and formed the most direct communication between the
pavilion and the mansion house; and, as I cast my eyes
to that side, I saw a spark of light, not a quarter of a
mile away, and rapidly approaching. From its uneven
course it appeared to be the light of a lantern carried by
a person who followed the windings of the path, and
was often staggered and taken aback by the more vio-
lent squalls. I concealed myself once more among the
elders, and waited eagerly for the new comer's advance.
It proved to be a woman; and, as she passed within
half a rod of my ambush, I was able to recognise the
features. The deaf and silent old dame, who had nursed
Northmour in his childhood, was his associate in this
underhand affair.
I followed her at a little distance, taking advantage of
the innumerable heights and hollows, concealed by the
darkness, and favoured not only by the nurse's deaf-
ness, but the uproar of the wind and surf. She entered
the pavilion, and, going at once to the upper story,
opened and set a light in one of the windows that
looked towards the sea. Immediately afterwards the
light at the schooner's masthead was run down and ex-
tinguished. Its purpose had been attained, and those
on board were sure that they were expected. The old
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woman resumed her preparations; although the other
shutters remained closed, I could see a glimmer going to
and fro about the house; and a gush of sparks from one
chimney after another soon told me that the fires were
being kindled.
Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded,
would come ashore as soon as there was water on the
floe. It was a wild night for boat service ; and I felt
some alarm mingle with my curiosity as I reflected on
the danger of the landing. My old acquaintance, it was
true, was the most eccentric of men; but the present
eccentricity was both disquieting and lugubrious to con-
sider. A variety of feelings thus led me towards the
beach, where I lay flat on my face in a hollow within
six feet of the track that led to the pavilion. Thence, I
should have the satisfaction of recognising the arrivals,
and, if they should prove to be acquaintances, greeting
them as soon as they had landed.
Some time before eleven, while the tide was still
dangerously low, a boat's lantern appeared close in shore ;
and, my attention being thus awakened, I could per-
ceive another still far to seaward, violently tossed, and
sometimes hidden by the billows. The weather, which
was getting dirtier as the night went on, and the peril-
ous situation of the yacht upon a lee-shore, had prob-
ably driven them to attempt a landing at the earliest
possible moment.
A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very
heavy chest, and guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed
close in front of me as I lay, and were admitted to the
pavilion by the nurse. They returned to the beach, and
passed me a third time with another chest, larger but
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apparently not so heavy as the first. A third time they
made the transit; and on this occasion one of the yachts-
men carried a leather portmanteau, and the others a
lady's trunk and carriage bag. My curiosity was sharply
excited. If a woman were among the guests of North-
mour, it would show a change in his habits and an
apostasy from his pet theories of life, well calculated to
fill me with surprise. When he and I dwelt there to-
gether, the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny.
And now, one of the detested sex was to be installed
under its roof. I remembered one or two particulars,
a few notes of daintiness and almost of coquetry which
had struck me the day before as I surveyed the prepa-
rations in the house ; their purpose was now clear, and
I thought myself dull not to have perceived it from the
first
While I was thus reflecting a second lantern drew
near me from the beach. It was carried by a yachts-
man whom I had not yet seen, and who was conduct-
ing two other persons to the pavilion. These two per-
sons were unquestionably the guests for whom the
house was made ready ; and, straining eye and ear, I set
myself to watch them as they passed. One was an un-
usually tall man, in a travelling hat slouched over his
eyes, and a highland cape closely buttoned and turned
up so as to conceal his face. You could make out no
more of him than that he was, as I have said, unusually
tall, and walked feebly with a heavy stoop. By his
side, and either clinging to him or giving him support
I could not make out which was a young, tall, and
slender figure of a woman. She was extremely pale;
but in the light of the lantern her face was so marred
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by strong and changing shadows, that she might equally
well have been as ugly as sin or as beautiful as I after-
wards found her to be.
When they were just abreast of me, the girl made
some remark which was drowned by the noise of the
wind.
" Hush ! " said her companion; and there was some-
thing in the tone with which the word was uttered that
thrilled and rather shook my spirits. It seemed to breathe
from a bosom labouring under the deadliest terror; I have
never heard another syllable so expressive; and I still
hear it again when I am feverish at night, and my mind
runs upon old times. The man turned towards the
girl as he spoke; I had a glimpse of much red beard and
a nose which seemed to have been broken in youth;
and his light eyes seemed shining in his face with some
strong and unpleasant emotion.
But these two passed on and were admitted in their
turn to the pavilion.
One by one, or in groups, the seamen returned to the
beach. The wind brought me the sound of a rough
voice crying, ' ' Shove off ! " Then, after a pause, another
lantern drew near. It was Northmour alone.
My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed
to wonder how a person could be, at the same time, so
handsome and so repulsive as Northmour. He had the
appearance of a finished gentleman ; his face bore every
mark of intelligence and courage, but you had only to
look at him, even in his most amiable moment, to see
that he had the temper of a slave captain. I never knew
a character that was both explosive and revengeful to the
same degree; he combined the vivacity of the south with
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the sustained and deadly hatreds of the north; and both
traits were plainly written on his face, which was a sort
of danger signal. In person he was tall, strong, and ac-
tive ; his hair and complexion very dark ; his features hand-
somely designed, but spoiled by a menacing expression.
At that moment he was somewhat paler than by na-
ture ; he wore a heavy frown ; and his lips worked, and he
looked sharply round as he walked, like a man besieged
with apprehensions. And yet I thought he had a look
of triumph underlying all, as though he had already done
much, and was near the end of an achievement.
Partly from a scruple of delicacy which I dare say
came too late partly from the pleasure of startling an
acquaintance, I desired to make my presence known to
him without delay.
I got suddenly to my feet, and stepped forward.
"Northmour!" said I.
I have never had so shocking a surprise in all my days.
He leaped on me without a word ; something shone in
his hand; and he struck for my heart with a dagger.
At the same moment I knocked him head over heels.
Whether it was my quickness, or his own uncertainty, I
know not; but the blade only grazed my shoulder while
the hilt and his fist struck me violently on the mouth.
I fled, but not far. I had often and often observed the
capabilities of the sand-hills for protracted ambush or
stealthy advances and retreats ; and, not ten yards from
the scene of the scuffle, plumped down again upon the
grass. The lantern had fallen and gone out. But what
was my astonishment to see Northmour slip at a bound
into the pavilion, and hear him bar the door behind him
with a clang of iron !
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He had not pursued me. He had run away. Northmour,
whom I knew for the most implacable and daring of
men, had run away ! I could scarce believe my reason ;
and yet in this strange business, where all was incredible,
there was nothing to make a work about in an incredi-
bility more or less. For why was the pavilion secretly
prepared ? Why had Northmour landed with his guests
at dead of night, in half a gale of wind, and with the
floe scarce covered ? Why had he sought to kill me ?
Had he not recognised my voice ? I wondered. And,
above all, how had he come to have a dagger ready in
his hand ? A dagger, or even a sharp knife, seemed out