Home > Authors Index > Hall Caine > Manxman: A Novel > This page
The Manxman: A Novel, a novel by Hall Caine |
||
Part 6. Man And God - Chapter 10 |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ PART VI. MAN AND GOD CHAPTER X In that stripped and naked house there was one room still untouched. It was the room that had been kept for the Deemster. Philip lay on the bed, motionless and apparently lifeless. Jem-y-Lord stood beating his hands at the foot. Pete sat on a low stool at the side with his face doubled on to his knees. Nancy, now back from Sulby, was blowing into the bars of the grate to kindle a fire. A little group of men stood huddled like sheep near the door. Some one said the Deemster's heart was beating. They brought from another room a little ivory hand-glass and held it over the mouth. When they raised it the face of the mirror was faintly blurred. That little cloud on the glass seemed more bright than the shining tread of an angel on the sea. Jem-y-Lord took a sponge and began to moisten the cold forehead. One by one the people behind produced their old wife's wisdom. Somebody remembered that his grandmother always put salts to the nostrils of a person seemingly dead; somebody else remembered that when, on the very day of old Iron Christian's death, his father had been thrown by a colt and lay twelve hours unconscious, the farrier had bled him and he had opened his eyes instantly. The doctor had been half an hour gone to Ballaugh, and a man had been put on a horse and sent after him. But it was a twelve-miles' journey; the night was dark; it would be a good hour before he could be back. They touched Pete on the shoulder and suggested something. "Eh?" he answered vacantly. "Dazed," they told themselves. The poor man could not give a wise-like answer. He had had a shock, and there was worse before him. They talked in low voices of Kate and of Ross Christian; they were sorry for Pete; they were still more sorry for the Deemster. The Deemster's wig had been taken off and tossed on to the dressing-table. It lay mouth upwards like any old woman's night-cap. His hair had dragged after it on the pillow. The black gown had not been removed, but it was torn open at the neck so that the throat might be free. One of Philip's arms had dropped over the side of the bed, and the long, thin hand was cold and green and ethereal as marble. Pete was crouching on his low stool beside this hand. He needed no softening to touch it now. The chill fingers were in his palm, and his hot tears were falling on them. Remembering the crime that he had so nearly committed, he was holding himself in horror. His friend! His life-long friend! His only friend! The Deemster no longer, but only the man. Not the man either, but the child. The cruel years had rolled back with all their burden of trouble. Forgotten days were come again--days long buried under the _debris_ of memory. They were boys together again. A little, sunny fellow in velvet, and a bigger lad in a stocking-cap; the little one talking, always talking; the big one listening, always listening; the little one proposing, the big one agreeing; the little one leading, the big one following; the little one looking up and yet a little down, the big one looking down and yet a little up. Oh, the happy, happy times, before anger and jealousy and rage and the mad impulse of murder had darkened their sun shine! The memories that brought the tenderest throb to Pete as he sat there fingering the lifeless hand were of the great deeds that he had done for Philip--how he had fought for him, and been licked for him, and taken bloody noses for him, and got thrashed for it by Black Tom. But there were others only less tender. Philip was leaving home for King William's, and Pete was cudgelling his dull head what to give him for a parting gift. Decision was the more difficult because he had nothing to give. At length he had hit on making a whistle--the only thing his clumsy fingers had ever been deft at. With his clasp-knife he had cut a wondrous big one from the bough of a willow; he had pared it; he had turned it; it blew a blast like a fog-horn. The morning was frosty, and his feet were bare, but he didn't mind the cold; he didn't feel it--no, not a ha'p'orth. He was behind the hedge by the gate at Ballure, waiting for the coach that was to take up Philip, and passing the time by polishing the whistle on the leg of his shining breeches, and testing its tone with just one more blow. Then up came Crow, and out came Philip in his new peaked cap and leggings. Whoop! Gee-up! Away! Off they went without ever seeing him, without once looking back, and he was left in the prickly hedge with his blue feet on the frost, a look of dejection about his mouth, and the top of the foolish whistle peeping out of his jacket-pocket. The thick sob that came of these memories was interrupted by a faint sound from the bed. It was a murmur of delirium, as soft as the hum of bees, yet Pete heard it. "Cover me up, Pete, cover me up!" said Philip, dreaming aloud. Philip was a living man! Thank God! Thank God! A whisper goes farther than a shout. The people behind whispered the news to the passage, the passage to the stairs, the stairs to the hall, and the hall to the garden, where a crowd had gathered in the darkness to look up at the house over which the angel of death was hovering. In a moment the room was croaking like a frog-pond. "Praise the Lord!" cried one. "His mercy endureth for ever," cried another. "What's he saying?" said a third. "Rambling in his head, poor thing," said a fourth. Pete turned them out--all except Jem-y-Lord, who was still moistening the Deemster's face and opening his hands, which were now twitching and tightening. "Out of this! Out you go!" cried Pete hoarsely. "No use taking the anger with him--the man's tried," they muttered, and away they went. Jemmy was loth to see them go. He was afraid to be left alone with Pete--afraid that the Deemster should be at the mercy of this wild creature with the flaming eyes. And now that Philip was a living man Pete began to feel afraid of himself. At sight of life in Philip's face, his gnawing misery returned. He thought his hatred had been overcome, but he was wrestling in the throes of forgiveness again. Here was the man who had robbed him of wife and child and home! In another moment he might have held him in the grip of his just wrath. It is an inscrutable and awful fact, that just at that moment when a man's good angel has conquered, but is spent, his evil angel is sure to get the advantage of chance. Philip's delirium set in strong, and the brute beast in Pete, going through its final struggle, stood over the bed and watched him. In his violence Philip tore at his breast, and dragged something from beneath his shirt. A moment later it fell from his graspless fingers to the floor. It was a lock of dark hair. Pete knew whose hair it was, and he put his foot on it, and that instant the mad impulse came again to take Philip by the throat and choke him. Again and again it came. He had to tread it down even amid his sobs and his tears. But love cannot be killed in an instant. It does not drop down dead. There was a sort of tenderness in the thought that this was the man for whom Kate had given up all the world. Pete began to feel gently towards Philip because Kate loved him; he began to see something of Kate in Philip's face. This strange softening increased as he caught the words of Philip's delirium. He thought he ought to leave the room, but he could not tear himself away. Crouching down on the stool, he clasped his hands behind his head, and tightened his arms over his ears. It was useless. He could not help but listen. Only disjointed sentences, odd pages torn from the book of life, some of them blurred with tears; but they were like a cool hand on a fevered brow to him that heard him. "I was a child, Philip----didn't know what love was then----coming home by Ramsey steamer----tell the simple truth, Philip----say we tried to be faithful and loyal and could not, because we loved each other, and there was no help for----tell Kirry----yes, Auntie, I have read father's letters----that picture is cracked----" This in the voice of one who speaks in his sleep, and then in a hushed, hot whisper, "Haven't I a right to you?----yes, I have a right----take your topcoat, then, the storm is coming----I'll never let you go----don't you remember?----can you ever forget----my husband!----my husband!" Pete lifted his head as he listened. He had been thinking that Philip had robbed him of Kate. Was it he who had robbed Kate of Philip? "I can't live any longer in this house, Philip----the walls are crushing me; the ceiling is falling on me; the air is stifling me----three o'clock, Pete----yes, three to-morrow, in the Council Chamber at Douglas----I'm not a bad woman, Philip Christian----there is something you have never guessed and I have never told you----is it the child, Kate?----did you say the child?----you are sure----you are not deceiving yourself?" All this in a tone of deep entreaty, and then, with quick-coming breath, "Jemmy, get the carriage at Shimmin's and drive it yourself----if there is any attempt at Ramsey to take the horse out----drive to the lane between the chapel and the cottage----the moment the lady joins you----you are right, Kate----you cannot live here any longer----this life of deception must end----that's the churring of the night-jar going up to Ballure Glen." Jem-y-Lord, who was beating out the pillow, dropped it, in his fumbling, half over the Deemster's face, and looked at Pete in terror. Would this cruel delirium never break? Where was the doctor? Would he not come at all? Pete had risen to his feet, and was gazing down with a look of stupor. He had been thinking that Philip had robbed him of the child. Was it he who had robbed Philip? "Yes, Pete is telling the same story. He is writing letters to himself----such simple things!----poor old Pete----he means no harm----he never dreams that every word is burning----Jemmy, leave out more brandy to-night, the decanter is empty----" Pete leaned over the pillow. All at once he started back. Philip's eyes were open and shining up at him. It was hard to believe that Philip was not speaking to him eye to eye. But there was a veil between them, the veil of the hand of God. "I know, Philip, _I_ know," said the unconscious man in a quick whisper; he was breathing fast and loud. "Tell him I'm dead----yes, yes, that's it, that's it----cruel?----no, but kind----'Poor girl,' he'll say, 'I loved her once, but she's gone'----I'll do it, I'll do it." Then, in tones of fear, "It's madness----to paint faces on the darkness, to hear voices in the air is madness." And then, solemnly, with a chill, thick utterance, "There----there----that one by the wall----" Big drops of sweat broke out on Pete's forehead. Had he been thinking that Philip had tortured him? It was he who had been torturing Philip. The letters, the messages, the presents, these had been the whips and scorpions in his hand. Every innocent word, every look, every sign, had been as thongs in the instrument of torture. Pete began to feel a great pity for Philip. "He had suffered plenty," thought Pete. "He has carried this cross about far enough." "Good-night, boatman!----I went too far----yes, I am back again, thank God----" These words brightly, cheerily, hopefully; then, in the deepest tones, "Good-bye, Philip----it's all my fault----I've broken the heart of one man, and I'm destroying the soul of another----I'm leaving this lock of hair--it is all I have to leave----good-bye!----I ought to have gone long ago----you will not hate me now----" The last words frayed off, broke in the throat, and stopped. Then quickly, with panting breath, came, "Kate! Kate! Kate!" again and again repeated, beginning in a loud beseeching cry and dying down to a long wail, as if shouted over a gloomy waste wherein the voice was lost. Jem-y-Lord had been beating round towards the door, wringing his white hands like a woman, and praying to God that the Deemster might never come out of his unconsciousness. "He has told him everything," thought Jem. "The man will take his life." "I came between them," thought Pete. "She was not for me. She was not mine. She was Philip's. It was God's doings." The bitterness of Pete's heart had passed away. "But I wish----what's the good of wishing, though? God help us all," he muttered, in a breaking voice, and then he crouched down on the stool as before and covered his face with his hands.. Philip had lifted his head and risen on one elbow. He was looking out on the empty air with his glassy eyes, as if a picture stood up before them. "Yes, no, yes----don't tell me----that Kate?----it's a mistake----that's not Kate----that white face!----those hollow eyes!----that miserable woman!----besides, Kate is dead----she must be dead----what's to do with the lamps?----they are going out----in the dock, too, and before me----she there and I here!----she the prisoner, I the judge!" All this with violent emotion, and with one arm outstretched over Pete's crouching head. "If I could hear her voice, though----perhaps her voice now----I'm going to fall----it's Kate, it's Kate! Oh! oh!" Philip had paused for several seconds, as if trying to listen, and then, with a loud cry of agony, he had closed his eyes and rolled back on to the pillow. "God has meant me to hear all this," thought Pete. God had intended that for this, the peace of his soul, he should follow the phases of this drama of a naked heart. He was sobbing, but his sobs were like growls. "What's he doing now?" thought Jem-y-Lord, craning his neck at the door. "Shall I call for somebody?" Pete had picked up from the floor the lock of hair that had been lying under his foot, and he was putting it back into Philip's breast. "Nothing but me between them," he thought, "nothing but me." "Sit down, sir," cried the unconscious man. It was only the last outbreak of Philip's delirium, but Pete trembled and shrank back. Then Philip groaned and his blue lips quivered. He opened his eyes. They wandered about the room for a moment, and afterwards fixed themselves on Pete in a long and haggard gaze. Pete's own eyes were too full of tears to be full of sight, but he could see that the change had come. He panted with expectation, and looked down at Philip with doglike delight. There was a moment's silence, and then, in a voice as faint as a breath, Philip murmured. "What's----where's----is it Pete?" At that Pete uttered a shout of joy. "He's himself! He's himself! Thank God!" "Eh?" said Philip helplessly. "Don't you be bothering yourself now," cried Pete. "Lie quiet, boy; you're in your own room, and as nice as nice." "But," said Philip, "will you not kindly----" "Not another word, Phil. It's nothing. You're all serene, and about as right as ninepence." "Your Honour has been delirious," said Jem-y-Lord. "Chut!" said Pete behind his hand, and then, with another joyful shout, "Is it a beefsteak you'll be having, Phil, or a dish of tay and a herring?" Philip looked perplexed. "But could you not help me----" he faltered. "You fainted in the Court-house, sir," said Jem-y-Lord. "Ah!" It had all come back. "Hould your whisht, you gawbie," whispered Pete, and he made a furtive kick at Jemmy's shins. Pete was laughing and crying in one breath. In the joyful reflux from evil passions the great fellow was like a boy. He poked the fire into a blaze, snuffed the candle with his fingers, sang out "My gough!" when he burnt them, and then hopped about the floor and cut as many capers as a swallow after a shower of rain. Philip looked at him and relapsed into silence. It seemed as if he had been on a journey and something had happened in his absence. The secret which he had struggled so long to confess had somehow been revealed. Jem-y-Lord was beating out his pillows. "Does he know?" said Philip.-- "Yes," whispered Jemmy. "Everything!" "Everything. You have been delirious." "Delirious!" said Philip, with alarm. Then he struggled to rise. "Help me up. Let me go away. Why did you bring me here?" "I couldn't help it, sir. I tried to prevent----" "I cannot face him," said Philip. "I am afraid. Help me, help me." "You are too weak, sir. Lie still. No one shall harm you. The doctor is coming." Philip sank back with a look of fear. "Water," he cried feebly. "Here it is," said Jem-y-Lord, lifting from the dressing-table the jug out of which he had moistened the sponge. "Tut!" cried Pete, and he tipped the jug so that half the water spilled. "Brandy for a man when he's in bed, you goosey gander. Hould, hard, boy; I've a taste of the rael stuff in the cupboard. Half a minute, mate. A drop will be doing no harm at all," and away he went down the stairs like a flood, almost sweeping over Nancy, who had come creeping up in her stockings at the sound of voices. The child had awakened in its cradle, and, with one dumpy leg over its little quilt, it was holding quiet converse with its toes. "Hollo, young cockalorum, is it there you are!" shouted Pete. At the next moment, with a noggin bottle of brandy in his fist, he was leaping upstairs, three steps at a time. Meanwhile Jem-y-Lord had edged up to the Deemster and whispered, with looks of fear and mystery, "Don't take it, sir." "What?" said Philip vacantly.--"The brandy," said Jem. "Eh?" "It will be----" began Jem, but Pete's step was thundering up the stairs, and with a big opening of the mouth, rather than an audible utterance of the tongue, he added, "poisoned." Philip could not comprehend, and Pete came shouting-- "Where's your water, now, ould Snuff-the-Wind?" While Pete was pouring the brandy into a glass and adding the water, Jemmy caught up a scrap of newspaper that was lying about, rummaged for a pencil, wrote some words on the margin, tore the piece off, and smuggled it into the Deemster's hand. "Afraid of Pete!" thought Philip. "It is monstrous! monstrous!" At that moment there was the sound of a horse's hoofs on the road. "The doctor," cried Jem-y-Lord. "The doctor at last. Wait, sir, wait," and he ran downstairs. "Here you are," cried Pete, coming to the bedside, glass in hand. "Drink it up, boy. It'll stiffen you. My faith, but it's a oner. Aw, God is good, though. He's all that. He's good tremenjous." Pete was laughing; he was crying; he was tasting a new sweetness--the sweetness of being a good man again. Philip was holding Jem-y-Lord's paper before his eyes, and trying to read it. "What's this that Jemmy has given me?" he said. "Read it, Pete. My eyes are dazed." Pete took the paper in his left hand, still holding the glass in his right. To get the light on to the writing he went down on his knees by the bed-head and leaned over towards the fire. Then, like a school-boy repeating his task, he read in a singsong voice the words that Jem-y-Lord had written:--"Don't drink the brandy. Pete is trying to kill you." Pete made a grating laugh. "That's a pretty thing now," he began, but he could not finish. His laughter ceased, his eyes opened wide, his tongue seemed to hang out of his mouth, and he turned his head and looked back with an agony of doubt into Philip's face. Philip struggled up. "Give me the brandy, Pete." He took the glass out of Pete's hand, and without a second thought, with only a smile of faith and confidence, he raised it to his lips and drank. When the doctor entered the room a moment afterwards, Pete was sobbing into the bed-clothes, and Philip's hand was resting on his head. _ |
||