PART V
CHAPTER XXVII
THE CORRIDOR
The next morning broke grey and fair.
When the girl came out she found that Raft had collected the things tobe taken in one bundle tied up in a blanket. He had also set outbreakfast. The remainder of the stores he had stacked at the back of thecave where he slept.
These stores, with what was still in the cache, would be useful if theyhad to come back to the beach.
"But what am I to carry?" asked she.
"Oh, there's no call for you to trouble," answered he, "you've got youroilskins. I reckon that'll be enough for you to bother with. Them thingsin the bundle is no weight for a man."
She tried to argue the question. It seemed to her impossible that anysingle person could carry that load for long, but she might just as wellhave argued with the gentle wind blowing now shorewards from theislands. He lifted the bundle with one great hand to demonstrate itslightness; he was also going to take the harpoon as a sort of walkingstick.
It seemed to her that she had never realized his strength before, norhis placid determination that seemed more like an elemental force thanthe will of a man.
She gave in and sat down to the meal, biscuits and the remains of astew, and as she ate she watched the great sea bulls and the cows andthe young ones that now were able to land, boosting through the foamlike their elders, and as she watched she wondered whether she wouldever see these things again, there, against the setting of the sea andthe great islands.
She had put on her boots for the journey and a pair of men's softwoollen socks from the store in the cache. They were small men's socksand the wool was so fine and soft that the size did not trouble her. Inher pocket she still carried the few odds and ends including the tobaccobox in which she had placed her rings. She wore the sou'wester, and theoilskin lay beside her folded and ready to be carried on her arm.
Then, when the meal was finished, Raft washed the plates and stored themin the cave. He stood looking at the stored things for a moment as if tomake sure they would be all right, then he kicked an old tin away into acleft of the rocks as though to tidy the place, then he took up theharpoon and slung the bundle on his shoulder.
The girl rose and looked around her. This place where she had sufferedand nearly died was still warm with memories, and the sea creatures werelike friends, she had grown to love them just as people love trees orfamiliar inanimate things.
To associate the idea of home with that desolate beach, those movingmonsters, those caves, would seem absurd. Well, it was like leavinghome, and as she stood looking around her a tightness came in her throatand her eyes grew misty. But Raft was moving now and she followed him,glancing back now and then until they crossed the river where she lookedback for the last time. The river was almost deserted now by the youngsea elephants, except at its mouth. A few little girl seals lay about,delicate or unadventurous creatures whose lives would doubtless be shortin a world that is only for the strong. These little girl seals hadattracted her attention before, they had almost the ways of fine ladies.It was as though some germ of civilization in the herd had becomeconcentrated in them and she had wondered whether they would ever pullthrough the rough and tumble of life, recognising vaguely that nature isopposed to civilization at heart. They seemed allied to herself andtheir future seemed as doubtful as her own here where nothing helped,where everything opposed.
She caressed them with her eyes for the last time; then as she turnedand followed Raft she forgot them. Her brave mind, that nothing coulddaunt but loneliness, faced the great adventure ahead not only undauntedbut uplifted. The way was terrific, the chances were small, so small, soremote, that they could scarcely be called chances, and the penalty offailure was return and a winter here when the beach would be deserted byall but the gulls. The very desperation of the business made it great,and from the greatness came the uplift.
They passed the figure-head with its sphinx-like face staring over thesea, and the great skull half sanded over by the recent blow. Then theydrew near the caves and the boat.
The boat had been blown over on its other side by the wind and lay withone gunnel deep buried in the sand and its keel presented to the cliffs;she glanced only once at the caves, deserted now by the birds who had nodoubt picked the last fragments of the dead man.
Then they climbed the Lizard rocks and at the highest point sat down torest for a moment.
Raft, with the bundle beside him and the harpoon held between his knees,swung his head from the great beach on his right to the broken countryon his left.
He said nothing, not wishing perhaps to dishearten his companion. It wasshe who spoke.
"That's the plain I told you of," said she, "we mustn't cross it, youcan see from here some of the dangerous patches, those yellow ones, butthere are others just as bad that you can't tell till you are trapped inthem. I would have gone down, only a bird flying overhead dropped a fishon the ground right in front of me and the fish disappeared."
"We'd better get along the sea-shore rocks, seems to me," said Raft,"the tide's going out, all them rocks between tide marks is prettyflat."
"Suppose the tide comes in," said she, "and we can't get up the cliffs?"
"Oh, we'll have lots of time to make a good way before it comes back,"replied he, "and we've got to trust a bit to chance, we've got to strikebold. I reckon we'd better trust to instinc'." He laughed in his beard."The same sort of instinc' that made that bird drop the fish to give yousoundin's of that mud hole."
"Providence," said she, "yes--you are right."
"I believe in strikin' bold," said he, almost as though he were talkingto himself. "It's like fighting with a chap, the fellow that does thehittin' without bothering about bein' hit. He's the chap. Well, ifyou're restored, we'll be gettin' along."
He heaved up and led the way, striking right down to the sea and pausingnow and then to help her. Once he lifted her as though she were afeather from one rock to the other. Then, all of a sudden they came to aten foot drop. There was no getting round that drop, it was a basaltstep that circled the whole Lizard Point on its seaward side. It did notdisconcert Raft. He threw the harpoon down, then he lowered himself,clutching the edge and let himself fall. Following his directions shethrew him the bundle. It would have felled an ordinary landsman, but hecaught it, placed it beside him and then ordered her to jump, just asshe stood, without lowering herself.
"Jump with your arms up," said he, laughing, "no call to lower yourself.I'll catch you."
It was like an order to commit suicide. It seemed to her impossible, shethought that he only spoke in fun, then she knew that he was in earnest,that he was ordering her. But it was impossible--absolutely. Then shejumped with arms raised, jumped into two great hands that clipped herround the waist and brought her, feet to ground, with scarcely a jar.
"I didn't think you'd have done it," said he. "You ain't wanting inpluck."
"I knew it would be all right if you told me," said she, "but I didn'twant to do it until the very last moment."
After that she would have jumped over a cliff if he had told her. Itseemed to her that he was invincible--infallible.
A climb of a couple of minutes brought them down to the tide mark rocks,the tide was a quarter out and the sea comparatively calm and the rocksflat-topped like those of the seal beach and free from seaweed exceptwhere, here and there, were piled masses of giant kelp torn up from itsdeep sea attachments and cast here by the waves. It lay in ridges thathad to be climbed over sometimes and seemed entirely confined to theLizard Point and the rocks beyond, for when they reached where thecliffs began it ceased to occur.
Where the cliffs began they first experienced the true meaning of ajourney along that coast.
She had seen these cliffs from the boat, but that view, thoughforbidding enough, had told her little of the reality.
They rose from two to four hundred feet in height, these cliffs, andlooking up was like looking up a wall of polished ebony.
Here and there they were streaked with long lines of white where theguillemots in their thousands sat on ledges, and here and there theywere faced by seaward rocks standing out in the water and carved by thewaves into all sorts of fantastic shapes, but waves and rocks and seaand sky, all these were nothing, here the cliffs were everything,dominating the mind and soul, sinister, and tinging every sound from thewave echoes to the gull voices with tragedy.
And high tide mark was the cliff base in fine weather, in foul, thewaves would lash and dash and beat fifty feet up, there was not aguillemot ledge lower than eighty feet, puffins, razorbills andkittiwakes, who always build above the guillemots did not seem to comehere at all, keeping to the seaward rocks and the coast line where thecliffs drew further away from the sea.
With the sea so close on the right and the cliffs on the left the girlfelt like a mouse in a trap designed for an elephant. Alone she wouldnever have dared this road, even with Raft leading her she felt timidand oppressed. The place did not seem to affect Raft. Plodding ahead asindifferently as though he were on some civilized country road, hetalked to her now and then over his shoulder, calling attention to queershaped crabs or dead kelp fish, and ever as they went their road grewbroader as the tide drew out.
It was now about an hour and a half after high water, that is to say,quarter ebb; in a little more than ten hours it would be high wateragain, before that they must find a way from the beach or be drowned.Raft knew this and the girl knew it too. It seemed almost impossiblethat, with so much time before them, they could not find a break in thecliffs towards safe ground, yet the cliffs seemed to stretch endlesslybefore them and their pace was slow, not more than three miles an hour.They rested sometimes for a moment watching the out-going sea and thegulls; unused to exercise the girl was tired, and the man knew it. Alonehe could have travelled swiftly and without resting, but he saidnothing, and though he knew the necessity of speed, it was he who madethe halts for the sake of his companion. Three hours after noon he tooksome food out of the bundle and made her eat. They had already drunkfrom a little torrent rushing out of a crack in the cliff wall, but evenso the food seemed dry and she could scarcely swallow it. Anxiety hadher in its grip, the cliffs stretching on and on interminably seemedlike misfortune itself made visible.
Said Raft: "The tide's near the turn and them cliffs don't shew no signof a cut in them, but then there's only two miles or so to be seen fromhere. Round that bend there's no knowing, they may break away beyondthere. What I'm thinkin' is this. We've time to get back along the roadwe've come by before it's high water again."
"Go back?"
"We've time to do it; if we keep on our course it will take us maybenear an hour to get to that shoulder and from there we won't have muchtime to get back before high water again. We've cut it too fine and ifthe tide comes back and catches us before we get to a break we're done."
She looked forward then she looked back. They were in a veritablecorridor. The sea formed the right hand wall of this corridor, thecliffs varying from two hundred to three hundred feet high formed theleft hand wall, cliffs black as ebony, polished by sea washing,unclimbable and tremendous as a dream of Dante.
She saw their full position. There was time to get back from where theystood, but if they went on to the cape of cliff before them there wouldbe no time to get back, they would have to go on, and the unseen cliffsbeyond that cape might stretch for twenty miles unclimbable as here.
Yet the idea of going back was horrible, heartbreaking.
She saw that Raft was between two moods. Then she said to him.
"If you were alone would you go back or go on?"
"Me?" said Raft. He paused for a moment as if in thought--"Oh, I reckonI'd go on."
"Then we will go on."
"I was thinkin' of you," said he.
"I know--but I could not bear to go back. If we fail now like that wewill fail altogether. Imagine going all that way back. No, I couldn't.We must risk it."
"I'm thinking that way," said he.
He picked up the bundle and harpoon and they started, and no sooner hadshe taken the first step than Fear laid his hand on her heart and a wildcraving to return seized her so that she could have cried out.
She had once said that she feared an ugly face more than a blow, and thefear that seized her now was less the fear of death than the fear of thecliffs and their conspiracy with the murmuring sea that would soon be aninclosing wall.
She fought it down.
The cliff shoulder was further away than they thought; it took them anhour to reach it and, when they turned it, there, before them lay cliffshigher, more monstrous and running in a curve to another shoulder sevenmiles away, if a yard. But towards the middle of the curve the cliffface seemed ridged and broken near the base. Raft shading his eyes,pointed out this broken surface.
"It looks as if there was foothold there beyond tide mark," said he,"we've got to go on anyhow--Lord, but you're tired!"
He made her sit down. The sight of that gargantuan sweep of cliff comingon top of the weariness of the journey had crushed her. To go forwardseemed impossible, to fight against that immensity impossible. She couldhave wept but she had neither tears nor energy. The gods seemed to havebuilt those bastions to shut out all hope and the voice of the returningsea seemed like a tide turning over her broken thoughts like pebbles.
Raft standing over her like a tower said not a word.
Mixed with the voice of the sea came the voices of the gulls and allsorts of sea echoes from the cliffs.
Then as she sat she made a supreme effort of mind. She must rise and goon. She struggled to rise, but her limbs had left her, deserted her,stricken as if by paralysis.
Raft took off his cap and put it in his pocket, then he went to thecliff side and rested the harpoon against it, standing up. She watchedhim, vaguely wondering what he was about, then he returned to her andbent down and she found herself lifted suddenly and seated on his leftshoulder.
"Hold on to my hair," cried he. Then he bent and picked up the bundle,went to the cliff side and picked up the harpoon and started. The giantstrength that had caught her when she jumped from the Lizard Point ledgewas carrying her now like a feather, the crook of his left arm round herlegs to steady her, the harpoon clutched in his left hand, the bundleswung over his right shoulder.
And she held on to his hair as a child might, without a word, and as sheheld the strength of him seemed to permeate her through her fingerscasting fear and misery out.
She felt as a tiny tired child feels when caught up and carried by itsmother, and carrying her so he strode on, cursing himself for not havingcarried her before.
It was a three-mile journey to that roughness on the cliff and as hedrew near he saw that they were saved, at least for the time.
The rock broke here in ledges like steps and twenty feet up and wellbeyond tide mark ran a little plateau some ten or twelve feet broad.
She saw it as well as he and filled with new strength she cried out tobe set down.
"Stay easy," said Raft. "It's easier to carry the bundle with you on myshoulder, you ain't no weight."
Then when he reached the steps:
"Done it b'God," said he.
He dropped the bundle and harpoon, and, lifting her, set her feet on thebasalt steps.
"Can you climb it?" asked he.
Without a word she climbed and sitting on the little plateau looked downon him.
Then he followed with the things and took his seat beside her. They satfor a while without a word, the bare rocks and the grey sea beforethem.
A great rock out at sea, pierced and arched like the frame work of adoor, shewed through its opening the sea beyond. Gulls flew round it andtheir eternal complaint came on the wind blowing, still lightly, fromthe north.
Raft seemed absorbed in thought.
Then he said: "It won't be high water until gettin' on for dark. We'dbetter stick here the night anyhow and get the low tide to-morrow. Butthere's time for me now to get to that next sh
oulder and see what'sbeyond, it's a matter of four miles there maybe and four miles back."
"I'll go with you," said she, "I'm stronger now."
"No, you stick here," said he. "There's no call for two to go. You'llwant your strength for the morning."
"Only for you I wouldn't be here," said she.
"Well, maybe you wouldn't," said Raft. "It's as well I was along withyou, but you ain't no weight--no more than a kitten. I never thought youwere as bad as that or I'd have lifted you miles back."
"Aren't you tired?" she asked.
"Me--oh, no, not more than a bit stiff in the arm." He stretched hisleft arm out. Then he looked at the bundle.
"You don't want nothing to eat just yet?" asked he.
"Not till you come back," she answered. "I'll watch you from here."
He scrambled down, picked up the harpoon which he had left on the rocksand then looked up and nodded to her.
"I'll keep in sight," said he. Then he started.
She watched his great figure as it went, harpoon in hand, growingsmaller and smaller, till, now, she could have covered it with her thumbnail. As the distance increased it seemed to go slower and the greatblack cliffs to grow higher.
At a dizzy height above her cormorants had their nests, they seemedangry about something as they clanged and flew, shooting out into thesky and wheeling back again in an aimless manner. Before her the greysea crawled, coming, now, steadily shoreward.
The tide seemed coming in faster than usual. She knew that this couldnot be so and that Raft was too wise to allow himself to be cut off, allthe same a smouldering anxiety fed on her heart as she watched the tinyfigure now approaching the out-jutting shoulder of cliff. Then itdisappeared.
He had promised to keep in sight.
Evidently that was impossible if he wanted to get a view of what laybeyond.
A minute passed, two, three--then the figure reappeared and her heartthat had lain still sprang to life again.
As he drew closer she saw him stoop and pick up something, then he cameright up to the cliff face, paused a minute and continued his waytowards her, walking more slowly now and carrying the thing in hishands.
It was a big shell shaped like an abalone. He had filled it with waterfrom a little torrent running from the cliff and when he reached her heheld it up to show.
"We're all right," cried he, "there's only four or five miles of cliffbeyond the point, then it breaks away down to the beach. We'll be ableto get clear of this to-morrow."
She came down the basalt steps and took the shell from him. He hadwashed it in the torrent so that the water had no taint of salt. Then,carrying it carefully she got it to the plateau where he followed her.