CHAPTER NINETEEN--THE LONE SURVIVOR
SLEEP lay heavy and sweet upon Dick Colton that night. Not even theexcitement of the prospective man-hunt--for the juggler was to berounded up on the morrow--could overcome his healthy weariness. Theintense and tragic events amid which his life had moved for a fortnighthad been a cure for his insomnia as effectual as unexpected. Now whenhe slept, he slept; great guns could not wake him. In fact, at thisparticular midnight of September's last day great guns did not wake him,for the intermittent booming of cannonade for some fifteen minutes hadleft his happy dreams undisturbed.
Not so with the others. Helga was stirring below; the Ravendens weremoving about in their respective rooms. Everard was delivering apassionate rhapsody to an elusive match-box, and Mrs. Johnston wasaddressing the familiar argument regarding the preventive meritsof rubber boots to her exasperated husband. Into the submergedconsciousness of Dick Colton drifted scraps and fragments of eager talk."Wreck ashore.... Graveyard Point again.... Won't need the lanterns....Drat the rubber boots!... All go together." Then said the wizard ofdreams, who mismanages such things, to Dick Colton: "It was all aphantasy, the imaginings of a moment. The crowded wonders in which youhave taken part never happened. There have been no murders; there hasbeen no juggler, no kite-flyer, no mystery. Haynes is alive; you canhear him moving about. You are back where you belong, at the night ofthe shipwreck, and I have befooled you well with an empty panorama."
"And Dolly?" cried the unhappy dreamer in such a pang of protest that hecame broad awake at once. The wizard fled.
From below, the magic of Helga's voice rang out, sounding once more, ashe had not heard it since Haynes' death, the vital ring of unconquerableyouth, but with a new and deeper undertone.
"Oh-ho! Yo-ho-ho, Everard! Come down! There's a wreck ashore!"
And the quick answer: "All right! Be with you in a minute."
Once more Dick's mind swung back. All was so exactly parallel to thefirst night he had spent there. But the next instant he was plunginginto what garments came readiest to hand. Out into the hall he boltedand came upon Dolly Ravenden and her father so sharply that for a momenthis conscience was in abeyance; then, stricken with the recollection ofhis moment's madness, he turned away to Everard's door and caught thatimpulsive youth's charge full in the chest.
"You up, Dicky?" cried the younger brother. "And Dolly, too! We'll havea wreck party?"
"I wouldn't take it too much as an entertainment, Ev," said his brotherquietly.
"Of course! What a brute I am!" cried Everard contritely. "Not havingbeen here for the other wreck, I forgot all that it brought about. Yougoing with Dolly?"
"I think I'll go with you and Helga," said Dick. "You needn't," returnedthe other so promptly that Dick laughed aloud. "Oh, of course, we'll beglad to have you," he continued hastily, "only I thought you meant----"
"Never mind, old man. We'll probably all be together."
The Ravendens, Helga, her father, and the two Coltons went out togetherinto a night of moonlit glory. A flying cloud-fleet, sailing homewardto port in the eastern heavens, dappled the far-stretched landscape withshadows. The air was keen and clear, with an electrifying quality thatmade the blood bound faster. Dick felt a wild, inexplicable elation,as if some climax of life were promised by this marvel of the night'sbeauty.
His eager glance quested for Dolly. Her eyes met his, and she turnedaway to her father. Yet there was no anger in her mein, rather asoft confusion and a certain pathetic timidity as she put her hand onProfessor Ravenden's arm, that made Dick's heart jump. But when he wouldhave gone to her she shrank; and the lover, divining something of herunexpressed plea, turned away to lead the little procession. Once hedropped back to speak to Helga, fearing for the effect of the excitementand the fresh pang of recollection upon her. Like two trustful children,she and Everard were swinging along, hand in hand. The girl's eyes werewet with tears, but there was an exaltation in her face as she looked ather companion that brought a lump into Dick's throat.
"Ev," he said in his brother's ear, "if you aren't all that a man couldbe to her to your last breath, you'll have me to reckon with!"
The younger man looked at him with shining eyes: "Loyal old Dick!" hesaid, and laughed unsteadily. "May the gods be as good to you!"
Having reached the cliff summit, the little party had full view of thewreck. In reality it was not a wreck at all: the steamer lay easilyon the sand to the west of Graveyard Point, solidly wedged and in noapparent danger. After one long contemplation of the ship and a briefglance at the bright sky, the veteran Johnston delivered himself of hisopinion:
"Captain drunk. Mate drunk. Lookout blind drunk. Crew rum-soaked. Cookboiled, and ship's cat paralysed. It's the only way they could'a' gother ashore a night like this. And they're as safe with this wind as ifthey were in dry-dock."
He went down to the beach to join the coastguards, whose surf-boat wasjust returning from the ship, and presently brought the report back tohis party in the triumph of corroboration.
"Guess I was about right, except as to the cat," he said. "They ain'tgot any cat aboard; it's a parrot. We might as well go along home."
Before the little party had covered one-third of the distance, DickColton, profiting by Johnston's momentary engagement of ProfessorRavenden's attention, moved over to Dolly.
"I don't know what you will think of me," he began in a low tone. "Inever meant to. It was a moment's overwhelming folly. Will you forgiveme?"
Seemingly the girl paid no attention. Her gaze was fixed on a knollwhich rose in front of them.
"Dolly," implored the young man, "don't think too harshly of me for amoment's rashness."
"Look!" said the girl. "Did you see that?"
"Where? What was it?"
"On that hill almost in front of us. What is a man doing there at thistime?"
"The juggler!" exclaimed Dick.
"Yes, I think it was. There! See him moving just under the brow?"
A dark figure travelling low and swift, as of a man doubled over, couldbe discerned faintly against the waving grasses to the north. A momentmore and it disappeared.
The landscape which they overlooked was one of the most broken stretcheson all Montauk. It was like an Indian-mound burial-place hugelymagnified, with thick patches of vegetation scattered between themounds. Despite the difficulties of the situation, Dick's mind was madeup at once. They must capture the juggler.
"Ev! Professor! Mr. Johnston!" he called.
The others hurried to him; there was no mistaking the anxiety in hisvoice.
"Miss Ravenden has just seen a man coming toward us over the downs," heexplained rapidly. "I think it is the juggler. We must get him. Which ofyou have pistols?"
"Just my luck! I left mine home," groaned Everard.
"Although I have no firearms, the loaded butt of my capturing net isnot a despicable weapon," said Professor Ravenden, brandishing itscientifically.
Johnston produced a revolver. His own weapon Dick handed to ProfessorRavenden, saying:
"I'll trade for your loaded club. You're the best shot of us, Professor.Please stay here and guard the girls. Ev, you go to the west along thatridge and keep a sharp lookout. Don't let him get near enough to throwhis knife, but draw him that way if you can. Mr. Johnston, take theeast. Don't shoot unless he attacks you or I call for help. I'll go downthe ravine and stop him."
Dolly Ravenden started forward.
"Oh, please!" she said tremulously. "Not without a pistol. Oh, Dick!"
"I will be careful," he said gently, and leaning toward her for thebriefest moment: "My darling, oh, my darling!"
Then he was gone. With a business-like air Professor Ravenden examinedthe weapon Dick had given him, and placed himself in front of the girls.To the east they could see Johnston's sturdy form, and westward Helga'sbrooding eyes now and again glimpsed the buoyant figure of her lover.
"Don't be afraid, dearest," he had called back to her. "When it comes torunning I can do just as well
as the next fellow, and generally better."
Shadows and patches of oak covered Dick's course. Five minutes passed,and then came a shout from Johnston. Professor Ravenden walked coollyforward a few paces, raising and lowering his pistol arm as if to makesure that it was well oiled at the joints. At rest it pointed in thedirection of Whalley. The juggler was running toward them from the sideof the ravine down which Dick had moved. Taking advantage of theland's broken contour, he had eluded and passed Dick; now he was makingstraight for them.
"Stand!" called the professor.
It was as if he had not spoken. The juggler approached with no lesseningof pace, no swerve from his course.
"Don't come any farther. Do you want to be shot?"
This time it was Helga's voice. Whalley checked his rush. His handsclutched at his breast; he strove for utterance against an agonisedexhaustion. His arms beating out into the air expressed with shockingvividness a warning of extremest terror. Obviously there was nothing tofear from the man in this mood. Nevertheless, Professor Ravenden heldhis pistol ready as he went forward.
"Take--her--away!" he hacked out like a man fighting for utterance inthe last stage of strangulation. "Eet--comes. I--haf--seen--eet!"
"Compose yourself, my man," soothed the professor. "Be calm and explainwhat has so alarmed you."
But the juggler only flung up his arms in a wild gesture toward the sky,and dropped.
"We must call in the others," said Professor Ravenden.
Helga lifted her head and sent her clear and beautiful call rollingacross the hills. At the sound the juggler crawled to her feetand brokenly begged her to keep silence. Before they could win anexplantation from him Everard's tall figure came speeding down thehillside, and only half a minute later Dick's great bulk toiled upthrough the ravine. Johnston came in last. No sooner had Dick set eyeson the juggler than he advanced upon him.
"You are our prisoner," he said. "Professor, is he armed?"
"I have not ascertained. He is suffering from an access of unmanningterror, and I believe is not formidable."
"Anyway," said Dick, "we had best--"
He broke off as the juggler drew from his belt one of his huge,broad-bladed knives, which he doubtless had cached on the point beforehis capture.
"Cover him, professor," cried Dick.
"Do not tak eet away," begged the man. "We will need eet. I bring eet,for her." He turned the dog-like adoration of his eyes upon Helga. "Shesafe my life; I die for her."
"What the deuce is he talking about?" growled Everard.
"When I hear ze gun of ze sheepwreck, somesing tell me she weel comeout. I run here an'," a strong shudder racked him, "I see eet."
"That's all very well," said Dick sternly. "But you must come with us."
"Afterward! afterward!" cried the man in an agony of supplication. "Nowwe hide, teel eet go. Zen I gif you ze knife. Anysing after we make hersafe before ze death strike her."
"This is not all lunacy," said Dolly Ravenden quickly. "There is somedanger he is trying to warn us from."
Whirling upon her, the wretched juggler threw out his arms in aneloquent gesture.
"You will believe! I am murderer, zey say. So! Yet I come an' give up tosafe her. Is zere not some-sing?"
"Anyway, you've got to give up that knife," said Dick.
Tigerish lines came out on the man's face. "Fools!" he snarled andleaped back, a dangerous animal once more. Again the professor's guncame up.
"Shoot him!" cried Dick.
"I can't shoot him in cold blood!" protested the professor.
Slowly Everard moved up from the other side. In a moment the test musthave come, when a sound between a gasp and a moan turned every facetoward Johnston.
"Great God of Wonders!" whispered the old man, and pointed in the faceof the glowing moon. One after another the little group turned, caughtthe vision, and were stricken motionless.
Far in the radiant void, at a distance immeasurable to the estimate,soared terrifically an unknown creature. Its wings, spreading overa huge expanse, bore up with unimaginable lightness a bloated andmisshapen body. From a neck that writhed hideously, as a serpent inpain, wavered a knobbed head, terminating in a great bladed beak. Withslow sweep it described majestic circles. Always the waving head gavethe impression of hopeless search. It was like a foul and monstrousgnat buzzing in futile endeavour at the pale-lit window of the infinite.Suddenly it fell, plunging headlong, then over and over, like a tumblerpigeon, miles and miles, so it seemed, through the empty air, only tobring up with a turn that carried it just above the sea, in a ghastlyand horrid playfulness.
The little human creatures far below followed with awful eyes. Not untila low-scudding cloud blotted the portent from sight did the power ofspeech and coherent thought return. Then, each according to his ownway, they bore themselves in the face of a terror such as no creatureof human kind ever before had confronted. Professor Ravenden, holding anenvelope on his knee, burrowed fiercely for a pencil muttering:
"Gyrations comprising three distinct turns. Most amazing. New light uponthe entire race of flying reptiles. I must preserve my calm; surely Imust preserve my calm!"
Dolly Ravenden was looking at Dick with her soul in her eyes.
Old Johnston, fallen to his knees, was praying with the formalsteadfastness of the blue Long Island Presbyterian.
Everard crossed to Helga, who was pale but quiet, and threw his armaround her. She leaned against him and gazed into the sky. Dick wrenchedhis hungry eyes from Dolly and turned a face absolutely white andabsolutely set to Professor Ravenden.
"The pteranodon!" he said.
"Yes. Oh, what an opportunity! What an enlightenment to science! Tono observer has it been given since the beginning of the race. May Itrouble you for a pencil?"
"Then it was this creature," said Dick, "that killed Petersen thesailor, and the sheep. It fouled Ely's kites and snapped the strong cordas if with scissors. It impaled Ely on its beak, carried him aloft andshook him to earth again. It made the footprints which Whalley-"
"Eet will come back!" shrieked the little juggler, who had beenspeechless with terror. "Eet will kill you all! Zat is not matter. Buther! Eet shall not kill her while I leef! Eet see ze kite man, an' I seeit come down, an' I run. See! Ze moon!"
From behind the clouds the moon moved again, and now they saw thereptile swaying back toward them. Of a sudden it uttered a harsh,grating sound and passed.
"That is what I heard just before my horse bucked," said Everard.
"Raucous--metallic," said the professor in rapt tones. "Soundedtwice--or was it three times?" He looked up from his notes, questioningthe group.
Again the hideous sound was borne to their ears as the monster whirledand soared downward, in a long slanting line.
"It has sighted us!" said Dick. "Dolly! Helga! Run for the gully. Findwhat cover you can. Ev, go with them."
Helga reached out her hand. "Come, Dolly," she said.
For one moment the girl hesitated. Then, with a little wail of love anddread, she leaped to Dick and clung close to him, pressing her lips uponhis.
"Now you know!" she sobbed. "Whatever happens, you know! I could notleave you so, without----"
"God bless and keep you, my own!" said Dick, thrusting her from himinto his brother's grasp. "Quick, Ev! It's coming!"
With another metallic cry, the pteranodon increased its speed in a wide,dropping curve. Instantly Dick became the man of action again.
"Professor, I want you with your pistol on the right. Ev, stand by thegully and guard the girls. Johnston, take the left; don't fire until itis close. Fire for the head."
"For the wing-joint where it meets the body, if you will allow me,"amended the scientist, putting away his notes carefully in his pocket.
"Thank you. For the wing-joint," said Dick coolly. "If it strikes, throwyourselves on the ground, all of you. Look out for the beak. Whalley,give me your knife."
"I keep eet," returned the little juggler. He had regained his courag
enow, and with an intelligent eye had stationed himself on a hummockabove the depression whither Everard had guarded the two women. "Whatcan you do wiz eet? But me, I show you! Now come ze death-bird!"
"That's all right then," said Dick approvingly. "Remember, Whalley,whatever happens, you are to save the ladies."
Throwing off his coat, he swung the heavy net-butt in the air, andstationed himself.
"If it tackles me first," thought he, "the pistol shots may do thebusiness, while I check it."
Yet, beholding the terrific size and power of the tiger of the air, itseemed impossible that any agency of man might cope with it. That itmeant an attack was obvious; for while Dick was disposing his littleforce it had been circling, perhaps two hundred yards above, choosingthe point for the onslaught.
Now it rushed down; not at Dick, but from the opposite quarter. All ranin that direction. The pteranodon rose, sounding its raucous croak as ifin mockery. Before they had regained their position, it had whirled, andwas plunging with the speed of an express train down the aerial slopedirectly upon Dick. Straight for his heart aimed the great bayonet thatthe creature carried for a bill.
Dick stood braced. The heavy, loaded club swung high. The creaturewas almost upon him when he leaped to one side, and brought his weaponaround. The next instant he lay stunned and bleeding from the impact ofthe piston-rod wing.
The reptile swerved slightly. Shouting aloud, Professor Ravenden pouredthe six bullets from his revolver into the great body. From the otherside Johnston was shooting. The monster was apparently unaffected, forit skimmed along toward the spot where the girls crouched, guarded byEverard Colton, who held ready a small boulder, his only weapon.
But between stood "The Wonderful Whalley" with knife poised. On came thereptile. Like a bow, the little juggler bent backward until his knifealmost touched the ground behind him. Then it swung, flashed, and wenthome as the pteranodon, with a foot of steel driven into its hideousneck, pierced the man through and through, and rising, shook the limpbody from its beak.
The air was poisoned with the reek of the great saurian. Sharp tothe left it turned, made a halfcircle and, beating the air with thethunderstrokes of sails flapping loose in a mighty wind, fell to theground ten paces from Professor Ravenden.
Instantly that intrepid scientist was upon it, with clubbed revolver,everything forgot except the hope of capturing such a prize. Everard,holding aloft his rock, sprinted to the rescue. Dick staggered afterhim. They had almost reached the spot when the retile's dying agonybegan.
The first wing-beat hurled Professor Ravenden headlong with a brokencollar-bone. Frenzied and unseeing, the monster of the dead centuriesprojected itself from the hill, and with one dreadful scream that mighthave rung from the agonised depths of hades, sped out across the waters.Once, twice, thrice, and again, the vast pinions beat; then a plunge, awhirl, a wild maelstrom of foam far out at sea--and quiet.
Dolly Ravenden, with a cry, ran to her father, and with the help of Dickand old Johnston got him to his feet.
"A boat! A boat!" he cried. "We must pursue it!"
Then he tried to lift his arm, and all but fainted.
Meantime Helga and Everard were bending over the juggler. He was dead asinstantly as Haynes had been dead by his stroke.
"Poor fellow!" said the young man. "He has paid his debt as best hecould. It was his knife that saved us, my Helga."
The girl said nothing, but she loosed the soft neckerchief that shewore and covered the worn, fantastic and peaceful face. They stoodwith clasped hands looking at the body when a loud cry from ProfessorRavenden brought them hurriedly to where he stood, frenziedly gesturingtoward the sea.
About the spot where the pteranodon had fallen glittered little flashesof phosphorescence. Soon the sea was furiously alight. A school ofdogfish had found the prey. One great black wing was thrust aloft fora brief moment. The water bubbled and darkened--and the sons of men hadseen the last of the lone survival that had come out of the mysteriousvoid, bearing on its wings across the uncounted eons, joy and sorrow,love and death.
THE END
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