Sir Arthur looked round, but did not see, or would not acknowledge, any signs of an immediate storm.They would reach Knockwinnock, he said, long before the tempest began.
But the speed with which he walked, and with which Isabella could hardly keep pace, indicated a feeling that some exertion was necessary to accomplish his consolatory prediction.
They were now near the centre of a deep but narrow bay or recess, formed by two projecting capes of high and inaccessible rock, which shot out into the sea like the horns of a crescent;--and neither durst communicate the apprehension which each began to entertain, that, from the unusually rapid advance of the tide, they might be deprived of the power of proceeding by doubling the promontory which lay before them, or of retreating by the road which brought them thither.
As they thus pressed forward, longing doubtless to exchange the easy curving line, which the sinuosities of the bay compelled them to adopt, for a straighter and more expeditious path, Sir Arthur observed a human figure on the beach advancing to meet them.
``Thank God,'' he exclaimed, ``we shall get round Halket-head!
--that person must have passed it;'' thus giving vent to the feeling of hope, though he had suppressed that of apprehension.
``Thank God, indeed!'' echoed his daughter, half audibly, half internally, as expressing the gratitude which she strongly felt.
The figure which advanced to meet them made many signs, which the haze of the atmosphere, now disturbed by wind and by a drizzling rain, prevented them from seeing or comprehending distinctly.--Some time before they met, Sir Arthur could recognise the old blue-gowned beggar, Edie Ochiltree.It is said that even the brute creation lay aside their animosities and antipathies when pressed by an instant and common danger.
The beach under Halket-head, rapidly diminishing in extent by the encroachments of a spring-tide and a north-west wind, was in like manner a neutral field, where even a justice of peace and a strolling mendicant might meet upon terms of mutual forbearance.
``Turn back! turn back!'' exclaimed the vagrant; ``why did ye not turn when I waved to you?''
``We thought,'' replied Sir Arthur, in great agitation, ``we thought we could get round Halket-head.''
``Halket-head!--the tide will be running on Halket-head by this time like the Fall of Fyers!--it was a' I could do to get round it twenty minutes since--it was coming in three feet abreast.We will maybe get back by Bally-burgh Ness Point yet.The Lord help us!--it's our only chance.We can but try.''
``My God, my child!''--``My father! my dear father!''
exclaimed the parent and daughter, as, fear lending them strength and speed, they turned to retrace their steps, and endeavoured to double the point, the projection of which formed the southern extremity of the bay.
``I heard ye were here frae the bit callant ye sent to meet your carriage,'' said the beggar, as he trudged stoutly on a step or two behind Miss Wardour; ``and I couldna bide to think o'
the dainty young leddy's peril, that has aye been kind to ilka forlorn heart that cam near her.Sae I lookit at the lift and the rin o' the tide, till I settled it that if I could get down time eneugh to gie you warning, we wad do weel yet.But I doubt, I doubt, I have been beguiled! for what mortal ee ever saw sic a race as the tide is risening e'en now? See, yonder's the Ratton's Skerry--he aye held his neb abune the water in my day--but he's aneath it now.''
Sir Arthur cast a look in the direction in which the old man pointed.A huge rock, which in general, even in spring-tides, displayed a hulk like the keel of a large vessel, was now quite under water, and its place only indicated by the boiling and breaking of the eddying waves which encountered its submarine resistance.
``Mak haste, mak haste, my bonny leddy,'' continued the old man--mak haste, and we may do yet! Take haud o' my arm--an auld and frail arm it's now, but it's been in as sair stress as this is yet.Take haud o' my arm, my winsome leddy! D'ye see yon wee black speck amang the wallowing waves yonder?
This morning it was as high as the mast o' a brig--it's sma'
eneugh now--but, while I see as muckle black about it as the crown o' my hat, I winna believe but we'll get round the Ballyburgh Ness, for a' that's come and gane yet.''
Isabella, in silence, accepted from the old man the assistance which Sir Arthur was less able to afford her.The waves had now encroached so much upon the beach, that the firm and smooth footing which they had hitherto had on the sand must be exchanged for a rougher path close to the foot of the precipice, and in some places even raised upon its lower ledges.
It would have been utterly impossible for Sir Arthur Wardour, or his daughter, to have found their way along these shelves without the guidance and encouragement of the beggar, who had been there before in high tides, though never, he acknowledged, ``in sae awsome a night as this.''