第16章 THE WOMAN OF THE SAETER.(5)

"Then I recrossed the ridge,and crawled down again,and,waiting until evening,walked slowly up the path.As I came in view of the house she saw me,and waved her handkerchief to me,and in answer Iwaved my hat,and shouted curses at her that the wind whirled away into the torrent.She met me with a kiss,and I breathed no hint to her that I had seen.Let her devil's work remain undisturbed.Let it prove to me what manner of thing this is that haunts me.If it be a spirit,then the bridge wilt bear it safely;if it be woman -"But I dismiss the thought.If it be human thing,why does it sit gazing at me,never speaking?why does my tongue refuse to question it?why does all power forsake me in its presence,so that I stand as in a dream?Yet if it be spirit,why do I hear the passing of her feet?and why does the night-rain glisten on her hair?

"I force myself back into my chair.It is far into the night,and Iam alone,waiting,listening.If it be spirit,she will come to me;and if it be woman,I shall hear her cry above the storm--unless it be a demon mocking me.

"I have heard the cry.It rose,piercing and shrill,above the storm,above the riving and rending of the bridge,above the downward crashing of the logs and loosened stones.I hear it as I listen now.

It is cleaving its way upward from the depths below.It is wailing through the room as I sit writing.

"I have crawled upon my belly to the utmost edge of the still standing pier,until I could feel with my hand the jagged splinters left by the fallen planks,and have looked down.But the chasm was full to the brim with darkness.I shouted,but the wind shook my voice into mocking laughter.I sit here,feebly striking at the madness that is creeping nearer and nearer to me.I tell myself the whole thing is but the fever in my brain.The bridge was rotten.

The storm was strong.The cry is but a single one among the many voices of the mountain.Yet still I listen;and it rises,clear and shrill,above the moaning of the pines,above the sobbing of the waters.It beats like blows upon my skull,and I know that she will never come again."Extract from the last letter:

"I shall address an envelope to you,and leave it among these letters.Then,should I never come back,some chance wanderer may one day find and post them to you,and you will know.

"My books and writings remain untouched.We sit together of a night--this woman I call 'wife'and I--she holding in her hands some knitted thing that never grows longer by a single stitch,and I with a volume before me that is ever open at the same page.And day and night we watch each other stealthily,moving to and fro about the silent house;and at times,looking round swiftly,I catch the smile upon her lips before she has time to smooth it away.

"We speak like strangers about this and that,making talk to hide our thoughts.We make a pretence of busying ourselves about whatever will help us to keep apart from one another.

"At night,sitting here between the shadows and the dull glow of the smouldering twigs,I sometimes think I hear the tapping I have learnt to listen for,and I start from my seat,and softly open the door and look out.But only the Night stands there.Then I close-to the latch,and she--the living woman--asks me in her purring voice what sound I heard,hiding a smile as she stoops low over her work;and Ianswer lightly,and,moving towards her,put my arm about her,feeling her softness and her suppleness,and wondering,supposing Iheld her close to me with one arm while pressing her from me with the other,how long before I should hear the cracking of her bones.

"For here,amid these savage solitudes,I also am grown savage.The old primeval passions of love and hate stir within me,and they are fierce and cruel and strong,beyond what you men of the later ages could understand.The culture of the centuries has fallen from me as a flimsy garment whirled away by the mountain wind;the old savage instincts of the race lie bare.One day I shall twine my fingers about her full white throat,and her eyes will slowly come towards me,and her lips will part,and the red tongue creep out;and backwards,step by step,I shall push her before me,gazing the while upon her bloodless face,and it will be my turn to smile.Backwards through the open door,backwards along the garden path between the juniper bushes,backwards till her heels are overhanging the ravine,and she grips life with nothing but her little toes,I shall force her,step by step,before me.Then I shall lean forward,closer,closer,till I kiss her purpling lips,and down,down,down,past the startled sea-birds,past the white spray of the foss,past the downward peeping pines,down,down,down,we will go together,till we find the thing that lies sleeping beneath the waters of the fiord."With these words ended the last letter,unsigned.At the first streak of dawn we left the house,and,after much wandering,found our way back to the valley.But of our guide we heard no news.

Whether he remained still upon the mountain,or whether by some false step he had perished upon that night,we never learnt.