第22章 SILHOUETTES.(2)

"Some foreign chap,no doubt,"said the man who had lifted off the stones;"washed ashore and buried here by the sea.""What,six foot below the water-mark,wi'all they stones atop of him?"said another.

"That's no foreign chap,"cried a grizzled old woman,pressing forward."What's that that's aside him?"Some one jumped down and took it from the stone where it lay glistening,and handed it up to her,and she clutched it in her skinny hand.It was a gold earring,such as fishermen sometimes wear.But this was a somewhat large one,and of rather unusual shape.

"That's young Abram Parsons,I tell 'ee,as lies down there,"cried the old creature,wildly."I ought to know.I gave him the pair o'these forty year ago."

It may be only an idea of mine,born of after brooding upon the scene.I am inclined to think it must be so,for I was only a child at the time,and would hardly have noticed such a thing.But it seems to my remembrance that as the old crone ceased,another woman in the crowd raised her eyes slowly,and fixed them on a withered,ancient man,who leant upon a stick,and that for a moment,unnoticed by the rest,these two stood looking strangely at each other.

From these sea-scented scenes,my memory travels to a weary land where dead ashes lie,and there is blackness--blackness everywhere.

Black rivers flow between black banks;black,stunted trees grow in black fields;black withered flowers by black wayside.Black roads lead from blackness past blackness to blackness;and along them trudge black,savage-looking men and women;and by them black,old-looking children play grim,unchildish games.

When the sun shines on this black land,it glitters black and hard;and when the rain falls a black mist rises towards heaven,like the hopeless prayer of a hopeless soul.

By night it is less dreary,for then the sky gleams with a lurid light,and out of the darkness the red flames leap,and high up in the air they gambol and writhe--the demon spawn of that evil land,they seem.

Visitors who came to our house would tell strange tales of this black land,and some of the stories I am inclined to think were true.One man said he saw a young bull-dog fly at a boy and pin him by the throat.The lad jumped about with much sprightliness,and tried to knock the dog away.Whereupon the boy's father rushed out of the house,hard by,and caught his son and heir roughly by the shoulder.

"Keep still,thee young --,can't 'ee!"shouted the man angrily;"let 'un taste blood."Another time,I heard a lady tell how she had visited a cottage during a strike,to find the baby,together with the other children,almost dying for want of food."Dear,dear me!"she cried,taking the wee wizened mite from the mother's arms,"but I sent you down a quart of milk,yesterday.Hasn't the child had it?""Theer weer a little coom,thank 'ee kindly,ma'am,"the father took upon himself to answer;"but thee see it weer only just enow for the poops."We lived in a big lonely house on the edge of a wide common.One night,I remember,just as I was reluctantly preparing to climb into bed,there came a wild ringing at the gate,followed by a hoarse,shrieking cry,and then a frenzied shaking of the iron bars.

Then hurrying footsteps sounded through the house,and the swift opening and closing of doors;and I slipped back hastily into my knickerbockers and ran out.The women folk were gathered on the stairs,while my father stood in the hall,calling to them to be quiet.And still the wild ringing of the bell continued,and,above it,the hoarse,shrieking cry.

My father opened the door and went out,and we could hear him striding down the gravel path,and we clung to one another and waited.

After what seemed an endless time,we heard the heavy gate unbarred,and quickly clanged to,and footsteps returning on the gravel.Then the door opened again,and my father entered,and behind him a crouching figure that felt its way with its hands as it crept along,as a blind man might.The figure stood up when it reached the middle of the hall,and mopped its eyes with a dirty rag that it carried in its hand;after which it held the rag over the umbrella-stand and wrung it out,as washerwomen wring out clothes,and the dark drippings fell into the tray with a dull,heavy splut.

My father whispered something to my mother,and she went out towards the back;and,in a little while,we heard the stamping of hoofs--the angry plunge of a spur-startled horse--the rhythmic throb of the long,straight gallop,dying away into the distance.

My mother returned and spoke some reassuring words to the servants.

My father,having made fast the door and extinguished all but one or two of the lights,had gone into a small room on the right of the hall;the crouching figure,still mopping that moisture from its eyes,following him.We could hear them talking there in low tones,my father questioning,the other voice thick and interspersed with short panting grunts.

We on the stairs huddled closer together,and,in the darkness,Ifelt my mother's arm steal round me and encompass me,so that I was not afraid.Then we waited,while the silence round our frightened whispers thickened and grew heavy till the weight of it seemed to hurt us.

At length,out of its depths,there crept to our ears a faint murmur.