The startled servant who let me in asked if there was anything the
matter. I explained my early rising by telling him that I was merely
going to Knockers' Llyn to see the sunrise. He gave me a letter which
had come on the previous evening, and had been addressed by mistake
to Carnarvon. As the handwriting was new to me, I felt sure that it
was only an unimportant missive from some stranger, and I put it into
my pocket without opening it.
On my return I found Sinfi in the little room where we had supped. I
guessed that an essential part of her crazy project was that we
should breakfast at the llyn.
On the table was a basket filled with the materials for the
breakfast.
Another breakfast was spread for us two on the table, and the teapot
was steaming. Sinfi saw me look at the two breakfasts and smile.
'We've got a good way to walk before we get to the pool where we are
goin' to breakfast,' she said, 'so I thought we'd take a snack before
we start.'
As we went along I noticed that the air of Snowdon seemed to have its
usual effect on Sinfi. In taking the path that led to Knockers' Llyn
we saw before us Cwm-Dyli, the wildest of all the Snowdonian
recesses, surrounded by frowning precipices of great height and
steepness. We then walked briskly on towards our goal. When the three
peaks that she knew so well--y Wyddfa, Lliwedd, and Crib Goch--stood
out in the still grey light she stopped, set down her basket, clapped
her hands, and said, 'Didn't I tell you the mornin' was a-goin' to be
ezackly the same as then? No mists to-day. By the time we get to the
llyn the colours o' the vapours, what they calls the Knockers' flags,
will come out ezackly as they did that mornin' when you and me first
went arter Winnie.'
All the way Sinfi's eyes were fixed on the majestic forehead of y
Wyddfa and the bastions of Lliwedd which seemed to guard it as though
the Great Spirit of Snowdon himself was speaking to her and drawing
her on, and she kept murmuring 'The two dukkeripens.'
But still she said nothing about her wedding, though that some such
mad idea as that suggested by Rhona possessed her mind was manifest
enough.
'Here we are at last,' she said, when we reached the pool for which
we were bound; and setting down her little basket she stood and
looked over to the valley beneath.
The colours were coming more quickly every minute, and the entire
picture was exactly the same as that which I had seen on the morning
when we last saw Winifred on the hills, so unlike the misty panorama
that Snowdon usually presents. Y Wyddfa was silhouetted against the
sky, and looked as narrow and as steep as the sides of an acorn. Here
we halted and set down our basket.
As we did so she said, 'Hark! the Knockers! Don't you hear them?
Listen, listen!'
I did listen, and I seemed to hear a peculiar sound as of a distant
knocking against the rocks by some soft substance. She saw that I
heard the noise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account