The morrow! Somehow my own horizon did not stretch as far: it was
bounded by to-night. Before to-morrow one of us two should be a dead
man; perhaps both. So best: the world with its loves and hatreds
would end to-night. So westward we sped in the grey light beneath
which the snowy fields gleamed unnaturally--westward while the sun
above showed only as a crimson ball, an orb of blood, travelling
westward too. At Bristol it glared through a murky veil of smoke, at
Exeter and through the frozen pastures and leafless woodlands of
Devon dropped swiftly towards my goal, beckoning with blood-stained
hand across the sky. Past the angry sea we tore, and then again into
the whitened fields now growing dim in the twilight. In the carriage
the talk was unceasing--talk of home, of expectant friends, of
Christmas meetings and festivities. Every station was thronged, and
many a happy welcome I witnessed as I sat there with no friend but
hate. Friends! What had I to do with such? I had a friend once,
but he was dead. Friend, parents, love--all dead by one man's hand,
and he--But a little while now; but a little while!
We reached Plymouth shortly after five--the train being late--and
here the crowd in the carriages grew greater. It was dark, but the
moon was not yet up--the full moon by which the treasure was to be
sought. How slowly the train dragged through Cornwall! It would be
eight before we reached Penryn, and low water was at half-past
eleven. Should we be in time?
The snow had ceased to fall: a clear north-east wind had chased the
clouds from heaven, and scarcely had we passed Saltash before a
silver rim came slowly rising above the black woods on the river's
opposite bank. Clear into the frosty night it rose, and I fell to
wondering savagely with what thoughts Colliver saluted it.
It was already half-past eight as we changed our train at Truro, and
here again more time was wasted. Upon the platform I saw him again.
He was heavily cloaked and muffled now, for it was freezing hard; but
beneath the low brim of his hat I saw the deep, black eyes gleaming
with impatience. So at last once more we started.
"Penryn!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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