Then away farther down went the boy with his lantern. Instead of
following him, Jasper climbed up the rubble slope to the ledge. His
eyes had become accustomed to the dark. He distinguished the fluttering
end of a white or light-coloured dress. Then he swung himself up upon
the ledge, and saw, by the faint light that still lingered in the sky,
the figure of a woman—of Eve—lying on one side, with the hands clinging
to a broken branch of ivy. A thick bed of heather was on this ledge—so
thick that it had prevented Eve from rolling off it when she had fallen
into the bush.
He stooped over her. He felt her heart, he put his ear to her mouth.
Immediately he called up to Barbara, ‘She is alive, but insensible.’
Then he put his hands to his mouth and shouted to the men who had
started with him.
He was startled by seeing Watt with the lantern close to him: the light
was on the boy’s face. It was agitated with fear, rage, and distress.
His eyes were full of tears, sweat poured from his brow.
‘Why do you shout?’ he said, and shook his fist in Jasper’s face. ‘Have
you no care for Martin? I cannot find him yet, but he is near. Be
silent, and do not bring the men here. If he is alive I will get him
away in the boat. If he is dead——’ then his sobs burst forth. ‘Martin!
poor Martin! where can he be! Do not call: let no one come here. Oh,
Martin, Martin!’ and away went the boy down again. ‘Why is _she_ fallen
here and found at once, and _he_ is lost! Oh, Martin—poor Martin!’ the
edge of the rock came in the way of the light, and Jasper saw no more
of the boy and the lantern.
Unrestrained by what his youngest brother had said, Jasper called
repeatedly, till at last the men gathered where he was. Then, with
difficulty Eve was moved from where she lay and received in the arms of
the men below. She moaned and cried out with pain, but did not recover
consciousness.
Watt was travelling about farther down with his dull light, sometimes
obscured, sometimes visible. One of the men shouted to him to bring the
lantern up, but his call was disregarded, and next moment Watt and his
lantern were forgotten, as another came down the face of the cliff,
lowered by Barbara.
Then the men moved away with their burden, and one went before with the
light exploring the way. Barbara above knelt at the edge of the rock
and prayed, and as she prayed her tears fell over her cheeks.
At length the little cluster of men appeared with their light through
the trees, approaching the Rock from the wood; they had reached the
path and were coming along it. Jasper took the lantern and led the way.
‘Lay her here,’ he said, ‘near her father, where there is moss, till we
can get a couple of gates.’ Then, suddenly, as the men were about to
obey him, he uttered an exclamation of horror. He had put the lantern
down beside Mr. Jordan.
‘Stand back,’ he said to Barbara, who was coming up, ‘stand back, I
pray you!’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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