Though we were all very tired, both bodily and mentally, by reason of
the labour of our hands and the strain upon our minds, I do not think
that any of us found sleep very easy to come at first. I only know that
I lay on my back and stared up at the stars--for the night was too hot
to sleep under cover--for long enough. At last I fell asleep, and
through sleep into a fitful feverish dream, which chopped and changed
from one place and subject to another; but at last it settled down into
one decided dream--and that was a good dream, for it was a dream of
Marjorie. It seemed that I was walking with her along the downs beyond
Sendennis, not far from that place where Lancelot found me blubbering in
years gone by, and that I was telling her that I loved her, and that she
let me hold her hand while I told her, which showed that she was not
averse to my tale, and that when I had done she turned and looked me
full in the face, and there was love--love for me--in her eyes.
Then I awoke suddenly and found it was full day, and that Marjorie was
bending over me. For the moment I did not recollect where I was, and
stared in surprise at the great wooden paling by which we were
surrounded. Then recollection of the whole situation came back to me in
a flash, and I leapt to my feet.
All around me the men were making preparations for the morning meal, or
were engaged in looking to their weapons, testing the sharpness of a
cutlass or seeing to the priming of a matchlock. The big door of the
stronghold was open, and through it I could see the white beach and the
sea-edge, where Lancelot stood scanning the horizon with the spy-glass.
The sun was very bright, and I could hear the parrots screaming away in
the woods behind us.
'Come outside, Ralph,' said Marjorie. 'I want to speak with you.'
We went out together through the gate into the open, and walked slowly a
little way in the direction of the sea. Both of us looked, naturally
enough, to that island where our enemies lay. Presently we halted and
stood in silence a few minutes, and then Marjorie spoke.
'Ralph,' she said quietly, 'you are my friend, I believe.'
I had it in my heart to cry wild words to her; to tell her again that I
loved her then and for ever, but though the words tingled on my lips
they never took life and sound. For Marjorie was looking at me so
steadfastly and sadly with a strange gravity in the angel-blue of her
eyes that I could not speak what she might not wish to hear. So I simply
nodded my head and held out my hand and caught hers and clasped it
close.
'Ralph,' she said again. 'We fight for the right, but right is not
always might, and our enemies may overpower us. If they do--' here I
thought she paled a little, but her voice was as firm as ever--'if they
do, I want you to promise me one promise.'
I suppose the look in my face assured her that there was nothing she
could ask of me that I would not obey, for she went on without waiting
for me to speak:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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