As for Cleer, too innocent and too much of a mere woman in her deadly
peril to think of anything but the delightful sense of confidence in a
strong man at her side to guard and protect her, she sat and held his
hand still, in a perfect transport of gratitude. "Oh, how good of you
to come!" she cried again and again, bending over it in her relief, and
half tempted to kiss it. "How good of you to come across like that to
save me."
CHAPTER VIII.
SAFE AT LAST.
The night was long. The night was dark. Slowly the fog closed them in.
It grew rainier and more dismal. But on the summit of the crag Eustace
Le Neve stood aloft, and waved his arms, and shouted. He lit a match
and shaded it. The dull glare of it through the mist just faintly
reached the eyes of the anxious watchers on the beach below. From a
dozen lips there rose an answering shout. The pair on the crag half
heard its last echoes. Eustace put his hands to his mouth and cried
aloud once more, in stentorian tones, "All right. Cleer's here. We can
hold out till morning."
Trevennack alone heard the words. But he repeated them so instantly
that his wife felt sure it was true hearing, not insane hallucination.
The sea was gaining on them now. It had risen almost up to the face of
the cliffs. Reluctantly they turned along the path by the gully, and
mounting the precipice waited and watched till morning on the tor that
overlooks Michael's Crag from the Penmorgan headland.
Every now and again, through that livelong night, Trevennack whispered
in his wife's ear, "If only I chose to spread my wings, and launch
myself, I could fly across and carry her." And each time that brave
woman, holding his hand in her own and smoothing it gently, answered in
her soft voice, "But then the secret would be out, and Cleer's life
would be spoiled, and they'd call you a madman. Wait till morning, dear
Michael; do, do, wait till morning."
And Trevennack, struggling hard with the mad impulse in his heart,
replied with all his soul, "I will; I will; for Cleer's sake and yours,
I'll try to keep it down. I'll not be mad. I'll be strong and restrain
it."
For he knew he was insane, in his inmost soul, almost as well as he
knew his name was Michael the Archangel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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