When Philip was left alone, the sky seemed to be lying on his shoulders.
The English mountains were grey and ghostly now, and the storm, which
had spent itself on the other coast, seemed to hang over the island.
There were breakers where the long dead sea had been, and the petrel
outside was scudding close to the white curves, and uttering its dismal
note.
So heavy and confused had the storm and wreck of the last hour left him,
that he did not at first observe by the backward tail of smoke that the
steamer had passed round the Head, and that the cart he had met at the
mouth of the port had come back empty to the cave for another load of
sea-wrack. The lobster-fisher, too, had beached his boat near by, and
was shouting through the hollow air, wherein every noise seemed to
echo with a sepulchral quake, “The block was going whistling at the
mast-head. We'll have a squall I was thinking, so in I came.”
That night Philip dreamt a dream. He was sitting on a dais with a wooden
canopy above him, the English coat of arms behind, and a great book in
front; his hands shook as he turned the leaves; he felt his leg hang
heavily; people bowed low to him, and dropped their voices in his
presence; he was the Deemster, and he was old. A young woman stood in
the dock, dripping water from her hair, and she had covered her face
with her hands. In the witness-box a young man was standing, and his
head was down. The man had delivered the woman to dishonour; she had
attempted her life in her shame and her despair. And looking on the man,
the Deemster thought he spoke in a stern voice, saying, “Witness, I am
compelled to punish her, but oh to heaven that I could punish you in her
place! What have you to say for yourself?” “I have nothing to say for
myself,” the young man answered, and he lifted his head and the old
Deemster saw his face. Then Philip awoke with a smothered scream, for
the young man's face had been his own.
IX.
When Cæsar got to the quay, he looked about with watchful eyes, as if
fearing he might find somebody there before him. The coast was clear,
and he gave a grunt of relief. After fixing the horse-cloth, and
settling the mare in a nose-bag, he began to walk up and down the fore
part of the harbour, still keeping an eager look-out. As time went on
he grew comfortable, exchanged salutations with the harbour-master, and
even whistled a little to while away the time.
“Quiet day, Mr. Quayle.”
“Quiet enough yet, Mr. Cregeen; but what's it saying? 'The greater the
calm the nearer the south wind.'”
By the time that Cæsar, from the end of the pier, saw the smoke of the
steamer coming round Kirk Maughold Head, he was in a spiritual, almost
a mournful, mood. He was feeling how melancholy was the task of going to
meet the few possessions, the clothes and such like, which were all that
remained of a dear friend departed. It was the duty of somebody, though,
and Cæsar drew a long breath of resignation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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