He considered it might be advisable if he went to warn the rest of our
party of our belief as to the place appointed, and so took his way up
north. Gormala remained with me so as to be ready to take any message if
occasion required. She looked tired, so tired and weary that I made her
lie down behind the rough wall. For myself sleep was an impossibility; I
could not have slept had my life or sanity depended on it. To soothe,
her and put her mind at rest, I told her what she had always wanted to
know; what I had seen that night at Whinnyfold when the Dead came up
from the sea. That quieted her, and she soon slept. So I waited and
waited, and the time crept slowly away.
All at once Gormala sat up beside me, broad awake and with all her
instincts at her keenest. "Whish!" she said, raising a warning hand. At
this moment the fog belt was upon us, and on the wind, now risen high,
the white wreaths swept by like ghosts. She held her ear as before
towards seaward and listened intently. This time there could be no
mistake; from far off through the dampness of the fog came the sound of
a passing ship. I ran out from behind the wall and threw myself face
down at the top of the cliff. I was just at the angle of the opening of
the Haven and I could see if a boat entered by either channel. Gormala
came beside me and peered over; then she whispered:
"I shall gang doon the yowes' roadie; it brings me to the Haven's mooth,
and frae thence I can warn ye if there be aught!" Before I replied she
had flitted away, and I saw her pass over the edge of the cliff and
proceed on her perilous way. I leaned over the edge of the cliff
listening. Down below I heard now and again the sound of a falling
pebble, dislodged from the path, but I could see nothing whatever. Below
me the black water showed now and again in the lifting of the fog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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