Part 13 (1/2)
But she had considered him just, and fearless Revulsion shook her at theeyes and bloodless face It was some terrible fear which had roused this frenzy; and because of this fear Valenso had brutalized the only creature she had to love and cherish; because of that fear he was selling her, his niece, to an infamous outlaw What was behind this madness? Who was the black man Tina had seen?
The child muttered in semi-delirium
”I did not lie, my Lady! Indeed I did not! It was a black man, in a black boat that burned like blue fire on the water! A tall ro, and wrapped in a black cloak! I was afraid when I saw him, and my blood ran cold He left his boat on the sands and went into the forest
Why did the Count whiphim?”
”Hush, Tina,” soothed Belesa ”Lie quietly The s will soon pass”
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The door opened behind her and she whirled, snatching up a jeweled dagger The Count stood in the door, and her flesh crawled at the sight He looked years older; his face was grey and drawn, and his eyes stared in a way that roused fear in her bosoulf separated theer coer
”If you touch her again,” she whispered from dry lips, ”I swear before Mitra I will sink this blade in your breast”
He did not heed her
”I have posted a strong guard about the s his men into the stockade tomorrow He will not sail until he has found the treasure When he finds it we shall sail at once for some port not yet decided upon”
”And you will sell me to him?” she whispered ”In Mitra's naaze in which all considerations but his own self-interest had been crowded out She shrank before it, seeing in it the frantic cruelty that possessed the man in his mysterious fear
”You will do as I co in his voice than there is in the ring of flint on steel And turning, he left the cha beside the couch where Tina lay
IV
A BLACK DRUM DRONING
Belesa never kne long she lay crushed and senseless She was first aware of Tina's ar of the child in her ear Mechanically she straightened herself and drew the girl into her arly at the flickering candle There was no sound in the castle The singing of the buccaneers on the strand had ceased Dully, almost impersonally she reviewed her problem
Valenso was mad, driven frantic by the story of the er that he wished to abandon the settlement and flee with Zarono That much was obvious Equally obvious was the fact that he was ready to sacrifice her in exchange for that opportunity to escape In the blackness of spirit which surrounded her she saw no glint of light
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The serving men were dull or callous brutes, their women stupid and apathetic They would neither dare nor care to help her She was utterly helpless
Tina lifted her tear-stained face as if she were listening to the pro of Belesa's innition of the inexorable drive of Fate and the only alternative left to the weak
”We o, o far away into the forest We shall go until we can go no further, and then we shall lie down and die together”
The tragic strength that is the last refuge of the weak entered Belesa's soul It was the only escape fro in upon her since that day when they fled froo, child”
She rose and was fuht her about The girl was on her feet, a finger pressed to her lips, her eyes wide and bright with terror
”What is it, Tina?” The child's expression of fright induced Belesa to pitch her voice to a whisper, and a nameless apprehension crawled over her
”So her arm convulsively ”He stopped at our door, and then went on, toward the Count's chamber at the other end”
”Your ears are keener than e in that It was the Count himself, perchance, or Galbro” She moved to open the door, but Tina threw her arms frantically about her neck, and Belesa felt the wild beating of her heart
”No, no, my Lady! Do not open the door! I a is skulking near us!”
Ily, and reached a hand toward the gold disk that masked the tiny peep-hole in the center of the door
”He is coirl ”I hear hi too a curious stealthy pad which she kneith a chill of nameless fear, was not the step of anyone she knew Nor was it the step of Zarono, or any bootedthe hallway on bare, stealthy feet, to slay his host while he slept? She reuard below If the buccaneer had 122
reht, a man-at-arms would be posted before his cha the corridor? None slept upstairs besides herself, Tina and the Count, except Galbro
With a quick uished the candle so it would not shi+ne through the hole in the door, and pushed aside the gold disk All the lights were out in the hall, which was ordinarily lighted by candles So the darkened corridor She sensed rather than saw a di of its shape except that it was manlike But a chill wave of terror swept over her so she crouched dumb, incapable of the scream that froze behind her lips It was not such terror as her uncle now inspired in her, or fear like her fear of Zarono, or even of the brooding forest It was blind unreasoning terror that laid an icy hand on her soul and froze her tongue to her palate
The figure passed on to the stairhead, where it was lilow that cae against the red, she almost fainted
She crouched there in the darkness, awaiting the outcry that would announce that the soldiers in the great hall had seen the intruder But the manor remained silent; somewhere a ailed shrilly That was all
Belesa's hands were ht the candle She was still shaken with horror, though she could not decide just what there had been about that black figure etched against the red glow that had roused this frantic loathing in her soul It was ely alien abnorh she could not clearly define that abnor that she had seen, and she knew that the sight had robbed her of all her new-found resolution She was demoralized, incapable of action
The candle flared up, lilow
”It was the black man!” whispered Tina ”I know! My blood turned cold, just as it did when I saw him on the beach There are soldiers downstairs; why did they not see hio and inform the Count?”
Belesa shook her head She did not care to repeat the scene that had ensued upon Tina's first mention of the black man At any event, she dared not venture out into that darkened hallway
”We dare not go into the forest!” shuddered Tina ”He will be lurking there ”
Belesa did not ask the girl how she knew the black ical hiding-place for any evil thing, ht; they dared not leave the fort now Her determination which had not faltered at the prospect of certain death, gave way at the thought of traversing those gloo them Helplessly she sat down and sank her face in her hands
Tina slept, presently, on the couch, whi lashes Shebody uneasily in her restless slu quality in the atmosphere She heard a low ru the candle, which had burned to its socket, she went to a hence she could see both the ocean and a belt of the forest behind the fort
The fog had disappeared, but out to sea a duskyflickered and the low thunder growled An answering rumble came from the black woods Startled she turned and stared at the forest, a brooding black ra reverberation that was not the roll of a Pictish dru and closing her fingers in her sleep ”The blackon a black drum in the black woods! Oh, save us !”
Belesa shuddered Along the eastern horizon ran a thin white line that presaged dawn But that black cloud on the western ri She stared in amazement, for storms were practically unknown on that coast at that time of the year, and she had never seen a cloud like that one
It ca masses of blackness, veined with fire It rolled and billoith the wind in its belly Its thundering led awesomely with the reverberations of the thunder the voice of the wind, that raced before its co flashes; afar to sea she saw the white-capped waves racing before the wind She heard its droning roar, increasing in volume as it swept shoreward But as yet no wind stirred on the land The air was hot, breathless There was a sensation of unreality about the contrast: out there wind and thunder and chaos sweeping inland; but here stifling stillness So in the tense silence, and a woman's voice was lifted, shrill with alar, unaware of the onco hurricane
She realized that she still heard thatdrum-beat and she stared toward the black forest, her flesh crawling She could see nothing, but some obscure instinct or intuition pro under black branches and enacting a na that sounded like a druhoulish conviction, and looked sea-ward, as a blaze of lightning 124