Part 47 (1/2)

He stood staring down at them through a moment of leering self-satisfaction, and then slowly, reluctantly, turned away. He took Miller's arm and drew him insistently down the path. His evil laughter came back to them shrill upon the evening breeze.

Inside their prison the two turned and confronted each other. Then Aylmer spoke.

”He has defied G.o.d, and the judgment of G.o.d has fallen on him. He is insane--that is evident! Insane with malice, with his surrender to the devil and all his works.”

Her lips were parched. She whispered.

”And to-morrow?” she questioned, thickly. ”To-morrow--we shall have to surrender, too. To him?”

He clenched his fists.

”No!” he said. ”No! Not while Fate has given us to-night--to-night!”

CHAPTER XXIII

PADRE SIGISMONDI

The presage of the afternoon sky was amply fulfilled by midnight. The western gale howled through the window bars and the sound of the sea's thunder rolled up from the beach. For the Mediterranean it was a gale beyond the normal, one that had borrowed strength from its Atlantic kin.

It lashed the green islands of the archipelago with unaccustomed violence. The vine poles fell in ranks before its blast; the lava dust whirled up in spirals; the pebbles clattered along the face of the s.h.i.+ngle. And yet there was something strange, noticeable, almost ominous, about the tempest. It had none of the northern breath of ice.

It was a hot wind; in spring or summer, and had it risen in the south, one would have called it sirocco and kept in the shadow throughout its blowing. But this wind blew from the north and the month was December.

The islanders mused over the phenomenon debatingly.

Inside the prison the storm m.u.f.fled sounds which, however, no listener was abroad to detect. A common table fork his only implement, Aylmer was levering the ma.s.sive corner-stones inch by inch from their seating. The lower one had already been removed, but the upper one, as expected, had not fallen from its place. He panted as he put forth his strength upon it. The ebb and flow of his pulses swelled in the half-healed scar on his temple. Blood was flowing from a few superficial cuts upon his fingers. He ground his teeth and tugged at the stone savagely, worrying it as a terrier might worry a defiant rat. And then, with an unexpected jerk, it fell out upon him bodily. He dropped backwards, the stone's weight upon his leg.

He gave a half-m.u.f.fled cry, not of pain, but of satisfaction. The rest was easy; the road was open.

Then, as he panted in the relief of accomplished effort, Fate rebuked his satisfaction with a sudden threat. A step sounded coming up the gravel.

His temperamental coolness and presence of mind never stood a test better. He stood up, raised each stone in quick succession, and placed them swiftly, carefully, and silently beneath the coverlet of his companion's bed. She flung herself down beside them. He drew his own pallet into the corner from which the stones had been removed and lay, his face to the wall, the huddle of the bed clothes hiding the opening.

A moment later a light shone through the window. The light of a lamp illuminated a wrinkled Italian face.

The watcher blinked at them suspiciously, grunted, and then with a half-articulate expression of satisfaction, turned away. The light bobbed slowly off into the distance, flaring and guttering before the force of the wind. Inside the prison a sigh went up--a chorussed echo of relief.

”Landon is taking no chances,” said Aylmer, in a whisper. ”We are to be visited, at intervals. That is evident.”

He heard something like the sound of a sob in the darkness.

”It means defeat--this?” asked Claire. ”Fate is setting her face against us. We are not even to have our chance!”

”No!” he said grimly. ”Fate is not against us. I feel it, I have believed it all along. And if she is, then it is our duty to defy her.

After all, we can use the chief source of danger to defeat suspicion; that is easy.”

He rose cautiously and plucked the remaining stones from the hole. He placed them in his own bed; he arranged matters carefully. And then he made a motion towards the new-made opening.

”Will you lead?” he said quietly. ”Will you be the first to confront--Fate?”

She gave a little gasp.