University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.
The March of the Storm.

The crisis of the time was now drawing
near. The heavens were enveloped
in black from the west, where the small
clay-coloured cloud first appeared an
hour and a half before, to the east, where
for the last ten minutes a streak of red
sky had seemed to contend with the
moving clouds for a place above the
horizon.

The sun, though long invisible, was
just about setting; but the darkness of
twilight had been some time covering the
bcean. From the cliff where the old
woman stood, nothing was visible but the
gloomy presence and advancing power
of the tempest. Night seemed suddenly
descending upon land and sea like a
curtain let fall. The sky was not simply
a black mass, but was streaked with angry
looking wreaths of a pale phosphorescent
colour, that curled and shot
outward with wild movements. The
whole bosom of the sky seemed to be in
a state of the wildest agitation. It tossed
and heaved like an inverted ocean lashed
by the winds. In the west and south
the thunder rolled, and arrowy lightnings
shot athwart the arching heavens in terrific
splendor.

All beneath the rolling and echoing
sky was motionless. Not a breath stirred
the leaves of the herb that clung to
the rock, or sighed through the heavy
branches of the immovable pine. The
agle and the hawk had sought their
eyries upon the cliffs or thunder-splinted
pine, where they sat in silence and fear,
watching the coming of the storm.
Even the snowy-winged gull ceased to
wheel about the cliff-head in swift and
graceful flight, and darting into the
crevices of the over-hanging rocks disappeared
from sight. A shadow of singular
gloom lay upon the land and sea.

And the sea itself lay motionless beneath
the wildly driven storm-sky. Its
surface was unruffled by a zephyr. It
looked like molten steel, only darker
from the reflection of the clouds that
seemed to hang in some places within a
few hundred feet of its surface.

Upon its broad bosom but two objects
were visible; the frigate, and the little
skiff half way from the land to it. The
boat containing May and the dwarf, had
already doubled the head-land back into
Northrop's bay and were out of sight.

The old woman stood by the hut
looking earnestly after the boat containing
her son. At intervals she would
make a brief reply to a question put to
her by the blind old man, who had dropped
his net, and turning his sightless eyes
towards the ocean, seemed to be trying
to comprehend the situation of things.

`Hark, what noise is that?' he said,
his anxiety quickening his hearing, even
more than hers; for her thoughts and
eyes were upon the little skiff, and heedless
of all else.

`It is the under-swell of the storm,
moaning up from aneath the sea. The
storm has struck the ocean not many
leagues away and will soon be here.
Oh, my poor boy!' she cried, clasping
her hands. `You will ne'er reach that
foul ship in time. Accursed be the
witch who sent thee to thy death; for
hadst thou not been fascinated thou
would'st never have thus risked thy life.'

`Do you see any signs of the wind on
the ocean yet?'

`No, not yet. All is smooth and
black as night!' she answered, after casting
her eyes in the direction of the
south-west. `He is but little more than
half-way now. See how small-like a
black spec it looks to be. May the God
of the sea keep him is an old mother's
prayer!'

`I think I hear the ship's guns.'

`No. It is the booming of the undertow
as it swells up against the shore,
forced along by the tempest ere it has
reached us. The billows begin to roll
and swell, and heave like mad. List!
Did you hear that roar? It was a huge
wave rising suddenly over Fox ledge
and breaking bodily upon it in masses of
snow!'

`We shall soon have it then. These
sou-west storms al'ays show their teeth
first on the Foxes. Look away to windward
and see if Porpus rock is white!'

`As a snow-drift!' she answered, emphatically.

`Then it wont be long afore it'll be
down upon us. I'd better go in and shut
up all snug.'

`I shall not move. I shall watch the
boat my boy is in, so long as I can strain
my eyes upon it, or see it above water.
It goes on fast, and nears the frigate.'

`How is the frigate's head?

N. by East.'

`What sail has she set?'

`She has only two three-cornered, jib
like looking sails spread between her
masts, and her jib set reefed; with her
spanker also close-reefed. All else is
taken in.'

`Her master is a wise seaman. He
knows just how to meet the storm. If
there was only room for him to lay his
course, he might get an offing as soon
as he feels the wind. But if Cape Small
Point is east of him and stretching south
of him, he'll have to lay to, or make a
harbour. And it takes a good pilot to
get into one o' our harbours in fair weather,
much less in a storm like that I can
hear howling.'

`It is the surges coming in, in great
rollers, and dashing upon the beach, that
you hear,' answered the woman. `If
you would escape the tempest, get in
with you speedily. I shall watch the
boat.'

The old man got up, and feeling his
way by the wall of the cabin, entered it,
and sat down within the door; and so
near it, that he could at any momen
close it.

She remained standing upon the rock,
her gaze bent piercingly upon the little
spec, scarcely vislble, that indicated the
spot where her son was.

`Poor boy! The girl shall die if you
perish ere you reach the ship. I hope
and pray the charms and spells she has
thrown over you, will keep you in safety.
But I have little faith in them to do any
good, though they do evil enough. Oh
my God above, spare my child!' she
suddenly cried, as a crash of thunder
shook the very earth, and made her soul
shrink within itself with horror. `I can
see my child no more!' She sank upon
her knees in grief. `The gloom and
distance has torn him from my sight.—
To thy hand, oh, Jehovah of the seas, a
mother's bleeding heart commits him!
Curses light upon the girl who has done
this!' she suddenly cried, rising to her

feet, and menacing with her arm the
quarter where May had disappeared
sometime before.

The sea now began to roar with a terrible
and deep baratone, and to fling its
enormous billows against the reefs, over-leaping
them, and tumbling noisily into
the mouth of the bay.

The ocean surface was yet polished
as a mirror, but undulating with majestic
and momentarily increasing motion.
The movement was caused by
other power than that of the winds,
which yet were held suspended in midair.

Suddenly there came to the ears of
the woman, and to the ears of May and
the dwarf, as they hugged the rock in
their skiff, and to the ears of George and
the negro, as they toiled together hard to
reach the ship, and to the ears of the
crew on board the frigate, the well-known
and terrific voice of the unbounded
storm. It was not thunder, but it was as
loud as the loudest thunder. It seemed
as if it thundered underneath the sea, and
the caves of the ocean echoed the subterranean
sound.

The woman gazed appalled, her hands
clasped upon her bosom. The old man
shut to his door, and having barred it and
sat in the darkness of blindness and solitude,
listening to the dreadful noise without.

May turned her eyes in the direction
of the storm, and beheld on the level
ocean, advancing towards the main-land,
what to her imagination seemed
like a vast army upon white steeds, rushing
to battle along the surface of the sea.
The winds had leaped from the clouds,
and turned up the bosom of the sea in a
long line for leagues, as a plough upturns
the glebe. The heaped up waves came
rolling on with fearful speed like mad
coursers foaming at the bit. The thunder
rolled above, the lightning flashed
wildly across the sky, and cast a lurid
fire upon the agitated waters, which out-roared
the thunder. Chaos seemed returning
to resume its empire over the
earth and sea.

For a moment May closed her eyes,
and covered her face with her hands.—
But she cast aside fear, and hoped that
George had reached the ship in safety;
for there were not three minutes space
for him to gain had he not.

`May, the waves will soon be upon us;
hadn't we better pull into that hole under
the rocks?' asked Tom.

`No: it will be filled instantly by the
sea. Pull on for a few rods further, and
we shall get round that rock; we shall
then have it between us and the billows,
and before they can break over us we
shall reach the beach.'

`There will be a hard chance for us;
but just as you say, May.'

He pulled with tremendous exertion of
his muscles about twenty rods further, the
skiff all the while tossed like an egg-shell
upon the under tow of the sea, and was
with difficulty guided and kept from dashing
against the cliff.

`Once or twice more, strong and
hearty, brother,' she cried; and as the
willing dwarf obeyed, she steered the
skiff adroitly round a low projection of
the cliff, and was instantly in smooth water.
It was now about five hundred
yards to the snow-white beach, on which
the heavy swells were unrolling in long
polished rolls. The darkness was becoming
momently greater, and the sea
each instant increasing in wild tumult.

`To the shore—land any where, where
it is nighest!' shouted May to the dwarf.
`The sea has overleaped the reef, and is
rolling in upon us. Pull hard for our
lives, brother!'

Her voice could no longer be heard
amid the shrieking of the tempest. The
sea leaped the reefs, and came foaming

and tossing like a myriad of whirlpools.
The roar of the rain in the air, of the
winds and the billows, was absolutely
deafening. Quitting the stern, May seized
one of the oars to aid her brother—
but too late! Suddenly the skiff was
lifted high in the air upon the brow of
the leading wave, and hurled forward
with such force as to dash it to pieces in
its fall. The next wave submerged them
both; but upon the third they rose together
to the surface, May clasped in her
brother's strong arm, which firmly encircled
her waist.

The faithful idiot buffetted with the
billows manfully: now riding high upon
a foaming surge, now making his way
along the sands upon the bottom. At
length he reached the main with his almost
lifeless burden; and scrambling up
the rocks where the waves could not
reach her, he sat her down and took
breath.

It was a fearful time. The darkness
and horror of the hour were increased by
the whitish glare of the surges, that
seemed to reveal the appalling scene
without lessening the gloom. The rain
fell in transparent sheets, the wind howled,
and tore up pines, and toppled rocks
from the precipices. It was with difficulty
Tom could keep his footing, and
hold his sister upon the shelf where he
had placed her.

`How be it with you, May?' he asked,
placing his mouth to her ear and his fingers
upon her pulse.

`I am not hurt, brother; you have
saved my life,' and she pressed his hand
gratefully. `Can we reach the cottage?'

`I will see when the next flash comes.
Yes, it is not far off—we are on the Fern
Ledge. Give me your arm—I will lead
you safely, if you can stand.'

He found that she could not, on account
of the wind and rain and the slippery
footing upon the rock. He grasped
her in his arms, and throwing her across
his broad shoulders, began to crawl on
his knees round the rock, and up through
a gap in its side. He soon gained a comparatively
sheltered pathway, which he
ascended with great difficulty and danger.
But he reached the summit, and guided
by the yellow lightning, dashed forward
to the cottage, in a room of which he
soon deposited his fair burden.

`Thanks, noble and brave brother!—
but for you I feel I should have perished
in the sea, or on the rock. I had no
power to aid myself, and was tossed by
the waves like a wreath of sea-weed,
when I felt your strong arm interposed
beneath me: from that moment I felt
that I should not die.'

`No, if May should die, Tom would
not care to live!' he answered with energy.

`I feel so thanful for my escape! It
was rash in me to attempt to return.—
Poor George! my heart aches for his
fate. Let us look from the windows, and
see if we can see the frigate by the flashes
of lightning.'

She felt as if she could tell by her
steering whether her lover was at her
helm or not.