The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 142: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

138 Farther along the shore he heard an- other man scrambling among the rocks, and he shrank down and waited for him to pass. It was the leader of the lug- gers crew. He went by in the dark, but Feltnar knew him from his tall figure and flapping cloak. “I suppose I should feel some grati- tude to you,” muttered Feltnar, apos- trophizing the unconscious stranger, “considering that your cloak has cov- ered me when I was cold, and that you doubtless had me brought out of the desert when I was lost. But I must say I bear you no great amount of good will. I think you are dangerous.” He pursued his way when the foot- steps of the man passcd out of hearing, determined to tell his suspicions to Eirik and have the bouders aroused to the quality of their new neighbors. If these men were smugglers, they might be something worse, too. As he had seen them just now, around their camp-fire, they were an unkempt and rascally looking crew. Suddenly, as he rounded a jutting point of rock, the flash of a light ahead caught his cye. It was on the shore—a lantern, perhaps—and he wondered if Firik had come in search of him. But how strangcly the light moved! It did not swing as though a man car- ried it easily, hanging by his side. In- stead, it rose and fell, rose and fell, as though the bearer raised and lowered it as a signal. Yet what signal would be given on this barren coast at night? Surely there was no other lugger to come to the shore. The smugglers could not ex- pect other merry companions to land in such a sea as now dashed itself upon the lava rocks! The light continued to flash at in- tervals. It looked as though it was in the bows of a boat rocking on the tide. Strange, for there was no boat, nor any sea where the lantern was held; Feltnar was sure of that. He drew nearer. The _ hulking shadow of the person with the lght was flung against the wall of starless night beyond. The lantern was held a score of feet above the sea—just at the brink of a little bluff. And under the shelter of the bluff, THE ARGOSY. where the gulley ran up from high water mark, lay a darker blot of shadow. It was the Wild Woman’s hut. “ Now, what can have sent a light like that out along the shore to- night?” muttered Feltnar. “ I wonder where the crazy old woman is? Can this have anything to do with her? ” He crept nearer, climbing the rocks until he came to the edge of the ravine across from which the lantern swung. From this point of vantage he could more plainly see the outlines of the person holding the light. He made out the bent figure, the flapping skirt, the bare head with its scanty locks of hair like the serpents of the Medusa. He knew who the light bearer was then. “What can that old creature be do- ing there with the lantern? Is she ma- king signals? And to whom?” He remembered the passing of the man in the cloak, evidently coming from the Wild Woman’s hut. And the -moment after the light had appeared. Had the stranger sent her up there to swing the lantern so strangely? Much troubled by the incident, but failing to see wherein it was his busi- ness, eltnar went on without further ado. He soon reached the more level field, and hurried toward the ridge which separated it from the byre. As he mounted the slope half an hour later he heard voices above him, and knew that the family were out on the crest of the hill. But there was only a single figure there when he reached the top. Re- treating footsteps told him that the others had gone down again. “Who comes there? ” cried the fresh voice of Indridi. “°"Tis only I—Feltnar,” he said. “ What has brought vou and the others out on such a dark night ? ” There was a heavy footstep near by. Eirik had returned, having missed the girl; but when he saw the two together and recognized IF eltnar’s voice, he turned back with a groan toward the farmhouse. “We were looking at the ship’s lights. She has sent up a rocket. The sea is very treacherous to-night, and she is near shore.” (SO APU UCC AOOLK (SO in