A Covenant with the Dead ... New edition

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" ' Muvvcr, Muvver,' cried Artie." P. 112. "Covenant with the Dead." A COVENANT WITH THE DEAD. A NOVEL. BY CLARA LEMORE, AUTHOR OF 'A HARVEST OF WEEDS, "'PUT ASUNDER, ETO NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. LONDON : GRIFFITH, FARRAN & CO., NEWBERY HOUSE, 39 CHARING CROSS ROAD. 1893. Published in Three Volumes. March, 1892. Cowan & Co , Limited, Printers, Perth. CONTENTS.

" As it Fell upon a Day ; in the Merry, Merryt Month of May, " WITH THE DEAD

Chapter I

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN. It was a memorable run in more ways than one. The field was unusually large, and the fox unusually strong in the wind. As a rule, Avhen the Llanrwst pack started their fox from the cover at the top end of Bryn tirion, and the wind was from the nor'-west, those avIio Avere in the know were able to form their OAvn conclusions as to the route to be taken, and to make their own plans for reaching the scene of the finish by the easiest and best road, irrespective of the fox's whims on the subject of direct locomotion. But on this especial occasion the wise acres Avere for once at a disadvantage, and those who stuck as near as might be to the dogs were those who Avere near est home at the finish. And the wiseacres grumbled prodigiously. Who, they wanted to know, ever heard of a fox trying to climb a mountain after he had had the dogs at his tail for close on thirty minutes?

There were more accidents that day than in the whole season besides. Men and horses who had the most unlimited confidence in each other, and good cause for the same, came to grief among the broken ground at the foot of the hill, which was a terra incognita alike to master and beast. It had been rather a slow day at the start. The first fox did not break aAvay until close on one o'clock, and being a AVITH THE DEAD. cunning old strategist, who knew his business thoroughly, he had kept the hunt on the jog from pillar to post for an hour and a half, and managed to give them the slip after all. After this a move was made for the Bryntirion covers, and at ten minutes past three they started a rouser. Everybody knew at once, by his style of breaking away, that they had got a teaser this time; it had been a beastly day so far, but they were to have a good finish.

Men, horses, and hounds alike shook themselves to gether and prepared for a bit of smart Avork. By the time they reached the foot of Bryn-maAvr everybody's blood was fairly up, and then, Avhen those in the first flight were past thinking reasonably on any subject Avhatever, the fox, in stead of keeping straight on doAvn wind, as a fox might be expected to do, turned at right angles, and skirting round the east side of the hill, took a short, sharp run up wind, turned again, and dashed in among the boulders ancl gullies at the foot of the range. In after years that run became legendary in the annals of the Llanrwst hunt. When a member once got on to the account of that day's casualties strangers Avere apt to shake their heads in good-natured doubt. And yet, as a matter of fact, it was almost impossible to exaggerate the list of the day's disasters.

Charlotte Kennett, eldest daughter of Hildebert Ken nett, Esquire, of Kennett's Wold, Yorkshire, at present on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Prys-Rees of Coed-y-Byclrwn, was just at the tail of the first lot when the fox took that extraordinary turnup Avind, and in among the broken ground, Avhich so disconcerted his pursuers. As a rule, Rees brought his sister-in-law out himself, but to-day other duties claimed his time, and he had begged the good services of one of his tenants, a Mr. Evans, on her behalf. And Evans, having grown-up daughters of his own, Avas duly impressed by the responsibilities of his po sition ; but for this all might have gone Avell with him. He might have reached his home and family that evening none the Avorse for the day's doings, and all that follows must have inevitably been ordered differently.

As it Avas, his first thought, Avhen he found himself among the shifting shingle and broken ground of the hill side — -ground almost impracticable for anything less sure footed than a mountain pony — was for the intrepid young woman behind him. He had seen her and her horse Rhino do one or two things already before to-day, and he knew that wherever he led there she Avould follow. So, with a touch of regret on his OAvn account, he turned his mare's head resolutely aside at the first really nasty jump they came to, and signing to Miss Kennett to wait, he rode a bit more up the hill to see if the ravine narrowed higher up. Miss Kennett, imvardly rebelling, checked Rhino too, and waited a few seconds listening for her pioneer's signal to come on. As she faced her horse round to the wind she saw the western horizon piled high Avith solid, lumpy gray clouds, which looked as if they meant mischief ; and even as she stood two or three large snowflakes fluttered down irresolutely, as if they had been cast forth against their will, and settled on Rhino's mane and the bosom of her habit.

The wind was changing every instant, colder and colder. She shivered at its icy touch, and walked Rhino gently up the hill. It was already too cold to stand with safety. When she had gone some little distance she began to wonder why she did not meet, or at least see something of, Mr. Evans. It was now that the deathlike loneliness of the scene struck her for the first time. She found herself on the upward slope of a triangular valley, shut in on two sides by the rugged hills, open on the other to the softer level country below. There was not a living creature bar her horse and herself in sight. The hunt, as many of them as had got so far, had disappeared over a low ridge on her left, and as she waited again she fancied she heard a faint vieAV halloo in the distance. Feeling mad to have lost the finish by such a Uttle bit, and rather indignant with Mr. Evans for being the cause of her disappointment, she determined to take matters into her own hands and jump the gully neck or nothing.

But it was too dusk to do things rashly. She took the horse up to the ravine to have a look at the jump before putting him at it. To her astonishment, as they came up to the edge, the creature shied slightly, a vice hitherto unknown in him, and took his next step or two forward with pricked ears and lowered neck. The next instant Miss Kennett knew everything. In the shadow at the bottom of the gully, scarcely deeper here than a roadside ditch, lay the motionless figure of a man. With a startled cry she slid down from her saddle and scrambled doAvn into the little hollow. Yes — it was Mr. Evans — Mr. Evans, with his face of a dull leaden color, all but one spot over his right eyebrow, where there was a patch of red of so vivid a color that it seemed as if all the usual healthy ruddiness of his cheeks had concentrated it self in that smaller space.

Miss Kennett's heart tightened with a sudden awful fear as she knelt down and slid her hand inside the senseless man's vest. No! Thank God, he was not dead. His heart was still beating — faintly, it is true. After that first sickening flash of terror this discovery was relief enough for the moment, and she busied herself Avith loosening his throat-gear and getting his head into a less cramped position, and doing one or two little things for his comfort. Then she found his flask — filled, thank Heaven, with brandy, and of goodly proportions to boot — - and opening his teeth with the horn handle of her crop, she poured a few drops down his throat. After this his heart-beats strengthened slightly, and she got up out of the ditch and took a good look round. The snow-clouds from the west had by this time spread themselves out in a smooth, unbroken gray canopy over the whole extent of the sky, and the snow was falling quickly.

Away in the valley below her faint lines of white were forming wherever a hedge afforded the snowflakes a few feet of shelter from the wind, which was rapidly in creasing to a hurricane. Charlotte Kennett looked round at the helpless man in the holloAv behind her, and then again at the dreary prospect in front, and a quick, over whelming sensation of helplessness smote upon her. What should she do? Should she ride away at once for help? And leave the senseless man to be buried under the approaching snowstorm, and to be in all probability frozen to death before he was discovered again? The idea was not to be entertained for a moment ; let it be for life or for death, she must stay there and do her best for the fellow-creature so curiously throAvn upon her mercy. At the thought of passing the night upon the mountain-side with him her heart grew such a craven within her that she put the idea from her Avith resolute determination, and refused to contemplate the possibility of the thing.

Search parties would, of course, be sent out as soon as it was discovered that they were missing. His riderless horse Avould certainly be seen by somebody, who would at once give the alarm. At the worst it would only be a temporary inconvenience that she would have to put up with. But, meantime, it was dreadful that her charge should lie out there in the open, with the snowflakes drifting down on his unconscious gray face. And yet, what could she do with him? About a dozen yards higher up the gully appeared to end abruptly, blocked up by a huge slab of rock which projected five or six feet forward over the hollow. If she could get him in there he would at least be out of the wind and beyond the reach of the snoAV. She went a little nearer to examine the cranny, Rhino following her like a dog, evidently a little exercised in his mind as to the meaning of this unprecedented finish to the day's run.

The darkness was falling with astonishing rapidity. When she got back to her helpless charge again she had to lean over him to see his face at all, and, doing so, met the unperceptive gaze of his wide-open eyes. "Thank God!" she cried fervently. "Oh, thank God you are coming round ! Now, perhaps, I shall be able to get you under shelter before the fury of the storm reaches us. Do you think you could get on your feet?" The eyes greAv less untroubled, and the brow took a look of perplexity. She saw the effort at thought and encouraged it. " Try to understand Avhat I am saying to you," she Avent on, speaking Avith slow distinctness; "try with all your might to understand. You haA'e been badly thrown, and you and I are alone on the mountain-side, and there is a heavy snoAVstorm coming on. I want you to try to move a few steps to a place of shelter I have found — will you?

We shall both be frozen here." Through the dusk she saAvhis lips moving, but no sound came. Kneeling by his side, she gave him a few drops from the flask, and waited a little before she said again : " Will you try to move a few steps — only a very few?" This time the words came — faint, husky, ancl uncertain, but reasonable. " The stirrup," he said ; " put the stirrup within reach." Wondering, she did as he bid her, leading Rhino down into the ditch a little way loAver down, and bringing the docile beast up to his side. Then she saw what he meant. When he had got the stirrup in his hand he tried to raise himself by its help. Seeing this, she got behind him and used all her vigorous young strength to second his endeavors, steadying the horse meantime with such expressive words and sounds as might be expected to reach his undertanding.

But in hon est truth the brute did not need these verbal encourage ments to do his duty ; by this time he knew pretty well all there was to know, and was only too glad to be of help in the crisis. And at last Evans was on his feet and moving, with one arm round the pommel of the saddle and the other round Miss Kennett's shoulders. But it was only a very few steps he travelled before he began to sway heavily. She felt him coming, and managed to break the shock of his fall. He had sAvooned again. How many times this happened — before she at last had him safe under the shelter of the overhanging rock — she did not know. Sometimes she lost heart for a breathless second or two, and almost resigned herself to sitting quietly down by his side and giving up the struggle. But at these times the memory of his women-folk at home always came to her as a reproach.

Were they to be rendered widowed and fatherless because she had not the strength and courage to persevere ? And so these momentary little surren ders always ended in another effort, another minute of violent muscular exertion, of eager encouragement to her helpless companion — a minute of straining, tearing, striv ing breathlessness on her part, of dogged effort on the part of the suffering man, of perfect patience and helpfulness on the part of the horse — and at last they were at the place where they would be, and Charlotte Kennett could have cried with joy only to see him safely out of reach of the whirling snowflakes and the piercing wind. But just now was not the right time for the display of weak emotion. While there was yet a feAv minutes of that twilight which is but the ghost of the departed day still left to her, she tramped out again into the open and gathered close-packed armfuls of the dead autumn bracken, which still clung thickly to the slopes and steeps on all sides.

With these she built a fire — out of the hollow and round the angle of the rock, where Rhino Avould not see the flicker of the flames — and set it alight, hoping against hope that its glimmer might be seen from afar, and guide some of the searchers to her poor little camp. Some more of the bracken she pressed closely round and piled high over the injured man, and presently she suc ceeded in getting Rhino to lie down close at his side, and the horse, too, she covered Avith the dry, brittle stuff high over his flanks, hoping thus to keep out the first keen edge of the night's bitterness. She gave the beast some weak brandy and Avater, mixing a little of the spirit Avith melted snow, and letting him draw it up out of her hollowed hands. It was not exactly as good as a warm mash, per haps, but he recognized the fact that it Avas the best sub stitute she could manage, and nosed her over after it with every sign of gratitude.

It was Avell for them all that she had to be so busy as to preclude any idea of rest for herself. There was the fire to be kept replenished, and this necessitated constant tramps out and about in search of fuel, and there was a mouthful of brandy to be administered to the patient as often as he shoAved signs of consciousness. Once in her perambulations she came across a sheltered nook where the snow had not drifted, carpeted with dainty grass, Avhich she plucked with her hands and carried down to the hungry Rhino. Another time she lost sight of her fire for a second or two, and imagining herself lost, and realizing in a flash the horror of a night out there alone, she went sick Avith dread and terror. But the next moment the friendly little glimmer came into view again, and she rushed back to it with headlong speed, and was amazed to find hoAV homelike it felt to be there by the poor little glow again, with Rhino's tail shoAving round the corner of the rock in the little hollow at her feet, and her stack of twigs and bracken close by in a convenient cleft out of reach of the snow.

For the snow still went on falling all the long night through. By-and-by she found another occupation. As the pa tient's swoons grew less frequent he became more alive to his physical sufferings, and though he made no positive sign of what he was enduring, being anxious not to add to the manifold horrors of his guardian's position, her keen ear detected a change in his voice — a change from exhaus tion to more acute suffering. He had not known he had betrayed himself until she brought a bandage, improvised out of her own handker chief and his cravat, and moistened with snow, and lifting his head on her knee, bound it lightly round his throbbing temples. "That is heaven!" he sighed softly, and Rhino, seized perhaps with some sudden whim of jealousy, reached his slim nose forward and slid it insinuatingly into her unoc cupied hand.

She sat there for some little time with the two heads on her knee, the man's face set and ashy gray, and the eyes firm closed in silent endurance; the brute's open and at tentive, glancing here and there at the snowflakes falling beyond the shelter of the rock, as they caught the firelight and eddied about in fantastic swirls and rushes, as if in delighted gloating over the distress and calamity they be held in the recess doAvn there. In that short pause from physical exertion she found herself imagining weird horrors. It seemed to her that this terrible experience was a punishment laid upon her for her sins, that this Avas no ordinary night, with its appointed hours of darkness and its inevitable finish at the approach of a neAv day. The fancy grew and intensified Avithin her that to this night there was to be no end, that they Avere to go on and on and on through dim, countless ages Avaiting in this little IioUoav for the morning which was never to daAvn, Avaiting always, Avith no sound in their ears but the moaning and shrieking of the wind as it tore past the shoulder of the mountain behind them, no view within their vision but the whirling, eddying, shifting curtain of snowflakes, which seemed to have shut them off from the rest of the world for ever and ever.

The notion got such a hold upon her at last that she began to be afraid her senses were deserting her. She got up and moved about, trying to fight back this new terror, and then in her helplessness she put her hands together, and with the snoAv beating at her from all sides, and with the hurricane singing its threatening dirge in her ears, she prayed such a prayer as she had never before prayed in her life. The mental exaltation of the effort calmed and steadied her, and with renewed courage she resumed her unwearied ministrations to the helpless man, her eager care of the fire, and her persuasive coaxings to the dumb member of the party whose store of animal heat had such a large share in saving Richard Evans' life that night. And good was it for that same Richard Evans that Charlotte Kennett was no self-indulgent, pampered, sinew less miss of modern affectations, but a hardy, robust young creature, accustomed to enjoying the use of the muscles her Maker had bestowed upon her, and with a mind as free from fanciful failings as her body.

Had it been otherwise she must inevitably have succumbed to the horrors which assailed her one after the other through the hours of that eternal night; and Avhen in the dim, gray tAvilight of the autumn morning a party of searchers at last stumbled across the tiny camp under the rock the chances are that, instead of finding a survival of light vitality and Avarmth they might have found a harvest of death.

Chapter II. Impulse

V. INSTINCT. Coed-y-Bychwn had been kept as quiet as the grave all the day through. The servants had moved about the house as silently as ghosts, no gongs had been sounded. The guests had crept up and doAvn the staircases with foot falls of velvet and bated breath, and those among them avIio had used horses or carriages, though very few had cared to turn out after the night of sleepless anxiety they had passed through, had gone through the back of the house to the stables to mount, so that Charlotte Kennett's rest should not be broken by the passing of a wheel or a hoof-beat under her window. And she had slept as it was right and proper she should sleep after such an ordeal as she had gone through. Per fect quiet, a hot bath, a double dose of strong soup, and a big sleep had been the doctor's prescription when she had reached the house at seven o'clock in the morning, and the prescription had been carried out to the letter, with the result that now, at four in the afternoon, she Avas sitting in the deep arm-chair in front of a blazing fire in her OAvn room, Avrapped in a cosy old crimson dressing-go avu, and looking scarcely any the Avorse for her melodramatic adventure.

She was so much her usual self that when her sister came stealing into the room to make her inquiries, with the footstep and general deportment Avhich belong exclusively to sick-rooms, Charlotte received her with a gay little laugh. "Don't do that, Milly, my dearest," she cried, "or I shall begin to think I am desperately bad. Hoav beautifully quiet the house has been all day, or is it that I have slept through everything?" Mrs. Rees stooped and kissed her with a warmth which was the outward expression of her very real relief. "You are really a wonderful creature," she said admir ingly. " I don't believe I knoAv another woman who Avould have gone through such an ordeal and come out of it as you have." She put her hand down as she spoke and turned Charlotte's face a little more to the window.

" Looked at by this light, you scarcely even look paler than usual; there is just the shadoAv of fatigue under your eyes, et voila tout!" "And why not?" asked Charlotte. "Did you expect I should have an attack of brain fever? I suppose I gave you all a rare fright, Milly?" Mrs. Rees opened her eyes and clasped her hands and caught her breath. The little performance was more ex pressive than half an hour of words. "I will tell you all about that by-and-by," she said. " What I came up about nowAvas to see if you felt equal to a visitor?" "A visitor?" " Yes, or rather two. I hinted as strongly as I well could that it Avould be better to defer the visit for a day or two, but the poor thing is in such a state of emotion that it seemed cruel to pour cold water on her wish to see A'OU." "Who is it?"

" Mrs. Evans and one of her daughters." "Oh, Milly, my child!" " Yes, I knew you wouldn't like it, and I did my best, but — you see you must go through Avith it, sooner or later, Lotte. It's natural the poor soul should Avant to thank you; I should, myself, in her place. I'd get it over, and have done with it, if I Avere you." "It will be simply awful!" said Charlotte despairingly; " but, as you say, there are her feelings to be thought of, too. Yes, I'll see her, and get it over." Mrs. Rees turned as she moved toward the door. " Will you have a lamp?" "I think not; the twilight will be less embarrassing, less ceremonious. No, Ave will get our chat over in the half light." But even so it Avas a rather trying little interview. Mrs. Evans' emotions were so palpably beyond her pow ers of expression that that fact alone gave an overburdened feeling to the mental atmosphere.

Charlotte felt insecure the whole time the grateful woman was in the room; she felt that at any moment there might be a sudden upheaval of the forces at work, that at any instant she might be carried away by her agitation, and fling herself on her knees and seize the hands of her husband's preserver in hers, and cover them with her kisses and tears, and at this time in her life Charlotte Kennett was almost man nish in her horror of a scene. Another thing which made her uncomfortable was the good lady's habit of dragging in quotations from the Scriptures, doing it in such an odd, inconsequent fashion that Miss Kennett's strong distaste sometimes gave way suddenly to her sense of the ridiculous, and she was seized Avith a mad inclination to give way to immoderate laughter. " If my tongue was the pen of a ready writer, Miss Ken nett," she said, in a voice tremulous with deep feeling, and Avith brimming tears in her eyes, " I might perhaps be able to tell you how full my heart is of gratitude.

Though, indeed, for that matter, how anybody's tongue could ever be turned into a pen was always a thing that puzzled me. For my part I Avould rather use my tongue than my pen any day, for if I'm a bad speaker I'm a worse writer, and if I ever try to express myself strongly in writing it always ends in so many blots and crossings-out that at last I forget myself what I meant to say. And indeed," she added, with sudden surprise at finding she had worked round to an appropriate remark promiscuously, " and indeed that is what I am doing now, Miss Kennett — I am forgetting what I Avanted to say, though, as far as that goes, I could never say all I wanted if I went on trying without stopping for a month." "Well, then, don't distress yourself by trying at all," put in Charlotte, with a gravity highly laudable under the circumstances.

" You see, Mrs. EA*ans, I knoAv so exactly what it is you want me to understand. You are anxious that I should know that you think I was Arery brave and good not to desert Mr. Evans on the hillside last night. Well, I do know that you think it, but I'll tell you a little secret, you and your daughter, if you will both promise not to betray me to the whole world. The real honest truth is that I was not a bit brave at heart. My staying with him was really rather a proof of cowardice than courage, for, all hurt as he was, poor soul, I felt his presence a protection against the terror of the night." " And the cold bandage for his head, and the brandy, and coA'ering him up Avith the bracken?" " It all gave me occupation and helped me to pass the time, you know," said Charlotte rather apologetically.

"Oh, yes I know!" exclaimed Mrs. Evans, with a kind of fierceness. " I knoAv that you are one of those good women Avhose price is above rubies, one of those Avhose virtues are a croAvn to her husband, or, at least, they will be when you have one. The crown is there, all the same, whether the husband is or not, and it's not your fault that he is not there to wear it." This was almost too much. Charlotte rose suddenly Avith some wild idea of flight, and catching sight, over her mother's shoulder, of Miss Evans' face in the background, sat down again as suddenly, and composed her face with stern decorum. " Of course we are taking up your time, '^continued Mrs. Evans, putting her own construction on the impetuous action. " I AA*as forgetting that you must be tired. But one forgets most things when one's heart is full of just one feeling — full to the brim, pressed doAvn and running over, as mine is Avith gratitude.

We will bid you good-night, Miss Kennett. Meg, bid Miss Kennett good-night, and if you can say a Avord on your OAvn account, do. I'm surprised that you haven't found anything to say, you that's your father's favorite child, too." " I hope you Avon't trouble to do anything of the sort," said Charlotte, putting out her hand to the girl, avIio came forward with a certain shrinking reluctance, Avhich appeared to Miss Kennett to be caused by her consciousness of her mother's trying manner. AVhen the girl drew near her she was surprised to discover Iioav pretty and refined she was in looks and manner — surprised, because Mrs. Evans scarcely impressed one as being likely to have dainty daughters. But, then, she was very young, scarcely more than a child, and perhaps the dim light flattered her a lit tle, too.