Chapter Thirty-Four.
THE GREAT RAIN.
Gavin passed on through Windyghoul, thinking in his frenzy that hestill heard the trap. In a rain that came down like iron rods everyother sound was beaten dead. He slipped, and before he could regainhis feet the dog bit him. To protect himself from dikes and trees andother horrors of the darkness he held his arm before him, but soon itwas driven to his side. Wet whips cut his brow so that he had toprotect it with his hands, until it had to bear the lash again, forthey would not. Now he had forced up his knees, and would havesuccumbed but for a dread of being pinned to the earth. This fightbetween the man and the rain went on all night, and long before itended the man was past the power of thinking.
In the ringing of the ten o'clock bell Gavin had lived the seventhpart of a man's natural life. Only action was required of him. Thataccomplished, his mind had begun to work again, when suddenly the lossof Babbie stopped it, as we may put out a fire with a great coal. Thelast thing he had reflected about was a dogcart in motion, and,consequently, this idea clung to him. His church, his mother, werelost knowledge of, but still he seemed to hear the trap in front.
The rain increased in violence, appalling even those who heard it fromunder cover. However rain may storm, though it be an army of archersbattering roofs and windows, it is only terrifying when the noiseswells every instant. In those hours of darkness it again and againgrew in force and doubled its fury, and was louder, louder, andlouder, until its next attack was to be more than men and women couldlisten to. They held each other's hands and stood waiting. Thenabruptly it abated, and people could speak. I believe a rain thatbecame heavier every second for ten minutes would drive many listenersmad. Gavin was in it on a night that tried us repeatedly for quitehalf that time.
By and by even the vision of Babbie in the dogcart was blotted out. Ifnothing had taken its place, he would not have gone on probably; andhad he turned back objectless, his strength would have succumbed tothe rain. Now he saw Babbie and Rintoul being married by a ministerwho was himself, and there was a fair company looking on, and alwayswhen he was on the point of shouting to himself, whom he could seeclearly, that this woman was already married, the rain obscured hiswords and the light went out. Presently the ceremony began again,always to stop at the same point. He saw it in the lightning-flashthat had startled the hill. It gave him courage to fight his wayonward, because he thought he must be heard if he could draw nearer tothe company.
A regiment of cavalry began to trouble him. He heard it advancing fromthe Spittal, but was not dismayed, for it was, as yet, far distant.The horsemen came thundering on, filling the whole glen of Quharity.Now he knew that they had been sent out to ride him down. He paused indread, until they had swept past him. They came back to look for him,riding more furiously than ever, and always missed him, yet his fearsof the next time were not lessened. They were only the rain.
All through the night the dog followed him. He would forget it for atime, and then it would be so close that he could see it dimly. Henever heard it bark, but it snapped at him, and a grin had become theexpression of its face. He stoned it, he even flung himself at it, headdressed it in caressing tones, and always with the result that itdisappeared, to come back presently.
He found himself walking in a lake, and now even the instinct ofself-preservation must have been flickering, for he waded on,rejoicing merely in getting rid of the dog. Something in the waterrose and struck him. Instead of stupefying him, the blow brought himto his senses, and he struggled for his life. The ground slippedbeneath his feet many times, but at last he was out of the water. Thathe was out in a flood he did not realize; yet he now acted like one infull possession of his faculties. When his feet sank in water, he drewback; and many times he sought shelter behind banks and rocks, firsttesting their firmness with his hands. Once a torrent of stones,earth, and heather carried him down a hillside until he struck againsta tree. He twined his arms round it, and had just done so when it fellwith him. After that, when he touched trees growing in water, he fledfrom them, thus probably saving himself from death.
What he heard now might have been the roll and crack of the thunder.It sounded in his ear like nothing else. But it was really somethingthat swept down the hill in roaring spouts of water, and it passed onboth sides of him so that at one moment, had he paused, it would havecrashed into him, and at another he was only saved by stopping. Hefelt that the struggle in the dark was to go on till the crack ofdoom.
Then he cast himself upon the ground. It moved beneath him like somegreat animal, and he rose and stole away from it. Several times didthis happen. The stones against which his feet struck seemed toacquire life from his touch. So strong had he become, or so weak allother things, that whatever clump he laid hands on by which to pullhimself out of the water was at once rooted up.
The daylight would not come. He longed passionately for it. He triedto remember what it was like, and could not; he had been blind solong. It was away in front somewhere, and he was struggling toovertake it. He expected to see it from a dark place, when he wouldrush forward to bathe his arms in it, and then the elements that weresearching the world for him would see him and he would perish. Butdeath did not seem too great a penalty to pay for light.
And at last day did come back, gray and drear. He saw suddenly oncemore. I think he must have been wandering the glen with his eyes shut,as one does shut them involuntarily against the hidden dangers ofblack night. How different was daylight from what he had expected! Helooked, and then shut his dazed eyes again, for the darkness was lesshorrible than the day. Had he indeed seen, or only dreamed that hesaw? Once more he looked to see what the world was like; and the sightthat met his eyes was so mournful that he who had fought through thelong night now sank hopeless and helpless among the heather. The dogwas not far away, and it, too, lost heart. Gavin held out his hand,and Snap crept timidly toward him. He unloosened his coat, and the dognestled against him, cowed and shivering, hiding its head from theday. Thus they lay, and the rain beat upon them.