CHAPTER X.
"When the moon is over Pelican Island." How often Ledscha had repeatedthis sentence to herself while Hermon was detained by Daphne and herPelusinian guests!
When she entered the boat after nightfall she exclaimed hopefully, sureof her cause, "When the moon is over Pelican Island he will come."
Her goal was quickly reached in the skiff; the place selected for thenocturnal meeting was a familiar one to her.
The pirates had remained absent from it quite two years. Formerlythey had often visited the spot to conceal their arms and booty on thedensely wooded island. The large papyrus thicket on the shore also hidboats from spying eyes, and near the spot where Ledscha landed was agrassy seat which looked like an ordinary resting place, but beneathit the corsairs had built a long, walled passage, that led to the otherside of the island, and had enabled many a fugitive to vanish from thesight of pursuers, as though the earth had swallowed them.
"When the moon is over the island," Ledscha repeated after she hadwaited more than an hour.
The time had not yet come; the expanse of water lay before hermotionless, in hue a dull, leaden gray, and only the dimly illumined airand a glimmering radiance along the edges of the waves that washed theisland showed that the moon was already brightening the night.
When its full orb floated above the island Hermon, too, would appear,and the happiness which had been predicted to Ledscha would begin.
Happiness?
A bitter smile hovered around her delicately cut lips as she repeatedthe word.
Hitherto no feeling was more distant from her; for when love and longingbegan to stir in her heart, it seemed as though a hideous spider wasweaving its web about her, and vague fears, painful memories, and intheir train fierce hate would force glad expectation into the shadow.
Yet she yearned with passionate fervour to see Hermon again, and whenhe was once there all must be well between them. The prediction of oldTabus, who ruled as mistress over so many demons, could not deceive.
After Ledscha had so lately reminded the lover who so vehemently rousedher jealous wrath what this night of the full moon meant to her, shecould rely upon his appearance in spite of everything.
Various matters undoubtedly held him firmly enough in Tennis--sheadmitted this to herself after she grew calmer--but he had promised tocome; he would surely enter the boat, and she--she would submit to sharethe night with the Hellene.
Her whole being longed for the bliss awaiting her, and it could comefrom no one save the man whose lips would seek hers when the moon roseover the Pelican Island.
How tardily and sluggishly the cow-headed goddess who bore the silverorb between her horns rose to-night! how slowly the time passed, yet shedid not move forward more certainly that the man whom Ledscha expectedmust arrive.
Of the possibility of his non-appearance she would not think; but whenthe fear that she was perhaps looking for him in vain assailed her,the blood crimsoned her face as if she felt the shame of a humiliatinginsult. Yet why should she make the period of waiting more torturingthan it was already?
Surely he must come!
Sometimes she rested on the grassy seat and gazed across the dull graysurface of the water into the distance; sometimes she walked to and fro,stopping at every turn to look across at Tennis and the bright torchesand lights which surrounded the Alexandrian's tent.
So one quarter of an hour after another passed away.
A light breeze rose, and gradually the tops of the rushes began toshine, and the leafage before, beside, and above her to glitter in thesilvery light.
The water was no longer calm, but furrowed by countless little ripples,on whose crests the rays from above played, sparkling and flashingrestlessly. A web of shimmering silvery radiance covered the edges ofevery island, and suddenly the brilliant full moon was reflected inargent lustre like a magnificent quivering column upon the surface ofthe water, now rippled by the evening breeze.
The time during which Ledscha could repeat "When the moon is overPelican Island" was past; already its course had led it beyond.
The island lay behind it, and it continued its pilgrimage before theyoung girl's eyes.
The glittering column of light upon the water proved that she wasnot mistaken; the time which she had appointed for Hermon had alreadyexpired.
The moon in calm majesty sailed farther and farther onward in itscourse, and with it minute after minute elapsed, until they became ahalf hour, then a whole one.
"How long is it since the moon was over Pelican Island?" was thequestion which now pressed itself upon her again and again, and towhich she found an answer at every glance upward, for she had learned toestimate time by the position of the stars.
Rarely was the silence of the night interrupted by the call of a humanbeing or the barking of a dog from the city, or even the hooting of anowl at a still greater distance; but the farther the moon moved on aboveher the fiercer grew the uproar in Ledscha's proud, cruelly wrongedsoul. She felt offended, scorned, insulted, and at the same timedefrauded of the happiness which this night of the full moon containedfor her. Or had the demons who promised happiness meant something elsein their prediction than Hermon's love? Was she to owe the bliss theyhad foretold to hate and pitiless retribution?
When the midnight hour had nearly arrived she prepared to depart, butafter she had already set her foot on the edge of the boat she returnedto the grassy seat. She would wait a little longer yet. Then there wouldbe nothing which could give Hermon a right to consideration; then shemight let loose upon him the avenging powers at her command.
Ledscha again gazed over the calm landscape, but in the wild tumult ofher heart she no longer distinguished the details upon which her eyesrested. Doubtless she saw the light mists hovering like ghosts, or therestless shades of the unburied dead, over the shining expanse beforeher, and the filmy vapours that veiled the brightness of the stars, butshe had ceased to question the heavenly bodies about the time.
What did she care for the progress of the hours, since the constellationof Charles's Wain showed her that it was past midnight?
The moon no longer stood forth in sharp outlines against the deep azureof the vaulted sky, but, robbed of its radiance, floated in a circle ofdimly illumined mists.
Not only the feelings which stirred Ledscha's soul, but the scene aroundher, had gained a totally different aspect.
Since every hope of the happiness awaiting her was destroyed, she nolonger sought to palliate the wrongs Hermon had inflicted upon her.While dwelling on them, she by no means forgot the trivial purpose forwhich the artist intended to use her charms; and when she again gazed upat the slightly-clouded sky, the shrouded moon no longer reminded her ofthe silver orb between the horns of Astarte.
She did not ask herself how the transformation had occurred, but in itsplace, high above her head, hung a huge gray spider. Its gigantic limbsextended over the whole firmament, and seemed striving to clutch andstifle the world beneath. The enormous monster was weaving its gray netover Tennis, and all the islands in the water, the Pelican Island, andshe herself upon the seat of turf, and held them all prisoned in it.
It was a horrible vision, fraught with terrors which, even when she shuther eyes in order to escape it, showed very little change.
Assailed by anxious fears, Ledscha started up, and a few seconds laterwas urging her boat with steady strokes toward the Owl's Nest.
Even now lights were still shining from the Alexandrian's tent throughthe sultry, veiled night.
There seemed to be no waking life on the pirates' island. Even old Tabushad probably put out the fire and gone to sleep, for deathlike silenceand deep darkness surrounded it.
Had Hanno, who agreed to meet her here after midnight, also failed tocome? Had the pirate learned, like the Greek, to break his promise?
Only half conscious what she was doing, she left the boat; but herslender foot had scarcely touched the land when a tall figure emergedfrom the thicket near the shore and approached he
r through the darkness.
"Hanno!" she exclaimed, as if relieved from a burden, and the youngpirate repeated "Hanno" as if the name was the watchword of the night.
Her own name, uttered in a tone of intense yearning, followed. Notanother syllable accompanied it, but the expression with which it fellupon her ear revealed so plainly what the young pirate felt for andexpected from her that, in spite of the darkness which concealed her,she felt her face flush.
Then he tried to clasp her hand, and she dared not withdraw it from theman whom she had chosen for her tool. So she unresistingly permitted himto hold her right hand while he whispered his desire to take the placeof the fallen Abus and make her his wife.
Ledscha, in hurried, embarrassed tones, answered that she appreciatedthe honour of his suit, but before she gave full consent she mustdiscuss an important matter with him.
Then Hanno begged her to go out on the water.
His father and his brother Labaja were sitting in the house by thefire with his grandmother. They had learned, in following the trade ofpiracy, to hide the glimmer of lights. The old people had approved hischoice, but the conversation in the dwelling would soon be over, andthen the opportunity of seeing each other alone would be at an end.
Without uttering a word in reply, Ledscha stepped back into the boat,but Hanno plied the oars with the utmost caution and guided the skiffwithout the slightest sound away from the island to an open part of thewater far distant from any shore.
Here he took in the oars and asked her to speak. They had no cause tofear being overheard, for the surrounding mists merely subdued thelight of the full moon, and no other boat could have approached themunobserved.
The few night birds, sweeping swiftly on their strong pinions from oneisland to another, flew past them like flitting shadows. One hawk only,in search of nocturnal booty, circled around the motionless skiff, andsometimes, with expanded wings, swooped down close to the couple whowere talking together so eagerly; but both spoke so low that it wouldhave been impossible, even for the bird's keen hearing, to follow thecourse of their consultation. Merely a few louder words and exclamationsreached the height where it hovered.
The young pirate himself was obliged to listen with the most strainedattention while Ledscha, in low whispers, accused the Greek sculptor ofhaving basely wronged and deceived her; but the curse with which Hannoreceived this acknowledgment reached even the bird circling aroundthe boat, and it seemed as if it wished to express its approval to thecorsair, for this time its fierce croak, as it suddenly swooped down tothe surface of the water behind the boat, sounded shrilly through thesilent night. But it soon soared again, and now Ledscha's declarationthat she would become Hanno's bride only on condition that he would aidher to punish the Hellenic traitor also reached him.
Then came the words "valuable booty," "slight risk," "thanks andreward."
The girl's whispered allusion to two colossal statues made of pure goldand genuine ivory was followed by a laugh of disagreeable meaning fromthe pirate.
At last he raised his deep voice to ask whether Ledscha, if the venturein which he would willingly risk his life were successful, wouldaccompany him on board the Hydra, the good ship whose command hisfather intrusted to him. The firm "Yes" with which she answered, andher indignant exclamation as she repulsed Hanno's premature attemptat tenderness, might have been heard by the hawk even at a greaterdistance.
Then the pirate's promised bride lowered her voice again, and did notraise her tones until she saw in imagination the fulfilment of thejudgment which she was calling down upon the man who had torn her heartwith such pitiless cruelty.
Was this the happiness predicted for her on the night of the full moon?It might be, and, radiant with secret joy, her eyes sparkling and herbosom heaving as if her foot was already on the breast of the fallenfoe, she assured Hanno that the gold and the ivory should belong to him,and to him alone; but not until he had delivered the base traitor to heralive, and left his punishment in her hands, would she be ready to gowith him wherever he wished--not until then, and not one moment earlier.
The pirate, with a proud "I'll capture him!" consented to thiscondition; but Ledscha, in hurried words, now described how she hadplanned the attack, while the corsair, at her bidding, plied the oars soas to bring the boat nearer to the scene of the assault.
The vulture followed the skiff; but when it stopped opposite to thelarge white building, one side of which was washed by the waves, Ledschapointed to the windows of Hermon's studio, exclaiming hoarsely to theyoung pirate: "You will seize him there--the Greek with the long, softblack beard, and the slender figure, I mean. Then you will bind and gaghim, but, you hear, without killing him, for I can only inflict what hedeserves upon the living man. I am not bargaining for a dead one."
Just at that instant the bird of prey, with a shrill, greedy cry, as ifit were invited to a delicious banquet, flew far away into the distanceand did not return. It flew toward the left; the girl noticed it, andher heavy black eyebrows, which already met, contracted still more. Thedirection taken by the bird, which soon vanished in the darkness of thenight, indicated approaching misfortune; but she was here only to sowdestruction, and the more terrible growth it attained the better!
With an acuteness which aroused the admiration of the young corsair, whowas trained to similar plots, she explained hers.
That they must wait until after the departure of the Alexandrian withher numerous train, and for the first dark night, was a matter ofcourse.
One signal was to notify Hanno to hold himself in readiness, another toinform him that every one in the white house had gone to rest, andthat Hermon was there too. The pirates were to enter the black-beardedGreek's studio. While some were shattering his statues to carry awayin sacks the gold and ivory which they contained, others were to forcetheir way into Myrtilus's workroom, which was on the opposite side ofthe house. There they would find the second statue; but this they mustspare, because, on account of the great fame of its creator, it was morevaluable than the other. The fair-haired artist was ill, and it would beno difficult matter to take him alive, even if he should put himself onthe defensive. Hermon, on the contrary, was a strong fellow, and to bindhim without injuring him severely would require both strength and skill.Yet it must be done, for only in case Hanno succeeded in delivering bothsculptors to her alive would she consider herself--she could not repeatit often enough--bound to fulfil what she had promised him.
With the exception of the two artists, only Myrtilus's servant, the olddoorkeeper, and Bias, Hermon's slave, remained during the night in thehouse which was to be attacked, and Hanno would undertake the assaultwith twenty-five sturdy fellows whom he commanded on the Hydra if hisbrother Labaja consented to share in the assault, this force could beconsiderably increased.
To take the old corsair into their confidence now would not beadvisable, for, on account of his mother's near presence, he wouldscarcely consent to enter into the peril. Should the venture fail,everything would be over; but if it succeeded, the old man could onlypraise the courage and skill with which it had been executed.
Nothing was to be feared from the coast guard, for since Abus's deaththe authorities believed that piracy had vanished from these waters,and the ships commanded by Satabus and his sons had been admitted fromPontus into the Tanite arm of the Nile as trading vessels.