CHAPTER VIII
Olaf's Story
There was a little silence. I looked upon him with wonder. Clearly hewas in deepest earnest. I know the psychology of the Gael is a curiousone and that deep in all their hearts their ancient traditions andbeliefs have strong and living roots. And I was both amused andtouched.
Here was this soldier, who had faced war and its ugly realitiesopen-eyed and fearless, picking, indeed, the most dangerous branch ofservice for his own, a modern if ever there was one, appreciative ofmost unmystical Broadway, and yet soberly and earnestly attesting tohis belief in banshee, in shadowy people of the woods, and phantomharpers! I wondered what he would think if he could see the Dwellerand then, with a pang, that perhaps his superstitions might make himan easy prey.
He shook his head half impatiently and ran a hand over his eyes;turned to me and grinned:
"Don't think I'm cracked, Professor," he said. "I'm not. But it takesme that way now and then. It's the Irish in me. And, believe it ornot, I'm telling you the truth."
I looked eastward where the moon, now nearly a week past the full, wasmounting.
"You can't make me see what you've seen, Lieutenant," I laughed. "Butyou can make me hear. I've always wondered what kind of a noise adisembodied spirit could make without any vocal cords or breath or anyother earthly sound-producing mechanism. How does the banshee sound?"
O'Keefe looked at me seriously.
"All right," he said. "I'll show you." From deep down in his throatcame first a low, weird sobbing that mounted steadily into a keeningwhose mournfulness made my skin creep. And then his hand shot out andgripped my shoulder, and I stiffened like stone in my chair--for frombehind us, like an echo, and then taking up the cry, swelled a wailthat seemed to hold within it a sublimation of the sorrows ofcenturies! It gathered itself into one heartbroken, sobbing note anddied away! O'Keefe's grip loosened, and he rose swiftly to his feet.
"It's all right, Professor," he said. "It's for me. It found me--allthis way from Ireland."
Again the silence was rent by the cry. But now I had located it. Itcame from my room, and it could mean only one thing--Huldricksson hadwakened.
"Forget your banshee!" I gasped, and made a jump for the cabin.
Out of the corner of my eye I noted a look of half-sheepish reliefflit over O'Keefe's face, and then he was beside me. Da Costa shoutedan order from the wheel, the Cantonese ran up and took it from hishands and the little Portuguese pattered down toward us. My hand onthe door, ready to throw it open, I stopped. What if the Dweller werewithin--what if we had been wrong and it was not dependent for itspower upon that full flood of moon ray which Throckmartin had thoughtessential to draw it from the blue pool!
From within, the sobbing wail began once more to rise. O'Keefe pushedme aside, threw open the door and crouched low within it. I saw anautomatic flash dully in his hand; saw it cover the cabin from side toside, following the swift sweep of his eyes around it. Then hestraightened and his face, turned toward the berth, was filled withwondering pity.
Through the window streamed a shaft of the moonlight. It fell uponHuldricksson's staring eyes; in them great tears slowly gathered androlled down his cheeks; from his opened mouth came the woe-ladenwailing. I ran to the port and drew the curtains. Da Costa snapped thelights.
The Norseman's dolorous crying stopped as abruptly as though cut. Hisgaze rolled toward us. And at one bound he broke through the leashes Ihad buckled round him and faced us, his eyes glaring, his yellow hairalmost erect with the force of the rage visibly surging through him.Da Costa shrunk behind me. O'Keefe, coolly watchful, took a quick stepthat brought him in front of me.
"Where do you take me?" said Huldricksson, and his voice was like thegrowl of a beast. "Where is my boat?"
I touched O'Keefe gently and stood before the giant.
"Listen, Olaf Huldricksson," I said. "We take you to where thesparkling devil took your Helma and your Freda. We follow thesparkling devil that came down from the moon. Do you hear me?" I spokeslowly, distinctly, striving to pierce the mists that I knew swirledaround the strained brain. And the words did pierce.
He thrust out a shaking hand.
"You say you follow?" he asked falteringly. "You know where tofollow? Where it took my Helma and my little Freda?"
"Just that, Olaf Huldricksson," I answered. "Just that! I pledge youmy life that I know."
Da Costa stepped forward. "He speaks true, Olaf. You go faster onthe Suwarna than on the Br-rw-un'ilda, Olaf, yes."
The giant Norseman, still gripping my hand, looked at him. "I knowyou, Da Costa," he muttered. "You are all right. Ja! You are a fairman. Where is the Brunhilda?"
"She follow be'ind on a big rope, Olaf," soothed the Portuguese."Soon you see her. But now lie down an' tell us, if you can, why youtie yourself to your wheel an' what it is that happen, Olaf."
"If you'll tell us how the sparkling devil came it will help us allwhen we get to where it is, Huldricksson," I said.
On O'Keefe's face there was an expression of well-nigh ludicrous doubtand amazement. He glanced from one to the other. The giant shifted hisown tense look from me to the Irishman. A gleam of approval lighted inhis eyes. He loosed me, and gripped O'Keefe's arm. "Staerk!" he said."Ja--strong, and with a strong heart. A man--ja! He comes too--weshall need him--ja!"
"I tell," he muttered, and seated himself on the side of the bunk."It was four nights ago. My Freda"--his voice shook--"Mine Yndling!She loved the moonlight. I was at the wheel and my Freda and my Helmathey were behind me. The moon was behind us and the Brunhilda was likea swanboat sailing down with the moonlight sending her, ja.
"I heard my Freda say: 'I see a nisse coming down the track of themoon.' And I hear her mother laugh, low, like a mother does when herYndling dreams. I was happy--that night--with my Helma and my Freda,and the Brunhilda sailing like a swan-boat, ja. I heard the child say,'The nisse comes fast!' And then I heard a scream from my Helma, agreat scream--like a mare when her foal is torn from her. I spunaround fast, ja! I dropped the wheel and spun fast! I saw--" Hecovered his eyes with his hands.
The Portuguese had crept close to me, and I heard him panting like afrightened dog.
"I saw a white fire spring over the rail," whispered OlafHuldricksson. "It whirled round and round, and it shone like--likestars in a whirlwind mist. There was a noise in my ears. It soundedlike bells--little bells, ja! Like the music you make when you runyour finger round goblets. It made me sick and dizzy--the hell noise.
"My Helma was--indeholde--what you say--in the middle of the whitefire. She turned her face to me and she turned it on the child, and myHelma's face burned into my heart. Because it was full of fear, and itwas full of happiness--of glaede. I tell you that the fear in myHelma's face made me ice here"--he beat his breast with clenchedhand--"but the happiness in it burned on me like fire. And I couldnot move--I could not move.
"I said in here"--he touched his head--"I said, 'It is Loki come outof Helvede. But he cannot take my Helma, for Christ lives and Loki hasno power to hurt my Helma or my Freda! Christ lives! Christ lives!' Isaid. But the sparkling devil did not let my Helma go. It drew her tothe rail; half over it. I saw her eyes upon the child and a little shebroke away and reached to it. And my Freda jumped into her arms. Andthe fire wrapped them both and they were gone! A little I saw themwhirling on the moon track behind the Brunhilda--and they were gone!
"The sparkling devil took them! Loki was loosed, and he had power. Iturned the Brunhilda, and I followed where my Helma and mine Yndlinghad gone. My boys crept up and asked me to turn again. But I wouldnot. They dropped a boat and left me. I steered straight on the path.I lashed my hands to the wheel that sleep might not loose them. Isteered on and on and on--
"Where was the God I prayed when my wife and child were taken?" criedOlaf Huldricksson--and it was as though I heard Throckmartin askingthat same bitter question. "I have left Him as He left me, ja! I praynow to Thor and to Odin, who can fetter Loki." He sank back,
coveringagain his eyes.
"Olaf," I said, "what you have called the sparkling devil has takenones dear to me. I, too, was following it when we found you. You shallgo with me to its home, and there we will try to take from it yourwife and your child and my friends as well. But now that you may bestrong for what is before us, you must sleep again."
Olaf Huldricksson looked upon me and in his eyes was that somethingwhich souls must see in the eyes of Him the old Egyptians called theSearcher of Hearts in the Judgment Hall of Osiris.
"You speak truth!" he said at last slowly. "I will do what you say!"
He stretched out an arm at my bidding. I gave him a second injection.He lay back and soon he was sleeping. I turned toward Da Costa. Hisface was livid and sweating, and he was trembling pitiably. O'Keefestirred.
"You did that mighty well, Dr. Goodwin," he said. "So well that Ialmost believed you myself."
"What did you think of his story, Mr. O'Keefe?" I asked.
His answer was almost painfully brief and colloquial.
"Nuts!" he said. I was a little shocked, I admit. "I think he's crazy,Dr. Goodwin," he corrected himself, quickly. "What else could Ithink?"
I turned to the little Portuguese without answering.
"There's no need for any anxiety tonight, Captain," I said. "Take myword for it. You need some rest yourself. Shall I give you a sleepingdraft?"
"I do wish you would, Dr. Goodwin, sair," he answered gratefully."Tomorrow, when I feel bettair--I would have a talk with you."
I nodded. He did know something then! I mixed him an opiate ofconsiderable strength. He took it and went to his own cabin.
I locked the door behind him and then, sitting beside the sleepingNorseman, I told O'Keefe my story from end to end. He asked fewquestions as I spoke. But after I had finished he cross-examined merather minutely upon my recollections of the radiant phases upon eachappearance, checking these with Throckmartin's observations of thesame phenomena in the Chamber of the Moon Pool.
"And now what do you think of it all?" I asked.
He sat silent for a while, looking at Huldricksson.
"Not what you seem to think, Dr. Goodwin," he answered at last,gravely. "Let me sleep over it. One thing of course is certain--youand your friend Throckmartin and this man here saw--something. But--"he was silent again and then continued with a kindness that I foundvaguely irritating--"but I've noticed that when a scientist getssuperstitious it--er--takes very hard!
"Here's a few things I can tell you now though," he went on while Istruggled to speak--"I pray in my heart that we'll meet neither theDolphin nor anything with wireless on board going up. Because, Dr.Goodwin, I'd dearly love to take a crack at your Dweller.
"And another thing," said O'Keefe. "After this--cut out thetrimmings, Doc, and call me plain Larry, for whether I think you'recrazy or whether I don't, you're there with the nerve, Professor, andI'm for _you_.
"Good night!" said Larry and took himself out to the deck hammock hehad insisted upon having slung for him, refusing the captain'simportunities to use his own cabin.
And it was with extremely mixed emotions as to his compliment that Iwatched him go. Superstitious. I, whose pride was my scientificdevotion to fact and fact alone! Superstitious--and this from a manwho believed in banshees and ghostly harpers and Irish wood nymphs andno doubt in leprechauns and all their tribe!
Half laughing, half irritated, and wholly happy in even the partpromise of Larry O'Keefe's comradeship on my venture, I arranged acouple of pillows, stretched myself out on two chairs and took up myvigil beside Olaf Huldricksson.