The Birthright

"It will act as a weapon as well as a crowbar," I mused; then I got back to the door and began to try and place the iron between the door and the hinges. I had no light, and so I had to find out the crevice with my fingers. While trying to do this I gave a start. I was sure I heard a noise under my feet. At first it sounded like footsteps, then I heard a scraping against the floor. I listened intently, and presently I was able to locate the sound. It was just under the bed on which I had been lying.

As quickly as I was able I removed the bed, and then listened again. For a time all was silent, then I heard a sound again, only this time it was different. Three knocks followed each other in quick succession, and I heard the boards vibrate under my feet.

"Is it a friend or enemy, I wonder?" I asked myself, and I grasped the iron bar more firmly.

I heard the boards creak as though something were pressed against them, but I could see nothing. Only a very faint light crept through the window which I had partially opened. Presently the boards began to give way. I knew this by a light which streamed into the room. Then I saw the floor move, and I heard a voice say, "Maaster Jasper."

I knew the voice immediately. There was only one person in the world who could speak in such a tone.

"Eli!" I cried, joyfully.

"Doan't 'ee holla, Maaster Jasper," said Eli, in his hoarse, croaking voice, "but come to once."

"Where?"

"Away from 'ere. Ther's some steps down to the say. Come on."

I needed no second bidding. I knew that Eli was thoroughly trustworthy, and so I lifted the boards, which proved to be a trap-door, and then, putting one foot through, I realised that I stood on a stone step.

"Come after me, Maaster Jasper," said Eli; "maake 'aste, they may come after us."

So I squeezed my body through the trap-doorway, and prepared to follow him.

"Cloase thickey trap, Maaster Jasper," said Eli, and I saw his strange eyes shining in the dim light.

In my eagerness to do this I made the thing drop heavily, and the noise echoed and re-echoed through the building.

"That'll waake 'em up," cried Eli. "Come on, come vast, Maaster Jasper!"

With an agility of which no man would have thought him capable, he hurried down the steps, mumbling fiercely to himself all the time. I soon found that this stairway was very crooked and often small. I imagined then, what I have since found to be true, that the house in which I had been imprisoned had been used as a place of storage for smuggled goods, while the way by which I was trying to escape was a secret way to it.

We had not descended many yards before I heard voices above, while I knew that feet were tramping on the floor of my late prison. Evidently the noise I had made in closing the trap-door had aroused my warders, and they would now do their utmost to capture me.

My senses were now fully alive, and I determined that it should go hard with those who tried to hinder my escape. To my dismay I discovered that I had left my iron bar behind, and that I had no weapons, save my two hands, which had naturally been weakened by my long imprisonment. However, there was no time for despair, so I followed close on Eli's heels, who wriggled his way down the crooked and often difficult descent.

We must have got down perhaps one hundred feet, when, turning a corner, a current of air came up, blowing out Eli's light and leaving us in darkness.

"Can 'ee zee, Maaster Jasper?" cried Eli.

"Just a little. Can you?"

"I cud allays zee in the dark," he grunted, but his statement was not altogether borne out, for his speed was much lessened. Still we managed to get on fairly well, for Eli could see in places which to most people would be impenetrable darkness, and I had been so much accustomed to the dark that I was not altogether helpless.

After all I suppose it is difficult to find perfect darkness. Light is only a relative term, and depends very much on the nature of our eyes. Thus it was that while we could not go nearly so fast as we had been going, we could still with difficulty find our way.

Presently we heard the sound of footsteps, and I knew by their rapid movement that our pursuers would gain upon us. Eagerly we hurried on, and each minute the sound of the footsteps behind us became plainer.

"How much farther, Eli?" I panted.

"A long way yet, and a hard job when we git to the end," he replied.

"How?"

"The mouth of this 'ere addit es fathoms above the say," he replied.

"How did you get here?" then I asked.

"I'll tell 'ee when we git away," he said, impatiently.

Then I chided myself for asking so much, for even these few words must have somewhat lessened our speed.

Meanwhile, the steps came nearer and nearer.

"Stop!" cried Eli, presently.

We stopped suddenly, while we both listened eagerly.

"There be three on 'em," he grunted.

"Yes, or more."

"No, only three – we caan't git away – "

"We must, we will!" I cried.

"Only by fightin' 'em."

"Well, then, we'll fight them," I cried.

"Come on then – there es a big place down 'ere. Furder down tes awful to git along, and we caan't go wi'out a light."

A few seconds later we stood in an open place. It was almost round, and might have been twenty feet across. I saw this by the light which Eli managed to fit as soon as we got there. It took him some few seconds to fit it, however, and by that time our pursuers were upon us.

I saw in a second that two of them looked like serving-men, the third was dressed as a gentleman. I could not see his face, however, but I thought he looked a strong man. To my joy none appeared to be armed. Eli stood by my side, but his head was no higher than my loins. Thus I and the dwarf had to battle with the three. I did not wait a second. I dared not, for my liberty, perhaps my life, were at stake. Besides, I believed, in spite of what I had heard, that Naomi was not dead. Had she been I should have been removed from my prison, if not set at liberty; at least, such was my belief.

Without hesitation, therefore, before a word could be spoken, I struck one of the serving-men a tremendous blow. He staggered against the side of the cave with a thud, and fell like a lump of lead. For a little while at all events we should be two to two, for Eli, insignificant as he seemed, was a formidable opponent, although at that time I did not believe him to be a match for a well-grown man.

Encouraged by the success of my blow, I made a leap on the man I took to be a gentleman. My blow was, however, warded off, and I received a stunning blow behind the ear.

Now during the time I had been imprisoned I had, as I have stated, been kept in a half-dazed condition, and although my strength had been slowly coming back to me, I was weak compared with the time when I had been taken a prisoner at Pendennis Castle. My food had been drugged, and my enforced inactivity had made my sinews soft like a woman's. Besides, I felt I had met with a skilled fighter, and I knew by the blow he gave me that he was a strong man. Moreover, I doubted Eli's ability to engage with the other serving-man, and this made me doubtful about the result of our struggle.

All this passed through my mind in a second, but I did not yield, for while the want of hope takes away strength, despair makes men desperate, and I was desperate. Somehow, although I could not tell why, I felt I was fighting for Naomi as well as myself. So, reckless of consequences, I made a second leap on my opponent and caught him by the collar, and then some wrappings which had partially obscured his face fell off, and I saw Nick Tresidder.

He writhed and struggled in my hands, but I held him fast.

"Ah, Nick Tresidder," I cried, "we meet face to face, then. Well, I've got an adder by the throat, and I mean to hold him there."

"Yes," he said, "we meet face to face." Then with a sudden twist he made himself free.

For a second I looked hastily around the cave. A torch was lying on the floor which lit up our strange meeting-place, and near it I saw Eli struggling with the serving-man.

He looked at me scornfully, while I, panting and partially exhausted, tried to harden my sinews for a second attack. I determined to be careful, however. I knew Nick Tresidder of old; I knew he would fight with all the cunning of a serpent, and that he had as many tricks as a monkey, so that, while he would be no match for me had my strength been normal, he would now possibly be my master in my comparative weakness.

He took no notice of Eli, who struggled with the serving-man, but kept his eyes on me.

"You fool, Jasper Pennington," he said. "I had come here to set you free; now you will never leave this place alive."

"Why?" I panted, for want of better words.

"Because you know now who imprisoned you, and if you escaped you would tell it to the world. I dare not let the world know this, so you and Eli will have to die."

I felt sure there was some trick in this, although I could not tell what it was.

"But if I had been set free the world would have known," I replied.

"No, you would have been taken to a far-off spot, and you would never have known where your prison was, nor could you have sworn who imprisoned you."

"But I am going to escape," I said, still keeping my eyes on him, while I could hear Eli grunting as he struggled with the serving-man.

"No," he said, "you are as weak as a baby. Your strength even now has gone. You thought bodily strength everything; I, on the other hand, know that brains is more than bodily strength. Do you think I did not know who I was dealing with? You are a fool. Every mouthful of food you have been eating while you have been here has kept you weak. Now you are no match for me. And I am going to kill you! Shall I tell you where you are? You are at Trevose, the house that was Naomi's. Shall I tell you something else?" and he laughed mockingly. "Naomi Penryn loved you – but she's dead; and now Trevose House and lands belong to the Tresidders, do you see?"

Then, I know not how, but a great strength came to me, an unnatural strength. My heart grew cold, but my hands and arms felt like steel. His bitter, mocking words seemed to dry up all the milk of human kindness in my nature. At that moment I ceased to be a man. I was simply an instrument of vengeance. His words gave me a great joy on the one hand, for I knew he would not have told me she loved me, did he not believe it to be true, but this only intensified my feeling of utter despair caused by those terrible words, "But she's dead." I felt sure, too, that she had been persecuted; I knew instinctively of all that she had had to contend with, how they brought argument after argument to persuade her to marry Nick, and how, because she had refused, they had slowly but surely killed her.

And Nick gloated over the fact that Trevose lands belonged to him as though that were the result of good luck rather than as the outcome of systematic cruelty and murder.

I was very calm I remember, but it was an unnatural calm. I looked around me, and Eli was still struggling with the serving-man, and to my delight he was slowly mastering him.

"Nick Tresidder," I said, "you and your brood robbed my father, you have robbed me, robbed me of everything I hold dear. I am going to kill you now with these hands."

He laughed scornfully, as though I had spoken vain words; but he knew not that there is a passion which overcomes physical weakness.

"I know it is to be a duel to the death," he laughed, "for I could not afford to allow you to leave here alive."

"God Almighty is tired of you," I said; "He has given me the power to crush the life out of you," and all the time I spoke I felt as though my sinews were like steel bands.

He leapt upon me as quickly as a flash of light, but it did not matter. In a minute I caught him in what the wrestlers call the cross-hitch. I put forth my strength, and his right arm cracked like a rotten stick, but he did not cry out. Then I put my arm around him and slowly crushed the breath out of his body. I think he felt the meaning of my words then.

"Stop, Jasper," he gasped, "she's not dead – she's – "

"What?" I asked.

But he did not speak. I do not think he could. I relaxed my hold, but he lay limp in my arms like a sick child. Never in my life could I hurt an unresisting man, so I let him fall, and he lay like a log of wood. But he was still breathing, and I knew that he would live. But my passion had died away, and so had my strength.

I turned around and I saw that Eli had mastered the serving-man. He had placed his hands around his neck, and had I not pulled the dwarf away the man would have died.

"Eli," I said, picking up the torch, "they will not follow us now. Come."

But Eli did not want to come. He looked at the men we had mastered, and his eyes glared with an unearthly light, and like a lion who has tasted blood he did not seem satisfied.

"An eye for an eye," he said; "tha's what mawther do zay. Iss, an' a tooth for a tooth."

"Lead the way to the sea, Eli," I said, and like a dog he obeyed. Taking the torch from me he crawled down the passage, laughing in a strange guttural way as he went. All the time my mind was resting on Nick Tresidder's words, "She's not dead. She's – " and in spite of myself hope came into my heart again, while a thousand wild thoughts flashed through my mind.

A few minutes later we felt the sea-spray dashing against our faces, while the winds beat furiously upon us. Below us, perhaps twenty feet down, the sea thundered on the rocky cliff.

"What are we to do now, Eli?" I asked.

He looked anxiously around him like one in doubt; then he put his fingers in his mouth, and gave a long piercing whistle.

"Who are you whistling to?"

"He's coming," he answered, looking out over the wild waters.

"Who's coming?"

"The man that told me."

"Who is he?"

"I'll tell 'ee, Maaster Jasper. I've bin 'ere fer days, I have. I was loppin 'round 'cawse I knawed you was 'ere."

"How did you know?"

"I'll tell 'ee as zoon as we git away, Maaster Jasper. Well, as I was loppin' round I zeed a man, he looked oal maazed. He spoked to me, and I spoked to 'ee. Then we got a talkin' 'bout lots o' things. He seemed afraid to meet anybody, but axed scores ov questions. Oal he tould me about hisself was that he was an ould smuggler that used to land cargoes round 'ere. One day I seed a hankerchuff 'angin' from thickey winder, an' I knawed 'twas yours. I was wonderin' 'ow I cud git to 'ee, and I axed the man ef he knawed anything 'bout the 'ouse. After a bit he tould me that there was a sacret passage a-goin' from the cliff to the room where the winder was. Tha's 'ow 'twas. I'll tell 'ee more zoon. There he es, look."

I saw something dark moving on the water, and presently discerned a man in a boat.

Eli whistled again, and the whistle was answered.

"How did you get from the sea up here?" I asked.

"I climbed up, Maaster Jasper, but I can't go down that way."

The boat came nearer.

"Es et saafe to plunge?" shouted Eli.

"Yes," was the reply underneath.

"No rocks?"

"Dive as far out to sea as you can, and you'll go into twenty feet of water."

"All right," shouted Eli, then turning to me, he said, "I'll dive first, Maaster Jasper."

"Can you swim?" I asked.

"Swem!" he sneered; "ed'n my mawther a witch?"

He plunged into the sea, and I heard the splash of his body as it fell into the water, then I saw him get into the boat, which was rocked to and fro with the great waves.

"All right," I heard a voice from beneath say, "now then!"

I gathered myself together for the dive, and I think my heart failed me. My strength seemed to have entirely left me, and it looked an awful distance between me and the frothy waves beneath. Besides, might I not strike against a rock? Then I think my senses left me, although I am not sure. It seemed as though the sea became calm, and a great silence fell upon everything. After that I heard a voice which seemed like Naomi's.

"Help, Jasper!" it said.

Then all fear, all hesitation left me, and I plunged into the sea beneath. I felt my body cutting the air, then an icy feeling gripped me as I sunk in the waters. When I rose to the surface I saw the boat a few yards from me rising on the crest of a wave.

I could hear nothing, however, save a roar which seemed like ten thousand thunders. I struck out boldly for the boat, but Eli and the other man seemed to mock me with jeering menaces. I struggled hard and long, but the boat seemed to get no nearer, and presently I thought I heard unearthly laughter above the wild roar of the breakers.

"Ha, ha," I thought I heard them saying, "now we've got you; this is Granfer Fraddam's phantom boat, this is. Swim, Jasper Pennington, swim!"

I tried to swim, but my legs seemed to be weighted, while around me floated thousands of hideous jabbering things which I thought tried to lure me on to the rocks.

I looked landward and the house in which I had been imprisoned appeared to shine in a strange ruddy light, until it looked like one of those enchanted houses which one sees in dreams.

Then I thought I heard Naomi's voice again, "Help, Jasper, help!"

But all my struggles seemed of no avail. I fancied I was being carried by the force of the waves farther and farther out to sea, while all the time Eli and the other man beckoned me onward, their boat rising and falling on the bosom of the ever-heaving waters.

Then I felt cold hands grip me, and I was dragged I knew not whither, while everything was engulfed in impenetrable darkness.