"is it very late?" says mona, awaking from her happy dreams with a start.
"not very," says geoffrey. "it seems only just now that mickey and the dogs left us." together they examine his watch, by the light of the moon, and see that it is quite ten o'clock.
"oh, it is dreadfully late!" says mona, with much compunction. "come, let us hurry."
"well, just one moment," says geoffrey, detaining her, "let us finish what we were saying. would you rather go to the east or to rome?"
"to rome," says mona. "but do you mean it? can you afford it? italy seems so far away." then, after a thoughtful silence, "mr. rodney——"
"who on earth are you speaking to?" says geoffrey.
"to you!" with surprise.
"i am not mr. rodney: jack is that. can't you call me anything else?"
"what else?" says mona, shyly.
"call me geoffrey."
"i always think of you as geoffrey," whispers she, with a swift, sweet, upward glance; "but to say it is so different. well," bravely, "i'll try. dear, dear, dear geoffrey, i want to tell you i would be as happy with you in wicklow as in rome."
"i know that," says geoffrey, "and the knowledge makes me more happy than i can say. but to rome you shall go, whatever it may cost. and then we shall return to england to our own home. and then—little rebel that you are—you must begin to look upon yourself as an english subject, and accept the queen as your gracious sovereign."
"i need no queen when i have got a king," says the girl, with ready wit and great tenderness.
geoffrey raises her hand to his lips. "your king is also your slave," he says, with a fond smile.
then they move on once more, and go down the road that leads towards the farm.
again she has grown silent, as though oppressed with thought; and he too is mute, but all his mind is crowded with glad anticipations of what the near future is to give him. he has no regrets, no fears. at length, struck by her persistent taciturnity, he says, "what is it, mona?"
"if ever you should be sorry afterwards," she says, miserably, still tormenting herself with unseen evils,—"if ever i should see discontent in your eyes, how would it be with me then?"
"don't talk like a penny illustrated," says mr. rodney in a very superior tone. "if ever you do see all you seem to anticipate, just tell yourself i am a cur, and despise me accordingly. but i think you are paying both yourself and me very bad compliments when you talk like that. do try to understand that you are very beautiful, and far superior to the general run of women, and that i am only pretty well so far as men go."
at this they both laugh heartily, and mona returns no more to the lachrymose mood that has possessed her for the last five minutes.
the moon has gone behind a cloud, the road is almost wrapped in complete gloom, when a voice, coming from apparently nowhere, startles them, and brings them back from visions of impossible bliss to the present very possible world.
"hist, miss mona! hist!" says this voice close at mona's ear. she starts violently.
"oh! paddy," she says, as a small figure, unkempt, and only half clad, creeps through the hedge and stops short in her path.
"don't go on, miss," says the boy, with much excitement. "don't ye. i see ye coming', an', no matter what they do to me, i says to myself, i'll warn her surely. they're waitin' for the agint below, an' maybe they might mistake ye for some one else in the dark, an' do ye some harm."
"who are they waiting for?" says mona, anxiously.
"for the agint, miss. oh, if ye tell on me now they'll kill me. maxil, ye know; me lord's agint."
"waiting—for what? is it to shoot him?" asks the girl, breathlessly.
"yes, miss. oh, miss mona, if ye bethray me now 'twill be all up wid me. fegs an' intirely, miss, they'll murdher me out uv hand."
"i won't betray you," she says. "you may trust me. where are they stationed?"
"down below in the hollow, miss,—jist behind the hawthorn-bush. go home some other way, miss mona: they're bint on blood."
"and, if so, what are you doing here?" says mona, reprovingly.
"on'y watchin', miss, to see what they'd do," confesses he, shifting from one foot to the other, and growing palpably confused beneath her searching gaze.
"is it murder you want to see?" asks she slowly, in a horrified tone. "go home, paddy. go home to your mother." then, changing her censuring manner to one of entreaty, she says, softly, "go, because i ask you."
"i'm off, miss," says the miscreant, and, true to his word, darts through the hedge again like a shaft from a bow, and, scurrying through the fields, is soon lost to sight.
"come with me," says mona to rodney; and with an air of settled determination, and a hard look on her usually mobile lips, she moves deliberately towards the hawthorn-bush, that is about a quarter of a mile distant.
"mona," says rodney, divining her intent, "stay you here while i go and expostulate with these men. it is late, darling, and their blood is up, and they may not listen to you. let me speak to them."
"you do not understand them," returns she, sadly. "and i do. besides, they will not harm me. there is no fear of that. i am not at all afraid of them. and—i must speak to them."
he knows her sufficiently well to refrain from further expostulation, and just accompanies her silently along the lonely road.
"it is i,—mona scully," she calls aloud, when she is within a hundred yards of the hiding-place. "tim ryan, come here: i want you."
it is a mere guess on her part,—supported certainly by many tales she has heard of this ryan of late, but a guess nevertheless. it proves, however, to be a correct one. a man, indistinct, but unmistakable, shows himself on the top of the wall, and pulls his forelock through force of habit.
"what are you doing here, tim?" says mona, bravely, calmly, "at this hour, and with—yes, do not seek to hide it from me—a gun! and you too, carthy," peering into the darkness to where another man, less plucky than ryan lies concealed. "ah! you may well wish to shade your face, since it is evil you have in your heart this night."
"do ye mane to inform on us?" says ryan, slowly, who is "a man of a villanous countenance," laying his hand impulsively upon his gun, and glancing at her and rodney alternately with murder in his eyes. it is a critical moment. rodney, putting out his hand, tries to draw her behind him.
"no, i am not afraid," says the girl, resisting his effort to put himself before her; and when he would have spoken she puts up her hands, and warns him to keep silence.
"you should know better than to apply the word 'informer' to one of my blood," she says, coldly, speaking to ryan, without a tremor in her voice.
"i know that," says the man, sullenly. "but what of him?" pointing to rodney, the ruffianly look still on his face. "the englishman, i mane. is he sure? it's a life, for a life afther all, when everything is towld."
he handles the gun again menacingly. mona, though still apparently calm, whitens perceptibly beneath the cold penetrating rays of the "pale-faced moon" that up above in "heaven's ebon vault, studded with stars unutterably bright," looks down upon her perhaps with love and pity.
"tim," she says, "what have i ever done to you that you should seek to make me unhappy?"
"i have nothing to do with you. go your ways. it is with him i have to settle," says the man, morosely.
"but i have to do with him," says mona, distinctly.
at this, in spite of everything, rodney laughs lightly, and, taking her hand in his, draws it through his arm. there is love and trust and great content in his laugh.
"eh!" says ryan; while the other man whom she has called carthy—and who up to this has appeared desirous of concealing himself from view—now presses forward and regards the two with lingering scrutiny.
"why, what have you to do with her?" says ryan, addressing rodney, a gleam of something that savors of amusement showing itself even in his ill-favored face. for an irishman, under all circumstances, dearly loves "a courting, a bon-mot, and a broil."
"this much," says rodney, laughing again: "i am going to marry her, with her leave."
"if that be so, she'll make you keep from splittin' on us," says the man. "so now go; we've work in hand to-night not fit for her eyes."
mona shudders.
"tim," she says, distractedly, "do not bring murder on your soul. oh, tim, think it over while there is yet time. i have heard all about it; and i would ask you to remember that it is not mr. maxwell's fault that peggy madden was evicted, but the fault of his master. if any one must be shot, it ought to be lord crighton" (as his lordship is at this moment safe in constantinople, she says this boldly), "and not his paid servant."
"i dare say we'll get at the lord by an' by" says ryan, untouched. "go yer ways, will ye? an' quick too. maybe if ye thry me too far, ye'll learn to rue this night."
seeing further talk is useless, mona slips her hand into rodney's and leads him down the road.
but when they have turned a corner and are quite out of sight and hearing, rodney stops short and says, hurriedly,—
"mona, can you manage to get home by some short way by yourself? because i must return. i must stand by this man they are going to murder. i must indeed, darling. forgive me that i desert you here and at such an hour, but i see you are safe in the country, and five minutes will take you to the farm, and i cannot let his life be taken without striking a blow for him."
"and did you think i was content to let him die" says mona, reproachfully. "no! there is a chance for him still, and i will explain it to you. it is early yet. he seldom passes here before eleven, and it is but a little after ten. i know the hour he usually returns, because he always goes by our gate, and often i bid him good-night in the summer-time. come with me," excitedly. "i can lead you by a cross-path to the ballavacky road, by which he must come, and, if we overtake him before he reaches that spot, we can save his life. come; do not delay!"
she turns through a broken gap into a ploughed field, and breaks into a quick run.
"if we hurry we must meet his car there, and can send him back into bantry, and so save him."
all this she breathes forth in disjointed sentences as she rushes, like a light-footed deer, across the ploughed land into the wet grass beyond.
over one high bank, across a stile, through another broken gap, on to a wall, straight and broad, up which rodney pulls her, carefully taking her down in his arms at the other side.
still onward,—lightly, swiftly: now in sight of the boundless sea, now diving down into the plain, without faintness or despondency, or any other feeling but a passionate determination to save a man's life.
rodney's breath is coming more quickly, and he is conscious of a desire to stop and pull himself together—if only for a minute—before bracing himself for a second effort. but to mona, with her fresh and perfect health, and lithe and lissom body, and all the rich young blood that surges upward in her veins, excitement serves but to make her more elastic; and with her mind strung to its highest pitch, and her hot irish blood aflame, she runs easily onward, until at length the road is reached that is her goal.
springing upon the bank that skirts the road on one side, she raises her hands to her head, and listens with all her might for the sound of wheels in the distance.
but all is still.
oh, if they should be too late! if maxwell has passed and gone down the other road, and is perhaps now already "done to death" by the cruel treacherous enemy that lieth in wait for him!
her blood heated by her swift run grows cold again as this thought comes to her,—forced to the front by the fact that "all the air a solemn stillness holds," and that no sound makes itself heard save the faint sighing of the night-wind in the woods up yonder, and the "lone and melancholy voice" of the sea, a mile away, as it breaks upon the silent shore.
these sounds, vague and harmonious as they are, yet full of mystery and unexplained sadness, but serve to heighten the fear that chills her heart.
rodney, standing beside her, watches her anxiously. she throws up her head, and pushes back her hair, and strains her eyes eagerly into the darkness, that not all the moonbeams can make less than night.
alas! alas! what foul deed may even now be doing while she stands here powerless to avert it,—her efforts all in vain! how richly shines the sweet heaven, studded with its stars! how cool, how fragrant, is the breeze! how the tiny wavelets move and sparkle in the glorious bay below. how fair a world it is to hold such depths of sin! why should not rain and storms and howling tempest mark a night so——
but hark! what is this that greets her ear? the ring of horse's feet upon the quiet road!
the girl clasps her hands passionately, and turns her eyes on rodney.
"mona, it is—it must be!" says geoffrey, taking her hand; and so they both stand, almost breathless, on the high bank, listening intently.
now they can hear the sound of wheels; and presently a light tax-cart swings round the corner, drawn by a large, bony, bay mare, and in which sits a heavy-looking, elderly man, in a light overcoat.
"mr. maxwell! mr. maxwell!" cries mona, as he approaches them; and the heavy man, drawing up, looks round at her with keen surprise, bending his head a little forward, as though the better to pierce the gloom.
"miss scully, is it you?" he says, at length; "and here at this hour?"
"go back to bantry," says mona, not heeding his evident surprise, "at once,—now. do not delay. there are those waiting for you on the tullymore road who will take your life. i have run all this way to warn you. oh, go back, while there is yet time!"
"do you mean they want to shoot me?" says maxwell, in a hurried tone.
"yes; i know it! oh, do not wait to ask questions, but go. even now they may have suspected my purpose, and may be coming here to prevent your ever returning."
each moment of delay only helps to increase her nervous excitement.
"but who are they? and where?" demands the agent, completely taken aback.
"i can tell you no more; i will not; and you must never ask me. it is enough that i speak the truth, and that i have been able to save your life."
"how can i thank you?" says maxwell, "for all——"
"some other day you can do that. now go," says mona, imperiously, waving her hand.
but maxwell still lingers, looking first at her and then very intently at her companion.
"it is late," he says. "you should be at home, child. who am i, that you should do me so great a service?" then, turning quietly to rodney, "i have not the pleasure of your acquaintance, sir," he says, gravely; "but i entreat you to take miss scully safely back to the farm without delay."
"you may depend upon me," says rodney, lifting his hat, and respecting the elder man's care for the well-being of his beloved, even in the midst of his own immediate danger. then, in another moment, maxwell has turned his horse's head, and is soon out of sight.
the whole scene is at an end. a life has been saved. and they two, mona and geoffrey, are once more alone beneath the "earnest stars."
"take me down," says mona, wearily, turning to her lover, as the last faint ring of the horse's feet dies out on the breeze.
"you are tired," says he, tenderly.
"a little, now it is all over. yet i must make great haste homeward. uncle brian will be uneasy about me if he discovers my absence, though he knew i was going to the bay. come, we must hurry."
so in silence, but hand in hand, they move back through the dewy meads, meeting no one until they reach the little wooden gate that leads to her home.
here they behold the faithful biddy, craning her long neck up and down the road, and filled with wildest anxiety.
"oh, may i niver agin see the light," cries this excitable damsel, rushing out to mona, "if i iver hoped to lay eyes on yer face again! where were ye at all, darlin'? an' i breakin' me heart wid fear for ye. did ye know tim ryan was out to-night? when i heerd tell of that from that boy of the cantys', i thought i'd have dhropped. 'tis no good he's up to. come in, asthore: you must be near kilt with the cowld."
"no; i am quite warm," says mona, in a low, sad tone.
"'tis i've bin prayin' for ye," says biddy, taking her mistress's hand and kissing it fondly. "on me bended knees i was with the blessid beads for the last two hours. an' shure i've had me reward, now i see ye safe home agin. but indeed, miss mona, 'tis a sore time i've had uv it."
"and uncle brian?" asks mona, fearfully.
"oh, i got the ould man to bed hours ago; for i knew if he stayed up that he'd get mortial wearin', an' be the death of us if he knew ye were out so late. an' truth to say, miss mona," changing her tone from one of extreme joy and thankfulness to another of the deepest censure, "'twas the world an' all of bad behavior to be galavantin' out at this hour."
"the night was so lovely,—so mild," says mona, faintly, concealment in any form being new to her, and very foreign to her truthful nature; "and i knew mickey would tell you it was all right."
"an' what brought him home, the murdherin' scamp," says miss bridget, with more vehemence than politeness, "instid of stayin' wid ye to see ye came to no harm?"
"he had to see the mare made up, and the pigs fed," says mona.
"is that what he towld ye? oh, the blaggard!" says bridget. "an' nary sign did he do since his return, but sit be the fire an' smoke his dhudheen. oh, be the powers of moll kelly, but i'll pay him out for his lies? he's soakin' it now, anyhow, as i sint him up to the top of the hill agin, to see what had become of ye."
"bridget," says mona, "will you go in and get me a cup of tea before i go to bed? i am tired."
"i will, darlin', shurely," says bridget, who adores the ground she walks on; and then, turning, she leaves her. mona lays her hand on geoffrey's arm.
"promise me you will not go back to coolnagurtheen to-night?" she says, earnestly. "at the inn, down in the village, they will give you a bed."
"but, my dearest, why? there is not the slightest danger now, and my horse is a good one, and i sha'n't be any time getting——"
"i won't hear of it!" says mona, interrupting him vehemently. "you would have to go up that road again," with a strong shudder. "i shall not go indoors until you give me your honor you will stay in the village to-night."
seeing the poor child's terrible fear and anxiety, and that she is completely overwrought, he gives way, and lets her have the desired promise.
"now, that is good of you," she says, gratefully, and then, as he stoops to kiss her, she throws her arms around his neck and bursts into tears.
"you are worn out, my love, my sweetheart," says geoffrey, very tenderly, speaking to her as though she is in years the child that, in her soul, she truly is. "come, mona, you will not cry on this night of all others that has made me yours and you mine! if this thought made you as happy as it makes me, you could not cry. now lift your head, and let me look at you. there! you have given yourself to me, darling, and there is a good life, i trust, before us; so let us dwell on that, and forget all minor evils. together we can defy trouble!"
"yes, that is a thought to dry all tears," she says, very sweetly, checking her sobs and raising her face, on which is dawning an adorable smile. then, sighing heavily,—a sigh of utter exhaustion,—"you have done me good," she says. "i shall sleep now; and you my dearest, will be safe. good-night until to-morrow!"
"how many hours there are in the night that we never count!" says geoffrey, impatiently. "good-night, mona! to-morrow's dawn i shall call my dearest friend."
