The Mystery of the Sea

nlight, were searching my face more eagerly than ever. I was lying on the sand, and she was bending over me so closely that her face almost touch

ense of disappointment which comforted me. I waited a few minutes until I felt my brain clear, and my body

, and the blind, unreasoning hate and anger turned to keen inquiry. She was not now merely baffled in her hopes, and face to face with an

beyond in their manifold course; or back to their comin' frae the sea and all that could there be told? Oh! mon, what it is to me that any ither can gang lik

eyond?" Her answer was at the first given in a ster

can win their way to where they will, under the airth by wherever there is rinnin' watter. Happ

d when do t

ee them steal out again in the nicht, when the chosen graves that they hae sought hae taken from them the dross o' the airth." I felt it was not wise to talk further, so without a wor

remember anything definitely, or think consecutively; but facts and fancies swept through my mind in a chaotic wh

cliff where I had sat last night, the hot August sun and the cool breeze from the sea being inconceivably soothing. So I thought and thought.... The lack

ormala stood i

ong pause

han ever the instinctive conviction that I must remain keenly on guard with her. So I said nothing; waiting thus I should learn something, whether from her words or her silence. She could not stand this. I saw her colour

be kind to give where they will, they are hard to thwart, and their revenge is sure!" I must confess that her words began to weaken my purpose. In one way inexorable logic was on her side. Powers such as were mine were surely given for some purpose. Might I not be wrong in refusing to use them. If the Final Cause of my powers were purposeful, then might not a penalty be exacted from me because I had thwarted the project. Gormala, with that diabolical cun

eks, hoping for his death-I saw you in your true colours; and I mean to have nothing to do with you." Fierce anger blazed again in her eyes; but a

it of the Dead that ye carried walked beside ye as ye ganged to St. Olaf's Well. An' as for me, what hae I done that you should object. I saw, as you did, that Lauchlane's sands were run. You and I are alike in that. To us baith was given to see, by signs that ages have made sacred, that Fate had spoken in his ears though he had himself not heard the Voice. Nay more, to me was only given to see that the Voice had spoken. But to you was shown how, and when, and where the Doom should come, though you yersel' that can read the future as no ither that is known, canna read the past; and so could na tell what a

e gaunt woman seemed to tower above me; and as she moved her arms, the long shadows of them stretched over the gre

f hers. She had only watched him; and as he did not even know that she watched he could not have been influenced in any way by it or by her. As to my own part! Her words gave me a new li

that the powers of Nature which had been revealed to m

was more conciliator

ow that your wrong was only passive." I felt that my words were

corp frae here to St. Olaf's Well; for ye kenned that no livin' arm could aid him in that hour o' doom. Aye! laddie, the Fates know their wark o'er weel to hae ony such betterment o' their plans! An' div ye think that by any act o' yer ain, or by any refusal o' act or speech, ye can baffle the p

for me. I felt that I owed her some reparation and told her so.

straightly to tell her what I had seen the night before. The directness of her questioning was my best help; my heart hardened and my lips closed. She saw my answer

break, and as she passed up the road the whole of

e night before seemed to affect me more and more with each hour. Feeling fat

nding of the dinner-gong, and a dim

*

ver had passed away, that I lef