Joan Haste by H. Rider Haggard (cat reading book .TXT) đź“–
- Author: H. Rider Haggard
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revealing a pair of very powerful and fair-skinned arms.
“Please don’t—please!” implored Joan from below.
“I am not going to give in now,” he answered; and, grasping a firm and
projecting stone with his right hand, he set his foot upon a second
fragment and began the ascent of the broken wall. Soon he reached the
head of the slope in safety, but only to be encountered by another
difficulty. The window slit containing the jackdaws’ nest was round
the corner, a little above him on the surface of the wall, and it
proved impossible to reach it from where he stood. Very cautiously he
bent to one side and looked round the angle of the masonry. Close to
him a strong stem of ivy grew up the tower, dividing into two branches
some five feet below the nest. He knew that it would be dangerous to
trust his weight to it, and still more dangerous to attempt the
turning of the corner; but at this moment he was more set upon getting
the young birds which this village beauty desired, than on his own
safety or any other earthly thing. Henry Graves was a man who disliked
being beaten.
Very swiftly he shifted his hold, and, stretching out his left hand,
he felt about until it gripped the ivy stem. Now he must go on.
Exactly how it happened would be difficult to describe on paper, but
in two more seconds his foot was in the fork of ivy and his face was
opposite to the window slit containing the nest.
“I can see the young ones,” he said. “I will throw them out, and you
must catch them in your hat, for I can’t carry them.”
“Oh! pray take care,” gasped Joan.
He laughed by way of answer; and next second, with loud squawks and an
impotent flapping of untried wings, a callow jackdaw was launched upon
its first flight, to be deftly caught in Joan’s broad hat before it
touched the earth. A second followed, then another, and another. The
last bird was the strongest of the four, and flew some yards in its
descent. Joan ran to catch it—a process that took a little time, for
it lay upon its back behind a broken tombstone, and pecked at her hand
in a fashion necessitating its envelopment in her handkerchief. Just
as she secured it she heard Captain Graves say: “That’s the lot. Now I
am coming down.”
Next instant there was a sound as of something being torn. Joan looked
up, to see him hanging by one arm against the sheer face of the tower.
In attempting to repass the corner Henry’s foot had slipped, throwing
all his weight on to the stem of ivy which he held; but it was not
equal to the strain, and a slab of it had come away from the wall. To
this ivy he clung desperately, striving to find foothold with his
heels, his face towards her, for he had swung round. Uttering a low
cry of fear, Joan sped back to the tower like a swallow. She knew that
he must fall; but that was not the worst of it, for almost
immediately beneath where he hung stood a raised tomb shaped like a
stone coffin, having its top set thickly with rusted iron spikes,
three inches or more in length, especially designed to prevent the
idle youth of all generations from seating themselves upon this home
of the dead.
If he struck upon these!
Joan rushed round the spiked tomb, and halted almost, but not quite,
beneath Henry’s hanging shape. His eyes fell upon her agonised and
upturned face.
“Stand clear! I am coming,” he said in a low voice.
Watching, she saw the muscles of his arm work convulsively. Then the
rough stem of ivy began to slip through his clenched fingers. Another
second, and he dropped like a stone from a height of twenty feet or
more. Instinctively Joan stretched out her arms as though to catch
him; but he struck the ground legs first just in front of her, and,
with a sharp exclamation, pitched forward against her.
The shock was tremendous. Joan saw it coming, and prepared to meet it
as well as she might by bending her body forward, since, at all
hazards, he must be prevented from falling face foremost on the spiked
tomb, there to be impaled. His brow cut her lip almost through, his
shoulder struck her bosom, knocking the breath out of her, then her
strong arms closed around him like a vice, and down they went
together.
All this while her mind remained clear. She knew that she must not
go down backwards, or the fate from which she strove to protect him
would overtake her—the iron spikes would pierce her back and brain.
By a desperate effort she altered the direction of their fall,
trusting to come to earth alongside the tomb. But she could not quite
clear it, as a sudden pang in the right shoulder told her. For a
moment they lay on the edge of the tomb, then rolled free. Captain
Graves fell undermost, his head striking with some violence on a
stone, and he lay still, as did Joan for nearly a minute, since her
breath was gone.
Presently the pain of breathlessness passed a little, and she began to
recover. Glancing at her arm, she saw that a stream of blood trickled
along her sleeve, and blood from her cut lips was falling on the bosom
of her dress and upon the forehead of Henry Graves beneath her,
staining his white face.
“Oh, he is dead!” mourned Joan aloud; “and it is my fault.”
At this moment Henry opened his eyes. Apparently he had overheard her,
for he answered: “Don’t distress yourself: I am all right.”
As he spoke, he tried to move his leg, with the result that a groan of
agony broke from him. Glancing at the limb, Joan saw that it was
twisted beneath him in a fashion so unnatural that it became evident
even to her inexperience that it must be broken. At this discovery her
distress overpowered her to so great an extent that she burst into
tears.
“Oh! your leg is broken,” she sobbed. “What shall I do?”
“I think,” he whispered, with a ghastly smile, biting his lips to keep
back any further expression of his pain, “that you will find a flask
in my coat pocket, if you do not mind getting it.”
Joan rose from her knees, and going to the coat, which lay hard by,
took from it a little silver flask of whiskey-and-water; then,
returning, she placed one arm beneath the injured man’s head and with
the other contrived to pour some of the liquid down his throat.
“Thank you,” he said: “I feel better”; then suddenly fainted away.
In great alarm she poured some more of the spirit down his throat; for
now a new terror had taken her that he might be suffering from
internal injuries also. To her relief, he came to himself again, and
caught sight of the red stain growing upon her white dress.
“You are hurt,” he said. “What a selfish fellow I am, thinking only of
myself!”
“Oh, don’t think of me,” Joan answered: “it is nothing—a mere
scratch. What is to be done? How can I get you from here? Nobody lives
about, and we are a long way from Bradmouth.”
“There is my horse,” he murmured, “but I fear that I cannot ride him.”
“I will go,” said Joan; “yet how can I leave you by yourself?”
“I shall get on for a while,” Henry answered. “It is very good of
you.”
Then, since there was no help for it, Joan rose, and running to where
the horse was tied, she loosed it. But now a new difficulty confronted
her; her wounded arm was already helpless and painful, and without its
aid she could not manage to climb into the saddle, for the cob,
although a quiet animal enough, was not accustomed to a woman’s
skirts, and at every effort shifted itself a foot or two away from
her. At length, Joan, crying with pain, grief and vexation, determined
to abandon the attempt and to set out for Bradmouth on foot, when for
the first time fortune favoured her in the person of a red-haired lad
whom she knew well, and who was returning homewards from an expedition
in search of the eggs of wildfowl.
“Oh! Willie Hood,” she cried, “come and help me. A gentleman has
fallen from the tower yonder and broken his leg. Now do you get on
this horse and ride as hard as you can to Dr. Child’s, and tell him
that he must come out here with some men, and a door or something to
carry him on. Mind you say his leg is broken, and that he must bring
things to tie it up with. Do you understand?”
“Why you’re all bloody!” answered the boy, whose face betrayed his
bewilderment; “and I never did ride a horse in my life.”
“Yes, yes, I am hurt too; but don’t think of that. You get on to him,
and you’ll be safe enough. Why, surely you’re not afraid, Willie
Hood?”
“Afraid? No, I aren’t afraid,” answered the boy, colouring, “only I
like my legs better than his’n, that’s all. Here goes.” And with a
prodigious and scuffling effort Willie landed himself on the back of
the astonished cob.
“Stop,” said Joan; “you know what to say?”
“Yes,” he answered proudly; “don’t you fret—I know right enough. I’ll
bring the doctor back myself.”
“No, Willie: you go on to the Crown and Mitre, and tell my aunt that a
gentleman, Captain Graves of Rosham, has hurt himself badly, and that
she must get a room ready for him. It had best be mine, for it’s the
nicest,” she added, “and there is nowhere else that he can go.”
Willie nodded, and with a loud “gee-up” to the horse, started on his
journey, his legs hanging clear of the stirrups, and gripping the
pommel of the saddle with his right hand.
Having watched him disappear, Joan returned to where the wounded man
lay. His eyes were shut, but apparently he heard her come, for
presently he opened them.
“What, back so soon?” he said; “I must have been asleep.”
“No, no: I could not leave you. I found a boy and sent him on the
horse for the doctor. I only trust that he may get there safely,” she
added to herself.
“Very well: I am glad you have come back,” he said faintly. “I am
afraid that I am giving you a great deal of trouble, but do you mind
rubbing my hand? It feels so cold.”
She sat down on the grass beside him, having first wrapped his coat
round him as best she could, and began to chafe his hand. Presently
the pain, which had subsided for a while, set in more sharply than
ever, and his fingers, that had been like ice, were now burning hot.
Another half-hour passed, while the shadows lengthened and the evening
waned, and Henry’s speech became incoherent. He fancied himself on
board a man-of-war, and uttered words of command; he talked of foreign
countries, and mentioned many names, among them one that was not
strange to Joan’s ears—that of Emma Levinger; lastly even he spoke of
herself:
“What a lovely girl!” he muttered. “It’s worth risking one’s neck to
please her. Worth risking one’s neck to please her!”
A third half-hour passed; the fever lessened, and he grew silent. Then
the
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