been of no avail as the same danger lay in that direction: the waves were rolling in all along the coast and lofty grey cliffs presented an impassable barrier to her escape. Her only hope was to outstrip the coming tide and with the speed of terror she rushed onwards towards a distant bend in the line of coast where it receded a little, and where the cliffs being much lower a zig-zag path led up from the strand. A voice calling to her arrested her flying steps showing her she was not alone in her peril. She looked eagerly round and perceived Rose Kavanagh with a crab-basket on her arm hastily following her. "We'll have to run for our lives, Miss!" she said, panting for breath as she joined Isabel, "but faith I'm afeard the tide will win the race, in spite of us." "We must try and reach the place where the path leads up the cliffs that is our only chance of escape!" was Isabel's hurried observation as she again fled onward. "It's too far! we'll never get there afore the wild waves bar the way!" rejoined Rose, "but we can try, anyhow." For several minutes the two girls ran on in silence, their rapid motion preventing any conversation. At length Miss Crofton's pace slackened. "I cannot keep on at this rate," she said, gloomily pressing her hand against her heart which throbbed violently rendering her breathless and unable to make any more exertion to out-run the threatening waves. Yielding to her wild despair she stopped suddenly and gave way to an agony of grief. "Oh! don't, Miss Isabel, don't cry and sob that way, "" entreated Rose with tender sympathy. "Keep up your sperits and we'll be saved yet, with the help of God." "There is no hope for me!" wildly exclaimed the weeping girl, "I cannot run any farther; I feel quite exhausted now and every moment of delay increases our danger." "I knew it was no use thrying to reach the low cliffs beyant there, and the big waves coming in so fast tumbling over one another like mad," remarked Rose, "but the Saints be praised there is another chance left, if you only have courage to do it, Miss." "Do what?" asked Isabel, raising her white face and fixing her tearful eyes in eager inquiry on Rose Kavanagh. “Just to climb the cliffs up there," was the startling answer. "Climb those perpendicular cliffs! impossible !" burst from Isabel, as she eyed them in despair. "Faix that's just what you'll have to make up your mind to do, if you don't want to be dhrowned. It's not so hard as you think," Rose added encouragingly. "I can never do it," wailed forth Isabel. "Nobody ever did such a thing. It is actually impossible." "It's nothing of the kind for I done it meself," rejoined Rose, with a little flash of pride in her brown eyes as they met Isabel's confidently. "You did that," exclaimed Isabel, in amazement. "Of course I did, onc't upon a time, about two years back, when I was overtaken by the tide as we are now. One does not know what they can do till they thry. You see, Miss Isabel, there's steps cut in the rock and hard, rough pieces of it jut out, that you can hould fast by. So the danger afther all isn't so great as you think. And besides we won't have to climb up to the top only half way to where there is a big hole or cave, where we'll be quite safe till the tide goes out. Come on with a brave heart, Miss, and put your thrust in God!" Isabel Crofton raised her eyes with a look of blank dismay to the tall cliffs. Rosa urged her to climb, then turned her despairing gaze upon the mighty ocean dashing its masses of white crested waves almost at her feet. There was no alternative but to try the difficult mode of escape, Rose Kavanagh proposed. Still she hesitated and hung back from the perilous ascent. "Mount the steps quick for the love of Heaven, Miss Isabel!" pleaded Rose, im patiently. "See that big wave, coming in so fast, will dash right over us and carry us off wid it in no time." The sight of that crested billow gave Isabel resolution to attempt the dangerous ascent and, with an awful terror clutching her heart, she followed her young companion as she sprang up the cliff out of the way of that whelmning wave. The steps cut in it and the rude projections afforded a good foot-hold as well as something to cling to. Half way up the wall of rock Rose stopped and crept into a small opening leading into the cave she spoke of, Isabel followed and the next moment lay white and senseless on the rocky floor, her death-like swoon being the consequent re-action of the excitement of terror she had experienced. "Och! murther! where's the use of fainting now when the danger is over," observed Rose, fretfully, as she regarded with dismay the young lady's death-like face. To her strong nature the fright had not been so overwhelmning and she could not under stand the more delicate organization of her companion. Isabel, however, soon recoɣered and she thanked Heaven fervently for her escape, feeling that it was providential, else how could she have climbed those cliffs; but wonderful things have been done by timid women under the influence of strong excitement. "Do you think we are quite safe here, Rose," she asked, looking timidly down upon the sea of boiling foam, as it dashed against the base of the cliffs and sent up against their dark grey sides showers of salt spray. "Safe enough Miss, don't be afeard, the tide seldom rises so high, and if it did we could creep back farther into the cave." saved us both! Glory be to him," said the girl reverently. The shadows of twilight were now gathering over the ocean, but as the darkness deepened, a streak of light was thrown across it from the crescent moon, seen clearly shining in the western sky. One hour passed away, spent by the two girls watching anxiously the still rising tide, whose waves broke against the cliffs, hissing and foaming in the moonlight. At length it reached the mouth of the cave, compelling them to retreat some paces in alarm, but there it ceased to rise, to their great relief, and half an hour afterwards it began slowly to recede. "I suppose we'll have to spend the night here," said Rose, moodily, "and it'll be such grief to them at home, not knowing what's become of us." "My father is not at home at present, so he will be spared anxiety on my account. He went to Westport a few days since, and will not return until to-morrow. But how are we to leave this cave, Rose?" Isabel continued, anxiously. I do not think I ever could venture to descend those steps when the excitement of terror is over. It makes me shudder even to think of it." Sure "Och! don't fret about that, Miss. if you feel so frightened intirely I'll go meself to the Lodge at the first light of day, and the men sarvants there will find some way of getting you down, never fear. It'll be a good long while before the dawn breaks," Rose continued, sadly, "and poor ould granny will fret her life out, thinking I'm dhrowned. But it can't be helped, anyhow. She'll only have to bear it, the craythur." Some hours passed slowly away; the moon had set, and the darkness of night brooded over the waters. The silence was unbroken, save by the booming of the waves. The girls had ceased talking, and were busy "Och! no, Miss, it was the good Lord that with their own thoughts, when suddenly the "How fortunate it was for me that you were on the shore, Rose. I must have perished if I had been alone. You have been the means of saving my life." which Isabel Crofton now gazed in silent alarm. Those men, her father's enemies, for what purpose had they met in this subterranean den? In their hard passionate faces she read the startling answer, gloomy purpose to avenge the blow recently dealt by Lord Arranmore's agent. Intuitively she felt this, and the first words that the "There must be, sure enough, though it distinctly came to her ears from the rude was unknownst to me." The murmur of voices continued, but it did not approach nearer. Rose's curiosity was aroused. "Bedad, I'll see what it is!" she said resolutely, and she moved noiselessly farther into the cavern, Isabel following timidly. Before long a light gleamed in the distance. "I never knew the cavern went so far back," observed Rose, stopping a moment, as if afraid to advance farther. The voices The voices now sounded more distinctly, and the tones seemed strangely familiar to her ears. "I wondher who they are!" she said, under her breath, "but faix I'll find out" and curiosity again prevailing, she proceeded cautiously forward. A strange sight soon met the eyes of both girls. Round a rude wooden table sat a party of men talking eagerly, the light from a flaring torch of bog wood-fastened in a large iron sconce-revealing their faces, in which the working of fierce passions was but too evident. Some of the men were not unknown to Isabel Crofton. She had seen them before on the lawn at Elm Lodge, in that hostile interview with her father. All the party were known to Rose Kavanagh, and among them she was startled by the sight of her brother Dermot. "The Lord save us !" she whispered in trembling accents. "It's Captain Rock and some of his men !"" council table confirmed her worst fears. "As he is from home it ought to be done to-night. We have waited long enough for our revinge. More nor two months, and that's long enough, anyhow." "It'll be all the sweeter when it comes boys!" was the remark of Captain Rock, an athletic elderly man, with a hard, determined countenance, —a stranger both to Rose and Isabel. "When did you say Crofton was expected ?" "Not till to-morrow," was the answer of one of the party. "I heard he was coming to-night," put in another eagerly, "and, begorra, it'll be a beautiful bonfire to welcome him," he added, with a discordant laugh. "It's only what he deserves," bitterly observed Captain Rock; "the villain that's so fond of burning the roof over other people's heads should not have his own left standing." "Bad luck ever follow him! it is'nt punishment enough for the like of him," broke in a third speaker, with fierce vehemence. This man Isabel recognize das Flannagan. His face once seen could not easily be forgotten. "They are going to burn the lodge !"— whispered Rose Kavanagh, in a voice of terror. "Blessed Mary, if they knew we were here listening they'd be the death of us !" "No! no! Larry, not that we'll not go so far as to take his life," broke from several voices. "And why not, boys? isn't he a tyrant, and havn't we sworn to be revinged on all oppressors?" retorted Flannagan, his voice quivering with vindictive passion. "Remember his wife, so good to the poor and his purty young daughter, so ready to help every one," pleaded Dermot Kavanagh. "I'll remimber nothing but me burned home, and houseless wife and children," said Larry, vehemently, a malignant light flashing over his sinister face, upon which Isabel Crofton's eyes were fixed with the fascination of terror. If he only knew she was so near, listening to his wild threats, she felt that her life would not be safe. Unable to support her trembling frame, she sank down, half dead with terror, on the rocky floor of the cavern. Rose, no less frightened, placed herself beside her, and with terrible anxiety both awaited the end of this unexpected adventure. "To think of his turning us out of our own homes and burning them to the ground!" resumed Larry, with gloomy exasperation. "Shure nothing is too bad for him afther that!" "And aren't we going to lave his grand place that he spent such a power of money building, a blackened heap of ruins, too?" observed Terrance Carroll. Isabel looked at this man's face in surprise, so great was the change the last few weeks' suffering had wrought in it. The features, haggard and care-worn, had lost the quiet, kind expression natural to them. The blighting influence of a desire for revenge had scathed his nature. Still he did not steel his heart against every better feeling like Larry Flannagan: he shrank from the perpetration of murder, and only wished to mete out to Mr. Crofton the same wrong he had received at his hands. "I tell ye what we had betther do, boys," remarked Dermot Kavanagh, eagerly, after a gloomy silence, "we'll get up a petition to have the Agint removed on account of his grinding us so hard and send it to Lord Arranmore." A mocking laugh from the lawless group interrupted the young fisherman. "Are ye a born nathral, Dermot Kavanagh?" asked Larry Flannagan with a savage grin. "Don't ye know be this time that the young lord doesn't care a brass farthing how his tenanthry is sarved so that he gets the rints reg'lar?" "No, we'll send no petition," broke in Captain Rock, loftily, "but we'll look to our own strong right arms for all the help or revenge we need." A hearty cheer marked the men's approval of their captain's lawless determination. "And now we may as well be going," he resumed, rising from the council table; "we have no other business on hand to-night, and we are agreed about what is to be done before morning. Meet me, all of you, about half an hour after midnight on the lawn at Elm Lodge. The neighbourhood will then be quiet and we can proceed to fire the premises undisturbed." "Mr. Crofton will be home by that time," remarked Terrance Carroll. "No, the Westport coach won't reach Carraghmore till after one o'clock, and then he has to ride the rest of the way home." "We'll light a bonfire to show him the way, boys! Hooroo for our revinge !" exclaimed Flannagan, brandishing his shelalah with wild excitement, in which the others shared. The party now broke up, and soon the glaring light of the torch vanished in the distant gloom. What a discovery Isabel Crofton had made! The men her father had evicted were about to execute their threatened vengeance by burning their beautiful home. Could nothing be done to avert this terrible evil? If information of the meditated outrage could be carried to the constabulary force at Carraghmore, Elm Lodge might be saved from the torch of Captain Rock and his reckless, defiant band. "Rose," she said, with sudden determination of doing all in her power to save her home, “we must find our way out of this cavern by the entrance that admitted those men." "That's aisier said nor done, Miss Isabel. How are we to do it in the darkness? Sure we can't see where we're going widout a light." "We can try, however," persisted the young lady. "I cannot remain quietly here and let Elm Lodge be burned." "Sure it isn't there you are going afther what you just heard," remonstrated Rose. "No; but if I could get to Carraghmore and tell the police they would save it from the flames. Oh, to think of its being burned! My beautiful home!" Isabel added with a burst of grief and indignation. “And where would be the good of that?" asked Rose. "If it was saved this night they'd burn it some other time. They would watch their chance and do it if they had to wait for years. There is no escaping their revinge when they make up their mind to have it, and that you'll learn to your cost. And sure it's meself that's sorry for you, Miss, and I'd do all I can to help you." "Then help me to find my way out of this cave, Rose," pleaded Isabel, earnestly. "If I only could get out and reach Carraghmore all would be well." "Sure, let us thry anyhow!" said the good-natured girl, and she moved eagerly forward, but the next moment stopped sud denly on perceiving a light gleaming in the distance. "Blessed Mary, if there isn't the light again! Somebody is coming back!” she said in accents of alarm. Again the girls retreated into the deep gloom, for they had advanced as far as the council table, and watched with beating hearts the advancing light. Soon the sound of steps echoed in the silent cave. "Holy Timothy! if they search the place and find us here listening to what they said they'll murder us without judge or jury. They'll pitch us headlong into the sae," remarked Rose Kavanagh in a hoarse whisper, as she watched with intense anxiety the figure of a man seen indistinctly by the flickering light he carried. As he came nearer a cry of relief escaped her. "It's Dermot, me own brother, the saints be praised!" she exclaimed, and she rushed eagerly forward. Her sudden and unexpected appearance took the young fisherman by surprise. "Holy Biddy! is it yourself, Rose? How did you get here?" he asked in amazement. "Meself and Miss Crofton was nearly dhrowned and we climbed up the cliffs into the cave." "Miss Crofton !" repeated Dermot, and his face blanched with the fear that name suggested. "How long are ye both here? Did ye see or hear anything?" "Of coorse we did. Sure, we're neither deaf nor blind," was the girl's ready answer. "Then both of ye must take a solemn oath never to tell to mortial man what ye heard 'the boys' say here this blessed Sure our lives is in your hands." "You needn't be afeard. We'll never dare to speak of it-don't we know what we may expect in case we did?" night. |