The Magician Part 37

He hurried them out and slammed the door behind him. He took Susie's hand.

'Now we must run. Come.'

She did not know what his haste signified, but her heart beat furiously.

He dragged her along. Dr Porhoet hurried on behind them. Arthur plunged into the wood. He would not leave them time to breathe.

'You must be quick,' he said.

At last they came to the opening in the fence, and he helped them to get through. Then he carefully replaced the wooden paling and, taking Susie's arm began to walk rapidly towards their inn.

'I'm frightfully tired,' she said. 'I simply can't go so fast.'

'You must. Presently you can rest as long as you like.'

They walked very quickly for a while. Now and then Arthur looked back.

The night was still quite dark, and the stars shone out in their myriads.

At last he slackened their pace.

'Now you can go more slowly,' he said.

Susie saw the smiling glance that he gave her. His eyes were full of tenderness. He put his arm affectionately round her shoulders to support her.

'I'm afraid you're quite exhausted, poor thing,' he said. 'I'm sorry to have had to hustle you so much.'

'It doesn't matter at all.'

She leaned against him comfortably. With that protecting arm about her, she felt capable of any fatigue. Dr Porhoet stopped.

'You must really let me roll myself a cigarette,' he said.

'You may do whatever you like,' answered Arthur.

There was a different ring in his voice now, and it was soft with a good-humour that they had not heard in it for many months. He appeared singularly relieved. Susie was ready to forget the terrible past and give herself over to the happiness that seemed at last in store for her.

They began to saunter slowly on. And now they could take pleasure in the exquisite night. The air was very suave, odorous with the heather that was all about them, and there was an enchanting peace in that scene which wonderfully soothed their weariness. It was dark still, but they knew the dawn was at hand, and Susie rejoiced in the approaching day. In the east the azure of the night began to thin away into pale amethyst, and the trees seemed gradually to stand out from the darkness in a ghostly beauty. Suddenly birds began to sing all around them in a splendid chorus. From their feet a lark sprang up with a rustle of wings and, mounting proudly upon the air, chanted blithe canticles to greet the morning. They stood upon a little hill.

'Let us wait here and see the sun rise,' said Susie.

'As you will.'

They stood all three of them, and Susie took in deep, joyful breaths of the sweet air of dawn. The whole land, spread at her feet, was clothed in the purple dimness that heralds day, and she exulted in its beauty. But she noticed that Arthur, unlike herself and Dr Porhoet, did not look toward the east. His eyes were fixed steadily upon the place from which they had come. What did he look for in the darkness of the west? She turned round, and a cry broke from her lips, for the shadows there were lurid with a deep red glow.

'It looks like a fire,' she said.

'It is. Skene is burning like tinder.'

And as he spoke it seemed that the roof fell in, for suddenly vast flames sprang up, rising high into the still night air; and they saw that the house they had just left was blazing furiously. It was a magnificent sight from the distant hill on which they stood to watch the fire as it soared and sank, as it shot scarlet tongues along like strange t.i.tanic monsters, as it raged from room to room. Skene was burning. It was beyond the reach of human help. In a little while there would be no trace of all those crimes and all those horrors. Now it was one ma.s.s of flame. It looked like some primeval furnace, where the G.o.ds might work unheard-of miracles.

'Arthur, what have you done?' asked Susie, in a tone that was hardly audible.

He did not answer directly. He put his arm about her shoulder again, so that she was obliged to turn round.

'Look, the sun is rising.'

In the east, a long ray of light climbed up the sky, and the sun, yellow and round, appeared upon the face of the earth.