It was the dusk of an evening, sweet and debonnair, when we left the castle which had been so long our home, and descended the perilous steeps to the foot of Ailsa. Here we found Nell's boat safe in its cove, and immediately we pushed out, having placed therein all our weapons and belongings. Nell sat in the stern, and the Dominie and I took the oars. The storm of the night and morning had abated, and there was now no more than an oily swell upon the water.
There was little talk between us as we went, for we felt that our lives were in our hands and that we might be only running into greater perils. I supposed that the Dominie was thinking of the love he had lost by black, unnatural murder, on that dangerous shore to which we were making our way. We kept well to the south of Girvan, because I had twice gone there on errands which did not tend to make us favourites with the Bargany Kennedies and their supporters, of whom the townsfolk were mostly composed. Besides, I remembered the word of the rascal whom I had held at my mercy in the house of Mistress Allison, the Grieve's wife at Culzean. 'The treasure of Kelwood is in the cave of Sawny Bean on the shore of Bennanbrack over against Benerard.' And this, though not a clear direction, pointed to some promontory south of Girvan and north of Ballantrae.
And though the discovery of my master's death was, I trust, first in my mind, I need not deny that I was also mindful of the treasure for which so much had been adventured first and last.
It was a high tide and a calm sea when we got over into the loom of the cliffs. We had a making wind and the tide was with us, so that we had been able to set the sail part of the way—for a little mast which would carry a lug sail lay snugly under the thwarts of the boat.
The Dominie, who in his rambling youth had followed the sea, both steered and managed the sheet as we drew nearer the shore, while I lay over the bow and kept a look-out ahead. We steered towards a light which went wavering along the top of the rocks, for we opined that it must be some shepherd wandering with a lantern to look for a lost sheep. Now it dipped into clefts, now it mounted to the summit of the crags, and anon it was lost again behind the screes and tumbled cliffs of the coast.
Suddenly from high above us, where we had last seen the light, we heard sounds as of pain and despair—a woman's cry in her extremity—not weeping or beseeching, but crying only, being, as it seemed, utterly in distress.
''Tis our Marjorie! I ken her voice!' cried Nell, and we all strained our eyes upwards to the dark heuchs. The lantern had come to a standstill almost directly above us.
The Dominie silently took down the mast and let it rest in the bottom of the boat. Our speed slackened till we floated without motion on the gently heaving water. I continued to peer into the gloom. Yet how Marjorie Kennedy could have come to be in danger upon the shore of Benane was far beyond my comprehending at that time.
'Marjorie! Sister Marjorie!' cried Nell, as loudly as she could. And almost as she spoke I saw something white descending towards us from the cliff, like a poised bird that closes its pinions and dives into the water. The smitten waters sprang up white not twenty feet from our bows.
I stood erect on the stern, scarce knowing what might hap, yet to be ready for anything, balancing on both feet for a spring. And as soon as I had a glimpse of something white which rose from the black water, I sprang towards it ere it had time to sink again. For Nell was with me in the boat, and it was my opportunity to let her see that Launce Kennedy did not do all his deeds standing thread-dry on the solid land. I declare, so much was I affected and worked upon by her crying to her sister, that had it been Sawny Bean himself I had grappled with him there in the salt water.
But it was a braver weight and shape that I held in my arm—even the slim form of a woman. I felt a thrill run through me when I found that her arms had been tied closely behind her back both at wrist and elbow. Nevertheless, I gripped the cords which confined her, and struck out for the boat, which I saw black like a rock above me.
It was no more than a minute that I supported the girl in the water, but to me it seemed to be a year, for I was hill born, and had learned the swimming since I came in my youth to Culzean. And this never makes a strong nor yet a long swimmer like the shore-bred boy, who has been half in and half out of the tide all day long every summer season since he could walk.
But the Dominie speedily brought the boat about, for indeed there was little way on her at anyrate. In a moment more his strong hands and long fingers were lifting Marjorie Kennedy on board, and laying her, all wet as she was, in the arms of her sister Nell.
Then he gave me a hand over the bow, and we cowered low in the boat, letting her drift inward with the tide till we were close under the loom of the land and in the very darkest of the shadow. We knew well that they who had tied Marjorie's hands would be on the look-out for her rescuers. So on the black water we lay and waited.
Nor had we long to wait, for in a short time voices echoed here and there among the rocks, and the lantern, with others which we had not previously seen, appeared far down near the edge of the sea. At the same time, from the other direction, came the noise of oars roughly thrown into a boat and the clambering of men over the side. Then we were, indeed, in sore jeopardy, for the wind had died to nothing under the land, and the grey sea lay outside the shadow of the cliffs with quite enough light upon it to trace us by, if we rowed out in that direction.
And all the while Marjorie lay silent in her sister's arms. I had cut the cords and chafed her hands as well as I could, but still she did not speak.
The pursuers closed rapidly upon us from both sides, and ere we could think of a plan, we saw the boats pushing out with torches held at their prows by the hands of dark and stalwart men. And then the Dominie and I looked to our pistols and swords, resolving, if it came to the sharp pinch, to make a good fight for it. For when the two boats came together they could not choose but find us.