The Lighthouse | Page 6

gull is a butterfly."
"Don't talk nonsense, Ruby."
"No more I will, darling, if you will listen to me while I talk sense."
"What is it?" said the girl, looking earnestly and somewhat anxiously
into her lover's face, for she knew at once by his expression that he had
some unpleasant communication to make. "You're not going away?"
"Well, no--not exactly; you know I promised to stay with mother; but

the fact is that I'm so pestered and hunted down by that rascally
press-gang, that I don't know what to do. They're sure to nab me at last,
too, and then I shall have to go away whether I will or no, so I've made
up my mind as a last resource, to----" Ruby paused.
"Well?" said Minnie.
"Well, in fact to do what will take me away for a short time, but----"
Ruby stopped short, and, turning his head on one side, while a look of
fierce anger overspread his face, seemed to listen intently.
Minnie did not observe this action for a few seconds, but, wondering
why he paused, she looked up, and in surprise exclaimed--
"Ruby! what do you----"
"Hush! Minnie, and don't look round," said he in a low tone of intense
anxiety, yet remaining immovably in the position which he had
assumed on first sitting down by the girl's side, although the swelled
veins of his neck and his flushed forehead told of a fierce conflict of
feeling within.
"It's the press-gang after me again. I got a glance of one o' them out of
the tail of my eye, creeping round the rocks. They think I haven't seen
them. Darling Minnie--one kiss. Take care of mother if I don't turn up
soon."
"But how will you escape----"
"Hush, dearest girl! I want to have as much of you as I can before I go.
Don't be afraid. They're honest British tars after all, and won't hurt you,
Minnie."
Still seated at the girl's side, as if perfectly at his ease, yet speaking in
quick earnest tones, and drawing her closely to him, Ruby waited until
he heard a stealthy tread behind him. Then he sprang up with the speed
of thought, uttered a laugh of defiance as the sailors rushed towards
him, and leaping wildly off the cliff, fell a height of about fifty feet into

the sea.
Minnie uttered a scream of horror, and fell fainting into the arms of the
bewildered lieutenant.
"Down the cliffs--quick! he can't escape if you look alive. Stay, one of
you, and look after this girl. She'll roll over the edge on recovering,
perhaps."
It was easy to order the men down the cliffs, but not so easy for them to
obey, for the rocks were almost perpendicular at the place, and
descended sheer into the water.
"Surround the spot," shouted the lieutenant. "Scatter yourselves--away!
there's no beach here."
The lieutenant was right. The men extended themselves along the top
of the cliffs so as to prevent Ruby's escape, in the event of his trying to
ascend them, and two sailors stationed themselves in ambush in the
narrow pass at the spot where the cliffs terminate in the direction of the
town.
The leap taken by Ruby was a bold one. Few men could have ventured
it; indeed, the youth himself would have hesitated had he not been
driven almost to desperation. But he was a practised swimmer and
diver, and knew well the risk he ran. He struck the water with
tremendous force and sent up a great mass of foam, but he had entered
it perpendicularly, feet foremost, and in a few seconds returned to the
surface so close to the cliffs that they overhung him, and thus
effectually concealed him from his pursuers.
Swimming cautiously along for a short distance close to the rocks, he
came to the entrance of a cavern which was filled by the sea. The inner
end of this cave opened into a small hollow or hole among the cliffs, up
the sides of which Ruby knew that he could climb, and thus reach the
top unperceived, but, after gaining the summit, there still lay before
him the difficulty of eluding those who watched there. He felt, however,
that nothing could be gained by delay, so he struck at once into the

cave, swam to the inner end, and landed. Wringing the water out of his
clothes, he threw off his jacket and vest in order to be as unencumbered
as possible, and then began to climb cautiously.
Just above the spot where Ruby ascended there chanced to be stationed
a seaman named Dalls. This man had lain down flat on his breast, with
his head close to the edge of the cliff, so as to observe narrowly all that
went on below,