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It takes one man to lead the way through any set of circumstances, and the only wise course for a committee is to make that man's decision unanimous and back it loyally. But men have their rights, as Grim is always the first to admit. Ali Baba came and joined us on the cliff-top, and Narayan Singh was not long following suit.
When a foeman came within range of them a noose would settle unerringly about him and he would be dragged, fighting and yelling, to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally occurred, he was quick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope above him, in which event he usually plunged down-ward to a no less certain death than that which awaited him above.
"They haven't caught him yet," thought Aleck, after some few minutes' beating of the cliff-top and slopes had taken place. "Perhaps they won't catch him, after all, for he must be as cunning as a fox about hiding-places. Why, they must be coming here!" he thought, excitedly, as the voices began to come nearer and nearer. "They'll find me, for certain, and then
George had not the slightest doubt but that, when he saw them riding up the valley on the previous evening, they had resolved to ride round and intercept the fugitives, or pick up their trail at the cliff-top, if possible; the question to be settled was, whether, having failed in both these objects, they would establish a watch upon that part of the cliff at which the fugitives might be expected to make their appearance; or whether, believing that pursuit had been baffled, and an escape effected, they would return discomfited to the estate.
Some of them came down to voluntary death; others strove for the cliff-top; some took flight. Our tower swept into them; one of them, injured but not annihilated, fell with a crash into the encampment. Above Elza and me was a maze of flashing beams; futile bolts; the puffs of myriad sparks.
For at the pistol shot 'twas as if a mask of horror had fallen from his face, and left him his old countenance again; and then I saw he turned his eyes towards the cliff-top, and thought that he was looking up in thankfulness to heaven.
Might as well go down; the quicker the better, too, for this drunken fellow will doubtless give a weird and terrible account of us." At that he raced along the cliff-top path and the next moment found himself slipping and sliding down a zig-zagging trail which led down the hillside. He was halfway down before he caught the first glimpse of the village.
But I could not even bring myself to grieve at that, because I knew that the same peace and joy that filled me was also surely awaiting them, and the darkest passage, the sharpest human suffering, seemed so utterly little and trifling in the light of my new knowledge; and I was soon back on my cliff-top again, content to wait, to rest, to luxuriate in a happiness which seemed to have nothing selfish about it, because the satisfaction was so perfectly pure and natural.
Neither had they any water, up there on the cliff-top "don' use very much, stranger; 'n' what we do, we done git at Smithfield's, in th' log-house down yon, 'n' I reck'n their cistern's done gone dry, anyhow!" "But what is the matter down there?"
The three scrambled up to the cliff-top, and thence raced homeward, panic-stricken, across the darkening fields. "Sir, I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 19th ultimo, the contents of which shall receive his attention. "I am, sir, "Your obedient servant,