The Bondman (Caine)/Book 2

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Book 1

The Bondman
by Hall Caine

Book 2: The Book of Michael Sunlocks

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3987878The Bondman — Book 2: The Book of Michael SunlocksHall Caine

The

Book of Michael Sunlocks

Chapter XI.

Red Jason.

Now the facts of this history must stride on some four years, and come to a great crisis in the lives of Greeba and Jason. Every event of that time seemed to draw these two together, and the first of the circumstances that bound them came very close on the death of Stephen Orry. Only a few minutes after Greeba, at the bidding of her two brothers, had left Jason alone with the dying man, she had parted from them without word or warning, and fled back to the little hut in Port-y-Vullin. With a wild labouring of heart, panting for breath and full of dread, she had burst the door open, fearing to see what she dare not think of; but instead of the evil work she looked for, she had found Jason on his knees by the bedside, sobbing as if his heart would break, and Stephen Orry passing away, with a tender light in his eyes and a word of blessing on his lips. At that sight she had stood on the threshold like one who is transfixed, and how long that moment had lasted she never knew. But the thing she remembered next was that Jason had taken her by the hand and drawn her up, with all the fire of her spirit gone, to where the man lay dead before them, and had made her swear to him there and then never to speak of what she had seen, and to put away from her mind for ever the vague things she had but partly guessed. After that he had told her, with a world of pain, that Stephen Orry had been his father; that his father had killed his mother by base neglect and cruelty; that to wipe out his mother's wrongs he had vowed to slay his Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/122 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/123 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/124 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/125 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/126 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/127 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/128 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/129 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/130 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/131 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/132 clatter of feet below, and the laughter of the bidders and the wondrous jests of the facetious auctioneer.

When the work was over, and the house felt quiet and so, so empty, Greeba came into him, with eyes large and red, and kissed him without saying a word. Then he became mighty cheerful all at once, and bade her fetch out her account-books, for they had their own reckoning yet to make, and now was the time to make it. She did as she was bidden, and counted up her father's debts, with many a tear dropping over them as if trying to blot them out for ever. And meanwhile he counted up his half-year's smart-money, and the pile of silver and gold that had come of the sale. When all was reckoned, they found they would be just fifteen pounds to the good, and that was now their whole fortune.

Next morning there came a great company of the poor, and stood in silence about the house. They knew that Adam had nothing to give, and they came for nothing; they on their part had nothing to offer, and they had nothing to say; but this was their way of showing sympathy with the good man in his dark hour.

The next morning after that old Adam said to Greeba, "Come, girl, there is only one place in the island that we have a right to go to, and that's Lague. Let's away."

And towards Lague they set their faces, afoot, all but empty-handed, and with no one but crazy old Chalse A'Killey for company.

Chapter XII.

How Greeba was Left with Jason.

It was early summer, and the day was hot; there had been three weeks of drought, and the roads were dusty. Adam walked with a stout blackthorn stick, his flaccid figure sometimes swaying for poise and balance, and his snow-white hair rising gently in the soft breeze over his tender old face, now ploughed so deep with labour and sorrow. Chalse was driving his carrier's cart, whereon lay all that was left of Adam's belongings, save only what the good man carried in his purse. And seeing how heavy the road was to one of Adam's years, Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/134 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/135 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/136 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/137 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/138 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/139 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/140 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/141 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/142 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/143 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/144 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/145 so was well-nigh as hard. All he could do was to look upon her in her sleep and whisper his farewell in his heart. So he entered on tiptoe the room where she lay. Softly the moon shone through the window from across the white sea and fell upon the bed. Pausing at the door he listened for her breathing, and at last he heard it, for the night was very still, and only by the sea's gentle plash on the beach was the silence broken. Treading softly he approached the bedside, and there she lay, and the quiet moonlight lay over her—the dear, dear girl, so brave and happy-hearted. Her lips seemed to smile; perhaps she was dreaming. He must take his last look now. Yet no, he must kiss her first. He reached across and lightly touched her pure forehead with his lips. Then she moved and moaned in her sleep, and then her peaceful breathing came again. "Now peace be with her," Adam murmured, "and the good hand to guard her of the Father of all."

So Adam Fairbrother went his way, leaving Greeba behind him, and early the next morning Jason took her back to Lague.

Chapter XIII.

The Wooing of Jason.

Now the one thing that Jason did not tell to Adam Fairbrother was that, on hearing from Jacob, as spokesman of his brothers, the story of their treatment of Greeba and their father, he had promised to break every bone in their six worthless bodies, and vowed never to darken their door again. His vow he could not keep if he was also to keep his word with Adam, and he deferred the fulfilment of his promise; but from that day he left Lague as a home, and pitched his tent with old Davy Kerruish in Maughold village, at a little cottage by the sundial that stood by the gates of the church. Too old for the sea, and now too saintly for smuggling, Davy pottered about the churchyard as gravedigger—for Maughold had then no sexton—with a living of three-and-sixpence a service, and a marvellously healthy parish. So the coming of Jason to share bed and board with him was a wild whirl of the wheel of fortune, and straightway he engaged an ancient body at ninepence a week to cook and clean for them.

So saying he pushed the letter into Greeba's hand and went his way jauntily, singing as before the gay song of his native country—

"Then hurrah for the girls
Of the nut-brown curls,
And hurrah for the merry faces."

The letter was from Michael Sunlocks.

Chapter XIV.

The Rise of Michael Sunlocks.

"Dear Greeba," the letter ran, "I am sorely ashamed of my long silence, which is deeply ungrateful towards your father, and very ungracious towards you. Though something better than four years have passed away since I left the little green island, the time has seemed to fly more swiftly than a weaver's shuttle, and I have been immersed in many interests and beset by many anxieties. But I well know that nothing can quite excuse me, and I would wrong the truth if I were to say that among fresh scenes and fresh faces I have borne about me day and night the memory of all I left behind. So I shall not pretend to a loyalty whereof I have given you no assurance, but will just pray of you to take me for what I truly am—a rather thankless fellow, who has sometimes found himself in danger of forgetting old friends in the making of new ones, and been very heartily ashamed of himself. Nevertheless, the sweetest thoughts of these four years have been thoughts of the old home, and the dearest hope of my heart has been to return to it some day. That day has not yet come; but it is coming, and now I seem to see it very near. So, dear Greeba, forgive me if you can, or at least bear me no grudge, and let me tell you of some of the strange things that have befallen me since we parted.

"When I came to Iceland it was not to join the Latin school of the venerable Bishop John (a worthy man and good Christian, whom it has become my happiness to call my friend), but on an errand of mercy, whereof I may yet say much but can Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/160 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/161 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/162 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/163 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/164 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/165 country. If more and better news should come my way you shall have it in its turn, but meantime bethink you earnestly whether it is not now for you to come and to join me, and your father also, if he should then be here, and, if not, to help me to search for him. But it is barely just to you to ask so much without making myself clear, though truly you must have guessed my meaning. Then, dear Greeba, when I say 'Come,' I mean Come to be my wife. It sounds cold to say it so, and such a plea is not the one my heart has cherished; for through all these years I have heard myself whisper that dear word through trembling lips, with a luminous vision of my own face in your beautiful eyes before me. But that is not to be, save in an aftermath of love, if you will only let the future bring it. So, dearest love, my darling—more to me than place and power and all the world can give—come to me—come—come—come."

Chapter XV.

Strong Knots of Love.

Now, never did a letter bring more contrary feelings to man or maid than this one of Michael Sunlocks brought to Greeba. It thrilled her with love; it terrified her with fear; it touched her with delight; it chilled her with despair; it made her laugh; it made her weep; she kissed it with quivering lips; she dropped it from trembling fingers. But in the end it swept her heart and soul away with it, as it must have swept away the heart and soul of any maiden who ever loved, and she leaped at the thought that she must go to Sunlocks and to her father at once, without delay—not waiting to write, or for the messenger that was to come.

Yet the cooler moment followed, when she remembered Jason. She was pledged to him; she had given him her promise; and if she broke her word she would break his heart. But Sunlocks—Sunlocks—Sunlocks! She could hear his low, passionate voice in the words of his letter. Jason she had loved for his love of her; but Sunlocks she had loved of her love alone.

What was she to do? Go to Sunlocks, and thereby break her word and the heart of Jason, or abide by Jason, and break her own heart and the hope of Sunlocks? "Oh," she thought, Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/167 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/168 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/169 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/170 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/171 her pole-star. What was Jason's? Only the blankness of despair.

"Oh! my heart will break," she cried. "Jason," she cried again, and again she grasped his hands, and again their eyes met, and then the brave girl put her quivering lips to his.

"Ah, no," he said in a husky voice, and he broke from her embrace.

Chapter XVI.

Esau's Bitter Cry.

Shrinking from every human face, Jason turned in his dumb despair towards the sea, for the moan of its long dead waves seemed to speak to him in a voice of comfort if not of cheer. The year had deepened to autumn, and the chill winds that scattered the salt spray, the white curves of the breakers, the mists, the dapple-grey clouds, the scream of the sea-fowl, all suited with his mood, for at the fountains of his own being the great deeps were broken up.

It was Tuesday, and every day thereafter until Saturday he haunted the shore, the wild headland to seaward, and the lonesome rocks on the south. There bit by bit the strange and solemn idea of unrequited love was borne in upon him. It was very hard to understand. For one short day the image of a happy love had stood up before his mind, but already that day was dead. That he should never again clasp her hand whom he loved, that all was over between them—it was painful, it was crushing.

And oh! it was very cruel. His life seemed as much ended as if he had taken his death-warrant, for life without hope was nothing worth. The future he had fondly built up for both of them lay broken at his own feet. Oh, the irony of it all! There were moments when evil passions arose in his mind and startled him. Standing at the foot of the lone crags of the sea he would break into wild peals of laughter, or shriek out in rebellion against his sentence. But he was ashamed of these impulses, and would slink away from the scene of them, though no human ear had heard him, like a dog that is disgraced.

Yet he felt that like a man among men he could fight anything but this relentless doom. Anything, anything—and he would not shrink. Life and love, life and love—only these, and all Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/173 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/174 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/175 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/176 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/177 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/178 "A Governor-General has pickings, I can tell you," said Jacob.

"But who'll go?" said Asher.

"Go? Hum! What? The deuce! Well, I mightn't refuse to go myself," said Jacob.

"And maybe I wouldn't mind going with you," said John.

And so it was settled. But the other four said to themselves, "What about the pickings?" and then each, of himself, concluded secretly that if Jacob and John went to Iceland, Jacob and John would get all that was to be got by going, and that to prevent such cheating it would be necessary to go with them.

Chapter XVII.

The Yoke of Jacob.

Jason paid the last of his debts in the Isle of Man, and then set sail for Iceland with less money in his pocket than Adam Fairbrother had carried there. He knew nothing of the whereabouts or condition of the man he was going to seek, except that Michael Sunlocks was at Reykjavík; for so much, and no more, he had read of the letter that the Fairbrothers put into his hands at Lague. The ship he first sailed by was a trader between Copenhagen and the greater ports of Scotland and Ireland, but at the Danish capital he secured a passage in a whaler bound for Reykjavík. His double voyage covered more than six weeks, though there was a strong fair wind from the coast of Scotland to the coast of Denmark, and again from Denmark to Iceland. The delay fretted him, for his heart was afire; but there was no help for it, and he had to submit. He did so with no cheer of spirit, or he might have learned something from the yarns of the seamen. All the gossip that came his way was a chance remark of the master, a Dane, who one day stopped in front of him as he lay by the hatches, and asked if he was an Icelander born. He answered that he was. Was he a sea-going man? Yes. Ship broken, maybe, in some foreign country? That was so. How long had he been away from Iceland? Better than four years.

"You'll see many changes since that time," said the master, "Old Iceland is turned topsy-turvy."

Jason understood this to mean some political revolution, and turned a deaf ear to it, for such things seemed but sorry trifling to one with work like his before him.

Chapter XVIII.

The Sword of Esau.

Jason went back to his lodging by the Cathedral, found the old caretaker sitting up for him, made some excuse for returning late, and turned into bed. His room was the guest-chamber—a little, muggy, stifling box, with bed and bedding of eider-down sewed into canvas sacks. He threw off his boots and lay down in his clothes. Hour followed hour and he did not sleep. He was nevertheless not wholly awake, but retained a sort of sluggish consciousness which his dazed brain could not govern. Twelve had chimed from the great clock of the turret overhead as he lay down, and he heard one, two, three, and four follow in their turn. By this time he was feeling a dull pain at the back of his head, and a heavy throbbing in his neck. Until then he had been ever a man of great bodily strength, with never an ache or ailment. "I am making myself ill before anything is done," he thought, "and if I fall sick nothing can come of my enterprise. That must not be." With an effort of will he composed himself to sleep. Still for a space he heard the weary hours wear on; but the lapse, the broken thread, and the dazed sense stole over him at last, and he dropped into a deep slumber. When he awoke the white light of noon was coming in strong dancing bars through the rents of the dark blanket that covered the little window, the clock of the Cathedral was chiming twelve once again, and over the little cobble causeway of the street in front there was the light patter of many sealskin shoes. "How could I sleep away my time like this with so much to do?" he thought, and leapt up instantly.

His old landlady had more than once looked in upon him during the morning, and watched him with an air of pity. "Poor lad, he looks ill," she thought; and so left him to sleep on. While he ate his breakfast of skyr and skate and coffee, the good soul busied herself about him, asking what work he had a mind to do now that he had come back, and where he meant to look for it, with other questions of a like kind. But he answered her many words with few of his own, merely saying that he intended to look about him before deciding on anything, and that he had something in his pocket to go on with in the meanwhile.

"Only when he shall have given up his life."

"Then I warn you I will show you no pity, for you have shown none to me."

At that she screamed for help, and presently the faint music ceased, and there was a noise of hurrying feet. Jason stood a moment listening; then he looked towards the window, and saw that it was of one frame, and had no sash that opened. At the next instant he had doubled his arms across his face, and dashed through glass and bars.

A minute afterwards the room was full of men and women, and Jason was brought back into it, pale, sprinkled with snow, and blood-stained.

"I charge that man with threatening and attempting the life of my husband," Greeba cried.

Then it seemed as if twenty strong hands laid hold of Jason at once. But no force was needed, for he stood quiet and silent, and looked like a man who had walked in his sleep, and been suddenly awakened by the sound of Greeba's voice. One glance he gave her of great suffering and proud defiance, and then, guarded on either hand, passed out of the place like a captured lion.

Chapter XIX.

The Peace Oath.

There was short shrift for Red Jason. He was tried by the court nearest the spot, and that was the criminal court over which the Bishop in his civil capacity presided, with nine of his neighbours on the bench beside him. From this court an appeal was possible to the Spring Court, and again from the Spring Court to the Court of the Quarter, which was the High Court of Althing; but appeal in this case there was none, for there was no defence. And because Icelandic law did not allow of the imprisonment of a criminal until after he had been sentenced, an inquest was called forthwith, lest Jason should escape or compass the crime he had attempted. So the Court of Inquiry sat the same night in the wooden shed that served both for Senate and House of Justice.

The snow was now falling heavily, and the hour was late, but the court-house was thronged. It was a little place—a plain Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/202 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/203 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/204 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/205 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/206 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/207 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/208 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/209 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/210 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/211 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/212 which was coated with hoar-frost, she saw a melancholy procession. Three men, sparsely clad in thin tunics, snow stockings, and skin caps, walked heavily in file, chained together hand to hand and leg to leg, with four armed guards, closely muffled to the ears, riding leisurely beside them. They were prisoners bound for the sulphur-mines of Krisuvik. The first of them was Jason, and he swung along with his long stride and his shorn head thrown back and his pallid face held up. The other two were old Thomsen and young Polvesen, the Danish storekeepers. It was more than Greeba could bear to look upon that sight, for it brought back the memory of that other sight on that other morning, when Jason came leaping down to her from the mountains, over gorse and cushag and hedge and ditch. So she turned her head away and covered her eyes with her hands. And then one—two—three—four—the heavy footsteps went on over the snow.

The next thing she knew was that her English maid was in her bedroom, saying, "Some strangers in the kitchen are asking for you. They are Englishmen, and have just come ashore, and they call themselves your brothers."

Chapter XX.

The Fairbrothers.

Now when the Fairbrothers concluded that they could never give rest to their tender consciences until they had done right by their poor sister Greeba, they set themselves straightway to consider the ways and means. Ballacraine they must sell in order that its proceeds might be taken to Greeba as her share and interest; but Ballacraine belonged to Jacob, and another provision would forthwith need to be made for him. So after much arguing and some nagging across the hearth of the kitchen at Lague, it was decided that each of Jacob's five brothers should mortgage his farm to one-sixth its value, and that the gross sum of their five-sixths should be Jacob's for his share. This arrangement would have the disadvantage of leaving Jacob without land, but he showed a magnanimous spirit in that regard. "Don't trouble about me," said he, "it's sweet and nice to do a kindness to your own brothers."

It was Michael Sunlocks.

Chapter XXI.

The Pardon.

When the men whom Michael Sunlocks sent into the interior after Adam Fairbrother and his shipwrecked company returned to him empty-handed, he perceived that they had gone astray by crossing a great firth lying far east of Hekla when they should have followed the course of it down to the sea. So, counting the time that had been wasted, he concluded to take ship to a point of the southern coast in the latitude of the Westmann Islands, thinking to meet old Adam somewhere by the firth's mouth. The storm delayed him, and he reached the firth too late; but he came upon some good news of Adam there: that all well, though sore beset by the hard weather, and enfeebled by the misfortunes that had befallen them, the little band of shipbroken men had, three days before his own coming, passed up the western bank of the firth on foot, going slowly and heavily laden, but under the safe charge of a guide from Leydisfiord.

"No," said Michael Sunlocks, "I will not send for him."

Then there was a knock at the door, and after a pause the Speaker entered, with his stoop and uncertain glance. "Excuse me," he said, "will you sign the pardon now, or leave it until the morning?"

"I will not sign it at all," said Michael Sunlocks. But at the next moment he cried, "Wait! After all, it is not the man's fault, and he shall not suffer."

With that he took the paper out of the Speaker's hand and signed it hurriedly. "There," he said, "see that the man is set free immediately."

The Speaker looked at both of them out of his near-sighted eyes, coughed slightly, and left the room without a word more.

Chapter XXII.

The President or the Man.

I.

When the Fairbrothers left Government House after their dirty work was done, Jacob was well content with himself, but his brothers were still grumbling.

"He didn't seem anyways keen to believe it," Thurstan muttered.

"Leave him alone for that," said Jacob. "Did ye see when I gave him the letter?"

"Shoo! I wouldn't trust but she'll persuade him she never writ it," said Thurstan.

"He's got it anyways, and we've nothing to show for it," said Stean.

"And noways powerful grateful either. And where's the fortune that was coming straight to our hand?" said Ross.

"Chut, man, there's nothing for us in his mighty schame," said Thurstan.

"I always said so," said Asher; "and five-and-thirty pounds of good money thrown into the sea."

"Go on," said Jacob with a lofty smile, "go on, don't save your breath for your porridge," and he trudged along ahead of his brethren. Presently he stopped, faced about to them, and said, "Boys, you're mighty sure that nothing is coming of this schame," with a look of high Hisdain at Thurstan.

"You see it is all an error," she cried; "a cruel, cruel error."

"No Greeba, it is not all an error," he answered. "It is not an error that you have deceived me—and lied to me."

At that word her tears fell back, and the fire of her heart was in her eyes in an instant. "You say that, do you?" she cried. "Ah, then, perhaps there has been yet another error than you think of—the error of throwing him away for sake of you. He is noble, and simple, and true. His brave heart is above all suspicion. God pity him, and forgive me!"

Then for the first time that day since the six Fairbrothers had left the house, the calmness of Michael Sunlocks forsook him, and in a stern voice, with a look of fierce passion in his face, he cried, "Let me never, never meet that man."

Chapter XXIII.

The Fall of Michael Sunlocks.

When the Fairbrothers, in the first days after their coming to Iceland, started inquiries touching the position and influence of Michael Sunlocks, thinking thereby to make sure of their birds in the bush before parting with their bird in the hand, they frequented a little drinking-shop in the Cheapstead where sailors of many nations congregated—Danes, Icelanders, Norwegians, English, and Irish. Hearing there what satisfied their expectations, their pride began to swell, and as often as Michael Sunlocks was named with honour they blew up their breasts like bantams and said he was their brother, so to speak, and had been brought up in the same house with them since he was a slip of a brat of two or three. And if any who heard them glanced them over with doubtful eyes they straightway broke into facetious stories concerning the boyhood of Sunlocks, showing all their wondrous kindness to him as big brothers towards a little one.

Now these trifling events were of grave consequence to the fortunes of the Fairbrothers, and the fate of Michael Sunlocks, at two great moments. The first of the two was when Thurstan broke into open rebellion against Jacob. Then with a sense of his wise brother's pitiable blunderheadedness the astute Thurstan went off to the same drinking-shop to console himself with drink, and there he was addressed, when he was well and comfortably drunk, by a plausible person who spoke an unknown tongue. Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/248 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/249 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/250 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/251 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/252 Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/253 "Betrayed!" shouted fifty voices at once, and then there was wild confusion.

"So this mysterious mummery is over at last," said the leader of the Levellers, rising up with rigid limbs, and a scared and whitened face." Now we know why we have all been brought here to-night. Betrayed indeed—and there stands the betrayer."

So saying he pointed scornfully at Michael Sunlocks, who stood where he had risen, with the look of deep emotion hardly yet banished from his face by the look of bewilderment that followed it.

"False!" Michael Sunlocks cried. "It is false as hell."

But in that quick instant the people looked at him with changed eyes, and received his words with a groan of rage that silenced him.

The same night Jorgen Jorgensen sailed up the firth, and landing at Reykjavík, took possession of it, and the second Republic of Iceland was at an end. That night, too, when the Fairbrothers, headed by Thurstan, trudged through the streets on their way to Government House, looking to receive the reward that had been promised them, they were elbowed by a drunken company of the Danes who frequented the drinking-shops on the Cheapstead.

"Why, here are his brothers," shouted one of the roysterers, pointing at the Fairbrothers.

"His brothers! His brothers!" shouted twenty more.

Thurstan tried to protest and Jacob to fraternise, but all was useless. The brethren were attacked for the relation they had claimed with the traitor who had fallen, and thus the six worthy souls who had come to Iceland for gain and lost everything, and waited for revenge and only one suspicion, were driven off in peril of their necks, with a drunken mob at full cry behind them.

They took refuge in a coasting schooner setting sail for the eastern firths. Six days afterwards the schooner was caught in the ice at the mouth of Seydisfiord, imprisoned there four months out of reach of help from land or sea, and every soul aboard died miserably.

Short as had been the shrift of Red Jason, the shrift of Michael Sunlocks was yet shorter. On the order of Jorgen Jorgensen the "late usurper of the Government of Iceland" was sent for the term of his natural life to the sulphur-mines that he had himself established as a penal settlement.

And such was the fall of Michael Sunlocks.

End of the Book of Michael Sunlocks.

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