CHAPTER XIX
THE WHITE LEECH
I woke one morning from a profound sleep, with one of my hands very
painful. The back of it was much swollen, and in the centre of
the swelling was a triangular wound, like the bite of a leech. As
the day went on, the swelling subsided, and by the evening the hurt
was all but healed. I searched the cave, turning over every stone
of any size, but discovered nothing I could imagine capable of
injuring me.
Slowly the days passed, and still the body never moved, never opened
its eyes. It could not be dead, for assuredly it manifested no
sign of decay, and the air about it was quite pure. Moreover, I
could imagine that the sharpest angles of the bones had begun to
disappear, that the form was everywhere a little rounder, and the
skin had less of the parchment-look: if such change was indeed
there, life must be there! the tide which had ebbed so far toward
the infinite, must have begun again to flow! Oh joy to me, if
the rising ripples of life's ocean were indeed burying under lovely
shape the bones it had all but forsaken! Twenty times a day I
looked for evidence of progress, and twenty times a day I doubted--
sometimes even despaired; but the moment I recalled the mental
picture of her as I found her, hope revived.
Several weeks had passed thus, when one night, after lying a long
time awake, I rose, thinking to go out and breathe the cooler air;
for, although from the running of the stream it was always fresh
in the cave, the heat was not seldom a little oppressive. The moon
outside was full, the air within shadowy clear, and naturally I
cast a lingering look on my treasure ere I went. "Bliss eternal!"
I cried aloud, "do I see her eyes?" Great orbs, dark as if cut from
the sphere of a starless night, and luminous by excess of darkness,
seemed to shine amid the glimmering whiteness of her face. I stole
nearer, my heart beating so that I feared the noise of it startling
her. I bent over her. Alas, her eyelids were close shut! Hope
and Imagination had wrought mutual illusion! my heart's desire would
never be! I turned away, threw myself on the floor of the cave,
and wept. Then I bethought me that her eyes had been a little open,
and that now the awful chink out of which nothingness had peered,
was gone: it might be that she had opened them for a moment, and
was again asleep!--it might be she was awake and holding them close!
In either case, life, less or more, must have shut them! I was
comforted, and fell fast asleep.
That night I was again bitten, and awoke with a burning thirst.
In the morning I searched yet more thoroughly, but again in vain.
The wound was of the same character, and, as before, was nearly well
by the evening. I concluded that some large creature of the leech
kind came occasionally from the hot stream. "But, if blood be its
object," I said to myself, "so long as I am there, I need hardly
fear for my treasure!"
That same morning, when, having peeled a grape as usual and taken
away the seeds, I put it in her mouth, her lips made a slight
movement of reception, and I KNEW she lived!
My hope was now so much stronger that I began to think of some
attire for her: she must be able to rise the moment she wished! I
betook myself therefore to the forest, to investigate what material
it might afford, and had hardly begun to look when fibrous skeletons,
like those of the leaves of the prickly pear, suggested themselves
as fit for the purpose. I gathered a stock of them, laid them to
dry in the sun, pulled apart the reticulated layers, and of these
had soon begun to fashion two loose garments, one to hang from her
waist, the other from her shoulders. With the stiletto-point of an
aloe-leaf and various filaments, I sewed together three thicknesses
of the tissue.
During the week that followed, there was no farther sign except
that she more evidently took the grapes. But indeed all the signs
became surer: plainly she was growing plumper, and her skin fairer.
Still she did not open her eyes; and the horrid fear would at times
invade me, that her growth was of some hideous fungoid nature, the
few grapes being nowise sufficient to account for it.
Again I was bitten; and now the thing, whatever it was, began to
pay me regular visits at intervals of three days. It now generally
bit me in the neck or the arm, invariably with but one bite, always
while I slept, and never, even when I slept, in the daytime. Hour
after hour would I lie awake on the watch, but never heard it coming,
or saw sign of its approach. Neither, I believe, did I ever feel
it bite me. At length I became so hopeless of catching it, that
I no longer troubled myself either to look for it by day, or lie
in wait for it at night. I knew from my growing weakness that I
was losing blood at a dangerous rate, but I cared little for that:
in sight of my eyes death was yielding to life; a soul was gathering
strength to save me from loneliness; we would go away together, and
I should speedily recover!
The garments were at length finished, and, contemplating my handiwork
with no small satisfaction, I proceeded to mat layers of the fibre
into sandals.
One night I woke suddenly, breathless and faint, and longing after
air, and had risen to crawl from the cave, when a slight rustle in
the leaves of the couch set me listening motionless.
"I caught the vile thing," said a feeble voice, in my mother-tongue;
"I caught it in the very act!"
She was alive! she spoke! I dared not yield to my transport lest I
should terrify her.
"What creature?" I breathed, rather than said.
"The creature," she answered, "that was biting you."
"What was it?"
"A great white leech."
"How big?" I pursued, forcing myself to be calm.
"Not far from six feet long, I should think," she answered.
"You have saved my life, perhaps!--But how could you touch the
horrid thing! How brave of you!" I cried.
"I did!" was all her answer, and I thought she shuddered.
"Where is it? What could you do with such a monster?"
"I threw it in the river."
"Then it will come again, I fear!"
"I do not think I could have killed it, even had I known how!--I
heard you moaning, and got up to see what disturbed you; saw the
frightful thing at your neck, and pulled it away. But I could not
hold it, and was hardly able to throw it from me. I only heard it
splash in the water!"
"We'll kill it next time!" I said; but with that I turned faint,
sought the open air, but fell.
When I came to myself the sun was up. The lady stood a little way
off, looking, even in the clumsy attire I had fashioned for her, at
once grand and graceful. I HAD seen those glorious eyes! Through
the night they had shone! Dark as the darkness primeval, they now
outshone the day! She stood erect as a column, regarding me. Her
pale cheek indicated no emotion, only question. I rose.
"We must be going!" I said. "The white leech----"
I stopped: a strange smile had flickered over her beautiful face.
"Did you find me there?" she asked, pointing to the cave.
"No; I brought you there," I replied.
"You brought me?"
"Yes."
"From where?"
"From the forest."
"What have you done with my clothes--and my jewels?"
"You had none when I found you."
"Then why did you not leave me?"
"Because I hoped you were not dead."
"Why should you have cared?"
"Because I was very lonely, and wanted you to live."
"You would have kept me enchanted for my beauty!" she said, with
proud scorn.
Her words and her look roused my indignation.
"There was no beauty left in you," I said.
"Why, then, again, did you not let me alone?"
"Because you were of my own kind."
"Of YOUR kind?" she cried, in a tone of utter contempt.
"I thought so, but find I was mistaken!"
"Doubtless you pitied me!"
"Never had woman more claim on pity, or less on any other feeling!"
With an expression of pain, mortification, and anger unutterable,
she turned from me and stood silent. Starless night lay profound
in the gulfs of her eyes: hate of him who brought it back had slain
their splendour. The light of life was gone from them.
"Had you failed to rouse me, what would you have done?" she asked
suddenly without moving.
"I would have buried it."
"It! What?--You would have buried THIS?" she exclaimed, flashing
round upon me in a white fury, her arms thrown out, and her eyes
darting forks of cold lightning.
"Nay; that I saw not! That, weary weeks of watching and tending
have brought back to you," I answered--for with such a woman I
must be plain! "Had I seen the smallest sign of decay, I would at
once have buried you."
"Dog of a fool!" she cried, "I was but in a trance--Samoil! what
a fate!--Go and fetch the she-savage from whom you borrowed this
hideous disguise."
"I made it for you. It is hideous, but I did my best."
She drew herself up to her tall height.
"How long have I been insensible?" she demanded. "A woman could
not have made that dress in a day!"
"Not in twenty days," I rejoined, "hardly in thirty!"
"Ha! How long do you pretend I have lain unconscious?--Answer me at
once."
"I cannot tell how long you had lain when I found you, but there
was nothing left of you save skin and bone: that is more than three
months ago.--Your hair was beautiful, nothing else! I have done
for it what I could."
"My poor hair!" she said, and brought a great armful of it round
from behind her; "--it will be more than a three-months' care to
bring YOU to life again!--I suppose I must thank you, although I
cannot say I am grateful!"
"There is no need, madam: I would have done the same for any
woman--yes, or for any man either!"
"How is it my hair is not tangled?" she said, fondling it.
"It always drifted in the current."
"How?--What do you mean?"
"I could not have brought you to life but by bathing you in the hot
river every morning."
She gave a shudder of disgust, and stood for a while with her gaze
fixed on the hurrying water. Then she turned to me:
"We must understand each other!" she said. "--You have done me
the two worst of wrongs--compelled me to live, and put me to shame:
neither of them can I pardon!"
She raised her left hand, and flung it out as if repelling me.
Something ice-cold struck me on the forehead. When I came to myself,
I was on the ground, wet and shivering.
