"I suppose I may call on them," said Harry. "They were kind to me when I was a boy, and I liked cousin Mary, as we called her."

"Yes, there can be no objection to your going," answered Algernon.

"They will not consider it necessary to return your visit, and will look upon it as a kindness."

The young men had been riding on further than they had intended, and being engaged in conversation while pa.s.sing along lanes with high hedges on either side, they had not observed a storm gathering in the sky.

Emerging from the lanes Harry invited his brother to take a gallop across the wide extended downs spread out before them, and thus they did not observe till they turned the thunder clouds sweeping up rapidly towards them.

"We shall get wet jackets, I suspect, before we reach home," observed Harry.

"I hope not," answered his brother, "for I have been especially charged to avoid the damp and cold, and I feel somewhat heated. I wish there was some place where we could get shelter."

"I am very sorry that I led you on, for I see no shed or cottage anywhere," said Harry, gazing round; "and I am afraid we shall have the rain down upon us before many minutes. Our shortest way to the nearest house at Hurlston will, I suspect, be across the downs. Come along, there is no time to spare."

They put their horses into a gallop. The downs though at a distance appearing to be level, were intercepted by several deep ravines, and the young men had not gone far before they were compelled to turn inland by coming to one of the most rugged and wild of these ravines, the side of which was too steep to allow them to ride down it.

A little further Harry observed a place which he thought they could descend without difficulty, and thus save some distance. As he reached the bottom, followed by Algernon, he saw nestling under a rock on one side a hut built party of rough stones, and partly of the planks of some wreck cast on sh.o.r.e. At the same moment a bright flash of lightning darted from the clouds, followed by a crashing peal of thunder, when immediately down came the rain.

"We may, at all events, find shelter in yonder hut," said Harry, "though it seems scarcely large enough to admit our horses, but I will hold them while you go inside."

They made their way down the ravine, when Algernon dismounting pushed open the door and ran in, while Harry leading the horses followed him.

At the further end of the hut a woman was seated on a stool before the wood fire blazing on the hearth, over which she bent, apparently engaged in watching the contents of an iron pot boiling on it.

"Who dares intrude unbidden into my mansion," she shrieked out in a wild unearthly tone, which made Algernon start back.

Her long grey hair hung down on either side of her colourless face, from which beamed forth a pair of wild eyes, glowing with the fire of madness. Her dress being of the same sombre hue as was everything in the hut, had as Algernon entered prevented him from observing her till she turned her face full upon him.

She rose as she spoke, confronting the two young men. "Who are you?"

she repeated; "speak, or begone, and trouble me not."

"I beg your pardon for entering without leave," said Algernon; "but the rain is coming down so heavily that we should have been wet through in another minute, and there is no other shelter at hand."

"That's no answer to my question," she exclaimed. "What care I for rain or storm; let the lightning flash and the thunder roar, and do its worst. Go your way, I say, and leave me to my solitude."

"My brother would suffer should he get wet," said Harry, stepping in.

"And I must beg you, my good lady, not to be annoyed if we remain till the storm is over; it will probably pa.s.s away in half an hour, and we beg not to interrupt you in what you are about."

"You are fair spoken, young sir, but you have not answered my question.

Who are you, I ask again?"

"We are the sons of Sir Ralph Castleton, and we discovered your hut by chance, while looking for a place to obtain shelter from the rain."

"Sp.a.w.n of the viper, how dare ye come hither to seek for shelter beneath my roof?" exclaimed the woman in a voice which made the young men start, so shrill and fierce did it sound, high above the roar of the thunder, the howling of the wind, and the pattering of the rain.

"A fit time ye have chosen to come and mock at me; but I have powers at my command to overwhelm you in a moment. See, the heavens fight on my side."

As she spoke a bright flash of lightning darted down the glen, which, with the crashing peal of thunder that followed, made the horses snort and plunge so violently, that Harry had no little difficulty in holding them, and was drawn out from the doorway in which he had been standing.

"And you deem yourself the heir of Texford," she continued in the same tone, gazing with her wild eyes intently fixed on Algernon. "Though you rejoice in youth and wealth, I see death stamped on your brow; and before many months have pa.s.sed away, instead of dwelling in your proud and lordly hall, you will have become a tenant of the silent tomb. I can command the elements, and can read the future. It was I who summoned this storm to drive you hither that you might hear your fate, that fate which the stars last night revealed to me. Ah! ah! ah! you now wish that you had pa.s.sed by instead of seeking shelter beneath my roof; but your destiny drove you hither, and against that you fight in vain."

Algernon feeling that it would be wiser not to reply to the wild ravings of the strange creature looked anxiously out of the hut, strongly inclined, in spite of the rain, to make his escape. Harry, who, having been engaged with the horses, had not heard what she first said, now brought them back again, and stood once more beneath the roof of the hut.

"At all events now we are here, my good woman, I hope you will not object to our remaining till the storm is over," he said, hoping that by speaking in a quiet tone he might calm her temper.

"I invited you not to come, I welcomed you not when you did come, and my curses will follow you when you go," she shrieked out.

"We really had better not stay," said Algernon to Harry. "I cannot understand what has irritated the poor woman, and I fear nothing we can say will have the effect of soothing her."

"I cannot consent to your going out and getting wet through," said Harry; "so notwithstanding what she says we must stay till the rain has ceased."

"My good woman, I really think you are mistaken with regard to us," said Harry, turning to the mad woman. "When we saw your cottage we were not aware that it was inhabited, and as we have taken up your time in interrupting you in what you were about, we shall be glad if you will accept a present as a recompense;" and Harry, giving the reins to Algernon to hold, took out half-a-guinea, and offered it to their hostess.

"You cannot bribe me to reverse the orders of fate," she shrieked out, s.n.a.t.c.hing the coin from his hand and throwing it into the fire, and uttering a piercing shriek she frantically waved about her arms, now high above her head, now pointing at them with threatening gestures, till Algernon declared that he could stand it no longer. In vain Harry entreated him to remain till the rain had altogether ceased.

The old woman shouted and shrieked louder and louder, encouraged possibly by observing the effect her behaviour had produced on the eldest of the brothers. At last the rain moderating, Algernon rushed out of the hut.

"This is not to be endured," he exclaimed, as he mounted his horse.

Harry followed his example, and they rode up the glen as fast as the rugged nature of the road would allow them, the wild shrieks and cries of Mad Sal, as she watched them from the door of her hut, sounding in their ears till they gained the open downs.

"I am glad we are out of hearing of that dreadful old creature," said Algernon, as they galloped along. "I hope she will not prove a true prophetess."

"I don't believe in wizards or witches," answered Harry, "although sometimes by chance their predictions may appear to be fulfilled; and we should be foolish if we allowed the nonsense she talked to weigh on our spirits. I am very sure that the thread of our lives will not be cut shorter from anything she can do, and she certainly will not make me the less willing to go afloat, and fight as readily as I should have done had we not fallen in with her. She has evidently some dislike to the name of Castleton, and hearing us mention it, vented her feelings by trying to frighten us."

"Poor woman, she is perfectly mad. I am curious to learn who she is,"

observed Algernon. "Perhaps Grooc.o.c.k or some of the Hurlston people may know."

Although the rain had moderated, the young men were nearly wet through before they had made their way across the down; and instead of stopping at Hurlston, as they had intended, they rode on to Texford.

In spite of the exercise he had taken, Algernon complained of the cold, and Harry observed that he shivered several times. As he, however, hurried to his room immediately on his arrival, and changed his wet things, his brother hoped he would not suffer.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

JULIA CASTLETON.

The party whom Miss Castleton had offered to escort round the--grounds consisted of several ladies and gentlemen, most of them young, with the exception of an old military officer, General Sampson, who, however, was as active and gallant as the youngest, and a matronly dame, Mrs Appleton, who went with the idea that a chaperone would be required on the occasion.

As is not unfrequently the case under similar circ.u.mstances, the party before long separated. The general and Mrs Appleton had sat down to rest in a summer-house, while the rest of the party went on. The chaperone, on discovering that they had got out of sight, started up, and was hurrying forward to overtake them, when her bonnet, adorned with huge bows, caught in a low hanging bough, and, to her horror, before she could stop her progress, not only was it dragged off, but so was her cap, and the wig she wore beneath. The general doing his utmost to maintain his gravity hastened up to her a.s.sistance. At the same moment three of the young ladies, with two of the gentlemen who had accompanied them, having turned back appeared in sight, and hearing her cries hastened towards her. The general, who was short of stature, though of no small width, had, in the meantime, been in vain attempting to unhook the bows from the branch.

"Let me, general, let me," exclaimed poor Mrs Appleton, who was tall and thin; and she made an effort to extricate her bonnet.

While she was thus employed, leaving her bare head exposed, her companions reached the spot, trying in vain to stifle their laughter.

By the exertions of a tall gentleman of the party, her bonnet was at length set free, and with the a.s.sistance of the young ladies was, with the wig and cap, replaced on her head.

"Well, my dears, the same accident might have happened to any one of you," she remarked, with a comical expression, which showed that she was less put out than most people would have been by the occurrence, "though to be sure, as you have only your natural hair beneath your bonnets, that, I conclude, would have stuck faster to your head than mine did, which, as you have discovered, is for convenience sake removable at pleasure."