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The Gray Wolf by George MacDonald
One evening-twilight in spring, a young English student, who had wandered northwards as far
as the outlying fragments of Scotland called the Orkney and Shetland Islands, found himself
on a small island of the latter group, caught in a storm of wind and hail, which had come
on suddenly. It was in vain to look about for any shelter; for not only did the storm
entirely obscure the landscape, but there was nothing around him save a desert moss.
At length, however, as he walked on for mere walking's sake, he found himself on the verge
of a cliff, and saw, over the brow of it, a few feet below him, a ledge of rock, where
he might find some shelter from the blast, which blew from behind. Letting himself down
by his hands, he alighted upon something that crunched beneath his tread, and found the
bones of many small animals scattered about in front of a little cave in the rock, offering
the refuge he sought. He went in, and sat upon a stone. The storm increased in violence,
and as the darkness grew he became uneasy, for he did not relish the thought of spending
the night in the cave. He had parted from his companions on the opposite side of the
island, and it added to his uneasiness that they must be full of apprehension about him.
At last there came a lull in the storm, and the same instant he heard a footfall, stealthy
and light as that of a wild beast, upon the bones at the mouth of the cave. He started
up in some fear, though the least thought might have satisfied him that there could
be no very dangerous animals upon the island. Before he had time to think, however, the
face of a woman appeared in the opening. Eagerly the wanderer spoke. She started at the sound
of his voice. He could not see her well, because she was turned towards the darkness of the
cave.
"Will you tell me how to find my way across the moor to Shielness?" he asked.
"You cannot find it to-night," she answered, in a sweet tone, and with a smile that bewitched
him, revealing the whitest of teeth.
"What am I to do, then?"
"My mother will give you shelter, but that is all she has to offer."
"And that is far more than I expected a minute ago," he replied. "I shall be most grateful."
She turned in silence and left the cave. The youth followed.
She was barefooted, and her pretty brown feet went catlike over the sharp stones, as she
led the way down a rocky path to the shore. Her garments were scanty and torn, and her
hair blew tangled in the wind. She seemed about five and twenty, lithe and small. Her
long fingers kept clutching and pulling nervously at her skirts as she went. Her face was very
gray in complexion, and very worn, but delicately formed, and smooth-skinned. Her thin nostrils
were tremulous as eyelids, and her lips, whose curves were faultless, had no colour to give
sign of indwelling blood. What her eyes were like he could not see, for she had never lifted
the delicate films of her eyelids.
At the foot of the cliff, they came upon a little hut leaning against it, and having
for its inner apartment a natural hollow within. Smoke was spreading over the face of the rock,
and the grateful odour of food gave hope to the hungry student. His guide opened the door
of the cottage; he followed her in, and saw a woman bending over a fire in the middle
of the floor. On the fire lay a large fish broiling. The daughter spoke a few words,
and the mother turned and welcomed the stranger. She had an old and very wrinkled, but honest
face, and looked troubled. She dusted the only chair in the cottage, and placed it for
him by the side of the fire, opposite the one window, whence he saw a little patch of
yellow sand over which the spent waves spread themselves out listlessly. Under this window
there was a bench, upon which the daughter threw herself in an unusual posture, resting
her chin upon her hand. A moment after, the youth caught the first glimpse of her blue
eyes. They were fixed upon him with a strange look of greed, amounting to craving, but,
as if aware that they belied or betrayed her, she dropped them instantly. The moment she
veiled them, her face, notwithstanding its colourless complexion, was almost beautiful.
When the fish was ready, the old woman wiped the deal table, steadied it upon the uneven
floor, and covered it with a piece of fine table-linen. She then laid the fish on a wooden
platter, and invited the guest to help himself. Seeing no other provision, he pulled from
his pocket a hunting knife, and divided a portion from the fish, offering it to the
mother first.
"Come, my lamb," said the old woman; and the daughter approached the table. But her nostrils
and mouth quivered with disgust.
The next moment she turned and hurried from the hut.
"She doesn't like fish," said the old woman, "and I haven't anything else to give her."
"She does not seem in good health," he rejoined.
The woman answered only with a sigh, and they ate their fish with the help of a little rye
bread. As they finished their supper, the youth heard the sound as of the pattering
of a dog's feet upon the sand close to the door; but ere he had time to look out of the
window, the door opened, and the young woman entered. She looked better, perhaps from having
just washed her face. She drew a stool to the corner of the fire opposite him. But as
she sat down, to his bewilderment, and even horror, the student spied a single drop of
blood on her white skin within her torn dress. The woman brought out a jar of whisky, put
a rusty old kettle on the fire, and took her place in front of it. As soon as the water
boiled, she proceeded to make some toddy in a wooden bowl.
Meantime the youth could not take his eyes off the young woman, so that at length he
found himself fascinated, or rather bewitched. She kept her eyes for the most part veiled
with the loveliest eyelids fringed with darkest lashes, and he gazed entranced; for the red
glow of the little oil-lamp covered all the strangeness of her complexion. But as soon
as he met a stolen glance out of those eyes unveiled, his soul shuddered within him. Lovely
face and craving eyes alternated fascination and repulsion.
The mother placed the bowl in his hands. He drank sparingly, and passed it to the girl.
She lifted it to her lips, and as she tasted--only tasted it--looked at him. He thought the drink
must have been drugged and have affected his brain. Her hair smoothed itself back, and
drew her forehead backwards with it; while the lower part of her face projected towards
the bowl, revealing, ere she sipped, her dazzling teeth in strange prominence. But the same
moment the vision vanished; she returned the vessel to her mother, and rising, hurried
out of the cottage.
Then the old woman pointed to a bed of heather in one corner with a murmured apology; and
the student, wearied both with the fatigues of the day and the strangeness of the night,
threw himself upon it, wrapped in his cloak. The moment he lay down, the storm began afresh,
and the wind blew so keenly through the crannies of the hut, that it was only by drawing his
cloak over his head that he could protect himself from its currents. Unable to sleep,
he lay listening to the uproar which grew in violence, till the spray was dashing against
the window. At length the door opened, and the young woman came in, made up the fire,
drew the bench before it, and lay down in the same strange posture, with her chin propped
on her hand and elbow, and her face turned towards the youth. He moved a little; she
dropped her head, and lay on her face, with her arms crossed beneath her forehead. The
mother had disappeared.
Drowsiness crept over him. A movement of the bench roused him, and he fancied he saw some
four-footed creature as tall as a large dog trot quietly out of the door. He was sure
he felt a rush of cold wind. Gazing fixedly through the darkness, he thought he saw the
eyes of the damsel encountering his, but a glow from the falling together of the remnants
of the fire revealed clearly enough that the bench was vacant. Wondering what could have
made her go out in such a storm, he fell fast asleep.
In the middle of the night he felt a pain in his shoulder, came broad awake, and saw
the gleaming eyes and grinning teeth of some animal close to his face. Its claws were in
his shoulder, and its mouth in the act of seeking his throat. Before it had fixed its
fangs, however, he had its throat in one hand, and sought his knife with the other. A terrible
struggle followed; but regardless of the tearing claws, he found and opened his knife. He had
made one futile stab, and was drawing it for a surer, when, with a spring of the whole
body, and one wildly contorted effort, the creature twisted its neck from his hold, and
with something betwixt a scream and a howl, darted from him. Again he heard the door open;
again the wind blew in upon him, and it continued blowing; a sheet of spray dashed across the
floor, and over his face. He sprung from his couch and bounded to the door.
It was a wild night--dark, but for the flash of whiteness from the waves as they broke
within a few yards of the cottage; the wind was raving, and the rain pouring down the
air. A gruesome sound as of mingled weeping and howling came from somewhere in the dark.
He turned again into the hut and closed the door, but could find no way of securing it.
The lamp was nearly out, and he could not be certain whether the form of the young woman
was upon the bench or not. Overcoming a strong repugnance, he approached it, and put out
his hands--there was nothing there. He sat down and waited for the daylight: he dared
not sleep any more.
When the day dawned at length, he went out yet again, and looked around. The morning
was dim and gusty and gray. The wind had fallen, but the waves were tossing wildly. He wandered
up and down the little strand, longing for more light.
At length he heard a movement in the cottage. By and by the voice of the old woman called
to him from the door.
"You're up early, sir. I doubt you didn't sleep well."
"Not very well," he answered. "But where is your daughter?"
"She's not awake yet," said the mother. "I'm afraid I have but a poor breakfast for you.
But you'll take a dram and a bit of fish. It's all I've got."
Unwilling to hurt her, though hardly in good appetite, he sat down at the table. While
they were eating, the daughter came in, but turned her face away and went to the farther
end of the hut. When she came forward after a minute or two, the youth saw that her hair
was drenched, and her face whiter than before. She looked ill and faint, and when she raised
her eyes, all their fierceness had vanished, and sadness had taken its place. Her neck
was now covered with a cotton handkerchief. She was modestly attentive to him, and no
longer shunned his gaze. He was gradually yielding to the temptation of braving another
night in the hut, and seeing what would follow, when the old woman spoke.
"The weather will be broken all day, sir," she said. "You had better be going, or your
friends will leave without you."
Ere he could answer, he saw such a beseeching glance on the face of the girl, that he hesitated,
confused. Glancing at the mother, he saw the flash of wrath in her face. She rose and approached
her daughter, with her hand lifted to strike her. The young woman stooped her head with
a cry. He darted round the table to interpose between them. But the mother had caught hold
of her; the handkerchief had fallen from her neck; and the youth saw five blue bruises
on her lovely throat--the marks of the four fingers and the thumb of a left hand. With
a cry of horror he darted from the house, but as he reached the door he turned. His
hostess was lying motionless on the floor, and a huge gray wolf came bounding after him.
There was no weapon at hand; and if there had been, his inborn chivalry would never
have allowed him to harm a woman even under the guise of a wolf. Instinctively, he set
himself firm, leaning a little forward, with half outstretched arms, and hands curved ready
to clutch again at the throat upon which he had left those pitiful marks. But the creature
as she sprung eluded his grasp, and just as he expected to feel her fangs, he found a
woman weeping on his ***, with her arms around his neck. The next instant, the gray
wolf broke from him, and bounded howling up the cliff. Recovering himself as he best might,
the youth followed, for it was the only way to the moor above, across which he must now
make his way to find his companions.
All at once he heard the sound of a crunching of bones--not as if a creature was eating
them, but as if they were ground by the teeth of rage and disappointment; looking up, he
saw close above him the mouth of the little cavern in which he had taken refuge the day
before. Summoning all his resolution, he passed it slowly and softly. From within came the
sounds of a mingled moaning and growling.
Having reached the top, he ran at full speed for some distance across the moor before venturing
to look behind him. When at length he did so, he saw, against the sky, the girl standing
on the edge of the cliff, wringing her hands. One solitary wail crossed the space between.
She made no attempt to follow him, and he reached the opposite shore in safety.