So there on the pinnacle he stood, gazing silently on the sleeping isle of Fiara, even as Satan might have gazed (so Wat Gordon thought) on the garden—close to that first delicious Paradise in which all unconscious Adam wandered with his Eve.
Long he stood thus, fixed in contemplation, revolving evilest thoughts and intents, his three attendant fiends crouched behind him in a shapeless mass upon the dark rocks, none of them daring to interrupt his musings.
Then quite abruptly Barra descended and plunged once more into the water. Lochinvar in his turn stood erect and made ready to follow him, for he feared that his enemies were about to cross the Sound and attack on the instant the little company waiting his own return under the cliffs of the northern shore.
But he heard Barra say, "It is enough for to-night. Let us return to the harbor. The cailleach spoke the truth."
Then without further speech between them, the four men swam past him and disappeared, faint wreathings and smears of phosphorescence trailing after them out of the gloom into which they had vanished.
Wat drew a long breath as they were lost to sight. He knew that he had been assisting at one of the last scenes in Barra's complete and minute exploration of the isle—every cave and passage, every entrance to and outgate from it. It was just such an undertaking as he might have expected from a man so resolute as Barra, with a retinue as desperate as Haxo the Bull, his Calf, and his Killer.
Now, indeed, he was aware that there was no time to be lost in getting away from this isle of Fiara, which had brought him so many happy hours. Adam knew that the spoiler had looked upon his demi-Paradise, and that Eve herself was in danger.
Wat waited a while before he dared to bring out the boat and row across the Sound to the place where Scarlett and Kate were waiting for him. He found Scarlett philosophically seated with his back against a rock, but Kate moved uneasily about upon the shore, clasping her hands in great anxiety.
"O Wat," she said, "my dear, my dear, I thought some ill chance had befallen you. Wellnigh had I come to seek you, but for your command to bide with Scarlett."
"And it is indeed well, Kate," he answered, smiling a little, "that you were thus mindful of my words."