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THE DEEMSTER
By HALL CAINE THE scene of this story is laid in the Isle of Man, two centuries ago, and it is filled with the weird superstitions of the Manx people. Thorkell Mylrea, the Deemster, was a violent, cruel, and crafty Judge, who dwelt among the sturdy fisherfolk dispensing what-ever justice suited his purpose. Being accustomed to bending all others to his will he was bitterly disappointed when his scholarly son, Ewan, refused to fulfil his worldly ambitions and retired into the ministry. In anger, he cast him off and took into his house-hold his illegitimate son, Jarvis Kerruish, a worthless fop. Those qualities of strength and leadership which he longed to see in his son, Ewan, the Deemster found in his daredevil nephew, Dan Mylrea, son of his gentle and God-fearing brother, Gilcrist, Bishop of Man. Dan was a handsome, fiery young giant, who ex-celled in every manly sport, and Ewan and his lovely sister, Mona, adored their stalwart cousin, whose wild exploits among the fisher-men gave the Bishop much anxiety. From time to time Dan's impulsive nature ran away with him and he committed some reckless act that he sorely repented later. In a moment of thoughtlessness, when hounded for a debt, which he feared would worry the Bishop, Dan forged his cousin's name, feeling sure that Ewan would willingly have advanced the money, and Ewan, being confronted with the signature, declared it to be his own, telling a lie to save his cousin from prosecution. Dan's prompt expressions of sorrow and gratitude were checked by Ewan's announcement that Dan should be from this time a stranger to himself and sister. Crushed and humiliated, Dan rushed to Mona's home and sought his cousin in her room, where he acknowledged his fault and protested against being estranged from her. Mona assured him that nothing should ever estrange them, and Dan, deeply re- pentant, hurried away, encountering in the hall Jarvis Kerruish, who seeing him emerge from his cousin's room, promptly reported to the Deemster this evidence of Dan's improper conduct toward Mona. The Deemster, whose feeling for Dan had changed to jealous hatred, in turn conveyed this intelligence to Ewan, doing his best to convince him that Dan had treated Mona dishonorably. An excited interview between Ewan and his sister followed in which Ewan mistook her innocent protestations of love for Dan for a confirmation of her lover's guilt, and dashed away to avenge her sup-posed wrong. He found Dan ready to beg forgiveness for his past fault, but in blind passion Ewan took no heed of his words; accused him of being the basest of scoundrels and bade him depart from the island. Dan protested his innocence, but when he found that Ewan believed him to be so base, his own wild passion flamed up and he, in turn, cried out that there was "room for but one of them in the world." A mortal combat followed, near the edge of a cliff, and Ewan, almost overcome, threw his dagger into the air and reeled backward, falling over the precipice to his death. Then Dan realized what he had done and was overwhelmed with remorse. It was Christmas Eve, and Mona, waiting for Ewan's return, had a terrible presentiment of his fate. As she tried to banish her fears, Dan climbed in through her window, prostrated himself before her, and confessed his guilt. Filled with grief for her brother, horror at Dan's confession, and apprehension for her lover, Mona told Dan that he must give him-self up to justice and that by so doing he should atone for his sin. He pledged himself to do as she wished, and while she protested her undying love for him, he bade her a passionate farewell and vanished into the night. Returning half dazed to where Ewan's body lay, Dan found that his fisher friends had planned to take the body out to sea for burial. They embarked upon Dan's boat and he reluctantly allowed them to carry out their plan; owing to their unskilled sewing of the canvas about Ewan's body, the covering slipped apart and the corpse was washed back to land. Despite the fishermen's protest that all would be prosecuted if they returned, Dan insisted upon their doing so. Ewan's body having been washed ashore was brought to the church where the Bishop had just finished his Christmas service. He and the Deemster looked upon the face of Ewan and realized the tragedy; and the latter taunting his brother with the fact that if Dan were proved the culprit, the Bishop must pronounce judgment on his own son. Dan, who had crept back in the darkness, witnessed the midnight burial of Ewan, and after slipping away, narrowly escaped death when he fell into an old mine-shaft where he remained for some time a prisoner. Mean-while his fisherman friends were arrested as implicated in the murder, but during their arraignment in court Dan appeared, pushed his way through the crowd' and announced his guilt. He was placed in a dungeon under the Bishop's jurisdiction, and his father, bowed with grief, visited him and offered him the means of escape, which he refused. At the close of his trial Dan was pronounced "guilty," and awaited the death-sentence which he felt sure must follow. A more dreaded fate, however, awaited him. With a breaking heart his father pronounced his sentence : "This man shall be cut off from his people. . . . From now, forever, let no tongue speak to him. Alone let him live, alone die." As the people shrank away from him Dan passed from among them to the south of the island, where a boat, containing supplies and provisions, was awaiting him. For a year Dan dwelt in this boat shunning his kind, but at last, unable to endure the loneliness of the sea, he erected a rude shelter on a rocky island not far from shore, where he could look upon the habitations of men. On the first night that he slept ashore a frightful storm swept away his boat, leaving him a prisoner on the island. Here, for seven years, he spent a solitary life, striving to make his peace with God, until at last it seemed to him the curse was lifted. Then at his cabin door appeared a dying priest, who had landed half fainting from a blow received froi the boom of his boat. The priest had come from Ireland, at the Bishop of Man's request, to succor the people from a dreadful sdourge called the "sweating sickness." The priest told Dan that he should carry on his own unfinished work, convey his message to the Bishop, and help to stay the plague. Before he died the saintly man outlined the methods to be followed in order to check the epidemic. And then at last Dan knew the opportunity had come to make complete atonement. Able once more to reach the shore, he went among the sufferers, ministered to their needs and taught them how to cope with the disease. Soon the epidemic was stayed, while all the people were loud in praise of the strange priest whose face seemed to many a familiar one. The Deemster was among the last stricken, and Dan, summoned to his bedside, arrived in time to ease his final sufferings and to be recognized with superstitious horror before his uncle died. Even as Mona entered the house to reach her father's bedside, Dan slipped away, and hastening to the Bishop gave him the dead priest's message, and also the assurance that his son lived and had made atonement for his sin. And now, word went abroad that the strange priest, proven to be Daniel Mylrea, had been appointed to succeed his late uncle as Deemster, or Judge of the island. This message read by Mona filled her with hope and a belief that Dan should at last come to his own. Accompanied by one faithful fisherboy, she journeyed to seek him out, only to find him unconscious and ill unto death in a bare cabin, where he had fallen a victim to the disease he had so bravely combated. Mona watched beside him until in his last moments he looked upon her with joyful recognition. She murmured the Lord's Prayer, and as he echoed the words, "Deliver us from evil," his spirit passed. |