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A Cry Across The Black Water
by
Now, this is all that men definitely know of the fate of Sir Gregory Jeffray. A surfaceman who lived in the new houses above the landing-place saw him standing there, heard him hailing the Waterfoot of the Dee, to which no boat had plied for years. Maliciously he let the stranger call, and abode to see what should happen.
Yet astonishment held him dumb when again across the dark stream came the crying, thrilling him with an unknown terror, till he clutched the door to make sure of his retreat within. Mastering his fear, he stole nearer till he could hear the oars planted in the iron pins, the push off the shore, and then the measured dip of oars coming towards the stranger across the pool of the Black Water.
“How do they know, I wonder, that I want to be taken to the Rhonefoot? They are bringing the small boat,” he heard him say.
A skiff shot out of the gloom. It was a woman who was rowing. The boat grounded stern on. The watcher saw the man step in and settle himself on the seat.
“What rubbish is this?” Gregory Jeffray cried angrily as he cleared a great armful of flowers off the seat and threw them among his feet.
The oars dipped, and without sound the boat glided out upon the waves of the loch towards the Black Water, into whose oily depths the blades fall silently, and where the water does not lap about the prow. The night grew suddenly very cold. Somewhere in the darkness over the Black Water the watching surfaceman heard some one call three times the name of Gregory Jeffray. It sounded like a young child’s voice. And for very fear he ran in and shut the door, well knowing that for twenty years no boat had plied there.
It was noted as a strange thing that, on the same night on which Sir Gregory Jeffray was lost, the last of the Allens of the old ferry-house died in the Crichton Asylum. Barbara Allen was, without doubt, mad to the end, for the burden of her latest cry was, “He kens noo! he kens noo! The Lord our God is a jealous God! Now let Thy servant depart in peace!”
But Gregory Jeffray was never seen again by water or on shore. He had heard the cry across the Black Water.