We all knew it would not be, but we had no option and there was nothing else to say. Every second in debate was a second wasted, a second closer for the hounds whose relentless barking was drawing inexorably nearer. Without further word, Michael led the way over the cliff’s edge to a ledge of rock just below; Andrew followed and I brought up the rear, taking one last look behind before I went over, and catching the first distant flashes of the hunt’s torches in the darkness as I did so.
The ledge was not wide, but led down to another, and then grassy tufts and rounded boulders offered us sufficient foot- and handholds to progress slowly about twenty feet below the level of the cliff path. Our eyes were well accustomed to the darkness, and the moon afforded us light enough to discern the edges of rocks and the grassy dips and mounds between them, but for what was below we had to trust to Michael, and he to God. We moved along and downwards slowly and in near-silence, save for instructions or warnings to one another of where to find a handhold, or where the rock was sheer. All the while we could hear the yelping of the hounds and the shouts of the men who drove them.
Our progress was slow, hand by hand, foot by foot, as we edged our way along our chosen path, trying not to think of the certain death that must await us in the boiling sea and merciless rocks below, should we once lose our grip. The rock was black and slippery now, and the going a little harder. It seemed we had gone on in this way for hours, although it could not have been so, when Michael called something back to us, and my heart lifted, for at last, in the distance, I saw reaching out over the sea the great looming mass of what could only be Dunluce Castle. Andrew had seen it ahead of me, and was inspired by the sight to quicken his progress towards it. At that very moment a hunting horn sounded, closer now, and he missed his footing. His right foot slid down and caught in a crevice as he tried to steady himself. He let out a cry of pain, and just managing to grab on to a coarse tuft of grass above his head, slid down the side of the rock. I lunged forward to grab at him, and Michael turned backwards to do the same, but Andrew’s weight proved too great for the tuft he had clung to, and it slipped through his fingers as his whole body slid down and through the darkness to land with a dull thud somewhere below us.
Before I could think what to do, Michael had scrambled over the ledge and was out of sight. I looked for a safe way down, and began to edge myself over, testing the drop to where Andrew lay groaning. Again came the blast of the hunt’s horn, much closer now.
Michael’s voice came to me through the darkness: ‘A five-foot drop, that is all. Straight down, onto grass.’
He had reached Andrew and was gently passing his hand over Andrew’s head. ‘You have taken a bad bump there,’ he said.
‘Do you tell me so?’ said Andrew, laughing in spite of himself.
Michael took his hand away and held it up for me to see. I moved closer, and by the light of the moon I saw a dark stain running down the palm of his hand, a mirror for the stain that had spread from Andrew’s temple to the side of his face.
‘Where else have you pain?’
He gritted his teeth. ‘Every part of me, but I think my foot may be the worst.’
I knelt down and passed my hand over his foot and around his ankle. ‘I do not think the bone is broken, but it is badly twisted. You will not be able to walk on it.’
‘Then you must leave me here.’
‘That will not happen, whatever else befalls us tonight. You will not be left here.’
‘You have no option. I cannot move and the wolfhounds will be on us in minutes.’
I looked at Michael and he shook his head. ‘I can go for help to the castle.’
‘It will be too late by then,’ I said.
‘Then you must leave me.’
I knew that if he was not torn by the hounds, Andrew would succumb to a fever or freeze to death on the rock if we left him there. ‘And would you leave me?’ I said.
He turned his head away. ‘That is not the question.’
‘It is the question I am asking.’
He said nothing, and I moved closer to Michael. ‘How far now?’
His voice was lowered almost to a whisper. ‘We are almost round the last headland, and then we can get him down to the beach. It is shingle, so not easy walking for him, but a hundred yards will take us on to the castle footpath. If we can get him there, I can scramble the rest and bring help.’ He looked at me directly. ‘If we leave him here he will not survive the night.’
The voices of the huntsmen and the barking of the dogs were now almost directly above us. There was no choice to be made. Michael took Andrew under the arms and I lifted his feet, an agony for him by the look on his face, and we carried him like that between us, but the passes where there was room to do so were few, and there were places only wide enough for a man’s foot. Andrew had to stifle his pain and his cries and pull himself along and across the face of the rock as if there were no injury. For the rest, we dragged him. In this way, we somehow turned the final headland and allowed ourselves to slip ten feet or so down the rock to the black shingle beach below Dunluce. Michael signalled to me where the path began, little over fifty yards from where we were, and, pointing towards a recess in the rock that was almost a cave and would shield us from sight, ran for all he was worth in the direction of the great outcrop of rock that led up to the castle.
The huntsmen and their yelping dogs had come to a halt directly above where Andrew had fallen. A debate had ensued amongst the men, but I had not the time to listen. We could not wait for Michael, out of sight or not. Urging Andrew on, I began to drag us both after the young Franciscan, towards the path from Dunluce. We were making good progress, and although it was clear that every step was agony to him, Andrew made no plea for pause or rest. We can only have been about twenty yards from the foot of the path when there was a change in the sounds coming from above; I hardly had time to register it before Andrew said, ‘The dogs!’ I turned once more, and saw that three of the beasts had started to hurtle and scramble down the rock, barking as if to beat back the monsters of the deep. Those that had been kept with the riders howled their protests in return.
‘Leave me,’ gasped Andrew. ‘You won’t make it. Leave me.’
I took a decision there and then, and stepping in front of him, with my back to him, I told him to put his arms around my neck.
‘No, Alexander, you cannot …’
‘Just do it!’
In a moment, I had hauled him up onto my back, as my father had so often done to me when I was a young boy. The weight of him on me was more than I would have thought possible, but praying God for strength, I gritted my teeth and went forward. To my amazement, each stride seemed to give new force to the next, and within a few strides I had picked up a better pace than we had both had walking. A cloud had passed over the moon, and it was now difficult for me to see the base of the path I was making for. I dared not look behind or above me; all my strength and power were needed to drive me onwards. But the demented barking of the dogs had never ceased, and I knew it could not be long before they were on us.
From somewhere above came a shout, and then a terrible yelping; I turned in time to see the lead dog hurtling from high up on the cliff, through the air, and bumping and crashing against rocks as it made its way towards its death. Its mangled body came to rest on a stretch of grass just above the shingle. A strange, sickening, whimpering told me the poor beast was not dead. At any other time, I would have put it out of its misery, but I had to abandon it to its agonies.
Its companions on the cliff top were howling now, in great distress. The horses were whinnying and shying back from the edge, their riders having dismounted to try to make out what was happening below. The two other dogs, however, were progressing relentlessly on towards the shore, focused only on their quarry. Huge, lean shaggy hounds, beasts with no fear of wolves, they would be little deterred by two unarmed men, one of them crippled. I redoubled my efforts and forced myself and my burden almost into a run.