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diff --git a/21893.txt b/21893.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..167b300 --- /dev/null +++ b/21893.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11491 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Patsy, by S. R. Crockett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Patsy + +Author: S. R. Crockett + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATSY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + PATSY + + BY S. R. CROCKETT + +AUTHOR OF "THE RAIDERS," "THE STICKIT MINISTER," "LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM," +"ANNE OF THE BARRICADES," ETC. + + + + +SYNDICATE PUBLISHING COMPANY +NEW YORK LONDON + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1912, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1913. +Reprinted February, 1913; April, December, 1913. + + + + +[Illustration: "Yes, I," said Patsy.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I. HEIRESS AND HEIR + + CHAPTER II. THE MAIDENS' COVE + + CHAPTER III. THE BOTHY + + CHAPTER IV. BY FORCE OF ARMS + + CHAPTER V. PATSY'S CONFESSIONS + + CHAPTER VI. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS + + CHAPTER VII. THE LADS IN THE HEATHER + + CHAPTER VIII. THE BLACK PEARL OF CAIRN FERRIS + + CHAPTER IX. HIS LIFE IN HIS HAND + + CHAPTER X. THE WICKED LAYETH A SNARE + + CHAPTER XI. THE TRAMPLING OF HORSE IN THE NIGHT + + CHAPTER XII. PATSY'S RESCUE + + CHAPTER XIII. PLOTS AND PRINCES + + CHAPTER XIV. THE END OF AN OLD FEUD + + CHAPTER XV. THE FECHTIN' FOOL + + CHAPTER XVI. A RIDER COMES TO CASTLE RAINCY + + CHAPTER XVII. PATSY HELD IN HONOUR + + CHAPTER XVIII. UNCLE JULIAN'S PRINCESS + + CHAPTER XIX. MISS ALINE TAKES COMMAND + + CHAPTER XX. LOUIS RAINCY ENDURES HARDNESS + + CHAPTER XXI. THE CAVE OF ADULLAM + + CHAPTER XXII. WINTER AFTERNOON + + CHAPTER XXIII. PATSY HAS GREATNESS THRUST UPON HER + + CHAPTER XXIV. THE LOST FOLK'S ACRE + + CHAPTER XXV. THE HIGH STILE + + CHAPTER XXVI. THE GIBBET RING + + CHAPTER XXVII. THE DUKES ... AND SUPSORROW + + CHAPTER XXVIII. THE "GREEN DRAGON" + + CHAPTER XXIX. ENEMY'S COUNTRY + + CHAPTER XXX. A CREDIT TO THE "GREEN DRAGON" + + CHAPTER XXXI. THE NIGHT LANDING + + CHAPTER XXXII. ORDEAL BY FIRE + + CHAPTER XXXIII. PATSY RAISES THE COUNTRY + + CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PRISON-BREAKERS + + CHAPTER XXXV. THE PICTS' WAY IS THE WOMAN'S WAY + + CHAPTER XXXVI. STIFF-NECKED AND REBELLIOUS + + CHAPTER XXXVII. A PICTISH HONEYMOON + + CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LAND OF ALWAYS AFTERNOON + + CHAPTER XXXIX. REBEL GALLOWAY + + CHAPTER XL. "WHY DO THEY LOVE YOU?" + + CHAPTER XLI. THE BATTLE OF THE CAUSEWAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HEIRESS AND HEIR + + +They stood high on the Abbey cliff-edge--an old man, eagle-profiled, +hawk-beaked, cockatoo-crested, with angry grey eyebrows running peakily +upwards towards his temples at either side ... and a boy. + +They were the Earl Raincy and his grandson Louis--all the world knew +them in that country of the Southern Albanach. For Leo Raincy was a +great man, and the lad the heir of all he possessed. + +For all--or almost all--they looked upon belonged to the Earl of Raincy. +Even those blue hills bounding the meadow valleys to the north hid a +fair half of his property, and he was sorry for that. Because he was a +land miser, hoarding parishes and townships. He grudged the sea its +fringe of foam, the three-mile fishing limit, the very high-and-low mark +between the tides which was not his, but belonged to the crown--along +which the common people had a right to pass, and where fisherfolk from +the neighbouring villages might fish and dry their nets, when all ought +to have been his. + +The earl's dark eyes passed with carelessness over hundreds of +farm-towns, snug sheltered villages, mills with little threads of white +wimpling away from the unheard constant clack of the wheel, barns, byres +and stackyards--all were his, but of these he took no heed. + +Behind them Castle Raincy itself stood up finely from the plain of +corn-land and green park, an artificial lake in front, deep trees all +about, patterned gardens, the fiery flash of hot-house glass where the +sun struck, and pinnacles high in air, above all the tall tower from +which Margaret de Raincy had defied the English invader during the +minority of James the Fifth. The earl's eyes passed all these over. He +did not see them as aught to take pride in. + +What he lingered upon was the wide pleasant valley beneath him, with a +burn running and lurking among twinkling birches, interspersed with +alders, many finely drained fields with the cows feeding belly-deep with +twitching tails, and the sweep of the ripening crops which ran off to +either side over knolls carefully planed down--and so back and back to +the shelter of dark fir woods. Twelve hundred acres--and not his! Not a +Raincy stone upon it, nor had been for four hundred years. + +There were two houses on this twelve hundred acres of good land. First +came Cairn Ferris, at the head of the glen of the Abbey Water. Close to +the road that, under the lee of the big pines, a plain, douce, +much-ivied house; and down in a nook by the sea, Abbey Burnfoot, called +"The Abbey," a newer and brighter place, set like a jewel on the very +edge of the sea, the white sand in front and the blue sweep of the bay +widening out on either hand. Horrible--oh, most horrible! Not his--nor +ever would be! + +This was the blot which blackened all the rest--the property of the +Ferrises of Cairn Ferris, of Adam, chief of the name at the top of the +Glen, and of his brother Julian--he who had cursed the noble +scythe-sweep of the Abbey Bay, which all ought to have been untouched +Raincy property, with crow-stepped gables and beflowered verandahs. + +"They stole it, boy, stole it!" muttered old Earl Raincy, setting a +shaking hand on the boy's shoulder, "four hundred years ago they stole +it. They came with the Stuart king who had nothing to do in the Free +Province, and we stood for the Douglases, as was our duty. Your ancestor +and mine was killed at Arkinholm with three earls and twenty barons, he +not the least noble!" + +He paused a moment to control his senile anger and then went quavering +on. + +"This Ferris was a mercenary--a fighter for his own hand, and they gave +him _this_ while we were exiled. And they have held it ever since--the +pick of our heritage--the jewel in the lotus. Often we have asked it +back--often taken it. But because they married into the Fife +Wemysses--yes, even this last of them, they have always retaken and held +it, to our despite!" + +The boy on the stile, sprawling and thinking of something else (for he +had heard all this fifty times before), yawned. + +"Well, there's plenty more--why worry, grandfather?" he said, fanning +himself with the blue velvet college cap that had a bright gold badge in +front. + +The old man started as if stung. He frowned and blinked like an angry +bald eagle. + +"There speaks the common wash of Whiggish blood. MacBryde will out!--No +Raincy would thus have sold his birthright for a mess of pottage." + +The eyes of the lad were still indolent, but also somewhat impudent in +schoolboy fashion, as he answered, "Still, grandfather, mother's +MacBryde money has paid off a good many Raincy--encumbrances, don't you +call them here?--mortgages is the name for them in England! And more +than that, don't go back and worry mother about these old cow-pastures. +You know you are really very fond of her. As for me, I may not be a real +Raincy, for I was born to do something in life, not to idle through it. +You won't let me go into the navy, and fight as a man ought. If I go +into the army, we shall have mother in a permanent fit. So I must just +stop on and lend a hand where I can, till I am old enough to turn out +that thief of an estate agent of yours and do something to help +you--really, I mean!" + +"Remember you are a Raincy by name, whatever you may be by nature," said +the old man. Suddenly the boy stood up straight and firm before him, +with a dourness on his face which was clearly not akin to the swoop and +dash of his vulturine grandfather. + +"If you don't let me do as I like here--do something real which will +show that I have not been to school and the university for nothing, I +shall go straight to the ship-building yard and get my uncle, mother's +brother David, to take me on as an apprentice! We still own enough of +the business to make him ready to do that." + +Like one who hears and rebukes blasphemy, the old man made a gesture of +despair with his hands, as though abandoning his grandson to his own +evil courses, and then turned on his heel and walked slowly away towards +the Castle. + + * * * * * + +With a sigh of relief the young man stretched himself luxuriously out on +the broad triple plank of the stile, and drew from his pocket a brass +spy-glass which he had been itching to make use of for the past ten +minutes. He also had his reasons for being interested in the Ferris +properties which lay beneath him, every field and dyke and hedgerow, +every curve of coast and curvet of breaking wave as clear and near as if +he could have touched them merely by reaching out his finger. But Louis +Raincy nourished no historical wraths nor feudal jealousies. + +"I am sorry the old fellow is savage with me," he muttered as he looked +about to make sure that his grandfather was not turning round to forgive +him. "I'm sure I don't mean to make him angry. I promise mother every +day. But why he wants to be for ever trotting out a grievance four +hundred years old--hang me if I see. Anyway, Dame Comfort will soon put +him all right. He gets on with her--he and I never hit it off ... quite. +I fear I wasn't born lordly, even though my father was a Raincy. They +say he disgraced his family by being an artist, and that it was when he +was painting Dame Comfort's portrait that--oh, I say, there's Patsy, or +I'm the son of a Dutchman!" + +As only the moment before he had been declaring himself the son of a De +Raincy, this could hardly be. So there was good prima facie evidence +that, in Louis's opinion, there _was_ Patsy, whoever Patsy might be. + +In a moment he had the spy-glass to his eye. He stilled the boyish +flailing of his legs in the air as he lay prone on the stile-top, +leaning on his elbows, and intently studying something that flashed and +was lost among the birches that shaded the path up the glen of the Abbey +Burn. + +"Patsy it is, by Jove of the Capitol!" he proclaimed triumphantly, and +shutting up the brass telescope with a facile snap of sliding tubes, he +slipped it into his pocket and sprang off the stile. In three seconds he +was on Ferris territory--and a trespasser. Louis Raincy was quick, +impulsive, with fair Norse hair blown in what the country folk called a +"birse" about his face, and dark-blue western eyes--the eyes of the +island MacBrydes who had built ships to ride the sea, and whose younger +branches had captained and made fortunes out of far sea adventuring. So +with the thoroughness of these same privateer shipbuilders, Louis +precipitated himself down the steep breakneck cliff, catching the trunk +of a pine here, or snatching at a birch and swinging right round it +there to keep his speed from becoming a mere avalanche, till at last, +breathed a little and with a scraped hand, of which he took not the +slightest notice, he stood on the winding, hide-and-seek path which +meanders along the side of the Abbey Burn, as it were, keeping step with +it. + +The pines stood about still and solemn. The light breeze from the sea +made no difference to them, but the birches quivered, blotting the white +of the path with myriads of purple splashes, none of which were distinct +or ever for a second stood still, criss-crossing and melting one into +the other, all equally a-dither with excitement. + +Louis checked for a moment to breathe and listen. He said to himself +that Patsy, for whose sake he had torn through the underbrush at the +imminent danger of life and limb, was still far away down the glen. + +"I shall go a bit farther till I find a snug corner and then--wait for +Patsy!" + +What Louis Raincy meant was that he would find a place equally sheltered +from the eyes of his grandfather and from possible spies in the front +windows of Cairn Ferris, the quiet ivy-grown house at the head of the +glen, against which his grandfather had hurled so many anathemas in +vain. + +At last he found his place--a chosen nook. The sound of voices would be +drowned by the splash of the little waterfall. The pool into which it +fell was deep enough to keep any one from breaking in upon them too +suddenly, and through a rift in the leaves a piece of bluest sky peered +down. White of waterfall, sleepy brown of pool, dusky under an eyelash +of bracken, and blue of sky--Patsy, who noticed all things, would like +that. + +But Patsy did not come. Could she have passed and he not seen? Clearly +not, for Louis had come downhill as fast as a big boulder set a-rolling. +What, then, could she be doing? + +Ah, who could ever tell what Patsy might be doing or call her to account +afterwards for the deed? Louis only knew that he dared not even try. All +the same he left his nook with some disrelish--it would have been so +capital a conjuncture to have met her just there, and he had taken such +pains! However, there was no choice. He must go to seek Patsy if Patsy +would not come to him. + +She was returning from her daily lesson at her uncle Julian's. He knew +that she would most likely have a book under her arm, and an ashplant in +her hand. She would come along quietly, whistling low to herself, +tickling the tails of the trout in the shallows with her stick and +laughing aloud as they scudded away into the Vandyke-brown shadows of +the bank. + +The glen opened out a little and Louis paused at the corner, standing +still in shadow. + +Twenty yards away Patsy was talking to a young man in a shabby grey +suit, a broad blue bonnet set on his head, and they were conferring +profoundly over a book which Patsy held in her hands. The young man in +the shabby suit appeared to be instructing Patsy, or at least explaining +a difficult passage, which he did with more zeal and gusto than Louis +cared about. + +He knew him in a moment, for of course the heir of Raincy knew everybody +within thirty miles. + +"Only Frank Airie, the Poor Scholar!" he said to himself, his jealousy +melting like a summer cloud, "of course--what a fool I was. He's on his +way home from teaching the Auchenmore brats. Though it is a miracle that +he should happen to cross the glen at the same point exactly. Perhaps he +had a spy-glass, too!" + +What Louis noticed most of all was the pretty shape of Patsy's small +head, the dense quavering blackness of the little curls that frothed +about her brow, and the sidelong way she had of appealing to the giant +who bent over her with his finger on the line of Virgil he was +expounding. + +Presently with a squaring of the shoulders and a grasp at the blue +bonnet which lifted it clear of his head, the Poor Scholar strode away. +He crossed the Abbey Burn in a couple of leaps, his feet hardly seeming +to touch the stones, and in a moment more his tall figure was hoisting +itself up the opposite bank, his hands grasping rock and tree-trunk, +root and dry bent-grass indiscriminately, till presently, without once +turning round, he was out of sight. + +Louis Raincy detached himself from the rock by which he had stood silent +during the interview with the Poor Scholar. He swung himself lightly up +into the Y-shaped crotch of a willow that overhung the big pool. + +The girl came along, her lips moving as she repeated the words of the +passage she had just had explained. Then Louis Raincy whistled an air +well known to both of them, "Can ye sew cushions, can ye sew sheets?" + +Instantly the girl looked up, turning a vivid, scarlet-lipped face, +crowned with a ripple of ink-black locks, to the notch of the willow, +and said easily, "Hillo, Louis Raincy! What are you doing here, a mile +off your own ground?" + +"Watching you turn the head of that poor boy Francis Airie!" + +"His head will not turn so easy as yours, Louis, lad," Patsy retorted; +"there is a deal more in it!" + +Louis Raincy was not in any way put out. Of course Patsy was different. +You never knew in the least what she was going to say, and it would have +grieved him exceedingly not to be abused. He would have been sure, +either that the girl was sickening for a serious illness, or that he had +mortally offended her. + +"How did you leave the Wise Uncle this morning?" he asked, with a nod of +his head in the direction of the house by the Abbey Burnfoot. Both had +begun to climb a little way up out of the path by the waterside. They +did so without any words. It was the regular order of things, as they +both knew. For in the valley bottom Uncle Julian or Adam Ferris might +come round the corner upon them in a moment, and being young, they +wanted to talk without restraint. Besides, there was a constant coming +and going of messengers between the two houses. A carriage road led +along the highway to the cliffs, and then bent sharply down steep +zigzags to the stables of the Abbey, but all ordinary intercourse +between the houses was conducted along the footpath by the Abbey Burn. + +"Uncle Julian," said the girl, as if continuing some former +conversation, "is quite different from father. He has seen the world and +can tell tales of black savages and Arab chiefs and piracy in the China +seas. But father has just lived in his own house of Cairn Ferris all his +life. You know he called me Patricia after my mother--Patricia Wemyss +Ferris. Oh, not even your grandfather is better known than my father. +They made him a justice of the peace, too, but because he can do no good +to the poor folk against the great landlords, he mostly stays at home. +You know our house? From the outside--yes, of course. Well, when your +grandfather will let you, you shall know it from the inside too. But not +till then. Oh, it is big, roomy and quite comfortable, and though it +would not hold an army like Castle Raincy, it is quite big enough to get +lost in." + +"Of course," said Raincy, vaguely feeling the necessity of defending +himself and those who were his, "if it were not for grandfather and his +wretched old feud, mother and I would come and see you to-morrow. She +is--well, she would love you!" + +"Would she, I doubt?" said Patsy, giving her bonnet a vicious jerk to +bid it stay on her head; "mothers seldom like those whom their sons--" + +"Adore!" put in Louis Raincy smilingly. + +"Out, traitor!" cried the girl with a quick, scornful upthrow of the +chin, "it is the smile that saves you, Louis, lad. Easy it is to see +that you have had little experience of talking to women, when you come +firing off words that ought to mean great things into the middle of a +talk about smuggling cases and justices of the peace." + +"But I do mean--" began Louis, preparing to take solemn oath. + +"You mean nothing of the sort, and well it is for you, little boy. +Quiet, now, and listen! I am a Pict--yes, I, Patsy Ferris! Uncle Julian +says so. I am (so he tells me) a throwback to my grandmother's folk who +were Fingauls--and her father the Laird of Kirkmaiden was the chief of +them. That is why I do nothing, say nothing, think nothing like a +scone-faced maid of the Scots. I am centuries older than they. If it +ever arrives to me to fall in love with any man--it seems impossible, +but Uncle Julian says it will come--it is I who will seek that man and +make him love me, and if he ever leaves me or is untrue, I shall kill +him. For that is the way of the Fingaul. Uncle Julian says so." + +As she explained her lot in life Patsy was peeling and eating a sappy +root of rush which she had plucked. With this and a piece of clear brown +gum, the exudation of a smooth-barked wild cherry tree, she made a +delicious repast. She offered his share to Louis, who was in no mood for +frivolities. In spite of his smile he had been hurt to the quick. But +Patsy was perfectly calm, and having fixed a large lump of cherry-gum on +a thorn, she licked round and round it with relish, occasionally holding +it between her eye and the twinkle of the sun to see the effect of the +deep amber hue. + +Still she was circumspect, and when a figure in grey appeared tramping +sturdily up the glen swinging a stick, she nudged her companion into +sulky kind of attention. + +"Uncle Julian," she said, after the tall clean-shaved man had turned the +corner. "I wish you could see his house--properly, I mean, not just from +the road." + +"I have seen it from the sea!" said Louis, still grumpily. + +"And that is no wise way to see it. There are always gentlemen of the +Free Trade hanging about in the offing these days, and if they thought +that the heir of Raincy was spying on them--well, they might take the +liberty of throwing him overboard to sink or swim." + +"But surely your uncle has nothing to do with smuggling or smugglers? My +grandfather says that it is no business for a gentleman to dip his +fingers in!" + +"Your grandfather says a great many other things to which you do not pay +great heed--else you would not be sitting here looking as gloomy as the +raven that croaked when the old cow wouldn't die. No, sir, you would be +sitting up on the stile yonder, cursing the Ferrises with bell, book and +candle--and the old man helping you out when you forgot the words." + +The girl went on sucking her cherry-gum without the least concern as to +whether Louis Raincy was hurt in his feelings or no. If he were, the +obvious alternative was before him. He could return to Castle Raincy the +way he had come. About this or about him Patsy gave herself no trouble. + +Indeed, Patsy gave herself no trouble about anything or anybody, and so +accustomed herself to the management of men. Women, she knew, were +different. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAIDENS' COVE + + +Castle Raincy was a great lord's mansion, and the best of the +neighbouring county folk were glad of a rare invitation there. Cairn +Ferris was the ancient home of an ancient family, the house of a +"bonnet" laird, but then the feather in the side of the Ferris bonnet +had always been worn very proudly and gallantly indeed. + +Abbey Burnfoot was the picturesque modern fancy of a cultured man of the +world, who had come thither to live his life between his books, his +paintings, his music, and the eternally fresh wash of the sea in the +little white bay of pebble and shell underneath his windows. + +But half a mile or a little more over the heuchs stood the farm of +Glenanmays, which, with two or three smaller holdings and his own farm +of Cairn Ferris, constituted the whole landed estate of Adam Ferris. The +Garlands of Glenanmays had been holders of that farm and liegemen of +Cairn Ferris almost from the days when the first Ferris settled on that +noble brace of seaward-looking valleys, through which the Mays Water and +the Abbey Burn trundled, roared and soughed to the sea. + +The early years of the nineteenth century looked on no more +characteristic farmhouse than that where dwelt Diarmid Garland and his +brood, on the bank above the swift-running water-race which turned the +corn-mill with such deftness that people came from as far as Stranryan +to admire. + +A large farm it was, needing many hands to work it,--byre, stable, +plough-lands, hill pasture, flat and heathery in appearance and outline, +but satisfactory for sheep-feeding--that was Glenanmays. Diarmid had +three sons and four daughters, with most of whom this history must one +time or another concern itself. + +Diarmid also was no mean citizen of any state, hard to be driven, +temperate, humorous and dour. He held for the old ways, and each day +presided at meals, his bonnet of blue on his head, broad as a +barrow-wheel, and brought all the way from Kilmarnock. All the rest of +the table sat bareheaded--the sons and daughters whom God had given him, +as well as the hired servant, and even the stranger within his gates. + +For at Glenanmays there was no master but old Diarmid Garland. To each +man and maid there was set down a plate of earthenware, a horn spoon, a +knife and fork--that is, for all who fed at the high table, over which +the blue Kilmarnock bonnet of the master presided. For the minute or so +while he said grace or "returned thanks," Diarmid took off his bonnet, +but resumed it the moment after. He doffed his blue crown of his to God +alone, and even his liege lord, Adam Ferris, had to content himself with +a hand carried half military fashion to its weather-beaten brim. + +When Adam dined, as he often did, at the bountiful table of Glenanmays, +he also found his horn spoon, his knife and fork beside his plate, and +he was always careful to set his hat, his riding-whip and his gloves and +cape behind the door. Then, bareheaded, he took his place on the right +hand of his host at the long oaken table, to which in due order came +son, daughter, house-maiden, out-lass, ploughman and herd. The only +difference was that when it came to the blessing upon the food to be +partaken of, Adam the Laird stood up, while the others sat still with +bowed heads. Why this was, no one knew, not even Adam or Diarmid. But so +it had been in the time of their fathers, and so it would continue till +there was not a Ferris in Cairn Ferris--a time which neither liked to +consider--for the same thought came to both--how that Patsy being an +heiress, Patsy would marry, and the lands that had so long been those of +Ferris of Cairn Ferris would pass to children of another name. + +At the end of the long red-tiled kitchen in which the family meals were +served opened out a sort of back-kitchen to which a wooden extension had +been added. It was a sort of Court of the Young Lions, where herd-boys, +out-workers of the daily-wage sort, turnip-singlers, Irish harvesters, +Stranryan "strappers" and "lifters," crow-boys, and all the miscellany +of a Galloway farm about the end of the Napoleonic wars ate from wooden +platters, with only their own horn spoon and pocket-knife to aid their +nimble fingers. There was no complaint, for Glenanmays was "a grand meat +house," and with the broth served without stint and the meats rent +asunder by the hands of the senior ploughman, the Young Lions did very +well. + +If quarrels arose, the senior ploughman kept a stick of grievous +crab-tree handy, and was not loath to use it. Usually, however, his +voice upraised in threatening sufficed. For Rob Dickson could stir the +Logan Stone with his little finger. He had escaped from the press-gang +on his way from Stanykirk Sacrament, and had carried away the slash of a +cutlass with him, the scar of which was plain to be seen of all, +beginning as it did a little below his ear and running to the point of +the shoulder-blade. This made the prestige of Rob Dickson notable, +especially among the Irish. Had he not resisted authority? So of him +chiefly they sought counsel and direction--so much so that old Diarmid, +quick to notice what made for the good of his farm, caused Rob Dickson +to act as a kind of "grieve" during the time of harvest, when the land +was overrun with "Islanders," "Paddies" and "Paipes"--for the religious +hatred, though never crossing the North Channel, has yet made of the +Irish Catholic in Wigtonshire a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to +his Presbyterian masters. + +Few things Adam Ferris liked better than a look at the Court of the +Lions during feeding time, when Rob Dickson rose in his place to salute +him and the Young Lions bent lower over their wooden platters, "eating +away like murther" lest any neighbour should get ahead of them in the +race. When their own proper broth was finished and the flesh sodden in +it had all been distributed, the Young Lions were made free of the +debris of the high table, and never were bones cleaned with greater +dispatch. Scarce did those which were saved for the rough-tailed, +soft-eyed collies, waiting expectant outside, emerge with a higher +polish. The herds had to see to this final distribution themselves, each +feeding his own pair at different corners of the yard, ready to check +growlings which might end in fights with the stern toe of a mountain +boot, very proper to the purpose. + +Even oftener than her father, Patsy came to Glenanmays. It was good to +get away from the dear but dull house of Cairn Ferris, the schooled and +disciplined servants, the gentle but constant and masterful supervision +of her old nurse, Annie McQuilliam. + +She loved her home. She loved all who were in it. But there was no one +of her own age at Cairn Ferris, and here at Glenanmays she could dip +deep in the fountain of youth. Of the four girls, Faith and Elspeth were +her seniors, and she looked up to them, sitting at their feet and +keeping her secrets as carefully from them as she would have done from +her own father. + +But the third, Jean, a tall slight girl with head coiled about by +swathes of fair hair, was year for year, month for month, Patsy's own +age. And neither had any secrets from the other. Hopes, fears, +anticipations were exchanged, but cautiously and in whispers, like young +bathers who test the chill of the sea with bent, temerarious toes. So +they touched and paused, shivering on the brink of the incoming tide of +life. + +Menie Garland, the youngest of all, was then a slim girl still at +Stranryan Grammar School, with the softest eyes and the most wonderful +voice, round-throated and full-chested even at the ungrateful age of +fourteen. + +Not the three brothers Garland, Fergus, Stair and Agnew, stalwart and +brown, nor yet the two elder girls--not little Menie coming singing like +a linnet over the moor, brought Patsy so often that way. But the quiet +talks with Jean--Jean who had learned wisdom from her sisters' love +affairs, from the escapades of her brothers, and who, by the rude rule +of fact, could reduce to cautious verity the fiction which Patsy had +learned from her Uncle Julian's books. + +So Patsy went often to Glenanmays, and without interrupting the busy +round of the afternoon's duties, prescribed by Diarmid for each member +of his family, she made her way to the little shed hidden by the +burnside, on the green in front of which the clothes-lines were strung, +and clean garments fluttered in the sea-wind, fresh and glad as ship's +bunting. + +"Yes," Jean Garland would say after the girls had kissed one another, "I +was up early this morning--soon after dawn. Madge Blair and I had our +arms in the tubs by half-past three, and she had got the pot to boil +before that. So now I am ready for the ironing, and--" + +"Oh, let me help!" cried Patsy. + +"Very well," Jean acquiesced, "you are getting to be none so ill with +the goffering iron and the pliers--" + +"Better with the fancy than the plain!" laughed Patsy. + +"It is to be expected, you have the light hand, and you have taste--most +have neither one nor the other, but iron for all the world like a roller +going over a wet field." + +They worked a while in silence, only looking up occasionally and smiling +at each other, or Jean might throw in a hint as to a frill or tucker +which must be dealt with in a particular way. + +Suddenly Jeanie Garland came nearer, a pile of folded linen over her +arm. + +"Have you heard anything of the press-gang at your house, Patsy?" + +"Nothing," said Patsy, busy with a best Sunday cap, all lace frills and +furbelows. "Of course there is always Captain Laurence at Stranryan. On +clear nights you can hear his fifes and drums by standing on the stile +above our house, and they say there is a King's ship or two about +Belfast Lough--but why do you ask?" + +Jean Garland paused yet nearer to Patsy and spoke in her ear. + +"It's the lads!" she murmured. "They are in it. I am feared for them." + +"What?" exclaimed Patsy, but checked by a glance she instantly lowered +her voice--"not Fergus and Stair and Agnew?" + +Jean nodded slightly. + +"Does their father know?" Patsy whispered back. Jean preserved a grave +face. + +"Not any one of us, his own family, can guess what Diarmid Garland knows +and does not know. He had his time of the Free Trading. He was at the +head of it, and if the boys head a clean run from the Dutch coast or the +Isle of Man--why, if father is ignorant of the business, it is because +he wishes to be." + +"But there is nothing new in all that," said Patsy; "there have always +been smugglers and shore lads who helped them--always King's cutters and +preventive men to chase and lose them--what danger do the boys run more +than at other times?" + +"This," said Jean Garland, very gravely, "there is a new superintendent +of enlistments at Stranraer. He is just a spy, one Eben McClure from +Stonykirk, a man of our own country. He works with the preventive +superintendent, and when they cannot or dare not meddle with the +cargo-runners, as they dare not with my brothers, they set the press +upon them--and the soldiers' press is the worst by far." + +No more was said. The girls worked quietly for an hour till all was +finished. The hedges and clothes-lines were cleared of their burden, and +with a whisper of "Shall we go down to the cove--the tide is nearly +full," the girls slipped each a cotton gown and a towel apiece into +Patsy's little reticule and made off to the bathing cove, a well-hidden +nook of sand, half cavern, half high shell-bank, which bygone tides had +excavated in the huge flank of the Black Head. Fergus and his brothers +knew about it, of course, and saw to it that none about the farm +interfered with the girls at their play. + +In a minute their young figures were lost among the birches of the +valley, a wider and an opener one than that of the Abbey Burn, the banks +higher and farther off, and from their ridges giving glimpses of the +distant Mull of Galloway and the blue shores of Ireland. + +They kept in the bottom of the glen, splashing and springing from stone +to stone, with mirthful enjoyment of each other's slips. Far off on a +heathery knoll Diarmid watched them go. He had noted the swift intaking +of the white cleading on the hedges, the disappearance of fluttering +garmentry from the clothes-lines. He approved of young people enjoying +themselves, _after_ their work was done--Diarmid's emphasis on the +"after" was strong. + +As they went Jean Garland pointed out a pony track high on the fells. +"Careless fellows," she said, "that must have been Stair's band. For +both Fergus and Agnew are more careful!" + +Indeed, the trail by which the laden ponies had passed was still clearly +evident, and Jean was roused to anger against the headstrong brother who +had risked bringing all about the house into trouble. + +"The others went by the bed of the burn," she said, "why could not +Stair?" + +Looking seaward, they saw all things more clearly than usual--the pause +before a storm from the west, prophesied Jean Garland. The island at the +Abbey Burnfoot divided itself into two peaks. They could see the houses +at Donnahadee, and the boats turning sharply about to make for Belfast +Lough, showing a sudden broadside of white canvas as they did so. But +little they minded. At present the sky was glorious, the sea a mirror, +and here was the Maidens' Cove, into which they dipped from the cliff +edge, as suddenly as a kite swoops from the sky. In a moment they were +lost to sight, and only the tinkle of their laughter among the blue, +purple and creamy reflected lights of the cove told where they were. + +Outside the sheltered sea rocked and laved the sands with a pleasant +swishing invitation. Presently they looked out from the low mouth of the +cove. All seemed still and lonely, and they were about to step down into +the clear green water of the Atlantic, when a noise came to their ears. +It was the sound of men rowing--many men, and many men at that time and +place meant the pinnace of a King's ship. The thought of Stair's +careless bridle-track high on the heathery side of the fell tortured the +mind of his sister. What could they want? It was too early in the day +for any surprise work in the interests of the Excise. There were no +smuggling cellars near to search--but at that moment the girls of one +accord drew in their heads. They moved stealthily into the dark of the +cove. Here they could not be observed, but they could see a boat's crew +of seamen which went past rapidly in the direction of Abbey Burnfoot, +the salt water sparkling in a rain of silver and pearl from the oars, +and an officer sitting spick and span at the tiller-ropes. + +The next moment they were gone and in the clear submerged dark of the +purple dulse that shaded the cavern mouth the girls looked at one +another with dismay in their eyes. + +"Can they be going to take Uncle Julian?" said Patsy. + +"Uncle Julian--no," exclaimed Jean Garland, "of course not--what would +they be doing with a learned man and a gentleman? It is that silly Stair +who has set them on the track of my brothers. They will land at the +Burnfoot and catch them all at the Bothy of Blairmore, where they gather +to take their "four hours"--I must run and warn them--" + +"Jean," said Patsy, "I can run two yards for your one. Lend me your +scarf and I shall go and warn the lads." + +"You--the laird's daughter!" + +"Yes, I," said Patsy, girding her waist with the red sash, and looking +to the criss-crossed ties of the bathing-sandals her uncle had given her +out of his store of foreign things. Her kilted skirt came but a little +way below her knee and her blouse of fine blue linen let her arms be +seen to the elbow. Patsy looked more Pictish than ever thus, with a +loose blown tassel of ink-black hair on her brow. Jean offered some +faint objections but did not persist. After all, it was the main thing +that the lads should be warned in time. + +So Patsy, trim and slim as your forefinger with a string of red tied +about it, sped eastward over the hills to the Bothy of Blairmore. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BOTHY + + +Patsy had always been a wonderful runner. She could outpace her pony. +She could flee from Louis Raincy like the shadow of a wind-blown cloud +crossing a mountain-side, and on the sands, with none but Jean Garland +to see, Patsy could fleet it along the wet tide wash, sending the spray +about her as a swallow that skims a pond and flirts the surface with its +wings. + +Old Diarmid mounted on the stile, balanced himself with his staff, and +looked. The dogs accompanying him cocked their ears in hopes of a chase, +but the next moment, their keen senses telling them that it was only +Patsy running over the heather, they settled down, marvelling that men +could be so strong with foot and hand and yet know so little. + +There was half a mile to be run along the sands before turning up over +the hot glacier-planed stones of the moor. Diarmid Garland watched and +wondered. He had often seen Patsy giving his daughter Jean, of the +heavier and slower-moving blonde Scandinavian blood, half the distance +to Saythe Point and then passing her, as an arrow may miss and pass one +who flees. Now she moved like a leaf blown by the hurricane. Her white +feet in their sandals of yellow leather of Corinth hardly seemed to +touch the sand. Then Patsy turned up the crumbling cliffs at their +lowest point, mounting like a goat with an effortless ease till she +crowned the causeway of seaworn rock and plunged to the armpits into the +tall heather of the Wild of Blairmore. + +Then Diarmid lost sight of the girl for a minute, but when he saw her +again she was far out on the perilous goat-track which led down to the +bothy itself. Diarmid scanned the distance with his eye--he knew the +length of time it would have taken a hillsman to go from point to point. + +"That girl is a miracle," he muttered to himself, "she can run through +deep heather as fast as on the sand of the seashore." + +He was wrong, however. She was only a Pictess, with some thousand years +of the heather instinct in her blood. Her body was lithe and supple, her +foot light, and her eye sure. Besides, she could hear what was hidden +and unheard at the stile on which Diarmid stood, the _rock-rock_ of the +short, steady navy stroke, which was pulling the landing-party from His +Majesty's ship _Britomart_ nearer and nearer to the Bothy of Blairmore. + +Then she passed quite out of sight. She had a long descent before her, +sheltered seaward, so that she did not need to consider the danger of +being seen by the enemy. The leather of her sandals pattered like rain +on dry leaves on the narrow, twisted sheep-tracks, then mounted +springily over the bulls'-fell of the knolls of stunted heather, and as +it were in the clapping of a pair of hands, she appeared at the door of +the Bothy of Blairmore, scarce heated, quite unbreathed, but with grave +face and anxious eyes. + +"Scatter!" she commanded, clapping her hands. "Off with you, lads! Take +to the hills. The press-gang is landing at this moment at the Abbey +Burnfoot to cut you off. Eben McClure is with them. He has heard of your +cargo-running and he wants to send you all to the wars." + +"And what will _you_ do?" said Stair, who was always the boldest in +speech as he was the most reckless in action. + +"I--oh, pray don't give yourself the least trouble about me, Stair +Garland. I shall stay here and wash the dishes." + +The lads were declaring that under no circumstances should she remain +where she was, but Patsy had made up her mind. She must see what a +press-gang was like. She would see and speak with the officers who were +at the head of it. Perhaps they had their side to it also, which would +be worth the finding out. And the spy--she had never seen a spy, a +marker-down of men--so she resolved to see this Eben McClure, the most +hated man in all Wigtonshire. She would stay, and it was with a certain +imperiousness that she ordered the boys away. + +They went reluctantly, but they knew that because she was the daughter +of a magistrate and a laird, nothing serious would happen to her, while +they risked life and liberty every moment they stayed. + +"Do you think I ran all the way from the bathing cove for nothing?" she +said. "Save yourselves, lads. Do as I bid you and at once." + +They went, though it was not with the best grace in the world. Stair +wore a scowl on his handsome face as he slung his gun over his shoulder. +Only Fergus thanked her for having come to warn them. + +"Hold your tongue," said Patsy, peremptorily, "get out of sight. Keep +yourselves safe. That is the best thanks, and all that I ask for from +you." + + * * * * * + +So it came about that fifteen minutes later, Lieutenant Everard of the +_Britomart_, disembarking with Captain Laurence of the Dragoons and the +Superintendent of Enlistments, Mr. Ebenezer McClure, came upon a picture +framed in the doorway of the Bothy of Blairmore. Patsy had spread Jean +Garland's scarlet sash to its broadest, and so had been able to let down +her skirt of blue linen till it came to almost her ankles, above which +the yellow cross-gartering of the sandals was diamonded in the Greek +fashion her Uncle Julian had taught her. + +Patsy had found piles of unwashen dishes and spoons, for the boys of the +Glenanmays family depended for cleaning up upon uncertain, +semi-occasional visits, from one or other of their sisters. What they +wanted at the time they took out and washed in the pleasant tumble of +the hill brook which passed their door on its way down to meet the Abbey +Burn a little above Uncle Julian's house. The rest they left. + +The two officers of His Majesty stood a moment too astonished for +speech. This was not at all what they had come out to find, nor what +their men had been posted all about the bothy to secure in case of an +attempt to escape. + +Patsy nodded brightly to her visitors, and the officers saluted, +without, however, abandoning their gravity. The third man, a long, lean, +hook-nosed fellow with curly black hair plastered about his brow and +tied in a greasy fall of ringlets on his shoulders, frowned and growled. +He had understood at once that the game was up. If the authority had +been his, he would have had the sailors and marines scouring the +hillside and searching every rift in the rocks. + +"May I ask you," said Captain Laurence, a tall, good-looking, blond +officer, bowing to Patsy, "where the young men Garland are to be found? +We had come with warrants for their taking. This is His Majesty's +press." + +"Ah," said Patsy easily, "so you are the press-gang--let me look at you. +I have never seen a 'press' before. Where are your handcuffs? Which of +you is the chief executioner? You tie up the poor fellows, they tell +me." + +"I must ask you to explain your presence here," said Captain Laurence, +who had grown hot all over at being spoken to in this fashion. + +"This is the Maid Marian of the gang," suggested Lieutenant Everard of +the _Britomart_, with a sneer. "I have seen something like this get up +in the Gulf of Corinth." + +"Then you are a lucky man," said the captain of dragoons. "All the same +I must ask you to account for your presence here, young lady." + +"Rather might I ask you to explain yours," said Patsy, breathing on a +glass, rubbing it, and holding it up to the light. "You are trespassing +on my father's ground--and from what I see of your arms, in pursuit of +game!" + +"And who is your father, madame?" + +"I have quite as good a right to ask you for the name of yours!" + +The officers laughed and glanced at each other. + +"Not quite," said the dragoon; "you observe that we are on special +duty--" + +"I should indeed hope so," said Patsy, standing up with her drying-cloth +in her hand and shaking it contemptuously at them. "Special duty, +indeed, that means the chasing of honest men and honest men's sons at +the bidding of spies!" + +"It is a duty which I perform as seldom as possible," said Captain +Laurence. "Naturally I would rather be fighting the foes of my king and +country, but as to that I am not consulted. Besides, the naval and +military forces of the realm must be recruited in some way or other!" + +"I should have thought that treating men like criminals was not the best +way to make brave soldiers of them!" + +"Tell us your father's name," broke in Lieutenant Everard, a small dark +man, very nervous and restless, with eyes that winked continually and +impatient fingers that fiddled endlessly with the tassel of his +sword-hilt. "We will not be put off longer. The men are escaping all the +time while you are left here to hold us in talk. If he be, as you say, a +gentleman and a magistrate, he will give us assistance in our search, +according to his oath." + +"My father's name is Adam Ferris, of Cairn Ferris," said Patsy, +pleasantly. "But whether he will be at your service or not, I cannot +tell. As for me, if you are the gallant gentlemen you look, you will +bring me a pailful of fresh water from the spring--see, yonder at the +foot of the rock--ah, thank you!" + +"Captain, we are wasting valuable time," insinuated Eben McClure, the +superintendent of recruitment, touching the officer lightly on the arm. + +"Keep your dirty fingers off my sleeve, sir, and go to the devil. I +command here. Miss Ferris, I beg your pardon. I may as well fetch a pair +when I am about it." + +Captain Laurence had noticed that the second pail contained very little +water. So with a quick heave he sent a shining spout in the direction of +the spy, who was drenched from knee to shoe-buckle. Then he caught up +the pails with a clash of their iron handles and with the easiest +swagger in the world took the direction of the spring, his spurs +jingling as he went. A sailor on guard behind the rock would have aided +him to fill them, but he told the man to keep his station, and dipped +for himself. He brought them back brimming and with a courtly bow +inquired of Patsy if she had any further commands for him, because if +not he must go about the duties of his service. + +Patsy thanked him with the distinctive simplicity of one who has +officers of dragoons to carry water for her every day of her life. But +she went to the door and showed Captain Laurence the way over the ridges +to the house of Cairn Ferris. "My father is likely to be at home," she +said, "but if you do not find him, he is sure to be at my Uncle Julian's +at the Abbey. You have only to follow the glen." + +"Your uncle?" said Captain Laurence, "your father's brother?" + +"No, my mother's," said Patsy. "Mr. Julian Wemyss of Auchenyards and +Wellwood--and the best man in the world--the wisest too!" + +"I shall have pleasure in making the acquaintance of your uncle; his +family (and that of your mother) is from my part of Scotland." + +He bowed low and withdrew. The lieutenant of the _Britomart_ and the +Superintendent of Enlistments were in a state of incipient lunacy. Oh, +the fool! They would break him if they could. They would write to the +Secretary. They would--but as they growled and cursed behind him, Eben +McClure suddenly remembered that Julian Wemyss and my Lord Erskine were +first cousins, and that so long as the government remained in office, it +would be advisable to stand well with all friends and neighbours of the +Secretary, Erskines, Wemysses, Melvilles, wherever found. He was +unpopular enough in the country as it was. He could not afford to be +"ill seen" at headquarters as well. + +Patsy found herself left alone in the bothy. But she knew that the two +men who had not spoken would certainly leave some hidden spy to watch +whether the young men returned, or if she attempted to communicate with +them. + +Therefore she did not hasten. Jean would arrive before long with the +garments in which she had left home, and which she had shed, as it were +providentially, to be able to run the better across the sands of +Killantringan and the heathery fastnesses of the Wild of Blairmore. + +Hardly had Patsy gotten the bothy to her liking--or something like +it--when Jean arrived, full of wonder and joy. She carried a parcel +under her arm, done up carefully in her neckerchief. + +"It is a pity to change," she said, "you will never look so pretty +again!" + +And she detailed with the admiration of generous youth the beauty of the +black locks, waved tightly about the small head, the pale blue linen +gown girt with the sash of scarlet silk, and the cross-gartered sandals, +showing Patsy's brown skin and pretty ankles half-way to the knee. + +"It is a great shame," she repeated, "that you can't go about like that +all the time." + +"I shall think it over," said Patsy; "but if I went to the kirk on +Sabbath dressed as you would have me, I believe Mr. MacCanny would have +me turned out." + +"Yes," said the loyal Jean, "because nobody would be able to attend to +his sermon for looking at you!" + +"But what are the lads going to do?" + +"Oh," said Jean, "they have two or three places handy for lying up in. +They are snug by this time. At least Fergus and Agnew are. Stair I met +on my way here. He was lurking in a moss-hag with his gun ready for the +first red-coat or blue-jacket who should lift a hand to you." + +"Send him off to join the rest," said Patsy more seriously. "I never was +in the least danger, and there is no doubt but that the man McClure has +left some of his rascals to watch the bothy." + +"Then High Heaven help them if they come across Stair and his +blunderbuss. He will bring them down like so many partridges. Not even +father can manage Stair. He will take orders from no one, except in +matters of the farm. He is a good boy, and has great influence among the +young fellows, for he will stick at nothing. But he is easily angered, +proud, and often both reckless and desperate. You may be sure that he +will not leave you till he sees you safe in your own valley and among +your own people." + +Patsy heard this with outward impatience, but, like every girl, with +something also of inward pride. She smiled at what Louis Raincy would +have to say to this constant watchfulness, and how she herself would +like it when next Louis and she climbed up to their "Nest" for one of +their long talks. Would Louis be in danger from the bullets of the +arrogant Stair? + +She wondered if what Uncle Julian said could indeed be true--that though +the men's secret of the heather ale had been lost, the women of the +Picts would keep theirs and whistle men to heel, as sheep-dogs follow +their masters. Uncle Julian said that she had in her the blood of +Boadicca, who once on a day was a queen of the Picts far to the south. + +But, after all, Uncle Julian jested so often, even when he appeared most +serious, that you could not tell whether he meant it or no. + +It would be nice if it were true, thought Patsy, but, after all, just +because Uncle Julian said so did not make it true. + + * * * * * + +"Your daughter, sir," said Lieutenant Everard, half an hour later, "has +aided the escape of three young men, all deeply implicated in breaking +the laws of the land." + +It was in the ancient hall of Cairn Ferris that Adam, tall, black and +solemn, was receiving unexpected visitors. The hall, oak-beamed and +still lighted mainly by tall, narrow windows, originally slotted for +arrow and blunderbuss, was discouraging for men in search of the support +of a modern justice of the peace. + +The chief of a clan, some of whose members had been cattle-lifting, +might have received them so. + +"What men? What laws?" demanded Adam Ferris. + +"The young men Garland, sons of one of your tenants," said the officer; +"and as for the laws, they are those of His Majesty's excise." + +"Ah," said Adam, dryly, "pardon me. Your uniform misled me. From your +dress I took you for a naval officer." + +"And so I am," cried Lieutenant Everard indignantly; "of His Majesty's +ship _Britomart_, presently cruising in these waters." + +Adam Ferris bowed gravely, as one who receives valuable information. + +"I congratulate you," he said. "As for the young men, Fergus, Stair and +Agnew Garland, they are fine lads and a credit to the neighbourhood. I +cannot imagine that they have anything more to do with the traffic of +which you speak than I myself. But if they have been reported to you as +guilty, I am prepared to take cognizance of the evidence. I presume you +did not come here without a warrant." + +"We need no warrant," said the Lieutenant. "I am in command of His +Majesty's press." + +The expression of Adam Ferris's face changed suddenly. + +"My tenants and my tenants' sons are not subject to the press-gang. +There are no sailors among them--no, nor yet any fishermen." + +"Captain Laurence of the dragoons is with us, sir," interpolated Eben +McClure; "he has a right to beat up for recruits for the land forces." + +"Ah," said Adam, "at fairs and markets, with fife and drum--yes! But not +all over my estate, nor yet to meddle with my tenantry." + +"He has particular permission from Earl Raincy," said the spy. + +"I am not Earl Raincy, nor are my lands his," quoth Adam Ferris; "but, +by the way, where is this Captain Laurence of whom you speak?" + +The question seemed to embarrass the two men. "He was with us," said the +Lieutenant at last, "but having discovered some fancied kinship with +your brother's family, he separated himself from us and went (as I +believe) to his house of Abbey Burnfoot!" + +"Then I hope he does not press Julian for the cavalry. His cousin, the +Secretary, might have something to say to that!" + +Altogether there was small change to be got out of Adam Ferris, and as +they gathered their men and, marched them off, they fell foul one of the +other, the officer with his exercised sea-tongue having much the better +of the word-strife. But presently they were friends again, both cursing +Captain Laurence of the dragoons for deserting them in their time of +need. + +"I believe," said Lieutenant Everard, "that Laurence simply turned in +his tracks and went back to that bothy to carry more water for the +black-headed girl!" + +This, however, was of little moment to the Superintendent of +Enlistments, who had a bounty upon every pressed man safe drafted to +headquarters or delivered on board ship. + +"At any rate," he said, "we have lost our men, and we are little likely +to see them again!" + +The Lieutenant turned angrily upon him. + +"You are thinking of your dirty dollars," he said bitterly. "It is for +the sake of such as you that His Majesty's officers must be treated like +huckstering excisemen by every dirty Scot who owns as much ground as a +cow can turn round in! 'My estate!' 'My tenantry'--paugh, and the back +of his hand to you because you are no better than an Englishman!" + +"The Ferrises are an ill folk to come across!" insinuated the +Superintendent of Enlistments. + +Everard turned hotly upon his companion. + +"And who brought us here to rub noses against rough stones climbing your +accursed dykes, only to be insulted by country bumpkins and outwitted by +half-clad minxes? You are a spy, and no fit company for gentlemen. I +tell you so much to your face. But when you are in your own country and +doing your foul business, you might at least have your information +correct before calling out the forces of His Majesty." + +And ten minutes later the boat of the _Britomart_ was being rowed fast +in the direction of that ship, because the men knew well that their +officer was in no mood to be trifled with. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BY FORCE OF ARMS + + +The press-gang and its ugly work, Castle Raincy and its feudal +associations, stern Cairn Ferris, the Abbey Burn and the bright new +house of Julian Wemyss--Patsy going from one to the other, and the +patriarchal simplicity of the farm of Glenanmays, with its girls and +boys, its cave-riddled shore and its interests in the Free +Traffic--these are what the district of the Back Shore meant in later +Napoleonic times. + +Most of this was on the surface, to be seen of all men, but the traffic +and the "press" are only spoken of in whispers. As to them it is +dangerous to appear too knowing. + +Even great people were mysteriously tongue-tied. Silence was +particularly golden in these days, and in the stillness of the night the +little click of a sheep's trotters descending a mountain pathway was +often mistaken for the clank of a scabbard point, or the clink of a +gun-butt striking a loose stone. + +Girls in moorland farms lay awake, half-fearing, half-hoping to hear the +saddle-chains of the laden horses, each led by a lover or a brother. + +King George might (and did) multiply officials and send what could be +spared in the way of landing parties to support the executive, but the +claims on the ministry were too many. They could only say, "Wait for a +time of peace and then we will regulate the matter of the Solway free +trade once for all." + +But the most ignorant lad on the shore of Galloway from Loch Ryan to +Annan Waterfoot knew that so long as the government waged war against +Napoleon and America, it had no time to attend to them. The press-gang +was all they had to avoid, and for that they trusted to their clear eyes +and nimble feet. + +They were also well informed. So soon as a patrol cleared the Irishman's +Port in Stranryan, or a boat's crew was seen making for the beach of any +of the Back Shore coves, messengers, ragged and brown, sped inland to +warn the farms and villages engaged in the business, or even those +merely acting as recipients and depots. Then, in the twinkling of an +eye, all men under forty-five disappeared from the fields. The teams +found their own way homewards or stood still till they were loosed by +girls hurrying out from the steadings. + +"Patriotism," said Stair Garland, bitterly, "that is a fine word. But +the fine patriots tie the lads they catch to rings in the wall of the +Stranryan gaol. They lash them till the blood runs just to learn them +not to complain. Don't tell me about glory. There was Rob Blair, who +came back from Spain after his brother Maxwell had been flogged to +death. He shot a general near Corunna--him they make a fuss about--he +and half a dozen of his mates, and he told me the reason that Allingham +keeps so far ahead of his own soldiers is that they are better shots +than the French, who do not fire at him nearly so often." + +True or not, this was the Galloway idea of soldiering during the later +Napoleonic wars, and it was only after a bout of drunkenness at some +fair that recruits could be looked for. Suicide was not uncommon after a +few weeks of discipline, and many were drowned from the transport ships +which took them to Vigo or the Tagus mouth. + +Galloway has always been cut off from the rest of Scotland. In spite of +the invasion of its fertile valleys by Ayrshire dairy farmers it has +remained the old Free Province, a little anti-Scottish, a good deal +anti-Irish, excessively anti-English, self-centred, self-satisfied, +quarrel-some and _frondeur_, yet in the main politically conservative. + +In 1811 the Ayrshire invasion had not yet begun, and there was nothing +to mitigate the determination of the people not to send a single man to +fight in a war about which they cared nothing. No regiment in the +service bore its name. It was looked upon as the haunt of an evil breed +who would smuggle and fight, but against, and not among, the soldiers of +the King. + +A landing party had been attacked and cut up on the Corse of Slakes. +Soldiers had to take and hold the old camp of the Levellers in the +Duchrae wood, near the Black Water. Bitter hatred prevailed between the +Lord Lieutenant's party, formed to aid the government in obtaining +recruits, and the commonalty, which was equally determined that no one +of theirs should be carried off to endure the shame of the +cat-o'-nine-tails. + +Earl Raincy made a tour of his estates, and the farmers promised +wonderful things, but carefully and immediately sent their lads to the +heather and the hill-caves for change of air. The girls took to the +plough and threshed the grain on the beaten earth of the barn +floor--emerging tired, but bright-eyed and happy. This, at least, they +could do to keep Alec or John from the dread triangle and the lacerating +whip. The Frenchman's bullet they were willing to risk, but not these. +Galloway furnished its full tale of officers to both services, but as a +recruiting-ground, even in milder times, it has given poor results. + +In 1812 there was a good deal of writing about patriotism in struggling +local journals. The big farmers were often loud-voiced, and the +publicans hung out colours when the recruiting-officers made temporary +headquarters of their houses, but the mass of the people stood silent, +sullen and determined. They would not be taken, and if any were seized +they would put up such a fight that the "press" would pay three or four +lives for one. The chiefs would stay their hand, they argued, if they +had to pay the price of three or four formed and disciplined men for a +single unwilling recruit who would certainly desert at the first +opportunity. + +In the old outlaws' cave on Isle Ryan, towards the Mull out beyond +Orraland, thirty or forty young men were gathered. They were not afraid +of any attack by land or water. The stony bulk of the isle did not even +fear cannon, and the passage, open only at low water, was exceedingly +easily defended. Provisions they had in plenty, and for more they had +only to cross to the mainland, where every farmer would willingly supply +them. + +Lads from all Galloway were there, shock-headed Vikings, with +far-looking blue eyes, from Kirkmaiden to Leswalt, black, hook-nosed +Blairs and McCallums from Garlieston sat beside Rerrick and Colvend men +with deep-set eyes, the fine flower of the Free Trade, men whose +forefathers had run cargoes for a hundred and thirty years into the same +ports, and refused King's service for many thousand, though perfectly +obedient to their own lords and war committees. There were always a +plenty of fighting men along Solway shore, as the published rolls of +1638 attest.[1] Willing were they to fight, only they would fight when +and against whom they chose, under such and such officers, appointed by +themselves, and under no others. Kings, whether Highland Stuarts or +German Guelphs, they would not obey--no, not though military parties +made examples of them at every dyke back. The iron of the Killing Time +was branded deep into the folk of Galloway. They would not go +soldiering, and they would smuggle. In the last resort, if matters got +too hot, the young men would silently betake themselves to Canada, where +they rose to be factors and chief traders under the Hudson Bay Company, +or, like Paul Jones, took service under another flag, and fought with +the lust of battle ever in their heart, against all that was English or +smelt of the service of King George. + +[Footnote 1: _The Galloway War Committee of 1638_ (Nicholson, +Kirkcudbright).] + +"Are we to stay here for ever?" demanded Stair Garland, lying on the +sand of the upper cavern and looking out at the blue curtain of sky, +which was all he could see. Outside was a kind of balcony on which they +stretched their legs at night, but, as there were preventive officers on +the cliffs with telescopes under their arms, it was forbidden to go out +there in daylight. + +"We must stay here till the ships of war have gone out of the channel. +You can see the top-sails of the _Britomart_ at this moment, hanging +about the Mull, and a sloop-of-war lies off Logan House, waiting for +Captain Laurence's orders." + +It was a Stewartry man who spoke, keen of eye and crisply black-haired, +his voice soft and easy, not hectoring and overbearing like that of most +of his fellows--his name, Godfrey McCulloch, the younger son of a +younger son, but of the best and oldest blood in Scotland, which is to +say of the Ardwalls. + +Godfrey and Stair were in a manner rivals for leadership. The Stewartry +man was the elder by many years, and among his own enjoyed an unrivalled +reputation, but three-fourths of the Isle Ryan refugees were Wigtonshire +men and faithful to Stair Garland. + +But Stair Garland was often reckless and headstrong, so brave himself +that he hardly thought of danger to those whom he led. Godfrey +McCulloch, on the other hand, was cautious and long-sighted. He argued +out every possibility, and arranged what was to be done if things fell +out so and so. Sometimes he even hesitated too long, balancing between +two wise courses, while Stair, leading his men with a rush, would thresh +his way through to victory. On the whole, Godfrey was the safer, Stair +far the more popular leader. + +"We cannot lie up in this hole much longer," said Stair, digging his +heels into the sand. + +"I do not see that you do much lying up," retorted Godfrey McCulloch, +his eyes dark and beady in the semi-dark; "you are off ashore more than +half the time--" + +"After that little slip of a Ferris girl, Patsy," said an Irishman from +Antrim. "I saw the pair of you go down the glen together, and may I +never see Cushendal more if you had not your arm about her waist behind +the dyke--" + +Stair's clenched fist shut in the remainder of the sentence. The +Rathlain man choked as he swallowed a couple of teeth, and felt his raw +lip acrid upon the gap. + +"Tell them you lie--tell them before you spit--or I will send the rest +of your teeth after those two!" + +The man gasped out that "Sure it was only a joke--" + +"A joke, was it?" said Stair fiercely; "then I hope you will consider +the teeth you have swallowed as the cream of it!" + +The men were silent--not from fear at all, but because any two of them +had a right to settle such differences in their own way. + +"Will the Irishman not sell us because of Stair Garland's fist closing +his mouth so awkward like?" inquired a second Rerrick man, lying at the +shoulder of Godfrey McCulloch. + +"Not by a great deal," said Godfrey, "perhaps he will kill Stair if he +can, though Stair is more likely to kill him. But he will not lay +information as to the lads of the Free Trade. He will remember what +happened to Luke Finney and James Tynan when they thought to lift the +hundred pound reward out for Captain Maxwell of the Scaur." + +"What was that?" said the youth at his elbow. + +"Have you not heard? It is a Colvend story, too," said McCulloch. "We +took them out into mid-channel and tied each man to an old anchor with +his fifty pounds in jingling gold about his neck. For which cause Luke +Finney and James Tynan, two rusty anchors and a hundred guineas of +unrusted gold lie in the gut of the North Channel to this day." + +"Is the water deep?" the young man asked. + +"Deeper than any diver will reach till the judgment day," quoth Godfrey. +"This Rathlin man will think twice before he plays Judas to the lads of +the Trade." + +"It must have been worst when they were over the side before the anchors +went plunk!" The young fellow shuddered. A clean death in a fair fight +he did not mind more than another, but dangling there tied to an +anchor--"_Ugh!_" said the lad. + +That night a cargo was to be run into the Abbey Burnfoot Bay, close by +the house of Julian Wemyss. The King's ships had settled themselves, one +in Belfast Lough, and the sloop-of-war well round the point into Loch +Ryan. The _Good Intent_ might therefore discharge her cargo in peace, +and the boats were ready on the beach of the Water Cave to put the Inch +Ryan refugees in charge of the pack horses which were to carry the stuff +inland, distributing as they went. + +The lads were riotous to be off, and Stair had to exercise his +authority, backed by Godfrey McCulloch's experience and influence over +the eastern men, to keep them quiet in the cove till the time should +come for the _Good Intent_ to cast anchor in the bay. + +The chastisement of the Rathlin man had cowed the wildest spirits, and, +still more than the fear of Stair, the acquiescence of the company in +the justice of the punishment. Nevertheless, those in the cave were +restless and uneasy, setting their heads out to sniff the salt of the +sea beneath, and craning their necks through the spy-hole to watch the +sand-pipers wheeling as if dancing new-fangled waltzes, or probing the +sands after little shellfish and sea worms, never getting in each +other's way, but each working quietly along, like a minister in his own +parish. + +Stair Garland was lost in admiration of the glory of the sea and sand at +sunset. The crying of the island curlews coming down each in long plane +flight eased his mind. _Willy-wha_--_willy-wha!_ they called in long +diminuendo, before they settled. + +Presently the mist began to rise out of the hollows and hung out over +the sea from Inch Ryan to the mainland crags like the stretched awning +of a tent. Stair gave the lads leave to go on the balcony while he +himself started on a tour of inspection. He would have liked to take +Godfrey McCulloch with him. But he knew that his own following would be +jealous and resent his passing them over, so he contented himself with +saying, "Attend to what Godfrey says, boys. He has seen more than all of +us put together. Fergus" (this to his elder brother), "knock the heads +of any men who make a noise. No one shall come with us to-night who does +not obey now!" + +Stair went out by the little passage, spoken of in other chronicles, +which opened into the inner towers of the ancient castle of the Herons. +He found himself among rugged, heathy ground, the hollow palm of the +island, now suffused with milky opalescence, for the sun was setting. +Hardly could Stair see from one tuft to another, but out of the tinted +mist swooped first two and then three birds like angels appearing out of +a white heaven. Magnified by the mist Stair hardly recognized the green +and black summer uniform of the golden plover, but he heard their softly +wistful cries everywhere. + +And as the mist shifted and flowed everywhere more and more were +revealed, doing sentry duty each on his tussock of bent-grass, while +behind his mate effaced herself upon her four eggs or led her little +flock into the deepest of the growing heather and among the white +meadows of cotton-grass which blew about them, more downy than even the +youngest nestling. + +Stair made his way to the most easterly point of the isle--that nearest +to the Burnfoot Bay. Already the fog was bunching and billowing +uneasily. He noted that it was losing its steady, even pour over the +island. "It will lift," he muttered. + +And from far away there came the sound of a schooner's mainsail being +brought down as her head came to the wind, the plunge of an anchor, and +then, through a gap in the gloom, the tall, bare mast of a ship in the +direction of the new house of Abbey Burnfoot. + +"The _Good Intent_!" he muttered. "She must be very sure of herself to +come to anchor like that. Still that is Captain Penman's business. If he +can discharge his cargo, I can put it out of harm's way. We shall have +two hundred lads on the beach by midnight, and whatever force they may +bring against us, we can go through them with the strong hand!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PATSY'S CONFESSIONS + + +Patsy had said nothing at home about her race over the moors to save the +Glenanmays lads from the press-gang, and when her Uncle Julian, having +talked to Captain Laurence, approached her on the subject, my lady +replied that she was at the Bothy of Blairmore to help her friend Jean +Garland. + +"And where was Jean when the 'press' found you there alone?" said Julian +Wemyss, smiling. + +"She was outside, keeping watch for her brothers," said Patsy, looking +at him with bright, clear eyes that could not be other than truthful. + +But Uncle Julian had had much experience, and he only smiled more +knowingly than ever. + +"And the famous costume which so witched the men of war?" he asked. + +"Oh, that," said Patsy, "I had to run, and you can't run fast in a +frieze coat with many capes!" + +"No." Uncle Julian nodded his head; "sandals cross-gartered, a bathing +dress and a sash! I would that I had been one of His Majesty's officers +to see you." + +"I shall dress up for you some time," affirmed Patsy soothingly, "if you +will give me the yellow sandals for my very own." + +"Ah," said Uncle Julian, "of that I am not sure. They recall something +which makes them precious to me." + +The girl clasped her hands delightedly. + +"Oh, a story at last," she cried, nestling against him. "I shall not +tell a soul. You shall see how I can keep a secret." + +"But I shall see still better if I do not tell it you!" + +"Oh, how abominable of you, Uncle Julian! And I thought you loved me." + +"The yellow sandals remind me of a time when I was young--young as you, +and a great deal more foolish!" + +"But they are a girl's sandals, Uncle Julian--you said so yourself when +you lent them to me." + +"Indeed, both of them would hardly cover a man's foot!" + +"Who was she? Oh, where did you meet her? Did you love her very much?" + +"I met her on a little coasting boat belonging to her father, on which I +had taken passage from Chios to Smyrna. She knew no English. I knew only +one sentence of modern Greek, and I was not sure of the meaning even of +that. So I had to be careful. I had it from a poem which was making a +noise at the time." + +"Oh, _I_ know," cried Patsy, "Louis is always saying it over to me: _Zoe +mou, sas agapo!_ What does it mean?" + +"That I did not know at the time, but I know what I meant the words to +mean." + +"Was she _very_ lovely?" + +"Very," said Uncle Julian. "I see you want a description, but I can only +indicate. She had great dark eyes into which every sort of languid +delight seemed to have been melted and concentrated, and eyelashes like +the fringed awnings of a tent. When she lowered them they swept the +ground, and when she lifted them it was slowly, as if their very weight +fought against her will!" + +"Oh-o-o-h!" said Patsy, feeling with her fingers, "I have regular +scrubs. You won't ever love me when you think of her, Uncle Julian." + +"I might," he answered, "if you had only the yellow sandals--" + +"No, no, tell me about her! What did you say to her?" + +"I said '_Zoe mou_' half a dozen times, sitting closer to her every +time. I spoke lower and lower, till the last '_Zoe mou_' was whispered +into her ear. + +"Then I risked the other part, '_sas agapo_'--and expected a box on the +ear, or perhaps an appeal to her father, but instead she turned and +kissed me!" + +"Hurrah, Uncle Julian, I'm sure so should I--if any one had the sense to +talk to me like that, low and in my ear (that tickles anyway) and in an +unknown tongue." + +"But you see the point was that the tongue was not unknown to her. She +was a Greek girl and--" + +"But what, after all, _did_ it mean? She told you afterwards, of +course." + +"Well," said Uncle Julian, meditating, "not exactly. I found out. I had +said, '_Zoe_ mine, I love you!" + +"But what does '_Zoe_' mean?" + +"My life!" + +"Life of mine, I love you!" Patsy repeated, trying various tones. "Uncle +Julian, you must have made love like an archangel. Without knowing it, +you had said about all that there was to say, and changing your voice +like that--oh, I do wish I had been that girl. I don't wonder you don't +want to give me the yellow sandals. I should not even have lent them for +five minutes. You must not. I shall bring them back to you. It would be +a sacrilege!" + +"No," said Uncle Julian, "you are the brightest thing in my world, the +likest the Greek girl and all the young things I once loved. It is your +turn now, you small, black-headed Pictish woman!" + +"I am not 'small.' I am taller than you, Uncle Julian!" + +"I daresay, but you are slim as a willow branch. I could take you up +between my finger and thumb." + +"If you could catch me, Uncle Julian; but, see--you could not!" + +With a swift spring she threw herself out of the low French window and +stood on the lawn, ready poised for flight. + +A brightness came into her uncle's eyes. + +"I have known many and learned much," he thought, "but I have missed the +best." + +"Come, Uncle," she said, tapping the grass with her shoe, "I can't run +as well as in kilt and sandals, or like the girl who played ball on the +sands, but I can beat you--yes, I could run in circles about you!" + +"I know, I know, you swallow!" proclaimed an admiring uncle. "But the +day is past when I ran after agreeable young women. Generally they have +to pocket their pride and come to see me--you do every day, you know!" + +"Yes," said Patsy, "but do not think it is to see you, even if you are +my mother's brother--" + +"Half-brother--" + +"My mother's brother, I say," persisted Patsy. "It is because you teach +me to speak French and to read Latin books, and the mathematic (though +that I love not so well), and also chiefly because you lend me many +books to read up in dull old Cairn Ferris." + +"Do not blaspheme the habitation of your fathers," said Julian Wemyss. +"Here is a house all ready for you when you marry. If it were not for +the table of affinities in the beginning of the Bible, and if I were +twenty years younger, I should ask you myself!" + +"Oh," said Patsy, "that would be splendid. You are far the nicest man +and the most interesting I ever talked to. Don't ask me, for I should +say 'yes' in a minute." + + * * * * * + +Usually Patsy Ferris and her father had not much to say to one another. + +"Good morning, daughter!" quoth Adam, coming in from his early +inspection; "whither away with such skip-jack grace, habited in yellow +and black like a wasp?" + +"I have done my work, father," Patsy would answer. "I promised to go +help Jean at Glenanmays. The lads are all in the heather and the maids +have to do the heavy work of the field." + +"But not you--I cannot have you handling the hoe and rake like a field +worker!" + +"No, no, father; Jean is always indoors or at the dairy." + +Adam Ferris looked thoughtful and his dark brows drew together. He +detested the press-gang and all it meant to the young men of the parish. + +"I could send over a man or two, but my grieve or I myself would require +to accompany them for protection against seizure." + +"No need," said his daughter, hastily. "Diarmid would not wish to draw +you into his sons' quarrels and, I think, Stair's band ran a big cargo +last night from the Burnfoot Bay. There were twenty preventive men +there, they say. Yet they stood aside and let the pack horses go by like +men in a dream!" + +Adam grew a little paler. He did not like this open defiance of the +forces of law and order. + +"How was that?" he demanded, "where was the military?" + +"There were two hundred lads, all masked and all armed, a hundred pack +horses and another hundred to ride upon. What could twenty customs men +do with the like of these? Stair Garland left enough good lads to herd +them close under the cliff till the _Good Intent_ had her anchor up and +the caravan was out of all reach of danger." + +This was by far the most serious news Adam Ferris had received for a +long time, but there was worse still to come. + +"Uncle Julian says I ought to tell you, father," Patsy began with quite +unusual gravity, "that when the press-gang went to the Bothy of +Blairmore to take the lads of Glenanmays, they found me. I could run +much faster than Jean, so I got there first." + +Her father grew grey under the olive of his skin. "The men were not +insolent?" he asked, for he knew the manners and customs of his +Majesty's press in lonely shielings. + +"I only saw the officers--Captain Laurence and a naval +lieutenant--besides that smooth rascal McClure from Stonykirk!" + +Even then Patsy hardly dared tell her father how unconventionally she +had been clad, but she plucked up heart and went through with it. + +"I ran from the Maidens' Cove at the foot of the Mays glen along the +sands, and through the heather. I had Uncle Julian's yellow sandals on +my feet and I got there in time for the lads to scatter, though I had +started after the boat had passed out of sight round the Black Point." + +"They knew who you were?" her father asked. + +"Certainly, I told them," said Patsy, eagerly. "I said also that they +had no right on my father's land. We had no sailors or fisher folk on +Cairn Ferris." + +"Right enough," said her father, "but I hope you were not hasty with the +men. Laurence is an honest enough fellow, doing an unpleasant duty, and +the others--well, they are apt to find ways of revenging themselves." + +"Oh," said Patsy, suddenly radiant, poising her small black head, "I +think they rather liked talking to me. I had Jean's dress kilted below +the knee. It was blue, and went well with the yellow cross leathers of +the sandals. I had a broad sash about my waist, too." + +"What difference did that make?" her father asked. + +"Oh, none to you, father," Patsy answered saucily, "but to them it +seemed to make quite a lot of difference." + +Adam Ferris shook his head in reproof. + +"You grow reckless, Patsy," he said, "either I must send you away where +you will have ladies of your own position to look after you, or we must +marry you out of hand and let your husband be responsible for you!" + +"If you want me to run away, dad, just keep on talking to me like that. +I won't have any old 'camel' women to rule over me. I am not going to +leave home, but when I want to get married I shall make my own +arrangements and then--tell you afterwards." + +"Surely you will ask my permission?" + +"The same sort of permission you asked when you ran away with my mother +from the door of the Edinburgh Assembly rooms!" + +Adam Ferris smiled grimly. + +"What is allowable for a man does not always become a woman," he said. + +"But what holds for one Ferris becomes another," his daughter retorted. + +"Jeddart justice," said her father, still smiling; "then you will marry +first, and ask permission afterwards." + +"Exactly," said Patsy, cheerfully. "I knew I could make you understand." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS + + +In spite of her black, close-clustering hair Patsy had the dark blue +eyes of her Uncle Julian. Young men and older ones also (who ought to +have known better) were in the habit of calling them violet when they +walked with Patsy in the twilight, when many unforeseen things happen. + +Then Patsy knew exactly what to think. For her Uncle Julian had told her +that when a man is in love, he becomes colour blind. When asked how he +knew, Julian said that once on a time he had friends who used to confide +their love affairs to him. But he smiled as he said it--the +believe-as-much-of-that-as-you-like smile which was Patsy's own, and was +her heritage from a less grave race than the Ferrises of Cairn Ferris. + +Julian had the same smile when he condemned the Free Trade as an +interference with the financial policy of King George, and at the same +time drew a jug from a jar of "special" Hollands, or from such an anker +of cognac as could not be found elsewhere in Scotland. He had found +both, as it were dropped from heaven, in a corner of his stable, but Tam +Eident, whom he had carefully catechized, knew nothing about the matter. +He had, he averred, been asleep at the time in his bed in the +stable-loft. + +Doubtless the Free Traders thought they were paying for some +complaisance on the part of the master of Abbey Burnfoot. But his light +burned steadily up in his study window. He had never looked down on the +flitting torches, the turmoil of the loading, the black figures crossing +and recrossing the glimmering strips of sand, the clinking of shod feet +on the banks of pebble, the jingling of the chains of the pack saddles. +He had been wisely deaf and had carried his lamp upstairs to the little +turret chamber, where he chose to sleep on wild nights, that he might +the better hear the wind swirl about him, the wind thresh and the sea +roar and churn on the beaches and snore in the spouting-crags of the +Burnfoot. + +So on nights when strange noises came from without, and the wild birds +keckled with a sound that might be mistaken for the neighing of horses, +Julian Wemyss betook himself to his strong tower, and, locking the door +at the top of the stone staircase, went peacefully to sleep, till the +morrow showed up wide wet sands, whipped by the wind, many tracks of +horses among the dunes, and, dipping far down the channel towards St. +Bees, the top-sails of a schooner, which might be the much-sought-for +_Good Intent_, or, again, might not. + +Julian Wemyss was not so old as you might expect from a man so learned +and so apart from the world. Various reasons had been given for his +retirement to this lonely spot when, during the truce, an appointment as +ambassador extraordinary to Paris was within his grasp. He had acquitted +himself highly on several "missions" already, and there was no doubt +that Vienna was only a step to a permanency in Paris, so soon as the war +should cease. But suddenly Julian Wemyss resigned all his appointments +into the King's hands, and it was whispered that he had done so on +account of a lady so highly placed that even to name her was something +like high treason. This was already years ago and even the memory of it +had grown dim. + +Now, Julian Wemyss might be somewhere near fifty years of age, but did +not look a day more than forty, and with certain lights on his face and +that kindly smile of his, wise and tolerant, he looked younger still. + +He was erect and slender, not very tall beside Adam, his brother-in-law, +but moving with a light, easy carriage something between that of an +athlete and a favourite of drawing-rooms. + +He had the noticeable dark blue eyes that twinkled merrily, yet with +something gloomy in their darkness, as of hyacinths in a woodland glade, +drifting and smoky, like the kind of smoke that comes from weed-burning +or a peat-fire lit on a still day. + +His niece, who had heard from Jean Garland some of the talk of the +country, for long dared not ask her uncle point-blank if it were true +about the princess, but she showed such continual curiosity about his +love affairs, that he would keep her waiting while he made an entry in +his diary, or other book of written notes, and then declare solemnly +that the only girl he had ever loved was named Patsy, and was a +thankless brat, unworthy of the care and affection of the best of +uncles. + +"Nonsense," his niece would cry, happy, however, all the same to have +him say so. + +"A girl named Patsy," he would continue, "who was put into my arms an +hour old to take what care I could of, her father being ill-suited for +the task! I am the only relative she has on her mother's side, and Adam +Ferris is equally solitary on the other. So we must take good care of +the minx, Adam and I. She is all we have, little as she deserves that we +should waste a thought on her--though she threatens to run away with the +first gipsy that comes to the yett, as did the Countess of Cassillis in +the ballad." + +"My father has been telling tales--oh, shame of him!" cried Patsy, +reddening. "I said that I would run away with you, if you were not my +uncle, but then I did not know about--" + +She stopped suddenly. Her tongue had betrayed her. + +"About what? Out with it," said Julian. + +"About the princess!" Patsy answered, her eyes in his. + +"Who has been listening to gossip now?" said Julian Wemyss. + +"I--I," cried Patsy, "and I would give all I have to know what is true +and what is clatter of the country." + +"There is little to hide," said Julian quietly, looking past his niece +out of the windows giving on the sea; "but that little is not my own to +tell. If some day I am at liberty to speak, I promise that little Patsy +Ferris shall be the first to hear." + +Then he patted her head reproachfully. "Little Curiosity," he said with +tenderness, "it is not good for girls to be told everything. Old fellows +like me ought to know, so as to keep their wards out of mischief. The +world is a strange and dangerous place, full of traps and quicksands, +and for this reason see that you always come to me with your troubles. +Do not bother Adam Ferris with them. He has never ventured beyond the +Plainstones of Dumfries on a cattle-fair day. Besides many women have +told me their sorrows." + +"Yes," promised Patsy. "I don't know about princesses, but I do know +that many girls must have loved you, Uncle Julian, for that is the +reason you are so sweet to me now!" + + * * * * * + +Julian's chief ally in the county was Miss Aline Minto of Balmacminto, +who lived at Ladykirk. She was wealthy, but had been so shy of men that +she had escaped numberless wooers, sorely enamoured of the Balmacminto +estates, and now at the age of forty-five showed the prettiest fringes +of white curls in the world, a complexion of seventeen, and something so +trustful and rare in the way of brown eyes that Raeburn, at the height +of his fame, had painted her for the mere love of winsomeness in growing +old. + +She knew Julian's reputation and at first had kept out of his way. But +when once she met him, the two had become comrades on the spot. Miss +Aline saw that this man had no designs either upon her or upon the +estates. A kindly aloofness from all such mean projects, an ease and +grace that spoke of worlds quite unrealized by Miss Aline, somehow urged +her to confide in him. In a month he had become indispensable. Miss +Aline asked his advice and called upon Julian Wemyss for aid in all +circumstances. + +He found her a new factor, carrying on the duties till the new young man +(from his own solicitor's office) was installed. He waited with Miss +Aline the portentous visit of Sir Bunny Bunny, Bart., of Crawhall. He +came to demand the honour of her hand for his clodhopping son, George +Bunny Bunny, who hitherto had only distinguished himself by shooting a +keeper in the leg, by frightening village children gathering violets and +daisies, and by going to the wars with a troop of horse raised in the +neighbourhood, only to be sent back again for incompetence. He had, +since then, been the chief support of the press-gang in the +neighbourhood, and, if he had not been so much despised, might have been +hated. But he had enough sense to restrain from active interference with +the Free Traders, for, owing to a personal dislike for violence in any +form which might endanger his skin, he kept clear of press-gang +scrimmages, confining himself to assisting Superintendent McClure with +such information as the Easterhall coast-line afforded. + +The baronet himself was a keen-eyed, long-nosed old gentleman, with many +times the spirit of his son. He had been accustomed all his life to +getting his own way, except with his wife. Even at Castle Raincy he had +known how to cow the gentle mother of Louis Raincy, though something +dangerous in the boy's eye had led him to let Louis alone. + +"The spark of mad Raincy blood is in the whelp," he confided to his +friends; "the same his grandfather has. They can look positively +murderous sometimes." + +Sir Bunny was taken aback to find Julian waiting for him in Miss Aline's +white and gold drawing-room at Ladykirk. + +"Am I, then, to congratulate you?" he said to Julian Wemyss, with false +good nature. + +"You are," said Julian calmly, "upon the friendship and trust of the +best woman in the world. Anything else I should consider impertinence +and know how to resent as such!" + +"I desire to see Miss Aline," said Sir Bunny, to cut short a +conversation which might easily become unpleasant. + +"Certainly," said Julian carelessly, as if he were saying the lightest +of nothings; "but I think you will find that I could have answered you +quite as well." + +"How so?" said the baronet, glowering at him, his fingers twitching to +take this courtly, easy-spoken man by the throat. + +"Because you come to propose your son, Mr. George, for the honour of the +hand of Miss Aline Minto. Miss Aline can say 'No' for herself. But I +think you had better not trouble her and content yourself with the +indication I give you." + +"And what is that?" + +"That Miss Aline prefers to remain as she is!" + +The baronet, however, insisted on a personal answer. Miss Aline came in +and stood shyly while Sir Bunny pointed out the advantages of his +proposal--the estates joined, the parish under control, and the family +name changed by poll deed to Minto-Bunny-Bunny. + +"I am obliged for your thinking of me," said Miss Aline sweetly, "but +for the present I have no intention of marrying." + +"I warn you," said Sir Bunny Bunny, "that by continuing to act as you +are doing, you are exposing yourself to misconstruction--" + +Julian Wemyss, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly +and caught his eye. + +Old Sir Bunny was no coward, but he shrank from the look of Julian +Wemyss as if it had been a knife at his breast. + +"I mean," he said, "that Miss Aline, gracious and youthful as she is, +ought to remember that youth does not last for ever!" + +He thought he had turned the matter off rather neatly, and was surprised +when Julian merely shrugged his shoulders and turned again to the +window. Presently Sir Bunny Bunny made his bow and departed, cursing the +interference of Julian Wemyss in what had long been the desire of his +heart, the union of the Bunny Bunny properties with those of +Balmacminto. He had thought about it so long that it had become to his +mind an accomplished fact. Indeed, he had only been waiting for his +loutish son George to finish his wild-oat sowing before communicating +the news of her good fortune to Miss Aline. + +He was still more astonished on the way home from Ladykirk. An officer, +riding, checked at his approach, and, with a sketched salute, reined his +steed long enough to ask, "Do you know where Mr. Julian Wemyss is to be +found? He is to go home immediately. His Royal Highness the Duke is at +Abbey Burnfoot!" + +"What duke?" the baronet fairly gasped. + +"The Duke of Lyonesse, of course, on his way from Ireland," said the +officer, "he was junior _attache_ to Mr. Wemyss at Vienna!" + +"Good God!" said the baronet, "I wonder if Wemyss will bring him to +Bunny House." + +And he offered to ride with the officer to where Julian might be found. +The adjutant took one look at the plethoric proportions of the baronet's +mount, and answered that he was in a hurry. A simple indication would be +enough for him. Whereupon, with some reluctance, Sir Bunny pointed to +the chimneys of Ladykirk quietly reeking through the trees, and with a +hasty lift of his reins the officer rode on, leaving the baronet staring +after him, wondering whether he ought to tell his wife, or if he should +leave her to find out for herself. + +His brain wheeled. For Julian Wemyss, whom none of them, except Miss +Aline, had chosen to know, was receiving at his house, hitherto the +eyesore and scandal of the neighbourhood, a Prince of the blood Royal. +After all, there must have been something in that talk of great ladies +heartbroken because of this Julian Wemyss, in whom the county saw +nothing, and in whose ambassadorship they had refused to believe, even +though his resignation of it so unexpectedly had been commented upon in +the _Edinburgh Magazine_, which was taken in by Sir Bunny and passed +round afterwards from house to house. + +What could so great a man find to do there? In a distant and disdainful +fashion Sir Bunny knew Abbey Burnfoot. It was not even a mansion--merely +a new-fangled sort of cottage at the best--built in Italian fashion, +they said, but after all, only two score yards of garden, with a narrow +rim of links overgrown with sea pink and ground holly. It was stuck +ridiculously in between the white sands and the pour of the Abbey +Burn--no drives or pleasances, no cropped hedges and trim +parterres--nothing, in short, which Royalty had a right to expect when +visiting a real gentleman's country seat, such as he flattered himself +could be found at Bunny House in the shire of Wigton. + +It did not occur to Sir Bunny Bunny, with his poor little squireen's +point of view, that His Royal Highness might possibly come to see, not +long avenues and close cropped hedges, but his old kind chief of +Constantinople and Vienna. + +So he was forced to content himself with many shakings of his head, and +muttering that the country was going to the dogs when princes consorted +with beggars or little better, as he rode off home to Bunny House in +desperate fear of what his wife Lady Bunny would say when he got there. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LADS IN THE HEATHER + + +Patsy came into her uncle Julian's drawing-room in her most tempestuous +manner. She had been for a gallop along the sands on Stair Garland's +pony and had beaten Louis de Raincy's Honeypot by a length. She was in +high feather, and as she tramped along the cool parqueted hall she kept +calling out, "Uncle Ju--where are you, Uncle Ju?" + +When she opened the door and dashed in she disturbed the conference of +three men by the window, one of whom was in uniform, and the other two +dressed in the latest fashion, of which Patsy had as yet only seen +prints at the end of her uncle's _Town and Country Magazine_--a review +which, curiously enough, always lacked some of its pages by the time +Patsy was allowed to see it. + +"Oh," said Patsy, no ways abashed, "you have come to see my uncle--will +you be seated?" + +Patsy noticed that the tallest of the young men made a slight sign to +his companions, and that they sat down as if in answer to that signal +instead of accepting her invitation at once. + +"We have indeed come a long distance in order to call on Mr. Julian +Wemyss," said the young man of the signal. "I knew him at Vienna, and as +I was passing through from Ireland, I took this opportunity of paying my +respects to him. But it is better still to find such a charming young +lady installed in his house to do the honours!" + +"Oh," said Patsy, "I do not live here, but with my father at the other +end of the glen. I only come every day to cheer him up--Uncle Ju is so +apt to get the 'pokes'!" + +"The 'pokes'--what are they?" exclaimed the tall and ruddy young man, +who continued to stare at her in a manner which would have +discountenanced any other than Patsy. + +"The 'pokes' are what you get if you are left too long alone with all +these shelves, especially if you stop indoors to read them. Then I come +and take Uncle Julian out, and he feels better before I have gone a mile +with him!" + +"So you are a remedy for the 'pokes,'" said the young man, drawing his +chair nearer to that of Patsy, as if to show his interest. "I often have +the disease, though with me it does not come from reading too many +books. But I should gladly take the malady that I might taste of the +antidote!" + +And Patsy felt her face flush with the intensity of his regard. She cast +down her eyes, and the young man took advantage of the fact to signal +slightly to his friends. One after the other they rose and, with an +excuse, left the room. + +The tall young man came gradually closer to Patsy till she started to +her feet, merely to break the nervous tension. An instinctive repulsion +sent her to the window, and, then, though he followed her, she somehow +felt safe. There were the familiar sands, and in a moment she could be +outside where none could touch her. After all, she thought, as she +looked at the white line of the breakers and heard the familiar clatter +of the servants in the kitchen below, she was a fool to be so +idiotically nervous, like a fine smelling-salts lady. What could happen +to her? What if she did not like this very forward young man? He was a +guest of her Uncle Julian's--he might even be his friend. Very likely he +meant no harm, and she would treat him just like anybody else. Yes, that +would be best. + +"Ah," said the young man, leaning over her as she stood looking out, "if +only I had been at that cottage on the hills with the officers the other +day! I would have given a thousand guineas for their luck. But now that +I am fortunate enough to have you to myself for a moment, let me say how +much I admire you, Miss Patsy--that is your name, I think?" + +Patsy did not answer. She had one hand on the sill and was wondering if +the young man were mad or only drunk--also how long it would take for +her to be safe among the heather. + +"You are far too fine and beautiful," he continued, "too bewitching and +original to remain here. You must come to London and take your place +among our reigning beauties. Ah, if only you would trust to one who +adores you, one who would do anything in the world for you--" + +"If you mean yourself, will you help me to wind wool?" said Patsy. "I +have a pair of heather-mixture stockings to make for uncle. I promised +to make them for him last Christmas and I only began them yesterday." + +"Certainly," said the young man, visibly discountenanced, "but can your +uncle not wait a little longer? I wish to talk to you. It was solely for +that purpose I came here, believe me. I had heard of you from Captain +Laurence, and young Everard, one of the officers of the _Britomart_, in +which I came from Ireland. I was over there governing the island for my +father!" + +"Ah, were you?" said Patsy, "well, here is the wool. Can you wind it? +No! Then you had better hold it. That, at least, you can do.--Well, +there you are, remember I shall find you out if you are boasting." + +"But I have got much to say to you!" the young man objected. + +"I can listen better on my feet. I must be doing something. There--sit +down on that three-legged 'creepie,' and, whatever you do, do not tangle +the wool." + +Patsy was resolved that, whatever she might do in the future, she would +now take the matter lightly, and not insult her uncle's guest in the +drawing-room of Abbey Burnfoot. + + * * * * * + +When Julian Wemyss returned in haste from Miss Aline's, he found no less +a person than H.R.H. the Duke of Lyonesse seated on a stool holding wool +for Patsy, who wound a ball with rapid, nimble fingers while she scolded +a delighted Great Personage for his mismanagement. Two gentlemen, of +whom one was Captain Laurence, stood outside and waited gravely, as +indeed became them. But the Duke of Lyonesse was in the highest spirits +and really gave himself to his task, knitting his brows and striving to +follow Patsy's instructions to the letter. + +"It is a long time since I heard so much truth about myself," said the +Duke. "I own I am both stupid and awkward, but then, by gad, I am +willing to learn!" + +"People who are stupid and awkward ought not to offer," said Patsy. "I +am sure that Captain Laurence, whom you sent away, could do it a great +deal better." + +"I can't give up the honour even to my friend Laurence," said the +Prince. "In for a penny, in for a pound. I must conquer this art or be +for ever disgraced in this lady's eyes, and, therefore, in my own!" + +"You should practise before boasting of what you can do," said Patsy. +"Make Captain Laurence wind for you an hour each morning, and in a +little while you will be able to knit your own stockings." + +"By gad," said his Highness, "that is a good idea. Will you teach me? +Often when I was at Constantinople and also at sea I wished I had +something to help the time to pass besides stupid books!" + +He glanced about him at the crowded shelves. "Though I know your uncle +does not think them stupid," he added, with some sense of an apology +due; "but then we cannot all be so clever as he!" + +"I should think not, indeed," said Patsy sharply, "nor half so +handsome!" + +The two gentlemen at the door glanced at one another, but the Duke of +Lyonesse did not wince. He went on carefully slanting his hands time +about to let the wool slip round, bending his thumbs to act as a drag +and obeying his task-mistress to the best of his ability. + +"That has always been the opinion of your sex all the world over," he +said gravely, "if Julian Wemyss entered for a race, what was left for +the others but the Consolation Stakes? But you, at least, are a stake +for which he cannot enter!" + +A quick, light footstep passed through the hall and the door opened. + +"Ah, Wemyss," cried the Duke, "don't interrupt, like a good fellow. I am +on my promotion. Your niece has been dressing me down. I hope to do +better after a while. Besides, we have just been saying how perfectly +irresistible you are, and how the ladies love you. You ought to be +grateful for that at any rate." + +The last threads ran swiftly over the opened fingers, and Patsy deftly +slid the end into the ball, said "Thank you," and, with a curtsey, went +out by the way of the French window leading to the garden, leaving the +men to themselves. + +"Jove," said the Duke, looking after her through the window, "where and +how did you find such a treasure? No wonder you gave up Paris for this. +Like Henry of Navarre, I should give up both Paris and France for such a +mass--a real exile's consolation, good faith. Wemyss, you used to make +me read about Ovid starving for years in the Danube swamps, but this +would be consolation for an exile if he had to roof in the pole to make +himself a house." + +"I am sorry," said Julian, somewhat formally, "that I was not in time to +introduce you to my only sister's only daughter, my niece and heiress, +Miss Patricia Wemyss Ferris of Cairn Ferris." + +"I beg your pardon," said his Highness. "Captain Laurence made us laugh +so much at a tale he was telling, that I fear the introductions were a +little slipshod. I shall make my apologies to the young lady when I have +the opportunity of bettering the acquaintance." + +Julian Wemyss knew very well what was the story which Laurence had been +retailing--that of the disappointed man-hunters at the bothy in the Wild +of Blairmore. But he said nothing, and proceeded to make his young +friend at home in his house of Abbey Burnfoot. He made no apologies. +There was need of none. At Varna and in the little towns along the +Illyrian coast his pupil and he had often had to share far humbler +accommodation. + +For though Julian Wemyss lived apart from the world, he kept a small +yacht to keep him in comfortable touch with the outside markets. The +passage to Glasgow was an easy one. Dumfries and the Cumberland ports +were open to him, and so, with the foreign articles which were found in +his outer cellars after a trip of the _Good Intent_ (master and owner, +Captain Penman), no house in the county could produce at short notice so +excellent and various a bill of fare. + +A place had been set at dinner for Patsy, but it remained empty. Patsy +had simply disappeared. No one had seen her about the shore, nor had she +been met with along the dusky alders and dimpling birches of the path by +the burnside. Neither had it pleased her to reappear at Cairn Ferris, +whither Julian had been careful to send an inquiry. + +Such conduct, however, did not seriously disquiet anybody, for Patsy's +ways were too erratic and the country too safe (so long, at least, as +she kept to the Ferris properties) for any one to harbour serious fears +about her. + +And, indeed, there was no cause. Patsy had no idea of going off her +father's lands. She had simply taken a scamper over the Rig of +Blairmore, keeping to the deeper cover of the hollows till she came to +the nook that sheltered the bothy. Here she glanced within, but all was +empty, swept and garnished. There was no sign about the place of any +recent occupation. + +All was trim and well-kept as she had left it--dust being unknown on the +Wild of Blairmore. But in the little hiding-place which ordinarily held +the key, a small rock-cupboard beneath a couple of great boulders, +fallen thwart-wise across one another like drunken men embracing, she +found a strip of twisted paper. Patsy thought that it contained a +message from Jean, but in a moment she recognized the aggressive +penmanship of Stair Garland. + +_"If you want me, stand five minutes on Peden's Stone!"_ + +That was all, but Patsy knew that Stair had all the time been watching +over her in some wild, sudden-swooping, peregrine falcon-fashion of his +own. He had left the warning if she should happen to visit the Bothy +while it was being watched for the return of the young men whom the +"press" had missed on the day of Patsy's wild race in the yellow +sandals. + +Now, save that it might pleasure the boy, Patsy had no special reason +for wishing to see Stair Garland. But it would certainly be well for her +to talk with his sister Jean. She wished to do this without going to the +farm itself. Her absence from her uncle would soon be noticed, and as +she had not appeared at her father's house of Cairn Ferris, it was to +Glenanmays that any searchers would go first. She was therefore wishful +to speak to Jean and ask her opinion of the visitors who had taken +possession of her uncle's house at the Burnfoot. + +So with circumspection she crossed the pebbly bed of the Mays Water and +climbed up into a crater-like amphitheatre from the edge of which a flat +block of stone jutted out. It was told in the "persecuting" lore of the +parish that the great "Peden the Prophet" had often used it as a pulpit, +his congregation being seated round the semi-circle and the Mays Water +birling and singing handily below in case of children to be baptized. + +Patsy stood on the stone, all trodden smooth by the restless feet of the +hill lambs which in spring came from the most distant parts of the moor +to gambol there. She could look both up and down the water, but for a +while she saw nothing of Stair. + +But the five minutes were not up, when, from a thick tuft of broom, she +heard the call of the whin-chat, like a tiny hammer ringing on hard +stone. The sound came from up the water and Patsy moved towards it, +stepping deftly from stone to stone in the bed of the stream. + +"Stair," she said softly, "where are you, Stair?" A full swathe of broom +moved itself aside, and she could see Stair Garland lying in a rocky +niche which he had prepared long before, in case of such a very probable +emergency as the officers of the excise coming after him. + +The barrel of his long gun looked over his shoulder. + +"Go on, Patsy," he said, "walk on up the burn as if you had seen nothing +and I shall be with you in a moment." + +She had reached a little knoll, crowned with alder bushes, when she +found him entering from the opposite side. Sitting down, she told him of +the Duke's coming to Abbey Burnfoot, and of the two gentlemen who were +with him, Captain Laurence and Lord Wargrove. + +"Ah," said Stair, "so it is for that we have a full squadron of dragoons +camped in our barns at Glenanmays, the stable emptied of our own horses +to make room for those of the dragoons, and the whole house turned +upside down. I thought it was too big a force to be sent after the three +of us." + +"Fergus and Agnew are still away, then?" queried Patsy, sure that they +were. + +Stair grinned. + +"They are in the heather, like myself," he chuckled, "but neither of +them has such a choice of hidie-holes as I have. I can hide better and +lie closer, besides keeping a watch on the farm and on you, Miss Patsy, +with the soldiers all about within the shot of a gun." + +"Can you bring Jean to me, Stair?" said Patsy, "it will be hard, I know, +with all those men on the watch at Glenanmays." + +Stair flushed a little with the joy of a difficult commission. He +whistled shrilly three times, and then sat quite still listening. Then +he whistled thrice more and the echoes had hardly died away before the +wise, towsy head of a rough collie with the big, brown eyes of the +genuine Galloway sheep-dog peered out of the bracken and long grass of +the burnside. He came silently and expectantly to his master, as if he +enjoyed the game as much as any one. + +"Here, Whitefoot," said Stair, and the dog came obediently to his side. +He wore on his neck a plain leather collar, which his master undid. In +one place the inside leather was doubled but held tight when worn by +Whitefoot, owing to the roughness of the dog's mane of hair. Stair +pushed back the understrap, and taking a piece of paper from his +waistcoat wrote upon it the figure "2" very large and clear. Then he +shook a forefinger before Whitefoot's moist nose, and said with emphasis +the single word "Jean." + +The dog lifted his forepaws a little clear of the ground, and, as it +were, barked without noise, making an eager, half-strangled noise in his +throat to show he understood. + +"Jean!" Stair repeated. + +"A-owch!" whispered the dog, his tail wagging violently and his eyes +fairly blazing. + +"Go!" said Stair, and the next moment the tall bracken had closed on +Whitefoot. Not the tremor of a leaf, not the swaying of a rag-weed told +Patsy which way he had gone. In these days the very dogs had been +trained to run invisibly and to bark under their breaths. The Traffic +and the "press," but especially the latter, had silenced much of the +immemorial mirth of the farm-towns. The shadow of the war cloud rested +on the ancient Free Province. The lads might 'list, but they would not +be "pressed." "A lad gaen to the wars" or "a lassie fa'en wrang" were +the utmost shame that could fall upon any Galloway household, and of the +two the lassie was more readily forgiven than the lad with the colours. + +"I shall wait till Jean comes," said Stair, a little shame-facedly, +because he understood that the girls would naturally wish to talk of +their own affairs. "I must see how the spurred gentry are behaving +themselves up at the farm." + +But to assure Patsy of his complete disinterestedness, he went to the +edge of alder-clump and stood there leaning on his gun. He watched +keenly the twisting links of the Mays Water, a silver chain flung +carelessly in the sun, cut with gun-metal coloured patches where it +sulked a while in shadowy pools. Whitefoot would do his duty. Of that +there was no doubt whatever. He would find Jean. He would attract her +attention. Jean would go out to the dairy, whither Whitefoot would +follow. There the collar would be opened, the paper taken out, and she +would soon be on her way for that one of Stair's trysting-places which +bore the number "2" on the list he had given her. + +Presently out of the tall grass of the lower meadow the head and +shoulders of Jean Garland appeared. He could see her wading breast-deep +along the rag-weed and the meadow-sweet. The faint wind-furrow which +preceded her showed where Whitefoot, still invisible, guided the girl to +the exact clump of undergrowth where Patsy and Stair were waiting. + +After a little they could see, emerging likewise, the cocked ears, the +shaggy head and eager brown eyes of Whitefoot as he turned at every +other yard to make sure that Jean was following, and appreciating all +his cleverness. At the edge of the clump of dull green alders he drew +back to let her pass, as much as to say, "There now--you can do the +rest--go on and see for yourself if I have not guided you aright." + +Jean came upon her brother first. He was still leaning with one hand on +his gun and the opposite elbow crooked about the hole of a tree. + +"All right up there?" he demanded in a low tone, indicating the farm +with a jerk of his head. + +Jean nodded without speaking. She was sure it was not merely to ask this +that he had sent Whitefoot to bring her to him. + +"No insolence?" + +"No," said Jean, "they are all as little troublesome as they can help. +There is some general or great person over at the Abbey Burn House--" + +"A Royal Prince," said Stair bitterly, "go on, Jean. I think it is about +him that Patsy wishes to speak to you! Keep Whitefoot by you, and if you +want me he will know where to find me." + +Jean disappeared, and in another moment had found her friend. In the +snuggest nook of the shelter afforded by the alder undergrowth the two +sat down. + +Then Patsy revealed to Jean her invincible fear and dislike of the royal +visitor whom she had seen at her uncle's. She had seen something glitter +for a moment in his eyes which had frightened her, and though she had +played her part out to the end, she had fled the moment after to consult +with Jean, a wise maid for her years and the only soul in the world +fully in Patsy's confidence. + +"Uncle Julian cannot help me this time," she said, "he is the man's +friend. He would believe no ill of him. And, indeed, I have nothing +really to put before him. Men want evidence, not impressions. If I were +to say to my Uncle Julian that I was afraid of the man's eyes, he would +only call me a little fool and tell me to look the other way!" + +Patsy found Jean exceedingly comforting. Jean understood without having +to have things explained, without asking questions. She shelved the +doubt as to whether Patsy was under a misapprehension. Patsy was afraid. +Patsy had seen, therefore, the thing was so. That is the reason why +girls reveal themselves one to the other and why their friendships are +often durable. They may quarrel like two little spitfires, and mostly +do, but--they respect each other's intuitions. + +So that as soon as Jean was in possession of Patsy's fear of an unknown +hovering danger, she called out to Stair, "Don't go far away--we may +need you!" + +To understand Patsy's feeling it must be remembered that she had been +accustomed from her earliest infancy to hear of the wild deeds of the +King's sons--how this one had carried off an actress, another made prize +of a young lady of fashion--the Regent, the Dukes of York and Cumberland +had set the fashion. The younger princes had out-princed their elders, +and there was not a gossip in the countryside but could retail their +latest enormities with loud outcries of horror, yet with an undercurrent +of the curious popular feeling that, after all, it rather became young +princes so to misconduct themselves. + +If the Duke of Lyonesse had been less talked about than his brothers, it +was only because his long residence abroad had blunted the edge of +calumny. For in his case the women were French or Austrians, and it +seemed quite natural that such things should befall "foreigners." + +All this made a background to Patsy's fear of the Prince, but there +remained something else as well. Patsy had never been afraid before--and +she was not quite sure whether she liked it or not. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BLACK PEARL OF CAIRN FERRIS + + +"Never was such a pearl--a black pearl--yes, but worth a thousand of +your drowsy blondes. I am damnably obliged to that recruiting +fellow--what is his wretched Scotch name--oh, McClure--for signalling +such a treasure to a man who can appreciate her. You, Laurence, would +have been long enough without opening your mouth. You had, I dare say, +some idea of paying court in that quarter on your own account. Well, I +am your superior officer and you must stand aside. But if you back me up +now, I swear that you shall be gazetted Colonel in a month." + +It was thus that the Duke of Lyonesse, in the guest-chamber which Julian +Wemyss had prepared for him, announced his intentions as to the niece of +his host and sometime chief. The young men of the blood royal in those +days considered such things as marks of honour paid by them, and, +indeed, the old Arabella Churchill tradition was still so fresh, that +they had some excuse for so thinking. + +It was, indeed, to see the marvel of the Bothy of Blairmore that the +Prince had come so far out of his road. He was on his way back from +Ireland where, as usual, he had been sent, somewhat optimistically, to +solve the Irish question. As the Prince who could easily most be spared, +he had been ordered to show himself in the regions which had been +convulsed by the rising of '98. He had escaped without hurt and was now +on his way Londonwards. So he could afford to halt a while to behold a +wonder of grace and beauty. The dangers of his Irish campaign deserved +at least some recompense. + +Besides Everard of the _Britomart_ had talked at some length to him. The +girl of the yellow sandals whom the "press" had found in the Bothy of +Blairmore, was still the talk of the officers' mess when that ship had +been sent to Belfast Lough to ferry successful Royalty over to a more +peaceful country. + +Captain Laurence felt at least something of shame at the position in +which he found himself, but in the presence of the Duke and his evil +counsellor, Lord Wargrove, he was compelled to be silent. He could not +even send a message to the girl's father, for the Prince's suite and the +senior officers of his regiment were the guests of Adam Ferris at Cairn +Ferris. + +"Your Highness will remember," he ventured to suggest, "that these +Galloway squires are apt to carry the vendetta rather far. They are not +so easily bought off with a title as others farther south." + +"Nonsense," said the Duke, "if the girl's father does not see +reason--why, Julian Wemyss at least knows what is good for his niece. +She had better be a peeress in her own right and married with the left +hand to my father's son, than stay here to spend her life with the first +clodhopper who will make her his housekeeper, instead of, what she was +born to be, the toast of London society." + +"You are sure about the title," queried my Lord Wargrove cynically, "or +are you only going to promise like the rest of them?" + +"Oh," said the Duke, "I am sure George owes me more than that. I am the +only one of our family who has never pestered him. Besides, I have got +him out of one or two difficult ditches in his life, and he will give me +the title right enough if I get the girl." + +"There will be some difficulty," said my Lord, thoughtfully rubbing his +chin with his forefinger; "we shall have to depend on our own devices. +The only great land-owner about here is old De Raincy up at the castle +yonder. He hates the Ferrises like poison, but I do not see myself going +up there and asking for the loan of his best horses in order to carry +off his enemy's daughter! A nice clean murder he might not object to as +a fitting finish to the Ferris line, but not what your Royal Highness +proposes to himself." + +The Duke waved his hand carelessly. + +"All that is for you to arrange--what else are you for? You are my +Master of the Horse, and as I have none at present, it is your business +to provide some for me! Now good-night to you--I must see that girl +again to-morrow. Gad, when I once get her safe to Lyonesse House, she +shall wear the cross-gartered sandals, the blue skirt with the red sash, +and if London does not bow down and worship, I am no true son of my +father." + + * * * * * + +But the next day Patsy was still absent, greatly to the annoyance of the +Duke. He had counted on a difficult but not unwilling captive. He judged +from her easy familiarity in the matter of the wool-winding that he +would have little difficulty in persuading her to make a dash for the +liberty which would also be glory. + +But all the morning the Duke waited in vain, and the strange thing about +it was that neither at Abbey Burnfoot nor at Cairn Ferris did any one +appear to be concerning themselves about daughter, niece or heiress. + +The Duke and his party did not know that as Adam Ferris was making his +evening round of the sheep on the hill, a plaided shepherd leaped a +drystone dyke ten yards in front of him, and was followed by a shaggy, +brown-eyed dog. The men exchanged a few words and then each went his own +way. Adam Ferris was reassured as to his daughter, and as for Uncle +Julian, busy with his guests, he understood that Patsy was safe with the +Garlands at Glenanmays. + +But instead Stair had convoyed her, with the utmost pains of wood and +heather craft, to Ladykirk, where she had been received by Miss Aline +with such quiet rejoicings as the staid little gentlewoman permitted +herself. + +Having housed his charge, Stair set himself to establish a guard about +the old house. His two brothers and half a dozen other members of the +band were easy to put hands upon when wanted, but Stair needed some one +above suspicion, who could come and go freely. He remembered, with a +grimace, that the matter would certainly interest Louis Raincy, and +accordingly he posted to Raincy Castle to find him, as soon as he had +got Agnew and Fergus into position. + +Louis Raincy needed no spur. In order to help he was willing to break +all rules and dare all angers. He did not even pause to ask himself why +Stair Garland was taking so deep a concern in the matter. Patsy was his +Patsy, and he flattered himself that the young man from Glenanmays was +only recognizing his rights by coming to ask for his assistance. + +Louis Raincy was Galloway bred. He knew the farmers' sons of the whole +district. He had always met them, played with them, and, on fit +occasion, fought with them as equals. Only he did not trouble his +grandfather with the closeness of his acquaintance with his neighbours. +The old gentleman would neither have understood nor approved. He himself +had always stood aloof, and he desired no better than that his heir +should follow in his feudal footsteps. + +More than this, Louis had made a trip or two with Stair Garland's Free +Traders--of course, in the strictest privacy and in a disguise which was +immediately penetrated by the whole convoy, though they pretended to +accept Stair's statement that the young fellow with the false beard was +an Isle of Man shipper who had come to see how his goods were disposed +of. + +The band thought no worse of Stair for trying to throw dust in their +eyes, but an Isle of Man shipper in possession of two spirited Castle +Raincy horses was too much for them. They laughed as they rode and +wondered how the heir of Raincy would explain matters to the Earl if the +business culminated in a tussle. + +But Louis had come out all safe, and though he openly flouted the Free +Trade with the young men of his own rank, there was no part of his past, +except only his talks with Patsy in the hollow of the old beech bole, +which returned to him with such a flavour of fresh, glad youth as the +"run" in which he had taken part. + +So now that he was again to do something which would lead him out on the +hills of heather in the misty shining of the moon or under the +plush-spangled glitter of the midnight stars, he went off in high +spirits to take his groom into his confidence and have the horses ready. + +Obscurely, however, he felt that he was about to take part in a struggle +for Patsy. It was to be a fight, not so much against danger from +unscrupulous dandies like the Duke of Lyonesse and his acolyte, my Lord +of Wargrove, as between Stair and himself. Louis de Raincy himself was +"of as good blood as the King, only not so rich," as say the Spaniards. +But this restless, stern-visaged Stair Garland, with his curious Viking +fixity of gaze, what was his position towards Patsy? Was it all only +friendship for the confidante of his sister? Louis Raincy's own hopes +and purposes were of the vaguest. He did not even know whether he +himself loved Patsy, but he was quite clear on the chapter of nobody +else having her if he could help it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HIS LIFE IN HIS HAND + + +Louis Raincy rode right up to the door of Ladykirk and asked to see Miss +Aline, with whom he had always been a great favourite. As a boy he had +loved to play about her shrubberies. He remembered still the quaint +smell of the damp pine-needles on the ground, the bitterness of laurel +leaves which he broke across the centre and nibbled at, and above all, +the long pleasant days of Miss Aline's jam-making, when he skirmished in +and out and all about the kitchen and pantry, getting in everybody's +way. Why, his very breath smelled sweet to himself after he had cleaned +out brass pan after brass pan, with that worn spoon of horn warranted +not to scratch, kept and supplied by Miss Aline for the purpose. + +Now he was grown up. School and college had passed him by, and much to +his own astonishment had left him in many ways as much a boy as ever. He +had not been allowed to enter either of the fighting services, so he +took what of adventure the country afforded--the rustic merry-making of +the "Kirn" in the days of harvest home, the coastwise adventure of +ships, and the midnight raid of the Free Traders with their clanking +keg-irons and long defiles of pack horses crowning the fells and bending +away towards the North star and safety. + +Now Miss Aline greeted him cheerfully as he came in through the great +doors of the courtyard which had been shut that morning for the first +time since her father's funeral. + +"Ah, Louis," she cried at sight of him, "it is easy to guess what brings +you to my door so early in the morning. It is long since the days of the +brass preserving-pan. Laddie, I'm feared that 'tis quite another +berrying of sweets which brings you so fast and so far!" + +"Miss Aline," said the lad, with a frankness which made the good +chatelaine like him the better, "I rode over to see Patsy Ferris. I must +hear what all this is about the Duke of Lyonesse." + +"Nothing, so far as I can hear, Louis," said Miss Aline; "but our maid +is afraid, and her father's house and her uncle's are both as full of +soldiers and ribaldry as ever in the times of the Covenant. So where +should she come if not to me? It was more wisely done than I could have +expected from that 'fechtin' fule' of a Stair Garland." + +Louis Raincy saw Patsy. She was sitting in Miss Aline's own room among +the simple daintiness of many white linen "spreads" with raised +broidery, the work of Miss Aline's own hands. Here she told him her +determination to keep out of the way till the Prince and his train had +left the country. The reasons for her instinctive dislike of her uncle's +guest were not clear to any except herself, but on these Louis did not +insist. It was enough that Patsy was so minded. In any case he wished +her to know that he would follow the movements of the enemy with care, +and warn her of their intentions. Captain Laurence, especially, was a +free talker, and might let slip useful information. He, Louis, would +ride over to headquarters that very afternoon, and, if Laurence was +still absent, he would get an orderly to find him. + +Thus was Patsy equipped with two cavaliers of courage and address, one +of whom had his entries everywhere, while the other possessed the +supreme skill of sea, shore, morass, hill, and heather, which comes only +after generations of practice. But against them they had a man +infinitely subtle and wholly without scruple. Eben McClure was of that +breed of Galloway Scot, which, having been kicked and humiliated in +youth for lack of strength and courage, pays back his own people by +treachery with interest thereto. + +The like of Eben McClure had tracked with Lag when he made his tours +among his neighbours, with confiscation and fine for a main object, and +the murder of this or that man of prayer, covenant-keeper or +Bible-carrier, as only a wayside accident. Now Galloway is half Celtic, +and the other half, at least till the Ayrshire invasion, was mostly +Norse. So McClure was hated with all the Celtic vehemence which does not +stop short of blood. He was the salaried betrayer of his own, and in +time, unless he could make enough money and remove himself to some far +hiding-place, would assuredly die the death which such men die. + +Of this, of course, he was perfectly aware, and had arranged his life +accordingly. + +In the meantime he watched and pondered. He disguised himself and made +night journeys that he might learn what would suit his purpose. He could +be in turn an Irish drover, a Loch Fyne fisherman, a moor shepherd, a +flourishing burgess of Lanark or Ruglen, even an enterprising spirit +dealer from Edinburgh or Dundee, with facilities for storage of casks +when the Solway undutied cargoes should reach these cities. + +And the marvel was that in none of his personations had he yet been +caught. In proof of which he was still alive, but McClure confessed to +himself that it was only a matter of time. He must make a grand stroke +for fortune--quick fortune, and then bolt for it. For his heart was sick +with thinking on the gunshot from behind the hedge or the knife between +his shoulders. He never now went to his own parish of Stonykirk where +his father had been a well-doing packman--which is to say, a travelling +merchant of silks and laces. McClure knew that he was in danger anywhere +west of the Cree, but the danger increased as he went westwards, and in +his own parish of Stonykirk there were at least a score of young blades +who would have taken his life with as little thought as they would have +blooded a pig--aye, and had sworn so to do, _handfasted_ upon it, +kissing alternately Bible and cold steel. + +It was no difficult matter for McClure to possess himself of the +unavowed reason of my Lord Wargrove's ardent search for a carriage and +horses. Clearly it was for a secret purpose--one that could not be +declared. Because in any other case Lord Wargrove had only to take the +pair which belonged to his host, or more easily still, Adam Ferris's in +the north end of the Glen. If these were not regal enough, Earl Raincy +had in his stables the finest horses in the county, and would certainly, +though of old Jacobite stock, not refuse them to the King's son, albeit +only a Guelph. Then there was old Sir Bunny Bunny. His wife would gladly +have harnessed the horses herself and put her husband on the box, if +only she had suspected a desire which she could have treated as a royal +command. + +As for the purpose, Eben McClure was in no greater difficulty. What but +a pretty woman to run away with, did any of the king's sons care for? +There was but one such girl in the countryside. She had made the Duke +hold wool for her--many hanks, it was said in the regiment--and he had +fallen in love with her on the spot. + +But that girl, whether taking alarm or to increase her value, had gone +into hiding, and apparently no one knew where. It was certain that her +kin at one time or another had dipped their fingers pretty deeply in the +traffic. There were caves and hiding-places, which it would be death to +search except with a company of sappers. And more than that, he would +have to stay behind alone and face the back-stroke. He could not always +ride out with the helmets of the dragoons making a hedge about him. + +Now McClure was a clever man, and he had been with the soldiers that day +when Whitefoot, questing for Jean, had entered the kitchen of the farm +of Glenanmays. He had wondered at the persistency with which the dog had +followed the girl. At first he had waited to see her give him something +to eat from the debris of the meal which was being prepared for the +soldiers. + +But after Whitefoot had twice sniffed at the alms tossed him without +touching the gift, still continuing to follow Jean, now tugging at her +apron-string and now licking her hand, McClure, a man of the country, +began to suspect that the dog was a messenger from one of the lost +Garland boys whom they had missed so narrowly the other day in the +heather of the Wild of Blairmore. + +So upon Jean's departure he stepped quietly to the door and noted that +she took the way down the valley towards the shore. He had not thought +much about it at the time, for at the moment all chasings of smugglers +and expeditions in aid of the manning of the fleet were absolutely at a +standstill. The Duke's arrival on the _Britomart_ by way of Stranryan +had mobilized all the forces of order, as escorts of safety or guards of +honour. So there would be no more raids till His Royal Highness was safe +across the Water of Nith. + +There remained to McClure the alternative of following Jean on his own +responsibility, but the Stonykirker had far too great a respect for his +skin to search a valley bristling like a thousand hedgehogs with all +manner of thorn and gorse bushes, waved over with broom and darkened +with undergrowth, any single clump of which might conceal half-a-dozen +rifles, each with the eye of a sharpshooter behind it--a mere spark in +the sheltering dusk, but quite enough to frighten most men in his +position. + +So, though strongly suspected, Jean sped on her way unopposed. McClure +put the incident away in the pigeon-holes of his memory. It might be +useful some day. He thought deeply upon the affair which now delayed +Royalty and, incidentally, was stopping his business. If he could put +the son of the King under a great obligation--he might at one stroke +make his fortune and save his life. He had had enough of Galloway, and a +permanent change of air was what he longed for--to a far land, under +other skies, and among a people of a strange tongue, who had never heard +of press-gangs and Solway smugglers. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE WICKED LAYETH A SNARE + + +In the enforced leisure provided for him by the stoppage of compulsory +recruitments, Eben McClure added to his knowledge. He left the men and +women in the drama which was unrolling itself about Glenanmays to take +care of themselves. He might not have had any the least interest in +them. He gave his whole thought to Whitefoot, Stair's lean, shaggy +collie. + +By observation he obtained a good working knowledge of the whereabouts +of Whitefoot's master--not sufficient, certainly, to act upon if it had +been a case of capture. But all the same, near enough to enable him to +keep well out of Stair Garland's way, which at the moment was what he +most desired. + +He rather despised the heather-craft of the other brothers, Fergus and +Agnew Garland, and he gave never a thought to Godfrey McCulloch or the +Free Trade band, which, he knew, was busy running in small cargoes as +quickly as possible during the blessed time of relief from military and +naval supervision. + +But Stair Garland was another matter. Instinctively the spy knew his +danger. This was not a man to hesitate about pulling a trigger, and his +life, in the hollow of Stair Garland's hand, would weigh no heavier than +a puff of dandelion smoke which a gust of wind carries along with it. So +from his first acquaintance with him the spy had given Stair a wide +berth. + +As the result of many observations and much reflection, McClure decided +that the lurking-place of this dangerous second son of the house of +Glenanmays was on the hill called Knock Minto, a rocky, irregular mass, +shaped like the knuckles of a clenched fist. + +The summit overlooked the wide Bay of Luce, and the spy had remarked +thin columns of smoke rising up into the twilight, and lights which +glittered a moment and then were shut off in the short, pearl-grey +nights of later June, when the heavens are filled with quite useless +stars, and the darkness never altogether falls upon the earth. + +Cargoes were being run on the east side--of that he was assured. But +after all that was no business of his. Eben found it more in his way to +watch Whitefoot. He had attempted, in the farm kitchen of Glenanmays, to +make friends with the collie, but a swift upward curl of the lip and +baring of the teeth, accompanied by a deep, snorting growl, warned him +that Whitefoot would have none of him. + +Nevertheless, the dog went and came freely, and as the spy made no +further advances, Whitefoot soon ceased to regard him at all. And ever +more curiously Eben McClure kept his eyes on the outgoings and incomings +of Whitefoot. + +And so it was that one still afternoon he found himself hidden under the +dense greenish-black umbrella of a yew tree, lying prone on the ivied +wall of the orchard of Ladykirk and listening to the talk of Patsy and +Miss Aline, who were sitting beneath in a creeper-covered "tonelle," +work-baskets by their sides, and as peaceful as if Ladykirk had been +Eden on the eve of the coming of the serpent. + +"Well," said Miss Aline, a little pleasantly tremulous with a sense of +living among wild adventure, "have you had any news to-day? I saw your +four-footed friend waiting for you at the corner of the shrubbery!" + +"My Lord Wargrove has been to call upon Earl Raincy at the Castle," said +Patsy with unusual demureness. "Louis could not tell what he wanted, but +at any rate Earl Raincy promptly sent him and his insolence to--a place +you have heard of in church. He said it so loud and plain that the whole +house heard him, and he added remarks about royal dukes which would have +brought him to the scaffold along with his grandfather, if only he had +lived a century earlier." + +"Perhaps the man only wanted to find out if you were there. Well, +now--" Miss Aline pondered, "the thing is not so foolish as it looks. For +little Lady Raincy, Louis's mother, might have secreted you somewhere +and never told the earl. The Castle is big enough, I'm sure. But, my +dear, you are better here. I am glad that you gave me the preference." + +At this moment there was a stir up at the house of Ladykirk, whereupon +the spy modestly retired. He did not mind listening to the talk of +women, spread-eagled on the wall and hidden by the yew shade, but then, +again, he might chance upon men who were looking for him and find +himself very suddenly with a gunshot through him, or packed along with +the cockroaches in the grimy hold of the _Good Intent_. Captain Penman +was a singularly unsociable shipmate at the best of times for a man of +Eben's profession, and might even go the length of throwing him +overboard some dark night, merely, as it were, in order to lighten ship. + +So the spy betook himself to a little fir-wood which commanded the +entrance of Ladykirk, the avenue, the flowery borders of the parterres, +the laurel copses, and the clumps of rhododendron through which the +white statues peered. + +McClure was not long in finding out that Whitefoot had one favourite +mode of entering Ladykirk policies, a way contrived by himself. At the +corner of the vegetable garden the wall ran to the edge of a ha-ha and +there stopped short. A beech hedge met the masonry at right angles, and +just at the point of juncture the hedge thinned off a little. Whitefoot +had observed this, and was in the habit of racing like an arrow towards +it, and taking a leap across the ha-ha. Then, with his nose close to the +ground, he passed through the hole in the beech-hedge with undiminished +speed, skirted a flourishing rhubarb plantation, and so emerged into the +shaded path which led directly to the back door of the house. + +As Eben McClure lay and watched, a plan flashed into his mind. By it he +saw that he would put the son of the King, and with him my Lord of +Wargrove, under everlasting obligations--such obligations as could not +be denied or escaped. Scottish law did not treat the abduction of +heiresses against their will in a gentle spirit, and before the northern +courts the son of the King would be in no better case than the sons of +Rob Roy, with whose exploits in this direction a taste for the reading +of chap-books had made him familiar. + +McClure had not the least doubt that, against his own judgment, Lord +Wargrove had been compelled to call at Castle Raincy to ask for the loan +of a carriage and horses, only to receive a rebuff from the haughty old +Jacobite who held rule there. + +Clearly, then, the princely party at Abbey Burnfoot must want assistance +very badly, and would be willing to pay very highly for it. He, Eben +McClure, was the man who would supply all that was necessary. He felt +already that modest pride which comes to an intelligent, fore-thoughted +man among a people of no initiative. He would take the whole matter into +his own care. Single-handed he would carry it through, but at a price, a +price to be arranged beforehand. + +Now Eben McClure of Stonykirk, though held a traitor by the countryside, +came of no mean parentage. The McClures are a strong clan, and the +running of many cargoes has made them well-to-do. The day of their +desperate deeds is over. They prefer the cattle-market and the tussle of +wit with wit, matching knowledge with cunning in the arena of the +"private bargain." + +All these and an infinity of other characteristics were united in the +burly person of Kennedy McClure of Supsorrow. A man of sixty, stout and +hardy, he still added field to field. He laid out every shilling of his +money wisely. He spent little, gave less, and swallowed up every +neighbouring piece of property which came into the market. If a man were +in difficulties, Kennedy McClure waited for the time when he would be +ready to accept an offer for such and such a meadow or stretch of +corn-land which he had long coveted. He would not cheat. He would pay +the proper price in ringing guineas, but he must have the first chance. +And then, overjoyed by the mere sight of the added acres, he would pace +the newly acquired territory with a step to which a full figure lent +importance, a certain pride of bearing which went well with the length +of his purse, and the authority which could be felt in his least word. + +Kennedy kept up a certain parade of humility, but his looks and walk +belied him. A Royal Commission once approached him with a summons to +give evidence as to a plague of voles which was desolating the fertile +fields of the south-west, and his opinion was valuable because he had +recently acquired by purchase the great, barren hill called Ben Marrick. + +"What is your business?" said the chairman, a profound English +agriculturist, with as profound an ignorance of the fine shades of +Galloway speech. + +"_I work on the land_," said Kennedy McClure with smileless deference. + +"What, a farm labourer?" said the great man; "this is first-hand +evidence indeed. Well, I suppose that you have studied the devastation +caused by these animals on the--the--what is the name--ah, yes, Ben +Marrick?" + +"My lord," said the many-acred "farm labourer," "there is never a vole +on the Ben o' Marrick. The vole is far ower good a judge of land to +waste his time on the Marrick." + +It needed the intervention of the local clerk of the commission to +convince the chairman that he was talking to a man far richer than +himself, besides being experienced and sage to the confines of rural +wisdom. + +It was to this kinsman that Eben McClure was thinking of making an +appeal. He knew that along with the property, Kennedy had taken over the +carriage and capitally matched horses of the late laird of Glen Marrick. +Perhaps he would lend them to a kinsman in order to oblige a Royal Duke. +He need not be too precise as to what the Royal Duke wanted them for if +the pay were good and sure. + +Accordingly Eben the Spy went to Supsorrow with an unquiet heart. He was +not at all assured how he would be received. He guessed, however, that a +promise made to the laird his cousin, that his herds and workmen, his +plough-hands and cattlemen, should be respected by the superintendent of +the "press," might do much to calm the first indignation which his +proposal would infallibly arouse. + +Then Kennedy of Supsorrow hated the Free Traders, because they drew away +young men from his service and gave them false notions as to the amount +of yearly wage with which they ought to be content. + +When a man can make as much by a couple of successful "runs" as by a +year's hard work at Supsorrow, he naturally began to reflect. And when +the Laird approached him to know if he were "staying on" as term-time +approached, the bargain became more difficult to strike. In many cases +it was finally understood between contracting parties that the wages +should continue the same, but that the occasional absence of a pair of +horses from the stables was a matter to which the master should shut his +eyes so long as he was satisfied in other ways. + +Now Laird Supsorrow did not like this, but was compelled to like it or +leave it. He had so added to his fields, multiplied his acres, extended +the territories on which fed his flocks and herds, that service he must +have, and that of the best. He must be able to trust his men--for, +though he rode from dawn to dark, he could not overlook a tenth of his +belongings. + +Still, though compelled to submit, Kennedy McClure bore a secret grudge +to the Traffic, all the more bitter that he did not venture to show it +in any way. + +Eben found him getting ready to ride forth to look at a new farm for the +purchase of which he was negotiating. + +The spy, in spite of his recent assumption of military port, made but a +poor figure beside his wealthy kinsman. The Laird wore his light blue +riding-coat with silver buttons, his long-flapped waistcoat, from which +at every other minute he took the gold snuff-box that was his pride, +white knee breeches, and rig-and-fur stockings of a tender grey-blue, +finished by stout black shoes with silver buckles of the solidest. He +clung to his old weather-beaten cocked hat, which, in the course of +argument, he would often take from his head and tap upon the palm of his +hand to emphasize his points. + +"Kinsman," said Eben McClure, bowing humbly, without venturing to shake +hands, "I have need of a word with you. I shall not in any way detain +you, but it is a matter of His Majesty's Service, which I judge it will +be for your good to know." + +The Laird of Supsorrow regarded his cousin with no very friendly eye, +and, pulling his gold snuff-box from his pocket, began to tap it in an +irritated, impatient manner. + +"Ye are not thinking of coming here to borrow money as ye did the time +before?" he growled, "for if so, I tell you plainly that there is not +the half of a copper doit for you here. Besides, I hear that you are +doing very comfortably in the King's service, making yourself rich as +well as universally beloved, and a credit to your name!" + +Eben McClure took the flout as he would have taken a kick from that +honoured double-soled shoe. + +"Cousin Kennedy," he said, "I have no purpose but to do you service. As +you are good enough to remark, I have nothing to complain of in the +service of His Majesty, and it shall be my first duty and pleasure to +repay to you the little advance you were good enough to make me--with +interest." + +Kennedy McClure looked his visitor over coolly. + +"You have been robbing the stage?" he demanded. + +The spy laughed, but it was a laugh from the teeth out-wards. As the +French say, he laughed "yellow." Nevertheless, he drew a pocket-book +from his breast, and suggested that if his kind cousin could spare the +time, perhaps it would be as well for them to speak together in a more +retired place. + +"Come ben," said the Laird of Supsorrow, "there is no close time for the +receiving of siller." + +They passed through a vast kitchen where everything was in the pink of +order. The tables were ranged in the middle. An array of pots brooded +over the fire, so close that they jostled each other. To the right the +eyes of the spy fell with respect upon the great oaken chair of the +master. For in this also the Laird had kept up the patriarchal style. He +still willingly, and with a certain gusto, took his seat in his own +kitchen, where he smoked and talked at ease with the men and maids as +they came or went. A little cupboard with a double door was fixed above +the chair within reach of his hand. It contained his pipes and his +library--a Bible, the poems of Burns, Boston's _Fourfold State_, _The +Cloud of Witnesses_, a Grey's _Tables_, a book on mensuration, Fowler's +_Horse Doctor_, and many almanacs tied in packets. + +The master of all these strode through the kitchen, opened a door, +passed down a long passage, and ushered his relative into a room full of +stacked papers, driving whips, favourite bits and bridles. The grate was +still full of burned papers. A tall five-branched silver candlestick +stood in the middle of the table, and along the wall were ranged a few +chairs of the rudest fashioning, but all polished with use. + +He motioned to Eben of Stonykirk to take a seat in one of these and +proceed with what he had to say. + +"I can only give you a quarter of an hour," said the Laird. "I have an +appointment with that wee wastrel of a man-of-law, McKinstrie, down at +the Foulds. He is coming express-like from Cairnryan to meet me--and +it's me that will have to pay for his time!" + +Whereupon the spy opened out his case and the great man of horses and +beeves listened intently. The Duke of Lyonesse wanted a carriage to +drive into England, where his brother, the Duke of Cumberland, had an +estate. The neighbouring great lords were all Jacobites at heart. Yes, +even the Earl Raincy had point-blank refused his carriage--a service +such as any gentleman might render to another, whatever might be his +political opinions. + +"And so you come to me to hire," said Kennedy, scornfully. "I do not +keep post-chaises, man." + +"No, cousin, no," said the spy earnestly, "your name need not appear at +all. Only leave the door of your stable unlocked, or at least so barred +that we can easily get through without doing damage, and we will answer +for the rest. And I will pay you fifty pounds down on the spot." + +"That is not anything near the value of the horses," said Laird +Supsorrow, keeping his eyes fixed upon his cousin so that he might +divine where the trap lay. + +"No," said Eben, "it is not. But if one of your men rides after--that +is, a few hours in the rear, the horses and carriage will be delivered +to him at the boundary of the kingdom of Scotland just at the farther +side of the Gretna bridge--" + +"H-m-m," said Kennedy McClure, "if you deposit the money here, and +obtain a written security from his Highness to indemnify me for any +damage to the horses or vehicle, you are at liberty to do as you like +with Ben Marrick's equipage. On my side I shall arrange with Saunders +Grieve, my yardsman, that you shall not be disquieted in taking them." + +"Would not a word from my Lord Wargrove suit you?" + +"No," thundered the Laird, "let me have his Highness's fist and seal or +I shall not let a hoof leave the yard! What is Lord Wargrove to me?" + +"Very well, then, cousin. I will send you the document by a sure hand, +and I leave the fifty pounds in your hands now, merely taking your +receipt for the Duke's satisfaction." + +The Spy well knew that there was not the least possibility of getting +his Royal Highness to sign such a document, but as he himself was +leaving the country for good at any rate, he did not mind adding a +little forgery to his other necessary arrangements. Paper and seal were +easily accessible in the parlour, where the Duke often kept Eben waiting +for hours. He was an expert in other people's penmanship, and the +princely scrawl would not present the least difficulty to him. Still, in +case of accident, it would be as well to keep back the document till the +last possible moment. For his cousin was not a man to be easily +hoodwinked, and he might take it into his head to ride over, document in +hand, to require the prince acknowledge his own signature. + +As he rode away the spy said to himself, "Yes, forgery it is, of course. +But sometimes it is worth while tossing a penny to see which it shall +be--fortune, or the hangman's rope." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE TRAMPLING OF HORSE IN THE NIGHT + + +Whitefoot the brown-eyed, intent on his business, was taking his usual +route to Ladykirk. It was a dark night, but he could see more and +farther than any man. He knew that Patsy would be waiting for him in the +kitchen of Miss Aline's house, that she would have something extremely +toothsome for him to eat while she was preparing the collar which in a +few minutes would be slipped about his neck. Then he would be free to +return to his master in the secret den which he had chosen to sleep in +that night. + +Whitefoot moved like a lank and ghostly wolf through the tall grass and +crops, skirting the barer places and keeping close in to the dusky +verges of the hedges. All went well with him till he took the ha-ha +ditch at his usual racing pace, and was instantly wrapped up by a net +into a kicking ball exactly like a rabbit at the mouth of a hole. A bag +was somehow slipped over his head, and inside it he could neither bite +nor bark. His nose was tightly held and his collar removed. + +It seemed ages to Whitefoot before he found himself free again. Then he +wasted no time, but made one bolt for the kitchen door of Ladykirk. It +was open, and he entered all dazed and shaking. He had felt the hands of +men about him, yet they had done him no harm. He shook himself joint by +joint to make sure. All was right. Perhaps they were only out hunting +and he had deranged them. Whitefoot knew quite well what it was to chase +rabbits and hares into just such nets. At any rate he could not explain, +but took the piece of beef which Patsy had waiting for him with +satisfaction. + +On his return Whitefoot tried the garden-hedge farther down, but here +again he found himself in a bag. Evidently they were netting the whole +of the garden. He lay still, certain now that they meant him no harm, +and, indeed, in a far shorter time than before he was loose and scouring +away into the shadows of the woods. This time the man into whose nets he +had blundered, merely stood behind a tree, and at sight of his shadowy +figure Whitefoot got himself out of the neighbourhood. Men with nets, +guns that went off with a bang, and dead things that kicked and bled +were connected in Whitefoot's mind with such night expeditions. So no +wonder he betook himself away as quickly and as unobtrusively as +possible. + +But the message that Patsy received was this: + + _"Important see you to-morrow night, smaller avenue gate, ten + o'clock._ + + "JEAN." + +To this Patsy had replied, moistening the stub of her "killevine" in her +mouth as she had been wont to do at school: + +_"Dear Jean,--of course I shall be there!"_ + + * * * * * + +Never fell gloaming so slowly for Spy Eben of Stonykirk as that of +Friday the 26th of June. The red in the west mounted ever higher, +revealing and painting infinitely the remote strata of cloud-flecks +which thinned out into the azure. At half-past nine it seemed that ten +o'clock would find the old military road upon which debouched the little +avenue of Ladykirk, still as bright as upon a mellow afternoon. + +But arriving suddenly and surpassing all his hopes, a wind from the sea +began to blow, bringing up the outside fog from the ocean. First it came +in puffs and slow dragging wreaths, but afterwards with the march of +steady army corps which sponged out the house, the trees and the road. + +By ten all was slaty grey dusk, into which a man could stretch his hand +well out of his own sight. The heart of the Spy exulted. It was a thing +so unexpected, and (for he remembered his upbringing) so providential, +that he almost returned thanks, as after an unexpected meal. + +He did so quite when a little after the hour rapid feet pattered down +the lesser avenue, a hand was thrust from a shawl, and Patsy's voice +called "Jean--where are you, Jean?" + +In an instant the girl was swept from her feet, enveloped in a great +travelling coat, and carried to a carriage that was in waiting close +against the hedge under the black shadow of the beech leaves. Patsy had +no time to cry out. She was too astonished. Besides, the large hand of +Eben the Spy was pressed against her mouth. She felt herself thrust +without ceremony into a carriage on the front seat of which sat two men, +dark shadows seen for a moment as the door opened, against the pour of +the sea-mist past the windows. + +"I think," said a voice, "you had better let me manage her--for the +present, that is. She has just bitten me. Ah--quick with that Indian +shawl. Thank you, my Lord. We must keep her from crying out. Now, my +pretty, there you are with your ankles tied and your hands kept from +mischief, so we shall soon reconcile ourselves!" + +Patsy strove vehemently, but the arm about her was strong. Her feet and +hands were fastened with soft swathes of silk, while about her mouth and +chin the Indian shawl proved an efficient gag. + +She could hear the clatter of the horses' feet, and was conscious of the +rapid movement of the carriage. Once or twice the man on the front seat +leaned over and spoke soothingly to her, or so at least it seemed. But +he appeared to be sorely at a loss for words. + +"You will be glad of all this to-morrow," she recognized the thick voice +of the man whom she had made hold her wool; "you shall be my little +black pearl!" + +"Better let her come round of herself, your Highness," said the man who +held her. "They take it a bit hard at first, but after the anger and the +tears, then it will be time to argue with her." + +The man addressed as "your Highness" dropped back into his seat, and for +a long time nothing was heard but the changeful clatter of the shod feet +of horses. Patsy sat muffled and helpless, conscious that she had been +trapped, but determined that since somebody had dared, somebody also +should die before a hand was laid upon her. She felt strangely at home. +Her Pictish blood spoke--perhaps still older bloods, too, within her. It +was somehow perfectly natural that a man should try to carry her off. +She was obscurely but surely aware that men of her race had done things +like that. But then, also, they did them at their peril. And Patsy the +Pict felt herself strong enough for these things. It was the age of Miss +Jane Austen's dainty heroines. Miss Fanny Burney was still at court, +writing in her _Diary_ that the King was very happy and innocent, +imagining himself each day in intimate converse with the angels. + +But Patsy had no idea of fainting. Tears were far indeed from her eyes. +She was only calling herself a fool, and wishing that she had thought to +bring her little dagger with her--the double-edged one that Julian +Wemyss had given her on his return from the Canary Islands, black +leather sheath scrolled in gold to be worn in the stocking. Still since +she had not that, why, she would take the first weapon that came to her +hand. And whenever they ran dear of the fog, which happened at the top +of every considerable hill, her little white teeth gleamed in the +darkness with something like anticipation. + + * * * * * + +"Up, Louis, out with you--they are away! The Prince has carried off +Patsy. Here is your pony. Get in the saddle. I must manage without!" + +Unceremoniously Stair Garland awaked Louis from his drowse in the cave's +mouth. He had ridden down from Castle Raincy to see if he could help. +The moment had come and Stair had not disappointed him. + +"They are already on the road--in a carriage--Kennedy McClure's, I +think," said Stair; "stand still there, Derry Down, or by the Holy--!" +And he leaped into his saddle which was no more than the corn-sack +doubled and fastened close with broad bands of tape, used to go under +the heavy pack saddles when a run was forward. + +"Where have they gone? Are they far ahead of us?" questioned Louis. + +"They are on the military road--in a carriage and pair, going west. They +cannot get off it. But if you can trust your pony, we can cut corners +and ride as we like." + +"Of course," said Louis; "show me the way--you know it better than I!" + +So, each on his deft, sure-footed Galloway pony, like their ancestors of +the English forays of which Froissart tells, the two lads plunged into +the night. + +They sped along the barren side of the Moors, taking any path or none, +whisking through the tall broom and leaping the whins. The ponies took +naturally to the sport. Sometimes the going was heavier, but not for so +little did the animals slacken. They were to the manner born, and minded +no more the deep black ruts of the peat, which in the more easterly +country are called "hags," than the open military road along which the +carriage was bowling. + +The heather was mostly short and easy--"bull's fell" heather as it was +named. Tall cotton grass flaunted up suddenly through the slaty haze of +the night of pursuit. The plant called "Honesty" with its flat, white +seed vessels, gaunt and startling, swished past them, the dry pods +crackling among their horses' legs. + +Mostly they rode easily, swaying to the movements of their beasts, +letting the little horses do the work as the Lord of the moors gave them +wisdom to do--using no whip or spur--these were not needed--and very +little guidance of rein. The little Galloways, Louis's black "Honeypot" +and Stair's "Derry Down," picked their way swiftly and cleanly. They +might have been steering by the stars. But it was only their instinct +sense of smell which told them when they were approaching a bog too soft +to be negotiated. Then they would turn their faces to the hill, questing +for the good odour of the "gall" or bog-myrtle, which is the +characteristic smell of good going in the Galloway wilderness. Stretches +of that delightful plant surround all bogs, morasses and other +dangerously wet spots, but the little beasts knew that so far as they +were concerned they were safe where the gall bushes grew. And, indeed, +it was well to keep wide. On the moorland face the silver flowes +glittered unwholesomely, deadly as quicksands in the Bay of Luce. It was +marvellous to see how gingerly the little beasts footed it in such +places. Never did they let a foot sink to the fetlock. With a quick +flinging swerve, they cast themselves to the side of safety and the foot +would come loose with the "cloop" of an opening bottle. + +Sometimes the sand was firm, and then they would scour fearlessly along +it with many tossings of their heads and playful attempts at biting one +another. But so soon as they came upon the green froth of the "quaking +bogs" or the snake-bell shine of the shivering sands, it was each for +himself again--or rather for himself and herself, for Stair's mount was +a small barren mare, which in such things is even better than a horse, +better and more cunning, besides being more companionable for her +journey-mate. + +They rode through banks of midges so huge that they almost reached the +dignity of mosquitoes. For where in the world except on the lonely road +past Clatteringshaws and the Loch of the Lilies, can you meet with +midges which for number and ferocity can compare with those of the Moors +of Wigtonshire? Sometimes the two lads, riding easy, would come to +water. This was a negotiation which was better left to Honeypot and +Derry Down. If the water was black and peaty with a heavy smell of +rotting vegetation, the ponies knew it, but if they scented the fresh +rush of a hill burn, or the soft coolness of an arm of sandy-bottomed +loch, then Louis and Stair would suddenly feel the cool sluicing of +water about their legs, causing them to turn their pistol belts over +their shoulders, where Stair already carried his long-barrelled gun with +the stock upwards. + +"We shall close upon them at the White Loch," said Stair, during one of +these pauses. "They have a long detour to make. I would rather have +waited till they had got to the crossing of the Tarf, but that is too +far for our beasts on these short nights of June." + +(He meant the Wigtonshire Tarf, which comes from far Laggangairn and the +Bloody Moss, not the shorter, fiercer tributary of the Dee.) + +"The White Loch be it," said Louis, for indeed it was all the same to +him. He was out to fight for Patsy, and fight he would. He did not care +what his grandfather might say, nor what penalties he might incur. What +Stair Garland was ready to do for Patsy, surely he had the better right +to be a partner in. + +They drove through a herd of kyloes recently sent down from Highland +hills to try their luck on Galloway heather. The horns clicked sharply +together. There was a whisking scamper of hoofs as the beasts fled every +way, only to bunch anew a little farther out of the path of these wild +riders. + +Now Stair and Louis found themselves on a kind of track, narrow and +stony underfoot. The blackfaced sheep of the hills had made it so, with +their little pattering trotters which dug out a stone at every step. +Above was a waste of boulder, grey teeth grinning through the black +heather. They began to see more clearly, for they were now far above the +mist, into which they would not again need to descend till they should +reach the White Loch and cut down to head off their prey, comfortably +rolling Gretnawards--a duke royal, a peer of the realm, and a spy with a +promise of fortune in his breastpocket, all looking after Patsy Ferris, +the daughter of the Picts, and drawn by Kennedy McClure's excellent pair +of horses along the best road in all the south country. + +Sometimes a wilder track led Stair and Louis unbreathed across an open +moor, the path being too narrow to ride abreast, when it was the mare's +privilege to lead. She snuffed the air, and even while keeping to her +pace, would reach forward her neck to smell the better. Derry Down knew +that she was on one of the old "drove roads" by which horses had been +driven to the eastern fairs and trysts for hundreds of years, before +ever Lord Hillsborough came into the land, or the pick of a governmental +sapper had been set in the heather. + +Generally the pursuers kept wide of all human habitation. They could see +the stars now, and so in a manner choose their direction. The details +they left to the horses, and especially to Stair's wise "Derry Down." +But the scent of a single "keeping" peat in a herd's house would send +them all up the hill again. It had been carefully bent over the red +ashes to hold them alight till the morrow, for the goodwife's greater +ease on rising, and also because it was the immemorial custom of all +Moor folk from Killantringan even to the Moss of Cree. + +A fly-by-night bumblebee, honey-drunk, followed the cavalcade +blunderingly a little way, perhaps in the hope that they who seemed to +know their way so well, might lead him safely home, ring the door-bell +for him, and tumble him into the lobby of his home under the bent +tussock where he fain would be. Nevermore would he stay out so late +again. So much he would gladly promise the reproachful wife who had sat +up for his coming. + +But the ponies drew away, and there was nothing for him but to snuggle +down with a buzz and a grumble among the wet bluebells and wait for +daybreak, for sobriety and with it a new sense of direction. + +Occasionally Stair urged his mare forward, though only by a closer clip +of the knees. She was a willing beast, and responded gallantly. It was +easy going now, and the night was speeding quickly. Presently they would +need to go down the side of the fell, and skirt the White Water to their +ambush place at the head of the Loch. Of this last, Stair thought +exclusively. But with more of the mystery of an older race about him, +Louis Raincy listened to the firs whispering confidences overhead as +they sped downhill. Then came the birches' clean rustle--for the burn +they were following led them among copses where the legs of the horses +risped with a pleasant sound through the lash of leaves. + +The ponies were going easily now, their masters being sure that they +were far in advance of their time. They had cut the circle cleanly, and +those they were pursuing would have to make nearly three times the +distance they had traversed. + +Besides, Patsy's captors did not know they were being pursued. Never +once did the "clash of the spurs" warn them that Care and his horsemen +rode behind. + +As the two came down from the high moors, tracking cautiously through +the woods and stray belts of culture which hung about the thatched +steadings and shy, deep-hidden farm-towns, a wildness awoke in Stair +Garland. The little mare, Derry Down, responded to his mood. She held +her head high, and capered like an unbitted yearling fresh off the first +spring pastures. + +Louis rode more quietly and also more steadily, and especially so when +at last they got down to a made road in the valley of the White Water. +Here Louis had several times to urge his companion to save the beasts a +little, for if they rescued Patsy, they would need to bring her home on +one or the other of them. + +"We have to settle our accounts first," said Stair, "then we will think +about taking her back to those who knew so ill how to protect her!" + +He was silent a moment and then added as if in pity for Louis's +ignorance, "See here, man, this is all my country. Think you there is a +farm where I could not leave the ponies and get the loan of other? We +are on the main caravan trail of the Free Traffickers, and there are few +hereabouts who would venture to refuse Stair Garland." + +Perhaps there was some boyish pride in this, but Louis had been long +enough within the sound of the jingling anker chains and the creaking +pack saddles to know that Stair spoke well within the truth. He felt +with a sudden pang that in this rescue of Patsy he was playing a very +secondary part. But the true nobility of soul shown by Stair Garland was +not at the time revealed to him. He did not understand the reason why +Stair had brought him at all. It was because he disdained to take an +advantage. He would not magnify himself in Patsy's eyes while Louis, +unwarned, slept in his bed at Castle Raincy. + +Whatever the odds against him, Stair would give his adversary the floor, +and at the end of the day accept the umpire's judgment as to which was +the better man. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PATSY'S RESCUE + + +Like a greyhound coursing sped the little mare. After Derry Down +stretched the more sturdily built Honeypot. He made no flourishes with +head or tail but simply laid well into his work, going so fast that his +rider Louis Raincy seemed to be bending to meet a strong wind. The +hedges and tree clumps poured behind as water from the prow of a +wind-driven boat in a difficult sea-way. + +Three or four times Louis tried to stop his companion, but Stair had a +spot in his mind where he could hold up the carriage. It was a sharp +angle of road, designed in days when levels and gradients were unthought +of, and still permitted to linger on to the danger of travellers' necks. +In fact the White Loch elbow remains to the moment of writing, in spite +of all modern improvements, a trap for the unwary, merely because a +laird's lodge-gate lies a few hundred feet to the north, and any new +road must cut a shaving off the entrance to his avenue. + +But that night Stair made use of the gates manorial. Tying their ponies +to trees, they lifted the heavy gates off their hinges and "angled" them +skillfully across the road so as to form a barrier which must stop the +horses and carriage. Stair would have set up the barricade between the +double turn of the S-shaped curve, but Louis pointed out that if the +carriage went over the bridge, Patsy might very well be injured. So the +gates were ultimately placed where the horses would be halted while +ascending the long after slope with slackened pace. + +Where Stair and Louis placed themselves, though some considerable way +from the burn which ran at the bottom of the defile, they were still in +a very pit of darkness. The leaves were dense overhead, and only the +white gates gleamed very faintly in the trough of gloom where ran the +eastern military road. + +Louis lay under a tremulous rustle of leaves, for the wind was coming in +from the sea, and listened to the trill and chirrup of the burn which +carried off the overflow of the White Loch, as it muttered over its +sands or clattered across the loose round pebbles of its numerous +shallows. + +The lads waited long and anxiously, not that they had any fear of having +missed their mark, for Stair had searched in vain in all the softest +spots for any trace of carriage wheels. They _must_ pass this way. They +could not go off the road, because there was no other. But, what would +have spoiled the matter more than a squadron of cavalry in attendance, +was the fact that if they delayed much longer, the carriage would reach +the Elbow of the White Water after daybreak. + +From where they lay they could see the ragged fantastic line of the +hills to the east behind which the sun would rise. Stair watched these +anxiously. They had a clear hour before them, but unless the mist came +up again with the tide, they could count on no more time. + +Already out on the face of the moorland the curlews were crying +tentatively one to the other. Louis would gladly have talked, but Stair +sat grave and silent. At last, visibly unquiet, he betook himself up +through the wood to the edge of an old turf-built fold where in summer +the cows were wont to be milked. Here he occupied himself with the +priming of his gun and looked to his pistols. An undefined glimmer from +the sky and the absence of trees on the heathery slopes enabled him to +dispense with other light. + +In ten minutes he was back again by the side of Louis Raincy. + +"They are coming," he whispered, "up yonder I heard the rumble of the +carriage. Listen--we shall catch it in a minute." + +Louis listened intently and at last could make out, from very far to the +west, the rhythmic and yet changeful beating of the feet of horses. But +it was not till the carriage had actually climbed to the summit and was +rumbling down the slope that Stair Garland moved. + +"I am going to meet them there at the gates," he said, "be you ready +with the horses. There is a part of this business in which there is no +need of your being mixed up, only see that Honeypot and Derry Down are +ready for Patsy. If for any reason I cannot get away with you, take the +upper side of the White Loch till you strike the old track by which we +came, then give the little mare her head and she will carry you safe." + +"But why will you not be with us? We can ride time about." + +"There are certain risks," said Stair,--"I do not know what will come +out of all this. But at any rate your business is to get Patsy home to +her father's and then carry the word to my sister Jean that the house is +to be strongly guarded. She will understand." + +The carriage was very close now. They could hear the labouring of the +horses, the wheezing of straining harness. Then the pole of the carriage +became entangled with Stair's carefully angled lodge-gates. The coach +stopped. The driver sprang from his seat and ran to keep his horses from +plunging over into the ravine. An angry voice from the inside called out +to know what was the matter. + +A pistol shot rang out. Then several answered, followed by the roar of a +fully charged gun, a turmoil of voices, the stamping of horses, and a +voice that cried: "They have killed the Prince! The Duke is shot!" + +The next moment through the green velvety dark Louis heard footsteps +approaching. Stair, his gun flung over his shoulder, had Patsy with him. + +"Quick, up with you! There!" + +He placed her on Derry Down. + +"Now, Louis--off with you, and remember what I said. Keep the upper side +of the valley, and if in difficulty let the little mare lead. I shall +follow, as soon as I can get a horse to ride. One of our lads lives not +far from here!" + +"You have not killed him?" said Louis, anxiously. + +"I do not know. I certainly let the marauding Turks have the benefit of +a few slugs," said Stair with carelessness. "If his princeship is a +little worse splintered than the others, why, so much the better. But +they will all have a souvenir to carry away. Now, ride, and never mind +me!" + +In ten minutes Louis and Patsy were fairly safe from pursuit--at least +from any immediate pursuit. They followed the line of the White +Loch--the shore sand gleaming like silver beneath them making the task a +simple one. Then by easier gradients than the path by which they had so +precipitately descended, Louis struck diagonally for the old drove road. +As they mounted higher they became aware that the day was breaking +behind the distant Minnegaff ridges--the hills of the great names, +Bennanbrack, Benyellaray, Craignairny, The Spear of the Merrick, and the +Dungeon of Buchan, coming up one by one in delicate aerial perspective. + +In half an hour Louis Raincy could see Patsy's face suffused with eager +joy, freedom and the red in the east together making it flush like a +dusky peach. + +"Oh, I am so glad," she broke out when at last they could ride together +over a little stretch of bent, "I had not even my Canary Island knife, +or anything, but somehow I thought that you or Stair would follow me." + +"It was all Stair's doing," said Louis; "he called me, and gave me the +chance to help him when he could quite as well have taken one of his +brothers, Fergus or Agnew." + +"Why did he stay behind just now?" Patsy asked. "If they capture him +they will kill him." + +"I think there is no great fear of that, for the present, at least," +said Louis Raincy, loyally. "Stair Garland has many hiding-places. I +don't believe any one can catch him in his own land. He is off to find a +moor-pony and will ride after us as soon as it is safe. If not, he will +come home on foot, lying up in the daytime. He knows every farm and +cothouse and is welcome at all. Sea-cave and moss-hag, wood-shelter and +whin-bush, he knows every hidie-hole for forty mile." + +Louis and Patsy kept so far to the north among the flowes of the moors +that they never once came in sight of the road, along which all that day +frenzied messengers tore east and west with tidings that the King's son +had been murdered near the White Loch, by a gang of ruffians who had +laid a trap and overturned his carriage. + +So the two young people travelled in a great loneliness of plovers and +curlews and peewits, all singing and calling and whistling their +hardest. They saw the glimmer of a herd's house or two, faint +whitewashed dots on the brown, surface of the moor. But of living souls +they met not one. + +Nor had they seen anything of Stair when, at dusk, they breasted the +last bosky eyebrow of Raincy territory which overhung the rich Ferris +valleys, and saw beneath them, as it had been deserted, the House of +Cairn Ferris. Windows had been knocked out. Household gear lay scattered +in the yard and even littered the avenue. A great blackened oblong +showed the position of a burned hay-mow. + +Louis halted a moment, in doubt what he should do, and then seeing that +there was no safety in such a place for Patsy, he turned the tired +horses about and rode straight for the great towers of Castle Raincy +which frowned above them out of the purple gloom of the woods. + + * * * * * + +"Grandfather," said Louis, still holding Patsy by the hand as he +penetrated unannounced into the Earl's study, "this is Miss Patricia +Ferris. The Duke of Lyonesse laid a trap for her. He carried her off, +bound and gagged, in Kennedy McClure's carriage, but Stair Garland and I +rescued her. There was a fight and I believe the Duke is hurt, but it +served him right. I took her home, but the house has been sacked. So I +brought her to you!" + +The old man, who had nightly cursed the Ferrises, root and branch, all +his life, rose to his full height, for a moment irresolute. Then he +bowed, and took Patsy's hand in his. + +"You are welcome," he said, "I am--hem--satisfied that my boy had the +pluck to put a bullet into the Hanoverian swine. He came and asked for +my carriage, curse his impudence--my carriage and horses to play his +Guelphish pranks on honest men's daughters. Royal prince or no royal +prince, I will stand by you, hang me if I don't! And when it comes to +the House of Lords, I shall have a few truths to tell the whole royal +gang which will make their ears tingle from the Regent himself to poor +Silly Billy." + +In the meanwhile no news of Stair. He had, as it seemed, been entirely +blotted out. Had he fallen into the hands of the cavalry which after a +fruitless search had sacked Cairn Ferris at their pleasure upon the +first news of the killing of the king's son? They had departed to scour +the easterly roads and had been seen no more in the valleys or on the +heights of Raincy. + +There was no news except that Kennedy McClure had been seen galloping +eastward in frantic search of his carriage and horses. The former had +been reported blown to flinders, and his two carefully matched horses +killed by the bandits. So he was now riding in his shirt-sleeves, the +cowrie shells at his watch fob clanging against the little bundle of +keys he wore there. In his mind he was doing sums of which the main +issues were, "What is the difference between the fifty pounds I have in +hand and the value of the carriage and horses, and will my loss give me +a claim on the royal family and the Government?" Kennedy McClure saw +before him endless Court of Session pleas, with expenses mounting +steadily up, and the verdict given in his favour upon appeal to the +House of Lords. + +The Laird of Supsorrow, who loved a good-going plea, felt vaguely +consoled, but he spurred his beast all the same to find out what he had +to go upon. That the whole countryside spoke of the young prince as dead +was nothing to him. His horses and the precious chariot with the yellow +wheels, the pale blue body and linings, were more to him than the whole +royal house. There were a plenty of princes--and no great gain to the +country either by all accounts! But he, Kennedy of Supsorrow, had only +one chariot and one well-matched pair of carriage horses, for which he +had paid out good golden guineas. + +As he rode he heard the sound of horses galloping behind him. They +turned out to be a patrol of dragoons from Cairnryan headed by Captain +Laurence. That officer was in great fear for his commission, being in +military command of the district; and though he had received the +Prince's own orders to confine himself to his barracks that the ways +might be clear, he could not hide from himself that if anything happened +to the King's favourite son, he might as well send in his papers. + +So whenever he crossed a coast-guardsman, or even the most ignorant and +harmless farm-lad, he shouted to him, "The Duke--the Duke! What of the +Duke? Have they killed the Duke?" + +To which Kennedy McClure of Supsorrow responded like an echo, "The +horses--the horses? What have they done to the horses? Have they killed +my horses?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PLOTS AND PRINCES + + +But the Duke of Lyonesse was not dead. He lay at the King's Arms in the +town of Newton Douglas, well peppered with slugs, and swearing most +royally. Lord Wargrove was alone in attendance upon him. One might well +pity him, for his job was no pleasant one. + +Eben the Spy had disappeared, and with him every stiver of the Prince's +money, which had been kept in a leathern dispatch case carefully stowed +beneath the seat of the carriage. His wallet of jewels, too, had +vanished, so that the poor Duke had never a spare snuff-box or a change +of rings. + +More wonderful still was the official declaration made and sworn to +before the Fiscal and Sheriff. The attack had been made entirely for the +purpose of robbery, by Ebenezer McClure and a band of malefactors, +collected by him for the purpose. In proof of which it was shown that +the said Eben McClure had driven the carriage into a trap, previously +laid with care in the dangerous defile of the White Water near where it +enters into the loch of that name, that he had removed the Duke's +treasure during the fight, and so escaped, mounted upon one of the +horses which he had borrowed of his kinsman Kennedy of Supsorrow. The +name of Patsy Ferris did not appear. + +This explains why on arriving at Newton Douglas in search of his steeds, +Kennedy McClure found himself pulled down from his horse, treated with +much official roughness, and finally lodged in the townhouse awaiting +his removal to the gaol of Wigton. He began to think that the fifty +pounds which had been paid down by Eben of Stonykirk constituted but a +feeble consolation for losses such as his. The Duke could not see him. +My Lord of Wargrove would not, and Captain Laurence, to whom in +desperation he made his plea, consigned him with extreme conciseness of +speech to the deepest and hottest pit of Eblis. + +All these things made no considerable stir in the little village of +Newton Douglas, which was beginning to extend itself under the heights +of Penninghame. The borough was proud of its guest, but what the Duke +and his hench-man desired most of all was to be safely across Cree +Bridge and to place a county or two between them and the wrath of Adam +Ferris and his brother-in-law Julian Wemyss, whom they held to be +answerable for the attack at the White Loch. So as soon as the wounded +man could be moved, the best horses to be had in Minnigaff drew the +coach gingerly across the bridge and out of immediate danger of pursuit. + + * * * * * + +The Duke thought it safest to make as little of the occurrence as +possible. He had many debts, and the present loss of his treasures +seemed a good chance to get the Government to pay off his creditors. He +had, he was willing to swear, been bringing over from Ireland the moneys +with which to conclude the arrangement. And now he had lost not only the +treasure but his jewels as well, in the discharge of his duty to the +King and the Houses of Parliament. What more fitting, therefore, than +that the loss should be made good to him, together with some +compensation for the wounds he had sustained in the defence of his +creditors' property? + +During the rest at Carlisle it was agreed that Lord Wargrove, in +consultation with Mr. Robert Adam, the Duke's legal adviser and boon +companion, should draw up a schedule of his losses--such as might be +expected to pass the House of Commons without any of the unpleasant +rakings up of the past which usually distinguished these periodical +cleanings of the slate. + +Only a couple of years had elapsed since the Commons had been engaged +for weeks in the examination of the Duke of York's affair with Mrs. +Clarke, and the Duke of Lyonesse felt that he must not allow his +application to be handicapped by the account of an attempt at abduction, +such as that of which the daughter of Adam Ferris had been the object. + +It became highly necessary, therefore, that the mouths of the girl's +relatives should be closed, and it seemed to the Prince and his advisers +that the delicate negotiations could better be conducted through Julian +Wemyss, who at least could not fail to know the character of his former +attache. + +"Besides, I know something about _him_," said the Duke, "which will make +him think twice before denouncing me." + +Lord Wargrove put an eager question. He would have rejoiced to be able +to repeat in society the tale of some disgraceful and unpublished +scandal attached to the name of the ex-ambassador. + +"No, no," said the Duke, promptly, "nothing of that sort. There is +nothing against him personally. But he will hold his peace for the sake +of a certain great lady. Oh, Wemyss is a man. He quitted his post at +Vienna rather than bring a lady's name into a quarrel, in course of +which he was challenged. Now ambassadors do not fight duels, so he +resigned and killed his man. I was there at the time." + +"Ah," said my Lord Wargrove, thoughtfully, "so he is a wine of that +vintage, is he? Then we shall probably hear more of the little adventure +which went to smash when that old thief's horses blundered into those +white gates." + +"You do not suppose," cried the Prince, startled into raising himself +incautiously on his elbow so that he grimaced with pain, "that it was +Wemyss who pursued us?" + +"Certainly not," said Wargrove. "If he is the man you describe, he would +never have fired a blunderbuss into a dark carriage. He would have +stopped the horses and shot us one after the other at twenty paces like +a gentleman." + +"What, without seconds! That would have been murder!" exclaimed the Duke +of Lyonesse, who liked well enough running away with pretty maids, but +much deprecated the interference of inconvenient relatives afterwards. +As, for that matter, did most of the royal princes of that time. + + _Who did their ill by stealth,_ + _But blushed to find it fame._ + +"A man who can resign an ambassadorship to pink his man is never in want +of a second, specially in his own country. He would have fought us--be +sure of that--and so far as I am concerned, the pleasure is only +postponed. As for you, your Highness had better get to Windsor or +Carlton House, as soon as may be." + +"I cannot go to Carlton House," the Duke answered sadly, "though I dare +say George would be glad enough to see me. We always had a great deal in +common, but all that is of no use. The Fitz does not like me and she is +ruling the roost there again." + +"Well," said Wargrove, quaintly, "I shall be jotting down the provisions +of my last will and testament as we are jogging along southward." + +"I wonder," said his Royal Highness, pensively, "what has become of the +little baggage. She would have been entrancing if we only could have got +her safely trapped." + +"Well," said my Lord, "you would not listen before, but I tell you now +that if you _had_ trapped her, as you say, you would certainly have died +in bed with a dagger in your throat. That was what she meant by 'Oh, if +I only had it!' You heard her say that. I remember my cousin Southwald +getting hold of an Italian girl--a little minx from Apulia, fine as silk +but dusky as a Brazil nut. She fought wild and bitter like a trapped +wild cat. It was at Lecce in Murat's time, but Southwald was conceited +that he could gentle her. He did not care for what he called the +'full-uddered kine.' He liked them parched and lithe with eyes like +smouldering fires--" + +"Ah, like Patsy!" said the Duke, not yet cured of his love-sickness. + +"Exactly," countered my Lord, "like Miss Patsy to a hair. Well, when we +went into his tent the next morning--Murat had excused him +service--he--well, he was not pretty to see. To begin with, his throat +was cut and the girl nowhere to be seen. Yet I could be sworn I tied her +wrists tightly enough. One look at Southwald spoilt more breakfasts than +mine that day, and Murat himself, who did not stick at trifles, brought +all his available officers, a whole camp of them, and made poor +Southwald the text for a little discourse. No, Murat did not say +anything, he only pointed, but my cousin made a better homily and +application than parson ever preached." + +"And pray what were either of you doing in Apulia with the +brother-in-law of Buonaparte?" cried the Duke, who compounded for the +sin of private cowardice by excessive public patriotism. + +"You were at Vienna at the time, and ought to remember," said my Lord, +quite calmly. "Murat was keen to emancipate himself from the yoke of the +Emperor, and was playing for his own hand. Southwald and I had been sent +informally from Malta to Naples to discover what lengths he was prepared +to go." + +"Nonsense, Wargrove, I know better," the Duke exclaimed. "That was not +your real reason." + +"It was that which was marked on our passports and safe-conducts. But" +(here he yawned courteously behind his hand) "perhaps your Highness has +remarked that though the Buonapartes are doubtless all great rascals, +their female kind have a habit of being deucedly pretty and +liberal-minded women!" + +"But why then did your cousin mix himself up with little blackamoors?" + +"_Chacun a son gout!_" said Wargrove, lightly. "I always knew that my +taste in women was better than Southies. So he got what I tell you, and +I"--(he fingered at a ribbon), "I got the Order of the Golden +Fleece--Murat's own, which he had brought from Madrid after the Dos de +Mayo. Murat was pleased with me. I read the burial service over +Southwald out of a prayer-book his mother had written his name in, with +Murat and his Frenchmen standing round with bared heads like gentlemen, +though they could never have seen a priest before in a Guards' uniform." + +"And the girl?" demanded the Duke. "Of course she was sought for and +punished?" + +Wargrove sighed long and then paused to give his words wing. "Not at +all," he said. "I think the general feeling was that Southwald was a +fool and deserved what he got. I know that was my own impression!" + +"Jove!" cried the Duke, suddenly wroth, "I shall not suffer this, +Wargrove. You mean me!" + +"That," said Wargrove, with a face like a statue hewn in granite, "is +precisely as your Highness pleases." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE END OF AN OLD FEUD + + +Since the looting of his house by Laurence's dragoons, Adam Ferris had +lived mostly at Abbey Burnfoot, the property of his brother-in-law +Julian Wemyss. Julian was not there. He had gone to London upon unknown +business. At least if Adam Ferris knew of his kinsman's mission, he +would have been the very last man to speak of it. + +Nor indeed, did any try to wind the secret out of him. Adam had always +been a silent man, distantly smiling and peaceable, but even then there +was something about the man which caused his neighbours to be careful +how they meddled with him. + +But now he brooded darkly, wandering much on the moor and along the +shore. Only the old Earl dared to front him, and as there had been +enmity between the houses for four hundred years, the first meeting was +not without some piquancy. + +It happened the first morning after Louis had taken Patsy to Castle +Raincy. The old gentleman stood upon the point of etiquette, and though +he was stiff with rheumatism, he drilled his shoulders and strode down +the glen, crossing by the stile from which he had so often cursed the +lands of Cairn Ferris and every soul who dwelt therein. But now that he +had called up his men and shut the gates of Castle Raincy upon the +heiress of his enemy's house, he passed into Ferris territory as if he +carried the white banner of envoy extraordinary. + +There was something fresh and almost childish in the delight with which +he noted every twist and turn of the long Glen burn, the trouts whisking +in the brown pools or floating with their noses just showing under the +shade of rugged willow roots which wind and water had undercut. He had +observed these things all his life--from above, but his feet had never +been set upon Ferris ground. His eyes had never looked (as it were) upon +Zion, and now the goodly things were goodlier, the bunches of Eshcol +grapes heavier and more purple, the pine trees nobler and higher, the +peeps of corn-land more enthralling to the spirit, than ever they had +appeared seen from above as if marked on a chart. + +Presently he came in sight of the house of Cairn Ferris with its doors +and windows wrecked and broken, at the mending of which the joiners of +the estate and others from Stranryan were at that moment busy. He passed +a heap of broken furniture still huddled together and smoking in a +corner, at which he stood still and cursed as he if had been Adam Ferris +himself. + +He did not love the man nor his family. But Ferris was a gentleman and a +neighbour. Only let him get to London. He would make the ears of these +Hanover rats lie back when he told them an honest man's opinion of them +on some day of great debate. Oh, it was not the first time he had +spoken. Hear him they must and hear him they should. + +Earl Raincy reached the new house of Abbey Burnfoot in safety. As he +came out of the birches of the glen among which the path played hide and +seek, he saw the climbing roses and red tropeolum mounting almost to the +roof, the full dusky green of the hops twining to the chimney tops and +setting a-swing questing tendrils from every balcony. The old man had +never before seen such a building, but in an illustrated book of travels +he had come across something like it. So his heart expanded when he +thought of his own austere baronial keep and the crow-stepped bluestone +gables of his ancestors' many additions. The newest of those was four +hundred years old, and was only beginning to lose its look of having +been finished yesterday. + +He shrugged his shoulders at Julian's foreign-appearing palace of +pleasure. + +"Very well, I dare say," he muttered; "but what will it be after a few +hundred winters?" + +He did not pause to think what in such circumstances he would be +himself. Raincy ground would still uphold Castle Raincy. Raincys would +still dwell there, but this little dainty playhouse on the sands of the +Abbey Burn would long ago have been swept away by centuries of Solway +storms. The thought re-established him in his own esteem, and even the +Ferris rule of the coveted Twin Valleys seemed evanescent and fleeting +as a cloud on a mountain side beside the invincible eternity of the +Raincy dominion. + +He knocked at the door and waited. The man who came was Julian's +Austrian valet Joseph, courteous, grave, and exquisitely "styled," as +was fitting for the house of an ex-ambassador. + +"Would his excellency enter? Joseph regretted much that the Earl should +not find Mr. Julian. But he had been summoned to London. Yes, certainly, +Mr. Adam was somewhere on the beach. He had gone out after breakfast and +was still absent. If my Lord would wait, Mr. Adam should be at once +informed." + +But my Lord greatly preferred to see Mr. Ferris at once, and would walk +along the sands till he met with him. + +"As his Excellency wills," said Joseph, bowing low, and Earl Raincy went +his way, tall, whitehaired and slender, to meet Patsy's father. Within +tide-mark they met, at the exact point where the Raincy properties join +the valley possessions of the Ferrises. Therefore in the most fitting +spot--a true no-man's land, in that the foreshore was the property of +the Government, though on the "heuchs" above the butt of the separating +march dyke, built with masonry and bound and spiked with iron, testified +that the Jews of the hills had no dealings with the Samaritans of the +valleys. The lesson, seen close at hand, was a little marred by the fact +that Louis and Stair with the assistance of a forehammer had converted +certain of the spikes into a very practicable ladder which either of +them, when pressed for time, could take at racing pace. + +But from the beach below the barrier seemed of the last truculence and +efficacy. + +The old Earl took off his three-cornered hat with the gold button on a +white rosette at the side. Adam did the same with his more modern +broad-brimmed, low-crowned white beaver. + +"I have the honour to announce to you," said Earl Raincy, bowing +formally, "that your daughter is at my house under the care of my +daughter-in-law. My grandson Louis, with, I believe, the help of several +of your tenants, conveyed her safely back, and I congratulate myself +that Louis had the good sense to bring her to Castle Raincy. You will +pardon him, I feel sure. He went first to your house of Cairn Ferris, +but finding it dismantled, he made up his mind that she could not safely +return to Miss Aline's at Ladykirk. So I came off to see you at once, +and to say to you how highly I feel myself honoured that one of your +name should sojourn under my roof. Time is a great healer, and by gad, +sir, if you will permit me to say so, I shall stand by you in this +affair, and between us we shall crack the rascals' skulls!" + +He held out his hand, which Adam, who had listened sympathetically to +the old man's speech, instantly took. Then after one solid grip, they +dropped each other's palms with a slight feeling of awkwardness. + +"I thank you, my Lord," said Adam Ferris, "I appreciate your coming to +me. I knew some time ago by a messenger from Stair Garland that my +daughter was safe. I was starting to run down the villains, but my +brother-in-law begged that he might be allowed to settle the family +quarrel. He was anxious that nothing should appear about my daughter +which might hurt her future. Here, of course, in our own country, the +poorest and most ignorant would not make any mistake in judgment. But +Julian said it would certainly be otherwise in London, especially with +those who know the doings of our Royal Dukes. He begged that in the +first instance I should leave the affair to him and if he did not settle +matters to my satisfaction, I could then take what action I chose. So, +because he knew more of these courtly circles than I shall ever know or +desire to know, I bade him go." + +"Put that way," said my Lord, "you were quite right. The man was, I +understand, a guest in the house of Mr. Wemyss. He sent from there to +borrow my horses, damn his impudence. He shall answer to me for that +some day. Oh, I forgot--yes, your daughter. But I have been in London +and at Court. I have been honoured by the King's commands, but I can +only say that this new age--these young men--are rotten to the core. +Therefore I agree that for Miss Ferris's sake, the less said the better. +When, think you, will your brother be back? I should wish to pay my +respects to him as soon as might be!" + +"That," said Adam, "I cannot say. I wait any summons from London, but as +yet I have heard nothing from Mr. Wemyss." + +The earl was silent a while, now tapping imaginary dust from his +breeches and again patting his flowered waistcoat to settle the long +flaps in their places. He looked away across the shore, pale amber and +white at the sandy edge and deep blue beyond. Then frowning with the +effort, he spoke. + +"Sir," he said, "our young people are wiser than we. My boy brought your +girl to Castle Raincy as to a city of refuge, and why should not you and +I, sir, copy them? Will you do me the honour to walk to Castle Raincy +with me and take dinner? 'Zounds, sir, we ought to have thought of this +long before. They put us to shame, these helter-skelter youngsters of +ours." + +"I accept your invitation, my Lord," said Adam gravely. + +"Come now, Ferris," cried the Earl, with characteristic impulsiveness, +"we are neighbours and gentlemen--I pray you let there be no 'Lordships' +between us. Call me 'Raincy,' and be done with it!" + +"I fear," said Adam, smiling, "that with the best will in the world it +would be difficult for me to get my stubborn Galloway tongue round the +word. But I am glad to hear you call me by my name, though I fear me, my +Lord, that you must e'en let a thrawn Scots hermit gang his ain gait. If +I were to call you 'Raincy' I should feel like a boy who threw a stone +at election time. Why, sir, my father would rise from his grave and +floor me with the lid of his coffin!" + +"By gad, sir," said the Earl, "I believe you are right. That comes of +English public schools and all the rest of it. Add to which that small +daughter of yours is a witch and will make a man say anything--even a +man of my age. But since we are both Galloway men, we may surely call +each other by the names of our holdings. If you are 'Cairn Ferris' to +everybody--well, I am 'Castle Raincy.'" + +"To that I see no objection," said Adam, smiling, "though you wear your +rue with a difference!" + +"Eh, what's that?" cried the Earl, who did not read Shakespeare--"oh, +something out of a book--I thought such things were your +brother-in-law's perquisite. But I understand--you mean the handle to my +name. That is very well for outside use, but never mind handles to-day. +Let us be young again to-day. Come and see Patsy!" + +"Patsy!" that young person's father muttered to himself, "so it has come +to Patsy! Evidently she does not take after me. I have no doubt that the +vixen will be calling him 'Raincy' by the week's end." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FECHTIN' FOOL + + +These were hard days for Stair Garland. He alone had planned and carried +out the deliverance of Patsy. He had dared the spilling of the blood +royal, yet he had given all the profit of it over into the hands of +another. And now Louis Raincy had Patsy safe within the walls of his +grandfather's castle, and all that remained for Stair was liberty to +keep watch and ward outside. + +I do not imagine that Louis cared much about the matter. Why should he? +He had other things to think about--bright, young, heart-stirring things +that danced and glistened, flitting up before him just as a sudden +wind-gust may for a moment turn a petal-strewn garden path all rosy. + +But, to make up for such ingrate forgetfulness, Patsy thought a good +deal. She knew--no woman could have helped knowing--the fact of Stair's +devotion. But then she had always accepted it as quite natural, which it +was. Also as calling for no particular notice, except, as it were, for a +certain graceful obliviousness on her part, modified by a possessive +glance or two from her fearless black eyes--glances for which Stair +watched more alertly than he had ever gazed into the night for the +signal flashes from the _Good Intent_. + +But now he, Stair the doer, was without while Patsy was within with +Louis the dreamer. At this time Stair had more liberty to come and go. +He could now spend some of his days at Glenanmays helping his brothers +and sisters in any emergency. The attack upon the Duke of Lyonesse had +been hushed up--so far, that is, as any official inquiry was concerned. +The matter was not even referred to in Parliament. + +It had been announced that the Prince had been hurt somewhat seriously +in a carriage accident, frequent in travelling through such wild lands +as Ireland and the south of Scotland. People averred that he would find +himself safer on the Mall or climbing the slopes of Primrose Hill. + +And meanwhile McCarthy, the Irish doctor who attended him, said nothing +about the gunshot wound in the thigh which caused the Duke to walk with +a slight limp ever after. + +Stair, of course, knew nothing of this in detail. But he was keenly +alive to the results. With the disappearance of McClure the Spy the +press-gang work was suspended for a time, and, though a party of light +horse lay in Captain Laurence's old quarters at Stranryan, they confined +their trips to sending recruiting parties in an above-board way to the +fairs and market towns. + +At the end of harvest they would doubtless make a good haul among the +foolish young men who had been at the southern reaping. These, having +spent their cash in Carlisle or Dumfries, would be afraid to face their +people at home, and might be expected to take his Majesty's shilling +with alacrity. + +Without the support of the military, led by so experienced a man as Eben +McClure, with local knowledge and connections, the Preventive men +displayed no initiative, and seldom ventured far from their barracks on +the cliff. They might surround an alehouse in a village with all the +pomp and circumstance which shows zeal and is put down to the +Supervisor's credit as an efficient officer. But word was always sent +before, so that everything dutiable might be removed in the night. + +So fearless did the Free Traders become that not a week passed without a +successful run at the Waterfoot or in the Mays Bay, and such vessels as +the _Star of Hope_ from the Texel and the _William Groot_ (everywhere +known as the "Billy Goat") of Flessingue, thought it worth their while +to come to the coast of Wigton with full cargoes of tea, Hollands, +brandy, lace, and tobacco. + +All this stir in his own business did Stair a great deal of good. It +kept him from grieving about Patsy. Besides, the constant adventure of +the night and the lying up in the Cave of Slains during the day, enabled +him to sleep off his weariness and kept him away from the neighbourhood +of Castle Raincy. + +Sometimes, however, he used to lie out with Whitefoot, hidden deep among +the bog-myrtle and small silvery willows. On these occasions he would +talk to his dog with such earnestness that Whitefoot used to shake all +over with sympathy, whining softly as he laid his shaggy muzzle on his +master's knee as if in agony because he was unable to speak. + +"Those were better days than this, Whitefoot," said Stair, "when she +stood on the bookboard of Peden's Pulpit and we watched her through the +broom, before you took the road to fetch sister Jean." + +At the words Whitefoot leaped up delightedly and gave his short silent +bark. He thought he was to be trusted with another message. + +"No, Whitefoot, no," said his master, and the dog's waving tail dropped +suddenly. "I know you would go to Jean or even find Patsy through the +gates of Castle Raincy, but it would do no good. I am not of her world. +I am only the 'fechtin' fool.' Not that I am complaining, +Whitefoot--that is what you and I are for, Whitefoot. We have fought +before and may again. But she is not for us, lad--a laird's +daughter--what could we do with the like of her if we had her?--A +captain of smugglers and his dog, Whitefoot! That's what we are. Nothing +better!" + +"_Rouch_," said Whitefoot, his brown eyes flashing and his ears cocked. +He kept up a little alternate dancing motion on his fore paws, raising +his body from the ground without ever ceasing to hold his master's eyes +for a moment. "Oh, I know _you_ love me, Whitefoot, but that does not +help much just for the minute, lad. We are at the ban of the law, and +the coastguards would hang you as gladly as they would gaol me if they +could catch either of us. Only just at present we have the whip hand of +them. They have a shrewd suspicion that the hand which filled a Royal +Duke with slugs would not be backward in serving them the same. And, +particularly to an exciseman, a whole skin is a whole skin." + +Whitefoot growled at the word "exciseman," showing a set of firm white +teeth under a black bristly lip turned up wickedly at the corners. + +"But this will not always last, lad," Stair Garland went on, "the wars +will blow over and they will have men and troops to stop all this open +cargo-running. Then they will never beat us altogether, and for years +and years they will have the upper hand in their turn. What will come of +you and me then, Whitefoot? We shall have to foot it, far afield, lad. +Fergus will have the farm when my father has done with it. Agnew takes +to books and will get learning. But the 'fechtin' fool' must still be +the fechtin' fool. And there is no outgate for him except what he can +make with his two hands. + +"What has he to do with falling in love, Whitefoot?--Answer me that, +silly dog, instead of lickin' and slaverin' all over my hand! Can he +marry? No. Would he take any woman into this life of straits and hidings +and ambushes? No! And yet what a fool he is because Patsy (oh, +Whitefoot, our little Patsy!) being a laird's only daughter, goes for a +while with her own kind as she must at the last. What a fool you have +for a master, Whitefoot! Tell him so!" + +"_Ow-oww-ouch!_" The dog's answer came in a kind of furious shout that +was at once a defiance of fate, of the dread Power which deprived +masters of their heart's desire and dogs of speech, shutting them both +in within the narrow bounds of a hard necessity. + +Stair soothed the dog with one hand, for he could hear his heart thump +in short laboured leaps as if after a long pursuit of a dog-fox on the +hillside. + +"It is all no use, Whitefoot," he went on, more gently, "but after all +you are a friend, and it does me good to talk to you. You are always on +my side, and I do believe that you understand better than any one else. +But now the moon is up we must be going down to the Cave of Slains, or +perhaps the Calaman. Stand up, Whitefoot, and say good-night to Patsy +before she goes to bed." + +Stair rose bareheaded on his rock and looked towards the head of the +long bare glen, above which he could see the grey towers of Castle +Raincy touched to silver by the moonlight. Some windows were still +illuminated on the ground-floor, but higher up only one held a light. + +Stair waved his hand towards it. + +"Come on now," he said encouragingly to Whitefoot. "Speak--give it +tongue! Say good-night to Patsy. She will never know." + +And along with his master's shout there went out towards that single +light high on the side of the castle wall, the dog's cry to which Stair +had trained him for night signalling. And it came to the ears of Patsy +as she leaned from her high window, long and lonely and bleak as the +howl of a wolf, outcasted from the pack. + +Patsy shuddered and shut down the window. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A RIDER COMES TO CASTLE RAINCY + + +One night the two gentlemen sat over their wine in the dining-room at +Castle Raincy, the Earl and Adam Ferris of Cairn Ferris, who had now +fallen into the habit of coming every day to the Castle either for +dinner or supper--dinner being, according to the fashion of the time, at +two and supper at eight. Generally Adam came to supper. In this case he +saw more of his daughter, and the old Lord found him right good company, +thoughtful and well-informed. Besides, what was best of all, Adam was an +excellent listener. + +So, sitting toying with the stem of a wine glass, he heard for the +twentieth time the tale of the Earl's early adventure with Gentleman +Cornwallis--how they had vied with each other over neckcloths and fair +ladies, how they had fought for three hours, as the Earl said "sticking +each other here and there" without any great damage, neither able to get +home, and finally how they had their wounds dressed by the same doctor +before sitting down to ombre, each man with his bowl of gruel at his +elbow, how they bet who should drink both bickers, and how it stood on +one throw of the dice--how Cornwallis won, and he, Earl Raincy, duly +performed his obligation. + +Then came how they ordered in a second supply and played who should +swallow that. The Gentleman won again, and he, Raincy, was so full of +gruel that he had to have four strong footmen to carry him home! + +"By gad, sir, so I was--drunk as an owl on gruel, damned slimy +apothecaries' gruel. But I was the better of it, sir, and got well in a +week, while Cornwallis had rash and erysipelas and all manner of +trouble, because he did not do as his doctor told him! Served him right, +say I!" + +And at this point, without any announcement, Julian Wemyss suddenly +stood before them. He was travel-stained and hollow of cheek. He had +manifestly ridden far and hard. + +"I beg your pardon, Earl Raincy," he said, bowing courteously, "for thus +forcing my way into your presence. But it was necessary that I should at +once speak to my brother-in-law, Mr. Adam Ferris. They told me he was +here, so I came on." + +The Earl welcomed him after saying that he had intended to call upon him +at the Abbey Burnfoot as soon as he knew that he was home, he added, +"You will find the wine good, Mr. Wemyss. I will now leave you to +yourselves. By the way, can I send up anything from the kitchen?--A +hungry man, you know, can do no business with a man well dined, as I +warrant you Cairn Ferris has!" + +But Julian Wemyss begged Lord Raincy to stay. What he had to say +concerned him also, or at least his grandson, and all who were +interested in Miss Patricia Ferris. As to supper, he had already had +something at his own house, where his servant had been instructed to be +ready for him. + +But he took a glass of wine, and, after draining it, he said, speaking +quietly and leaning a little towards the two gentlemen, "I have had the +misfortune to kill my Lord Wargrove in a duel on Calais sands." + +"Gad," said the Earl, "if it had only been his master! But so far, so +good!" + +"Why did you come back here?" put in Adam. "Why did you come back from +France?" + +"Because in France my work was only half done," Julian spoke gravely. +"There was some one in London whom it was my duty to consult. Whatever +happened it was necessary to risk a conference with ... that person. My +Lord (here he turned abruptly upon Earl Raincy), Adam there is wholly +incapable of bringing up Patsy as she ought. She runs the country--with +the adventurous lads who play at smuggling. She comes and goes at her +will and not a soul is disquieted about her." + +The faint flicker of a smile passed over the cheek of the old Earl. + +"Well, Mr. Wemyss," he said, "you have known more women than ever I +spoke to--for all my frosty poll--and can you say on your conscience +that there was ever a one of them more charming, sweeter, or more +ladylike than your niece Miss Patricia?" + +"That, my Lord, is not the question," said Julian, smiling also and +shaking his head. "Patsy is all you say and more. But if she had been +better trained and somewhat more under control, she would never have run +like a hare to the Wild of Blairmore, the Duke of Lyonesse would have +been spared the charge of buckshot in his haunch, and I should not have +had the death of Lord Wargrove on my hands." + +"Pooh," said the old Earl, "that is what every man runs the risk of. +'Tis not the first time you have held a foil. Who were your seconds?" + +"Mine? Oh, Erskine and the Prince of Thurn and Taxis. I was not +particularly keen about Erskine, but he has his relations with the court +party and would report that all was done in loyalty on both sides. The +other seconds? Why, Watford and Queensberry." + +"You certainly gave him every chance," said the Earl, leaning back and +considering Julian Wemyss, "they are all of his own kidney except the +Prince--and him I do not know." + +"Oh, the finest blade in Europe," cried Julian, more enthusiastically +than he had yet spoken, "and ... a Prince of the Empire." + +"I see," said Earl Raincy, "between the two of you, you could have +accounted for an army of Duke's favourites!" + +"Perhaps," said Julian Wemyss, "but to get back to what we were saying, +the question is what are we to do with Patsy? I do not mean to spend my +whole life in exile, and though we simply could not let Wargrove pass, +we cannot go on fighting duels for the sake of this young woman. +Besides, it is bad for Patsy." + +"What do you propose, Julian?" said Adam. "I see you have come with a +plan all ready made up your sleeve. Out with it, man!" + +"Well, I have. There is a great lady in London who wishes to take Patsy +and treat her as her own daughter--yes, a lady of the court, but not of +the Regency court--the Princess Elsa-Frederica of Saxe-Brunswick--" + +The Earl's eyes dropped suddenly upon the decanter. He put out his hand, +and poured himself a glass. The name was that of one of the King's near +relatives, married to the aged reigning prince of Saxe-Brunswick for +reasons of State, but now returned to her family and living at Hanover +Lodge close to Kew. + +The two men at the table instantly found themselves on the verge of +matters as it were within the veil. They looked uncomfortable, almost +unhappy, as men do on these occasions. Only Julian Wemyss went on with +his usual serenity. + +"My friend offered to take the responsibility of Patsy off our hands. +She is a wise woman and a good woman. There lives no man who dares say +different--" + +At this point both Adam Ferris and the Earl thought of the man in Vienna +who had once dared, and whom the gentle-mannered duellist before them +had sent quickly to his own place, with no more time given than to +retract his words and receive holy absolution. For in the Austria of +that time two gentlemen took a priest as well as a doctor with them to +the field of honour. Then Adam Ferris remembered his lonely house below +the dark green pines and demanded with a sudden darkening of humour, +"And how long is this going to last?" + +It was on the tip of Julian's tongue to answer, "Till Patsy is married." +For indeed that had been his real thought. But he only said, "For a year +or two, brother--it is better so--she runs the hills like a wild thing. +Why, officers of his Majesty have boasted of having met and talked to +her dressed only in yellow sandals and a blue bathing dress!" + +"And, pray, whose fault was that?" her father demanded. + +"Not mine," said Julian calmly, "she ran to save the Glenanmays lads +from the press-gang; and if the sandals were mine, she ran better with +them than without." + +"So have I heard all that," said my Lord. "But if only she were a +daughter of mine, I should not send her to London to be made as +commonplace and artificial as everything else about the Hanoverian +court." + +"That, my Lord," said Julian, "is the opinion of a partial grandfather. +Pardon me for my freedom, but if that boy Louis had been your son, you +would have packed him off to dree his weird in the army. And yet he is a +wise enough lad, and has come to no great harm--nay, I know him to be +both brave and chivalrous--" + +"He is a De Raincy," said his grandfather, rather haughtily. + +"And as such should have a career," Julian continued without heeding the +expression on my Lord's face. + +"I have heard of a man who had the highest prize of the most +distinguished of careers right in his grasp, yet one fine day dropped +everything to go out in an unstarched linen shirt with another man at +six o'clock in the morning!" + +"When Louis de Raincy has my reasons for doing the like," said Julian, +looking directly at the Earl, "you can welcome him home and let him +watch the trees grow in the park. He will have given his proofs and +learned the meaning of life." + +"I beg your pardon!" said Lord Raincy, "I recognize that what you say is +true. I am not sure, however, whether I can afford to let Louis go. But +perhaps you came back from France to suggest as much to me." + +Julian Wemyss laughed for the first time, a clear light-running laugh +very pleasant to hear. + +"I own I had it in my mind," he said, "all this night-hawking and saving +of entrapped damsels is apt to make a boy romantic. Well, no harm for a +while, I say. But if you follow my thought and excuse it--'tis not +enough to set up house upon. I have no doubt that your grandson thinks +himself over head and ears in love with my niece. What Patsy thinks I do +not know--probably that young men were created for that purpose and that +one is very like another." + +"At his age I should certainly have been most deucedly in love with the +lady," said the Earl. + +"Just so," quoth Julian. "Now I do not know what plans you have for the +future of the lad. I do not know Adam's mind. But even if your ideas +happened to agree, which is unlikely--it would be a thousand times +better for the young people to see something of life first. Let them +have three years apart, meeting other people, getting little electric +shocks which will surprise them amazingly, and then if you and Adam +agree and the young people continue of a stable mind--why, there will be +so much the less danger of their House of Life coming about their ears +afterwards!" + + * * * * * + +The morning after the three Wise Men had sat in council together in the +castle dining-room, Patsy Ferris and Louis Raincy climbed over opposite +high walls and dropped almost simultaneously, and as naturally as ripe +fruit falls, into the old orchard of Raincy. In the midst of the walled +enclosure stood the marble mausoleum of the family, a heavily domed +structure, drowned among high trees, through the narrow windows of which +tombs and statues could be seen, and more than one De Raincy in his +chain mail with his head on a marble pillow, his hands with the +finger-tips joined, and a favourite dog at his feet. + +The keys of the enclosure were in the Earl's own coffer, and the trees +being too old for valuable fruit, the gardeners never went there, except +once a year after the falling of the leaves, "to tidy up a bit, because +one never knows what may happen," as old Steven the head gardener said. +Even then the Earl came, and, sitting on a chair, surveyed their labours +jealously, before locking up after them and going in to put away the key +in its place for another year. + +Patsy and Louis did not greet each other, though they had not met that +morning. In the house one said, "Good morning," "I hope you passed a +good night," and silly things like that, but not in the green shade of +the old orchard. A weeping willow had been turned over in some winter +gale many years ago, but had nevertheless managed to go on growing in +its new position. It lay like a feathery plume along the side of the +Raincy mausoleum. It was not the first time that Louis and Patsy had +utilized it as a convenient seat. + +The red squirrel who lived in one of the high pines dropped the husks of +the larch tassels on which he was fond of browsing, upon their heads. +But he did not chatter at them any more. He recognized a not remote +kinship with people who had sense enough to come here to be out of the +way, and he said as much to his own mate who was lying lazily curled in +a big nest high up the bole of the pine which overtopped the white +marble roof of the little chapel and looked clear away to sea and back +to the towers of Castle Raincy. + +"Patsy," said Louis, "they are going to separate us--I am sure of it. +That was why your Uncle Julian came all the way from London." + +"Well, let them," said Patsy, swinging her feet and poking at the grass +with a branch she had stripped of willow leaves; "I suppose that even if +you are at the castle and I at Cairn Ferris we can always come here or +meet at the alder grove--why, there are a thousand places." + +"Ah, but," said Louis, "I am to go into the army--and you are to go to +London, to be taken care of by some great lady whom your Uncle knows!" + +Patsy clapped her hands with sudden pleasure. + +"Oh, that must be the Princess--Uncle Ju's princess--then I shall know +her. It will be such fun!" + +"No doubt--for you," said Louis, bitterly, "but since you are so glad to +be away from me and with other people, you will the more easily forget +all about me." + +"Nonsense," said Patsy, "our people won't lock us in dungeons and feed +us on bread and water. They don't do it now-a-days. And so will you like +to go soldiering. Why, haven't you been moaning to me every day for +years because your grandfather would not let you go to be an officer and +see the world and fight? You owned that it was fun stopping the carriage +and getting me out and riding home--" + +"Oh, yes," said Louis, "I do not deny it a bit. I own I said so, but +even there it was Stair Garland who had most to do with the real +business." + +"Well, you must own that he played the game pretty straight." + +"Umph," growled Louis, "of course. So would any one!" + +"Now, Louis," said Patsy, "don't be a hog. You know you have often said +that Stair Garland was as good a gentleman as anybody. Of course, he is +fond of me--" + +"Has he told you?" cried Louis, starting up and glowering with clenched +fists. + +"What is that to you, sir?" Patsy retorted, biting her upper lip, while +her black eyes shrank to glittering dots under the long lashes through +which she considered the speaker. "Attend to your own business, Louis +Raincy. It is no business of yours what Stair Garland has said to me, or +what he may say!" + +"But it is--it is!" cried Louis, shamelessly, stamping his foot. + +Patsy swept her skirts aside and motioned with her hand. + +"Sit down, little boy!" she said, "you are not built to sing on that +key. I can. Your grandfather could, or Uncle Julian--" + +"He has killed a man in a duel--another man, I mean--I heard them +telling about it to-day in the stables...." + +Patsy grew pale. + +"Not the Prince!... He will be outlawed. Perhaps they will send him to +prison or cut off his head." + +"No, no," Louis broke in; "not the Prince, though that is a pity too. I +should liked have a whack at him--" + +"Well, never mind--Stair Garland had one, and they say that he will +hardly ever walk straight again. But whom has Uncle Ju killed? I knew if +he heard of it he would kill somebody. He did once before." + +"Lord Wargrove. They fought on the beach at Calais. He came straight +over to London to arrange about your going to his Princess, whoever she +may be, and he arrived here at the castle while your father and my +grandfather were sitting together after dinner spinning stories. He was +for your going to London directly. He spoke to grandfather about me, +too. Mother says he is a bloodthirsty wretch and no right Christian. But +grandfather must have thought a lot of him or he would never have +listened to a word about my going for a soldier. Now he has written to +the Duke to get me a company, and there will be a lot of money to pay, +also, which grandad won't like. I am to go to the _depot_ immediately to +learn the drill and so on. It is a blessing I can ride." + +"I don't believe you will be sent to the war at all," said Patsy, "at +least not for a while. So don't get cock-a-hoop. You will have a lot to +learn, and you can persuade your grandfather, if you really want to see +me, to open up his house in London, and then you can come and see me as +often as you like." + +"What, with a glorified Princess looking after you? I do not see myself, +somehow!" + +"Oh, you will learn," Patsy retorted carelessly. "Of course we have all +got to do that. I don't want very much to leave all this. How should I? +It is my country and my life, but I suppose they know best, and at any +rate if they keep me too long, I can always run away. You could not do +that, of course, when you are a soldier, for that would be desertion, +and they would shoot you as they did Admiral Byng." + +The bad business of their exodus from the Glens began to wear a brighter +aspect for Louis Raincy. London with Patsy partook of the unknown and +certainly adventurous. Every young fellow of spirit longs for money in +his pocket to see the world, and at the worst Patsy would be well away +from the neighbourhood of Stair Garland. + +Then the next moment Louis was ashamed of his thought and strove to make +amends. + +"I wonder what will become of Stair if you go," he said. "I am afraid he +will go the pace wilder than ever, and as like as not get into bad +trouble." + +"Before I go I shall speak to Stair myself," said Patsy with great +determination. "He shot a prince of the blood for my sake; perhaps I can +make him keep the peace for the same reason. At least for a while." + +At this Louis sulked a little, so little indeed that no one but Patsy +could have noticed. But she was down upon him like a hawk on a field +mouse. + +"See here," said Patsy, "this is no stock-in-trade to start out on. You +sulk at the first mention of a man's name. I shall see hundreds in +London. You will see as many women. I am only a little country girl +staying with a great Princess, while you will be the heir to an earldom, +besides having all the prestige of the uniform. Oh, I shall like that +part of it myself, I don't deny. But I am not going to have you sulking +because I speak to this man or dance with that man, or even tell you +that I like one man better than another." + +She paused, but Louis did not speak. So Patsy, after a long look at him, +continued. "I don't know yet whether I love you as you mean, Louis +Raincy--or whether I shall ever love any man. Certainly I am not going +to cry about you or about anybody. I like you--yes--I like you better +than any one I know except Uncle Julian, but not a bit like the lovers +in books. So I suppose I am not in love. I would not have you climbing +balconies or singing ditties in boats for half this country. I should +want to be in bed and asleep. Some day, maybe, I shall love a man, and +then I shall love him for take and have and keep. But it has just got to +happen, Louis--and if it comes for somebody else, why, I rather think it +will be so much the better for you. Come now, it is time to go home. +Shake hands, and be friends--no, sir, nothing else. Wait a good quarter +of an hour after I am gone. We don't know what is before either of us, +but if you are going to whimper about what we can't help--I am not!" + +She jumped on the first branches of the larch, still holding Louis's +hand. As she let go she took a handful of his clustering curls and gave +a cheerful tug to his head that brought the tears sharply to his eyes. + +"Go off and try to fall in love with a dozen of the prettiest girls you +can find in London, and if you don't succeed in three years, come back +here and we will talk the matter all over again from the beginning." + +She was now on the top of the wall. She turned her legs over deftly to +the other side with a swirl of her skirts. + +"Good-bye, Louis!" she said, waving a brown hand at him as she slid off +into the wood. "Some day you will be more of a man than I, and then you +will not let a girl put you down." + +"Do you know what I think?" cried the boy, exasperated. "I think that +you are a hard-hearted little wretch!" + +But only the sound of Patsy's laughter rippled up mockingly from far +down the glade. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PATSY HELD IN HONOUR + + +Patsy set out for London with some pomp and circumstance. Quite +unwittingly she had made herself a kind of idol in the countryside. The +tale had been told of how she had run to warn the Bothy of Blairmore, +how she had faced the press-gang that the Glenanmays lads might have +time to escape. She had been carried off and rescued. Men had been shot +and died for her sake. Louis had taken her to Castle Raincy for safety, +and now, girt with a formidable escort, she was setting out to visit +London, where it was reported that she should see the King and be the +guest of royalty itself. + +The old Earl had offered his coach for the journey, and early one +September morning he brought Patsy out on his arm, and threw in after +her his own driving-coat, made after the fashion of the Four-in-Hand +Club--the very "Johnny Onslow" model, with fifteen capes, silk-lined and +finished,--lest she should take cold on the way. + +"My dear," he said, "fain would I have made you a present of another +sort, but your uncle tells me that you are amply supplied with +pocket-money, and so you take with you an old man's good will, and would +have his blessing, too, if only he thought that of any value!" + +Patsy had said good-bye the night before to her Uncle Julian, and had +received from him a netted purse which was even then weighing down her +pretty beaded reticule. Patsy had not thought that there could be so +much money in the world, and she had cried out, "Oh Uncle Ju, is all +this really for me? What in the world shall I ever do with it?" + +"You will spend it, my dear," he said smilingly, "that and far more. +London is a great place for running away with money! There are so many +pretty things to buy." + +"Can't I give some of it to Stair Garland and his sister Jean?" + +"I have no doubt that you would like to," said her uncle. "Was there +ever a Wemyss yet who could be trusted not to throw away money? But it +seems as if your Master Stair and I would be a good deal together in the +future, and you may safely leave that part of it to me. Stair and Jean +shall not lack." + +"Uncle Ju," cried Patsy, almost dancing, "are you going to smuggle? What +fun!" + +"As you say, what fun! Well, there is some smuggling to be done, but I +am the contraband goods this time, and I must trust your friend Stair to +help me over the sea. He and I are marked down, and we shall both have +to run and hide so long as we stay in this country. Even such paladins +as he and I cannot go righting the wrongs of distressed maidens without +a certain danger, when the ogres and giants are royal Princes and their +favourites." + + * * * * * + +Thus, on the morning of the twenty-fourth of September, just one hundred +years ago, Patsy was handed into the coach by Earl Raincy, who stood +back with bared head to see her ride out of the courtyard of the Castle. +Her father was on one side, mounted on his big black horse, and Louis +Raincy guarded the left flank on "Honeypot." He was to convoy the party +as far as Carlisle and then return. + +But at the gate of Ladykirk stood a dainty old lady, equipped for +journey. Miss Aline was going to London. She was quite shaking with the +excitement, and pulled at her openwork mitts with smiling expectancy. + +"My dear," she said, "I am coming with you. I think it is more proper. I +shall set you down at the house where you propose to stay, and I have +taken a room at Ibbetson's Hotel, which is a well-known house, at very +reasonable charges, much frequented by the clergy." + +"Oh, Miss Aline," cried Patsy, "I am sure you are giving yourself a +great deal of trouble. You would be much better at Ladykirk." + +"'Deed then no," said Miss Aline, dropping into the vacant place beside +Patsy. "'Tis the only chance I shall ever have to see London before I +die, and I have given Tibbie, the cook, all instructions about the plums +and the heather honey. The jam has been a great fret to me this year, +and I deserve a bit jaunt. So I will e'en ride in this braw carriage all +the road to London, and Eelen Young, the lass that does for me, will +bring on my kists by the coach. She is a clever wench, and very likely +will be at Ibbetson's before me. At any rate I have nothing with me but +this bandbox with a night-rail and a change of apparel, such as is +suitable for posting-inns. You have, I see, plenty of men-folk to escort +you, and, as I jalouse, more to follow--but what you need is a well-born +gentlewoman of comfortable means for a duenna! Oh, ye will try to come +round me with your 'Miss Aline's,' and your coaxing. But as long as ye +are under my care, off to bed ye shall march at a reasonable hour. Then +I shall lock the door on ye and keep the key under my pillow. I lost ye +once out of Ladykirk when ye slippit out at the back door. But this time +ye shall have a better gaoler. Hear ye that, Mistress Patsy?" + +There was nothing to be said, and, indeed, it was a great sacrifice +which Miss Aline was making in the upturning of all her cherished +habits, and the abandoning of her dear Ladykirk in the season of all +others which she preferred--the time, as she expressed it, "of the +ingathering of the fruits of the earth." + +The "more to follow," by which Miss Aline had intimated an addition to +Patsy's escort, was in waiting a little farther on at the head of the +Long Wood. Stair Garland and twenty-five of his best horsed and most +gallant lads stood waiting to fall in behind the carriage. As Patsy came +near she put her head out at the window and cried, "Oh, Stair, is it +safe?" + +But Stair only smiled, and took his broad blue bonnet off with a sweep +which caused the eagle's plume in it to touch the dust. The twenty-five +behind him uncovered also. They made a gallant show, every man with his +carbine slung over his shoulder by the broad bandolier strap which +crossed his chest, his cloak and provender rolled on the pommel of his +saddle, and his bridle and spurs jingling as the ponies fidgeted +restlessly in the narrow space. + +Then Stair commanded, "File out there," as the carriage rumbled into the +shades of the wood and took the direction of the White Loch, and Patsy +remembered that other journey and the dreadful uncertainty of it. She +shut her eyes and recalled it till she shuddered so that Miss Aline +asked if she were cold. She had never lost faith in her friends even +then, and now Louis was riding close to the left window of the carriage, +and Stair Garland, with his horsemen, guarding her, sending her forth +out of her own country as hardly a Princess had ever left Galloway. + +They sent the Earl's team back from Dumfries. Stair Garland and his +company rode with them over the wild marshes of Solway moss to the +Bridge of Gretna, where they formed into two lines, and between them +Patsy passed into England. Patsy looked out and kissed her hand to them. +They were all sitting still on their wiry little beasts except Stair, +who had dismounted, and stood uncovered till the carriage, with its two +flanking riders, had passed into the distance. Stair got blown a kiss +all to himself, but if he saw it he took no notice, and so was left +standing pensive and motionless by the end of Gretna Bridge, the last +thing that Patsy could see on Scottish ground, except the top of Criffel +wreathed in thin pearly mist of the evening. + +Louis, save for the glory of keeping on a little farther than Stair +Garland, might very profitably have gone back with the troop of +twenty-five. Few would observe too closely the road chosen by such a +cavalcade. Supervisors drew back into convenient shelters. Outposts on +craggy summits, after one long look, shut up the reglementary brass +three-draw spy-glass and sat down with their backs to the road to smoke +a pipe. But Louis Raincy was to stay a night at Corby Castle before +turning his face homeward again towards his mother and grandfather. + +When the time came to part Patsy held out her hand frankly to Louis. + +"Thank you for coming so far," she said, "I shall not say good-bye, for +we shall soon be meeting in London, and you will be ever so grand in +your new uniform. The ladies will dote upon you. I shall tell them all +you are coming." + +"Patsy," said poor Louis, "you are very cruel to me. You know I shall +only care for you in all the world." + +"Fudge!" said Patsy irreverently, "you will like every single one of the +pretty girls--the really pretty girls, I mean--who admire you, and if +you don't know I shall tell you what to say to them." + +"Patsy--!" + +"Yes, I know, so you think now, but wait till you have had two or three +months of being an officer of dragoons and the heir to an earldom--I +wager that no Waters of Lethe would make you forget your old comrade +Patsy Ferris so completely!" + +"Oh, Patsy," groaned Louis, "do not laugh!--You did not use to talk like +that in our nest under the big beech. Do not break my heart!" + +"Strange to think," mused Patsy, "that it will not even affect his +appetite. Louis Raincy, cock your beaver on the side of your head. Cry, +'I don't care a button for you, Patsy Ferris' and ride away without once +looking behind, and if you could do that--I verily believe I should run +after you. But let me tell you, sir, whimpering never won a woman--at +least not one like me!" + +She turned and entered the carriage, which started at once on its +pleasant journey through the Westmoreland dales towards the south. + +Miss Aline was sitting with her handkerchief to her eyes when Patsy sat +down beside her. + +"Why, what in the world is the matter, dear Miss Aline?" cried Patsy. + +"I do think you might have been kinder to him," said the old lady. "I +could not bear you to send him away like that." + +"All for his good," said Patsy easily. "He has been too long mollied +over by his mother, besides getting all his own way from his +grandfather. But ... before I finish I shall make a man of Master +Louis!" + +"And Stair Garland?" ventured Miss Aline, taking one swift glance +sidelong at Patsy's dark, decided face. + +"Oh, Stair Garland," said Patsy with emphasis, "he is a man already. As +old Dupont, my French governess, used to say, Stair Garland was born +with the 'panache.'" + +"And what does that mean?" + +"Why, that he was born with his hat-plume in the wind and his hand on a +sword-hilt. But I am not sure that he has not been born a century or so +too late. What a soldier of fortune he would make, what a cavalry +leader, what an adventurer--what a lover!" + +"But, my dear," said Miss Aline, speaking very softly, "what a very +dangerous man to think of marrying!" + +Patsy slid her hand under the silken half-mitt of fine lace and stroked +the little dry, trembling hand which nestled into hers. + +"Little angel, I am not thinking of marrying Stair Garland," she +laughed; "rest easy in that dear peaceful soul of yours." + +"I am so glad," said Miss Aline, furtively dabbing at her eyes. "Louis, +there, is like a boy of my own, and he has always been good and brave. +One feels so safe with him--" + +"Oh, please don't turn me against the poor lad!" cried Patsy, stuffing +her fingers into her ears that she might hear no more of Louis Raincy's +praises. + +"And the other--that Stair Garland?" Miss Aline continued, with a +certain unusual sharpness, "he is so wild. He rides at the head of gangs +of smugglers and defies everybody, even the minister and my Lord Raincy. +I am sure that he would be very insusceptible to proper domestic +influences. I doubt if even you could tame him." + +"I doubt if I should want him tamed!" said Patsy, with the same dark +gleam in her eye with which her uncle had gone out upon Calais sands to +kill my Lord Wargrove. + +And at this gentle Miss Aline sighed. She did not always understand +Patsy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +UNCLE JULIAN'S PRINCESS + + +A blue-eyed, placid woman, with abundant fair hair of the sort which +hardly ever turns grey, came forward to receive Patsy. The drawing-room +of Hanover Lodge was long, and the windows looked on the river. Patsy +flitted forward with her usual lightness. She was not in the least +intimidated, but only regarded with immense interest the woman who had +loved her Uncle Julian and was still his faithful friend. + +Patsy had had it in her mind to kiss the hand of the Princess, but she, +divining her intention, caught the girl in her arms and pressed her +close, kissing her on the cheek and forehead after some foreign fashion. + +"You have come from Julian," she murmured, "you are very like him--the +daughter of his only sister. I shall love you well!" + +"And this is my father!" said Patsy, who as usual took command of the +situation, as soon as there was a man anywhere about to be told what to +do. "Come forward, father!" + +But though the laird of Cairn Ferris was only a country gentleman who +had seldom left the bounds even of his parish, he was come of good blood +and had been well brought up. He kneeled on one knee to kiss her hand, +perhaps not with the courtly grace of the ex-ambassador, his +brother-in-law, but still with a dignity which was altogether manly. + +"I am glad to see you, Mr. Ferris of Cairn Ferris," said the Princess +Elsa. "I have never seen your beautiful land, but the best and wisest +men I have known have belonged to your nation--the courtliest and truest +gentlemen, both with sword and tongue." + +She was silent a moment, and both Patsy Ferris and her father understood +that she was thinking of Julian Wemyss. Then she added very +thoughtfully, "I have spent a great part of my life among men who do not +speak the truth to women, and would think themselves shamed if they did. +Therefore I have learned how to cherish men of their word, and these I +have found among men of your nation." + +"I fear me, your Highness," said Adam, smiling darkly, "that I could not +give my countrymen so wholesale a certificate for truth-speaking; but I +can also promise you that our Patsy will not lower your opinion of her +nation in that respect. Rather she speaks before she thinks, this maid, +and so gets herself and other people into much trouble." + +Adam remained at Hanover Lodge for lunch, a meal which his hostess +called breakfast, and which was served in the continental fashion, every +dish separate. The well-styled domestics, in their black liveries on +which the device of the galloping horse stood out on each side of the +collar, moved noiselessly about, seeming to fade away and leave the room +empty when there was no need for their presence, and yet to be behind +everybody's chair at the right moment. He bethought him of his own +honest James and William who often had scarcely time to discard the +gardening clogs or lay down the wood-splitting axe in order to pull on +their livery coats, and so began to understand that there were degrees +of perfection in servitude. + +Certainly Patsy would learn many things here, but would she ever come +back to be just his own wild, frank, helter-skelter maid? He doubted it. +And it was no comfort to him to reflect that it was for that very +purpose he was letting her go, that she might be under the care of this +great lady. Well, his brother-in-law must know what was best, certainly, +and the Princess--Julian's Princess--appeared to take very well to +Patsy. But oh, Cairn Ferris and the Abbey Burnfoot would be lonely +places without her. And the lads who had escorted her like a queen! +Clearly it was better that she should not run altogether wild, being +what she was and the favour of men so easy to be won. But--it was hard, +also, for he was a lonely man. And it was with a very heavy heart that +Adam Ferris took leave of his daughter. + +No, he would not stay. He was responsible for Patsy's share in the +general quiet of the country. In her absence he knew very well that the +temptation to break out would be almost too great for Stair Garland and +his friends. He would have more influence with them than any one else. +Therefore he would betake himself back to Galloway straightway. + +To the Princess, who demanded a reason for this haste, he answered, +"Madam, I must go back and keep my country quiet. We are, you know, +somewhat turbulent in the North." + +"You do well," she said gravely, speaking as one accustomed to +government. "I hear that there is much lawlessness in your lands, and +for that reason I am glad to be able to shelter your daughter. It is +very well for men to wield the sword and hold the scales of justice, but +a young maid will be safer in Hanover Lodge." + +"All the same I am losing one of my best lieutenants--indeed the best," +said Patsy's father. + +And with that he kissed her and was gone. Patsy watched him as he walked +down the avenue towards the river, where he would find a waterman to +carry him to town. Adam Ferris had a stoop in his shoulders she never +remembered to have noticed before. For the first time it struck her that +her father was growing old. + +Something caught her in the throat, something dry and hard that swelled +but would not break. She could have run after him and told him that she +would not stay without him. But the Princess, who had been watching +keenly, took her by the hand and, whispering that she had something to +say to her, drew her into a little boudoir looking out on a garden, all +shaven lawns, artificial ponds, in which stately swans moved slowly up +and down with a barge-like gallant manner as though they were accustomed +to take part in royal processions. + +"And now," said the Princess Elsa, drawing Patsy down on a sofa by the +window, "let me look at you that I may see what it is that sets all the +men agate to be carrying you off, and fighting duels about you. I +suppose a woman cannot always tell, just because she is a woman. But I +can see that you are vivid with life. You shine like a black pearl--" + +Patsy drew in her breath sharply at the word. + +"That was what he called me," she said nervously, looking about the room +as if she expected her sometime captor to appear. + +"He? Who? That wretch of a Lyonesse? Do not trouble your pretty head. He +will not come near Hanover Lodge--neither he nor any of his brothers, +except perhaps poor Billy." + +The Princess did not further embarrass Patsy by prolonging her +inspection. She began to talk of Galloway and of the people whom Patsy +knew. Nothing loath was Patsy to pour out her soul on such a subject. +This was Uncle Julian's Princess, and though she seemed older than she +had anticipated--fairy princesses should at least always remain +slim--she had all the gracefully placid beauty and the exquisite manners +she had looked forward to. + +Patsy told of Louis Raincy and his grandfather--of Castle Raincy and the +four hundred-year-old feud between the Raincys and the Ferrises. She +told the story of her rescue, and how Stair had shot the Duke, while +Louis kept the horses to be ready for the return. + +"And what is this Stair Garland?" the Princess asked. "The son of a +yeoman, and not the eldest son. Ah, I understand--the cadet, the +adventurous one. We have some such in our armies, and many more in the +Austrian service. Perhaps we will send your Stair to wear the white +uniform. It would become him rarely. And which of the two do you like +the best?" + +The last question was unexpected, but it was not a habit of Patsy's to +be embarrassed--at least, not for long. + +"Oh," she said crisply, "these are only two--there are others, and so +far I have felt no desire to make any choice. I foresee that if the +malady takes me, I am more likely to run away with the man than he with +me. Uncle Ju says that is the way with our family. I am really more like +my mother's people than the Ferrises--so at least every one says." + +"Did not your father run away with an earl's daughter from the door of +some ball-room?" the Princess asked. + +"It was the Edinburgh Assembly rooms, but Uncle Ju says that it was my +mother who ran away with him!" + +"That," said the Princess, in a low tone, "I can very well believe. So +you have yet to fall in love! Well, my advice to you is, do not put it +off too long, young lady. And when once you have made up your mind, +stick to your man though he were a baker's apprentice!" + +"You talk just like Uncle Ju, Princess," said Patsy, smiling, "only that +he wants me to see as much of the world as I can before--taking your +advice." + +"What does your Uncle say?" the Princess Elsa asked gently, not looking +at the girl but beyond her out into the hazily bright garden. + +"Well, if you know him, you will remember that it is difficult to +separate what he really means from what he only _says_, because he means +to tease. But at any rate he warns me not to run off with the first +tight-girthed youth with a curly head who tells me he loves me. As if I +were likely to! Why, I can hardly remember the time when somebody was +not making love to me, and I do not see that it has made very much +difference." + +"No," mused the Princess, a smile of quiet amusement in her blue eyes, +"but you are not at the world's end yet, and now we must go to town and +get something wherewithal to fit you out." + +"Uncle Ju has given me such a lot of money, Princess," said Patsy, +jumping up, "shall I go and bring it? There is enough to pay for ever so +many dresses. If I were to live to be a thousand I don't think I could +spend all that!" + +"Your Uncle Julian is a wonderful man," said the Princess Elsa, "he has +a purse as long and as ready as his sword. And what he gave you was no +more than a little pin-money, just to keep in your pocket, so that you +would not need to be coming all the time to me for everything that you +might want. But he has put a great sum in the bank for me to use for +you, and so you need have no care as to your ball and court dresses and +all your fineries--except the worry of having them fitted, which I find +a very great one indeed." + +Then the Princess broke out in a new place. + +"And did Julian send you all the way to London without a maid? Surely +such a man knew better than that. I shall scold him when I see him, but +I suppose it will be a long time before he dare come to London." + +"He said that he would first need to make his peace with the Prince +Regent, and I don't believe he will do anything in the matter himself." + +"Well, he has friends, and we can afford to let the killing of such a +man as Lord Wargrove in a loyal duel stand to his credit a little while +longer. Yet perhaps we may see him sooner than we expect. Your uncle, +child, is at once the most reliable and the most unexpected of men!" + +Patsy let this drop. It was clearly a reflection of the Princess upon +which she was not required to comment. So she went back to the question +of travelling without a maid. + +"It is true," she said, "that I had no maid--these are rather scarce in +Galloway. I only know of Lady Raincy (Louis's mother, that is) who has +one, and she is always changing. But the dearest lady in the world came +with me--you would love her--Miss Aline Minto of Balmacminto. One day I +shall bring her to see you!" + +"What is the reason she did not come with you here?" said the Princess. + +"Dear lady," said Patsy (the minx had learned her modes of address from +her uncle), "she is too shy. No, she is not at all the type of old +maid--she is not an old maid at all. She has a good estate, and I know +that Uncle Ju has to go to Ladykirk often to keep at bay suitors for the +estate and for Miss Aline's hand." + +"Ah, has he, indeed?" said the Princess, at once showing interest; "then +I must make haste to see this Miss Aline of Ladykirk--what a pretty name +and style. I don't believe I could get my tongue round the title of her +estate. And so Julian acts as her protecting angel--" + +"Oh," said Patsy calmly, "there is no love-making in it, you +understand--they are both too old, of course. But Julian is the +handsomest and richest bachelor in our parts, and Miss Aline--well, she +is Miss Aline and owner of the Balmacminto estates. So I think she and +uncle make--what is it called?--a kind of defensive and offensive +alliance. I know Uncle Ju had nearly to fight old Sir Bunny Bunny the +other day. He interviewed the old fellow. He had come to propose his +son, who is such a donkey that the very village urchins bray after him +and pretend to munch thistles!" + +"Let us go and see Miss Aline!" said the Princess, and rang the bell. +"Where did you say she was living--at a hotel--why did she not go to +friends? It is so much more _convenable_ for a lady travelling alone!" + +"Well," said Patsy, "I think her aunt the countess is away, and I am not +sure whether she would wish to put herself under an obligation. Then +Lord Raincy is coming to town next week or so to place his grandson in +the dragoons, but his house is not opened up yet. Of course, Miss Aline +would have gone there. My father wanted to take her back to Ladykirk--it +is so safe and peaceful. No soldiers or press-gangs or smugglers ever go +there, for Miss Aline is like something sacred--so unable to take care +of herself that everybody must look after her!" + +"And particularly Julian?" observed the Princess, with a spark in the +blue eyes. + +"As you say, dear lady," retorted Patsy maliciously, "especially Uncle +Julian!" + +"Order the carriage!" said the Princess. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MISS ALINE TAKES COMMAND + + +"Indeed, mem," said the dainty little lady, as Patsy and the Princess +were ushered into her tiny sitting-room, "but this is more than kind and +far abune my thoughts and deservings. But I wish it had been at Ladykirk +that I had been permitted to receive you, and not in this--this +pig-stye, that has not been cleansed for a hundred year, and as for +dusting--I was just tearing up an auld bit o' body-linen to show the +craiturs how a room should be dusted." + +"But your maid?" said the Princess, "I know you have brought one. Why +not let her do a thing like that?" + +"Eelen Young--oh, mem, it's little ye ken--and how should ye, being as +they tell me siccan a great leddy, the snares and the traps that lie +waiting for the feet of the young and the unwary here in this michty +'caravansy'! My leddy, there's not a decent lass in the place--only men +to serve ye and make the beds. 'Thank ye kindly,' says I, 'but I, Aline +Minto, shall make my ain.' So after I had let Eelen Young sleep with me +one night, I packed her aff wi' the next coach and paid David Colvill, +the guard, to look after her to Dumfries, where she has a sister in +service." + +The Princess had taken an instant fancy, as Patsy knew she would, to the +little Dresden china shepherdess of a lady who would never grow older. +Everything about her was irresistible--the soft grey ripple of hair +about her brow, the shy girlish eyes, the long delicate hand with the +fingers which, in spite of their declared readiness to work, trembled a +little, and the voice which spoke the Northern speech with such +clear-cut gentility, that the words fell on the ear with a certain cool +freshness, like the splash of water in a fountain or the tinkle of a +burn flowing over pebbles of whinstone. + +"You must come away with us," said the Princess, "I have a great house +in the midst of gardens not far from the town, and horses which are +greatly in need of exercise--when it pleases you to use them, you will +confer a real favour. So let Patsy here help you to make up your trunks, +and come back home with us!" + +"Oh, do, Miss Aline!" pleaded Patsy, "that will be the very happiest +thing I can think of." + +"Bide a wee," said the old lady, motioning Patsy to be silent. "I am +heartily obligated to your Highness for her maist kind offer, and I will +accept it on yae condeetion. Which is, that if ever ye come to Scotland +on any errand whatsoever, or have need of a bit nook where ye can forget +the warld--the like comes whiles to the greatest--ye will come straight +to me at Ladykirk--" + +"I promise," said the Princess, smiling sadly. "I have great need to +profit by your offer now. But at present I am not my own. I must wait. +Still, I do promise you that if I live I shall use my first freedom by +coming to visit you at Ladykirk. Patsy here has been telling me about +it. She says it is a Paradise!" + +"It's weel enough," said Miss Aline, "naething very grand about it but +the garden, and _that_ is real famous for the plums and the berries. But +I daresay ye will hae plenty goosegogs o' your ain. How far are ye on +with your preserving, mem?" + +"Dear me," said the Princess, "really, I never thought of asking. But I +shall see as soon as we get home. I promise you that you shall have the +command of all the idle gardeners at Hanover Lodge if you will only come +with me." + +"Is your jeely-pan good solid copper or only one of thae nesty French +things that need to be lacquered every month?" + +"Indeed," said the Princess Elsa, "I ought to know, and I am ashamed not +to know, having been (for some time at least) a German _haus-frau_. But +living so long in London and away from my country, has made me +shamefully careless. You must teach me, dear Miss Aline, so that I need +not be put to shame when I come to see the perfection with which you do +everything at Ladykirk!" + +"Hoot, the lass Patsy has been bletherin'," snapped Miss Aline, "things +gang nae better at Ladykirk than elsewhere, if I were not for ever at +their tails. My heart is fair broken to think o' the cook and Eelen +Young makin' a hash of the apple jeely and the damson jam. They are sure +to forget the maist needfu' thing of a'--and that's neither more nor +less than an extra under-sheet o' good writing-paper, cut to size and +weel soakit in whusky. And as for the mistakes they will make in the +labelling and dating, it's a sin and a shame to think on't. But at least +I can, and shall, go over every single pot as soon as I set foot within +the hoose. Then, if I find anything wrang, Guid peety the idle hizzies!" + +In half an hour Miss Aline was speeding westward by the side of the +Princess, Patsy in great delight sitting opposite to them with her back +to the horses. The great lady was charmed with the ingenuous frankness +of Miss Aline's comments, and signed to Patsy to let her say all that +came into her mind. + +In Saint James's Street they crossed the Regent driving out to the park. + +"And wha's that frisky body in the frilled sark?" said Miss Aline, who, +like many of her countryfolk of the time, regularly honoured her country +by exaggerating its accent and speech in converse with the Southron. + +"The Regent!" said the Princess, returning the royal bow with the very +slightest inclination of her head. + +"So that's the Regent," said Miss Aline, with a critical glance over her +shoulder, "weel, to meet him you would never take him to be mickle mair +wickeder than other folk--only sleepier and a dooms deal fatter!" + +Soon the town was left behind, and they had the delight of a drive out +to Kew by the riverside before them. Miss Aline was delighted and +admitted that, though not, of course, so beautiful as Ladykirk, England +had its points all the same, and that certainly neither the Abbey Burn +nor the Mays Water could be compared to the Thames _for size_--though, +she added, as she observed the patient wistful array of anglers on the +bank, that she greatly doubted if any of these fisherfolk would bring +back six dozen of trout as Stair Garland often did on a morning after a +spate. + +Miss Aline declared herself charmed with Kew and craned her head to see +the old king's palace--the "rightful king," as she called the stricken +Majesty of Britain. For she was attached to George the Third with a real +affection, which dated from her childhood and her mother's teachings. +The Regent and the Regency party had no friend in her, so that, for this +reason alone, she was a welcome guest at Hanover Lodge. + +To the astonished minion who opened the door she held out her hand, +saying, "Good-day to you--I kenna your first name, but hoo are the wife +and the bairns?" + +The solemn footman stammered that he was an unmarried man, and the +Princess laughed heartily. + +"I shall remember your lesson in politeness when I come to Ladykirk," +she said. "Is it James or Gilbert who opens the door?" + +"That just depends, my leddy," said Miss Aline, "sometimes one is more +fit to be seen than another. But either o' them would take it sore to +heart if ye did not speer for the health o' his family." + +"Indeed, it is a good custom, and much used in Germany, where I come +from," said the Princess. + +"I'm thinking," said Miss Aline, "that in that country they will show +more kindliness and hameliness to the folk that serve them than in this +cauldrife England." + +"You are wholly right, Miss Aline," the Princess answered. "I remember +that when my father made a joke--it was always a good, old, +time-honoured favourite--he would look about to see that all the +servants were smiling at the jest. They had heard it a hundred times +before, but he always liked to see that they were enjoying it along with +the family." + +So Miss Aline was installed at Hanover Lodge and, before half a day was +over, had wormed her way into the confidence of the housekeeper, had won +a right to use the kitchen, had consulted the cook on several recondite +subjects and furnished her with a new receipt for elderberry wine, and +had taken over the whole matter of the preserving for the year. She had +arrived a little late, but the gardener had orders to procure for her +from Covent Garden all that her heart desired to boil and sweeten and +stir and put up in crocks and jars, till there was a sweet smell all +about Hanover Lodge which carried out even to the wherries that went by +in mid-stream, causing the rowers to turn their heads and sniff +longingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +LOUIS RAINCY ENDURES HARDNESS + + +Two months later the two courts, that of the Queen and that of the +Regent, were equally aware of the rising of a new star of beauty and +wit--a certain Miss Patricia Ferris, for whom, it was whispered, more +than one duel had already been fought--a royal prince wounded, and a +gallant ex-ambassador driven into exile. + +The Princess Elsa, of course, had no dealings with the coteries of +Carlton House and the Brighthelmstone Pavilion. But as often as Queen +Charlotte held a reception or issued from her darkened palace of +Windsor, the Princess brought Patsy from Kew to help her Majesty to +entertain. + +Once, even, she had been taken by the Princess Elizabeth to visit the +King. In the same ground-floor suite of rooms which Charles I had used +on his passage from Carisbrook to the scaffold, she found a blind old +man sitting alone, and playing quietly on the harpsichord. His beard was +long and silvery, and he smiled as he played. He heard their steps and +stopped. Then he said, graciously, "Come hither, Eliza--who is your +friend?" + +On being told that it was a young Scots lady, a friend of the Princess +of Saxe-Hanover-Brunswick, the King laughed a little as was his wont. +Then he went on talking rapidly, more to himself than to his visitors. + +"There is good sense in Elsa, though she did lead us a dance with her +foolish fancy for our ambassador at Vienna--I forget his name. She had +the Hapsburg temper too, and would have run off with him if he had given +her any encouragement. But he knew what was due to a princess and stood +aside, telling her to be a good girl and marry old Brunschweig. The +Emperor of Austria owed him something for that--as well as our people. I +only hope that he got his deserts. Eh, what's that you say, Eliza?" + +"Only that this young lady is the niece of Mr. Julian Wemyss," said his +daughter. + +The old king chuckled a little and patted the girl's unseen head. + +"Is she dark or fair?--What--what? Dark--and very pretty! Well, that +makes it more necessary that she should be looked after. Ah, I see well +that if both the Emperor and I have forgotten to do something for +Wemyss, Elsa is repaying him herself. Good-bye, good-bye, I am weary +this morning. Bid Elsa come to see me another day. Surely she is staying +in the Castle--she at least has not forsaken me like the rest." + +"Oh, no," said the Princess Elizabeth, "Elsa and Miss Ferris are here +nearly every day helping the Queen. And yesterday they had all the boys +from Eton College in love with them. They would not look at us at all. +We intend to leave Miss Ferris at home for the future." + +They went out, and neither one looked at the other nor spoke of what +they had left behind them. But in Patsy's mind ran, repeated over and +over, the words, "I have seen the King!--I have seen the King!" And in +the darkened chambers behind the closed doors, began again the light +tinkle of the harpsichord. + +Of all the visitors at Hanover Lodge, the most welcome and the most +constant was a certain Eitel, Prince of Altschloss, a young man of many +accomplishments, of gentle manners, and, for a Prince of the Empire, of +a quite extraordinary modesty. + +The Princess Elsa had known him from childhood. Indeed, she had been a +friend of his mother in the days when both were young and the two of +them had something to communicate to each other every day which no one +else must hear. + +The Prince had come on a visit to his god-mother, and had remained on at +the Austrian Embassy, gaining that diplomatic experience which in later +life stood him in such great stead. + +To the Prince of Altschloss the two months had been of great moment. +They had taught him to be humble and distrustful of himself. Patsy had +treated him no better and no worse than any other of her admirers, and +the tonic, though doubtless bitter, had been good for the young man's +soul. + +He had been one of the foremost, though not the most foolish, in the +party of the Dukes. But now he had quite left behind the reckless +prodigality and imbecility of the Regency clique. He now asserted his +independence by frequenting exclusively what was known as the Windsor +"Frump Court," in spite of the jeers of his ex-comrades. + +He spoke excellent English with a slight foreign accent which was not +German, and he used it freely to inform Patsy of his constant and +unutterable devotion. Prince Eitel of Altschloss was a tall young man +with extremely black eyes, a frank, open face, and the quietest manner +in the world. But he had already taken part in half-a-dozen great +battles, and had kept his corner of the Empire clear of the predatory +bands which followed the march of all Napoleonic armies. + +This was the youth who discovered that Patsy, dressed in the fashions of +the day, going to operas, balls and race-courses, was the same Patsy who +had spoken in the gate with the press-gang at the Bothy of Blairmore. +But other things had happened during these months. + +For nearly eight weeks the Earl of Raincy's house in Piccadilly had been +open, and Lieutenant Louis de Raincy had frequently appeared in his new +uniform at Hanover Lodge. + +Patsy had been rejoiced to see him, and the Princess had been kind to +him in a quiet way, which yet could by no means be called enthusiastic. + +"My old playmate," Patsy had said in introducing him to her hostess. + +"And my tyrant ever since I can remember," Louis had added. "I cannot +remember ever once being allowed my own way in all the years when we +played together." + +"There was a family feud," said Patsy, explaining the situation, "that +drew us together. Because, you see, each was forbidden to the other. So +we said, 'A plague on both your houses,' and found out new nests under +more remote trees where we could meet and talk without fear of being +caught." + +This romantic tale of their early friendships did not appear to be quite +to the taste of the Princess Elsa, for she turned away and left them to +recall the past at their leisure. She had other views for her little +friend than to send her back whence she came as the wife of a mere +captain of horse, even though he might be the heir to an earldom in the +hungry North. + +"Louis," said Patsy, as soon as they were alone, "what would you do if I +told you that your uniform became you?" + +"I know what I should like to do!" retorted the young man. + +"Well, what?" Patsy did not shun the danger. + +"Kiss you for saying so," said the daring youth. + +"See what it is to wear the king's colours even for a week," Patsy +murmured reflectively; "it gives even Louis Raincy a more wholesome +opinion of himself. I am glad. I cannot quite yield to the suggestion, +but I respect you more for having made it. For the present be content +with this." + +And she gave him her hand to kiss, which he executed without any of the +grace which the Prince would have put into the ceremony, and with a +grumble that, though small fish were reported better than none, this was +a very meagre spratling indeed. + +"Think," said Patsy, mischievously, "what a change since our last +afternoon in the Nest under the beech-tree. That very hand which you +kissed so unwillingly just now, boxed the ears of this officer of his +Majesty's Blue Dragoons." + +"I prefer the old style even if my ears were boxed," said Louis. "I wish +you had never gone away and that I had followed my grandfather's advice +and stayed beside you." + +"Nonsense," said Patsy, "you will change your mind very shortly. How +many girls have you fallen in love with already? I hear you go to the +Regent's entertainments. Well, you will find there sweetmeats for all +tastes, some perhaps a little spoilt by keeping!" + +"You know very well, Patsy, that I shall never care about any other girl +than yourself. I never have and I never shall!" + +"I bet you six pairs of Limerick gloves that you will not be able to say +as much for yourself in six months," cried Patsy. + +"Done with you, Patsy," said Louis, "and you may as well pay now, for I +am not going to change my mind." + +"That I shall wait and see. But beware, I shall have the best of +information. We are not of the Duke's party, and do not go to their +entertainments, but we hear all that goes on nevertheless." + +"I only go because of my service," said Louis, somewhat dishonestly; +"the Duke of York, who is once more Commander-in-Chief, has put me on +his staff." + +"Ah," said Patsy, unkindly, "like master, like man! It is a good +proverb." + +"Patsy," mourned Louis, leaning forward with his head between his hands +in a very unmartial manner, "you know better than that. You forget the +White Loch and our ride home to Castle Raincy. You went with me because +you trusted me. You took my word about my grandfather liking you to come +to him for safety, and now you--you treat me as if I were a child." + +"A child--why, so you are--a dear, nice boy, and I love you, and see, I +will pat you on the head!" + +The officer of his Majesty instantly put himself into such a boyish +posture of defence that Patsy laughed. + +"So you don't want to be patted on the head--well, then, it shan't! But +all the same I have not forgotten--neither what you did, nor what was +done for us both by your comrade of the White Water--by the way, have +you heard from him lately?" + +"Not I," said Louis, almost fiercely, "but I make no doubt that you +have! You would not offer to pat Stair Garland on the head? He is a man, +you know--you said it yourself." + +"Louis," said Patsy, "you are not acting up to your uniform. I have no +conventions with you, and you have no claim to know with whom it may +please me to correspond--" + +Louis rose to his feet with a very pale face, but before he had time to +put his anger into words, a servant announced-- + +"His Highness the Prince of Altschloss!" + +Patsy advanced, smiling and held out her hand. She seemed to walk right +through poor Louis, who felt himself terribly belittled and ill-used. +The Prince did all the things naturally and gracefully, which Louis had +so blundered over. He gratified the young dragoon with the slightest bow +and the longest stare. After which he immediately turned his attention +to Patsy, who, on her side--the shameless minx!--seemed to like nothing +better than meeting him half-way. + +Louis Raincy grew more and more exasperated. He could not stay, yet if +he took himself off in any undignified manner, he felt acutely that they +would certainly laugh at him. He wished that he could challenge that +prince and all such insolent foreigners--yes, and kill them one by one +like a second Julian Wemyss! This thought cheered him, and he had +reached his fifth or sixth homicide when Patsy recalled him to himself. + +"Miss Aline is in her parlour, Louis. Will you go through the +conservatory and tell her that the Prince is here?" + +"She wants to be rid of me," the mind of Louis Raincy went storming on +to itself. "She is a hard-hearted, deceitful--" + +But while he was thus inwardly detailing the character of Patsy to ease +his anger, he was also by force of habit obeying her orders. + +He found Miss Aline with a letter in her hand and a flush of excitement +on her face, which the young man was too occupied with his own affairs +to seek to trace to its cause. + +"Why, Louis Raincy," cried the old lady, "is it officer's manners to +come headfirst into a leddy's room like a bullock breaking dykes? I have +seen you do better than that before ever you put on the king's coat." + +"I beg your pardon, Miss Aline," said the boy penitently. "I did not +know that the door would open so quickly or that you would be so near. I +have a message--from Pat--from Miss Ferris--" + +"Eh?" cried the old lady, cramming the letter into her pocket; "wha's +Miss Ferris?--I dinna ken her--and I thought that you didna either!" + +"Well then," said Louis, withdrawing into his sulks, "she bade me tell +you that the Prince is with her and will be glad to see you!" + +"Oh, he will, will he noo," quoth Miss Aline; "weel, there's a heap o' +princes. I hae been meeting them rayther thick thae last twa-three +months. And this yin can juist wait." + +"But, Miss Aline, I think--it will be better for you to go at once--I am +not going back to--to be insulted and treated like a child. I want to +go, Miss Aline." + +The old lady held up her hands from which the deep lace sleeves hung +gracefully, while the half-mitts clung to the narrow wrists. + +"Hoots--hoots, laddie! What's a' this? Ye hae been quarrelling with +Patsy. For shame, Louis--eh, what's that? My puir lad, dinna tak' things +to heart. She's a guid lass--what should onybody ken aboot her that I do +not ken? Laddie, stop greetin'--Patsy would be terrible angry if she +kenned I telled ye--but she wants ye to be a strong man--'a leader and +not a follower.' Says she, 'I shall never care for a man that I can +maister.'" + +"Then she will never care for me," mourned poor Louis. "I can do things +for her sake--I can do as she bids me, and I am always ready. But, Miss +Aline, it does not seem to be the least good. That prince--" + +"Never ye mind aboot princes--they are kittle-cattle, and Patsy was +juist letting you see that ye should carry a speerit in ye that no +prince in ony land could daunt." + +"Oh, if it were only fighting," said Louis, "I should not be afraid. But +as it is, I shall not set my foot here again till Patsy sends for me--" + +"Which she is like to do the morn's mornin', just to see if ye are still +in the sulks! Laddie, can ye no see that it is just an amusement to her? +She doesna mean to be cruel, but only wants ye to be a man amang +men--and mair parteeclar amang weemen!" + +"Yes, I know," said Louis, disconsolately, "she does it for my good. She +has explained that to me several times. But somehow it does not seem to +help much!" + +"Louis Raincy," said the old lady, severe for the first time, "be a +worthy son of your forbears. There are forty of them in the Raincy +chapel up yonder in the wood. It wad be an awesome thing to be carried +in among them and you not worthy. I am a woman--an auld maid if you +like--but I am a Minto, and here I am braving the great ones of the +earth to look after Patsy--me that would a thousand times raither be at +Ladykirk with Eelen Young and that silly Babby Latheron, weighing out +the sugar and spices for the late conserves--the bramble and the damsons +and the elderberry wine." + +In spite of all this good advice, or perhaps because of it, Louis Raincy +went off without returning to the drawing-room, and with what he took to +be despair in his heart. Patsy was by no means the old Patsy. She would +never be again. Yet when he began to turn matters over in his head after +he had reached his quarters, he could not remember a time when Patsy had +not tyrannized over him, trampled him under foot, and variously abused +him, even from the time of their infantile plays with sand castles and +sea-shells built, architected, and ornamented on the seashore between +the Black Head and the estuary of the Mays Water. + +But somehow when Patsy did the same thing in London, and in the face of +other men, Louis did not enjoy the process so much. + +"Hech, my daisy," said Miss Aline, as she and Patsy went back to her +parlour after the Prince of Altschloss had taken his leave, "that +laddie, Louis, has ower muckle o' his mither in him. She's a McBride, +and guid blood, but Dame Lucy is juist like some preserves. Ye put in +good berries. Ye strain to perfection. The sugar and the spice and the +correct time for boiling--skimming and stirring done with your own +hand--yet after all the stuff will not jell. It will harden in no mould +because it is unstable as water. That is the boy's mother, the Lady +Lucy. As for the lad, God send him something that will harden him, so +that when his grandfather dies, another De Raincy of the right breed may +rule in his stead. At present he is overly much after the pattern of his +mother!" + +"Well," said Patsy, with her hands rolled in the fluffy ends of her +muslin scarf, "don't blame me, Miss Aline. I do my best to toughen him, +and then he goes and cries to you!" + +"I wonder, dear," said the old lady, after a silence which lasted quite +five minutes, "if you could not try giving him a good conceit of +himself. My father used to say that if ye tell a dog all the time that +he is a worthless puppy and will never be good for anything, he will +herd the sheep but poorly on the hill." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CAVE OF ADULLAM + + +Night by night the mists came up from the sea. Morning by morning the +gusts from the hills blew them back again. Winter began to settle on the +rugged confines of the moors, and still Julian Wemyss stayed on with +Stair Garland at the Bothy on the Wild of Blairmore. First, because it +agreed with the mystery-loving side of his nature, and also because, so +long as the weight of Napoleon's rule pressed upon Europe, he did not +know where he could be safer. At Vienna, perhaps, but so long as the +Princess Elsa remained at Hanover Lodge, he could not bring himself to +make the long and circuitous journey by Gibraltar and Trieste. + +And, indeed, he was in no great hurry to move. He had been outlawed for +failing to appear, even as he had expected, to answer for the killing of +Lord Wargrove. Also he knew that the wounding of the Duke of Lyonesse +had been laid to his charge. The word which had gone forth that his +capture would be grateful to the Regency and its camarilla of Dukes, +would naturally sharpen the pursuit. + +Fresh bodies of cavalry were still occasionally drafted from Glasgow and +Carlisle to override the moors. But the lack of any local intelligencer +of the calibre of Eben McClure, the natural secretiveness of the people +as to "lads among the heather" and all folk in trouble, caused the +search to be spun out so long, that the general opinion was that Julian +Wemyss had escaped in an emigrant ship to America. + +Stair occasionally showed himself at Glenanmays, and even made bold to +walk in the High Street of Cairnryan on a fair-day, none daring to +meddle with him, and the very officers of local justice turning aside +for a dram at the first sight of him. He was believed never to move +without such a body-guard as could cut its way through a squadron. + +He was thus enabled to go about apparently alone, disquieted by none, +for the people were on his side, and it would have proved a dear bargain +to any man who had "sold" him. Stair made these appearances as often as +he knew that the soldiers were off on an expedition in a safe direction. +His object was to draw away attention from the Wild of Blairmore, and to +give the people of Cairnryan the idea that he was lying up in the +immediate neighbourhood of their town. + +Meanwhile he and Julian Wemyss had added greatly to the comfort of the +Bothy. A solid rampart of turf, doubled on the western side, protected +it against the fierce winds of the moors. The whole of one end was +filled with an abundant stock of firewood and peat which his brothers +had cut, cast and prepared, and the troop had brought in one night of +full moon. The peat-cutting had increased the difficulty of reaching the +central fastness of the Wild, for the ink-black tarns had been cunningly +united, and the wide morass in front, where from black pools great +bubbles for ever rose and lazily burst, had been dammed till it +overflowed the meadows and lapped the sand-dunes behind the house of +Abbey Burnfoot. Of course a pathway was left, indeed more than one, to +provide a way of escape if the Bothy should happen to be blockaded. For +all which reasons Julian Wemyss was exceedingly content to abide on this +little platform of hard turf mixed with sea-shells, with the misty +water-logged bog all about. + +He had many books, for his own house was not so far off, and his good +Joseph remained in charge of everything at Abbey Burnfoot. On dark +nights, at the edge of the Wild, Joseph met Stair always with a large +parcel of provender and a small parcel of books. + +Joseph was in great trouble because he had not been allowed to accompany +his master to his hiding-place, but he retained his self-respect and +kept himself so fine that his black court-dress and immaculate white +cravat made a blur before Stair's eyes in the upward phosphorescent +shining of the sea. + +"The master sent no message by you, sir?" he would inquire, always with +a wistful hope that "His Excellency" might relent. + +"You will find all that he wishes you to do set down in that letter," +Stair would say, handing the document over. + +"But--he said nothing about my coming to him?" + +"Not a word, Joseph!" Stair would answer, as carelessly as might be. + +"Then who looks after Mr. Julian? Who lays out his shirts and sees to +his studs? Oh, Mr. Stair, that it should come to this! Sometimes I +cannot sleep for thinking of it!" + +"Mr. Julian looks after himself," said Stair, brusquely; "at present he +is wearing one of my grey woollen shirts, and I have not heard him +complain. Go home, Joseph, and look after the house. Keep the doors +locked, the guns loaded, and the dogs loose. Mr. Julian was never better +in his life!" + +After this Joseph complained less, and probably slept better. It had +always been in his mind that perhaps this unknown Stair Garland might +supplant him in the personal service of his master. But when once he +understood that Stair was of a breed so extraordinary that he recognized +no difference in rank between himself and his guest, that instead of +proffering service, he exacted that Mr. Julian should do his fair share +of the work, and finally, that many of the books he carried were +designed for the enlightenment of Stair Garland, whom his master had +taken as a pupil, he ceased to be jealous and became again merely +serviceable. + +Stair had his full share of the local thirst for knowledge, and the +determination to get it in one way or another. So with the +self-assertion without which a Scot ceases to be a Scot, he had fastened +upon those winter months with Julian Wemyss to fill in the lacunes of +Dominie McAll's instruction. A good good deal of classics, daily +readings in the French and German tongues, conversation after the +Socratic method--these were the pillars of Stair's temple of learning at +the Bothy. And because the root of the matter had always been in +him--which is the determination to excel--he progressed with a rapidity +that astounded his teacher. + +Every morning Julian Wemyss said to himself, "It is impossible that he +can have remembered and assimilated all that we went over yesterday!" +But once the breakfast-things cleared away, he found Stair as sharp-set +as a terrier at a rat-hole, as it were, nosing after knowledge. Nothing +seemed to come wrong to him, and if he did not understand anything, an +apt question set him right, and when Stair flung up his head, his eye +misty and his intelligence withdrawn, Julian Wemyss stopped also, +because he understood. + +"He is filing that away where he can find it," he thought to himself. +And far into the night he could see reflected on the roof a faint +glimmer from Stair's dark-lantern. His curiosity was aroused, and he +looked into the gloomy kitchen with the heaped peats filling all the +space even to the roof. There, with his feet to the smouldering fire of +red ashes, lay Stair Garland, his notebooks in front of him and a volume +propped against an upturned pot, threshing his way pioneer-wise through +the work of the next day. Julian Wemyss went softly back to bed, but did +not sleep for a long while. + +"If that fellow fights for the Emperor," he said to himself, "he will do +it with his head. Yet they call him the 'fechtin' fool' in these parts. +The boy has never had a chance, that is all. His ambition and facility +have given him the leading-place among these smugglers and defiers of +the press-gang, because no other career opened itself to him. We shall +see when the _Good Intent_ comes in the spring. In the meanwhile, never +tutor had such a pupil!" + +Yet more marvellous were the weeks as they went past for Stair Garland. +Every morning he woke fresh to the romantic adventure of books. His eyes +flashed down marvellous pages, taking in their gist, and then he settled +himself with a happy sigh to analyze line upon line, to warehouse +precept upon precept. + +Yet he did not leave any of his outside duties unattended to. He knew of +every change made in the garrison at Stranryan. Fergus and Agnew came +nightly to the verge of the Wild. He met with Jean at the alder copse. +His father talked with him standing upon Peden's Stone, and (as he said) +"tairged him tightly" for his occasional neglect in reading the Bible, +which was the root of all things of good report in this world as well as +in the next. + +To which Julian Wemyss added that it was also the foundation of good +manners and good style. For all which reasons and also because of the +reverence natural to his people, Stair Garland read a good deal in the +Bible, and it was the only book concerning which he asked no +enlightenment from his master, Julian Wemyss. + +Stair heard extracts from the letters from London which Patsy sent to +her father and uncle under the frank of the Earl Raincy, but he had one +or two altogether his own, and these he judged more precious than gold. +They came to him by way of his sister Jean, and the trysting-place in +the alder copse by the side of the Mays Water. + +On such occasions, Stair, being in furious haste, took the bundle of +clean clothes Jean had brought him, and strode away over the rough fells +in the direction of the Wild. Half-way, however, he changed his course. +And many a night wanderer on land and many a benighted fisherman bearing +up Loch Ryan-ward on the northward set of the tide, was awed by a +strange light in the Corpse Yard above the Elrich Strand, where the +Blackshore folk bury the drowned who come to them from the sea. Here +among the wooden head-boards (bearing dates only) of the unknown dead, +Stair Garland read his first letter from Patsy in London. + + "Stair" (it began without qualitative either formal or + affectionate), "I did not promise to write to you, so I am doing + it. London is very full of gay things which are not so gay as they + look. I would rather see you and Whitefoot (give him a kiss from + me!) than the procession of the Regent to open Parliament. + + "The Princess would spoil me were I spoilable. But you know I am + made of the guinea gold that does not need gilding. However, she + does her best. I have a maid to wait on me, but I think I do very + much more for her. Still, she mends the holes that I dance in the + heels of my stockings--all of silk, Stair, and smuggled from + France! For they 'run' things here, just as they do in Galloway--in + Sussex and Cornwall mainly. They have only luggers, however--at + least so one of my partners told me last night. He had seen John + Carter himself down at Prussia Cove! Think of that, Stair! And the + old man had preached him a sermon! + + "I have dresses in Valenceens lace over pale-blue silk, and all + sorts of lovely things; don't you wish you could see me? I see + Louis often, but not so often as I used to. They say he is in love + with Mrs. Arlington, a great beauty at the Regent's court. You know + that Louis is now aide-de-camp to the Duke of York, who is + Commander-in-Chief, so his chief duty is to draw up ball programmes + and write dinner invitations, which I have no doubt he does in a + very warlike manner. + + "When he remembers he comes round to tell me that he loves me + still. But, alas! he mostly forgets. Whitefoot is more faithful + than that, eh, Stair? I could wager that at the moment you are + reading this nonsense, he is sitting with his head on your knees, + looking up in your face." + + (Stair put down his hand from the edge of the paper and touched the + rough head, and at the caress Whitefoot whined joyously, as he did + in church when the congregation sang "Coleshill.") + + "Stair" (the letter went on), "I hold the Princess and you + responsible for Uncle Julian. I hear from him sometimes and he + tells me that you are getting to be a wonderful scholar. Well, + playing with your books will pass the time for both of you, and + keep you from thinking too much about me. As to my welfare, do not + pine away with worrying about that. I, Patricia Wemyss Ferris, + swear on the old oath, that I am fat and fair to see. I find that I + can answer the fool according to his folly, and leave wherewithal + to talk on terms of some quality with the few poor lost and + forwandered wise men whom one meets in these parts. The dear old + king with his David-and-Solomon beard, is really the most sensible + person I have yet talked with. So they shut him up, take his crown + from him, and say that he is mad. + + "The Wise Young People who bear rule drink each other under the + table, race to Brighthelmstone, killing half-a-dozen children by + the way, and ruin themselves at play during the night. Altogether + it is a fine place, this London, and if you were here you might + very well say, with the witty Frenchman, 'The more I see of human + beings, the more I love my dog!' + + "But you must not tell all this to Uncle Julian. I am learning + fast--though perhaps not quite what he expected me to learn. His + Princess is most kind to me, and, indeed, so is everybody. There is + a Prince, a rosy young man who walks delicately like a cat on wet + grass, and they say that he would like to lay his Princedom at my + feet. Which do you think I would rather be, Stair, a Princess with + her chin in the air (Ho! Menial, fetch me my crown. No, the one in + the left-hand drawer, most ignorant of varlets! Now I pose it on my + princessly locks! So!), or just Patsy Ferris, in blue gown and + yellow sandals, very much out of breath, washing the dishes in the + Bothy of the Wild of Blairmore? + + "Tell me which you think I should like best. I deliver this subject + to your meditations. You are not to show my letter to Jean nor + allow her to read a single word of hers to you. If you do, I shall + hold you for ever faithless and mansworn! + + "Your obedient, faithful scullery-maid _or_ princess, + + "PATSY." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +WINTER AFTERNOON + + +The winter was lying heavy and sore on the Wild of Blairmore. The storms +from the North-west brought down the scouring snow, and even to go to +the edge of the sand-dunes to meet Joseph was an undertaking. Only by +continual endeavours with the great iron 'gellick' was the well kept +from freezing. The frost had long ago laid hands upon the inky ponds and +morasses and bound them as it had been with solid iron. + + * * * * * + +But at Hanover Lodge the fires glowed warm in open grates. The rich, +solid, early Georgian furniture gave back reflections ripe and fruity, +and the brass fenders shone in the flicker of the firelight. The +Princess used sea-coal fires, to which, as a daughter of the land of +pines, she added split and well-dried logs of resinous wood. These she +would arrange with her own hands after the Bohemian fashion, pausing +often to tell her guest tales of the times when, at the convent, she and +Marie Louise had stolen from the Mother Superior's woodpile to keep from +freezing. + +Patsy knitted diligently and before her a book lay open, but she read +little. For the Princess, recalling old things and speaking copiously, +looked often at her for sympathy and understanding. Miss Aline had gone +to lie down with a book, so the two younger ladies were alone, and, as +it seemed little likely that any visitors would venture so far from home +that day they had settled themselves in the comfort of the Princess's +boudoir, content with each other and content with the weather. Patsy had +been teaching her companion such phrases as "a blatter o' sleet," an +"on-ding o' snaw," and a "thresh o' rain." + +The Princess had a peculiar pleasure in learning such things and would +often subtly misapply them in order to be corrected. She would tempt +Patsy into further descriptions of the Twin Valleys, the Bay of the +Abbey Burn, the bold deeds of the smugglers, and the fights of the Free +Bands against the press-gangs. But always, by all roads and bypaths, she +would bring her back to the Bothy of the Wild of Blairmore. Was she sure +that there was the possibility of any decent comfort in such a place at +such a season? + +Patsy shut her eyes, visualized the Wild as she had often seen it when +she made a short cut from her Uncle Julian's to the sheltered valley of +the Mays Water. More than once when the lads were in hiding after some +offence against the revenue laws, which had brought troops into the +district, Jean and she had been guided by Stair to the fastness, where +they had been royally entertained, before being convoyed each to her +home by the genial outlaws. + +She spoke of the wild white moor, cut with deep hags, the arms of the +"scroggie" thorns blown away from the sea and clawing at the ground like +spectral hands, black beneath, but every gnarled knuckle and digit +outlined in purest white above. Sometimes the clean tablecloth of white +which covered a little loch, was cut by a round black "well-eye" through +which a spring oozed oilily, refusing to freeze. + +These must be known and avoided, for the ice was always thin thereabouts +and a heedless night-wanderer might very easily vanish, never to be +heard of more. + +Then there was the Bothy. Little could be seen of that. Gone the summer +creepers which had made it a bower. It crouched low, almost level with +the snowladen tops of the heather bushes, which grew high about, hidden +and banked behind immense masses of sods, all now covered with the +uniform mantle of the snow. Great wreaths formed in the first swirl of +the storms had piled themselves up so as to overhang the low chimney. +You might pass it a score of times, and if you missed the faint blue +reek stealing up along the side of the precipitous Knock Hill, you would +see nothing of it, nor so much as suspect that there was a habitation of +living men within miles. + +As Patsy talked, the Princess had gradually been leaning further and +further forward, her lips parted, and shuddering a little as the wind +lashed the snow against the great windows of Hanover Lodge. + +"Oh," she said at length, as if to herself, "to think of him there in +that terrible place and of us here. It makes me hate all this comfort. +Are you not ashamed, Patsy?" + +Patsy the frank had some difficulty in repressing the ungrateful speech +which came to her lips but did not pass them. "I would rather be with +them than with you!" But she refrained and entered into new +explanations. The Princess had heard the most part before, but she never +wearied of being reassured. + +"Now, listen! Uncle Ju is with Stair Garland. No one will hurt him for +that reason. In our country Stair Garland has more real power than the +Lord Lieutenant, or even my father. No, he is no ignorant peasant. I do +not think he could dance so well, but he could talk better than any of +the partners who fall to my lot at the court balls. The Bothy on the +Wild? Well, I will try and tell you. It is certainly dark inside, but on +the side opposite to the wind a little window is always kept open, and +on the table where they read, write, and take their meals a lamp will +certainly be lit. Uncle Ju will be stretched on the long couch among the +pillows, reading. That is where Stair sleeps at night. His feet are +towards the fire and the light shines down on his book from the four +little panes of glass. These are open to the sky but carefully masked +from the sight of any passer-by (if such a thing could be thought of on +the Wild of Blairmore) by a firmly packed wall of snow. + +"Stair moves about getting ready the next meal, and as like as not he +calls on Uncle Ju to take his turn at scouring the pans or peeling the +potatoes." + +At this flight of imagination the Princess suppressed a cry of +indignation. + +"Oh, that is nothing," Patsy went on, unsympathetically, "of course he +is glad to do it. It is good wholesome exercise and helps to pass the +time, though digging themselves out in the morning when the drift is +over the chimney top is better, besides the making of little paths to +the outside peatstack and--" + +"But your uncle--an ambassador--a favourite at courts--not a court like +our dear Sleepy Hollow there at Windsor or the Rout of Circe at Carlton +House, but the Court of the Hapsburgs, the Court of Austria--to think of +Julian Wemyss there for your sake!--Why, Patsy, though I love you +dearly, I declare that you are hardly worth it!" + +"Well, Stair Garland is there also," Patsy retorted, instantly, "and +just as much for my sake as Uncle Ju. And now the Duke has got his debts +paid, in far greater danger, for Uncle Ju would get off with a year in +prison, but Stair they would hang for those slugs in the Prince's thigh, +which, thank Heaven, they can't dig out!" + +"But your Stair Garland is accustomed to such a life, while my poor +Julian--" + +"Princess," said Patsy seriously, "take my word for it, Uncle Julian has +not had the manhood all taken out of him by his life at courts. Even now +who can cross swords with him? Besides, I have heard him say that if he +were a year or two younger he would be out on the bleak Pyrenees with +the other gallant gentlemen, his friends, driving Soult and his +Frenchmen back out of Spain. And compared to what our army has to suffer +lying out on these frozen rocks--why, the Bothy of Blairmore is a +palace!" + +The Princess was silent but not convinced. She knew that of course +Julian Wemyss was brave, but she felt that it was one thing to stand up +to your enemy and kill him like a gentleman, and another to hide among +frozen hags and sleep under a roof of snow. + +Nevertheless she brought away a certain sense of physical warmth and +well-being from the description which Patsy had given her, which +comforted her. It was pleasant in the Bothy of Blairmore. Men had a +strain in their blood, something primitive and savage, which made them +like such things, at least for a time and as a change. She remembered +her father saying that he was never happier than in the corner of a +forest clearing waiting for the wild boar to charge, a flask of white +brandy in his pocket and a forest-guard with a couple of spare rifles at +his back. + +At that moment the door opened softly and, with her smelling bottle in +her hand, Miss Aline came in. She went to the window where a furious +rush of snow driven by the Channel wind saluted her. She sniffed +appreciatively as the hasps rattled, for even through the well-fitting +windows the snell bite of the winter storm entered. + +"Eh, but that's hamelike," she said, going closer, "it will be brave +weather on Solwayside the noo. I mind when it would hae driven me out to +play amang the wreaths like a daft year-auld collie--. Aye, and I am no +sure that I wad not like a turn the noo--not o' that saft stuff that +will melt and be gane the morn's mornin', but the fine kind that sifts +up your sleeve and down your neck!--But for the puir herds on the hill, +wae's me, it will be a wakerife time for them. Little sleep will they +get if the snaw begins to drift in the hollows!" + +Patsy looked at the Princess mischievously. + +"You see, dear lady," she said, "our Miss Aline knows of worse places +than the Bothy of Blairmore, even in such weather." + +"But I do not understand," said the Princess. "Julian never told me +anything of this. Do the sheep in your country stay out in all +weathers--even in the winter storms, and are men to be hired who will +look after them?" + +"'Deed there are," said Miss Aline, "and what for no'? A finer, +buirdlier set o' lads than the herds of the Hills neither you nor me are +likely to see. And as for storms and biding oot at nicht--there's Willie +McKerlie that herded the Lagganmore for forty year, and in the Saxteen +Drifty days he wasna hame for a week. And when he got all his sheep oot, +they asked him how it came that he wasna dead. 'Deid! Deid!' says he, +'what for should I be deid? I juist hadna time, man. But I grant ye, I +was mair nor a wee thocht hungry, and I never kenned afore what a heap +o' crumbs a man carried in his pooches when they are a' turned oot!'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +PATSY HAS GREATNESS THRUST UPON HER + + +At Hanover Lodge, in spite of the good will of the Princess, all did not +go smoothly. Every day the ladies drove out in one of the royal +carriages drawn by four beautiful bays, but with the servants and +outriders in the black liveries of Saxe-Brunswick. + +On such occasions the Princess dressed plainly, as befitting her +position of exile, but it pleased her to array Patsy with a taste seldom +seen in England. On days when they went to Windsor, where the Princesses +made a pet of her, Patsy wore a dress of white muslin, simple enough, +but trimmed with point lace, Vandyked at the edges, and on her head a +most charming Leghorn gipsy hat, with wreaths of small roses round the +edge of the brim and a second row wreathed about the crown. The effect +was all Patsy's heart could desire. + +It chanced that, just as the carriage drove into Staines, the party in +it became aware of a brilliant cavalcade riding towards them. The +Princess whispered to Patsy, "The Dukes--look through them, my dear, and +do not let yourself be overcome!" + +Patsy had no idea of being overcome. She held her head well up, and sat +beside the Princess with a pale face but steadfast eyes. The six royal +brothers were riding three and three, the Regent being in the middle of +the first rank on a splendid iron-grey charger. He had come from a +review in Windsor Park with which he had been able to combine the +monthly perfunctory visit to his mother and sisters. He was in a hussar +uniform, extremely fantastic, the same in which he afterwards asserted +that he had commanded one of the cavalry divisions at Waterloo. He wore +a diamond belt, which is not quite according to the regulations of the +service. A diamond crown shone on his breast and the feather in his +headgear was fixed with a diamond loop. + +Behind came Cambridge and York and, on the side nearest to the carriage, +the Duke of Lyonesse. + +The Regent saluted the Princess and his brothers followed suit, but it +was evident that their eyes were all upon Patsy, who fearlessly perused +them as if they had been so many statues. As they rode past more than +one of the suite turned his head, but of all the salutations the +embarrassed and most formal was that of Louis Raincy, who rode with my +Lord Headford. + +But Patsy was not to be passed over. She waved her hand to him and +called out briskly, "Good-day to you, Louis!" + +Upon which he could do no less than turn in his saddle and salute her +again, an action which evidently brought upon him a flood of questions +from his companions. Presently, in answer to an urgent summons, Miss +Aline, sitting with her back to the horses, could see Louis ride forward +and place himself beside the Duke of York. The royal party were +evidently full of curiosity and the Princess Elsa, smiling a little, +said, "I should not wonder if some of these gentlemen find their way to +Hanover Lodge before many days! You are not afraid, Patsy?" + +"I am not afraid of any one," cried Patsy, instantly fierce. And she +added with something of gratitude in her voice, "Uncle Julian sent me to +you, and I am sure that he knows what is best for me. I am quite safe +with you!" + +"Certainly, dear," said the Princess, "still it would be a great thing +if we could tell these vultures that you are soon to be a Princess +yourself!" + +At which Patsy looked startled but did not reply. The Princess Elsa had +never spoken so openly before. She had evidently determined to strike +the hot iron. + +"The Prince of Altschloss is a good man, a brave soldier, and would, I +believe, make an excellent husband. He is devotedly in love with you and +would make you the wife of a reigning prince. It would please me +greatly--indeed, I may add that it would please your uncle and your +father still more, if one day when these Dukes called to spy out the +land, they should find Eitel before them, and affianced to you. I do not +press you--think well over it, Patsy. It would be the safest and best +solution for you, and when I leave England (as I must some day) we +should be quite near neighbours." + +Patsy was terribly perturbed. She did not care deeply for any man. She +had liked to talk to Louis Raincy--at one time perhaps more than to any +man. But in the background of her mind there had always lurked a warning +of his instability. + +Compared to Stair Garland, for instance, he was not to be depended upon. +She had seen him often riding with Mrs. Arlington in the park. He never +left her side in a ball-room, and rumour was busy with their names. + +Even the gentle old queen, who in her leisure moments liked (none +better) to ease the tension of her mind with a spice of gossip, had said +to her, "Miss Patsy, what is this I hear of your beau--old De Raincy's +heir--that he is sticking like a burr to the skirts of the Arlington? I +thought there was a marriage forward. From what I am told, little one, I +should advise you to look after your property--that is, if you hold it +of any value." + +"Your Majesty," said Patsy, with very proper submission, yet with a +twinkle in her eye, "we have a Scots proverb, 'He that will to Coupar, +maun to Coupar'--which, being interpreted, means that if Louis wants to +go to the Arlington, to the Arlington let him go--and for all I care, +stop there!" + +"It is a pity," sighed the Queen, "but these young men--ah, there is no +advising them. I am sorry too, for the grief to his grandfather must be +great. The Raincys have never been warm friends of our dynasty, but that +is all over now--and forgotten on both sides. It would be well if you +could do something for him." + +She sat still, evidently expecting some confidence. For there was +nothing in which Queen Charlotte took more interest than in the love +affairs of the young people about her court. Princess Elsa signalled to +Patsy to answer, and so finally she managed to say: "Your Majesty is +very kind, but I have never been engaged to Louis de Raincy. He and I +have been playmates all our lives, and I owe him some kindnesses which I +shall not forget. But there is not and never has been more than that +between us." + +The Princess Elsa sat back with a sigh of relief, for she knew that some +one of the circle who heard Patsy, would certainly repeat her words to +the Prince of Altschloss. + +So without exactly knowing how or why, it is certain that from this time +forth, the people in the entourage of the Princess Elsa began to +consider Miss Patricia Ferris as virtually betrothed to the hereditary +ruler of Altschloss. He had even made his demand in form from the +Princess, who, according to the Austrian etiquette, represented the +young lady's absent father, and Princess Elsa had given him her entire +permission to press his suit. Still more and better, she frequently took +Miss Aline off and left him free to do it, though in any case Miss Aline +was the last woman in the world to be a spoil-sport, even though her +kind heart might ache for Louis Raincy. + +On their next visit to Windsor Queen Charlotte took the Princess aside +and pressed her, in her usual motherly fashion, on the subject. + +"Of course," she said, "Prince Eitel is only the younger son of a cadet, +and his way was cleared to the dukedom on the bloody day of Wagram, when +his grand-uncle and three cousins were killed in the same charge. He +came to the throne from round the corner. Still he is prince. He cannot +help that, and I am in favour of people of our class marrying _in_ their +own class--" + +"Well, Aunt Charlotte," said the Princess, "I have, as you know, +somewhat grave and personal reasons for not agreeing with you." + +The Queen turned her face towards her niece. It was a kindly face, but +infinitely sad and lined with more cares than fall to the lot of most +women of her age. The ingratitude of sons, the death of daughters, the +poor troubled husband, old and witless in the King Charles ground-floor +suite, weeping for his lost eyesight or sitting smiling mirthlessly over +his violin, had marked her. But in spite of all she had kept the cult of +royalty. + +Bloods should not mix. The sacred should not seek the profane. + +"I know," she said, gently putting her hand out and patting the arm of +the Princess, "Brunschweig was no light trial. But are you sure you +would have been happier with your ambassador?" + +"Yes," said the Princess Elsa quickly, "I am certain--if he stamped upon +me, if he killed me, I should be happier." + +"You think so," said the Queen, "and I shall not try to make you think +otherwise--" + +"Because, Aunt Charlotte, neither you nor any one could do that. Julian +is as faithful to-day as he was twenty years ago--as loyal, as ready to +sacrifice himself. He is the one man to be depended upon." + +"Ah, because he has remained your lover. But there is my husband. He is +a good man. We have been happy these forty years--without a word, +without a quarrel, and yet, when his wits are touched, whose name comes +to his lips, whose hand does he feel when I stroke his brow?--not +mine--not his old wife's, but that of a woman dead these many years, +whom he knew before ever he saw me!" + +"Ah," said the Princess, "but you were not wedded to a hulk of +corruption, and when the dear King's words are wild, he is not +responsible. You know that as well as I. At any rate there is Julian, +and he and I have done our duty. But I am fond of Eitel. He at least can +marry whom he likes. Patsy is a gentlewoman of unblemished +lineage--older than his own--and if he can win her, at least it will +keep my little Eitel from making the mistake which I made." + +The Queen slowly nodded her head, thinking deeply. + +"After all," she meditated, "Altschloss, though a respectable house, is +neither Hapsburg nor Hanover, and a new man like Eitel, come in by a +turn of the dice, may please himself--but--well (here she smiled) if you +have said 'Whom Elsa hath blessed let no man put asunder'--I suppose +there is no more to be done!" + +"I wish it were as certain as all that," sighed the Princess, "but, in +fact, I am not at all sure about Patsy!" + +"What," cried the Queen, surprised out of the pensiveness of her +matronly gravity, "surely you do not mean to say that the girl would +refuse a prince--a reigning prince?" + +Elsa shook her head sadly. + +"I do not know," she acknowledged, "she watches everything with those +big black eyes of hers, and she smiles. She says that one man or another +is much the same to her, and I can only hope for the best. But as a +matter of fact I have never dared to put the offer of the Prince clearly +before her. It seems better to accustom her gradually to the idea!" + +"And the young man himself--your Eitel of Altschloss does not come of a +very patient race--I remember an uncle of his, but no matter--what does +he say? How does he take it? Has he spoken to your little Scot?" + +"Frankly, I do not know," said the Princess. "I should judge not, by the +excellence of their comradeship." + +"Is it wounded pride because of the young man of her country--that +foolish boy of old De Raincy's? He is always, as I hear, at the flounces +of the Arlington." + +"I don't think Patsy cares," said the Princess. "If she showed a +preference, it would make it easier for me. I should begin to understand +her. Little Miss Aline Minto, the chatelaine of Ladykirk, who is with +us, may understand her better, but for me I own myself beaten. I cannot +get a serious answer out of the girl. If Julian were here--" + +"And why is not Julian here?" said the Queen. "I understand that in your +position--but, after all, with Brunschweig living as he is doing, I do +not see that you need deprive yourself of his occasional advice." + +"Thank you, Aunt Charlotte," said the Princess, stooping and kissing her +aunt's cheek, "I shall remember. But you see, Julian killed the Regent's +friend Lord Wargrove in a duel for helping one of his companions to +carry off Patsy. They charge him also with wounding the Duke of +Lyonesse, but that he did not do. Still, he gets the credit for it with +the Carlton House set, and they have a warrant out against him. Erskine +has seen to that. He cannot come to London, at least not in the +meantime." + +"Ah," said the Queen, "so your friend delivered us from that rascal +Wargrove. That was one service to good order, though of course it is +wrong to duel. It is a pity that he could not be here now. If you do not +take care, that little gipsy of yours will slip through your fingers. I +know what happens to young ladies who flout at princes. There is always +another man in the background!" + +"Aunt Charlotte, I am quite sure you are wrong about Patsy," said the +Princess. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE LOST FOLK'S ACRE + + +It was a high day and a holiday at the Bothy of the Wild of Blairmore--a +high day though a short one--one of the shortest of all the year, though +by this time it was well into January. But that made little difference +on our misty moors. There the frozen sea-fog bound us and the wind, when +there was one, stung extraordinarily bitter. + +Sea-fog breezes yellowish (let this be marked), but the mist of the +fresh water moors is white with iridescent circles where the low winter +sun is trying to peep through. Little sounds carry far. You can hear +wild fowl calling far up in the brumous smother which hides the lift. +They are voyaging from lands of summer, and are already sorry they came. +For here the winter still holds grim, black and yet somehow raw, which +was the fault of the yellow sea-fog. + +Stair had been up that morning long before the tardy January dawn, +Whitefoot had been sent from the farm the night before with the news +that Jean would meet him in the bed of the Mays Water opposite Peden's +Stone. There was now more freedom of moving about, for the freezing of +the snow enabled both man and beast to pass over it without leaving a +footmark. + +He found Jean standing there in the dim orange-coloured dawn. She was +shivering dislike of the morning, which was at once clammy and freezing +hard, so that every stone and even the banks were covered with the +frozen fog. Jean had a great red shawl that had come from Holland about +her head and neck, and so kept herself as comfortable as might be while +she waited for her brother. + +Stair had had to watch the signs of the countryside before he dared risk +letting himself down into the dark of the Glen. For the sea was always +open, and a landing party from the _Britomart_ might have lain unseen in +any of the fir copses or hidden behind the knolls. + +Black and narrow ran the Mays, that at other times flowed so wide and +brown and free. The frost had bound it tightly, all save a trickle in +the centre, black as ink, and everywhere about clung the icicles, some +thick as a man's arm. + +"Oh, Stair, here are letters--one for Mr. Julian and one for you," Jean +gasped, the sea-fog in her throat, "thankful I am to see you! I thought +you would never come. Here, too, are the provisions--be canny with the +eggs. They are on the top in a box by themselves, packed in sawdust, but +do not be throwing them down wi' a brainge to get at your letters. And +there in a big bag are the linen and clothes--cleaner and sweeter could +not be, though I say it that washed and laundried them." + +"Is Patsy well?" queried Stair, for he knew that Jean must have a letter +of her own which she had read already. + +"Famous," said Jean--"of course she is well. Are they not going to marry +her to a prince--?" + +"Not Lyonesse?" The voice of Stair grew suddenly hoarse and threatening. +He looked capable of setting off to London with his musket over his +shoulder, to finish the job he had begun. + +"Goose," quoth his sister, "no--of course not. Somebody she likes--a +young and handsome prince from Germany, or maybe Austria, and a great +friend and near neighbour of the Princess, when she is at home." + +"You are mocking me," said Stair, regaining some of his composure. "It +is sheer nonsense that you are talking." + +"Well," said Jean, adjusting the red Amersfort shawl about her head and +neck, "go back and read your letter. You will no doubt find it all +written there!" + +Stair stood and watched her till she disappeared along the edge of the +Water of Mays. He could not ask her any further questions, having +Patsy's prohibition before him. Besides, there was his own letter, along +with one for her Uncle Julian. The last was by far the thickest, and he +wondered greatly as he turned it over in his hand, what it might +contain. + +He could not read his letter down under the overhanging brow of the +copse. It was too dark down there at the water's edge, and so by a great +detour he made for the Lost Folk's Acre--that port of final harbourage +to which the drowned were brought. It lay high on the cliffs, so lonely +that if the Lost Ones were to sit evident on their crumbling head-boards +and watch for ships all day long, not even a passing gull would be +frighted. + + "Dear Stair" (the letter read), "it is no use telling you about all + the grand doings I have been at. For you never take the least + notice. But I can tell you one bit of news that will interest you. + My Lord Duke of Lyonesse is better of his wound, for I have seen + him twice. He looks nearly quite right when he is riding on a + horse, but when he came with his brother York the other day to see + us at Hanover Lodge, he carried a Malacca cane all banded with gold + and he limped badly. I don't think he will ever get over it + altogether. Of which I was glad, and also proud that you could take + so good an aim in the dark. For of course you had no practice in + shooting Dukes. + + "The Princess was particularly haughty that day, and would hardly + ask them to sit down. I said nothing, but bent over my needlework + like the good child keeping quiet in the corner. Oh, but they are + stupid, these royal people, all except my own Princess and the dear + old Queen at Windsor. Neither York nor Lyonesse knew in the least + what to say, and the Princess let them stammer on without helping + them. I could have laughed. + + "What made her more angry still was the way they spoke about Uncle + Ju. They said they were sure of getting him, and that the Regent was + furious about his killing Wargrove. He could not expect any mercy. + And the Princess said, 'Ah, I thought it was only women whom the + Regent abused without mercy--I think your brother Cumberland told me + so!' + + "And this made York burst into a roar of laughter, but Lyonesse grew + very red and angry, for he fancies himself the favourite of his + lordly eldest brother. Then the Princess said to me, 'Go and see + that the maids have closed the windows of my room. I am going up + there as soon as these gentlemen have gone!' + + "Upon which I escaped, and after a little while the Princess + followed me, smiling, and apparently quite pleased with herself. + + "'Now I wonder,' said she, 'what good they suppose they have done + themselves by that. I am convinced it was the fault of that gipsy + hat with the second ring of roses climbing over the crown. Ah, there + is Eitel--I shall be down presently. Go and entertain him! I hope + they met him coming through the park. He would be sure to scowl at + them!' + + "Shall I tell you who Eitel is? Well, if you are nervous and + unaccustomed to shocks, sit down in the biggest and strongest chair + in the Bothy and take hold of both arms. There--one, two, three. + Shut your eyes and grip. + + "Well, Eitel is a Prince, Prince Eitel of Altschloss, who wants to + marry me! There. Of course you will not believe it, and indeed, to + tell the truth, I hardly do either. But they all want me to--even + the dear Queen would be pleased. She said as much only yesterday. I + think she was sorry about having helped to stop Elsa marrying Uncle + Julian a long time ago. + + "And the young man--well, he is a good soldier--has fought a lot + against Napoleon, and will fight again. To look at?--Oh, he is big + and round and rosy, with yellow moustaches and cheeks like apples, + nice plump red apples. He goes 'Hum-hem-hum' in his throat when he + speaks to me, and he always kisses my hand. Generally he calls me + 'Most Noble Lady,' and then I wonder how many hundred yards I could + give him and beat him in a mile race along the sands. I daresay he + would be quite nice if I cared about princes--because he does not + swear all the time, nor gamble away his money with Hangers and + Beaujolais and suchlike cattle. Nor does he habitually get so drunk + that he has to be carried to bed. In his way he is quite a pattern + prince, and if I marry him I shall be the Perfect Princess! But + shall I? What do you advise? The Principality of Altschloss is not + large, but it is rich and the people are very well off and + contented, that is when 'Bony' lets them alone. So the Princess + says, and she knows all about it, for she lives, as it were, just up + the next street--I mean in the next Principality or Duchy or + whatever it is. + + "They have got me into a corner, Stair, and here in London among + great folk I do not see how to get out. If it were only dodging them + among the pine of the Glenanmays woods or losing them among the + sand-dunes at the Abbey Burnfoot, my feet would trip as lightly as + ever they did in the yellow sandals--I think the Prince has written + to my father, and I know that the Princess has enclosed a letter to + Uncle Julian." (Stair could feel it at that moment between his + finger and thumb.) + + "So, Stair, they have arranged with everybody, or are in the way of + arranging with everybody--except one, Stair--except one. + + "They have not yet heard Patsy Ferris speak her mind. They are, poor + people, taking a great deal for granted. And there are things in + this little girl's mind that she has not told to any one. + + "If I married the Prince, I know I should make him desperately + unhappy. Yet how to cheat all these wise plan-making people who love + me and wish me, according to their lights, the very best sorts of + Well--I do not yet see. It will come to me, however. Do you remember + how we used to play hide-and-seek so that you could not find me, not + even with your dog--I could cheat you so cunningly. Well, Stair, I + am not caught yet. If I am hard pressed on land, there is still wind + among the tree tops. + + "Say nothing of all this screed to Uncle Julian. He will most likely + spend the day in writing. Do you go out somewhere (unless the day is + too wet) and write also. I needed to tell you, for though every one + here is kind, I cannot be sure of this one or that. And I fear me + there is no help for _this_ trouble in the gun you carry over your + shoulder, Stair. It is not the same sort of carrying off as that of + the White Loch, and the Prince with all his apple face and his body + like a comfortable bolster means everything that is most honourable + and princely. I cannot have him shot. + + "And oh, I forgot--the second time that the Royal Dukes--the same + pair as before--came hither to Hanover Lodge, Prince Eitel was there + and he stood over me all the time they stayed like a soldier on + guard, asking me funny questions about my embroidery, in which, I am + certain, he was not interested a little bit! But they knew well + enough that he was the Prince Eitel who had been at Austerlitz and + Wagram, and that he could demand of them as a right the satisfaction + which they might deny to a commoner. So I was grateful to him for + cowing them, though I really believe that your way is the best, + Stair. There is nothing like a charge of slugs in the back for + teaching a royal duke manners! + + "If the worst comes to the worst, do not be surprised if--but I + cannot write it down. At any rate do not be surprised at anything I + may do--only be ready to help me when I do it. And remain always, as + I shall, faithful to the memory of the White Loch. + + "PATSY." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE HIGH STILE + + +Having finished, Stair seemed to wake as from a dream. He had read and +re-read the letter. The words buzzed in his ears, mingled with the sharp +pain at his heart. Patsy a princess--a real prince making love to her, a +man who could be her husband, who might even now have rights upon her, +yet whom it would be impossible to deal with as he had dealt with the +Duke of Lyonesse! He felt desperately lonely up there. + +The escarpments of the cliffs sank away beneath him into the chill +turmoil of the winter sea. He had been sitting on a flat tomb, one of +the few cut in stone. The yellow fog had vanished. The moors spread away +vague and simple, the fine wreath-curves of the snow only interrupted +here and there by the brutal rigidity of the tall stone dykes with the +easterly snow-blast still clinging in the chinks and stuffing the +crevices. + +Everything was colourless, the ground of a bluish lilac, fading +imperceptibly into a livid sky. Still half-dazed, Stair looked about +him, Patsy's letter in his hand, surprised to find himself out there and +alone. The written characters danced before his eyes, and it was only +the strongest sense of duty which turned his face towards the Bothy and +Julian Wemyss. He was carrying, he knew it well, a letter from the +Princess, enclosing and doubtless supporting a demand for the hand of +Patsy Ferris. + +Whitefoot slunk along at his master's side, his tail and ears eloquently +drooped, and his doleful aspect reflecting admirably the mood of his +master. But Stair set his teeth and went forward. He found his breakfast +waiting for him, and Julian Wemyss took the letter with his usual +grateful urbanity. He was not slow in noticing the depressed state of +his companion, though, naturally, he put it down to his having been kept +waiting so long in the raw fog. + +"I suppose Jean could not come exactly to the moment?" he said, his +letter still unopened in his hand. + +"No," said Stair, "she was waiting for me, but I came back by the cliffs +and the Sailors' Graveyard." + +Julian, who knew that Stair never did anything without a reason, asked +him if he had found everything clear from the lookout. + +"Oh, all clear," said Stair, and sat down to make a pretence of +breakfasting. But he could not keep his eyes from wandering in the +direction of Julian Wemyss, who, seated in the great chair between the +window and the fire, was presently bending his brows over the packet he +had received. Eight sheets of a fine and light handwriting like that of +the address--from the Princess Elsa, of that there could be no question. +Julian read on and on, wrapped up in the daintily written words, +unconscious of the thick enclosure on paper like parchment, which had +slipped down on the floor of the Bothy. Stair could see the huge black +downstrokes of the superscription. He stopped eating and began to clear +away. + +Julian looked up from his reading at the sudden clattering of pottery. + +"Hold there," he said, "it is my day--you must not forget. I claim my +rights." + +But Stair continued with a smile to prepare for that part of the work +which is the curse of every bachelor menage--the washing-up after. + +"I think," he said quietly, "that you will have enough to do with your +correspondence--I take everything upon me for to-day. Your pardon, Mr. +Wemyss, but I am afraid you have dropped something!" + +"Ah, so I have--it is nothing--I am much obliged to you." + +He spoke the truth. It was nothing to him--what, indeed, could be +anything in comparison with those eight closely written sheets of large +letter paper from his Princess--only the half of which he had yet +mastered. Elsa of Saxe-Brunschweig had never written him so long a +letter since the day when they agreed, long ago in Vienna, that for the +good of her house and country she must marry the old duke-elector. + +So it came to pass that Julian Wemyss was grateful to Patsy for bringing +him such good fortune. Nor was he surprised out of measure when he heard +that his niece had the offer of the hand of a Prince reigning in his own +right. + +But better than any one else, Julian could measure the greatness of the +Prince's affection, because he knew what these royal and grand ducal +persons think of their order. He saw that it was in some sort a defiance +flung at the court of Austria, which Eitel of Altschloss had served so +bravely, and which had done nothing for the young captain of horse till +he found himself suddenly pistoned into a princedom. + +Before going further he read the Prince's letter. It was in German, and +most courteously expressed. Julian Wemyss thought well of the man, and +saw no reason why he should not assist, so far as he could, in settling +Patsy in so enviable a position. It would be new, of course, but Patsy +had been carefully taught. The best of blood ran in her veins, and by +nature she was quick, sympathetic and receptive. + +The people of Altschloss were simple and would appreciate frankness and +simplicity in others. It was, in fact, almost an ideal arrangement, and +besides, at Altschloss she would find herself in the immediate vicinity +of the Princess Elsa. Nay, she would enter her castle and begin her +duties with the Princess by her side. Nothing could possibly turn out +better. It was wonderful what Elsa could do. There was no doubt she had +caused Patsy to go to London and brought the Prince across half Europe +simply that she might make a love-match--one that would be the very +opposite in every respect of her own unfortunate experience. + +Julian Wemyss could contain himself no longer. He must share his delight +with some one. So he turned to his companion, who was busy with the +"drying" of the dishes and utensils. + +"Stair," he cried, "what do you think? Our little Patsy is going to be a +Princess!" + +"Ah!" said Stair, calmly, without raising his eyes, and finished with +peculiar care the drying of the tall wine-glass which had been brought +over from Abbey Burnfoot by Joseph's special intervention, and reserved +for "the master, who is partial to it." + +"Patsy is going to marry the Prince of Altschloss, a man of much courage +and reputation. He was already at the wars when I left Vienna, but I +knew and appreciated his uncle, by whose death at Wagram, Prince Eitel, +then a captain of cavalry in the Bohemian contingent, came to the +title." + +"You have heard all this from Patsy?" said Stair suddenly, shooting out +his words as from a catapult. Julian Wemyss, with the trained judgment +of the moods of men and women quick within him, looked once at the young +fellow who pursued his business so methodically. + +Could Stair also--? (he thought). No, surely, that was impossible. Yet +who could number the victims of Patsy? He himself--if it had not been +for the Princess and the tables of consanguinity--he knew that he might +very well have committed any folly for Patsy's sake. And why not Stair? + +"No," he answered aloud while these thoughts were passing through his +mind, "I have not heard from Patsy. She might have written a note and +forgotten to enclose it. Of that she is quite capable." + +But to himself he acknowledged that the boy was right. It _was_ +certainly strange that along with the detailed history of all the phases +of the attachment which was enshrined for him in the clear-cut French of +the Princess, with the formal but manly demand of his good offices +written by the Prince Eitel, there should not also be a single word from +Patsy herself. However, he must not let this young man put him down. + +"I have no doubt," he said, "that she has written to her father. Would +it be possible, think you, to arrange a meeting with him to-day?" + + * * * * * + +Stair stood in the doorway looking tall and strong, though in figure +rather spare, his Viking head in striking contrast with the dark hair +threaded with grey, and the fine, delicate features of the +ex-ambassador. + +"Difficult, but not impossible," he said, "but I must consider. We +cannot afford to show ourselves in daylight anywhere off the Wild, and +least of all near the military road which passes Cairn Ferris House at +the valley head." + +He looked out at the sky. It was a dull slate grey, and grew darker down +towards the edge of the cliffs. He noted that the sea-fog was already +lipping over, and he knew that certainly long before sunset the yellow +fog would again be marching triumphant across the Wild of Blairmore, +blotting out everything. + +"I think," he said, "that it would be safe to send to Cairn Ferris about +three. It will be almost dark then, and if you write a note asking Mr. +Ferris to meet you at the High Stile--that will be safest, for it is on +Raincy ground and less likely to be watched than the Ferris valleys--I +shall see that it reaches Mr. Ferris if he is at home in his own house." + +Julian Wemyss thanked Stair and turned away to get ready the note for +Patsy's father. And as he wrote his mind was busy with a new conjecture. +He wondered how he could have been so blind. He prided himself on +divining the reasons of things and the hearts of men. But now he seemed +to see Stair Garland for the first time. How different he was from all +those who had been his companions. He himself could associate with the +young man without any feeling of awkwardness or inequality. He did not +even speak like his brothers. He studied deeply and read much. His +opinions were singularly original and his criticisms often valuable. Yet +he strained after no effect, and was ever more ready in action than +word. + +Three months ago Stair had never seen a rapier, and now Julian Wemyss +needed all his skill to stand up to a dazzling swiftness of attack, +which together with length of arm and three extra inches of height might +well make his pupil no mean adversary when the buttons were off the +foils. + + * * * * * + +The letter was dispatched by Whitefoot to Jean, to be given to either of +her brothers. Stair knew that the meeting would be arranged if Mr. +Ferris could be found. There was nothing left for him to do but to get +his writing-materials and, between the leaves of a copy-book, begin his +reply to Patsy. He had not informed her uncle of her letter--neither +would he tell her father, if he should meet him. Patsy had forbidden +him. + +Besides, it was certain that whatever these people might arrange among +themselves, Patsy would end by doing just as she liked. Indeed, her +father, Adam, had never in all his life questioned his daughter's +comings or goings, nor interfered with her wishes. He had done his best +for her education, so long as Patsy desired to be educated. He had +provided governesses, but these generally stayed but a short time at +Cairn Ferris, not being accustomed to be left alone during lesson-time +because their pupil had gone bird-nesting with Stair Garland, or to the +moss with the farm lads to fetch peats, from mere thoughtlessness of +heart and delight in the open air. + +Later, Adam Ferris had acquiesced in his daughter's wish for complete +emancipation, and had delivered her education up to his brother-in-law. +He had taken even such serious escapades as that of the race to save the +lads from the press-gang, and that of the White Loch, as due to the +strange nature of his daughter, and had been content to believe that all +would turn out well because these things happened to Patsy, and Patsy +was certainly different from any one else. + +No doubt he would have revenged the insult perhaps even more sternly +than his brother-in-law had done, if Julian had not begged that the +matter should be left entirely in his hands. But he had so long been +accustomed to give Patsy her head, that no really definite action could +be expected from him now, at least not on his own responsibility. + +It was all the more needful, then, that Julian should put his duty +before him. He was a father and the Prince would expect to see him in +the matter of his daughter's hand. He must set off at once for London. + +The grey noon darkened rapidly as the long-pent sea-mist overflowed the +cliff, wallowing and billowing like an oceanic invasion, over the face +of the moor. Whitefoot brought back hidden in his collar the simple +message, "I shall be there," signed with the well-known crabbed fist of +"Adam Ferris," traditional in his family for some hundreds of years, +which seemed completely identical with signatures in the family +chartularies. + +By this time Stair had finished his letter to Patsy, but with unusual +care he corrected it, and had it recopied before it was time to set out. +He would send it on to Jean that night, and it would be in Patsy's hands +before these wise people, to whom she had not written, had done taking +counsel together. Meanwhile he stood at the door of the Bothy, looking +across the dim wastes of white, hardly a single heather-bush showing up +under the solid cover of snow. Only here and there he could see a deep +black gash which was the side of a moss-hag at the bottom of which a +pool of ink-black water lay frozen solid. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the stern grip of winter, there was a tingle +in his blood and a difference, subtle but quite unmistakable, which told +of a change. + +Spring was in the air. Far-off as yet, and only, as it were, a +conditional promise, there came a softness on the light airs that came +breathing up over the sea, which told that the frost-sting was gone. The +snow had stopped creaking underfoot, and the march would be +easier--which would be just as well, for they had a long road and a dark +before them, and Julian Wemyss was neither by age nor training an expert +hill-man. + +But something else oppressed Stair's mind. The soft breathing off the +sea would melt the snow, clear away the ice and lay the Bothy of the +Wild open to attack. At Cairnryan the press-gang would be re-formed. +They might find their way to a spot to which they had once been led, +and--most important of all, some night towards the dark of the moon, the +_Good Intent_ would be seen, between the star-shine and the luminous +sea, making her way up the firth with the first "run" of the year. + +And with her Julian Wemyss would depart for Lisbon on his way to Vienna, +where he would prepare the way for the future Princess of Altschloss. + +Stair's lips tightened. He watched the treacly pour of the yellow fog +thickening about him. His eyes noted mechanically the precise shade of +darkness when it would be wise for them to set out for the High Stile, +but his heart was sick with a sense of his own loneliness. He would be +left to fight out a useless battle--with Patsy far off and eternally +inaccessible. What after all would it matter if he took the king's +shilling and went to the wars? + +But his own observant eyes automatically reporting on the darkening +landscape checked him. + +"It is time for us to start!" he said quietly enough to Julian Wemyss, +who rose to his feet and put away the letter of the Princess which he +had been going over for the twentieth time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE GIBBET RING + + +Ghastly behind the High Stile, just as you cross over into Raincy +property, rose the three tall trees of the Gibbet Ring. Once the Raincys +had jurisdiction to hang men and drown women, and it was on this +"moot-hill" that they dispensed their feudal laws as seemed to them +good. There was something grim about the place even now, and as Julian +approached, the High Stile stood up against the last flare of red in the +evening sky not yet blotted out by the mist, gaunt and sinister as a +guillotine. + +And the dark silhouette of Adam Ferris, waiting for them, might well +have been that of the executioner himself. Stair saluted Adam Ferris, +who held out his hand frankly enough to his tenant's son. + +"So, Stair," he said, "you have been missing for a long time from your +father's table. I had the honour of dining with Diarmid Garland +yesterday, and heard nothing of you. Ah, Julian! So this Captain of the +Coast has been taking care of you." + +He turned to his brother-in-law, who had come more slowly up out of the +darkness of the glen, following Stair as closely as might be in the +uncertain dusk, for the eyes of the ex-ambassador were not habituated to +night duty like those of his guide. + +Stair Garland drew back a little after he had seen that the two men were +safe in the shelter of the great Raincy ash trees. He would let them +talk the matter out. But his mind followed their argument, such as it +would doubtless be. He knew the end--that Julian would persuade Adam +Ferris to go to London to arrange the future of his daughter. Adam would +not be so easy to persuade. Not only would he dislike returning all the +way to London, but he would be far more doubtful than his kinsman as to +the power he could exercise over Patsy's choice. + +Julian Wemyss naturally thought that no position could be better or more +fortunate for any girl than that which the Prince Eitel was offering his +niece. But Adam was constitutionally unable to imagine that any dignity +could add to the position she already held as heiress of four hundred +years of Ferrises of Cairn Ferris. + +Stair wandered away up the slope towards the Gibbet Knoll, Whitefoot +stealing along at his heels, walking almost in his tracks, but with his +ears cocked to catch the slightest unexplained noise. As he arrived +under the scant foliage of the few remaining gaunt trees, tall +branchless trunks with a mere plume at the top of each, bent permanently +away from the south-west by the sea-winds, he walked to the small stone +platform on which the Baron had issued his decree. From that point of +outlook it was possible to see the towers of Castle Raincy looming over +the grey sea of vapour, which filled all the lower ground and now and +then flung out an arm that momentarily snatched at and submerged the +Gibbet Knoll. + +Stair had not gone far when something large and dark darted across the +path between the trees where the snow had been blown a little bare. +Stair was instantly in pursuit. It was not a time when he could afford +to overlook anything. A man it was, certainly, for the moment the +thicker underbrush was reached he rose half erect and went plunging head +foremost into it. + +But Whitefoot was before him, and had him by the throat before he could +run ten yards. Stair, immediately behind, saw the man's hand go to his +belt, and comprehended that Whitefoot's life was in danger. + +With a spring he was upon him. One hand gripped the fugitive's wrist. +With a pull backward he had him on the ground. His foot pushed aside the +eager jaws of Whitefoot and saved the man's life. Then he knelt stolidly +on one arm, holding the other extended while he searched the man for +arms in a swift professional manner. A knife and a pair of pistols were +his booty. These he tossed aside and bade the dog keep guard over them. + +"Now who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded in a hoarse +whisper in the fellow's ear. "Speak, man, if you have any wish to live." + +The man kept silence, though he had given up struggling. But it was +evident that he was not anxious to be recognized. + +"This way, then," growled Stair, "and the worse for you if you have been +out after any mischief." + +He dragged the man roughly enough out upon the open surface of the snow, +and knelt upon him, bringing his face close to that of his captive. + +"Good God," he cried, forgetting his danger in his astonishment, "Eben +the Spy!" + + * * * * * + +But the man lay limp in Stair's grasp. He appeared to have fainted. +However, Stair knew a cure for that. He took a handful of the harsh +half-melted sugar-loaf snow and rubbed the spy's face hard. Then he +pulled him up into a sitting position. + +"Come, Eben," he growled, "no malingering! I have no time to waste on +you. If you do not get ready very quickly to do as I tell you, there is +a chance that you will be found out here in the morning with an extra +hole in your head which none of his Majesty's regimental surgeons will +be able to plug--at least not in time to do you any good!" + +"I ... am ... not what you think--indeed I am not," the man gasped, as +he began to get his breath back after Stair's rough handling. + +"That's as may be," said his captor, "you are too open-minded a man to +expect me to believe a syllable of what you say, merely on your word." + +"No, sir," said Eben, "but I am the more to be pitied--I am outlawed by +the Government, and your people shot at me as I was escaping--" + +"Ah," said Stair, "you mean when you fled with the Duke's money and +jewels the night of the little trouble at the White Loch." + +"Indeed," said Eben the Spy, "I am altogether on your side, though I +cannot expect you to believe it. But I can bring you a good witness. +Even before what occurred there, I had given up all my work for the +Government. I intended to make a bolt for it anyway. I knew it was only +a question of time when I should be shot. I had been missed already more +than once, and indeed, sir, I carry lead in my body at this moment." + +Stair grinned so that the man caught the flash of his teeth in the +uncertain glimmer, and got his first ray of hope that his life might be +spared. He knew very well that nothing he could say would convince Stair +of his good faith, but it might be possible to soften him by taking the +situation with a certain humour. + +"Ah, you laugh, sir," he continued, "but it is no light thing to be a +superintendent of recruitment and to belong to the parish of Stonykirk!" + +"Say a press-gang spy!" flashed Stair. "That will be the truth." + +"A press-gang spy, then," said Eben meekly. "I am not boggling about +words--" + +"And your business to betray your own folk!" + +"I always endeavoured to temper justice with mercy," said the man, +feeling at his throat with one of his now disengaged hands. + +"Come--none of that," said Stair, "at least, have the courage of your +rascality. I shall like you none the worse. Where have you been all this +time?" + +"Well," said the man, "that's telling. But I know you, Stair Garland, +and I have confidence in the man I am talking to--" + +"If you abuse that confidence you are good enough to profess in me," +said Stair with biting irony, "I beg you to remember that it will be at +a price!" + +"I know--I know, sir," the man from Stonykirk moaned, "I should not +dream of deceiving you." + +"Better not," said Stair, "you are on our side, you say. Take care and +do not forget again, or the next time you will not be missed. I shall go +spy-hunting myself." + +"I swear to you--" he began, gasping at the thought. + +"Do not swear--I would not believe you if you swore on a pile of Bibles +as high as Criffel!" + +"But you would believe my uncle Kennedy on his bare word--" + +"What uncle?" queried Stair, sharply. "D'ye mean Kennedy McClure of +Supsorrow?" + +"The same, sir--you would believe him if he spoke a good word for me?" + +Stair paused a moment before answering. The Laird of Supsorrow had lent +his horses for the carrying off of Patsy, but it was quite certain that +had he known the risks, or the purpose for which they were to be used, +he would have done nothing of the kind. He was too deep in the traffic, +and had used his money to finance too many cargoes. + +"Yes," he answered at last, "I would take your uncle's word, if he says +that he will go bail that you mean to be faithful to us. But how can I +get that word--Kennedy McClure is in London." + +"I know that," said the spy, "but I have been abiding all the winter at +Supsorrow with my uncle. He gave me shelter and aid when my life was in +danger on every side, when I was hunted like a partridge on the +mountains--" + +"You would make an excellent preacher, Eben, and I dare say you are +telling the truth for once. If you have been with us--" + +"Will this convince you, sir?" the spy broke in eagerly, seeing his +chance. "I have known all the winter that you and Mr. Wemyss were at the +Bothy. I knew that you met with Joseph from the Burnfoot, and that your +washing was done at Glenanmays. Now there is a reward out for Mr. +Julian, sir, and yet I have never breathed a word!" + +"Lucky for you, or you would never have breathed another," growled +Stair, "but there does seem to be something in what you say. That +reward--your uncle must have had something to say against that. It must +have gone hard against the grain with you." + +"I beg that you will think of my own position, Mr. Stair--I might have +made my peace!" + +"Ah, you mean about the Duke's money and the jewels--no, I do not forget +that part of it, Eben. I shall further confer with you as to what shall +be done with these. In the meantime--do not budge. Here, watch him, +Whitefoot!" + +And very calmly Stair picked up the pistols and reprimed them. Then, +having stuck the sheath-dagger into his belt under his coat, he faced +his captive. + +"In the meanwhile you are coming back with us to the Bothy. I don't know +what I shall do with you yet. But at any rate I cannot afford to run any +chances. You must stay with us till we get the first ship off. Perhaps +if you behave well, you shall have a passage on her. But in the +meantime--right-about-face ... _march!_" + +The spy obeyed, though there were several things for which he would have +wished to stipulate. But Stair had a newly primed pistol pointed midway +between his ears as viewed from behind, and the spy felt keenly the +one-sidedness of any discussion in such a situation. He marched down the +hill, guided now to right and anon to left by a growled order from +Stair. Whitefoot was in front, looking over his shoulder and +occasionally showing his teeth. In this order the three arrived at the +hollow where they had left Adam and Julian. The pair were still in +earnest debate, so the little procession swerved away to the right to +leave them to themselves. + +"Evidently," thought Stair, "Patsy's father has been harder to convince +than I had supposed. I'll wager it is the journey to London which sticks +in his gizzard." + +In this somewhat inelegant form, Stair expressed what was the truth. + +"I do not see," said Adam Ferris, obstinately, "what particle of good I +could do if I were to take up my residence in London for the rest of my +life. I let Patsy go there because you thought it necessary, but I shall +be still more glad to have her home again. She can marry a Prince if she +likes or she can marry the Prince's gentleman. She will neither marry +nor refrain from marrying because of anything you or I can say. I know +Patsy better than you do, Julian. She comes from your side of the house, +and the fact is she is far too like yourself ever to ask or take +advice." + +"But think how necessary your presence will be," Julian insisted, "it is +not fair to leave a girl alone at what may prove to be the crisis of her +fate." + +"Well, it was none of my doing, Julian," said the Laird of Cairn Ferris, +"I should not have sent her to a princess for the perfecting of her +education. But you insisted upon it. Well, I trust my daughter. I have +trusted her in greater dangers than any which can arrive through this +Austrian young man. Never fear, Patsy will clear her own feet. The +Princess shall have an answer to her letter, and the wooer as well, but +I would not go to London to push the matter, no, not if she were to be +an empress!" + +And from this position Adam Ferris, with characteristic doggedness, was +in no wise to be moved. + +"You put me in a very awkward position," said Julian, discontentedly, "I +cannot go myself, and even if I did, it would not be the same thing as +the protection and approval of her father--" + +A light broke upon Adam, and he smiled grimly. + +"I think I remember your telling me, Julian, that in asking for a maid's +hand in these countries, it was the correct etiquette for the nearest +relatives of the bridegroom to come in state to the home of the parents +of the bride, to ask for their daughter's hand. Now at Cairn Ferris I +shall be glad to receive and to entertain to the best of my ability any +of this Prince Eitel's family, or the Prince himself if he likes to make +the journey. But you yourself have made me a strict believer in +etiquette in such matters, and from Cairn Ferris I shall not stir!" + +At which Julian Wemyss snorted aloud and broke off the interview. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE DUKES ... AND SUPSORROW + + +Every good action has its fruit, though the doer of it but seldom plucks +it in this world. Contrariwise the fruits of ill-done deeds are early +ripeners, and it is seldom the teeth of the children that are set on +edge. + +Patsy, faring leisurely westward to meet the Princess in the park and be +driven home, at the corner of Lyonesse House, just where you turn +towards the green of the tree-tops discerned at the street's end, came +within the sound of a mighty voice. + +A tall, heavily built man of fierce aspect and red choleric face was +picking himself up off the ground, opposite a house from which he had +been forcibly ejected, and a crowd of ordinary street loafers was +gathering about. Patsy would have turned away, but there was something +curiously familiar about the tones of the voice and the imaginative +dialect which drew her in spite of herself. + +"Fower against yin!" shouted the voice; "and three o' them I hae markit. +Whaur's your Dukes noo? I hae gi'en yin o' them a fine black eye. If +Dukes will not pay their debts, faith, I'll pay their skins. I had a +punch at the fat yin too, and doon he went like a bag o' wat sand!" + +Patsy hurried forward, elbowing her way vigorously, and the beauty of +her dress even more than the dark intensity of her face, caused the +throng to make way. She saw the man clearly now, and already the crowd +was beginning to seek for missiles. + +"Kennedy McClure," she said, taking hold of the man's arm, "come your +ways out o' this and as fast as may be--" + +"Lea' me alane, I tell ye," he cried, "I will go back and take another +punch at them--all six at a time--Dukes that will not pay their debts!" + +"Quiet now! I am Patsy Ferris of Cairn Ferris--Adam's daughter, and a +friend. Here, laird, get into this coach" (she had beckoned one from a +stand and given a direction), "there, Supsorrow, into this coach and +bide you still as I bid ye. You are going to see the inside of a gaol if +you stay where you are. The rascals want no better. Now be quiet, +Supsorrow, I am my father's daughter, and I know what is good for you." + +By this time the carriage was in motion. She had taken out a pair of +spare handkerchiefs such as women carry, and was dusting his +knee-breeches when Kennedy came to himself. + +"Patsy--Patsy Ferris grown a great leddy! No--what is that ye are +after--then ye shall not!--Let my shoe-buckles alane--I'm tellin' ye!" + +"You are going to meet a princess," said Patsy, polishing away; "and I +intend that you shall do no discredit to Galloway." + +"A princess--hech, let me get oot o' this," cried the angry +gentleman-farmer, making attempts to reach the door; "I could not touch +her, but I'd be feared that I could not keep my tongue off ony o' that +breed." + +"Oh, she is none of 'that breed,' as you say." Here Patsy resumed her +seat, and after a general inspection set Laird Supsorrow's cocked hat +straight on his head, and pronounced that he would do. + +The Princess was waiting for her friend at the park entrance, and she +seemed somewhat surprised when she saw her advancing in company with a +big solidly built countryman, with his seals dangling and silver buckles +shining at knee and shoe-latchet. + +But Princess Elsa instantly understood. Patsy had discovered a +countryman lost in London, and with the friendliness which characterized +her she had brought him on to taste of the hospitality of Hanover Lodge. +Accordingly she smiled her most friendly smile as Patsy made the +presentation. + +"Did I not tell you, Patsy," she said; "there was a 'visitor' in the tea +this morning?" + +And she held out her hand which Kennedy of Supsorrow instantly grasped +and shook heartily. + +"I'm sair obleeged to ye, ma leddy," he said, "this is mair honour than +ever I thought wad come my road in this world. And I hae kenned Miss +Patsy ever since I catched her up my sugar-ploom tree and she pelted me +wi' the ploom-stanes. Ech, she was a besom, and I'm thinkin' she is no +muckle better yet!" + +The Princess invited Kennedy to take the seat opposite to them and be +driven home. She was really very glad to see any one who came to her +from Patsy's country. + +"Faith," said honest Kennedy, "her and me does not aye agree. She's ower +fond o' stravagin' through my fields after a trashery o' wild flooers, +and leavin' gates open ahint her! But she's aye a bonny thing to see, +and she plays the mischief wi' the lads yonder. I used to like a lass +like that when I was young--and noo I'm auld, I hae still a saft side +for Miss Patsy--though I _do_ wish, ma leddy, that ye would speak to her +aboot shutting the yetts after her!" + +The Princess, after the speech had been interpreted to her, promised to +do her best in the matter of the gates, and during their drive to +Hanover Lodge, he kept the Princess immensely amused with the story of +his encounter with the two Dukes. + +The matter needed to be interpreted, and in places expurgated, but in +substance it ran as followeth:-- + +"I cam' to London to get the price o' a pair o' horse and a fine new +carriage--as good as new onyway--oh, ye have seen the turn-out, Miss +Patsy. Aye, aye--it _had_ served the Laird o' the Marrick a while, I +will not deny--that is, not to you--but it was a fine faceable carriage +whatever, before the lad that fired on the Duke dang it a' to flinders. +I reckoned the total value at twa hundred pounds, and it was the odd +hundred-and-fifty I caa'ed roond to collect at the Duke's hoose. + +"The flunkey in the fine gowd-braided reid coatie wasna sure aboot +lettin' me in, but I soon had my double-soled shoe in the kink o' the +door and afore my lad kenned, I was inside the graund hall. I took a +look aboot me, very careful, and, guid faith, the lackeys were standing +round as thick as thistles o' the field in their red plush breeks. Only +they didna look as if they were the stuff to put _me_ oot. + +"So I explained to him that appeared to be the heid yin, the naitur' o' +my errand. Very ceevil I was, but when I had dune he just laughed and +the rest they laughed after him. + +"'You have come to the wrong shop, my man,' says he, 'pay a debt in a +Royal Duke's house--who ever heard of the like? Ye must go to Parliament +about that!' + +"'Then,' said I, 'ye are gaun to hear the like noo!' + +"And down I sat on a fine soffy to wait for the Duke. They cried to one +another to come and 'put me oot,' that the Duke and his brother would be +doon afore lang, and that it would never do for him to find me there--it +was as much as their places were worth! + +"Then when they cam' to lay hands on me, and I aye keepit on saying ower +and ower to mysel' as if it were a lesson, 'The big yin's nose, and your +e'e, and the ither chap's jaw!' They could see my knuckles clenched +middlin' firm--and so they stoppit to think about it. There was nae +crowdin' to be first! Na, fegs! + +"Juist then there was a sound o' laughin' and talkin', and four +gentlemen cam' doon the stairs. The first two were braw, and the others +ahint were officers--just plain sodger officers, but they were a' +lauchin' throughither as pack as thieves. + +"There was ane o' the first twa with the blue sashes that limpit. Says I +to mysel', 'That's Stair Garland's chairge o' buckshot, and him I took +to be my man. So I askit him civilly to pay me the hundred-and-fifty +pund that was due me on the horses, and no sooner were the words oot o' +my mouth, than he swore he would have me hung, drawn and quartered, for +a murdering rogue, a thief and a liar. + +"I heard him till he was clean oot o' breath, and then I explained +again. But he was deaf as ony adder, and only cried, him and his brither +baith, for the officers to throw me oot at the window. Then one of the +officers blew a whistle, and I kenned what that was for. + +"'Nae guards wi' biggonets for Kennedy McClure,' says I. 'Here's for ye! +Come on, ye spangled rogues--the whole thieving dollop of ye!' + +"And with that I let drive amang them, and there's twa o' the dukes and +at least yin o' the officers that will not show their faces for a day or +two. The leddies would not think them bonny. They are signed 'Kennedy of +Supsorrow--his mark!' Oh--no! But they were ower mony for me at the +last. They got me aff my feet and flang me into the street wi' a clash +that near split the paving-stanes. Then, when the low ribaldry o' the +toon was gettin' my birses up, and they had sent to fetch the guard, up +comes this bonny young leddy, and speerited me awa' in a coach, me +swearin' ootragious and maist unwillin'--just like a fool tyke that +hasna had eneuch o' a fecht. Syne she brushes me and cossets me, and so +here I am, madam, at your service, and no fit for the company of my +betters, being but a landward man with little education and by nature a +man of wrath far beyond ithers." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE "GREEN DRAGON" + + +Kennedy McClure did not inhabit Hanover Lodge, though the Princess +pressed her hospitality upon him. He knew his place, he said. He might +be Laird of Supsorrow and all that. His cattle were upon a thousand +hills, but for all that he was just a rough-spun Galloway farmer body +and he would not disgrace the company of no great ladies by his +ignorances. + +The truth was that he had a horror of the whole genus "lackey," and he +could not even pass the soberly clad "gentlemen" of the Princess without +a quivering of the muscles and a clenching of the fists. He found +himself much more comfortable at the adjoining Green Dragon Inn, which +stands near the river just on the London side of the toll-bar. + +All the same he went often to see Patsy, and upon occasion would stay +for luncheon, where the originality of his language and the quaintness +of his dress pleased the Princess and her guests. The Laird of Supsorrow +in his coat of blue and silver, his buff waistcoat and corded moleskin +small clothes, his silver buckles and broad silver thumb-ring, his gold +snuff-mull and the cowries clashing at his fob, was considered the type +of the real Scottish countryman. He was really infinitely like the later +caricatures of John Bull than anything counted distinctively +Scottish--that is, till you heard him speak. + +To Patsy he grew increasingly necessary. His sonorous Doric brought her +back to the land of wet west winds, of blue inrushing seas, of +far-stretching heather and sudden-dipping valleys where the birch-leaves +and pine-needles play tremulous games at hide-and-seek with speckled +trout in light-sprinkled pools. + +For during these days Patsy went about with a load on her heart. It was +only partly her fault, but the fact was that she had let herself drift a +little. She had in no way recognized or accepted the proposals of the +Prince of Altschloss. But neither had she definitely refused them. The +last course grew increasingly difficult, and, except Miss Aline, who was +sympathetic but without marked initiative outside the matter of +jam-making and house-wifery, there was no one in whom Patsy could +confide. + +In her heart she was firmly resolved not to marry the Prince. But the +Princess had been so kind, even so affectionate after her manner, and +Uncle Julian would be so disappointed--that against her better judgment +Patsy let matters drift. Her father was so non-committal and far-off +that no help could be got out of him. Even had he been in the next room, +he would not have helped her to decide, though he might have been useful +in other ways. But as it was she had to think and act for herself. The +old Earl continued his visits, generally appearing on the Friday +afternoon and frequently staying over to supper. At first he was not +wholly pleased to find Kennedy McClure, his enemy and victor in many a +hard-contested land-bargain, established as a friend of the Princess +Elsa. But when he had seen how well the man carried himself, how simple +and unobtrusive were his manners, he called to mind that the Supsorrow +McClures were of good blood, and that, though they had taken the Orange +and Hanoverian side, they had never grasped at Raincy property during +the black days of the attainder, as the Bunny Bunnys and Dalrymples had +done--on whom be the blackest of Raincy anathemas! + +Now the Laird of Supsorrow was a severely regular man, and always took a +daily walk through the park or along the river-bank to watch the craft, +the bustle of the towpath, the wrangling of the sea-coal porters--all +the sights and sounds of the waterside so strange to him. Patsy fell +easily into the habit of accompanying him. There was a freshness and yet +a friendliness in the sound of that deep voice, unmistakable and +weighty, yet with curiously tender inflections in it when he addressed +Patsy. + +Patsy does not know herself how she first began to confide in this man. +Perhaps she had a severe dose of home-sickness one day, and the Galloway +voice, speaking broadly as they talked at Glenanmays, as Jean and +Diarmid and Fergus and Agnew spoke, made her do it. For Miss Aline spoke +dainty old lady Scots, but without the broad accent of the moors, which +was not at all the same thing to Patsy. + +The shrewd old man divined a good deal too. Patsy did not care to talk +about anything but the Valleys. She rejected topic after topic and +returned to the Free Trade, the "running" of cargoes, the lads who had +beaten the press-gang, and their chief, Stair Garland. + +Kennedy tried her once or twice on the subject of her marriage, and even +slily addressed her once or twice as "Princess." This last "try-on" was +successful, for Patsy burst forth. + +"I forbid you to say that. I will not be so misnamed. There is nothing +in it, I tell you. My consent has never even been asked. They are trying +to drive me into it, but I shall show them! Oh, if only I knew any way +of getting away. It will come to that in the end. I have thought of +coaches and so on, but that would cost money, more than I have got, and +besides, they might get faster horses and catch me. I have written to my +father and he only tells me that no one can possibly marry me against my +will. I have only to say 'no'--as if I have ever got the chance. They +all take it for granted!" + +"Then you dinna want to marry this grand Prince?" said Kennedy, feigning +astonishment; "how can a lass not want to have such a great title? There +are thousands that would jump at it." + +"Well, I won't. I am not going to be a Princess, but just Patsy Ferris +of Cairn Ferris. Oh, Mr. Kennedy, I wish you could help me." + +"Weel," said the Laird of Supsorrow, tapping his snuff-box meditatively, +"maybe I might--if so be I could see our way oot at the farther end." + +"Oh, there is a way," cried Patsy, clasping both hands about the Laird's +arm, and looking up into his face, to the wonder and admiration of the +passers-by, who envied the proud father of so charming a +daughter--especially when the old man walked fast to get clear of a +string of trace-horses, and Patsy took to skipping on one foot to keep +up with him. + +"Oh, will you--how good of you!" she exclaimed, clutching his sleeve +tight. "I thought of dressing up and running away to sea as a cabin-boy. +I was so desperate. But, really, all I want is to win safe back to +Galloway and--to be let do as I like." + +"That last," said the Laird drily, "is, so far as I have observed, what +the hale race o' weemen-kind exclusively desire and seek after in this +life--juist leave to do as they like." + +Then he added cautiously, "Would you go decently to your father's house +if I landed ye on the Back Shore? Now tell me honestly, Miss Patsy!" + +"Well, I might--upon conditions--!" + +"Ah, I suppose the conditions we have just been talking about." + +"Something like them," said Patsy, smiling; "but, then, my father has +always let me do as I like, and he will now, if only I could get at +him--_by himself_! Only you see, there's Uncle Julian. He's a dear, and +I love him, but for him all that the Princess says is gospel--all that +she wants must be done instantly. That is why I am here. That is, why +this Austrian applejack is forced into the deadly breach and made to +make love to me. I don't think he wants to in the least. It is the +Princess who is too strong for him, as she is too strong for Uncle Ju, +and as she may prove too strong for me, if I don't get out of this and +run away!" + +"We'll see, bairn! We will just see!" was all she could get out of +Kennedy McClure. + + * * * * * + +Two events fruitful of consequences followed closely on this talk which +Patsy had with the Laird of Supsorrow. The first of these was a visit +which Patsy received about ten of the clock the very next morning. She +was breakfasting in Miss Aline's sitting-room after a cool ramble in the +garden. The Princess did not often appear before noon, so Miss Aline and +Patsy had the morning to themselves. + +"A lady to see Miss Ferris," said the maid, who, in consequence of Miss +Aline's prejudice, had been provided to wait upon them; "no, the lady +would not give her name. It was Miss Ferris she asked to see, and as +soon as possible. No, Miss Aline, I do not think it was some one asking +for money. She came in a carriage with liveries, quite the lady." + +Patsy went down immediately, and in the Gold Parlour she found the Lady +Lucy Raincy--Lady Lucy in tears, Lady Lucy in a pleasant fluffy +desolation of woe. She flung her arms about the girl's neck and wept +freely on her shoulder. + +"Oh, help me," she sobbed, "you _will_ help me, I know. I have not +always seemed a good friend to you, but I have always really loved you. +Only you know, a mother with an only son--I suppose I was jealous. And +oh, how I wish I had made Louis marry you then--" + +"_Then_," said Patsy, turning sharply, "when?" + +"When he wanted to and spoke to me about it! If only I had let him!" + +"But _I_ would not have 'let him' (as you call it), not then nor any +other time!" + +"But oh, be kind now," pleaded the mother, her under-lip wickering so +that Patsy, even in the act of standing on her dignity, was somehow +touched. + +"Yes--yes, I will do all I can--of course, Lady Lucy. I mean to be +kind," cried Patsy, instantly remorseful, "only I won't be given away +like a packet of sweets without my consent being asked!" + +"No, nothing of the kind--of course not," said the Lady Lucy, glad to +arrive at her purpose with any sacrifice of dignity; "but now you must +come away with me at once and help to keep Louis from marrying that +horrid Mrs. Arlington, as he swears he will. And he is defying his +grandfather, who may have a fit any moment and die--he is so angry--or +else kill Louis, I don't know which. As I came out of the door I heard +the Earl call out that he would take the dog-whip to him and thrash him +within an inch of his life for an insolent puppy. And you know how proud +Louis is. So you must come instantly with me and put a stop to it. You +know he will listen to you. He won't to me--he pushed me aside, telling +me not to meddle with men's business, when his grandfather declared that +he would disinherit him of every penny he could lay his hands upon, and +leave him with the bare title and as poor as Job." + +"But," said Patsy, holding back, "Louis would not care a bit what I +said. Why should he? If he wants to marry Mrs. Arlington, what can I say +to keep him from doing it?" + +The poor lady flopped spongily upon her knees, and taking hold of +Patsy's short morning-frock, she besought her to be kind to the most +unfortunate of mothers. + +"You must come back with me," she wailed, growing more insistent; "you +are the only one he really cares about. He used to say so even +when--when I did not want him to say it. You have influence, and he will +listen to you--and it will kill me if he breaks with his grandfather for +the sake of that--woman! I believe the very sight of you would make him +forget about that minx. Why, she is nearly as old as I am--besides her +history!" + +"I can have nothing to do with that, Lady Lucy," said Patsy, who saw no +way of refusing. "But if you like I will come and stay a day or two at +Raincy House, since you are good enough to ask me. It is no use talking +to Louis now. But perhaps we can manage in some other way. At any rate +that is the best I can think of. At lunch I shall speak to Miss Aline +and the Princess, and if you send the carriage for me this afternoon I +shall be ready." + +And the poor mother wept joyfully over her till Patsy's nice +morning-gown hung about her all limp and bedripped. + +"Thank you--thank you, dear," she said, when she had recovered a little +of her voice; "I feel that my boy is saved." + +"I can only do what I can, but remember, I am not going to be married +offhand either to Louis or anybody else. However, I don't mind being the +brave, bold Newfoundland dog, who swims in and saves poor Louis from the +wicked jaws of the Arlington shark!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ENEMY'S COUNTRY + + +Duly Patsy found the pleasure of her company requested at Raincy House, +a pleasant residence overlooking the Green Park, of which indeed, in the +previous reign, the few tall trees of its garden had formed part. +Occasionally, too, Louis continued to spend some time with Patsy, though +less than formerly, till the evening of the great ball at Hertford +House. + +To this most fashionable event Patsy was going with the Lady Lucy for a +chaperon. She had never been to any of the Regency set functions, and +this was as much an affair of the Regent as if it had taken place at +Carlton House. + +The Princess Elsa could not go, or at least would not. But Prince Eitel +had obtained an invitation through his embassy, and looked forward to a +long evening of dancing and sitting out with Patsy. He argued, quite +convincingly, that since Patsy was wholly unknown in Regency circles, +she might expect to be left a good deal to herself. But his conclusion +was wrong--first, because there were a good many, who, like Louis de +Raincy, had a foot in both camps, and for the others, especially such as +had heard much talk of Patsy, the charm of the unknown and unexpected +was strong. + +Many were the young men, therefore, who forsook the trains of Mrs. +Fitzherbert, of Miss Golding, Lady Bunyip, the Countess of Carment, and +Mrs. Arlington herself to be introduced to Patsy. Louis himself was +compelled, much against his will, to make some of these presentations. +Captain Laurence, having incautiously admitted that he had some slight +acquaintance with the young beauty and her chaperon, found himself +victimized by half a regiment at a time. Patsy soon had partners in +plenty, and the Prince Eitel, who had looked forward to a pleasant +tete-a-tete, retired to a corner from which he gloomed more and more +murkily. He folded his arms and regarded the dancers with assassinating +glances. + +But Patsy wrote a hieroglyphic of her own before half-a-dozen of the +dances, especially those just then coming into fashion, the waltz and +the Bohemian polka _a deux temps_. Then, having assured her position, +she began her struggle with the Arlington. She had never seen the lady +before, and even now she did not find her antipathetic. Mrs. Arlington +proved to be a big, blonde, jolly-looking woman, abundant in charms, +with the easiest manner and the most laughing eyes in the room. She +absolutely refused to let go her grip on youth. She must have been upon +the outer confines of forty, yet her tint was as fresh and clear as it +had been in her teens. Her hair was done in a froth of a myriad curls. +She had ballooned her bust and hour-glassed her waist according to the +fashion of the day. With her fan she beckoned this young man and that +other out of the ranks of those collected about the door, and he came +blushing, indeed, at the favour, and still more at its publicity, but +all the same half-running with eager delight. She danced frequently, but +did not seem to keep to any order or to have any written programme. She +simply told one to go and another to come according to the accredited +methods of the Roman centurion. Patsy noticed that Mrs. Arlington made +no attempts to attract the older men to her side. The Royal Dukes, +indeed, bowed over her hand, said a light word or two, and then moved +off with a slight smile and a certain air of satisfied complicity. + +From all this it was evident that Mrs. Arlington was a woman of much +more discernment and courage than Patsy had been given to expect. There +was nothing of the jill-flirt about her. She treated the boys whom she +drew about her as if they had been her sons in need of scolding. She did +not seek to hide her age. Indeed, she rather insisted upon it, and Patsy +heard her bidding a young enthusiast to take himself off and do his duty +to his girl cousins. + +"When you have danced with them all, and got your toes duly trodden +upon, come back and I shall see what I can do for you. Till then I have +nothing to say to you. Surely you don't want me to have all the mammas +hating me--there are some who look as if they could poniard me. Pray do +look at that poor dear Lady Lucy. She slops over the seat as if somebody +had opened the tap of a treacle-barrel and let her run out!" + +But Mrs. Arlington, for all her loud good-nature, did not see without a +pang the desertion of so many of her usual followers, and after she had +seen Patsy beginning to dance, it suddenly became clear to her that she +must do something to vindicate her rights of property. + +"Louis," she said, in that most commanding tone which admitted of no +reply, "go and speak to your mother. Then come straight back and dance +with me. You have not been near the Lady Lucy to-night. And that I can't +have!" + +Louis obeyed, but as he made his way round the room he heard remarks +which set him wild with anger and jealousy. + +"They say he is quite mad about her!" said one. + +"Don't they make a handsome couple?" "They are dancing the Hungarian +Polka, the real one--it is easy to see that they have been practising it +often before." "They say he is never away from Hanover Lodge!" "Oh, the +Princess--why, of course she takes an interest in the girl +because"--(and the rest was whispered into a carefully inclined ear). + +"Louis, Louis," said his mother, taking his hand and keeping it between +her two large soft palms, "do come and sit by us--don't go back to that +odious woman. I can't think what you see in her. Though, indeed, 'tis +easy to see what she has been by the horridly familiar way in which the +Dukes treat her. Oh, you will break my heart--besides you make your +grandfather so angry!" + +For all the effect this homily of his mother produced on Louis Raincy, +it might just as well never have been spoken. His eyes watched the +smiling face of Mrs. Arlington as she whispered confidentially behind +her hand to young Lord Lochend, a smooth-faced puppy whom Louis would +like to have thrown out of the window. Then he gave his attention to the +two who were dancing. They appeared so wrapped up in each other. The +world was lost to them. Indeed, nearly every one else had stopped +dancing to watch them. No doubt about it--these two were engaged. Patsy +was soon to be a Princess. And with the curious mental blindness which +causes a group of people to receive a tale, repeated by a sufficient +number of mouths, as true, Patsy was considered already as good as +married to Prince Eitel of Altschloss. Certain it was that they danced +well together. Certain also that the two-time polka was the dance of the +young man's native land. He must, therefore, have spent his time in +teaching it to Patsy. The Princess, his neighbour, was of great +influence with him. So the conclusion was clear--Patsy and he were to be +married immediately, and in ten minutes from their first standing up, it +was known what were to be the royal presents on the occasion, and the +list of guests had been divulged, as well as the name of the officiating +bishop. + +Louis heard all this, and his eyes wandered no more to Mrs. Arlington. +He thought of the seat in the niche of the beech-tree, the green and +secret nest under the wall overlooking the path along which they could +see Julian Wemyss pacing to and fro, his hands behind his back, and his +eyes on the trout darting and swirling in the pools. Once more he +scented the bog-myrtle and was the lad of the night rescue by the White +Loch. Again Patsy was his Patsy, and he felt the sting of her hand, +little and brown but very strong, on his smitten cheek. Ah, they were +good days, those--better than he had ever known since he came to London +and donned the uniform of the Blue Dragoons. What a fool he had been! + +He did not go back to Mrs. Arlington, but with an eagerness on his face, +waited the moment when Patsy should be free. The dance ended. She was +coming smilingly back to Lady Lucy. He had nothing to do but to wait. + +But the Prince Eitel! He bowed. The Prince Eitel bowed, still radiant +after the dance. He twirled his martial moustaches. He had heard from +the Princess and others what Patsy had said of Louis Raincy, and +considered himself quite at liberty to put on a conquering air which +made him particularly hateful to the officer of dragoons. + +The Prince said a few words to Lady Lucy, bowed and went away. He had +asserted his first rights, and Patsy and he had covered themselves with +glory. Mrs. Fitzherbert herself had seen and envied. The Regent had seen +and been defied. Best of all, and what he knew would please the Princess +most, Lyonesse had seen. "Gad, how happy he would be to stab a rapier +through any one of these obese swine!" And Eitel of Altschloss stalked +away glancing about him arrogantly, eager and wishful that any one of +the Regency party should quarrel with him. + +But only poor "Silly Billy" came lolloping up much like a pet rabbit, +his cravat undone and his blue ribbon of the Garter slipped from his +neck and hanging as low as his knee. + +"Cousin," he said, laughing his innocent's giggle, "what do you think? +My brother Clarence says that you have been dancing with a mightily +pretty girl, but that Lyonesse led her a prettier dance than you! What +did he mean, eh, cousin?" + +"Go to your brothers, Clarence and Lyonesse, and tell them from me that +they are damned, lying scoundrels, and that if they want a foot of steel +through them, they have only to say as much in my hearing. Now say it +over--don't forget." + +The "natural" was delighted with his commission. + +"No, Eitel, I shall tell them every word. I like you, Eitel. You never +call me 'Silly Billy' like the rest. If you _could_ put some more swears +in--I should like that still better!" + +"I am sorry I cannot oblige," said Prince Eitel, "but the one there is, +will suffice if you shout it loud enough. Thank you, Duke! that will do +perfectly." + +And the little man trotted off to deliver his message, jerking his arms +and cracking his fingers with a real delight. It was not often that he +got the chance of swearing at his brothers under the protection of +Prince Eitel of Altschloss. + +Meanwhile Louis Raincy had not been misusing his time. He knew he had +come late in the day, and he was conscious of the queue of aspirants +forming behind him. + +At first Patsy listened with indifference, her eyes on the other side of +the room and her chin in the air. She was so sorry, but she thought that +of course Louis had all his arrangements made long before. She had seen +him from the time they came in, yet while she was sitting beside his +mother, he had never seen fit to come near them! + +Whereupon Louis explained. He had been busy--the onerous duties of an +attache--and so forth. + +Patsy kept him awhile on the tenterhooks. He went on to remind her of +the burn of the Glen-wood. He described their nests in the beech-butt +and under the shelter of the great march dyke. He would have spoken of +the race across the moors and the rescue at the White Gates, save that +by instinct he knew that her thoughts would at once be carried to Stair +Garland, the man who _was_ a man and as such had played the leading part +on these occasions. He hated even to see the Duke of Lyonesse limp and +to think that he had not even done _that_ himself! + +"Well, the one after next!" said Patsy carelessly, after consulting the +list of dances for those she had marked with her own hieroglyphic. + +"Meanwhile, stay here with Lady Lucy till I am ready. I am certainly not +going to seek you up and down the ball-room." + +This she said because she noticed that the Arlington was beginning to +waft signals in the young man's direction with her fan. Therefore, +before she took her next partner's arm, she saw Louis sit down beside +his delighted mother, and talking to her in a manner so completely +absorbed that he never so much as raised his eyes. + +Patsy proved perfectly entrancing when it came to be Louis's turn to +dance with her, but before the end of the music they dropped out, for +Patsy said, "Now we shall climb the bank till we find our nook!" + +And taking the young man's hand they ran nimbly up the stairs till they +came to a dimly curtained recess which, if the truth must be told, Patsy +had just vacated. + +"Oh," said Louis, delighted, "you are as clever at finding hidie-holes +in Hertford House as you used to be in the brows of the Abbey Water!" + +"Draw the curtains closer," said Patsy, "or we shall have your Mrs. +Arlington spying us out and carrying you off with a single wave of her +fan. She reminds me of Circe--a fat, curly-wurly Circe--like that +picture Uncle Ju brought back from Italy. _Why_ do you run after her, +Louis? I told you to go and make love to as many pretty girls as would +let you, and here you go and break the tables of affinity by making love +to your grandmother!" + +At this Louis was vaguely offended--or perhaps rather hurt than +offended. He had not come there to be lectured--at least not about Mrs. +Arlington. But Patsy had the good sense to administer the cooling bitter +medicine immediately after the waltz, when men are never quite +themselves. She would give him time to get over it. + +"I am not making love to Mrs. Arlington," he retorted abruptly. + +"I should think not," said Patsy, as instantaneously. "As an officer and +a gentleman I should hope that you know better what England expects of +you--Patsy Ferris also. What does the man suppose he is here for, that +he should begin by telling me that? But seriously, Louis, you used to be +always one to strike out new paths for yourself--why do you stick to the +dusty highway--or, perhaps one might say in Mrs. Arlington's case, the +old military road?" + +"Patsy," said Louis, "_you_ do not need to say things like that. You are +too pretty. Mrs. Arlington is a kind woman, much spoken against and +abominably maligned. Besides, she is a great admirer of yours, and would +give anything to be introduced to you! She told me so!" + +Patsy whistled a mellow but mocking blackbird's note which very nearly +brought the Duke of Kent, and half-a-dozen of his compeers, upon them. +However, they passed on, in spite of royal instructions to "stop and +search--some of these little she-vixens are signalling us!" + +While the danger lasted, Patsy had gripped Louis by the wrist as she +used to do in the woods when her uncle or some prowling gamekeeper went +by. And the pressure of her fingers made his pulses fly. Patsy sighed, +for she knew well that she was laying up wrath against herself, but for +the present she disregarded the future. She was saving Louis, and in +order to do this she must attach him to herself. It was a pity, of +course, because it would inevitably lead to entanglements. Louis would +blame her. Lady Lucy would blame her, and perhaps, at least till she had +an occasion to explain, the Earl would also be angry. But of this last +she was in no very deadly fear. Of all the explanations which fall to be +made in this weary world, she found those with well-affected old +gentlemen to be the easiest. And indeed, she was not very particular +whether they were well-affected or not--that is, to begin with. The +shikar was only the more interesting if the tiger growled and showed his +teeth a bit at first. + +Thereafter Patsy laid herself out to tease Louis, to bedazzle the poor +boy's brain, and to reduce him to the state of drivelling incompetence +induced by disobedience to the Arlington and dancing with herself. She +went so far that Louis, filled with a spirit more heady than wine, got +down on his knees and was trying to make Patsy understand his undying +devotion, when the curtain was pushed furiously aside and Mrs. Arlington +appeared menacing in the brilliant illumination of the stairs. Behind, +having no connection with her, but equally there on a mission of +vengeance, loomed up the chubby giant, Prince Eitel of Altschloss. + +"Ah, Prince," said Patsy, not in the least ruffled, "is it time for our +dance already?" + +"No," said the Prince austerely, "our dance was five or six back!" + +Patsy glanced at her programme. She had carried it out to the very +hieroglyph. All those dances which she had specially marked, she had sat +out with Louis in the niche on the stairs. And now she did not mean to +leave the spoil in the hands of the enemy. + +She rose to her feet, shook out her skirts, and said, "Now, Louis, give +me your arm and take me back to Lady Lucy. I don't think I shall dance +any more to-night. You had better come with us to Raincy House! +Good-night, Prince! I suppose we shall see you to-morrow!" + +And so departed with the honours of war, leaving Eitel and Mrs. +Arlington to console each other as best they might. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +A CREDIT TO THE "GREEN DRAGON" + + +The average riverine loafer about the Kew Waterfront, really a potential +cheat, robber, and occasional murderer, looked upon the recent arrival +at the "Green Dragon" as a prey specially destined by Providence for his +necessities. He was never more completely mistaken. Kennedy McClure was, +in the loafer's own language, "fly to the tricks of all wrong coves." +Had he not held his own (and more) for thirty years in a hundred markets +with horse-fakers and cattle-drovers? He did not "go after the +lush"--still less "follow the molls." He never walked by the waterside +by night, and on the one occasion when a rush had been tried as he +strolled back in the twilight from Hanover Lodge, he had cracked Jem +Simcoe's head so thoroughly, that there was little likelihood of its +ever being much good to him in this world--a pretty thing for a man +living by his wits and with a family of three or four young wives +intermittently depending upon his efforts. + +It was soon known that Mr. Kennedy McClure did not carry his money about +with him. He had deposited his pocket book with the city correspondents +of Sir Willliam Forbes's bank, and now walked about with a light step, +his blackthorn cudgel in his hand, and a glad light of battle in his +eye. + +"Tell me the day before your bill is due and I shall have the money," he +said to the landlord of the "Green Dragon." And on the appointed morning +a messenger from the city brought the amount, which Kennedy would open +in the presence of Mr. Wormit himself, pay him, and send back the +receipt to his correspondents in the city, thus gaining the reputation +of being a man who knew his way about, and making a devoted slave of the +landlord, who liked all ready-money men as much as he hated all fools. + +In this way, by the free speech of the admiring landlord of the "Green +Dragon," whose words admitted of no reply, Kennedy McClure grew daily in +honour and stature. To Mr. Wormit, himself no mean man, he had at first +appeared as a mere pensioner on the bounty of the inhabitant of the +royal Lodge. But he soon grew into the Superintendent of her Estates. He +became "her confidential man"--"him as looks after her business." He +ended by being the Princess's adviser on all her affairs, and in +addition a mint of power and wisdom on his own account. + +Had he not got the landlord's second son James Wormit into the Lodge +gardens, where he had been appointed auxiliary to Miss Aline? Had he +not, though declaring himself wholly ignorant of English law, furnished +the hint which led to the favourable settlement of the long-disputed +case of H. M. Excise Board _versus_ Wormit? Altogether a wonderful man, +the landlord declared Kennedy to be, and a credit to the house any way +you looked at it. + +He knew a thing or two, he did. Would he have all these sailor-men from +the docks sent to take their orders from him every day or two if he were +an ordinary country gull? Would the young lady from the Lodge--she who +went to the Court at Windsor, and drove out with the Princess--be +walking all the way back with him if he were a nobody? And no fool +either--carried just enough money to get him a bit to eat and a pint, +when he wanted them--while there was that great oaf Jem Simcoe lying +with his broken head which he was fool enough to trust within reach of +such a man's cudgel. "Sarve him right," said Mr. Wormit. If Jem had +known what Mr. Wormit knew, or a tenth part of it, he would have made +sure that he had not the ghost of a chance with such a man. + +So Kennedy and his dangling cowries, his corded kersey-mere shorts, his +blue knitted hose and silver buckles, had honour in Loafer Land, and +every hulking rascal who carried the pattern of the ornamental +wrought-iron posts at the gates of the "Green Dragon" yard permanently +imprinted in the small of his back, swore by him just as much as did +Wormit the landlord. They saluted him as he went to and fro. They pulled +forelocks and touched caps, feeling elated when the great man growled at +them and ordered them by his gods to get out of his way. They knew how a +gentleman ought to speak, and (though the accent was a little peculiar) +Kennedy McClure's way was that way. + +And during these spring weeks there is no doubt that the landlord had a +great deal of reason for his opinion of his guest. Kennedy went every +day to the Lodge. He arrived there early and Patsy met him, equipped for +a walk, rain or shine, sleet or brooding river-fog--it made no matter to +Patsy. + +The two set off into the park, where they talked for a couple of +hours--indeed till the approach of the luncheon hour warned them that +the Princess, having descended, might be expected to miss her young +companion. Patsy clung to the old man's sturdy arm, and certainly +Kennedy's bachelor heart beat the kindlier, if not the faster, for the +pressure. He was a most reassuring confidant and never took a hopeless +view of anything. + +"There's more ways o' killing a cat than choking her wi' cream!" he was +in the habit of saying. "The craw doesna bigg his nest wi' yae strae!" +"It tak's mair than a score o' yowes to stock a muir!" "Bide a wile--God +made a' thing for something--even lasses!" + +Nevertheless these were hard days for Patsy. Life at the Lodge was +becoming extremely complex. Prince Eitel in his pervading way took a +great deal too much for granted. He had received a letter from her Uncle +Julian giving him every encouragement, and as he had not heard from her +father, he was meditating a ride to the North along with his cousin of +Thurn-and-Taxis in order to present to the Laird of Cairn Ferris a +demand for Patsy's hand in accordance with the due forms of protocol. + +Then Louis had forsaken the Arlington even as his mother had hoped. But, +just as Patsy had foreseen, he now followed her rather more closely than +her shadow. It was only in the early mornings, in company with Kennedy +McClure, that she could escape from her wooers. She had Louis in the +afternoon, telling her by the hour the tale of his fidelity and of all +he had done, was doing, and was going to do for her. + +Then would come Prince Eitel, when at sight of Louis Raincy the blond +hairs of his moustache would bristle like those of an angry cat, while +Louis glowered a more sullen defiance. Only Miss Aline managed to stave +off the storm, but even with her shepherding of the elements, it was +bound to break one day or another. + +Louis was never asked to dinner, so he had perforce to take himself +ungraciously off, leaving his rival in possession of the field. Not that +that did Eitel much good, for the Princess declined to accept of a man +in love as a whist partner. She chose instead Miss Aline who had the +gleg eye of the old maid, and a memory sharpened with forty years of +"knowing jeely pots by head mark." + +Prince Eitel and Patsy lost regularly, sometimes as much as +one-and-sixpence on an evening's play, which sent the Princess to bed a +happy woman. + +Besides, there began to be primroses on the Thames waterside, the sight +of which made Patsy cry, and in the gardens a wealth of yellow and blue +blossoms began to push up, the blue nestling under the shadows, and the +yellow coming boldly out even in the filtered warmth of the spring +sunshine, when the east winds blew the smoke of the city far up the +river. + +Then Patsy had visions. Patsy dreamed dreams--such dreams, visions +glorious--thirty miles of Solway swept clean of mist, great over-riding +white clouds, crenellated and victorious--the Atlantic thundering on the +Back Shore, and all the tides of the North Channel tearing past. She saw +the Twin Valleys awakening--a marvel she had never yet missed--the +sheltered blooms and shy crozier-headed ferns deep in the trough of the +Abbey Burn, the wilder, vaster spaces of broom and gorse, the windflower +and hyacinth in the woods and sheltered spaces of the Glenanmays Water! +Ah, she knew where to look for every one.--And merely not to be there, +made her heart turn to water within her. + +And then all of them tearing at her--she must do this--she must promise +that! If they would only let her alone. She did not want to marry Eitel. +She got tired of him after half-an-hour. She only really liked him when +he was talking about the wars, and Louis--what a nuisance Be was +becoming! She began to hate the innocent Princess, who for Julian's sake +was doing everything for her, and she even grew silent with poor Miss +Aline, shutting herself up more and more within herself. Oh, she was +sick of everything. Was ever a girl so unhappy? + +For which causes and reasons, seemingly quite insufficient to any one +but Patsy, she was escaping every day to plot black treason with Kennedy +McClure, whenever that worthy old gentleman was not either at Barnet +Fair or Smithfield Market, the only two places in London which had any +interest for him. + +And of course, at this critical moment, there arrived the cataclysmic +letter from Stair. + + "The Bothy was attacked and surrounded last night. We can hold out + for at least a week! + + "STAIR." + +Then everything grew dazed about her--Hanover Lodge and the Princess, +the empty phantasmagoria of courts, balls and routs, the disputes and +reconciliations of royal Dukes, Louis and his half-cured amours with the +Arlington. What did all these things matter? Perhaps at that very moment +the Bothy had been taken by storm, and Patsy's quick mind saw Stair and +her Uncle Julian lying dead out on the face of the moor, the soldiers +who had done the work having no time for even a peat-hag burial. + +But Kennedy McClure was a strong tower. If he were affected by the +message he certainly did not show it. + +"Hoots, lass," he said, patting her shoulder, "greetin' does no good. +Come wi' me the morn in the _Good Intent_. That will be three tides +before her regular sailing date, but I ken Captain Penman. He is under +some obligations to me, and the _Good Intent_--weel, she's maistly my +ain. But though ye canna speak to the Princess, ye had better tell Miss +Aline. Being Gallowa-born and Gallowa-bred, she will understand and +speak for ye to the Princess." + +Patsy promised, though reluctantly, to do what was necessary in Miss +Aline's case. It was monstrous and hateful to her that she should need +to go back to Hanover Lodge at all. But she recognized that Kennedy +McClure was likely to be right, and as she was only anticipating by a +few weeks what she meant to do ever since she had begun to talk with the +Laird of Supsorrow, she resolved to interview Miss Aline instantly. + +Miss Aline also had her own reasons for being wearied of Hanover Lodge. +It "wasna' her ain country" and the "fremit folk (especially the +'flonkies') vexed her sair!" Thus from the first there was no question +of her letting Patsy go back alone. + +"Fegs, no," she cried, "what do ye tak' me for? Lassie, do ye not ken +that I am here for the purpose o' lookin' after you--little as I have +been able to accomplish, with you as flichty as the Wemysses and as dour +as the Ferrises. It is the Lord's ain peety that ye werena' born +reasonable and wise like the Mintos--!" + +"And your grandfather--" Patsy suggested, "him they call Hellfire +Minto--what was it he did to the poor man at Falkirk Tryst?" + +"He wasna' a poor man--he was the chief o' a neibour clan and the twa +were at feud. It was that sent my granther doon to Galloway where there +are no clans nor ony spites that last for twenty generations. But no +matter for that. We are wasting time. Let us go and see the Princess. +What for should we steal away like a thief in the night--after all her +kindness, when we can get her God-speed by the asking?" + +"She will try to stop us--tell her nothing!" cried Patsy, instantly +fearful lest she should be locked up, or by some machination prevented +from joining the _Good Intent_. + +"And if ye please, Patsy Ferris, wha may it be that is in danger at the +Bothy o' Blairmore?" + +"Why, Stair Garland, of course!" + +"And wha else?" + +"I suppose my Uncle Julian is," said Patsy, seeing Miss Aline's point, +"but he is not in real danger like Stair." + +"Not perhaps if it comes to a trial, but suppose that the sodjers have +orders not to let it come to a trial--!" + +"Oh, Miss Aline, do you mean that they would kill them on the spot?" + +"Weel, lass, Stair and Mr. Julian will doubtless be defending +theirsel's, and what is to hinder a musket or so from going off behind +their backs? There will be a reward oot and Brown Bess is tricky at the +best of times. I am judgin' that the Princess will rather be for coming +with us than for standing in our road!" + +Miss Aline judged well. The Princess was anxious that they should take +half-a-dozen of her retainers who had served in the wars, but Miss Aline +pointed out that their ignorance of the country and language would make +them only a danger. Finally, however, they agreed to take Heinrich Wolf, +called the Silent, a lean, keen-profiled man of fifty, who had been a +famous tracker of bear and boar in the Austrian Alps, and in his youth +an expert in contraband of no mean fame, and of large experience both on +mountain and on sea. + +The thought of Julian's danger threw the Princess into a flurry of +nervous fever, so that she could get no rest till she saw their boxes +packed--each being allowed but one because of the difficulties of a +secret landing. The others were to be sent to the care of Eelen Young at +Ladykirk. + +At first it was not clear to the Princess what they would do to help the +besieged when they got there, but Miss Aline assured her that if any one +could possibly raise the country and save the situation, that person was +Patsy and no other. + +Old Silent Wolf took with him a couple of great jaeger "ruk-sacks" full +of sausages, together with much ammunition for rifle and pistol. These +he nursed as he waited in the hall with a grim expression on his +countenance, but as composedly as if he had only come in to report on +the possible game for the day's shooting. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE NIGHT LANDING + + +It was the gloaming of a late March day when the reefed top-sails of the +_Good Intent_ showed up against the horizon of bleak slate-grey which +was the Irish Sea. The North Channel foamed boisterously to the left, +heaping many waters together, a perpetual cave of the winds, a +play-ground for errant tides, or rather, as the folk on its shores say, +the meeting-place of all the Seven Seas. + +From early morning they had been standing off, not daring to approach +nearer till assisted by the westward rush of the Solway tides and the +darkness which would hide everything. Captain Penman was a man of few +words, and these few he did not waste. Inwardly he was boiling over at +the ill-luck of his first spring run. He cursed Stair Garland and Julian +Wemyss for mixing private quarrels with so sacred a mission as that of +hoodwinking his Majesty's Customs. + +"As good a cargo as ever came past the Point of Ayre," he grumbled, "and +if young Garland had been attending to his business, we might have run +it at the Mays Water as easy as changing money from one trousers pocket +to the other. But now I must put these people on shore with the whole +countryside humming with Preventives, and as like as not a brig-o'-war +hovering about. There always is, when soldiers take a hand. The +authorities get into a flurry and order up everything that can carry a +gun. I shall have to make for Balcary or that narrow shingly cur's hole +of a Portowarren, where a ship can't turn between the Boreland heuchs +and the reefs of Port Ling. Then there are never enough boats there, and +three tides will not serve to clear her. Why could not Kennedy McClure +mind his business, which is also my business? He has been witched, as if +he were only twenty, by this lass of Adam Ferris's. And the more shame +to him that has passed sixty without ever a chick or a child to hamper +him, or a petticoat to drag him to church o' Sundays!" + +Yet for all his abuse this close-lipped captain of the _Good Intent_ +allowed Patsy many favours. She was often beside him on the bridge, and +the Captain would explain to her quite patiently why they were hanging +off and on, when the cliffs of the Back Shore were clearly visible, and +for a little while even she could make out through the glass the twin +rifts of the Valleys of Abbey Burnfoot and the Mays Water. + +"Ye see, bairn," Captain Penman would say, "we can see nothing at all of +what is going on ashore, while to a Preventive man up on the heuchs +yonder with a spy-glass, we are as plain to be seen as a fly on white +paper. I changed her rigging about a bit in the winter months, but for +all that there is something about the auld _Good Intent_ that makes her +as easy to be told as the well-weathered brick-red of a sea-going face +on shore!" + +But of course Patsy was eager and impatient. She was hard to be held. + +"If it is of your cargo you are thinking, why not go straight in and +land us? Then you can take your tea and lace and brandy further on." + +Captain Penman looked at the girl beside him, and was sorry for her +disappointment. + +"I would if I could, Mistress Patsy, but they would only grip the whole +of you the moment you stepped on shore. Then that rough-haired rascal +with the armoury in his belt would loose off half-a-dozen shots before +they got him mastered, that would send you all straight to prison. And +that's no place for them that want to help their friends in trouble. +Besides, there are King's ships about, and who knows whether the wind +may hold? If it dropped, we should be taken--all the lot of us, and the +_Good Intent_ with her fine winter's cargo would be made a gauger's +prize! No, bairn, we are better biding here till the dark of the night +comes and then--we shall see where we can set you ashore!" + +"Weel, Captain," interrupted Kennedy McClure, who had come up from +below, "what think ye of the landing? Can we make the auld place within +the bight of the Mays Water? That would be the nearest to the Bothy on +the Wild o' Blairmore!" + +"Maybe," said the Captain, grimly, "but being the nearest is not to say +the safest. They will have a cordon o' marines and, what is far worse, +maybe blue-jackets on the lookout. Sodjers and Preventives do not matter +so muckle. For at night the sodjers canna see onything, and the +Preventives are apt to be lookin' the ither road." + +"Ye think, then, that we had better try the Burnfoot?" + +"I think nothing," said Captain Penman, irritably. "I am here to sail my +ship according to your orders. But I will take nothing to do with what +may happen after you set your foot on shore." + +"Na, then, wha was thinkin' itherwise?" said Kennedy McClure, +soothingly, "but surely a word o' advice is worth having from siccan an +auld hand as you!" + +"If I were you, then," said the Captain, instantly mollified, "I should +e'en keep the lower side o' the Abbey Water, away from the Wild. Even if +the red-coats have caged the mice, they are sure to have reset the +trap--and great fools would ye be to walk straight into it!" + + * * * * * + +As soon as it was dark enough, Captain Penman let his vessel drift +landward with the tide, then running strong into the wide swallow of the +Solway. The wind was light, and a jib was sufficient to give her +steerage-way. It was intended that the passengers should be set on shore +at a point nearly opposite to Julian Wemyss's house, where a spit of +sand and the shoulder of cliff formed a neat little anchorage. The +sailors of the _Good Intent_, accustomed to the work, were ordered to +convey the little luggage they had brought with them from London to the +nearest "hidie-hole" known to Kennedy McClure, where, if all went well, +men from Supsorrow could easily dig them up and carry them to their +owners. + +Attempts were made to signal as the _Good Intent_ glided along the +coast, but all remained obstinately dark. Dark lay Glenanmays at the +head of the wide Mays Water. The cliffs of the Wild sent back no +answering flashes, and it was not till the _Good Intent_ was well-nigh +abreast of the Partan Craig that a faint light glimmered out, low down +by the edge of the water.... _Flash--flash--flash_--(it went, and then +darkness). _Flash--flash--flash_--each double the duration of the first. +Then came the blackness of darkness again, and anon half-a-dozen swift +needle-points of light chasing one another as quickly as the eye could +register them. + +"_There is danger ... to the north--keep farther away!_" Captain Penman +read off the coded message. "That's one of our folk. At any rate they +are not all hanged!" + +When they reached the next bay to the south the whale-boat was manned, +and Miss Aline first, and then Patsy, were carefully handed down. After +them came Kennedy McClure, cursing his own weight and the rope which had +scorched his hands, last of all old huntsman Wolf scrambled down, bags +of ammunition and all, as alert as a monkey, his rifle slung over his +shoulder and his jaeger's feather stuck rakishly in his green Tyrolean +hat. + +The men hardly dipped their oars into the water. The mate, Rob Blair +from Garlieston, a dark, hook-nosed springald as strong as a horse, sat +in the stern and steered, directing the men in whispers. Presently they +entered into a purple gloom, and the stars were shut out over a full +half of the heavens. On shore and quite near, the lantern flickered six +times as swiftly as before. + +"Still further to the south!" it said. "Hang the fellow, he will bring +us up among the Port Patrick fishing-boats! Ah, there!" + +Out of the loom of the land as the current swept them under the cliffs, +came one long, steady flare--then a pause, which was followed by a +second. + +"Head in, men," said Rob Blair, laying his weight on the tiller, "the +fellow on shore says that all is safe, which may be and again it may +not! There is that devil of a nephew of yours, Spy McClure from +Stonykirk. They say he is still at large. If he has sold us to the +land-sharks, it is the last Judas-money he will touch. I know ten men in +Garlieston who will see to that!" + +"Attend to your own business, mate," growled Kennedy McClure. "I will be +answerable for my nephew." + +"That's more than I should care to undertake," said the black-browed, +free-tongued Garliestonian. "'Tis no sort of a hearty welcome ye will +get at the Last Day when ye face the Throne, if ye have such a wastrel's +sins to answer for." + +"Silence!" said Kennedy. "We are close in and we shall see in a minute. +You, foreigner, if I tell you to shoot--_shoot_--but not before!" + +Patsy could just see the jaeger's teeth bared in a permanent grin. + +"Steady there, men! Back-water! Now, you with the lantern, let us have +your name." + +"Francis Airie," a voice called out of the darkness. + +"Francis Airie--don't know him. Heads low, men--ready there to go about. +I never heard of Francis Airie. He is none of ours. Hold on, not so +fast, you Austrian, sight your man before you fire!" + +"I see him very well in the dark--shall I let off so he dead be?" + +"I am Francis Airie, called the Poor Scholar," said the voice; "Miss +Patsy Ferris knows me, and Mr. Kennedy also!" + +"Of course I do," said Patsy, recognizing the voice of the lad who had +helped her with many a hard line of Virgil, and many a passage of +Tacitus, in which the verbs were singularly thin-sown. "Is it safe to +come in where you are, Francis?" + +"Quite, Miss Ferris," said the voice. "They have got Stair and Mr. +Wemyss cornered in the Bothy, but they are still holding out. Fergus and +Agnew are away on the cliffs to the north, but they are too closely +watched to venture a signal. So that is why I am here to meet you." + +With a long, even glide the boat's keel touched soft sand. + +"Steady now, men,--back her a little!" said the mate, who was afraid of +being caught on an ebbing tide, "overboard with you, Lambert, and you +McVane, and help the ladies ashore." + +But a pair of strong arms came over the side and grasped Patsy. + +"No need," said the Poor Scholar, "I know exactly where to land and--" + +"Take Miss Aline first!" commanded Patsy; "think of the pious AEneas you +used to preach to me about." + +And she got herself carried ashore by the hirsute giant McVane. + +"'Seniores priores' would have been a better quotation," said the +Scholar, as he took up Miss Aline; "take hold of the lapels of my coat, +Miss Aline--your arms not so close about my neck, if you please!" + +"I doubt if you would have objected to the arms about your neck if they +had been Patsy's, you and your 'Seniores'!" Miss Aline observed rather +tartly as she was borne off. They were soon all safe in a tiny cove, +their feet on the pleasant wet sand, and the dark undefined shapes of +the crags overhanging them on every side. A moment more and the boat +disappeared into the darkness. A lantern flashed and was answered. They +were free to proceed on their quest. Francis the Scholar led them +carefully above tide-mark, turned at right-angles into a still deeper +darkness, bade them keep their heads low, and with Patsy's hand in his +passed into a cave-shelter, in one corner of which the embers of his +watch-fire still smouldered red. Francis threw a handful of pine-cones +upon the fire. It blazed up instantly with a clear light and a fragrant +odour, and the four night-voyagers looked at each other, wondering at +the wild eyes and haggard faces which they saw. + +One corner of the cavern had been roughly screened off with sacking, and +within was a comfortable couch of broom and heather twigs, upon which +Miss Aline was advised to lie down. But this she refused emphatically to +do. + +"And me as near to my ain decent house at Ladykirk," she said, "what for +should I do such a thing?" + +"Because," said the Poor Scholar, "I have much to tell you, much you +must hear, and you will not see Ladykirk this night. In fact you could +not, without betraying the secrets of those who have been depending upon +your aid." + +"Say on, then," quoth Miss Aline; "the Mintos are no tale-pyets, and +that ye shall ken. Let us hear what ye hae to say, laddie! Ye will be +Nicholas Airie's gyte--I kenned her when she was dairy lass up at the +Folds and mony is the time I warned her--but there's nae use harkin' +back on the things noo, and when a' is said and dune ye carried me nane +so ill, though the deil flee awa' wi' you and your 'Seniores'!--I would +have you know that the day has been when I was as young--I am no sayin' +sae bonnie or sae flichertsome as Miss Patsy there--but still weel +eneuch and young eneuch. 'Seniores,' indeed, and you thinkin' I wad not +tak' your meaning! Faith, I hae wasted my time ower Ruddiman's +Ruddiments as well as the best o' them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ORDEAL BY FIRE + + +The Bothy on the Wild of Blairmore was an entrenched camp, for Stair was +too good a general not to see to the state of his defences, to his +victualling and armament from the beginning. So, though the moment of +the attack was a surprise, its manner had long been foreseen. As Stair +had repeatedly said, "The sea is never shut!" + +Landing parties from the _Britomart_ and _Vandeleur_ had marched up the +Valleys, and the Preventive men of all the West of Galloway had quietly +gathered at Stranryan in order to co-operate with them. + +It was Stair who stumbled upon a picket of the _Britomart_ men hidden +among the eastern sand-dunes. He was on his way to meet Joseph, +Whitefoot as usual at his heels, when suddenly the dog sprang forward, +eyes blazing, hackles stiff, his nose high in the air, and his teeth +bared, ready to bound. Stair restrained him and crept to the lip of a +little sandy cup where, from the midst of a clump of dry saw-edged +sea-grass, he could look down on a group of men busied about their +soup-kettle. + +"Silly fools," he muttered to himself, "they do not know that the first +handful of heather and dried bracken they throw on their fire, will send +a skarrow to the sky that will warn every soul within twenty miles. If I +had not been a blind idiot, and thinking of something else, I should +have seen it long before I came so far." + +And looking over his shoulder he saw to the right, to the left, and +behind him towards the cliffs seaward, multitudinous pulsing ruddy +camp-fire blooms, waking, waxing and falling, that told of a general +investment of their fastness, so long secure. In spite of the surprise, +however, Stair managed to meet Joseph and to warn him that nothing +further must be attempted except by means of Whitefoot. He introduced +the wise collie and made him give his two front paws to the confidential +servant in token of amity, while he repeated his name over and over +again--"Joseph! Joseph!" + +"_Ao-ouch!_" whispered Whitefoot, as much as to say, "Of course I +understand! Do you think that I, Whitefoot Garland, am some silly puppy +gambolling through life?" + +For Whitefoot was a grave dog and had had to do with many very serious +things indeed--things which touched even the life of his master. So it +is no wonder that at this time of day he rather resented pains being +taken with his education. It was like setting a double-first to construe +the first book of Caesar. + +Stair returned to the Bothy with his heart heavy and many thoughts +churning within him. He reached the Wild safely with nothing worse to +report than the fact that he was fired upon by a sentry, which warned +him that he must not come that way too often. He did not enter directly +into the Bothy, where, as he knew, Julian Wemyss would be doing an +hour's reading before turning in. Instead he betook himself to the dam +which his brothers and the band had constructed at the close of the +autumnal peat-leading. + +All the winter the _Sunk_ of Blairmore had been full of black moss +water. For the greater part of the cold weather it had been frozen and +snow-bound. But now, swollen with spring rains, the ditches of the +_Sunk_ were lipping to the overflow. Stair took the great iron gelleck +and with a blow or two knocked back the clutches of the flood-barriers. +Then flinging down the huge crow-bar, he fled for his life, the +ink-black water hissing and spurting at his heels. It was not noisy, +that water. It ran silently, almost oilily, but all the same it followed +after, and it was swirling black about Stair Garland's knees as he +scrambled up the high platform of the Bothy, at the place where you +could dig out the sand and sea-shells of a past age from among the roots +of the heather. + +"That will put out one or two of their fires for them!" he exclaimed +triumphantly, and even as he spoke he heard cries announcing danger, +hasty preparations for flight, while the red "skarrows" in the sky +winked only once or twice more and were then wiped out clean all along +the east and west borders of the Wild. Only on the high southern cliffs +the fires still shone. And Stair knew that it was thither that the +drowned-out investing parties would be compelled to retreat. + +From the north there came no sign, for there alone no fires had been +lighted. But the Wild spread the farthest and was most dangerous and +inaccessible in that direction. Only morning would reveal the solitary +tiny zigzag of path which connected them with their fellows, a path +which Stair believed to be quite impossible--_unless_--and here a +suspicion went flashing through his mind which sent him indoors with a +bound. No, Eben the Spy was lying on his bed apparently sound asleep. + +Stair gazed at him with a bitter smile. + +"That's what comes of having a bad record against you," he murmured, +"the man may be quite innocent. He may be really asleep. Yet as things +are I dare not treat him as if he were either. To-morrow he must do a +little scouting for us. He shall feel for the enemy, and if they fire +upon him--well and good, then he has not brought the enemy down upon us. +But because of his past, he must undergo the ordeal by fire and water. + +"Well, we will let him sleep, but all the same I shall keep an eye upon +him to see that he does not take French leave during the night!" + +Stair called Mr. Wemyss from his reading. The ex-ambassador thought that +a new parcel of books had arrived, and made haste to obey. He saw the +door of the Bothy open and Stair, a large, dark shape vaguely outlined +against a rosy illumination, the cause of which he did not understand, +leaning easily with his shoulder against the lintel-post, blocking all +exit. + +"Well, Stair," said Julian, "did you find Joseph? Had he any word of the +_Good Intent_?" + +"I did find Joseph," said Stair curtly, "and it will be a long time +before I find him again. Do you see that?" + +"That" referred to the numerous fires which were now being lighted on +the heights of the sand-hills, by the fugitives from the camps in the +hollows of the Wild, who had been driven out by the invading waters of +the dam constructed by the Garland brothers and their followers. + +Julian Wemyss gazed a little stupidly. His eyes were unaccustomed to the +dark, and he blinked like one who finds a difficulty in believing the +evidence of his senses. + +"Are these really fires?" he asked, covering his eyes with his hand. + +Stair softly shut the door behind the two of them. It would not now +matter whether the spy were asleep or awake. + +"Now do you understand?" he said softly. + +"They are fires, and we are surrounded by water. You have let out the +dam!" + +Stair sketched his night's adventure, with his hand on Whitefoot's head, +who sat staring out at the winking fires gravely and wisely, as one who +knew all about it and would have a great deal to say to the matter +before all was done. + +"Ah," said Julian Wemyss, "this is no chance business. They have been +preparing it with the long hand. But why did they not charge from all +sides at once and so rush the Bothy?" + +"They could not," said Stair simply, "of course there were three easy +paths then where there is only one very difficult one now. But, you see, +they did not know that. They did not know and they do not know the +strength of our garrison, or how soon we hope to be reinforced." + +"I suppose," Julian whispered, "you have every confidence--?" And he +indicated the ulterior of the Bothy where the ex-spy was sleeping. + +"No," murmured Stair, "but I shall be sure to-morrow as soon as the sun +is up. Possible treachery within the camp is not the sort of thing one +can afford to let drag!" + +"Provisions?" queried Julian. + +"For a year!" said Stair. + +"Water?" + +"As you see!" And he swept his arm largely round the circle of the Wild. +"We shall make a filter with a little granite sand (silver sand they +call it). After passing it two or three times through this, the peat +water will be fairly palatable. At least we shall need to put up with +it!" And then Stair communicated to his fellow-prisoner his idea of the +defence of the Bothy. + +"We do not want to kill any of these men who have been ordered to come +and starve us out," he said. "You have your house and your position. It +is true that you have killed Lord Wargrove, but if he had not been a +friend of the Regent and a confidant of Lyonesse, you might have walked +the streets of London after a month or so, and no man would have dreamed +of disquieting you. I am in a wholly different case. They are eager to +see me hanged, and would not hesitate to make it high treason--" + +"High treason only affects the person of the King," said Julian Wemyss; +"not that that will help matters much, the Regent's judges being what +they are." + +"At any rate," said Stair, "killing a blue-jacket or an exciseman will +do us no good, and I am for firing blanks except in the very last +extremity--of course, if it is our life or that of another man, I think +we owe it to ourselves to see that the funeral is the other fellow's!" + +Stair Garland slept that night outside, wrapped in his plaid, with +Whitefoot crouched in the corner of it. The watcher's back was against +the door of the Bothy, the key of which was in his pocket. He was taking +care that his ex-spy did not take it into his head to escape the ordeal +of the morning. + +At daybreak Stair rose to his feet and shook himself comprehensively. +His limbs were stiff with the cold and damp. Whitefoot had been alert +most of the night. He was unquiet and whined occasionally to himself, +but very softly. The fires on the sand-dunes agitated him--perhaps also +the unrest of his master, who with his own comfortable bed within a +dozen yards, had chosen so incommodious a way of spending the night. +Every few minutes Whitefoot aroused himself and paced stealthily round +the little hut, his head in the air, sniffing the four winds for +information. He tried the black lipping water with his paw and shook it +dry again. That also he did not understand. However, he believed that +Stair Garland did. The knowledge comforted him and sent him back to the +nook of his master's plaid, where he nestled down without turning round, +which was perhaps the most wonderful accomplishment of this wonderful +dog. + + * * * * * + +Whether Eben McClure, ex-superintendent of recruitment and common +informer, slept well or not during the first night of the investing of +the Bothy of the Wild, is known only to himself. He at least pretended +to pass an excellent night. The pretence was forced upon him by Stair +Garland camping outside, his rifle ready to his hand, and the ceaseless +patter of Whitefoot's alert sentry-go going round and round the hut. + +By half-past five the day was beginning to come. Stair entered the +Bothy, shook Eben by the shoulder and bade him prepare breakfast. Meals +must now be taken as occasion served, and the whole business of their +daily life would have to be reorganized. For they were now a city in a +state of siege. + +Eben knew too well the conditions of his life's tenure, to refuse to do +anything Stair Garland bade him. He believed that while in the company +of any of the band, he existed only by sufferance and had reason to be +grateful for each hour of life vouchsafed to him. + +So he made the porridge without demur, just as he had gone to bed fully +dressed so as to be ready for any demand that the night might bring. + +The meal being properly stirred, the porridge was poured into three +wooden platters. Then Stair took a lump of fine Glenanmays salt butter +from the firkin and dabbed it into the centre of each dish, the same +amount for each. After which he went and knocked on the thin partition +of Julian Wemyss's cubicle. Mr. Wemyss was already on foot, and had, in +fact, almost finished the elaborate toilette which was habitual to him. + +He saluted Stair and the spy with his usual calm civility, and with one +glance at the stained, "up-all-night" look of Stair's dress, he gathered +the truth. Stair Garland had been watching while he slept. He blushed a +little at the thought, and resolved that for the future he would do his +full share of night duty. Nay, even to-day he would see to it that Stair +got his proper hours of repose. In the meantime, however, Stair's mind +was full of quite another matter. + +The loyalty of Eben McClure must be tested, and Stair was only waiting +for the end of the meal in order to instruct the victim how he was to +prove it. The door was open and Eben sat on the inner side of the table +facing it. Between him and the light were Stair Garland and Stair +Garland's gun. As usual Mr. Wemyss sat at the end of the table nearest +to the fire. + +"Eben," said Stair Garland, setting his elbows squarely on the table and +leaning forward, "you are an intelligent man and you will understand +that since the Bothy has been surrounded by an armed force and we may +expect an assault any hour, your position has very much changed. We took +you, to a very great extent, on your own statement. Now I do not think +that you have sold us, or that you have brought these people down upon +us. But we need to be sure. It will be obvious to you that if we are to +depend on a third man in our midst, that third man must have all our +confidence. Now, this is what I intend that you shall do. You and I +shall follow the path as far as the big peat knoll. There we shall be in +full view of the posts of the Preventive men. Having arrived there, you +will appear to break from me after a struggle, and run as hard as you +can towards the north in the direction of the excisemen. They will know +you very well, having been your old cronies. You will have a white +handkerchief in your hand which you will wave to them. If they take that +signal to mean that you are escaping, we on our side will understand +that you have been at your old tricks. If they fire--then you are +cleared and can turn and come back to us. I will protect your retreat. +Now do you quite understand?" + +Frequently in the exercise of his profession, Eben had need of +indomitable courage, but now perhaps more than ever. Yet he was +steadfast. + +"I see no reason why you should trust me," he said. "I am willing to +take the risk. When shall we start?" + +"Now," said Stair, and in a minute more he was marching his man along +the narrowing pathway between the dark pools of peat water. "There is +only one thing I have to say. Do not pass the dwarf thorn-tree at the +big elbow. If you run past that, I shall know you have it in your mind +to desert, and it will be my duty to shoot. You know I do not miss." + +It was a grey day with a gentle wind, the sky of a teased pearl +woolliness with curious warm tints in it here and there. The face of the +moorland was generally black, sometimes broken by borders of vivid green +about the pools, and along the path edges by the little rosy rootlets of +the plant called Venus's Flytrap. + +They came to the outlying peat knoll, where an extra supply of fuel had +been left under shelter during the previous autumn. Quite half of it +still remained, and the "fause-hoose," or cavernous pit left from the +digging out of the peats, afforded the best of cover. From it Stair +would be able to follow the spy with his rifle all the way to the posts +of the Preventive men which had been established on the rising ground +above the edge of the Wild. A portable semaphore stiffly flapped its +arms as they looked, no doubt signalling their coming to other and more +distant posts. + +"There," said Stair, "they are all ready for you. Come outside and let +us get our bit of a trial over. There is your handkerchief. As soon as +you hear the bullets whistle, you can drop. Then turn about and crawl +back to me." + +"It does not seem to you somewhat cruel--this test?" said Eben McClure, +looking wistfully at Stair. It was his only sign of weakness, and there +are few who would have shown so little. + +"No," said Stair, sternly, "when I think of those lads beaten insensible +in the military prisons of your _depots_ or bleeding at the +triangles--they gave Craig Easton a thousand lashes and he had had eight +hundred of them before he died--I think I am letting you off easy. I +ought to shoot you myself where you stand. And don't let me think too +much about it or I may do it even yet. I am giving you your chance to be +an honest man!" + +They went together out into the open. Before them a little zigzag of +pathway angled intricately among the sullen floods of the morass. The +sky was pleasantly shell-tinted overhead. There was the way he must go. +Never had life appeared so sweet to the spy. + +But he went through his part like a man in a dream. He struggled with +Stair Garland, and though he did not hear himself he shouted fiercely as +if for life. It was very real indeed. Then suddenly he broke loose and +ran down the narrow towpath of dry land between the ink-black pools. He +was still shouting. He had forgotten to wave the handkerchief. Then +suddenly before him he saw the thorn at the angle of the big elbow. + +He longed for the rattle of muskets--either from before or behind. It +did not seem to matter much to him now which it was to be. He felt +desperate and forlorn, hating everybody--Stair Garland most of all. + +"_Hist--Skip! Crackle!_" came a volley from far away to the north, and +Eben cast himself down behind a heather bush to draw breath. They had +fired, and he was a proven man. He had faced death to certify his truth +to the salt he was eating, and now nothing remained but to withdraw as +carefully as might be. He crawled backward, now scuttling from one +little rickle of peats left forlornly out on the moor to the next sodden +whin bush, the prickles of which yirked him as he threw himself down. +Stair kept his word, and from his peatstack delivered a lively fire upon +the men in the shelters on the northern hillsides. + +Eben was very white when he came back and dropped limp among the peat. +Stair said nothing, but for the first time he held out his hand. The spy +had become a clean man again, and the same would be known from among all +the folk from Nith Brig to the heuchs of the Back Shore of Leswalt. His +kin would own him openly. Stonykirk parish was again free to him. Eben +knew that he had not paid too dearly for his rehabilitation, for +whatever the dangers he had faced or might be called upon to face, they +were as nothing to the hate and opprobrium of the whole body of one's +own people. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +PATSY RAISES THE COUNTRY + + +With three Galloway ponies and the contagion of her own enthusiasm Patsy +undertook to arouse the country. She would save Stair and Julian by +raising the siege of the Bothy on the Wild of Blairmore. She called upon +her father at the gloomy house of Cairn Ferris and explained to him what +she meant to do. She would not remain there in the meanwhile, but if he +would lend her a pony or two, either from his stable or from among those +running wild on the moors, she would not compromise him in any way. + +"Whom, then, did she mean to compromise?" Her father put the question +patiently. + +Oh, Kennedy McClure was helping her, and Frank Airie, the Poor Scholar, +and the Glenanmays lads--all the Stair Garland band, in fact. Yes, Miss +Aline and the Austrian hunter were safe at Ladykirk. She could not have +her mixed up in such a business, and Heinrich Wolf would look after her. +Adam Ferris listened and nodded his head. + +"I am a barn-door fowl that has hatched out a sparrow-hawk," he said +meekly. "Do not pyke your father's eyes out, chicken!" + +And with this paternal benediction Patsy went forth on her errand. +Stair's Honeypot was at the door. Fergus Garland had brought him, +offering at the same time to steal Derry Down from the Castle Raincy +meadows. But this Patsy refused. She was not feeling particularly well +affected towards Louis Raincy at that moment. Louis, as it were, had +outlived his popularity. + +Then began a great time. As flame after flame of lambent fire plays over +the southern sky some eve of summer lightning, so Patsy came, and +flashed, and passed. Hearts waited expectant before her, grew angry and +determined as they listened (not the young men only) to the tale of her +wrongs, also of Stair Garland's courage and Julian Wemyss's duel. She +passed and left armed men with a definite rendezvous in her wake. Still +keeping high up upon the pony tracks of the moors, she passed eastwards +to the Cree, crossed it, and with Godfrey McCulloch to aid her, she +carried the fiery cross along the shore-side of Solway to the great arch +of the Needle's Eye, which is at Douglasha', in the parish of Colvend. +Here she turned, for she was frightened at what might be going on during +her absence in the dim region of the flowes and flooded marshes called +the Wild of Blairmore. + +Behind her lads were marching. The countryside was moving. They had +sworn to save Stair Garland and Julian Wemyss, and, if need be, they +were ready to push the invaders of their Free Province into the sea. +Rebellion, not such a thing! Merely the affirmation of ancient +privileges. + +Even the Lord-Lieutenant and the old hereditary sheriffs at Lochnaw were +displeased by any display of military force. They resented it, as the +intervention of troops has always been resented in Galloway. What could +the Government be thinking of? Why not let them settle matters in their +own way? They were bound officially, of course, to give the business +their countenance. Really, they liked it no better than did any member +of Stair Garland's band. Earl Raincy, the Stairs of Castle Kennedy, the +Monreith Maxwells, the Garthlands, and my Lord Garlies felt themselves +perfectly well able to maintain order in their own lands. They could +have removed Julian Wemyss to a quiet place over-seas, there to abide +till the Wargrove affair had blown over. Who thought the worse of him +for putting ten inches of steel through the pandar of a royal Duke, who +had treated Adam Ferris's daughter as if she walked the pavement of +Piccadilly or the Palais Royal? And as for Stair Garland--well, their +lads would smuggle. They always had smuggled. But he was a good and a +safe leader, who took his young men into no mischief and allowed no +ribaldry or contempt for local authority. What more could be hoped for +or expected, as long as young blood ran in young veins? And as to the +little matter of the slugs in the royal haunches--well, the man was more +frighted than hurt, and the twinges when the wind blew from the east +would remind even a royal duke to leave their maids alone. + +If belted earls and honourable baronets, the men of ancientest lineage, +thought thus--consider what was the fierceness of public opinion among +the farmers and their folk--the herds on the hills, the ploughmen and +cattlemen, the crowds that gathered at kirk and market. + +The provisions for the investing forces had actually to be brought from +Ireland, for the country wives suddenly discovered that they had nothing +to sell. Shops in town received known clients at the back door and +served them behind closed shutters in the murky gleam of a halfpenny +"dip." Had it not been for half-a-dozen sappers who had been busy with +the new naval base on Loch Swilly, his Majesty's forces would have been +starved out of the country, and Galloway would have added one more to +its long tale of the triumphs of passive resistance. + +But the six Loch Swilly men had served in the Peninsula, and they were +under a Chatham sergeant, who was a perfect Gallio, in that he cared +nothing about all the things which were distracting the westernmost end +of Galloway which gives on the Atlantic. He looked at the Wild of +Blairmore from several sides. He swore that such a set of asses he had +never seen, and then he settled himself, with his five soldiers and a +couple of score of impressed men, to make a cutting through the +sand-dunes on the seaward side. This ditch or drain, now smooth and +greyish-green with bent and self-sown saplings, is still known as the +Sapper's Cut. + +On the morning of the second day after Sergeant Robinson had started his +digging team, Stair looked out of the door of the Bothy and, instead of +the black spread of water he had left there over-night, the Wild of +Blairmore was dry. From the zigzag causeway on either side, stretched +away an array of empty moss-hags still glistening with moisture. Only in +the very deepest cuts a little water still lurked. + +Stair Garland's lips tightened as he turned to the interior of the +Bothy. + +"It is all up, Mr. Julian," he said, "I am sorry I have led you into +this--I knew the thing could be done, but they had been so long in +thinking of it that I had come to believe they would never hit on it at +all!" + +"I am sorry, McClure!" he said to the spy, "you will have to give up the +money and jewels, but that I always meant you to do in any case. For the +rest--" + +He paused a minute, not daring to trust himself to speak more words. +Then he continued-- + +"I have led you into all this. I thought there would have been a +rescue-party long before now. There would have been if Patsy Ferris had +been here. Now there is nothing for it but to give ourselves up. What is +the use of making things worse by shooting two or three poor enlisted +men who never did us any harm?" + +And so it came to pass that Stair Garland and Eben the Spy were marched +under strong escort to the gaol of Stranryan, while Julian Wemyss was +shut up in his own house with a guard quartered on him. Thus had it been +ordered from London, for there the Princess Elsa had been busy, and the +local commanders knew that even when the Government is that of a Regent +George, it cannot treat an ex-ambassador like a common felon. + + * * * * * + +Stranryan is a largish town, historical and ancient, as its narrow and +crooked streets sufficiently attest. At that period of the year it was +exceedingly malodorous, and in the gutters tangle-headed children fished +for spoil, or with noise and clangour dragged the damaged dead cat and +the too-long-drowned puppy from the green ooze of one midden hole to +another. + +But to make some amends for this, one was never far away from the salt +waters of the loch. And a breath straight from the great sea came every +now and then all day long, to air out the packed houses and crooked +alleys. Down on the sea front were many boats. For at the season when +the Bothy was captured and Stair and the spy led to the "Auld Castle," +the herring boats were getting ready for the Loch Fyne catch--a good +three hundred of them, and their brown and red sails brightened +everything. + +Fish-scales glistened on the cobbled quays of the little port. Salesmen +and buyers moved piles of fish contumeliously, saying, "It is naught! It +is naught!" after the manner of their kind since the days of +Solomon--who had experience in such matters, for he was undoubtedly +scandalously "had" in his traffic with the spice merchants. + +The gaol of Stranryan was also on the water front, and especially when +the Irish harvesters landed among the products of the herring catch, it +was the witness of complex and accumulated villainies. There were +faction fights among the Irishry themselves. There were fights between +all the Irish united and the douce burghers and tradesmen of +Stranryan--fights about eggs and chickens, fights about water and other +privileges, fights which ended in sleepers being ousted from barns and +stables, or triumphantly retaining possession thereof. There were also +religious quarrels, in which the true "Protestants" of the two countries +broke the heads of the true "Kyatholics," and had their heads broken in +turn, all to the greater glory of God. + +All these things were normal, and the participants seldom ended their +shillelah practice within the walls of "MacJannet's Hotel"--MacJannet +being the name of the chief gaoler of the town prison. + +"The Castle" itself was a tall old hump of a building set in a courtyard +with high-spiked walls. It had once been a town house of the reigning +family of the Kennedys of Cassillis. They used to spend some time there +by the waterside during the summer after the long winter months at +Maybole, and, indeed, their doing so counted for much in the early +history of the compact little town at the head of the loch. + +The lower part of the "Castle" had been fitted up as a guard-room, and +here, at all hours of the day, were to be found groups of soldiers, +making the time pass in various games of chance and skill, from plain +odd-and-even to _bouchon_ learned from certain captive Frenchmen who +were permitted to mingle with them under no very strict supervision. The +square tower of the original Cassillis house had been cut down and +roofed in, which gave it a very uneven and squat appearance, and all +about the walls little sheds had been erected, to shelter this +detachment and that on its way through to Ireland. Some of these were as +old as Claverhouse and his King's Life Guards in the bad days of the +covenant. But, one and all, they were insufficient, out of repair, +drippy, smelling of stale bad tobacco and wet wood ashes. + +Tony MacJannet, chief keeper of the prison of Stranryan, installed Stair +Garland on the second story, immediately over the gate where the guard +was on duty. Stair had no view to the front, but two small windows +looked out on the courtyard, from which, through thick bars, he could +see the comings and goings of the French prisoners, and even watch the +ebb and flow of the games. Stair's chamber was spacious--the largest and +best in the gaol, but the roof had not been plastered, and he could see +the light through the slates, though some attempt had been made at +scantling, and even in one corner a quantity of plasterers' laths had +been piled. But there the matter had rested and was likely to rest. + +As usual, the Town Council objected to spending money. The Government +sent down every year lists of "immediate requirements," which the +council as promptly filed owing to the lack of any accompanying draft. +To spend good siller "oot o' the Common Guid" and then look to a far-off +Government to reimburse them, was an affair in which the shrewd +burgesses of Stranryan very naturally declined to engage. + +Julian Wemyss's case threatened to be a curious one. He had been +captured in Scotland at the request of the English Government for an +offence committed in France--in which country his crime was no offence +at all. Some loss of time and a great deal of employment for the lawyers +seemed the worst that could befall him. + +It was quite otherwise with Eben McClure. He was a fugitive from +justice, and had been guilty of carrying off a large sum of money and +various jewels, the property of His Royal Highness the Duke of Lyonesse. +He was also suspected of having led the Prince and his party into an +ambuscade, where the son of the King had been wounded to the effusion of +blood and the danger of his life. + +For the theft alone there was one sure penalty--death. + +However, as things stood the spy's unpopularity made his fate of little +moment to anybody. The thoughts of all were centred on Stair Garland. He +was handsome, young and interesting. The maidens of the town of +Stranryan trigged themselves out in their best hats and dresses--they +donned their most becoming ribbons in order to promenade in front of the +"Castle." + +"Three months he and the ither twa held the sodjers at bay, till they +had them clean wearied oot!" May Girmory explained to her bosom friend, +Lizzie McCreath, as they promenaded together; "but to my thinkin' there +is little that either of the ither two could do. It would be himsel', +Lizzie, that did the thinkin' and the fechtin'. He's the head o' a' the +Free Bands, ye ken, Lizzie!" + +"Then, to my thinkin', it's but little that the 'bands' have done for +him, the poor lad--and the more shame to them," said Lizzie. "Now, over +yonder, in Ulster, if a quiet lad had been as long caged up by them +divils of red-coats--it's the good dustin' their jackets would be +gettin'. 'Tis Elizabeth McCreath and the daughter of a law-abiding +Orangeman that will be tellin' ye so!" + +"Hoots, lassie," said her friend, "you Stranryan Irish or half-Irish are +all for doing a thing like the banging off of a peeoye. But what matters +a day or twa for a fine, strong lad in the best chamber of the Castle? +Stair Garland is not tried yet and, what is more, he is not sentenced. +And if he is sentenced, where will he serve his time? Will he be going +ayont seas to be sold in the tobacco plantations or off in a ship to +Botany Bay? I tell you the keel is not laid, and the mast is not out of +the acorn that will carry away Stair Garland. And as to hanging +him--faith, they will need all their forces back from the wars before +they could do siccan a thing in Galloway!" + +She lowered her voice and spoke in the ear of the Irish girl, the +Orangeman's daughter. + +"Lizzie McCreath," she whispered, "can you keep a secret?" + +"What else, noo?" said Lizzie, with avidity, "did you ever hear tell +where you were with Sandy O'Neil on the night of the Saint John?" + +"That's nothing," retorted May Girmory, "for where I was on the Beltane +eve, there in that very place ye were yourself--you and my brither Jo. +It is like that ye would keep _that_ secret? But this is different." + +"I will keep it, 'by the hand and fut of Mary,'" said Lizzie McCreath, +quite forgetting that she was the daughter of the Grand Master of an +Orange Lodge. + +"Well, then," said May, "there is a Princess riding about the country, +here and there and away. She has all Stair Garland's band ready, and +hundreds more, too--aye, thousands if need be, pledged to rescue the +lads laid up there. Jo is in it." + +"Oh," said Liz McCreath, with a curious alteration of tone, "Jo is in +it, is he? And he never said a word to me." + +"Neither did he to me, but somebody else telled me--" + +"Sandy O'Neil, it would be, maybe then, like as not!" + +"And what for no?" demanded the revealer of secrets, and so proceeded +unblushingly with her tale. She skipped some parts, to which she had +been sworn to particular secrecy. But Miss Liz McCreath, while noting +these, let the blanks pass, comfortably sure in her mind that so soon as +she got Jo Girmory by himself, she knew a way of making him tell her all +about it--the same, indeed, as that by which May Girmory had brought +Sandy O'Neil to full auricular confession. + +"But what like is your Princess? Does she wear a goold crown now?" said +the Irish girl. + +"Not her," said May Girmory, "she has a riding skirt, the way folk has +them made in London, and gangs by at a hand-gallop, a different powny +every time, and Lord, she doesna spare them!" + +"That," said Liz McCreath with cold contempt, "is no Princess at all. +'Tis only little Patsy Ferris from Cairn Ferris, and I saw her faither +yesterday at the Apothecaries' Hall at the Vennel Head!" + +"And what wad he be wantin' there, now?" + +"He asked for 'something soothin'' and he appeared most terribly glad to +get it. He did be takin' a good drink on the spot." + +"Puir man, I am sure he had need o't. He will maybe no be so very +anxious aboot this lad Garland as his dochter!" + +"So I was thinking, but what garred ye be whistling in my lug that she +was a Princess? A laird's lass is no a Princess, that ever I heard of +over yonder!" + +"There's a heap of things ye have not heard 'over yonder,' and this may +be one of them. But Patsy Ferris is a Princess because she could be a +Princess the very minute she made up her mind to marry a Prince that has +been askin' her and double asking her. Eelen Young, my cousin, that is +with Miss Aline at Ladykirk, was telling me all about it, and it appears +that up there in London our Miss Patsy could have had the pick of +princes and dukes--" + +"And with all said an' done she runs away (Glory be to her brave sowl!) +just to raise the country and get Stair Garland safe over the sea!" + +"Do not be foolish, Liz McCreath," said her comrade, "without doubt it +was to save her uncle that was trapped in the Bothy of Blairmore at the +same time!" + +"Her uncle!--her uncle!" cried Liz McCreath; "the back o' me hand to all +your uncles. How much would you be doing now for all the half-score of +uncles that ye have in this parish? Not as much as would fatten a fly. +No, nor Elizabeth McCreath either. 'Tis her lad she is fightin' for--and +well do you know it, May Girmory. She will have sat out the Beltane +fires wid him, darlin', and certain that'll be the raison why!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE PRISON-BREAKERS + + +The nights were fast waxing shorter. It was necessary that no time +should be wasted. Patsy waited till there was a change of garrison at +Stranryan. Long spoken of, it came at last. The relief had been +signalled from afar--at Carlisle, at Dumfries, and now crossing the +hills by the military road from New Galloway. + +On the night before its arrival the storm burst upon the little fishing +town scattered so carelessly along the shores of the Loch of Ryan. The +two companies of the light cavalry division had marched out that +afternoon leaving their barracks empty, swept and wholly ungarnished for +the troops which were to arrive to replace them. + +Stranryan will long remember that twenty-fourth of May. In the evening +there was a wind off the Loch, a little irregular but pleasantly fanning +to cheeks heated with the good-night bumper. So the burgesses stayed out +a little longer than usual on the quay in the fading light, standing +about in groups or marching up and down in pairs solemnly talking +business or of the "Common Guid" of the town. How, for instance, they +thought of electing the Earl Raincy to be their provost, honorary as to +duties, but exceedingly decorative and possibly useful. The +ninety-nine-year leases of the Out Parks would fall in during his time +of office, and the feu duties would have to be rearranged. It would be a +very suitable thing indeed--in all respects--that is, if the Earl could +see his way--and so on and so forth. + +He had certainly been more approachable lately, ever since Miss Patsy +had gone to stay at Castle Raincy. A year or two before he would have +damned them up and down all the hills if they had ventured to mention +such a thing to him. They looked forward with hope to a more amicable +reception now. + +One by one they began to draw out turnip-shaped watches from their fobs, +and having first held the case to their ears to make sure that there was +no deception, the dial was examined, and with a casual, "Guid nicht to +ye--the goodwife will be waitin'," the members of the town council and +other municipal dignitaries strolled off each to his own house. + +It did not strike any of them that they had not seen the town's night +watchman, old Jock McAdam, in the performance of his duties. If it had +occurred to any of the burghal authorities, it had only provoked the +reflection that Jock would most likely be discussing a pint or two at +Lucky Forgan's down by the Brigend, and that presently he would be +perambulating the streets of the royal borough, his halbert over his +shoulder, and intoning his song-- + + "Twal' o'clock on the strike, + And a fine fresh nicht." + +But Jock had been early encountered near the abandoned guardhouse of the +cavalry quarters, and there had been safely locked in with a loaf of +bread and three gigantic tankards of ale. It was not likely, therefore, +that the time of night would be cried in Stranryan by Jock McAdam's +booming bellow. Jock was at peace with all the world and the town had +better remain so also. + +Then came the first of the little ponies. The town had often listened to +the clatter of their feet. It was familiar with the jingling of their +accoutrements. But never had Stranryan rung with that music from side to +side, and from end to end, as it did that night of the twenty-fourth of +May! + +Patter, patter, tinkle, tinkle--two and three abreast they came. Timid +citizens in breezy costumes about to blow out the candle made haste to +do so, and peered goggle-eyed round the edges of the drawn-down blind. + +"What's to do? It's the lads of the Free Trade--hundreds o' them, all +armed, and never a load pony amang them. Every man on his horse and none +led!--Not a pack-saddle to be seen. Will they never go by? It's no +canny, I declare! I shouldna' be standin' here lookin'. There will be +blood shed before the morn's morning. Guid send that they do not burn us +a' in our beds!" + +"Come to your ain bed, ye auld fule!" was the wife's sleepy rejoinder; +"if the gentlemen have onything to sell, we will hear of it the morn as +usual. 'Tis not for the like of us to be watching ower closely the +doings of them that tak's the risk while we drink the drappie!" + +Oh, wise and somnolent lady, somewhat ill-informed in the present case, +but on the whole of excellent and approven advice! It were indeed better +for your good Thomas that he should neither see nor hear, and be in no +wise able to give any evidence as to the doings of "these gentlemen," +this one night of the year. + +Soon, however, the whole town was awake and listening. But nobody +ventured out into the street. Accidents had been known to occur, painful +errors in identification. Even the chief civil authority of the town was +deterred from sallying forth by a remembrance of a predecessor in the +provostship who had been buried in a stable mixen all but his head, to +the detriment of his clothes and the still greater and more lasting hurt +to his dignity. + +The bell of the town steeple clanged loudly half-a-dozen times, and +ceased as abruptly as if the breath had been choked out of the +bellringer. That was the sole attempt at alarm which was given in the +town of Stranryan on the night of the Great Riding. + +By all the ports they came hurrying in--ceaseless, close ranked, without +end and past counting. Over the wild uplands which lie between Leswalt +and Stranryan, the Back Shore men arrived--not a man missing. They were +the nearest and their horses were quite unbreathed. Stonykirk and +Kirkmaiden came next, and then the lads from the moors with hair bushy +about the fetlocks of their steeds. They were a broad-shouldered and +go-as-you-please crowd. They marched directly to the door of the Castle, +and took up their position before it, awaiting orders. Then you might +see two score of black-a-vised Blairs and McKerrows from Garliestown and +the two Luces. Last of all, with wearied horses but in ranks of unbroken +firmness, came the Stewartry men, headed by Godfrey McCulloch. + +On Stair's Honeypot rode Patsy, ordering and ranging everything +everywhere. She was as calm as if on her own ground at Cairn Ferris, and +neither she nor any of the chiefs made any attempt at concealment. Only +some few of the rank-and-file, sons of lairds and functionaries, fiscals +and suchlike cattle, wore masks so as not to implicate their fathers. + +"And now, MacJannet," it was Patsy's clear voice that rang out, "open +your old gates or we will have them down without your permission!" + +But MacJannet, keeper of his Majesty's strong house of Stranryan, knew +that there was a time to be silent as well as a time to speak. He did +not speak, and the next minute tall ladders with ropes arranged from +their tops were reared at the word of command against both the gates. +The Garlies men swarmed up them and with sailorlike agility descended +into the big courtyard of the ancient Cassillis townhouse. + +A moment more and the bars were drawn from within. The multitude swarmed +in without a sound. No cheer was heard, only the confused noise of many +feet and suppressed calls to this one and that to come and help to man +the scaling ladders. The young men of the town of Stranryan itself were +masked, since it was not fitting that sons of high magistrates should +hunt through all the building and wood yards, aye, and even the paternal +back-premises, to bring up ladders and forehammers to the fray. It had +been their duty to provide these things, and by Patsy's orders they were +taking no chances beyond the ordinary personal ones common to all +prison-breakers. + +"MacJannet, MacJannet--open there, you lurking dog!" + +But just then MacJannet was more than usually deaf. He knew that he +would have to answer for that night's work and it did not suit him to do +anything of his own accord. A pistol at his head and a demand for the +keys--well, that would be coercion, and when a man is compelled and put +in fear of his life, what can he do? But for the present MacJannet lay +safe and quiet behind his six-foot-thick walls and waited for that to +happen which should happen. + +Torches began to flare smokily in the courtyard and ladders were hooked +to roof cornices. More ladders, tied safely together, were hoisted to +riggings of buildings and held in place by ropes conveniently cleeked +round chimneys. On these little dark figures climbed upwards, up and up +interminably, till they reached the grey hump of roof under which lay +the prisoners. + +Picks and hammers went up from hand to hand, many helping. Fragments of +slate and tile began to rain down, but nothing had been achieved till +the blacksmith brigade, headed by Andrew Sproat of Clachanpluck, a +famous horse-shoer, laid into the iron-bound doors of the prison. + +"Clang! Clang!" went the forehammers, as the men holding their torches +low made a circle of murky light about the workers. Every blow made the +doors leap, striking full on the huge lock. All who stood in the yard +could hear them leap on their hinges. + +"'Tis the bolts that are holding--can't you feel them draw?" cried +Andrew, the smith. "Bring all the hammers to one side! Now for it! +Strike a little lower there!" And the three great forehammers struck so +accurately that the lock gave way with a grinding crunch. The doors hung +only by the bolts at top and bottom. Soon the aperture was so widened +that a hand could be introduced and the iron rods shot back. The gates +of the prison on the sea-front were thrown back and with the same +silence as before the crowd poured in--all, that is, except the +unfortunates, chosen by lot, who had been designated to look after the +horses. + +"MacJannet--MacJannet--the keys, MacJannet!" + +The gaoler's quarters were swiftly invaded. One blow of Andrew Sproat's +massy hammer did that business, and thereafter the gaoler did not lack +for coercion. Godfrey McCulloch had a pistol to his head, and the bell +mouth of a huge blunderbuss lay chill between his shoulder-blades, +thrusting him forward. + +"Open every cell!" he was ordered by Godfrey McCulloch. "We must have +them all out. There are torches and the old place might take light. The +wood is sure to be as dry as tinder after four centuries!" + +And the lads of the "Bands" let the prisoners go, every man and woman of +them. Only some Irish reapers clamouring for their reaping-hooks to be +returned to them were pitched neck and crop into the street with small +consideration and few apologies. And still they pressed on! Above them +the hammering on the roof could be heard. It ceased, and it was evident +that the gaol from dungeon to rooftree was in the power of the "Lads of +the Heather." + +But still no Stair Garland! The brows of the seekers grew black. + +"If ye have sent him away secretly with the soldier men, 'ware yourself, +MacJannet," said Godfrey, "we will roast you in your own black keep. We +will gar your accursed Castle of the Press flame like a chimbly on fire, +as sure as we came out of Rerrick!" + +"He is here--I tell you--there is one of them, at any rate!" He threw +open the door of a cell triumphantly and showed the pallid countenance +of Eben the Spy. + +For one instant the multitude stood silent, then with a howl of anger +and disappointment they were flinging themselves upon him. + +"Tear him to pieces!--Kill the spy. Who sent our Davie to the hulks?" + +But Patsy's voice cried, "Back there, men! He has bought his pardon. He +was with Stair Garland for two months on the Wild. He was captured with +him. I tell you we owe him his life. Touch him not. Stair will vouch for +him. And in the meanwhile, so will I!" + +This did not satisfy the crowd, but they obeyed. They were compelled to +obey, for that night there was only one leader among them. Smith Andrew, +however, took Eben by the collar of his coat and marched him to the door +of the prison. In the courtyard a new shout arose. + +"Let him alone," cried his protector. "Patsy says he is with us. He is +not to be killed." + +So he led Eben to the outer gate, and with one enormous kick he +discharged his duty to society and to his own feelings. + +"Go," he cried, "be off! We are ordered not to do you any harm. But be +out of the town before the morning light. For then Patsy may not be on +the spot to speak up for you, and the lads are apt to get a little out +of hand at sicht o' ye!" + +It was the roof-breakers who descended first upon Stair Garland. They +found him fully dressed and waiting for them. But the doors of his cell, +which was that reserved for the most important criminals, could not be +broken from the interior, and they could get no farther for the moment. +However, the noise of the crowd beneath mounted higher and nearer, +sounding like the roaring of a tide in a sea cave. + +A key clicked in the lock. Bolts were drawn, and the men who had broken +the doors and roofs stood back with respect to let Patsy go in alone. + +She had been his only saviour, and she alone must tell Stair that he was +free. She came to Stair Garland flushed and quick breathing, who stood +before her pale and with his Viking hair flying all about his head. + +"I came from London to do it, Stair, and it is done!" she said. She took +his hand to lead him away, and at sight of them with one accord the Lads +of the Heather uncovered. + +Out in the courtyard it was like a triumphal procession as they passed +to their horses. Men laughed aloud, they knew not why. A spirit of mirth +was abroad, which had taken possession of all except dark Godfrey +McCulloch. + +"You are sure there is no prisoner left within your old tourock?" he +demanded of MacJannet. The gaoler turned to his register and proved it. + +"Very well!" said Godfrey, "off with you--sleep under some decent man's +roof if ye can find any to shelter ye!" + +And taking a torch from one of his followers he carefully fired the +stores of kindling wood which filled part of the ground-floor of the +ancient Wark of the Cassillis folk. In ten minutes, before even the +cavalcade was entirely mounted, the flames were bursting through the +humped roof in a fiery fountain of gold sparks and ruddy jags of flame, +while the pillar of smoke rose many hundreds of feet into the still +morning air. + +At the English Gate, by which they rode out, they encountered a company +of dragoons, weary from a long march, their horses footsore and the men +reeling in their saddles with sleep. + +"You have come too late," cried Godfrey McCulloch to the leader, waving +his hand in the direction of the fiery beacon, now loudly crackling, and +sprouting to the heavens. + +But the officer answered not a word. His eyes were on Patsy Ferris +riding by the side of Stair Garland, talking to him as one who had won a +great prize, or has found her heart's desire. + +So the captain of dragoons gave no order, for at the sight his heart was +turned to stone within him. + +His name was Louis Raincy, and he had quite forgotten pretty Mrs. +Arlington. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE PICT'S WAY IS THE WOMAN'S WAY + + +The deed being done, the doers soon dispersed. A strong body-guard +composed of Back Shore men and the lads from the Stewartry seaboard rode +with Patsy and Stair to the small unfrequented landing-place of Port +Luce, where a boat was waiting for them. Patsy dismounted from Honeypot +and bade Stair Garland get on board. + +"I am in command still, Stair," she cried, smiling at his bewilderment. +"Besides, I am running off with you, as Uncle Ju says the Pictish women +always did!" + +And Stair humbly obeyed, for the thing he heard was too marvellous for +him to believe. Though his heart beat hard, he kept his head, and did +not allow his imagination to run away with him. He scented one of +Patsy's jests. That she should come from London in the _Good Intent_, +that she should raise the country, that she should head the +prison-breakers--these things he could understand. Still he remembered +what she had said when she had been run away with by the Duke of +Lyonesse. + +"I was in no danger: when it is my fate to love a man, it is I, Patsy +Ferris, who shall run away with him!" + +But he was a wise lad and had lived too long among the Will-o'-the-Wisps +on the Wild of Blairmore to be easily led astray by them. So he took +Patsy's speech as merely her way and thought no more about it--at least +not more than he could help. + +It was already high day, brisk and clean-blowing, when they reached the +little herring smack which lay waiting for them out in the bay. Godfrey +McCulloch went with them, dark-browed, silent. When he lifted his eyes +he could see, across the plain of the middle Rhynns, the reek of the +accursed prison-house of Stranryan still going up to heaven. Then he +laughed a little, also silently. + +"They will have to shift," he said: "John Knox was in the right o't. +'Pull down the nests and the craws will fly away.' No more cells for +lads from the ploughtail and the heather. No more bloody whipping-posts, +where one or two are killed out of every draft to put the fear of death +into the others! All gone up in yon puff of smoke!" Then he subsided +into silence and his hard features relaxed as his mind fell upon other +thoughts. + +Stair and he were working the little boat while Patsy steered. They were +going up the Solway and the wind behind them was strong and equal. Still +no indication of their destination had been made to Stair. At five of +the afternoon they had passed all the familiar landmarks known to him, +but by the alertness of young McCulloch he judged that they must be near +the haunts allotted to his part of the Band. + +The Isle of Man lay faintly blue far to the south, and the hills about +Skiddaw and Helvellyn began to uplift themselves in amethystine ridges. +Towns and villages ran white along the Cumberland coast, and once it +seemed to Stair as if they might be going to land somewhere to the east +of St. Bees. But they were only keeping well out till the twilight of +the evening drew down. They came about in mid-channel and lay some hours +with lowered sail in the lee of a cliffy island. During all this time +Patsy watched the shore intently, and did not speak to him at all. She +held what colloquy was necessary with Godfrey McCulloch, on whose face +there was a quite inscrutable smile. He seemed to be turning over in his +mind some jest known only to himself, perhaps no more than the burning +of the Castle of Stranryan and how well MacJannet's firewood blazed up +when he put the torch to it. But ever and anon he glanced at the +unconscious Stair Garland, when he was looking another way, with an +expression so humorsome that it was evident he considered that in some +way the joke was against him. + +At six of the evening, the tide aiding, they had drifted across many +headlands and past carven cliffs of marvellous designs to a long sickle +sweep of strand on which two men could be seen solemnly walking up and +down. Then, at a signal from Patsy, Godfrey McCulloch let down the +anchor and pulled in hand over hand the little skiff which they had been +dragging in their wake all day. + +Stair thought that it was a reckless thing to put ashore while the sun +was still high above the horizon. Still the spot was a lonely one--on +one side great heathy tracts rising slowly away towards the foothills of +Criffel--on the other a turmoil of huge cliffs and purple summits to the +west, while behind them all the expanse of Solway lay like polished +silver, clean as a platter ready for the service of a great house. + +The two men walked steadily to and fro. The boat, propelled lustily by +Godfrey of the saturnine smile, bounded towards the land. It grounded on +a rapidly shelving beach on which they sprang ashore. Godfrey attached +the boat to a stone, and gave her plenty of rope to ride. + +Then all three went to the encounter of the two men. Both of them were +dressed in decent black with something vaguely official about it, and +the taller of the two had a scrap of black cloth after the fashion of a +college gown but infinitely shorter, thrown over his shoulders. The +other was a smaller and tubbier man, pleasant to look upon, a man +evidently who lived for and by good eating and drinking. He had a large +book under his arm, so heavy that as often as the two paused in their +walk he laid it carefully down on the sand and sat upon it--while the +tall man, undisturbed, continued his monologue over his comrade's head. + +The two parties met at last, their shadows thrown far beyond them on the +moist sand and mingling ludicrously as they altered their positions. + +"Aweel," said the tall man, "what's a' this?" + +His voice was not at all unkindly, and it was to Patsy he spoke. He +turned in time to catch the little round man in the act of plumping down +his big book on the sand, and he lifted him up again by inserting the +hook of a huge forefinger in his collar as if he had been a deep-sea +catch. + +"Stand up there, Saunders Duff! God made man to stand erect on his two +feet, but you would be for ever hunkering like a monkey eatin' nuts. +Chin up, and shoulders back, man! If you dinna ken your duty to King and +Country, I ken mine!" + +"Aye, aye, skipper," said Saunders Duff, shaking his head sadly, "but +this vollum is a plaguey heavy cargo and 'tis a long time between +ports!" + +"It had need to be," said the tall man, "it contains weighty +matters--matters that shall not run away as unprofitable water, as is so +well said in the 'Book of the Wisdom.' But it appears to me, by what I +have learned, that this young lady had some questions to ask in my +presence. Well, Mistress Headstrong, if you will take my advice, +refrain. I am of Paul's faction. It is meet for a woman to be silent. I +say that without the least hope of having my advice attended to. Get ye +up from off that book, Saunders Duff, or I, that am a 'Magister Artium' +of the College of Edinburgh, will kick you into the salt tide, carefully +retaining the folio which is worth many scores of Saunders Duffs!" + +Stair understood not one word of his speech. He even began to think he +had fallen among a collection of amiable lunatics, when Patsy turned +swiftly upon him and, without a quiver of the voice, with her eyes dark +and level upon his face, demanded point blank-- + +_"Will you, Stair Garland, take me, Patricia Ferris, for your wife?"_ + +The world spun round the astonished Stair. He clutched at the thing +which happened to be nearest. This chanced to be the arm of Godfrey +McCulloch, who seemed to wear a smile of diabolic sarcasm on his face. + +"Steady there--stand up and say 'Yes' or 'No!' Will you or won't you?" + +"I WILL!" cried Stair Garland, finding his voice in a manner that scared +the gulls on the cliff ledges, so wild and raucous it was. + +_"Then I, Patricia Ferris, take you for my husband!"_ + +"Before God and these witnesses!" added the man with the ragged college +cloak: "to wit, before me, James Fraser, Magister Artium, minister of +this pairish, and of the unworthy Saunders Duff, session clerk of the +same. Saunders, ye were braw at the sittin' afore. Clatch doon noo, man, +and make your entry. Get all the names and surnames, while I collect the +fees. The business is, ecclesiastically speaking, a little irregular +(though perfectly legal), but that will doubtless be considered in the +matter of the marital dues. If I am duly satisfied as to these, I shall +know how to arrange with the Presbytery." + +"Let me attend to this business," said Godfrey McCulloch, suddenly +alive, and forestalling Stair Garland. "Step this way, minister." + +And while the session clerk, cross-legged like a Turk on the sand, made +his entries with much dipping of ink out of a tax-collector's bottle +swung from his breast pocket, weird screechings of goose-quill, and +dabbings of pounce box, the sound of confused argumentation came from +the other group. + +"I tell ye I will not risk the scandal for less than half-a-dozen +kegs--all the best Hollands--cheap at the price. Think of the +Presbytery!" + +"Minister, the thing is done and in your presence. I will promise no +such quantity. But three of Hollands and three of Isle of Man brandy, as +was agreed upon. Consider, it will be worse, for you to be denounced as +art and part in an irregular marriage--a laird's daughter, too--a +pretty-like thing to come before the Presbytery and you the moderator!" + +"Let it be as you will, Godfrey McCulloch, but if ye have a spark of +human kindness in your hard heart let it be Hollands! Your Isle of Man +brandy agrees but ill with my stammack, and if I dee o't my ghost will +haunt ye. I will preach to ye, one by one, all my forty sermons on the +King's birthday!" + +Godfrey McCulloch threw up his hands. + +"Hollands let it be--six kegs at the next run, only lift the interdict. +I would rather be hanged at once and be done with it." + +"You are not polite, young man," said the minister. "The sermons have +been pronounced excellent by the very best judges, but I was right in +supposing that you would not care to listen to forty of the best sermons +ever preached! Six of Hollands be it then, lad, and put in the auld +place--I shall see that the clerk is duly paid to hold his tongue! _Whom +God hath joined, let no man put asunder!_ I nearly forgot, and indeed it +is in nowise necessary, being but a Popish formula. Guid nicht to ye, +and mind the Hollands!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +STIFF-NECKED AND REBELLIOUS + + +The breeze quickened from the south. The lugger sped through the water, +and Stair Garland still sat dazed. Never had any man felt such a fool. +Here he was firmly and legally wedded, and he dare not even address a +word to his bride. He had spoken no syllable of gladness or +affection--triple dolt--quadruple fool--prize-winner among idiots! He +had nothing to say--he could say nothing. Nor was it the presence of a +third person which prevented him. Perhaps, rather, something in Patsy's +eye, and, though that he would not acknowledge, a lurking grimness in +the smile about the wicks of Godfrey's mouth. + +It was not courage that Stair lacked--only everything about Patsy awed +him. He did not yet understand her. The whys and the wherefores of her +actions were still completely dark to him. + +But Patsy was not a young woman to wrap up her mind. When she had +anything to say, she said it. So after they had turned about and were +beating up against wind and tide for their island, under the lee of +which they had been laid to all the afternoon, she vouchsafed an +explanation--or at least as much of a vindication as Patsy ever +permitted herself. + +"Stair Garland," she said, "listen to me; and you, Godfrey McCulloch, +take that Satanic leer off your face. You have no idea how unattractive +it makes you look! You should be framed and hung up to frighten naughty +children. + +"I am sick of being looked after. I am weary of being educated and +leading-stringed and chaperoned. Now I am going to chaperon myself for +ever and ever. I told father I should do this if he pestered me with his +princesses. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick +of coddling--I hate Hanover Lodge. I hate all the things Uncle Julian +loves, except only some few books. I cannot even have little Miss Aline +put over me. It is too cruel to tag her round after me, jigging this way +and that like the skiff there in our wake. She was made and invented to +abide at Ladykirk, and to rule over Eelen Young and the brass +preserving-pans. Why, because I am a girl, should the poor lady be +traiked all over the world in an agony of dispeace? So I married you, +Stair. It is hard on you, I know. Being a gentleman you could not very +well refuse when I asked you before the minister--" + +Here Stair made an indefinite noise in his throat, which, if he could +have spoken, would have been an eloquent statement-at-large of the state +of his affections. He cursed himself for his imbecility. Louis Raincy, +he felt sure, would have found the right thing to say--even the Poor +Scholar--not to say any of the fine gentlemen whom Patsy had left behind +in London. After all she had left them. That was one comfort. She had +come to save him. But what in the name of the prince of darkness was +that idiot of a Godfrey McCulloch grinning at? Surely there was nothing +so absolutely strange about the situation. The man they had seen was a +minister--the minister of a parish. He was in Geneva gown, and +bands--such as they were. His session clerk was with him. The kirk +register had been duly signed. + +If that ugly, black-browed McCulloch would only stop grinning and take +himself off--perhaps even yet he could put the matter right. + +"I only wanted you to know, before we land," said the clear-cut, faceted +voice of Patsy, ringing out the syllables like the pouring of little +diamonds into a thin wine-glass, "that you, Stair Garland, must be my +chaperon--no princesses or Miss Alines any more. You can protect me from +grand dukes with no more courage and determination than you did before, +but now you will have an open indubitable right in that you are my +husband! But here we are at the island. And there down on the rocks, do +you see, Stair, who are there to welcome us? Your sister Jean, and +Whitefoot. And Kennedy--Kennedy McClure--!" + +She hung about the neck of a stout red-faced man, who murmured all the +time of the embrace, "Tut, lassie. Think shame, lassie!" and dabbed at +his eyes and blew his nose with a bandanna handkerchief with the noise +of many trumpets. + +"Guid-day to ye, lass, and to you, Stair Garland! Ye hae a wild filly to +gentle. Be not downcast if the job be a long one. She will be worth it." + +"What, Jean, you are never going?" cried Stair, when he saw his sister +preparing to accompany the Laird of Supsorrow into the lugger. Somehow +it seemed that he could have seen his way plainer before him if Jean had +stayed. But as Godfrey McCulloch hoisted the sail, he shouted, "Go she +must. There are a pair of fathers away yonder in the Cairn Ferris +Valleys to be contented. And I am not sure that they will be easy to +satisfy. But your sister Jean and Kennedy McClure there, and this +extract from the parish register signed by parish minister and session +clerk will show them that you and your wife are beyond all pursuit. As +for the prison-breaking and the law, there will doubtless be great +riding and running, but I do not believe that here on Isle Rathan you +will be in any way disquieted." + +It was nine of the clock when Patsy and Stair stood on the shore of the +Isle Rathan of many famous exploits, and watched the lugger with its +cargo of three go dancing out on the full current of the Solway ebb. + +The two were left alone and the island seemed incredibly small and +strange about them--at least to Stair. But Patsy was not in the least +put about. She did the honours of the old tower of the Herons. She led +the way to where Jean had spread their first meal, and motioned Stair to +his place. He sat down like an automaton and looked about him as if he +were seeing through a haze. It was a large and pleasant kitchen, +stone-floored, with oak furniture as old as the time of Patrick Heron +and May Mischief his wife. A bright fire was burning on the +old-fashioned hearth, and the room looked cosy enough in spite of the +old small-paned windows. It had recently been put into order, and new, +bright utensils hung upon the ranges of pins and hooks against the wall. + +But Stair's food seemed to choke him, somehow. He felt the imperious +need of speech. + +"Oh, Patsy!" he began--but he got no farther. Patsy was in possession of +the field in a moment. + +"Stair," she said warningly, as she held up her hand to stop him; +"Stair, you have never failed me yet. Don't let me trust you in vain. I +married you because I had need of you--" + +"Not," said Stair, speaking disjointedly, "not because you wanted to +marry me--not because--you loved me?" + +"Oh, I wanted to marry you! Yes, I wanted that. I needed you to help me +to do what I could not do in any other way. But--wait a while. Neither +you nor I know what love means yet. _I_ certainly do not. I am too +young. Meanwhile, you are the most dependable person in my world. Let +love alone for a little. What difference can it make to you and me? Let +us help one another, depend one on the other--I have run off with you, +and if you are under age I dare say I could be put into prison for that. +But that is the way of the Pict woman. What she wants, she takes. I ran +away from London. I took you out of prison, and when I had you, I +brought you here to live on herrings. I wanted to be rid of princes who +pestered me to marry them, of royal dukes who ran away with me, of kind +uncles and princesses who thought to make my bed all eider down and +cotton wool, my food all rose-leaves and honey!" + +"I understand--I understand," said Stair, with a certain fierce +determination in his eye, "you shall have no cause to regret that you +have chosen me as your squire and armour-bearer. I shall not claim more +than is my due, and of what that is I have a very small opinion indeed!" + +Patsy looked at Stair. He seemed to be understanding--almost too well. +There was no need that he should remove himself to so vast a distance. +She wanted them to be two comrades--two Crusoes without a man Friday, +working harmoniously for the common good of the community. But Stair +held out for a position frankly subaltern. + +"If you will tell me what I am to do--you know the place better than +I--it is time to do it!" He was outwardly calm, inwardly raging, as he +spoke. + +"There is, thank you, some water to bring in--the spring is within the +courtyard. The well-rope has a bucket. Thank you!" + +And Patsy was left alone. She thought Stair Garland long in returning. +He had, indeed, looked into all the outbuildings, where he discovered a +couple of cows that needed to be milked and let out on the dewy pastures +for the night, fowls that must be shut up, and in the barn the remains +of a once full mow of hay which would make excellent sleeping +accommodation. + +When he got back Patsy was covering up the fire for the night. She had +washed the dishes, and dried them with a dispatch to which Julian Wemyss +and he had never attained after months of practice on the Wild of +Blairmore. + +She listened to the relation of the discoveries he had made out of +doors, and agreed when he told her that he must be on hand to drive the +cows back to the byre at daybreak. As seen from the sea, there must be +nothing to mark the island as inhabited. + +"Remember to lock the door on the inside," he said. "I shall sleep in +the barn that I may be ready for my work in the morning. You will be +quite safe here in the tower. Good-night, Patsy!" + +And without waiting for a single word he was gone into the darkness. +Patsy had pictured something much more idyllic than this. How they would +enjoy their first meal! How they would chatter over it like a pair of +daws in the same nest. How they would fight their battles over again, +Patsy telling all her adventures in London, of the Prince Eitel, the +riding of the dukes, the balls and levees--how she had met with Kennedy +McClure, and how she had come all the way in the _Good Intent_ to save +him. She had her night-rides, her plots and combinations to relate--how +this parish would have sent so many, but could not have them up to +time--how another set of good lads were terrorized by a wrathful +overlord. + +From Stair she would sit and listen to the story of the defence of the +Bothy on the Wild. She would hear of the Princess's letter to her uncle, +how they passed the long dark winter months when the snow blocked all, +the coming of spring, the cutting of the dunes by the company of +sappers, and the capture. But instead, it was all distant and dry. A +"Good-night" such as one might have thrown at a dog--no, he would not +throw the word at Whitefoot. For even as she passed the postern window, +looking out she saw Stair crossing the court in the direction of the +barn, side by side with Whitefoot. The dog's eyes were raised to those +of his master in a kind of adoration, and his tail waved triumphantly. +As Stair bent to stroke the dog's head, Patsy became conscious of a +strange new thing within her. + +It was something she had never felt before, though almost any other +woman would have diagnosed at once. It was, in fact, nothing less than +her first twinge of jealousy. + +She chose to forget all the wise precepts by which she had regulated +Stair's conduct toward her. She forgot how she had carefully explained +to him that all the duties were to be on his side, and all the benefits +on hers. + +"He did not even shake hands," she thought, looking at the wrist which +the Prince and other great gentlemen has so often fervently kissed, "and +yet he can stop to pat that dog's head!" + +Nobody had told Patsy that marriage is a dish that cannot be eaten by +one while the other looks on. She had chosen her way. She had carried it +through, and now in spite of the luminous explanations which she had +given Stair as to their relative positions and duties, he had chosen to +misunderstand, and had marched off straight as a ramrod. + +And she caught herself murmuring over and over to herself, "Stiff-necked +and rebellious--stiff-necked and rebellious!" + +It was to Stair she referred, but the accompanying stamp of the little +foot might possibly have raised doubts as to the correctness of her +application, had any been there to see. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A PICTISH HONEYMOON + + +Stair Garland slept little that night. He wandered in the cool purple +darkness here and there about the island, listening to the curious +noises of the birds, complaining vaguely, or calling one to the other +from the rocky ledges. He was conscious of the perpetual drumming of the +sea in his ears, as the tide ran, jostled in the narrow reaches, and +hammered without ceasing on the outer cliffs of the little island. + +The pair of cows were company to him. He wondered whence they came and +who had placed them there. They did not waste their time, but munched +steadily at the lush grasses in the interior meadow of the isle--the +hollow palm of its hand, as it were. The problem took his mind for a +while off his own miseries. + +Some one had been there. Some one had been accustomed to tend and milk +them. It could not be his sister Jean, for she could not have been long +enough spared from the farm at Glenanmays. Who, then, had provided all +that they found waiting for them? The poultry he had penned in darkness, +so that their early crowing might not awaken Patsy. She must know. She +had prepared all this. She had prepared everything. Even his own +delivery from prison, even the great muster of the Bands to override +authority and save him, were only little dove-tailings in the scheme +which Patsy had designed for her own liberation. + +Well, he had nothing to complain of. He had been asked a question, and +if he had wished he might have answered "No." Was he a free man or +bound? But having said "Yes" of his own good will, what remained to him +but to take up the role which Patsy had reserved for him. It was not +remarkably dignified, but--if any fault there were, the fault was his +own. + +Besides, he would have given the same answer then or any other moment. +He had not been taken by surprise. So long as he was Patsy's husband, +nobody else could be so also! Why, of course, he would stand by his +bargain! What else was he for--he, Diarmid Garland's second son--the +head of the Bands, the famous defier of the press and the Preventives? +Pshaw! What did all that mean to him now--apples of Sodom in the mouth, +an exceeding bitter fruit! What a fool he was with his airs! Would he +ever have such a chance again, and he to dream of complaining! + +Gradually he became conscious of Whitefoot moving, silent as a shadow, +beside his master. Once, when Stair stood a long time on the craggy top +of the Fell of Rathan, gazing out at the ranged lights on the English +side of the firth, he was conscious of a cool, damp nose thrusting its +way into his palm, causing him to open his hand by little calculated +snout-pushes and burrowings. Whitefoot was sympathetic. Whitefoot felt +for the trouble of his master, though he could not understand it, and +Whitefoot would not be satisfied till his friend's hand was resting on +his head. Even then little heavings and sidelong pushes expressed a +desire to be caressed, and when at last Stair's hand ran over his head, +across the thick ruff of hair about his neck and passed down his spine, +Whitefoot shook with delight and leaped so high that his forepaws were +on Stair's shoulders. + +"Down, dog, down!" said his master, and at the word Whitefoot dropped +back on all fours, obedient but content. + +It now was past the hour of twelve. The central night stood still. The +little chill breeze which ruffles the waves an hour or so in early +morning had not yet begun to blow. Stair had been about the House of +Rathan half-a-dozen of times. At last he went into the barn and, only +removing his coat, he threw himself at length among the straw of which +he had made a couch earlier in the evening. Whitefoot nuzzled +comfortably up against him. He did not mean to sleep. It would soon be +morning and there were the cows out in the little meadows. He would only +close his eyes for a moment. + +It will not be surprising to learn that the next sound he heard was a +happy laugh, as Patsy appeared at the open door of the barn with "Awake, +thou sluggard" upon her lips. + +"I looked in half-an-hour ago," she laughed, "and you looked so sweet +and peaceful that I went and milked the cows before wakening you." + +"You milked the cows?" + +Patsy nodded her head with its tight cover of curls, all of densest +black, shapely and boyish. + +"The milk is in the dairy!" she said. "Concerning what else does my lord +please to inquire?" + +"But the two cows?" he said, hastily getting up and putting on his coat, +which he had spread over him, "they ought not to be left out all day on +the high grass. Cruising sloops of war, and even Preventive men with +spy-glasses, might easily see them from the shore." + +"I had thought of that, my lord," said Patsy. "I confined them with a +good reach of rope behind the old fold which lies hidden out of sight in +the hollow of the island. No one can see them there, unless they mount +on the cliffs and look down on them from the height of the island. They +will be happy there, for the rabbits and gulls have not spoilt the +grass." + +Stair stood up beside Patsy in the doorway of the barn. The gate of the +yard was open, and they walked slowly towards it, splendid widths of sea +and heights of cloudless heaven opening out before them at every step. +Instinctively Patsy caught Stair by the arm, gave it a little joyous +tug, and cried out, "Oh, Stair, was ever anything so beautiful?" + +The young man glanced down at her. But her eyes were on the distant, +tender blue of the coast about Whitehaven, and the Isle of Man hovering +in a mother-of-pearl haze, like a dream-island about to alight. All his +instincts told him to clasp her to him and take the consequences. But +unfortunately Stair reasoned, which is the wrong method with a woman, +especially with such a Pictish daughter of impulse as Patsy Ferris. He +remembered what she had said to him the night before, as if that could +have any bearing on her mood of to-day. + +But so the chance passed. The fine morning gold was dimmed. They had +looked too long. Patsy released his arm and they fell apart. + +She remembered it was time to go indoors for breakfast. They went, their +eyes averted, lest the other should see the remains of the morning +glory. They kept silence also lest the thrill of it should tremble in +their voices. But at the sight of the spread table and the homely scents +of fried bacon and smoked mutton ham, Patsy became again very human, and +set herself down in the place of house-mistress with a ripple of glad +laughter. + +"Only think, Stair!" she cooed low in her throat, "here all by +ourselves--a breakfast which I have prepared, eggs which I have found, +milk which I drew from the cow--(they are two such nice cows, Stair!), +and you and Whitefoot sitting opposite! Just ourselves two, Stair. Not a +chaperon--not a _gouvernante_, like the old horror the Princess used to +threaten me with. No felt-footed lacqueys always bringing you the wrong +thing, no Princess, no Miss Aline even! Oh, I declare I am so glad--that +I could--_take my breakfast!_" + +Patsy broke off suddenly, making a wilful anti-climax to her speech, +and, as Stair knew very well, not in the least finishing as she had +meant to. But her housekeeping pride was aroused. He must eat. She would +heap his plate. She had heard him late last night moving about. Had he +not slept well? That was why she had let him sleep on this morning, but +he must not expect such indulgence every day. He would need to be out +and at the net fishing or among the flounders, for though they had +plenty for the present in their store-room, they did not know when they +might be succoured. + +Then Stair put a question he had been thirsting to have answered all +night. + +"Whose is this island, and who has given us the right to use all the +larder and live-stock?" + +Patsy clapped her hands gleefully. + +"Guess!" she cried--"three guesses!" + +"_One_, wrong--no, not my father! _Two_, wrong, not Uncle Ju! THREE, +WRONG--not Miss Aline! You made me gasp that time. I thought you could +not miss it. We are here on this Island of Rathan as caretakers for Mr. +Kennedy McClure. These are his cows. His sheep are on the heuchs yonder, +and we have liberty to kill them for mutton when we weary of fish. These +are his hens I let out this morning, and he brought Jean here with +selected stores to make everything cosy for us!" + +"And why does he do all this?" Stair inquired. Patsy flung up her head +and smiled dazzlingly. + +"Who knows?" she said. "He was great friends with me in London. He made +the _Good Intent_ hurry up when I was ready--otherwise you might have +stayed a long time in prison. And this is better, eh, Stair?" + +"And your Uncle Julian--Mr. Wemyss? Will they not be harder on him +because I have escaped?" + +"You have not escaped--you have been carried off," Patsy corrected. "So +was Uncle Ju. He walked off the step of his verandah into the arms of +Captain Penman and half-a-dozen of the crew of the _Good Intent_. They +seized him and carried him on the _Billy Goat_, which sailed immediately +for parts unknown. But Joseph managed so well and the orders from +headquarters were so strict, that the garrison did not even loot the +house as they did at Cairn Ferris, that night when you disgraced us all +by drawing royal blood at the White Loch. Here are some books which he +sent for you--some from the Bothy, and some for me to read. I am not so +learned as you, and Joseph chose accordingly. If we have wet days, +Stair, we can read all day with our toes to the fire!" + +"And why did not we also go on the _Good Intent_ and so get away from +all this trouble?" Stair inquired. + +"If you wanted Uncle Ju all day telling us what his Princess would have +thought, said and done--I did not. I wanted to be by our own two selves. +Besides, if we were to get married, there is no country in the world +where it can be done with such willingness and alacrity as at home. Also +I have been brought up a good Presbyterian, and a parish minister and +his session clerk--well, where in foreign parts will you find the like +of Mr. Duff and honest James Fraser? The _Good Intent_, indeed! I think +you are hard to please if you are not content with your present +quarters, young man!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE LAND OF ALWAYS AFTERNOON + + +By the afternoon of the second day Stair was finding himself unfit for +human society, because he had not been able to shave since he left the +prison. Of course he had brought nothing with him. There was no time. +His hand went unconsciously every other minute to his scrubby chin. In +truth, his Norse blondness did not allow it to show as much as he +supposed. But that did not detract from the pervading sensation of +disgustful grubbiness. + +Patsy's eyes missed nothing, and very soon she surprised him by opening +the door of a little tower chamber on the ground floor, sparsely but +quite sufficiently furnished. + +"I should feel very much safer," she said, "if you were to sleep within +the house. You will find shaving materials in the corner!" + +Stair could not thank her, but then neither did his accursed pride rise +up in rebellion. She closed the door and left him alone. The water in +the jug was hot. In a case marked "A. F." were razors and other +necessities. Evidently Patsy had done some plundering, and had not come +to him altogether without a dowry, though she had managed to do without +the paternal benediction. + +It was wonderful to feel clean again, to get the stubble off his cheeks, +and to plash the cool water over his head and about his ears. When he +had finished he felt measurably nearer to Patsy. He found laid out also +clean shirts and neckcloths. Two complete suits of clothes were folded +in an open chest of drawers. Patsy had evidently looted to some purpose. + +Stair's first instinct was not to put on any of these things till he had +been assured that they were there with the consent of Adam Ferris. But +he realized that he had already used the razors, and besides it would be +idiotic, in his present awkward position, to strain at any gnats after +swallowing such a camel as the marriage on the Colvend shore. + +Besides, he had the sense to see that any obstinacy would terribly +offend Patsy. She had evidently thought much about the matter, and +whether her father knew or did not know was secondary to the great need +in Stair's heart of making Patsy happy. He did not, however, realize how +long had been her thoughts on the subject, or that the suits of clothes +which he supposed to have been lifted from her father's drawers, had +been talked over by Patsy and Kennedy McClure in the garden at Hanover +Lodge, ordered at a first-class London tailor's, with such approximate +indications as size, height, and general proportionateness of body could +supply. Patsy had paid for them out of her own money, and it was for the +sake of the Princess, who was curious about parcels, that the case of +shaving utensils had been lettered in gold with the initials of Adam +Ferris. + +An hour later, Stair came forth like a bridegroom from his chamber. +Patsy, who had been on the watch, called out "Oh!" And if she had +permitted her heart to guide her actions, she would have clung about his +neck. He looked so noble. But all that she said was just, "I am proud of +you, Stair--very proud!" + +And, rightly considered, that was a great deal for Patsy to say. + + * * * * * + +That day was a memorable one for Stair Garland. Patsy was charming and +gay as she alone knew how to be. Having scanned the sea horizon with the +Dollond glass to make sure that the firth was absolutely free from +ships, they gave themselves up to the delights of the sunshine and +summer air. Now they dipped into little coves, among dainty shells and +glistening sand-breadths, where they sat down cross-legged and played at +"jecks" or "jacks"--one pebble in the air and lift five. Five in the air +and lift one--with all sorts of intricate devices and variations, such +as catching the tossed stones on the back of the hand, collecting them +with a sudden side swoop, and so forth till Patsy was tired. Her nimble +fingers left Stair's stiffer members far behind. + +But it was different when a white stone was poised on the top of a rock, +for Stair could send it rolling down nine times out of ten before Patsy +had never so much as touched the target. Again on sheltered stretches +Stair could send a smooth, flat stone skipping from one side to the +other of the still bay, which Patsy declared was no sort of sport +because hers, though every bit as well thrown as Stair's, invariably +plumped to the bottom with a little farewell "cloop" as soon as they +encountered the water. "You get all the best stones!" Patsy cried at +last, vexed at her lack of success. Whereupon Stair handed over his +ammunition to her, which "clooped" and sank as before. + +"Then you _do_ something to them--you must!" said Patsy, and with this +luminous reasoning she turned and set off back to the old Rathan tower +to get a book. Thereafter they read. That is, Patsy spun white cobwebs +with her needle and Stair read to her--Shakespeare it was, and the play +"The Tempest." + +She did not know--she could never have guessed that Stair could read +like that. She often stopped him to ask the meaning of a passage, and +never did she ask in vain. Sometimes, indeed, she could have two or +three interpretations to choose from, for in the Bothy Stair had gone +over the play with Theobald's notes, comparing them with Pope's and +Johnson's. + +Patsy's heart was in a strange topsy-turvy state all that day. Sometimes +she would forget herself and "cosy up" against Stair as she used to +snuggle close to her Uncle Julian. Then something in the strong, clear +voice, the square unyieldingness of shoulders, the body massive and +forceful, caused her to draw hastily away. She thought that Stair had +not noticed, but his whole heart and body became tremulous to the brief +caress, and when she recalled her favour, it was like the sun hiding his +face and the air growing chilled as before snow. + +Still Stair managed to keep his face as steady as his voice, and ended +by growing so interested in the play that he forgot Patsy altogether. +Being infinitely more subtle than he, Patsy knew and resented this, and +it was only her cheek rubbing softly to and fro against his shoulder +that made him gasp and fail in the middle of a great harangue. + +At which Patsy smiled well-contented. She did not know what she wanted, +exactly, but of this she was certain, that whatever it might be, she +wanted it very badly. + +The most curious thing was that occasionally she felt very angry with +Stair, without being able to give a reason for her anger. The feeling +passed in a flash and she saw what she called the "monumental Stair" +again erected on a pedestal and knew that she had been cross with him +because she wished him a little less "monumental." She did not blame +herself in the least nor recall that Stair was only keeping his pledged +and plighted word. + +"I can't slap him as I used to do Louis Raincy. He is too big and too +solemn. He would think it part of the treatment and only set his lips +the firmer. But oh! (clenching her fists) how I wish I could!" + +And indeed it might have helped matters. + +The day sped on. Dinner was an outdoor meal. Stair carried it from the +back door of the tower down to a little hidden cove where sea-pinks and +prickly blue holly grew right down to the edge of the sand. Patsy served +and they talked merrily. Though a famous "runner" of all manner of +Hollands and Bordeaux, Stair tasted nothing except the water from the +spring which he had himself drawn up clear and cold from the well in the +courtyard--the well that had been made by the father of Patrick Heron, +long before the time of the Raiders from the Hills. + +Afterwards they stretched themselves out and chatted, making each +other's acquaintance, and deepening their mutual experiences. Patsy +could now unseal her treasured tales. She spoke of Eitel the Prince, and +Stair first blushed crimson and then went pale with desire to wring that +well-nigh regal neck. He could forgive a great deal to the Princess, +however, because she was acting as she thought best for Julian Wemyss's +niece. And of course Patsy did deserve the best. Yet she had chosen the +greatest detrimental of them all. However, he was a good watch-dog, and +would guard her well. + +Louis Raincy he had less patience with. Why should any man slight Patsy, +make love to another woman, and then come whining to be forgiven and +taken back into favour? And this same Louis Raincy had been with them at +the White Loch and had taken Patsy safe to his grandfather's at Castle +Raincy, the most sensible act of his life. + +But after all Stair found much cause to be content. He possessed, if not +all he hoped for--at least he had Patsy, all to himself, and that by her +own choosing and good will. What signified a few conditions to the +bargain? He never could have dared to ask her, and she had asked him. +Therefore she had a right to dictate her terms. He would not again +behave like a sulky fool, as he had done on the first night of their +coming to the Isle. He knew better now. + +He watched Patsy's quiet untroubled breathing, the slow droop and quick +recover of her eyelash as she grew a little drowsy. She pulled herself +up and dug her elbow into the sand so that her head might be supported. +Her eyes drooped again, but this time the eyelashes did not rise. The +arm bent into an adorable curve, and the head, heavy with sleep, finally +deposited itself on Stair's shoulder. With infinite delicate precautions +he drew a cloak over her and settled himself to watch the colour rise in +the cheek which he could see. He marked the crescent-shaped shadow of +the long, upturned eyelash, the lips exquisitely formed, but not too +small to be expressionless like your rosebud-mouthed women. She was his, +as the French say, "_en droit, mais pas encore en jouissance!_" + +Still, nobody else could have her. That was the first and greatest +consideration, and with that firm in his mind Stair kept himself steady +till the sun was descending low in the sky of the west, and the +clamorous birds began to flock back to the island--sand-pipers peeping +in the hollows about the sheep-fold, gulls and guillemots squabbling on +the cliffs, and tarns restlessly dashing and swooping. For the tide was +coming up fast and would soon be at the full. + +Then he saw something far out but coming nearer that made his heart leap +to his throat. He waited to make sure before awakening Patsy. But after +five minutes there could be no mistake. He must tell her. + +"Dear," he said, and trembled at the word, lest she should have heard +it, "I am sorry to wake you, but there is a man swimming towards the +island!" + + * * * * * + +Patsy awoke, and in a moment was on her feet. Whether she had heard the +word or not, certain it was that she had grasped the meaning of the +sentence. + +"Quick, Stair," she said, "get your gun!" + +"The man is swimming," said Stair. "I think, instead, I had better get a +dry suit of clothes. He cannot be very dangerous. I have my sheath-knife +if--but there is no fear. I can handle him!" + +"Run no risks, Stair. I have ventured my all upon you! You are +very ... necessary to me!" + +Ah, if he had only known that the word in her heart which she did not +let her lips speak was not "necessary" but "precious"! + +They went down together to the long spit of rock against which the +swimmer was being driven. Stair looked at the black head on the surface +of the water and realized that there might be trouble for both of them +in the immediate future. He ordered Patsy to stand back. + +"Why should I?" said Patsy, surprised at his tone. + +"Because I tell you to!" said Stair Garland sharply, "there--on the top +of the rock. Crouch down! Do not move till I give you leave." Then he +began to wade out, and as he went she saw him assure himself that his +sheath-knife moved sweetly in its scabbard with the click of +easy-fitting steel. + +"Eben McClure!" he cried, as in the long reach of the overhand stroke +the man's face was turned towards him, "what are you doing here?" + +Stair helped him out of the water. The man could hardly gasp at first, +but in a moment words returned to him. + +"The lost dog," he said hoarsely, "follows the only man who is kind to +it." + +And he would have fallen on the rock spit, if Stair had not caught him +in his arms, and carried him to the little cove. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +REBEL GALLOWAY + + +"You were here on this spot with your command, Captain de Raincy," +trumpeted Colonel Laurence, "and yet you let the prison-breakers ride +off! You ought to have attacked them, sir. You know you ought! It is as +much as your coat is worth. The whole crew of them were there--the low +fellow who shot the Duke where he drove into the infernal +barricades--and the girl who ran away from London to send the fiery +cross through the country. Damn it, sir, it makes me furious only to +think of it. And yet, with a chance like that, you sat your horse and +let them ride off!" + +"I need not, I suppose," said Louis calmly, "point out to you that there +were some hundreds of them, at least ten to one, and that most of them +were known to me--though not, I believe, those who remained behind to +fire the prison." + +"Well," said Colonel Laurence bitterly, "whether known to you or not, +you let them ride off unharmed after committing a capital crime. It is +evident that you cannot be trusted in your own district. Your sympathies +are not with law and order. Oh, I know something about the peculiar +difficulties of officials in Galloway. There are certain acts--such as +resistance to his Majesty's press, prison-breaking, and the whole +business of smuggling which are here favoured by all, from the Lord +Lieutenant to the herd on the hills. I cannot get a magistrate to issue +a warrant without referring the matter to the Secretary of State. I +cannot execute it without a battalion of regulars. As an instance in +point you were in command of a company of dragoons. You saw this thing +done. You knew those who did it, yet you did not lift a finger to stop +them." + +"We had only just arrived as they were riding off," said Louis. "I had +no evidence that any offence against justice had been committed. I saw +the prison on fire afterwards and I helped to put out that. Without my +troopers it would have been wholly destroyed." + +"No matter," said the irate Colonel, "we cannot have any such officer in +the district--certainly not under my command. I mean that my orders +shall be carried through at whatever risk. Now, I put it to you plainly, +do you prefer to send in your papers or be publicly broken?" + +"I shall not send in my papers," said Louis de Raincy, warmly, "and you +cannot break me, publicly or otherwise!" + +"And pray why not?" + +Louis lifted his hand in the direction of Castle Raincy, an imposing +pile of towers showing up dark on a hill to the west. + +"That's why," he said, curtly. "I am the heir to a peerage, and my +grandfather--well, I need not speak of him. Besides, I know the Duke of +York, who is still commander-in-chief." + +Laurence's temper got the better of him. + +"It is you and the like of you who defy regulations and are the shame of +the British army." + +"Not so," said Louis, in a very level tone, "say rather officers who +scramble for every safe money-making little post-recruit--raising, +keg-hunting, 'stay-in-a-comfortable-corner' men, and keep as far away +from the real fighting as possible. If the cap fits, why, put it on! And +as soon as the war is over, if you still require any satisfaction, I am +your man. In the meantime, Colonel Laurence, you will no longer be +troubled with me. I have got my transfer to the Duke's army at +Hernandez, and I am ordered to join my new regiment by the first ship to +leave Liverpool with cavalry details. We shall soon be ready for the +push across the Pyrenees in the rear of Soult!" + +Colonel Laurence took the paper and glanced at it. Then he grunted and +began to march out of barracks. He knew very well that, since the +British army was officered on much more aristocratic and family lines +than in later days, he could not hope to strike Louis Raincy with any +real penalty. But nevertheless he turned about for a parting shot. + +"That paragon of yours, the daughter of Ferris of Cairn Ferris, ran off +with the chief criminal. She led the attack on the Castle here. They are +hidden somewhere. If I catch them within my jurisdiction, I shall put a +bullet through each of them." + +"You can do as you like with Stair Garland," Louis Raincy called back, +"but remember if you touch Patsy Ferris I will put a bullet through you +if I have to hold the pistol to your ear! But I am not anxious--both of +them would be quickly avenged. I advise you, Laurence, to leave that +wasp's nest alone. You do not understand this people. I do!" + + * * * * * + +Now Colonel Laurence, though he got the worst of his colloquy with +Captain Louis Raincy, had a real grievance. It was true that throughout +the province, and especially in its westerly parts, the Government +hardly received the semblance of support. Some lairds and a few big +tenants were loud Governmental men, but at home each had his store of +"run" stuff ripening under some inconspicuous cellar, generally quite +unconnected with his mansion. In those days they built even cothouses +with more space below ground than could be seen above. The stones were +quarried in the laird's own quarries. They were carried in his tenant's +carts. They were laid by his own masons. The earth out of the cellarage +was tipped into the nearest burn or over the cliffs into the sea. + +There was hardly a farm lad from the Braes of Glenap to the Brigend of +Dumfries who was not protected by his landlord from his Majesty's press. +The sentiment of a whole countryside soon tells on the spirits of a man +like Laurence, and especially since he had lost Eben McClure (who had +taken off from him the sharpest of the popular hatred) his soul had +become darkened and embittered. He was expected to make bricks in a +country where the straw did not grow--to fill regimental _cadres_ with +men, every one of whom was under the secret protection of the loyal +gentlemen with whom he dined and talked. At hospitable boards he +sometimes forgot himself and revealed his plans, only to repent most +bitterly the next morning. For very sure was he that a messenger had +started as soon as he had been shut into his bedroom, and that long +before morning the quarry would be far away among the moors, lurking +there as safely as ever did Peden, called the Prophet, once minister of +New Luce. + +His men were continually being called out by this Supervisor and that, +but he had grown to be profoundly distrustful of such summonses. They +brought him no honour, and not even any satisfaction. The wily +exciseman, knowing well on which side his bread was buttered, had +generally made his pact with the "runners." When the troops and the +Preventive arrived on the scene of the "run," nothing remained except a +multitude of pony-tracks, and occasionally, if they were very swift and +very lucky, the top-masts of a schooner or brig might be seen hanging +like mist against the morning sky. Then the Preventives would run round +looking behind ridges of rocks and exploring the bottoms of shallow +pools, till they heroically took possession of the twenty or thirty +casks of Edam Hollands or Angouleme brandy which had been left for them. + +Then the newspaper account would run somewhat as follows: + + "IMPORTANT SMUGGLING CAPTURE.--On the night of the 7th, acting on + information received, the Preventive officers of Stranryan (Chief + Supervisor Pirlock in command), assisted by a troop of H.M. 27th + Dragoons stationed at the same place, succeeded in intercepting a + most serious attempt at smuggling at Port Logan. Supervisor Pirlock + had had the place under observation for several weeks, and on the + evening of the 7th he swooped down upon the law-breakers, + completely broke them up, and captured no fewer than thirty large + casks of fine liquors, both Dutch and French, probably all that the + smuggling ship had been able to put on shore. The vessel was seen + and her description will be sent to all ports, harbours, offices, + as well as to the general agencies under the charge of H.M. Board + of Excise. + + "A few more such successes and our law-breaking friends will fight + shy of the district occupied by the keen eyes and ready hands of so + able and zealous an officer as Mr. Chief Supervisor Pirlock." + +When a paragraph such as this came under the notice of Colonel Laurence, +he would stamp up and down his room, swearing great oaths, till his +majors had to take him in hand to prevent him speaking out in front of +the men. He would have liked to throttle, not only Mr. Chief Supervisor +Pirlock, but every Preventive officer in the district. + +Decidedly there was something to be said for Colonel Laurence. Yet why +did he remain? As Louis had hinted, he had more than once exchanged when +his regiments had been ordered abroad to the wars, in order to continue +in the district. His long experience in the work was urged as a reason. +But really the Colonel was hot on the track of his pension. He could not +now expect any further promotion, and he knew nothing better to do than +just to continue where he was, month after month, till the slow +revolution of the years should bring him an income and repose. + +If, however, he could lay his hand upon Stair and have him hanged in the +teeth of all the lairds in Galloway, that would surely count for +something with the Regent, and especially with the Boards of Revenue and +Recruitment, which were naturally very sore upon the subject of the +aforesaid Stair Garland. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +"WHY DO THEY LOVE YOU?" + + +With the coming of Eben the Spy to Isle Rathan a new life began there. +At first Patsy was filled with indignation at the trust Stair placed in +him. She knew that he had been with Uncle Julian and Stair in the Bothy +of Blairmore. She had heard the tale of the test--the test of life or +death. But somehow, because she had not seen it--because she had not +been with the ex-spy day after day, she could not believe in the reality +of his repentance. His deep-rooted admiration for Stair remained in her +eyes peculiarly suspect. He seemed to be presuming too much. If she, to +whom Stair belonged by right of purchase at so great a price, did not +manifest her feelings--what right had he? Of course he had a purpose to +serve, and that purpose was to betray them. How else should he have +guessed about the island, and why should he come swimming out and +interrupting their picnic like that? + +Still there was a pleasant side to the matter. The cows were milked, the +meals prepared. Fresh water was brought to every chamber by this man who +never showed his face outside the house during the day. Patsy and Stair +had nothing to do but to stray from one safe cove to another on the +seaward side all through these long days, and so, resentment falling +away, by and by Patsy fell into talk with Eben. He called her "madame," +and rarely concluded a sentence without a reference to "Your husband, +madame!" + +This Patsy thought a great liberty. What could he know about the matter? +He had not seen Saunders Duff's registers, and of a certainty Godfrey +McCulloch had not spoken. Still, she finished by liking to hear him say +the words, and often left the real Stair idly tossing stones into the +water, in order to go into the cool kitchen of Tower Rathan, to sit on +one of the ancient oaken chests, a row of which ran round the walls, and +hear tales of the dare-devil Stair, and especially to listen for the +respectful repetition of her favourite phrase, "Your husband, madame!" + +She loved to hear how her husband (she could say the word to herself now +sometimes) had accepted the outcast and had treated him like a man when +he was trodden under foot. She could not listen often enough to the +history of the restitution of the money and jewels with which Eben had +ridden away from the White Loch. Stair had insisted on that, though he +had no reason to love the Duke of Lyonesse. + +Then she would go back and lo! there--prone on the sand, his rough +muzzle on Stair's knees, his big brown eyes under shaggy bristles of +eyebrow, gazing up into his master's face, lay Whitefoot. Only, such was +the fineness of his breeding and the delicacy of his sheep-dog instinct, +that he rose instantly when he heard Patsy's returning footsteps, and +took himself out of the way. He worshipped none the less, only at a +greater distance. Patsy's was now the first right. + +"Why do they love you so much, Stair?" said Patsy abruptly, as she sat +down beside him after one of these kitchen visits. + +"They--who?" said Stair, sleepily. For warm pebbles, warm sands, the lee +of a rock and the gentle lap of a sheltered sea make for drowsiness. + +"Well," said Patsy, "Eben and Whitefoot there--they don't care a straw +about me." + +"Whitefoot would defend you with his life," put in Stair, sitting up. + +"Yes, because you tell him," said Patsy, pulling discontentedly at a +blade of grass, "and as for Eben--he simply cannot keep from singing +your praises!" + +Stair laughed, gaily for him. He did not often laugh aloud. + +"Patsy," he answered, "how many have loved you--Princes and Princesses, +men and women in another world than mine? Now, none of these love +me--and strange as it may seem, I am not disquieted about the matter." + +"I daresay not," snapped Patsy, who this morning for some reason was +easily irritated, "but they are not here. Eben and Whitefoot are, and +they go about worshipping you. Now, if you expect me to do the same, you +are mistaken!" + +"I am not expecting anything of the sort," said Stair patiently, looking +past Patsy, away out to sea to the poised top of Snaefell lording it +above the low-lying channel mists. + +"Well then you ought!" cried Patsy, and turning on her heel she sped to +the house to keep from crying, she did not in the least know why. And +when Stair followed her to ask what was the matter, it stood to reason +that he was met by silence and a locked door. If he had had more +experience he would have remained where he was and let Patsy find her +way back of her own accord. + +One morning, a week or two after, Patsy had gone out with her books and +Stair was getting ready to follow her to the seaward looking side of the +Isle, when Eben called him to the window of the kitchen which overlooked +the long ridge of sand, shingle, and razor-like mussel shells which in +the deeps of the ebb, constituted a practicable pathway across to the +mainland. + +For half-a-dozen tides each month, three in the middle of each neap, +unless there were heavy winds from the south-west, Isle Rathan became a +tidal island, and the ridge could be crossed on foot by those who made +haste. This was not, however, often attempted, for the tides and +currents were exceedingly tricky in these parts. + +Eben pointed with his finger to a faint horizontal ridge on the +mainland. + +"Do you see anything there, sir?" he asked. + +"No," said Stair, anxious to be off to Patsy, "some shepherds on the +mainland have been making a new sheep-fold, I suppose." + +"A sheep-fold is mostly round, sir," said Eben, "and if you will notice +there are two turf dykes one behind the other. I don't like that. +Besides, have you seen anybody working there? I have not. And would +herds cover their work so neatly with turf? From here it might be twenty +years old--only I know it was not there when I passed that way down to +the Orraland Point where I began to swim out." + +"I see you have an idea," said Stair, "out with it! Tell me what you +think!" + +"Sir," said Eben McClure, "I have every need to serve you faithfully, +and I should never forgive myself if by chance I had brought the enemy +on you. I learned from my uncle where you were. He also has grown to +trust me, sir, because you found me trustworthy, and he was willing that +I should come, in order to be of what help to you I could. He cherishes +the lady your wife above all others in the world. I had thought Kennedy +McClure a hard, selfish old man, and so he might have been but for her. +But he is never tired of telling how she saved him in London, and how +she was not ashamed of him even in the company of Princes and all the +great folk of the town. Ah, she was counted a world's wonder, sir--our +Miss Patsy, if I may make so bold as to call her so--when she was in +London. There was no one like her--and it's not coronets she could have +married, my uncle says, but crowns!" + +"I know--I know," said Stair, somewhat impatiently, "but what is it you +are afraid of?" + +"The sappers, sir--the little burrowing men. They have far more sense +than whole regiments of soldiers, and it is as likely as not that some +one of them, anxious for promotion, followed me across country, and +watched me down to the point of Orraland. I wish I had been more careful +of my footprints, but the woods were soft and I kept under shelter till +the last moment!" + +"Well, what of it--get on, Eben!" + +"Sir, these are sappers' trenches, or I am no judge! And what's more, +they are made to command the approach by the ridge to the tail of the +island." + +"But we are almost at the height of the flood tides, and there can be +nothing to fear from that direction till the neaps come, and not then if +the south-west wind blows as it has done ever since we came here. Why, +we have hardly ever seen the back of the ridge black for half-an-hour." + +"I know," said Eben, shaking his head, "but they are long-patienced +fellows, these sappers--not like cavalrymen or lazy Preventives, who +want nothing better than to lie up with a pipe and a mutchkin!" + +"Some night we shall row over and see, Eben," said Stair, preparing to +depart. "If they are lying in their rabbit-hutches we might give them a +rare fright!" + +"No," said Eben, "I don't mind going myself, but what would that child +do without you? Answer me that, sir! No, what I want you to do is to +send Whitefoot with a message to my uncle and get the _Good Intent_ here +by the next neaps. Could the dog do that, sir? They say he is wise." + +"Well," said Stair, considering, "I don't think that Whitefoot could go +directly to Supsorrow and find out your uncle. But he could take a +message to Jean, if he were put a little bit on the road--say through +the Blue Hills glen and over the old bridge of Dee. I daresay he could +make it even from here, but he has never been past Dee Bridge by land. +Then Jean would send on the note to your uncle by Agnew--he is the +youngest and fleetest!" + +"He and I shall start to-night," said Eben the Spy. "I shall be back +before the morning. I shall see him safe across Tongland Bridge and be +home before daybreak. The nights are lengthening." + +"If you think it is necessary," said Stair, stepping out. + +"It _is_ necessary," said Eben, emphatically. "It is so important that I +would run all the way myself, if I could do the journey as fast and as +surely." + +Stair and Patsy spent the day in the usual way out on the cliffs, coming +in for their meals as leisurely as to an hotel and as certain that they +would find everything in order. + +Stair said nothing to Patsy about his talk with Eben. He did not mention +the curious ridges so carefully turfed with green which were gradually +penning in the end of the shore passage. But in spite of this, he +thought a good deal. Who could be at the back of this steady pursuit? +Surely not Louis Raincy. No, Raincy was a Galloway man, and even if +Patsy were not there to be considered, he would not hunt Stair Garland. +He might have his own quarrel with him, but he would not take this way +of avenging himself. + +That night, as soon as Patsy said good-night and went upstairs, Eben +made a parcel of his clothes, and at a sign from his master Whitefoot +stood ready to plunge in and swim across along with Eben. His collar, +duly charged with Jean's letter, was tied in the bundle along with the +ex-spy's clothes, and would be put upon him after the moorland winds had +dried the mane of hair about his neck. + +"_To Jean_--you hear, Whitefoot--_to Jean!_" + +And Whitefoot leaped up to lick Stair's face in token of complete +understanding. + +It was not a long swim, and the pair took the water at the very height +of the tide. They would hardly lose any way as they pushed towards the +strand beneath the farmhouse of Craigdarroch, which was the nearest +point on their road to the old Bridge of Tongland, beyond which +Whitefoot knew his trail. + +Stair watched them out of sight. They swam silently and evenly into the +darkness, and in a quarter of an hour he heard the signal agreed +upon--Whitefoot's singing yelp with which he assisted the precentor in +starting such minor tunes as Martyrs and Coleshill. Then he turned and +went slowly back to the old Tower of Rathan. Patsy's light was not out, +and he stood a long while in the courtyard looking up at it. + +Many were making sacrifices for Patsy's sake, but none, he thought, such +great ones as he. Still, so it was nominated in the bond. And, touched +by a memory, he took out his Shakespeare and read the "Merchant of +Venice" till he fell asleep. + +The candle had burned itself out when he awoke. The early rose of a +coming day was looking in at the top of the blinds. He heard the rattle +of pebbles tossed against the half-closed wooden shutter. He opened, and +there, pale as a spectre, stood Eben McClure. His teeth were chattering, +so Stair made haste to let him in. He gave him a strong "four fingers" +dram of Angouleme brandy, before making him roll himself up in a blanket +and lie down in his warm place. Stair would be cook for one morning. + +He did not disturb the sleeper when Patsy came down, smiling and happy, +with another day of peaceful pleasure before her in their Rath or Isle +of the Fairy Folk. + +"Eben McClure needed to send a message to his uncle," he said lightly, +"so he swam across with Whitefoot, and being chilled when he got back, I +gave him a dose of spirits and made him go to bed." + +Patsy made no remark. She had accepted Eben as a fixture in their +_menage_, and took no further concern about the matter. But Stair looked +out many times at the green trenches closing in the land entrance to the +isle, and even as he looked, it seemed that during the night the +parallels had crept down a little nearer to high-water mark. + +If so, Eben the Spy was right, and for Patsy's sake their precautions +had not been taken a moment too soon. The sooner the _Good Intent_ was +on the spot the better. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +THE BATTLE OF THE CAUSEWAY + + +Patsy was a prison-breaker. She had not only resisted but defied lawful +authority. She had broken "with the armed hand" into one of his +Majesty's defended prisons. She had taken out men awaiting trial for +capital offences, and to finish all neatly, she or her followers had +burned the Castle of Stranryan. + +As for Stair, the counts on his indictment were as the sands by the +seashore for multitude. There was no doubt that the sappers would earn +the thanks of their superiors, of the whole Board of Excise and of the +Office of Recruitment for the two services by handing over the two who +had so long terrorized the best efforts of their agents in Galloway. +Eben, as a thief and a traitor to his salt, would be an additional +prize. Surely all this was worth working and waiting for. So at least +thought Colonel Laurence, who had patiently followed them westwards till +he came across the tracks of Eben McClure when he prepared to swim +across to the island from the point of Orraland. + +The days went slowly for Eben and Stair, who were waiting for the neaps +and the coming of the _Good Intent_. They sped fast for Patsy, who now +ran unashamed about the island with Stair's hand in hers. Never had +there been such a companion. Never had she been so happy. + +What troubled the men most was the failure of Whitefoot to return. To +account for this, Stair had invented a score of reasons, in none of +which he believed himself. It was now Thursday and the day after next, +or more exactly during the early morning of Friday, they would see the +middle of the neaps. If at all the ridge would be fully uncovered then, +and in the absence of a strong south-wester (which now seemed unlikely), +the track might remain uncovered for a couple of hours. + +All that day there had been unusual semaphore signallings and wavings of +flags on the heights facing the island; but Stair, anxious to keep Patsy +ignorant and happy as long as possible, still hesitated to tell her. +They had gone down to Leg-o'-Mutton Bay where the shells they called by +that name were to be found. An absolute silence reigned as they stood +together looking out towards the sunset playing on Screel and Ben Gairn, +till, with the tail of his eye Stair saw something moving along the +ridge above them. + +He turned swiftly, and there was Whitefoot, but a Whitefoot who dragged +one foot painfully after the other, yet who, at sight of his master, +wagged his great tail and gave vent to his old "_Aaa-uch_" of joy. The +dog tried to bound towards them, but he had overestimated his strength. +He toppled forward, whereupon Stair ran to him and carried him down in +his arms. There was a bullet-hole behind his shoulder, but in spite of +that the dog had swam the strait to find his master. + +Stair laid him down and Patsy hastily tore off the flounce of a dress to +bind about the wound. Stair took off his coat and wrapped Whitefoot in +it. But he was not easy, shaking his head and turning it about to +indicate that he had some message which must be delivered immediately. +To quiet him, Stair undid the collar and pulled out a little square +missive. + +_"The 'Good Intent' will be with you and send a boat Friday morning!"_ + +As soon as Whitefoot saw the white half sheet in Stair's hands, he +crawled a little farther up on his master's knees. His beautiful eyes, +that were fixed on Stair's face, gradually blurred and grew filmy. He +moved his head restlessly as he was wont to do when seeking a caress. +Stair's hand was laid on his head to soothe him. Whitefoot stretched +himself out on his master's knees for the last time with the long, +contented sigh of one about to sleep, and shut his beautiful eyes for +ever. Only his tongue continued to lick his master's hand for another +moment or two. + +"Oh, Stair," cried Patsy, "how he loved you--he died for you!" + +"No, dear," said Stair softly, "for us!" + + * * * * * + +The next was a day of anxious tension. The long sinuous snakeback of the +shell-ridge showed black all its length at the bottom of the afternoon +ebb, but contrary to their expectations nothing moved in the camp of the +enemy. It was evident that they were waiting for the early morning. The +water would be at its lowest shortly after three, when the rush could be +made with sufficient light to see. This was the more necessary as there +were many quicksands to either side and in one or two places the ridge +was not quite continuous. The winter storms altered it, sometimes by +many feet, leaving isolated humps and mounds with quicksands about them, +which might easily trap the unwary. The enemy was evidently not going to +take any risks. + +After Whitefoot's death Stair had perforce to tell everything to Patsy. +It was wonderful how it strengthened and reaffirmed her. + +"Why did you not tell me?" she said. "Why did you take counsel with +everybody but me?" + +"I did not," said Stair, smiling at her. "It was Eben who discovered +everything, and then came and asked me. I thought that there might be +nothing in it, and it was not till I was perfectly sure, that I saw the +necessity of disturbing you." + +"You will never treat me as a child again?" she had her hands on his +sleeve now, and was looking up into his face. + +"No," he said, "I know too well who carried me off here, breaking +prisons to get me--and has not known what to do with me since!" + +"Oh, don't say that, Stair. I love you very dearly--more than I thought +possible." + +He gazed at her for a moment, saw that his time had not yet come, and +then gently patted her cheek, so gently that she did not resent the +caress. All that day they watched the curving trenches from a little +angle of the tower from which a rifle could be brought to bear on the +shell causeway. That afternoon seemed everlasting. It was a clear, still +twilight, and they did not dine till nearly midnight. If the _Good +Intent_ were to send a boat it would be to the back of the island which +the tide never left. Indeed, Leg-o'-Mutton Bay was the only spot where a +boat could land. There was always deep water there. + +At one o'clock Stair saw a ship's lights very far away. It was very +doubtful, even supposing that she were the _Good Intent_, that she could +be there in time. But in the crucial hours, Eben the Spy proved himself +wonderfully helpful and encouraging. His Uncle Kennedy never promised +without keeping his promise. There might be a bit of a skirmish as the +men were coming over, but he could warrant that they would be safe on +board along with Captain Penman before ever a soldier set his foot on +the island. On this he would pledge his life. + +In view of all the facts this was not very convincing, but all the same +it was distinctly cheering. + +The blank night wore to a kind of grey over the sea, though the land was +still in deep shadow. Across the grey ran the coils of the black +causeway. The light was coming fast now and for the first time Eben lost +his equanimity of spirit. He was in haste to have them gone out of the +Tower. + +"Take Mrs. Stair down to the landing-place, sir," he pleaded, "take her +to the little cove where the boat will come in. They may be on the +shell-track any time now." + +And as he spoke both Stair and he heard and recognized the loud rattle +of a ship's anchor chain. + +"There," he cried, "off with you! There is not a moment to lose. Ah, +there they come. But that is only the first of them. I can easily stop +these. Out at the back door! The wicket in the wall is open. Keep on +through the hollow and you will find the boat ready. Do not wait for me. +I have my own life arranged for. Do not fear for me!" + +He hustled them out with a haste which left them no time for +explanation. The men who were hastening across the causeway had less +than a mile to run. It was, however, by no means easy going, and it +would take them at least ten good minutes. Stair took Patsy down to the +Shell Bay by the safest path, and even before they reached it they could +hear the beginning of a fusillade in their rear. The boat from the _Good +Intent_ was already on the way, rowed by four sturdy seamen, yet it +seemed to them both as though she would never arrive. They looked behind +them, expecting every moment to see a rush of men come at them over the +crown of the island. + +Stair could stand it no longer. He must see what was going on, and he +mounted the rough sides of the little heathery knoll called quaintly Ben +Rathan. Patsy would not be left behind and he found her at his side. She +could, in fact, have been there long before him. + +But what they saw struck them dumb. + +In a rough trench at the island end of the shell causeway, and quite +clearly evident beneath them in the young light of the morning, were +three figures, two of them obviously dummies, but with guns at their +shoulders and hats on their shapeless heads. Bounding hither and +thither, now along the top of the trench, now rising breast-high to fire +was a man so like Stair Garland that Patsy had to look again at the +blond giant beside her to make sure. Then they understood. + +It was the ex-spy clad in the cast-off suit which Stair had taken off +the first morning after their coming to the island. Stair's well-known +bonnet with its tall feather was on Eben's head, and after every shot or +two, he waved it in the air and shouted to the assailants to come on. +The half-dozen sappers who had tried the first rush were now lying flat +behind stones, and one lay bunched up as if wounded. The false Stair ran +to and fro firing the muskets over the shoulders of his auxiliary +potato-sacks. Then he shouted again defiantly, and leaping to the +cliff's edge where he stood clear against the sky-line, he fired again. +Patsy could see the mud-and-water spurt up from where the bullet struck. +From the mainland a score more of men took the pathway, keeping as +widely apart as possible. These were Colonel Laurence and his first +reinforcement. Up went the feathered bonnet in the air as Eben dived +back into his rude trench. + +The sailors kept calling now from the boat, eagerly, imperiously. It was +necessary for them to return. Patsy was placed on board and Stair wished +to go back and help to defend the island. He could not leave Eben +McClure thus. But Patsy was out on the shingle in a moment. If Stair +went back so should she. Eben McClure had given her a letter which, he +said, would explain everything. It was only to be read aboard the _Good +Intent_ after the anchor was up. + +So they put about and in a few minutes they were having their hands +wrung off by Captain Penman on his own quarter-deck. + +"I am glad to see you," he cried. "I thought I heard firing. They must +have been pretty close--not much sea-way in your last tack, eh? But come +below. You will find everything in my cabin. The owner said most +particular that it was to be made all spick and span for you. Honoured I +am to see you again on my ship, Mistress Garland!" + +As they turned the corner of Isle Rathan, Stair and Patsy could see that +the sham defences had been carried with a rush, and that something lay +very still behind the hastily-dug trench. Patsy's keen eyes noted that +it was still wearing Stair's bonnet. + +She turned and ran below weeping bitterly. + +"Oh, Stair, they do not love you better than I!" she wailed as she clung +passionately to him; "no--not though they die for you, and I am only a +drag on you. For I love you! I love you--and I too would die for you!" + +Her arms were about her husband's neck and her lips were pressed for the +first time to his. + +"Dear," he answered softly, "perhaps you were meant to live for me!" + + * * * * * + +The letter which Eben had given to Patsy was a very simple one. + + "Dear Sir and Madame" (it read), "if we are hard-pressed I am going + to fight them off to give you time to get away. I was a bad man + till Mr. Stair believed in me. I think it an honour to die for him + and for his wife. Madame, be kind to him, for he deserves it. There + is no such man in this world, I do assure you of that. + + "Your obdt. humble servant, + "E. McCLURE. + + "P.S.--I should like Mr. Stair to tell my uncle that I + did not disgrace the family name." + +In a letter left in charge of Captain Penman, Kennedy McClure had sent +Patsy a packet of banknotes with his love. The emigrants were to be +taken to Leghorn and landed there. Thereafter they could remain at Pisa +or Florence as suited them best till the storm blew over and their +friends made arrangements. Miss Patsy must not mind taking a little +money now, for he had meant her to be his heir ever since he had charged +himself with her future by helping her to run away from princesses and +suchlike great people in London. And as for Stair Garland, he really had +been owing him all that and more for a long time. + + * * * * * + +It was the autumn of the year after Waterloo when they next set foot on +Scottish soil. They might have come sooner, but while Napoleon ruled +communications were difficult, and now there were three of them to think +about. Recently, however, Kennedy McClure had died of a sudden +apoplectic seizure and had left Stair a rich man. But the estate was one +which needed very constant and personal attention. + +Uncle Julian they had already seen twice in Florence and once in Rome. +Old Brunschweig was also dead and there was more than a likelihood that +the Princess would not bear the title of Princess much longer. She would +lose her rank, but she would be rich enough and happy enough to make up +for any loss of dignity under the name of Mrs. Julian Wemyss. + +Adam Ferris and Miss Aline received them on the quay. She had got the +house of Ladykirk in order for them. She had opened up the orchard +portion and given them the whole of the east wing to themselves. She +would be more than ever in the garden among her flowers. The stables +also were at hand. Stair would need many horses for his riding if he +meant to follow in the footsteps of Kennedy McClure, and she could +never, never bide to see her darling enter as a bride into a house with +the mischancy name of Supsorrow. Besides, she herself had no heirs, and +it was not meet that Ladykirk and Balmacminto should go to any other +than Patsy. It would fit in fine with the Ferris properties some day, +when young Kennedy Ebenezer Garland thought of settling! + +So she chattered as they drove through Stranryan, and the folk flocked +to their doors to see the strange foreign lady and gentleman whose names +even they had not yet heard. On this point Mr. Ferris had thought it +best to be silent, and with some difficulty had persuaded Miss Aline to +do the same. + +Well, she agreed, they would be tired, the poor things. What need to +have all the mob at their heels shouting and "yellyhooing"? + +But when they passed the blackened walls of the ancient prison, which +had not been touched since that last dire rising of the Bands under +Patsy's leadership, husband and wife clasped hands under cover of the +carriage-rug, and Miss Aline smiled as she caught them doing it, which +pleased her better than many fortunes. + +It was of a surety the new day, and all the ill old times of struggle +and passion had passed away--as well from their hearts as from the old +mother Province which they loved. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Patsy, by S. R. 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