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CORPORAL CAMERON OF THE NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE
A TALE OF THE MACLEOD TRAIL
by RALPH CONNOR
BOOK I
I THE QUITTER
II THE GLEN OF THE CUP OF GOLD
III THE FAMILY SOLICITOR
IV A QUESTION OF HONOUR
V A LADY AND THE LAW
VI THE WASTER'S REFUGE
VII FAREWELL TO CUAGH OIR
VIII WILL HE COME BACK?
BOOK II
I HO FOR THE OPEN!
II A MAN'S JOB
III A DAY'S WORK
IV A RAINY DAY
V HOW THEY SAVED THE DAY
VI A SABBATH DAY IN LATE AUGUST
VII THE CHIVAREE
VIII IN APPLE TIME
BOOK III
I THE CAMP BY THE GAP
II ON THE WINGS OF THE STORM
III THE STONIES
IV THE DULL RED STAIN
V SERGEANT CRISP
VI A DAY IN THE MACLEOD BARRACKS
VII THE MAKING OF BRAVES
VIII NURSE HALEY
IX "CORPORAL" CAMERON
CORPORAL CAMERON
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER I
THE QUITTER
"Oh-h-h-h, Cam-er-on!" Agony, reproach, entreaty, vibrated in the
clear young voice that rang out over the Inverleith grounds. The
Scottish line was sagging!--that line invincible in two years of
International conflict, the line upon which Ireland and England had
broken their pride. Sagging! And because Cameron was weakening!
Cameron, the brilliant half-back, the fierce-fighting, erratic
young Highlander, disciplined, steadied by the great Dunn into an
instrument of Scotland's glory! Cameron going back! A hush fell
on the thronged seats and packed inner-circle,--a breathless,
dreadful hush of foreboding. High over the hushed silence that
vibrant cry rang; and Cameron heard it. The voice he knew. It was
young Rob Dunn's, the captain's young brother, whose soul knew but
two passions, one for the captain and one for the half-back of the
Scottish International.
And Cameron responded. The enemy's next high punt found him
rock-like in steadiness. And rock-like he tossed high over his
shoulders the tow-headed Welshman rushing joyously at him, and
delivered his ball far down the line safe into touch. But after
his kick he was observed to limp back into his place. The fierce
pace of the Welsh forwards was drinking the life of the Scottish
backline.
An hour; then a half; then another half, without a score. And now
the final quarter was searching, searching the weak spots in their
line. The final quarter it is that finds a man's history and
habits; the clean of blood and of life defy its pitiless probe, but
the rotten fibre yields and snaps. That momentary weakness of
Cameron's like a subtle poison runs through the Scottish line; and
like fluid lightning through the Welsh. It is the touch upon the
trembling balance. With cries exultant with triumph, the Welsh
forwards fling themselves upon the steady Scots now fighting for
life rather than for victory. And under their captain's directions
these fierce, victory-sniffing Welsh are delivering their attack
upon the spot where he fancies he has found a yielding. In vain
Cameron rallies his powers; his nerve is failing him, his strength
is done. Only five minutes to play, but one minute is enough.
Down upon him through a broken field, dribbling the ball and
following hard like hounds on a hare, come the Welsh, the tow-head
raging in front, bloody and fearsome. There is but one thing for
Cameron to do; grip that tumbling ball, and, committing body and
soul to fate, plunge into that line. Alas, his doom is upon him!
He grips the ball, pauses a moment--only a fatal moment,--but it is
enough. His plunge is too late. He loses the ball. A surge of
Welshmen overwhelm him in the mud and carry the ball across. The
game is won--and lost. What though the Scots, like demons suddenly
released from hell, the half-back Cameron most demon-like of all,
rage over the field, driving the Welshmen hither and thither at
will, the gods deny them victory; it is for Wales that day!
In the retreat of their rubbing-room the gay, gallant humour which
the Scots have carried with them off the field of their defeat,
vanishes into gloom. Through the steaming silence a groan breaks
now and then. At length a voice:
"Oh, wasn't it rotten! The rank quitter that he is!"
"Quitter? Who is? Who says so?" It was the captain's voice,
sharp with passion.
"I do, Dunn. It was Cameron lost us the game. You know it, too.
I know it's rotten to say this, but I can't help it. Cameron lost
the game, and I say he's a rank 'quitter,' as Martin would say."
"Look here, Nesbitt," the captain's voice was quiet, but every man
paused in his rubbing. "I know how sore you are and I forgive you
that; but I don't want to hear from you or from any man on the team
that word again. Cameron is no quitter; he made--he made an
error,--he wasn't fit,--but I say to you Cameron is no quitter."
While he was speaking the door opened and into the room came a
player, tall, lanky, with a pale, gaunt face, plastered over the
forehead with damp wisps of straight, black hair. His deep-set,
blue-grey eyes swept the room.
"Thanks, Dunn," he said hoarsely. "Let them curse me! I deserve
it all. It's tough for them, but God knows I've got the worst of
it. I've played my last game." His voice broke huskily.
"Oh, rot it, Cameron," cried Dunn. "Don't be an ass! Your first
big game--every fellow makes his mistake--"
"Mistake! Mistake! You can't lie easily, Dunn. I was a fool and
worse than a fool. I let myself down and I wasn't fit. Anyway,
I'm through with it." His voice was wild and punctuated with
unaccustomed oaths; his breath came in great sobs.
"Oh, rot it, Cameron!" again cried Dunn. "Next year you'll be
twice the man. You're just getting into your game."
Right loyally his men rallied to their captain:
"Right you are!"
"Why, certainly; no man gets into the game first year!"
"We'll give 'em beans next year, Cameron, old man!"
They were all eager to atone for the criticism which all had held
in their hearts and which one of them had spoken. But this
business was serious. To lose a game was bad enough, but to round
on a comrade was unpardonable; while to lose from the game a half-
back of Cameron's calibre was unthinkable.
Meanwhile Cameron was tearing off his football togs and hustling on
his clothes with fierce haste. Dunn kept his eye on him, hurrying
his own dressing and chatting quietly the while. But long before
he was ready for the street, Cameron had crushed his things into a
bag and was looking for his hat.
"Hold on! I'm with you; I'm with you in a jiffy," said Dunn.
"My hat," muttered Cameron, searching wildly among the jumble.
"Oh, hang the hat; let it go! Wait for me, Cameron. Where are you
going?" cried Dunn.
"To the devil," cried the lad, slamming the door behind him.
"And, by Jove, he'll go, too!" said Nesbitt. "Say, I'm awfully
sorry I made that break, Dunn. It was beastly low-down to round on
a chap like that. I'll go after him."
"Do, old chap! He's frightfully cut up. And get him for to-night.
He may fight shy of the dinner. But he's down for the pipes, you
know, and--well, he's just got to be there. Good-bye, you chaps;
I'm off! And--I say, men!" When Dunn said "men" they all knew it
was their captain that was speaking. Everybody stood listening.
Dunn hesitated a moment or two, as if searching for words. "About
the dinner to-night: I'd like you to remember--I mean--I don't want
any man to--oh, hang it, you know what I mean! There will be lots
of fellows there who will want to fill you up. I'd hate to see any
of our team--" The captain paused embarrassed.
"We tumble, Captain," said Martin, a medical student from Canada,
who played quarter. "I'll keep an eye on 'em, you bet!"
Everybody roared; for not only on the quarter-line but also at the
dinner table the little quarter-back was a marvel of endurance.
"Hear the blooming Colonist!" said Linklater, Martin's comrade on
the quarter-line, and his greatest friend. "We know who'll want
the watching, but we'll see to him, Captain."
"All right, old chap! Sorry I'll have to cut the van. I'm afraid
my governor's got the carriage here for me."
But the men all made outcry. There were other plans for him.
"But, Captain; hold on!"
"Aw, now, Captain! Don't forsake us!"
"But I say, Dunn, see us through; we're shy!"
"Don't leave us, Captain, or you'll be sorry," sang out Martin.
"Come on, fellows, let's keep next him! We'll give him 'Old
Grimes!'"
Already a mighty roar was heard outside. The green, the drive, the
gateways, and the street were blocked with the wildest football
fanatics that Edinburgh, and all Scotland could produce. They were
waiting for the International players, and were bent on carrying
their great captain down the street, shoulder high; for the
enthusiasm of the Scot reaches the point of madness only in the
hour of glorious defeat. But before they were aware, Dunn had
shouldered his mighty form through the opposing crowds and had got
safely into the carriage beside his father and his young brother.
But the crowd were bound to have him.
"We want him, Docthor," said a young giant in a tam-o'-shanter.
"In fac', Docthor," he argued with a humourous smile, "we maun hae
him."
"Ye'll no' get him, Jock Murchison," shouted young Rob, standing in
front of his big brother. "We want him wi' us."
The crowd laughed gleefully.
"Go for him, Jock! You can easy lick him," said a voice
encouragingly.
"Pit him oot, Docthor," said Jock, who was a great friend of the
family, and who had a profound respect for the doctor.
"It's beyond me, Jock, I fear. See yon bantam cock! I doubt ye'll
hae to be content," said the doctor, dropping into Jock's kindly
Doric.
"Oh, get on there, Murchison," said Dunn impatiently. "You're not
going to make an ass of me; make up your mind to that!"
Jock hesitated, meditating a sudden charge, but checked by his
respect for Doctor Dunn.
"Here, you fellows!" shouted a voice. "Fall in; the band is going
to play! Get into line there, you Tam-o'-shanter; you're stopping
the procesh! Now then, wait for the line, everybody!" It was
Little Martin on top of the van in which were the Scottish players.
"Tune, 'Old Grimes'; words as follows. Catch on, everybody!"
"Old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn,
Old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn,
Old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn,
Old Dunn, old Dunn, old Dunn."
With a delighted cheer the crowd formed in line, and, led by the
little quarter-back on top of the van, they set off down the
street, two men at the heads of the doctor's carriage horses,
holding them in place behind the van. On went the swaying crowd
and on went the swaying chant, with Martin, director of ceremonies
and Dunn hurling unavailing objurgations and entreaties at Jock's
head.
Through the uproar a girl's voice reached the doctor's ear:
"Aren't they lovely, Sir?"
The doctor turned to greet a young lady, tall, strong, and with the
beauty of perfect health rather than of classic feature in her
face. There was withal a careless disregard of the feminine
niceties of dress.
"Oh, Miss Brodie! Will you not come up? We can easily make room."
"I'd just love to," cried the girl, "but I'm only a humble member
of the procession, following the band and the chariot wheels of the
conqueror." Her strong brown face was all aglow with ardour.
"Conqueror!" growled Dunn. "Not much of a conqueror!"
"Why not? Oh fudge! The game? What matters the game? It's the
play we care about."
"Well spoken, lassie," said the doctor. "That's the true sport."
"Aren't they awful?" cried Dunn. "Look at that young Canadian
idiot up there."
"Well, if you ask me, I think he's a perfect dear," said Miss
Brodie, deliberately. "I'm sure I know him; anyway I'm going to
encourage him with my approval." And she waved her hand at Martin.
The master of ceremonies responded by taking off his hat and making
a sweeping bow, still keeping up the beat. The crowd, following
his eyes, turned their attention to the young lady, much to Dunn's
delight.
"Oh," she gasped, "they'll be chanting me next! Good-bye! I'm
off!" And she darted back to the company of her friends marching
on the pavement.
At this point Martin held up both arms and called for silence.
"Second verse," he shouted, "second verse! Get the words now!"
"Old Dunn ain't done, old Dunn ain't done,
Old Dunn, old Dunn ain't done,
Old Dunn ain't done, old Dunn ain't done,
Old Dunn, old Dunn ain't done."
But the crowd rejected the Colonial version, and rendered in their
own good Doric:
"Old Dunn's no' done, old Dunn's no' done,
Old Dunn, old Dunn's no' done,
Old Dunn's no' done, old Dunn's no' done,
Old Dunn, old Dunn's no' done."
And so they sang and swayed, following the van till they neared
Queen Street, down which lay the doctor's course.
"For heaven's sake, can't they be choked off?" groaned Dunn.
The doctor signalled Jock to him.
"Jock," he said, "we'll just slip through at Queen Street."
"We'd like awfully to do Princes Street, Sir," pleaded Jock.
"Princes Street, you born ass!" cried Dunn wrathfully.
"Oh, yes, let them!" cried young Rob, whose delight in the glory of
his hero had been beyond all measure. "Let them do Princes Street,
just once!"
But the doctor would not have it. "Jock," he said quietly, "just
get us through at Queen Street."
"All right, Sir," replied Jock with great regret. "It will be as
you say."
Under Jock's orders, when Queen Street was reached, the men at the
horses' heads suddenly swung the pair from the crowd, and after
some struggling, got them safely into the clear space, leaving the
procession to follow the van, loudly cheering their great
International captain, whose prowess on the field was equalled only
by his modesty and his hatred of a demonstration.
"Listen to the idiots," said Dunn in disgust, as the carriage bore
them away from the cheering crowd.
"Man, they're just fine! Aren't they, Father?" said young Rob in
an ecstasy of joy.
"They're generous lads, generous lads, boy," said Doctor Dunn, his
old eyes shining, for his son's triumph touched him deeply.
"That's the only way to take defeat."
"That's all right, Sir," said Dunn quickly, "but it's rather
embarrassing, though it's awfully decent of them."
The doctor's words suggested fresh thoughts to young Rob. "But it
was terrible; and you were just on the win, too, I know."
"I'm not so sure at all," said his brother.
"Oh, it is terrible," said Bob again.
"Tut, tut, lad! What's so terrible?" said his father. "One side
has to lose."
"Oh, it's not that," said Rob, his lip trembling. "I don't care a
sniff for the game."
"What, then?" said his big brother in a voice sharpened by his own
thoughts.
"Oh, Jack," said Rob, nervously wreathing his hands, "he--it looked
as if he--" the lad could not bring himself to say the awful word.
Nor was there need to ask who it was the boy had in mind.
"What do you mean, Rob?" the captain's voice was impatient, almost
angry.
Then Rob lost his control. "Oh, Jack, I can't help it; I saw it.
Do you think--did he really funk it?" His voice broke. He
clutched his brother's knee and stood with face white and
quivering. He had given utterance to the terrible suspicion that
was torturing his heroic young soul. Of his two household gods one
was tottering on its pedestal. That a football man should funk--
the suspicion was too dreadful.
The captain glanced at his father's face. There was gloom there,
too, and the same terrible suspicion. "No, Sir," said Dunn, with
impressive deliberation, answering the look on his father's face,
"Cameron is no quitter. He didn't funk. I think," he continued,
while Rob's tear-stained face lifted eagerly, "I know he was out of
condition; he had let himself run down last week, since the last
match, indeed, got out of hand a bit, you know, and that last
quarter--you know, Sir, that last quarter was pretty stiff--his
nerve gave just for a moment."
"Oh," said the doctor in a voice of relief, "that explains it.
But," he added quickly in a severe tone, "it was very reprehensible
for a man on the International to let himself get out of shape,
very reprehensible indeed. An International, mind you!"
"It was my fault, Sir, I'm afraid," said Dunn, regretfully. "I
ought to have--"
"Nonsense! A man must be responsible for himself. Control, to be
of any value, must be ultroneous, as our old professor used to
say."
"That's true, Sir, but I had kept pretty close to him up to the
last week, you see, and--"
"Bad training, bad training. A trainer's business is to school his
men to do without him."
"That is quite right, Sir. I believe I've been making a mistake,"
said Dunn thoughtfully. "Poor chap, he's awfully cut up!"
"So he should be," said the doctor sternly. "He had no business to
get out of condition. The International, mind you!"
"Oh, Father, perhaps he couldn't help it," cried Rob, whose loyal,
tender heart was beating hard against his little ribs, "and he
looks awful. I saw him come out and when I called to him he never
looked at me once."
There is no finer loyalty in this world than that of a boy below
his teens. It is so without calculation, without qualification,
and without reserve. Dr. Dunn let his eyes rest kindly upon his
little flushed face.
"Perhaps so, perhaps so, my boy," he said, "and I have no doubt he
regrets it now more than any of us. Where has he gone?"
"Nesbitt's after him, Sir. He'll get him for to-night."
But as Dunn, fresh from his bath, but still sore and stiff, was
indulging in a long-banished pipe, Nesbitt came in to say that
Cameron could not be found.
"And have you not had your tub yet?" said his captain.
"Oh, that's all right! You know I feel awfully about that beastly
remark of mine."
"Oh, let it go," said Dunn. "That'll be all right. You get right
away home for your tub and get freshened up for to-night. I'll
look after Cameron. You know he is down for the pipes. He's
simply got to be there and I'll get him if I have to bring him in a
crate, pipes, kilt and all."
And Nesbitt, knowing that Dunn never promised what he could not
fulfil, went off to his tub in fair content. He knew his captain.
As Dunn was putting on his coat Rob came in, distress written on
his face.
"Are you going to get Cameron, Jack?" he asked timidly. "I asked
Nesbitt, and he said--"
"Now look here, youngster," said his big brother, then paused. The
distress in the lad's face checked his words. "Now, Rob," he said
kindly, "you needn't fret about this. Cameron is all right."
The kind tone broke down the lad's control. He caught his
brother's arm. "Say, Jack, are you sure--he didn't--funk?" His
voice dropped to a whisper.
Then his big brother sat down and drew the lad to his side, "Now
listen, Rob; I'm going to tell you the exact truth. CAMERON DID
NOT FUNK. The truth is, he wasn't fit,--he ought to have been, but
he wasn't,--and because he wasn't fit he came mighty near quitting--
for a moment, I'm sure, he felt like it, because his nerve was
gone,--but he didn't. Remember, he felt like quitting and didn't,
And that's the finest thing a chap can do,--never to quit, even
when he feels like it. Do you see?"
The lad's head went up. "I see," he said, his eyes glowing. "It
was fine! I'm awfully glad he didn't quit, 'specially when he felt
like it. You tell him for me." His idol was firm again on his
pedestal.
"All right, old chap," said his big brother. "You'll never quit, I
bet!"
"Not if I'm fit, will I?"
"Right you are! Keep fit--that's the word!"
And with that the big brother passed out to find the man who was
writhing in an agony of self-contempt; for in the face of all
Scotland and in the hour of her need he had failed because he
wasn't fit.
After an hour Dunn found his man, fixed in the resolve to there and
then abandon the game with all the appurtenances thereof, and among
these the dinner. Mightily his captain laboured with him, plying
him with varying motives,--the honour of the team was at stake; the
honour of the country was at stake; his own honour, for was he not
down on the programme for the pipes? It was all in vain. In
dogged gloom the half-back listened unmoved.
At length Dunn, knowing well the Highlander's tender heart,
cunningly touched another string and told of Rob's distress and
subsequent relief, and then gave his half-back the boy's message.
"I promised to tell you, and I almost forgot. The little beggar
was terribly worked up, and as I remember it, this is what he said:
'I'm awfully glad he didn't quit, 'specially when he felt like it.'
Those were his very words."
Then Cameron buried his face in his hands and groaned aloud, while
Dunn, knowing that he had reached his utmost, stood silent,
waiting. Suddenly Cameron flung up his head:
"Did he say I didn't quit? Good little soul! I'll go; I'd go
through hell for that!"
And so it came that not in a crate, but in the gallant garb of a
Highland gentleman, pipes and all, Cameron was that night in his
place, fighting out through the long hilarious night the fiercest
fight of his life, chiefly because of the words that lay like a
balm to his lacerated heart:
"He didn't quit, 'specially when he felt like it."
CHAPTER II
THE GLEN OF THE CUP OF GOLD
Just over the line of the Grampians, near the head-waters of the
Spey, a glen, small and secluded, lies bedded deep among the
hills,--a glen that when filled with sunlight on a summer day lies
like a cup of gold; the gold all liquid and flowing over the cup's
rim. And hence they call the glen "The Cuagh Oir," The Glen of the
Cup of Gold.
At the bottom of the Cuagh, far down, a little loch gleams, an oval
of emerald or of sapphire, according to the sky above that smiles
into its depths. On dark days the loch can gloom, and in storm it
can rage, white-lipped, just like the people of the Glen.
Around the emerald or sapphire loch farmlands lie sunny and warm,
set about their steadings, and are on this spring day vivid with
green, or rich in their red-browns where the soil lies waiting for
the seed. Beyond the sunny fields the muirs of brown heather and
bracken climb abruptly up to the dark-massed firs, and they to the
Cuagh's rim. But from loch to rim, over field and muir and forest,
the golden, liquid light ever flows on a sunny day and fills the
Cuagh Oir till it runs over.
On the east side of the loch, among some ragged firs, a rambling
Manor House, ivy-covered and ancient, stood; and behind it, some
distance away, the red tiling of a farm-cottage, with its steading
clustering near, could be seen. About the old Manor House the lawn
and garden told of neglect and decay, but at the farmhouse order
reigned. The trim little garden plot, the trim lawn, the trim
walks and hedges, the trim thatch of the roof, the trim do'-cote
above it, the trim stables, byres, barns and yard of the steading,
proclaimed the prudent, thrifty care of a prudent, thrifty soul.
And there in the steading quadrangle, amidst the feathered
creatures, hens, cocks and chicks, ducks, geese, turkeys and
bubbly-jocks, stood the mistress of the Manor and prudent, thrifty
manager of the farm,--a girl of nineteen, small, well-made, and
trim as the farmhouse and its surroundings, with sunny locks and
sunny face and sunny brown eyes. Her shapely hands were tanned and
coarsened by the weather; her little feet were laced in stout
country-made brogues; her dress was a plain brown winsey, kilted
and belted open at the full round neck; the kerchief that had
fallen from her sunny, tangled hair was of simple lawn, spotless
and fresh; among her fowls she stood, a country lass in habit and
occupation, but in face and form, in look and poise, a lady every
inch of her. Dainty and daunty, sweet and strong, she stood, "the
bonny like o' her bonny mither," as said the South Country nurse,
Nannie, who had always lived at the Glen Cuagh House from the time
that that mother was a baby; "but no' sae fine like," the nurse
would add with a sigh. For she remembered ever the gentle airs and
the high-bred, stately grace of Mary Robertson,--for though married
to Captain Cameron of Erracht, Mary Robertson she continued to be
to the Glen folk,--the lady of her ancestral manor, now for five
years lain under the birch trees yonder by the church tower that
looked out from its clustering firs and birches on the slope beyond
the loch. Five years ago the gentle lady had passed from them, but
like the liquid, golden sunlight, and like the perfume of the
heather and the firs, the aroma of her saintly life still filled
the Glen.
A year after that grief had fallen, Moira, her one daughter, "the
bonny like o' her bonny mither, though no' sae fine," had somehow
slipped into command of the House Farm, the only remaining portion
of the wide demesne of farmlands once tributary to the House. And
by the thrift which she learned from her South Country nurse in the
care of her poultry and her pigs, and by her shrewd oversight of
the thriftless, doddling Highland farmer and his more thriftless
and more doddling womenfolk, she brought the farm to order and to a
basis of profitable returns. And this, too, with so little "clash
and claver" that her father only knew that somehow things were more
comfortable about the place, and that there were fewer calls than
formerly upon his purse for the upkeep of the House and home.
Indeed, the less appeared Moira's management, both in the routine
of the House and in the care of the farm, the more peacefully
flowed the current of their life. It seriously annoyed the Captain
at intervals when he came upon his daughter directing operations in
barnyard or byre. That her directing meant anything more than a
girlish meddling in matters that were his entire concern and about
which he had already given or was about to give orders, the Captain
never dreamed. That things about the House were somehow prospering
in late years he set down to his own skill and management and his
own knowledge of scientific farming; a knowledge which, moreover,
he delighted to display at the annual dinners of the Society for
the Improvement of Agriculture in the Glen, of which he was
honourary secretary; a knowledge which he aired in lengthy articles
in local agricultural and other periodicals; a knowledge which,
however, at times became the occasion of dismay to his thrifty
daughter and her Highland farmer, and not seldom the occasion of
much useless expenditure of guineas hard won from pigs and poultry.
True, more serious loss was often averted by the facility with
which the Captain turned from one scheme to another, happily
forgetful of orders he had given and which were never carried out;
and by the invincible fabianism of the Highland farmer, who,
listening with gravest attention to the Captain's orders delivered
in the most definite and impressive terms, would make reply, "Yess,
yess indeed, I know; she will be attending to it immediately--
tomorrow, or fery soon whateffer." It cannot be said that this
capacity for indefinite procrastination rendered the Highlander any
less valuable to his "tear young leddy."
The days on which Postie appeared with a large bundle of mail were
accounted good days by the young mistress, for on these and
succeeding days her father would be "busy with his correspondence."
And these days were not few, for the Captain held many honourary
offices in county and other associations for the promotion and
encouragement of various activities, industrial, social, and
philanthropic. Of the importance of these activities to the county
and national welfare, the Captain had no manner of doubt, as his
voluminous correspondence testified. As to the worth of his
correspondence his daughter, too, held the highest opinion,
estimating her father, as do all dutiful daughters, at his own
valuation. For the Captain held himself in high esteem; not simply
for his breeding, which was of the Camerons of Erracht; nor for his
manners, which were of the most courtly, if occasionally marred by
fretfulness; nor for his dress, which was that of a Highland
gentleman, perfect in detail and immaculate, but for his many and
public services rendered to the people, the county, and the nation.
Indeed his mere membership dues to the various associations,
societies and committees with which he was connected, and his
dining expenses contingent upon their annual meetings, together
with the amounts expended upon the equipment and adornment of his
person proper to such festive occasions, cut so deep into the
slender resources of the family as to give his prudent daughter
some considerable concern; though it is safe to say that such
concern her father would have regarded not only as unnecessary but
almost as impertinent.
The Captain's correspondence, however extensive, was on the whole
regarded by his daughter as a good rather than an evil, in that it
secured her domestic and farm activities from disturbing incursions.
This spring morning Moira's apprehensions awakened by an extremely
light mail, were realized, as she beheld her father bearing down
upon her with an open letter in his hand. His handsome face was set
in a fretful frown.
"Moira, my daughter!" he exclaimed, "how often have I spoke to you
about this--this--unseemly--ah--mussing and meddling in the
servants' duties!"
"But, Papa," cried his daughter, "look at these dear things! I
love them and they all know me, and they behave so much better when
I feed them myself. Do they not, Janet?" she added, turning to the
stout and sonsy farmer's daughter standing by.
"Indeed, then, they are clever at knowing you," replied the maid,
whose particular duty was to hold a reserve supply of food for the
fowls that clamoured and scrambled about her young mistress.
"Look at that vain bubbly-jock there, Papa," cried Moira, "he loves
to have me notice him. Conceited creature! Look out, Papa, he
does not like your kilts!" The bubbly-jock, drumming and scraping
and sidling ever nearer to the Captain's naked knees, finally with
great outcry flew straight at the affronting kilts.
"Get off with you, you beast!" cried the Captain, kicking vainly at
the wrathful bird, and at the same time beating a wise retreat
before his onset.
Moira rushed to his rescue. "Hoot, Jock! Shame on ye!" she cried.
"There now, you proud thing, be off! He's just jealous of your
fine appearance, Papa." With her kerchief she flipped into
submission the haughty bubbly-jock and drew her father out of the
steading. "Come away, Papa, and see my pigs."
But the Captain was in no humour for pigs. "Nonsense, child," he
cried, "let us get out of this mess! Besides, I wish to speak to
you on a matter of importance." They passed through the gate. "It
is about Allan," he continued, "and I'm really vexed. Something
terrible has happened."
"Allan!" the girl's voice was faint and her sunny cheek grew white.
"About Allan!" she said again. "And what is wrong with Allan,
Papa?"
"That's what I do not know," replied her father fretfully; "but I
must away to Edinburgh this very day, so you'll need to hasten with
my packing. And bid Donald bring round the cart at once."
But Moira stood dazed. "But, Papa, you have not told me what is
wrong with Allan." Her voice was quiet, but with a certain
insistence in it that at once irritated her father and compelled
his attention.
"Tut, tut, Moira, I have just said I do not know."
"Is he ill, Papa?" Again the girl's voice grew faint.
"No, no, not ill. I wish he were! I mean it is some business
matter you cannot understand. But it must be serious if Mr. Rae
asks my presence immediately. So you must hasten, child."
In less than half an hour Donald and the cart were waiting at the
door, and Moira stood in the hall with her father's bag ready
packed. "Oh, I am glad," she said, as she helped her father with
his coat, "that Allan is not ill. There can't be much wrong."
"Wrong! Read that, child!" cried the father impatiently.
She took the letter and read, her face reflecting her changing
emotions, perplexity, surprise, finally indignation. "'A matter
for the police,'" she quoted, scornfully, handing her father the
letter. "'A matter for the police' indeed! My but that Mr. Rae is
the clever man! The police! Does he think my brother Allan would
cheat?--or steal, perhaps!" she panted, in her indignant scorn.
"Mr. Rae is a careful man and a very able lawyer," replied her
father.
"Able! Careful! He's an auld wife, and that's what he is! You
can tell him so for me." She was trembling and white with a wrath
her father had never before seen in her. He stood gazing at her in
silent surprise.
"Papa," cried Moira passionately, answering his look, "do you think
what he is saying? I know my brother Allan clean through to the
heart. He is wild at times, and might rage perhaps and--and--break
things, but he will not lie nor cheat. He will die first, and that
I warrant you."
Still her father stood gazing upon her as she stood proudly erect,
her pale face alight with lofty faith in her brother and scorn of
his traducer. "My child, my child," he said, huskily, "how like
you are to your mother! Thank God! Indeed it may be you're right!
God grant it!" He drew her closely to him.
"Papa, Papa," she whispered, clinging to him, while her voice broke
in a sob, "you know Allan will not lie. You know it, don't you,
Papa?"
"I hope not, dear child, I hope not," he replied, still holding her
to him.
"Papa," she cried wildly, "say you believe me."
"Yes, yes, I do believe you. Thank God, I do believe you. The boy
is straight."
At that word she let him go. That her father should not believe in
Allan was to her loyal heart an intolerable pain. Now Allan would
have someone to stand for him against "that lawyer" and all others
who might seek to do him harm. At the House door she stood
watching her father drive down through the ragged firs to the
highroad, and long after he had passed out of sight she still stood
gazing. Upon the church tower rising out of its birches and its
firs her eyes were resting, but her heart was with the little mound
at the tower's foot, and as she gazed, the tears gathered and fell.
"Oh, Mother!" she whispered. "Mother, Mother! You know Allan
would not lie!"
A sudden storm was gathering. In a brief moment the world and the
Glen had changed. But half an hour ago and the Cuagh Oir was lying
glorious with its flowing gold. Now, from the Cuagh as from her
world, the flowing gold was gone.
CHAPTER III
THE FAMILY SOLICITOR
The senior member of the legal firm of Rae & Macpherson was
perplexed and annoyed, indeed angry, and angry chiefly because he
was perplexed. He resented such a condition of mind as reflecting
upon his legal and other acumen. Angry, too, he was because he had
been forced to accept, the previous day, a favour from a firm--Mr.
Rae would not condescend to say a rival firm--with which he for
thirty years had maintained only the most distant and formal
relations, to wit, the firm of Thomlinson & Shields. Messrs. Rae &
Macpherson were family solicitors and for three generations had
been such; hence there gathered about the firm a fine flavour of
assured respectability which only the combination of solid
integrity and undoubted antiquity can give. Messrs. Rae &
Macpherson had not yielded in the slightest degree to that
commercialising spirit which would transform a respectable and
self-respecting firm of family solicitors into a mere financial
agency; a transformation which Mr. Rae would consider a degradation
of an ancient and honourable profession. This uncompromising
attitude toward the commercialising spirit of the age had doubtless
something to do with their losing the solicitorship for the Bank of
Scotland, which went to the firm of Thomlinson & Shields, to Mr.
Rae's keen, though unacknowledged, disappointment; a disappointment
that arose not so much from the loss of the very honourable and
lucrative appointment, and more from the fact that the appointment
should go to such a firm as that of Thomlinson & Shields. For the
firm of Thomlinson & Shields were of recent origin, without
ancestry, boasting an existence of only some thirty-five years,
and, as one might expect of a firm of such recent origin,
characterised by the commercialising modern spirit in its most
pronounced and objectionable form. Mr. Rae, of course, would never
condescend to hostile criticism, dismissing Messrs. Thomlinson &
Shields from the conversation with the single remark, "Pushing, Sir,
very pushing, indeed."
It was, then, no small humiliation for Mr. Rae to be forced to
accept a favour from Mr. Thomlinson. "Had it been any other than
Cameron," he said to himself, as he sat in his somewhat dingy and
dusty office, "I would let him swither. But Cameron! I must see
to it and at once." Behind the name there rose before Mr. Rae's
imagination a long line of brave men and fair women for whose name
and fame and for whose good estate it had been his duty and the
duty of those who had preceded him in office to assume
responsibility.
"Young fool! Much he cares for the honour of his family! I wonder
what's at the bottom of this business! Looks ugly! Decidedly
ugly! The first thing is to find him." A messenger had failed to
discover young Cameron at his lodgings, and had brought back the
word that for a week he had not been seen there. "He must be
found. They have given me till to-morrow. I cannot ask a further
stay of proceedings; I cannot and I will not." It made Mr. Rae
more deeply angry that he knew quite well if necessity arose he
would do just that very thing. "Then there's his father coming in
this evening. We simply must find him. But how and where?"
Mr. Rae was not unskilled in such a matter. "Find a man, find his
friends," he muttered. "Let's see. What does the young fool do?
What are his games? Ah! Football! I have it! Young Dunn is my
man." Hence to young Dunn forthwith Mr. Rae betook himself.
It was still early in the day when Mr. Rae's mild, round, jolly,
clean-shaven face beamed in upon Mr. Dunn, who sat with
dictionaries, texts, and class notebooks piled high about him,
burrowing in that mound of hidden treasure which it behooves all
prudent aspirants for university honours to diligently mine as the
fateful day approaches. With Mr. Dunn time had now come to be
measured by moments, and every moment golden. But the wrathful
impatience that had gathered in his face at the approach of an
intruder was overwhelmed in astonishment at recognising so
distinguished a visitor as Mr. Rae the Writer.
"Ah, Mr. Dunn," said Mr. Rae briskly, "a moment only, one moment, I
assure you. Well do I know the rage which boils behind that genial
smile of yours. Don't deny it, Sir. Have I not suffered all the
pangs, with just a week before the final ordeal? This is your
final, I believe?"
"I hope so," said Mr. Dunn somewhat ruefully.
"Yes, yes, and a very fine career, a career befitting your father's
son. And I sincerely trust, Sir, that as your career has been
marked by honour, your exit shall be with distinction; and all the
more that I am not unaware of your achievements in another
department of--ah--shall I say endeavour. I have seen your name,
Sir, mentioned more than once, to the honour of our university, in
athletic events." At this point Mr. Rae's face broke into a smile.
An amazing smile was Mr. Rae's; amazing both in the suddenness of
its appearing and in the suddenness of its vanishing. Upon a face
of supernatural gravity, without warning, without beginning, the
smile, broad, full and effulgent, was instantaneously present.
Then equally without warning and without fading the smile ceased to
be. Under its effulgence the observer unfamiliar with Mr. Rae's
smile was moved, to a responsive geniality of expression, but in
the full tide of this emotion he found himself suddenly regarding a
face of such preternatural gravity as rebuked the very possibility
or suggestion of geniality. Before the smile Mr. Rae's face was
like a house, with the shutters up and the family plunged in gloom.
When the smile broke forth every shutter was flung wide to the
pouring sunlight, and every window full of flowers and laughing
children. Then instantly and without warning the house was blank,
lifeless, and shuttered once more, leaving you helplessly
apologetic that you had ever been guilty of the fatuity of
associating anything but death and gloom with its appearance.
To young Mr. Dunn it was extremely disconcerting to discover
himself smiling genially into a face of the severest gravity, and
eyes that rebuked him for his untimely levity. "Oh, I beg pardon,"
exclaimed Mr. Dunn hastily, "I thought--"
"Not at all, Sir," replied Mr. Rae. "As I was saying, I have
observed from time to time the distinctions you have achieved in
the realm of athletics. And that reminds me of my business with
you to-day,--a sad business, a serious business, I fear." The
solemn impressiveness of Mr. Rae's manner awakened in Mr. Dunn an
awe amounting to dread. "It is young Cameron, a friend of yours, I
believe, Sir."
"Cameron, Sir!" echoed Dunn.
"Yes, Cameron. Does he, or did he not have a place on your team?"
Dunn sat upright and alert. "Yes, Sir. What's the matter, Sir?"
"First of all, do you know where he is? I have tried his lodgings.
He is not there. It is important that I find him to-day, extremely
important; in fact, it is necessary; in short, Mr. Dunn,--I believe
I can confide in your discretion,--if I do not find him to-day, the
police will to-morrow."
"The police, Sir!" Dunn's face expressed an awful fear. In the
heart of the respectable Briton the very mention of the police in
connection with the private life of any of his friends awakens a
feeling of gravest apprehension. No wonder Mr. Dunn's face went
pale! "The police!" he said a second time. "What for?"
Mr. Rae remained silent.
"If it is a case of debts, Sir," suggested Mr. Dunn, "why, I would
gladly--"
Mr. Rae waved him aside. "It is sufficient to say, Mr. Dunn, that
we are the family solicitors, as we have been for his father, his
grandfather and great-grandfather before him."
"Oh, certainly, Sir. I beg pardon," said Mr. Dunn hastily.
"Not at all; quite proper; does you credit. But it is not a case
of debts, though it is a case of money; in fact, Sir,--I feel sure
I may venture to confide in you,--he is in trouble with his bank,
the Bank of Scotland. The young man, or someone using his name,
has been guilty of--ah--well, an irregularity, a decided
irregularity, an irregularity which the bank seems inclined to--
to--follow up; indeed, I may say, instructions have been issued
through their solicitors to that effect. Mr. Thomlinson was good
enough to bring this to my attention, and to offer a stay of
proceedings for a day."
"Can I do anything, Sir?" said Dunn. "I'm afraid I've neglected
him. The truth is, I've been in an awful funk about my exams, and
I haven't kept in touch as I should."
"Find him, Mr. Dunn, find him. His father is coming to town this
evening, which makes it doubly imperative. Find him; that is, if
you can spare the time."
"Of course I can. I'm awfully sorry I've lost touch with him.
He's been rather down all this winter; in fact, ever since the
International he seems to have lost his grip of himself."
"Ah, indeed!" said Mr. Rae. "I remember that occasion; in fact, I
was present myself," he admitted. "I occasionally seek to renew my
youth." Mr. Rae's smile broke forth, but anxiety for his friend
saved Mr. Dunn from being caught again in any responsive smile.
"Bring him to my office, if you can, any time to-day. Good-bye,
Sir. Your spirit does you credit. But it is the spirit which I
should expect in a man who plays the forward line as you play it."
Mr. Dunn blushed crimson. "Is there anything else I could do?
Anyone I could see? I mean, for instance, could my father serve in
any way?"
"Ah, a good suggestion!" Mr. Rae seized his right ear,--a
characteristic action of his when in deep thought,--twisted it into
a horn, and pulled it quite severely as if to assure himself that
that important feature of his face was firmly fixed in its place.
"A very good suggestion! Your father knows Mr. Sheratt, the
manager of the bank, I believe."
"Very well, Sir, I think," answered Mr. Dunn. "I am sure he would
see him. Shall I call him in, Sir?"
"Nothing of the sort, nothing of the sort; don't think of it! I
mean, let there be nothing formal in this matter. If Mr. Dunn
should chance to meet Mr. Sheratt, that is, casually, so to speak,
and if young Cameron's name should come up, and if Mr. Dunn should
use his influence, his very great influence, with Mr. Sheratt, the
bank might be induced to take a more lenient view of the case. I
think I can trust you with this." Mr. Rae shook the young man
warmly by the hand, beamed on him for one brief moment with his
amazing smile, presented to his answering smile a face of
unspeakable gravity, and left him extremely uncertain as to the
proper appearance for his face, under the circumstances.
Before Mr. Rae had gained the street Dunn was planning his
campaign; for no matter what business he had in hand, Dunn always
worked by plan. By the time he himself had reached the street his
plan was formed. "No use trying his digs. Shouldn't be surprised
if that beast Potts has got him. Rotten bounder, Potts, and worse!
Better go round his way." And oscillating in his emotions between
disgust and rage at Cameron for his weakness and his folly, and
disgust and rage at himself for his neglect of his friend, Dunn
took his way to the office of the Insurance Company which was
honoured by the services of Mr. Potts.
The Insurance Company knew nothing of the whereabouts of Mr. Potts.
Indeed, the young man who assumed responsibility for the information
appeared to treat the very existence of Mr. Potts as a matter of
slight importance to his company; so slight, indeed, that the
company had not found it necessary either to the stability of its
business or to the protection of its policy holders--a prime
consideration with Insurance Companies--to keep in touch with Mr.
Potts. That gentleman had left for the East coast a week ago, and
that was the end of the matter as far as the clerk of the Insurance
Company was concerned.
At his lodgings Mr. Dunn discovered an even more callous indifference
to Mr. Potts and his interests. The landlady, under the impression
that in Mr. Dunn she beheld a prospective lodger, at first received
him with that deferential reserve which is the characteristic of
respectable lodging-house keepers in that city of respectable
lodgers and respectable lodging-house keepers. When, however, she
learned the real nature of Mr. Dunn's errand, she became immediately
transformed. In a voice shrill with indignation she repudiated Mr.
Potts and his affairs, and seemed chiefly concerned to re-establish
her own reputation for respectability, which she seemed to consider
as being somewhat shattered by that of her lodger. Mr. Dunn was
embarrassed both by her volubility and by her obvious determination
to fasten upon him a certain amount of responsibility for the
character and conduct of Mr. Potts.
"Do you know where Mr. Potts is now, and have you any idea when he
may return?" inquired Mr. Dunn, seizing a fortunate pause.
"Am I no' juist tellin' ye," cried the landlady, in her excitement
reverting to her native South Country dialect, "that I keep nae
coont o' Mr. Potts' stravagins? An' as to his return, I ken
naething aboot that an' care less. He's paid what he's been owing
me these three months an' that's all I care aboot him."
"I am glad to hear that," said Mr. Dunn heartily.
"An' glad I am tae, for it's feared I was for my pay a month back."
"When did he pay up?" inquired Mr. Dunn, scenting a clue.
"A week come Saturday,--or was it Friday?--the day he came in with
a young man, a friend of his. And a night they made of it, I
remember," replied the landlady, recovering command of herself and
of her speech under the influence of Mr. Dunn's quiet courtesy.
"Did you know the young man that was with him?"
"Yes, it was young Cameron. He had been coming about a good deal."
"Oh, indeed! And have you seen Mr. Cameron since?"
"No; he never came except in company with Mr. Potts."
And with this faint clue Mr. Dunn was forced to content himself,
and to begin a systematic search of Cameron's haunts in the various
parts of the town. It was Martin, his little quarter-back, that
finally put him on the right track. He had heard Cameron's pipes
not more than an hour ago at his lodgings in Morningside Road.
"But what do you want of Cameron these days?" inquired the young
Canadian. "There's nothing on just now, is there, except this
infernal grind?"
Dunn hesitated. "Oh, I just want him. In fact, he has got into
some trouble."
"There you are!" exclaimed Martin in disgust. "Why in thunder
should you waste time on him? You've taken enough trouble with him
this winter already. It's his own funeral, ain't it?"
Dunn looked at him a half moment in surprise. "Well, you can't go
back on a fellow when he's down, can you?"
"Look here, Dunn, I've often thought I'd give you a little wise
advice. This sounds bad, I know, but there's a lot of blamed rot
going around this old town just on this point. When a fellow gets
on the bum and gets into a hole he knows well that there'll be a
lot of people tumbling over each other to get him out, hence he
deliberately and cheerfully slides in. If he knew he'd have to
scramble out himself he wouldn't be so blamed keen to get in. If
he's in a hole let him frog it for awhile, by Jingo! He's hitting
the pace, let him take his bumps! He's got to take 'em sooner or
later, and better sooner than later, for the sooner he takes 'em
the quicker he'll learn. Bye-bye! I know you think I'm a semi-
civilised Colonial. I ain't; I'm giving you some wisdom gained
from experience. You can't swim by hanging on to a root, you bet!"
Dunn listened in silence, then replied slowly, "I say, old chap,
there's something in that. My governor said something like that
some time ago: 'A trainer's business is to train his men to do
without him.'"
"There you are!" cried Martin. "That's philosophy! Mine's just
horse sense."
"Still," said Dunn thoughtfully, "when a chap's in you've got to
lend a hand; you simply can't stand and look on." Dunn's words,
tone, and manner revealed the great, honest heart of human sympathy
which he carried in his big frame.
"Oh, hang it," cried Martin, "I suppose so! Guess I'll go along
with you. I can't forget you pulled me out, too."
"Thanks, old chap," cried Dunn, brightening up, "but you're busy,
and--"
"Busy! By Jingo, you'd think so if you'd watch me over night and
hear my brain sizzle. But come along, I'm going to stay with you!"
But Dunn's business was private, and could be shared with no one.
It was difficult to check his friend's newly-aroused ardour. "I
say, old chap," he said, "you really don't need to come along. I
can do--"
"Oh, go to blazes! I know you too well! Don't you worry about me!
You've got me going, and I'm in on this thing; so come along!"
Then Dunn grew firm. "Thanks, awfully, old man," he said, "but
it's a thing I'd rather do alone, if you don't mind."
"Oh!" said Martin. "All right! But say, if you need me I'm on.
You're a great old brick, though! Tra-la!"
As Martin had surmised, Dunn found Cameron in his rooms. He was
lying upon his bed enjoying the luxury of a cigarette. "Hello!
Come right in, old chap!" he cried, in gay welcome. "Have a--no,
you won't have a cigarette--have a pipe?"
Dunn gazed at him, conscious of a rising tide of mingled emotions,
relief, wrath, pity, disgust. "Well, I'll be hanged!" at last he
said slowly. "But you've given us a chase! Where in the world
have you been?"
"Been? Oh, here and there, enjoying my emancipation from the
thralldom in which doubtless you are still sweating."
"And what does that mean exactly?"
"Mean? It means that I've cut the thing,--notebooks, lectures,
professors, exams, 'the hale hypothick,' as our Nannie would say at
home."
"Oh rot, Cameron! You don't mean it?"
"Circumspice. Do you behold any suggestion of knotted towels and
the midnight oil?"
Dunn gazed about the room. It was in a whirl of confusion. Pipes
and pouches, a large box of cigarettes, a glass and a half-empty
decanter, were upon the table; boots, caps, golf-clubs, coats, lay
piled in various corners. "Pardon the confusion, dear sir," cried
Cameron cheerfully, "and lay it not to the charge of my landlady.
That estimable woman was determined to make entry this afternoon,
but was denied." Cameron's manner one of gay and nervous bravado.
"Come, Cameron," said Dunn sadly, "what does this mean? You're not
serious; you're not chucking your year?"
"Just that, dear fellow, and nothing less. Might as well as be
ploughed."
"And what then are you going to do?" Dunn's voice was full of a
great pity. "What about your people? What about your father?
And, by Jove, that reminds me, he's coming to town this evening.
You know they've been trying to find you everywhere this last day
or two."
"And who are 'they,' pray?"
"Who? The police," said Dunn bluntly, determined to shock his
friend into seriousness.
Cameron sat up quickly. "The police? What do you mean, Dunn?"
"What it means I do not know, Cameron, I assure you. Don't you?"
"The police!" said Cameron again. "It's a joke, Dunn."
"I wish to Heaven it were, Cameron, old man! But I have it
straight from Mr. Rae, your family solicitor. They want you."
"Old Rae?" exclaimed Cameron. "Now what the deuce does this all
mean?"
"Don't you really know, old chap?" said Dunn kindly, anxiety and
relief struggling in his face.
"No more than you. What did the old chap say, anyway?"
"Something about a Bank; an irregularity, he called it, a serious
irregularity. He's had it staved off for a day."
"The Bank? What in Heaven's name have I got to do with the Bank?
Let's see; I was there a week or ten days ago with--" he paused.
"Hang it, I can't remember!" He ran his hands through his long
black locks, and began to pace the room.
Dunn sat watching him, hope and fear, doubt and faith filling his
heart in succession.
Cameron sat down with his face in his hands. "What is it, old man?
Can't I help you?" said Dunn, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"I can't remember," muttered Cameron. "I've been going it some,
you know. I had been falling behind and getting money off Potts.
Two weeks ago I got my monthly five-pound cheque, and about ten
days ago the usual fifty-pound cheque to square things up for the
year, fees, etc. Seems to me I cashed those. Or did Potts?
Anyway I paid Potts. The deuce take it, I can't remember! You
know I can carry a lot of Scotch and never show it, but it plays
the devil with my memory." Cameron was growing more and more
excited.
"Well, old chap, we must go right along to Mr. Rae's office. You
don't mind?"
"Mind? Not a bit. Old Rae has no love for me,--I get him into too
much trouble,--but he's a straight old boy. Just wait till I brush
up a bit." He poured out from a decanter half a glass of whiskey.
"I'd cut that out if I were you," said Dunn.
"Later, perhaps," replied Cameron, "but not to-day."
Within twenty minutes they were ushered into Mr. Rae's private
office. That gentleman received them with a gravity that was
portentous in its solemnity. "Well, Sir, you have succeeded in
your task," he said to Mr. Dunn. "I wish to thank you for this
service, a most valuable service to me, to this young gentleman,
and to his family; though whether much may come of it remains to be
seen."
"Oh, thanks," said Dunn hurriedly. "I hope everything will be all
right." He rose to go. Cameron looked at him quickly. There was
no mistaking the entreaty in his face.
Mr. Rae spoke somewhat more hurriedly than his wont. "If it is not
asking too much, and if you can still spare time, your presence
might be helpful, Mr. Dunn."
"Stay if you can, old chap," said Cameron. "I don't know what this
thing is, but I'll do better if you're in the game, too." It was
an appeal to his captain, and after that nothing on earth could
have driven Dunn from his side.
At this point the door opened and the clerk announced, "Captain
Cameron, Sir."
Mr. Rae rose hastily. "Tell him," he said quickly, "to wait--"
He was too late. The Captain had followed close upon the heels of
the clerk, and came in with a rush. "Now, what does all this
mean?" he cried, hardly waiting to shake hands with his solicitor.
"What mischief--?"
"I beg your pardon, Captain," said Mr. Rae calmly, "let me present
Mr. Dunn, Captain Dunn, I might say, of International fame." The
solicitor's smile broke forth with its accustomed unexpectedness,
but had vanished long before Mr. Dunn in his embarrassment had
finished shaking hands with Captain Cameron.
The Captain then turned to his son. "Well, Sir, and what is this
affair of yours that calls me to town at a most inconvenient time?"
His tone was cold, fretful, and suspicious.
Young Cameron's face, which had lighted up with a certain eagerness
and appeal as he had turned toward his father, as if in expectation
of sympathy and help, froze at this greeting into sullen reserve.
"I don't know any more than yourself, Sir," he answered. "I have
just come into this office this minute."
"Well, then, what is it, Mr. Rae?" The Captain's voice and manner
were distinctly imperious, if not overbearing.
Mr. Rae, however, was king of his own castle. "Will you not be
seated, Sir?" he said, pointing to a chair. "Sit down, young
gentlemen."
His quiet dignity, his perfect courtesy, recalled the Captain to
himself. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Rae, but I am really much
disturbed. Can we begin at once?" He glanced as he spoke at Mr.
Dunn, who immediately rose.
"Sit down, Mr. Dunn," said Mr. Rae quietly. "I have asked this
young gentleman," he continued, turning to the Captain, "to remain.
He has already given me valuable assistance. I fancy he may be
able to serve us still further, if he will be so good."
Mr. Dunn bowed in silence.
"Now let us proceed with what must be an exceedingly painful matter
for us all, and out of which nothing but extreme candour on the
part of Mr. Allan here, and great wisdom on the part of us all, can
possibly extract us." Mr. Rae's glance rested upon the Captain,
who bowed, and upon his son, who made no sign whatever, but
remained with his face set in the same sullen gloom with which he
had greeted his father.
Mr. Rae opened a drawer and brought forth a slip of paper. "Mr.
Allan," he said, with a certain sharpness in his tone, "please look
at this."
Cameron came to the desk, picked up the paper, glanced at it. "It
is my father's cheque," he said, "which I received about a week
ago."
"Look at the endorsement, please," said Mr. Rae.
Cameron turned it over. A slight flush came to his pale face. "It
is mine to--" he hesitated, "Mr. Potts."
"Mr. Potts cashed it then?"
"I suppose so. I believe so. I owed him money, and he gave me
back some."
"How much did you owe him?"
"A considerable amount. I had been borrowing of him for some
time."
"As much as fifty pounds?"
"I cannot tell. I did not keep count, particularly; Potts did
that."
The Captain snorted contemptuously. "Do you mean to say--?" he
began.
"Pardon me, Captain Cameron. Allow me," said Mr. Rae.
"Now, Mr. Allan, do you think you owed him as much as the amount of
that cheque?"
"I do not know, but I think so."
"Had you any other money?"
"No," said Allan shortly; "at least I may have had a little
remaining from the five pounds I had received from my father a few
days before."
"You are quite sure you had no other money?"
"Quite certain," replied Allan.
Again Mr. Rae opened his desk and drew forth a slip and handed it
to young Cameron. "What is that?" he said.
Cameron glanced at it hurriedly, and turned it over. "That is my
father's cheque for five pounds, which I cashed."
Mr. Rae stretched out his hand and took the cheque. "Mr. Allan,"
he said, "I want you to consider most carefully your answer." He
leaned across the desk and for some moments--they seemed like
minutes to Dunn--his eyes searched young Cameron's face. "Mr.
Allan," he said, with a swift change of tone, his voice trembling
slightly, "will you look at the amount of that cheque again?"
Cameron once more took the cheque, glanced at it. "Good Lord!" he
cried. "It is fifty!" His face showed blank amazement.
Quick, low, and stern came Mr. Rae's voice. "Yes," he said, "it is
for fifty pounds. Do you know that that is a forgery, the
punishment for which is penal servitude, and that the order for
your arrest is already given?"
The Captain sprang to his feet. Young Cameron's face became
ghastly pale. His hand clutched the top of Mr. Rae's desk. Twice
or thrice he moistened his lips preparing to speak, but uttered not
a word. "Good God, my boy!" said the Captain hoarsely. "Don't
stand like that. Tell him you are innocent."
"One moment, Sir," said Mr. Rae to the Captain. "Permit me." Mr.
Rae's voice, while perfectly courteous, was calmly authoritative.
"Mr. Allan," he continued, turning to the wretched young man, "what
money have you at present in your pockets?"
With shaking hands young Cameron emptied upon the desk the contents
of his pocketbook, from which the lawyer counted out ten one-pound
notes, a half-sovereign and some silver. "Where did you get this
money, Mr. Allan?"
The young man, still silent, drew his handkerchief from his pocket,
touched his lips, and wiped the sweat from his white face.
"Mr. Allan," continued the lawyer, dropping again into a kindly
voice, "a frank explanation will help us all."
"Mr. Rae," said Cameron, his words coming with painful
indistinctness, "I don't understand this. I can't think clearly.
I can't remember. That money I got from Potts; at least I must
have--I have had money from no one else."
"My God!" cried the Captain again. "To think that a son of mine
should--!"
"Pardon me, Captain Cameron," interrupted Mr. Rae quickly and
somewhat sharply. "We must not prejudge this case. We must first
understand it."
At this point Dunn stepped swiftly to Cameron's side. "Brace up,
old chap," he said in a low tone. Then turning towards the Captain
he said, "I beg your pardon, Sir, but I do think it's only fair to
give a man a chance to explain."
"Allow me, gentlemen," said Mr. Rae in a firm, quiet voice, as the
Captain was about to break forth. "Allow me to conduct this
examination."
Cameron turned his face toward Dunn. "Thank you, old man," he
said, his white lips quivering. "I will do my best, but before
God, I don't understand this."
"Now, Mr. Allan," continued the lawyer, tapping the desk sharply,
"here are two cheques for fifty pounds, both drawn by your father,
both endorsed by you, one apparently cashed by Mr. Potts, one by
yourself. What do you know about this?"
"Mr. Rae," replied the young man, his voice trembling and husky, "I
tell you I can't understand this. I ought to say that for the last
two weeks I haven't been quite myself, and whiskey always makes me
forget. I can walk around steadily enough, but I don't always know
what I am doing--"
"That's so, Sir," said Dunn quickly, "I've seen him."
"--And just what happened with these cheques I do not know. This
cheque," picking up the one endorsed to Potts, "I remember giving
to Potts. The only other cheque I remember is a five-pound one."
"Do you remember cashing that five-pound cheque?" inquired Mr. Rae.
"I carried it about for some days. I remember that, because I once
offered it to Potts in part payment, and he said--" the white face
suddenly flushed a deep red.
"Well, Mr. Allan, what did he say?"
"It doesn't matter," said Cameron.
"It may and it may not," said Mr. Rae sharply. "It is your duty to
tell us."
"Out with it," said his father angrily. "You surely owe it to me,
to us all, to let us have every assistance."
Cameron paid no attention to his father's words. "It has really
no bearing, Sir, but I remember saying as I offered a five-pound
cheque, 'I wish it was fifty.'"
"And what reply did Mr. Potts make?" said Mr. Rae, with quiet
indifference, as if he had lost interest in this particular feature
of the case.
Again Cameron hesitated.
"Come, out with it!" said his father impatiently.
His son closed his lips as if in a firm resolve. "It really has
nothing whatever to do with the case."
"Play the game, old man," said Dunn quietly.
"Oh, all right!" said Cameron. "It makes no difference anyway. He
said in a joke, 'You could easily make this fifty; it is such
mighty poor writing.'"
Still Mr. Rae showed no sign of interest. "He suggested in a joke,
I understand, that the five-pound cheque could easily be changed
into fifty pounds. That was a mere pleasantry of Mr. Potts',
doubtless. How did the suggestion strike you, Mr. Allan?"
Allan looked at him in silence.
"I mean, did the suggestion strike you unpleasantly, or how?"
"I don't think it made any impression, Sir. I knew it was a joke."
"A joke!" groaned his father. "Good Heavens! What do you think--?"
"Once more permit me," said Mr. Rae quietly, with a wave of his
hand toward the Captain. "This cheque of five pounds has evidently
been altered to fifty pounds. The question is, by whom, Mr. Allan?
Can you answer that?" Again Mr. Rae's eyes were searching the
young man's face.
"I have told you I remember nothing about this cheque."
"Is it possible, Mr. Allan, that you could have raised this cheque
yourself without your knowing--?"
"Oh, nonsense!" said his father hotly, "why make the boy lie?"
His son started as if his father had struck him. "I tell you once
more, Mr. Rae, and I tell you all, I know nothing about this
cheque, and that is my last word." And from that position nothing
could move him.
"Well," said Mr. Rae, closing the interview, "we have done our
best. The law must take its course."
"Great Heavens!" cried the Captain, springing to his feet. "Do you
mean to tell me, Allan, that you persist in this cursed folly and
will give us no further light? Have you no regard for my name, if
not for your own?" He grasped his son fiercely by the arm.
But his son angrily shook off his grasp. "You," he said, looking
his father full in the face, "you condemned me before you heard a
word from me, and now for my name or for yours I care not a
tinker's curse." And with this he flung himself from the room.
"Follow him," said Mr. Rae to Dunn, quietly; "he will need you.
And keep him in sight; it is important."
"All right, Sir!" said Dunn. "I'll stay with him." And he did.
CHAPTER IV
A QUESTION OF HONOUR
Mr. Rae in forty years' experience had never been so seriously
disturbed. To his intense humiliation he found himself abjectly
appealing to the senior member of the firm of Thomlinson & Shields.
Not that Mr. Thomlinson was obdurate; in the presence of mere
obduracy Mr. Rae might have found relief in the conscious
possession of more generous and humane instincts than those
supposed to be characteristic of the members of his profession.
Mr. Thomlinson, however, was anything but obdurate. He was eager
to oblige, but he was helpless. The instructions he had received
were simple but imperative, and he had gone to unusual lengths in
suggesting to Mr. Sheratt, the manager of the Bank, a course of
greater leniency. That gentleman's only reply was a brief order to
proceed with the case.
With Mr. Sheratt, therefore, Mr. Rae proceeded to deal. His first
move was to invite the Bank manager to lunch, in order to discuss
some rather important matters relative to one of the great estates
of which Mr. Rae was supposed to be the guardian. Some fifty
years' experience of Mr. Sheratt as boy and man had let Mr. Rae
into a somewhat intimate knowledge of the workings of that
gentleman's mind. Under the mollifying influences of the finest of
old port, Mr. Rae made the discovery that as with Mr. Thomlinson,
so with Mr. Sheratt there was every disposition to oblige, and
indeed an eagerness to yield to the lawyer's desires; it was not
Mr. Sheratt, but the Bank that was immovable. Firm-fixed it stood
upon its bedrock of tradition that in matters of fraud, crime
should be punished to the full limit of the law.
"The estate of the criminal, high or low," said Mr. Sheratt
impressively, "matters not. The Bank stands upon the principle,
and from this it cannot be moved." Mr. Sheratt began to wax
eloquent. "Fidelity to its constituency, its shareholders, its
depositors, indeed to the general public, is the corner-stone of
its policy. The Bank of Scotland is a National Institution, with a
certain National obligation."
Mr. Rae quietly drew from his pocket a pamphlet, opened it slowly,
and glanced at the page. "Ay, it's as I thought, Mr. Sheratt," he
said dryly. "At times I wondered where Sir Archibald got his
style."
Mr. Sheratt blushed like a boy caught copying.
"But now since I know who it is that writes the speech of the
Chairman of the Board of Directors, tell me, Sheratt, as man to
man, is it you or is it Sir Archibald that's at the back of this
prosecution? For if it is you, I've something to say to you; if
not, I'll just say it where it's most needed. In some way or other
I'm bound to see this thing through. That boy can't go to prison.
Now tell me, Tom? It's for auld sake's sake."
"As sure as death, Rae, it's the Chairman, and it's God's truth I'm
telling ye, though I should not." They were back again into the
speech and spirit of their boyhood days.
"Then I must see Sir Archibald. Give me time to see him, Tom."
"It's a waste of time, I'm tellin' ye, but two days I'll give ye,
Sandy, for auld sake's sake, as you say. A friendship of half a
hundred years should mean something to us. For your sake I'd let
the lad go, God knows, and there's my han' upon it, but as I said,
that lies with Sir Archibald."
The old friends shook hands in silence.
"Thank ye, Tom, thank ye," said Mr. Rae; "I knew it."
"But harken to me, ye'll no' move Sir Archibald, for on this
particular point he's quite mad. He'd prosecute the Duke of
Argyll, he would. But two days are yours, Sandy. And mind with
Sir Archibald ye treat his Bank with reverence! It's a National
Institution, with National obligations, ye ken?" Mr. Sheratt's
wink conveyed a volume of meaning. "And mind you, Rae," here Mr.
Sheratt grew grave, "I am trusting you to produce that lad when
wanted."
"I have him in safe keeping, Tom, and shall produce him, no fear."
And with that the two old gentlemen parted, loyal to a lifelong
friendship, but loyal first to the trust of those they stood
pledged to serve; for the friendship that gives first place to
honour is the only friendship that honourable men can hold.
Mr. Rae set off for his office through the drizzling rain. "Now
then, for the Captain," he said to himself; "and a state he will be
in! Why did I ever summon him to town? Then for Mr. Dunn, who
must keep his eye upon the young man."
In his office he found Captain Cameron in a state of distraction
that rendered him incapable of either coherent thought or speech.
"What now, Rae? Where have you been? What news have you? My God,
this thing is driving me mad! Penal servitude! Think of it, man,
for my son! Oh, the scandal of it! It will kill me and kill his
sister. What's your report? Come, out with it! Have you seen Mr.
Sheratt?" He was pacing up and down the office like a beast in a
cage.
"Tut, tut, Captain Cameron," said Mr. Rae lightly, "this is no way
for a soldier to face the enemy. Sit down and we will just lay out
our campaign."
But the Captain's soldiering, which was of the lightest, had taught
him little either of the spirit or of the tactics of warfare.
"Campaign!" he exclaimed. "There's no campaign about it. It's a
complete smash, horse, foot, and artillery."
"Nonsense, Captain Cameron!" exclaimed Mr. Rae more briskly than
his wont, for the Captain irritated him. "We have still fighting
to do, and hence we must plan our campaign. But first let us get
comfortable. Here Davie," he called, opening the office door,
"here, mend this fire. It's a winter's day this," he continued to
the Captain, "and goes to the marrow."
Davie, a wizened, clean-shaven, dark-visaged little man, appeared
with a scuttle of coal. "Ay, Davie; that's it! Is that cannel?"
"Ay, Sir, it is. What else? I aye get the cannel."
"That's right, Davie. It's a gran' coal."
"Gran' it's no'," said Davie shortly, who was a fierce radical in
politics, and who strove to preserve his sense of independence of
all semblance of authority by cultivating a habit of disagreement.
"Gran' it's no'," he repeated, "but it's the best the Farquhars
hae, though that's no' saying much. It's no' what I call cannel."
"Well, well, Davie, it blazes finely at any rate," said Mr. Rae,
determined to be cheerful, and rubbing his hands before the blazing
coal.
"Ay, it bleezes," grumbled Davie, "when it's no' smootherin'."
"Come then, Davie, that will do. Clear out," said Mr. Rae to the
old servant, who was cleaning up the hearth with great diligence
and care.
But Davie was not to be hurried. He had his regular routine in
fire-mending, from which no power could move him. "Ay, Sir," he
muttered, brushing away with his feather besom. "I'll clear oot
when I clear up. When a thing's no' dune richt it's no dune ava."
"True, Davie, true enough; that's a noble sentiment. But will that
no' do now?" Mr. Rae knew himself to be helpless in Davie's hands,
and he knew also that nothing short of violence would hasten Davie
from his "usual."
"Ay, that'll dae, because it's richt dune. But that's no' what I
call cannel," grumbled Davie, glowering fiercely at the burning
coal, as if meditating a fresh attack.
"Well, well," said Mr. Rae, "tell the Farquhars about it."
"Ay, Sir, I will that," said Davie, as he reluctantly took himself
off with his scuttle and besom.
The Captain was bursting with fretful impatience. "Impudent old
rascal!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you dismiss him?"
"Dismiss him!" echoed Mr. Rae in consternation. "Dismiss him!" he
repeated, as if pondering an entirely new idea. "I doubt if Davie
would consider that. But now let us to work." He set two arm-
chairs before the fire, and placed a box of cigars by the Captain's
elbow. "I have seen Sheratt," he began. "I'm quite clear it is
not in his hands."
"In whose then?" burst forth the Captain.
Mr. Rae lit his cigar carefully. "The whole matter, I believe,
lies now with the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sir Archibald
Brodie."
"Brodie!" cried the Captain. "I know him. Pompous little fool!"
"Fool, Captain Cameron! Make no mistake. Sir Archibald may have--
ah--the self-importance of a self-made man somewhat under the
average height, but he is, without doubt, the best financier that
stands at this moment in Scotland, and during the last fifteen
years he has brought up the Bank of Scotland to its present
position. Fool! He's anything but that. But he has his weak
spots--I wish I knew what they were!--and these we must seek to
find out. Do you know him well?"
"Oh, yes, quite well," said the Captain; "that is, I've met him at
various functions, where he always makes speeches. Very common, I
call him. I know his father; a mere cottar. I mean," added the
Captain hurriedly, for he remembered that Mr. Rae was of the same
humble origin, "you know, he is thoroughly respectable and all
that, but of no--ah--social or family standing; that is--oh, you
understand."
"Quite," said Mr. Rae drily.
"Yes, I shall see him," continued the Captain briskly. "I shall
certainly see him. It is a good suggestion. Sir Archibald knows
my family; indeed, his father was from the Erracht region. I shall
see him personally. I am glad you thought of that, Mr. Rae. These
smaller men, Sheratt and the rest, I do not know--in fact, I do not
seem to be able to manage them,--but with Sir Archibald there will
be no difficulty, I feel quite confident. When can you arrange the
interview?"
Mr. Rae sat gazing thoughtfully into the fire, more and more
convinced every moment that he had made a false move in suggesting
a meeting between the Captain and Sir Archibald Brodie. But labour
as he might he could not turn the Captain from his purpose. He was
resolved to see Sir Archibald at the earliest moment, and of the
result of the meeting he had no manner of doubt.
"He knew my family, Sir," insisted the Captain. "Sir Archibald
will undoubtedly accede to my suggestion--ah--request to withdraw
his action. Arrange it, Mr. Rae, arrange it at once."
And ruefully enough Mr. Rae was compelled to yield against his
better judgment.
It was discovered upon inquiry that Sir Archibald had gone for a
day or two to his country estate. "Ah, much better," said the
Captain, "away from his office and away from the--ah--commercial
surroundings of the city. Much better, much better! We shall
proceed to his country home."
Of the wisdom of this proposal Mr. Rae was doubtful. There seemed,
however, no other way open. Hence, the following morning found
them on their way to Sir Archibald's country seat. Mr. Rae felt
that it was an unusual course to pursue, but the time was short,
the occasion was gravely critical, and demanded extreme measures.
During their railway journey Mr. Rae strove to impress upon the
Captain's mind the need of diplomacy. "Sir Archibald is a man of
strong prejudices," he urged; "for instance, his Bank he regards
with an affection and respect amounting to veneration. He is a
bachelor, you understand, and his Bank is to him wife and bairns.
On no account must you treat his Bank lightly."
"Oh, certainly not," replied the Captain, who was inclined to
resent Mr. Rae's attempts to school him in diplomacy.
"He is a great financier," continued Mr. Rae, "and with him finance
is a high art, and financial integrity a sacred obligation."
"Oh, certainly, certainly," again replied the Captain, quite
unimpressed by this aspect of the matter, for while he considered
himself distinctly a man of affairs, yet his interests lay more in
matters of great public moment. Commercial enterprises he regarded
with a feeling akin to contempt. Money was an extremely desirable,
and indeed necessary, appendage to a gentleman's position, but how
any man of fine feeling could come to regard a financial institution
with affection or veneration he was incapable of conceiving.
However, he was prepared to deal considerately with Sir Archibald's
peculiar prejudices in this matter.
Mr. Rae's forebodings as to the outcome of the approaching
interview were of the most gloomy nature as they drove through the
finely appointed and beautifully kept grounds of Sir Archibald
Brodie's estate. The interview began inauspiciously. Sir
Archibald received them with stiff courtesy. He hated to be
pursued to his country home with business matters. Besides, at
this particular moment he was deeply engrossed in the inspection of
his pigs, for which animals he cherished what might almost be
called an absorbing affection. Mr. Rae, who was proceeding with
diplomatic caution and skill to approach the matter in hand by way
of Sir Archibald's Wiltshires, was somewhat brusquely interrupted
by the Captain, who, in the firm conviction that he knew much
better than did the lawyer how to deal with a man of his own class,
plunged at once into the subject.
"Awfully sorry to introduce business matters, Sir Archibald, to the
attention of a gentleman in the privacy of his own home, but there
is a little matter in connection with the Bank in which I am
somewhat deeply interested."
Sir Archibald bowed in silence.
"Rather, I should say, it concerns my son, and therefore, Sir
Archibald, myself and my family."
Again Sir Archibald bowed.
"It is, after all, a trivial matter, which I have no doubt can be
easily arranged between us. The truth is, Sir Archibald--," here
the Captain hesitated, as if experiencing some difficulty in
stating the case.
"Perhaps Captain Cameron will allow me to place the matter before
you, Sir Archibald," suggested Mr. Rae, "as it has a legal aspect
of some gravity, indeed of very considerable gravity. It is the
case of young Mr. Cameron."
"Ah," said Sir Archibald shortly. "Forgery case, I believe."
"Well," said Mr. Rae, "we have not been able as yet to get at the
bottom of it. I confess that the case has certainly very grave
features connected with it, but it is by no means clear that--"
"There is no need for further statement, Mr. Rae," said Sir
Archibald. "I know all about it. It is a clear case of forgery.
The facts have all been laid before me, and I have given my
instructions."
"And what may these be, may I inquire?" said the Captain somewhat
haughtily.
"The usual instructions, Sir, where the Bank of Scotland is
concerned, instructions to prosecute." Sir Archibald's lips shut
in a firm, thin line. As far as he was concerned the matter was
closed.
"But, Sir," exclaimed. the Captain, "this young man is my son."
"I deeply regret it," replied Sir Archibald.
"Yes, Sir, he is my son, and the honour of my family is involved."
Sir Archibald bowed.
"I am here prepared to offer the fullest reparation, to offer the
most generous terms of settlement; in short, I am willing to do
anything in reason to have this matter--this unfortunate matter--
hushed up."
"Hushed up!" exclaimed Sir Archibald. "Captain Cameron, it is
impossible. I am grieved for you, but I have a duty to the Bank in
this matter."
"Do you mean to say, Sir," cried the Captain, "that you refuse to
consider any arrangement or compromise or settlement of any kind
whatever? I am willing to pay the amount ten times over, rather
than have my name dragged through legal proceedings."
"It is quite impossible," said Sir Archibald.
"Come, come, Sir Archibald," said the Captain, exercising an
unusual self-control; "let us look at this thing as two gentlemen
should who respect each other, and who know what is due to our--
ah--class."
It was an unfortunate remark of the Captain's.
"Our class, Sir? I presume you mean the class of gentlemen. All
that is due to our class or any other class is strict justice, and
that you, Sir, or any other gentleman, shall receive to the very
fullest in this matter. The honour of the Bank, which I regard as
a great National Institution charged with National responsibilities,
is involved, as is also my own personal honour. I sincerely trust
your son may be cleared of every charge of crime, but this case must
be prosecuted to the very fullest degree."
"And do you mean to tell me, Sir Archibald," exclaimed the Captain,
now in a furious passion, "that for the sake of a few paltry pounds
you will blast my name and my family name in this country?--a name,
I venture to say, not unknown in the history of this nation. The
Camerons, Sir, have fought and bled for King and country on many a
battlefield. What matters the question of a few pounds in
comparison with the honour of an ancient and honourable name? You
cannot persist in this attitude, Sir Archibald!"
"Pounds, Sir!" cried Sir Archibald, now thoroughly aroused by the
contemptuous reference to what to him was dearer than anything in
life. "Pounds, Sir! It is no question of pounds, but a question
of the honour of a National Institution, a question of the lives
and happiness of hundreds of widows and orphans, a question of the
honour of a name which I hold as dear as you hold yours."
Mr. Rae was in despair. He laid a restraining hand upon the
Captain, and with difficulty obtained permission to speak. "Sir
Archibald, I crave your indulgence while I put this matter to you
as to a business man. In the first place, there is no evidence
that fraud has been committed by young Mr. Cameron, absolutely
none.--Pardon me a moment, Sir Archibald.--The fraud has been
committed, I grant, by someone, but by whom is as yet unknown. The
young man for some weeks has been in a state of incapacity; a most
blameworthy and indeed shameful condition, it is true, but in a
state of incapacity to transact business. He declares that he has
no knowledge of this act of forgery. He will swear this. I am
prepared to defend him."
"Very well, Sir," interrupted Sir Archibald, "and I hope, I
sincerely hope, successfully."
"But while it may be difficult to establish innocence, it will be
equally difficult to establish guilt. Meantime, the young man's
life is blighted, his name dishonoured, his family plunged into
unspeakable grief. I venture to say that it is a case in which the
young man might be given, without injury to the Bank, or without
breaking through its traditional policy, the benefit of the doubt."
But Sir Archibald had been too deeply stirred by Captain Cameron's
unfortunate remarks to calmly weigh Mr. Rae's presentation of the
case. "It is quite useless, Mr. Rae," he declared firmly. "The
case is out of my hands, and must be proceeded with. I sincerely
trust you may be able to establish the young man's innocence. I
have nothing more to say."
And from this position neither Mr. Rae's arguments nor the
Captain's passionate pleadings could move him.
Throughout the return journey the Captain raged and swore. "A
contemptible cad, Sir! a base-born, low-bred cad, Sir! What else
could you expect from a fellow of his breeding? The insolence of
these lower orders is becoming insupportable. The idea! the very
idea! His bank against my family name, my family honour!
Preposterous!"
"Honour is honour, Captain Cameron," replied Mr. Rae firmly, "and
it might have been better if you had remembered that the honour of
a cottar's son is as dear to him as yours is to you."
And such was Mr. Rae's manner that the Captain appeared to consider
it wise to curb his rage, or at least suppress all reference to
questions of honour in as far as they might be related to the
question of birth and breeding.
CHAPTER V
A LADY AND THE LAW
Mr. Rae's first care was to see Mr. Dunn. This case was getting
rather more trying to Mr. Rae's nerves than he cared to acknowledge.
For a second time he had been humiliated, and humiliation was an
experience to which Mr. Rae was not accustomed. It was in a
distinctly wrathful frame of mind that he called upon Mr. Dunn, and
the first quarter of an hour of his interview he spent in dilating
upon his own folly in having allowed Captain Cameron to accompany
him on his visit to Sir Archibald.
"In forty years I never remember having made such an error, Sir.
This was an occasion for diplomacy. We should have taken time. We
should have discovered his weak spots; every man has them. Now it
is too late. The only thing left for us is fight, and the best we
can hope for is a verdict of NOT PROVEN, and that leaves a stigma."
"It is terrible," said Mr. Dunn, "and I believe he is innocent.
Have you thought of Potts, Sir?"
"I have had Potts before me," said Mr. Rae, "and I may safely say
that though he strikes me as being a man of unusual cleverness, we
can do nothing with Mr. Potts. Of course," added Mr. Rae hastily,
"this is not to say we shall not make use of Mr. Potts in the
trial, but Mr. Potts can show from his books debts amounting to
nearly sixty pounds. He frankly acknowledges the pleasantry in
suggesting the raising of the five-pound cheque to fifty pounds,
but of the act itself he professes entire ignorance. I frankly own
to you, Sir," continued Mr. Rae, folding his ear into a horn after
his manner when in perplexity, "that this case puzzles me. I must
not take your time," he said, shaking Mr. Dunn warmly by the hand.
"One thing more I must ask you, however, and that is, keep in touch
with young Cameron. I have pledged my honour to produce him when
wanted. Furthermore, keep him--ah--in good condition; cheer him
up; nerve him up; much depends upon his manner."
Gravely Mr. Dunn accepted the trust, though whether he could fulfil
it he doubted. "Keep him cheerful," said Mr. Dunn to himself, as
the door closed upon Mr. Rae. "Nice easy job, too, under the
circumstances. Let's see, what is there on? By Jove, if I could
only bring him!" There flashed into Mr. Dunn's mind the fact that
he was due that evening at a party for students, given by one of
the professors, belated beyond the period proper to such functions
by one of those domestic felicities which claim right of way over
all other human events. At this party Cameron was also due. It
was hardly likely, however, that he would attend. But to Dunn's
amazement he found Cameron, with a desperate jollity such as a man
might feel the night before his execution, eager to go.
"I'm going," he cried, in answer to Dunn's somewhat timid
suggestion. "They'll all be there, old man, and I shall make my
exit with much eclat, with pipe and dance and all the rest of it."
"Exit, be blowed!" said Dunn impatiently. "Let's cut all this
nonsense out. We're going into a fight for all there's in us. Why
should a fellow throw up the sponge after the first round?"
"Fight!" said Cameron gloomily. "Did old Rae say so?"
"Most decidedly."
"And what defence does he suggest?"
"Defence? Innocence, of course."
"Would to God I could back him up!" groaned Cameron.
Dunn gazed at him in dismay. "And can you not? You do not mean to
tell me you are guilty?"
"Oh, I wish to heaven I knew!" cried Cameron wildly. "But there,
let it go. Let the lawyers and the judge puzzle it out. 'Guilty
or not guilty?' 'Hanged if I know, my lord. Looks like guilty,
but don't see very well how I can be.' That will bother old Rae
some; it would bother Old Nick himself. 'Did you forge this note?'
'My lord, my present ego recognizes no intent to forge; my alter
ego in vino may have done so. Of that, however, I know nothing; it
lies in that mysterious region of the subconscious.' 'Are you,
then, guilty?' 'Guilt, my lord, lies in intent. Intent is the
soul of crime.' It will be an interesting point for Mr. Rae and
his lordship."
"Look here, old chap," asked Dunn suddenly, "what of Potts in this
business?"
"Potts! Oh, hang it, Dunn, I can't drag Potts into this. It would
be altogether too low-down to throw suspicion upon a man without
the slightest ground. Potts is not exactly a lofty-souled
creature. In fact, he is pronouncedly a bounder, though I confess
I did borrow money of him; but I'd borrow money of the devil when
I'm in certain moods. A man may be a bounder, however, without
being a criminal. No, I have thought this thing out as far as I
can, and I've made my mind up that I've got to face it myself.
I've been a fool, ah, such a fool!" A shudder shook his frame.
"Oh, Dunn, old man, I don't mind for myself, I can go out easily
enough, but it's my little sister! It will break her heart, and
she has no one else; she will have to bear it all alone."
"What do you mean, Cameron?" asked Dunn sharply.
Cameron sprang to his feet. "Let it go," he cried. "Let it go for
to-night, anyway." He seized a decanter which stood all too ready
to his hand, but Dunn interposed.
"Listen to me, old man," he said, in a voice of grave and earnest
sadness, while he pushed Cameron back into a chair. "We have a
desperately hard game before us, you and I,--this is my game, too,--
and we must be fit; so, Cameron, I want your word that you will
play up for all that's in you; that you will cut this thing out,"
pointing to the decanter, "and will keep fit to the last fighting
minute. I am asking you this, Cameron. You owe it to yourself,
you owe it to me, you owe it to your sister."
For some moments Cameron sat gazing straight before him, his face
showing the agony in his soul. "As God's above, I do! I owe it
to you, Dunn, and to her, and to the memory of my--" But his
quivering lips could not utter the word; and there was no need, for
they both knew that his heart was far away in the little mound that
lay in the shadow of the church tower in the Cuagh Oir. The lad
rose to his feet, and stretching out his hand to Dunn cried,
"There's my hand and my honour as a Highlander, and until the last
fighting moment I'll be fit."
At the party that night none was gayer than young Cameron. The shy
reserve that usually marked him was thrust aside. His fine, lithe
figure, set off by his Highland costume, drew all eyes in admiration,
and whether in the proud march of the piper, or in the wild abandon
of the Highland Fling, he seemed to all the very beau ideal of a
gallant Highland gentleman.
Dunn stood in the circle gathered to admire, watching Cameron's
performance of that graceful and intricate Highland dance, all
unconscious of a pair of bright blue eyes fastened on his face that
reflected so manifestly the grief and pain in his heart.
"And wherefore this gloom?" said a gay voice at his side. It was
Miss Bessie Brodie.
Poor Dunn! He was not skilled in the fine art of social deception.
He could only gaze stupidly and with blinking eyes upon his
questioner, devoutly hoping meanwhile that the tears would not
fall.
"Splendid Highlander, isn't he?" exclaimed Miss Bessie, hastily
withdrawing her eyes from his face, for she was much too fine a
lady to let him see her surprise.
"What?" exclaimed Dunn. "I don't know. I mean--yes, awfully--oh,
confound the thing, it's a beastly shame!"
Thereupon Miss Bessie turned her big blue eyes slowly upon him.
"Meaning what?" she said quietly.
"Oh, I beg pardon. I'm just a fool. Oh, hang it all!" Dunn could
not recover his composure. He backed out of the circle of admirers
into a darker corner.
"Fool?" said Miss Brodie, stepping back with him. "And why, pray?
Can I know? I suppose it's Cameron again," she continued. "Oh, I
know all about you and your mothering of him."
"Mothering!" said Dunn bitterly. "That is just what he needs, by
Jove. His mother has been dead these five years, and that's been
the ruin of him."
The cheers from Cameron's admirers broke in upon Dunn's speech.
"Oh, it's too ghastly," he muttered.
"Is it really so bad? Can't I help?" cried Miss Brodie. "You know
I've had some experience with boys."
As Dunn looked into her honest, kindly eyes he hesitated. Should
he tell her? He was in sore need of counsel, and besides he was at
the limit of his self-control. "I say," he said, staring at her,
while his lips quivered, "I'd like awfully to tell you, but I know
if I ever begin I shall just burst into tears before this gaping
crowd."
"Tears!" exclaimed Miss Bessie. "Not you! And if you did it
wouldn't hurt either them or you. An International captain
possesses this advantage over other mortals: that he may burst into
tears or anything else without losing caste, whereas if I should do
any such thing-- But come, let's get somewhere and talk it over.
Now, then," said Miss Brodie as they found a quiet corner, "first
of all, ought I to know?"
"You'll know, all Edinburgh will know time day after to-morrow,"
said Dunn.
"All right, then, it can't do any harm for me to know to-night. It
possibly may do good."
"It will do me good, anyway," said Dunn, "for I have reached my
limit."
Then Dunn told her, and while she listened she grew grave and
anxious. "But surely it can be arranged!" she exclaimed, after he
had finished.
"No, Mr. Rae has tried everything. The Bank is bound to pursue it
to the bitter end. It is apparently a part of its policy."
"What Bank?"
"The Bank of Scotland."
"Why, that's my uncle's Bank! I mean, he is the Chairman of the
Board of Directors, and the Bank is the apple of his eye; or one of
them, I mean--I'm the other."
"Oh, both, I fancy," said Dunn, rather pleased with his own
courage.
"But come, this is serious," said Miss Brodie. "The Bank, you
know, or you don't know, is my uncle's weak spot."
Mr. Rae's words flashed across Dunn's mind: "We ought to have
found his weak spots."
"He says," continued Miss Brodie with a smile--"you know he's an
old dear!--I divide his heart with the Bank, that I have the left
lobe. Isn't that the bigger one? So the Bank and I are his weak
spots; unless it is his Wiltshires--he is devoted to Wiltshires."
"Wiltshires?"
"Pigs. There are times when I feel myself distinctly second to
them. Are you sure my uncle knows all about Cameron?"
"Well, Mr. Rae and Captain Cameron--that's young Cameron's father--
went out to his place--"
"Ah, that was a mistake," said Miss Brodie. "He hates people
following him to the country. Well, what happened?"
"Mr. Rae feels that it was rather a mistake that Captain Cameron
went along."
"Why so? He is his father, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is, though I'm bound to say he's rather queer for a
father." Whereupon Dunn gave her an account of his interview in
Mr. Rae's office.
Miss Brodie was indignant. "What a shame! And what a fool! Why,
he is ten times more fool than his son; for mark you, his son is
undoubtedly a fool, and a selfish fool at that. I can't bear a
young fool who sacrifices not simply his own life, but the
interests of all who care for him, for some little pet selfishness
of his own. But this father of his seems to be even worse than the
son. Family name indeed! And I venture to say he expatiated upon
the glory of his family name to my uncle. If there's one thing
that my uncle goes quite mad about it is this affectation of
superiority on the ground of the colour of a man's blood! No
wonder he refused to withdraw the prosecution! What could Mr. Rae
have been thinking about? What fools men are!"
"Quite true," murmured Mr. Dunn.
"Some men, I mean," cried Miss Brodie hastily. "I wish to heaven I
had seen my uncle first!"
"I suppose it's too late now," said Dunn, with a kind of gloomy
wistfulness.
"Yes, I fear so," said Miss Brodie. "You see when my uncle makes
up his mind he appears to have some religious scruples against
changing it."
"It was a ghastly mistake," said Dunn bitterly.
"Look here, Mr. Dunn," said Miss Brodie, turning upon him suddenly,
"I want your straight opinion. Do you think this young man
guilty?"
They were both looking at Cameron, at that moment the centre of a
group of open admirers, his boyish face all aglow with animation.
For the time being it seemed as if he had forgotten the terrible
catastrophe overhanging him.
"If I hadn't known Cameron for three years," replied Dunn slowly,
"I would say offhand that this thing would be impossible to him;
but you see you never know what a man in drink will do. Cameron
can carry a bottle of Scotch without a stagger, but of course it
knocks his head all to pieces. I mean, he is quite incapable of
anything like clear thought."
"It is truly terrible," said Miss Brodie. "I wish I had known
yesterday, but those men have spoilt it all. But here's 'Lily'
Laughton," she continued hurriedly, "coming for his dance." As she
spoke a youth of willowy figure, languishing dark eyes and ladylike
manner drew near.
"Well, here you are at last! What a hunt I have had! I am quite
exhausted, I assure you," cried the youth, fanning himself with his
handkerchief. "And though you have quite forgotten it, this is our
dance. What can you two have been talking about? But why ask?
There is only one theme upon which you could become so terrifically
serious."
"And what is that, pray? Browning?" inquired Miss Brodie sweetly.
"Dear Miss Brodie, if you only would, but--ugh!--" here "Lily"
shuddered, "I can in fancy picture the gory scene in which you have
been revelling for the last hour!" And "Lily's" handsome face and
languid, liquid eyes indicated his horror. It was "Lily's"
constant declaration that he "positively loathed" football,
although his persistent attendance at all the great matches rather
belied this declaration. "It is the one thing in you, Miss Bessie,
that I deplore, 'the fly in the pot--' no, 'the flaw--' ah, that's
better--'the flaw in the matchless pearl.'"
"How sweet of you," murmured Miss Brodie.
"Yes, indeed," continued "Lily," wreathing his tapering fingers,
"it is your devotion to those so-called athletic games,--games! ye
gods!--the chief qualifications for excellence in which appear to
be brute strength and a blood-thirsty disposition; as witness Dunn
there. I was positively horrified last International. There he
was, our own quiet, domestic, gentle Dunn, raging through that
howling mob of savages like a bloody Bengal tiger.--Rather apt,
that!--A truly awful and degrading exhibition!"
"Ah, perfectly lovely!" murmured Miss Brodie ecstatically. "I can
see him yet."
"Miss Brodie, how can you!" exclaimed "Lily," casting up his eyes
in horror towards heaven. "But it was ever thus! In ancient days
upon the bloody sands of the arena, fair ladies were wont to gaze
with unrelenting eyes and thumbs turned down--or up, was it--?"
"Excellent! But how clever of them to gaze with their thumbs in
that way!"
"Please don't interrupt," said "Lily" severely; "I have just
'struck my gait,' as that barbaric young Colonial, Martin, another
of your bloody, brawny band, would say. And here you sit,
unblushing, glorying in their disgusting deeds and making love open
and unabashed to their captain!"
"Go away, 'Lily' or I'll hurt you," cried Dunn, his face a
brilliant crimson. "Come, get out!"
"But don't be uplifted," continued "Lily," ignoring him, "you are
not the first. By no means! It is always the last International
captain, and has been to my certain knowledge for the last ten
years."
"Ten years!" exclaimed Miss Brodie in horrified accents. "You
monster! If you have no regard for my character you might at least
respect my age."
"Age! Dear Miss Brodie," ejaculated "Lily," "who could ever
associate age with your perennial youth?"
"Perennial! Wretch! If there is anything I am sensitive about,
really sensitive about, it is my age! Mr. Dunn, I beseech you,
save me from further insult! Dear 'Lily,' run away now. You are
much too tired to dance, and besides there is Mrs. Craig-Urquhart
waiting to talk your beloved Wagner-Tennyson theory; or what is the
exact combination? Mendelssohn-Browning, is it?"
"Oh, Miss Bessie!" cried "Lily" in a shocked voice. "how can you?
Mendelssohn-Browning! How awful! Do have some regard for the
affinities."
"Mr. Dunn, I implore you, save me! I can bear no more. There! A
merciful providence has accomplished my deliverance. They are
going. Good-night, 'Lily.' Run away now. I want a word with Mr.
Dunn."
"Oh, heartless cruelty!" exclaimed "Lily," in an agonised voice.
"But what can you expect from such associations?" And he hastened
away to have a last word with Mrs. Craig-Urquhart, who was swimming
languidly by.
Miss Brodie turned eagerly to Dunn. "I'd like to help you
awfully," she said; "indeed I must try. I have very little hope.
My uncle is so strong when he is once set, and he is so funny about
that Bank. But a boy is worth more than a Bank, if he IS a fool;
besides, there is his sister. Good-night. Thanks for letting me
help. I have little hope, but to-morrow I shall see Sir Archibald,
and--and his pigs."
It was still in the early forenoon of the following day when Miss
Brodie greeted her uncle as he was about to start upon his round of
the pastures and pens where the Wiltshires of various ages and
sizes and sexes were kept. With the utmost enthusiasm Miss Brodie
entered into his admiration of them all, from the lordly prize
tusker to the great mother lying broadside on in grunting and
supreme content, every grunt eloquent of happiness and maternal
love and pride, to allow her week-old brood to prod and punch her
luxuriant dugs for their breakfast.
By the time they had made their rounds Sir Archibald had arrived at
his most comfortable and complacent mood. He loved his niece. He
loved her for the sake of his dead brother, and as she grew in
years, he came to love her for herself. Her sturdy independent
fearlessness, her sound sense, her honest heart, and chiefly, if it
must be told, her whole-souled devotion to himself, made for her a
great space in his heart. And besides all this, they were both
interested to the point of devotion in pigs. As he watched his
niece handling the little sucklings with tender care, and listened
to her appraising their varying merits with a discriminating
judgment, his heart filled up with pride in her many accomplishments
and capabilities.
"Isn't she happy, Uncle?" she exclaimed, lifting her brown, sunny
face to him.
"Ay, lassie," replied Sir Archibald, lapsing into the kindly "braid
Scots," "I ken fine how she feels."
"She's just perfectly happy," said his niece, "and awfully useful
and good. She is just like you, Uncle."
"What? Oh, thank you, I'm extremely flattered, I assure you."
"Uncle, you know what I mean! Useful and good. Here you are in
this lovely home--how lovely it is on a warm, shiny day like this!--
safe from cares and worries, where people can't get at you, and
making--"
"Ah, I don't know about that," replied her uncle, shaking his head
with a frown. "Some people have neither sense nor manners. Only
yesterday I was pestered by a fellow who annoyed me, seriously
annoyed me, interfering in affairs which he knew nothing of,--
actually the affairs of the Bank!--prating about his family name,
and all the rest of it. Family name!" Here, it must be confessed,
Sir Archibald distinctly snorted, quite in a manner calculated to
excite the envy of any of his Wiltshires.
"I know, Uncle. He is a fool, a conceited fool, and a selfish
fool."
"You know him?" inquired her uncle in a tone of surprise.
"No, I have no personal acquaintance with him, I'm glad to say, but
I know about him, and I know that he came with Mr. Rae, the
Writer."
"Ah, yes! Thoroughly respectable man, Mr. Rae."
"Yes, Mr. Rae is all right; but Captain Cameron--oh, I can't bear
him! He came to talk to you about his son, and I venture to say he
took most of the time in talking about himself."
"Exactly so! But how--?"
"And, Uncle, I want to talk to you about that matter, about young
Cameron." For just a moment Miss Brodie's courage faltered as she
observed her uncle's figure stiffen. "I want you to know the
rights of the case."
"Now, now, my dear, don't you go--ah--"
"I know, Uncle, you were going to say 'interfering,' only you
remember in time that your niece never interferes. Isn't that
true, Sir?"
"Yes, yes! I suppose so; that is, certainly."
"Now I am interested in this young Cameron, and I want you to get
the right view of his case, which neither your lawyer nor your
manager nor that fool father of his can give you. I know that if
you see this case as I see it you will do--ah--exactly what is
right; you always do."
Miss Brodie's voice had assumed its most reasonable and business-
like tone. Sir Archibald was impressed, and annoyed because he was
impressed.
"Look here, Bessie," he said, in as impatient a tone as he ever
adopted with his niece, "you know how I hate being pestered with
business affairs out here."
"I know quite well, Uncle, and I regret it awfully, but I know,
too, that you are a man of honour, and that you stand for fair
play. But that young man is to be arrested to-day, and you know
what that will mean for a young fellow with his way to make."
Her appeal was not without its effect. Sir Archibald set himself
to give her serious attention. "Let us have it, then," he said.
briefly. "What do you know of the young man?"
"This first of all: that he has a selfish, conceited prig for a
father."
With which beginning Sir Archibald most heartily agreed. "But how
do you know?"
"Now, let me tell you about him." And Miss Brodie proceeded to
describe the scene between father and son in Mr. Rae's office, with
vigorous and illuminating comments. "And just think, the man in
the company who was first to condemn the young chap was his own
father. Would you do that? You'd stand for him against the whole
world, even if he were wrong."
"Steady, steady, lass!"
"You would," repeated Miss Bessie, with indignant emphasis. "Would
you chuck me over if I were disgraced and all the world hounding
me? Would you?"
"No, by God!" said Sir Archibald in a sudden tempest of emotion,
and Miss Bessie smiled lovingly upon him.
"Well, that's the kind of a father he has. Now about the young
fellow himself: He's just a first-class fool, like most young
fellows. You know how they are, Uncle."
Sir Archibald held up his hand. "Don't make any such assumptions."
"Oh, I know you, and when you were a boy you were just as gay and
foolish as the rest of them."
Her arch, accusing smile suddenly cast a rich glow of warm colour
over the long, grey road of Sir Archibald's youth of self-denial
and struggle. The mild indulgences of his early years, under the
transforming influence of that same arch and accusing smile, took
on for Sir Archibald such an aspect of wild and hilarious gaiety as
to impart a tone of hesitation to his voice while he deprecated his
niece's charge.
"What, I? Nonsense! What do you know about it? Well, well, we
have all had our day, I suppose!"
"Aha! I know you, and I should love to have known you when you were
young Cameron's age. Though I'm quite sure you were never such a
fool as he. You always knew how to take care of yourself."
Her uncle shook his head as if to indicate that the less said about
those gay young days the better.
"Now what do you think this young fool does? Gets drinking, and
gets so muddled up in all his money matters--he's a Highlander, you
know, and Dunn, Mr. Dunn says--"
"Dunn!"
"Yes, Mr. Dunn, the great International captain, you know! Mr.
Dunn says he can take a whole bottle of Scotch--"
"What, Dunn?"
"No, no; you know perfectly well, Uncle! This young Cameron can
take a whole bottle of Scotch and walk a crack, but his head gets
awfully muddled."
"Shouldn't be surprised!"
"And Mr. Dunn had a terrible time keeping him fit for the
International. You know he was Dunn's half-back. Yes," cried his
niece with enthusiasm, suddenly remembering a tradition that in his
youth Sir Archibald had been a famous quarter, his one indulgence,
"a glorious half-back, too! You must remember in the match with
England last fall the brilliant work of the half-back. Everybody
went mad about him. That was young Cameron!"
"You don't tell me! The left-half in the English International
last fall?"
"Yes, indeed! Oh, he's wonderful! But he has to be watched, you
know, and the young fool lost us the last--" Miss Bessie abruptly
checked herself. "But never mind! Well, after the season, you
know, he got going loose, and this is the result. Owed money
everywhere, and with the true Highland incapacity for business, and
the true Highland capacity for trusting people--"
"Huh!" grunted Sir Archibald in disapproval.
"--When his head is in a muddled condition he does something or
other to a cheque--or doesn't do it, nobody knows--and there he is
in this awful fix. Personally, I don't believe he is guilty of the
crime."
"And why, pray?"
"Why? Well, Mr. Dunn, his captain, who has known him for years,
says it is quite impossible; and then the young man himself doesn't
deny it."
"What? Does NOT deny it?"
"Exactly! Like a perfectly straightforward gentleman,--and I think
it's awfully fine of him,--though he has a perfectly good chance to
put the thing on a--a fellow Potts, quite a doubtful character, he
simply says, 'I know nothing about it. That looks like my
signature. I can't remember doing this, don't know how I could
have, but don't know a thing about it.' There you are, Uncle! And
Mr. Dunn says he is quite incapable of it."
"Mr. Dunn, eh? It seems you build somewhat broadly upon Mr. Dunn."
The brown on Miss Bessie's check deepened slightly. "Well, Mr.
Dunn is a splendid judge of men."
"Ah; and of young ladies, also, I imagine," said Sir Archibald,
pinching her cheek.
It may have been the pinch, but the flush on her cheek grew
distinctly brighter. "Don't be ridiculous, Uncle! He's just a
boy, a perfectly splendid boy, and glorious in his game, but a mere
boy, and--well, you know, I've arrived at the age of discretion."
"Quite true!" mused her uncle. "Thirty last birthday, was it? How
time does--!"
"Oh, you perfectly horrid uncle! Thirty indeed! Are you not
ashamed to add to the already intolerable burden of my years?
Thirty! No, Sir, not by five good years at least! There now,
you've made me tell my age! You ought to blush for shame."
Her uncle patted her firm, round cheek. "Never a blush, my dear!
You bear even your advanced age with quite sufficient ease and
grace. But now about this young Cameron," he continued, assuming a
sternly judicial tone.
"All I ask for him is a chance," said his niece earnestly.
"A chance? Why he will get every chance the law allows to clear
himself."
"There you are!" exclaimed Miss Bessie, in a despairing tone.
"That's the way the lawyers and your manager talk. They coolly and
without a qualm get him arrested, this young boy who has never in
all his life shown any sign of criminal tendency. These horrid
lawyers display their dreadful astuteness and ability in catching a
lad who never tries to run away, and your manager pleads the rules
of the Bank. The rules! Fancy rules against a young boy's whole
life!"
Her uncle rather winced at this.
"And like a lot of sheep they follow each other in a circle; there
is absolutely no independence, no initiative. Why, they even went
so far as to suggest that you could do nothing, that you were bound
by rules and must follow like the rest of them; but I told them I
knew better."
"Ah!" said Sir Archibald in his most dignified manner. "I trust I
have a mind of my own, but--"
"Exactly! So I said to Mr. Dunn. 'Rules or no rules,' I said, 'my
uncle will do the fair thing.' And I know you will," cried Miss
Brodie triumphantly. "And if you look at it, there's a very big
chance that the boy never did the thing, and certainly if he did it
at all it was when he was quite incapable. Oh, I know quite well
what the lawyers say. They go by the law,--they've got to,--but
you--and--and--I go by the--the real facts of the case." Sir
Archibald coughed gently. "I mean to say--well you know, Uncle,
quite well, you can tell what a man is by--well, by his game."
"His game!"
"And by his eye."
"His eye! And his eye is--?"
"Now, Uncle, be sensible! I mean to say, if you could only see
him. Oh, I shall bring him to see you!" she cried, with a sudden
inspiration.
Sir Archibald held up a deprecating hand. "Do not, I beg."
"Well, Uncle, you can trust my judgment, you know you can. You
would trust me in--in--" For a moment Miss Brodie was at a loss;
then her eyes fell upon the grunting, comfortable old mother pig
with her industrious litter. "Well, don't I know good Wiltshires
when I see them?"
"Quite true," replied her uncle solemnly; "and therefore, men."
"Uncle, you're very nearly rude."
"I apologise," replied her uncle hastily. "But now, Bessie, my
dear girl, seriously, as to this case, you must understand that I
cannot interfere. The Bank--hem--the Bank is a great National--"
Miss Bessie saw that the Guards were being called upon. She
hastened to bring up her reserves. "I know, Uncle, I know! I
wouldn't for the world say a word against the Bank, but you see the
case against the lad is at least doubtful."
"I was going on to observe," resumed her uncle, judicially, "that
the Bank--"
"Don't misunderstand me, Uncle," cried his niece, realising that
she had reached a moment of crisis. "You know I would not for a
moment presume to interfere with the Bank, but"--here she deployed
her whole force,--"the lad's youth and folly; his previous good
character, guaranteed by Dunn, who knows men; his glorious game--no
man who wasn't straight could play such a game!--the large chance
of his innocence, the small chance of his guilt; the hide-bound
rigidity of lawyers and bank managers, dominated by mere rules and
routine, in contrast with the open-minded independence of her
uncle; the boy's utter helplessness; his own father having been
ready to believe the worst,--just think of it, Uncle, his own
father thinking of himself and of his family name--much he has ever
done for his family name!--and not of his own boy, and"--here Miss
Brodie's voice took a lower key--"and his mother died some five or
six years ago, when he was thirteen or fourteen, and I know, you
know, that is hard on a boy." In spite of herself, and to her
disgust, a tremor came into her voice and a rush of tears to her
eyes.
Her uncle was smitten with dismay. Only on one terrible occasion
since she had emerged from her teens had he seen his niece in
tears. The memory of that terrible day swept over his soul.
Something desperate was doing. Hard as the little man was to the
world against which he had fought his way to his present position
of distinction, to his niece he was soft-hearted as a mother.
"There, there!" he exclaimed hastily. "We'll give the boy a
chance. No mother, eh? And a confounded prig for a father! No
wonder the boy goes all wrong!" Then with a sudden vehemence he
cried, striking one hand into the other, "No, by--! that is, we
will certainly give the lad the benefit of the doubt. Cheer up,
lassie! You've no need to look ashamed," for his niece was wiping
her eyes in manifest disgust; "indeed," he said, with a heavy
attempt at playfulness, "you are a most excellent diplomat."
"Diplomat, Uncle!" cried the girl, vehement indignation in her
voice and face. "Diplomat!" she cried again. "You don't mean that
I've not been quite sincere?"
"No, no, no; not in the least, my dear! But that you have put your
case with admirable force."
"Oh," said the girl with a breath of relief, "I just put it as I
feel it. And it is not a bit my putting it, Uncle, but it is just
that you are a dear and--well, a real sport; you love fair play."
The girl suddenly threw her strong, young arms about her uncle's
neck, drew him close to her, and kissed him almost as if she had
been his mother.
The little man was deeply touched, but with true Scotch horror of a
demonstration he cried, "Tut, tut, lassie, ye're makin' an auld
fule o' your uncle. Come now, be sensible!"
"Sensible!" echoed his niece, kissing him again. "That's my living
description among all my acquaintance. It is their gentle way of
reminding me that the ordinary feminine graces of sweetness and
general loveliness are denied me."
"And more fools they!" grunted her uncle. "You're worth the hale
caboodle o' them."
That same evening there were others who shared this opinion, and
none more enthusiastically than did Mr. Dunn, whom Miss Brodie
chanced to meet just as she turned out of the Waverly Station.
"Oh, Mr. Dunn," she cried, "how very fortunate!" Her face glowed
with excitement.
"For me; yes, indeed!" said Mr. Dunn, warmly greeting her.
"For me, for young Cameron, for us all," said Miss Brodie. "Oh,
Rob, is that you?" she continued, as her eye fell upon the
youngster standing with cap off waiting her recognition. "Look at
this!" she flashed a letter before Dunn's face. "What do you think
of that?"
Dunn took the letter. "It's to Sheratt," he said, with a puzzled
air.
"Yes," cried Miss Brodie, mimicking his tone, "it's to Sheratt,
from Sir Archibald, and it means that Cameron is safe. The police
will never--"
"The police," cried Dunn, hastily, getting between young Rob and
her and glancing at his brother, who stood looking from one to the
other with a startled face.
"How stupid! The police are a truly wonderful body of men," she
went on with enthusiasm. "They look so splendid. I saw some of
them as I came along. But never mind them now. About this letter.
What's to do?"
Dunn glanced at his watch. "We need every minute." He stood a
moment or two thinking deeply while Miss Brodie chatted eagerly
with Rob, whose face retained its startled and anxious look.
"First to Mr. Rae's office. Come!" cried Mr. Dunn.
"But this letter ought to go."
"Yes, but first Mr. Rae's office." Mr. Dunn had assumed command.
His words shot out like bullets.
Miss Brodie glanced at him with a new admiration in her face. As a
rule she objected to being ordered about, but somehow it seemed
good to accept commands from this young man, whose usually genial
face was now set in such resolute lines.
"Here, Rob, you cut home and tell them not to wait dinner for me."
"All right, Jack!" But instead of tearing off as was his wont
whenever his brother gave command, Rob lingered. "Can't I wait a
bit, Jack, to see--to see if anything--?" Rob was striving hard to
keep his voice in command and his face steady. "It's Cameron,
Jack. I know!" He turned his back on Miss Brodie, unwilling that
she should see his lips quiver.
"What are you talking about?" said his brother sharply.
"Oh, it is all my stupid fault, Mr. Dunn," said Miss Brodie. "Let
him come along a bit with us. I say, youngster, you are much too
acute," she continued, as they went striding along together toward
Mr. Rae's office. "But will you believe me if I tell you something?
Will you? Straight now?"
The boy glanced up into her honest blue eyes, and nodded his head.
"Your friend Cameron is quite all right. He was in some
difficulty, but now he's quite all right. Do you believe me?"
The boy looked again steadily into her eyes. The anxious fear
passed out of his face, and once more he nodded; he knew he could
not keep his voice quite steady. But after a few paces he said to
his brother, "I think I'll go now, Jack." His mind was at rest;
his idol was safe.
"Oh, come along and protect me," cried Miss Brodie. "These lawyer
people terrify me."
The boy smiled a happy smile. "I'll go," he said resolutely.
"Thanks, awfully," said Miss Brodie. "I shall feel so much safer
with you in the waiting room."
It was a difficult matter to surprise Mr. Rae, and even more
difficult to extract from him any sign of surprise, but when Dunn,
leaving Miss Brodie and his brother in the anteroom, entered Mr.
Rae's private office and laid the letter for Mr. Sheratt before
him, remarking, "This letter is from Sir Archibald, and withdraws
the prosecution," Mr. Rae stood speechless, gazing now at the
letter in his hand, and now at Mr. Dunn's face.
"God bless my soul! This is unheard of. How came you by this,
Sir?"
"Miss Brodie--" began Dunn.
"Miss Brodie?"
"She is in the waiting room, Sir."
"Then, for heaven's sake, bring her in! Davie, Davie! Where is
that man now? Here, Davie, a message to Mr. Thomlinson."
Davie entered with deliberate composure.
"My compliments to Mr. Thomlinson, and ask if he would step over at
once. It is a matter of extreme urgency. Be quick!"
But Davie had his own mind as to the fitness of things. "Wad a
note no' be better, Sir? Wull not--?"
"Go, will you!" almost shouted Mr. Rae.
Davie was so startled at Mr. Rae's unusual vehemence that he seized
his cap and made for the door. "He'll no' come for the like o'
me," he said, pausing with the door-knob in his hand. "It's no'
respectable like tae--"
"Man, will ye no' be gone?" cried Mr. Rae, rising from his chair.
"I will that!" exclaimed Davie, banging the door after him. "But,"
he cried furiously, thrusting his head once more into the room, "if
he'll no' come it's no' faut o' mine." His voice rose higher and
higher, and ended in a wrathful scream as Mr. Rae, driven to
desperation, hurled a law book of some weight at his vanishing
head.
"The de'il take ye! Ye'll be my deith yet."
The book went crashing against the door-frame just as Miss Brodie
was about to enter. "I say," she cried, darting back. "Heaven
protect me! Rob, save me!"
Rob sprang to her side. She stood for a moment gazing aghast at
Mr. Dunn, who gazed back at her in equal surprise. "Is this his
'usual'?" she inquired.
At that the door opened. "Ah, Mr. Dunn, this is Miss Brodie, I
suppose. Come in, come in!" Mr. Rae's manner was most bland.
Miss Brodie gave him her hand with some hesitation. "I'm very glad
to meet you, Mr. Rae, but is this quite the usual method? I mean
to say, I've heard of having advice hurled at one's head, but I
can't say that I ever was present at a demonstration of the
method."
"Oh," said Mr. Rae, with bland and gallant courtesy, "the method,
my dear young lady, varies with the subject in hand."
"Ah, the subject!"
"And with the object in view."
"Oh, I see."
"But pray be seated. And now explain this most wonderful
phenomenon." He tapped the letter.
"Oh, that is quite simple," said Miss Brodie. "I set the case of
young Mr. Cameron before my uncle, and of course he at once saw
that the only thing to do was withdraw the prosecution."
Mr. Rae stood gazing steadily at her as if striving to take in the
meaning of her words, the while screwing up his ear most violently
till it stuck out like a horn upon the side of his shiny, bald
head. "Permit me to say, Miss Brodie," he said, with a deliberate
and measured emphasis, "that you must be a most extraordinary young
lady." At this point Mr. Rae's smile broke forth in all its glory.
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Rae," replied Miss Brodie, smiling responsively
at him. "You are most--" But Mr. Rae's smile had vanished.
"What! I beg your pardon!" Miss Brodie's smiling response was
abruptly arrested by finding herself gazing at a face whose grave
solemnity rebuked her smile as unwarranted levity.
"Not at all, not at all!" said Mr. Rae. "But now, there are
matters demanding immediate action. First, Mr. Sheratt must
receive and act upon this letter without delay." As he spoke he
was scribbling hastily a note. "Mr. Dunn, my young men have gone
for the day. Might I trouble you?"
"Most certainly," cried Mr. Dunn. "Is an answer wanted?"
"Bring him with you, if possible; indeed, bring him whether it is
possible or not. But wait, it is past the hour appointed. Already
the officer has gone for young Cameron. We must save him the
humiliation of arrest."
"Oh, could I not warn him?" cried Miss Brodie eagerly. "No," she
added, "Rob will go. He is in the waiting room now, poor little
chap. It will be a joy to him."
"It is just as well Rob should know nothing. He is awfully fond of
Cameron. It would break his heart," said Mr. Dunn.
"Oh, of course! Quite unnecessary that he should know anything.
We simply wish Cameron here at the earliest possible moment."
Dunn went with his young brother down the stairs and out to the
street. "Now, Rob, you are to go to Cameron's lodgings and tell
him that Mr. Rae wants him, and that I want him. Hold on,
youngster!" he cried, grabbing Rob by the collar, "do you
understand? It is very important that Cameron should get here as
quick as he possibly can, and--I say, Rob," the big brother's eyes
traveled over the darkening streets that led up into the old town,
"you're not afraid?"
"A wee bit," said Rob, tugging at the grasp on his collar; "but I
don't care if I am."
"Good boy!" cried his brother. "Good little brick! I wouldn't let
you go, but it's simply got to be done, old chap. Now fly!" He
held him just a moment longer to slap him on the back, then
released his hold. Dunn stood watching the little figure tearing
up the North Bridge. "Great little soul!" he muttered. "Now for
old Sheratt!"
He put his head down and began to bore through the crowd toward Mr.
Sheratt's house. When he had gone but a little distance he was
brought up short by a bang full in the stomach. "Why, what the
deuce!"
"Dod gast ye! Whaur are ye're een?" It was Davie, breathless and
furious from the impact. "Wad ye walk ower me, dang ye?" cried the
little man again. Davie was Free Kirk, and therefore limited in
the range of his vocabulary.
"Oh! That you, Davie? I'm sorry I didn't see you."
"A'm no' as big as a hoose, but a'm veesible." And Davie walked
wrathfully about his business.
"Oh, quite," acknowledged Dunn cheerfully, hurrying on; "and
tangible, as well."
"He's comin'," cried Davie over his shoulder; "but gar it had been
masel'," he added grudgingly, "catch me!"
But Dunn was too far on his way to make reply. Already his mind
was on the meeting of the lawyers in Mr. Rae's office, and
wondering what would come of it. On this subject he meditated
until he reached Mr. Sheratt's home. Twice he rang the bell, still
meditating.
"By Jove, she is stunning! She's a wonder!" he exclaimed to
himself as he stood in Mr. Sheratt's drawing-room. "She's got 'em
all skinned a mile, as Martin would say." It is safe to affirm
that Mr. Dunn was not referring to the middle-aged and highly
respectable maid who had opened the door to him. It is equally
safe to affirm that this was the unanimous verdict of the three
men who, half an hour later, brought their deliberations to a
conclusion, frankly acknowledging to each other that what they had
one and all failed to achieve, the lady had accomplished.
CHAPTER VI
THE WASTER'S REFUGE
"I say, you blessed Colonial, what's come over you?" Linklater was
obviously disturbed. He had just returned from a summer's yachting
through the Norway fjords, brown and bursting with life. The last
half-hour he had been pouring forth his experiences to his friend
Martin. These experiences were some of them exciting, some of them
of doubtful ethical quality, but all of them to Linklater at least
interesting. During the recital it was gradually borne in upon him
that his friend Martin was changed. Linklater, as the consciousness
of the change in his friend grew upon him, was prepared to resent
it. "What the deuce is the matter with you?" he enquired. "Are you
ill?"
"Never better. I could at this present moment sit upon your fat
and florid carcass."
"Well, what then is wrong? I say, you haven't--it isn't a girl, is
it?"
"Nothing so lucky for a bloomin' Colonial in this land of wealth
and culture. If I only dared!"
"There's something," insisted Linklater; "but I've no doubt it will
develop. Meantime let us go out, and, in your own picturesque
vocabulary, let us 'hit the flowing bowl.'"
"No, Sir!" cried Martin emphatically. "No more! I am on the water
wagon, and have been all summer."
"I knew it was something," replied Linklater gloomily, "but I
didn't think it was quite so bad as that. No wonder you've had a
hard summer!"
"Best summer ever!" cried Martin. "I only wish I had started two
years ago when I came to this bibulous burgh."
"How came it? Religion?"
"No; just horse sense, and the old chief."
"Dunn!" exclaimed Linklater. "I always knew he was against that
sort of thing in training, but I didn't think he would carry it to
this length."
"Yes, Dunn! I say, old boy, I've no doubt you think you know him,
I thought so, too, but I've learned some this summer. Here's a
yarn, and it is impressive. Dunn had planned an extensive walking
tour in the Highlands; you know he came out of his exams awfully
fagged. Well, at this particular moment it happened that Balfour
Murray--you know the chap that has been running that settlement
joint in the Canongate for the last two years--proposes to Dunn
that he should spend a few weeks in leading the young hopefuls in
that interesting and uncleanly neighbourhood into paths of virtue
and higher citizenship by way of soccer and kindred athletic
stunts. Dunn in his innocence agrees, whereupon Balfour Murray
promptly develops a sharp attack of pneumonia, necessitating rest
and change of air, leaving the poor old chief in the deadly breach.
Of course, everybody knows what the chief would do in any deadly
breach affair. He gave up his Highland tour, shouldered the whole
Canongate business, organised the thing as never before, inveigled
all his friends into the same deadly breach, among the number your
humble servant, who at the time was fiercely endeavouring in the
last lap of the course to atone for a two years' loaf, organised a
champion team which has licked the spots off everything in sight,
and in short, has made the whole business a howling success; at the
cost, however, of all worldly delights, including his Highland tour
and the International."
"Oh, I say!" moaned Linklater. "It makes me quite ill to think of
the old chief going off this way."
Martin nodded sympathetically. "Kind of 'Days that are no more,'
'Lost leader' feeling, eh?"
"Exactly, exactly! Oh, it's rotten! And you, too! He's got you
on this same pious line."
"Look here," shouted Martin, with menace in his voice, "are you
classifying me with the old chief? Don't be a derned fool."
Linklater brightened perceptibly. "Now you're getting a little
natural," he said in a hopeful tone.
"Oh, I suppose you'd like to hear me string out a lot of damns."
"Well, it might help. I wouldn't feel quite so lonely. But don't
violate--"
"I'd do it if I thought it would really increase your comfort,
though I know I'd feel like an infernal ass. I've got new light
upon this 'damning' business. I've come to regard it as the refuge
of the mentally inert, not to say imbecile, who have lost the
capacity for originality and force in speech. For me, I am cured."
"Ah!" said Linklater. "Dunn again, I suppose."
"Not a bit! Clear case of psychological reaction. After listening
to the Canongate experts I was immediately conscious of an
overwhelming and mortifying sense of inadequacy, of amateurishness;
hence I quit. Besides, of course, the chief is making rather a
point of uplifting the Canongate forms of speech."
Linklater gazed steadily at this friend, then said with mournful
deliberation, "You don't drink, you don't swear, you don't smoke--"
"Oh, that's your grouch, is it?" cried Martin. "Forgive me; here's
my pouch, old chap; or wait, here's something altogether finer than
anything you've been accustomed to. I was at old Kingston's last
night, and the old boy would have me load up with his finest. You
know I've been working with him this summer. Awfully fine for me!
Dunn got me on; or rather, his governor. There you are now! Smoke
that with reverence."
"Ah," sighed Linklater, as he drew in his first whiff, "there is
still something left to live for. Now tell me, what about
Cameron?"
"Oh, Cameron! Cameron's all up a tree. The last time I saw him,
by Jove, I was glad it was in the open daylight and on a frequented
street. His face and manner suggested Roderick Dhu, The Black
Douglas, and all the rest of that interesting gang of cutthroats.
I can't bring myself to talk of Cameron. He's been the old chief's
relaxation during dog-days. It makes me hot to see Dunn with that
chap."
"Why, what's the trouble?"
"He tried him out in half a dozen positions, in every one of which
he proved a dead failure. The last was in Mr. Rae's office, a
lawyer, you know, Writer, to use your lucid and luminous speech.
That experiment proved the climax." At the memory of that
experience Martin laughed loud and long. "It was funny! Mr. Rae,
the cool, dignified, methodical, exact man of the law, struggling
to lick into shape this haughty Highland chieftain, who in his
heart scorned the whole silly business. The result, the complete
disorganisation of Mr. Rae's business, and total demoralisation of
Mr. Rae's office staff, who one and all swore allegiance to the
young chief. Finally, when Mr. Rae had reached the depths of
desperation, Cameron graciously deigned to inform his boss that he
found the office and its claims quite insupportable."
"Oh, it must have been funny. What happened?"
"What happened? You bet old Rae fell on his neck with tears of
joy, and sent him off with a handsome honorarium, as your gentle
speech has it. That was a fortnight ago. Then Dunn, in despair,
took Cameron off to his native haunts, and there he is to this day.
By the same token, this is the very afternoon that Dunn returns.
Let us go to meet him with cornets and cymbals! The unexpected
pleasure of your return made me quite forget. But won't he revel
in you, old boy!"
"I don't know about that," said Linklater gloomily. "I've a kind
of feeling that I've dropped out of this combination."
"What?" Then Martin fell upon him.
But if Martin's attempts to relieve his friend of melancholy
forebodings were not wholly successful, Dunn's shout of joy and his
double-handed shake as he grappled Linklater to him, drove from
that young man's heart the last lingering shade of doubt as to his
standing with his friends.
On his way home Dunn dropped into Martin's diggings for a "crack,"
and for an hour the three friends reviewed the summer's happenings,
each finding in the experience of the others as keen a joy as in
his own.
Linklater's holiday had been the most fruitful in exciting
incident. For two months he and his crew had dodged about among
quaint Norwegian harbours and in and out of fjords of wonderful
beauty. Storms they had weathered and calms they had endured; lazy
days they had spent, swimming, fishing, loafing; and wild days in
fighting gales and high-running seas that threatened to bury them
and their crew beneath their white-topped mountainous peaks.
"I say, that must have been great," cried Dunn with enthusiastic
delight in his friend's experiences.
"It sounds good, even in the telling," cried Martin, who had been
listening with envious ears. "Now my experiences are quite other.
One word describes them, grind, grind, grind, day in and day out,
in a gallant but futile attempt to justify the wisdom of my late
examiners in granting me my Triple."
"Don't listen to him, Linklater," said Dunn. "I happen to know
that he came through with banners flying and drums beating; and he
has turned into no end of a surgeon. I've heard old Kingston on
him."
"But what about you, Dunn?" asked Linklater, with a kind of curious
uncertainty in his voice, as if dreading a tale of calamity.
"Oh, I've loafed about town a little, golfing a bit and slumming a
bit for a chap that got ill, and in spare moments looking after
Martin here."
"And the International?"
Dunn hesitated.
"Come on, old chap," said Martin, "take your medicine."
"Well," admitted Dunn, "I had to chuck it. But," he hastened to
add, "Nesbitt has got the thing in fine shape, though of course
lacking the two brilliant quarters of last year and the half--for
Cameron's out of it--it's rather rough on Nesbitt."
"Oh, I say! It's rotten, it's really ghastly! How could you do
it, Dunn?" said Linklater. "I could weep tears of blood."
To this Dunn made no reply. His disappointment was even yet too
keen for him to treat it lightly. "Anything else seemed quite
impossible," at length he said; "I had to chuck it."
"By the way," said Martin, "how's Cameron?"
Again Dunn paused. "I wish I could tell you. He's had hard luck
this summer. He somehow can't get hold of himself. In fact, I'm
quite worried about Cameron. I can't tell you chaps the whole
story, but last spring he had a really bad jolt."
"Well, what's he going to do?" Martin asked, somewhat impatiently.
"I wish I knew," replied Dunn gloomily. "There seems nothing he
can get here that's suitable. I'm afraid he will have to try the
Colonies; Canada for preference."
"Oh, I say, Dunn," exclaimed Martin, "it can't really be as bad as
all that?"
Dunn laughed. "I apologise, old chap. That was rather a bad
break, wasn't it? But all the same, to a Scotchman, and especially
to a Highlander, to leave home and friends and all that sort of
thing, you know--"
"No, he doesn't know," cried Linklater. "The barbarian! How could
he?"
"No, thank God," replied Martin fervently, "I don't know! To my
mind any man that has a chance to go to Canada on a good job ought
to call in his friends and neighbours to rejoice with him."
"But I say, that reminds me," said Dunn. "Mr. Rae is coming to
have a talk with my governor and me about this very thing to-morrow
night. I'd like awfully if you could drop in, Martin; and you,
too, Linklater."
Linklater declined. "My folks have something on, I fear."
Martin hesitated, protesting that there was "altogether too much
of this coddling business" in the matter of Cameron's future.
"Besides, my work is rather crowding me."
"Oh, my pious ancestors! Work!" exclaimed Linklater in disgust.
"At this season of the year! Come, Martin, this pose is unworthy
of you."
"If you could, old man," said Dunn earnestly, "we won't keep you
long. It would be a great help to us all."
"All right, I'll come," said Martin.
"There'll be no one there but Mr. Rae. We'll just have a smoke and
a chat."
But in this expectation Dunn was reckoning without his young
brother, Rob, who, ever since a certain momentous evening, had
entered into a covenant of comradeship with the young lady who had
figured so prominently in the deliverance of his beloved Cameron
from pending evil, and who during the summer had allowed no week to
pass without spending at least a part of a day with her. On this
particular evening, having obtained leave from his mother, the
young gentle man had succeeded in persuading his friend to accept
an invitation to dinner, assuring her that no one would be there
except Jack, who was to arrive home the day before.
The conclave of Cameron's friends found themselves, therefore,
unexpectedly reinforced by the presence of Miss Brodie, to the
unmingled joy of all of them, although in Martin's case his joy was
tinged with a certain fear, for he stood in awe of the young lady,
both because of her reputation for cleverness, and because of the
grand air which, when it pleased her, she could assume. Martin,
too, stood in wholesome awe of Doctor Dunn, whose quiet dignity and
old-time courtesy exercised a chastening influence upon the young
man's somewhat picturesque style of language and exuberance of
metaphor. But with Mrs. Dunn he felt quite at ease, for with that
gentle, kindly soul, her boys' friends were her friends and without
question she took them to her motherly heart.
Immediately upon Mr. Rae's arrival Cameron's future became the
subject of conversation, and it required only the briefest
discussion to arrive at the melancholy, inevitable conclusion that,
as Mr. Rae put it, "for a young man of his peculiar temperament,
training, and habits, Scotland was clearly impossible."
"But I have no doubt," continued that excellent adviser, "that in
Canada, where the demand for a high standard of efficiency is less
exacting, and where openings are more plentiful, the young man will
do very well indeed."
Martin took the lawyer up somewhat sharply. "In other words, I
understand you to mean that the man who is a failure in Scotland
may become a success in Canada."
"Exactly so. Would you not say so, Mr. Martin?"
"It depends entirely upon the cause of failure. If failure arises
from unfitness, his chances in Canada are infinitely less than in
Scotland."
"And why?" inquired Miss Brodie somewhat impatiently.
Martin hesitated. It was extremely difficult in the atmosphere of
that home to criticise one whom he knew to be considered as a
friend of the family.
"Why, pray?" repeated Miss Brodie.
"Well, of course," began Martin hesitatingly, "comparisons are
always odious."
"Oh, we can bear them." Miss Brodie's smile was slightly
sarcastic.
"Well, then, speaking generally," said Martin, somewhat nettled by
her smile, "in this country there are heaps of chaps that simply
can't fall down because of the supports that surround them,
supports of custom, tradition, not to speak of their countless
friends, sisters, cousins, and aunts; if they're anyways half
decent they're kept a going; whereas if they are in a new country
and with few friends, they must stand alone or fall. Here the
crowd support them; there the crowd, eager to get on, shove them
aside or trample them down."
"Rather a ghastly picture that," said Miss Brodie.
"But true; that is, of the unfit. People haven't time to bother
with them; the game is too keen."
"Surely the picture is overdrawn," said Doctor Dunn.
"It may be, Sir," replied Martin, "but I have seen so many young
fellows who had been shipped out to Canada because they were
failures at home. I have seen them in very hard luck."
"And what about the fit?" inquired Miss Brodie.
"They get credit for every ounce that's in them."
"But that is so in Scotland as well."
"Pardon me, Miss Brodie, hardly. Here even strong men and fit men
have to wait half a lifetime for the chance that calls for all
that's in them. They must march in the procession and the pace is
leisurely. In Canada the chances come every day, and the man
that's ready jumps in and wins."
"Ah, I see!" exclaimed Miss Brodie. "There are more ladders by
which to climb."
"Yes," cried Martin, "and fewer men on them."
"But," argued Dunn, "there are other causes of failure in this
country. Many a young fellow, for instance, cannot get a congenial
position."
"Yes," replied Martin quickly, "because you won't let him; your
caste law forbids. With us a man can do anything decent and no one
thinks the less of him."
"Ah, I see!" again cried Miss Brodie, more eagerly than before.
"Not only more ladders, but more kinds of ladders."
"Exactly," said Martin with an approving glance. "And he must not
be too long in the choosing."
"Then, Mr. Martin," said Mr. Rae, "what would you suggest for our
young friend?"
But this Martin refused to answer.
"Surely there are openings for a young fellow in Canada," said
Dunn. "Take a fellow like myself. What could I do?"
"You?" cried Martin, his eyes shining with loving enthusiasm.
"There are doors open on every business street in every town and
city in Canada for you, or for any fellow who has brain or brawn to
sell and who will take any kind of a job and stay with it."
"Well, what job, for instance?"
"What job?" cried Martin. "Heaps of them."
At this point a diversion was created by the entrance of "Lily"
Laughton. Both Martin and Dunn envied the easy grace of his
manner, his perfect self-possession, as he greeted each member of
the company. For each he had exactly the right word. Miss Brodie
he greeted with an exaggerated devotion, but when he shook hands
with Dunn there was no mistaking the genuine warmth of his
affection.
"Heard you were home, old chap, so I couldn't help dropping in. Of
course I knew that Mrs. Dunn would be sure to be here, and I more
than suspected that my dear Miss Brodie," here he swept her an
elaborate bow, "whom I discovered to be away from her own home,
might be found in this pleasant company."
"Yes, I fear that my devotion to her youngest boy is leading me
to overstep the bounds of even Mrs. Dunn's vast and generous
hospitality."
"Not a bit, my dear," replied Mrs. Dunn kindly. "You bring
sunshine with you, and you do us all good."
"Exactly my sentiments!" exclaimed "Lily" with enthusiasm. "But
what are you all doing? Just having a 'collyshog'?"
For a moment no one replied; then Dunn said, "We were just talking
about Cameron, who is thinking of going to Canada."
"To Canada of all places!" exclaimed "Lily" in tones of horrified
surprise. "How truly dreadful! But why should Cameron of all
beings exile himself in those remote and barbarous regions?"
"And why should he not?" cried Miss Brodie. "What is there for a
young man of spirit in Mr. Cameron's position in this country?"
"Why, my dear Miss Brodie, how can you ask? Just think of the
heaps of things, of perfectly delicious things, Cameron can do,--
the Highlands in summer, Edinburgh, London, in the season, a run to
the Continent! Just think of the wild possibility of a life of
unalloyed bliss!"
"Don't be silly!" said Miss Brodie. "We are talking seriously."
"Seriously! Why, my dear Miss Brodie, do you imagine--?"
"But what could he do for a life-work?" said Dunn. "A fellow must
have something to do."
"Oh, dear, I suppose so," said "Lily" with a sigh. "But surely he
could have some position in an office or something!"
"Exactly!" replied Miss Brodie. "How beautifully you put it! Now
Mr. Martin was just about to tell us of the things a man could do
in Canada when you interrupted."
"Awfully sorry, Martin. I apologise. Please go on. What do the
natives do in Canada?"
"Please don't pay any attention to him, Mr. Martin. I am extremely
interested. Now tell me, what are the openings for a young fellow
in Canada? You said the professions are all wide open."
It took a little persuasion to get Martin started again, so
disgusted was he with Laughton's references to his native country.
"Yes, Miss Brodie, the professions are all wide open, but of course
men must enter as they do here, but with a difference. Take law,
for instance: Knew a chap--went into an office at ten dollars a
month--didn't know a thing about it. In three months he was raised
to twenty dollars, and within a year to forty dollars. In three or
four years he had passed his exams, got a junior partnership worth
easily two thousand dollars a year. They wanted that chap, and
wanted him badly. But take business: That chap goes into a store
and--"
"A store?" inquired "Lily."
"Yes, a shop you call it here; say a drygoods--"
"Drygoods? What extraordinary terms these Colonials use!"
"Oh, draper's shop," said Dunn impatiently. "Go on, Martin; don't
mind him."
"A draper's clerk!" echoed "Lily." "To sell tapes and things?"
"Yes," replied Martin stoutly; "or groceries."
"Do you by any chance mean that a University man, a gentleman,
takes a position in a grocer's shop to sell butter and cheese?"
"I mean just that," said Martin firmly.
"Oh, please!" said "Lily" with a violent shudder. "It is too
awful!"
"There you are! You wouldn't demean yourself."
"Not I!" said "Lily" fervently.
"Or disgrace your friends. You want a gentleman's job. There are
not enough to go round in Canada."
"Oh, go on," said Miss Brodie impatiently. "'Lily,' we must ask
you to not interrupt. What happens? Does he stay there?"
"Not he!" said Martin. "From the small business he goes to bigger
business. First thing you know a man wants him for a big job and
off he goes. Meantime he saves his money, invests wisely. Soon he
is his own boss."
"That's fine!" cried Miss Brodie. "Go on, Mr. Martin. Start him
lower down."
"All right," said Martin, directing his attention solely to the
young lady. "Here's an actual case. A young fellow from Scotland
found himself strapped--"
"Strapped? What DOES he mean?" said "Lily" in an appealing voice.
"On the rocks."
"Rocks?"
"Dear me!" cried Miss Brodie impatiently. "You are terribly
lacking in imagination. Broke, he means."
"Oh, thanks!"
"Well, finds himself broke," said Martin; "gets a shovel, jumps
into a cellar--"
"And why a cellar, pray?" inquires "Lily" mildly. "To hide himself
from the public?"
"Not at all; they were digging a cellar preparatory to building a
house."
"Oh!"
"He jumps in, blisters his hands, breaks his back--but he stays
with the job. In a week the boss makes him timekeeper; in three
months he himself is boss of a small gang; the next year he is made
foreman at a hundred a month or so."
"A hundred a month?" cries "Lily" in astonishment. "Oh, Martin,
please! We are green, but a hundred pounds a month--!"
"Dollars," said Martin shortly. "Don't be an ass! I beg pardon,"
he added, turning to Mrs. Dunn, who was meantime greatly amused.
"A hundred dollars a month; that is--I am so weak in arithmetic--
twenty pounds, I understand. Go on, Martin; I'm waiting for the
carriage and pair."
"That's where you get left," said Martin. "No carriage and pair
for this chap yet awhile; overalls and slouch hat for the next five
years for him. Then he begins contracting on his own."
"I beg your pardon," says "Lily."
"I mean he begins taking jobs on his own."
"Great!" cried Miss Brodie.
"Or," continued Martin, now fairly started on a favourite theme,
"there are the railroads all shouting for men of experience,
whether in the construction department or in the operating
department."
"Does anyone here happen to understand him?" inquires "Lily"
faintly.
"Certainly," cried Miss Brodie; "all the intelligent people do. At
least, I've a kind of notion there are big things doing. I only
wish I were a man!"
"Oh, Miss Brodie, how can you?" cried "Lily." "Think of us in such
a contingency!"
"But," said Mr. Rae, "all of this is most interesting, extremely
interesting, Mr. Martin. Still, they cannot all arrive at these
exalted positions."
"No, Mr. Rae. I may have given that impression. I confess to a
little madness when I begin talking Canada."
"Ah!" exclaimed "Lily."
"But I said men of brawn and brains, you remember."
"And bounce, to perfect the alliteration," murmured "Lily."
"Yes, bounce, too," said Martin; "at least, he must never take
back-water; he must be ready to attempt anything, even the
impossible."
"That's the splendid thing about it!" cried Miss Brodie. "You're
entirely on your own and you never say die!"
"Oh, my dear Miss Brodie," moaned "Lily" in piteous accents, "you
are so fearfully energetic! And then, it's all very splendid, but
just think of a--of a gentleman having to potter around among
butter and cheese, or mess about in muddy cellars! Ugh!
Positively GHAWSTLY! I would simply die."
"Oh, no, you wouldn't, 'Lily,'" said Martin kindly. "We have
afternoon teas and Browning Clubs, too, you must remember, and some
'cultchaw' and that sort of thing."
There was a joyous shout from Dunn.
"But, Mr. Martin," persisted Mr. Rae, whose mind was set in
arriving at a solution of the problem in hand, "I have understood
that agriculture was the chief pursuit in Canada."
"Farming! Yes, it is, but of course that means capital. Good land
in Ontario means seventy-five to a hundred dollars per acre, and a
man can't do with less than a hundred acres; besides, farming is
getting to be a science now-a-days, Sir."
"Ah, quite true! But to a young man bred on a farm in this
country--"
"Excuse me, Mr. Rae," replied Martin quickly, "there is no such
thing in Canada as a gentleman farmer. The farmer works with his
men."
"Do you mean that he actually works?" inquired "Lily." "With the
plough and hoe, and that sort of thing?"
"Works all day long, as long as any of his men, and indeed longer."
"And does he actually live--? of course he doesn't eat with his
servants?" said "Lily" in a tone that deprecated the preposterous
proposition.
"They all eat together in the big kitchen," replied Martin.
"How awful!" gasped "Lily."
"My father does," replied Martin, a little colour rising in his
cheek, "and my mother, and my brothers. They all eat with the men;
my sister, too, except when she waits on table."
"Fine!" exclaimed Miss Brodie. "And why not? 'Lily,' I'm afraid
you're horribly snobbish."
"Thank the Lord," said "Lily" devoutly, "I live in this beloved
Scotland!"
"But, Mr. Martin, forgive my persistence, I understand there is
cheaper land in certain parts of Canada; in, say, ManitoBAW."
"Ah, yes, Sir, of course, lots of it; square miles of it!" cried
Martin with enthusiasm. "The very best out of doors, and cheap,
but I fancy there are some hardships in Manitoba."
"But I see by the public newspapers," continued Mr. Rae, "that
there is a very large movement in the way of emigration toward that
country."
"Yes, there's a great boom on in Manitoba just now."
"Boom?" said "Lily." "And what exactly may that be in the
vernacular?"
"I take it," said Mr. Rae, evidently determined not to allow the
conversation to get out of his hands, "you mean a great excitement
consequent upon the emigration and the natural rise in land
values?"
"Yes, Sir," cried Martin, "you've hit it exactly."
"Then would there not be opportunity to secure a considerable
amount of land at a low figure in that country?"
"Most certainly! But it's fair to say that success there means
work and hardship and privation. Of course it is always so in a
new country; it was so in Ontario. Why, the new settlers in
Manitoba don't know what hardships mean in comparison with those
that faced the early settlers in Ontario. My father, when a little
boy of ten years, went with his father into the solid forest; you
don't know what that means in this country, and no one can who has
not seen a solid mass of green reaching from the ground a hundred
feet high without a break in it except where the trail enters.
Into that solid forest in single file went my grandfather, his two
little boys, and one ox carrying a bag of flour, some pork and
stuff. By a mark on a tree they found the corner of their farm."
Martin paused.
"Do go on," said Miss Brodie. "Tell me the very first thing he
did."
But Martin seemed to hesitate. "Well," he began slowly, "I've
often heard my father tell it. When they came to that tree with
the mark on it, grandfather said, 'Boys, we have reached our home.
Let us thank God.' He went up to a big spruce tree, drove his ax
in to the butt, then kneeled down with the two little boys beside
him, and I have heard my father say that when he looked away up
between the big trees and saw the bit of blue sky there, he thought
God was listening at that blue hole between the tree-tops." Martin
paused abruptly, and for a few moments silence held the group.
Then Doctor Dunn, clearing his throat, said with quiet emphasis:
"And he was right, my boy; make no doubt of that."
"Then?" inquired Miss Brodie softly. "If you don't mind."
Martin laughed. "Then they had grub, and that afternoon grandfather
cut the trees and the boys limbed them off, clearing the ground
where the first house stood. That night they slept in a little
brush hut that did them for a house until grandmother came two weeks
later."
"What?" said Doctor Dunn. "Your grandmother went into the forest?"
"Yes, Sir," said Martin; "and two miles of solid black bush
stretched between her and the next woman."
"Why, of course, my dear," said Mrs. Dunn, taking part for the
first time in the conversation. "What else?"
They all laughed.
"Of course, Mother," said her eldest son, "that's what you would
do."
"So would I, Mamma, wouldn't I?" whispered Rob, leaning towards
her.
"Certainly, my dear," replied his mother; "I haven't the slightest
doubt."
"And so would any woman worth her salt if she loved her husband,"
cried Miss Brodie with great emphasis.
"Why, why," cried Doctor Dunn, "it's the same old breed, Mother."
"But in Manitoba--?" began Mr. Rae, still clinging to the subject.
"Oh, in Manitoba there is no forest to cut. However, there are
other difficulties. Still, hundreds are crowding in, and any man
who has the courage and the nerve to stay with it can get on."
"And what did they do for schools?" said Mrs. Dunn, returning to
the theme that had so greatly interested her.
"There were no schools until father was too big to be spared to go
except for a few weeks in the winter."
"How big do you mean?"
"Say fifteen."
"Fifteen!" exclaimed Miss Brodie. "A mere infant!"
"Infant!" said Martin. "Not much! At fifteen my father was doing
a man's full work in the bush and on the farm, and when he grew to
be a man he cleared most of his own land, too. Why, when I was
eleven I drove my team all day on the farm."
"And how did you get your education, Mr. Martin?"
"Oh, they kept me at school pretty steadily, except in harvest and
hay time, until I was fourteen, and after that in the winter
months. When I was sixteen I got a teacher's certificate, and then
it was easy enough."
"And did you put yourself through college?" inquired Mr. Rae, both
interest and admiration in his voice, for now they were on ground
familiar in his own experience.
"Why, yes, mostly. Father helped, I suspect more than he ought to,
but he was anxious for me to get through."
"Rob," cried Miss Brodie suddenly, "let's go! What do you say?
We'll get a big bit of that land in the West, and won't it be
splendid to build up our own estate and all that?"
Rob glanced from her into his mother's face. "I'd like it fine,
Mamma," he said in a low voice, slipping his hand into hers.
"But what about me, Rob?" said his mother, smiling tenderly down
into the eager face.
"Oh, I'd come back for you, Mamma."
"Hold on there, youngster," said his elder brother, "there are
others that might have something to say about that. But I say,
Martin," continued Dunn, "we hear a lot about the big ranches
further West."
"Yes, in Alberta, but I confess I don't know much about them. The
railways are just building and people are beginning to go in. But
ranching needs capital, too. It must be a great life! They
practically live in the saddle. It's a glorious country!"
"On the whole, then," said Mr. Rae, as if summing up the
discussion, "a young man has better opportunities of making his
fortune, so to speak, in the far West rather than in, say,
Ontario."
"I didn't speak of fortune, Mr. Rae,--fortune is a chance thing,
more or less,--but what I say is this, that any young man not
afraid of work, of any kind of work, and willing to stay with his
job, can make a living and get a home in any part of Canada, with a
bigger chance of fortune in the West."
"All I say, Mr. Rae, is this," said Miss Brodie emphatically, "that
I only wish I were a man with just such a chance as young Cameron!"
"Ah, my dear young lady, if all the young men were possessed of
your spirit, it would matter little where they went, for they would
achieve distinct success." As he spoke Mr. Rae's smile burst forth
in all its effulgent glory.
"Dear Mr. Rae, how very clever of you to discover that!" replied
Miss Brodie, smiling sweetly into Mr. Rae's radiant face. "And how
very sweet of you--ah, I beg your pardon; that is--" The
disconcerting rapidity with which Mr. Rae's smile gave place to an
appearance of grave, of even severe solemnity, threw Miss Brodie
quite "out of her stride," as Martin said afterward, and left her
floundering in a hopeless attempt to complete her compliment.
Her confusion was the occasion of unlimited joy to "Lily," who was
not unfamiliar with this facial phenomenon on the part of Mr. Rae.
"Oh, I say!" he cried to Dunn in a gale of smothered laughter, "how
does the dear man do it? It is really too lovely! I must learn
the trick of that. I have never seen anything quite so appallingly
flabbergasting."
Meantime Mr. Rae was blandly assisting Miss Brodie out of her
dilemma. "Not at all, Miss Brodie, not at all! But," he
continued, throwing his smile about the room, "I think, Doctor
Dunn, we have reason to congratulate ourselves upon not only a
pleasant but an extremely profitable evening--ah--as far as the
matter in hand is concerned. I hope to have further speech with
our young friend," bowing to Mr. Martin and bringing his smile to
bear upon that young gentleman.
"Oh, certainly," began Martin with ready geniality, "whenever you--
eh? What did you say, Sir? I didn't quite--"
But Mr. Rae was already bidding Mrs. Dunn goodnight, with a face of
preternatural gravity.
"What the deuce!" said Martin, turning to his friend Dunn. "Does
the old boy often go off at half-cock that way? He'll hurt himself
some time, sure."
"Isn't it awful?" said Dunn. "He's got me a few times that way,
too. But I say, old boy, we're awfully grateful to you for
coming."
"I feel like a fool," said Martin; "as if I'd been delivering a
lecture."
"Don't think it," cried Miss Brodie, who had drawn near. "You've
been perfectly lovely, and I am so glad to have got to know you
better. For me, I am quite resolved to go to Canada."
"But do you think they can really spare us all, Miss Brodie?"
exclaimed "Lily" in an anxious voice. "For, of course, if you go
we must."
"No, 'Lily,' I'm quite sure they can't spare you. Just think, what
could the Browning-Wagner circle do? Besides, what could we do
with you when we were all working, for I can quite see that there
is no use going to Canada unless you mean to work?"
"You've got it, Miss Brodie," said Martin. "My lecture is not in
vain. There is no use going to Canada unless you mean to work and
to stay with the job till the cows come home."
"Till the cows come--?" gasped "Lily."
"Oh, never mind him, Mr. Martin! Come, 'Lily' dear, I'll explain
it to you on the way home. Good-night, Mr. Dunn; we've had a jolly
evening. And as for our friend Cameron, I've ceased to pity him;
on the contrary, I envy him his luck."
CHAPTER VII
FAREWELL TO CUAGH OIR
Once more the golden light of a sunny spring day was shining on the
sapphire loch at the bottom, and overflowing at the rim of the
Cuagh Oir. But for all its flowing gold, there was grief in the
Glen--grief deep and silent, like the quiet waters of the little
loch. It was seen in the grave faces of the men who gathered at
the "smiddy." It was heard in the cadence of the voices of the
women as they gathered to "kalie" (Ceilidh) in the little cottages
that fringed the loch's side, or dotted the heather-clad slopes.
It even checked the boisterous play of the bairns as they came in
from school. It lay like a cloud on the Cuagh, and heavy on the
hearts that made up the little hill-girt community of one hundred
souls, or more.
And the grief was this, that on the "morrow's morn" Mary Robertson's
son was departing from the Glen "neffer to return for effermore," as
Donald of the House farm put it, with a face gloomy as the loch on a
dark winter's day.
"A leaving" was ever an occasion of wailing to the Glen, and many
a leaving had the Glen known during the last fifty years. For
wherever the tartan waved, and the bonnie feathers danced for the
glory of the Empire, sons of the Glen were ever to be found; but
not for fifty years had the heart of the Glen known the luxury of a
single rallying centre for their pride and their love till the
"young chentleman," young Mr. Allan, began to go in and out among
them. And as he grew into manhood so grew their pride in him. And
as, from time to time, at the Great Games he began to win glory for
the Glen with his feats of skill and strength, and upon the pipes,
and in the dances, their pride in him grew until it passed all
limits. Had he not, the very year before he went to the college,
cut the comb of the "Cock of the North" from Glen Urquhart, in
running and jumping; and the very same year had he not wrested from
Callum Bheg, the pride of Athole, the coveted badge of Special
Distinction in Highland Dancing? Then later, when the schoolmaster
would read from the Inverness Courier to one group after another at
the post office and at the "smiddy" (it was only fear of the elder
MacPherson, that kept the master from reading it aloud at the kirk
door before the service) accounts of the "remarkable playing" of
Cameron, the brilliant young "half-back" of the Academy in
Edinburgh, the Glen settled down into an assured conviction that it
had reached the pinnacle of vicarious glory, and that in all
Scotland there was none to compare with their young "chieftain" as,
quite ignoring the Captain, they loved to call him.
And there was more than pride in him, for on his holidays he came
back to the Glen unspoiled by all his honours and achievements, and
went about among them "jist like ain o' their ain sels," accepting
their homage as his right, but giving them in return, according to
their various stations, due respect and honour, and their love grew
greater than their pride.
But the "morrow's morn" he was leaving the Glen, and, worse than
all, no one knew for why. A mystery hung over the cause of his
going, a mystery deepened by his own bearing during the past twelve
months, for all these months a heavy gloom had shrouded him, and
from all that had once been his delight and their glory he had
withdrawn. The challenge, indeed, from the men of Glen Urquhart
which he had accepted long ago, he refused not, but even the
overwhelming defeat which he had administered to his haughty
challengers, had apparently brought him no more than a passing
gleam of joy. The gloom remained unlifted and the cause the Glen
knew not, and no man of them would seek to know. Hence the grief
of the Glen was no common grief when the son of Mary Robertson, the
son of the House, the pride of the Glen, and the comrade and friend
of them all, was about to depart and never to return.
His last day in the Glen Allan spent making his painful way through
the cottages, leaving his farewell, and with each some slight gift
of remembrance. It was for him, indeed, a pilgrimage of woe. It
was not only that his heart roots were in the Glen and knit round
every stick and stone of it; it was not that he felt he was leaving
behind him a love and loyalty as deep and lasting as life itself.
It was that in tearing himself from them he could make no response
to the dumb appeal in the eyes that followed him with adoration and
fidelity: "Wherefore do you leave us at all?" and "Why do you make
no promise of return?" To that dumb appeal there was no answer
possible from one who carried on his heart for himself, and on his
life for some few others, and among these his own father, the
terrible brand of the criminal. It was this grim fact that stained
black the whole landscape of his consciousness, and that hung like
a pall of death over every living and delightsome thing in the
garden of his soul. While none could, without challenge, condemn
him, yet his own tongue refused to proclaim his innocence. Every
face he loved drove deeper into his heart his pain. The deathless
loyalty and unbounded pride of the Glen folk rebuked him, without
their knowing, for the dishonour he had done them. The Glen
itself, the hills, the purpling heather, the gleaming loch, how
dear to him he had never known till now, threw in his face a sad
and silent reproach. Small wonder that the Glen, that Scotland had
become intolerable to him. With this bitter burden on his heart it
was that young Mr. Allan went his way through the Glen making his
farewells, not daring to indulge the luxury of his grief, and with
never a word of return.
His sister, who knew all, and who would have carried--oh! how
gladly!--on her own heart, and for all her life long, that bitter
burden, pleaded to be allowed to go with him on what she knew full
well was a journey of sorrow and sore pain, but this he would not
permit. This sorrow and pain which were his own, he would share
with no one, and least of all with her upon whose life he had
already cast so dark a shadow. Hence she was at the house alone,
her father not having yet returned from an important meeting at a
neighbouring village, when a young man came to the door asking for
young Mr. Cameron.
"Who is it, Kirsty?" she inquired anxiously, a new fear at her
heart for her brother.
"I know not, but he has neffer been in this Glen before whateffer,"
replied Kirsty, with an ominous shake of the head, her primitive
instincts leading her to view the stranger with suspicion. "But!"
she added, with a glance at her young mistress' face, "he iss no
man to be afraid of, at any rate. He is just a laddie."
"Oh, he is a YOUNG man, Kirsty?" replied her mistress, glancing at
her blue serge gown, her second best, and with her hands striving
to tuck in some of her wayward curls.
"Och, yess, and not much at that!" replied Kirsty, with the idea of
relieving her young mistress of unnecessary fears.
Then Moira, putting on her grand air, stepped into the parlour, and
saw standing there and awaiting her, a young man with a thin and
somewhat hard face, a firm mouth, and extraordinarily keen, grey
eyes. Upon her appearing the young man stood looking upon her
without a word. As a matter of fact, he was struggling with a
problem; a problem that was quite bewildering; the problem, namely,
"How could hair ever manage to get itself into such an arrangement
of waves and curls, and golden gleams and twinkles?" Struggling
with this problem, he became conscious of her voice gravely
questioning him. "You were wishing to see my brother?" The young
man came back part way, and replied, "Oh! how does it--? That is--.
I beg your pardon." The surprise in her face brought him quite
to the ground, and he came at once to his business. "I am Mr.
Martin," he said in a quick, sharp voice. "I know your brother and
Mr. Dunn." He noted a light dawn in her eyes. "In fact, I played
with them on the same team--at football, you know."
"Oh!" cried the girl, relief and welcome in her voice, "I know you,
Mr. Martin, quite well. I know all about you, and what a splendid
quarter-back you are." Here she gave him both her hands, which Mr.
Martin took in a kind of dream, once more plunged into the mazes of
another and more perplexing problem, viz., Was it her lips with
that delicious curve to them? or her eyes so sunny and brown (or
were they brown?) with that alluring, bewitching twinkle? or was it
both lips and eyes that gave to the smile with which she welcomed
him its subtle power to make his heart rise and choke him as it
never had been known to do in the most strenuous of his matches?
"I'm awfully glad," he heard himself say, and her voice replying,
"Oh, yes! Allan has often and often spoken of you, Mr. Martin."
Mr. Martin immediately became conscious of a profound and grateful
affection to Allan, still struggling, however, with the problem
which had been complicated still further by the charm of her soft,
Highland voice. He was on the point of deciding in favour of her
voice, when on her face he noted a swift change from glad welcome
to suspicion and fear, and then into her sunny eyes a sudden
leaping of fierce wrath, as in those of a lioness defending her
young.
"Why do you look so?" she cried in a voice sharp and imperious.
"Is it my brother--? Is anything wrong?"
The shock of the change in eyes and voice brought Martin quite to
himself.
"Wrong? Not a bit," he hastened to say, "but just the finest thing
in the world. It is all here in this letter. Dunn could not come
himself, and there was no one else, and he thought Cameron ought to
have it to-day, so here I am, and here is the letter. Where is
he?"
"Oh!" cried the girl, clasping her hands upon her heart, her voice
growing soft, and her eyes dim with a sudden mist. "I am so
thankful! I am so glad!" The change in her voice and in her eyes
so affected Mr. Martin that he put his hands resolutely behind his
back lest they should play him tricks, and should, without his
will, get themselves round her and draw her close to his heart.
"So am I," he said, "awfully glad! Never was so glad in all my
life!" He was more conscious than ever of bewilderment and
perplexity in the midst of increasing problems that complicated
themselves with mist brown eyes, trembling lips, and a voice of
such pathetic cadences as aroused in him an almost uncontrollable
desire to exercise his utmost powers of comfort. And all the while
there was growing in his heart a desperate anxiety as to what would
be the final issue of these bewildering desires and perplexities;
when at the extremity of his self-control he was saved by the
girl's suggestion.
"Let us go and find my brother."
"Oh, yes!" cried Martin, "for heaven's sake let us."
"Wait until I get my hat."
"Oh! I wouldn't put on a hat," cried he in dismay.
"Why?" enquired the girl, looking at him with surprised curiosity.
"Oh! because--because you don't need one; it's so beautiful and
sunny, you know." In spite of what he could do Mr. Martin's eyes
kept wandering to her hair.
"Oh, well!" cried Moira, in increasing surprise at this strange
young man, "the sun won't hurt me, so come, let us go."
Together they went down the avenue of rugged firs. At the highway
she paused. Before them lay the Glen in all the splendid sweep of
its beauty.
"Isn't it lovely!" she breathed.
"Lovely!" echoed Martin, his eyes not on the Glen. "It is so
sunny, you know."
"Yes," she answered quickly, "you notice that?"
"How could I help it?" said Martin, his eyes still resting upon
her. "How could I?"
"Of course," she replied, "and so we call it the Glen Cuagh Oir,
that is the 'Glen of the Cup of Gold.' And to think he has to
leave it all to-morrow!" she added.
The pathetic cadences in her voice again drove Martin to despair.
He recovered himself, however, to say, "But he is going to Canada!"
"Yes, to Canada. And we all feel it so dreadfully for him, and,"
she added in a lower voice, "for ourselves."
Had it been yesterday Martin would have been ready with scorn for
any such feeling, and with congratulations to Cameron upon his
exceptionally good luck in the expectation of going to Canada; but
to-day, somehow it was different. He found the splendid lure of
his native land availed not to break the spell of the Glen, and as
he followed the girl in and out of the little cottages, seeking her
brother, and as he noted the perfect courtesy and respect which
marked her manner with the people, and their unstudied and
respectful devotion to their "tear young leddy," this spell
deepened upon him. Unconsciously and dimly he became aware of a
mysterious and mighty power somehow and somewhere in the Glen
straining at the heart-strings of its children. Of the nature and
origin of this mysterious and mighty power, the young Canadian knew
little. His country was of too recent an origin for mystery, and
its people too heterogeneous in their ethnic characteristics to
furnish a soil for tribal instincts and passions. The passionate
loves and hatreds of the clans, their pride of race, their
deathless lealty; and more than all, and better than all, their
religious instincts, faiths and prejudices; these, with the mystic,
wild loveliness of heather-clad hill and rock-rimmed loch, of
roaring torrent and jagged crags, of lonely muir and sunny pasture
nuiks; all these, and ten thousand nameless and unnamable things
united in the weaving of the spell of the Glen upon the hearts of
its people. Of how it all came to be, Martin knew nothing, but
like an atmosphere it stole in upon him, and he came to vaguely
understand something of what it meant to be a Highlander, and to
bid farewell to the land into whose grim soil his life roots had
struck deep, and to tear himself from hearts whose life stream and
his had flowed as one for a score of generations. So from cot to
cot Martin followed and observed, until they came to the crossing
where the broad path led up from the highroad to the kirkyard and
the kirk. Here they were halted by a young man somewhat older than
Martin. Tall and gaunt he stood. His face, pale and pock-marked
and lit by light blue eyes, and crowned by brilliant red hair, was,
with all its unloveliness, a face of a certain rugged beauty; while
his manner and bearing showed the native courtesy of a Highland
gentleman.
"You are seeking Mr. Allan?" he said, taking off his bonnet to the
girl. "He is in yonder," waving his hand towards the kirkyard.
"In yonder? You are sure, Mr. Maclise?" She might well ask, for
never but on Sabbath days, since the day they had laid his mother
away under the birch trees, had Allan put foot inside the kirkyard.
"Half an hour ago he went in," replied the young Highlander, "and
he has not returned."
"I will go in, then," said the girl, and hesitated, unwilling that
a stranger's eyes should witness what she knew was waiting her
there.
"You, Sir, will perhaps abide with me," suggested Mr. Maclise to
Martin, with a quick understanding of her hesitation.
"Oh, thank you," cried Moira. "This is Mr. Martin from Canada, Mr.
Maclise--my brother's great friend. Mr. Maclise is our schoolmaster
here," she added, turning to Martin, "and we are very proud of him."
The Highlander's pale face became the colour of his brilliant hair
as he remarked, "You are very good indeed, Miss Cameron, and I am
glad to make the acquaintance of Mr. Martin. It will give me great
pleasure to show Mr. Martin the little falls at the loch's end, if
he cares to step that far." If Mr. Martin was conscious of any
great desire to view the little falls at the loch's end, his face
most successfully dissembled any such feeling, but to the little
falls he must go as the schoolmaster quietly possessed himself of
him and led him away, while Miss Cameron, with never a thought of
either of them, passed up the broad path into the kirkyard. There,
at the tower's foot, she came upon her brother, prone upon the
little grassy mound, with arms outspread, as if to hold it in
embrace. At the sound of his sister's tread upon the gravel, he
raised himself to his knees swiftly, and with a fierce gesture, as
if resenting intrusion.
"Oh, it is you, Moira," he said quietly, sinking down upon the
grass. At the sight of his tear-stained, haggard face, the girl
ran to him with a cry, and throwing herself down beside him put her
arms about him with inarticulate sounds of pity. At length her
brother raised himself from the ground.
"Oh, it is terrible to leave it all," he groaned; "yet I am glad to
leave, for it is more terrible to stay; the very Glen I cannot look
at; and the people, I cannot bear their eyes. Oh," he groaned,
wringing his hands, "if she were here she would understand, but
there is nobody."
"Oh, Allan," cried his sister in reproach.
"Oh, yes, I know! I know! You believe in me, Moira, but you are
just a lassie, and you cannot understand."
"Yes, you know well I believe in you, Allan, and others, too,
believe in you. There is Mr. Dunn, and--"
"Oh, I don't know," said her brother bitterly, "he wants to believe
it."
"Yes, and there is Mr. Martin," she continued, "and--Oh, I forgot!
here is a letter Mr. Martin brought you."
"Martin?"
"Yes, your Martin, a strange little man; your quarter-back, you
know. He brought this, and he says it is good news." But already
Allan was into his letter. As he read his face grew white, his
hand began to shake, his eyes to stare as if they would devour the
very paper. The second time he read the letter his whole body
trembled, and his breath came in gasps, as if he were in a physical
struggle. Then lifting arms and voice towards the sky, he cried in
a long, low wail, "Oh God, it is good, it is good!"
With that he laid himself down prone upon the mound again, his face
in the grass, sobbing brokenly, "Oh, mother, mother dear, I have
got you once more; I have got you once more!"
His sister stood, her hands clasped upon her heart--a manner she
had--her tears, unnoted, flowing down her cheeks, waiting till her
brother should let her into his joy, as she had waited for entrance
into his grief. His griefs and his joys were hers, and though he
still held her a mere child, it was with a woman's self-forgetting
love she ministered to him, gladly accepting whatever confidence he
would give, but content to wait until he should give more. So she
stood waiting, with her tears flowing quietly, and her face alight
with wonder and joy for him. But as her brother's sobbing continued,
this terrible display of emotion amazed her, startled her, for since
their mother's death none of them had seen Allan weep. At length he
raised himself from the ground and stood beside her.
"Oh, Moira, lassie, I never knew how terrible it was till now. I
had lost everything, my friends, you, and," he added in a low
voice, "my mother. This cursed thing shut me out from all; it got
between me and all I ever loved. I have not for these months been
able to see her face clear, but do you know, Moira," here his voice
fell and the mystic light grew in his eyes, "I saw her again just
now as clear as clear, and I know I have got her again; and you,
too, Moira, darling," here he gathered his sister to him, "and the
people! and the Glen! Oh! is it not terrible what a crime can do?
How it separates you from your folk, and from all the world, for,
mind you, I have felt myself a criminal; but I am not! I am not!"
His voice rose into an exultant shout, "I am clear of it, I am a
man again! Oh, it is good! it is good! Here, read the letter, it
will prove to you."
"Oh, what does it matter at all, Allan," she cried, still clinging
to him, "as if it made any difference to me. I always knew it."
Her brother lifted her face from his breast and looked into her
eyes. "Do you tell me you don't want to know the proof of it?" he
asked in wonder. "No," she said simply. "Why should I need any
proof? I always knew it."
For a moment longer he gazed upon her, then said, "Moira, you are a
wonder, lassie. No, you are a lassie no longer, you are a woman,
and, do you know, you are like mother to me now, and I never saw
it."
She smiled up at him through her tears. "I should like to be," she
said softly. Then, because she was truly Scotch, she added, "for
your sake, for I love you terribly much; and I am going to lose
you."
A quiver passed through her frame, and her arms gripped him tight.
In the self-absorption in his grief and pain he had not thought of
hers, nor considered how with his going her whole life would be
changed.
"I have been a selfish brute," he muttered. "I have only thought
of my own suffering; but, listen Moira, it is all past; thank God,
it is all past. This letter from Mr. Rae holds a confession from
Potts (poor Potts! I am glad that Rae let him off): it was Potts
who committed the forgery. Now I feel myself clean again; you
can't know what that is; to be yourself again, and to be able to
look all men in the face without fear or shame. Come, we must go;
I must see them all again. Let us to the burn first, and put my
face right."
A moment he stood looking down upon his mother's grave. The
hideous thing that had put her far from him, and that had blurred
the clear vision of her face, was gone. A smile soft and tender as
a child's stole over his face, and with that smile he turned away.
As they were coming back from the burn, Martin and the schoolmaster
saw them in the distance.
"Bless me, man, will you look at him?" said the master in an
awestruck tone, clutching Martin's arm. "What ever is come to
him?"
"What's up," cried Martin. "By Jove! you're right! the Roderick
Dhu and Black Douglas business is gone, sure!"
"God bless my soul!" said Maclise in an undertone. "He is himself
once more."
He might well exclaim, for it was a new Allan that came striding up
the high road, with head lifted, and with the proud swing of a
Highland chieftain.
"Hello, old man!" he shouted, catching sight of Martin and running
towards him with hands outstretched, "You are welcome"--he grasped
his hands and held them fast--"you are welcome to this Glen, and to
me welcome as Heaven to a Hell-bound soul."
"Maclise," he cried, turning to the master, "this letter," waving
it in his hand, "is like a reprieve to a man on the scaffold."
Maclise stood gazing in amazement at him.
"They accused me of crime!"
"Of crime, Mr. Allan?" Maclise stiffened in haughty surprise.
"Yes, of base crime!"
"But this letter completely clears him," cried Martin eagerly.
Maclise turned upon him with swift scorn, "There was no need, for
anyone in this Glen whatever." The Highlander's face was pale, and
in his light blue eyes gleamed a fierce light.
Martin flashed a look upon the girl standing so proudly erect
beside her brother, and reflecting in her face and eyes the
sentiments of the schoolmaster.
"By Jove! I believe you," cried Martin with conviction, "it is not
needed here, but--but there are others, you know."
"Others?" said the Highlander with fine scorn, "and what difference?"
The Glen folk needed no clearing of their chief, and the rest of
the world mattered not.
"But there was myself," said Allan. "Now it is gone, Maclise, and
I can give my hand once more without fear or shame."
Maclise took the offered hand almost with reverence, and, removing
his bonnet from his head, said in a voice, deep and vibrating with
emotion,
"Neffer will a man of the Glen count it anything but honour to take
thiss hand."
"Thank you, Maclise," cried Allan, keeping his grip of the master's
hand. "Now you can tell the Glen."
"You will not be going to leave us now?" said Maclise eagerly.
"Yes, I shall go, Maclise, but," with a proud lift of his head,
"tell them I am coming back again."
And with that message Maclise went to the Glen. From cot to cot
and from lip to lip the message sped, that Mr. Allan was himself
again, and that, though on the morrow's morn he was leaving the
Glen, he himself had promised that he would return.
That evening, as the gloaming deepened, the people of the Glen
gathered, as was their wont, at their cottage doors to listen to
old piper Macpherson as he marched up and down the highroad. This
night, it was observed, he no longer played that most heart-
breaking of all Scottish laments, "Lochaber No More." He had
passed up to the no less heart-thrilling, but less heartbreaking,
"Macrimmon's Lament." In a pause in Macpherson's wailing notes
there floated down over the Glen the sound of the pipes up at the
big House.
"Bless my soul! whisht, man!" cried Betsy Macpherson to her spouse.
"Listen yonder!" For the first time in months they heard the sound
of Allan's pipes.
"It is himself," whispered the women to each other, and waited.
Down the long avenue of ragged firs, and down the highroad, came
young Mr. Allan, in all the gallant splendour of his piper's garb,
and the tune he played was no lament, but the blood-stirring
"Gathering of the Gordons." As he came opposite to Macpherson's
cottage he gave the signal for the old piper, and down the highroad
stepped the two of them together, till they passed beyond the
farthest cottage. Then back again they swung, and this time it was
to the "Cock of the North," that their tartans swayed and their
bonnets nodded. Thus, not with woe and lamentation, but with good
hope and gallant cheer, young Mr. Allan took his leave of the Glen
Cuagh Oir.
CHAPTER VIII
WILL HE COME BACK?
It was the custom in Doctor Dunn's household that, immediately
after dinner, his youngest son would spend half an hour in the
study with his father. It was a time for confidences. During this
half hour father and son met as nearly as possible on equal terms,
discussing, as friends might, the events of the day or the plans
for the morrow, school work or athletics, the latest book or the
newest joke; and sometimes the talk turned upon the reading at
evening prayers. This night the story had been one of rare beauty
and of absorbing interest, the story, viz., of that idyllic scene
on the shore of Tiberias where the erring disciple was fully
restored to his place in the ranks of the faithful, as he had been
restored, some weeks before, to his place in the confidence of his
Master.
"That was a fine story, Rob?" began Doctor Dunn.
"That it was," said Rob gravely. "It was fine for Peter to get
back again."
"Just so," replied his father. "You see, when a man once turns his
back on his best Friend, he is never right till he gets back
again."
"Yes, I know," said Rob gravely. For a time he sat with a shadow
of sadness and anxiety on his young face. "It is terrible!" he
exclaimed.
"Terrible?" inquired the Doctor. "Oh, yes, you mean Peter's fall?
Yes, that was a terrible thing--to be untrue to our Master and
faithless to our best Friend."
"But he did not mean to, Dad," said Rob quickly, as if springing to
the fallen disciple's defence. "He forgot, just for a moment, and
was awfully sorry afterwards."
"Yes, truly," said his father, "and that was the first step back."
For a few moments Rob remained silent, his face sad and troubled.
"Man! It must be terrible!" at length he said, more to himself
than to his father. The Doctor looked closely at the little lad.
The eager, sensitive face, usually so radiant, was now clouded and
sad.
"What is it, Rob? Is it something you can tell me?" asked his
father in a tone of friendly kindness.
Rob moved closer to him. The father waited in silence. He knew
better than to force an unwilling confidence. At length the lad,
with an obvious effort at self-command, said:
"It is to-morrow, Daddy, that Cameron--that Mr. Cameron is going
away."
"To-morrow? So it is. And you will be very sorry, Rob. But, of
course, he will come back."
"Oh, Dad," cried Rob, coming quite close to his father, "it isn't
that! It isn't that!"
His father waited. He did not understand his boy's trouble, and so
he wisely refrained from uttering word that might hinder rather
than help. At length, with a sudden effort, Rob asked in a low,
hurried voice:
"Do you think, Dad, he has--got--back?"
"Got back?" said his father. "Oh, I see. Why, my boy? What do
you know of it? Did you know there was a letter from a man named
Potts, that completely clears your friend of all crime?"
"Is there?" asked the boy quickly. "Man! That is fine! But I
always knew he could not do anything really bad--I mean, anything
that the police could touch him for. But it is not that, Dad.
I have heard Jack say he used to be different when he came down
first, and now sometimes he--" The lad's voice fell silent. He
could not bring himself to accuse his hero of any evil. His father
drew him close to his side.
"You mean that he has fallen into bad ways--drink, and things like
that?"
The boy hung his head; he was keenly ashamed for his friend. After
a few moments' silence he said:
"And he is going away to Canada to-morrow, and I wonder, Dad, if he
has--got--back? It would be terrible-- Oh, Dad, all alone and
away from--!"
The boy's voice sank to a whisper, and a rush of tears filled his
eyes.
"I see what you mean, my boy. You mean it would be terrible for
him to be in that far land, and away from that Friend we know and
love best."
The lad looked at his father through his tears, and nodded his
head, and for some moments there was silence between them. If the
truth must be told, Doctor Dunn felt himself keenly rebuked by his
little son's words. Amid the multitude of his responsibilities,
the responsibility for his sons' best friend he had hardly
realised.
"I am glad that you spoke of it, Rob; I am glad that you spoke of
it. Something will be done. It is not, after all, in our hands.
Still, we must stand ready to help. Good-night, my boy. And
remember, it is always good to hurry back to our best Friend, if
ever we get away from Him."
The boy put his arms around his father's neck and kissed him good-
night; then, kissing him again, he whispered: "Thank you, Daddy."
And from the relief in his tone the father recognised that upon him
the lad had laid all the burden of his solicitude for his friend.
Later in the evening, when his elder son came home, the father
called him in, and frankly gave him the substance of the
conversation of the earlier part of the evening.
Jack laughed somewhat uneasily. "Oh, Rob is an awfully religious
little beggar; painfully so, I think, sometimes--you know what I
mean, Sir," he added, noticing the look on his father's face.
"I am not sure that I do, Jack," said his father, "but I want to
tell you, that as far as I am concerned, I felt distinctly rebuked
at the little chap's anxiety for his friend in a matter of such
vital import. His is a truly religious little soul, as you say,
but I wonder if his type is not more nearly like the normal than
is ours. Certainly, if reality, simplicity, sincerity are the
qualities of true religious feeling--and these, I believe, are the
qualities emphasised by the Master Himself--then it may indeed be
that the boy's type is nearer the ideal than ours."
At this point Mrs. Dunn entered the room.
"Anything private?" she enquired with a bright smile at her
husband.
"Not at all! Come in!" said Doctor Dunn, and he proceeded to
repeat the conversation with his younger son, and his own recent
comment thereupon.
"I am convinced," he added, "that there is a profundity of meaning
in those words, 'Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as
a little child, he shall not enter therein,' that we have not yet
fathomed. I suspect Wordsworth is not far astray when he suggests
that with the passing years we grow away from the simplicity of our
faith and the clearness of our vision. There is no doubt that to
Rob, Jesus is as real as I am."
"There is no doubt of that," said his wife quickly.
"Not only as real, but quite as dear; indeed, dearer. I shall
never forget the shock I received when I heard him one day, as a
wee, wee boy, classifying the objects of his affection. I remember
the ascending scale was: 'I love Jack and Daddy just the same,
then mother, then Jesus.' It was always in the highest place,
Jesus; and I believe that the scale is the same to-day, unless
Jack," she added, with a smile at her son, "has moved to his
mother's place."
"Not much fear of that, mother," said Jack, "but I should not be
surprised if you are quite right about the little chap. He is a
queer little beggar!"
"There you are again, Jack," said his father, "and it is upon that
point I was inclined to take issue with you when your mother
entered."
"I think I shall leave you," said the mother. "I am rather tired,
and so I shall bid you good-night."
"Yes," said the father, when they had seated themselves again, "the
very fact that to you, and to me for that matter, Rob's attitude of
mind should seem peculiar raises the issue. What is the normal
type of Christian faith? Is it not marked by the simplicity and
completeness of the child's?"
"And yet, Sir," replied Jack, "that simplicity and completeness is
the result of inexperience. Surely the ideal faith is not that
which ignores the facts and experiences of life?"
"Not exactly," replied his father, "yet I am not sure but after
all, 'the perfect love which casteth out fear' is one which ignores
the experiences of life, or, rather, classifies them in a larger
category. That is, it refuses to be disturbed by life's experiences,
because among those experiences there is a place for the enlarged
horizon, the clearer vision. But I am not arguing about this
matter; I rather wish to make a confession and enlist your aid.
Frankly, the boy's words gave me an uneasy sense of failure in my
duty to this young man; or, perhaps I should say, my privilege. And
really, it is no wonder! Here is this little chap actually carrying
every day a load of intense concern for our friend, as to whether,
as he puts it himself, 'he has come back.' And, after all, Jack, I
wonder if this should not have been more upon our minds? The young
man, I take it, since his mother's death has little in his home life
to inspire him with religious faith and feeling. If she had been
alive, one would not feel the same responsibility; she was a
singularly saintly woman."
"You are quite right, Sir," said Jack quickly, "and I suspect you
rather mean that I am the one that should feel condemned."
"Not at all! Not at all, Jack! I am thinking, as every man must,
of my own responsibility, though, doubtless, you have yours as
well. Of course I know quite well you have stuck by him splendidly
in his fight for a clean and self-controlled life, but one wonders
whether there is not something more."
"There is, Sir!" replied his son quickly. "There undoubtedly is!
But though I have no hesitation in speaking to men down in the
Settlement about these things, you know, still, somehow, to a man
of your own class, and to a personal friend, one hesitates. One
shrinks from what seems like assuming an attitude of superiority."
"I appreciate that," said his father, "but yet one wonders to what
extent this shrinking is due to a real sense of one's own
imperfections, and to what extent it is due to an unwillingness to
risk criticism, even from ourselves, in a loyal attempt to serve
the Master and His cause. And, besides that, one wonders whether
from any cause one should hesitate to do the truly kind and
Christian thing to one's friend. I mean, you value your religion;
or, to put it personally, as Rob would, you would esteem as your
chief possession your knowledge of the Christ, as Friend and
Saviour. Do not loyalty to Him and friendship require that you
share that possession with your dearest friend?"
"I know what you mean, Sir," said Jack earnestly. "I shall think
it over. But don't you think a word from you, Sir--"
His father looked at his son with a curious smile.
"Oh, I know what you are thinking," said his son, "but I assure you
it is not quite a case of funk."
"Do you know, Jack," said his father earnestly, "we make our
religion far too unreal; a thing either of forms remote from life,
or a thing of individualistic emotion divorced from responsibility.
One thing history reveals, that the early propagandum for the faith
was entirely unprofessional. It was from friend to friend, from
man to man. It was horizontal rather than perpendicular."
"Well, I shall think it over," said Jack.
"Do you know," said his father, "that I have the feeling of having
accepted from Rob responsibility for our utmost endeavour to bring
it about that, as Rob puts it, 'somehow he shall get back'?"
It was full twenty minutes before train time when Rob, torn with
anxiety lest they should be late, marched his brother on to the
railway platform to wait for the Camerons, who were to arrive from
the North. Up and down they paraded, Dunn turning over in his mind
the conversation of the night before, Rob breaking away every three
minutes to consult the clock and the booking clerk at the wicket.
"Will he come to us this afternoon, Jack, do you think?" enquired
the boy.
"Don't know! He turned down a football lunch! He has his sister
and his father with him."
"His sister could come with him!" argued the boy.
"What about his father?"
Rob had been close enough to events to know that the Captain
constituted something of a difficulty in the situation.
"Well, won't he have business to attend to?"
His brother laughed. "Good idea, Rob, let us hope so! At any rate
we will do our best to get Cameron and his sister to come to us.
We want them, don't we?"
"We do that!" said the boy fervently; "only I'm sure something will
happen! There," he exclaimed a moment later, in a tone of
disappointment and disgust, "I just knew it! There is Miss Brodie
and some one else; they will get after him, I know!"
"So it is," said Dunn, with a not altogether successful attempt at
surprise.
"Aw! you knew!" said Rob reproachfully.
"Well! I kind of thought she might turn up!" said his brother,
with an air of a convicted criminal. "You know she is quite a
friend of Cameron's. But what is Sir Archibald here for?"
"They will just get him, I know," said Rob gloomily, as he followed
his brother to meet Miss Brodie and her uncle.
"We're here!" cried that young lady, "to join in the demonstration
to the hero! And, my uncle being somewhat conscience-stricken over
his tardy and unwilling acceptance of our superior judgment in the
recent famous case, has come to make such reparation as he can."
"What a piece of impertinence! Don't listen to her, Sir!" cried
Sir Archibald, greeting Dunn warmly and with the respect due an
International captain. "The truth is I have a letter here for him
to a business friend in Montreal, which may be of service. Of
course, I may say to you that I am more than delighted that this
letter of Potts has quite cleared the young man, and that he goes
to the new country with reputation unstained. I am greatly
delighted! greatly delighted! and I wish the opportunity to say
so."
"Indeed, we are all delighted," replied Dunn cordially, "though, of
course, I never could bring myself to believe him guilty of crime."
"Well, on the strength of the judgment of yourself and, I must
confess, of this young person here, I made my decision."
"Well," cried Miss Brodie, "I gave you my opinion because it was my
opinion, but I confess at times I had my own doubts--"
Here she paused abruptly, arrested by the look on young Rob's face;
it was a look of surprise, grief, and horror.
"That is to say," continued Miss Brodie hastily, answering the
look, and recognising that her high place in Rob's regard was in
peril, "the whole thing was a mystery--was impossible to solve--I
mean," she continued, stumbling along, "his own attitude was so
very uncertain and so unsatisfactory--if he had only been able to
say clearly 'I am not guilty' it would have been different--I mean--
of course, I don't believe him guilty. Don't look at me like
that, Rob! I won't have it! But was it not clever of that dear
Mr. Rae to extract that letter from the wretched Potts?"
"There's the train!" cried Dunn. "Here, Rob, you stay here with
me! Where has the young rascal gone!"
"Look! Oh, look!" cried Miss Brodie, clutching at Dunn's arm, her
eyes wide with terror. There before their horrified eyes was young
Rob, hanging on to the window, out of which his friend Cameron was
leaning, and racing madly with the swiftly moving train, in
momentary danger of being dragged under its wheels. With a cry,
Dunn rushed forward.
"Merciful heavens!" cried Miss Brodie. "Oh! he is gone!"
A porter, standing with his back towards the racing boy, had
knocked his feet from under him. But as he fell, a strong hand
grabbed him, and dragged him to safety through the window.
Pale and shaking, the three friends waited for the car door to be
opened, and as Rob issued in triumphant possession of his friend,
Miss Brodie rushed at him and, seizing him in her strong grasp,
cried:
"You heartless young rascal! You nearly killed me--not to speak of
yourself! Here," she continued, throwing her arms about him, and
giving him a loud smack, "take that for your punishment! Do you
hear, you nearly killed me! I had a vision of your mangled form
ground up between the wheels and the platform. Hold on, you can't
get away from me! I have a mind to give you another!"
"Oh, Miss Brodie, please," pleaded Cameron, coming forward to Rob's
rescue, "I assure you I was partly to blame; it is only fair I
should share his punishment."
"Indeed," cried Miss Brodie, the blood coming back into her cheeks
that had been white enough a moment before, "if it were not for
your size, and your--looks, I should treat you exactly the same,
though not with the same intent, as our friend Mr. Rae would say.
You did that splendidly!"
"Alas! for my size," groaned Cameron--he was in great spirits--"and
alas! for my ugly phiz!"
"Who said 'ugly'?" replied Miss Brodie. "But I won't rise to your
bait. May I introduce you to my uncle, Sir Archibald Brodie, who
has a little business with you?"
"Ah! Mr. Cameron," said that gentleman, "that was extremely well
done. Indeed, I can hardly get back my nerve--might have been an
ugly accident. By the way, Sir," taking Cameron aside, "just a
moment. You are on your way to Canada? I have a letter which I
thought might be of service to you. It is to a business friend of
mine, a banker, in Montreal, Mr. James Ritchie. You will find him
a good man to know, and I fancy glad to serve any--ah--friend of
mine."
On hearing Sir Archibald's name, Cameron's manner became distinctly
haughty, and he was on the point of declining the letter, when Sir
Archibald, who was quick to observe his manner, took him by the arm
and led him somewhat further away.
"Now, Sir, there is a little matter I wish to speak of, if you will
permit. Indeed, I came specially to say how delighted I am that
the--ah--recent little unpleasantness has been removed. Of course
you understand my responsibility to the Bank rendered a certain
course of action imperative, however repugnant. But, believe me, I
am truly delighted to find that my decision to withdraw the--ah--
action has been entirely justified by events. Delighted, Sir!
Delighted! And much more since I have seen you."
Before the overflowing kindliness of Sir Archibald's voice and
manner, Cameron's hauteur vanished like morning mist before the
rising sun.
"I thank you, Sir Archibald," he said, with dignity, "not only for
this letter, but especially for your good opinion."
"Very good! Very good! The letter will, I hope, be useful,"
replied Sir Archibald, "and as for my opinion, I am glad to find
not only that it is well founded, but that it appears to be shared
by most of this company here. Now we must get back to your party.
But let me say again, I am truly glad to have come to know you."
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER I
HO FOR THE OPEN!
Mr. James Ritchie, manager of the Bank of Montreal, glanced from
the letter in his hand to the young man who had just given it to
him. "Ah! you have just arrived from the old land," he said, a
smile of genial welcome illuminating his handsome face. "I am
pleased to hear from my old friend, Sir Archibald Brodie, and
pleased to welcome any friend of his to Canada."
So saying, with fine old-time courtesy, the banker rose to his
splendid height of six feet two, and shook his visitor warmly by
the hand.
"Your name is--?"
"Cameron, Sir," said the young man.
"Yes, I see! Mr. Allan Cameron--um, um," with his eyes on the
letter. "Old and distinguished family--exactly so! Now, then, Mr.
Cameron, I hope we shall be able to do something for you, both for
the sake of my old friend, Sir Archibald, and, indeed, for your own
sake," said the banker, with a glance of approval at Cameron's
upright form.
"Sit down, Sir! Sit down! Now, business first is my motto. What
can I do for you?"
"Well, first of all," said Cameron with a laugh, "I wish to make a
deposit. I have a draft of one hundred pounds here which I should
like to place in your care."
"Very well, Sir," said the banker, touching a button, "my young man
will attend to that."
"Now, then," when the business had been transacted, "what are your
plans, Mr. Cameron? Thirty-five years ago I came to Montreal a
young man, from Scotland, like yourself, and it was a lonely day
for me when I reached this city, the loneliest in my life, and so
my heart warms to the stranger from the old land. Yes," continued
Mr. Ritchie, in a reminiscent tone, "I remember well! I hired as
errand boy and general factotum to a small grocer down near the
market. Montreal was a small city then, with wretched streets--
they're bad enough yet--and poor buildings; everything was slow and
backward; there have been mighty changes since. But here we are!
Now, what are your plans?"
"I am afraid they are of the vaguest kind," said Cameron. "I want
something to do."
"What sort of thing? I mean, what has been the line of your
training?"
"I am afraid my training has been defective. I have passed through
Edinburgh Academy, also the University, with the exception of my
last year. But I am willing to take anything."
"Ah!" said the banker thoughtfully. "No office training, eh?"
"No, Sir. That is, if you except a brief period of three or four
months in the law office of our family solicitor."
"Law, eh?--I have it! Denman's your man! I shall give you a
letter to Mr. Denman--a lawyer friend of mine. I shall see him
personally to-day, and if you call to-morrow at ten I hope to have
news for you. Meantime, I shall be pleased to have you lunch with
me to-day at the club. One o'clock is the hour. If you would
kindly call at the bank, we shall go down together."
Cameron expressed his gratitude.
"By the way!" said Mr. Ritchie, "where have you put up?"
"At the Royal," said Cameron.
"Ah! That will do for the present," said Mr. Ritchie. "I am sorry
our circumstances do not permit of my inviting you to our home.
The truth is, Mrs. Ritchie is at present out of the city. But we
shall find some suitable lodging for you. The Royal is far too
expensive a place for a young man with his fortune to make."
Cameron spent the day making the acquaintance of the beautiful,
quaint, if somewhat squalid, old city of Montreal; and next
morning, with a letter of introduction from Mr. Ritchie, presented
himself at Mr. Denman's office. Mr. Denman was a man in young
middle life, athletic of frame, keen of eye, and energetic of
manner; his voice was loud and sharp. He welcomed Cameron with
brisk heartiness, and immediately proceeded to business.
"Let me see," he began, "what is your idea? What kind of a job are
you after?"
"Indeed," replied Cameron, "that is just what I hardly know."
"Well, what has been your experience? You are a University man, I
believe? But have you had any practical training? Do you know
office work?"
"No, I've had little training for an office. I was in a law office
for part of a year."
"Ah! Familiar with bookkeeping, or accounting? I suppose you
can't run one of these typewriting machines?"
In regard to each of these lines of effort Cameron was forced to
confess ignorance.
"I say!" cried Mr. Denman, "those old country people seriously
annoy me with their inadequate system of education!"
"I am afraid," replied Cameron, "the fault is more mine than the
system's."
"Don't know about that! Don't know about that!" replied Mr. Denman
quickly; "I have had scores of young men, fine young men, too, come
to me; public school men, university men, but quite unfit for any
practical line of work."
Mr. Denman considered for some moments. "Let us see. You have
done some work in a law office. Now," Mr. Denman spoke with some
hesitation; "I have a place in my own office here--not much in it
for the present, but--"
"To tell the truth," interrupted Cameron, "I did not make much of
the law; in fact, I do not think I am suited for office work. I
would prefer something in the open. I had thought of the land."
"Farming," exclaimed Mr. Denman. "Ah!--you would, I suppose, be
able to invest something?"
"No," said Cameron, "nothing."
Denman shook his head. "Nothing in it! You would not earn enough
to buy a farm about here in fifteen years."
"But I understood," replied Cameron, "that further west was cheaper
land."
"Oh! In the far west, yes! But it is a God-forsaken country! I
don't know much about it, I confess. I know they are booming town
lots all over the land. I believe they have gone quite mad in the
business, but from what I hear, the main work in the west just now
is jaw work; the only thing they raise is corner lots."
On Cameron's face there fell the gloom of discouragement. One of
his fondest dreams was being dispelled--his vision of himself as a
wealthy rancher, ranging over square miles of his estate upon a
"bucking broncho," garbed in the picturesque cowboy dress, began to
fade.
"But there is ranching, I believe?" he ventured.
"Ranching? Oh yes! There is, up near the Rockies, but that is out
of civilization; out of reach of everything and everybody."
"That is what I want, Sir!" exclaimed Cameron, his face once more
aglow with eager hope. "I want to get away into the open."
Mr. Denman did not, or could not, recognise this as the instinctive
cry of the primitive man for a closer fellowship with Mother
Nature. He was keenly practical, and impatient with everything
that appeared to him to be purely visionary and unbusiness-like.
"But, my dear fellow," he said, "a ranch means cattle and horses;
and cattle and horses means money, unless of course, you mean to be
simply a cowboy--cowpuncher, I believe, is the correct term--but
there is nothing in that; no future, I mean. It is all very well
for a little fun, if you have a bank account to stand it, although
some fellows stand it on someone's else bank account--not much to
their credit, however. There is a young friend of mine out there
at present, but from what I can gather his home correspondence is
mainly confined to appeals for remittances from his governor, and
his chief occupation spending these remittances as speedily as
possible. All very well, as I have said, for fun, if you can pay
the shot. But to play the role of gentleman cowboy, while somebody
else pays for it, is the sort of thing I despise."
"And so do I, Sir!" said Cameron. "There will be no remittance in
my case."
Denman glanced at the firm, closed lips and the stiffening figure.
"That is the talk!" he exclaimed. "No, there is no chance in
ranching unless you have capital."
"As far as I can see," replied Cameron gloomily, "everything seems
closed up except to the capitalist, and yet from what I heard at
home situations were open on every hand in this country."
"Come here!" cried Denman, drawing Cameron to the office window.
"See those doors!" pointing to a long line of shops. "Every last
one is opened to a man who knows his business. See those
smokestacks! Every last wheel in those factories is howling for a
man who is on to his job. But don't look blue, there is a place
for you, too; the thing is to find it."
"What are those long buildings?" inquired Cameron, pointing towards
the water front.
"Those are railroad sheds; or, rather, Transportation Company's
sheds; they are practically the same thing. I say! What is the
matter with trying the Transportation Company? I know the manager
well. The very thing! Try the Transportation Company!"
"How should I go about it?" said Cameron. "I mean to say just what
position should I apply for?"
"Position!" shouted Denman. "Why, general manager would be good!"
Then, noting the flush in Cameron's face, he added quickly, "Pardon
me! The thing is to get your foot in somehow, and then wire in
till you are general manager, by Jove! It can be done! Fleming
has done it! Went in as messenger boy, but--" Denman paused.
There flashed through his mind the story of Fleming's career; a
vision of the half-starved ragged waif who started as messenger
boy in the company's offices, and who, by dint of invincible
determination and resolute self-denial, fought his way step by step
to his present position of control. In contrast, he looked at the
young man, born and bred in circles where work is regarded as a
calamity, and service wears the badge of social disfranchisement.
Fleming had done it under compulsion of the inexorable mistress
"Necessity." But what of this young man?
"Will we try?" he said at length. "I shall give you a letter to
Mr. Fleming."
He sat down to his desk and wrote vigourously.
"Take this, and see what happens."
Cameron took the letter, and, glancing at the address, read, Wm.
Fleming, Esquire, General Manager, Metropolitan Transportation &
Cartage Company.
"Is this a railroad?" asked Cameron.
"No, but next thing to it. The companies are practically one. The
transition from one to the other is easy enough. Let me know how
you get on. Good-by! And--I say!" cried Mr. Denman, calling
Cameron back again from the door, "see Mr. Fleming himself.
Remember that! And remember," he added, with a smile, "the
position of manager is not vacant just yet, but it will be. I give
you my word for it when you are ready to take it. Good-by! Buck
up! Take what he offers you! Get your teeth in, and never let
go!"
"By George!" said Denman to himself as the door closed on Cameron,
"these chaps are the limit. He's got lots of stuff in him, but he
has been rendered helpless by their fool system--God save us from
it! That chap has had things done for him ever since he was first
bathed; they have washed 'em, dressed 'em, fed 'em, schooled 'em,
found 'em positions, stuck 'em in, and watched that they didn't
fall out. And yet, by George!" he added, after a pause, "they are
running the world to-day--that is, some of them." Facing which
somewhat puzzling phenomenon, Denman plunged into his work again.
Meantime Cameron was making his way towards the offices of the
Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company, oppressed with an
unacknowledged but none the less real sense of unfitness, and
haunted by a depressing sense of the deficiency of his own training,
and of the training afforded the young men of his class at home. As
he started along he battled with his depression. True enough, he
had no skill in the various accomplishments that Mr. Denman seemed
to consider essential; he had no experience in business, he was not
fit for office work--office work he loathed; but surely there was
some position where his talents would bring him recognition and
fortune at last. After all, Mr. Denman was only a Colonial, and
with a Colonial's somewhat narrow view of life. Who was he to
criticise the system of training that for generations had been in
vogue at home? Had not Wellington said "that England's battles were
first won on the football fields of Eton and Rugby," or something
like that? Of course, the training that might fit for a
distinguished career in the British army might not necessarily
insure success on the battle fields of industry and commerce. Yet
surely, an International player should be able to get somewhere!
At this point in his cogitations Cameron was arrested by a memory
that stabbed him like a knife-thrust; the awful moment when upon
the Inverleith grounds, in the face of the Welsh forward-line, he
had faltered and lost the International. Should he ever be able to
forget the agony of that moment and of the day that followed? And
yet, he need not have failed. He knew he could play his position
with any man in Scotland; he had failed because he was not fit. He
set his teeth hard. He would show these bally Colonials! He would
make good! And with his head high, he walked into the somewhat
dingy offices of the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company,
of which William Fleming, Esquire, was manager.
Opening the door, Cameron found himself confronted by a short
counter that blocked the way for the general public into the long
room, filled with desks and chairs and clicking typewriting
machines. Cameron had never seen so many of these machines during
the whole period of his life. The typewriter began to assume an
altogether new importance in his mind. Hitherto it had appeared to
him more or less of a Yankee fad, unworthy of the attention of an
able-bodied man of average intelligence. In Edinburgh a "writing
machine" was still something of a new-fangled luxury, to be
apologised for. Mr. Rae would allow no such finicky instrument in
his office. Here, however, there were a dozen, more or less,
manipulated for the most part by young ladies, and some of them
actually by men; on every side they clicked and banged. It may
have been the clicking and banging of these machines that gave to
Cameron the sense of rush and hurry so different from the calm
quiet and dignified repose of the only office he had ever known.
For some moments he stood at the counter, waiting attention from
one of the many clerks sitting before him, but though one and
another occasionally glanced in his direction, his presence seemed
to awaken not even a passing curiosity in their minds, much less to
suggest the propriety of their inquiring his business.
As the moments passed Cameron became conscious of a feeling of
affront. How differently a gentleman was treated by the clerks in
the office of Messrs. Rae & Macpherson, where prompt attention and
deferential courtesy in a clerk were as essential as a suit of
clothes. Gradually Cameron's head went up, and with it his choler.
At length, in his haughtiest tone, he hailed a passing youth:
"I say, boy, is this Mr. Fleming's office?"
The clicking and banging of the typewriters, and the hum of voices
ceased. Everywhere heads were raised and eyes turned curiously
upon the haughty stranger.
"Eh?" No letters can represent the nasal intonation of this
syllabic inquiry, and no words the supreme indifference of the
boy's tone.
"Is Mr. Fleming in? I wish to see him!" Cameron's voice was loud
and imperious.
"Say, boys," said a lanky youth, with a long, cadaverous
countenance and sallow, unhealthy complexion, illumined, however,
and redeemed to a certain extent by black eyes of extraordinary
brilliance, "it is the Prince of Wales!" The drawling, awe-struck
tones, in the silence that had fallen, were audible to all in the
immediate neighbourhood.
The titter that swept over the listeners brought the hot blood to
Cameron's face. A deliberate insult a Highlander takes with calm.
He is prepared to deal with it in a manner affording him entire
satisfaction. Ridicule rouses him to fury, for, while it touches
his pride, it leaves him no opportunity of vengeance.
"Can you tell me if Mr. Fleming is in?" he enquired again of the
boy that stood scanning him with calm indifference. The rage that
possessed him so vibrated in his tone that the lanky lad drawled
again in a warning voice:
"Slide, Jimmy, slide!"
Jimmy "slid," but towards the counter.
"Want to see him?" he enquired in a tone of brisk impertinence, as
if suddenly roused from a reverie.
"I have a letter for him."
"All right! Hand it over," said Jimmy, fully conscious that he was
the hero of more than usual interest.
Cameron hesitated, then passed his letter over to Jimmy, who,
reading the address with deliberate care, winked at the lanky boy,
and with a jaunty step made towards a door at the farther end of
the room. As he passed a desk that stood nearest the door, a man
who during the last few minutes had remained with his head down,
apparently so immersed in the papers before him as to be quite
unconscious of his surroundings, suddenly called out, "Here, boy!"
Jimmy instantly assumed an air of respectful attention.
"A letter for Mr. Fleming," he said.
"Here!" replied the man, stretching out his hand.
He hurriedly glanced through the letter.
"Tell him there is no vacancy at present," he said shortly.
The boy came back to Cameron with cheerful politeness. The "old
man's" eye was upon him.
"There is no vacancy at present," he said briefly, and turned away
as if his attention were immediately demanded elsewhere by pressing
business of the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company.
For answer, Cameron threw back the leaf of the counter that barred
his way, and started up the long room, past the staring clerks, to
the desk next the door.
"I wish to see Mr. Fleming, Sir," he said, his voice trembling
slightly, his face pale, his blue-gray eyes ablaze.
The man at the desk looked up from his work.
"I have just informed you there is no vacancy at present," he said
testily, and turned to his papers again, as if dismissing the
incident.
"Will you kindly tell me if Mr. Fleming is in?" said Cameron in a
voice that had grown quite steady; "I wish to see him personally."
"Mr. Fleming cannot see you, I tell you!" almost shouted the man,
rising from his desk and revealing himself a short, pudgy figure,
with flabby face and shining bald head. "Can't you understand
English?--I can't be bothered--!"
"What is it, Bates? Someone to see me?"
Cameron turned quickly towards the speaker, who had come from the
inner room.
"I have brought you a letter, Sir, from Mr. Denman," he said
quietly; "it is there," pointing to Bates' desk.
"A letter? Let me have it! Why was not this brought to me at
once, Mr. Bates?"
"It was an open letter, Sir," replied Bates, "and I thought there
was no need of troubling you, Sir. I told the young man we had no
vacancy at present."
"This is a personal letter, Mr. Bates, and should have been brought
to me at once. Why was Mr.--ah--Mr. Cameron not brought in to me?"
Mr. Bates murmured something about not wishing to disturb the
manager on trivial business.
"I am the judge of that, Mr. Bates. In future, when any man asks
to see me, I desire him to be shown in at once."
Mr. Bates began to apologise.
"That is all that is necessary, Mr. Bates," said the manager, in a
voice at once quiet and decisive.
"Come in, Mr. Cameron. I am very sorry this has happened!"
Cameron followed him into his office, noting, as he passed, the red
patches of rage on Mr. Bates' pudgy face, and catching a look of
fierce hate from his small piggy eyes. It flashed through his mind
that in Mr. Bates, at any rate, he had found no friend.
The result of the interview with Mr. Fleming was an intimation to
Mr. Bates that Mr. Cameron was to have a position in the office of
the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company, and to begin
work the following morning.
"Very well, Sir," replied Mr. Bates--he had apparently quite
recovered his equanimity--"we shall find Mr. Cameron a desk."
"We begin work at eight o'clock exactly," he added, turning to
Cameron with a pleasant smile.
Mr. Fleming accompanied Cameron to the door.
"Now, a word with you, Mr. Cameron. You may find Mr. Bates a
little difficult--he is something of a driver--but, remember, he is
in charge of this office; I never interfere with his orders."
"I understand, Sir," said Cameron, resolving that, at all costs, he
should obey Mr. Bates' orders, if only to show the general manager
he could recognise and appreciate a gentleman when he saw one.
Mr. Fleming was putting it mildly when he described Mr. Bates as
"something of a driver." The whole office staff, from Jimmy, the
office boy, to Jacobs, the gentle, white-haired clerk, whose desk
was in the farthest corner of the room, felt the drive. He was not
only office manager, but office master as well. His rule was
absolute, and from his decisions there was no appeal. The general
manager went on the theory that it was waste of energy to keep a
dog and bark himself. In the policy that governed the office there
were two rules which Mr. Bates enforced with the utmost rigidity--
the first, namely, that every member of the staff must be in his or
her place and ready for work when the clock struck eight; the
other, that each member of the staff must work independently of
every other member. A man must know his business, and go through
with it; if he required instructions, he must apply to the office
manager. But, as a rule, one experience of such application
sufficed for the whole period of a clerk's service in the office of
the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company, for Mr. Bates
was gifted with such an exquisiteness of ironical speech that the
whole staff were wont to pause in the rush of their work to listen
and to admire when a new member was unhappy enough to require
instructions, their silent admiration acting as a spur to Mr.
Bates' ingenuity in the invention of ironical discourse.
Of the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of Mr. Bates' system,
however, Cameron was quite ignorant; nor had his experience in the
office of Messrs. Rae & Macpherson been such as to impress upon him
the necessity of a close observation of the flight of time. It did
not disturb him, therefore, to notice as he strolled into the
offices of the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company the
next morning that the hands of the clock showed six minutes past
the hour fixed for the beginning of the day's work. The office
staff shivered in an ecstasy of expectant delight. Cameron walked
nonchalantly to Mr. Bates' desk, his overcoat on his arm, his cap
in his hand.
"Good morning, Sir," he said.
Mr. Bates finished writing a sentence, looked up, and nodded a
brief good morning.
"We deposit our street attire on the hooks behind the door,
yonder!" he said with emphatic politeness, pointing across the
room.
Cameron flushed, as in passing his desk he observed the pleased
smile on the lanky boy's sallow face.
"You evidently were not aware of the hours of this office,"
continued Mr. Bates when Cameron had returned. "We open at eight
o'clock."
"Oh!" said Cameron, carelessly. "Eight? Yes, I thought it was
eight! Ah! I see! I believe I am five minutes late! But I
suppose I shall catch up before the day is over!"
"Mr. Cameron," replied Mr. Bates earnestly, "if you should work for
twenty years for the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company,
never will you catch up those five minutes; every minute of your
office hours is pledged to the company, and every minute has its
own proper work. Your desk is the one next Mr. Jacobs, yonder.
Your work is waiting you there. It is quite simple, the entry of
freight receipts upon the ledger. If you wish further instructions,
apply to me here--you understand?"
"I think so!" replied Cameron. "I shall do my best to--"
"Very well! That is all!" replied Mr. Bates, plunging his head
again into his papers.
The office staff sank back to work with every expression of
disappointment. A moment later, however, their hopes revived.
"Oh! Mr. Cameron!" called out Mr. Bates. Mr. Cameron returned to
his desk. "If you should chance to be late again, never mind going
to your desk; just come here for your cheque."
Mr. Bates' tone was kindly, even considerate, as if he were anxious
to save his clerk unnecessary inconvenience.
"I beg your pardon!" stammered Cameron, astonished.
"That is all!" replied Mr. Bates, his nose once more in his papers.
Cameron stood hesitating. His eye fell upon the boy, Jimmy, whose
face expressed keenest joy.
"Do you mean, Sir, that if I am late you dismiss me forthwith?"
"What?" Mr. Bates' tone was so fiercely explosive that it appeared
to throw up his head with a violent motion.
Cameron repeated his question.
"Mr. Cameron, my time is valuable; so is yours. I thought that I
spoke quite distinctly. Apparently I did not. Let me repeat: In
case you should inadvertently be late again, you need not take the
trouble to go to your desk; just come here. Your cheque will be
immediately made out. Saves time, you know--your time and mine--
and time, you perceive, in this office represents money."
Mr. Bates' voice lost none of its kindly interest, but it had grown
somewhat in intensity; the last sentence was uttered with his face
close to his desk.
Cameron stood a moment in uncertainty, gazing at the bald head
before him; then, finding nothing to reply, he turned about to
behold Jimmy and his lanky friend executing an animated war
pantomime which they apparently deemed appropriate to the occasion.
With face ablaze and teeth set Cameron went to his desk, to the
extreme disappointment of Jimmy and the lanky youth, who fell into
each other's arms, apparently overcome with grief.
For half an hour the office hummed with the noise of subdued voices
and clicked with the rapid fire of the typewriters. Suddenly
through the hum Mr. Bates' voice was heard, clear, calm, and coldly
penetrating:
"Mr. Jacobs!"
The old, white-haired clerk started up from Cameron's desk, and
began in a confused and gentle voice to explain that he was merely
giving some hints to the new clerk.
"Mr. Jacobs," said Mr. Bates, "I cannot hear you, and you are
wasting my time!"
"He was merely showing me how to make these entries!" said Cameron.
"Ah! Indeed! Thank you, Mr. Cameron! Though I believe Mr. Jacobs
has not yet lost the power of lucid speech. Mr. Jacobs, I believe
you know the rules of this office; your fine will be one-quarter of
a day."
"Thank you!" said Mr. Jacobs, hurriedly resuming his desk.
"And, Mr. Cameron, if you will kindly bring your work to me, I
shall do my best to enlighten you in regard to the complex duty of
entering your freight receipts."
An audible snicker ran through the delighted staff. Cameron seized
his ledger and the pile of freight bills, and started for Mr.
Bates' desk, catching out of the corner of his eye the pantomime of
Jimmy and the lanky one, which was being rendered with vigor and
due caution.
For a few moments Cameron stood at the manager's desk till that
gentleman should be disengaged, but Mr. Bates was skilled in the
fine art of reducing to abject humility an employee who might give
indications of insubordination. Cameron's rage grew with every
passing moment.
"Here is the ledger, Sir!" he said at length.
But Mr. Bates was so completely absorbed in the business of saving
time that he made not the slightest pause in his writing, while the
redoubled vigor and caution of the pantomime seemed to indicate the
approach of a crisis. At length Mr. Bates raised his head. Jimmy
and the lanky clerk became at once engrossed in their duties.
"You have had no experience of this kind of work, Mr. Cameron?"
inquired Mr. Bates kindly.
"No, Sir. But if you will just explain one or two matters, I think
I can--"
"Exactly! This is not, however, a business college! But we shall
do our best!"
A rapturous smile pervaded the office. Mr. Bates was in excellent
form.
"By the way, Mr. Cameron--pardon my neglect--but may I inquire just
what department of this work you are familiar with?"
"Oh, general--"
"Ah! The position of general manager, however, is filled at
present!" replied Mr. Bates kindly.
Cameron's flush grew deeper, while Jimmy and his friend resigned
themselves to an ecstasy of delight.
"I was going to say," said Cameron in a tone loud and deliberate,
"that I had been employed with the general copying work in a
writer's office."
"Writing? Fancy! Writing, eh? No use here!" said Mr. Bates
shortly, for time was passing.
"A writer with us means a lawyer!" replied Cameron.
"Why the deuce don't they say so?" answered Mr. Bates impatiently.
"Well! Well!" getting hold of himself again. "Here we allow our
solicitors to look after our legal work. Typewrite?" he inquired
suddenly.
"I beg your pardon!" replied Cameron. "Typewrite? Do you mean,
can I use a typewriting machine?"
"Yes! Yes! For heaven's sake, yes!"
"No, I cannot!"
"Bookkeep?"
"No."
"Good Lord! What have I got?" inquired Mr. Bates of himself,
in a tone, however, perfectly audible to those in the immediate
neighbourhood.
"Try him licking stamps!" suggested the lanky youth in a voice
that, while it reached the ears of Jimmy and others near by,
including Cameron, was inaudible to the manager. Mr. Bates caught
the sound, however, and glared about him through his spectacles.
Time was being wasted--the supreme offense in that office--and Mr.
Bates was fast losing his self-command.
"Here!" he cried suddenly, seizing a sheaf of letters. "File these
letters. You will be able to do that, I guess! File's in the
vault over there!"
Cameron took the letters and stood looking helplessly from them to
Mr. Bates' bald head, that gentleman's face being already in close
proximity to the papers on his desk.
"Just how do I go about this?--I mean, what system do you--"
"Jim!" roared Mr. Bates, throwing down his pen, "show this con--
show Mr. Cameron how to file these letters! Just like these blank
old-country chumps!" added Mr. Bates, in a lower voice, but loud
enough to be distinctly heard.
Jim came up with a smile of patronising pity on his face. It was
the smile that touched to life the mass of combustible material
that had been accumulating for the last hour in Cameron's soul.
Instead of following the boy, he turned with a swift movement back
to the manager's desk, laid his sheaf of letters down on Mr. Bates'
papers, and, leaning over the desk, towards that gentleman, said:
"Did you mean that remark to apply to me?" His voice was very
quiet. But Mr. Bates started back with a quick movement from the
white face and burning eyes.
"Here, you get out of this!" he cried.
"Because," continued Cameron, "if you did, I must ask you to
apologise at once."
All smiles vanished from the office staff, even Jimmy's face
assumed a serious aspect. Mr. Bates pushed back his chair.
"A-po-pologise!" he sputtered. "Get out of this office, d'ye
hear?"
"Be quick!" said Cameron, his hands gripping Mr. Bates' desk till
it shook.
"Jimmy! Call a policeman!" cried Mr. Bates, rising from his chair.
He was too slow. Cameron reached swiftly for his collar, and with
one fierce wrench swept Mr. Bates clear over the top of his desk,
shook him till his head wobbled dangerously, and flung him crashing
across the desk and upon the prostrate form of the lanky youth
sitting behind it.
"Call a policeman! Call a policeman!" shouted Mr. Bates, who was
struggling meantime with the lanky youth to regain an upright
position.
Cameron, meanwhile, walked quietly to where his coat and cap hung.
"Hold him, somebody! Hold him!" shouted Mr. Bates, hurrying
towards him.
Cameron turned fiercely upon him.
"Did you want me, Sir?" he inquired.
Mr. Bates arrested himself with such violence that his feet slid
from under him, and once more he came sitting upon the floor.
"Get up!" said Cameron, "and listen to me!"
Mr. Bates rose, and stood, white and trembling.
"I may not know much about your Canadian ways of business, but I
believe I can teach you some old-country manners. You have treated
me this morning like the despicable bully that you are. Perhaps
you will treat the next old-country man with the decency that is
coming to him, even if he has the misfortune to be your clerk."
With these words Cameron turned upon his heel and walked
deliberately towards the door. Immediately Jimmy sprang before
him, and, throwing the door wide open, bowed him out as if he were
indeed the Prince of Wales. Thus abruptly ended Cameron's
connection with the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company.
Before the day was done the whole city had heard the tale, which
lost nothing in the telling.
Next morning Mr. Denman was surprised to have Cameron walk in upon
him.
"Hullo, young man!" shouted the lawyer, "this is a pretty business!
Upon my soul! Your manner of entry into our commercial life is
somewhat forceful! What the deuce do you mean by all this?"
Cameron stood, much abashed. His passion was all gone; in the calm
light of after-thought his action of yesterday seemed boyish.
"I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Denman," he replied, "and I came to
apologise to you."
"To me?" cried Denman. "Why to me? I expect, if you wish to get a
job anywhere in this town, you will need to apologise to the chap
you knocked down--what's his name?"
"Mr. Bates, I think his name is, Sir; but, of course, I cannot
apologise to him."
"By Jove!" roared Mr. Denman, "he ought to have thrown you out of
his office! That is what I would have done!"
Cameron glanced up and down Mr. Denman's well-knit figure.
"I don't think so, Sir," he said, with a smile.
"Why not?" said Mr. Denman, grasping the arms of his office chair.
"Because you would not have insulted a stranger in your office who
was trying his best to understand his work. And then, I should not
have tried it on you."
"And why?"
"Well, I think I know a gentleman when I see one."
Mr. Denman was not to be appeased.
"Well, let me tell you, young man, it would have been a mighty
unhealthy thing for you to have cut up any such shine in this
office. I have done some Rugby in my day, my boy, if you know what
that means."
"I have done a little, too," said Cameron, with slightly heightened
colour.
"You have, eh! Where?"
"The Scottish International, Sir."
"By Jove! You don't tell me!" replied Mr. Denman, his tone
expressing a new admiration and respect. "When? This year?"
"No, last year, Sir--against Wales!"
"By Jove!" cried Mr. Denman again; "give me your hand, boy! Any
man who has made the Scottish Internationals is not called to stand
any cheek from a cad like Bates."
Mr. Denman shook Cameron warmly by the hand.
"Tell us about it!" he cried. "It must have been rare sport. If
Bates only knew it, he ought to count it an honour to have been
knocked down by a Scottish International."
"I didn't knock him down, Sir!" said Cameron, apologetically; "he
is only a little chap; I just gave him a bit of a shake," and
Cameron proceeded to recount the proceedings of the previous
morning.
Mr. Denman was hugely delighted.
"Serves the little beast bloody well right!" he cried enthusiastically.
"But what's to do now? They will be afraid to let you into their
offices in this city."
"I think, Sir, I am done with offices; I mean to try the land."
"Farm, eh?" mused Mr. Denman. "Well, so be it! It will probably
be safer for you there--possibly for some others as well."
CHAPTER II
A MAN'S JOB
Cameron slept heavily and long into the day, but as he awoke he was
conscious of a delightful exhilaration possessing him. For the
first time in his life he was a free man, ungoverned and unguided.
For four dreary weeks he had waited in Montreal for answers to his
enquiries concerning positions with farmers, but apparently the
Canadian farmers were not attracted by the qualifications and
experience Cameron had to offer. At length he had accepted the
advice of Martin's uncle in Montreal, who assured him with local
pride that, if he desired a position on a farm, the district of
which the little city of London was the centre was the very garden
of Canada. He was glad now to remember that he had declined a
letter of introduction. He was now entirely on his own. Neither
in this city nor in the country round about was there a soul with
whom he had the remotest acquaintance. The ways of life led out
from his feet, all untried, all unknown. Which he should choose he
knew not, but with a thrill of exultation he thanked his stars the
choosing was his own concern. A feeling of adventure was upon him,
a new courage was rising in his heart. The failure that had
hitherto dogged his past essays in life did not dampen his
confidence, for they had been made under other auspices than his
own. He had not fitted into his former positions, but they had not
been of his own choosing. He would now find a place for himself
and if he failed again he was prepared to accept the responsibility.
One bit of philosophy he carried with him from Mr. Denman's farewell
interview--"Now, young man, rememer," that gentleman had said after
he had bidden him farewell, "this world is pretty much made already;
success consists in adjustment. Don't try to make your world,
adjust yourself to it. Don't fight the world, serve it till you
master it." Cameron determined he would study adjustments; his
fighting tendency, which had brought him little success in the past,
he would control.
At this point the throb of a band broke in upon his meditations and
summoned him from his bed. He sprang to the window. It was circus
day and the morning parade, in all its mingled and cosmopolitan
glory, was slowly evolving its animated length to the strains of
bands of music. There were bands on horses and bands on chariots,
and at the tail of the procession a fearful and wonderful instrument
bearing the euphonious and classic name of the "calliope," whose
chief function seemed to be that of terrifying the farmers' horses
into frantic and determined attempts to escape from these horrid
alarms of the city to the peaceful haunts of their rural solitudes.
Cameron was still boy enough to hurry through his morning duties in
order that he might mix with the crowd and share the perennial
delights which a circus affords. The stable yard attached to his
hotel was lined three deep with buggies, carriages, and lumber
waggons, which had borne in the crowds of farmers from the country.
The hotel was thronged with sturdy red-faced farm lads, looking hot
and uncomfortable in their unaccustomed Sunday suits, gorgeous in
their rainbow ties, and rakish with their hats set at all angles
upon their elaborately brushed heads. Older men, too, bearded and
staid, moved with silent and self-respecting dignity through the
crowds, gazing with quiet and observant eyes upon the shifting
phantasmagoria that filled the circus grounds and the streets
nearby. With these, too, there mingled a few of both old and young
who, with bacchanalian enthusiasm, were swaggering their way
through the crowds, each followed by a company of friends good-
naturedly tolerant or solicitously careful.
Cameron's eyes, roving over the multitude, fell upon a little group
that held his attention, the principal figure of which was a tall
middle aged man with a good-natured face, adorned with a rugged
grey chin whisker, who was loudly declaiming to a younger companion
with a hard face and very wide awake, "My name's Tom Haley; ye
can't come over me."
"Ye bet yer life they can't. Ye ain't no chicken!" exclaimed his
hard-faced friend. "Say, let's liquor up once more before we go to
see the elephant."
With these two followed a boy of some thirteen years, freckled
faced and solemn, slim and wiry of body, who was anxiously striving
to drag his father away from one of the drinking booths that dotted
the circus grounds, and towards the big tent; but the father had
been already a too frequent visitor at the booth to be quite
amenable to his son's pleading. He, in a glorious mood of self-
appreciation, kept announcing to the public generally and to his
hard-faced friend in particular--
"My name's Tom Haley; ye can't come over me!"
"Come on, father," pleaded Tim.
"No hurry, Timmy, me boy," said his father. "The elephants won't
run away with the monkeys and the clowns can't git out of the
ring."
"Oh, come on, dad, I'm sure the show's begun."
"Cheese it, young feller," said the young man, "yer dad's able to
take care of himself."
"Aw, you shut yer mouth!" replied Tim fiercely. "I know what
you're suckin' round for."
"Good boy, Tim," laughed his father; "ye giv' 'im one that time.
Guess we'll go. So long, Sam, if that's yer name. Ye see I've
jist got ter take in this 'ere show this morning with Tim 'ere, and
then we have got some groceries to git for the old woman. See
there," he drew a paper from his pocket, "wouldn't dare show up
without 'em, ye bet, eh, Tim! Why, it's her egg and butter money
and she wants value fer it, she does. Well, so long, Sam, see ye
later," and with the triumphant Tim he made for the big tent,
leaving a wrathful and disappointed man behind him.
Cameron spent the rest of the day partly in "taking in" the circus
and partly in conversing with the farmers who seemed to have taken
possession of the town; but in answer to his most diligent and
careful enquiries he could hear of no position on a farm for which
he could honestly offer himself. The farmers wanted mowers, or
cradlers, or good smart turnip hands, and Cameron sorrowfully had
to confess he was none of these. There apparently was no single
bit of work in the farmer's life that Cameron felt himself
qualified to perform.
It was wearing towards evening when Cameron once more came across
Tim. He was standing outside the bar room door, big tears silently
coursing down his pale and freckled cheeks.
"Hello!" cried Cameron, "what's up old chap? Where's your dad, and
has he got his groceries yet?"
"No," said Tim, hastily wiping away his tears and looking up
somewhat shyly and sullenly into Cameron's face. What he saw there
apparently won his confidence.
"He's in yonder," he continued, "and I can't git him out. They
won't let him come. They're jist making 'im full so he can't do
anything, and we ought to be startin' fer home right away, too!"
"Well, let's go in anyway and see what they are doing," said
Cameron cheerfully, to whom the pale tear-stained face made strong
appeal.
"They won't let us," said Tim. "There's a feller there that chucks
me out."
"Won't, eh? We'll see about that! Come along!"
Cameron entered the bar room, with Tim following, and looked about
him. The room was crowded to the door with noisy excited men, many
of whom were partially intoxicated. At the bar, two deep, stood a
line of men with glasses in their hands, or waiting to be served.
In the farthest corner of the room stood Tim's father, considerably
the worse of his day's experiences, and lovingly embracing the
hard-faced young man, to whom he was at intervals announcing, "My
name's Tom Haley! Ye can't git over me!"
As Cameron began to push through the crowd, a man with a very red
face, obviously on the watch for Tim, cried out--
"Say, sonny, git out of here! This is no place fer you!"
Tim drew back, but Cameron, turning to him, said,
"Come along, Tim. He's with me," he added, addressing the man.
"He wants his father."
"His father's not here. He left half an hour ago. I told him so."
"You were evidently mistaken, for I see him just across the room
there," said Cameron quietly.
"Oh! is he a friend of yours?" enquired the red-faced man.
"No, I don't know him at all, but Tim does, and Tim wants him,"
said Cameron, beginning to push his way through the crowd towards
the vociferating Haley, who appeared to be on the point of backing
up some of his statements with money, for he was flourishing a
handful of bills in the face of the young man Sam, who apparently
was quite willing to accommodate him with the wager.
Before Cameron could make his way through the swaying, roaring
crowd, the red-faced man slipped from his side, and in a very few
moments appeared at a side door near Tom Haley's corner. Almost
immediately there was a shuffle and Haley and his friends
disappeared through the side door.
"Hello!" cried Cameron, "there's something doing! We'll just slip
around there, my boy." So saying, he drew Tim back from the crowd
and out of the front door, and, hurrying around the house, came
upon Sam, the red-faced man, and Haley in a lane leading past the
stable yard. The red-faced man was affectionately urging a bottle
upon Haley.
"There they are!" said Tim in an undertone, clutching Cameron's
arm. "You get him away and I'll hitch up."
"All right, Tim," said Cameron, "I'll get him. They are evidently
up to no good."
"What's yer name?" said Tim hurriedly.
"Cameron!"
"Come on, then!" he cried, dragging Cameron at a run towards his
father. "Here, Dad!" he cried, "this is my friend, Mr. Cameron!
Come on home. I'm going to hitch up. We'll be awful late for the
chores and we got them groceries to git. Come on, Dad!"
"Aw, gwan! yer a cheeky kid anyway," said Sam, giving Tim a shove
that nearly sent him on his head.
"Hold on there, my man, you leave the boy alone," said Cameron.
"What's your business in this, young feller?"
"Never mind!" said Cameron. "Tim is a friend of mine and no one is
going to hurt him. Run along, Tim, and get your horses."
"Friend o' Tim's, eh!" said Haley, in half drunken good nature.
"Friend o' Tim's, friend o' mine," he added, gravely shaking
Cameron by the hand. "Have a drink, young man. You look a'
right!"
Cameron took the bottle, put it to his lips. The liquor burned
like fire.
"Great Caesar!" he gasped, contriving to let the bottle drop upon a
stone. "What do you call that?"
"Pretty hot stuff!" cried Haley, with a shout of laughter.
But Sam, unable to see the humour of the situation, exclaimed in a
rage, "Here, you cursed fool! That is my bottle!"
"Sorry to be so clumsy," said Cameron apologetically, "but it
surely wasn't anything to drink, was it?"
"Yes, it jest was something to drink, was it?" mocked Sam,
approaching Cameron with menace in his eye and attitude. "I have a
blanked good notion to punch your head, too!"
"Oh! I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Cameron, smiling
pleasantly.
"Say, Sam, don't get mad, Sam," interposed Haley. "This young
feller's a friend o' Tim's. I'll git another bottle a' right.
I've got the stuff right here." He pulled out his roll of bills.
"And lots more where this comes from."
"Let me have that, Mr. Haley, I'll get the bottle for you," said
Cameron, reaching out for the bills.
"A' right," said Haley. "Friend o' Tim's, friend o' mine."
"Here, young feller, you're too fresh!" cried the red-faced man,
"buttin' in here! You make tracks, git out! Come, git out, I tell
yeh!"
"Give it to him quick," said Sam in a low voice.
The red-faced man, without the slightest warning, swiftly stepped
towards Cameron and, before the latter could defend himself, struck
him a heavy blow. Cameron staggered, fell, and struggled again to
his knees. The red-faced man sprang forward to kick him in the
face, when Haley interposed--
"Hold up there, now! Friend o' Tim's, friend o' mine, ye know!"
"Hurry up," said Sam, closing in on Haley. "Quit fooling. Give
'im the billy and let's get away!"
But Haley, though unskilled with his hands, was a man of more than
ordinary strength, and he swung his long arms about with such
vigour that neither Sam, who was savagely striking at his head, nor
the red-faced man, who was dancing about waiting for a chance to
get in with the "billy," which he held in his hand, was able to
bring the affair to a finish. It could be a matter of only a few
moments, however, for both Sam and his friend were evidently
skilled in the arts of the thug, while Haley, though powerful
enough, was chiefly occupying himself in beating the air. A blow
from the billy dropped one of Haley's arms helpless. The red-faced
man, following up his advantage, ran in to finish, but Haley
gripped him by the wrist and, exerting all his strength, gave a
mighty heave and threw him heavily against Sam, who was running in
upon the other side. At the same time Cameron, who was rapidly
recovering, clutched Sam by a leg and brought him heavily to earth.
Reaching down, Haley gripped Cameron by the collar and hauled him
to his feet just as Sam, who had sprung up, ran to the attack.
Steadied by Haley, Cameron braced himself, and, at exactly the
right moment, stiffened his left arm with the whole weight of his
body behind it. The result was a most unhappy one for Sam, who,
expecting no such reception, was lifted clear off his feet and
hurled to the ground some distance away. The exhilaration of his
achievement brought Cameron's blood back again to his brain.
Swiftly he turned upon the red-faced man just as that worthy had
brought Haley to his knees with a cruel blow and was preparing to
finish off his victim. With a shout Cameron sprang at him, the man
turned quickly, warded off Cameron's blow, and then, seeing Sam
lying helpless upon the ground, turned and fled down the lane.
"Say, young feller!" panted Haley, staggering to his feet, "yeh
came in mighty slick that time. Yeh ain't got a bottle on ye, hev
yeh?"
"No!" said Cameron, "but there's a pump near by."
"Jest as good and a little better," said Haley, staggering towards
the pump. "Say," he continued, with a humourous twinkle in his
eye, and glancing at the man lying on the ground, "Sam's kinder
quiet, ain't he? Run agin something hard like, I guess."
Cameron filled a bucket with water and into its icy depths Haley
plunged his head.
"Ow! that's good," he sputtered, plunging his head in again and
again. "Fill 'er up once more!" he said, wiping off his face with
a big red handkerchief. "Now, I shouldn't wonder if it would help
Sam a bit."
He picked up the bucket of water and approached Sam, who meantime
had got to a sitting position and was blinking stupidly around.
"Here, ye blamed hog, hev a wash, ye need it bad!" So saying,
Haley flung the whole bucket of water over Sam's head and
shoulders. "Fill 'er up again," he said, but Sam had had enough,
and, swearing wildly, gasping and sputtering, he made off down the
lane.
"I've heard o' them circus toughs," said Haley in a meditative
tone, "but never jest seen 'em before. Say, young feller, yeh came
in mighty handy fer me a' right, and seeing as yer Tim's friend put
it there." He gripped Cameron's hand and shook it heartily.
"Here's Tim with the team, and, say, there's no need to mention
anything about them fellers. Tim's real tender hearted. Well, I'm
glad to hev met yeh. Good-bye! Living here?"
"No!"
"Travellin', eh?"
"Not exactly," replied Cameron. "The truth is I'm looking for a
position."
"A position? School teachin', mebbe?"
"No, a position on a farm."
"On a farm? Ha! ha! good! Position on a farm," repeated Haley.
"Yes," replied Cameron. "Do you know of any?"
"Position on a farm!" said Haley again, as if trying to grasp the
meaning of this extraordinary quest. "There ain't any."
"No positions?" enquired Cameron.
"Nary one! Say, young man, where do you come from?"
"Scotland," replied Cameron.
"Scotland! yeh don't say, now. Jest out, eh?"
"Yes, about a month or so."
"Well, well! Yeh don't say so!"
"Yes," replied Cameron, "and I am surprised to hear that there is
no work."
"Oh! hold on there now!" interposed Haley gravely. "If it's work
you want there are stacks of it lying round, but there ain't no
positions. Positions!" ejaculated Haley, who seemed to be
fascinated by the word, "there ain't none on my farm except one and
I hold that myself; but there's lots o' work, and--why! I want a
man right now. What say? Come along, stay's long's yeh like. I
like yeh fine."
"All right," said Cameron. "Wait till I get my bag, but I ought to
tell you I have had no experience."
"No experience, eh!" Haley pondered. "Well, we'll give it to you,
and anyway you saved me some experience to-day and you come home
with me."
When he returned he found Haley sitting on the bottom of the wagon
rapidly sinking into slumber. The effects of the bucket were
passing off.
"What about the groceries, Tim?" enquired Cameron.
"We've got to git 'em," said Tim, "or we'll catch it sure."
Leaving Cameron to wonder what it might be that they were sure to
catch, Tim extracted from his father's pocket the paper on which
were listed the groceries to be purchased, and the roll of bills,
and handed both to Cameron.
"You best git 'em," he said, and, mounting to the high spring seat,
turned the team out of the yard. The groceries secured with
Cameron's help, they set off for home as the long June evening was
darkening into night.
"My! it's awful late," said Tim in a voice full of foreboding.
"And Perkins ain't no good at chores."
"How far is it to your home?" enquired Cameron.
"Nine miles out this road and three off to the east."
"And who's Perkins?"
"Perkins! Joe Perkins! He's our hired man. He's a terror to work
at plowin', cradlin', and bindin', but he ain't no good at chores.
I bet yeh he'll leave Mandy to do the milkin', ten cows, and some's
awful bad."
"And who's Mandy?" enquired Cameron.
"Mandy! She's my sister. She's an awful quick milker. She can
beat Dad, or Perkins, or any of 'em, but ten cows is a lot, and
then there's the pigs and the calves to feed, and the wood, too.
I bet Perkins won't cut a stick. He's good enough in the field,"
continued Tim, with an obvious desire to do Perkins full justice,
"but he ain't no good around the house. He says he ain't hired to
do women's chores, and Ma she won't ask 'im. She says if he don't
do what he sees to be done she'd see 'im far enough before she'd
ask 'im." And so Timothy went on with a monologue replete with
information, his high thin voice rising clear above the roar and
rattle of the lumber wagon as it rumbled and jolted over the rutty
gravel road. Those who knew the boy would have been amazed at his
loquacity, but something in Cameron had won his confidence and
opened his heart. Hence his monologue, in which the qualities,
good and bad, of the members of the family, of their own hired man
and of other hired men were fully discussed. The standard of
excellence for work in the neighbourhood, however, appeared to be
Perkins, whose abilities Tim appeared greatly to admire, but for
whose person he appeared to have little regard.
"He's mighty good at turnip hoeing, too," he said. "I could pretty
near keep up to him last year and I believe I could do it this
year. Some day soon I'm going to git after 'im. My! I'd like to
trim 'im to a fine point."
The live stock on the farm in general, and the young colts in
particular, among which a certain two-year-old was showing signs of
marvellous speed, these and cognate subjects relating to the farm,
its dwellers and its activities, Tim passed in review, with his own
shrewd comments thereon.
"And what do you play, Tim?" asked Cameron, seeking a point of
contact with the boy.
"Nothin'," said Tim shortly. "No time."
"Don't you go to school?"
"Yes, in fall and winter. Then we play ball and shinny some, but
there ain't much time."
"But you can't work all the time, Tim? What work can you do?"
"Oh!" replied Tim carelessly, "I run a team."
"Run a team? What do you mean?"
Tim glanced up at him and, perceiving that he was quite serious,
proceeded to explain that during the spring's work he had taken his
place in the plowing and harrowing with the "other" men, that he
expected to drive the mower and reaper in haying and harvest, that,
in short, in almost all kinds of farm work he was ready to take the
place of a grown man; and all this without any sign of boasting.
Cameron thought over his own life, in which sport had filled up so
large a place and work so little, and in which he had developed so
little power of initiative and such meagre self-dependence, and he
envied the solemn-faced boy at his side, handling his team and
wagon with the skill of a grown man.
"I say, Tim!" he exclaimed in admiration, "you're great. I wish I
could do half as much."
"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Tim in modest self-disdain, "that ain't
nothin', but I wish I could git off a bit."
"Get off? What do you mean?"
The boy was silent for some moments, then asked shyly:
"Say! Is there big cities in Scotland, an' crowds of people, an'
trains, an' engines, an' factories, an' things? My! I wish I
could git away!"
Then Cameron understood dimly something of the wander-lust in the
boy's soul, of the hunger for adventure, for the colour and
movement of life in the great world "away" from the farm, that
thrilled in the boy's voice. So for the next half hour he told Tim
tales of his own life, the chief glory of which had been his
achievements in the realm of sport, and, before he was aware, he
was describing to the boy the great International with Wales, till,
remembering the disastrous finish, he brought his narrative to an
abrupt close.
"And did yeh lick 'em?" demanded Tim in a voice of intense
excitement.
"No," said Cameron shortly.
"Oh, hedges! I wisht ye had!" exclaimed Tim in deep disappointment.
"It was my fault," replied Cameron bitterly, for the eager wish in
the boy's heart had stirred a similar yearning in his own and had
opened an old sore.
"I was a fool," he said, more to himself than to Tim. "I let
myself get out of condition and so I lost them the match."
"Aw, git out!" said Tim, with unbelieving scorn. "I bet yeh
didn't! My! I wisht I could see them games "
"Oh, pshaw! Tim, they are not half so worth while as plowing,
harrowing, and running your team. Why, here you are, a boy of--
how old?"
"Thirteen," said Tim.
"A boy of thirteen able to do a man's work, and here am I, a man of
twenty-one, only able to do a boy's work, and not even that. But
I'm going to learn, Tim," added Cameron. "You hear me, I am going
to learn to do a man's work. If I can," he added doubtfully.
"Oh, shucks!" replied Tim, "you bet yeh can, and I'll show yeh,"
with which mutual determination they turned in at the gate of the
Haley farm, which was to be the scene of Cameron's first attempt to
do a man's work and to fill a man's place in the world.
CHAPTER III
A DAY'S WORK
The Haley farm was a survival of an ambitious past. Once the
property of a rich English gentleman, it had been laid out with an
eye to appearance rather than to profit and, though the soil was
good enough, it had never been worked to profit. Consequently,
when its owner had tired of Colonial life, he had at first rented
the farm, but, finding this unsatisfactory, he, in a moment of
disgust, advertised it for sale. Pretentious in its plan and in
its appointments, its neglected and run down condition gave it an
air of decayed gentility, depressing alike to the eye of the
beholder and to the selling price of the owner. Haley bought it
and bought it cheap. From the high road a magnificent avenue of
maples led to a house of fine proportions, though sadly needing
repair. The wide verandahs, the ample steps were unpainted and
falling into ruin; the lawn reaching from the front door to the
orchard was spacious, but overgrown with burdocks, nettles and
other noxious weeds; the orchard, which stretched from the lawn to
the road on both sides of the lane, had been allowed to run sadly
to wood. At the side of the house the door-yard was littered with
abandoned farm implements, piles of old fence rails and lumber and
other impedimenta, which, though kindly Nature, abhorring the
unsightly rubbish, was doing her utmost to hide it all beneath a
luxuriant growth of docks, milkweed, and nettles, lent an air of
disorder and neglect to the whole surroundings. The porch, or
"stoop," about the summer kitchen was set out with an assortment of
tubs and pails, pots and pans, partially filled with various evil
looking and more evil smelling messes, which afforded an excellent
breeding and feeding place for flies, mosquitoes, and other
unpleasant insects. Adjoining the door yard, and separated from it
by a fence, was the barn yard, a spacious quadrangle flanked on
three sides by barns, stables, and sheds, which were large and
finely planned, but which now shared the general appearance of
decrepitude. The fence, which separated one yard from the other,
was broken down, so that the barn yard dwellers, calves, pigs, and
poultry, wandered at will in search of amusement or fodder to the
very door of the kitchen, and so materially contributed to the
general disorder, discomfort, and dirt.
Away from the house, however, where Nature had her own way, the
farm stretched field after field on each side of the snake fenced
lane to the line of woods in the distance, a picture of rich and
varied beauty. From the rising ground on which the house was
situated a lovely vista swept right from the kitchen door away to
the remnant of the forest primeval at the horizon. On every field
the signs of coming harvest were luxuriantly visible, the hay
fields, grey-green with blooming "Timothy" and purple with the deep
nestling clover, the fall wheat green and yellowing into gold, the
spring wheat a lighter green and bursting into head, the oats with
their graceful tasselated stalks, the turnip field ribboned with
its lines of delicate green on the dark soil drills, back of all,
the "slashing" where stumps, blackened with fire, and trunks of
trees piled here and there in confusion, all overgrown with weeds,
represented the transition stage between forest and harvest field,
and beyond the slashing the dark cool masses of maple, birch, and
elm; all these made a scene of such varied loveliness as to delight
the soul attuned to nature.
Upon this scene of vivid contrasts, on one side house and barn and
yard, and on the other the rolling fields and massive forest,
Cameron stood looking in the early light of his first morning on
the farm, with mingled feelings of disgust and pleasure. In a few
moments, however, the loveliness of the far view caught and held
his eye and he stood as in a dream. The gentle rolling landscape,
with its rich variety of greens and yellows and greys, that swept
away from his feet to the dark masses of woods, with their
suggestions of cool and shady depth, filled his soul with a deep
joy and brought him memory of how the "Glen of the Cup of Gold"
would look that morning in the dear home-land so far away. True,
there were neither mountains nor moors, neither lochs nor birch-
clad cliffs here. Nature, in her quieter mood, looked up at him
from these sloping fields and bosky woods and smiled with kindly
face, and that smile of hers it was that brought to Cameron's mind
the sunny Glen of the Cup of Gold. It was the sweetest, kindliest
thing his eye had looked on since he had left the Glen.
A harsh and fretful voice broke in upon his dreaming.
"Pa-a-w, there ain't a stick of wood for breakfast! There was none
last night! If you want any breakfast you'd best git some wood!"
"All right, Mother!" called Haley from the barn yard, where he was
assisting in the milking. "I'm a comin'."
Cameron walked to meet him.
"Can I help?" he enquired.
"Why, of course!" shouted Haley. "Here, Ma, here's our new hand,
the very man for you."
Mrs. Haley, who had retired to the kitchen, appeared at the door.
She was a woman past middle age, unduly stout, her face deep lined
with the fret of a multitude of cares, and hung with flabby folds
of skin, browned with the sun and wind, though it must be confessed
its color was determined more by the grease and grime than by the
tan upon it. Yet, in spite of the flabby folds of flesh, in spite
of the grime and grease, there was still a reminiscence of a one-
time comeliness, all the more pathetic by reason of its all too
obvious desecration. Her voice was harsh, her tone fretful, which
indeed was hardly to be wondered at, for the burden of her life was
by no means light, and the cares of the household, within and
without, were neither few nor trivial.
For a moment or two Mrs. Haley stood in silence studying and
appraising the new man. The result did not apparently inspire her
with hope.
"Come on now, Pa," she said, "stop yer foolin' and git me that
wood. I want it right now. You're keepin' me back and there's an
awful lot to do."
"But I ain't foolin', Ma. Mr. Cameron is our new hand. He'll
knock yeh off a few sticks in no time." So saying, Haley walked
off with his pails to the milking, leaving his wife and the new
hand facing each other, each uncertain as to the next move.
"What can I do, Mrs. Haley?" enquired Cameron politely.
"Oh, I don't know," said Mrs. Haley wearily. "I want a few sticks
for the breakfast, but perhaps I can get along with chips, but
chips don't give no steady fire."
"If you would show me just what to do," said Cameron with some
hesitation, "I mean, where is the wood to be got?"
"There," she said, in a surprised tone, pointing to a pile of long
logs of ash and maple. "I don't want much." She gathered her
apron full of chips and turned away, all too obviously refusing to
place her hope of wood for the breakfast fire upon the efforts of
the new man. Cameron stood looking alternately at the long, hard,
dry logs and at the axe which he had picked up from the bed of
chips. The problem of how to produce the sticks necessary to
breakfast by the application of the one to the other was one for
which he could see no solution. He lifted his axe and brought it
down hard upon a maple log. The result was a slight indentation
upon the log and a sharp jar from the axe handle that ran up his
arm unpleasantly. A series of heavy blows produced nothing more
than a corresponding series of indentations in the tough maple log
and of jars more or less sharp and painful shooting up his arms.
The result was not encouraging, but it flashed upon him that this
was his first attempt to make good at his job on the farm. He
threw off his coat and went at his work with energy; but the
probability of breakfast, so far as it depended upon the result of
his efforts, seemed to be growing more and more remote.
"Guess ye ain't got the knack of it," said a voice, deep, full, and
mellow, behind him. "That axe ain't no good for choppin', it's a
splittin' axe."
Turning, he saw a girl of about seventeen, with little grace and
less beauty, but strongly and stoutly built, and with a good-
natured, if somewhat stupid and heavy face. Her hair was dun in
colour, coarse in texture, and done up loosely and carelessly in
two heavy braids, arranged about her head in such a manner as to
permit stray wisps of hair to escape about her face and neck.
She was dressed in a loose pink wrapper, all too plainly of home
manufacture, gathered in at the waist, and successfully obliterating
any lines that might indicate the existence of any grace of form,
and sadly spotted and stained with grease and dirt. Her red stout
arms ended in thick and redder hands, decked with an array of
black-rimmed nails. At his first glance, sweeping her "tout
ensemble," Cameron was conscious of a feeling of repulsion, but in a
moment this feeling passed and he was surprised to find himself
looking into two eyes of surprising loveliness, dark blue, well
shaped, and of such liquid depths as to suggest pools of water under
forest trees.
"They use the saw mostly," said the girl.
"The saw?" echoed Cameron.
"Yes," she said. "They saw 'em through and then split 'em with the
axe."
Cameron picked up the buck-saw which lay against a rickety saw
horse. Never in his life had he used such an instrument. He gazed
helplessly at his companion.
"How do you use this thing?" he enquired.
"Say! are you funny," replied the girl, flashing a keen glance upon
him, "or don't ye know?"
"Never saw it done in my life," said Cameron solemnly.
"Here!" she cried, "let me show you."
She seized the end of a maple log, dragged it forward to the
rickety saw horse, set it in position, took the saw from his hands,
and went at her work with such vigour that in less than a minute as
it seemed to Cameron she had made the cut.
"Give me that axe!" she said impatiently to Cameron, who was
preparing to split the block.
With a few strong and skillful blows she split the straight-grained
block of wood into firewood, gathered up the sticks in her arms,
and, with a giggle, turned toward the house.
"I won't charge you anything for that lesson," she said, "but
you'll have to hustle if you git that wood split 'fore breakfast."
"Thank you," said Cameron, grateful that none of the men had
witnessed the instruction, "I shall do my best," and for the next
half hour, with little skill, but by main strength, he cut off a
number of blocks from the maple log and proceeded to split them.
But in this he made slow progress. From the kitchen came cheerful
sounds and scents of cooking, and ever and anon from the door
waddled, with quite surprising celerity, the unwieldy bulk of the
mistress of the house.
"Now, that's jest like yer Pa," Cameron heard her grumbling to her
daughter, "bringin' a man here jest at the busy season who don't
know nothin'. He's peckin' away at 'em blocks like a rooster
peckin' grain."
"He's willin' enough, Ma," replied the girl, "and I guess he'll
learn."
"Learn!" puffed Mrs. Haley contemptuously. "Did ye ever see an
old-country man learn to handle an axe or a scythe after he was
growed up? Jest look at 'im. Thank goodness! there's Tim."
"Here, Tim!" she called from the door, "best split some o' that
wood 'fore breakfast."
Tim approached Cameron with a look of pity on his face.
"Let me have a try," he said. Cameron yielded him the axe. The
boy set on end the block at which Cameron had been laboring and,
with a swift glancing blow of the axe, knocked off a slab.
"By Jove!" exclaimed Cameron admiringly, "how did you do that?"
For answer the boy struck again the same glancing blow, a slab
started and, at a second light blow, fell to the ground.
"I say!" exclaimed Cameron again, "I must learn that trick."
"Oh, that's easy!" said Tim, knocking the slabs off from the
outside of the block. "This heart's goin' to be tough, though; got
a knot in it," and tough it proved, resisting all his blows.
"You're a tough sucker, now, ain't yeh?" said Tim, through his shut
teeth, addressing the block. We'll try yeh this way." He laid the
end of the block upon a log and plied the axe with the full
strength of his slight body, but the block danced upon the log and
resisted all his blows.
"Say! you're a tough one now!" he said, pausing for breath.
"Let me try that," said Cameron, and, putting forth his strength,
he brought the axe down fairly upon the stick with such force that
the instrument shore clean through the knot and sank into the log
below.
"Huh! that's a cracker," said Tim with ungrudging admiration. "All
you want is knack. I'll slab it off and you can do the knots," he
added with a grin.
As the result of this somewhat unequal division of labor, there lay
in half an hour a goodly pile of fire wood ready for the cooking.
It caught Haley's eye as he came in to breakfast.
"I say, Missus, that's a bigger pile than you've had for some time.
Guess my new man ain't so slow after all."
"Huh!" puffed his wife, waddling about with great agility, "it was
Tim that done it."
"Now, Ma, ye know well enough he helped Tim, and right smart too,"
said the daughter, but her mother was too busy getting breakfast
ready for the hungry men who were now performing their morning
ablutions with the help of a very small basin set upon a block of
wood outside the kitchen door to answer.
There were two men employed by Haley, one the son of a Scotch-
Canadian farmer, Webster by name, a stout young fellow, but slow in
his movements, both physical and mental, and with no further
ambition than to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. He was
employed by the month during the busier seasons of the year. The
other, Perkins, was Haley's "steady" man, which means that he was
employed by the year and was regarded almost as a member of the
family. Perkins was an Englishman with fair hair and blue eyes, of
fresh complexion, burned to a clear red, clean-cut features, and a
well knit, athletic frame. He was, as Tim declared, a terror to
work; indeed, his fame as a worker was well established throughout
the country side. To these men Cameron was introduced as being
from Scotland and as being anxious to be initiated into the
mysteries of Canadian farm life.
"Glad to see you!" said Perkins, shaking him heartily by the hand.
"We'll make a farmer of you, won't we, Tim? From Scotland, eh?
Pretty fine country, I hear--to leave," he added, with a grin at
his own humour. Though his manner was pleasant enough, Cameron
became conscious of a feeling of aversion, which he recognised at
once as being as unreasonable as it was inexplicable. He set it
down as a reflection of Tim's mental attitude toward the hired man.
Perkins seized the tin basin, dipped some water from the rain
barrel standing near, and, setting it down before Cameron, said:
"Here, pile in, Scotty. Do they wash in your country?"
"Yes," replied Cameron, "they are rather strong on that," wondering
at the same time how the operation could be performed successfully
with such a moderate supply of water. After using a second and
third supply, however, he turned, with hands and face dripping, and
looked about for a towel. Perkins handed him a long roller towel,
black with dirt and stiff with grease. Had his life depended upon
it Cameron could not have avoided a shuddering hesitation as he
took the filthy cloth preparatory to applying it to his face.
"'Twon't hurt you," laughed Perkins. "Wash day ain't till next
week, you know, and this is only Wednesday." Suddenly the towel
was snatched from Cameron's hands.
"Gimme that towel!" It was the girl, with face aflame and eyes
emitting blue fire. "Here; Mr. Cameron, take this," she said.
"Great Jerusalem, Mandy! You ain't goin' to bring on a clean towel
the middle of the week?" said Perkins in mock dismay. "Guess it's
for Mr. Cameron," he continued with another laugh.
"We give clean towels to them that knows how to use 'em," said
Mandy, whisking wrathfully into the house.
"Say, Scotty!" said Perkins, in a loud bantering tone, "guess
you're makin' a mash on Mandy all right."
"I don't know exactly what you mean," said Cameron with a quick
rising of wrath, "but I do know that you are making a beastly cad
of yourself."
"Oh, don't get wrathy, Scotty!" laughed Perkins, "we're just having
a little fun. Here's the comb!" But Cameron declined the article,
which, from its appearance, seemed to be intended for family use,
and, proceeding to his room, completed his toilet there.
The breakfast was laid in the kitchen proper, a spacious and
comfortable room, which served as living room for the household.
The table was laden with a variety and abundance of food that
worthily sustained the reputation of the Haleys of being "good
feeders." At one end of the table a large plate was heaped high
with slices of fat pork, and here and there disposed along its
length were dishes of fried potatoes, huge piles of bread, hot
biscuits, plates of butter, pies of different kinds, maple syrup,
and apple sauce. It was a breakfast fit for a lord, and Cameron
sat down with a pleasurable anticipation induced by his early
rising and his half hour's experience in the fresh morning air with
the wood pile. A closer inspection, however, of the dishes
somewhat damped the pleasure of his anticipation. The food was
good, abundant, and well cooked, but everywhere there was an utter
absence of cleanliness. The plates were greasy, the forks and
knives bore the all too evident remains of former meals, and
everywhere were flies. In hundreds they swarmed upon the food,
while, drowned in the gravy, cooked in the potatoes, overwhelmed in
the maple syrup, buried in the butter, their ghastly carcasses were
to be seen. With apparent unconcern the men brushed aside the
living and picked out and set aside the remains of the dead, the
unhappy victims of their own greed or temerity, and went on calmly
and swiftly with their business. Not a word was spoken except by
Cameron himself, who, constrained by what he considered to be the
ordinary decencies of society, made an effort to keep up a
conversation with Mr. Haley at the head of the table and
occasionally ventured a remark to his wife, who, with Mandy, was
acting as a waiter upon the hungry men. But conversation is a
social exercise, and Cameron found himself compelled to abandon his
well meant but solitary efforts at maintaining the conventions of
the breakfast table. There was neither time nor occasion for
conversation. The business of the hour was something quite other,
namely, that of devouring as large a portion of the food set before
them as was possible within the limits of time assigned for the
meal. Indeed, the element of time seemed to be one of very
considerable importance, as Cameron discovered, for he was still
picking his way gingerly and carefully through his pork and potatoes
by the time that Perkins, having completed a second course
consisting of pie and maple syrup, had arrived at the final course
of bread and butter and apple sauce.
"Circulate the butter!" he demanded of the table in general. He
took the plate from Cameron's hand, looked at it narrowly for a
moment, then with thumb and forefinger drew from the butter with
great deliberation a long dun-coloured hair.
"Say!" he said in a low voice, but perfectly audible, "they forgot
to comb it this morning."
Cameron was filled with unspeakable disgust, but, glancing at Mrs.
Haley's face, he saw to his relief that both the action and the
remark had been unnoticed by her. But on Mandy's face he saw the
red ensign of shame and wrath, and in spite of himself he felt his
aversion towards the ever-smiling hired man deepen into rage.
Finding himself distanced in his progress through the various
courses at breakfast, Cameron determined to miss the intermediate
course of pie and maple syrup and, that he might finish on more
even terms with the others, proceeded with bread and butter and
apple sauce.
"Don't yeh hurry," said Mrs. Haley with hearty hospitality. "Eat
plenty, there's lots to spare. Here, have some apple sauce." She
caught up the bowl which held this most delicious article of food.
"Where's the spoon?" she said, glancing round the table. There was
none immediately available. "Here!" she cried, "this'll do." She
snatched a large spoon from the pitcher of thick cream, held it
dripping for a moment in obvious uncertainty, then with sudden
decision she cried "Never mind," and with swift but effective
application of lip and tongue she cleansed the spoon of the
dripping cream, and, stirring the apple sauce vigourously, passed
the bowl to Cameron. For a single moment Cameron held the bowl,
uncertain whether to refuse or not, but before he could make up his
mind Mandy caught it from his hands.
"Oh, Ma!" she exclaimed in a horrified tone.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed her mother. "A little cream won't
hurt."
But Mandy set the bowl at the far end of the table and passed
another to Cameron, who accepted it with resolute determination and
continued his breakfast.
But Perkins, followed by Webster and Tim, rose from the table and
passed out into the yard, whence his voice could be heard in
explosions of laughter. Cameron in the meantime was making heroic
attempts to cover up the sound by loud-voiced conversation with
Haley, and, rendered desperate by the exigencies of the situation,
went so far as to venture a word of praise to Mrs. Haley upon the
excellence and abundance of her cooking.
"She ain't got no chance," said her husband. "She's got too much
to do and it's awful hard to get help. Of course, there's Mandy."
"Of course, there's Mandy," echoed his wife. "I guess you'd just
better say, 'There's Mandy.' She's the whole thing is Mandy. What
I'd do without her goodness only knows."
But Mandy was no longer present to enjoy her mother's enconiums.
Her voice could be heard in the yard making fierce response to
Perkins' jesting remarks. As Cameron was passing out from the
kitchen he heard her bitter declaration: "I don't care, it was
real mean of you, and I'll pay you for it yet, Mr. Perkins--before
a stranger, too." Mandy's voice suggested tears.
"Oh, pshaw, Mandy!" remonstrated Perkins, "it was all a joke, and
who cares for him anyway, unless it's yourself?"
But Mandy, catching sight of Cameron, fled with fiery face behind
the kitchen, leaving Perkins gazing after her with an apologetic
grin upon his countenance.
"She's rather hot under the collar," he confided to Cameron, "but
she needn't get so, I didn't mean nothin'."
Cameron ignored him. He was conscious mainly of a resolute
determination that at all costs he must not yield to his almost
uncontrollable desire to wipe off the apologetic smile with a well
directed blow. Mr. Denman's parting advice was in his mind and he
was devoting all his powers to the business of adjusting himself to
his present environment. But to his fastidious nature the
experiences of the morning made it somewhat doubtful if he should
be able to carry out the policy of adjustment to the extreme of
schooling himself to bear with equal mind the daily contact with
the dirt and disorder which held so large a place in the domestic
economy of the Haley household. One thing he was firmly resolved
upon, he would henceforth perform his toilet in his own room, and
thereby save himself the horror of the family roller towel and the
family comb.
Breakfast over, the men stood waiting orders for the day.
"We'll have to crowd them turnips through, Tim," said his father,
who seemed to avoid as far as possible giving direct orders to his
men. "Next week we'll have to git at the hay." So to the turnip
field they went.
It is one of the many limitations of a city-bred boy that he knows
nothing of the life history and the culture of the things that grow
upon a farm. Apples and potatoes he recognises when they appear as
articles of diet upon the table; oats and wheat he vaguely
associates in some mysterious and remote way with porridge and
bread, but whether potatoes grow on trees or oats in pods he has no
certain knowledge. Blessed is the country boy for many reasons,
but for none more than this, that the world of living and growing
things, animate and inanimate, is one which he has explored and
which he intimately knows; and blessed is the city boy for whom his
wise parents provide means of acquaintance with this wonder
workshop of old mother Nature, God's own open country.
Turnip-hoeing is an art, a fine art, demanding all the talents of
high genius, a true eye, a sure hand, a sensitive conscience,
industry, courage, endurance, and pride in achievement. These and
other gifts are necessary to high success. Not to every man is it
given to become a turnip-hoer in the truest sense of that word.
The art is achieved only after long and patient devotion, and,
indeed, many never attain high excellence. Of course, therefore,
there are grades of artists in this as in other departments. There
are turnip-hoers and turnip-hoers, just as there are painters and
painters. It was Tim's ambition to be the first turnip-hoer of his
district, and toward this end he had striven both last season and
this with a devotion that deserved, if it did not achieve, success.
Quietly he had been patterning himself upon that master artist,
Perkins, who for some years had easily held the championship for
the district. Keenly Tim had been observing Perkins' excellencies
and also his defects; secretly he had been developing a style of
his own, and, all unnoted, he had tested his speed by that of
Perkins by adopting the method of lazily loafing along and then
catching up by a few minutes of whirlwind work. Tim felt in his
soul the day of battle could not be delayed past this season;
indeed, it might come any day. The very thought of it made his
slight body quiver and his heart beat so quickly as almost to choke
him.
To the turnip field hied Haley's men, Perkins and Webster leading
the way, Tim and Cameron bringing up the rear.
"You promised to show me how to do it, Tim," said Cameron.
"Remember I shall be very slow."
"Oh, shucks!" replied Tim, "turnip-hoeing is as easy as rollin' off
a log if yeh know how to do it."
"Exactly!" cried Cameron, "but that is what I don't. You might
give me some pointers."
"Well, you must be able to hit what yeh aim at."
"Ah! that means a good eye and steady hand," said Cameron. "Well,
I can do billiards some and golf. What else?"
"Well, you mustn't be too careful, slash right in and don't give a
rip."
"Ah! nerve, eh!" said Cameron. "Well, I have done some Rugby in my
day--I know something of that. What else? This sounds good."
"Then you've got to leave only one turnip in one place and not a
weed; and you mustn't leave any blanks. Dad gets hot over that."
"Indeed, one turnip in each place and not a weed," echoed Cameron.
"Say! this business grows interesting. No blanks! Anything else?"
he demanded.
"No, I guess not, only if yeh ever git into a race ye've got to
keep goin' after you're clear tuckered out and never let on. You
see the other chap may be feelin' worse than you."
"By Jove, Tim! you're a born general!" exclaimed Cameron. "You
will go some distance if you keep on in that line. Now as to
racing let me venture a word, for I have done a little in my time.
Don't spurt too soon."
"Eh!" said Tim, all eagerness.
"Don't get into your racing stride too early in the day, especially
if you are up against a stronger man. Wait till you know you can
stay till the end and then put your best licks in at the finish."
Tim pondered.
"By Jimminy! you're right," he cried, a glad light in his eye, and
a touch of colour in his pale cheek, and Cameron knew he was
studying war.
The turnip field, let it be said for the enlightening of the
benighted and unfortunate city-bred folk, is laid out in a series
of drills, a drill being a long ridge of earth some six inches in
height, some eight inches broad on the top and twelve at the base.
Upon each drill the seed has been sown in one continuous line from
end to end of the field. When this seed has grown each drill will
discover a line of delicate green, this line being nothing less
than a compact growth of young turnip plants with weeds more or
less thickly interspersed. The operation of hoeing consists in the
eliminating of the weeds and the superfluous turnip plants in order
that single plants, free from weeds, may be left some eight inches
apart in unbroken line, extending the whole length of the drill.
The artistic hoer, however, is not content with this. His artistic
soul demands not only that single plants should stand in unbroken
row from end to end along the drill top, but that the drill itself
should be pared down on each side to the likeness of a house roof
with a perfectly even ridge.
"Ever hoe turnips?" enquired Perkins.
"Never," said Cameron, "and I am afraid I won't make much of a fist
at it."
"Well, you've come to a good place to learn, eh, Tim! We'll show
him, won't we?"
Tim made no reply, but simply handed Cameron a hoe and picked up
his own.
"Now, show me, Tim," said Cameron in a low voice, as Perkins and
Webster set off on their drills.
"This is how you do it," replied Tim. "Click-click," forward and
back went Tim's sharp shining instrument, leaving a single plant
standing shyly alone where had boldly bunched a score or more a
moment before. "Click-click-click," and the flat-topped drill
stood free of weeds and superfluous turnip plants and trimmed to
its proper roof-like appearance.
"I say!" exclaimed Cameron, "this is high art. I shall never reach
your class, though, Tim."
"Oh, shucks!" said Tim, "slash in, don't be afraid." Cameron
slashed in. "Click-click," "Click-click-click," when lo! a long
blank space of drill looked up reproachfully at him.
"Oh, Tim! look at this mess," he said in disgust.
"Never mind!" said Tim, "let her rip. Better stick one in though.
Blanks look bad at the END of the drill." So saying, he made a
hole in Cameron's drill and with his hoe dug up a bunch of plants
from another drill and patted them firmly into place, and, weeding
out the unnecessary plants, left a single turnip in its proper
place.
"Oh, come, that isn't so bad," said Cameron. "We can always fill
up the blanks."
"Yes, but it takes time," replied Tim, evidently with the racing
fever in his blood. Patiently Tim schooled his pupil throughout
the forenoon, and before the dinner hour had come Cameron was
making what to Tim appeared satisfactory progress. It was greatly
in Cameron's favor that he possessed a trained and true eye and a
steady hand and that he was quick in all his movements.
"You're doin' splendid," cried Tim, full of admiration.
"I say, Scotty!" said Perkins, coming up and casting a critical eye
along Cameron's last drill, "you're going to make a turnip-hoer all
right."
"I've got a good teacher, you see," cried Cameron.
"You bet you have," said Perkins. "I taught Tim myself, and in two
or three years he'll be almost as good as I am, eh, Tim!"
"Huh!" grunted Tim, contemptuously, but let it go at that.
"Perhaps you think you're that now, eh, Tim?" said Perkins, seizing
the boy by the back of the neck and rubbing his hand over his hair
in a manner perfectly maddening. "Don't you get too perky, young
feller, or I'll hang your shirt on the fence before the day's
done."
Tim wriggled out of his grasp and kept silent. He was not yet
ready with his challenge. All through the afternoon he stayed
behind with Cameron, allowing the other two to help them out at the
end of each drill, but as the day wore on there was less and less
need of assistance for Cameron, for he was making rapid progress
with his work and Tim was able to do, not only his own drill, but
almost half of Cameron's as well. By supper time Cameron was
thoroughly done out. Never had a day seemed so long, never had he
known that he possessed so many muscles in his back. The continuous
stooping and the steady click-click of the hoe, together with the
unceasing strain of hand and eye, and all this under the hot burning
rays of a June sun, so exhausted his vitality that when the cow bell
rang for supper it seemed to him a sound more delightful than the
strains of a Richter orchestra in a Beethoven symphony.
On the way back to the field after supper Cameron observed that Tim
was in a state of suppressed excitement and it dawned upon him that
the hour of his challenge of Perkins' supremacy as a turnip-hoer
was at hand.
"I say, Tim, boy!" he said earnestly, "listen to me. You are going
to get after Perkins this evening, eh?"
"How did you know?" said Tim, in surprise.
"Never mind! Now listen to me; I have raced myself some and I have
trained men to race. Are you not too tired with your day's work?"
"Tired! Not a bit," said the gallant little soul scornfully.
"Well, all right. It's nice and cool and you can't hurt yourself
much. Now, how many drills do you do after supper as a rule?"
"Down and up twice," said Tim.
"How many drills can you do at your top speed, your very top speed,
remember?"
"About two drills, I guess," replied Tim, after a moment's thought.
"Now, listen to me!" said Cameron impressively. "Go quietly for
two and a half drills, then let yourself out and go your best.
And, listen! I have been watching you this afternoon. You have
easily done once and a half what Perkins has done and you are going
to lick him out of his boots."
Tim gulped a moment or two, looked at his friend with glistening
eyes, but said not a word. For the first two and a half drills
Cameron exerted to the highest degree his conversational powers
with the two-fold purpose of holding back Perkins and Webster and
also of so occupying Tim's mind that he might forget for a time the
approaching conflict, the strain of waiting for which he knew would
be exhausting for the lad. But when the middle of the second last
drill had been reached, Tim began unconsciously to quicken his
speed.
"I say, Tim," called Cameron, "come here! Am I getting these
spaces too wide?" Tim came over to his side. "Now, Tim," said
Cameron, in a low voice, "wait a little longer; you can never wear
him out. Your only chance is in speed. Wait till the last drill."
But Tim was not to be held back. Back he went to his place and
with a rush brought his drill up even with Webster, passed him, and
in a few moments like a whirlwind passed Perkins and took the lead.
"Hello, Timmy! where are you going?" asked Perkins, in surprise.
"Home," said Tim proudly, "and I'll tell 'em you're comin'."
"All right, Timmy, my son!" replied Perkins with a laugh, "tell
them you won't need no hot bath; I'm after you."
"Click-click," "Click-click-click" was Tim's only answer. It was a
distinct challenge, and, while not openly breaking into racing
speed, Perkins accepted it.
For some minutes Webster quickened his pace in an attempt to follow
the leaders, but soon gave it up and fell back to help Cameron up
with his drill, remarking, "I ain't no blamed fool. I ain't going
to bust myself for any man. THEY'RE racing, not me."
"Will Tim win?" enquired Cameron.
"Naw! Not this year! Why, Perkins is the best man in the whole
country at turnips. He took the Agricultural Society's prize two
years ago."
"I believe Tim will beat him," said Cameron confidently, with his
eyes upon the two in front.
"Beat nothing!" said Webster. "You just wait a bit, Perkins isn't
letting himself out yet."
In a short time Tim finished his drill some distance ahead, and
then, though it was quitting time, without a pause he swung into
the next.
"Hello, Timmy!" cried Perkins good-naturedly, "going to work all
night, eh? Well, I'll just take a whirl out of you," and for the
first time he frankly threw himself into his racing gait.
"Good boy, Tim!" called out Cameron, as Tim bore down upon them,
still in the lead and going like a small steam engine. "You're all
right and going easy. Don't worry!"
But Perkins, putting on a great spurt, drew up within a hoe-handle
length of Tim and there held his place.
"All right, Tim, my boy, you can hold him," cried Cameron, as the
racers came down upon him.
"He can, eh?" replied Perkins. "I'll show him and you," and with
an accession of speed he drew up on a level with Tim.
"Ah, ha! Timmy, my boy! we've got you where we want you, I guess,"
he exulted, and, with a whoop and still increasing his speed, he
drew past the boy.
But Cameron, who was narrowly observing the combatants and their
work, called out again:
"Don't worry, Tim, you're doing nice clean work and doing it
easily." The inference was obvious, and Perkins, who had been
slashing wildly and leaving many blanks and weeds behind him where
neither blanks nor weeds should be, steadied down somewhat, and,
taking more pains with his work, began to lose ground, while Tim,
whose work was without flaw, moved again to the front place. There
remained half a drill to be done and the issue was still uncertain.
With half the length of a hoe handle between them the two clicked
along at a furious pace. Tim's hat had fallen off. His face
showed white and his breath was coming fast, but there was no
slackening of speed, and the cleanness and ease with which he was
doing his work showed that there was still some reserve in him.
They were approaching the last quarter when, with a yell, Perkins
threw himself again with a wild recklessness into his work, and
again he gained upon Tim and passed him.
"Steady, Tim!" cried Cameron, who, with Webster, had given up their
own work, it being, as the latter remarked, "quitting time anyway,"
and were following up the racers. "Don't spoil your work, Tim!"
continued Cameron, "don't worry."
His words caught the boy at a critical moment, for Perkins' yell
and his fresh exhibition of speed had shaken the lad's nerve. But
Cameron's voice steadied him, and, quickly responding, Tim settled
down again into his old style, while Perkins was still in the lead,
but slashing wildly.
"Fine work, Tim," said Cameron quietly, "and you can do better
yet." For a few paces he walked behind the boy, steadying him now
and then with a quiet word, then, recognising that the crisis of
the struggle was at hand, and believing that the boy had still some
reserve of speed and strength, he began to call on him.
"Come on, Tim! Quicker, quicker; come on, boy, you can do better!"
His words, and his tone more than his words, were like a spur to
the boy. From some secret source of supply he called up an
unsuspected reserve of strength and speed and, still keeping up his
clean cutting finished style, foot by foot he drew away from
Perkins, who followed in the rear, slashing more wildly than ever.
The race was practically won. Tim was well in the lead, and
apparently gaining speed with every click of his hoe.
"Here, you fellers, what are yeh hashin' them turnips for?" It was
Haley's voice, who, unperceived, had come into the field. Tim's
reply was a letting out of his last ounce of strength in a perfect
fury of endeavour.
"There--ain't--no--hashin'--on this--drill--Dad!" he panted.
The sudden demand for careful work, however, at once lowered
Perkins' rate of speed. He fell rapidly behind and, after a few
moments of further struggle, threw down his hoe with a whoop and
called out, "Quitting time, I guess," and, striding after Tim, he
caught him by the arms and swung him round clear off the ground.
"Here, let me go!" gasped the boy, kicking, squirming, and trying
to strike his antagonist with his hoe.
"Let the boy go!" said Cameron. The tone in his voice arrested
Perkins' attention.
"What's your business?" he cried, with an oath, dropping the boy
and turning fiercely upon Cameron.
"Oh, nothing very much, except that Tim's my candidate in this race
and he mustn't be interfered with," replied Cameron in a voice
still quiet and with a pleasant smile.
Perkins was white and panting; in a moment more he would have
hurled himself at the man who stood smiling quietly in his face.
At this critical moment Haley interposed.
"What's the row, boys?" he enquired, recognising that something
serious was on.
"We have been having a little excitement, Sir, in the form of a
race," replied Cameron, "and I've been backing Tim."
"Looks as if you've got him wound up so's he can't stop," replied
Haley, pointing to the boy, who was still going at racing pace and
was just finishing his drill. "Oh, well, a boy's a boy and you've
got to humour him now and then," continued Haley, making conversation
with diplomatic skill. Then turning to Perkins, as if dismissing a
trivial subject, he added, "Looks to me as if that hay in the lower
meadow is pretty nigh fit to cut. Guess we'd better not wait till
next week. You best start Tim on that with the mower in the
mornin'." Then, taking a survey of the heavens, he added, "Looks
as if it might be a spell of good weather." His diplomacy was
successful and the moment of danger was past. Meantime Cameron had
sauntered to the end of the drill where Tim stood leaning quietly on
his hoe.
"Tim, you are a turnip-hoer!" he said, with warm admiration in his
tone, "and what's more, Tim, you're a sport. I'd like to handle
you in something big. You will make a man yet."
Tim's whole face flushed a warm red under the coat of freckles.
For a time he stood silently contemplating the turnips, then with
difficulty he found his voice.
"It was you done it," he said, choking over his words. "I was beat
there and was just quittin' when you came along and spoke. My!" he
continued, with a sharp intake of his breath, "I was awful near
quittin'," and then, looking straight into Cameron's eyes, "It was
you done it, and--I--won't forget." His voice choked again, but,
reading his eyes, Cameron knew that he had gained one of life's
greatest treasures, a boy's adoring gratitude.
"This has been a great day, Tim," said Cameron. "I have learned
to hoe turnips, and," putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "I
believe I have made a friend." Again the hot blood surged into
Tim's face. He stood voiceless, but he needed no words. Cameron
knew well the passionate emotion that thrilled his soul and shook
the slight body, trembling under his hand. For Tim, too, it had
been a notable day. He had achieved the greatest ambition of his
life in beating the best turnip-hoer on the line, and he, too, had
found what to a boy is a priceless treasure, a man upon whom he
could lavish the hero worship of his soul.
CHAPTER IV
A RAINY DAY
It was haying time. Over the fields of yellowing fall wheat and
barley, of grey timothy and purple clover, the heat shimmered in
dancing waves. Everywhere the growing crops were drinking in the
light and heat with eager thirst, for the call of the harvest was
ringing through the land. The air was sweet with scents of the hay
fields, and the whole country side was humming with the sound of
the mowers. It was the crowning time of the year; toward this
season all the life of the farm moved steadily the whole year long;
the next two months or three would bring to the farmer the fruit of
long days of toil and waiting. Every minute of these harvest days,
from the early grey dawn, when Mandy called the cows in for the
milking, till the long shadows from the orchard lay quite across
the wide barley field, when Tim, handling his team with careless
pride, drove in the last load for the day, every minute was packed
full of life and action. But though busy were the days and full of
hard and at times back-breaking and nerve-straining work, what of
it? The colour, the rush, the eager race with the flying hours,
the sense of triumph, the promise of wealth, the certainty of
comfort, all these helped to carry off the heaviest toil with a
swing and vim that banished aches from the body and weariness from
the soul.
To Cameron, all unskilled as he was, the days brought many an hour
of strenuous toil, but every day his muscles were knitting more
firmly, his hands were hardening, and his mastery of himself
growing more complete.
In haying there is no large place for skill. This operation,
unlike that of turnip-hoeing, demands chiefly strength, quickness,
and endurance, and especially endurance. To stand all day in the
hay field under the burning sun with its rays leaping back from the
super-heated ground, and roll up the windrows into huge bundles and
toss them on to the wagon, or to run up a long line of cocks and
heave them fork-handle high to the top of a load, calls for
something of skill, but mainly for strength of arm and back. But
skill had its place, and once more it was Tim who stood close to
Cameron and showed him all the tricks of pitching hay. It was Tim
who showed him how to stand with his back to the wagon so as to get
the load properly poised with the least expenditure of strength; it
was Tim who taught him the cunning trick of using his thigh as a
fulcrum in getting his load up, rather than doing it by "main
strength and awkwardness"; it was Tim who demonstrated the method
of lifting half a cock by running the end of the fork handle into
the ground so that the whole earth might aid in the hoisting of the
load. Of course in all this Cameron's intelligence and quickness
stood him in the place of long experience, and before the first
day's hauling was done he was able to keep his wagon going.
But with all the stimulus of the harvest movement and colour,
Cameron found himself growing weary of the life on the Haley farm.
It was not the long days, and to none on the farm were the days
longer than to Cameron, who had taken upon himself the duty of
supplying the kitchen with wood and water, no small business,
either at the beginning or at the end of a long day's work; it was
not the heavy toil; it was chiefly the continuous contact with the
dirt and disorder of his environment that wore his body down and
his spirit raw. No matter with how keen a hunger did he approach
the dinner table, the disgusting filth everywhere apparent would
cause his gorge to rise and, followed by the cheerful gibes of
Perkins, he would retire often with his strength unrecruited and
his hunger unappeased, and, though he gradually achieved a certain
skill in picking his way through a meal, selecting such articles of
food as could be less affected than others by the unsavoury
surroundings, the want of appetising and nourishing food told
disastrously upon his strength. His sleep, too, was broken and
disturbed by the necessity of sharing a bed with Webster. He had
never been accustomed to "doubling up," and under the most
favourable circumstances the experience would not have been
conducive to sound sleep, but Webster's manner of life was not such
as to render him an altogether desirable bed-fellow. For, while
the majority of farm lads in the neighbourhood made at least semi-
weekly pilgrimages to the "dam" for a swim, Webster felt no
necessity laid upon him for such an expenditure of energy after a
hard and sweaty day in the field. His ideas of hygiene were of the
most elementary nature; hence it was his nightly custom, when
released from the toils of the day, to proceed upstairs to his room
and, slipping his braces from his shoulders, allow his nether
garments to drop to the floor and, without further preparation,
roll into bed. Of the effeminacy of a night robe Webster knew
nothing except by somewhat hazy rumour. Once under the patchwork
quilt he was safe for the night, for, heaving himself into the
middle of the bed, he sank into solid and stertorous slumber, from
which all Cameron's prods and kicks failed to arouse him till the
grey dawn once more summoned him to life, whereupon, resuming the
aforesaid nether garments, he was once more simply, but in his
opinion quite sufficiently, equipped for his place among men. Many
nights did it happen that the stertorous melody of Webster's all
too odourous slumbers drove Cameron to find a bed upon the floor.
Once again Tim was his friend, for it was to Tim that Cameron owed
the blissful experience of a night in the hay loft upon the newly
harvested hay. There, buried in its fragrant depths and drawing
deep breaths of the clean unbreathed air that swept in through the
great open barn doors, Cameron experienced a joy hitherto undreamed
of in association with the very commonplace exercise of sleep.
After his first night in the hay mow, which he shared with Tim, he
awoke refreshed in body and with a new courage in his heart.
"By Jove, Tim! That's the finest thing I ever had in the way of
sleep. Now if we only had a tub."
"Tub! What for?"
"A dip, my boy, a splash."
"To wash in?" enquired Tim, wondering at the exuberance of his
friend's desires. "I'll get a tub," he added, and, running to the
house, returned with wash tub and towel.
"Tim, my boy, you're a jewel!" exclaimed Cameron.
From the stable cistern they filled the vessel full and first
Cameron and, after persuasion and with rather dubious delight, Tim
tasted the joy of a morning tub. Henceforth life became distinctly
more endurable to Cameron.
But, more than all the other irritating elements in his environment
put together, Cameron chafed under the unceasing rasp of Perkins'
wit, clever, if somewhat crude and cumbrous. Perkins had never
forgotten nor forgiven his defeat at the turnip-hoeing, which he
attributed chiefly to Cameron. His gibes at Cameron's awkwardness
in the various operations on the farm, his readiness to seize every
opportunity for ridicule, his skill at creating awkward situations,
all these sensibly increased the wear on Cameron's spirit. All
these, however, Cameron felt he could put up with without endangering
his self-control, but when Perkins, with vulgar innuendo, chaffed
the farmer's daughter upon her infatuation for the "young Scotty,"
as he invariably designated Cameron, or when he rallied Cameron upon
his supposed triumph in the matter of Mandy's youthful affections,
then Cameron raged and with difficulty kept his hands from his
cheerful and ever smiling tormentor. It did not help matters much
that apparently Mandy took no offense at Perkins' insinuations;
indeed, it gradually dawned upon Cameron that what to him would seem
a vulgar impertinence might to this uncultured girl appear no more
than a harmless pleasantry. At all costs he was resolved that under
no circumstances would he allow his self-control to be broken
through. He would finish out his term with the farmer without any
violent outbreak. It was quite possible that Perkins and others
would take him for a chicken-hearted fool, but all the same he would
maintain this attitude of resolute self-control to the very end.
After all, what mattered the silly gibes of an ignorant boor? And
when his term was done he would abandon the farm life forever. It
took but little calculation to make quite clear that there was not
much to hope for in the way of advancement from farming in this part
of Canada. Even Perkins, who received the very highest wage in that
neighbourhood, made no more than $300 a year; and, with land at
sixty to seventy-five dollars per acre, it seemed to him that he
would be an old man before he could become the owner of a farm. He
was heart sick of the pettiness and sordidness of the farm life,
whose horizon seemed to be that of the hundred acres or so that
comprised it. Therefore he resolved that to the great West he would
go, that great wonderful West with its vast spaces and its vast
possibilities of achievement. The rumour of it filled the country
side. Meantime for two months longer he would endure.
A rainy day brought relief. Oh, the blessed Sabbath of a rainy
day, when the wheels stop and silence falls in the fields; and time
tired harvest hands recline at ease upon the new cut and sweet
smelling hay on the barn floor, and through the wide open doors
look out upon the falling rain that roars upon the shingles, pours
down in cataracts from the eaves and washes clean the air that
wanders in, laden with those subtle scents that old mother earth
releases only when the rain falls. Oh, happy rainy days in harvest
time when, undisturbed by conscience, the weary toilers stretch and
slumber and wake to lark and chaff in careless ease the long hours
through!
In the Haleys' barn they were all gathered, gazing lazily and with
undisturbed content at the steady downpour that indicated an all-
day rest. Even Haley, upon whose crops the rain was teeming down,
was enjoying the rest from the toil, for most of the hay that had
been cut was already in cock or in the barn. Besides, Haley worked
as hard as the best of them and welcomed a day's rest. So let it
rain!
While they lay upon the hay on the barn floor, with tired muscles
all relaxed, drinking in the fragrant airs that stole in from the
rain-washed skies outside, in the slackening of the rain two
neighbours dropped in, big "Mack" Murray and his brother Danny, for
a "crack" about things in general and especially to discuss the
Dominion Day picnic which was coming off at the end of the following
week. This picnic was to be something out of the ordinary, for, in
addition to the usual feasting and frolicking, there was advertised
an athletic contest of a superior order, the prizes in which were
sufficiently attractive to draw, not only local athletes, but even
some of the best from the neighbouring city. A crack runner was
expected and perhaps even McGee, the big policeman of the London
City force, a hammer thrower of fame, might be present.
"Let him come, eh, Mack?" said Perkins. "I guess we ain't afraid
of no city bug beating you with the hammer."
"Oh! I'm no thrower," said Mack modestly. "I just take the thing
up and give it a fling. I haven't got the trick of it at all."
"Have you practised much?" said Cameron, whose heart warmed at the
accent that might have been transplanted that very day from his own
North country.
"Never at all, except now and then at the blacksmith's shop on a
rainy day," replied Mack. "Have you done anything at it?"
"Oh, I have seen a good deal of it at the games in the north of
Scotland," replied Cameron.
"Man! I wish we had a hammer and you could show me the trick of
it," said Mack fervently, "for they will be looking to me to throw
and I do not wish to be beaten just too easily."
"There's a big mason's hammer," said Tim, "in the tool house, I
think."
"Get it, Tim, then," said Mack eagerly, "and we will have a little
practise at it, for throw I must, and I have no wish to bring
discredit on my country, for it will be a big day. They will be
coming from all over. The Band of the Seventh is coming out and
Piper Sutherland from Zorra will be there."
"A piper!" echoed Cameron. "Is there much pipe playing in this
country?"
"Indeed, you may say that!" said Mack, "and good pipers they are
too, they tell me. Piper Sutherland, I think, was of the old
Forty-twa. Are you a piper, perhaps?" continued Mack.
"Oh, I play a little," said Cameron. "I have a set in the house."
"God bless my soul!" cried Mack, "and we never knew it. Tell Danny
where they are and he will fetch them out. Go, Danny!"
"Never mind, I will get them myself," said Cameron, trying to
conceal his eagerness, for he had long been itching for a chance to
play and his fingers were now tingling for the chanter.
It was an occasion of great delight, not only to big Mack and his
brother Danny and the others, but to Cameron himself. Up and down
the floor he marched, making the rafters of the big barn ring with
the ancient martial airs of Scotland and then, dropping into a
lighter strain, he set their feet a-rapping with reels and
strathspeys.
"Man, yon's great playing!" cried Mack with fervent enthusiasm to
the company who had gathered to the summons of the pipes from the
house and from the high road, "and think of him keeping them in his
chest all this time! And what else can you do?" went on Mack, with
the enthusiasm of a discoverer. "You have been in the big games,
too, I warrant you."
Cameron confessed to some experience of these thrilling events.
"Bless my soul! We will put you against the big folk from the
city. Come and show us the hammer," said Mack, leading the way out
of the barn, for the rain had ceased, with a big mason's hammer in
his hand. It needed but a single throw to make it quite clear to
Cameron that Mack was greatly in need of coaching. As he said
himself he "just took up the thing and gave it a fling." A mighty
fling, too, it proved to be.
"Twenty-eight paces!" cried Cameron, and then, to make sure,
stepped it back again. "Yes," he said, "twenty-eight paces, nearly
twenty-nine. Great Caesar! Mack, if you only had the Braemar
swing you would be a famous thrower."
"Och, now, you are just joking me!" said Mack modestly.
"You can add twenty feet easily to your throw if you get the
swing," asserted Cameron. "Look here, now, get this swing," and
Cameron demonstrated in his best style the famous Braemar swing.
"Thirty-two paces!" said Mack in amazement after he had measured
the throw. "Man alive! you can beat McGee, let alone myself."
"Now, Mack, get the throw," said Cameron, with enthusiasm. "You
will be a great thrower." But try though he might Mack failed to
get the swing.
"Man, come over to-night and bring your pipes. Danny will fetch
out his fiddle and we will have a bit of a frolic, and," he added,
as if in an afterthought, "I have a big hammer yonder, the
regulation size. We might have a throw or so."
"Thanks, I will be sure to come," said Cameron eagerly.
"Come, all of you," said Mack, "and you too, Mandy. We will clear
out the barn floor and have a regular hoe-down."
"Oh, pshaw!" giggled Mandy, tossing her head. "I can't dance."
"Oh, come along and watch me, then," said Mack, in good humour,
who, with all his two hundred pounds, was lightfooted as a girl.
The Murrays' new big bank barn was considered the finest in the
country and the new floor was still quite smooth and eminently
suited to a "hoe-down." Before the darkness had fallen, however,
Mack drew Cameron, with Danny, Perkins, and a few of the neighbours
who had dropped in, out to the lane and, giving him a big hammer,
"Try that," he said, with some doubt in his tone.
Cameron took the hammer.
"This is the right thing. The weight of it will make more
difference to me, however, than to you, Mack."
"Oh, I'm not so sure," said Mack. "Show us how you do it."
The first throw Cameron took easily.
"Twenty-nine paces!" cried Mack, after stepping it off. "Man!
that's a great throw, and you do it easy."
"Not much of a throw," laughed Cameron. "Try it yourself."
Ignoring the swing, Mack tried the throw in his own style and
hurled the hammer two paces beyond Cameron's throw.
"You did that with your arms only," said Cameron. "Now you must
put legs and shoulders into it."
"Let's see you beat that throw yourself," laughed Perkins, who was
by no means pleased with the sudden distinction that had come to
the "Scotty."
Cameron took the hammer and, with the easy slow grace of the
Braemar swing, made his throw.
"Hooray!" yelled Danny, who was doing the measuring. "You got it
yon time for sure. Three paces to the good. You'll have to put
your back into it, Mack, I guess."
Once more Mack seized the hammer. Then Cameron took Mack in hand
and, over and over again, coached him in the poise and swing.
"Now try it, and think of your legs and back. Let the hammer take
care of itself. Now, nice and easy and slow, not far this time."
Again and again Mack practised the swing.
"You're getting it!" cried Cameron enthusiastically, "but you are
trying too hard. Forget the distance this time and think only of
the easy slow swing. Let your muscles go slack." So he coached
his pupil.
At length, after many attempts, Mack succeeded in delivering his
hammer according to instructions.
"Man! you are right!" he exclaimed. "That's the trick of it and it
is as smooth as oil."
"Keep it up, Mack," said Cameron, "and always easy."
Over and over again he put the big man through the swing till he
began to catch the notion of the rhythmic, harmonious cooperation
of the various muscles in legs and shoulders and arms so necessary
to the highest result.
"You've got the swing, Mack," at length said Cameron. "Now then,
this time let yourself go. Don't try your best, but let yourself
out. Easy, now, easy. Get it first in your mind."
For a moment Mack stood pondering. He was "getting it in his
mind." Then, with a long swing, easy and slow, he gave the great
hammer a mighty heave. With a shout the company crowded about.
"Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven!
Hooray! bully for you, Mack. You are the lad!"
"Get the line on it," said Mack quietly. The measuring line showed
one hundred and eleven and a half feet. The boys crowded round
him, exclaiming, cheering, patting him on the back. Mack received
the congratulations in silence, then, turning to Cameron, said very
earnestly:
"Man! yon's as easy as eating butter. You have done me a good turn
to-day."
"Oh, that's nothing, Mack," said Cameron, who was more pleased than
any of them. "You got the swing perfectly that time. You can put
twenty feet to that throw. One hundred and eleven feet! Why, I
can beat that myself."
"Man alive! Do you tell me now!" said Mack in amazement, running
his eyes over Cameron's lean muscular body.
"I have done it often when I was in shape."
"Oh, rats!" said Perkins with a laugh. "Where was that?"
Cameron flushed a deep red, then turned pale, but kept silent.
"I believe you, my boy," said Mack with emphasis and facing sharply
upon Perkins, "and if ever I do a big throw I will owe it to you."
"Oh, come off!" said Perkins, again laughing scornfully. "There
are others that know the swing besides Scotty here. What you have
got you owe to no one but yourself, Mack."
"If I beat the man McGee next week," said Mack quietly, "it will be
from what I learned to-night, and I know what I am saying. Man!
it's a lucky thing we found you. But that will do for just now.
Come along to the barn. Hooray for the pipes and the lassies!
They are worth all the hammers in the world!" And, putting his arm
through Cameron's, he led the way to the barn, followed by the
others.
"If Scotty could only hoe turnips and tie wheat as well as he can
play the pipes and throw the hammer," said Perkins to the others as
they followed in the rear, "I guess he'd soon have us all leaning
against the fence to dry."
"He will, too, some day," said Tim, whose indignation at Perkins
overcame the shyness which usually kept him silent in the presence
of older men.
"Hello, Timmy! What are you chipping in for?" said Perkins,
reaching for the boy's coat collar. "He thinks this Scotty is the
whole works, and he is great too--at showing people how to do
things."
"I hear he showed Tim how to hoe turnips," said one of the boys
slyly. The laugh that followed showed that the story of Tim's
triumph over the champion had gone abroad.
"Oh, rot!" said Perkins angrily. "Tim's got a little too perky
because I let him get ahead of me one night in a drill of turnips."
"Yeh done yer best, didn't he, Webster?" cried Tim with indignation.
"Well, he certainly was making some pretty big gashes in them
drills," said Webster slowly.
"Oh, get out!" replied Perkins. "Though all the same Tim's quite a
turnip-hoer," he conceded. "Hello! There's quite a crowd in the
barn, Danny. I wish I had my store clothes on."
At this a girl came running to meet them.
"Come on, Danny! Tune up. I can hardly keep my heels on my
boots."
"Oh, you'll not be wanting my little fiddle after you have heard
Cameron on the pipes, Isa."
"Never you fear that, Danny," replied Isa, catching him by the arm
and hurrying him onward.
"Wait a minute. I want you to meet Mr. Cameron," said Danny.
"Come away, then," replied Isa. "I am dying to get done with it
and get the fiddle going."
But Cameron was in the meantime engaged, for Mack was busy
introducing him to a bevy of girls who stood at one corner of the
barn floor.
"My! but he's a braw lad!" said Isa gayly, as she watched Cameron
making his bows.
"Yes, he is that," replied Danny with enthusiastic admiration, "and
a hammer-thrower, too, he is."
"What! yon stripling?"
"You may say it. He can beat Mack there."
"Mack!" cried Isa, with scorn. "It's just big lies you are telling
me."
"Indeed, he has beaten Mack's best throw many a time."
"And how do you know?" exclaimed Isa.
"He said so himself."
"Ah ha!" said Isa scornfully. "He is good at blowing his own horn
whatever, and I don't believe he can beat Mack--and I don't like
him a bit," she continued, her dark eyes flashing and the red
colour glowing in her full round cheek.
"Come, Isa!" cried Mack, catching sight of her in the dim light.
"Come here, I want Mr. Cameron to meet you."
"How do you do?" said the girl, giving Cameron her hand and
glancing saucily into his face. "I hear you are a piper and a
hammer-thrower and altogether a wonderful man."
"A wonderfully lucky man, to have the pleasure of meeting you,"
said Cameron, glancing boldly back at her.
"And I am sure you can dance the fling," continued Isa. "All the
Highlanders do."
"Not all," said Cameron. "But with certain partners all Highlanders
would love to try."
"Oh aye," with a soft Highland accent that warmed Cameron's blood.
"I see you have the tongue. Come away, Danny, now, strike up, or I
will go on without you." And the girl kilted her skirts and began
a reel, and as Mack's eyes followed her every step there was no
mistaking their expression. To Mack there was only one girl in the
barn, or in all the world for that matter, and that was the leal-
hearted, light-footed, black-eyed Isa MacKenzie. Bonnie she was,
and that she well knew, the belle of the whole township, driving
the men to distraction and for all that holding the love of her own
sex as well. But her heart was still her own, or at least she
thought it was, for all big Mack Murray's open and simple-hearted
adoration, and she was ready for a frolic with any man who could
give her word for word or dance with her the Highland reel.
With the courtesy of a true gentleman, Danny led off with his
fiddle till they had all got thoroughly into the spirit and swing
of the frolic, and then, putting his instrument back into its bag,
he declared that they were all tired of it and were waiting for the
pipes.
"Not a bit of it!" cried Isa. "But we will give you a rest, Danny,
and besides I want to dance a reel with you myself--though Mr.
Cameron is not bad," she added, with a little bow to Cameron, with
whom she had just finished a reel.
Readily enough Cameron tuned his pipes, for he was aching to get
at them and only too glad to furnish music for the gay company of
kindly hearted folk who were giving him his first evening's
pleasure since he had left the Cuagh Oir.
From reel to schottische and from schottische to reel, foursome and
eightsome, they kept him playing, ever asking for more, till the
gloaming passed into moonlight and still they were not done. The
respite came through Mandy, who, solid in weight and heavy of foot,
had laboured through the reels as often as she could get a partner,
and at other times had sat gazing in rapt devotion upon the piper.
"Whoop her up again, Scotty!" cried Perkins, when Cameron paused at
the end of a reel.
"Don't you do it!" said Mandy sharply, her deep voice booming
through the barn. "He's just tired of it, and I'm tired looking at
him."
There was a shout of laughter which covered poor Mandy with
wrathful confusion.
"Good for you, Mandy," cried Perkins with a great guffaw. "You
want some music now, don't you? So do I. Come on, Danny."
"No, I don't," snapped Mandy, who could understand neither the
previous laugh nor that which greeted Perkins' sally.
"Allan," she said, sticking a little over the name, "is tired out,
and besides it's time we were going home."
"That's right, take him home, Mandy, and put the little dear to
bed," said Perkins.
"You needn't be so smart, Joe Perkins," said Mandy angrily.
"Anyway I'm going home. I've got to be up early."
"Me too, Mandy," said Cameron, packing up his pipes, for his
sympathy had been roused for the girl who was championing him so
bravely. "I have had a great night and I have played you all to
death; but you will forgive me. I was lonely for the chanter. I
have not touched it since I left home."
There was a universal cry of protest as they gathered about him.
"Indeed, Mr. Cameron, you have given us all a rare treat," cried
Isa, coming close to him, "and I only wish you could pipe and dance
at the same time."
"That's so!" cried Mack, "but what's the matter with the fiddle,
Isa? Come, Danny, strike up. Let them have a reel together."
Cameron glanced at Mandy, who was standing impatiently waiting.
Perkins caught the glance.
"Oh, please let him stay, Mandy," he pleaded.
"He can stay if he likes," sniffed Mandy scornfully. "I got no
string on him; but I'm goin' home. Good-night, everybody."
"Good-night, Mandy," called Perkins. "Tell them we're comin'."
"Just a moment, Mandy!" said Cameron, "and I'm with you. Another
time I hope to do a reel with you, Miss MacKenzie," he said,
bidding her good-night, "and I hope it will be soon."
"Remember, then," cried Isa, warmly shaking hands with him. "I
will keep you to your promise at the picnic."
"Fine!" said Cameron, and with easy grace he made his farewells and
set off after Mandy, who by this time was some distance down the
lane.
"You needn't come for me," she said, throwing her voice at him over
her shoulder.
"What a splendid night we have had!" said Cameron, ignoring her
wrath. "And what awfully nice people."
Mandy grunted and in silence continued her way down the lane,
picking her steps between the muddy spots and pools left by the
rain.
After some minutes Cameron, who was truly sorry for the girl,
ventured to resume the conversation.
"Didn't you enjoy the evening, Mandy?"
"No, I didn't!" she replied shortly. "I can't dance and they all
know it."
"Why don't you learn, Mandy? You could dance if you practised."
"I can't. I ain't like the other girls. I'm too clumsy."
"Not a bit of it," said Cameron. "I've watched you stepping about
the house and you are not a bit clumsy. If you only practised a
bit you would soon pick up the schottische."
"Oh, you're just saying that because you know I'm mad," said Mandy,
slightly mollified.
"Not at all. I firmly believe it. I saw you try a schottische
to-night with Perkins and--"
"Oh, shucks!" said Mandy. "He don't give me no show. He gets mad
when I tramp on him."
"All you want is practise, Mandy," replied Cameron.
"Oh, I ain't got no one to show me," said Mandy. "Perkins he won't
be bothered, and--and--there's no one else," she added shyly.
"Why, I--I would show you," replied Cameron, every instinct of
chivalry demanding that he should play up to her lead, "if I had
any opportunity."
"When?" said Mandy simply.
"When?" echoed Cameron, taken aback. "Why, the first chance we
get."
As he spoke the word they reached the new bridge that crossed the
deep ditch that separated the lane from the high road.
"Here's a good place right here on this bridge," said Mandy with a
giggle.
"But we have no music," stammered Cameron, aghast at the prospect
of a dancing lesson by moonlight upon the public highway.
"Oh, pshaw!" said Mandy. "We don't need music. You can just
count. I seen Isa showin' Mack once and they didn't have no music.
But," she added, regarding Cameron with suspicion, "if you don't
want to--"
"Oh, I shall be glad to, but wouldn't the porch be better?" he
replied in desperation.
"The porch! That's so," assented Mandy eagerly. "Let's hurry
before the rest come home." So saying, she set off at a great
pace, followed by Cameron ruefully wondering to what extent the
lesson in the Terpsichorean art might be expected to go.
As soon as the porch was reached Mandy cried--
"Now let's at the thing. I'm going to learn that schottische if it
costs a leg."
Without stopping to enquire whose leg might be in peril, Cameron
proceeded with his lesson, and he had not gone through many paces
till he began to recognise the magnitude of the task laid upon him.
The girl's sense of time was accurate enough, but she was
undeniably awkward and clumsy in her movements and there was an
almost total absence of coordination of muscle and brain. She had,
however, suffered too long and too keenly from her inability to
join with the others in the dance to fail to make the best of her
opportunity to relieve herself of this serious disability.
So, with fierce industry she poised, counted and hopped, according
to Cameron's instructions and example, with never a sign of
weariness, but alas with little indication of progress.
"Oh, shucks! I can't do it!" she cried at length, pausing in
despair. "I think we could do it better together. That's the way
Mack and Isa do it. I've seen them at it for an hour."
Cameron's heart sank within him. He had caught an exchange of
glances between the two young people mentioned and he could quite
understand how a lesson in the intricacies of the Highland
schottische might very well be extended over an hour to their
mutual satisfaction, but he shrank with a feeling of dismay, if not
disgust, from a like experience with the girl before him.
He was on the point of abruptly postponing the lesson when his eye
fell upon her face as she stood in the moonlight which streamed in
through the open door. Was it the mystic alchemy of the moon on
her face, or was it the glowing passion in her wonderful eyes that
transfigured the coarse features? A sudden pity for the girl rose
in Cameron's heart and he said gently, "We will try it together,
Mandy."
He took her hand, put his arm about her waist, but, as he drew her
towards him, with a startled look in her eyes she shrank back
saying hurriedly:
"I guess I won't bother you any more to-night. You've been awfully
good to me. You're tired."
"Not a bit, Mandy, come along," replied Cameron briskly.
At that moment a shadow fell upon the square of moonlight on the
floor. Mandy started back with a cry.
"My! you scairt me. We were--Allan--Mr. Cameron was learnin' me
the Highland schottische." Her face and her voice were full of
fear.
It was Perkins. White, silent, and rigid, he stood regarding them,
for minutes, it seemed, then turned away.
"Let's finish," said Cameron quietly.
"Oh! no, no!" said Mandy in a low voice. "He's awful mad! I'm
scairt to death! He'll do something! Oh! dear, dear! He's awful
when he gets mad."
"Nonsense!" said Cameron. "He can't hurt you."
"No, but you!"
"Oh, don't worry about me. He won't hurt me."
Cameron's tone arrested the girl's attention.
"But promise me--promise me!" she cried, "that you won't touch
him." She clutched his arm in a fierce grip.
"Certainly I won't touch him," said Cameron easily, "if he behaves
himself." But in his heart he was conscious of a fierce desire
that Perkins would give him the opportunity to wipe out a part at
least of the accumulated burden of insult he had been forced to
bear during the last three weeks.
"Oh!" wailed Mandy, wringing her hands. "I know you're going to
fight him. I don't want you to! Do you hear me?" she cried,
suddenly gripping Cameron again by the arm and shaking him. "I
don't want you to! Promise me you won't!" She was in a transport
of fear.
"Oh, this is nonsense, Mandy," said Cameron, laughing at her.
"There won't be any fight. I'll run away."
"All right," replied the girl quietly, releasing his arm.
"Remember you promised." She turned from him.
"Good night, Mandy. We will finish our lesson another time, eh?"
he said cheerfully.
"Good night," replied Mandy, dully, and passed through the kitchen
and into the house.
Cameron watched her go, then poured for himself a glass of milk
from a pitcher that always stood upon the table for any who might
be returning home late at night, and drank it slowly, pondering the
situation the while.
"What a confounded mess it is!" he said to himself. "I feel like
cutting the whole thing. By Jove! That girl is getting on my
nerves! And that infernal bounder! She seems to-- Poor girl! I
wonder if he has got any hold on her. It would be the greatest
satisfaction in the world to teach HIM a few things too. But I
have made up my mind that I am not going to end up my time here
with any row, and I'll stick to that; unless--" and, with a
tingling in his fingers, he passed out into the moonlight.
As he stepped out from the door a dark mass hurled itself at him, a
hand clutched at his throat, missed as he swiftly dodged back, and
carried away his collar. It was Perkins, his face distorted, his
white teeth showing in a snarl as of a furious beast. Again with a
beast-like growl he sprang, and again Cameron avoided him; while
Perkins, missing his clutch, stumbled over a block of wood and went
crashing head first among a pile of pots and pans and, still unable
to recover himself and wildly grasping whatever chanced to be
within reach, fell upon the board that stood against the corner of
the porch to direct the rain into the tub; but the unstable board
slid slowly down and allowed the unfortunate Perkins to come
sitting in the tub full of water.
"Very neatly done, Perkins!" cried Cameron, whose anger at the
furious attack was suddenly transformed into an ecstasy of delight
at seeing the plight of his enemy.
Like a cat Perkins was on his feet and, without a single moment's
pause, came on again in silent fury. By an evil chance there lay
in his path the splitting axe, gleaming in the moonlight. Uttering
a low choking cry, as of joy, he seized the axe and sprang towards
his foe. Quicker than thought Cameron picked up a heavy arm chair
that stood near the porch to use it as a shield against the
impending attack.
"Are you mad, Perkins?" he cried, catching the terrific blow that
came crashing down, upon the chair.
Then, filled with indignant rage at the murderous attack upon him,
and suddenly comprehending the desperate nature of the situation,
he sprang at his antagonist, thrusting the remnants of the chair in
his face and, following hard and fast upon him, pushed him backward
and still backward till, tripping once more, he fell supine among
the pots and pans. Seizing the axe that had dropped from his
enemy's hand, Cameron hurled it far beyond the wood pile and then
stood waiting, a cold and deadly rage possessing him.
"Come on, you dog!" he said through his shut teeth. "You have been
needing this for some time and now you'll get it."
"What is it, Joe?"
Cameron quickly turned and saw behind him Mandy, her face blanched,
her eyes wide, and her voice faint with terror.
"Oh, nothing much," said Cameron, struggling to recover himself.
"Perkins stumbled over the tub among the pots and pans there. He
made a great row, too," he continued with a laugh, striving to get
his voice under control.
"What is it, Joe?" repeated Mandy, approaching Perkins. But
Perkins stood leaning against the corner of the porch in a kind of
dazed silence.
"You've been fighting," she said, turning upon Cameron.
"Not at all," said Cameron lightly, "but, if you must know, Perkins
went stumbling among these pots and pans and finally sat down in
the tub; and naturally he is mad."
"Is that true, Joe?" said Mandy, moving slowly nearer him.
"Oh, shut up, Mandy! I'm all wet, that's all, and I'm going to
bed."
His voice was faint as though he were speaking with an effort.
"You go into the house," he said to the girl. "I've got something
to say to Cameron here."
"You are quarreling."
"Oh, give us a rest, Mandy, and get out! No, there's no quarreling,
but I want to have a talk with Cameron about something. Go on,
now!"
For a few moments she hesitated, looking from one to the other.
"It's all right, Mandy," said Cameron quietly. "You needn't be
afraid, there won't be any trouble."
For a moment more she stood, then quietly turned away.
"Wait!" said Perkins to Cameron, and followed Mandy into the house.
For some minutes Cameron stood waiting.
"Now, you murderous brute!" he said, when Perkins reappeared.
"Come down to the barn where no girl can interfere." He turned
towards the barn.
"Hold on!" said Perkins, breathing heavily. "Not to-night. I want
to say something. She's waiting to see me go upstairs."
Cameron came back.
"What have you got to say, you cur?" he asked in a voice filled
with a cold and deliberate contempt.
"Don't you call no names," replied Perkins. "It ain't no use."
His voice was low, trembling, but gravely earnest. "Say, I might
have killed you to-night." His breath was still coming in quick
short gasps.
"You tried your best, you dog!" said Cameron.
"Don't you call no names," panted Perkins again. "I might--a--
killed yeh. I'm mighty--glad--I didn't." He spoke like a man who
had had a great deliverance. "But don't yeh," here his teeth
snapped like a dog's, "don't yeh ever go foolin' with that girl
again. Don't yeh--ever--do it. I seen yeh huggin' her in there
and I tell yeh--I tell yeh--," his breath began to come in sobs, "I
won't stand it--I'll kill yeh, sure as God's in heaven
"Are you mad?" said Cameron, scanning narrowly the white distorted
face.
"Mad? Yes, I guess so--I dunno--but don't yeh do it, that's all.
She's mine! Mine! D'yeh hear?"
He stepped forward and thrust his snarling face into Cameron's.
"No, I ain't goin' to touch yeh," as Cameron stepped back into a
posture of defense, "not to-night. Some day, perhaps." Here again
his teeth came together with a snap. "But I'm not going to have
you or any other man cutting in on me with that girl. D'yeh hear
me?" and he lifted a trembling forefinger and thrust it almost into
Cameron's face.
Cameron stood regarding him in silent and contemptuous amazement.
Neither of them saw a dark form standing back out of the moonlight,
inside the door. At last Cameron spoke.
"Now what the deuce does all this mean?" he said slowly. "Is this
girl by any unhappy chance engaged to you?"
"Yes, she is--or was as good as, till you came; but you listen to
me. As God hears me up there"--he raised his shaking hand and
pointed up to the moonlit sky, and then went on, chewing on his
words like a dog on a bone--"I'll cut the heart out of your body if
I catch you monkeying round that girl again. You've got to get out
of here! Everything was all right till you came sneaking in.
You've got to get out! You've got to get out! D'yeh hear me?
You've got to get out!"
His voice was rising, mad rage was seizing him again, his fingers
were opening and shutting like a man in a death agony.
Cameron glanced towards the door.
"I'm done," said Perkins, noting the glance. "That's my last word.
You'd better quit this job." His voice again took on an imploring
tone. "You'd better go or something will sure happen to you.
Nobody will miss you much, except perhaps Mandy." His ghastly face
twisted into a snarling smile, his eyes appeared glazed in the
moonlight, his voice was husky--the man seemed truly insane.
Cameron stood observing him quietly when he had ceased speaking.
"Are you finished? Then hear me. First, in regard to this girl,
she doesn't want me and I don't want her, but make up your mind, I
promise you to do all I can to prevent her falling into the hands
of a brute like you. Then as to leaving this place, I shall go
just when it suits me, no sooner."
"All right," said Perkins, his voice low and trembling. "All
right, mind I warned you! Mind I warned you! But if you go
foolin' with that girl, I'll kill yeh, so help me God."
These words he uttered with the solemnity of an oath and turned
towards the porch. A dark figure flitted across the kitchen and
disappeared into the house. Cameron walked slowly towards the
barn.
"He's mad. He's clean daffy, but none the less dangerous," he said
to himself. "What a rotten mess all this is!" he added in disgust.
"By Jove! The whole thing isn't worth while."
But as he thought of Mandy's frightened face and imploring eyes and
the brutal murderous face of the man who claimed her as his own, he
said between his teeth:
"No, I won't quit now. I'll see this thing through, whatever it
costs," and with this resolve he set himself to the business of
getting to sleep; in which, after many attempts, he was at length
successful.
CHAPTER V
HOW THEY SAVED THE DAY
There never was such a Dominion Day for weather since the first
Dominion Day was born. Of this "Fatty" Freeman was fully assured.
Fatty Freeman was a young man for whose opinion older men were
accustomed to wait. His person more than justified his praenomen,
for Mr. Harper Freeman, Jr., was undeniably fat. "Fat, but fine
and frisky," was ever his own comment upon the descriptive
adjective by which his friends distinguished him. And fine and
frisky he was; fine in his appreciation of good eating, fine in his
judgment of good cattle and fine in his estimate of men; frisky,
too, and utterly irrepressible. "Harp's just like a young pup,"
his own father, the Reverend Harper Freeman, the old Methodist
minister of the Maplehill circuit, used to say. "If Harp had a
tail he would never do anything but play with it." On this,
however, it is difficult to hold any well based opinion. Ebullient
in his spirits, he radiated cheeriness wherever he went and was at
the bottom of most of the practical jokes that kept the village of
Maplehill in a state of ferment; yet if any man thought to turn a
sharp corner in business with Mr. Harper Freeman, Jr., he invariably
found that frisky individual waiting for him round the corner with a
cheery smile of welcome, shrewd and disconcerting. It was this
cheery shrewdness of his that made him the most successful cattle
buyer in the county and at the same time secretary of the Middlesex
Caledonian Society. As secretary of this society he was made
chiefly responsible for the success of the Dominion Day picnic and,
as with everything that he took hold of, Fatty toiled at the
business of preparation for this picnic with conscientious zeal,
giving to it all his spare hours and many of his working hours for
the three months preceding.
It was due solely to his efforts that so many distinguished county
magnates appeared eager to lend their patronage. It needed but a
little persuasion to secure the enthusiastic support of the
Honourable J. J. Patterson, M.P.P., and, incidentally, the handsome
challenge cup for hammer-throwing, for the honourable member of
Parliament was a full-blooded Highlander himself and an ardent
supporter of "the games." But only Fatty Freeman's finesse could
have extracted from Dr. Kane, the Opposition candidate for
Provincial Parliamentary honours, the cup for the hundred yards
race, and other cups from other individuals more or less deeply
interested in Dominion, Provincial, and Municipal politics. The
prize list secured, it needed only a skillful manipulation of the
local press and a judicious but persistent personal correspondence
to swell the ranks of the competitors in the various events, and
thus ensure a monster attendance of the people from the
neighbouring townships and from the city near by.
The weather being assured, Fatty's anxieties were mostly allayed,
for he had on the file in his office acceptance letters from the
distinguished men who were to cast the spell of their oratory over
the assembled multitude, as also from the big men in the athletic
world who had entered for the various events in the programme of
sports. It was a master stroke of diplomacy that resulted in the
securing for the hammer-throwing contest the redoubtable and famous
Duncan Ross of Zorra, who had at first disdained the bait of the
Maplehill Dominion Day picnic, but in some mysterious way had at
length been hooked and landed. For Duncan was a notable man and
held the championship of the Zorras; and indeed in all Ontario he
was second only to the world-famous Rory Maclennan of Glengarry,
who had been to Braemar itself and was beaten there only by a
fluke. How he came to agree to be present at the Maplehill picnic
"Black Duncan" could not quite understand, but had he compared
notes with McGee, the champion of the London police force and of
various towns and cities of the western peninsula, he would
doubtless have received some enlightenment. To the skill of the
same master hand was due the appearance upon the racing list of the
Dominion Day picnic of such distinguished names as Cahill of
London, Fullerton of Woodstock, and especially of Eugene La Belle
of nowhere in particular, who held the provincial championship for
skating and was a runner of provincial fame.
In the racing Fatty was particularly interested because his young
brother Wilbur, of whom he was uncommonly proud, a handsome lad,
swift and graceful as a deer, was to make his first essay for more
than local honours.
The lists for the other events were equally well filled and every
detail of the arrangements for the day had passed under the
secretary's personal review. The feeding of the multitude was in
charge of the Methodist Ladies' Aid, an energetic and exceptionally
businesslike organization, which fully expected to make sufficient
profit from the enterprise to clear off the debt from their church
at Maplehill, an achievement greatly desired not only by the ladies
themselves but by their minister, the Reverend Harper Freeman, now
in the third year of his incumbency. The music was to be furnished
by the Band of the Seventh from London and by no less a distinguished
personage than Piper Sutherland himself from Zorra, former Pipe
Major of "The old Forty-twa." The discovery of another piper in
Cameron brought joy to the secretary's heart, who only regretted
that an earlier discovery had not rendered possible a pipe
competition.
Early in the afternoon the crowds began to gather to MacBurney's
woods, a beautiful maple grove lying midway between the Haleys'
farm and Maplehill village, about two miles distant from each. The
grove of noble maple trees overlooking a grassy meadow provided an
ideal spot for picnicking, furnishing as it did both shade from the
sun and a fine open space with firm footing for the contestants in
the games. High over a noble maple in the centre of the grassy
meadow floated the Red Ensign of the Empire, which, with the
Canadian coat of arms on the fly, by common usage had become the
national flag of Canada. From the great trees the swings were
hung, and under their noble spreading boughs were placed the
tables, and the platform for the speech making and the dancing,
while at the base of the encircling hills surrounding the grassy
meadow, hard by the grove another platform was placed, from which
distinguished visitors might view with ease and comfort the
contests upon the campus immediately adjacent.
Through the fence, let down for the purpose, the people drove in
from the high road. They came in top buggies and in lumber wagons,
in democrats and in "three seated rigs," while from the city came a
"four-in-hand" with McGee, Cahill, and their backers, as well as
other carriages filled with good citizens of London drawn thither
by the promise of a day's sport of more than usual excellence or by
the lure of a day in the woods and fields of God's open country. A
specially fine carriage and pair, owned and driven by the honourable
member of Parliament himself, conveyed Piper Sutherland, with
colours streaming and pipes playing, to the picnic grounds. Warmly
was the old piper welcomed, not only by the frisky cheery secretary,
but by many old friends, and by none more warmly than by the
Reverend Alexander Munro, the douce old bachelor Presbyterian
minister of Maplehill, a great lover of the pipes and a special
friend of Piper Sutherland. But the welcome was hardly over when
once more the sound of the pipes was heard far up the side line.
"Surely that will be Gunn," said Mr. Munro.
Sutherland listened for a minute or two.
"No, it iss not Gunn. Iss Ross coming? No, yon iss not Ross.
That will be a stranger," he continued, turning to the secretary,
but the secretary remained silent, enjoying the old man's surprise
and perplexity.
"Man, that iss not so bad piping! Not so bad at all! Who iss it?"
he added with some impatience, turning upon the secretary again.
"Oh, that's Haley's team and I guess that's his hired man, a young
fellow just out from Scotland," replied the secretary indifferently.
"I am no great judge of the pipes myself, but he strikes me as a
crackajack and I shouldn't be surprised if he would make you all sit
up."
But the old piper's ear was closed to his words and open only to
the strains of music ever drawing nearer.
"Aye, yon's a piper!" he said at length with emphasis. "Yon's a
piper!"
"I only wish I had discovered him in time for a competition," said
Fatty regretfully.
"Aye," said Sutherland. "Yon's a piper worth playing against."
And very brave and gallant young Cameron looked as Tim swung his
team through the fence and up to the platform under the trees where
the great ones of the people were standing in groups. They were
all there, Patterson the M.P.P., and Dr. Kane the Opposition
candidate, Reeve Robertson, for ten years the Municipal head of his
county, Inspector Grant, a little man with a massive head and a
luminous eye, Patterson's understudy and generally regarded as his
successor in Provincial politics, the Reverend Harper Freeman,
Methodist minister, tall and lank, with shrewd kindly face and a
twinkling eye, the Reverend Alexander Munro, the Presbyterian
minister, solid and sedate, slow to take fire but when kindled a
very furnace for heat. These, with their various wives and
daughters, such as had them, and many others less notable but no
less important, constituted a sort of informal reception committee
under Fatty Freeman's general direction and management. And here
and there and everywhere crowds of young men and maidens,
conspicuous among the latter Isa MacKenzie and her special friends,
made merry with each other, as brave and gallant a company of
sturdy sun-browned youths and bonnie wholesome lassies as any land
or age could ever show.
"Look at them!" cried the Reverend Harper Freeman, waving his hand
toward the kaleidoscopic gathering. "There's your Dominion Day
oration for you, Mr, Patterson."
"Most of it done in brown, too," chuckled his son, Harper Freeman,
Jr.
"Yes, and set in jewels and gold," replied his father.
"You hold over me, Dad!" cried his son. "Here!" he called to
Cameron, who was standing aloof from the others. "Come and meet a
brother Scot and a brother piper, Mr. Sutherland from Zorra, though
to your ignorant Scottish ear that means nothing, but to every
intelligent Canadian, Zorra stands for all that's finest in brain
and brawn in Canada."
"And it takes both to play the pipes, eh, Sutherland?" said the
M.P.P.
"Oh aye, but mostly wind," said the piper.
"Just like politics, eh, Mr. Patterson?" said the Reverend Harper
Freeman.
"Yes, or like preaching," replied the M.P.P.
"One on you, Dad!" said the irrepressible Fatty.
Meantime Sutherland was warmly complimenting Cameron on his
playing.
"You haf been well taught," he said.
"No one taught me," said Cameron. "But we had a famous old piper
at home in our Glen, Macpherson was his name."
"Macpherson! Did he effer play at the Braemar gathering?"
"Yes, but Maclennan beat him."
"Maclennan! I haf heard him." The tone was quite sufficient to
classify the unhappy Maclennan. "And I haf heard Macpherson too.
You iss a player. None of the fal-de-rals of your modern players,
but grand and mighty."
"I agree with you entirely," replied Cameron, his heart warming at
the praise of his old friend of the Glen Cuagh Oir. "But," he
added, "Maclennan is a great player too."
"A great player? Yes and no. He has the fingers and the notes,
but he iss not the beeg man. It iss the soul that breathes through
the chanter. The soul!" Here he gripped Cameron by the arm.
"Man! it iss like praying. A beeg man will neffer show himself in
small things, but when he will be in communion with his Maker or
when he will be pouring out his soul in a pibroch then the beegness
of the man will be manifest. Aye," continued the piper, warming to
his theme and encouraged by the eager sympathy of his listener,
"and not only the beegness but the quality of the soul. A mean man
can play the pipes, but he can neffer be a piper. It iss only a
beeg man and a fine man and, I will venture to say, a good man, and
there are not many men can be pipers."
"Aye, Mr. Sutherland," broke in the Reverend Alexander Munro, "what
you say is true, but it is true not only of piping. It is true
surely of anything great enough to express the deepest emotions of
the soul. A man is never at his best in anything till he is
expressing his noblest self."
"For instance in preaching, eh!" said Dr. Kane.
"Aye, in preaching or in political oratory," replied the minister.
At this, however, the old piper shook his head doubtfully.
"You do not agree with Mr. Munro in that?" said the M.P.P.
"No," replied Sutherland, "speaking iss one thing, piping iss
another."
"And that is no lie, and a mighty good thing too it is," said Dr.
Kane flippantly.
"It iss no lie," replied the old piper with dignity. "And if you
knew much about either of them you would say it deeferently."
"Why, what is the difference, Mr. Sutherland?" said Dr. Kane,
anxious to appease the old man. "They both are means of expressing
the emotions of the soul, you say."
"The deeference! The deeferenee iss it? The deeference iss here,
that the pipes will neffer lie."
There was a shout of laughter.
"One for you, Kane!" cried the Reverend Harper Freeman. "And," he
continued when the laughing had ceased, "we will have to take our
share too, Mr. Munro."
But the hour for beginning the programme had arrived and the
secretary climbed to the platform to announce the events for the
day.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" he cried, in a high, clear, penetrating
voice, "the speech of welcome will be delivered toward the close of
the day by the president of the Middlesex Caledonian Society, the
Honourable J. J. Patterson, M.P.P. My duty is the very simple one
of announcing the order of events on the programme and of expressing
on behalf of the Middlesex Caledonian Society the earnest hope that
you all may enjoy the day, and that each event on the programme will
prove more interesting than the last. The programme is long and
varied and I must ask your assistance to put it through on schedule
time. First there are the athletic competitions. I shall endeavour
to assist Dr. Kane and the judges in running these through without
unnecessary and annoying delays. Then will follow piping, dancing,
and feasting in their proper order, after which will come the
presentation of prizes and speeches from our distinguished visitors.
On the platform over yonder there are places for the speakers, the
officials, and the guests of the society, but such is the very
excellent character of the ground that all can be accommodated with
grand stand seats. One disappointment, and one only, I must
announce, the Band of the Seventh, London, cannot be with us
to-day."
"But we will never miss them," interpolated the Reverend Alexander
Munro with solemn emphasis.
"Exactly so!" continued Fatty when the laugh had subsided. "And
now let's all go in for a good old time picnic, 'where even the
farmers cease from grumbling and the preachers take a rest.' Now
take your places, ladies and gentlemen, for the grand parade is
about to begin."
The programme opened with the one hundred yard flat race. For this
race there were four entries, Cahill from London, Fullerton from
Woodstock, La Belle from nowhere in particular, and Wilbur Freeman
from Maplehill. But Wilbur was nowhere to be seen. The secretary
came breathless to the platform.
"Where's Wilbur?" he asked his father.
"Wilbur? Surely he is in the crowd, or in the tent perhaps."
At the tent the secretary found his brother nursing a twisted ankle,
heart-sick with disappointment. Early in the day he had injured his
foot in an attempt to fasten a swing upon a tree. Every minute
since that time he had spent in rubbing and manipulating the injured
member, but all to no purpose. While the pain was not great, a race
was out of the question. The secretary was greatly disturbed and as
nearly wrathful as ever he allowed himself to become. He was set on
his brother making a good showing in this race; moreover, without
Wilbur there would be no competitor to uphold the honour of
Maplehill in this contest and this would deprive it of much of its
interest.
"What the dickens were you climbing trees for?" he began
impatiently, but a glance at his young brother's pale and woe-
stricken face changed his wrath to pity. "Never mind, old chap,"
he said, "better luck next time, and you will be fitter too."
Back he ran to the platform, for he must report the dismal news to
his mother, whose chief interest in the programme for the day lay
in this race in which her latest born was to win his spurs. The
cheery secretary was nearly desperate. It was an ominous beginning
for the day's sports. What should he do? He confided his woe to
Mack and Cameron, who were standing close by the platform.
"It will play the very mischief with the programme. It will spoil
the whole day, for Wilbur was the sole Maplehill representative in
the three races; besides, I believe the youngster would have shown
up well."
"He would that!" cried Mack heartily. "He was a bird. But is
there no one else from the Hill that could enter?"
"No, no one with a chance of winning, and no fellow likes to go in
simply to be beaten."
"What difference?" said Cameron. "It's all in a day's sport."
"That's so," said Mack. "If I could run myself I would enter. I
wonder if Danny would--"
"Danny!" said the secretary shortly. "You know better than that.
Danny's too shy to appear before this crowd even if he were dead
sure of winning."
"Say, it is too bad!" continued Mack, as the magnitude of the
calamity grew upon him. "Surely we can find some one to make an
appearance. What about yourself, Cameron? Did you ever race?"
"Some," said Cameron. "I raced last year at the Athole Games."
Fatty threw himself upon him.
"Cameron, you are my man! Do you want to save your country, and
perhaps my life, certainly my reputation? Get out of those
frills," touching his kilt, "and I'll get a suit from one of the
jumpers for you. Go! Bless your soul, anything you want that's
mine you can have! Only hustle for dear life's sake! Go! Go! Go!
Take him away, Mack. We'll get something else on!"
Fatty actually pushed Cameron clear away from the platform and
after him big Mack.
"There seems to be no help for it," said Cameron, as they went to
the tent together.
"It's awful good of you," replied Mack, "but you can see how hard
Fatty takes it, though it is not a bit fair to you."
"Oh, nobody knows me here," said Cameron, "and I don't mind being a
victim."
But as Mack saw him get into his jersey and shorts he began to
wonder a bit.
"Man, it would be great if you should beat yon Frenchman!" he
exclaimed.
"Frenchman?"
"Yes! La Belle. He is that stuck on himself; he thinks he is a
winner before he starts."
"It's a good way to think, Mack. Now let us get down into the
woods and have a bit of a practise in the 'get away.' How do they
start here? With a pistol?"
"No," replied Mack. "We are not so swell. The starter gives the
word this way, 'All set? Go!'"
"All right, Mack, you give me the word sharp. I am out of practise
and I must get the idea into my head."
"You are great on the idea, I see," replied Mack.
"Right you are, and it is just the same with the hammer, Mack."
"Aye, I have found that out."
For twenty minutes or so Cameron practised his start and at every
attempt Mack's confidence grew, so that when he brought his man
back to the platform he announced to a group of the girls standing
near, "Don't say anything, but I have the winner right here for
you."
"Why, Mr. Cameron," cried Isa, "what a wonder you are! What else
can you do? You are a piper, a dancer, a hammer-thrower, and now a
runner."
"Jack-of-all-trades," laughed Perkins, who, with Mandy, was
standing near.
"Yes, but you can't say 'Master of none,'" replied Isa sharply.
"Better wait," said Cameron. "I have entered this race only to
save Mr. Freeman from collapse."
"Collapse? Fatty? He couldn't," said Isa with emphasis.
"Lass, I do not know," said Mack gravely. "He looked more hollow
than ever I have seen him before."
"Well, we'll all cheer for you, Mr. Cameron, anyway," cried Isa.
"Won't we, girls? Oh, if wishes were wings!"
"Wings?" said Mandy, with a puzzled air. "What for? This is a
RACE."
"Didn't you never see a hen run, Mandy?" laughed Perkins.
"Yes, I have, but I tell you Mr. Cameron ain't no hen," replied
Mandy angrily. "And more! He's going to win."
"Say, Mandy, that is the talk," said Mack, when the laugh had
passed. "Did you hear yon?" he added to Cameron.
Cameron nodded.
"It is a good omen," he said. "I am going to do my best."
"And, by Jingo! if you only had a chance," said Mack, "I believe
you would lick them all."
At this Fatty bustled up.
"All ready, eh? Cameron, I shall owe you something for this. La
Belle kicked like a steer against your entering at the last minute.
It is against the rules, you know. But he's given in."
Fatty did not explain that he had intimated to La Belle that there
was no need for anxiety as far as the "chap from the old country"
was concerned; he was there merely to fill up.
But if La Belle's fears were allayed by the secretary's disparaging
description of the latest competitor, they sprang full grown into
life again when he saw Cameron "all set" for the start, and more
especially so when he heard his protest against the Frenchman's
method in the "get away."
"I want you to notice," he said firmly to Dr. Kane, who was acting
as starter, "that this man gets away WITH the word 'Go' and not
AFTER it. It is an old trick, but long ago played out."
Then the Frenchman fell into a rage.
"Eet ees no treeck!" sputtered La Belle. "Eet ees too queeck for
him."
"All right!" said Dr. Kane. "You are to start after the word 'Go.'
Remember! Sorry we have no pistol."
Once more the competitors crouched over the scratch.
"All set? Go!"
Like the releasing of a whirlwind the four runners spring from the
scratch, La Belle, whose specialty is his "get away," in front,
Fullerton and Cameron in second place, Cahill a close third. A
blanket would cover them all. A tumult of cheers from the friends
of the various runners follows them along their brief course.
"Who is it? Who is it?" cries Mandy breathlessly, clutching Mack
by the arm.
"Cameron, I swear!" roars Mack, pushing his way through the crowd
to the judges.
"No! No! La Belle! La Belle!" cried the Frenchman's backers from
the city. The judges are apparently in dispute.
"I swear it is Cameron!" roars Mack again in their ears, his eyes
aflame and his face alight with a fierce and triumphant joy. "It
is Cameron I am telling you!"
"Oh, get out, you big bluffer!" cries a thin-faced man, pressing
close upon the judges. "It is La Belle by a mile!"
"By a mile, is it?" shouts Mack. "Then go and hunt your man!" and
with a swift motion his big hand falls upon the thin face and
sweeps it clear out of view, the man bearing it coming to his feet
in a white fury some paces away. A second look at Mack, however,
calms his rage, and from a distance he continues leaping and
yelling "La Belle! La Belle!"
After a few moments' consultation the result is announced.
"A tie for the first place between La Belle and Cameron! Time
eleven seconds! The tie will be run off in a few minutes."
In a tumult of triumph big Mack shoulders Cameron through the crowd
and carries him off to the dressing tent, where he spends the next
ten minutes rubbing his man's legs and chanting his glory.
"Who is this Cameron?" enquired the M.P.P., leaning over the
platform railing.
Quick came the answer from the bevy of girls thronging past the
platform.
"Cameron? He's our man!" It was Mandy's voice, bold and strong.
"Your man?" said the M.P.P., laughing down into the coarse flushed
face.
"Yes, OUR man!" cried Isa MacKenzie back at him. "And a winner,
you may be sure."
"Ah, happy man!" exclaimed the M.P.P. "Who would not win with such
backers? Why, I would win myself, Miss Isa, were you to back me
so. But who is Cameron?" he continued to the Methodist minister at
his side.
"He is Haley's hired man, I believe, and that first girl is Haley's
daughter."
"Poor thing!" echoed Mrs. Freeman, a kindly smile on her motherly
face. "But she has a good heart has poor Mandy."
"But why 'poor'?" enquired the M.P.P.
"Oh, well," answered Mrs. Freeman with hesitation, "you see she is
so very plain--and--well, not like other girls. But she is a good
worker and has a kind heart."
Once more the runners face the starter, La Belle gay, alert,
confident; Cameron silent, pale, and grim.
"All set? Go!" La Belle is away ere the word is spoken. The
bell, however, brings him back, wrathful and less confident.
Once more they stand crouching over the scratch. Once more the
word releases them like shafts from the bow. A beautiful start,
La Belle again in the lead, but Cameron hard at his heels and
evidently with something to spare. Thus for fifty yards, sixty,
yes, sixty-five.
"La Belle! La Belle! He wins! He wins!" yell his backers
frantically, the thin-faced man dancing madly near the finishing
tape. Twenty yards to go and still La Belle is in the lead. High
above the shouting rises Mack's roar.
"Now, Cameron! For the life of you!"
It was as if his voice had touched a spring somewhere in Cameron's
anatomy. A great leap brings him even with La Belle. Another,
another, and still another, and he breasts the tape a winner by a
yard, time ten and three fifths seconds. The Maplehill folk go
mad, and madder than all Isa and her company of girl friends.
"I got--one--bad--start--me! He--pull--me back!" panted La Belle
to his backers who were holding him up.
"Who pulled you back?" indignantly cried the thin-faced man,
looking for blood.
"That sacre startair!"
"You ran a fine race, La Belle!" said Cameron, coming up.
"Non! Peste! I mak heem in ten and one feeft," replied the
disgusted La Belle.
"I have made it in ten," said Cameron quietly.
"Aha!" exclaimed La Belle. "You are one black horse, eh? So! I
race no more to-day!"
"Then no more do I!" said Cameron firmly. "Why, La Belle, you will
beat me in the next race sure. I have no wind."
Under pressure La Belle changed his mind, and well for him he did;
for in the two hundred and twenty yards and in the quarter mile
Cameron's lack of condition told against him, so that in the one
he ran second to La Belle and in the other third to La Belle and
Fullerton.
The Maplehill folk were gloriously satisfied, and Fatty in an
ecstasy of delight radiated good cheer everywhere. Throughout the
various contests the interest continued to deepen, the secretary,
with able generalship, reserving the hammer-throwing as the most
thrilling event to the last place. For, more than anything in the
world, men, and especially women, love strong men and love to see
them in conflict. For that fatal love cruel wars have been waged,
lands have been desolated, kingdoms have fallen. There was the
promise of a very pretty fight indeed between the three entered for
the hammer-throwing contest, two of them experienced in this
warfare and bearing high honours, the third new to the game and
unskilled, but loved for his modest courage and for the simple,
gentle heart he carried in his great body. He could not win, of
course, for McGee, the champion of the city police force, had many
scalps at his girdle, and Duncan Ross, "Black Duncan," the pride of
the Zorras, the unconquered hero of something less than a hundred
fights--who could hope to win from him? But all the more for this
the people loved big Mack and wished him well. So down the sloping
sides of the encircling hills the crowds pressed thick, and on the
platform the great men leaned over the rail, while they lifted
their ladies to places of vantage upon the chairs beside them.
"Oh, I cannot see a bit!" cried Isa MacKenzie, vainly pressing upon
the crowding men who, stolidly unaware of all but what was doing in
front of them, effectually shut off her view.
"And you want to see?" said the M.P.P., looking down at her.
"Oh, so much!" she cried.
"Come up here, then!" and, giving her a hand, he lifted her,
smiling and blushing, to a place on the platform whence she with
absorbing interest followed the movements of big Mack, and
incidentally of the others in as far as they might bear any
relation to those of her hero.
And now they were drawing for place.
"Aha! Mack is going to throw first!" said the Reverend Alexander
Munro. "That is a pity."
"It's a shame!" cried Isa, with flashing eyes. "Why don't they put
one of those older--ah--?"
"Stagers?" suggested the M.P.P.
"Duffers," concluded Isa.
"The lot determines the place, Miss Isa," said Mr. Freeman, with a
smile at her. "But the best man will win."
"Oh, I am not so sure of that!" cried the girl in a distressed
voice. "Mack might get nervous."
"Nervous?" laughed the M.P.P. "That giant?"
"Yes, indeed, I have seen him that nervous--" said Isa, and stopped
abruptly.
"Ah! That is quite possible," replied the M.P.P. with a quizzical
smile.
"And there is young Cameron yonder. He is not going to throw, is
he?" enquired Mr. Munro.
"He is coaching Mack," explained Isa, "and fine he is at it. Oh,
there! He is going to throw! Oh, if he only gets the swing! Oh!
Oh! Oh! He has got it fine!"
A storm of cheers followed Mack's throw, then a deep silence while
the judges took the measurement.
"One hundred and twenty-one feet!"
"One hundred and twenty-one!" echoed a hundred voices in amazement.
"One hundred and twenty-one! It is a lie!" cried McGee with an
oath, striding out to personally supervise the measuring.
"One hundred and twenty-one!" said Duncan Ross, shaking his head
doubtfully, but he was too much of a gentleman to do other than
wait for the judges' decision.
"One hundred and twenty-one feet and two inches," was the final
verdict, and from the crowd there rose a roar that rolled like
thunder around the hills.
"It's a fluke, and so it is!" said McGee with another oath.
"Give me your hand, lad," said Duncan Ross, evidently much roused.
"It iss a noble throw whateffer, and worthy of beeg Rory himself.
I haf done better, howeffer, but indeed I may not to-day."
It was indeed a great throw, and one immediate result was that
there was no holding back in the contest, no playing 'possum.
Mack's throw was there to be beaten, and neither McGee nor even
Black Duncan could afford to throw away a single chance. For
hammer-throwing is an art requiring not only strength but skill as
well, and not only strength and skill but something else most
difficult to secure. With the strength and the skill there must go
a rhythmic and perfect coordination of all the muscles in the body,
with exactly the proper contracting and relaxing of each at exactly
the proper moment of time, and this perfect coordination is a
result rarely achieved even by the greatest throwers, but when
achieved, and with the man's full strength behind it, his record
throw is the result.
Meantime Cameron was hovering about his man in an ecstasy of
delight.
"Oh, Mack, old man!" he said. "You got the swing perfectly. It
was a dream. And if you had put your full strength into it you
would have made a world record. Why, man, you could add ten feet
to it!"
"It is a fluke!" said McGee again, as he took his place.
"Make one like it, then, my lad," said Black Duncan with a grim
smile.
But this McGee failed to do, for his throw measured ninety-seven
feet.
"A very fair throw, McGee," said Black Duncan. "But not your best,
and nothing but the best will do the day appearingly."
With that Black Duncan took place for his throw. One--twice--
thrice he swung the great hammer about his head, then sent it
whirling into the air. Again a mighty shout announced a great
throw and again a dead silence waited for the measurement.
"One hundred and fourteen feet!"
"Aha!" said Black Duncan, and stepped back apparently well
satisfied.
It was again Mack's turn.
"You have the privilege of allowing your first throw to stand,"
said Dr. Kane.
"Best let it stand, lad, till it iss beat," advised Black Duncan
kindly. "It iss a noble throw."
"He can do better, though," said Cameron.
"Very well, very well!" said Duncan. "Let him try."
But Mack's success had keyed him up to the highest pitch. Every
nerve was tingling, every muscle taut. His first throw he had
taken without strain, being mainly anxious, under Cameron's
coaching, to get the swing, but under the excitement incident to
the contest he had put more strength into the throw than appeared
either to himself or to his coach. Now, however, with nerves and
muscles taut, he was eager to increase his distance, too eager it
seemed, for his second throw measured only eighty-nine feet.
A silence fell upon his friends and Cameron began to chide him.
"You went right back to your old style, Mack. There wasn't the
sign of a swing."
"I will get it yet, or bust!" said big Mack between his teeth.
McGee's second throw went one hundred and seventeen feet. A cheer
arose from his backers, for it was a great throw and within five
feet of his record. Undoubtedly McGee was in great form and he
might well be expected to measure up to his best to-day.
Black Duncan's second throw measured one hundred and nineteen feet
seven, which was fifteen feet short of his record and showed him to
be climbing steadily upward.
Once more the turn came to Mack, and once more, with almost savage
eagerness, he seized the hammer preparatory to his throw.
"Now, Mack, for heaven's sake go easy!" said Cameron. "Take your
swing easy and slow."
But Mack heeded him not. "I can beat it!" he muttered between his
shut teeth, "and I will." So, with every nerve taut and every
muscle strained to its limit, he made his third attempt. It was in
vain. The measure showed ninety-seven feet six. A suppressed
groan rose from the Maplehill folk.
"A grand throw, lad, for a beginner," said Black Duncan.
The excitement now became intense. By his first throw of one
hundred and twenty-one feet two, Mack remained still the winner.
But McGee had only four feet to gain and Black Duncan less than two
to equal him. The little secretary went skipping about aglow with
satisfaction and delight. The day was already famous in the
history of Canadian athletics.
Again McGee took place for his throw, his third and last. The
crowd gathered in as near as they dared. But McGee had done his
best for that day, and his final throw measured only one hundred
and five feet.
There remained yet but a single chance to wrest from Mack Murray
the prize for that day, but that chance lay in the hands of Duncan
Ross, the cool and experienced champion of many a hard-fought
fight. Again Black Duncan took the hammer. It was his last throw.
He had still fifteen feet to go to reach his own record, and he had
often beaten the throw that challenged him to-day, but, on the
other hand, he had passed through many a contest where his throw
had fallen short of the one he must now beat to win. A hush fell
upon the people as Black Duncan took his place. Once--twice--and,
with ever increasing speed, thrice he swung the great hammer, then
high and far it hurtled through the air.
"Jerusalem!" cried Mack. "What a fling!"
"Too high," muttered Black Duncan. "You have got it, lad, you have
got it, and you well deserve it."
"Tut-tut, nonsense!" said Mack impatiently. "Wait you a minute."
Silent and expectant the crowd awaited the result. Twice over the
judges measured the throw, then announced "One hundred and twenty-
one feet." Mack had won by two inches.
A great roar rose from the crowd, round Mack they surged like a
flood, eager to grip his hands and eager to carry him off shoulder
high. But he threw them off as a rock throws back the incoming
tide and made for Duncan Ross, who stood, calm and pale, and with
hand outstretched, waiting him. It was a new experience for Black
Duncan, and a bitter, to be second in a contest. Only once in many
years had he been forced to lower his colours, and to be beaten by
a raw and unknown youth added to the humiliation of his defeat.
But Duncan Ross had in his veins the blood of a long line of
Highland gentlemen who knew how to take defeat with a smile.
"I congratulate you, Mack Murray," he said in a firm, clear voice.
"Your fame will be through Canada tomorrow, and well you deserve
it."
But Mack caught the outstretched hand in both of his and, leaning
toward Black Duncan, he roared at him above the din.
"Mr. Ross, Mr. Ross, it is no win! Listen to me!" he panted.
"What are two inches in a hundred and twenty feet? A stretching of
the tape will do it. No, no! Listen to me! You must listen to me
as you are a man! I will not have it! You can beat me easily in
the throw! At best it is a tie and nothing else will I have
to-day. At least let us throw again!" he pleaded. But to this
Ross would not listen for a moment.
"The lad has made his win," he said to the judges, "and his win he
must have."
But Mack declared that nothing under heaven would make him change
his mind. Finally the judges, too, agreed that in view of the
possibility of a mistake in measuring with the tape, it would be
only right and fair to count the result a tie. Black Duncan
listened respectfully to the judges' decision.
"You are asking me a good deal, Mack," he said at length, "but you
are a gallant lad and I am an older man and--"
"Aye! And a better!" shouted Mack.
"And so I will agree."
Once more the field was cleared. And now there fell upon the
crowding people a hush as if they stood in the presence of death
itself.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" said the M.P.P. "Do you realise that you
are looking upon a truly great contest, a contest great enough to
be of national, yes, of international, importance?"
"You bet your sweet life!" cried the irrepressible Fatty. "We're
going some. 'What's the matter with our Mack?'" he shouted.
"'HE'S--ALL--RIGHT!'" came back the chant from the surrounding
hills in hundreds of voices.
"And what's the matter with Duncan Ross?" cried Mack, waving a hand
above his head.
Again the assurance of perfect rightness came back in a mighty roar
from the hills. But it was hushed into immediate silence, a
silence breathless and overwhelming, for Black Duncan had taken
once more his place with the hammer in his hand.
"Oh, I do wish they would hurry!" gasped Isa, her hands pressed
hard upon her heart.
"My heart is rather weak, too," said the M.P.P. "I fear I cannot
last much longer. Ah! There he goes, thank God!"
"Amen!" fervently responds little Mrs. Freeman, who, in the
intensity of her excitement, is standing on a chair holding tight
by her husband's coat collar.
Not a sound breaks the silence as Black Duncan takes his swing.
It is a crucial moment in his career. Only by one man in Canada
has he ever been beaten, and with the powers of his antagonist all
untried and unknown, for anyone could see that Mack has not yet
thrown his best, he may be called upon to surrender within the next
few minutes the proud position he has held so long in the athletic
world. But there is not a sign of excitement in his face. With
great care, and with almost painful deliberation, he balances the
hammer for a moment or two, then once--twice--and, with a tremendous
quickening of speed,--thrice--he swings, and his throw is made. A
great throw it is, anyone can see, and one that beats the winner.
In hushed and strained silence the people await the result.
"One hundred and twenty-one feet nine."
Then rises the roar that has been held pent up during the last few
nerve-racking minutes.
"It iss a good enough throw," said Black Duncan with a quiet smile,
"but there iss more in me yet. Now, lad, do your best and there
will be no hard feeling with thiss man whateffer happens."
Black Duncan's accent and idioms reveal the intense excitement that
lies behind his quiet face.
Mack takes the hammer.
"I will not beat it, you may be sure," he says. "But I will just
take a fling at it anyway."
"Now, Mack," says Cameron, "for the sake of all you love forget the
distance and show them the Braemar swing. Easy and slow."
But Mack waves him aside and stands pondering. He is "getting the
idea."
"Man, do you see him?" whispers his brother Danny, who stands near
to Cameron. "I believe he has got it."
Cameron nods his head. Mack wears an impressive air of confidence
and strength.
"It will be a great throw," says Cameron to Danny.
"Easy and slow" Mack poises the great hammer in his hand, swinging
it gently backward and forward as if it had been a boy's toy, the
great muscles in arms and back rippling up and down in firm full
waves under his white skin, for he is now stripped to the waist for
this throw.
Suddenly, as if at command, the muscles seem to spring to their
places, tense, alert. "Easy." Yes, truly, but by no means "slow."
"Easy," the great hammer swings about his head in whirling circles,
swift and ever swifter. Once--and twice--the great muscles in back
and arms and back and legs knotted in bunches--thrice!
"Ah-h-h!" A long, wailing, horrible sound, half moan, half cry,
breaks from the people. Mack has missed his direction, and the
great hammer, weighted with the potentialities of death, is
describing a parabola high over the heads of the crowding,
shrieking, scattering people.
"Oh, my God! My God! Oh, my God! My God!" With his hands
covering his eyes the big man is swaying from side to side like a
mighty tree before a tempest. Cameron and Ross both spring to him.
On the hillsides men stand rigid, pale, shaking; women shriek and
faint. One ghastly moment of suspense, and then a horrid sickening
thud; one more agonising second of silence, and then from a score
of throats rises a cry:
"It's all right! All right! No one hurt!"
From five hundred throats breaks a weird unearthly mingling of
strange sounds; cheers and cries, shouts and sobs, prayers and
oaths. In the midst of it all Mack sinks to his knees, with hands
outstretched to heaven.
"Great God, I thank Thee! I thank Thee!" he cries brokenly, the
tears streaming down his ghastly face. Then, falling forward upon
his hands, he steadies himself while great sobs come heaving from
his mighty chest. Cameron and Ross, still upholding him, through
the crowd a man comes pushing his way, hurling men and women right
and left.
"Back, people! And be still." It is the minister, Alexander
Munro. "Be still! It is a great deliverance that God has wrought!
Peace, woman! God is near! Let us pray."
Instantly all noises are hushed, hats come off, and all up the
sloping hills men and women fall to their knees, or remain standing
with heads bowed, while the minister, upright beside the kneeling
man, spreads his hands towards heaven and prays in a voice steady,
strong, thrilling:
"Almighty God, great and wonderful in Thy ways, merciful and
gracious in Thy providence, Thou hast wrought a great deliverance
before our eyes this day. All power is in Thy hands. All forces
move at Thy command. Thine hand it is that guided this dread
hammer harmless to its own place, saving the people from death.
It is ever thus, Father, for Thou art Love. We lift to Thee our
hearts' praise. May we walk softly before Thee this day and alway.
Amen!"
"Amen! Amen!" On every hand and up the hillsides rises the
fervent solemn attestation.
"Rise, Mr. Murray!" says the minister in a loud and solemn voice,
giving Mack his hand. "God has been gracious to you this day. See
that you do not forget."
"He has that! He has that!" sobs Mack. "And God forgive me if
I ever forget." And, suddenly pushing from him the many hands
stretched out towards him, he stumbles his way through the crowd,
led off by his two friends towards the tent.
"Hold on there a minute! Let us get this measurement first." It
was the matter-of-fact, cheery voice of Fatty Freeman. "If I am
not mistaken we have a great throw to measure."
"Quite right, Mr. Freeman," said the minister. "Let us get the
measurement and let not the day be spoiled."
"Here, you people, don't stand there gawking like a lot of dotty
chumps!" cried the secretary, striving to whip them out of the mood
of horror into which they had fallen. "Get a move on! Give the
judges a chance! What is it, doctor?"
The judges were consulting. At length the decision was announced.
"One hundred and twenty-nine seven."
"Hooray!" yelled Fatty, flinging his straw hat high. "One hundred
and twenty-nine seven! It is a world throw! Why don't you yell,
you people? Don't you know that you have a world-beater among you?
Yell! Yell!"
"Three cheers for Mack Murray!" called out the Reverend Harper
Freeman from the platform, swinging his great black beaver hat over
his head.
It was what the people wanted. Again, and again, and yet again the
crowd exhausted its pent-up emotions in frantic cheers. The clouds
of gloom were rolled back, the sun was shining bright again, and
with fresh zest the people turned to the enjoyment of the rest of
the programme.
"Thank you, Sir!" said Fatty amid the uproar, gripping the hand of
Mr. Munro. "You have saved the day for us. We were all going to
smash, but you pulled us out."
Meantime in the tent Duncan Ross was discoursing to his friends.
"Man, Mack! Yon's a mighty throw! Do you know it iss within five
feet of my own record and within ten of Big Rory's? Then," he said
solemnly, "you are in the world's first class to-day, my boy, and
you are just beginning."
"I have just quit!" said Mack.
"Whist, lad! Thiss iss not the day for saying anything about it.
We will wait a wee and to-day we will just be thankful." And with
that they turned to other things.
They were still in the dressing tent when the secretary thrust his
cheery face under the flap.
"I say, boys! Are you ready? Cameron, we want you on the pipes."
"Harp!" said Mack. "I am going home. I am quite useless."
"And me, too," said Cameron. "I shall go with you, Mack."
"What?" cried Fatty in consternation. "Look here, boys! Is this a
square deal? God knows I am nearly all in myself. I've had enough
to keep this thing from going to pieces. Don't you go back on me
now!"
"That is so!" said Mack slowly. "Cameron, you must stay. You are
needed. I will spoil things more by staying than by going. I
would be forever seeing that hammer crushing down--" He covered
his face with his hands and shuddered.
"All right, Mack! I will stay," said Cameron. "But what about
you?"
"Oh," said Black Duncan, "Mack and I will walk about and have a
smoke for a little."
"Thanks, boys, you are the stuff!" said Fatty fervently. "Once
more you have saved the day. Come then, Cameron! Get your pipes.
Old Sutherland is waiting for you."
But before he set off Mack called Cameron to him.
"You will see Isa," he said, "and tell her why I could not stay.
And you will take her home." His face was still pallid, his voice
unsteady.
"I will take care of her, Mack, never fear. But could you not
remain? It might help you."
But Mack only shook his head. His fervent Highland soul had too
recently passed through the valley of death and its shadows were
still upon him.
Four hours later Fatty looked in upon Mack at his own home. He
found him sitting in the moonlight in the open door of the big new
barn, with his new-made friend, Duncan Ross, at one door post and
old Piper Sutherland at the other, while up and down the floor in
the shadow within Cameron marched, droning the wild melody of the
"Maccrimmon Lament." Mournful and weird it sounded through the
gloom, but upon the hearts of these Highlanders it fell like a
soothing balm. With a wave of his hand Mack indicated a seat,
which Fatty took without a word. Irrepressible though he was, he
had all the instincts of a true gentleman. He knew it was the time
for silence, and silent he stood till the Lament had run through
its "doubling" and its "trebling," ending with the simple stately
movement of its original theme. To Fatty it was a mere mad and
unmelodious noise, but, reading the faces of the three men before
him in the moonlight, he had sense enough to recognise his own
limitations.
At length the Lament was finished and Cameron came forward into the
light.
"Ah! That iss good for the soul," said old piper Sutherland. "Do
you know what your pipes have been saying to me in yon Lament?
'Yea, though I walk through Death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear none ill;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.'
And we have been in the valley thiss day."
Mack rose to his feet.
"I could not have said it myself, but, as true as death, that is
the word for me."
"Well," said Fatty, rising briskly, "I guess you are all right,
Mack. I confess I was a bit anxious about you, but--"
"There is no need," said Mack gravely. "I can sleep now."
"Good-night, then," replied Fatty, turning to go. "Cameron, I owe
you a whole lot. I won't forget it." He set his hat upon the back
of his head, sticking his hands into his pockets and surveying the
group before him. "Say! You Highlanders are a great bunch. I do
not pretend to understand you, but I want to say that between you
you have saved the day." And with that the cheery, frisky,
irrepressible, but kindly little man faded into the moonlight and
was gone.
For the fourth time the day had been saved.
CHAPTER VI
A SABBATH DAY IN LATE AUGUST
It was a Sabbath day in late August, and in no month of the year
does a Sabbath day so chime with the time. For the Sabbath day is
a day for rest and holy thought, and the late August is the rest
time of the year, when the woods and fields are all asleep in a
slumberous blue haze; the sacred time, too, for in late August old
Mother Earth is breathing her holiest aspirations heavenward,
having made offering of her best in the full fruitage of the year.
Hence a Sabbath day in late August chimes marvellously well with
the time.
And this particular Sabbath day was perfect of its kind, a dreamy,
drowsy day, a day when genial suns and hazy cool airs mingle in
excellent harmony, and the tired worker, freed from his week's
toil, basks and stretches, yawns and revels in rest under the
orchard trees; unless, indeed, he goes to morning church. And to
morning church Cameron went as a rule, but to-day, owing to a dull
ache in his head and a general sense of languor pervading his
limbs, he had chosen instead, as likely to be more healing to his
aching head and his languid limbs, the genial sun, tempered with
cool and lazy airs under the orchard trees. And hence he lay
watching the democrat down the lane driven off to church by
Perkins, with Mandy beside him in the front seat, the seat of
authority and of activity, and Mr. Haley alone in the back seat,
the seat of honour and of retirement. Mrs. Haley was too overborne
by the heat and rush of the busy week to adventure the heat and
dust of the road, and to sustain the somewhat strenuous discourse
of the Reverend Harper Freeman, to whose flock the Haleys belonged.
This, however, was not Mrs. Haley's invariable custom. In the
cooler weather it was her habit to drive on a Sunday morning to
church, sitting in the back seat beside her husband, with Tim and
Mandy occupying the front seat beside the hired man, but during the
heat and hurry of the harvest time she would take advantage of the
quietness of the house and of the two or three hours' respite from
the burden of household duties to make up arrears of sleep
accumulated during the preceding week, salving her conscience, for
she had a conscience in the matter, with a promise that she might
go in the evening when it was cooler and when she was more rested.
This promise, however, having served its turn, was never fulfilled,
for by the evening the wheels of household toil began once more to
turn, and Mrs. Haley found it easier to worship vicariously,
sending Mandy and Tim to the evening service. And to this service
the young people were by no means loath to go, for it was held on
fair evenings in MacBurney's woods, two miles away by the road, one
mile by the path through the woods. On occasion Perkins would
hitch up in the single buggy Dexter, the fiery young colt, too
fiery for any other to drive, and, as a special attention to his
employer's daughter, would drive her to the service. But since the
coming of Cameron, Mandy had allowed this custom to fall into
disuse, at first somewhat to Perkins' relief, for the colt was
restless and fretted against the tie rein; and, besides, Perkins
was not as yet quite prepared to acknowledge any special relationship
between himself and the young lady in question before the assembled
congregation, preferring to regard himself and to be regarded by
others as a free lance. Later, however, as Mandy's preference for
a walk through the woods became more marked, Perkins, much to his
disgust, found himself reduced to the attitude of a suppliant,
urging the superior attraction of a swift drive behind Dexter as
against a weary walk to the service. Mandy, however, with the
directness of her simple nature, had no compunction in frankly
maintaining her preference for a walk with Tim and Cameron through
the woods; indeed, more than once she allowed Perkins to drive off
with his fiery colt, alone in his glory.
But this Sabbath morning, as Cameron lay under the orchard trees,
he was firmly resolved that he would give the whole day to the
nursing of the ache in his head and the painful languor in his
body. And so lying he allowed his mind to wander uncontrolled over
the happenings of the past months, troubled by a lazy consciousness
of a sore spot somewhere in his life. Gradually there grew into
clearness the realisation of the cause of this sore spot.
"What is the matter with Perkins?" he asked of Tim, who had
declined to go to church, and who had strolled into the orchard to
be near his friend.
"What is the matter with Perkins?" Cameron asked a second time, for
Tim was apparently too much engaged with a late harvest apple to
answer.
"How?" said the boy at length.
"He is so infernally grumpy with me."
"Grumpy? He's sore, I guess."
"Sore?"
"You bet! Ever since I beat him in the turnips that day."
"Ever since YOU beat him?" asked Cameron in amazement. "Why should
he be sore against me?"
"He knows it was you done it," said Tim.
"Nonsense, Tim! Besides, Perkins isn't a baby. He surely doesn't
hold that against me."
"Huh, huh," said Tim, "everybody's pokin' fun at him, and he hates
that, and ever since the picnic, too, he hates you."
"But why in the world?"
"Oh, shucks!" said Tim, impatient at Cameron's density. "I guess
you know all right."
"Know? Not I!"
"Git out?"
"Honor bright, Tim," replied Cameron, sitting up. "Now, honestly,
tell me, Tim, why in the world Perkins should hate me."
"You put his nose out of joint, I guess," said Tim with a grin.
"Oh, rot, Tim! How?"
"Every how," said Tim, proceeding to elaborate. "First when you
came here you were no good--I mean--" Tim checked himself hastily.
"I know what you mean, Tim. Go on. You are quite right. I
couldn't do anything on the farm."
"Now," continued Tim, "you can do anything jist as good as him--
except bindin', of course. He's a terror at bindin', but at
pitchin' and shockin' and loadin' you're jist as good."
"But, Tim, that's all nonsense. Perkins isn't such a fool as to
hate me because I can keep up my end."
"He don't like you," said Tim stubbornly.
"But why? Why in the name of common sense?"
"Well," said Tim, summing up the situation, "before you come he
used to be the hull thing. Now he's got to play second fiddle."
But Cameron remained unenlightened.
"Oh, pshaw!" continued Tim, making further concessions to his
friend's stupidity. "At the dances, at the raisin's, runnin',
jumpin'--everythin'--Perkins used to be the King Bee. Now--"
Tim's silence furnished an impressive close to the contrast. "Why!
They all think you are just fine!" said Tim, with a sudden burst of
confidence.
"They?"
"All the boys. Yes, and the girls, too," said Tim, allowing his
solemn face the unusual luxury of a smile.
"The girls?"
"Aw, yeh know well enough--the Murray girls, and the MacKenzies,
and the hull lot of them. And then--and then--there's Mandy, too."
Here Tim shot a keen glance at his friend, who now sat leaning
against the trunk of an apple tree with his eyes closed.
"Now, Tim, you are a shrewd little chap"--here Cameron sat upright--
"but how do you know about the girls, and what is this you say
about Mandy? Mandy is good to me--very kind and all that, but--"
"She used to like Perkins pretty well," said Tim, with a kind of
hesitating shyness.
"And Perkins?"
"Oh, he thought he jist owned her. Guess he ain't so sure now,"
added Tim. "I guess you've changed Mandy all right."
It was the one thing Cameron hated to hear, but he made light of
it.
"Oh, nonsense!" he exclaimed. "But if I did I would be mighty glad
of it. Mandy is too good for a man like Perkins. Why, he isn't
safe."
"He's a terror," replied Tim seriously. "They are all scairt of
him. He's a terror to fight. Why, at MacKenzie's raisin' last
year he jist went round foamin' like an old boar and nobody dast
say a word to him. Even Mack Murray was scairt to touch him. When
he gets like that he ain't afraid of nothin' and he's awful quick
and strong."
Tim proceeded to enlarge upon this theme, which apparently
fascinated him, with tales of Perkins' prowess in rough-and-tumble
fighting. But Cameron had lost interest and was lying down again
with his eyes closed.
"Well," he said, when Tim had finished his recital, "if he is that
kind of a man Mandy should have nothing to do with him."
But Tim was troubled.
"Dad likes him," he said gloomily. "He is a good hand. And ma
likes him, too. He taffies her up."
"And Mandy?" enquired Cameron.
"I don't know," said Tim, still more gloomy. "I guess he kind of
makes her. I'd--I'd jist like to take a lump out of him." Tim's
eyes blazed into a sudden fire. "He runs things on this farm
altogether too much."
"Buck up then, Tim, and beat him," said Cameron, dismissing the
subject. "And now I must have some sleep. I have got an awful
head on."
Tim was quick enough to understand the hint, but still he hovered
about.
"Say, I'm awful sorry," he said. "Can't I git somethin'? You
didn't eat no breakfast."
"Oh, all I want is sleep, Tim. I will be all right tomorrow,"
replied Cameron, touched by the tone of sympathy in Tim's voice.
"You are a fine little chap. Trot along and let me sleep."
But no sleep came to Cameron, partly because of the hammer knocking
in his head, but chiefly because of the thoughts set going by Tim.
Cameron was not abnormally egotistical, but he was delightedly
aware of the new place he held in the community ever since the now
famous Dominion Day picnic, and, now that the harvest rush had
somewhat slackened, social engagements had begun to crowd upon him.
Dances and frolics, coon hunts and raisings were becoming the vogue
throughout the community, and no social function was complete
without the presence of Cameron. But this sudden popularity had
its embarrassments, and among them, and threatening to become
annoying, was the hostility of Perkins, veiled as yet, but none the
less real. Moreover, behind Perkins stood a band of young fellows
of whom he was the recognised leader and over whom his ability in
the various arts and crafts of the farm, his physical prowess in
sports, his gay, cheery manner, and, it must be said, the
reputation he bore for a certain fierce brute courage in rough-and-
tumble fighting, gave him a sort of ascendency.
But Perkins' attitude towards him did not after all cause Cameron
much concern. There was another and more annoying cause of
embarrassment, and that was Mandy. Tim's words kept reiterating
themselves in his brain, "You've changed Mandy all right." Over
this declaration of Tim's, Cameron proceeded to argue with himself.
He sat bolt upright that he might face himself on the matter.
"Now, then," he said to himself, "let's have this thing out."
"Most willingly. This girl was on the way to engagement to this
young man Perkins. You come on the scene. Everything is changed."
"Well! What of it? It's a mighty good thing for her."
"But you are the cause of it."
"The occasion, rather."
"No, the cause. You have attracted her to you."
"I can't help that. Besides, it is a mere passing whim. She'll
get over all that?" And Cameron laughed scornfully in his own
face.
"Do you know that? And how do you know it? Tim thinks differently."
"Oh, confound it all! I see that I shall have to get out of here."
"A wise decision truly, and the sooner the better. Do you propose
to go at once?"
"At once? Well, I should like to spend the winter here. I have
made a number of friends and life is beginning to be pleasant."
"Exactly! It suits your convenience, but how about Mandy?"
"Oh, rubbish! Must I be governed by the fancies of that silly
girl? Besides, the whole thing is absurdly ridiculous."
"But facts are stubborn, and anyone can see that the girl is--"
"Hang it all! I'll go at the end of the month."
"Very well. And in the leave-taking--?"
"What?"
"It is pleasant to be appreciated and to carry away with one
memories, I will not say tender, but appreciative."
"I can't act like a boor. I must be decent to the girl. Besides,
she isn't altogether a fool."
"No, but very crude, very primitive, very passionate, and therefore
very defenseless."
"All right, I shall simply shake hands and go."
So, with the consequent sense of relief that high resolve always
brings, Cameron lay down again and fell into slumber and dreams of
home.
From these dreams of home Mandy recalled him with a summons to
dinner. As his eye, still filled with the vision of his dreams,
fell upon her in all the gorgeous splendour of her Sunday dress, he
was conscious of a strong sense of repulsion. How coarse, how
crude, how vulgar she appeared, how horribly out of keeping with
those scenes through which he had just been wandering in his
dreams.
"I want no dinner, Mandy," he said shortly. "I have a bad head and
I am not hungry."
"No dinner?" That a man should not want dinner was to Mandy quite
inexplicable, unless, indeed, he were ill.
"Are you sick?" she cried in quick alarm.
"No, I have a headache. It will pass away," said Cameron, turning
over on his side. Still Mandy lingered.
"Let me bring you a nice piece of pie and a cup of tea."
Cameron shuddered.
"No," he said, "bring me nothing. I merely wish to sleep."
But Mandy refused to be driven away.
"Say, I'm awful sorry. I know you're sick."
"Nonsense!" said Cameron, impatiently, waiting for her to be gone.
Still Mandy hesitated.
"I'm awful sorry," she said again, and her voice, deep, tender,
full-toned, revealed her emotion.
Cameron turned impatiently towards her.
"Look here, Mandy! There's nothing wrong with me. I only want a
little sleep. I shall be all right to-morrow."
But Mandy's fears were not to be allayed.
"Say," she cried, "you look awful bad."
"Oh, get out, Mandy! Go and get your dinner. Don't mind me."
Cameron's tone was decidedly cross.
Without further remonstrance Mandy turned silently away, but before
she turned Cameron caught the gleam of tears in the great blue
eyes. A swift compunction seized him.
"I say, Mandy, I don't want to be rude, but--"
"Rude?" cried the girl. "You? You couldn't be. You are always
good--to me--and--I--don't--know--" Here her voice broke.
"Oh, come, Mandy, get away to dinner. You are a good girl. Now
leave me alone."
The kindness in his voice quite broke down Mandy's all too slight
control. She turned away, audibly sniffling, with her apron to her
eyes, leaving Cameron in a state of wrathful perplexity.
"Oh, confound it all!" he groaned to himself. "This is a rotten
go. By Jove! This means the West for me. The West! After all,
that's the place. Here there is no chance anyway. Why did I not
go sooner?"
He rose from the grass, shivering with a sudden chill, went to his
bed in the hay mow, and, covering himself with Tim's blankets and
his own, fell again into sleep. Here, late in the afternoon, Tim
found him and called him to supper.
With Mandy's watchful eye upon him he went through the form of
eating, but Mandy was not to be deceived.
"You ain't eatin' nothin'," she said reproachfully as he rose from
the table.
"Enough for a man who is doing nothing," replied Cameron. "What I
want is exercise. I think I shall take a walk."
"Going to church?" she enquired, an eager light springing into her
eye.
"To church? I hadn't thought of it," replied Cameron, but,
catching the gleam of a smile on Perkins' face and noting the
utterly woebegone expression on Mandy's, he added, "Well, I might
as well walk to church as any place else. You are going, Tim?"
"Huh huh!" replied Tim.
"I am going to hitch up Deck, Mandy," said Perkins.
"Oh, I'm goin' to walk!" said Mandy, emphatically.
"All right!" said Perkins. "Guess I'll walk too with the crowd."
"Don't mind me," said Mandy.
"I don't," laughed Perkins, "you bet! Nor anybody else."
"And that's no lie!" sniffed Mandy, with a toss of her head.
"Better drive to church, Mandy," suggested her mother. "You know
you're jist tired out and it will be late when you get started."
"Tired? Late?" cried Mandy, with alacrity. "I'll be through them
dishes in a jiffy and be ready in no time. I like the walk through
the woods."
"Depends on the company," laughed Perkins again. "So do I. Guess
we'll all go together."
True to her promise, Mandy was ready within half an hour. Cameron
shuddered as he beheld the bewildering variety of colour in her
attire and the still more bewildering arrangement of hat and hair.
"You're good and gay, Mandy," said Perkins. "What's the killing?"
Mandy made no reply save by a disdainful flirt of her skirts as
she set off down the lane, followed by Perkins, Cameron and Tim
bringing up the rear.
The lane was a grassy sward, cut with two wagon-wheel tracks, and
with a picturesque snake fence on either side. Beyond the fences
lay the fields, some of them with stubble raked clean, the next
year's clover showing green above the yellow, some with the grain
standing still in the shock, and some with the crop, the late oats
for instance, still uncut, but ready for the reaper. The turnip
field was splendidly and luxuriantly green with never a sign of the
brown earth. The hay meadow, too, was green and purple with the
second growth of clover.
So down the lane and between the shorn fields, yellow and green,
between the clover fields and the turnips, they walked in silence,
for the spell of the Sabbath evening lay upon the sunny fields,
barred with the shadows from the trees that grew along the fence
lines everywhere. At the "slashing" the wagon ruts faded out and
the road narrowed to a single cow path, winding its way between
stumps and round log piles, half hidden by a luxuriant growth of
foxglove and fireweed and asters, and everywhere the glorious
goldenrod. Then through the bars the path led into the woods, a
noble remnant of the beech and elm and maple forest from which the
farm had been cut some sixty years before. Cool and shadowy they
stood, and shot through with bright shafts of gold from the
westering sun, full of mysterious silence except for the twittering
of the sleepy birds or for the remonstrant call of the sentinel
crow from his watch tower on the dead top of a great elm. Deeper
into the shade the path ran until in the gloom it faded almost out
of sight.
Soothed by the cool shade, Cameron loitered along the path, pausing
to learn of Tim the names of plants and trees as he went.
"Ain't yeh never comin'?" called Mandy from the gloom far in front.
"What's all the rush?" replied Tim, impatiently, who loved nothing
better than a quiet walk with Cameron through the woods.
"Rush? We'll be late, and I hate walkin' up before the hull crowd.
Come on!" cried his sister in impatient tone.
"All right, Mandy, we're nearly through the woods. I begin to see
the clearing yonder," said Cameron, pointing to where the light was
beginning to show through the tree tops before them.
But they were late enough, and Mandy was glad of the cover of the
opening hymn to allow her to find her way to a group of her girl
friends, the males of the party taking shelter with a neighbouring
group of their own sex near by.
Upon the sloping sides of the grassy hills and under the beech
and maple trees, the vanguard of the retreating woods, sat the
congregation, facing the preacher, who stood on the grassy level
below. Behind them was the solid wall of thick woods, over them
time spreading boughs, and far above the trees the blue summer sky,
all the bluer for the little white clouds that sailed serene like
ships upon a sea. At their feet lay the open country, checkered by
the snake fences into fields of yellow, green, and brown, and
rolling away to meet the woods at the horizon.
The Sabbath rest filled the sweet air, breathed from the shady
woods, rested upon the checkered fields, and lifted with the hymn
to the blue heaven above. A stately cathedral it was, this place
of worship, filled with the incense of flowers and fields, arched
by the high dome of heaven, and lighted by the glory of the setting
sun.
Relieved by the walk for a time from the ache in his head, Cameron
surrendered himself to the mysterious influences of the place and
the hour. He let his eyes wander over the fields below him to the
far horizon, and beyond--beyond the woods, beyond the intervening
leagues of land and sea--and was again gazing upon the sunlit
loveliness of the Cuagh Oir. The Glen was abrim with golden light
this summer evening, the purple was on the hills and the little
loch gleamed sapphire at the bottom.
The preacher was reading his text.
"Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to
every man according to his several ability, and straightway took
his journey," and so on to the end of that marvellously wise tale,
wise with the wisdom of God, confirmed by the wisdom of human
experience.
The Reverend Harper Freeman's voice could hardly, even by courtesy,
be called musical; in fact, it was harsh and strident; but this
evening the hills, and the trees, and the wide open spaces,
Nature's mighty modulator, subdued the harshness, so that the voice
rolled up to the people clear, full, and sonorous. Nor was the
preacher possessed of great learning nor endued with the gift of
eloquence. He had, however, a shrewd knowledge of his people and
of their ways and of their needs, and he had a kindly heart, and,
more than all, he had the preacher's gift, the divine capacity for
taking fire.
For a time his words fell unheeded upon Cameron's outer ear.
"To every man his own endowments, some great, some small, but, mark
you, no man left quite poverty-stricken. God gives every man his
chance. No man can look God in the face, not one of you here can
say that you have ha |
