Part 26 (1/2)

It hurt me to have her go so chilly all of a sudden, but I replied frankly, ”Both. It does indeed worry me to have you breakfastless in these wilds through my doings.”

”Yes,” she said, smiling down on me, ”I ken fine the distinction between water-brose and ham and eggs.”

”We are still in Staffords.h.i.+re,” I said cheerily, ”and I'll go ahead and see what I can do for you. Now, Donald, your best foot first!”

He and I started ahead again, leaving her waiting for the rest of the party, detained by some explanation on the Colonel's part of the military aspects of the lie of the land.

”There's a wheen foine leddies wi' ta Prince, Got bless him,” said Donald, ”but when yon carline gets amangst 'em she'll pe like a muirc.o.c.k amangst a thrang o' craws. She'll ding 'em a'.”

I expected that Donald would cherish ill will to me for my blow, but in this I was wrong. So far from bearing me a grudge, he quite obviously liked me for it. He had a fist, or nief, as he called it, nearly as big as a leg of lamb, and almost the first thing he did when we were alone was to hold it out, huge, dirty, and hairy, and put it alongside mine. He scratched his rough head in his perplexity.

”At Gladsmuir,” he said, ”'er nainsell did take ten Southron loons wi'

'er own hant, wi' n.o.body to help 'er, an' now one callant had dinged 'er clean senseless wi' nothin' but a bairn's nief.”

”It wasn't clean fighting, Donald,” said I. ”Nothing but a sort of trick.

If you were to hit me fair and square I should snap in two like a carrot.

Tell me how you captured the ten men!”

It was a longish story, at any rate as he told it, in quaint uncertain English, intermixed with spates of his own Gaelic as he got excited over the account of his prowess. One of them was an officer, and Donald finished up by ferreting out of his meal-bag a magnificent gold watch, lawful prize from his point of view, taken out of the officer's fob.

”Ta tam t'ing was alife when I raxed 'er out of 'is poke,” he said, ”but 'er went dead sune after. She can 'ave 'er for a s.h.i.+llin'.”

He had no idea, nor could I make him understand, what it was and what purpose it served. When it had run down for want of winding, to his simple mind it had 'died.' He pushed it into my hand as indifferently as if it had been a turnip, and I promised to pay him at Leek, for my pockets were empty again and Margaret had the bag.

”'Er nainsell wad rather 'ave a new pair o' progues,” said he. ”And what for does anybody want a thing tat goes dead to tell ta time wi'? T'ere's ta sun and ta stars, tat never go dead.”

As we walked rapidly we overtook our party soon after settling the matter of the watch. The plough-lad who had been pressed as guide told me we were near the road to Leek, and I let him return. We dropped down to a rough road running our way, and a mile or so along it the roofs of a village came in sight, and we halted till the main body came up.

”What is it, Oliver?” asked the Colonel.

”Breakfast, sir,” said I.

We marched into the village in military array. At our head strode Donald, stout of heart and mighty of hand, with two pipers skirling away at his heels, and the clansmen stepping it out bravely two abreast behind them.

Margaret came next, with me at her mare's head, and the Colonel and Maclachlan brought up the rear.

Our arrival created as much stir as an earthquake. The Highlanders, in twos and threes, swarmed into the houses and ordered their unwilling hosts to prepare them a meal. That it was war I was engaged in was, for the first time, brought clearly home to me when I saw a fearsome Highlander, with claymore, dirk, and loaded musket, posted at each end of the village.

A touch of ordinary human nature was, however, added, when the children, fearless and happy in their ignorance, sidled up to the sentries and stared at them as eagerly as if they had been war-painted Indians in a travelling show.

At first, we, the gentry for short, intended to seek accommodation in the inn, poor and shabby though it looked, and Donald was ordered thither to give instructions. The Colonel and the chieftain rode along the village to observe how things were going, and this left Margaret and me together, and spectators of a delightful little pa.s.sage. For as Donald approached the inn-door, the hostess, a sharp-nosed, vixenish woman, charged at him with a very dirty besom and routed him completely. Truth to tell, Donald, who had the sound, sweet nature of a child, had all the natural child's indifference to dirt, but even he, long-suffering in such matters as he was, had to stop to sc.r.a.pe the filth out of his eyes. This gave me the chance of making peace, and I went up and explained that we should pay for everything like ordinary travellers, good money for good fare.

”Oh aye!” she said.

”Jonnock!” said I.

”You're a Stafford chap,” she a.s.serted.

”I am,” I agreed, ”and I'll see you done well by.”