Part 52 (1/2)
”Ay, there was anither fine upshot,” said Master Yellowley. ”She wadna look at us, or listen to us; only she bothered our acquaintance, Master Halcro here, who thought he could have sae much to say wi' her, with about a score of questions about your family and household estate, Master Magnus Troil; and when she had gotten a' she wanted out of him, I thought she wad hae dung him ower the craig, like an empty peacod.”
”And for yourself?” said the Udaller.
”She wadna listen to my story, nor hear sae much as a word that I had to say,” answered Triptolemus; ”and sae much for them that seek to witches and familiar spirits!”
”You needed not to have had recourse to Norna's wisdom, Master Factor,”
said Minna, not unwilling, perhaps, to stop his railing against the friend who had so lately rendered her service; ”the youngest child in Orkney could have told you, that fairy treasures, if they are not wisely employed for the good of others, as well as of those to whom they are imparted, do not dwell long with their possessors.”
”Your humble servant to command, Mistress Minnie,” said Triptolemus; ”I thank ye for the hint,--and I am blithe that you have gotten your wits--I beg pardon, I meant your health--into the barn-yard again. For the treasure, I neither used nor abused it,--they that live in the house with my sister Baby wad find it hard to do either!--and as for speaking of it, whilk they say muckle offends them whom we in Scotland call Good Neighbours, and you call Drows, the face of the auld Norse kings on the coins themselves, might have spoken as much about it as ever I did.”
”The Factor,” said Claud Halcro, not unwilling to seize the opportunity of revenging himself on Triptolemus, for disgracing his seamans.h.i.+p and disparaging his music,--”The Factor was so scrupulous, as to keep the thing quiet even from his master, the Lord Chamberlain; but, now that the matter has ta'en wind, he is likely to have to account to his master for that which is no longer in his possession; for the Lord Chamberlain will be in no hurry, I think, to believe the story of the dwarf. Neither do I think” (winking to the Udaller) ”that Norna gave credit to a word of so odd a story; and I dare say that was the reason that she received us, I must needs say, in a very dry manner. I rather think she knew that Triptolemus, our friend here, had found some other hiding-hole for the money, and that the story of the goblin was all his own invention. For my part, I will never believe there was such a dwarf to be seen as the creature Master Yellowley describes, until I set my own eyes on him.”
”Then you may do so at this moment,” said the Factor; ”for, by ----,”
(he muttered a deep a.s.severation as he sprung on his feet in great horror,) ”there the creature is!”
All turned their eyes in the direction in which he pointed, and saw the hideous misshapen figure of Pacolet, with his eyes fixed and glaring at them through the smoke. He had stolen upon their conversation unperceived, until the Factor's eye lighted upon him in the manner we have described. There was something so ghastly in his sudden and unexpected appearance, that even the Udaller, to whom his form was familiar, could not help starting. Neither pleased with himself for having testified this degree of emotion, however slight, nor with the dwarf who had given cause to it, Magnus asked him sharply, what was his business there? Pacolet replied by producing a letter, which he gave to the Udaller, uttering a sound resembling the word _Shogh_.[28]
”That is the Highlandman's language,” said the Udaller--”didst thou learn that, Nicholas, when you lost your own?”
Pacolet nodded, and signed to him to read his letter.
”That is no such easy matter by fire-light, my good friend,” replied the Udaller; ”but it may concern Minna, and we must try.”
Brenda offered her a.s.sistance, but the Udaller answered, ”No, no, my girl,--Norna's letters must be read by those they are written to. Give the knave, Strumpfer, a drop of brandy the while, though he little deserves it at my hands, considering the grin with which he sent the good Nantz down the crag this morning, as if it had been as much ditch-water.”
”Will you be this honest gentleman's cup-bearer--his Ganymede, friend Yellowley, or shall I?” said Claud Halcro aside to the Factor; while Magnus Troil, having carefully wiped his spectacles, which he produced from a large copper case, had disposed them on his nose, and was studying the epistle of Norna.
”I would not touch him, or go near him, for all the Ca.r.s.e of Gowrie,”
said the Factor, whose fears were by no means entirely removed, though he saw that the dwarf was received as a creature of flesh and blood by the rest of the company; ”but I pray you to ask him what he has done with my horn of coins?”
The dwarf, who heard the question, threw back his head, and displayed his enormous throat, pointing to it with his finger.
”Nay, if he has swallowed them, there is no more to be said,” replied the Factor; ”only I hope he will thrive on them as a cow on wet clover.
He is dame Norna's servant it's like,--such man, such mistress! But if theft and witchcraft are to go unpunished in this land, my lord must find another factor; for I have been used to live in a country where men's worldly gear was keepit from infang and outfang thief, as well as their immortal souls from the claws of the deil and his c.u.mmers,--sain and save us!”
The agriculturist was perhaps the less reserved in expressing his complaints, that the Udaller was for the present out of hearing, having drawn Claud Halcro apart into another corner of the hut.
”And tell me,” said he, ”friend Halcro, what errand took thee to Sumburgh, since I reckon it was scarce the mere pleasure of sailing in partners.h.i.+p with yonder barnacle?”
”In faith, Fowd,” said the bard, ”and if you will have the truth, I went to speak to Norna on your affairs.”
”On my affairs?” replied the Udaller; ”on what affairs of mine?”
”Just touching your daughter's health. I heard that Norna refused your message, and would not see Eric Scambester. Now, said I to myself, I have scarce joyed in meat, or drink, or music, or aught else, since Jarto Minna has been so ill; and I may say, literally as well as figuratively, that my day and night have been made sorrowful to me. In short, I thought I might have some more interest with old Norna than another, as scalds and wise women were always accounted something akin; and I undertook the journey with the hope to be of some use to my old friend and his lovely daughter.”
”And it was most kindly done of you, good warm-hearted Claud,” said the Udaller, shaking him warmly by the hand,--”I ever said you showed the good old Norse heart amongst all thy fiddling and thy folly.--Tut, man, never wince for the matter, but be blithe that thy heart is better than thy head. Well,--and I warrant you got no answer from Norna?”