Part 3 (2/2)
The setting sun sent his shadow before him as he entered the place. He kept the middle of the street, looking on this side and that for the hostelry whither he had despatched his chest before leaving home. A gloomy building, apparently uninhabited, drew his attention, and sent a strange thrill through him as his eyes fell upon it. It was of three low stories, the windows defended by iron stanchions, the door studded with great k.n.o.bs of iron. A little way beyond he caught sight of the sign he was in search of. It swung in front of an old-fas.h.i.+oned, dingy building, with much of the old-world look that pervaded the town. The last red rays of the sun were upon it, lighting up a sorely faded coat of arms. The supporters, two red horses on their hind legs, were all of it he could make out. The crest above suggested a skate, but could hardly have been intended for one. A greedy-eyed man stood in the doorway, his hands in his trouser-pockets. He looked with contemptuous scrutiny at the bare-footed lad approaching him. He had black hair and black eyes; his nose looked as if a heavy finger had settled upon its point, and pressed it downwards: its nostrils swelled wide beyond their base; underneath was a big mouth with a good set of teeth, and a strong upturning chin--an ambitious and greedy face. But ambition is a form of greed.
”A fine day, landlord!” said Donal.
”Ay,” answered the man, without changing the posture of one taking his ease against his own door-post, or removing his hands from his pockets, but looking Donal up and down with conscious superiority, then resting his eyes on the bare feet and upturned trousers.
”This'll be the Morven Arms, I'm thinkin'?” said Donal.
”It taksna muckle thoucht to think that,” returned the inn-keeper, ”whan there they hing!”
”Ay,” rejoined Donal, glancing up; ”there is something there--an' it's airms I doobtna; but it's no a'body has the preevilege o' a knowledge o' heraldry like yersel', lan'lord! I'm b'un' to confess, for what I ken they micht be the airms o' ony ane o' ten score Scots faimilies.”
There was one weapon with which John Glumm was a.s.sailable, and that was ridicule: with all his self-sufficiency he stood in terror of it--and the more covert the ridicule, so long as he suspected it, the more he resented as well as dreaded it. He stepped into the street, and taking a hand from a pocket, pointed up to the sign.
”See til't!” he said. ”Dinna ye see the twa reid horse?”
”Ay,” answered Donal; ”I see them weel eneuch, but I'm nane the wiser nor gien they war twa reid whauls.--Man,” he went on, turning sharp round upon the fellow, ”ye're no cawpable o' conceivin' the extent o'
my ignorance! It's as rampant as the reid horse upo' your sign! I'll yield to naebody i' the amoont o' things I dinna ken!”
The man stared at him for a moment.
”I s' warran',” he said, ”ye ken mair nor ye care to lat on!”
”An' what may that be ower the heid o' them?--A crest, ca' ye 't?” said Donal.
”It's a base pearl-beset,” answered the landlord.
He had not a notion of what a base meant, or pearl-beset, yet prided himself on his knowledge of the words.
”Eh,” returned Donal, ”I took it for a skate!”
”A skate!” repeated the landlord with offended sneer, and turned towards the house.
”I was thinkin' to put up wi' ye the nicht, gien ye could accommodate me at a rizzonable rate,” said Donal.
”I dinna ken,” replied Glumm, hesitating, with his back to him, between unwillingness to lose a penny, and resentment at the supposed badinage, which was indeed nothing but humour; ”what wad ye ca' rizzonable?”
”I wadna grudge a saxpence for my bed; a s.h.i.+llin' I wad,” answered Donal.
”Weel, ninepence than--for ye seemna owercome wi' siller.”
”Na,” answered Donal, ”I'm no that. Whatever my burden, yon's no hit.
The loss o' what I hae wad hardly mak me lichter for my race.”
”Ye're a queer customer!” said the man.
”I'm no sae queer but I hae a kist comin' by the carrier,” rejoined Donal, ”direckit to the Morven Airms. It'll be here in time doobtless.”
”We'll see whan it comes,” remarked the landlord, implying the chest was easier invented than believed in.
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