Part 42 (2/2)

”Oh, the tattie-doolie!” cried Gavinia.

So they knew that Mr. McLean had only been speaking sarcastically; of a sudden they saw through and despised their captain. Tears of mortification rose in Tommy's eyes, and kind-hearted Miss Ailie saw them, and she thought it was her lover's irony that made him smart. She had said little hitherto, but now she put her hand on his shoulder, and told them all that she did indeed owe the supreme joy that had come to her to him. ”No, Gavinia,” she said, blus.h.i.+ng, ”I will not give you the particulars, but I a.s.sure you that had it not been for Tommy, Mr. McLean would never have asked me to marry him.”

Elspeth crossed proudly to the side of her n.o.ble brother (who could scarcely trust his ears), and Gavinia cried, in wonder, ”What did he do?”

Now McLean had seen Tommy's tears also, and being a kindly man he dropped the satirist and chimed in warmly, ”And if I had not asked Miss Ailie to marry me I should have lost the great happiness of my life, so you may all imagine how beholden I feel to Tommy.”

Again Tommy was the centre-piece, and though these words were as puzzling to him as to his crew, their sincerity was unmistakable, and once more his head began to waggle complacently.

”And to show how grateful we are,” said Miss Ailie, ”we are to give him a--a sort of marriage present. We are to double the value of the bursary he wins at the university--” She could get no farther, for now Elspeth was hugging her, and Corp cheering frantically, and Mr. McLean thought it necessary to add the warning, ”If he does carry a bursary, you understand, for should he fail I give him nothing.”

”Him fail!” exclaimed Corp, with whom Miss Ailie of course agreed. ”And he can spend the money in whatever way he chooses,” she said, ”what will you do with it, Tommy?”

The lucky boy answered, instantly, ”I'll take Elspeth to Aberdeen to bide with me,” and then Elspeth hugged him, and Miss Ailie said, in a delighted aside to Mr. McLean, ”I told you so,” and he, too, was well pleased.

”It was the one thing needed to make him work,” the school-mistress whispered. ”Is not his love for his sister beautiful?”

McLean admitted that it was, but half-banteringly he said to Elspeth: ”What could you do in lodgings, you excited mite?”

”I can sit and look at Tommy,” she answered, quickly.

”But he will be away for hours at his cla.s.ses.”

”I'll sit at the window waiting for him,” said she.

”And I'll run back quick,” said Tommy.

All this time another problem had been bewildering Gavinia, and now she broke in, eagerly: ”But what was it he did? I thought he was agin Mr.

McLean.”

”And so did I,” said Corp.

”I cheated you grandly,” replied Tommy with the audacity he found so useful.

”And a' the time you was pretending to be agin him,” screamed Gavinia, ”was you--was you bringing this about on the sly?”

Tommy looked up into Mr. McLean's face, but could get no guidance from it, so he said nothing; he only held his head higher than ever. ”Oh, the clever little curse!” cried Corp, and Elspeth's delight was as ecstatic, though differently worded. Yet Gavinia stuck to her problem, ”How did you do it, what was it you did?” and the cruel McLean said: ”You may tell her, Tommy; you have my permission.”

It would have been an awkward position for most boys, and even Tommy--but next moment he said, quite coolly: ”I think you and me and Miss Ailie should keep it to oursels, Gavinia's sic a gossip.”

”Oh, how thoughtful of him!” cried Miss Ailie, the deceived, and McLean said: ”How very thoughtful!” but now he saw in a flash why Mr. Cathro still had hopes that Tommy might carry a bursary.

Thus was the repentant McLean pardoned, and nothing remained for him to do save to show the crew his Lair, which they had sworn to destroy. He had behaved so splendidly that they had forgotten almost that they were the emissaries of justice, but not to destroy the Lair seemed a pity, it would be such a striking way of bringing their adventures in the Den to a close. The degenerate Stuart read this feeling in their faces, and he was ready, he said, to show them his Lair if they would first point it out to him; but here was a difficulty, for how could they do that? For a moment it seemed as if the negotiations must fall through; but Sandys, that captain of resource, invited McLean to step aside for a private conference, and when they rejoined the others McLean said, gravely, that he now remembered where the Lair was and would guide them to it.

They had only to cross a plank, invisible in the mist until they were close to it, and climb a slippery bank strewn with fallen trees. McLean, with a mock serious air, led the way, Miss Ailie on his arm. Corp and Gavinia followed, weighted and hampered by their new half-crowns, and Tommy and Elspeth, in the rear, whispered joyously of the coming life.

And so, very unprepared for it, they moved toward the tragedy of the night.

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