Part 17 (1/2)

Then Lady Eleanour handed him the Cup.

”Mr. M'Adam, I present you with the Champion Challenge Dale Cup, open to all comers. Keep it, guard it, love it as your own, and win it again if you can. Twice more and it's yours, you know, and it will stop forever beneath the shadow of the Pike. And the right place for it, say I--the Dale Cup for Dalesmen.”

The little man took the Cup tenderly.

”It shall no leave the Estate or ma hoose, yer Leddys.h.i.+p, gin Wullie and I can help it,” he said emphatically.

Lady Eleanour retreated into the tent, and the crowd swarmed over the ropes and round the little man, who held the Cup beneath his arm.

Long Kirby laid irreverent hands upon it.

”Dinna finger it!” ordered M'Adam.

”Shall!''

”Shan't! Wullie, keep him aff.” Which the great dog proceeded to do amid the laughter of the onlookers.

Among the last, James Moore was borne past the little man. At sight of him, M'Adam's face a.s.sumed an expression of intense concern.

”Man, Moore!” he cried, peering forward as though in alarm; ”man, Moore, ye're green--positeevely verdant. Are ye in pain?” Then, catching sight of Owd Bob, he started back in affected horror.

”And, ma certes! so's yer dog! Yer dog as was gray is green. Oh, guid life! ”--and he made as though about to fall fainting to the ground.

Then, in bantering tones: ”Ah, but ye shouldna covet ----”

”He'll ha' no need to covet it long, I can tell yo',” interposed Tammas's shrill accents.

”And why for no?”

”Becos next year he'll win it fra yo'. Oor Bob'll win it, little mon.

Why? thot's why.”

The retort was greeted with a yell of applause from the sprinkling of Dalesmen in the crowd.

But M'Adam swaggered away into the tent, his head up, the Cup beneath his arm, and Red Wull guarding his rear.

”First of a' ye'll ha' to beat Adam M'Adam and his Red Wull!” he cried back proudly.

Chapter XI. OOR BOB

M'ADAM'S pride in the great Cup that now graced his kitchen was supreme.

It stood alone in the very centre of the mantelpiece, just below the old bell-mouthed blunderbuss that hung upon the wall. The only ornament in the bare room, it shone out in its silvery chast.i.ty like the moon in a gloomy sky.

For once the little man was content. Since his mother's death David had never known such peace. It was not that his father became actively kind; rather that he forgot to be actively unkind.

”Not as I care a brazen b.u.t.ton one way or t'ither,” the boy informed Maggie.

”Then yo' should,” that proper little person replied.