Huntingtower
et. It was the Poet who had insisted upon this walk, and he had his own purpose. They looked at the spires of smoke piercing the windless air, and studi
re Heritage's music waxed peculiarly loud. Presently from the yard, unshav
et. "I hope the sickness in
in the man's heavy face there was little civil
road again. I'm jolly glad we spent the night
Whereabouts
but we didn't want to fuss an old lady, so we thoug
on him like a searchlight. They roused antagonism in his peaceful soul, and with that antagonism ca
urned on
e ye for
. He was still determined to shake t
l have a fine walk. I must go in and see about
illage street again, "is the first step in
nable lie," said
he night here, and now Dobson and his friends can get about their day's work with an e
coming
By 'we' I refer to mysel
she set the porridge on the table. "This gentleman has just
ildered. Then the corners of her prim
ne. But if ye're my nevoy ye'll hae to keep up
ne of it. "Ye're no' awa' yet," she said tartly, and the matter was complicated by Heritage's refusal to take part in the debate. He sto
he morning was fine, the keen air invited to high spirits, plovers piped entrancingly over the bent and linnets sang in the whins, there was a solid breakfast behind him, and the promise of a cheerful road till luncheon. The stage was set for good humour, but Dickson's heart, which should have been ascending with the larks, stuck leadenly in his boots. He was not even relieved at putting Dalquharter behind him. The atmosphere o
al emerged. A barefoot boy, dressed in much the same parody of a Boy Scout's uniform, but with corduroy shorts instead of a kilt, stood before him at rigid attention. Some command was issued, the child
rs with the condescension of
Lean followed ye till ye were out o' sight o' the houses, and syne Lean got a spy-glass and watched ye till the road turned in among
eckonissince mysel' this morning. I was up at the Hoose afore it was light, and tried the door o' t
ned. Was the in
oceeded to make marks with the stump of a carpenter's pencil. "See here," he commanded. "There's the glass place wi' a door into the Hoose. That door must be open or the lassie must have the key, for she comes there whenever she likes. Now, at each end o' the place the doors are lockit, but the front that looks on the garden is
imb it?" Her
doubt if auld McCunn could get up. Ye'd have to be mighty carefu' that nobody s
eritage. "We'll t
intolerable. Once again he was at the parting of the ways, and once more caprice determined his decision. That the coal-hole was out of the question had
g with you
aid the Chieftain of the Gorbals Die-Hards. Dickson's quaking heart experience
ing water, now high upon the bank so that clear sky showed through the
rabbits.... Then we must ford the water, for ye'll no' cross it lower down where it's deep.... Our road is on the Hoose side o' the Dean and it's awfu' public if there's onybody on the other side, tho
nly have fallen in had not Dougal plunged into the current and steadied him with a grimy hand. The leap was at last successfully taken, and the three scrambled up a rough scaur, all reddened with iron springs, till they struck a slender track running down the
ered. "The tinklers are eatin' their breakfast. They're
an to widen into its estuary, a group of figures round a small fire. There were four of them, all men, and Dickson thought he had never seen such ruffianly-lookin
lates, till it reached the waters of the small haven, which lay calm as a mill-pond in the windless forenoon. The haven broadened out at its foot and revealed a segment of blue sea. The o
little cover her
s no' like there's anybody watchin' from the Hoose. The danger is somebody on the other
ed with a hopeful report. "I think we're safe, till we get into the policies. There's a road that the auld folk made when ships us
tingtower on the short thymy turf which ran seaward to the cliffs. Dougal led them along a sunk fence which divided the downs from the lawns behind the house, and, avoiding the stables, brought them by devious ways to a thicket of rhododendrons and broom. On all fours they travelled the length
plants, rose to a long verandah, which was pillared and open on that side; but at each end built up half-way
are to try that wall, I must ken where Lean and Spittal and Dobson are. I'm o
owing old, and there was no rebound in his soul to counter the conviction. He felt listless, spiritless-an apathy with fright trembling somewhere at the back of it. He regarded the verandah wall with foreboding. How on earth cou
d cheered him, for he was growing very hungry, and he began to take an interest in the scene before him instead of his own thoughts. He observed every detail of the veran
? He kept his eyes on the ground and seemed to be talking to himself as he went, but he was alert enough, for the dropping of a twig from a dying magnolia transferred him in an instant into a figure of active vigilance. No risks could be run with that watcher. He t
st front of the House till he was lost to sight. After that the time passed slowly. A pair of yellow wagtails arrived and played at hide-and-seek among the stuccoed pillars. The little dry sc
-that he could tell, tall and slim and very young. Her face was turned seaward, and she stood for a little scanning the broad channel, shading her eyes as if to search for something on the extreme h
oved one doubt. That bright exotic thing did not belong to the Cruives or to Scotland at all, and that she shou
ry face of Dougal appeared. He lay between the other t
nd went off to Auchenlochan. I seen them pass the Garple bri
said Heritage, consu
s splittin' firewood at the back door o' his hoose.... I've found a ladder, an auld yin in ahint
ugal went up first, then Heritage, and lastly Dickson, stiff and giddy from his long lie under the bushes. Below the parapet the verandah floor was heaped with old garden litter, rotten matting, dead or derelict bulbs, fibre, withies and strawber
pturned pot-plants, so that a cactus ticked his brow and a spike of aloe supported painfully the back of his neck. Heritage was prone behind two old water-butts, and Dougal was in a hamper w
of his face, thought he looked both evil and furious. Then came some anxious moments, for had the man glanced back when he was once outside, he must
pull up the ladder and stow it away. "We've got the place to oursels, now. For
into a huge murky hall, murky, for the windows were shuttered, and the only light came through things like port-holes far up in the wall. Dougal, who seemed to know his way about, halted them. "Stop here till I scout a bit. The women bide in a wee room through that muckle door." Bare feet stol
y kettle o' fish," he whispered. "They're both gree
indows were partially shuttered, but it had plainly been a smoking-room, for there were pipe-racks by the hearth, and on the walls a number of old school and college photographs, a couple of oars with emblazoned names, and a variety of stags' and roebucks' heads. There was n
remember a forgotten lesson. One hand clutched a handkerchief, the other was closing and unclosing on a knob of the chair back. She was staring at Dou
e, Mademoiselle," he said. "Do you remember Easte
l looke
member," she
apartments on the floor below you. I saw yo
she asked, with a n
-till the w
hy have you
need it. If not, to ask
reign tongue which Dickson suspected of being French. Heritage replied in the same la
ou will trust us we will
ud exquisite eyebrows. The eyes were of a colour which he could never decide on; afterwards he used to allege obscurely that they were the colour of everything in Spring. There was a delicate pallor in the cheeks, and the face bore signs of suffering and care, possibly even of hunger; but for all that there was you
be shot with humour. A ghost of a smile lurked there, to
t you, Mem. I'm Mr.
en know my na
t," said
cousin Eugènie.... We are in very great trouble. But why
that boy. You are imprisoned in this place by scoundrels. We are here to he
oung man-an old man-and a little boy. There are m
and Dobson and four tinklers in the Dean-that's seven; but t
the boy's truculent c
id, and her eyes f
t impelled
untry and the law doesn't permit that. My advice is for one of us to inform the police at Auchenlochan and get Dobson and his friends took
d. "I dare not invoke your English law, for
bad business," said
and the elder appeared to be pleading and the younge
any dream and yet lived, but I have paid a price for such experience. First I went to Italy where there were friends, and I wished only to have peace among kindly people. About poverty I do not care, for, to us, who have lost all the great things, the want of bread is a little matter. But peace was forbidden me, for I learned that we Russians had to
certain foreign precision. Suddenly she chan
o Dickson. "It is among the greatest in Russia, the ve
e. You good people in England think they are well-meaning dreamers who are forced into violence by the persecution of Western Europe. But you are wrong. Some honest fools there are among the
which Dickson never forgot, the look of one who ha
help of the law-first in Italy and then in France. Oh, it was subtly done. Respectable bourgeois, who hated the Bolsheviki but had bought long ago the bonds of my country, desired to be repaid their debts out of the property of the Russian Crown which might be found in the West. But behind them were the Jews, and behind the Jews our unsleeping enemies. Once I was enmeshed in the law I wo
r from whispering to Heritage an extract from that gentleman's conversation the first night at Kirkmichael. "We needn't imitate all the
id you come he
we Russians were still a nation. I saw him again in Italy, and since he was kind and brave I told him some part of my troubles. He was called Quentin Kennedy, and now he is dead. He told me that in Scotland he had a lonely chateau where I could hide secretly and safely, and against the day when I might be har
s name?" He
Loudon-L-O-U-D-O-N in th
said Dickson.
e me, but another letter saying that that night a carriage would be in waiting to bring me here. It was midnight when we arrived, and
ritage. "Dobson o
her's service till he joined the Bolsheviki. Next day the Lett Spidel came, and I knew that I wa
ide; and her slim figure in its odd clothes was curiously like that of a boy in a school blazer. Another resemblance
I don't think I quite understand. T
no
chenlochan? You had no chance to hide them on the journey. Why did they
erhaps, that Spidel had not arrived that night
villains than I take them to be, or there is something deeper i
us. Then she saw that in his face which reassured her. "I have
searched
first I disobeyed there was always one of them in wait to force me back with a pistol behind my head. Every morning Léon brings us food for the day-good food, but not enough, so that Cousin Eugènie is always hungr
s!" Dickson
shedding blood as of spilling water. But I do not think he will kill me. I think I will
for he could not treat it as mere melodrama. It carried a horri
o meet me here. He is a kinsman who knows England well, for he fought in your army.
more which you haven't
of a blush on her cheek? "Ther
"Alexis" and a word which sounded like "prance." The Poet
yellow beard, who bears himself proudly. Bei
me about yesterday," said Douga
y came here last night. When did
coming that terrifies me. I must wait and hope. But i
are not all the enemi
l I know he is here I do not greatly fear Spidel
e dark. The girl lit a lamp after first shuttering the rest of the windows. As she turned it up the odd dusty room and its strange company were
claim the protection of the law. You are very independent, Mademoiselle, but it can't go on for ev
solemn trust, but they burden me terribly. If I were only rid of the
osited in a bank and take a receipt for them. A Scotch bank is no' in
smack. "That's an idea. Will you trust us t
d on each of the trio in turn. "I will trust you,"
ou march off to Glasgow in double quick time and place the stuff in you
the thought that miscreants should acquire that to which they had no title; but mainly it was the appeal in those haggard childish eyes. "But I'm no
they?" Heri
tell. But I w
pped in leather and tied with thongs of raw hide. She gave them to Heritag
they are, and, please God, when the moment comes they will be
ou from my heart, my friends." She held out a hand to
await developments," he said. "We had
p, Mem," he observed. "There's a better time coming." His last recollection of her eyes was of a soft mistiness not far from te
for that would bring us by the public-house. If the worst comes to the worst, and we fall in wi
he escape the notice of the watchers? He was already suspect, and the sight of him back again in Dalquharter would double that suspicion. He must brazen it out, but he distrusted his powers with such tell-tale stuff in his pockets. They might murder him anywhere on the moor road or in an empty railway carriage. An unpleasant memory of various novels he had read in which such things happened haunted his mind.... There was ju
er one or two plunges into ditches, landed him safely in Mrs. Morran's back yard. Dickson and Dougal crossed the bridge and tramped Dalquharter-wards by the highway. There was no sign of human life in that quiet place with owls
should be a muckle star there, and when you ca
r?" Dicks
it? O'Brien?" And he pointed to where the constellation of
d like a weasel into a bush, and presently Dickson stood revealed in the glare of a lamp. The horse was pull
voice. "Oh, you! I thou
e nobly to
nd I took a fancy to come back and spend the last night of my holid
ever saw ye on the Auchenlochan road,
d took it easy a
Well, good-n
s. Morran's kitchen, where Heritage was b
"I want you to loan me a wee trunk with a key, and ste
Romance
Romance
Romance
Romance
Billionaires
Romance