CHAPTER XXXIV
CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE
Nevertheless, such a panoply is love that Wat's heart did not fail him.He waited till the flare of torches and the tumult of men's voices hadwithdrawn up the hill over which my Lord of Barra took his way to thehouse which he occupied during his infrequent visits to the island--arude strength of stone consisting merely of three or four chamberswhich had been built after the castle on the rocks below had falleninto disrepair.
Wat swam ashore, keeping well to the right of the landing-place, wheretwo or three men were still busied about the boats, securing them withropes and getting out what bits of property had been left in them.Wat could not but feel a cold chill strike through his heart whenhe remembered that the possession of these boats by the islanders,together with their perfect knowledge of all the different states ofthe tide, would render his position upon the islet of Fiara infinitelymore dangerous.
"All the more reason," quoth undaunted Wat, "for us to make the attemptthis very night."
So, keeping as before to the short heather above the paths, he made hisway silently upward towards Scarlett's dungeon and the dwelling of hislove.
He found Bess Landsborough eagerly waiting for him. She dragged himsharply away from the cottages.
"Gang back," she whispered, shaking him almost roughly, as though hewere to blame; "ken ye not that the chief has come and there will no'be a sober man on the island this nicht? Even my Alister, if he wereto come across ye before morning, would think no more of sticking aknife in ye than of breaking the back of a foumart[E] with a mucklestane."
[E] Weasel.
"I know that," said Wat, with composure, "and that is the reason why Iam going to take both Kate and Scarlett with me to-night."
"The laddie's fair raving," said the woman; "the thing's clearimpossible. It canna be dune. Ye will hae to wait--some nicht when theyare a' sleepin', maybe."
"I'm not going back alive without Kate McGhie," said Wat. "I cannotleave her with the cruel ravisher, Murdo of Barra--"
"Hoot, laddie," said Bess, "the chief will no' do the lassie ony harm.He's ben the hoose wi' her the noo."
Wat, who had been crouching behind a rock beside Bess Landsborough, atonce sprang up and took his dagger bare in his hand. He was setting offin the direction of the hut with the intention of breaking in upon thecolloquy of captive and captor, when Bess sprang on him and pulled himdown with all the weight of her body about his neck and exerting theutmost strength of her brawny arms.
"Deil's in the laddie! He gangs aff like a spunk o' pooder laid ona peat. The laird's but talkin' wi' the lass in the kitchen, wi' myman Alister sittin' on the dresser, and half the rascaldom o' the LowCountries (well are they designate!) waiting at the door. A word or twawill do your lass little harm, unless she is o' the weak mind, and mylord can persuade her to marry him by the guile of his tongue."
Wat grunted contemptuously. This was the last thing he was afraid of.
"I want," he said, "whatever arms ye can furnish me with, some food ofany portable sort--and a rope."
"Save us, laddie!" said Bess, holding up her hands; "ye might just aslief ask me this nicht for the Earldom of Barra."
"I must have them," said Wat, firmly, "if I have to forage for themmyself."
"Aweel, I can but do my best," said the woman from Colmonel,resignedly; "but I kenna where I shall get them."
Very cautiously they made their way back to the cottage of Alister.
"Wheesht!" said Bess; "lie cowered behind that stone. They are on theirroad away. For this nicht surely your lass will be left at peace."
"And after that it will not matter," said Wat, looking cautiously overthe edge of the bowlder, "for either we will be safe out of this evilisle, or else she and I will be where Barra and his devils can troubleus no more."
When Bess and Wat reached the dwelling of the son of Alister, theyfound it fallen strangely silent and dark. Bess went in boldly andpromptly. Presently her voice was heard in high debate, and after apause her husband, as if driven with ignominy from his own house,stumbled past Wat, and began clambering like a cat up the steep rockto the castle dungeon as easily as if he had been walking on a grassmeadow by a water-side.
No sooner was he safe out of the way than the door of the hut openedcircumspectly.
"Here!" said the mistress of the dwelling, in a far-reaching whisper.
Wat went up to the door-step. Bess Landsborough put out a hand, guidedhim through the murky intricacies of her outer room, and pushed himinto that in which he had met his love the evening before.
Kate was sitting fully dressed on her bed with her head in her hands.She looked up with a sharp little cry as he entered.
"Kate," he whispered, "it is I--Wat."
Whereat she ran to him with a sob of relief that was very sweet tohear, and nestled with her head on his broad shoulder.
"Oh, thank God you have come! All will now be well."
Wat did not feel so sure of that, but, nevertheless, he caressed theclustering curls and held his love to his bosom, murmuring littlemeaningless words which Kate felt were better to listen to than muchwisdom.
Presently Bess Landsborough brought Wat a pair of pistols, a doubleflask of powder, and a bagful of bullets.
"We must see about getting John Scarlett out of his prison," she said."I have the victuals all ready. There is a rope behind the dike at thecorner that looks to the sea. But ye had better get John Scarlett outfirst, and then ye can all three lend a hand at the carrying--save us!What's that?"
Bess Landsborough sprang sharply out of the inner room to the doorwhich gave upon the moor.
"Hide ye, Wat Gordon," she said; "here comes some one to visit us."
Kate made Wat lie down between the compacted heather of her couchand the outer wall of the hut. Then she threw a coverlet deftly overhim. Wat grasped his dagger bare in his right hand to be ready in anyemergency, but his left found a way almost of its own accord throughthe heather, till in the darkness it rested in Kate's as she sat on theedge of the bed.
"My Lord of Barra," they heard Bess Landsborough say, without, "haveye forgotten aught? We thought you gone to repose yourself after yourjourney."
"Go find your husband and bring him hither, mistress!" commanded thestern voice of Barra.
"It's no' very like that Bess will gang far frae hame to seek her man,or ony ither man; there's mair than eneuch men in Bess's hoose thisnicht!" said Mistress McAlister, under her breath. But with apparentobedience she went out--only, however, to ensconce herself immediatelybehind the door. She wanted, she said to herself, to "see their twabacks oot o' the kitchen without bloodshed."
Barra advanced boldly to the inner door which opened into Kate'schamber. He paused a moment and knocked lightly. The girl sat stilland silent, but her hand gripped that of Wat closer to her side witha quick, instinctive thrill, which made that very true lover clutchhis dagger and curse the man that could so wring with terror his sweetmaid's heart.
"May I have a moment's private audience with you, Mistress Kate?" saidBarra, from the outer room.
Kate did not answer a word.
The master of the island swung back the door and revealed his tall,slender figure, in his usual dress of simple black, standing in thedoorway of the outer room. He stooped his head and entered as he didso. The girl instinctively moved a little nearer to Wat and clasped hishand more firmly. A little stifled cry escaped her. Wat cleared hisdagger-hilt and made ready to spring upon his enemy. My Lord of Barrain all his checkered life had never been nearer death than he was atthat moment. For Wat Gordon was deciding exactly where he would strikehis first blow.
"I did not come again hither to alarm you," said Barra, "but thatI might more fully vindicate myself alone with you than I could doin the presence of so many witnesses. That which I have done--yourtransporting from Holland and your seclusion here--I have done withfull warrant and justification, not hastily nor yet without dueauthority."
"I know of no authority
," said Kate, at last, speaking firmly, "whichcould warrant the seizure of a maid who never harmed or offended you,the carrying her off gagged and bound like a felon, sailing with herto another country, and there interning her upon a lonely isle till itshould please you to come for her, like a jailer to a captive."
"My lady," said Barra, not without a certain respect in his voice,"I am well aware that I cannot expect you to take my word, for thecircumstances are not ripe for me to tell you all. But I ask you tobelieve that neither disrespect nor passion, nor yet any selfishjealousy, prompted me to these so strange expedients. But on thecontrary, a genuine desire for your happiness, and the direct requestof those most deeply interested and intimately connected with you."
"And who may they be?" asked Kate, looking at him contemptuously; "Iknow none who have the right to give you leave to carry off a youngmaid from her friends at dead of night, with as little ceremony ormercy as Reynard does a gray goose out of the farmer's yard."
"Your father and your mother--are not they authority enough?" answeredBarra.
The girl gazed at him in cold disdain.
"My father," she said, "never in his life crossed my will by wordor deed. It was, indeed, by his permission and with his help that Iwent to Holland. And as for my mother, she has been dead and in herresting-grave these twenty years!"
"Nevertheless I had the permission and encouragement of the noblelady, your mother, in that which I have done, though I admit that ofyour father was a little more belated. That is what I wanted to say.You do not believe me, I am aware, and I am not able at present moreparticularly to unriddle the mystery. Nevertheless, rest assured that aLord of Barra does not lie. I bid you good-night. Is it permitted tokiss your hand? Well, then, with all humble duty and observance, I kissmine to you."
With that Barra bowed and went out backward through the narrow door, asif he had been ushering himself out of a queen's presence-chamber.
In the kitchen he passed Bess Landsborough, who opened on him with avoluble tale of how she had sought her husband high and low without anysuccess, and how it was to be supposed that, like the rest, he had goneto drink his Lordship's health at the muckle house over the hill.
But Barra went by her without a word, and the mistress of AlisterMcAlister was left speaking to the empty air. She suddenly ceased as hedisappeared in the dark, and turned for sympathy to Wat and Kate in theinner room.
"Siccan manners!" she said, indignantly; "they wadna set a Colmonelbrood-sow--to gae by a decent woman like that muckle dirt, and yin,too, that had just gane on an errand for him. It's true I gaed naefarther than the back o' the door, but at ony rate he kenned naebetter, and cam' back wi' news for his high michty chiefship. It's fairscandalous, that's what it is! Wha hae we here this shot? I declare myhoose is as thrang as a sacrament scailing, when the folk are flockingto the drinking-booths at Stanykirk holy fair."
The visitor on this occasion proved to be her husband Alister. He wasalready somewhat flushed of cheek and wild of eye.
He paused unsteadily in the middle of the kitchen and flung down agreat key on the table.
"Take care of that till the morn's morn," he said. "I would maybe lossit. I am going out to drink till I be drunk."
And with this simple declaration of policy he strode out as he hadcome.
As soon as he had gone, Bess threw a damp turf over the clear peat fireon the hearth of the outer kitchen, which in a trice raised a densesmoke and rendered everything within dark and gloomy.
"Come awa'," she said, putting her head into the room where Kate, herheart beating wildly with the joy of reprieve and the presence of herbeloved, was clinging to Wat's arm, as he stood on the floor with hisdagger still ready and bare in his hand. "Haste ye and come away," shesaid; "there'll be time and to spare when ye get him safe to yourself,my lass, for a hale world o' cuikin' and joein'."
Wat and Kate came out quickly and Bess shut the door behind them.Outside the sharp air off the Atlantic chilled them like a drench ofwell-water on a summer's day, breathing keenly into their lungs afterthe close atmosphere of the hut.
They made their way up the steep to the castle. Across the door of thevault where John Scarlett was confined lay the prostrate body of aCelt, inert and stertorous.
Mistress McAlister stirred him with her foot, and then turned himcompletely over.
"As I thocht," she said, "it is just Misfortunate Colin. It will bean ill day for him the morn. But he is aye in the way o' mischances,onyway. He canna keep clear o' them. If a stane were to slip frae arock tap in a' the isle, it is on Colin it wad light. If a rope breakat the egg-harvest, 'tis Colin that's at the end o' the tow. I think apity o' him, too--for barrin' the drink and the ill luck, he's a decentsoul. But it juist canna be helpit."
So with that Bess undid the door with the key which Alister had thrownupon the table, and then carefully tucked it into the waist-belt ofColin the Misfortunate.
"It's a peety," she said; "but after a' it is a deal mair faceable andnatural that the like o' this should hae happened to Colin than to onyither man in the isle."
Jack Scarlett lay on his bed of heather tops, wrapped in his plaid, andslept the sleep of the easy of conscience.
"What's a' the tirrivee?"[F] he growled, when Wat shook him. "Get upand escape--what's the terrible fyke and hurry? Disturbin' a man inhis first sleep. Surely, ye could either hae comed afore he fell oweror let him hae his sleep oot. A man's health is afore a'thing when itcomes to my time o' life. And it is no havers and nonsense--far frae't!But ye hae no consideration, Wat Gordon--never had, ever since I kennedye."
[F] Unnecessary disturbance.
So, growling and grumbling as was his wont, old Jack gathered hisbelongings together with soldierly practicality, pocketing the remainsof his evening's meal, and bringing all sorts of treasures out ofnumberless hiding-places here and there about his dungeon.
"Now I am at your service," he said, as he stood erect.
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