by James Milne
_XIII--The Wound of Absence_
You will probably know what it is to lose somebody who by physicalfragrance, the mystery of a common spirituality, or both, has becomeessential to you. The wound is twice as bitter if, until the parting,you were unaware how much that presence really meant. It is as if youhad come into a new world of your own and then found it vanish, beforeyou could take possession.
I had no doubt, thanks to the hearing of his voice and the leavingbehind of his sword, that the raiders were headed by Red Murdo, theBlack Colonel's henchman. Actual light came during the morning, in theform of a message by word of mouth: "I am a prisoner in the topmostroom of Lonach Tower, and Red Murdo and his men are camped below."
When the Highland woman who brought it had said that, she melted awayagain without taking bite or sup. She lived in the ruin of LonachTower, and that was how Marget had been able to send her with themessage. She could not be too long absent, however, or she might bemissed by Red Murdo, whom, she said, she had left snoring out his lostnight's sleep.
I found a Highlander who had engaged in relations with Red Murdo,though their nature need not be mentioned, and who was anxious to scorethem off for a settled life. Working on that, I told him to go toLonach Tower, where he would find Red Murdo, and say the Black Colonelwas waiting at a fold of the hills, which I named--waiting to hear howthe night's work had fared! That, as you will mark, was the nicesignificance of the message, which I hoped would move Red Murdo and hismerry men--his master waited "to hear how the night's work had fared!"
If the Black Colonel was behind the business it would seem a naturalmessage, nay, a command, and my messenger went off with it. When hehad gone, I picked out a dozen of our best soldiers, and, hinting themission, without explaining it, we followed at a distance. We haltedbehind the last peak of the hill which looks down on Lonach Tower andawaited events.
We saw the receding Highland figure wend slowly towards the bare, leanturret, and, when he reached it, my eyes lifted to its queer littlewindows, seeking to look through them. They gave no sign of anybodyinside, and, indeed, the mullioning of time had so dimmed them that,perhaps, the outside world could hardly be seen from within.
My Highlander hammered at the one entrance door, and he had to hammer awhile before it opened to him. Then it only opened partly, as if theguardian kept a shoulder to it, while he spoke the visitor. Next itshut again, leaving my man outside, but evidently the colloquy had notfinished, for he waited.
Ten minutes more and the door drew wide, as we could see, and Red Murdocame out, his comrades with him, and there was more questioning of thebringer of news. Evidently he played his part well, perhaps because,knowing nothing of what lay behind, he simply stuck to the terms of hisdelivery, for presently Red Murdo's party set off towards themeeting-place I had named for them.
Here was my time to act, and I only waited until the coast, or ratherthe valley, was clear. When the tartans of Red Murdo's party hadfluttered out of sight, in obedience, as they fancied, to the commandsof their chief, I got my fellows quickly a-foot for Lonach Tower andshe who was a captive there.
The heavy oaken, iron-clasped door had been locked by the departedraiders, and no sign of any tenant within fluttered out to us.Half-measures are no more useful in opening bolted doors, of which youhave not the key, than they are in accomplishing other difficultthings. So, finally, we put our collective weights against it, pushedhard and steadily, and when the weather-worn bars and hinges gave way,tumbled headlong into the old keep.
Nobody was in the ground-room floor, nothing, except the untidinessleft by half-a-dozen rough men, and I mounted the narrow stair andtried the room above. Again we had to use force, and when the doorflew inward I almost landed in the lap of Marget Forbes. There shewas, bound to a rough seat, in the middle of the room, with a cravattied round the lower part of her face, to keep her silent. Gently butswiftly I undid the gag, and after that cut the rough tow which boundher to the seat. Being thus freed, she told me, with an agitationwhich I tried to still, what had happened just before we came and onthe previous night.
Red Murdo, she said, when she could speak, had told her, with awkwardapologies, that he did not want to be unchivalrous but that he and hismen were called away for a little and that he must make siccar abouther custody, and no alarm giving, against his return. She had ceasedasking him why she had been forcibly abducted and what was intended forher, because on that he would say nothing except, "You are quite safe,my young lady, quite safe. We may be plain fellows, but we areHighland men towards a woman, especially towards Mistress Marget Forbesof Corgarff." "But how," I asked, for she had now somewhat recoveredher nerve and composure, and the agreeable surprise our arrival hadcaused her, "how did you fall into their hands at the Dower House?"
"Oh," said she, "that was simple. You went out to reconnoitre, and,hearing in the stillness, words and a noise like a passage of swords, Ibecame anxious about you. Under this impulse I opened the front doorand stepped out a few yards when a Highland plaid fell round my head,silencing me effectually before I could shout an alarm, and I was borneswiftly away by two men. My astonishment was so great that I am notsure if I attempted to resist until I was some distance from the DowerHouse. Then two other men relieved my captors in carrying me, and bystages, for I absolutely declined to walk a step, I was brought hereand placed in this room."
"Where you have been unable to give any alarm?"
"That you can see, and all I knew was that Red Murdo was the leader ofmy captivity, because he grumbled about having been stabbed in the legand about losing his sword. 'What,' I asked, 'could he and his master,the Black Colonel, want by spiriting me away?' But Red Murdo wouldn'tanswer the question, and I haven't been able to answer it myself.Somehow I have felt that no personal harm was intended me because mycaptors, if not exactly friends, were not strangers, but men in somerelationship to our own people. Mostly I have been anxious for theanxiety of my mother," and her eyes looked concern at me.
"Well," I said, "we shall relieve that anxiety very soon now; you haveprobably had enough of Lonach Tower, which, I notice, is sadly in needof the repairer. Let us go home!"
I said that last word out of my heart, and I thought Marget answeredwith a gleam which comes into a woman's eyes only when her heart issomewhere behind it. We went down the slender, creaky stair, thesoldiers following, and came to the door, where, if you please, we ranslap into the Black Colonel, Red Murdo, and the other caterans. In theunexpected lies drama, and here, indeed, was a dramatic confronting.We stared at each other for a moment as if asking who was to speakfirst, and, like himself, the Black Colonel managed to do it.
"I heard only an hour ago," he said, "of a lady in distress in this oldhouse. I have come, at my best speed, to help her, as who would not,when that lady is Mistress Marget Forbes."
"Would it not have been better," I cut in, "if you had heard of herdistress before and come earlier to remedy it?"
"Possibly," he answered, "but if I had been earlier, Captain Gordon, Imight not have met you here. So you see," he added challengingly,"there are compensations, although these are things, as far as myexperience goes, with which we could often dispense."
"Well," said I, "I have been able to render first aid to MistressForbes, but it would be a satisfaction if you could explain to us howshe came to need it."
"Explain! How can I explain?"
"You have cultivated a name for gallantry, Colonel"--he bowed--"and itwould be gallant to a lady if you would say why Red Murdo invaded theDower House last night and carried its young mistress away?"
"Did he, the villain? He did not tell me of that, when I ran into himand his following this morning. He said he came to where we met, inresponse to an order from me. There was no such order, though it istrue that I was keeping an open eye for Red Murdo, a habit I have whenI know he is abroad, lest he might have anything for me."
By this time it was clear that the Black Colonel had commissioned RedMurdo to ki
dnap Marget in order that he might rescue her, and, by theact of so doing, advocate his plans towards her. He was denying it nowthat he found in Lonach Tower not Marget alone and a captive, butMarget with a good, stout bodyguard to look after her.
She had not spoken so far, partly because she had not been directlyaddressed, partly because, as I could see, she was in a hot fury withthe Black Colonel. But the strange fascination of the man was workingon her, as I could also see, and, woman-like, speak she would or die.
"If," she demanded of him quietly, slowly, for she had herself in hand,"you had anything special, even private to say to me, why did you notcome to the Dower House instead of sending your handy men to scare usall and run off with me? Whatever you hoped to gain, that, you mustknow, was not the way to gain it."
The Black Colonel looked at her composedly for a moment and said,"Mistress Marget, I am the last person in the world to think that anyform of duress would influence your actions. On the other hand, sincethe opportunity has come, I make bold, even in the presence of CaptainGordon and our respective followers, to say a word in frankness, out ofregard for you and your house. There are events pending which might gofar to re-establish your family, and you should know about them, notmerely indirectly but directly from me, who am deeply concerned in thebusiness."
Marget blushed and flushed and glanced at me, as if asking me toprotect her from what was very like a manifesto for public knowledge,thrust upon her when she could not help it. Her unconscious appealwarmed my heart like the sun, but I held back, preferring she shouldgive the word which would, once and for all, put the Black Colonel inhis place.
"By what right," she said with dignity, "do you address your proposalsto me as you have done? You have schemed them in an underground way.Must you commit the affront of offering them to me in public, afterusing force to bring me here?"
"I have told you," broke in the Black Colonel, "what I know of RedMurdo and his doings on this morning, and if you do not believe me,why, I cannot help it. It may be that I had a plan for meeting youface to face, but no plan like what has now emerged."
"No," said I, intervening, "your plan was to find Marget alone in thiseerie place, to work on her woman's feelings, her anxiety for hermother, her regard for her house, all that you might commit her withthe Crown authorities as assenting to the secret negotiations which youare ripening."
"Doesn't that reflection come oddly from an officer of the Crown," heretorted, "because I have not heard you have resigned your commission?You should leave it to us who are not honoured with service under theforeign king, to flout his Majesty."
"There are moments, Jock Farquharson," I hotly replied, "when one'sfirst duty is to be a man, and this is such a moment. I tell you ifyou do not drop your persecution of this lady you will have to count ona forthright quarrel with me."
"A pretty speech, my Captain Gordon," he said, adding: "Pretty speecheshave a habit of coming from those whose tongues are their boldestweapons."
"You credit me," I said warmly, "with an accomplishment which I may ormay not have; you assail me for want of a quality which I beg you topermit me to prove here and now."
There was no mistaking that, and he and his men looked theirunderstanding. My feelings were what you can imagine, but I spokedeliberately. Perhaps I realized the need for quiet resolution ratherthan temper, which is ever too brittle a weapon to work well. As Iunderstood, the Black Colonel, having failed to get Marget into hishands, with the object of mentally coercing her, now wanted to breakme, if he could, in her presence. There was no end to the man'sresource when the bad side of his character got going, and no measureat which he would stick.
His insult to me had been spoken in a voice loud enough to be heard byeverybody. He so meant it to be heard, but my reply, an instantacceptance of his challenge, surprised him for a moment. He looked atme, hesitating what to say, and I looked at him with a perfectly clearpurpose in my face. We both looked at Marget, at his Highlanders andat my men, knowing that with all these for witness of what hadhappened, more must follow.
Deep down in my heart I felt relief, because I was sure that some daywe must fight out the odds between us, and when you come to that passwith any man, it is best it should be settled. They say that delay isfatal in love and deadly in war, and with me the two risks combined,for mine was both a question of love and a question of war.
"Is it elegant," the Black Colonel said in a purring voice of which Iknew the worth, "that two men who are kinsmen in a degree, shouldfight, in the presence of a young lady who is a kinswoman?"
"You should have thought of that before," I quickly retorted.
"I agree with Captain Cordon," said Marget, interrupting us, "for Icome of a people who have never been afraid to see trouble through, andI beg of you, Colonel Jock Farquharson, not to let me stand in the way.Nay, if you will accept me, I shall be referee!"
I bent my head to thank her for this, and he bowed in the over-politefashion which he had learned among the French. By this time ourrespective followers, now taking a fight for granted, had linedthemselves up to watch it, one set of men in one row, the other set inanother, with space between them. A spirit of the love of combat forcombat's sake, shone in their expectant eyes and echoed in theirsuppressed, excited talk.
There had once been a small garden attached to the Tower of Lonach, butit had been so overgrown with grass, and the grass had been soindustriously eaten by sheep and deer, that now it was a rough, hardgreen, an entirely good place for swordsmen. On it, as the sun beganto dip behind the hills, we took our stand, with my sergeant for secondto me, while Red Murdo filled the same office towards the Black Colonel.
Things had happened so swiftly that I had scarcely time to think, andperhaps that was well, for thought never nerves you in such business asI had before me. There was I confronted with one of the best swordsmenin the Highlands, while I was--well, passably good. He was bigger,stronger, a more heroic, more impressive figure altogether than I was,and these pictorial attitudes count by the impression they make. I hadto rely on a cool head, a nimble wrist, and I must in no wise departfrom the style of fighting by which alone, as I well knew, I could hopeto hold my own.
The Black Colonel would be sure, following the untutored Highlandmanner, and keeping his French training in reserve, to attackfuriously, hoping so to destroy me at the beginning. My plan, basedupon the barracks and camp training of a regular soldier, was to parrywith him, to hold him off, to wear him down, and then, if I had theluck, which Heaven give me, get a blow home.
Marget, for all her courage, had walked over to a far corner of thegreen, where, however, she could still see us, because my soldiers andthe Black Colonel's men stood aside to let her do that. Their commoninstinct for a fight flamed while they waited, but I knew that therewould be no interference from either party of retainers, however thingsfell out, and so I had no anxiety as to the quarrel going beyond theBlack Colonel and myself. All men of Highland degree were brought upto believe that honest disputes could be settled better by combat thananyhow else, and, indeed, they almost have a traditional reverence forthe broad-sword of their country.
Nobody called on us to begin, but when the Black Colonel and I, our fewpreparations made, had looked at each other for a minute from themeasured distance which divided us, we both advanced. As I hadexpected, he came with a rush, and if it had not been for my soundtraining in defence he might have smitten me at once. As it was, by aturn which seemed new to him, I caught his sword under the point andlifted it lightly upward into the empty air. He almost flew past mewith the motion which he had gathered, and we both had to face squarelyround in order that we might continue.
This time, apparently, he meant to be more deliberate, thinking,perhaps, that if he missed me again with one of his wild lunges, hemight meet the sting of my thrust. He played with me, and I respondedto his caution, so far as he could be cautious, in the same spirit.Our swords were of equal length and about the same weight, but he had alonger arm
than I, as well as a stronger one. Still, I made up forthis, as he began to realize, by quicker work in what might be calledthe smaller craft of fighting. I could be here and there and somewhereelse with my sword, while he was making a parry or a lunge or a levelstroke, for he tried everything.
Now his sword ran safely under my left arm where I guided it, and thepoint of mine caught the breast-high edge of his kilt, where the clothis closely plaited and therefore very resisting. My blade bent so thatif it had been other than the finest steel it might have snapped. Thenthe grip in the cloth broke, the sword was free again, and we werewithout hurt, only the battle was growing warm.
Its contagion had agitated the men looking on, to a point where,forgetting themselves, they began to shout encouragement to usseverally, the Black Colonel's men to him, mine to me. Red Murdo wasurgently demonstrative, and my sergeant, as he afterwards told me, keptan eye on him lest he should be tempted to intervene. In the distanceMarget, as I saw momentarily, stood still and quiet, but there was afixed anxiety in her face, and the woman's horror of two men seeking totake each other's life on her account!
Now came the third bout, and knowing the limits of my strength Idetermined to make it the last, if I could. The Black Colonel, itencouraged me to notice, had also grown a little tired. His rush anddash were less strong when he came at me, and I thought I caught in hiseye a new doubtfulness of success. He was famed for the quickness withwhich he could finish a duel, and probably he had also decided tosettle this one at the third time of asking.
We parried and thrust, sword to sword, and I was driven to give way afew paces by the Colonel's onslaught. This led him to take risks, as Ihad hoped he might. Let him tire out his sword arm with heavy lungesand elaborate recoveries, while I kept myself on guard, and then,perhaps, my turn would come, for getting him. It did come, but itcame, as most things come, in an unexpected fashion.
Sweating like a man in a fever, with his eyes wild and savage, theBlack Colonel at last fairly flung himself on me. My face was alsostreaming with perspiration, but my head remained cool, perhaps becauseI felt that Marget was looking on. A warm heart and a cool head shouldneighbour an ordeal, and, in that assailing of me, my maintenance ofthis combination was everything.
As he leapt forward, purposing to overwhelm me, the Black Colonel'sfoot appeared to catch an uprising tuft that had been left unnibbled bythe sheep, possibly on account of the coarse toughness of its grass.He lost his balance and shot heavily at me, holding his sword straightout, as if to drive it through me. Here was my chance, for he couldnot, in this act of falling, change the position of his weapon. I didthat for him by a mere touch, and it ran by me, near, it is true, butwithout hurting me. Mine, on the other hand, pierced the muscle of theBlack Colonel's right arm, and instantly his sword fell from his hand,rattling close to my foot. The blood spurted from him to the cry ofthe onlookers, "Ah, he's ill hit," for he looked it, lying there on theground with a long, red gash in his arm.
"No," he said, slowly rising, "I am not ill hurt, but I am hurt in ameasure which will keep me from fighting any more this afternoon. HereI am with a useless right hand, and I have never learned to use theleft, so we must stop."
By this time Marget had come up, offering to bind the Black Colonel'swounded arm, and staunch the bleeding, a task which Red Murdo hadalready begun, only his hands were clumsy at it. Marget made him takeoff the strip of tartan which he was twisting tightly round the forearmand put her linen handkerchief nearest the wound. This tender andthoughtful attention seemed to soften the field of battle, andpresently I found myself picking up the Colonel's sword and returningit to him.
"Thank you," he said; "I can only carry it in my belt at present, but Iwould not like to lose it, for it has proved you a better swordsmanthan I had expected."
Handsomely said, was it not? But we are always inclined to think acompliment to ourselves fitting, especially when it comes from an enemyas formidable as Jock Farquharson was.
"I hope, sir," I answered without undue gravity, "that I have earnedthe compliment and I accept it, as I accepted your challenge, withoutreserve. Now, I suppose, our meeting is finished, and so we may eachgo our own way. Mistress Forbes, will you allow me to see you home?"and I turned towards her.
She took my arm and we walked quietly from Lonach Tower and quietlyacross the hills to the Dower House, neither of us saying much on theway, possibly because our thoughts were not for the six soldier men whostrode behind us.
