CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
A BRAVE ATTEMPT.
For a few moments Max Blande stood as if petrified, and those momentswere like an hour, while the thought flashed through him of what must begoing on below, where he seemed to see Kenneth gazing down in horror atthe shapeless form of Scoodrach lying unrecognisable on the rocks below.
All feeling of dread on his own behalf was gone now; and, as soon as thefirst shock was over, he tore himself free of the snake-like rope, andstepped to the edge of the cliff, to gaze down with dilated eyes.
"Well, you've done it now!" saluted him as he strained over the edge tolook below, where Kenneth, instead of looking down, was looking up,while Scood was lying on the shelf of rock, rubbing himself with a handthat was bleeding freely.
"Is--is he killed?" faltered Max, whose lips formed the question he hadbeen about to ask before he saw the gillie lying there.
"Do you hear, Scood? Are you killed?" said Kenneth coolly.
"Is she kilt? Na, she isna kilt," cried Scoodrach, with a savage snarl,which was answered by a furious fit of barking from the terrier, as hetoo looked down. "Hech, but this is the hartest stane! She's gienhersel' a dreadful ding."
"Then you are both safe?" cried Max joyfully.
"Oh yes, quite safe, Max. Locked up tight. Did you cut the rope?"
"Cut the rope? No, I didn't touch it. Why did it break?"
"I say, Scoody, why did the rope break?"
"Oh, she's a pad rotten old rope, an' she'll burn her as soon as shegets up again. But what a ding I gave my airm!"
"That's it, Max; the rope was rotten. Can you tie it together if wethrow it up to you?"
"Na," shouted Scoodrach; "she couldna tie it together, and she couldnathrow it up."
"I'm afraid I couldn't tie it tight enough," faltered Max; "but if Icould, it would not bear you."
"It would have to bear us. We can't stop down here. I say, Scoody,think we could climb up?"
Scoodrach shook his head.
"Well, then, can we get down?"
"If she could get up or doon without a rope, the hawks wouldn't havebuilt their nest."
"That sounds like good logic, Max," cried Kenneth, "so you had betterlet yourself over till you can hang by your hands, and then drop, andwe'll catch you."
"What?"
"You wouldn't hurt yourself so much as Scoody did, because we can bothhelp you. He nearly went right over, and dragged me with him."
"Oh!" ejaculated Max, with a shudder.
"Well, are you coming?"
"No! Impossible! What for?"
"To keep us company for a week or two, till somebody sees us. Hallo,Sneeshing! Good dog, then! Come down, we want you. Hooray, Scoody!dog for dinner! enough for three days. Then the young falcons will dofor another day. Well, are you coming?"
"Oh, Kenneth," cried Max, "you're making fun again. What shall we do?"
"You mean, what shall we do? You're all right. But you had betterlower down the gun, and then I can shoot Scoody decently, when Sneeshingand the young hawks are done!"
"Oh, pray be serious!"
"I am. It's a serious position. We mustn't trust the rope again--eh,Scoody?"
"Na! Oh, what a ding she gave her airm!"
"Bother your arm!" cried Kenneth. "Here, Max, what's to be done?"
"I'll run back and tell them at Dunroe."
"Ah, to be sure, that's the way! but I didn't know you could run acrossthe loch."
Max's jaw dropped, and he gave his companions a helpless stare.
"I forgot the loch," he said. "What shall I do? Where's the nearesthouse?"
"Across the loch."
"Are there none this side?"
"There's a keeper's lodge ten miles away, on the other side of themountain."
"I'll run all the way there!" cried Max eagerly. "Tell me the way."
"Well, you go right north, straight over the mountain, and whenever youcome to a bog, you stick in it. Then you lose your way every now andthen, and get benighted, and there you are."
"You're laughing at me again," cried Max in agony; "and I want to helpyou."
"Well, I want you to help us, old chap, for we're in a regular mess, andperhaps the hawks'll come and pick our eyes out to feed the young ones."
"There, now, you're laughing at me again!" cried Max. "I can't helpbeing so ignorant of your ways."
"Of course you can't, Maxy. Well, look here, old chap, you can't getover the mountain without some one to show you the way."
"Na; she'd lose hersel'," cried Scoodrach. "Oh, what a ding she didgive--"
"Bother your old airm, Scoody! do be quiet. Look here, Max: now,seriously, unless a yacht comes by, there's no chance of help, and justbecause we want a yacht to come by, there won't be one for a week."
"Then what shall I do?"
"Well, there's only one thing you can do."
"Yes? quick, tell me!"
"Go down to the boat and hoist the sail, and run back to Dunroe."
"But I couldn't manage her."
"All right, then. Let's all set to work and make our wills before we'restarved to death. No, I tell you what: you've got the gun; you'll haveto go shooting, and drop the birds over to us. You're a good shot,aren't you?"
Max was silent.
"Well, why don't you speak? Look here, take the gun and shoot a hare.You'll find one somewhere. Got any matches?"
"Yes, I have a little silver box of wax-lights."
"That's your sort! Then you can light a fire of heath and peat, andcook it, and drop it down, and we can eat it."
"But, as Mrs Glasse said in her cookery-book, `First catch your hare.'"
"Why, you don't mean to say you couldn't shoot a hare?" cried Kenneth.
"She couldna shoot a hare," grumbled Scoodrach, rubbing his arm; andthen, after looking very thoughtful and nervous, Max spoke out.
"I am going down to the boat," he said quietly; "and I shall try and setthe sail, and go back to Dunroe."
"Bravo! hooray!" cried Kenneth. "That's your sort; only the wind isn'tquite right, and you'll have to tack."
"To tack what--the sail?"
"No, no, I don't mean nail the sail to the mast."
"Oh, I remember; go backwards and forwards with the boat."
"There, Scoody!" cried Kenneth triumphantly; "I only wish you had got asmuch brains in your old red head as he has."
"Ret's a ferry coot colour for a het," grumbled Scoodrach, who was verysore, and who kept on gently rubbing the spot where he had given himself"such a ding."
"Good-bye!" cried Max. "I'll get back as soon as I can."
"That's right. Don't go to my father. Tell old Tavish and Long Shon,and they're to bring a strong rope."
"Yes; I won't forget."
"And steer with one hand, and hold the sheet in the other," criedKenneth. "Don't do as I did. Good-bye, old chap; you're not a badfellow after all."
"Oh, if I was only as strong and as clever as they are!" said Max tohimself. "Well, what is it?"
This was to Sneeshing, who stood barking at him sharply, and then ranback to crouch on the edge of the precipice, where he could peer down athis master and at Scoodrach, who was still chafing his arm.
Max half wondered at himself, as, in his excitement, he slid andscrambled down the steep gully, getting over places and making boundswhich he dared not have attempted half an hour earlier. The consequencewas that he got down to the shore in a way which surprised himself, andthen scrambled over the debris of fallen rocks to where the rope securedthe boat to the stone.
It was no easy task to undo Scood's knot, but he worked at it, and, ashe did so, wondered whether it was possible to make use of the cordageof the boat to take up and let down to the imprisoned pair, but he wasfain to confess that, even doubled, there was nothing sufficientlytrustworthy for the purpose; and, after throwing in the line, he gavethe boat a good thrust as he leaped aboard, and then, as it glided out,found himself in a position which made
his heart beat, as he wonderedwhether he would ever get safe to land.
Trying to recall the action of Scoodrach at starting, he seized the ropeand began to haul upon the yard, to find, to his great delight, that itrose steadily and well, the line running quite easily through the blocktill the gaff was pretty well in its place, and the sail gave a flapwhich startled him and made the boat careen.
Then he stopped short, hardly knowing what to do next, but the rightidea came, and he made the rope fast, crept back cautiously over thethwart to seat himself by the tiller, and, almost to his wonder, foundthat the boat was running easily along.
Taking the handle of the tiller and the sheet, he drew a breath ofrelief, for the whole business was easier than he expected, and alreadyhe was fifty yards from the face of the cliff, and gaining speed, whenhe heard a hail.
"Max! Ahoy!"
He looked sharply round and up, to see Kenneth waving his glengarry; andhis next words sounded faint in the great space:
"Starboard! starboard! Going wrong."
To put his helm to starboard was so much Arabic to Max, but he hadturned the handle in one direction, and he was going wrong, so he feltthat to turn it the other way must be right. Pressing hard, then, hefound that what he did had the effect of turning the boat half round,and making it go more slowly and diagonally in the direction from whichthe wind blew, and somewhat more toward the shelf where his friends wereimprisoned, so that he could see them waving their caps, as moment bymoment they seemed more distant.
And now, for the first time, as he caught sight of a pile of ruins faraway to his right, he realised that he had been going away from Dunroe,which lay to the south, while now he was sailing south-east; and hisspirits rose as he felt that he must be right in trying to reach thatcastle, which he remembered as being one that Kenneth had pointed out.
He turned his head again in the direction of the shelf, and there, highup, were the two boys, still waving their caps, either by way ofencouragement or to try and give him advice by signs. But he could nottell which, neither could he signal in turn, for both hands were full;so, setting his teeth, and with a wonderful feeling of exhilaration andexcitement, at which he was surprised, he devoted himself to his task.
Three Boys; Or, The Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai Page 16