by Unknown
“Say he shall not,” whispered Tommy.
“You shanna!” blurted out Francie.
“But I will,” said Cathro; “I would do it now if I had the shears.”
It was only an empty threat, but an hour afterwards the dominie caught Tommy wagering in witchy marbles and other coin that he would not do it, and then instead of taking the tawse to him he said, “Keep him to his bargains, laddies, for whatever may have been my intention at the time, I mean to be as good as my word now.”
He looked triumphantly at Tommy, who, however, instead of seeming crestfallen, continued to bet, and now the other boys were eager to close with him, for great was their faith in Cathro. These transactions were carried out on the sly, but the dominie knew what was going on, and despite his faith in himself he had his twitches of uneasiness.
“However, the boy can only be trusting to fear of Mrs. Crabb restraining me,” he decided, and he marched into the school-room next morning, ostentatiously displaying his wife’s largest scissors. His pupils crowded in after him, and though he noticed that all were strangely quiet and many wearing scared faces, he put it down to the coming scene. He could not resist giving one triumphant glance at Tommy, who, however, instead of returning it, looked modestly down. Then—”Is Francie Crabb here?” asked Mr. Cathro, firmly.
“He’s hodding ahint the press,” cried a dozen voices.
“Come forward, Francie,” said the dominie, clicking the shears to encourage him.
There was a long pause, and then Francie emerged in fear from behind the press. Yes, it was Francie, but his curls were gone!
The shears fell to the floor. “Who did this?” roared the terrible
Cathro.
“It was Tommy Sandys,” blurted out Francis, in tears.
The schoolmaster was unable to speak, and, alarmed at the stillness, Francie whined, “He said it would be done at ony rate, and he promised me half his winnings.”
It is still remembered by bearded men and married women who were at school that day how Cathro leaped three forms to get at Tommy, and how Tommy cried under the tawse and yet laughed ecstatically at the same time, and how subsequently he and Francie collected so many dues that the pockets of them stood out like brackets from their little persons.
The dominie could not help grinning a little at his own discomfiture as he told this story, but Aaron saw nothing amusing in it. “As I telled you,” he repeated, “I winna touch him, so if you’re no content wi’ what you’ve done yoursel’, you had better put Francie’s mither on him.”
“I hear she has taken him in hand already,” Mr. Cathro replied dryly. “But, Aaron, I wish you would at least keep him closer to his lessons at night, for it is seldom he comes to the school well prepared.”
“I see him sitting lang ower his books,” said Aaron.
“Ay, maybe, but is he at them?” responded the dominie with a shake of the head that made Aaron say, with his first show of interest in the conversation, “You have little faith in his carrying a bursary, I see.”
But this Mr. Cathro would not admit, for if he thought Tommy a numskull the one day he often saw cause to change his mind the next, so he answered guardedly, “It’s too soon to say, Aaron, for he has eighteen months’ stuffing to undergo yet before we send him to Aberdeen to try his fortune, and I have filled some gey toom wimes in eighteen months. But you must lend me a hand.”
The weaver considered, and then replied stubbornly, “No, I give him his chance, but I’ll have nocht to do wi’ his use o’t. And, dominie, I want you to say not another word to me about him atween this and examination time, for my mind’s made up no to say a word to him. It’s well kent that I’m no more fit to bring up bairns than to have them (dinna conter me, man, for the thing was proved lang syne at the Cuttle Well), and so till that time I’ll let him gang his ain gait. But if he doesna carry a bursary, to the herding he goes. I’ve said it and I’ll stick to it.”
So, as far as Aaron was concerned, Tommy was left in peace to the glory of collecting his winnings from those who had sworn by Cathro, and among them was Master Gavin Ogilvy Dishart, who now found himself surrounded by a debt of sixpence, a degrading position for the son of an Auld Licht minister.
Tommy would not give him time, but was willing to take his copy of
“Waverley” as full payment.
Gavin offered him “Ivanhoe” instead, because his mother had given a read of “Waverley” to Gavinia, Miss Ailie’s servant, and she read so slowly, putting her finger beneath each word, that she had not yet reached the middle. Also, she was so enamoured of the work that she would fight anyone who tried to take it from her.
Tommy refused “Ivanhoe,” as it was not about Jacobites, but suggested that Gavinia should be offered it in lieu of “Waverley,” and told that it was a better story.
The suggestion came too late, as Gavinia had already had a loan of “Ivanhoe,” and read it with rapture, inch by inch. However, if Tommy would wait a month, or —
Tommy was so eager to read more about the Jacobites that he found it trying to wait five minutes. He thought Gavin’s duty was to get his father to compel Gavinia to give the book up.
Was Tommy daft? Mr. Dishart did not know that his son possessed these books. He did not approve of story books, and when Mrs. Dishart gave them to Gavin on his birthday she — she had told him to keep them out of his father’s sight. (Mr. and Mrs. Dishart were very fond of each other, but there were certain little matters that she thought it unnecessary to trouble him about.)
So if Tommy was to get “Waverley” at once, he must discover another way. He reflected, and then set off to Miss Ailie’s (to whom he still read sober works of an evening, but novels never), looking as if he had found a way.
For some time Miss Ailie had been anxious about her red-armed maid, who had never before given pain unless by excess of willingness, as when she offered her garter to tie Miss Ailie’s parcels with. Of late, however, Gavinia had taken to blurting out disquieting questions, to the significance of which she withheld the key, such as —
“Is there ony place nowadays, ma’am, where there’s tourniements? And could an able-bodied lassie walk to them? and what might be the charge to win in?”
Or, “Would you no like to be so michty beautiful, ma’am, that as soon as the men saw your bonny face they just up wi’ you in their arms and ran?”
Or again, “What’s the heaviest weight o’ a woman a grand lusty man could carry in his arms as if she were an infant?”
This method of conveyance seemed to have a peculiar fascination for Gavinia, and she got herself weighed at the flesher’s. On another occasion she broke a glass candlestick, and all she said to the pieces was, “Wha carries me, wears me.”
This mystery was troubling the schoolmistress sadly when Tommy arrived with the key to it. “I’m doubting Gavinia’s reading ill books on the sly,” he said.
“Never!” exclaimed Miss Ailie, “she reads nothing but the Mentor.”
Tommy shook his head, like one who would fain hope so, but could not overlook facts. “I’ve been hearing,” he said, “that she reads books as are full o’ Strokes and Words We have no Concern with.”
Miss Ailie could not believe it, but she was advised to search the kitchen, and under Gavinia’s mattress was found the dreadful work.
“And you are only fifteen!” said Miss Ailie, eying her little maid sorrowfully.
“The easier to carry,” replied Gavinia, darkly.
“And you named after a minister!” Miss Ailie continued, for her maid had been christened Gavinia because she was the first child baptized in his church after the Rev. Gavin Dishart came to Thrums. “Gavinia, I must tell him of this. I shall take this book to Mr. Dishart this very day.”
“The right man to take it to,” replied the maid, sullenly, “for it’s his ain.”
“Gavinia!”
“Well, it was Mrs. Dishart that lended it to me.”
“I — I never saw it on the manse
shelves.”
“I’m thinking,” said the brazen Gavinia, “as there’s hoddy corners in manses as well as in — blue-and-white rooms.”
This dark suggestion was as great a shock to the gentle schoolmistress as if out of a clear sky had come suddenly the word —
Stroke!
She tottered with the book that had so demoralized the once meek Gavinia into the blue-and-white room, where Tommy was restlessly awaiting her, and when she had told him all, he said, with downcast eyes:
“I was never sure o’ Mrs. Dishart. When I hand her the Mentor she looks as if she didna care a stroke for’t—”
“Tommy!”
“I’m doubting,” he said sadly, “that she’s ower fond o’ Words We have no
Concern with.”
Miss Ailie would not listen to such talk, but she approved of the suggestion that “Waverley” should be returned not to the minister, but to his wife, and she accepted gratefully Tommy’s kindly offer to act as bearer. Only happening to open the book in the middle, she —
“I’m waiting,” said Tommy, after ten minutes.
She did not hear him.
“I’m waiting,” he said again, but she was now in the next chapter.
“Maybe you would like to read it yoursel’!” he cried, and then she came to, and, with a shudder handed him the book. But after he had gone she returned to the kitchen to reprove Gavinia at greater length, and in the midst of the reproof she said faintly: “You did not happen to look at the end, did you?”
“That I did,” replied Gavinia.
“And did she — did he—”
“No,” said Gavinia, sorrowfully.
Miss Ailie sighed. “That’s what I think too,” said Gavinia.
“Why didn’t they?” asked the schoolmistress.
“Because he was just a sumph,” answered Gavinia, scornfully. “If he had been like Fergus, or like the chield in ‘Ivanhoe,’ he wouldna have ta’en a ‘no.’ He would just have whipped her up in his arms and away wi’ her. That’s the kind for me, ma’am.”
“There is a fascination about them,” murmured Miss Ailie.
“A what?”
But again Miss Ailie came to. “For shame, Gavinia, for shame!” she said, severely; “these are disgraceful sentiments.”
In the meantime Tommy had hurried with the book, not to the manse, but to a certain garret, and as he read, his imagination went on fire. Blinder’s stories had made him half a Jacobite, and now “Waverley” revealed to him that he was born neither for the ministry nor the herding, but to restore to his country its rightful king. The first to whom he confided this was Corp, who immediately exclaimed: “Michty me! But what will the police say?”
“I ken a wy,” answered Tommy, sternly.
CHAPTER XXI
THE LAST JACOBITE RISING
On the evening of the Queen’s birthday, bridies were eaten to her honor in a hundred Thrums homes, and her health was drunk in toddy, Scotch toddy and Highland toddy. Patullo, the writer, gave a men’s party, and his sole instructions to his maid were “Keep running back and forrit wi’ the hot water.” At the bank there was a ladies’ party and ginger wine. From Cathro’s bedroom-window a flag was displayed with Vivat Regina on it, the sentiment composed by Cathro, the words sewn by the girls of his McCulloch class. The eight-o’clock bell rang for an hour, and a loyal crowd had gathered in the square to shout. To a superficial observer, such as the Baron Bailie or Todd, the new policeman, all seemed well and fair.
But a very different scene was being enacted at the same time in the fastnesses of the Den, where three resolute schemers had met by appointment. Their trysting-place was the Cuttle Well, which is most easily reached by the pink path made for that purpose; but the better to further their dark and sinister design, the plotters arrived by three circuitous routes, one descending the Reekie Broth Pot, a low but dangerous waterfall, the second daring the perils of the crags, and the third walking stealthily up the burn.
“Is that you, Tommy?”
“Whist! Do you mind the password?”
“Stroke!”
“Right. Have you heard Gav Dishart coming?”
“I hinna. I doubt his father had grippit him as he was slinking out o’ the manse.”
“I fear it, Corp. I’m thinking his father is in the Woman’s pay.”
“What woman?”
“The Woman of Hanover?”
“That’s the queen, is it no?”
“She’ll never get me to call her queen.”
“Nor yet me. I think I hear Gav coming.”
Gav Dishart was the one who had come by the burn, and his boots were cheeping like a field of mice. He gave the word “Stroke,” and the three then looked at each other firmly. The lights of the town were not visible from the Cuttle Well, owing to an arm of cliff that is outstretched between, but the bell could be distinctly heard, and occasionally a shout of revelry.
“They little ken!” said Tommy, darkly.
“They hinna a notion,” said Corp, but he was looking somewhat perplexed himself.
“It’s near time I was back for family exercise,” said Gav, uneasily, “so we had better do it quick, Tommy.”
“Did you bring the wineglasses?” Tommy asked him.
“No,” Gav said, “the press was lockit, but I’ve brought egg-cups.”
“Stand round then.”
The three boys now presented a picturesque appearance, but there was none save the man in the moon to see them. They stood round the Cuttle Well, each holding an egg-cup, and though the daring nature of their undertaking and the romantic surroundings combined to excite them, it was not fear but soaring purpose that paled their faces and caused their hands to tremble, when Tommy said solemnly, “Afore we do what we’ve come here to do, let’s swear.”
“Stroke!” he said.
“Stroke!” said Gav.
“Stroke!” said Corp.
They then filled their cups and holding them over the well, so that they clinked, they said:
“To the king ower the water!”
“To the king ower the water!”
“To the king ower the water!”
When they had drunk Tommy broke his cup against a rock, for he was determined that it should never be used to honor a meaner toast, and the others followed his example, Corp briskly, though the act puzzled him, and Gav with a gloomy look because he knew that the cups would be missed tomorrow.
“Is that a’ now?” whispered Corp, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.
“All!” cried Tommy. “Man, we’ve just begood.”
As secretly as they had entered it, they left the Den, and anon three figures were standing in a dark trance, cynically watching the revellers in the square.
“If they just kent!” muttered the smallest, who was wearing his jacket outside in to escape observation.
“But they little ken!” said Gav Dishart.
“They hinna a notion!” said Corp, contemptuously, but still he was a little puzzled, and presently he asked softly: “Lads, what just is it that they dinna ken?”
Had Gav been ready with an answer he could not have uttered it, for just then a terrible little man in black, who had been searching for him in likely places, seized him by the cuff of the neck, and, turning his face in an easterly direction, ran him to family worship. But there was still work to do for the other two. Walking home alone that night from Mr. Patullo’s party, Mr. Cathro had an uncomfortable feeling that he was being dogged. When he stopped to listen, all was at once still, but the moment he moved onward he again heard stealthy steps behind. He retired to rest as soon as he reached his house, to be wakened presently by a slight noise at the window, whence the flag-post protruded. It had been but a gust of wind, he decided, and turned round to go to sleep again, when crash! the post was plucked from its place and cast to the ground. The dominie sprang out of bed, and while feeling for a light, thought he heard scurrying feet, but when he looked out at the window no one was to b
e seen; Vivat Regina lay ignobly in the gutters. That it could have been the object of an intended theft was not probable, but the open window might have tempted thieves, and there was a possible though risky way up by the spout. The affair was a good deal talked about at the time, but it remained shrouded in a mystery which even we have been unable to penetrate.
On the heels of the Queen’s birthday came the Muckley, the one that was to be known to fame, if fame was willing to listen to Corp, as Tommy’s Muckley. Unless he had some grand aim in view never was a boy who yielded to temptations more blithely than Tommy, but when he had such aim never was a boy so firm in withstanding them. At this Muckley he had a mighty reason for not spending money, and with ninepence in his pocket clamoring to be out he spent not one halfpenny. There was something uncanny in the sight of him stalking unscathed between rows of stands and shows, everyone of them aiming at his pockets. Corp and Gav, of course, were in the secret and did their humble best to act in the same unnatural manner, but now and again a show made a successful snap at Gav, and Corp had gloomy fears that he would lose his head in presence of the Teuch and Tasty, from which humiliation indeed he was only saved by the happy idea of requesting Tommy to shout “Deuteronomy!” in a warning voice, every time they drew nigh Californy’s seductive stand.
Was there nothing for sale, then, that the three thirsted to buy? There were many things, among them weapons of war, a pack of cards, more properly called Devil’s books, blue bonnets suitable for Highland gentlemen, feathers for the bonnets, a tin lantern, yards of tartan cloth, which the deft fingers of Grizel would convert into warriors’ sashes. Corp knew that these purchases were in Tommy’s far-seeing eye, but he thought the only way to get them was to ask the price and then offer half. Gav, the scholar, who had already reached daylight through the first three books of Euclid, and took a walk every Saturday morning with his father and Herodotus, even Gav, the scholar, was as thick-witted as Corp.