his tone he was not
wholly pleased.
A little after, and we stood in the lower storey of that house, which
was all in the one
apartment, with a stairs leading to the
chambers at
the side, benches and tables by the wall, the cooking fire at the one
end of it, and
shelves of bottles and the cellar-trap at the other.
Here Bazin, who was an ill-looking, big man, told us the Scottish
gentleman was gone
abroad he knew not where, but the young lady was
above, and he would call her down to us.
I took from my breast that
kerchiefwanting the corner, and knotted it
about my
throat. I could hear my heart go; and Alan patting me on the
shoulder with some of his laughable expressions, I could
scarce refrain
from a sharp word. But the time was not long to wait. I heard her
step pass
overhead, and saw her on the stair. This she descended very
quietly, and greeted me with a pale face and a certain
seeming of
earnestness, or
uneasiness, in her manner that
extremely dashed me.
"My father, James More, will be here soon. He will be very pleased to
see you," she said. And then of a sudden her face flamed, her eyes
lightened, the speech stopped upon her lips; and I made sure she had
observed the
kerchief. It was only for a
breath that she was
discomposed; but
methought it was with a new animation that she turned
to
welcome Alan. "And you will be his friend, Alan Breck?" she cried.
"Many is the dozen times I will have heard him tell of you; and I love
you already for all your
bravery and goodness."
"Well, well," says Alan,
holding her hand in his and viewing her, "and
so this is the young lady at the last of it! David, ye're an awful
poor hand of a description."
I do not know that ever I heard him speak so straight to people's
hearts; the sound of his voice was like song.
"What? will he have been describing me?" she cried.
"Little else of it since I ever came out of France!" says he, "forby a
bit of a speciment one night in Scotland in a shaw of wood by
Silvermills. But cheer up, my dear! ye're bonnier than what he said.
And now there's one thing sure; you and me are to be a pair of friends.
I'm a kind of a henchman to Davie here; I'm like a tyke at his heels;
and
whatever he cares for, I've got to care for too - and by the holy
airn! they've got to care for me! So now you can see what way you
stand with Alan Breck, and ye'll find ye'll hardly lose on the
transaction. He's no very bonnie, my dear, but he's leal to them he
loves."
"I thank you from my heart for your good words," said she. "I have
that honour for a brave, honest man that I cannot find any to be
answering with."
Using travellers' freedom, we spared to wait for James More, and sat
down to meat, we threesome. Alan had Catriona sit by him and wait upon
his wants: he made her drink first out of his glass, he surrounded her
with
continual kind gallantries, and yet never gave me the most small
occasion to be
jealous; and he kept the talk so much in his own hand,
and that in so merry a note, that neither she nor I remembered to be
embarrassed. If any had seen us there, it must have been
supposed that
Alan was the old friend and I the stranger. Indeed, I had often cause
to love and to admire the man, but I never loved or admired him better
than that night; and I could not help remarking to myself (what I was
sometimes rather in danger of forgetting) that he had not only much
experience of life, but in his own way a great deal of natural ability
besides. As for Catriona, she seemed quite carried away; her laugh was
like a peal of bells, her face gay as a May morning; and I own,
although I was well pleased, yet I was a little sad also, and thought
myself a dull, stockish
character in
comparison of my friend, and very
unfit to come into a young maid's life, and perhaps ding down her
gaiety.
But if that was like to be my part, I found that at least I was not
alone in it; for, James More returning suddenly, the girl was changed
into a piece of stone. Through the rest of that evening, until she
made an excuse and slipped to bed, I kept an eye upon her without
cease; and I can bear
testimony that she never smiled,
scarce spoke,
and looked
mostly on the board in front of her. So that I really
marvelled to see so much
devotion (as it used to be) changed into the
very
sickness of hate.
Of James More it is unnecessary to say much; you know the man already,
what there was to know of him; and I am weary of
writing out his lies.
Enough that he drank a great deal, and told us very little that was to
any possible purpose. As for the business with Alan, that was to be
reserved for the
morrow and his private
hearing.
It was the more easy to be put off, because Alan and I were pretty
weary with four day's ride, and sat not very late after Catriona.
We were soon alone in a
chamber where we were to make-shift with a
single bed. Alan looked on me with a queer smile.
"Ye muckle ass!" said he.
"What do ye mean by that?" I cried.
"Mean? What do I mean! It's extraordinar, David man," say he, "that
you should be so
mortal stupit."
Again I begged him to speak out.
"Well, it's this of it," said he. "I told ye there were the two kinds
of women - them that would sell their shifts for ye, and the others.
Just you try for yoursel, my bonny man! But what's that neepkin at
your craig?"
I told him.
"I thocht it was something thereabout" said he.
Nor would he say another word though I besieged him long with
importunities.
CHAPTER XXX - THE LETTER FROM THE SHIP
DAYLIGHT showed us how
solitary the inn stood. It was
plainly hard
upon the sea, yet out of all view of it, and beset on every side with
scabbit hills of sand. There was, indeed, only one thing in the nature
of a
prospect, where there stood out over a brae the two sails of a
windmill, like an ass's ears, but with the ass quite
hidden. It was
strange (after the wind rose, for at first it was dead calm) to see the
turning and following of each other of these great sails behind the
hillock. Scarce any road came by there; but a number of footways
travelled among the bents in all directions up to Mr. Bazin's door.
The truth is, he was a man of many trades, not any one of them honest,
and the position of his inn was the best of his
livelihood. Smugglers
frequented it; political agents and forfeited persons bound across the
water came there to await their passages; and I daresay there was worse
behind, for a whole family might have been butchered in that house and
nobody the wiser.
I slept little and ill. Long ere it was day, I had slipped from beside
my bedfellow, and was
warming myself at the fire or walking to and fro
before the door. Dawn broke
mightysullen; but a little after, sprang
up a wind out of the west, which burst the clouds, let through the sun,
and set the mill to the turning. There was something of spring in the
sunshine, or else it was in my heart; and the appearing of the great
sails one after another from behind the hill, diverted me
extremely.
At times I could hear a creak of the machinery; and by half-past eight
of the day, and I thought this
dreary, desert place was like a
paradise.
For all which, as the day drew on and nobody came near, I began to be
aware of an
uneasiness that I could
scarce explain. It seemed there
was trouble afoot; the sails of the windmill, as they came up and went
down over the hill, were like persons spying; and outside of all fancy,
it was surely a strange neighbourhood and house for a young lady to be
brought to dwell in.
At breakfast, which we took late, it was
manifest that James More was
in some danger or
perplexity;
manifest that Alan was alive to the same,
and watched him close; and this appearance of duplicity upon the one
side, and
vigilance upon the other, held me on live coals. The meal
was no sooner over than James seemed to come began to make apologies.
He had an appointment of a private nature in the town (it was with the
French
nobleman, he told me), and we would please excuse him till about
noon. Meanwhile he carried his daughter aside to the far end of the
room, where he seemed to speak rather
earnestly and she to listen with
much inclination.
"I am caring less and less about this man James," said Alan. "There's
something no right with the man James, and I shouldnae wonder but what
Alan Breck would give an eye to him this day. I would like fine to see
yon French
nobleman, Davie; and I daresay you could find an employ to
yoursel, and that would be to speir at the lassie for some news o' your
affair. Just tell it to her
plainly - tell her ye're a muckle ass at
the off-set; and then, if I were you, and ye could do it naitural, I
would just mint to her I was in some kind of a danger; a' weemenfolk
likes that."
"I cannae lee, Alan, I cannae do it naitural," says I, mocking him.
"The more fool you!" says he. "Then ye'll can tell her that I
recommended it; that'll set her to the laughing; and I wouldnae wonder
but what that was the next best. But see to the pair of them! If I
didnae feel just sure of the lassie, and that she was awful pleased and
chief with Alan, I would think there was some kind of hocus-pocus about
you."
"And is she so pleased with ye, then, Alan?" I asked.
"She thinks a heap of me," says he. "And I'm no like you: I'm one
that can tell. That she does - she thinks a heap of Alan. And troth!
I'm thinking a good deal of him mysel; and with your
permission, Shaws,
I'll be getting a wee yont amang the bents, so that I can see what way
James goes."
One after another went, till I was left alone beside the breakfast
table; James to Dunkirk, Alan dogging him, Catriona up the stairs to
her own
chamber. I could very well understand how she should avoid to
be alone with me; yet was none the better pleased with it for that, and
bent my mind to entrap her to an
interview before the men returned.
Upon the whole, the best appeared to me to do like Alan. If I was out
of view among the sandhills, the fine morning would decoy her forth;
and once I had her in the open, I could please myself.
No sooner said than done; nor was I long under the bield of a hillock
before she appeared at the inn door, looked here and there, and (seeing
nobody) set out by a path that led directly
seaward, and by which I
followed her. I was in no haste to make my presence known; the further
she went I made sure of the longer
hearing to my suit; and the ground
being all sandy it was easy to follow her unheard. The path rose and
came at last to the head of a knowe. Thence I had a picture for the
first time of what a
desolatewilderness that inn stood
hidden in;
where was no man to be seen, nor any house of man, except just Bazin's
and the windmill. Only a little further on, the sea appeared and two
or three ships upon it, pretty as a
drawing. One of these was
extremely close in to be so great a
vessel; and I was aware of a shock
of new
suspicion, when I recognised the trim of the SEAHORSE. What
should an English ship be doing so near in to France? Why was Alan
brought into her neighbourhood, and that in a place so far from any
hope of
rescue? and was it by accident, or by design, that the daughter
of James More should walk that day to the seaside?
Presently I came forth behind her in the front of the sandhills and
above the beach. It was here long and
solitary; with a man-o'-war's
boat drawn up about the middle of the
prospect, and an officer in
charge and pacing the sands like one who waited. I sat down where the
rough grass a good deal covered me, and looked for what should follow.
Catriona went straight to the boat; the officer met her with
civilities; they had ten words together; I saw a letter changing hands;
and there was Catriona returning. At the same time, as if this were
all her business on the Continent, the boat shoved off and was headed
for the SEAHORSE. But I observed the officer to remain behind and
disappear among the bents.
I liked the business little; and the more I considered of it, liked it
less. Was it Alan the officer was seeking? or Catriona? She drew near
with her head down, looking
constantly on the sand, and made so tender
a picture that I could not bear to doubt her
innocence. The next, she
raised her face and recognised me; seemed to
hesitate, and then came on
again, but more slowly, and I thought with a changed colour. And at
that thought, all else that was upon my bosom - fears,
suspicions, the
care of my friend's life - was clean swallowed up; and I rose to my
feet and stood
waiting her in a drunkenness of hope.
I gave her "good morning" as she came up, which she returned with a
good deal of
composure.