Chapter Thirty.
THE MEETING FOR RAIN.
Meanwhile the Auld Lichts were in church, waiting for their minister,and it was a full meeting, because nearly every well in Thrums hadbeen scooped dry by anxious palms. Yet not all were there to ask God'srain for themselves. Old Charles Yuill was in his pew, after dreamingthrice that he would break up with the drought; and Bell Christisonhad come, though her man lay dead at home, and she thought it couldmatter no more to her how things went in the world.
You, who do not love that little congregation, would have said thatthey were waiting placidly. But probably so simple a woman as MeggyRattray could have deceived you into believing that because her eyeswere downcast she did not notice who put the three-penny-bit in theplate. A few men were unaware that the bell was working overtime, mostof them farmers with their eyes on the windows, but all the women atleast were wondering. They knew better, however, than to bring theirthoughts to their faces, and none sought to catch another's eye. Themen-folk looked heavily at their hats in the seats in front. Even whenHendry Munn, instead of marching to the pulpit with the big Bible inhis hands, came as far as the plate and signed to Peter Tosh, elder,that he was wanted in the vestry, you could not have guessed how everywoman there, except Bell Christison, wished she was Peter Tosh. Peterwas so taken aback that he merely gaped at Hendry, until suddenly heknew that his five daughters were furious with him, when he dived forhis hat and staggered to the vestry with his mouth open. His bootscheeped all the way, but no one looked up.
"I hadna noticed the minister was lang in coming," Waster Lunny toldme afterward, "but Elspeth noticed it, and with a quickness thatbaffles me she saw I was thinking o' other things. So she let out herfoot at me. I gae a low cough to let her ken I wasna sleeping, but ina minute out goes her foot again. Ay, syne I thocht I micht haedropped my hanky into Snecky Hobart's pew, but no, it was in my tails.Yet her hand was on the board, and she was working her fingers in away that I kent meant she would like to shake me. Next I looked to seeif I was sitting on her frock, the which tries a woman sair, but Iwasna. 'Does she want to change Bibles wi' me?' I wondered; 'or is shesliding yont a peppermint to me?' It was neither, so I edged as farfrae her as I could gang. Weel, would you credit it, I saw her bodycoming nearer me inch by inch, though she was looking straucht aforeher, till she was within kick o' me, and then out again goes her foot.At that, dominie, I lost patience, and I whispered, fierce-like, 'Keepyour foot to yoursel', you limmer!' Ay, her intent, you see, was towaken me to what was gaen on, but I couldna be expected to ken that."
In the vestry Hendry Munn was now holding counsel with three elders,of whom the chief was Lang Tammas.
"The laddie I sent to the manse," Hendry said, "canna be back thisfive minutes, and the question is how we're to fill up that time. I'llring no langer, for the bell has been in a passion ever since aquarter-past eight. It's as sweer to clang past the quarter as a horseto gallop by its stable."
"You could gang to your box and gie out a psalm, Tammas," suggestedJohn Spens.
"And would a psalm sung wi' sic an object," retorted the precentor,"mount higher, think you, than a bairn's kite? I'll insult theAlmighty to screen no minister."
"You're screening him better by standing whaur you are," said theimperturbable Hendry; "for as lang as you dinna show your face they'llthink it may be you that's missing instead o' Mr. Dishart."
Indeed, Gavin's appearance in church without the precentor would havebeen as surprising as Tammas's without the minister. As certainly asthe shutting of a money-box is followed by the turning of the key, didthe precentor walk stiffly from the vestry to his box a toll of thebell in front of the minister. Tammas's halfpenny rang in the plate asGavin passed T'nowhead's pew, and Gavin's sixpence with thesnapping-to of the precentor's door. The two men might have beenconnected by a string that tightened at ten yards.
"The congregation ken me ower weel," Tammas said, "to believe I wouldkeep the Lord waiting."
"And they are as sure o' Mr. Dishart," rejoined Spens, with spirit,though he feared the precentor on Sabbaths and at prayer-meetings."You're a hard man."
"I speak the blunt truth," Whamond answered.
"Ay," said Spens, "and to tak' credit for that may be like blawingthat you're ower honest to wear claethes."
Hendry, who had gone to the door, returned now with the informationthat Mr. Dishart had left the manse two hours ago to pay visits,meaning to come to the prayer-meeting before he returned home.
"There's a quirk in this, Hendry," said Tosh. "Was it Mistress Dishartthe laddie saw?"
"THE CONSULTATION OF THE ELDERS."]
"No," Hendry replied. "It was Jean. She canna get to the meetingbecause the mistress is nervous in the manse by herself; and Jeandidna like to tell her that he's missing, for fear o' alarming her.What are we to do now?"
"He's an unfaithful shepherd," cried the precentor, while Hendry againwent out. "I see it written on the walls."
"I dinna," said Spens doggedly.
"Because," retorted Tammas, "having eyes you see not."
"Tammas, I aye thocht you was fond o' Mr. Dishart."
"If my right eye were to offend me," answered the precentor, "I wouldpluck it out. I suppose you think, and baith o' you farmers too, thatthere's no necessity for praying for rain the nicht? You'll becontent, will ye, if Mr. Dishart just drops in to the kirk some day,accidental-like, and offers up a bit prayer?"
"As for the rain," Spens said, triumphantly, "I wouldna wonder thoughit's here afore the minister. You canna deny, Peter Tosh, that there'sbeen a smell o' rain in the air this twa hours back."
"John," Peter said agitatedly, "dinna speak so confidently. I've kentit," he whispered, "since the day turned; but it wants to tak' us bysurprise, lad, and so I'm no letting on."
"See that you dinna make an idol o' the rain," thundered Whamond."Your thochts is no wi' Him, but wi' the clouds; and whaur yourthochts are, there will your prayers stick also."
"If you saw my lambs," Tosh began; and then, ashamed of himself, said,looking upward, "He holds the rain in the hollow of His hand."
"And He's closing His neive ticht on't again," said the precentorsolemnly. "Hearken to the wind rising!"
"God help me!" cried Tosh, wringing his hands. "Is it fair, thinkyou," he said, passionately addressing the sky, "to show your wrathwi' Mr. Dishart by ruining my neeps?"
"You were richt, Tammas Whamond," Spens said, growing hard as helistened to the wind, "the sanctuary o' the Lord has been profanedthis nicht by him wha should be the chief pillar o' the building."
They were lowering brows that greeted Hendry when he returned to saythat Mr. Dishart had been seen last on the hill with the Glen Quharitydominie.
"Some thinks," said the kirk officer, "that he's awa hunting for RobDow."
"Nothing'll excuse him," replied Spens, "short o' his having fallenover the quarry."
Hendry's was usually a blank face, but it must have looked troublednow, for Tosh was about to say, "Hendry, you're keeping somethingback," when the precentor said it before him.
"Wi' that story o' Mr. Dishart's murder, no many hours auld yet," thekirk officer replied evasively, "we should be wary o' trustinggossip."
"What hae you heard?"
"It's through the town," Hendry answered, "that a woman was wi' thedominie."
"A woman!" cried Tosh. "The woman there's been sic talk about inconnection wi' the minister? Whaur are they now?"
"It's no kent, but--the dominie was seen goin' hame by himsel'."
"Leaving the minister and her thegither!" cried the three men atonce.
"Hendry Munn," Tammas said sternly, "there's mair about this; wha isthe woman?"
"They are liars," Hendry answered, and shut his mouth tight.
"Gie her a name, I say," the precentor ordered, "or, as chief elder ofthis kirk, supported by mair than half o' the Session, I command youto lift your hat and go."
Hendry gave an appealing look to Tosh and Spens, but the precentor'ss
olemnity had cowed them.
"They say, then," he answered sullenly, "that it's the Egyptian. Yes,and I believe they ken."
The two farmers drew back from this statement incredulously; butTammas Whamond jumped at the kirk officer's throat, and some who werein the church that night say they heard Hendry scream. Then theprecentor's fingers relaxed their grip, and he tottered into themiddle of the room.
"Hendry," he pleaded, holding out his arms pathetically, "tak' backthese words. Oh, man, have pity, and tak' them back!"
But Hendry would not, and then Lang Tammas's mouth worked convulsively,and he sobbed, crying, "Nobody kent it, but mair than mortal son, OGod, I did love the lad!"
So seldom in a lifetime had any one seen into this man's heart thatSpens said, amazed:
"Tammas, Tammas Whamond, it's no like you to break down."
The rusty door of Whamond's heart swung to.
"Who broke down?" he asked fiercely. "Let no member of this Sessiondare to break down till his work be done."
"What work?" Tosh said uneasily. "We canna interfere."
"I would rather resign," Spens said, but shook when Whamond hurledthese words at him:
"'And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the ploughand looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'"
"It mayna be true," Hendry said eagerly.
"We'll soon see."
"He would gie her up," said Tosh.
"Peter Tosh," answered Whamond sternly, "I call upon you to dismissthe congregation."
"Should we no rather haud the meeting oursel's?"
"We have other work afore us," replied the precentor.
"But what can I say?" Tosh asked nervously. "Should I offer up aprayer?"
"I warn you all," broke in Hendry, "that though the congregation issitting there quietly, they'll be tigers for the meaning o' this assoon as they're in the street."
"Let no ontruth be telled them," said the precentor. "Peter Tosh, doyour duty. John Spens, remain wi' me."
The church emptied silently, but a buzz of excitement arose outside.Many persons tried to enter the vestry, but were ordered away, andwhen Tosh joined his fellow-elders the people were collecting inanimated groups in the square, or scattering through the wynds fornews.
"And now," said the precentor, "I call upon the three o' you to comewi' me. Hendry Munn, you gang first."
"I maun bide ahint," Hendry said, with a sudden fear, "to lock up thekirk."
"I'll lock up the kirk," Whamond answered harshly.
"You maun gie me the keys, though," entreated the kirk officer.
"I'll take care o' the keys," said Whamond.
"I maun hae them," Hendry said, "to open the kirk on Sabbath."
The precentor locked the doors, and buttoned up the keys in histrousers pockets.
"Wha kens," he said, in a voice of steel, "that the kirk'll be opennext Sabbath?"
"Hae some mercy on him, Tammas," Spens implored. "He's notwa-and-twenty."
"Wha kens," continued the precentor, "but that the next time this kirkis opened will be to preach it toom?"
"What road do we tak'?"
"The road to the hill, whaur he was seen last."