CHAPTER XVII
THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX
The next day Mr. Henderland found for me a man who had a boat of his ownand was to cross the Linnhe Loch that afternoon into Appin, fishing. Himhe prevailed on to take me, for he was one of his flock; and in this wayI saved a long day's travel and the price of the two public ferries Imust otherwise have passed.
It was near noon before we set out; a dark day with clouds, and the sunshining upon little patches. The sea was here very deep and still,and had scarce a wave upon it; so that I must put the water to my lipsbefore I could believe it to be truly salt. The mountains on either sidewere high, rough and barren, very black and gloomy in the shadow ofthe clouds, but all silver-laced with little watercourses where the sunshone upon them. It seemed a hard country, this of Appin, for people tocare as much about as Alan did.
There was but one thing to mention. A little after we had started,the sun shone upon a little moving clump of scarlet close in along thewater-side to the north. It was much of the same red as soldiers' coats;every now and then, too, there came little sparks and lightnings, asthough the sun had struck upon bright steel.
I asked my boatman what it should be, and he answered he supposed it wassome of the red soldiers coming from Fort William into Appin, againstthe poor tenantry of the country. Well, it was a sad sight to me;and whether it was because of my thoughts of Alan, or from somethingprophetic in my bosom, although this was but the second time I had seenKing George's troops, I had no good will to them.
At last we came so near the point of land at the entering in of LochLeven that I begged to be set on shore. My boatman (who was an honestfellow and mindful of his promise to the catechist) would fain havecarried me on to Balachulish; but as this was to take me farther from mysecret destination, I insisted, and was set on shore at last under thewood of Lettermore (or Lettervore, for I have heard it both ways) inAlan's country of Appin.
This was a wood of birches, growing on a steep, craggy side of amountain that overhung the loch. It had many openings and ferny howes;and a road or bridle track ran north and south through the midst ofit, by the edge of which, where was a spring, I sat down to eat someoat-bread of Mr. Henderland's and think upon my situation.
Here I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges, but far moreby the doubts of my mind. What I ought to do, why I was going to joinmyself with an outlaw and a would-be murderer like Alan, whether Ishould not be acting more like a man of sense to tramp back to the southcountry direct, by my own guidance and at my own charges, and what Mr.Campbell or even Mr. Henderland would think of me if they should everlearn my folly and presumption: these were the doubts that now began tocome in on me stronger than ever.
As I was so sitting and thinking, a sound of men and horses came to methrough the wood; and presently after, at a turning of the road, I sawfour travellers come into view. The way was in this part so rough andnarrow that they came single and led their horses by the reins. Thefirst was a great, red-headed gentleman, of an imperious and flushedface, who carried his hat in his hand and fanned himself, for he was ina breathing heat. The second, by his decent black garb and white wig,I correctly took to be a lawyer. The third was a servant, and wore somepart of his clothes in tartan, which showed that his master was of aHighland family, and either an outlaw or else in singular good odourwith the Government, since the wearing of tartan was against the Act. IfI had been better versed in these things, I would have known the tartanto be of the Argyle (or Campbell) colours. This servant had a good-sizedportmanteau strapped on his horse, and a net of lemons (to brew punchwith) hanging at the saddle-bow; as was often enough the custom withluxurious travellers in that part of the country.
As for the fourth, who brought up the tail, I had seen his like before,and knew him at once to be a sheriff's officer.
I had no sooner seen these people coming than I made up my mind (for noreason that I can tell) to go through with my adventure; and when thefirst came alongside of me, I rose up from the bracken and asked him theway to Aucharn.
He stopped and looked at me, as I thought, a little oddly; and then,turning to the lawyer, "Mungo," said he, "there's many a man would thinkthis more of a warning than two pyats. Here am I on my road to Duror onthe job ye ken; and here is a young lad starts up out of the bracken,and speers if I am on the way to Aucharn."
"Glenure," said the other, "this is an ill subject for jesting."
These two had now drawn close up and were gazing at me, while the twofollowers had halted about a stone-cast in the rear.
"And what seek ye in Aucharn?" said Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, himthey called the Red Fox; for he it was that I had stopped.
"The man that lives there," said I.
"James of the Glens," says Glenure, musingly; and then to the lawyer:"Is he gathering his people, think ye?"
"Anyway," says the lawyer, "we shall do better to bide where we are, andlet the soldiers rally us."
"If you are concerned for me," said I, "I am neither of his people noryours, but an honest subject of King George, owing no man and fearing noman."
"Why, very well said," replies the Factor. "But if I may make so bold asask, what does this honest man so far from his country? and why doeshe come seeking the brother of Ardshiel? I have power here, I must tellyou. I am King's Factor upon several of these estates, and have twelvefiles of soldiers at my back."
"I have heard a waif word in the country," said I, a little nettled,"that you were a hard man to drive."
He still kept looking at me, as if in doubt.
"Well," said he, at last, "your tongue is bold; but I am no unfriend toplainness. If ye had asked me the way to the door of James Stewart onany other day but this, I would have set ye right and bidden ye Godspeed. But to-day--eh, Mungo?" And he turned again to look at thelawyer.
But just as he turned there came the shot of a firelock from higher upthe hill; and with the very sound of it Glenure fell upon the road.
"O, I am dead!" he cried, several times over.
The lawyer had caught him up and held him in his arms, the servantstanding over and clasping his hands. And now the wounded man lookedfrom one to another with scared eyes, and there was a change in hisvoice, that went to the heart.
"Take care of yourselves," says he. "I am dead."
He tried to open his clothes as if to look for the wound, but hisfingers slipped on the buttons. With that he gave a great sigh, his headrolled on his shoulder, and he passed away.
The lawyer said never a word, but his face was as sharp as a pen andas white as the dead man's; the servant broke out into a great noise ofcrying and weeping, like a child; and I, on my side, stood staring atthem in a kind of horror. The sheriff's officer had run back at thefirst sound of the shot, to hasten the coming of the soldiers.
At last the lawyer laid down the dead man in his blood upon the road,and got to his own feet with a kind of stagger.
I believe it was his movement that brought me to my senses; for he hadno sooner done so than I began to scramble up the hill, crying out, "Themurderer! the murderer!"
So little a time had elapsed, that when I got to the top of the firststeepness, and could see some part of the open mountain, the murdererwas still moving away at no great distance. He was a big man, in a blackcoat, with metal buttons, and carried a long fowling-piece.
"Here!" I cried. "I see him!"
At that the murderer gave a little, quick look over his shoulder, andbegan to run. The next moment he was lost in a fringe of birches; thenhe came out again on the upper side, where I could see him climbing likea jackanapes, for that part was again very steep; and then he dippedbehind a shoulder, and I saw him no more.
All this time I had been running on my side, and had got a good way up,when a voice cried upon me to stand.
I was at the edge of the upper wood, and so now, when I halted andlooked back, I saw all the open part of the hill below me.
The lawyer and the sheriff's officer were standing just above th
e road,crying and waving on me to come back; and on their left, the red-coats,musket in hand, were beginning to struggle singly out of the lower wood.
"Why should I come back?" I cried. "Come you on!"
"Ten pounds if ye take that lad!" cried the lawyer. "He's an accomplice.He was posted here to hold us in talk."
At that word (which I could hear quite plainly, though it was to thesoldiers and not to me that he was crying it) my heart came in my mouthwith quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is one thing to stand thedanger of your life, and quite another to run the peril of both life andcharacter. The thing, besides, had come so suddenly, like thunder out ofa clear sky, that I was all amazed and helpless.
The soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and others to put uptheir pieces and cover me; and still I stood.
"Jock* in here among the trees," said a voice close by.
* Duck.
Indeed, I scarce knew what I was doing, but I obeyed; and as I did so, Iheard the firelocks bang and the balls whistle in the birches.
Just inside the shelter of the trees I found Alan Breck standing, witha fishing-rod. He gave me no salutation; indeed it was no time forcivilities; only "Come!" says he, and set off running along the side ofthe mountain towards Balachulish; and I, like a sheep, to follow him.
Now we ran among the birches; now stooping behind low humps upon themountain-side; now crawling on all fours among the heather. The pace wasdeadly: my heart seemed bursting against my ribs; and I had neither timeto think nor breath to speak with. Only I remember seeing with wonder,that Alan every now and then would straighten himself to his full heightand look back; and every time he did so, there came a great far-awaycheering and crying of the soldiers.
Quarter of an hour later, Alan stopped, clapped down flat in theheather, and turned to me.
"Now," said he, "it's earnest. Do as I do, for your life."
And at the same speed, but now with infinitely more precaution, wetraced back again across the mountain-side by the same way that we hadcome, only perhaps higher; till at last Alan threw himself down in theupper wood of Lettermore, where I had found him at the first, and lay,with his face in the bracken, panting like a dog.
My own sides so ached, my head so swam, my tongue so hung out of mymouth with heat and dryness, that I lay beside him like one dead.