CHAPTER XLVII
THE GOLDEN HEART
When Wat Gordon opened his eyes, he looked into a face he knew rightwell.
"Faith, Will, is it time to get up already?" he said, thinking hiscousin and he were off together on some ploy of ancient days--for amorning's fishing on the hills above Knockman, mayhap.
For his cousin Will it was indeed who stood before him, clad in theworn and smoke-begrimed uniform of the Regiment of the Covenant.
"Wat, Wat, how came you here, lad?" cried Will Gordon.
A gleam of his ancient wilfulness beaconed a moment in Wat's eye.
"Why--over the wall there," he said. "I was in somewhat of a hurry andI had not time to go round by the gate and tirl at the pin."
And with that something buzzed drowsily in his ears like a prisonedblue-bottle, and he fainted again.
Lucky it was for Wat Gordon that Sir Robert Hamilton did not commandthe regiment, and that the dead Cleland had instilled his humaneprinciples into those under him. For the officers merely ordered theirprisoner to be carried along with their own wounded to a convenienthouse in the town, and there to be warded till he should be well enoughto be remitted to Edinburgh.
To this hospital Will Gordon came to see him often, and give him whatheartening he might; but it was not till the seventh day, when Watshowed some promise of early recovery, that Will, with a mighty seriousface, showed him a trinket in the palm of his hand.
"Ken ye that?" he asked.
"'Tis Kate's token that she was to send me if she needed me. Where gotye it, Will?"
And even as he spoke these words Wat was half out of bed in hiseagerness; but Will took him in his arms with gentle firmness andpressed him back upon the pillow.
"Bide a wee," he said; "ye will do no good that way. Ye are far tooweak to travel, and there is a strong guard at the door. Listen! I gotthe gold heart from Kate herself, and she bade me tell you that if yecould not come to her by the tenth day of September, ye would neverneed to come at all."
"What means that message, Will? Tell me truly," said Wat, white to thelips, yet sitting up calmly in spite of his deadly weakness and thecurious singing drone in his ears.
"They have worked upon her to weariness, I think," said Will, a littlesadly; "worked upon her with tales of your unfaithfulness, which, todo her justice, she would scorn to believe--told her that her father'svery life depends upon the marriage, because of the old friendship andsuccor he had from Claverhouse; wearied her out, till the lass knowsnot which way to turn. And so she has consented to be wedded to my LordBarra on the tenth of September. But, as Maisie judges, our Kate willdie rather than marry any man she hates."
Wat leaped out of bed and began to dress himself.
"Let me go, Will--let me alone! Hands off! Do not touch me, or I willstrike you on the face. Only ten days--and so far to go! But I willfight my way through. I am strong and well, I tell you--"
And with that Will Gordon laid him back again upon the bed like a child.
"Wat," he said, "I am with you in this, since Kate loves you and Maisiebids me. (You have never asked of her welfare, but no matter.) I havegotten Jack Scarlett here by me in the town. We will arrange yourescape and get you horses. But you must be a deal stronger than you areere you are ready to travel, and at least you must abide here yet threedays."
"Three days, Will; 'tis plainly impossible! I should die stark ravingmad of the waiting and anxiety. Better let me go, Will, this verynight."
And almost for very weariness and the sense of powerlessness in thegrip of fate, Wat could have wept; but a thought and a resolve steadiedhim.
From that moment he began, as it were obediently, to talk ofindifferent things; and Will humored him, well pleased that it shouldbe so. Ere he departed, Will said, "I will bring Scarlett to yourwindow to-night. Do you speak with him for a moment and let him go."
Wat smilingly promised, and went on to tell of his winter adventuresamong the clans, as if they were all he thought about.
"Good-night, and a sweet sleep to you, Wat, lad!" said Will Gordon."In three days, I promise you, you shall ride forth, well mounted andequipped."
And so, smiling once more on his cousin, he went down the stair.
Then Wat Gordon laid his head on the pillow as obediently as a child.
But he only kept it there till his cousin was out of the room and heheard his footsteps die down the street. In a trice he was out of bedand trying all the fastenings of the windows of his room. He was alonein his dormitory, but on either side of him were rooms containingwounded men of the Cameronians, to whom night nurses came and went, sothat it behooved him to be wary.
One of the windows was barred with iron outside, while the sash of theother was fixed and would not open at all.
Wat threw open the barred window as far as he could and shook the ironlattice. It held firm against his feeble strength, but upon a moreminute examination the stanchions seemed only to be set in plaster.
"That's better; but I wish Jack Scarlett would come!" murmured Wat, ashe staggered back to his bed. He kissed his hand towards the South withsomething of his old air of gallant recklessness.
"On the tenth I shall be with you, dear love, to redeem my pledge, orelse--"
But before his lips could frame the alternative he had fainted on thefloor.
Scarlett came to Lochinvar's window when the night was darkest, alittle before midnight.
"Wat," he cried, softly; "Wat Gordon!"
Wat was already at the lattice and promptly reached his hand out to hisancient comrade.
"Jack," he whispered, hoarsely, "for God's sake get me out of thishole! They would shut me up here for three days, till she is married tothe devil Barra. And she has sent me the token--the heart of gold. Ihave it here. You mind it was to be the fiery cross betwixt us two? Sheis needing me and I must go. Break down the window bars, good Jack, andlet me out."
"But your cousin says that you are not fit to travel, that you willnever reach Galloway unless you have some rest before you go. Besides,it will take some time to purchase horses for the long journey--"
"I cannot wait, Jack," interrupted Wat, fiercely; "I shall die herein three days if I stay. How can I wait with the greedy talons of themonster drawing nearer to my lass? See, Jack, I have thirty guineasin my belt. I will leave twenty of them in any horse's stall in thestables. And, God knows! it is not the officers of the Cameronianregiment who have horses worth half so much. Try the bars, good Jack,and let me out."
Scarlett endeavored to reason with him, to dissuade him from theventure for that night at least.
"To-morrow, Lochinvar; only one night--we shall wait but to see whatto-morrow brings."
"Scarlett, look you here," Wat said, earnestly, his face gleamingghastly through the lattice in the steely glint of stars. "You knowwhether or not I am a man of my word. I have a dagger here--hid in theleather of my boot. Now if you do not help me to escape to-night, 'forethe Lord, Jack, I will let out my soul or the morning--and my bloodwill be on your head."
He leaned out till his agony-wet brow touched the bars. His fingersclutched and shook them in his desperation.
"Well," said Scarlett, half to himself, "I will e'en do it, since itmust be so. But it will prove a sorry job for us all. 'Tis but takingthe poor laddie's life in another way."
So, vanishing for a tale of minutes, which seemed hours to the pale,wounded, half-frenzied figure at the window, he returned with a"geleck" or iron crow-bar, with which he promptly started work onthe lime and plaster of the stanchions. It was not long before heloosened one and then another. Once or twice he had to cower down inorder to escape the lanterns of the patrol--for, unlike the clans, theCameronians kept excellent watch; but in half an hour his task wascompleted.
"The Lord forgie me, laddie, for this!" he said, as he helped Wat out,and felt the palms of his hands burning hot, while his body was shakingwith feverish cold.
"Now help me to get a horse!" said Wat, as soon as they stood in safetyunder the ru
ined walls of the cathedral. "There are the stables of theofficers' horses. Come, let us go over yonder."
"It's a rope's end at ony rate," said Scarlett; "old Jack has been atmony ploys, but he never was a horse-thief before!"
"How did we get away from the city of Amersfort, tell me, Jack?" saidWat, with a touch of his ancient humor, being pleased at getting hiswill.
"Ah, but then a woman did the stealing for love, as you do now. Itis different with me, that have no love to steal for--or to die for,either," he added, sadly.
Wat put his hand affectionately on the shoulder of the old free-lance.
"Even so do you steal, old bear," he said, gently patting him; "you doit for love of me."
"I declare," quoth Scarlett, with relief in his voice, "I believe Ido. Guid kens what there is aboot ye, laddie, that makes both lassiesand auld grizzle-pates run their heads into holes and their necks intotow-ropes for the love o' ye!"
The stables had been left completely unguarded, for it was theofficers' boast that they desired not any greater safety than theirmen. Cleland, indeed, had once ordered all the officers' horses to bebrought out and shot, just because some of the soldiers complained thatthe officers had a greater chance of escape than they.
Since that time the horses had been permitted to remain in the not toozealous care of the grooms, who fulfilled their duty by sleeping in thetown at a distance from their charges.
Even the very stable door was unlocked, and as they opened it thehorses were heard restlessly moving within.
"Any of Keppoch's gay lads might make a haul very easily this nicht,"said Scarlett, as they entered.
"I saw Keppoch and many another pretty fighter get his bellyful overthere by the walls the other day," said Wat, grimly, as he proceededcoolly to make his selection by the sense of touch alone.
When he had done this, Scarlett and he saddled the chosen beast and ledhim out, having previously tied stable rags over his iron-shod feet tokeep them from clanking on the pavement. Making a detour, they soongained the river, which they skirted cautiously till they were a milefrom the town. Then Wat mounted without the assistance of his companion.
"God help ye, laddie; ye will never win near your lass, I fear me. Butye can try. And that is aye the best o't in this world. That it is forus mortals to do the trying, and for God to finish ilka job to His ainliking."
With which sage reflection he gave Wat his sword, his pistols andammunition, together with some bread for the journey--looking at whichlast, Wat felt that he could as soon eat his horse's tail.
"Hae!" said the master-at-arms, "ye will be the better o' that or yecome to the end o' the Lang Wood. I have plenty more by me."
Wat laughed.
"You cannot deceive a desperate man," he said, "nor yet lie to him.Well do I know that this is every bite you have in the world."
"Listen, Wat," said the free-lance. "I have found me a decent womanthat has ta'en a liking to me, and she has ta'en me in. I'm weelprovided for. Tak' them, laddie, tak' them. Ye will need them mair norme."
Saying which Scarlett started promptly on the back track to the town,crying as he went: "God speed ye, laddie; I'll never set een on yemair!"
So with a sob in his throat and a feeling as if he were riding onempty air, Wat Gordon turned the head of the officer's charger (by astrange and fitting chance it was his cousin Will's), and set hischest to the current of the river, at the place where the tracks on theshoaling gravel and the chuckling of the shallow river over its pebblesindicated a ford.
So our true hero, ill, fevered, desperate, in the stark grip withdeath, started on his almost impossible quest--without an idea or aplan save that he must ride into the blank midnight to save his love,or die for her.