The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales, Page 2

  CHAPTER III.

  THE SHADOW ON THE WATERS.

  It was not very long before Cousin Edie was queen of West Inch, and weall her devoted subjects from my father down. She had money and tospare, though none of us knew how much. When my mother said that fourshillings the week would cover all that she would cost, she fixed onseven shillings and sixpence of her own free will. The south room,which was the sunniest and had the honeysuckle round the window, was forher; and it was a marvel to see the things that she brought from Berwickto put into it. Twice a week she would drive over, and the cart wouldnot do for her, for she hired a gig from Angus Whitehead, whose farm layover the hill. And it was seldom that she went without bringingsomething back for one or other of us. It was a wooden pipe for myfather, or a Shetland plaid for my mother, or a book for me, or a brasscollar for Rob the collie. There was never a woman more free-handed.

  But the best thing that she gave us was just her own presence. To me itchanged the whole country-side, and the sun was brighter and the braesgreener and the air sweeter from the day she came. Our lives werecommon no longer now that we spent them with such a one as she, and theold dull grey house was another place in my eyes since she had set herfoot across the door-mat. It was not her face, though that was winsomeenough, nor her form, though I never saw the lass that could match her;but it was her spirit, her queer mocking ways, her fresh new fashion oftalk, her proud whisk of the dress and toss of the head, which made onefeel like the ground beneath her feet, and then the quick challenge inher eye, and the kindly word that brought one up to her level again.

  But never quite to her level either. To me she was always somethingabove and beyond. I might brace myself and blame myself, and do what Iwould, but still I could not feel that the same blood ran in our veins,and that she was but a country lassie, as I was a country lad. The moreI loved her the more frightened I was at her, and she could see thefright long before she knew the love. I was uneasy to be away from her,and yet when I was with her I was in a shiver all the time for fear mystumbling talk might weary her or give her offence. Had I known more ofthe ways of women I might have taken less pains.

  "You're a deal changed from what you used to be, Jack," said she,looking at me sideways from under her dark lashes.

  "You said not when first we met," says I.

  "Ah! I was speaking of your looks then, and of your ways now. You usedto be so rough to me, and so masterful, and would have your own way,like the little man that you were. I can see you now with your touzledbrown hair and your mischievous eyes. And now you are so gentle andquiet and soft-spoken."

  "One learns to behave," says I.

  "Ah, but, Jack, I liked you so much better as you were!"

  Well, when she said that I fairly stared at her, for I had thought thatshe could never have quite forgiven me for the way I used to carry on.That anyone out of a daft house could have liked it, was clean beyond myunderstanding. I thought of how when she was reading by the door Iwould go up on the moor with a hazel switch and fix little clay balls atthe end of it, and sling them at her until I made her cry. And then Ithought of how I caught an eel in the Corriemuir burn and chivied herabout with it, until she ran screaming under my mother's apron half madwith fright, and my father gave me one on the ear-hole with the porridgestick which knocked me and my eel under the kitchen dresser. And thesewere the things that she missed! Well, she must miss them, for my handwould wither before I could do them now. But for the first time I beganto understand the queerness that lies in a woman, and that a man mustnot reason about one, but just watch and try to learn.

  We found our level after a time, when she saw that she had just to dowhat she liked and how she liked, and that I was as much at her beck andcall as old Rob was at mine. You'll think I was a fool to have had myhead so turned, and maybe I was; but then you must think how little Iwas used to women, and how much we were thrown together. Besides shewas a woman in a million, and I can tell you that it was a strong headthat would not be turned by her.

  Why, there was Major Elliott, a man that had buried three wives, and hadtwelve pitched battles to his name, Edie could have turned him round herfinger like a damp rag--she, only new from the boarding school. I methim hobbling from West Inch the first time after she came, with pink inhis cheeks and a shine in his eye that took ten years from him. He wascocking up his grey moustaches at either end and curling them into hiseyes, and strutting out with his sound leg as proud as a piper. Whatshe had said to him the Lord knows, but it was like old wine in hisveins.

  "I've been up to see you, laddie," said he, "but I must home again now.My visit has not been wasted, however, as I had an opportunity of seeing_la belle cousine_. A most charming and engaging young lady, laddie."

  He had a formal stiff way of talking, and was fond of jerking in a bitof the French, for he had picked some up in the Peninsula. He wouldhave gone on talking of Cousin Edie, but I saw the corner of a newspaperthrusting out of his pocket, and I knew that he had come over, as washis way, to give me some news, for we heard little enough at West Inch.

  "What is fresh, Major?" I asked. He pulled the paper out with aflourish.

  "The allies have won a great battle, my lad," says he. "I don't thinkNap can stand up long against this. The Saxons have thrown him over,and he's been badly beat at Leipzig. Wellington is past the Pyrenees,and Graham's folk will be at Bayonne before long."

  I chucked up my hat.

  "Then the war will come to an end at last," I cried.

  "Aye, and time too," said he, shaking his head gravely. "It's been abloody business. But it is hardly worth while for me to say now whatwas in my mind about you."

  "What was that?"

  "Well, laddie, you are doing no good here, and now that my knee isgetting more limber I was hoping that I might get on active serviceagain. I wondered whether maybe you might like to do a littlesoldiering under me."

  My heart jumped at the thought.

  "Aye, would I!" I cried.

  "But it'll be clear six months before I'll be fit to pass a board, andit's long odds that Boney will be under lock and key before that."

  "And there's my mother," said I, "I doubt she'd never let me go."

  "Ah! well, she'll never be asked to now," he answered, and hobbled onupon his way.

  I sat down among the heather with my chin on my hand, turning the thingover in my mind, and watching him in his old brown clothes, with the endof a grey plaid flapping over his shoulder, as he picked his way up theswell of the hill. It was a poor life this, at West Inch, waiting tofill my father's shoes, with the same heath, and the same burn, and thesame sheep, and the same grey house for ever before me. But overthere, over the blue sea, ah! there was a life fit for a man. There wasthe Major, a man past his prime, wounded and spent, and yet planning toget to work again, whilst I, with all the strength of my youth, waswasting it upon these hillsides. A hot wave of shame flushed over me,and I sprang up all in a tingle to be off and playing a man's part inthe world.

  For two days I turned it over in my mind, and on the third there camesomething which first brought all my resolutions to a head, and thenblew them all to nothing like a puff of smoke in the wind.

  I had strolled out in 'the afternoon with Cousin Edie and Rob, until wefound ourselves upon the brow of the slope which dips away down to thebeach. It was late in the fall, and the links were all bronzed andfaded; but the sun still shone warmly, and a south breeze came in littlehot pants, rippling the broad blue sea with white curling lines.I pulled an armful of bracken to make a couch for Edie, and there shelay in her listless fashion, happy and contented; for of all folk that Ihave ever met, she had the most joy from warmth and light. I leaned ona tussock of grass, with Rob's head upon my knee, and there as we satalone in peace in the wilderness, even there we saw suddenly thrown uponthe waters in front of us the shadow of that great man over yonder, whohad scrawled his name in red letters across the map of Europe.There was a ship coming up with the wind,
a black sedate oldmerchant-man, bound for Leith as likely as not. Her yards were squareand she was running with all sail set. On the other tack, coming fromthe north-east, were two great ugly lugger-like craft, with one highmast each, and a big square brown sail. A prettier sight one would notwish than to see the three craft dipping along upon so fair a day.But of a sudden there came a spurt of flame and a whirl of blue smokefrom one lugger, then the same from the second, and a rap, rap, rap,from the ship. In a twinkling hell had elbowed out heaven, and there onthe waters was hatred and savagery and the lust for blood.

  We had sprung to our feet at the outburst, and Edie put her hand all ina tremble upon my arm.

  "They are fighting, Jack!" she cried. "What are they? Who are they?"

  My heart was thudding with the guns, and it was all that I could do toanswer her for the catch of my breath.

  "It's two French privateers, Edie," said I, "Chasse-marries, they callthem, and yon's one of our merchant ships, and they'll take her as sureas death; for the Major says they've always got heavy guns, and are asfull of men as an egg is full of meat. Why doesn't the fool make backfor Tweedmouth bar?"

  But not an inch of canvas did she lower, but floundered on in her stolidfashion, while a little black ball ran up to her peak, and the rare oldflag streamed suddenly out from the halliard. Then again came the rap,rap, rap, of her little guns, and the boom, boom of the big carronadesin the bows of the lugger. An instant later the three ships met, andthe merchant-man staggered on like a stag with two wolves hanging to itshaunches. The three became but a dark blurr amid the smoke, with thetop spars thrusting out in a bristle, and from the heart of that cloudcame the quick red flashes of flame, and such a devils' racket of bigguns and small, cheering and screaming, as was to din in my head formany a week. For a stricken hour the hell-cloud moved slowly across theface of the water, and still with our hearts in our mouths we watchedthe flap of the flag, straining to see if it were yet there. And thensuddenly, the ship, as proud and black and high as ever, shot on uponher way; and as the smoke cleared we saw one of the luggers squatteringlike a broken winged duck upon the water, and the other working hard toget the crew from her before she sank.

  For all that hour I had lived for nothing but the fight. My cap hadbeen whisked away by the wind, but I had never given it a thought.Now with my heart full I turned upon my Cousin Edie, and the sight ofher took me back six years. There was the vacant staring eye and theparted lips, just as I had seen them in her girlhood, and her littlehands were clenched until the knuckles gleamed like ivory.

  "Ah, that captain!" said she, talking to the heath and thewhin-bushes. "There is a man so strong, so resolute! What woman wouldnot be proud of a man like that?"

  "Aye, he did well!" I cried with enthusiasm.

  She looked at me as if she had forgotten my existence.

  "I would give a year of my life to meet such a man," said she."But that is what living in the country means. One never sees anybodybut just those who are fit for nothing better."

  I do not know that she meant to hurt me, though she was never verybackward at that; but whatever her intention, her words seemed to strikestraight upon a naked nerve.

  "Very well, Cousin Edie," I said, trying to speak calmly, "that puts thecap on it. I'll take the bounty in Berwick to-night."

  "What, Jack! you be a soldier!"

  "Yes, if you think that every man that bides in the country must be acoward."

  "Oh, you'd look so handsome in a red coat, Jack, and it improves youvastly when you are in a temper. I wish your eyes would always flashlike that, for it looks so nice and manly. But I am sure that you arejoking about the soldiering."

  "I'll let you see if I am joking."

  Then and there I set off running over the moor, until I burst into thekitchen where my mother and father were sitting on either side of theingle.

  "Mother," I cried, "I'm off for a soldier!"

  Had I said I was off for a burglar they could not have looked worse overit, for in those days among the decent canny country folks it was mostlythe black sheep that were herded by the sergeant. But, my word, thosesame black sheep did their country some rare service too. My mother putup her mittens to her eyes, and my father looked as black as a peathole.

  "Hoots, Jock, you're daft," says he.

  "Daft or no, I'm going."

  "Then you'll have no blessing from me."

  "Then I'll go without."

  At this my mother gives a screech and throws her arms about my neck.I saw her hand, all hard and worn and knuckly with the work she had donefor my up-bringing, and it pleaded with me as words could not have done.My heart was soft for her, but my will was as hard as a flint-edge.I put her back in her chair with a kiss, and then ran to my room to packmy bundle. It was already growing dark, and I had a long walk beforeme, so I thrust a few things together and hastened out. As I camethrough the side door someone touched my shoulder, and there was Edie inthe gloaming.

  "Silly boy," said she, "you are not really going."

  "Am I not? You'll see."

  "But your father does not wish it, nor your mother."

  "I know that."

  "Then why go?"

  "You ought to know."

  "Why, then?"

  "Because you make me!"

  "I don't want you to go, Jack."

  "You said it. You said that the folk in the country were fit fornothing better. You always speak like that. You think no more of methan of those doos in the cot. You think I am nobody at all. I'll showyou different."

  All my troubles came out in hot little spurts of speech. She colouredup as I spoke, and looked at me in her queer half-mocking, half-pettingfashion.

  "Oh, I think so little of you as that?" said she. "And that is thereason why you are going away? Well then, Jack, will you stay if Iam--if I am kind to you?"

  We were face to face and close together, and in an instant the thing wasdone. My arms were round her, and I was kissing her, and kissing her,and kissing her, on her mouth, her cheeks, her eyes, and pressing her tomy heart, and whispering to her that she was all, all, to me, and that Icould not be without her. She said nothing, but it was long before sheturned her face aside, and when she pushed me back it was not very hard.

  "Why, you are quite your rude, old, impudent self!" said she, pattingher hair with her two hands. "You have tossed me, Jack; I had no ideathat you would be so forward!"

  But all my fear of her was gone, and a love tenfold hotter than ever wasboiling in my veins. I took her up again, and kissed her as if it weremy right.

  "You are my very own now!" I cried. "I shall not go to Berwick, butI'll stay and marry you."

  But she laughed when I spoke of marriage.

  "Silly boy! Silly boy!" said she, with her forefinger up; and then whenI tried to lay hands on her again, she gave a little dainty curtsy, andwas off into the house.