Читать книгу The Raiders: Being Some Passages In The Life Of John Faa, Lord And Earl Of Little Egypt - Samuel R. Crockett - Страница 10
ОглавлениеIF THERE BE anything bonnier or sweeter in this world than a May morning on the Isle of Rathan by the Solway shore, I have yet to see it – except it be the blush that comes over a young maid’s face when one that is not her lad, but who yet may be, comes chapping at the door.
Some months after my father’s death I mind me of just such a morning. There had drawn to me in the old house of Rathan certain other lads of my age, of good burgher families, that did not find themselves entirely comfortable at home. The house and lands with all the sheep upon them and some six thousand pounds sterling of money in the public funds were left to me to deal with as I liked, though I was not yet of age. Matthew Erskine, the douce Dumfries lawyer, who was in my father’s confidence, put no barriers on my doing as I pleased; and thus carried out my father’s intentions, which were that I should neither be hampered in well-doing nor in ill-doing, but do even as it seemed good to me. For this was ever his way and custom.
‘When I was a lad,’ he used to say, ‘I was sore hampered in coming and going, and most of the evils of my life have come upon me because I was not early left to choose right and wrong, nosing them for myself like a Scent-Dog after birds. So I will even leave you, Paitrick, as says the Carritches, to “the freedom of your own will.”’
The lads who had come to bide with me on Isle Rathan, at least for the summer season, were Andrew Allison, that was a burgher’s son at Carlinwark (where there are but few decent people abiding, which made his father the more remarkable) and his brother John. Also there was a cousin of the Allisons that came from the ancient town of Kilconquhar, high up on the Nith Water. There was also, to our joy, one Jerry MacWhirter, a roguish fellow that came to me to help me with my land-surveying, but was keener to draw with colours on paper the hues of the landskip and the sea. But he was dearest to us because of his continual merry heart, which did us good like a medicine.
So the five of us lads abode in that house, and of them I was much the biggest and oldest. Also the house was mine and it was my duty to rule, else had we been an unruly crew. But in truth it was also my pleasure to rule, and that with the iron hand. With us at times there was one Silver Sand, who deserves a chapter to himself, and in time shall receive it.
Now I must tell of the kind of house we had on the Isle Rathan. It stood in a snug angle of the bay that curved inward towards the land and looked across some mossy, boguish ground to a range of rugged, heathery mountains, on which there were very many grey boulders, about which the heath and bracken grew deep.
The ancient house of the Herons of Rathan was not large, but it was very high, with only two little doors to back and front – the front one set into the wall and bolted with great bars into the solid rock beneath and above, and into the thickness of the wall at either side. The back door opened not directly, but entered into a passage which led first to a covered well in a kind of cave, where a good spring of water for ever bubbled up with little sand grains dancing in it, and then by a branch passage to an opening among the heather of the isle, which you might search for a summer’s day. But unless you knew it of others’ knowledge, you would never find it of your own. The windows were very far up the sides, and there were very few of them, as being made for defence in perilous times. Upon the roof there was a flagstaff and so strong a covering of lead and stone flags that it seemed as though another tower might have been founded upon it. The Tower of Rathan stood alone, with its offices, stables, byres, or other appurtenances back under the cliff, the sea on one side of it, and on the other the heathery and rocky isle, with its sheep pastures on the height. Beneath the sea-holly and dry salt plants bloomed blue and pink down near the blatter of the sea.
Fresh air and sound appetites were more common with us lads on the isle than the wherewithal to appease our belly cravings. It was not our pleasure to be served by any woman. Indeed we could not abide the thought of it. It was not seemly that any young one should be with us, nor did we wish to put our wild doings under the observation of any much older than ourselves. So it came that we had to fend for ourselves, and as it drew near to term day, when I got my little pickle money from Matthew Erskine, the Dumfries lawyer (riding there on Donald, my sheltie), the living was very scanty on the isle. For when I had money, it was ever freely spent. But at the worst of times we had a stake salmon net which we fished every morning when the fish were clean, and there were flounders all the year round. Thus we lived, and, take it all in all, none so evilly, considering that the country was a poor one and we had no friends that bore any goodwill to help us – except May Mischief at Craigdarroch, who, for all her jeers, set a great tankard of milk aside for us every morning and night.
So on this morn in May I rose long before the dawn, and went out into the cool, damp air of the night. The tide was going back quickly, and it was this which had raised me at such untimeous hours. It has always struck me that when the creation was, and that justly, pronounced very good, sufficient attention was not paid to the matter of the tides. But in a great job like the making of the earth, small points are apt to be mislippened. For instance, it would have been a great advantage if the tides at Rathan had been regular in the morning, leaving the nets clear at something like seven o’clock in summer and nine in winter. But I was not consulted at the time, and so the matter rests as at present – a trifle inconveniently for all parties.
Now I am a man of my devotions, and render thanks to a kind Providence every morning for the preservation of the night. But I am well aware that the quality of my thankfulness is not what it should be at half-past two of a bleak and chill morning when the nets must be looked. So I say again that both parties suffer by the present arrangement.
But this morning of which I speak there was not a great deal to complain of, save that I left the others snoring in their hammocks and box-beds round the chambers of dark oak where they were lodged. The thought of this annoyed me as I went.
It was still dark when I went out with only my boots over my bare feet, and the chill wind whipping about my shanks. What of the sea one could observe was the colour of the inside of an oyster-shell, pearl grey and changeful. The land loomed mistily dark, and there was a fitful light going about the farm-town of Craigdarroch, where the Maxwells dwelt, which made me wonder if it could be that hellicat lassie, who had called me a sheep, wandering abroad so early. For in spite of her smile she was a lass that none of us lads of the Rathan could abide. Still, I own that it was friendly-like to see at that dead hour of the morning some one else astir even across half a mile of salt water.
From Rathan Head I looked out seaward and saw one of the fast brigs of the Freetraders from the Isle of Man, or perhaps from Holland, manoeuvring out with the tide. Little thinking how much she was to cost us, against the swiftly brightening sky I watched her draw away from the land. None of us, barring the Preventive officers, had any ill-will at the traffic itself, though my father had taught me never to use any of the stuff, desiring that I should be hardy and thole wind and weather without it, as very well may be done. Still, when it was decently gone about, he did not see what right the Preventives had to keep other folk from doing in the matter as their fathers had done before them. King George, decent man, that was but lately come over the water from Germany, surely could not be much harmed by a poor man’s bit still in the lee of the peat-stack.
But indeed there were good and bad, decent and indecent, at the traffic, as we were soon to learn.
It was cold and unkindly on the flats, and there was nothing except lythe and saithe in the nets – save some small red trout, which I cast over on the other side, that they might grow large and run up the rivers in August. So little was there that I must, with exceedingly cold feet and not in the best of tempers, proceed to the flats and tramp flounders for our breakfast. Right sorely did I grieve now that I had not awaked two of the others, for Andrew Allison’s feet were manifestly intended by nature for tramping flounders, being broad and flat as the palm of my hand. Moreover, John his brother was quick and biddable at the job – though I think chiefly because he desired much to get back to his play about the caves and on the sand with his ancient crony, Bob Nicoll of Kilconquhar.
But I was all my lone on the flats, and it was sufficiently dreary work. Nevertheless, I soon had my baskets full of the flapping, slippery fish, though it was none too nice a job to feel them slide between your toes and wriggle their tails under your instep. That was what gave Andrew Allison so great an advantage at the business, for he had no instep – at least not to speak of.
When I got to the shore with my backload of breakfast I knew not whether I had any feet at all, except when I looked and saw my legs causing them to move and in some fashion to carry me. So I came to the house, which now stood up bright in the sunshine of the morning.
Going into the still curtained chamber out of the flooding morning sun was the strangest thing. It vexed me wonderfully to hear the others still snoring in their naked beds, and I so cold and weary with my morning’s work. Moreover, the air had the closeness that comes with thick walls and many breathings.
Throwing down my fish and slipping off my dew-damp clothes to be dried before the fire, I threw myself into the bed which Andrew Allison and I occupied together. He lay next the wall. Without a moment’s delay I placed my ice-chill feet where it would do them most good. This caused my companion to awake with so great a shout that the others tumbled instantly out of bed, thinking that the Freetraders were upon us at the least. As for Andrew, he lay still and acted warming-pan, being fortunately between me and the wall.
To the others I issued my orders as I grew warmer.
‘Lazy slug-a-beds––’ it was my way thus to speak, ordering the youngsters about like a skipper ‘––get about your work! You, John Allison, get the boat and go over to Craigdarroch for the milk, and be back by breakfast-time; and gin ye so muckle as lift the lid of the can, I’ll thrash ye till ye canna stan’ – forbye, ye’ll get no breakfast.’
John got his cap, grumbling and shaking his head. But he went.
‘You, Rab, clean the fish, and you, Jerry MacWhirter, get a fire started, and hae the breakfast on the table in an hour. Dry my clothes before the fire.’
‘It’s Andra’s day!’ said Jerry.
‘Maybe it is,’ said I, ‘but for the present Andrew has other business on hand. He was tired yestreen, and he’s the better o’ a rest this morning. Get the breakfast and be nimble. It’ll be better for ye.’
‘But, Rab says––’ began Jerry, who was reluctantly putting on his clothes.
‘Not another word out of the mouth o’ ye!’ I cried, imperatively.
It is wonderful what firmness does in a household. In this way I had a good sleep before breakfast.
When I awoke Andrew was on foot. He had stolen out of bed and taken a sea plunge from the southernmost rocks, drying himself on the sand by running naked in the brisk airs of the morning which drew off the sea.
There is no finer breakfast than flounders fried in oatmeal with a little salt butter as soon as ever they come out of the water – their tails jerking Flip, flap, in the frizzle of the pan.
‘Gracious,’ said Jerry, ‘but it’s guid. I’m gled I got up o’ my ain free will.’
Andrew and I being captain and lieutenant of the gang, had forks; the rest had none, by which lack for eating flounders they were the better off. It is most amazing the number of bones a flounder can carry, and that without trouble. Also it is a mercy that none of us choked on any of them, in so unseemly a haste did we eat.
