Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1893 - David Balfour

DAVID B ALFOUR.
4.0I
mere salvation. I had adventured other peoples'
safety in a course of self-indulgence ; to have
endangered them again, and now on a mere design
of penance, would have been scarce rational.
Accordingly, I had scarce risen from my place ere
I sat down again, but already in a different frame
of spirits, and equally marvelling at my past
weakness and rejoicing in my present composure.
Presently after came a crackling in the thicket.
Putting my mouth near down to the ground, I
whistled a note or two of Alan's air; an answer
came, in the like guarded tone, and soon we had
thralled together in the dark.
" Is this you at last, Davie ? " he whispered.
"Just myself," said I.
" God, man, but I've been wearying to see ye ! "
says he. "I've had the longest kind of a time.
A' da'. I've had my dwelling into the inside of a
stack of hay, where I ^couldnae see the nebs of
my ten fingers ; and then two hours of it waiting
here for you, and you never coming ! Dod, and
ye're none too soon the way it is, with me to sail
the morn ! The morn ? what am I saying ? — the
day, I mean."
"Ay, Alan man, the day sure enough," said I.
" It's past twelve now, surely, and ye sail the day.
This'll be a long road you have before you."
"We'll have a long crack of it first," said he.
"Well, indeed, and I have a good deal it will be
telling you to hear," salu I.
And I told him what behooved, making rather a
jumble of it, but clear enough when done. He
heard me out with very few questions, laughing
here and there like a man delighted : and the
sound of his laughing (above all there, in the dark,
where neither one of us could see the other) was
extraordinarily friendly to my heart.
"Ay, Davie, ye're a queer character," says he,
when I had done ; " and I have no mind of
meeting with the like of ye. As for your story,
Prestongrange is a Whig like yoursel', so I'll say
the less of him ; and dod ! I believe he was the
best friend ye had, if ye could only trust him.
But Symon Fraser and James More are my ain
kind of cattle, and I'll give them the name that
they deserve. The muckle black de'il was father
to the Erasers, a' body kens that ; and as for the
Gregara, I never could abye the reck of them
since I could stotter on two feet. I bloodied the
nose of one, I mind, when I was still so wambly
on my legs that I cowped upon the top of him.
A proud man was my father that day, God rest
him ! and I think he had the cause. I'll never
can deny but what Robin was something of a
piper," he added ; " but as for James More, the
de'il guide him for me ! "
" One thing we have to consider," said I.
" Was Charles Stewart right or wrong ? Is it only
me they're after, or the pair of us ? "
" And what's your ain opinion, you that's a man
of so much experience ? " said he.
"It passes me," said I.
"And me too," says Alan. "Do ye think this
lass would keep her word to ye ? " he asked.
"I do that," said I.
" Well, there's nae telling," said he. " And
anyway, that's over and done : he'll be joined to
the res* of them lang syne."
'•riow many would ye think there would be of
them ? " I asked.
"That depends," said Alan. "If it was only
you, they would likely send two-three lively, brisk
young birkies, and if they thought that I was to
appear in that employ, I dare say ten or twelve,"
said he.
It was no use, I gave a little crack of laughter.
" And I think your own two eyes will have seen
me drive that number, or the double of it, nearer
hand ! " cries he.
" It matters the less," said I, " because I am well
rid of them for this time."
" Nae doubt that's your opinion," said he, " but
I wouldnae be the least surprised if they were
hu kering this wood. You see, David man, they'll
be ilieland folk. There'll be some Frasers, I'm
thi:.king, and some of the Gregara ; and I would
never deny but what the both of them, and the
Gregara in especial, were clever, experienced per-
sons. A man ken., uttle till he's driven a spreagh
of neat cattle (say) ten miles through a throng
lowland country, and the black soldiers maybe at
his tail. It's there that I learned a great part of
my penetration. And ye neednae tell me : it's
better than war ; which is the next best, however,
though generally rather a bauchle of a business.
Now the Gregara have had grand practice."
" No doubt that's a branch of education that
was left out with me," said I.
"And I can see the marks of it upon ye con-
stantly," said Alan. " But that's the strange thing