Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1896-1897 - St. Ives > Volume 11

250 THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE.
It seemed this was the signal for the engagement to be discontinued. The
other combatants separated at once ; our foes were suffered, without molestation,
to lift up and bear away their fallen comrade ; so that I perceived this sort of war
to be not wholly without laws of chivalry, and perhaps rather to pat take of the
character of a tournament than of a battle a outiance. There was no doubt, at
least, that I was supposed to have pushed the affair too seriously. Our friends the
enemy removed their wounded companion with undisguised consternation ; and they
were no sooner over the top of the brae, than Sim and Candlish roused up their
wearied drove and set forth on a night march.
" I'm thinking Faa's unco bad," said the one.
" Ay," said the other, " he lookit dooms gash."
" He did that," said the first.
And their weary silence fell upon them again.
Presently Sim turned to me. " Ye're unco ready with the stick," said he.
" Too ready, I'm afraid," said I. " I am afraid Mr. Faa (if that be his name)
has got his gruel.''
" Weel, I wouldnae wonder," replied Sim.
"And what is likely to happen?" I inquired.
" Aweel," said Sim, snuffing profoundly, " if I were to offer an opeenion, it
would not be conscientious. For the plain fac' is, Mr. St. Ivy, that I div not ken.
We have had crackit heids — and rowth of them — ere now ; and we have had a
broken leg or maybe twa ; and the like of that we drover bodies make a kind of
a practice like to keep among oursel's. But a corp we have none of us ever had
to deal with, and I could set nae leemit to what Gillies micht consider proper in
the affair. Forbye that, he would be in raither a hobble himseP, if he was to gang
hame wantin' Faa. Folk are awfu' throng with their questions, and parteecularly
when they're no wantit."
" That's a fac'," said Candlish.
I considered this prospect ruefully ; and then, making the best of it, " Upon
all which accounts," said I, " the best will be to get across the border and there
separate. If you are troubled, you can very truly put the blame upon your late
companion ; and if I am pursued, I must just try to keep out of the way."
" Mr. St. Ivy," said Sim, with something resembling enthusiasm, " no a word
mair ! I have met in wi' mony kinds o' gentry ere now ; I hae seen o' them that
was the tae thing, and I hae seen o' them that was the tither ; but the wale of a
gentleman like you I have no sae very frequently seen the bate of."
Our night march was accordingly pursued with unremitting diligence. The stars
paled, the east whitened, and we were still, both dogs and men, toiling after the
wearied cattle. Again and again Sim and Candlish lamented the necessity : it was
" fair ruin on the bestial," they declared ; but the thought of a judge and a scaffold
hunted them ever forward. I myself was not so much to be pitied. All that
night, and during the whole of the little that remained before us of our conjunct
journey, I enjoyed a new pleasure, the reward of my prowess, in the now loosened
tongue of Mr. Sim. Candlish was still obdurately taciturn : it was the man's nature ;
but Sim, having finally appraised and approved me, displayed without reticence a
rather garrulous habit of mind and a pretty talent for narration. The pair were
old and close companions, co-existing in these endless moors in a brotherhood of
silence such as I have heard attributed to the trappers of the west. It seems
absurd to mention love in connection with so ugly and snuffy a couple ; at least,
their trust was absolute ; and they entertained a surprising admiration for each
other's qualities; Candlish exclaiming that Sim was "grand company!" and Sim