The Eagle Cliff by R. M. Ballantyne (best english books to read for beginners TXT) 📕

round, staggered out of the cottage, and went his way.

“You are not hurt, I trust?” said the lady, anxiously bending down over the poor old creature, who had remained calmly seated in her chair, without the slightest appearance of alarm.

“No, I’m not hurt, thank the Lord,” she answered.

“Don’t you think that that was an answer to our prayer?” asked the lady with some eagerness.

Old Molly shook her head dubiously. “It may be so,” she replied; “but I hev often seen ’im i’ that mind, and he has gone back to it again and again, like the soo that was washed, to her wallowin’ i’ the mire. Yet there did seem somethin’ different aboot ’im the day,” she added thoughtfully; “but it iss not the first time I hev prayed for him without gettin’ an answer.”

“Answers do not always come as we expect them,” returned her visitor; “yet they may be granted even while we are asking. I don’t know how it is, but I feel sure that Jesus will save your son.”

Poor little Flo, who had been deeply affected by the terrible appearance of her favourite Ivor, and who had never seen him in such a plight before, quietly slipped out of old Molly’s hut and went straight to that of the keeper. She found him seated on a chair with his elbows on his knees, his forehead resting on his hands, and his strong fingers grasping his hair as if about to tear it out by the roots. Flo, who was naturally fearless and trustful, ran straight to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He started and looked round.

“Bairn! bairn!” he said grasping her little head, and kissing her forehead, “what brings ye here?”

“Muzzer says she is sure Jesus will save you; so I came to tell you, for muzzer never says what’s not true.”

Having delivered her consoling message, Flo ran back at once to Molly’s cottage with the cheerful remark that it was all right now, for she had told Ivor that he was going to be saved!

While Mrs Gordon and Flo were thus engaged on shore, the boat party were rowing swiftly down the loch to the little hamlet of Drumquaich. The weather was magnificent. Not a breath of air stirred the surface of the sea, so that every little white cloud in the sky was perfectly reproduced in the concave below. The gulls that floated on the white expanse seemed each to be resting on its own inverted image, and the boat would have appeared in similar aspect but for the shivering of the mirror by its oars.

“Most appropriate type of Sabbath rest,” said Jackman.

“Ay, but like all things here pelow,” remarked Ian Anderson, who possessed in a high degree the faculty of disputation, “it’s not likely to last long.”

“What makes you think so, Ian?” asked Milly, who sat in the stern of the boat between John Barret and Aggy Anderson.

“Well, you see, muss,” began Ian, in his slow, nasal tone, “the gless has bin fallin’ for some time past, an’—Tonal’, poy, mind your helm; see where you’re steerin’ to!”

Donald, who steered, was watching with profound interest the operations of Junkie, who had slily and gravely fastened a piece of twine to a back button of MacRummle’s coat and tied him to the thwart on which he sat. Being thus sternly asked where he was steering to, Donald replied, “Oo, ay,” and quickly corrected the course.

“But surely,” returned Milly, “there is no sign of a rapid change, at least if we may judge from the aspect of Nature; and I am a fervent believer in Nature, whatever the glass may predict.”

“I am not sure o’ that, muss,” said Ian. “You needn’t pull quite so hard, Muster Mabberly; we hev plenty o’ time. Tak it easy. Well, as I wass sayin’, muss, I hev seen it as calm as this i’ the mornin’ mony a time, an’ plowin’ a gale at nicht.”

“Let us hope that that won’t be our experience to-day,” said the laird. “Anyhow, we have a good sea-boat under us.”

“Weel, the poat’s no’ a pad wan, laird, but I hev seen petter. You see, when the wund iss richt astern, she iss given to trinkin’.”

“That’s like Ivor,” said Junkie with a laugh; “only he is given to drinkin’, no matter how the wind blows.”

“What do you mean?” asked Milly, much perplexed.

Barret here explained that a boat which takes in much water over the bow is said to be given to drinking.

“I’m inclined that way myself,” said Jackman, who had been pulling hard at one of the oars up to that time.

“Has any one thought of bringing a bottle of water?”

“Here’s a bottle,” cried MacRummle, laughing.

“Ah, sure, an’ there seems to be a bottle o’ milk, or somethin’ white under the th’ort,” remarked Quin, who pulled the bow oar.

“But that’s Milly’s bottle of milk,” shouted Junkie.

“And Aggy’s,” chimed in Eddie.

“Yes—no one must touch that,” said Junkie.

“Quite right, boys,” said Jackman; “besides, milk is not good for quenching thirst.”

On search being made, it was found that water had not been brought with them, so that the thirsty rowers had to rest content without it.

“Is that Eagle Cliff I see, just over the knoll there?” asked Barret.

“It is,” answered the laird; “don’t you see the eagle himself like a black speck hovering above it? My shepherd would gladly see the bird killed, for he and his wife make sad havoc among the lambs sometimes; but I can’t say that I sympathise with the shepherd. An eagle is a noble bird, and there are none too many of them now in this country.”

“I agree with you heartily,” said Barret; “and I would regard the man who should kill that eagle as little better than a murderer.”

“Quite as bad as a murderer!” said Milly with energy. “I am glad you speak out so clearly, Mr Barret; for I fear there are some among us who would not hesitate to shoot if the poor bird were to come within range.”

“Pray don’t look so pointedly at me, Miss Moss,” said Jackman; “I assure you I have no intention of attempting murder—at least not in that direction.”

“Och! an’ it’s murder enough you’ve done already for wan man,” said Quin in an undertone.

“Oh! I say, that reminds me. Do tell us the rest of the story of the elephant hunt, Mr Jackman,” cried Junkie.

“Not just now, my boy. It’s a long story. Besides, we are on our way to church! Some other time I will tell it you.”

“It would take half the romance away from my mother’s visit if the eagle were killed,” remarked Milly, who did not overhear the elephant parenthesis.

“Has your mother, then, decided to come?” asked Barret.

“Yes. In spite of the sea, which she dreads, and steamers, which she hates, she has made up her mind to come and take me home.”

“How charming that will be!” said Barret.

“Indeed!” returned Milly, with a significant look and smile.

“Of course I did not mean that,” returned Barret, laughing. “I meant that it would be charming for you to have your mother out here, and to return home in her company. Is she likely to stay long?”

“I cannot tell. That depends on so many things. But I am sure of one thing, that she longs to see and thank you for the great service you rendered me on the day of your arrival here.”

Barret began to protest that the service was a comparatively small one, and such as any man might gladly render to any one, when the arrival of the boat at the landing-place cut him short.

About thirty or forty people had assembled from the surrounding districts, some of whom had come four or even six miles to attend church. They formed a quiet, grave, orderly company of men and women in homespun garments, with only a few children among them. The arrival of the laird’s party made a very considerable addition to the congregation, and, as the hour for meeting had already passed by a few minutes, they made a general move towards the church.

The building was wonderfully small, and in the most severely simple style of architecture, being merely an oblong structure of grey stone, with small square windows, and a belfry at one end of the roof. It might have been mistaken for a cottage but for this, and the door being protected by a small porch, and placed at one end of the structure, instead of at the side.

A few of the younger men remained outside in conversation, awaiting the advent of the minister. After a time, however, these dropped in and took their seats, and people began to wonder why the minister was so late. Presently a boy with bare legs and a kilt entered the church and whispered to a very old man, who turned out to be an elder. Having heard the boy’s message, the elder crossed over to the pew in which the laird was seated and whispered to him, not so low, however, as to prevent Giles Jackman from hearing all that passed. The minister’s horse had fallen, he said, and bruised the minister’s legs so that he could not officiate.

“Very awkward,” returned the laird, knitting his brows. “What’s to be done? It seems absurd that so many of us should assemble here just to look solemn for a few minutes and then go home.”

“Yes, sir, it iss akward,” said the elder. “Could you not gif us a discoorse yoursel’, sir, from the prezenter’s dask?”

The latter part of the proposition was to guard himself from the imputation of having asked the laird to mount the pulpit.

“Me preach!” exclaimed the laird; “I never did such a thing in my life.”

“Maype you’ll read a chapter, what-ë-ver,” persisted the elder.

“Impossible! I never read a chapter since I was born—in public, I mean, of course. But why not do it yourself, man?”

“So I would, sir, but my throat’ll not stand it.”

“Is there no other elder who could do it?”

“Not wan, sir. I’m afraid we will hev to dismiss the congregation.”

At this point, to the laird’s relief and no little surprise, Jackman leaned forward, and said in a low voice, “If you have no objection, I will undertake to conduct the service.”

The elder gave the laird a look which, if it had been translated into words, would probably have conveyed the idea— “Is he orthodox?”

“By all means, Mr Jackman,” said the laird; “you will be doing us a great favour.”

Accordingly Jackman went quietly to the precentor’s desk and mounted it, much to the surprise of its proper occupant, a man with a voice like a brass trumpet, who thereupon took his seat on a chair below the desk.

Profound was the interest of the congregation when they saw this bronzed, broad-shouldered, big-bearded young man pull a small Bible out of his pocket and begin to turn over the leaves. And it was noted with additional interest by several of the people that the Bible seemed to be a well-worn one. Looking up from it after a few minutes, during which it was observed that his eyes had been closed, Jackman said, in an easy, conversational tone, that quite took the people by surprise—

“Friends, it has been my lot in life to wander for some years in wild and distant lands, where ministers of the Gospel were few and far between, and where Christians were obliged to conduct the worship of God as best they could. Your minister being unable to attend, owing to an accident, which I trust may not turn out to be serious, I shall attempt, with the permission of your elder, to lead your thoughts Godward, in dependence on the Holy Spirit. Let us pray.”

The jealous ears of the rigorously orthodox heard him thus far without being able to detect absolute heresy, though they were sensitively alive to the unusual style and very unclerical tone of the speaker’s voice. The same ears listened reverently to the prayer which followed, for it was, after the pattern of