"I trust," I said, "so great a catastrophe will not occur in our day."
"It would be a fearful accident, and a judgment maybe on my want of forethought."
"I want to ask you a question," I said, "on another subject, Moncrieff."
"You"re lookin" scared, laddie. What"s the matter?"
I told him as much as I could.
"It"s a queer question, laddie--a queer question. Heaven give me help to answer you! I think, as the oath was to keep a secret, you had best keep the oath, and trust to Heaven to set things right in the end, if it be for the best."
"Thanks, Moncrieff," I said; "thanks. I will take your advice."
That very day Moncrieff set a party of men to strengthen the embankment; and it was probably well he did so, for soon after the work was finished another of those fearful storms, accompanied as usual by shocks of earthquake, swept over our valley, and the ca.n.a.l was filled to overflowing, but gave no signs of bursting. Moncrieff had a.s.suredly taken time by the forelock.
One day a letter arrived, addressed to me, which bore the London post-mark.
It was from Archie, and a most spirited epistle it was. He wanted us to rejoice with him, and, better still, to expect him out by the very first packet. His parents had yielded to his request. It had been the voyage to Newcastle that had turned the scale. There was nothing like pluck, he said; "But," he added, "between you and me, Murdoch, I would not take another voyage in a Newcastle collier, not to win all the honour and glory of Livingstone, Stanley, Gordon-c.u.mming, and Colonel Frederick Burnaby put in a bushel basket."
I went tearing away over the _estancia_ on my mule, to find my brothers and tell them the joyful tidings. And we rejoiced together. Then I went off to look for Moncrieff, and he rejoiced, to keep me company.
"And mind you," he said, "the very day after he arrives we"ll have a dinner and a kick-up."
"Of course we will," I said. "We"ll have the dinner and fun at Coila Villa, which, remember, can now boast of two wings besides the tower."
"Very well," he a.s.sented, "and after that we can give another dinner and rout at my diggings. Just a sort of return match, you see?"
"But I don"t see," I said; "I don"t see the use of two parties."
"Oh, but I do, Murdoch. We must make more of a man than we do of a nowt[12] beast. Now you mind that bull I had sent out from England--Towsy Jock that lives in the Easter field?--well, I gave a dinner when he came.
250 I paid for him too."
"Yes, and I remember also you gave a dinner and fun when the prize ram came out. Oh, catch you not finding an excuse for a dinner! However, so be it: one dinner and fun for a bull, two for Archie."
"That"s agreed then," said Moncrieff.
Now, my brothers and I and a party of Gauchos, with the warlike Bombazo and a Scot or two, had arranged a grand hunt into the guanaco country; but as dear old Archie was coming out so soon we agreed to postpone it, in order that he might join in the fun. Meanwhile we commenced to make all preparations.
They say that the princ.i.p.al joy in life lies in the antic.i.p.ation of pleasure to come. I think there is a considerable amount of truth in this, and I am sure that not even bluff old King Hal setting out to hunt in the New Forest could have promised himself a greater treat than we did as we got ready for our tour in the land of the guanaco, and country of the condor.
We determined to be quite prepared to start by the time Archie was due.
Not that we meant to hurry our dear c.o.c.kney cousin right away to the wilds as soon as he arrived. No; we would give him a whole week to "shake down," as Moncrieff called it, and study life on the _estancia_.
And, indeed, life on the _estancia_, now that we had become thoroughly used to it, was exceedingly pleasant altogether.
I cannot say that either my brothers or I were ever much given to lazing in bed of a morning in Scotland itself. To have done so we should have looked upon as bad form; but to encourage ourselves in matutinal sloth in a climate like this would have seemed a positive crime.
Even by seven in the morning we used to hear the great gong roaring hoa.r.s.ely on Moncrieff"s lawn, and this used to be the signal for us to start and draw aside our mosquito curtains. Our bedrooms adjoined, and all the time we were splashing in our tubs and dressing we kept up an incessant fire of banter and fun. The fact is, we used to feel in such glorious form after a night"s rest. Our bedroom windows were very large cas.e.m.e.nts, and were kept wide open all the year round, so that virtually we slept in the open air. We nearly always went to bed in the dark, or if we did have lights we had to shut the windows till we had put them out, else moths as big as one"s hand, and all kinds and conditions of insect life, would have entered and speedily extinguished our candles. Even had the windows been protected by gla.s.s, this insect life would have been troublesome. In the drawing and dining rooms we had specially prepared blinds of wire to exclude these creatures, while admitting air enough.
The mosquito curtains round our beds effectually kept everything disagreeable at bay, and insured us wholesome rest.
But often we were out of bed and galloping over the country long before the gong sounded. This ride used to give us such appet.i.tes for breakfast, that sometimes we had to apologize to aunt and Aileen for our apparent greediness. We were out of doors nearly all day, and just as often as not had a snack of luncheon on the hills at some settler"s house or at an outlying _puesto_.
Aunt was now our housekeeper, but nevertheless so accustomed had we and Moncrieff and Aileen become to each other"s society that hardly a day pa.s.sed without our dining together either at his house or ours.
The day, what with one thing and another, used to pa.s.s quickly enough, and the evening was most enjoyable, despite even the worry of flying and creeping insects. After dinner my brothers and I, with at times Moncrieff and Bombazo, used to lounge round to see what the servants were doing.
They had a concert, and as often as not some fun, every night with the exception of Sabbath, when Moncrieff insisted that they should retire early.
At many _estancias_ wine is far too much in use--even to the extent of inebriety. Our places, however, owing to Moncrieff"s strictness, were models of temperance, combined with innocent pleasures. The master, as he was called, encouraged all kinds of games, though he objected to gambling, and drinking he would not permit at any price.
One morning our post-runner came to Coila Villa in greater haste than usual, and from his beaming eyes and merry face I conjectured he had a letter for me.
I took it from him in the verandah, and sent him off round to the kitchen to refresh himself. No sooner had I glanced at its opening sentences than I rushed shouting into the breakfast-room.
"Hurrah!" I cried, waving the letter aloft. "Archie"s coming, and he"ll be here to-day. Hurrah! for the hunt, lads, and hurrah! for the hills!"
[11] Orra = leisure, idle. An orra-man is one who does all kinds of odd jobs about a farm.
[12] Nowt = cattle.
CHAPTER XVIII.
OUR HUNTING EXPEDITION.
If not quite so exuberant as the welcome that awaited us on our arrival in the valley, Archie"s was a right hearty one, and a.s.suredly left our cousin nothing to complain of.
He had come by diligence from Villa Mercedes, accomplishing the journey, therefore, in a few days, which had occupied us in our caravan about as many weeks.
We were delighted to see him looking so well. Why, he had even already commenced to get brown, and was altogether hardy and hearty and manlike.
We were old _estancieros_, however, and it gave us unalloyed delight to show him round our place and put him up to all the outs and ins of a settler"s life.
Dugald even took him away to the hills with him, and the two of them did not get home until dinner was on the table.
Archie, however, although not without plenty of pluck and willingness to develop into an _estanciero_ pure and simple, had not the stamina my brothers and I possessed, but this only made us all the more kind to him.
In time, we told him, he would be quite as strong and wiry as any of us.
"There is one thing I don"t think I shall ever be able to get over," said Archie one day. It may be observed that he did not now talk with the London drawl; he had left both his c.o.c.kney tongue and his tall hat at home.
"What is it you do not think you will ever get over, Arch?" I asked.