"Gavinia!"
"Well, it was Mrs. Dishart that lended it to me."
"I--I never saw it on the manse shelves."
"I"m thinking," said the brazen Gavinia, "as there"s hoddy corners in manses as well as in--blue-and-white rooms."
This dark suggestion was as great a shock to the gentle school-mistress as if out of a clear sky had come suddenly the word--
_Stroke!_
She tottered with the book that had so demoralized the once meek Gavinia into the blue-and-white room, where Tommy was restlessly awaiting her, and when she had told him all, he said, with downcast eyes:
"I was never sure o" Mrs. Dishart. When I hand her the _Mentor_ she looks as if she didna care a stroke for"t--"
"Tommy!"
"I"m doubting," he said sadly, "that she"s ower fond o" Words We have no Concern with."
Miss Ailie would not listen to such talk, but she approved of the suggestion that "Waverley" should be returned not to the minister, but to his wife, and she accepted gratefully Tommy"s kindly offer to act as bearer. Only happening to open the book in the middle, she--
"I"m waiting," said Tommy, after ten minutes.
She did not hear him.
"I"m waiting," he said again, but she was now in the next chapter.
"Maybe you would like to read it yoursel"!" he cried, and then she came to, and, with a shudder handed him the book. But after he had gone she returned to the kitchen to reprove Gavinia at greater length, and in the midst of the reproof she said faintly: "You did not happen to look at the end, did you?"
"That I did," replied Gavinia.
"And did she--did he--"
"No," said Gavinia, sorrowfully.
Miss Ailie sighed. "That"s what I think too," said Gavinia.
"Why didn"t they?" asked the school-mistress.
"Because he was just a sumph," answered Gavinia, scornfully. "If he had been like Fergus, or like the chield in "Ivanhoe," he wouldna have ta"en a "no." He would just have whipped her up in his arms and away wi" her.
That"s the kind for me, ma"am."
"There is a fascination about them," murmured Miss Ailie.
"A what?"
But again Miss Ailie came to. "For shame, Gavinia, for shame!" she said, severely; "these are disgraceful sentiments."
In the meantime Tommy had hurried with the book, not to the manse, but to a certain garret, and as he read, his imagination went on fire.
Blinder"s stories had made him half a Jacobite, and now "Waverley"
revealed to him that he was born neither for the ministry nor the herding, but to restore to his country its rightful king. The first to whom he confided this was Corp, who immediately exclaimed: "Michty me!
But what will the police say?"
"I ken a wy," answered Tommy, sternly.
CHAPTER XXI
THE LAST JACOBITE RISING
On the evening of the Queen"s birthday, bridies were eaten to her honor in a hundred Thrums homes, and her health was drunk in toddy, Scotch toddy and Highland toddy. Patullo, the writer, gave a men"s party, and his sole instructions to his maid were "Keep running back and forrit wi"
the hot water." At the bank there was a ladies" party and ginger wine.
From Cathro"s bedroom-window a flag was displayed with _Vivat Regina_ on it, the sentiment composed by Cathro, the words sewn by the girls of his McCulloch cla.s.s. The eight-o"clock bell rang for an hour, and a loyal crowd had gathered in the square to shout. To a superficial observer, such as the Baron Bailie or Todd, the new policeman, all seemed well and fair.
But a very different scene was being enacted at the same time in the fastnesses of the Den, where three resolute schemers had met by appointment. Their trysting-place was the Cuttle Well, which is most easily reached by the pink path made for that purpose; but the better to further their dark and sinister design, the plotters arrived by three circuitous routes, one descending the Reekie Broth Pot, a low but dangerous waterfall, the second daring the perils of the crags, and the third walking stealthily up the burn.
"Is that you, Tommy?"
"Whist! Do you mind the pa.s.sword?"
"Stroke!"
"Right. Have you heard Gav Dishart coming?"
"I hinna. I doubt his father had grippit him as he was slinking out o"
the manse."
"I fear it, Corp. I"m thinking his father is in the Woman"s pay."
"What woman?"
"The Woman of Hanover?"
"That"s the queen, is it no?"
"She"ll never get me to call her queen."
"Nor yet me. I think I hear Gav coming."
Gav Dishart was the one who had come by the burn, and his boots were cheeping like a field of mice. He gave the word "Stroke," and the three then looked at each other firmly. The lights of the town were not visible from the Cuttle Well, owing to an arm of cliff that is outstretched between, but the bell could be distinctly heard, and occasionally a shout of revelry.
"They little ken!" said Tommy, darkly.
"They hinna a notion," said Corp, but he was looking somewhat perplexed himself.
"It"s near time I was back for family exercise," said Gav, uneasily, "so we had better do it quick, Tommy."