"But I mean to go!--My father is not able to speak for himself!"
"You know nothing."
"I know what he knows. The lie does not grow in our strath."
"You crow high, my c.o.c.k!"
"No higher than I strike," answered Rob.
In the eyes of the men Rob was small and weak; but there was something in him notwithstanding that looked dangerous, and, though far from cowards, they thought it as well to leave him alone.
Mercy at her window, where was her usual seat now, saw them coming, and instinctively connected their appearance with her father"s new measures of protection; and when the men turned toward the kitchen, she ran down to learn what she could. Rob greeted her with a smile as he entered.
"I am going to fetch the Macruadh," he whispered, and turning went out again.
He told the chief that at the word her face lighted up as with the rise of the moon.
One of the maids went and told her master that they had got a poacher in the kitchen.
Mr. Palmer"s eyes lightened under his black brows when he saw the captive, whom he knew by sight and by report. His men told him the story their own way, never hinting a doubt as to whose was the land on which the deer had been killed.
"Where is the nearest magistrate?" he inquired with grand severity.
"The nearest is the Macruadh, sir!" answered a highlander who had come from work in the garden to see what was going on.
"I cannot apply to him; the fellow is one of his own men!"
"The Macruadh does what is just!" rejoined the man.
His master vouchsafed him no reply. He would not show his wrath against the chief: it would be undignified!
"Take him to the tool-house, and lock him up till I think what to do with him. Bring me the key."
The butler led the way, and Hector followed between his captors.
They might have been showing him to his bed-room, so calm was he: Rob gone to fetch the chief, his imprisonment could not last!--and for the indignity, was he not in the right!
As Mr. Palmer left the kitchen, his eye fell on Mercy.
"Go to your room," he said angrily, and turned from her.
She obeyed in silence, consoling herself that from her window she could see the arrival of the chief. Nor had she watched long when she saw him coming along the road with Rob. At the gate she lost sight of them. Presently she heard voices in the hall, and crept down the stair far enough to hear.
"I could commit you for a breach of the peace, Mr. Palmer," she heard the chief say. "You ought to have brought the man to me. As a magistrate I order his release. But I give my word he shall be forthcoming when legally required."
"Your word is no bail. The man was taken poaching; I have him, and I will keep him."
"Let me see him then, that I may learn from himself where he shot the deer."
"He shall go before Mr. Brander."
"Then I beg you will take him at once. I will go with him. But listen a moment, Mr. Palmer. When this same man, my keeper, took your guest poaching on my ground, I let Mr. Sercombe go. I could have committed him as you would commit Hector. I ask you in return to let Hector go. Being deaf and dumb, and the hills the joy of his life, confinement will be terrible to him."
"I will do nothing of the kind. You could never have committed a gentleman for a mistake. This is quite a different thing!"
"It is a different thing, for Hector cannot have made a mistake. He could not have followed a deer on to your ground without knowing it!"
"I make no question of that!"
"He says he was not on your property."
"Says!"
"He is not a man to lie!"
Mr. Palmer smiled.
"Once more I pray you, let us see him together."
"You shall not see him."
"Then take him at once before Mr. Brander."
"Mr. Brander is not at home."
"Take him before SOME magistrate--I care not who. There is Mr.
Chisholm!"
"I will take him when and where it suits me."
"Then as a magistrate I will set him at liberty. I am sorry to make myself unpleasant to you. Of all things I would have avoided it. But I cannot let the man suffer unjustly. Where have you put him?"
"Where you will not find him."
"He is one of my people; I must have him!"
"Your people! A set of idle, poaching fellows! By heaven, the strath shall be rid of the pack of them before another year is out!"
"While I have land in it with room for them to stand upon, the strath shall not be rid of them!--But this is idle! Where have you put Hector of the Stags?"
Mr. Palmer laughed.
"In safe keeping. There is no occasion to be uneasy about him! He shall have plenty to eat and drink, be well punished, and show the rest of the rascals the way out of the country!"
"Then I must find him! You compel me!"
So saying, the chief, with intent to begin his search at the top of the house in the hope of seeing Mercy, darted up the stair. She heard him coming, went a few steps higher, and waited. On the landing he saw her, white, with flashing eyes. Their hands clasped each other--for a moment only, but the moment was of eternity, not of time.
"You will find Hector in the tool-house," she said aloud.