Five days had passed--days of imprisonment, for one of the storms
prophesied had come over the ocean from the far west, and there had been
nothing to do but read, play chess and billiards, write letters, and--
most interesting amusement of all to the London visitor--get up to an
open window and watch the great dark waves come rolling in, to break
with a noise like thunder, and deluge the rock with foam right up to the
castle walls. Every now and then a huge roller would dash right into
the bath cave, when there would be quite an explosion, and Max listened
with a feeling of awe to the escape of the confined air, and wondered
whether it would be possible for the place to be undermined, and the
whole rock swept away.
"What!" cried Kenneth, when he broached the idea. "Nonsense! It has
gone on like that for thousands of years. It's jolly! Next time we
bathe, there won't be a scrap of weed left. The place will be regularly
scoured out, and the bottom covered with soft shelly sand."
The outlook was most dismal. All the glorious colours of sea, sky, and
mountain were blotted out, and it was only at intervals, when the
drifting rain-clouds lifted a little, that a glimpse could be seen of
some island out at sea.
Boom, rush, roar. The wind whistled and yelled as it rattled past the
windows, and at times the violence was so great that Max turned an
inquiring look at his young host, as if to ask whether there was any
danger.
"Like a sail to-day?" asked the latter.
"Sail? with the sea like this!"
"Well, I don't think I should like it," said Kenneth, laughing. "Tavvy
says the boat was going adrift out in the bay, but he caught her in
time. It's quite rough even there. Here, let's put on waterproofs, and
go out."
"Oh no. There: see how it rains."
"Yes, that's pretty tidy," said Kenneth, as the air was literally
blackened by the tremendous torrent that fell. "I say, Max, this is the
sort of day to see the Mare's Tail. My word! there's some water coming
down now."
"It must be terrible."
"Terrible? Nonsense! Here, come into the kitchen and let's see if
there's any one there."
Max wondered, but followed his young host to the kitchen, expecting to
see no one but the maids, and perhaps Grant, the severe butler; but,
when they reached the great stone-floored place, there were Tavish, Long
Shon, and Scoodrach, the two latter seated at a table, and the great
forester toasting the back of his legs at the fire, and sending up a
cloud of steam, an example followed by the three dogs, who sent up
smaller clouds of their own.
There was a chorus, or rather a trio of good-mornings, and a series of
rappings from dogs' tails, and Max ventured to suggest to the great
Highlander that it was very wet.
"Ou ay," he said; "a wee bit shoory, put she'll pe over soon."
"Pretty good spate up in the hills, Tavvy," cried Kenneth.
"Ou ay, Maister Ken; but it's gran' weather for ta fush."
"A' was thenking ye'd like to tak' ta chentleman up ta glen to see ta
fa's," said Long Shon.
"Ah, we might do that when the shower's over."
"There'll pe a teal of watter coming down fra Ben Doil."
"Yes, we'll go, Max; and, say, Tav, we never went after the stags Scoody
and I saw. Think we could get a shot at them to-day?"
"Weel, she might, Maister Ken, put she'd pe a wee pit wat for ta young
chentleman."
"Oh, he wouldn't mind. You'd like to go deerstalking, Max?"
"Yes, I should like to go, but--"
"Oh, we wouldn't go while it rains hard; and you'd only get your feet
wet."
"She couldna get over ta mountain to-day," said Long Shon decisively;
"and ta glen'll be so full of watter, she couldna stand."
"Oh, nonsense! We could go, Tav?"
"Ou ay, she could go, put there's a teal o' watter apoot."
Just at that moment a weird-looking figure appeared at the door, with
his long grey hair and beard streaked together with the rain, and, as he
caught Max's eye, he smiled at him, raised one hand, gave a
mysterious-looking nod, and beckoned to him to come.
"Here, Maxy, old Donald wants you."
"What for?" said Max, as he shrinkingly met the old man's eye, as he
still kept on beckoning, and completely ignored the presence of the
rest.
"He wants to give you a tune on the pipes."
Donald beckoned again in a quiet, mysterious manner, and the three dogs
looked at him uneasily, Sneeshing uttering a low growl, as if he had
unpleasant memories of bagpipe melodies and stones thrown at him because
he had been unable to bear the music, and had howled.
"What's the matter, Tonal'?" cried Kenneth, as the old man kept on
beckoning.
"She disna want onybody but ta Southron chiel'," said the old man
sternly; and he continued to wave Max toward him with his long,
claw-like hand.
For a few moments Max felt as if he must go--as if some force which he
had not the moral courage to resist was drawing him, and he was about to
rise, when the old man gave a fierce stamp with his foot.
"You'll be obliged to go, Maxy," said Kenneth. "Have a concert all to
yourself for three or four hours. It will be rather windy, but the rain
doesn't come in on one side of the old tower room."
"No, no, not to-day!" cried Max hastily.
"Oh, you'll have to go," said Kenneth, as the old man kept on waving his
hand imperiously. "Won't he, Scood?"
"Ou ay, she'll have to go and hear ta pipes."
As if angered at the invitation not being accepted, old Donald took a
couple of strides forward into the kitchen.
This was too much for Sneeshing, who leaped up on to his four short
legs, barked furiously, and then, overcome by recollections of the last
air he had heard, he threw up his head so as to straighten his throat,
and gave forth the most miserable howl a dog could utter.
Old Donald shouted something in Gaelic, and made for the dog, which
began to bark and snap at him, and this roused Dirk and Bruce to take
part with him in baying at the old piper, who stopped short, as if
startled at the array of teeth.
The noise was so great that Grant the butler came hurrying in.
"Turn those dogs oot!" he cried. "You, Tonal', what do you want?"
"Ta Southron chiel'," said the old man mysteriously.
"She lo'es ta pipes, and she'll play him ta Mackhai's Mairch."
Turning to Max, he waved him toward the door.
"No, no, not to-day," said Grant, who read the young visitor's
reluctance to go.
"But ta chiel' lo'es ta pipes," cried Donald.
"Then you shall play to him another time."
"Yes, another time, Tonal'. Be off now, and I'll bring ye a wee drappie
by and by," cried Kenneth.
"She'll pring her a wee drappie? Good laddie! She shall pring her a
wee drappie, and she wass nice and try up in the tower, and she wass
make a nice fire."
He made a mysterious sign or two, suggestive of his making a silent
promise to give his young master all the music he had intended for Max,
and went slowly out of the great stone-floored place.
"Noo, send oot the dogs," said Grant; and, to make sure, he did it
himself, a quiet wave of his hand being sufficient to drive them all out
into the yard behind the kitchen.
"She said she should soon pe fine," said Long Shon, as a gleam of
sunshine shot through the window; for the storm was passing over, and
its rearguard, in the form of endless ragged fleecy clouds, could be
seen racing across the blue sky; while, in an hour from then, the sky
was swept clear, and the sun shone out bright and warm.
"Now," cried Kenneth, "let's get the rifles, and go and have a stalk."
"It would jist aboot be madness," said Grant; "and the Chief would be in
a fine way. Tell him he can't go."
"Oh ay! he's spout richt, Maister Ken. She's too fu' o' watter to go
over the mountain and through ta glen."
"She wass saying she'd go and tak' the young chentleman to see the
fa's."
"Ay, there's a gran' fa' o' watter the noo," said Tavish.
"Oh, very well, then; let's go and see the falls. Come along, Scoody.
I'll get a gun. You'll take yours, Max."
"Shall I?"
"Yes, of course. We may get a good shot at something."
The two lads went back into the hall, and, passing through a swing door,
they suddenly came upon The Mackhai pacing up and down.
He looked up, frowning as he caught sight of Max, and was evidently
going to say something; but he checked himself, and went quickly into
the library and shut the door.
"I'd give something to know what's the matter with father," said Kenneth
thoughtfully. "He never used to be like this."
Max felt uncomfortable, and, being very sensitive, he turned to his
companion:
"Have I done anything to annoy him?" he asked.
"You? No. What nonsense! There, come along. We haven't had such a
day as this for ever so long, and I've been indoors till I can hardly
breathe. Why not have a sail?"
Max looked aghast at the heaving sea.
"Perhaps it is a bit too rough," said Kenneth. "Never mind; we'll go
and see the falls."
Ten minutes later they were skirting round the little bay, to turn in by
the first swollen river, to track its bed up to the mountain, where the
"fa's" they were to see were to be found, and, even as they went, a low,
deep, humming sound came to the ear, suggestive of some vast machinery
in motion; while the river at their side ran as if it were so much
porter covered with froth, great flakes of which were eddying here and
there, and being cast up in iridescent patches on the stony banks.
At the end of a quarter of an hour's climbing and stumbling among the
wet rocks and bushes, during which the two big dogs had been trotting
quietly along at their master's heels, and Sneeshing, in a wonderful
state of excitement, hunting everywhere for that rabbit which he had on
his mind, Max stopped short.
"Hallo! Tired?" cried Kenneth, laughing.
"Oh no! But it seems such a pity to go hurrying on. Wait a few
minutes."
Kenneth laughed, and yet he could not help feeling gratified at his
companion's enthusiasm.
"Here, hold hard a bit, Tawy," he cried. "Stop a bit, Shon."
The two men halted; the dogs settled themselves upon a sunny rock, Bruce
with his pointed nose comfortably across Dirk's rough, warm frill, and
Sneeshing curled himself up in the angle formed by the two dogs' bodies,
close up to and as much under Dirk's long hair as he could; while
Scoodrach seated himself on a huge block of black slate, which did not
belong to the place, but must have fallen from some vein high up the
gorge, and been brought down by wintry floods, a little way at a time,
during hundreds of years, till it lay jammed in among the great blocks
of granite like a chip in a basin of lumps of sugar. This piece of
slate suited Scoodrach's eye, and he took out his big knife and began to
sharpen it.
Long Shon took a little curly sheep's horn out of his pouch, and had a
pinch of snuff.
Tavish filled a dumpy black wooden pipe, and began to smoke; while
Kenneth, as he smilingly watched Max, hummed over Black Donald's bagpipe
tune, "The March of the Clan Mackhai."
"Well," said Kenneth at last, breaking the silence, through which came a
low, deep, humming roar, "what do you think of Dunroe?"
"Think!" cried Max, in a low, deep voice; "it's heavenly."
And he stood gazing up the narrow glen, with its intensely dark shadows
among the rocks, through which the brilliant sun-rays struck down,
making the raindrops which hung upon the delicate leaves of the pendent
birches glisten like diamonds.
For it was one beautiful series of pictures at which the lad gazed:
patches of vivid blue above, seen through the openings among the trees;
right below, the foaming river coming down in a hundred miniature falls;
silver-stemmed and ruddy-bronze birches rooting in the sides, and
sending their leaves and twigs hanging over like cascades of verdure;
pines and spruces rising up on all sides like pyramids of deep, dark
green; and everywhere the masses of rock glittering with crystals, and
clothed with mosses of the most vivid tints, and among whose crevices
the ferns threw up their pointed, softly-laced fronds.
The sunlight glanced down like sheaves of dazzling silver arrows; and
over the water, and softly riding down the glen, came soft, filmy clouds
of mist, so fine and delicate that they constantly faded into
invisibility; while every now and then there were passing glimpses of
colour appearing and disappearing over the rushing torrent, as if there
had been a rainbow somewhere up above--one which had broken up, and
these were its fragments being borne away.
"I never saw anything so beautiful," said Max, almost wondering at his
companion's want of enthusiasm.
"And do you know what makes it so beautiful?"
"It was made so."
"Yes; but it is the sun. If a black cloud came over now, and it began
to rain, the place would look so gloomy and miserable that you'd want to
hurry home."
"Yes; ta young Chief's richt," said Tavish, nodding his head. "It's ta
ferry wettest place I know when ta rain comes doon and ta wind will
plow."
"Let's go on," said Kenneth after awhile. "It gets more and more
beautiful higher up."
"It can't be!" cried Max. "And is this all your father's property?"
"Yes," said Kenneth proudly; "this all belongs to The Mackhai."
"Ant it will aal pelong to ta young Chief some tay, when he crows a pig
man."
Max went on with a sigh, but only to find that the place really did grow
more beautiful as they climbed on, while the deep, humming roar grew
louder and more awe-inspiring as they penetrated farther and farther
into the recesses of the mountain. For the long and heavy rain had
charged the fountains of the hills to bursting. Every lakelet was
brimming, every patch of moss saturated, and from a thousand channels,
that were at first mere threads, the water came rushing down to coalesce
in the narrow glen, and eddy, and leap, and swirl, and hurry on toward
the sea.
"Why are we climbing up so high?" said Max suddenly.
"To show you our glen, and take you up by the falls."
A curious shrinking sensation came upon Max, and Kenneth noticed it.
"This isn't the Grey Mare's Tail," he said, laughing; "and we're not in
a boat."
"I can't help feeling a little nervous," said Max frankly. "I am not
used to this sort of thing."
"And we are. Yes, of course. It's too bad to laugh at you. Come on."
"Is there any danger?"
"Well, of course there is, if you go and tumble in, but you needn't go
near."
The humming roar grew louder as they tramped on along a sheep-track in
and out among the huge stones which had fallen from the sides of the
great gully. Now they were in deep shadow, where brilliant speckled
fungi, all white and red, stood out like stools beneath the birch trees;
then they were high up on quite a shelf, where the turf and moss were
short, and the sun shone out clearly; and ever, as they turned angle
after angle of the great zigzag, the roar of the water grew louder,
till, after another hour's slow climbing, they descended a sloping green
track and came into a great hollow directly facing them; and a couple of
hundred feet overhead, a narrow rift, out of which poured an amber
stream of water on to a huge block of rock some twenty feet below, the
result being that the great spout of amber water was broken and turned
into a sheet of foam, which spread out all over the great block, and
fell sheer the rest of the distance, over a hundred and fifty feet, into
a vast hollow below. Here it careered round and round, and rushed
onward toward where the group were standing, while high above all
floated a cloud of fine vapour which resembled white smoke, and upon
which played the iridescent colours of half a rainbow, completing the
picture in a way which made Max watch it in silent delight.
"Well, what do you think of it?" said Kenneth, who was amused by the
London lad's rapt manner.
"Eh? think?" said Max, starting and colouring.
"Yes. What were you thinking?"
"I was wishing that it was mine--all my own, so that I could come and
sit here and think."
"Well, you may come here and sit and think, but it never will be yours.
It has always belonged to the Mackhais ever since they conquered the
Mackalps, and took it with claymore and targe. There was a tremendous
fight up above there, and, as my ancestors cut down the Mackalps, they
threw them into the stream at the top, and there they were shot out over
the fall, and carried right out to sea."
"How horrible!"
"Horrible? Why, it was all considered very brave and grand, and we are
very proud of it. There's a sword down at the castle that they say was
used in the great fight."
"And are you proud of it?"
"I don't know. I suppose so. Does seem queer, though, to chop chaps
with swords and pitch 'em into the water. Rather an awkward place to
come down, wouldn't it, Max?"
"Awful!"
"Well, never mind talking about it. Come up and see."
"What! climb up there?"
"To be sure. Oh, you needn't be afraid. It's quite safe. You go up
that narrow path, and get round in among those birch trees, and that
brings you out by the top."
"I--"
"Oh, don't come if you're scared," said Kenneth contemptuously.
Max rose from the stone upon which he had been seated.
"I'm ready," he said.
"Well, you are a rum chap, Maxy," cried Kenneth, clapping him on the
shoulder. "Sometimes I think you are the jolliest coward I ever saw,
and sometimes I think you've got plenty of pluck. Which is it?"
"I'm afraid I'm very cowardly," said Max sadly.
"Oh, come, now I'm sure of it!" cried Kenneth warmly.
"That I am a great coward?"
"No; that you're full of pluck. My father says that a fellow must be
very brave to own he is a coward. Come on."
They started up the side, with Scoodrach following close behind.
"Going up to ta top o' ta fa's, Maister Kenneth?" shouted Long Shon.
"Yes. Coming with us?"
"She'd petter tak' care," cried Tavish. "There's a teal o' watter, and
ta stanes is ferry wat."
"All right, Tavvy; we'll mind," cried Kenneth; and he plunged in among
the bushes and rocks, to begin climbing upward in and out, and gradually
leaving the rushing waters of the fall behind, while, as the misty foam
with its lovely ferny surroundings faded from the eye, the loud splash
and roar gradually softened upon the ear till the sound was once more a
deep, murmurous hum, which acted as a bass accompaniment to a harsh,
wild air which Scoodrach began to sing, or rather bray.
Kenneth stopped short, held back the bushes of hazel dotted with nuts,
and turned round to give Max a comical look.
"What's the matter, Scoody?" he cried. "Eh? ta matter? I only
scratched my hand wi' a bit thorn."
"Oh! Well, you needn't make so much noise about it."
"Noise spout it! She titn't mak' nae noise."
"Yes, you did. You hulloaed horribly."
"She titn't. She was chust singing a wee bit sang."
"Singing? Did you say singing?"
"Ay, she was chust singing ta Allambogle."
"Do you hear that, Maxy? he thinks he was singing."
"Wah!" ejaculated Scoodrach; and the little party climbed on, with Max
wondering how anybody could find breath to make such a noise when
climbing up so great a steep.
In a few minutes the sound of the fall began to grow louder once more,
and a shrinking sensation to attack Max; but he put a bold face upon the
matter, and followed close to Kenneth till the latter turned to him.
"Here we are," he said, "close to the spout." Max looked, but could see
nothing, only a dense tangle of hazel stubbs among the green moss, at
whose roots grew endless numbers of fungi, shaped like rough chalices,
and of the colour of a ripe apricot.
"I can't see it."
"No, not there; but you can here."
As he spoke, Kenneth divided the bushes, and held them apart for his
companion to join him, and the next moment they were standing on the
brink of a narrow rift in the rock, so narrow that the bush-tips met
overhead, and made the water that glided silently along many feet below
look quite dark.
"But that's not the whole of the water which goes over the fall," said
Max wonderingly.
"Every drop. It's narrow, but it's fine and deep, and when it spouts
out it falls on to the stones and spreads round so as to look big--makes
the most of itself. Now then, are you tired?"
"Yes; my legs ache a bit."
"Very well, then, this is the nearest way home."
"I don't understand you."
"Jump in here, and the water would carry you right away down to the
bathing-cave. Scood and I have sent strings of corks down here, and the
stream has carried them right to Dunroe."
"I think I'd rather walk," said Max, smiling.
"So would I. Now come on and see where the water falls."
He led the way, and Max and Scoodrach followed, the latter, who was
musically disposed that morning, taking advantage of the noise made by
the falls to use it as a cloak to cover his own, with the result that
every now and then Max was startled by hearing sounds close behind him
remarkably suggestive of Donald Dhu being close upon their track, armed
with his pipes, and doing battle with all his might.
"Here you are," cried Kenneth, brushing through the last of the hazel
boughs, and standing out on the rock close to the edge of the great
hollow into which the water poured; and the shrinking sensation
increased, as Max joined his friend, and found that there was nothing to
protect him from falling into the great gulf at whose brink they stood.
All this struck him for the moment, but the dread was swept away by the
rush of thought which took its place. For there below, as he gazed down
at the falling water arching from the narrow rift into a stony basin, to
then rush over the sides and fall in a silvery veil, to the deep chasm
fringed with delicate dew--sparkling greenery, amidst whose leaves and
boughs floated upward a cloud of white mist, which kept changing, as the
sun shone upon it, to green and yellow and violet and orange of many
depths of tone, but all dazzlingly bright, one melting into the other
and disappearing to reappear in other rainbow hues.
Far below them, toward where the rugged hollow opened out to allow of
the escape of the water from the falls, Tavish and Long Shon could be
seen, seated on the stones they had chosen, smoking their pipes and
basking in company with the dogs, for the warm rays of a sunny day had
of late been rare.
"There's a teal o' watter in the fa's," said Scoodrach gravely.
"Of course there is, stupid, after this rain," cried Kenneth. "Tell me
something I don't know."
"Couldn't tell her nothing she don't know," cried Scoodrach. "She reats
books, and goes to school, and learns efferything."
"That's just what the masters say I don't do, Scoody. Here, let's go
down to the basin."
"What! get down there?" cried Max in horror, as Kenneth seated himself
on the edge of the stony channel through which the water came down from
the mountain before making its leap.
"Yes; it's easy enough," cried Kenneth, dangling his legs to and fro,
and making them brush through the fronds of a beautiful fern growing in
a crevice. "Scoody and I have often been down."
"But she shall not go pelow now," said the young gillie, looking down at
the smooth, glassy current. "There's chust too much watter in ta way."
"Get out!" cried Kenneth. "Look here, Max: you can get down here to the
edge of the water, and follow it to where it makes its first leap, and
then get under it to the other side, and clamber on to the edge of the
basin where it spreads, and look down. It's glorious. Come on."
"Na, she will not come," cried Scoodrach. "There's too much watter."
"You're a worse coward than Max."
"Nay, she shall na go," cried Scoodrach, making a bound to the spot
where Kenneth was seated; but quick as thought the lad twisted round,
let himself glide down, and, as the young gillie made a dash at his
hands, they slid over the moss and grass and were gone.
Kenneth's merry laugh came up out of the narrow rift, sounding muffled
and strange, and the two lads looked down to where he was creeping
along, some fifteen feet below them, in the half-darkness of the hollow,
and holding on by the pendent roots which issued from the crevices, as
he picked his way along the stones, with the water often washing against
his feet.
"Come down, Max. Don't be a coward," he cried, as he looked up over his
shoulder at the two anxious faces, while the hiss, rush, and roar of the
water nearly covered with sound his half-heard voice.
"She's coing to troon herself, ye ken!" cried Scoodrach, stamping his
foot with rage. "Come pack, Maister Ken! Do she hear me? Come pack!"
Kenneth probably did not hear the words, but he looked up again and
laughed, as he stood near the end of the narrow gully, with the sunny
light of the great hollow behind him showing up his form, and at the
same time his face was lit up strangely by the weird gleam of a
reflection from the rushing, glassy, peat-stained stream as it glided on
to the mouth of the gully for its leap.
"She canna stay here and see her young maister troon herself," cried
Scoodrach wildly. "She must go town and ket trooned too."
"Coming, Scoody?" cried Kenneth, as he half turned round where he stood
on a little block of stone, against which the water surged.
Scoodrach was in the act of seating himself upon the edge previous to
lowering himself down, and, why he knew not, he hesitated and spoke,
half to Max, half to himself.
"She'll go and trag her pack! she'll go and trag her pack!" Then he
uttered a hoarse cry, for, as they saw Kenneth, framed in as it were by
the narrow rock, gazing back at them, while the swift gleaming water
swept by his legs, they suddenly noted that he started and made a clutch
at an overhanging root which came away in his hands, while the stone
upon which he was standing tottered over and disappeared in the rushing
water.
But Kenneth was active as a monkey; and, failing in his first attempt to
grasp something to support him, he made a second leap and caught at a
hazel bough which grew out horizontally above his head.
This time he was successful, and, as the sturdy bough bent and swayed,
the lad hung right over the rushing water.
"Chump! Swing and chump, Maister Ken!" cried Scoodrach; and then he was
silent, and sat staring wildly, for he realised that he could not help
his young master--that there would not be time.
Kenneth was swinging to and fro, the bough dipping and rising and
dipping, so low that the water almost touched his feet. As he hung he
tried to get a better hold, and made a struggle to go hand over hand to
the place where the bough joined the mossy roots.
But it was all in vain. Before he could get his loosened hand past a
secondary branch, the rotten root broke away from its insecure hold in
the gully wall, and one moment the two spectators saw Kenneth hanging
there, his form shown up by the light behind; the next, they saw branch
and its holder descend quickly into the glassy water, which was
momentarily disturbed by a few leafy twigs standing above its surface,
then a hand appeared, then again with half the arm, making a clutch at
vacancy, and then there was nothing but the water gliding onward to the
opening through which it leaped down into the basin on the top of the
spreading rock.