"That is true, Hamish. And it was a day like this there was when the
Solan was sunk at her moorings in Loch Hourn. Do you remember, Hamish?
And it would be better for us now if we were in Loch Tua, or
Loch-na-Keal, or in the dock that was built for the steamer at Tiree. I
do not like the look of this day."
Yet to an ordinary observer it would have seemed that the chief
characteristic of this pale, still day was extreme and settled calm.
There was not a breath of wind to ruffle the surface of the sea; but
there was a slight glassy swell, and that only served to show curious
opalescent tints under the suffused light of the sun. There were no
clouds; there was only a thin veil of faint and sultry mist all across
the sky: the sun was invisible, but there was a glare of yellow at one
point of the heavens. A dead calm; but heavy, oppressed, sultry. There
was something in the atmosphere that seemed to weigh on the chest.
"There was a dream I had this morning," continued Hamish, in the same
low tones. "It was about my little granddaughter Christina. You know my
little Christina, Duncan. And she said to me, 'What have you done with
Sir Keith Macleod? Why have you not brought him back? He was under your
care, grandfather.' I did not like that dream."
"Oh, you are becoming as bad as Sir Keith Macleod himself!" said the
other. "He does not sleep. He talks to himself. You will become like
that if you pay attention to foolish dreams, Hamish."
Hamish's quick temper leaped up.
"What do you mean, Duncan Cameron, by saying 'as bad as Sir Keith
Macleod'? You--you come from Ross: perhaps they have not good masters
there. I tell you there is not any man in Ross, or in Sutherland either,
is as good a master and as brave a lad as Sir Keith Macleod--not any
one, Duncan Cameron!"
"I did not mean anything like that, Hamish," said the other, humbly.
"But there was a breeze this morning. We could have got over to Loch
Tua. Why did we stay here, where there is no shelter and no anchorage?
Do you know what is likely to come after a day like this?"
"It is your business to be a sailor on board this yacht; it is not your
business to say where she will go," said Hamish.
But all the same the old man was becoming more and more alarmed at the
ugly aspect of this dead calm. The very birds, instead of stalking among
the still pools, or lying buoyant on the smooth waters, were excitedly
calling, and whirring from one point to another.
"If the equinoctials were to begin now," said Duncan Cameron, "this is a
fine place to meet the equinoctials! An open bay, without shelter; and a
ground that is no ground for an anchorage. It is not two anchors or
twenty anchors would hold in such a ground."
Macleod appeared: the men were suddenly silent. Without a word to either
of them--and that was not his wont--he passed to the stern of the yacht.
Hamish knew from his manner that he would not be spoken to. He did not
follow him, even with all this vague dread on his mind.
The day wore on to the afternoon. Macleod, who had been pacing up and
down the deck, suddenly called Hamish. Hamish came aft at once.
"Hamish," said he, with a strange sort of laugh, "do you remember this
morning, before the light came? Do you remember that I asked you about a
brass-band that I heard playing?"