'I hae been deevin' at our guidman to gie up the Craig, for it keeps him
a deal from hame, and I aye tell him that he carries awa' mair than he
brings back o' drink and victual. But he says that the rock is a maist
extraordinary hungrysome place!'
'It has that name,' said I, unwarily.
She stopped and looked at me with sudden suspicion.
'What ken ye aboot the Ailsa?' she asked, looking directly at me.
'Nocht ava,' I replied, 'but a' seaside places hae the name o' making
your ready for you meal of meat.'
'Hoot, no,' said Mistress Bannatyne. 'Now, there's mysel'. I canna do
mair than tak' a pickin' o' meat, like a sparrow on the lip o' the
swinepot. Yet Chapeldonnan is but a step frae the sea.'
She was at that moment lifting a heavy iron pot off the cleps, or iron
hooks by which it hung over the fireplace in the midst of the kitchen
floor.
'I hae aye been delicate a' my days, and it is an awesome thing for a
woman like me to be tied to a big eater like James, that never kens when
he has his fill--like a corbie howkin' at a braxy sheep till there was
naething left but the horns and the tail.'
I thought we might get some information about the Benane, which might
prove of some use to us when we adventured thither.
'Good wife,' said I, 'we are thinking of going by Ballantrae to the town
of Stranrawer. The direct way, I hear, is by the Benane. What think
ye--is the road a good one?'
'Ye are a sonsy lad,' she said, 'ye wad mak' braw pickin' for the teeth
o' Sawny Bean's bairns. They wad roast your ribs fresh and fresh till
they were done. Syne they would pickle your quarters for the winter.
The like o' you wad be as guid as a Christmas mart to them.'
'Hoot, good wife,' said I, 'ye ken that a' this talk aboot Sawny Bean's
folk is juist blethers--made to fright bairns frae gallivanting at
night.'
'Ye'll maybe get news o' that gin Sawny puts his knife intil your
throat. Ye hae heard o' my man. James Bannatyne is not a man easily
feared, but not for the Earldom o' Cassillis wad he gang that shore road
to Ballantrae his lane.'
And, indeed, there were in the countryside enough tales of wayfarers who
had disappeared there, of pools of blood frozen in the morning, of
traveller's footsteps that went so far and then were lost in a smother
of tracks made by naked feet running every way. But I kept on with my
questions. I wanted to hear the bruit of the country, and what were our
chances.
While we were thus cheerfully talking, and the Dominie by whiles playing
a spring upon his pipes to gain the lady's goodwill, there came in a man
of a black and gruesome countenance. We knew him at once for the master
of Chapeldonnan, James Bannatyne, for he came in as only a goodman comes
into his own house. He was a man renowned for his great strength all
over Carrick. He turned on us a lowering regard as he went clumsily by
into an inner room, carrying an armful of nets. I noted that the twine
had not been wet, so that his sea fishing had not come to much. But
behind the door he flung down a back-load of birds--mostly solan geese
and the fowl called 'the Foolish Cock of the Rock,' together with
half-a-dozen 'Tammy Nories.' So I guessed that he had either been over
the water to Ailsa, or desired to have it thought so.
His wife went ben the room to him. We could hear the sulky giant's
growling questions as to who we were, and his wife's brisk replies.
Presently she came out looking a little dashed.
'James has come in raither tired,' she said, 'and he will need to lie
down and hae a sleep.'
'In that case, mistress,' I said, 'we will e'en thank you for your
kindly hospitality and take our ways.'
She followed us to the door, and I think she was wonderfully glad to get
us safe away without bloodshed.
'Be sure that ye gang na south by the Benane,' she said, 'the folk that
bide there are no canny.'
So we thanked her again and took our way, breathing more freely also to
have left the giant behind.
We had not gone far, however, when we spied her husband hastening after
us across a field. He came up with us by a turn in the road.
'We harbour no spies at Chapeldonnan,' he said, bending sullenest brows
at us, 'and that I would have you know.'
'We are no spies on you nor on any well-doing man,' I said. 'We are
honest merchants on our way to Stranrawer, and but called in to ask the
way.'
'Ye speered ower mony questions of my wife to be honest men,' he said
threateningly.
'And why,' said the Dominie, birsing up as one that is ready to quarrel,
'in this realm of Scotland may not a man without offence ask his way,
from the honest wife of an honest man, so long as he soliciteth no
favour more intimate?'
At this the giant made a blow at the little Dominie. He had a large
cudgel in his hand, and he struck without warning, like the
ill-conditioned ruffian that he was. But he fell in with the wrong man
when he tried to take Dominie Mure unawares, for the little man was as
gleg as a hawk, having been accustomed to watch the eyes of boys all his
life, ay, and often those of lads bigger than himself. So that, long
before the hulking stroke of the fellow came near him, the Dominie had
sprung to the side, and was ready, with his whinger in his hand, to spit
Bannatyne upon the point. For myself I did not even think it worth my
while even to draw--for I had only brought my plain sword, fearing that
in some of the company which on our wanderings we might have to keep,
the Earl's Damascus blade might overmuch excite cupidity.
But instead I ordered the fellow away as one that has authority. It was
not for Launcelot Kennedy to mix himself with a common brawling dog like
Chapeldonnan.
'It wants but the tickling of a straw,' cried the little man, 'that I
should spit you through, like a paddock to bait a line for geds. And
but for your wife's sake, who is a civil-spoken woman by ill-fortune
tied to a ruffian, I should do it.'
Then seeing that together we were overstrong for him, James Bannatyne
took himself away, growling curses and threatenings as to what should
happen to us before we got clear of Carrick. However, we took little
heed to the empty boaster, but went our ways down into the town of
Girvan.
Here it came to my mind to hire a boat and provision her as it were to
go to the island of Arran. And nothing would set me till I had it done.
So on the south beach we found a man cleaning just such a boat as we
needed, with a half-deck on her and a little mast which would go either
up or down. For three merks in silver we got the use of the boat for a
month, and with her both suitable oars and sails. He was going to the
haying in the parish of Colmonel, the owner said, but lest we should
lose her, we must deposit with the minister or the provost of the town
other thirty merks as the value of the boat, which money should again be
ours when we returned to claim it. So to the provost we went, whom we
found a hearty, red-faced man, a dealer in provisions and all manner of
victual. Of these we took a sufficient cargo on board, and having paid
down our thirty merks, early one morning we laid our course for the Isle
of Arran.
But when we had gone screeving well across with a following wind, we lay
to under Pladda till it was dusk, and then with a breeze shifted to our
quarter we bore down on Ailsa. I knew not very well what we should find
there, but I judged that we would at least come on some traces of the
murderous crew, which might help us to clear up some of their secrets.
For I judged that James Bannatyne did not spend his nights out of bed in
order to wile a few solan geese off the rocks of Ailsa.
*CHAPTER XXXVI*
*THE DEFENCE OF CASTLE AILSA*
Now the Isle of Ailsa is little more than a great lumping crag set askew
in the sea. Nevertheless, it has both landing place and pasturage,
house of refuge and place of defence. The island was not new to me, for
I had once upon a time gone thither out of curiosity after the matter of
Barclay, Laird of Ladyland--who, in his madness, thought to make it a
place of arms for the Papists in the year of the Spanish Armada, but was
prevented and slain at the instance of Andrew Knox, one of the good
reforming name, minister of Paisley. This last was a wonderfully clever
man and accounted a moving preacher; but on this occasion he showed
himself a better fighter--which upon Craig Ailsa, at least, is more to
the purpose.
It was the dusk of the morning when we ran into the spit of shingle
which is upon the eastern side and, watching our chance, we drew the
boat ashore. The sea was chill and calm, only a little ruffled by the
night wind, and the sun was already brightening the sky to the east, so
that the Byne Hill and Brown Carrick stood black against it.
With great stealth and quiet we climbed up the narrow path, seeing
nothing, however, save a pasturing goat that sprang away as we came
near. It was eerie enough work, for the seabirds clanged around us,
yammering and chunnering querulously among themselves on the main cliffs
at the farther side of the isle. It grew a little lighter when we came
out upon the narrow path which leads to the castle.
Suddenly the dark door of the tower loomed before us, very black and
grim. I declare it was like marching up to the cannon's mouth to walk
up that little flight of stairs which led to the door in the wall.
Nevertheless, I clambered first, with a curious pricking down my back
and a slackness about the knees. So all unscathed we entered. There
was only emptiness in all the chambers. The castle had been almost
wholly ruined and spoiled, for since its taking by the Protestant party,
it had not been touched nor put in defence. 'Now I will bring up the
provender. Keep you the castle,' said I to the little Dominie, as soon
as we were certified that we were first in possession.
So I went down and made first one backload and then another of those
things which we had bought at Girvan and placed in the boat. I brought
up also all the ammunition for the hackbutt and the pistols. Before I
had finished the sky grew grey and clear, the day breaking nobly with
only a rack of cloud racing up the far side of Kilbrannan Sound to hang
upon the chill shark's teeth of the mountains of Arran. Upon my return I
was glad to find the castle intact, and the little man seated calmly
with a book in his hand.
'Did you never so much as shut the outer door?' I asked him.
'And shut you without,' said he. 'Is it likely? Ye might have had to
come along that footpad with only your limber legs to keep your tail,
and Tam o' Drummurchie or Sawny Bean jumping ahint ye!'
So before we went to examine the nooks and crannies of the Craig either
for enemies or treasure boxes, we resolved to put the castle into as
good a state of defence as we could.
First we drew in the rough wooden steps which led to the door in the
wall by which we had entered, so that only the little projections
whereon the wood had rested were left to afford foothold to any
besieger. Then we closed and barricaded the door, for the huge iron
bolt was yet in its place and ran securely into the stone of the wall
itself for quite two feet.
When the day broke fully, I went up to the turret top to look about me.
'Save us!' I cried down to the little man. 'Come hither, Dominie. Is
not that our boat out there with men in her?'
The Dominie ran up and looked long and earnestly.
'Ay, deed is it that,' he made answer. 'We are trapped, Launcelot, for
all our cleverness. And if these chiels be our enemies, I doubt that we
are as good as dead men in the jaws of the Wolf of Drummurchie.
The men in the boat kept leaning back and looking up at the cliffs as if
to get sight of something. Sometimes they went completely out of view,
as it had been close into the bulk of the isle, mayhap to examine more
carefully some cave or lurking-place.
'We had better look well to our priming, and set a watch,' said I. 'We
shall have visitors this day at Castle Ailsa, or my name is not
Launcelot Kennedy.'
But the hours passed slowly on from nine till noon before we heard a
sound, or saw a living creature beside the geese and the gulls. After
the boat had gone westward out of sight, we waxed weary at our posts on
the top of the turret. I went down to look at the cupboards of the
chambers. There I was rooting and exploring, when I heard the Dominie
whispering loudly to me to run up hastily into the tower.
He told me how that a stone had come pelting against the wall, on the
side towards the hill. Now the castle sits on the verge of the
precipice, and only a narrow path leads to it along the cliff. But
behind there is a little courtyard to landward, now mostly ruined and
broken down. It was from this side, so Dominie Mure whispered to me,
that the stone had come.
'Tut, man,' said I, 'you are losing your nerve with this playing of
hide-and-seek. It was but a billy-goat's foot that spurned it, and so
naturally it came bumming down the hill side.'
'Then,' he replied grimly, 'it was a billy-goat as big as an elephant,
and it will ding over this castle into the sea, for no ordinary goat
could have stirred the stone I saw; I tell you it popped over the heuch
like a cannon-ball.'
But we were soon to have other company besides that of the stone.
For presently there came in sight a man walking daintily and carefully
along the path which led to the door of the tower. Now he would pull
wantonly at a flower, and anon he would skip a stone over the cliff--for
all the world as if it were a Sabbath afternoon, and he was waiting for
his lass. But I knew better, for I heard his harness clattering under
his loose coat of blue.
'Where gang ye so blythe, my bonny man?' cried the Dominie suddenly from
my elbow. The man started back, and set his hand beneath his cloak, but
the Dominie cried,--
'Keep awa' your hand frae your hip, young man--ye may need it to
preserve your balance on the footpath--and give me your attention for a
wee.'
The man did as he was bid, and cast his eye aloft, where the black mouth
of a hackbutt looked discouragingly down upon him.
'Your name, friend?' said the Dominie.
'I am James Carrick from the parish of Barr,' said the man at last.
'Ay, ay, slee Jamie--Drummurchie's man,' said the Dominie, with meaning.
'When the man is pooin' gowans and skytin' slate stanes, the maister is
no that far awa'. Noo, James, e'en turn you aboot and gang your ways,
and tell your maister that his black murder is found out, and that there
are those on their way to this isle that will put the irons on his
heels.'
So the man who had called himself James Carrick turned obediently about,
and marched away the road he had come. Probably he had been sent for
nothing more than to know if we had stolen a march upon them, and taken
possession of the strength of the castle. They had our boat--there was
no question of that. We were, therefore, set here with only two
backloads of powder and provisions to stand a siege in a small and
ruinous tower upon a barren cliff.
Nor was it long before we had news of the enemy, for as we strolled up
and down the battlement walk, which as is common in such little
fortalices, went round three sides of the tower--that is, round every
side except that which looks inward to the cliff-edge--a number of
scattering shots came from all about, but chiefly from above.
We could hear them whistling over us as we ducked our heads. We got
ready our guns to fire in return so soon as a man showed; but the many
bowders and rocky humps about gave the enemy great shelter, so that it
was no easy thing to take aim at them. However, I did get a steady shot
at an incautious leg, and on the back of the crack of the hackbutt came
a great torrent of swearing, and this I took for a good sign.
All we could do was to keep the little courtyard clear, and to shoot
whenever we saw a bonnet rise up or a limb carelessly exposed. But we
both yearned for something more lively to put an end to our suspense.
Nor had we long to wait.
From the east side of the tower which looks to the sea, there came the
sound of a loud report, a tumble of stones, and then a loud, continual,
and most pitiful crying, as of a man hurt unto death. I ran up into the
battlements above and set my head through a loophole. Beneath me lay a
fine-looking young man, with his red bonnet fallen aside, clad in a
short white coat, with doublet and hose also of red. He was unarmed so
far as I could see.
'Who are you, and what brought you there?' I cried to him from the
turret loop.
A massy corner-stone fallen from the castle lay on his chest, and a pile
of other rocks and stones was heaped about his legs. He turned his eyes
upward at me and tried twice to speak.
At last he said, with many pants and piteous groans, 'I am Allan Crosby,
from Auchneil. I brought you a letter from my Lord Cassillis. I landed
below and came up by the path, but when I got near I heard firing and
saw the door shut. So I tried to clamber up the castle wall to cry in
at the window to you, because you were my friends. And even as I
climbed, the stones of the castle fell upon me, and now they are
crushing the life out of me.'
'Where is the letter from my Lord?' said I.
The man cast his eyes about him as if to look for it.
'I had it in my hand just now,' he said.
I saw a scrap of parchment a little way from him, and asked if that were
the letter.
'Tie it to a cord for me,' said I, 'that I may see it.'
But, by reason of his wounds, he was not able to reach it, and the
stones pressed so bitterly on his breast that he could do nothing but
lie and groan most waesomely.
'Oh, help me, or else end my misery--for the love of God,' he cried
earnestly, 'for I am at the point of death in this agony.'
I went all round the top of the tower and looked about every way. Our
enemies had retired further up the cliff, and were contenting themselves
with firing an occasional shot, which fell harmless against the walls,
buzzed among the battlements, or else sang past us into the sea.