THE WHITE-WINGED DOVE.
The mere thought of this action, swift, immediate, impetuous, seemed to
give relief to the burning brain. He went outside, and walked down to
the shore; all the world was asleep; but the day had broken fair and
pleasant, and the sea was calm and blue. Was not that a good omen? After
all, then, there was still the wild, glad hope that Fionaghal might come
and live in her Northern home: the summer days had not gone forever;
they might still find a red rose for her bosom at Castle Dare.
And then he tried to deceive himself. Was not this a mere lover's
stratagem. Was not all fair in love as in war? Surely she would forgive
him, for the sake of the great love he bore her, and the happiness he
would try to bring her all the rest of her life? And no sailor, he would
take care, would lay his rough hand on her gentle arm. That was the
folly of Hamish. There was no chance, in these days, for a band of
Northern pirates to rush into a church and carry off a screaming bride.
There were other ways than that--gentler ways; and the victim of the
conspiracy, why, she would only laugh in the happy after-time, and be
glad that he had succeeded. And meanwhile he rejoiced that so much had
to be done. Oh yes, there was plenty to think about now, other than
these terrible visions of the night. There was work to do; and the cold
sea-air was cooling the fevered brain, so that it all seemed pleasant
and easy and glad. There was Colin Laing to be summoned from Greenock,
and questioned. The yacht had to be provisioned for a long voyage. He
had to prepare the mother and Janet for his going away. And might not
Norman Ogilvie find out somehow when the marriage was to be, so that he
would know how much time was left him?
But with all this eagerness and haste, he kept whispering to himself
counsels of caution and prudence. He dared not awaken her suspicion by
professing too much forgiveness or friendliness. He wrote to her--with
what a trembling hand he put down those words, _Dear Gertrude_, on
paper, and how wistfully he regarded them!--but the letter was a proud
and cold letter. He said that he had been informed she was about to be
married; he wished to ascertain from herself whether that was true. He
would not reproach her, either with treachery or deceit; if this was
true, passionate words would not be of much avail. But he would prefer
to be assured, one way or another, by her own hand. That was the
substance of the letter.
And then, the answer! He almost feared she would not write. But when
Hamish himself brought that pink envelope to him, how his heart beat!
And the old man stood there in silence, and with gloom on his face; was
there to be, after all, no act of vengeance on her who had betrayed
Macleod of Dare?
These few words seemed to have been written with unsteady fingers. He
read them again and again. Surely there was no dark mystery within them.
"DEAR KEITH,--I cannot bear to write to you. I do not know how it
has all happened. Forgive me, if you can and forget me. G."
"Oh, Hamish," said he, with a strange laugh, "it is an easy thing to
forget that you have been alive? That would be an easy thing, if one
were to ask you? But is not Colin Laing coming here to-day?"
"Oh yes, Sir Keith," Hamish said, with his eyes lighting up eagerly; "he
will be here with the _Pioneer_, and I will send the boat out for him.
Oh yes, and you are wanting to see him, Sir Keith?"
"Why, of course!" Macleod said. "If we are going away on a long voyage,
do we not want a good pilot?"
"And we are going, Sir Keith?" the old man said; and there was a look of
proud triumph in the keen face.
"Oh, I do not know yet," Macleod said, impatiently. "But you will tell
Christina that, if we are going away to the South, we may have
lady-visitors come on board, some day or another; and she would be
better than a young lass to look after them, and make them comfortable
on board. And if there is any clothes or ribbons she may want from
Salen, Donald can go over with the pony; and you will not spare any
money, Hamish, for I will give you the money."
"Very well, sir."
"And you will not send the boat out to the _Pioneer_ till I give you a
letter; and you will ask the clerk to be so kind as to post it for me
to-night at Oban; and he must not forget that."
"Very well, sir," said Hamish; and he left the room, with a determined
look about his lips, but with a glad light in his eyes.
This was the second letter that Macleod wrote; and he had to keep
whispering to himself "Caution! caution!" or he would have broken into
some wild appeal to his sweetheart far away.
"DEAR GERTRUDE," he wrote, "I gather from your note that it is
true you are going to be married. I had heard some time ago, so
your letter was no great shock to me; and what I have
suffered--well, that can be of no interest to you now, and it
will do me no good to recall it. As to your message, I would
forgive you freely; but how can I forget? Can you forget? Do you
remember the red rose? But that is all over now, I suppose; and I
should not wonder if I were after all, to be able to obey you,
and to forget very thoroughly--not that alone, but everything
else. For I have been rather ill of late--more through
sleeplessness than any other cause, I think; and they say I must
go for a long sea-voyage; and the mother and Janet both say I
should be more at home in the old _Umpire_, with Hamish and
Christina, and my own people round me, than in a steamer; and so
I may not hear of you again until you are separated from me
forever. But I write now to ask you if you would like your
letters returned, and one or two keepsakes, and the photographs.
I would not like them to fall into other hands; and sometimes I
feel so sick at heart that I doubt whether I shall ever again get
back to Dare. There are some flowers, too; but I would ask to be
allowed to keep them, if you have no objection; and the sketch of
Ulva, that you made on the deck of the _Umpire_, when we were
coming back from Iona, I would like to keep that, if you have no
objection. And I remain your faithful friend,
"KEITH MACLEOD."
Now, at the moment he was writing this letter, Lady Macleod and her
niece were together; the old lady at her spinning-wheel, the younger one
sewing; and Janet Macleod was saying,--
"Oh, auntie, I am so glad Keith is going away now in the yacht! and you
must not be vexed at all or troubled if he stays a long time; for what
else can make him well again? Why, you know that he has not been Keith
at all of late,--he is quite another man--I do not think any one would
recognize him. And surely there can be no better cure for sleeplessness
than the rough work of the yachting; and you know Keith will take his
share, in despite of Hamish; and if he goes away to the South, they will
have watches, and he will take his watch with the others, and his turn
at the helm. Oh, you will see the change when he comes back to us!"
The old lady's eyes had slowly filled with tears.
"And do you think it is sleeplessness, Janet," said she, "that is the
matter with our Keith? Ah, but you know better than that, Janet."
Janet Macleod's face grew suddenly red; but she said, hastily,--
"Why, auntie, have I not heard him walking up and down all the night,
whether it was in his own room or in the library? And then he is out
before any one is up: oh yes, I know that when you cannot sleep the face
grows white and the eyes grow tired. And he has not been himself at
all--going away like that from every one, and having nothing to say, and
going away by himself over the moors. And it was the night before last
he came back from Kinloch, and he was wet through, and he only lay
down on the bed, as Hamish told me, and would have slept there all the
night, but for Hamish. And do you not think that was to get sleep at
last that he had been walking so far, and coming through the shallows of
Loch Scridain, too? Ah, but you will see the difference, auntie, when he
comes back on board the _Umpire_, and we will go down to the shore, and
we will be glad to see him that day."
"Oh yes, Janet," the old lady said, and the tears were running down her
face, "but you know--you know. And if he had married you, Janet, and
stayed at home at Dare, there would have been none of all this trouble.
And now--what is there now? It is the young English lady that has broken
his heart; and he is no longer a son to me, and he is no longer your
cousin, Janet; but a broken-hearted man, that does not care for
anything. And you are very kind, Janet; and you would not say any harm
of any one. But I am his mother--I--I--well, if the woman was to come
here this day, do you think I would not speak? It was a bad day for us
all that he went away--instead of marrying you, Janet."
"But you know that could never have been, auntie," said the gentle-eyed
cousin, though there was some conscious flush of pride in her cheeks. "I
could never have married Keith."
"But why, Janet?"
"You have no right to ask me, auntie. But he and I--we did not care for
each other--I mean, we never could have been married. I hope you will
not speak about that any more, auntie."
"And some day they will take me, too, away from Dare," said the old
dame, and the spinning-wheel was left unheeded; "and I cannot go into
the grave with my five brave lads--for where are they all now,
Janet?--in Arizona one, in Africa one, and two in the Crimea, and my
brave Hector at Koniggratz. But that is not much; I shall be meeting
them all together: and do you not think I shall be glad to see them all
together again just as it was in the old days; and they will come to
meet me; and they will be glad enough to have the mother with them once
again. But, Janet, Janet, how can I go to them? What will I say to them
when they ask about Keith--about Keith, my Benjamin, my youngest, my
handsome lad?"
The old woman was sobbing bitterly; and Janet went to her and put her
arms round her, and said,--
"Why, auntie, you must not think of such things. You will send Keith
away in low spirits, if you have not a bright face and a smile for him
when he goes away."
"But you do not know--you do not know," the old woman said, "what Keith
has done for me. The others--oh yes, they were brave lads; and very
proud of their name, too; and they would not disgrace their name,
wherever they went; and if they died--that is nothing: for they will be
together again now, and what harm is there? But Keith, he was the one
that did more than any of them; for he stayed at home for my sake; and
when other people were talking about this regiment and that regiment,
Keith would not tell me what was sore at his heart; and never once did
he say, 'Mother, I must go away like the rest,' though it was in his
blood to go away. And what have I done now?--and what am I to say to his
brothers when they come to ask me? I will say to them, 'Oh yes, he was
the handsomest of all my six lads; and he had the proudest heart, too;
but I kept him at home--and what came of it all?' Would it not be better
now that he was lying buried in the jungle of the Gold Coast, or at
Koniggratz, or in the Crimea?"
"Oh, surely not, auntie! Keith will come back to us soon; and when you
see him well and strong again, and when you hear his laugh about the
house, surely you will not be wishing that he was in his grave? Why,
what is the matter with you to-day, auntie?"
"The others did not suffer much, Janet, and to three of them, anyway, it
was only a bullet, a cry, and then the death sleep of a brave man and
the grave of a Macleod. But Keith, Janet--he is my youngest--he is
nearer to my heart than any of them: do you not see his face?"
"Yes, auntie," Janet Macleod said, in a low voice; "but he will get over
that. He will come back to us strong and well."
"Oh yes, he will come back to us strong and well!" said the old lady,
almost wildly, and she rose, and her face was pale. "But I think it is a
good thing for that woman that my other sons are all away now; for they
had quick tempers, those lads; and they would not like to see their
brother murdered."
"Murdered, auntie!"
Lady Macleod would have answered in the same wild, passionate way; but
at this very moment her son entered. She turned quickly; she almost
feared to meet the look of this haggard face. But Keith Macleod said,
quite cheerfully,--
"Well now, Janet, and will you go round to-day to look at the _Umpire?_
And will you come too, mother? Oh, she is made very smart now; just as
if we were all going away to see the Queen."
"I cannot go to-day, Keith," said his mother; and she left the room
before he had time to notice that she was strangely excited.
"And I think I will go some other day, Keith," his cousin said, gently,
"just before you start, that I may be sure you have not forgotten
anything. And, of course, you will take the ladies' cabin, Keith, for
yourself; for there is more light in that, and it is farther away from
the smell of the cooking in the morning. And how can you be going
to-day, Keith, when it is the man from Greenock will be here soon now?"
"Why, I forgot that, Janet," said he, laughing in a nervous way--"I
forgot that, though I was talking to Hamish about him only a little
while ago. And I think I might as well go out to meet the _Pioneer_
myself, if the boat has not left yet. Is there anything you would like
to get from Oban, Janet?"
"No, nothing, thank you, Keith," said she; and then he left; and he was
in time to get into the big sailing-boat before it went out to meet the
steamer.
This cousin of Hamish, who jumped into the boat when Macleod's letter
had been handed up to the clerk, was a little, black-haired Celt,
beady-eyed, nervous, but with the affectation of a sailor's bluffness,
and he wore rings in his ears. However, when he was got ashore, and
taken into the library, Macleod very speedily found out that the man had
some fair skill in navigation, and that he had certainly been into a
good number of ports in his lifetime. And if one were taking the
_Umpire_ into the mouth of the Thames, now? Mr. Lang looked doubtfully
at the general chart Macleod had; he said he would rather have a special
chart, which he could get at Greenock; for there were a great many banks
about the mouth of the Thames; and he was not sure that he could
remember the channel. And if one wished to go farther up the river, to
some anchorage in communication by rail with London? Oh yes, there was
Erith. And if one would rather have moorings than an anchorage, so that
one might slip away without trouble when the tide and wind were
favorable? Oh yes, there was nothing simpler than that. There were many
yachts about Erith; and surely the pier-master could get the _Umpire_
the loan of moorings. All through Castle Dare it was understood that
there was no distinct destination marked down for the _Umpire_ on this
suddenly-arranged voyage of hers; but all the same Sir Keith Macleod's
inquiries went no farther, at present at least, than the river Thames.
There came another letter in dainty pink; and this time there was less
trembling in the handwriting, and there was a greater frankness in the
wording of the note.
"DEAR KEITH," Miss White wrote, "I would like to have the
letters; as for the little trifles you mention, it does not much
matter. You have not said that you forgive me; perhaps it is
asking too much; but believe me you will find some day it was all
for the best. It is better now than later on. I had my fears from
the beginning; did not I tell you that I was never sure of myself
for a day? and I am sure papa warned me. I cannot make you any
requital for the great generosity and forbearance you show to me
now; but I would like to be allowed to remain your friend.
G.W."
"P.S.--I am deeply grieved to hear of your being ill, but hope it
is only something quite temporary. You could not have decided
better than on taking a long sea-voyage. I hope you will have
fine weather."
All this was very pleasant. They had got into the region of
correspondence again; and Miss White was then mistress of the situation.
His answer to her was less cheerful in tone. It ran thus:
"DEAR GERTRUDE,--To-morrow morning I leave Dare. I have made up
your letters, etc., in a packet; but as I would like to see
Norman Ogilvie before going farther south, it is possible that we
may run into the Thames for a day; and so I have taken the packet
with me, and, if I see Ogilvie, I will give it to him to put into
your hands. And as this may be the last time that I shall ever
write to you, I may tell you now there is no one anywhere more
earnestly hopeful than I that you may live a long and happy life,
not troubled by any thinking of what is past and irrevocable.
Yours faithfully, KEITH MACLEOD."
So there was an end of correspondence. And now came this beautiful
morning, with a fine northwesterly breeze blowing, and the _Umpire_,
with her mainsail and jib set, and her gray pennon and ensign fluttering
in the wind, rocking gently down there at her moorings. It was an
auspicious morning; of itself it was enough to cheer up a heart-sick
man. The white sea-birds were calling; and Ulva was shining green; and
the Dutchman's Cap out there was of a pale purple-blue; while away in
the south there was a vague silver mist of heat lying all over the Ross
of Mull and Iona. And the proud lady of Castle Dare and Janet, and one
or two others more stealthily, were walking down to the pier to see
Keith Macleod set sail; but Donald was not there--there was no need for
Donald or his pipes on board the yacht. Donald was up at the house, and
looking at the people going down to the quay, and saying bitterly to
himself, "It is no more thought of the pipes, now, that Sir Keith has,
ever since the English lady was at Dare; and he thinks I am better at
work in looking after the dogs."
Suddenly Macleod stopped, and took out a pencil and wrote something on a
card.
"I was sure I had forgotten something, Janet," said he. "That is the
address of Johnny Wickes's mother. We were to sent him up to see her
some time before Christmas."
"Before Christmas!" Janet exclaimed; and she looked at him in amazement.
"But you are coming back before Christmas, Keith!"
"Oh, well, Janet," said he carelessly, "you know that when one goes away
on a voyage it is never certain about your coming back at all, and it is
better to leave everything right."
"But you are not going away from us with thoughts like those in your
head, surely?" the cousin said. "Why, the man from Greenock says you
could go to America in the _Umpire_; and if you could go to America,
there will not be much risk in the calmer seas of the South. And you
know, Keith, auntie and I don't want you to trouble about writing
letters to us; for you will have enough trouble in looking after the
yacht; but you will send us a telegram from the various places you put
into."
"Oh yes, I will do that," said he somewhat absently. Even the bustle of
departure and the brightness of the morning had failed to put color and
life into the haggard face and the hopeless eyes.
That was a sorrowful leave-taking at the shore; and Macleod, standing on
the deck of the yacht, could see long after they had set sail, that his
mother and cousin were still on the small quay watching the _Umpire_ so
long as she was in sight. Then they rounded the Ross of Mull, and he saw
no more of the women of Castle Dare.
And this beautiful white sailed vessel that is going south through the
summer seas: surely she is no deadly instrument of vengeance, but only a
messenger of peace? Look, now how she has passed through the Sound of
Iona; and the white sails are shining in the light; and far away before
her, instead of islands with which she is familiar, are other
islands--another Colonsay altogether, and Islay, and Jura, and Scarba,
all a pale transparent blue. And what will the men on the lonely
Dubh-Artach rock think of her as they see her pass by? Why, surely that
she looks like a beautiful white dove. It is a summer day; the winds are
soft; fly south, then, White Dove, and carry to her this message of
tenderness, and entreaty, and peace? Surely the gentle ear will listen
to you before the winter comes and the skies grow dark overhead, and
there is no white dove at all, but an angry sea-eagle, with black wings
outspread and talons ready to strike, Oh, what is the sound in the
summer air? Is it the singing of the sea-maiden of Colonsay, bewailing
still the loss of her lovers in other years? We cannot stay to listen;
the winds are fair; fly southward, and still southward, oh you beautiful
White Dove, and it is all a message of love and of peace that you will
whisper to her ear.