Meanwhile the Auld Lichts were in church, waiting for their minister,
and it was a full meeting, because nearly every well in Thrums had
been scooped dry by anxious palms. Yet not all were there to ask God's
rain for themselves. Old Charles Yuill was in his pew, after dreaming
thrice that he would break up with the drought; and Bell Christison
had come, though her man lay dead at home, and she thought it could
matter no more to her how things went in the world.
You, who do not love that little congregation, would have said that
they were waiting placidly. But probably so simple a woman as Meggy
Rattray could have deceived you into believing that because her eyes
were downcast she did not notice who put the three-penny-bit in the
plate. A few men were unaware that the bell was working overtime, most
of them farmers with their eyes on the windows, but all the women at
least were wondering. They knew better, however, than to bring their
thoughts to their faces, and none sought to catch another's eye. The
men-folk looked heavily at their hats in the seats in front. Even when
Hendry Munn, instead of marching to the pulpit with the big Bible in
his hands, came as far as the plate and signed to Peter Tosh, elder,
that he was wanted in the vestry, you could not have guessed how every
woman there, except Bell Christison, wished she was Peter Tosh. Peter
was so taken aback that he merely gaped at Hendry, until suddenly he
knew that his five daughters were furious with him, when he dived for
his hat and staggered to the vestry with his mouth open. His boots
cheeped all the way, but no one looked up.
"I hadna noticed the minister was lang in coming," Waster Lunny told
me afterward, "but Elspeth noticed it, and with a quickness that
baffles me she saw I was thinking o' other things. So she let out her
foot at me. I gae a low cough to let her ken I wasna sleeping, but in
a minute out goes her foot again. Ay, syne I thocht I micht hae
dropped my hanky into Snecky Hobart's pew, but no, it was in my tails.
Yet her hand was on the board, and she was working her fingers in a
way that I kent meant she would like to shake me. Next I looked to see
if I was sitting on her frock, the which tries a woman sair, but I
wasna. 'Does she want to change Bibles wi' me?' I wondered; 'or is she
sliding yont a peppermint to me?' It was neither, so I edged as far
frae her as I could gang. Weel, would you credit it, I saw her body
coming nearer me inch by inch, though she was looking straucht afore
her, till she was within kick o' me, and then out again goes her foot.
At that, dominie, I lost patience, and I whispered, fierce-like, 'Keep
your foot to yoursel', you limmer!' Ay, her intent, you see, was to
waken me to what was gaen on, but I couldna be expected to ken that."
In the vestry Hendry Munn was now holding counsel with three elders,
of whom the chief was Lang Tammas.
"The laddie I sent to the manse," Hendry said, "canna be back this
five minutes, and the question is how we're to fill up that time. I'll
ring no langer, for the bell has been in a passion ever since a
quarter-past eight. It's as sweer to clang past the quarter as a horse
to gallop by its stable."
"You could gang to your box and gie out a psalm, Tammas," suggested
John Spens.
"And would a psalm sung wi' sic an object," retorted the precentor,
"mount higher, think you, than a bairn's kite? I'll insult the
Almighty to screen no minister."
"You're screening him better by standing whaur you are," said the
imperturbable Hendry; "for as lang as you dinna show your face they'll
think it may be you that's missing instead o' Mr. Dishart."
Indeed, Gavin's appearance in church without the precentor would have
been as surprising as Tammas's without the minister. As certainly as
the shutting of a money-box is followed by the turning of the key, did
the precentor walk stiffly from the vestry to his box a toll of the
bell in front of the minister. Tammas's halfpenny rang in the plate as
Gavin passed T'nowhead's pew, and Gavin's sixpence with the
snapping-to of the precentor's door. The two men might have been
connected by a string that tightened at ten yards.
"The congregation ken me ower weel," Tammas said, "to believe I would
keep the Lord waiting."
"And they are as sure o' Mr. Dishart," rejoined Spens, with spirit,
though he feared the precentor on Sabbaths and at prayer-meetings.
"You're a hard man."
"I speak the blunt truth," Whamond answered.
"Ay," said Spens, "and to tak' credit for that may be like blawing
that you're ower honest to wear claethes."
Hendry, who had gone to the door, returned now with the information
that Mr. Dishart had left the manse two hours ago to pay visits,
meaning to come to the prayer-meeting before he returned home.
"There's a quirk in this, Hendry," said Tosh. "Was it Mistress Dishart
the laddie saw?"
[Illustration: "THE CONSULTATION OF THE ELDERS."]
"No," Hendry replied. "It was Jean. She canna get to the meeting
because the mistress is nervous in the manse by herself; and Jean
didna like to tell her that he's missing, for fear o' alarming her.
What are we to do now?"
"He's an unfaithful shepherd," cried the precentor, while Hendry again
went out. "I see it written on the walls."
"I dinna," said Spens doggedly.
"Because," retorted Tammas, "having eyes you see not."
"Tammas, I aye thocht you was fond o' Mr. Dishart."
"If my right eye were to offend me," answered the precentor, "I would
pluck it out. I suppose you think, and baith o' you farmers too, that
there's no necessity for praying for rain the nicht? You'll be
content, will ye, if Mr. Dishart just drops in to the kirk some day,
accidental-like, and offers up a bit prayer?"
"As for the rain," Spens said, triumphantly, "I wouldna wonder though
it's here afore the minister. You canna deny, Peter Tosh, that there's
been a smell o' rain in the air this twa hours back."
"John," Peter said agitatedly, "dinna speak so confidently. I've kent
it," he whispered, "since the day turned; but it wants to tak' us by
surprise, lad, and so I'm no letting on."
"See that you dinna make an idol o' the rain," thundered Whamond.
"Your thochts is no wi' Him, but wi' the clouds; and whaur your
thochts are, there will your prayers stick also."
"If you saw my lambs," Tosh began; and then, ashamed of himself, said,
looking upward, "He holds the rain in the hollow of His hand."
"And He's closing His neive ticht on't again," said the precentor
solemnly. "Hearken to the wind rising!"
"God help me!" cried Tosh, wringing his hands. "Is it fair, think
you," he said, passionately addressing the sky, "to show your wrath
wi' Mr. Dishart by ruining my neeps?"
"You were richt, Tammas Whamond," Spens said, growing hard as he
listened to the wind, "the sanctuary o' the Lord has been profaned
this nicht by him wha should be the chief pillar o' the building."
They were lowering brows that greeted Hendry when he returned to say
that Mr. Dishart had been seen last on the hill with the Glen Quharity
dominie.
"Some thinks," said the kirk officer, "that he's awa hunting for Rob
Dow."
"Nothing'll excuse him," replied Spens, "short o' his having fallen
over the quarry."
Hendry's was usually a blank face, but it must have looked troubled
now, for Tosh was about to say, "Hendry, you're keeping something
back," when the precentor said it before him.
"Wi' that story o' Mr. Dishart's murder, no many hours auld yet," the
kirk officer replied evasively, "we should be wary o' trusting
gossip."
"What hae you heard?"
"It's through the town," Hendry answered, "that a woman was wi' the
dominie."
"A woman!" cried Tosh. "The woman there's been sic talk about in
connection wi' the minister? Whaur are they now?"
"It's no kent, but--the dominie was seen goin' hame by himsel'."
"Leaving the minister and her thegither!" cried the three men at
once.
"Hendry Munn," Tammas said sternly, "there's mair about this; wha is
the woman?"
"They are liars," Hendry answered, and shut his mouth tight.
"Gie her a name, I say," the precentor ordered, "or, as chief elder of
this kirk, supported by mair than half o' the Session, I command you
to lift your hat and go."
Hendry gave an appealing look to Tosh and Spens, but the precentor's
solemnity had cowed them.
"They say, then," he answered sullenly, "that it's the Egyptian. Yes,
and I believe they ken."
The two farmers drew back from this statement incredulously; but
Tammas Whamond jumped at the kirk officer's throat, and some who were
in the church that night say they heard Hendry scream. Then the
precentor's fingers relaxed their grip, and he tottered into the
middle of the room.
"Hendry," he pleaded, holding out his arms pathetically, "tak' back
these words. Oh, man, have pity, and tak' them back!"
But Hendry would not, and then Lang Tammas's mouth worked convulsively,
and he sobbed, crying, "Nobody kent it, but mair than mortal son, O
God, I did love the lad!"
So seldom in a lifetime had any one seen into this man's heart that
Spens said, amazed:
"Tammas, Tammas Whamond, it's no like you to break down."
The rusty door of Whamond's heart swung to.
"Who broke down?" he asked fiercely. "Let no member of this Session
dare to break down till his work be done."
"What work?" Tosh said uneasily. "We canna interfere."
"I would rather resign," Spens said, but shook when Whamond hurled
these words at him:
"'And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'"
"It mayna be true," Hendry said eagerly.
"We'll soon see."
"He would gie her up," said Tosh.
"Peter Tosh," answered Whamond sternly, "I call upon you to dismiss
the congregation."
"Should we no rather haud the meeting oursel's?"
"We have other work afore us," replied the precentor.
"But what can I say?" Tosh asked nervously. "Should I offer up a
prayer?"
"I warn you all," broke in Hendry, "that though the congregation is
sitting there quietly, they'll be tigers for the meaning o' this as
soon as they're in the street."
"Let no ontruth be telled them," said the precentor. "Peter Tosh, do
your duty. John Spens, remain wi' me."
The church emptied silently, but a buzz of excitement arose outside.
Many persons tried to enter the vestry, but were ordered away, and
when Tosh joined his fellow-elders the people were collecting in
animated groups in the square, or scattering through the wynds for
news.
"And now," said the precentor, "I call upon the three o' you to come
wi' me. Hendry Munn, you gang first."
"I maun bide ahint," Hendry said, with a sudden fear, "to lock up the
kirk."
"I'll lock up the kirk," Whamond answered harshly.
"You maun gie me the keys, though," entreated the kirk officer.
"I'll take care o' the keys," said Whamond.
"I maun hae them," Hendry said, "to open the kirk on Sabbath."
The precentor locked the doors, and buttoned up the keys in his
trousers pockets.
"Wha kens," he said, in a voice of steel, "that the kirk'll be open
next Sabbath?"
"Hae some mercy on him, Tammas," Spens implored. "He's no
twa-and-twenty."
"Wha kens," continued the precentor, "but that the next time this kirk
is opened will be to preach it toom?"
"What road do we tak'?"
"The road to the hill, whaur he was seen last."
Chapter Thirty-One.