DOUGAL
"You'll do nothing of the kind," said Dickson. "You're coming home to
your supper. It was to be on the chap of nine."
"I'm going back to that place."
The man was clearly demented and must be humoured. "Well, you must wait
till the morn's morning. It's very near dark now, and those are two ugly
customers wandering about yonder. You'd better sleep the night on it."
Mr. Heritage seemed to be persuaded. He suffered himself to be led up
the now dusky slopes to the gate where the road from the village ended.
He walked listlessly like a man engaged in painful reflection. Once only
he broke the silence.
"You heard the singing?" he asked.
Dickson was a very poor hand at a lie. "I heard something," he admitted.
"You heard a girl's voice singing?"
"It sounded like that," was the admission. "But I'm thinking it might
have been a seagull."
"You're a fool," said the Poet rudely.
The return was a melancholy business, compared to the bright speed of
the outward journey. Dickson's mind was a chaos of feelings, all of them
unpleasant. He had run up against something which he violently, blindly
detested, and the trouble was that he could not tell why. It was all
perfectly absurd, for why on earth should an ugly house, some overgrown
trees and a couple of ill-favoured servants so malignly affect him? Yet
this was the fact; he had strayed out of Arcady into a sphere that
filled him with revolt and a nameless fear. Never in his experience had
he felt like this, this foolish childish panic which took all the colour
and zest out of life. He tried to laugh at himself but failed. Heritage,
stumbling alone by his side, effectually crushed his effort to discover
humour in the situation. Some exhalation from that infernal place had
driven the Poet mad. And then that voice singing! A seagull, he had
said. More like a nightingale, he reflected--a bird which in the flesh
he had never met.
Mrs. Morran had the lamp lit and a fire burning in her cheerful kitchen.
The sight of it somewhat restored Dickson's equanimity, and to his
surprise he found that he had an appetite for supper. There was new
milk, thick with cream, and most of the dainties which had appeared at
tea, supplemented by a noble dish of shimmering "potted-head." The
hostess did not share their meal, being engaged in some duties in the
little cubby-hole known as the back kitchen.
Heritage drank a glass of milk but would not touch food.
"I called this place Paradise four hours ago," he said. "So it is, but I
fancy it is next door to Hell. There is something devilish going on
inside that park wall and I mean to get to the bottom of it."
"Hoots! Nonsense!" Dickson replied with affected cheerfulness.
"To-morrow you and me will take the road for Auchenlochan. We needn't
trouble ourselves about an ugly old house and a wheen impident
lodge-keepers."
"To-morrow I'm going to get inside the place. Don't come unless you
like, but it's no use arguing with me. My mind is made up."
Heritage cleared a space on the table and spread out a section of a
large-scale Ordnance map.
"I must clear my head about the topography, the same as if this were a
battle-ground. Look here, Dogson.... The road past the inn that we went
by to-night runs north and south." He tore a page from a note-book and
proceeded to make a rough sketch.[1]... "One end we know abuts on the
Laver glen, and the other stops at the South Lodge. Inside the wall
which follows the road is a long belt of plantation--mostly beeches and
ash--then to the west a kind of park, and beyond that the lawns of the
house. Strips of plantation with avenues between follow the north and
south sides of the park. On the sea side of the House are the stables
and what looks like a walled garden, and beyond them what seems to be
open ground with an old dovecot marked and the ruins of Huntingtower
keep. Beyond that there is more open ground, till you come to the cliffs
of the cape. Have you got that?... It looks possible from the contouring
to get on to the sea cliffs by following the Laver, for all that side
is broken up into ravines.... But look at the other side--the Garple
glen. It's evidently a deep-cut gully, and at the bottom it opens out
into a little harbour. There's deep water there, you observe. Now the
House on the south side--the Garple side--is built fairly close to the
edge of the cliffs. Is that all clear in your head? We can't reconnoitre
unless we've got a working notion of the lie of the land."
[Footnote 1: The reader is referred to the improved version of Mr.
Heritage's sketch reproduced as a frontispiece.]
Dickson was about to protest that he had no intention of reconnoitring,
when a hubbub arose in the back kitchen. Mrs. Morran's voice was heard
in shrill protest.
"Ye ill laddie! Eh--ye--ill--laddie! [_crescendo_] Makin' a hash o' my
back door wi' your dirty feet! What are ye slinkin' roond here for, when
I tell't ye this mornin' that I wad sell ye nae mair scones till ye paid
for the last lot? Ye're a wheen thievin' hungry callants, and if there
were a polisman in the place I'd gie ye in chairge.... What's that ye
say? Ye're no' wantin' meat? Ye want to speak to the gentlemen that's
bidin' here? Ye ken the auld ane, says you? I believe it's a muckle lee,
but there's the gentlemen to answer ye theirsels."
Mrs. Morran, brandishing a dishclout dramatically, flung open the door,
and with a vigorous push propelled into the kitchen a singular figure.
It was a stunted boy, who from his face might have been fifteen years
old, but had the stature of a child of twelve. He had a thatch of fiery
red hair above a pale freckled countenance. His nose was snub, his eyes
a sulky grey-green, and his wide mouth disclosed large and damaged
teeth. But remarkable as was his visage, his clothing was still
stranger. On his head was the regulation Boy Scout hat, but it was
several sizes too big, and was squashed down upon his immense red ears.
He wore a very ancient khaki shirt, which had once belonged to a
full-grown soldier, and the spacious sleeves were rolled up at the
shoulders and tied with string, revealing a pair of skinny arms. Round
his middle hung what was meant to be a kilt--a kilt of home manufacture,
which may once have been a tablecloth, for its bold pattern suggested no
known clan tartan. He had a massive belt, in which was stuck a broken
gully-knife, and round his neck was knotted the remnant of what had once
been a silk bandana. His legs and feet were bare, blue, scratched, and
very dirty, and his toes had the prehensile look common to monkeys and
small boys who summer and winter go bootless. In his hand was a long
ash-pole, new cut from some coppice.
The apparition stood glum and lowering on the kitchen floor. As Dickson
stared at it he recalled Mearns Street and the band of irregular Boy
Scouts who paraded to the roll of tin cans. Before him stood Dougal,
Chieftain of the Gorbals Die-Hards. Suddenly he remembered the
philanthropic Mackintosh, and his own subscription of ten pounds to the
camp fund. It pleased him to find the rascals here, for in the
unpleasant affairs on the verge of which he felt himself they were a
comforting reminder of the peace of home.
"I'm glad to see you, Dougal," he said pleasantly. "How are you all
getting on?" And then, with a vague reminiscence of the Scouts'
code--"Have you been minding to perform a good deed every day?"
The Chieftain's brow darkened.
"'_Good deeds!_'" he repeated bitterly. "I tell ye I'm fair wore out wi'
good deeds. Yon man Mackintosh tell't me this was going to be a grand
holiday. Holiday! Govey Dick! It's been like a Setterday night in Main
Street--a' fechtin', fechtin'."
No collocation of letters could reproduce Dougal's accent, and I will
not attempt it. There was a touch of Irish in it, a spice of music-hall
patter, as well as the odd lilt of the Glasgow vernacular. He was strong
in vowels, but the consonants, especially the letter "t," were only
aspirations.
"Sit down and let's hear about things," said Dickson.
The boy turned his head to the still open back door, where Mrs. Morran
could be heard at her labours. He stepped across and shut it. "I'm no'
wantin' that auld wife to hear," he said. Then he squatted down on the
patchwork rug by the hearth, and warmed his blue-black shins. Looking
into the glow of the fire, he observed, "I seen you two up by the Big
Hoose the night."
"The devil you did," said Heritage, roused to a sudden attention. "And
where were you?"
"Seven feet from your head, up a tree. It's my chief hidy-hole, and
Gosh! I need one, for Lean's after me wi' a gun. He got a shot at me
two days syne."
Dickson exclaimed, and Dougal with morose pride showed a rent in his
kilt. "If I had had on breeks, he'd ha' got me."
"Who's Lean?" Heritage asked.
"The man wi' the black coat. The other--the lame one--they ca' Spittal."
"How d'you know?"
"I've listened to them crackin' thegither."
"But what for did the man want to shoot at you?" asked the scandalised
Dickson.
"What for? Because they're frightened to death o' onybody going near
their auld Hoose. They're a pair of deevils, worse nor any Red Indian,
but for a' that they're sweatin' wi' fright. What for? says you. Because
they're hidin' a Secret. I knew it as soon as I seen the man Lean's
face. I once seen the same kind o' scoondrel at the Picters. When he
opened his mouth to swear, I kenned he was a foreigner, like the lads
down at the Broomielaw. That looked black, but I hadn't got at the worst
of it. Then he loosed off at me wi' his gun."
"Were you not feared?" said Dickson.
"Ay, I was feared. But ye'll no' choke off the Gorbals Die-Hards wi' a
gun. We held a meetin' round the camp fire, and we resolved to get to
the bottom o' the business. Me bein' their Chief, it was my duty to make
what they ca' a reckonissince, for that was the dangerous job. So a'
this day I've been going on my belly about thae policies. I've found
out some queer things."
Heritage had risen and was staring down at the small squatting figure.
"What have you found out? Quick. Tell me at once." His voice was sharp
and excited.
"Bide a wee," said the unwinking Dougal. "I'm no' going to let ye into
this business till I ken that ye'll help. It's a far bigger job than I
thought. There's more in it than Lean and Spittal. There's the big man
that keeps the public--Dobson, they ca' him. He's a Namerican, which
looks bad. And there's two-three tinklers campin' down in the Garple
Dean. They're in it, for Dobson was colloguin' wi' them a' mornin'. When
I seen ye, I thought ye were more o' the gang, till I mindit that one o'
ye was auld McCunn that has the shop in Mearns Street. I seen that ye
didn't like the look o' Lean, and I followed ye here, for I was thinkin'
I needit help."
Heritage plucked Dougal by the shoulder and lifted him to his feet.
"For God's sake, boy," he cried, "tell us what you know!"
"Will ye help?"
"Of course, you little fool."
"Then swear," said the ritualist. From a grimy wallet he extracted a
limp little volume which proved to be a damaged copy of a work entitled
_Sacred Songs and Solos_. "Here! Take that in your right hand and put
your left hand on my pole, and say after me, 'I swear no' to blab what
is telled me in secret and to be swift and sure in obeyin' orders,
s'help me God!' Syne kiss the bookie."
Dickson at first refused, declaring it was all havers, but Heritage's
docility persuaded him to follow suit. The two were sworn.
"Now," said Heritage.
Dougal squatted again on the hearth-rug, and gathered the eyes of his
audience. He was enjoying himself.
"This day," he said slowly, "I got inside the Hoose."
"Stout fellow," said Heritage; "and what did you find there?"
"I got inside that Hoose, but it wasn't once or twice I tried. I found a
corner where I was out o' sight o' anybody unless they had come there
seekin' me, and I sklimmed up a rone pipe, but a' the windies were
lockit and I verra near broke my neck. Syne I tried the roof, and a sore
sklim I had, but when I got there there were no skylights. At the end I
got in by the coal-hole. That's why ye're maybe thinkin' I'm no' very
clean."
Heritage's patience was nearly exhausted.
"I don't want to hear how you got in. What did you find, you little
devil?"
"Inside the Hoose," said Dougal slowly (and there was a melancholy sense
of anti-climax in his voice, as of one who had hoped to speak of gold
and jewels and armed men)--"inside that Hoose there's nothing but two
women."
Heritage sat down before him with a stern face.
"Describe them," he commanded.
"One o' them is dead auld, as auld as the wife here. She didn't look to
me very right in the head."
"And the other?"
"Oh, just a lassie."
"What was she like?"
Dougal seemed to be searching for adequate words. "She is ..." he began.
Then a popular song gave him inspiration. "She's pure as the lully in
the dell!"
In no way discomposed by Heritage's fierce interrogatory air, he
continued: "She's either foreign or English, for she couldn't understand
what I said, and I could make nothing o' her clippit tongue. But I could
see she had been greetin'. She looked feared, yet kind o' determined. I
speired if I could do anything for her, and when she got my meaning she
was terrible anxious to ken if I had seen a man--a big man, she said,
wi' a yellow beard. She didn't seem to ken his name, or else she
wouldn't tell me. The auld wife was mortal feared, and was aye speakin'
in a foreign langwidge. I seen at once that what frightened them was
Lean and his friends, and I was just starting to speir about them when
there came a sound like a man walkin' along the passage. She was for
hidin' me in behind a sofy, but I wasn't going to be trapped like that,
so I got out by the other door and down the kitchen stairs and into the
coal-hole. Gosh, it was a near thing!"
The boy was on his feet. "I must be off to the camp to give out the
orders for the morn. I'm going back to that Hoose, for it's a fight
atween the Gorbals Die-Hards and the scoundrels that are frightenin'
thae women. The question is, Are ye comin' with me? Mind, ye've sworn.
But if ye're no', I'm going mysel', though I'll no' deny I'd be glad o'
company. _You_ anyway----" he added, nodding at Heritage. "Maybe auld
McCunn wouldn't get through the coal-hole."
"You're an impident laddie," said the outraged Dickson. "It's no' likely
we're coming with you. Breaking into other folks' houses! It's a job for
the police!"
"Please yersel'," said the Chieftain and looked at Heritage.
"I'm on," said that gentleman.
"Well, just you set out the morn as if ye were for a walk up the Garple
glen. I'll be on the road and I'll have orders for ye."
Without more ado Dougal left by way of the back kitchen. There was a
brief denunciation from Mrs. Morran, then the outer door banged and he
was gone.
The Poet sat still with his head in his hands, while Dickson, acutely
uneasy, prowled about the floor. He had forgotten even to light his
pipe.
"You'll not be thinking of heeding that ragamuffin boy," he ventured.
"I'm certainly going to get into the House to-morrow," Heritage
answered, "and if he can show me a way so much the better. He's a
spirited youth. Do you breed many like him in Glasgow?"
"Plenty," said Dickson sourly. "See here, Mr. Heritage. You can't
expect me to be going about burgling houses on the word of a blagyird
laddie. I'm a respectable man--aye been. Besides, I'm here for a
holiday, and I've no call to be mixing myself up in strangers' affairs."
"You haven't. Only, you see, I think there's a friend of mine in that
place, and anyhow there are women in trouble. If you like, we'll say
good-bye after breakfast, and you can continue as if you had never
turned aside to this damned peninsula. But I've got to stay."
Dickson groaned. What had become of his dream of idylls, his gentle
bookish romance? Vanished before a reality which smacked horribly of
crude melodrama and possibly of sordid crime. His gorge rose at the
picture, but a thought troubled him. Perhaps all romance in its hour of
happening was rough and ugly like this, and only shone rosy in the
retrospect. Was he being false to his deepest faith?
"Let's have Mrs. Morran in," he ventured. "She's a wise old body and I'd
like to hear her opinion of this business. We'll get common sense from
her."
"I don't object," said Heritage. "But no amount of common sense will
change my mind."
Their hostess forestalled them by returning at that moment to the
kitchen.
"We want your advice, mistress," Dickson told her, and accordingly, like
a barrister with a client, she seated herself carefully in the big easy
chair, found and adjusted her spectacles, and waited with hands folded
on her lap to hear the business. Dickson narrated their pre-supper
doings, and gave a sketch of Dougal's evidence. His exposition was
cautious and colourless, and without conviction. He seemed to expect a
robust incredulity in his hearer.
Mrs. Morran listened with the gravity of one in church. When Dickson
finished she seemed to meditate.
"There's no blagyird trick that would surprise me in thae new folk.
What's that ye ca' them--Lean and Spittal? Eppie Home threepit to me
they were furriners and these are no furrin names."
"What I want to hear from you, Mrs. Morran," said Dickson impressively,
"is whether you think there's anything in that boy's story?"
"I think it's maist likely true. He's a terrible impident callant, but
he's no' a leear."
"Then you think that a gang of ruffians have got two lone women shut up
in that House for their own purposes?"
"I wadna wonder."
"But it's ridiculous! This is a Christian and law-abiding country. What
would the police say?"
"They never troubled Dalquharter muckle. There's no' a polisman nearer
than Knockraw--yin Johnnie Trummle, and he's as useless as a frostit
tattie."
"The wiselike thing, as I think," said Dickson, "would be to turn the
Procurator-Fiscal on to the job. It's his business, no' ours."
"Weel, I wadna say but ye're richt," said the lady.
"What would you do if you were us?" Dickson's tone was subtly
confidential. "My friend here wants to get into the House the morn with
that red-haired laddie to satisfy himself about the facts. I say no. Let
sleeping dogs lie, I say, and if you think the beasts are mad report to
the authorities. What would you do yourself?"
"If I were you," came the emphatic reply, "I would tak' the first train
hame the morn, and when I got hame I wad bide there. Ye're a dacent
body, but ye're no' the kind to be traivellin' the roads."
"And if you were me?" Heritage asked with his queer crooked smile.
"If I was a young and yauld like you I wad gang into the Hoose, and I
wadna rest till I had riddled oot the truith and jyled every scoondrel
about the place. If ye dinna gang, 'faith I'll kilt my coats and gang
mysel'. I havena served the Kennedys for forty year no' to hae the
honour o' the Hoose at my hert.... Ye speired my advice, sirs, and ye've
gotten it. Now I maun clear awa' your supper."
Dickson asked for a candle, and, as on the previous night, went abruptly
to bed. The oracle of prudence to which he had appealed had betrayed him
and counselled folly. But was it folly? For him, assuredly, for Dickson
McCunn, late of Mearns Street, Glasgow, wholesale and retail provision
merchant, elder in the Guthrie Memorial Kirk, and fifty-five years of
age. Ay, that was the rub. He was getting old. The woman had seen it and
had advised him to go home. Yet the plea was curiously irksome, though
it gave him the excuse he needed. If you played at being young, you had
to take up the obligations of youth, and he thought derisively of his
boyish exhilaration of the past days. Derisively, but also sadly. What
had become of that innocent joviality he had dreamed of, that happy
morning pilgrimage of Spring enlivened by tags from the poets? His
goddess had played him false. Romance had put upon him too hard a trial.
He lay long awake, torn between common sense and a desire to be loyal to
some vague whimsical standard. Heritage a yard distant appeared also to
be sleepless, for the bed creaked with his turning. Dickson found
himself envying one whose troubles, whatever they might be, were not
those of a divided mind.