Bob, Son of Battle Page 19

  Chapter XIX. LAD AND LASS

  AN immense sensation this affair of the Scoop created in the Daleland.It spurred the Dalesmen into fresh endeavors. James Moore and M'Adamwere examined and re-examined as to the minutest details of the matter.The whole country-side was placarded with huge bills, offering 100pounds reward for the capture of the criminal dead or alive. While thevigilance of the watchers was such that in a single week they bagged adonkey, an old woman, and two amateur detectives.

  In Wastrel-dale the near escape of the Killer, the collision betweenJames Moore and Adam, and Owd Bob's unsuccess, who was not wont to fail,aroused intense excitement, with which was mingled a certain anxiety asto their favorite.

  For when the Master had reached home that night, he had found the olddog already there; and he must have wrenched his foot in the pursuit orrun a thorn into it, for he was very lame. Whereat, when it was reportedat the Sylvester Arms, M'Adam winked at Red Wull and muttered, "Ah,forty foot is an ugly tumble."

  A week later the little man called at Kenmuir. As he entered the yard,David was standing outside the kitchen window, looking very glum andmiserable. On seeing his father, however, the boy started forward, allalert.

  "What d'yo' want here?" he cried roughly.

  "Same as you, dear lad," the little man giggled, advancing. "I come on avisit."

  "Your visits to Kenmuir are usually paid by night, so I've heard," Davidsneered.

  The little man affected not to hear.

  "So they dinna allow ye indoors wi' the Cup," he laughed. "They know yerlittle ways then, David."

  "Nay, I'm not wanted in there," David answered bitterly, but not so loudthat his father could hear. Maggie within the kitchen heard, however,but paid no heed; for her heart was hard against the boy, who of late,though he never addressed her, had made himself as unpleasant in athousand little ways as only David M'Adam could.

  At that moment the Master came stalking into the yard, Owd Bobpreceding him; and as the old dog recognized his visitor he bristledinvoluntarily.

  At the sight of the Master M'Adam hurried forward.

  "I did but come to ask after the tyke," he said, "Is he gettin' over hislameness?"

  James Moore looked surprised; then his stern face relaxed into a cordialsmile. Such generous anxiety as to the welfare of Red Wull's rival was awholly new characteristic in the little man.

  "I tak' it kind in yo', M'Adam," he said, "to come and inquire."

  "Is the thorn oot?" asked the little man with eager interest, shootinghis head forward to stare closely at the other.

  "It came oot last night wi' the poulticin'," the Master answered,returning the other's gaze, calm and steady.

  "I'm glad o' that," said the little man, still staring. But his yellow,grinning face said as plain words, "What a liar ye are, James Moore."

  * * * * *

  The days passed on. His father's taunts and gibes, always becoming morebitter, drove David almost to distraction.

  He longed to make it up with Maggie; he longed for that tender sympathywhich the girl had always extended to him when his troubles with hisfather were heavy on him. The quarrel had lasted for months now, andhe was well weary of it, and utterly ashamed. For, at least, he had thegood grace to acknowledge that no one was to blame but himself; and thatit had been fostered solely by his ugly pride.

  At length he could endure it no longer, and determined to go to thegirl and ask forgiveness. It would be a bitter ordeal to him; alwaysunwilling to acknowledge a fault, even to himself, how much harder wouldit be to confess it to this strip of a girl. For a time he thought itwas almost more than he could do. Yet, like his father, once set upona course, nothing could divert him. So, after a week of doubts anddeterminations, of cowardice and courage, he pulled himself together andoff he set.

  An hour it took him from the Grange to the bridge over the Wastrel--anhour which had wont to be a quarter. Now, as he walked on up the slopefrom the stream, very slowly, heartening himself for his penance, he wasaware of a strange disturbance in the yard above him: the noisy cacklingof hens, the snorting of pigs disturbed, and above the rest the cry of alittle child ringing out in shrill distress.

  He set to running, and sped up the slope as fast as his long legs wouldcarry him. As he took the gate in his stride, he saw the white-cladfigure of Wee Anne fleeing with unsteady, toddling steps, her fair hairstreaming out behind, and one bare arm striking wildly back at a greatpursuing sow.

  David shouted as he cleared the gate, but the brute paid no heed, andwas almost touching the fugitive when Owd Bob came galloping round thecorner, and in a second had flashed between pursuer and pursued. Soclose were the two that as he swung round on the startled sow, his tailbrushed the baby to the ground; and there she lay kicking fat legs toheaven and calling on all her gods.

  David, leaving the old dog to secure the warrior pig, ran round to her;but he was anticipated. The whole matter had barely occupied a minute'stime; and Maggie, rushing from the kitchen, now had the child in herarms and was hurrying back with her to the house.

  "Eh, ma pet, are yo' hurted, dearie?" David could hear her askingtearfully, as he crossed the yard and established himself in the door.

  "Well," said he, in bantering tones, "yo'm a nice wench to ha' charge o'oor Annie!"

  It was a sore subject with the girl, and well he knew it. Wee Anne, thatgolden-haired imp of mischief, was forever evading her sister-mother'seye and attempting to immolate herself. More than once she had only beensaved from serious hurt by the watchful devotion of Owd Bob, who alwaysfound time, despite his many labors, to keep a guardian eye on hiswell-loved lassie. In the previous winter she had been lost on a bitternight on the Muir Pike; once she had climbed into a field with theHighland bull, and barely escaped with her life, while the gray dog heldthe brute in check; but a little while before she had been rescued fromdrowning by the Tailless Tyke; there had been numerous other mischances;and now the present mishap. But the girl paid no heed to her tormentorin her joy at finding the child all unhurt.

  "Theer! yo' bain't so much as scratted, ma precious, is yo'?" she cried."Rin oot agin, then," and the baby toddled joyfully away.

  Maggie rose to her feet and stood with face averted. David's eyes dweltlovingly upon her, admiring the pose of the neat head with its thatch ofpretty brown hair; the slim figure, and slender ankles, peeping modestlyfrom beneath her print frock.

  "Ma word! if yo' dad should hear tell o' hoo his Anne--" he broke offinto a long-drawn whistle.

  Maggie kept silence; but her lips quivered, and the flush deepened onher cheek.

  "I'm fear'd I'll ha' to tell him," the boy continued, "'Tis but maduty."

  "Yo' may tell wham yo' like what yo' like," the girl replied coldly; yetthere was a tremor in her voice.

  "First yo' throws her in the stream," David went on remorselessly; "thenyo' chucks her to the pig, and if it had not bin for me--"

  "Yo', indeed!" she broke in contemptuously. "Yo'! 'twas Owd Bob reskiedher. Yo'd nowt' to do wi' it, 'cept lookin' on--'bout what yo're fitfor."

  "I tell yo'," David pursued stubbornly, "an it had not bin for me yo'wouldn't have no sister by noo. She'd be lyin', she would, pore littlelass, cold as ice, pore mite, wi' no breath in her. An' when yo' dadcoom home there'd be no Wee Anne to rin to him, and climb on his knee,and yammer to him, and beat his face. An he'd say, 'What's gotten to oorAnnie, as I left wi' yo'?' And then yo'd have to tell him, 'I never tookno manner o' fash after her, dad; d'reckly yo' back was turned, I--'"

  The girl sat down, buried her face in her apron, and indulged in therare luxury of tears.

  "Yo're the cruellest mon as iver was, David M'Adam," she sobbed, rockingto and fro.

  He was at her side in a moment, tenderly bending over her.

  "Eh, Maggie, but I am sorry, lass--"

  She wrenched away from beneath his hands.

  "I hate yo'," she cried passionately.

  He gently removed her hands from before her tea
r-stained face.

  "I was nob'but laffin', Maggie," he pleaded; "say yo' forgie me."

  "I don't," she cried, struggling. "I think yo're the hatefullest lad asiver lived."

  The moment was critical; it was a time for heroic measures.

  "No, yo' don't, lass," he remonstrated; and, releasing her wrists,lifted the little drooping face, wet as it was, like the earth aftera spring shower, and, holding it between his two big hands, kissed ittwice.

  "Yo' coward!" she cried, a flood of warm red crimsoning her cheeks; andshe struggled vainly to be free.

  "Yo' used to let me," he reminded her in aggrieved tones.

  "I niver did!" she cried, more indignant than truthful.

  "Yes, yo' did, when we was little uns; that is, yo' was allus forkissin' and I was allus agin it. And noo," with whole-souled bitterness,"I mayn't so much as keek at yo' over a stone wall."

  However that might be, he was keeking at her from closer range now; andin that position--for he held her firmly still--she could not helpbut keek back. He looked so handsome--humble for once; penitent yetreproachful; his own eyes a little moist; and, withal, his old audaciousself--that, despite herself, her anger grew less hot.

  "Say yo' forgie me and I'll let yo' go."

  "I don't, nor niver shall," she answered firmly; but there was lessconviction in her heart than voice.

  "Iss yo' do, lass," he coaxed, and kissed her again.

  She struggled faintly.

  "Hoo daur yo'?" she cried through her tears. But he was not to be moved.

  "Will yo' noo?" he asked.

  She remained dumb, and he kissed her again.

  "Impidence!" she cried.

  "Ay," said he, closing her mouth.

  "I wonder at ye, Davie!" she said, surrendering.

  * * * * *

  After that Maggie must needs give in; and it was well understood, thoughnothing definite had been said, that the boy and girl were courting. Andin the Dale the unanimous opinion was that the young couple would make"a gradely pair, surely."

  M'Adam was the last person to hear the news, long after it had beencommon knowledge in the village. It was in the Sylvester Arms he firstheard it, and straightway fell into one of those foaming frenziescharacteristic of him.

  "The dochter o' Moore o' Kenmuir, d'ye say? sic a dochter o' sic a man!The dochter o' th' one man in the warld that's harmed me aboon the rest!I'd no ha' believed it gin ye'd no tell't me. Oh, David, David! I'd noha' thocht it even o' you, ill son as ye've aye bin to me. I think hemight ha' waited till his auld dad was gone, and he'd no had to waitlang the noo." Then the little man sat down and burst into tears.Gradually, however, he resigned himself, and the more readily when herealized that David by his act had exposed a fresh wound into which hemight plunge his barbed shafts. And he availed himself to the fullof his new opportunities. Often and often David was sore pressed torestrain himself.

  "Is't true what they're sayin' that Maggie Moore's nae better than sheshould be?" the little man asked one evening with anxious interest.

  "They're not sayin' so, and if they were 'twad be a lie," the boyanswered angrily.

  M'Adam leant back in his chair and nodded his head.

  "Ay, they tell't me that gin ony man knew 'twad be David M'Adam."

  David strode across the room.

  "No, no mair o' that," he shouted. "Y'ought to be 'shamed, an owd monlike you, to speak so o' a lass." The little man edged close up to hisson, and looked up into the fair flushed face towering above him.

  "David," he said in smooth soft tones, "I'm 'stonished ye dinna strikeyen auld dad." He stood with his hands clasped behind his back as ifdaring the young giant to raise a finger against him. "Ye maist mightnoo," he continued suavely. "Ye maun be sax inches taller, and a goodfour stane heavier. Hooiver, aiblins ye're wise to wait. Anither yeartwa I'll be an auld man, as ye say, and feebler, and Wullie here'll begettin' on, while you'll be in the prime o' yer strength. Then I thinkye might hit me wi' safety to your person, and honor to yourself."

  He took a pace back, smiling.

  "Feyther," said David, huskily, "one day yo'll drive me too far."