Steve Young Part 51

"She'll pit them in watter when she gets back," he said. "Hey! but it does her hairt good to rin amang the floores again."

Their party was well on ahead, and they trudged after them together along the valley, with the mountains running steeply up on either side, in places up and away to where the dull green moss and tufty growths gave way to bare patches of stones, and still up and up to where the loose stones were succeeded by rock sheathed and netted with snow. Just above this was the eternal, glittering ice, dazzling in the soft glow of the sun, whose light looked cold and calm, and gave the wondrous landscape a saddened aspect; for, in spite of its beauty and the variety of tint of the mountain-side, Steve felt that there was a something mournful about the valley, though why he could not explain.

It was singular, but every step impressed his more thoughtful companions on ahead that this was no haunt for human beings; and as they tramped on, following the windings of the valley, the impression grew stronger and stronger that theirs were the first, possibly might prove to be the last, human feet that had ever traversed this stony desert.

"She dinna see nae heather," said Watty suddenly, "an' she dinna see nae bluebell; but it's verra bonnie oot here, Meester Steve. Will ta captain be gaen far awa?"

"Oh yes, a long way yet, Watty. We've got to shoot some deer to take back."

"Eh? Shoot the deer an' tak' back! But she'll be hungry sune, and when she's shot a teer she'll mak' a fire and roast her. For she's a fine, gude cook now, and wad like to stay ash.o.r.e now and build a hoose and shoot and hunt. Wait a wee, and she'll mak' a bonnie fire."

"What of?" said Steve, laughing. "We haven't shot our deer yet; and if we had, there's no wood here."

"Thenk o' tat," said Watty, c.o.c.king his bonnet on one side to give his head a scratch. "Nae wud! She's nane sae fine a countrie as bonnie Scotland, then. Nae wud!" he continued, looking round. "But she'll find a forest over yonder?"

"No, there are no trees here."

"Then she'll mak' a fire o' peat. She'll find plenty o' turves doon alangside o' ta bilberries."

"Yes, you may find turf, and perhaps coal; but we shall see."

They had to hurry a little to overtake the party, and this was soon made easier from their halting about a mile farther inland, where the captain was gazing up the stony slope of the mountain to their left.

Steve looked up, expecting to see some particular plant or perhaps bird; but he was soon undeceived by the doctor handing his rifle to Andrew and climbing up a little way to kick off some ma.s.ses of something and throw them down.

"What has he found, Captain Marsham?" said Steve; "gold?"

"What is far more valuable to us, my lad--coal. Yes," he added, as he examined the specimen which he had picked up, "and good, soft, bituminous coal, too. Why, Steve, this is going to be a land of plenty for us. A coal vein cropping out of the cliff-side, ready for us to come with picks, sacks, and sledges to carry off as much as we like."

"She's pit petter coal than tat into the galley fire," said Watty, who had followed the example of the others and picked up a piece to examine.

"Leuks brown, Meester Stevey. Does she thenk it wud burn?"

"We'll try as soon as we get a deer to roast, Watty."

"Hey, leuk at tat!" cried the lad, as a shadow was cast upon the rock wall, and a huge owl floated by on its soft pinions, staring hard at the human visitors to its solitude with its large round eyes, and then proceeded to perch upon a ledge high above their heads, and strip and devour a speckled bird which it had in its claws.

"Hey, look at tat!" cried Watty, whose excitement bubbled over at every fresh thing he saw. "She got ta white speckled grouse fra off the mountain-side. She's seen ta grouse like tat on Ben Cruachan."

"Ptarmigan, Hands...o...b..," said the captain, as the white and browny-grey plumage of the unfortunate bird came floating down from where the eagle-owl was preparing its meal.

"Yes, ptarmigan, sure enough," said the doctor. "Come along; we must knock over a few of these if we don't find any deer. Shall I shoot the owl?"

"No, let it rest; we can't eat it, and we are too busy to care for preserving specimens. Make a note, though, of our having seen these two birds to-day. I want to make out how wide the coal seam is, and whether it would be easy to work. Here, my lad, give some one else that gun, and climb up and tell me how wide that coal is. You can get up there."

"She got oop and teukit an eagle's nest ance by Ballachulish," replied the boy; and readily enough he climbed from stone to stone, with the huge owl ceasing its preparation of its dinner and glaring down at him.

"Their tameness is shocking to me," quoted the doctor, as he saw Watty climb and the owl watch him come nearer and nearer, till all at once the great white-and-grey-plumed bird dropped the ptarmigan, made a rapid silent stoop unseen by the lad, struck at his head with claws and wings, and sailed away again silently, leaving the bonnet with its flowers falling more quickly than Watty, who lost his hold, and came rolling, scrambling, and tumbling down, till, scratched, bruised, and breathless, he fell quite at his companions' feet.

"Wha' did tat?" he shouted furiously, as he sprang up with his eyes flas.h.i.+ng; and he gazed from Steve to the doctor and back, as their anxious look changed now to one of mirth on finding that the boy was not much hurt.

"Did what?" cried Steve in suffocated tones.

"Threw a big lump of turf and knockit off her bonnet."

"Haud your whisht, laddie," growled Andrew. "Naebody threw a turf, for there isna turf to throw."

"But ta turf hit her an ta lug, and knockit off her bonnet."

"Haud your whisht, laddie; naebody threw a turf. It was the great grey geuse bird teuk her for a lamb. Hey! here she comes back."

In effect the great owl came sailing up, stooped and picked up the ptarmigan it had dropped, and went off to a ledge of the mountain higher up.

"She's spoiled a' the bonnie floores," muttered Watty, picking up his bonnet, and climbing up again to report that the coal seam was "sae wide," this measure being indicated by touching the face of the rock in two places about a foot apart; and he was about to descend when he caught sight of something away over a ridge, and pointed.

"She can see the ret-teer," he whispered. "Whisht!" Watty crept down cautiously, his actions showing that before now he must have been out in the deer forests at home; for as soon as he reached the bottom of the cliff he ran to Skene, who had been watching the owl and its prey with a curiously puzzled look as if he did not know it as a bird at home, and, dropping on one knee, he threw his left arm over the dog's neck and held his muzzle so that he should not bark.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

MISSING.

Every one stared at Watty, he was so completely transformed from the sulky, ill-conditioned lad who a.s.sisted the cook. The Scottish blood in his veins was fired by the sight of the deer and recollections of the stalking he had witnessed in his own Highlands, when he had been with one or other of the keepers, and his eyes flashed as he saw the advance made with the rifled guns.

It proved to be no laborious stalk, for the deer did not apprehend danger. The captain brought down one, the doctor another, while Steve, although he rested his heavy rifle on a stone in taking aim, missed an easy shot. He did better later on, though, for another opportunity occurred enabling him to creep within sixty yards of a buck with large spreading antlers, and he was about to fire at the animal as it stood with head erect looking round listening to a sound in the distance, when there was a hard breathing just at his shoulder.

"Watty, you here?" he said.

"Ay. She cam' to see her shute. Tak' a lang straight aim this time, laddie. Dinna miss the beastie for bonnie Scotland's sake. Quick, or she'll be gane! Tak' care; reet i' the shouther." _Bang_! "Hey, but ye het her!"

For as the report of Steve's piece rang out and echoed from the side of the mountain, and again from a ridge across the mossy plain at whose edge they wandered, the stag at which he had fired made a bound and went off at full speed, leaving the lad with his heart beating and full of disappointment.

"No, Watty, a miss; I can't shoot straight, and it's of no use trying, I only waste the cartridges."

"Got him?" came faintly from the distance, and, turning, Steve could see the doctor a couple of hundred yards away.

"No!" cried Steve gloomily; and then softly, "I can't shoot;" and he watched the disappearing stag.

"Yes, yes, yes!" yelled Watty. "Hi--yi--yi--yi--ah!"

For just as the deer was going at full speed, and a few more bounds would have taken it round a point and out of sight, it dropped suddenly, the impetus at which it had been going sending it right over and over twice; then it lay motionless, and, re-loading as he went, Steve exultantly started after his prize.

"I told her sae; I kenned she'd het her by the way the beastie rinned.

Shot recht through the hairt, laddie--recht through the hairt."

"Mind, it may only be wounded, and these things are dangerous."

"Nay, she'll never rin again," panted Watty, whom long inaction on board had made fat. "It was a bonnie lang shot, and ye ought to be verra proud."