The Eagle Cliff Part 15

There was something so pitiful, yet half amusing, in the way in which this was said, that Jackman suddenly grasped the old gentleman's hand.

"Mr MacRummle," he said firmly, "will you do me a favour?"

"Certainly, with pleasure--if I can."

"You can--and you shall. It is this: change places and rifles with me."

"My dear, kind sir, you don't know what you ask. My rifle is an old double-barrel muzzle loader, and at the white rock you wouldn't have the ghost of a chance. I know the place well, having often pa.s.sed it in fis.h.i.+ng excursions up the burns. Besides, I never used a repeating rifle in my life. I couldn't manage it, even if I were to try."

"Mr MacRummle, are you not a Highlander?"

"I believe I am!" replied the old man, drawing himself up with a smile.

"And is not that equivalent to saying that you are a man of your word?"

"Well--I suppose it is so--at least it should be so."

"But you will prove that it is not so, if you fail to do me a favour that lies in your power, after promising to do it. Come now, we have no time to lose. I will show you how to use the repeater. See; it is empty just now. All you have to do is to take aim as you would with any ordinary rifle, and pull the trigger. When the shot is off, you load again by simply doing _this_ to the trigger-guard--so. D'you understand?"

"Yes, perfectly; but is that all? no putting in of cartridges anywhere?"

"No, nothing more. Simply do _that_ (open--and the cartridge flies out), and _that_ (shut--and you are loaded and ready to fire)! Now, try it. That's it! Capital! Couldn't be better. Why, you were born to be a sportsman!"

"Yes, with fish," remarked the gratified old man, as he went through the motions of loading and firing to perfection.

"Now, then, I will load it thus. Watch me."

As he spoke, he filled the chamber under the barrel with cartridge after cartridge to the amazement of MacRummle and the amus.e.m.e.nt of Quin, who looked on.

"How many shots will it fire without reloading?" asked the old man at length.

"Sixteen," replied Jackman.

"What! sixteen? But--but how will I ever know how many I've let off?"

"You don't require to know. Just blaze away till it refuses to fire!

Now, I must be off. Where is this white rock that I have to go to?"

"There it is--look. A good bit down the hill, on the open ground near the forest. If you have good eyes, you can see it from here. Look, just behind the ridge. D'you see?"

"I see. Great luck to you. Do good work, and teach that rascal Ivor to respect your powers with the rifle. Come along, Quin."

"But really, my young friend, it is too good, too self-denying of you to--"

He stopped, for Jackman and Quin were already striding down the mountain on their way to the white rock.

MacRummle had been somewhat excited by the enthusiasm of his young friend and the novelty of his situation. To say truth, he would much rather have been pottering along the banks of one of his loved Highland streams, rod in hand, than crouching in the best pa.s.s of the Eagle Cliff in expectation of red-deer; but being an amiable and sympathetic man, he had been fired by the enthusiasm of the household that morning, and, seeing that all were going to the drive, including the laird, he made up his mind to brace himself up to the effort, and float with the current.

His enthusiasm had not cooled when he reached the Eagle Cliff, and Jackman's kindness, coupled with hope and the repeating rifle, increased it even to white heat. In which condition he sat down on a rock, removed his hat, and wiped his bald, perspiring head, while a benignant smile illuminated his glowing features.

About the same time, Barret and Junkie having selected a convenient ma.s.s of rock as their outlook, so that they could command the pa.s.s for some distance in both directions without exposing themselves to view, rested the rifle against the cliff and began to talk. Soon the young man discovered that the little boy, like many other mischievous boys, was of an exceedingly inquiring disposition. Among other things, he not only began an intelligent inquiry about the locks of a rifle, but a practical inquiry with his fingers, which called for remonstrance.

"Do you know, Junkie, that this is the very spot where your Cousin Milly fell?" said Barret, by way of directing the urchin's thoughts into a safer channel.

"Is it? Oh, dear, _what_ a thump she must have come down!"

"Yes, indeed, a dreadful thump--poor thing. She was trying to get flowers at the time. Do you know that she is exceedingly fond of flowers?"

"Oh, don't I? She's got books full of them--all pasted in with names printed under them. I often wonder what she sees in flowers to be so fond of them. I don't care a b.u.t.ton for them myself, unless they smell nice. But I often scramble after them for her."

"There is a good deal to like in flowers besides the smell," said Barret, a.s.suming an instructive tone, which Junkie resented on the spot.

"Oh, yes, I don't want to know; you needn't try to teach me," he said, firmly.

"Of course not. I wouldn't think of teaching you, my boy. You know I'm not a schoolmaster. I'm not clever enough for that, and when I was your age, I hated to be taught. But I could _show_ you some things about flowers and plants that would astonish you. Only it would not be safe to do it just now, for the deer might come up and--"

"No they won't," interrupted the boy; "it's a monstrous big wood they've got to pa.s.s through before they can come here, so we have time to look at some of the 'stonis.h.i.+n' things."

"Well, then, come. We will just go a little way up the cliff."

Leading Junkie away among the ma.s.ses of fallen rock, which strewed that ledge of the cliff, the wily youth began to examine plants and flowers minutely, and to gradually arouse in the boy's mind an interest in such parts of botanical science as he was capable of understanding.

Meanwhile the small army of beaters had extended themselves across the distant end of the forest, which, being some miles off, and on the other side of a great shoulder of the mountain, was not only out of sight, but out of hearing of the stalkers who watched the pa.s.ses of the Eagle Cliff.

All the beaters, or drivers, were well acquainted with the work they had to do, with the exception of Robin Tips, to whom, of course, it was quite new. But Ian Anderson put him under Donald's care, with strict injunctions to look well after him.

"Now, Tonal', see that ye don't draw together an' git ta-alkin' so as to forget what ye're about. Keep him at the right distance away from ye, an' as much in line as ye can."

"Oo, ay," returned ragged head, in a tone that meant, when translated into familiar English, "Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs!"

In a sequestered dell on the slope of the hills, a lordly stag and several hinds were enjoying themselves that morning among the bracken and bright mosses, partially screened from the sun by the over-arching boughs of birch and hazel, and solaced by the tinkling music of a neighbouring rill. Thick underwood concealed the dell on all sides; grey lichen-covered boulders surrounded it; no sound disturbed it save the faint cry of the plover and curlew on the distant sh.o.r.e, or the flap of a hawk's wing as it soared overhead. Altogether it looked like a safe and sure retreat, but it did not prove to be so.

Mingled with the plaintive cries of the wild fowl, there came a faint-- barely perceptible--sound of the human voice. The stag p.r.i.c.ked up his ears, and raised his antlered head. It was by no means a new sound to him. The shepherd's voice calling to his collie on the mountain-side was a familiar sound, that experience had taught him boded no evil. The converse of friends as they plodded along the roads or foot-paths that often skirted his lairs, had a tone of innocence about it which only induced caution--not alarm. But there was nothing of this in the sounds that now met his ears. He raised himself higher, opened his nostrils wider, sniffed the tainted air, and then, turning his graceful head, made some remark--we presume, though we cannot be positive on this point--to his wives.

These, meek and gentle--as females usually are, or ought to be--turned their soft inquiring gaze on their lord. Thus they stood, as if spell-bound, while the sounds slowly but steadily increased in volume and approached their retreat. Presently a shoulder of the mountain was turned by the drivers, and their discordant voices came down on the gentle breeze with unmistakable significance.

We regret being unable to report exactly what the stag then said to his wives, but the result was that the entire family bounded from their retreat, and, in the hurry and alarm of the moment, scattered along various glades, all of which, however, trended ultimately towards those mountain fastnesses that exist about and beyond the Eagle Cliff.

Two of the hinds followed their lord in a direction which led them out of the wood within sight of, though a considerable distance from, the white rock behind which Jackman and Quin were concealed. The others fled by tracks somewhat higher on the hill-sides, where however, as the reader knows, the enemy was posted to intercept them.

"Sure it's a purty stag, afther all," whispered Quin, who, in spite of elephantine-Indian sport, was somewhat excited by this sudden appearance of the Scottish red-deer. "But they're a long way off, sor."

"Not too far, if the rifle is true," said Jackman, in a very low voice, as he put up the long-range sight.

"You'll git a good chance at the stag whin he tops the hillock forenent you, sor," remarked the somewhat garrulous Irishman.

"I won't fire at the stag, Quin," returned Jackman, quietly. "You and I have surely killed enough of bigger game abroad. We can afford to let the stag pa.s.s on to our friends higher up, some of whom have never seen a red-deer before, and may never have a chance of seeing one again."

All this was said by the sportsman in a low, soft voice, which could not have been heard three yards off, yet his sharp eye was fixed intently on the pa.s.sing deer. Seeing that there was no likelihood of their coming nearer, he raised his rifle, took steady but quick aim, and fired. One of the hinds dropped at once; the other followed her terrified lord as he dashed wildly up the slope.