CHAPTER XLIII
COLL O' THE COWS
Then, almost before Wat and Scarlett had time to draw their swordsand stand on the defensive, they in their turn became the centre ofall the noise in the village. Steel flashed in plenty all about, andhalf a score of wild men crouched and "hunkered" round them waitingfor the chance to spring. But with Walter Gordon and Jack Scarlettstanding back to back, each with a long sword in one hand and a pistolin the other, it was not easy for the most alert to find an unprotectedopening.
Meanwhile the tall, dark man, who had the manifest air of a chief,walked leisurely towards them and stood looking on at the affray.
"Sir!" cried Wat, "call off your men, and permit us to explain ourpresence."
But the man vouchsafed not a word in reply, only stood and looked overthe heads of his men at Scarlett's legs.
"Why, man!" he cried, at length, "ye should be for the Good Cause; yehave gotten the King of France's boots on!"
"Aye," said Scarlett, instantly dropping his point; "certainly we arefor the Good Cause. Truly, also, I have the King of France's boots on,and that with good reason, for when I left France I was officer in HisMajesty's Luxembourg regiment."
Which, indeed, was very true, but certain other things had happened inbetween.
The tall man seemed pleased at his own acute observation. He called offhis men with a single stern word, which sounded almost like a biddinggiven to a dog to lie down.
"But what seek you in my country?" he asked them.
Now Scarlett would have given something to know in what country he was,and still more to know who was the owner of it; but not knowing either,he had to do the best he could with the limited information at hisdisposal.
"We are here," he said, laying his finger meaningly on his lip, "on thepart of his Majesty the King of France, for the furtherance of the GoodCause."
And he added, under his breath, "And a precious deal would I give toknow for certain what in this instance the Good Cause is!"
For indeed it seemed not likely that Louis was fomenting any rebellionagainst the arms of King James, who, when Wat and Scarlett left theharbor of Lis-op-Zee, ruled unquestioned at Whitehall.
But Scarlett's diplomatic answer was accepted without reserve.
"Friends of the true king and officers of his Christian Majesty ofFrance are ever friends of Keppoch's," he cried, striding forwardfrankly and giving a hand to each.
Scarlett felt a strong desire to whistle as the chief revealed himself.
"Coll o' the Cows!" he muttered, softly; "we are indeed in the gled'sclaws this day."
For Coll o' the Cows was the wildest chief as well as the most notedcattle-lifter beyond the Highland line, and though now apparentlystanding for "the Good Cause" (whatever that might be), he had all hislife hitherto stood entirely for the very excellent cause of his ownvested right to drive other folks' cattle and eat other folks' beef.
"Doubtless you will have seen my Lord Dundee?" said Keppoch toScarlett, whom, very evidently, he considered the leading spirit of thetwo.
Wat pricked up his ears.
"Is Colonel Graham here?" he said, looking inquiringly at the chief.
Keppoch frowned, and for the first time looked a little suspicious.
"Ye must have come over the line but lately," he said, "if ye know notthat my Lord Dundee hath broken with Duke Hamilton's Cat Convention,and is now raking the highlands for levies as a servant lass rakes thenight-coals to light her morning fires."
"Indeed ye may say so, for we have within the hour been landed from theship which gave us passage from France--landed upon the shore at themouth of your fine loch there," replied Scarlett, pointing westwardwith his hand.
The brow of Coll o' the Cows instantly cleared.
"It is true; I see by your boots ye have been in the salt-water comingashore." For his pursuit of cattle seemed manifestly to have sharpenedhis faculty of observation.
"We have to be careful these ill days," he said, "when one cannottell whether a man is for the Good Cause or for the Dutch thief thatcocks his dirty orange plumes so bravely on the road 'twixt Torbay andLondon."
Observing their evident interest, he went on with his information. Itis good in a wild country to be the first bearer of great tidings.
"STRIDING FORWARD FRANKLY AND GIVING A HAND TO EACH"]
"We have e'en just sent the fiery cross on to the country o' theCamerons. Some o' my lads were no that carin' aboot carrying it, forthere has been a bit nimble-going feud betwixt us, and it is theCamerons' turn to make the score even."
"And how was the matter settled?" asked Wat, with curious interest.
"Och!" said Keppoch, "I just gied the fiery cross to Duncan o'Taliskier. He is no to say a very right son of Ian at any rate. Ye see,his mother was a woman from the north--from the country of the Grants.And as for the father o' him, faith, there was nane kenned to rightswha he was--even hersel'. But for a' that, Duncan o' Taliskier iswonderful handy to keep about a house for jobs o' this kind."
"It is indeed excellently invented," said Scarlett, approvingly, "for Ilearned long ago that 'always sacrifice your worst troops--your alliesif you can'--is an ancient and well-considered military maxim."
The chief went on: "You will be wondering what Keppoch does here onthe edge of this country o' Camerons? Faith, ye may well wonder! Butthere's a bit plantation of McDonald's over the hill there, and thoughthey have taken Lochiell's name they find it for the good of theirhealths to pay a bit cess to Keppoch--just as the peetifu' burgherbodies of Inverness do; for money a loon is feared o' Colin--Guid kenswhat for."
Wat and Scarlett nodded. They were too completely ignorant of theniceties of the state of society into the midst of which they were castto venture on any reply.
"But ye shall not bide here," said Keppoch; "ye are instantly to comeyour ways with me to Keppoch, my head place, where my castle is. Thisbit townie here is well enough, but it is not fit for the like ofgentlemen that have been in France even to set their feet within."
So in a little while Wat and Scarlett found themselves following Collo' the Cows and his ragged regiment towards "Keppoch, my head place,where my castle is."
First there went a dozen or so of small, black-felled, large-hornedcattle, mostly young, which constantly put their heads over theirshoulders and looked back towards the pastures they had left, routingand roaring most excruciatingly. Then came a round dozen of Keppoch'smen urging them on, sometimes with the flat of the scabbard andsometimes pricking them with the naked points of their claymores.
On the hills above skirmished an irregular force of small light men andhalf-naked lads. Keppoch pointed them out to his companions.
"Yonder goes my flying column," he said, cunningly, "for so it isdesignated in the books of war. Keppoch is not an ignorant man--farfrom it, as ye shall know ere ye win clear of him. He did not go to theschools of Edinburgh for the best part of three winters for nothing.That was where he learned the English so well--frae the 'prentice ladso' the Lawnmarket--fair good drinkers they are, too, and as ready wi'their nieves as the prettiest gentleman with his blade."
He considered a little, as if measuring his own qualifications.
"Maybe ye wunda juist say that I am what ye might call a learned man,nor do I set myself up for an authority on law and doctrine, like BlackEwan owerby at Lochiell. But at least, for every good milch cow in hisbyres there are ten in mine, and never a Sassenach bonnet-laird comesto Keppoch to claim them. So ye see, so muckle education has not beenthrown away on me."
At this moment three hungry-looking loons came down the side of aglen, wading waist-deep among the heather, and driving a small, shaggyHighland cow before them, little bigger than a lowland sheep.
"Ah, good lads," he cried, "plaided men, carriers of the buckler, wheregat ye that ane?"
The nearest man cried something that sounded like
"Deil-a-mony-mae!" whereat Keppoch laughed and nodded his head.
The small cow joined the herd, and
was soon racing up the long glentowards the north. But the incident was not ended, for before they hadgone far over the heather a woman came tearing down the hill-side, andflinging herself down at Keppoch's feet, she clasped him by the legsand kissed the hem of his tartan in an agony of supplication.
"Some blood-feud," thought Wat, as he listened to the frenziedoutpouring of appeal. Keppoch stood awkwardly enough, listening atfirst frowningly, and then with some signs of yielding in his brow, thesight of which made the woman yet more earnest.
After a moment's thought he looked up and cried some direction to theclansmen who followed the cattle ahead of them. The little red cow wasturned and came uncertainly along the glen, sometimes roaring back tothe herd and at other times casting up her head to look for her ownwell-noted landmarks. As soon, however, as she saw the woman, the cowran to her like a dog and nuzzled a wet foam-flecked mouth into hermistress's bosom.
The woman again clasped Keppoch's hand, kissing it over and overand calling down blessings upon him. Then right briskly she tookthe heather, skipping along the side of the hill with a lightwell-accustomed foot, the little red cow following her as closely as adog, leaping runnels of water and skirting perilous screes on the wayto her native pastures.
"What might all this be?" asked Scarlett.
Keppoch looked rather shamefaced, like a man expecting to do a gooddeed by stealth who suddenly finds it fame.
"Och," said he, "it was just a widow woman that had a bit coo, and someo' my lads met the coo. And the coo it cam' after them, and the widowwoman she cam' after the coo; and then, puir body, she asked me if Iwas a Christian man, and I said, 'No; I was a McDonald.' And she saidthat so was she. So because she was a McDonald, I gied the puir womanback her coo. It wasna a guid coo, ony way. But she was very gratefu'.She said she was gaun to be mairried again, and that the man--an AppinStewart, greedy hound!--wadna hae her without the coo."