But a very different scene was being enacted5 at the same time in the fastnesses of the Den6, where three resolute7 schemers had met by appointment. Their trysting-place was the Cuttle Well, which is most easily reached by the pink path made for that purpose; but the better to further their dark and sinister8 design, the plotters arrived by three circuitous9 routes, one descending10 the Reekie Broth11 Pot, a low but dangerous waterfall, the second daring the perils12 of the crags, and the third walking stealthily up the burn.
"Is that you, Tommy?"
"Whist! Do you mind the password?"
"Stroke!"
"Right. Have you heard Gav Dishart coming?"
"I hinna. I doubt his father had grippit him as he was slinking out o' the manse."
"I fear it, Corp. I'm thinking his father is in the Woman's pay."
"What woman?"
"The Woman of Hanover?"
"That's the queen, is it no?"
"She'll never get me to call her queen."
"Nor yet me. I think I hear Gav coming."
Gav Dishart was the one who had come by the burn, and his boots were cheeping like a field of mice. He gave the word "Stroke," and the three then looked at each other firmly. The lights of the town were not visible from the Cuttle Well, owing to an arm of cliff that is outstretched between, but the bell could be distinctly heard, and occasionally a shout of revelry.
"They little ken13!" said Tommy, darkly.
"They hinna a notion," said Corp, but he was looking somewhat perplexed14 himself.
"It's near time I was back for family exercise," said Gav, uneasily, "so we had better do it quick, Tommy."
"Did you bring the wineglasses?" Tommy asked him.
"No," Gav said, "the press was lockit, but I've brought egg-cups."
"Stand round then."
The three boys now presented a picturesque15 appearance, but there was none save the man in the moon to see them. They stood round the Cuttle Well, each holding an egg-cup, and though the daring nature of their undertaking16 and the romantic surroundings combined to excite them, it was not fear but soaring purpose that paled their faces and caused their hands to tremble, when Tommy said solemnly, "Afore we do what we've come here to do, let's swear."
"Stroke!" he said.
"Stroke!" said Gav.
"Stroke!" said Corp.
They then filled their cups and holding them over the well, so that they clinked, they said:
"To the king ower the water!"
"To the king ower the water!"
"To the king ower the water!"
When they had drunk Tommy broke his cup against a rock, for he was determined17 that it should never be used to honor a meaner toast, and the others followed his example, Corp briskly, though the act puzzled him, and Gav with a gloomy look because he knew that the cups would be missed to-morrow.
"Is that a' now?" whispered Corp, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.
"All!" cried Tommy. "Man, we've just begood."
As secretly as they had entered it, they left the Den, and anon three figures were standing18 in a dark trance, cynically19 watching the revellers in the square.
"If they just kent!" muttered the smallest, who was wearing his jacket outside in to escape observation.
"But they little ken!" said Gav Dishart.
"They hinna a notion!" said Corp, contemptuously, but still he was a little puzzled, and presently he asked softly: "Lads, what just is it that they dinna ken?"
Had Gav been ready with an answer he could not have uttered it, for just then a terrible little man in black, who had been searching for him in likely places, seized him by the cuff20 of the neck, and, turning his face in an easterly direction, ran him to family worship. But there was still work to do for the other two. Walking home alone that night from Mr. Patullo's party, Mr. Cathro had an uncomfortable feeling that he was being dogged. When he stopped to listen, all was at once still, but the moment he moved onward22 he again heard stealthy steps behind. He retired23 to rest as soon as he reached his house, to be wakened presently by a slight noise at the window, whence the flag-post protruded24. It had been but a gust25 of wind, he decided26, and turned round to go to sleep again, when crash! the post was plucked from its place and cast to the ground. The dominie sprang out of bed, and while feeling for a light, thought he heard scurrying27 feet, but when he looked out at the window no one was to be seen; Vivat Regina lay ignobly28 in the gutters29. That it could have been the object of an intended theft was not probable, but the open window might have tempted30 thieves, and there was a possible though risky31 way up by the spout32. The affair was a good deal talked about at the time, but it remained shrouded33 in a mystery which even we have been unable to penetrate34.
On the heels of the Queen's birthday came the Muckley, the one that was to be known to fame, if fame was willing to listen to Corp, as Tommy's Muckley. Unless he had some grand aim in view never was a boy who yielded to temptations more blithely35 than Tommy, but when he had such aim never was a boy so firm in withstanding them. At this Muckley he had a mighty37 reason for not spending money, and with ninepence in his pocket clamoring to be out he spent not one halfpenny. There was something uncanny in the sight of him stalking unscathed between rows of stands and shows, everyone of them aiming at his pockets. Corp and Gav, of course, were in the secret and did their humble38 best to act in the same unnatural39 manner, but now and again a show made a successful snap at Gav, and Corp had gloomy fears that he would lose his head in presence of the Teuch and Tasty, from which humiliation40 indeed he was only saved by the happy idea of requesting Tommy to shout "Deuteronomy!" in a warning voice, every time they drew nigh Californy's seductive stand.
Was there nothing for sale, then, that the three thirsted to buy? There were many things, among them weapons of war, a pack of cards, more properly called Devil's books, blue bonnets41 suitable for Highland gentlemen, feathers for the bonnets, a tin lantern, yards of tartan cloth, which the deft43 fingers of Grizel would convert into warriors44' sashes. Corp knew that these purchases were in Tommy's far-seeing eye, but he thought the only way to get them was to ask the price and then offer half. Gav, the scholar, who had already reached daylight through the first three books of Euclid, and took a walk every Saturday morning with his father and Herodotus, even Gav, the scholar, was as thick-witted as Corp.
"We'll let other laddies buy them," Tommy explained in his superior way, "and then after the Muckley is past, we'll buy them frae them."
The others understood now. After a Muckley there was always a great dearth45 of pence, and a moneyed man could become owner of Muckley purchases at a sixth part of the Muckley price.
"You crittur!" exclaimed Corp, in abject46 admiration47.
But Gav saw an objection. "The feck of them," he pointed48 out, "will waur their siller on shows and things to eat, instead of on what we want them to buy."
"So they will, the nasty sackets!" cried Corp.
"You couldna blame a laddie for buying Teuch and Tasty," continued Gav with triumph, for he was a little jealous of Tommy.
"You couldna," agreed Corp, "no, I'll be dagont, if you could," and his hand pressed his money feverishly49.
"Deuteronomy!" roared Tommy, and Corp's hand jumped as if it had been caught in some other person's, pocket.
"But how are we to do?" he asked. "If you like, I'll take Birkie and the Haggerty-Taggertys round the Muckley and fight ilka ane that doesna buy—"
"Corp," said Tommy, calmly, "I wonder at you. Do you no ken yet that the best plan is to leave a thing to me?"
"Blethering gowks that we are, of course it is!" cried Corp, and he turned almost fiercely upon Gav. "Lippen all to him," he said with grand confidence, "he'll find a wy."
And Tommy found a way. Birkie was the boy who bought the pack of cards. He saw Tommy looking so-woe-begone that it was necessary to ask the reason.
"Oh, Birkie, lend me threepence,"
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CHAPTER XX — THE SHADOW OF SIR WALTER
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