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Earnscliff muttered something like an answer; but whether in assent of the proposition, or rebuking the application of it, could not easily be discovered; and it seems probable that the speaker himself was willing his meaning should rest in doubt and obscurity.
Thinkna ye shame o' yoursells, to come here siccan a band o' ye, wi' your swords, and spears, and steel-caps, to frighten a lone widow woman?" "Our information," said Earnscliff; "is positive; we are seeking goods which have been forcibly carried off, to a great amount." "And a young woman, that's been cruelly made prisoner, that's worth mair than a' the gear, twice told," said Hobbie.
This affair settled, they walked briskly on a little farther, when, coming to the ridge of a pretty steep hill, Hobbie Elliot exclaimed, "Now, Earnscliff, I am aye glad when I come to this very bit Ye see the light below, that's in the ha' window, where grannie, the gash auld carline, is sitting birling at her wheel and ye see yon other light that's gaun whiddin' back and forrit through amang the windows? that's my cousin, Grace Armstrong, she's twice as clever about the house as my sisters, and sae they say themsells, for they're good-natured lasses as ever trode on heather; but they confess themsells, and sae does grannie, that she has far maist action, and is the best goer about the toun, now that grannie is off the foot hersell.
Earnscliff looked around him, and observed that the hermit had increased his accommodations by the construction of a shed for the reception of his goats. "You labour hard, Elshie," he said, willing to lead this singular being into conversation. "Labour," re-echoed the Dwarf, "is the mildest evil of a lot so miserable as that of mankind; better to labour like me, than sport like you."
"Or ride over the fell in a moonless night," said Westburnflat, "without asking leave of young Earnscliff; or some Englified justice of the peace: thae were gude days on the Border when there was neither peace nor justice heard of." "Let us remember our wrongs at Darien and Glencoe," continued Ellieslaw, "and take arms for the protection of our rights, our fortunes, our lives, and our families."
The carline, she sits in the neuk yonder, upbye, and cracks about the grand shooters and hunters lang syne Odd, I think they hae killed a' the deer in the country, for my part." "Well, Hobbie, I have shot a fat buck, and sent him to Earnscliff this morning you shall have half of him for your grandmother." "Mony thanks to ye, Mr. Patrick, ye're kend to a' the country for a kind heart.
"Weel, sirs, I am laith to enter into deadly feud with you by spilling ony of your bluid, though Earnscliff hasna stopped to shed mine and he can hit a mark to a groat's breadth so, to prevent mair skaith, I am willing to deliver up the prisoner, since nae less will please you." "And Hobbie's gear?" cried Simon of Hackburn.
Such a figure was also occasionally seen sitting beside him at the door, walking with him in the moor, or assisting him in fetching water from his fountain. Earnscliff explained this phenomenon by supposing it to be the Dwarf's shadow. "Deil a shadow has he," replied Hobbie Elliot, who was a strenuous defender of the general opinion; "he's ower far in wi' the Auld Ane to have a shadow.
The course of our story must here revert a little, to detail the circumstances which had placed Miss Vere in the unpleasant situation from which she was unexpectedly, and indeed unintentionally liberated, by the appearance of Earnscliff and Elliot, with their friends and followers, before the Tower of Westburnflat.
"Biggin a dry-stane dyke, I think, wi' the grey geese, as they ca' thae great loose stanes Odd, that passes a' thing I e'er heard tell of!" As they approached nearer, Earnscliff could not help agreeing with his companion. The figure they had seen the night before seemed slowly and toilsomely labouring to pile the large stones one upon another, as if to form a small enclosure.
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