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I distrusted him, I think, and yet I was fascinated by him also; for there was something in his bearing, in his look, and his whole fashion of speech which was entirely unlike anything that I had ever seen. Jim Horscroft was a fine man, and Major Elliott was a brave one, but they both lacked something that this wanderer had.
And yet, now that I come to think of it, this had something to do with it after all; for Jim Horscroft had so deadly a quarrel with his father, that he was packed off to the Berwick Academy, and as my father had long wished me to go there, he took advantage of this chance to send me also.
Jim Horscroft was at home all that summer, but late in the autumn he went back to Edinburgh again for the winter session, and as he intended to work very hard and get his degree next spring if he could, he said that he would bide up there for the Christmas.
We had been waiting for the order, and they all thought now that it had been given; but you may take my word for it, that Jim Horscroft was the real leader of the brigade when we charged the Old Guard. God knows what happened during that mad five minutes.
"So it seems!" said I, in my blunt fashion. "You may not feel so merry when my friend Jim Horscroft comes back to-morrow." "Ah! he comes back to-morrow, does he? And why should I not feel merry? "Because, if I know the man, he will kill you." "Ta, ta, ta!" cried de Lapp. "I see that you know of our marriage. Edie has told you. Jim may do what he likes."
"Indeed, I've little to boast of," said he. "Many a one who began with me has put up his plate years ago, and here am I but a student still." "That is your modesty, Mr. Horscroft. They say that the bravest are always humble. But then, when you have gained your end, what a glorious career to carry healing in your hands, to raise up the suffering, to have for one's sole end the good of humanity!"
"It was only last night," said I, "that she told me that I was the only man in all this earth that she could ever bring herself to love." Jim Horscroft put out a shaking hand and laid it on my shoulder, while he pushed his face forward to look into my eyes. "Jock Calder," said he, "I never knew you tell a lie. You are not trying to score trick against trick, are you?
"Oh, then go to him!" said Horscroft. "But I love nobody but Jim. There is nobody that I love like Jim." She snuggled up to him, and laid her cheek against his breast. "You see, Jock!" said he, looking over her shoulder. I did see; and away I went for West Inch, another man from the time that I left it. Well, I was never one to sit groaning over a cracked pot.
I zigzagged up the steep pathway, breathing in the thin, keen morning air, and humming a lilt as I went, until I came out, a little short of breath, among the whins upon the top. Looking down the long slope of the farther side, I saw Cousin Edie, as I had expected; and I saw Jim Horscroft walking by her side. They were not far away, but too taken up with each other to see me.
For a fortnight I saw nothing of Jim Horscroft, and then came the Thursday which was to change the whole current of my life. I had woke early that day, and with a little thrill of joy which is a rare thing to feel when a man first opens his eyes.
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