United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was Colin Lothian and my uncle Mansie that told it me. Auld Colin kens all about it, and more than he told to me." "Colin is a good old man, Halcro. When next I see him I will ask him to tell me what it was that he kept from you. Colin would keep nothing from me, I believe." "Maybe not. But listen, and I will give you the story as I heard it."
It was early morning before Pierre reached the refuge of Boone's gang, but there was still a light through the window of the large room, and he entered to find Boone, Mansie, and Gandil grouped about the fire, all ominously silent, all ominously wakeful. They looked up to him and big Jim nodded his gray head. Otherwise there was no greeting.
Gandil, snarling from one side of his mouth, answered: "Where's Patterson?" "Am I responsible if the blockhead has got drunk some place?" "Patterson doesn't get drunk not that way. And he knows that we were to start again to-day." "There ain't no doubt of that," commented Branch. "It's the straight dope. Patterson keeps his dates," said Bud Mansie.
He made another desperate effort, and twisting himself onto one elbow pointed a rigid arm at Pierre. He gasped: "McGurk God!" and dropped. He was dead before his head touched the blanket. It was Jacqueline who closed the staring eyes, for the two men were frozen where they stood. They had heard the story of Patterson and Branch and Mansie in one word from the lips of the dying man.
It carried less weight than any other mount of the six, and its strength was cunningly nursed by the rider so that it kept its place, and at the finish it would be as strong as any and swifter, perhaps, for a sudden, short effort, just as Bud Mansie might be numbed through all his nervous, slender body, but never too numb for swift and deadly action.
"What's become of Branch? Hasn't he returned?" "No. And Dick Wilbur?" "Boys, he's done with this life and I'm glad of it. He's starting on a new track." "After a woman?" sneered Bud Mansie. "Shut up, Bud," broke in Boone, and then slowly to Pierre: "Patterson is gone for two days now. You ought to know what that means. Branch ought to have returned from looking for him, and Branch is still out.
But it was not from him I learned these things, for he would never say a word in his own praise, and, had I not heard of his hardy bravery from other lips, he might have been to me no more than the gentle, affectionate parent that he ever was. We left the four men who were the crew of the Curlew to look after the boat, while Uncle Mansie and father came into the house to dinner.
On these occasions, when I used to stalk through the country villages, gaunt, unshaven, and dishevelled, the mothers would rush into the road and drag their children indoors, and the rustics would swarm out of their pot-houses to gaze at me. I believe that I was known far and wide as the "mad laird o' Mansie."
"Trains late, cars stalled streets blocked with snow. I 'm mighty glad to be out here a night like this." "Woof! Woof!" And Babe and Pup are at the kitchen door with the pail of milk, shaking themselves free from snow. "Where is Mansie?" his mother asks. "He just ran down to have a last look at his chickens." We sit down to dinner, but Mansie does n't come.
How often in these hours, or in long solitary walks and rides among the hills, have I had visions clear as that of Mansie Wauch, of how I should grow old in my country parish! Do not think that I wish or intend to be egotistical, my friendly reader. I describe these feelings and fancies because I think this is the likeliest way in which to reach and describe your own.
Word Of The Day