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'Francie, rejoined Kirsty, very quietly and solemnly, 'ye're yer mother's keeper; ye're her neist neebour: are ye gauin to du yer duty by her, or are ye not? 'I canna; I daurna; I'm a cooard afore her. 'Gien ye lat her gang on to disgrace yer father, no to say yersel and that by means o' what's yours and no hers, I'll say mysel 'at ye're a cooard.
He was a kin' o' saft-like whiles, and unco easy come ower, but, haein little fear mysel, I ken a cooard whan I see him. Something may hae set up his pride he has eneuch o' that for twa deevils but Francie was never nae cooard! 'Dinna lay the lee at my door, I beg o' ye, Miss Barclay. I was but tellin ye what fowk was saying. 'Fowk's aye sayin, and seldom sayin true.
It wud ony gait gie him the best chance o' shawin til himsel 'at there wasna a hair o' the cooard upon him. 'But, said sir Haco, 'would her majesty be justified in taking the risk involved? Would it not be to peril many for a doubtful good to one? Kirsty was silent for a moment, with downcast eyes. I'm answert, sir as to that p'int, she said, looking up.
She had plainly perceived that such a scar could not be from her blow, but it added grievously to her pain at the remembrance of it that the poor head which she had struck, had in the very same place been torn by a splinter for so the doctor said. If her whip left any mark, the splinter had obliterated it. 'And syne, he resumed, 'ye ca'd me a cooard!
'But ye believt it yersel, Kirsty! 'Wad ye hae me leear and hypocrite forby, to ca' fowk ill names for sayin what I believt mysel! 'But I am a cooard, Kirsty! 'Ye are not, Francie. I wunna believe't though yersel say 't! It's naething but a dist o' styte and nonsense 'at's won in throu the cracks ye got i' yer heid, fechtin. Ye was aye a daft kin' o' a cratur, Francie!
"I canna think ony one would be coward enough to murder him," he said, drawing himself up. M'Adam leant forward. There was a nasty glitter in his eye, and his face was all a-tremble. "Ye'd no think ony one 'd be cooard enough to set the son to murder the father. Yet some one did set the lad on to 'sassinate me. He failed at me, and next, I suppose, he'll try at Wullie!"
Sae awa she gaed! and Steenie efter her! added Kirsty in a lower tone, but Francis did not seem to hear, and said no more for awhile. 'But I maun tell ye the trowth, Kirsty, he resumed: 'forby yersel, there's them 'at says I'm a cooard! 'I h'ard ae man say't, only ane, and him only ance. 'And ye said til 'im, "Ay, I hae lang kenned that!" 'I tellt him whaever said it was a leear!
And they hed him afore a coort-mairtial as they ca' 't, and broucht it in, she says, bare cooardice, and jist broke him. He'll hae ill shawin the face o' 'm again i' 's ain calf-country! 'It's a lee, said Kirsty. 'I s' tak my aith o' that, whaever took the tellin o' 't. There never was mark o' cooard upo' Francie Gordon. He hed his fauts, but no ane o' them luikit that gait.
"Ye're an honest man, Wull but I wadna lippen a snuff mull 'at had mair nor ae pinch intill 't wi' yon cooard cratur ahin' ye." He was afraid of the possible consequences of his grandfather's indignation. The gamekeeper did at once as he was requested, evidently both amused with the bearing of the two men and admiring it.
"Na; I maun gang wi' ye, man," answered the laird, rising. "Grizzie's a heap taen up wi' yer gran'mither. She's been weirin' awa' this fortnicht back. She's no in pain, the Lord be praised! an' she'll never ken the straits her hoose is com till! Cosmo, I hae been a terrible cooard dreidin' day an' nicht yer hame-comin', no submittin' 'at ye sud see sic a broken man to the father o' ye!
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