The Black Colonel | Page 4

in strife it would not, I reasoned and
hoped, be at our direct wish or bidding. Would it?
He must have been asking himself the same question, for he broke the
silence in a changed voice which seemed doubly changed, because he
had to keep it low, lest it should be overheard, and what he said was,
"How comes all this, sir?"
"I don't know," I answered simply, naturally, truthfully, to his charge,
for it was a charge in words and in directness.

"You don't," he went on, and I could not miss the tone which was like
the growl of a dog, an ill-natured dog; not like that of my own little
Scots terrier, Rob, whose bark is only meant to give himself confidence
and never had the snap of biting in it.
"You don't!" repeated the Black Colonel. "I must believe you, though a
suspicious man might read the signs otherwise. Still, why should you
have kept the red-coats from their sleep this night and morn, in the
castles of Braemar and Corgarff? There is no reason, for a talk between
Highland gentlemen, if so we be, about a Highland lady, whose
ladyship is beyond doubt, needed no garrison as audience. No, no, if
the red-coats had been summoned to round-up some poor Jacobite devil,
say myself, Captain Ian Gordon would have been with his men, as a
soldier should, much as he might--and I put this to his credit--have
disliked the mission."
It was idle for me to pretend any misunderstanding of the Black
Colonel's meaning. He was taunting me with suspicions which he
would not bring himself to believe, having a generous side to his nature,
a state of mind that has inflicted much suffering on the human race,
ever since the world began to go round. Mostly it occurs between men,
for women are more elemental, more red in beak and claw, even when
the claw is bejewelled, which indeed may give it another sharpness.
Could I blame him? Not to his face, at all events, because that would be
to notice his challenge, to admit that it was not unnatural on his part.
Events must be my guarantee, and if there were to be no more, well, let
him say quickly why he had asked me very specially to meet him on an
urgent private affair. Yes, although it were to have a casual ending,
such as characterizes half the affairs of life.
Aye! good thinking, my friends, but our relations were cast in a sterner
mould, and they were not to take the road of well-being. This became
manifest when the now growing dawn lightly touched the eastern door
of the Pass at its highest crag. The Black Colonel put his hand to his
eyes, using them as you would a spy-glass, made a hawk-like sweep of
the point I have indicated, and murmured harshly, "A red-coat, ah!"

Quickly he followed the wispy, growing light towards the western end
of the Pass, and after another moment of hawkish searching growled:
"A red-coat there also! It has been shrewdly arranged, this affair,
Captain Gordon. My congratulations, for you have earned them well, as
well, perhaps, as something else from me."
I said nothing, and indeed I was too full of surprise to think, except in a
wondering fashion. It was only by an effort of attention that I heard the
Black Colonel's further words, cursed out in a wrath not bred of any
anxiety for himself, but, naturally enough, directed at me.
"So the moving picture declares itself, my dear, thoughtful kinsman,"
he hissed. "The red-coats from Braemar are at the western end of the
Pass, those from Corgarff are at the eastern end, and the Black Colonel
is within somewhere--isn't he?--keeping a private meeting with an
officer in his Georgian Majesty's uniform, an officer and a gentleman!
Shrewdly planned, as I say, shrewdly planned, and I suppose you want
to intrigue me here until I cannot get away any more. Would you think
of trying to hold me yourself, eh? It would be like your adventurous
spirit? No!"
This was said with a rough sneer, and the Black Colonel made the sting
sharper by adding, "You'll be thinking it an assured capture, with the
ends of the Pass sealed by red-coats and its sides so steep that only
those tough sheep over there can climb them."
"Truth," said I quickly, gaining my tongue, "will force you to eat those
words, for I knew nothing of all this. It will be a bitter meal for you to
digest, if I, by good chance, am there to assist you."
"A Highland welcome will be yours," quoth he arrogantly; "a welcome
as warm as if I were to bring my riding whip round your shoulders
now."
His words,