FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  
He was confronting an argument that had a great deal of weight with him, and out of the lining of his bonnet he ripped a letter. "Thanks, but I'll take the one in your breast pocket," I told him dryly. Out it came with a deal of pother. The letter was addressed to the Duke of Cumberland, Portree, Skye. My lips framed themselves to a long whistle. Here was the devil to pay. If the butcher was on the island I knew he had come after bigger game than muircocks. No less a quarry than the Prince himself would tempt him to this remote region. I marched my prisoner back to Captain Roy and Murdoch. To Donald I handed the letter, and he ripped it open without ceremony. 'Twas merely a note from the Campbell Lieutenant of militia, to say that the orders of his Highness regarding the watching of the coast would be fulfilled to the least detail. "Well, and here's a pirn to unravel. What's to be done now?" asked the Macdonald. "By Heaven, I have it," cried I. "Let Murdoch carry the news to Raasay that the Prince may get away at once. Do you guard our prisoner here, while I, dressed in his trews and bonnet, carry the letter to the Duke. His answer may throw more light on the matter." Not to make long, so it was decided. We made fashion to plaster up the envelope so as not to show a casual looker that it had been tampered with, and I footed it to Portree in the patched trews of the messenger, not with the lightest heart in the world. The first redcoat I met directed me to the inn where the Duke had his headquarters, and I was presently admitted to a hearing. The Duke was a ton of a little man with the phlegmatic Dutch face. He read the letter stolidly and began to ask questions as to the disposition of our squad. I lied generously, magnificently, my face every whit as wooden as his; and while I was still at it the door behind me opened and a man came in leisurely. He waited for the Duke to have done with me, softly humming a tune the while, his shadow flung in front across my track; and while he lilted there came to me a dreadful certainty that on occasion I had heard the singer and his song before. "'Then come kiss me sweet and twenty. Youth's a stuff will not endure,'" carolled the melodious voice lazily. Need I say that it belonged to my umquhile friend Sir Robert Volney. Cumberland brushed me aside with a wave of his hand. "Donner! If the Pretender is on Skye--and he must be--
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
letter
 

prisoner

 

Prince

 

Murdoch

 

Portree

 
Cumberland
 
bonnet
 

ripped

 
confronting
 

stolidly


phlegmatic

 

hearing

 
admitted
 

questions

 
wooden
 

magnificently

 
generously
 
presently
 

disposition

 

headquarters


envelope

 

patched

 

messenger

 

lightest

 

footed

 

tampered

 

casual

 

looker

 

argument

 

directed


redcoat

 
leisurely
 

lazily

 

belonged

 

umquhile

 
melodious
 

carolled

 
endure
 

friend

 
Donner

Pretender
 

Robert

 
Volney
 
brushed
 

twenty

 

shadow

 
humming
 

softly

 
opened
 

plaster