登陆注册
5251200000017

第17章 CHAPTER VIII(2)

Pages told of the bloody deeds they wrought on each other's houses. The one human passion of Dark Malcolm's life was his love for his little daughter. She had brown eyes and brown hair, and those who most loved her called her Wee Brown Elspeth. Ian Red Hand was richer and more powerful than Malcolm of the Glen, and therefore could more easily work his cruel will. He knew well of Malcolm's worship of his child, and laid his plans to torture him through her. Dark Malcolm, coming back to his rude, small castle one night after a raid in which he had lost followers and weapons and strength, found that Wee Brown Elspeth had been carried away, and unspeakable taunts and threats left behind by Ian and his men. With unbound wounds, broken dirks and hacked swords, Dark Malcolm and the remnant of his troop of fighting clansmen rushed forth into the night.

"Neither men nor weapons have we to win her back," screamed Dark Malcolm, raving mad, "but we may die fighting to get near enough to her to drive dirk into her little breast and save her from worse."

They were a band of madmen in their black despair. How they tore through the black night; what unguarded weak spot they found in Ian's castle walls; how they fought their way through it, leaving their dead bodies in the path, none really ever knew. By what strange chance Dark Malcolm came upon Wee Brown Elspeth, craftily set to playing hide-and-seek with a child of Ian's so that she might not cry out and betray her presence; how, already wounded to his death, he caught at and drove his dirk into her child heart, the story only offers guesses at. But kill and save her he did, falling dead with her body held against his breast, her brown hair streaming over it. Not one living man went back to the small, rude castle on the Glen--not one.

I sat and read and read until the room grew dark. When I stopped I found that Angus Macayre was standing in the dimness at the foot of the ladder. He looked up at me and I down at him. For a few moments we were both quite still.

"It is the tale of Ian Red Hand and Dark Malcolm you are reading?" he said, at last.

"And Wee Brown Elspeth, who was fought for and killed," I added, slowly.

Angus nodded his head with a sad face. "It was the only way for a father," he said. "A hound of hell was Ian. Such men were savage beasts in those days, not human."

I touched the manuscript with my hand questioningly. "Did this fall at the back there by accident," I asked, "or did you hide it?"

"I did," he answered. "It was no tale for a young thing to read. I have hidden many from you. You were always poking about in corners, Ysobel."

Then I sat and thought over past memories for a while and the shadows in the room deepened.

"Why," I said, laggingly, after the silence--"why did I call the child who used to play with me `Wee Brown Elspeth'?"

"It was your own fancy," was his reply. "I used to wonder myself; but I made up my mind that you had heard some of the maids talking and the name had caught your ear.

That would be a child's way."

I put my forehead in my hands and thought again. So many years had passed! I had been little more than a baby; the whole thing seemed like a half-forgotten dream when I tried to recall it--but I seemed to dimly remember strange things.

"Who were the wild men who brought her to me first--that day on the moor?" I said. "I do remember they had pale, savage, exultant faces. And torn, stained clothes. And broken dirks and swords. But they were glad of something. Who were they?"

"I did not see them. The mist was too thick," he answered. "They were some wild hunters, perhaps."

"It gives me such a strange feeling to try to remember, Angus," I said, lifting my forehead from my hands.

"Don't try," he said. "Give me the manuscript and get down from the step-ladder.

Come and look at the list of books I have made for Mr. MacNairn."

I did as he told me, but I felt as if I were walking in a dream. My mind seemed to have left my body and gone back to the day when I sat a little child on the moor and heard the dull sound of horses' feet and the jingling metal and the creak of leather coming nearer in the thick mist.

I felt as if Angus were in a queer, half-awake mood, too--as if two sets of thoughts were working at the same time in his mind: one his thoughts about Hector MacNairn and the books, the other some queer thoughts which went on in spite of him.

When I was going to leave the library and go up-stairs to dress for dinner he said a strange thing to me, and he said it slowly and in a heavy voice.

"There is a thing Jean and I have often talked of telling you," he said. "We have not known what it was best to do. Times we have been troubled because we could not make up our minds. This Mr. Hector MacNairn is no common man. He is one who is great and wise enough to decide things plain people could not be sure of. Jean and I are glad indeed that he and his mother are coming. Jean can talk to her and I can talk to him, being a man body. They will tell us whether we have been right or wrong and what we must do."

"They are wise enough to tell you anything,'

I answered. "It sounds as if you and Jean had known some big secret all my life. But I am not frightened. You two would go to your graves hiding it if it would hurt me."

"Eh, bairn!" he said, suddenly, in a queer, moved way. "Eh, bairn!" And he took hold of both my hands and kissed them, pressing them quite long and emotionally to his lips.

But he said nothing else, and when he dropped them I went out of the room.

同类推荐
  • Salammbo

    Salammbo

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大唐秦王词话

    大唐秦王词话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 云溪俍亭挺禅师语录

    云溪俍亭挺禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说弥勒下生成佛经续

    佛说弥勒下生成佛经续

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 性善恶论

    性善恶论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 蓝公案

    蓝公案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • HIRAM THE YOUNG FARMER

    HIRAM THE YOUNG FARMER

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 衡山禅师语录

    衡山禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宝星陀罗尼经

    宝星陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 妖神记之龙飞凤舞

    妖神记之龙飞凤舞

    身为孤儿的云天在回家路上被撞死,被一个神秘的声音带入穿越,醒来之后发现自己进入了自己最爱的动漫《妖神记》里……
  • 四次元道具

    四次元道具

    宇宙最强能力是什么?哆啦A梦的四次元道具。宇智波斑使用哆啦A梦的四次元道具,大家想过会发生什么吗?(本书包含各种二次元、三次元世界,已知的世界有EVA、复仇者联盟、哈利波特、X战警、龙珠、波西杰克逊、漫威、哆啦A梦、火影、海贼王……还有更多的未知世界等你来探索。)(以上排名不分先后,出场顺序略有不同。)【书友群18131275】
  • 战道成圣

    战道成圣

    盖世至尊叶东风距离缥缈天道不过寸步距离,却在关键时刻被人暗算重生在了一切开始的起点。这一世,叶东风打造完美道心,他微末起身,以凛然之资横推天下,翻手为云,覆手雨,以一己之力脚踏四方,镇压当代。上一世的遗憾和不甘尽数抹平,名震太古,以战为道,终成圣主。
  • 佛说弥勒来时经

    佛说弥勒来时经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 倾城绝色太子妃

    倾城绝色太子妃

    她是二十一世纪武家天才,她狠毒、她无情、她心狠手辣、她冷心冷情,只因无人可以走进她的心。她是云国丞相之女、云国第一美人。但她也是天下人人皆知第一傻女。她受尽世态炎凉,最后因心爱之人的拒婚,投湖自尽……当她成为她,又会发生怎样的事?当她成为她之后,她要所有人知道,真正傻的人是他们……---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------片段一:男子震惊地看着眼前的冷漠的女子,她居然这么从容地签下退婚书。她不是很爱他吗?“辰雪妍,你以为这样做就可以吸引本王回心转意吗?本王是不会娶你这个傻子的,本王告诉你,就算你做什么,本王亦不会……”“霖王爷,是吧?退婚书给你。从此以后,天上人间,永不相见。”女子冷漠地打断男子的话,对于他这样的男人,她实在无话可说。男子不可置信看着眼前的女子,她还是原来的傻子吗?冰冷的眼神不在是对他的深深的爱恋,而是鄙夷、蔑视、不屑……片段二:"辰雪妍,本王许你王妃之位。”男子高傲地望着身旁女子,这次自己亲口许她王妃之位,她一定会高兴的答应吧!女子深不见底的眼眸中划过一丝鄙夷。冷冷的抬起头,一字一句道:“王妃之位麽?我、不、屑。”说罢,毫无留恋的转身离去。片段三;“上泉碧落下黄泉,你选择了我,我便绝不负你。”“此生,但不负君所言。”---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------新人新文,请多支持。此文女强男强,无虐无小三无误会,男配多多,美男多多。
  • 你的温柔好冷漠

    你的温柔好冷漠

    初遇的那年盛夏,他对她说,“你爱我,可以爱到为了我牺牲自己的性命吗?”交往的那年盛夏,他对她说,“若是我没有爱上你呢?”而当她离开他的那年盛夏,他抱着她的相片说,“是谁让你从我身边逃开的,用了这么卑劣的方式来逃开!叶欣婕,没有我的允许,你怎么可以!”……他说,“原来我也会怕,怕你把我丢下,让我孤零零的一个人迎接日升日落。”