Barret, half ashamed of the wild anxiety he displayed, turned at once, sprang back into the burning house, and began to expend2 his energies in helping3 his companions and the men of the establishment to save as much as possible of the laird’s property.
While this was being done and the attention of every one was directed exclusively to the work of salvage4—in which work Pat Quin shone conspicuous5 for daring as well as for all but miraculous6 power to endure heat and swallow smoke, Roderick, the groom7, retired8 to the lawn for a few moments’ respite9. He was accompanied by Donald, his faithful assistant, who was almost exhausted10 by his labours.
“I think he wull pe takin’ the hoose!”
They had not time to make further inquiry12, for just then the wind changed and blew the flames towards the part of the mansion13 that had been already burned, giving some hope that the other parts might yet be saved, and calling for the redoubled efforts of all hands.
Donald was right in his conjecture14. Archie was indeed “takin’” the house! He and Eddie—having succeeded in rescuing the photographic apparatus15, and, finding that no lives were in danger, and that enough people were already endeavouring to save the property—had calmly devoted16 themselves to taking photographs of the blazing scene from several points of view—a feat17 that was still possible, as daylight had not yet been diminished in power.
The change of wind, however, brought their operations to an abrupt18 close, for no idlers were tolerated. Even the women were summoned to stand in a row, and pass buckets from a neighbouring pond to the burning house.
The proceedings19 now had been reduced to some degree of order by Giles Jackman, whose experience abroad had tended to develop his powers of organisation20.
The buckets were passed in uninterrupted succession from the pond to the house, where Mabberly received them at the front door, that being deemed the point where danger and the need for unusual energy began. He passed them in through the smoke of the hall to MacRummle, who handed them to Roderick and the butler. These last stood in the dense21 smoke of the staircase, at the head of which the tall gamekeeper, Jackman and Barret, were engaged in close and deadly conflict with the flames, intense heat, falling débris, and partial suffocation22. The rest of the people, headed by the laird, who seemed to have renewed his youth and become ubiquitous, continued the work of salvage.
By that time the party of warriors23 who fought the flames was increased by the shepherds and a few small farmers who dwelt in the neighbourhood. These being stalwart and willing men, were a valuable accession to the force, and did good service not only in saving property, but in extinguishing the fire. So that, before night closed in, the flames were finally subdued, after about one-half of the mansion had been consumed.
That half, however, was still a source of great danger, the walls being intensely hot and the fallen beams a mass of glowing charcoal24, which the least breath of wind blew into a flame. A few of the shepherds were therefore stationed to watch these, and pour water on them continually. But the need for urgent haste was past, and most of the people had assembled on the lawn among the furniture when the stars began to glimmer25 in the darkening sky.
“My dear,” said the laird, on finding his wife in the group, “it is all safe now, so you had better get off to rest, and take all the women with ye. Come, girls, be off to your beds,” he added, turning with kindly26 smile to the domestics, and with the energetic manner that was habitual27 to him. “You’ve done good service, and stand much in need of rest, all of you. The men will keep a sharp look out on what’s left o’ the fire, so you have nothing to fear. Off with you, an’ get to sleep!”
There was no hesitation28 in obeying the laird’s commands. The female domestics went off at once to their dormitories, and these were fortunately in that part of the mansion which had escaped. Some of the younger girls, however, made no effort to conceal29 a giggle30 as they glanced at their master who, with coat off, shirt torn, face blackened, hair dishevelled, and person dripping, presented rather an undignified appearance. But as worthy31 Allan Gordon had never set up a claim to dignity, the giggles32 only amused him.
“Duncan! Duncan, man, where are ye?” he called out, when the ladies and female domestics had gone. “Oh! there ye are—an’ not much more respectable than myself!” he added, as the butler answered to his summons. “Go and fetch the whisky bottle. We’ll all be the better of a dram after such a fight. What say you, gentlemen? Do you not relax your teetotal principles a little on an occasion like this?”
“We never relax our total abstinence principles,” returned Jackman, with a smile, as he wrung33 some of the water out of his garments. “I think I may speak for my companions as well as myself. Friendship has been a sufficient stimulant34 while we were engaged in the work, and gratitude35 for success will suffice now that the work is done.”
“Run, Donald, boy, an’ tell them to get some hot coffee ready at once! It’s all very well, gentlemen,” said the laird, turning again to his friends, “to talk of subsisting36 on friendship and gratitude; but although very good in their way, they won’t do for present necessities. At least it would ill become me to express my gratitude to such good friends without offering something more. For myself,” he added, filling and tossing off a glass of whisky, “I’m an old man, and not used to this kind of work, so I’ll be the better of a dram. Besides, the Gordons—my branch of them, at least—have always taken kindly to mountain dew, in moderation, of course, in strict moderation!”
There was a quiet laugh at this among some of the men who stood near, for it was well-known that not a few of the laird’s ancestors had taken kindly to mountain dew without the hampering37 influence of moderation, though the good man himself had never been known to “exceed”—in the Celtic acceptation of that term.
“Are ye laughing, you rascals38?” he cried, turning to the group with a beaming, though blackened countenance39. “Come here an’ have your share—as a penalty!”
Nothing loath40, the men came forward, and with a quiet word of thanks each poured the undiluted fiery41 liquid down his throat, with what the boy Donald styled a “pech” of satisfaction.
Ivor Donaldson chanced to be one of the group, but he did not come forward with the rest.
“Come, Ivor, man, and have a dram,” said the laird, pouring out a glass.
But the keeper did not move. He stood with his arms crossed firmly on his broad chest, and a stern dogged expression on his handsome face.
“Ivor, hi!” exclaimed the old gentleman, in a louder voice, supposing that the man had not heard. “After work like this a dram will do you good.”
“Oo, ay!” remarked one of the shepherds, who had probably began to feel the “good” by that time; “a tram of whusky iss a fery coot thing at all times—specially when it is coot whusky!”
At this profound witticism42 there was a general laugh among the men, in the midst of which the laird repeated his invitation to Ivor, saying that he seemed knocked up after his exertions43 (which was partially44 true), and adding that surely he was man enough to take a little for his good at such a time, without giving way to it.
The laird did not mean this as a taunt45, but it was taken as such by the keeper, who came forward quickly, seized the glass, and drained it. Having done so he stood for a moment like one awaking from a dream. Then, without a word of thanks, he dropped the glass, sprang into the shrubbery, and disappeared.
The laird was surprised, and his conscience smote46 him, but he turned the incident off with a laugh.
“Now, lads,” he said, “go to work again. It will take all your energies to keep the fire down, if it comes on to blow; and your comrades must be tired by this time.”
Fortunately it did not come on to blow. The night was profoundly calm, so that a steady though small supply of water sufficed to quench47 incipient48 flames.
Meanwhile Giles Jackman had left the group on the lawn almost at the same moment with the gamekeeper; for, having been accustomed to deal with men in similar circumstances, he had a suspicion of what might follow. The poor man, having broken the resolve so recently and so seriously formed, had probably, he thought, become desperate.
Ivor was too active for him, however. He disappeared before Jackman had followed more than a few yards. After a few moments of uncertainty49, the latter made straight for old Molly Donaldson’s cottage, thinking it possible that her unhappy son might go there. On the way he had to pass the keeper’s own cottage, and was surprised to see a light in it and the door wide open. As he approached, the sound of the keeper’s voice was heard speaking violently, mingled50 with blows, as if delivered with some heavy instrument against timber. A loud crash of breaking wood met Jackman’s ear as he sprang in. Ivor was in the act of rending51 the remains52 of a door from a corner cupboard, while an axe53, which he had just dropped, lay at his feet on the earthen floor. A black quart bottle, visible through the opening which had been made, showed the reason of his assault on the cupboard. If there had been any uncertainty on the point, it would have been dispelled54 by the wild laugh or yell of fierce exultation55 with which he seized the bottle, drew the cork56, and raised it to his dry lips.
Before it reached them, however, Jackman’s strong hand seized the keeper’s arm. A gasp57 from the roused giant, and the deadly pallor of his countenance, as he glanced round, showed that superstition58 had suddenly seized on his troubled soul; but no sooner did he see who it was that had checked him, than the hot blood rebounded59 to his face, and a fierce glare shot from his eyes.
The thanksgiving was addressed to God, of course without reference to its influence on Ivor; but no words, apparently61, could have been used with better effect upon the keeper’s spirit. His eyes lost their ferocity, and he stood irresolute62.
“Break it, like a good fellow,” said Jackman, in a soft, kindly voice, as he pointed63 to the bottle.
“I broke one before, sir,” said Ivor, in a despairing tone; “and you see how useless that was.”
“Give it to me, then.”
As he spoke64, he took the bottle from the man’s grasp, and cast it through the open doorway65, where it was shivered to atoms on the stones outside.
Striding towards a pitcher66 of water which stood in a corner of the room, the keeper seized it, put it to his lips, and almost drained it.
“There!” he exclaimed; “that will drown the devil for a time!”
“No, Ivor, it won’t; but it will help to drown it,” said Jackman, in the same kindly, almost cheerful, voice. “Neither cold water nor hottest fire can slay67 the evils that are around and within us. There is only one Saviour68 from sin—Jesus, ‘who died for the sins of the whole world.’ He makes use of means, however, and these means help towards the great end. But it was not the Saviour who told you to lock that bottle in that cupboard—was it?”
An expression of perplexity came over the keeper’s face.
“You are right, sir; it was not. But, to my thinkin’ it was not the devil either!”
“Very likely not. I think sometimes we are inclined to put many things on the devil’s shoulders which ought to rest on our own. You know what the Bible says about the deceitfulness of our hearts.”
“I do, sir, an’ yet I don’t quite see that it was that either. I did not put that bottle there to have it handy when I wanted it. I put it there when I made up my mind to fight this battle in Christ’s name, so as I might see if He gave me strength to resist the temptation, when it was always before me.”
“Just so, Ivor, my friend. That ‘if’ shows that you doubted Him! Moreover, He has put into our mouths that prayer, ‘lead us not into temptation,’ and you proposed to keep temptation always before your eyes.”
“No, sir, no, not quite so bad as that,” cried the keeper, growing excited. “I shut the door an’ locked the accursed thing out of my sight, and when I found I could not resist the temptation, I took the key out and flung it into the sea.”
“Would it not have been better to have flung the evil thing itself into the sea? You soon found another key!” said his friend, pointing to the axe.
“You say truth, sir; but oh, you hev no notion o’ the fight I hev had wi’ that drink. The days an’ nights of torment69! The horrors! Ay, if men could only taste the horrors before they tasted the drink, I do believe there would be no drunkards at all! I hev lain on that bed, sir,” he pointed to it as he spoke, while large drops stood on his pale brow at the very recollection, “and I hev seen devils and toads70 and serpents crawlin’ round me and over me—great spiders, and hairy shapeless things, wi’ slimy legs goin’ over my face, and into my mouth, though I gnashed my teeth together—and glaring into my tight shut eyes, an’ strangling me. Oh! sir, I know not what hell may be, but I think that it begins on earth wi’ some men!”
“From all this Jesus came to save us, Ivor,” said Jackman, endeavouring to turn the poor man’s mind from the terrible thoughts that seemed about to overwhelm him; “but God will have us to consent to be saved in His own way. When you put the temptation in the cupboard, you disobeyed Him, and therefore were trying to be saved in your own way. Disobedience and salvation71 cannot go together, because salvation means deliverance from disobedience. You and I will pray, Ivor, that God would give us his holy Spirit, and then we shall fight our battles in future with more success.”
Thereupon, standing72 as they were, but with bowed spirits and heads, they laid the matter in the hands of God in a brief but earnest prayer.
While these two were thus engaged, the scene at the house had entered upon another phase. The weather, which all that day had been extremely changeable, suddenly assumed its gloomiest aspect, and rain began to fall heavily. Gradually the fall increased in volume, and at last descended73 in an absolute deluge74, rendering75 the use of water-buckets quite unnecessary, and accomplishing in a very few minutes what all the men at the place could not have done in as many hours. But that which prevented effectually the extension of the fire, caused, almost as effectually, the destruction of much of the property exposed on the lawn. The men were therefore set to work with all their energies to replace in the unburnt part of the mansion all that they had so recently carried out of it.
In this work Ivor Donaldson found a sufficient outlet76 for the fierce unnatural77 energies which had been aroused within him. He went about heaving and hauling, and staggering under weights that in an ordinary state of body and mind he could scarcely have moved. Little notice was taken of him, however, for every one else was, if not doing the same thing, at least working up to the utmost extent of his ability.
Before midnight all was over. The fire was what the cook termed black out. The furniture, more than half destroyed, was re-housed. The danger of a revival78 of the flames was past, and the warriors in the great battle felt themselves free to put off their armour79 and seek refreshment80.
This they did—the males at least—in the gun-room, which, being farthest from the fire, and, therefore, left untouched, had not been damaged either by fire or water. Here the thoughtful laird had given orders to have a cold collation81 spread, and here, with his guests, men-servants, boys, and neighbouring farmers around him, he sat down to supper.
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1
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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2
expend
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| vt.花费，消费，消耗 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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6
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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7
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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10
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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11
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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16
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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17
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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18
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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19
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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21
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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suffocation
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| n.窒息 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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24
charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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26
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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32
giggles
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| n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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33
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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36
subsisting
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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hampering
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 ) | |
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38
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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39
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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40
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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41
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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42
witticism
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| n.谐语，妙语 | |
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43
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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44
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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45
taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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46
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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47
quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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48
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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49
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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50
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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51
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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52
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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53
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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54
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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56
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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57
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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58
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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59
rebounded
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| 弹回( rebound的过去式和过去分词 )； 反弹； 产生反作用； 未能奏效 | |
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60
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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61
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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62
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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63
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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64
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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65
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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66
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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67
slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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68
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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69
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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70
toads
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 ) | |
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71
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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72
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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73
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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74
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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75
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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76
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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77
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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78
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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79
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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80
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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collation
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| n.便餐；整理 | |
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