A faint cry of dismay fell from Rob's lips as he met the evil glare in the schoolmaster's eyes. Cameron, too, seemed more than a little shaken at the encounter, though he said nothing, but appeared plunged2 in thought about the future.
In the hollow place where they stood, it was impossible for their prisoner to see anything save the open sky, and a thousand twinkling stars.
After a moment Cameron stepped gingerly beside him, and pulled at his bonds. Then, tearing a strip of cloth from off Macaulay's shirt, he bound it round his eyes as though to hide their gleaming malice3 from sight.
"Come, Rob," he said, in a whisper, "there's work for you and me this night. When we have ended we will set him free," and he led the way back to the shore.
It was very still and lonesome there with only the soft wash of the loch and the sighing of the wind amongst the trees, and Rob wished the matter well over, and himself back in the comparative security of Lovat's company.
"While I dig them up you roll them along the right bank," whispered Cameron, warning him to keep in the depths of the heather, "and lay them down in the shadow of the burn that joins the loch yonder. Should you hear a sound come back and warn me. Och!" he concluded, stepping into the moonlight, "but these are strange times." Then bending his back he sent the spade deep into the sand.
"It's fortunate for you that I caught him watching," whispered Rob, full of pride at his discovery.
"Man," said Cameron, "do I look sic a gomeral? I knew he was there from the moment I hitched4 the pony5 to the tree. Had he gone it would have fallen out just as I planned."
And so began the flight of the treasure—Rob creeping through the darkness of the trees, rolling a cask, stealing noiseless as a shadow over the wet leaves and bracken, and all the time seeing in the black night the terrible eyes of Ephraim Macaulay marking his every step. Backwards6 and forwards until his back ached, and the moisture stood heavy upon his brow. In the passive stillness of the night there was no breath of danger, no whisper of heather alive with fugitives7, and spies, and nameless wanderers.
As he made for the slope with the last cask he saw Cameron smoothing over the place with cunning hands, and patting the marks of his footsteps about the sand. Then he too followed, and together they knelt by the stream.
"Now, Rob," said Cameron, "first there'll be a score of Highland8 caterans scanning this shore, and after that there'll be the red-coats, who are sure to get wind of it; and so it's our business, ye ken1, to mak' siccar* of this. Maybe ye hae never hidden treasure, Rob, so let us have a crack about it. Come ye nearer. Now, when our friend in the hollow there gets his freedom he'll show a clear pair o' heels to those who sent him, an' I'm uncommon9 interested to ken just who they are."
* Certain.
"No, no," said Rob, with a touch of importance; "he is after me. He is a school-master of Inverness...."
"Oh! Maybe, maybe," broke in Cameron. "He is capable of being all that. But it's mair than you, Rob—though I hate to seem to undervalue your importance, laddie."
"Then he is not..."
"Whisht! What does it matter who he is? So ye understand, Rob. Follow him, and see whether he makes north or south, and then when ye know that I will send you on a journey, for I am travelling east mysel'."
"But Lord Lovat."
The man beside him started.
"What of him, Rob?" he asked quickly.
"Maybe he will require me."
Cameron laid his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Rob," said he very gravely, "Lord Lovat will require mair than you to save his auld10 neck, and for mercy's sake dinna breathe a word of this night's wark to him—nor to onybody but the one ye ken of."
"No," said Rob, "to nobody but the Prince."
"Come then, for time passes. When the search for this treasure commences—for mark you a score of eyes must have been watching me just as closely as your own—what will they do when they dig on the sand and find an empty huddle11 o' stanes? They will examine the neighbourhood for traces of spade work and footsteps. They know a single man like mysel' could not carry those casks mair than a hundred yards. They'd come straight here, Rob, like a pack of hounds on the trail."
"What can we do?" asked Rob, fearing his work was thrown away.
"There is just one thing to do, Rob, and that maybe will sound mighty12 ludicrous; but it is always the foolish tricks that are the hardest to unravel13. When I asked you to show yoursel' upon the lochside, where it is mair light than I had looked for, it was because I had a thought, Rob, and it's just this: there are one or two gentry14 in this neighbourhood uncommon anxious to watch my doings this night, and, being a modest man, Rob, I'm no overpleased at the notion," and he brought his head a little nearer. "Supposing, Rob," he whispered, "you were to take my place upon the lochside for a wee half an hour, or maybe a little over?"
"Take your place?"
"Aye; put on my wig15 and coat (the hat I shall require), and when the moon is hid by a cloud, just scrunch16 upon the pebbles17, and sit ye doon so that your kilt is hid. It would tak' the eyes o' an owl18 to see anything amiss in this dim light, Rob. Will ye do it, lad? Would ye? It is for the Prince, bless him."
"Give me your wig and coat," said Rob for answer.
With a sigh of relief and no further word, Cameron set the wig upon his head, and wrapped the long great-coat about him, turning up the collar. Then they remained in silence gazing at the cold grey sky.
"Quick," said he, at last, "there's a cloud coming," and he pushed Rob gently from the gloom of the trees. At the same time he sang a line of a song for any who might doubt him, and fell back out of sight.
When the moon swam out of the fleeting19 patch of cloud it fell upon the figure of a man who was sitting on a low piece of rock, with his elbows on his knees, and his back to the shore, and in the dead stillness of the night who could guess how many watched that black, crouching20 form, wondering why he never rose or walked about, but only sat with his chin in his hand, staring out across the loch.
Meanwhile Cameron passed noiselessly back to the place where the casks lay. Forewarned is forearmed, and he was not foolish enough to suppose that the hiding of treasure in the Cameron country would be an easy matter.
His clan21 had much love for him, but they also had an uncommon respect for gold, and times were hard. So a week before the frigate22 had flashed into Loch-na-nuagh he had dug a hole under a rock in the stream which ran into Loch Arkaig, and inside the hole had hidden a small barrel for holding half the contents of the casks (which contained bags of louis d'or). The other half, for safety, he had resolved to conceal23 elsewhere, while the casks, empty of gold, he had decided24 to bury in a hasty fashion just where Rob had placed them.
And in this manner the stiff work began, for only two hours of darkness remained.
Happily the wind had risen, and the sound of his preparations were unheard. That Cameron was nervous and anxious to be done one could have told by his frenzied25 haste. First he walked upstream for fifty yards with a bag upon his shoulders. Then he slid a large boulder26 across the waterfall to divert the current, and dropped his burden under the bed of the stream, where the open barrel was ready to receive them. Then he returned, never putting foot upon dry land, and so, with an aching back and bleeding fingers, he toiled27 on until at last the barrel was full and the lid on, and the stone rolled back so that the water rushed over the spot under which the treasure lay.
The digging of a hole for the casks down the stream then commenced, and that ready, Cameron set off towards the mouth of the burn in the opposite direction from where the first portion of the gold lay buried; and still wading28 in the current, he began to approach the shore. About a score of yards from the loch a great rock rose by the side of the burn, and some six feet above it a single branch of a tree swayed stiffly in the night breeze, extending in a straight line from the trunk, for near the shore the hill-side was woody and thick with undergrowth.
Now the hardest part of the work began. He first of all slipped a piece of rope through the loop of the remaining bags holding the end of it in his hand. For a moment he rested, then leaping upon the rock, he crouched29 an instant, and sprang straight for the thick branch above him. Grasping it tightly, he swung himself cross-legged upon it, and leaning over began to haul the bags up beside him, slinging30 the rope securely about the tree.
Having detached the first bag, he conveyed it along the branch, and, smoothing aside the leaves, there was revealed a hole in the trunk of the tree about the size of a saucer, into which he squeezed it. This he did many times, until the contents of the second half of the casks were inside the hollow trunk, and then rearranging the leaves, he took a bird's nest very gravely from inside his hat, and laying it over the hole, slipped a couple of eggs from a little bag round his neck inside it, and let himself down again upon the rock.
Then burying the casks as he had planned, and that but carelessly, so that the top of one of them even stuck a little through the turf, he threw a few gold pieces upon the ground. The work was finished. Stealing back, he gave a low call to Rob, who, waiting a moment, slipped back to his side.
Cameron without a word slipped on the great-coat and his wig again, and patting Rob upon the shoulder, led him down upon the beach, where the bright moonlight made the loch gleam like beaten silver. The spade he had concealed31 in a secret place.
"Let us have a crack together for a moment," said he in a low voice. "That we will be seen is probable, but I think none watched just now. Ye might wonder why I," he continued, speaking more loudly, and with his head turned a little towards the trees, "who have exercised such care, have trusted you, Rob, who are a stranger to me. Then I just canna tell you, for I do not know, and that's the sober truth. Anyway here is a plan o' the places and other things; and dinna let this out of your hands, Rob, and if ye are taken, swallow it, or destroy it in some way. In case we are watched take it from my hand as though we were saying good-bye. Now!" and extending his right hand, Cameron cried, "Good-bye, Rob," in a very clear voice. and made to pass the paper; but with a flustered32 movement he bungled33 it, dropping it upon the ground.
"Tuts!" said he, and stooping quickly made a great business of thrusting it into Rob's hands. "Follow that spy to-night," he said, "and then haste ye on the footsteps of the Prince, and tell him that I wait his instructions in Lochaber. Should ye need me send word that 'there's a muir-fowl snared34.' Mind the words, laddie, for I'll ken by that ye are taken."
At that moment there was a small noise like a sigh behind them, and Cameron started and peered into the darkness.
"Speak lower," he said, "you understand?"
"I do," Rob replied.
"Then come. Let us set the fellow loose, and after that the less we see of Arkaig the better." So saying he led the way to the hollow place.
The moonlight shone smoothly35 down between the swaying tree-tops, but it fell upon empty greensward and bristling36 heather. No man lay there. Not even his ropes remained. It was as though he had been spirited away. Without a word, Cameron drew Rob swiftly back.
"Separate and run," he whispered in an agitated37 voice, "for we must be surrounded," and bending his body he darted38 amongst the trees towards the open hill-side. At that Rob overtaken by a sudden fear of the unknown, and a great dread39 of Ephraim Macaulay, took to his heels, and running in a direction at right angles to that in which Cameron had gone, he doubled on his tracks, and dropped down under a bank of heather.
Fortunate it was he had done so, for swift flying footsteps sounded close above his head, and two men sped past him into the wood. Then, crawling on hands and feet, he made for the head of the loch. But he had travelled a bare five hundred yards before the clear soft note like the sound of a chanter drifted towards him. And the bar that it played was the fantastic, ghostly tune40 of Muckle John, the same twisted melody that had so shaken the school-master in Miss Macpherson's house.
Nearer it came, and he lay flat upon the ground with a fallen tree before him. Suddenly on to the moonlit shore stepped a figure he could not mistake—the huge shoulders and chest, the massive head of Muckle John himself. And as he played he peered this way and that, as though he were in search of some one.
Rob was about to run forward, then as quickly he sank lower in the shadow. Something held him back.
Presently Muckle John laid aside the instrument, and whistled the haunting catch of tune in the moonlight.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
ken
|
|
| n.视野，知识领域 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
malice
|
|
| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
hitched
|
|
| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
pony
|
|
| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
backwards
|
|
| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
fugitives
|
|
| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
highland
|
|
| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
uncommon
|
|
| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
auld
|
|
| adj.老的，旧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
huddle
|
|
| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
unravel
|
|
| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
gentry
|
|
| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
wig
|
|
| n.假发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
scrunch
|
|
| v.压，挤压；扭曲（面部） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
pebbles
|
|
| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
owl
|
|
| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
fleeting
|
|
| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
clan
|
|
| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
frigate
|
|
| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
frenzied
|
|
| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
boulder
|
|
| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
toiled
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
wading
|
|
| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
slinging
|
|
| 抛( sling的现在分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
flustered
|
|
| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
bungled
|
|
| v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
snared
|
|
| v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
smoothly
|
|
| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
bristling
|
|
| a.竖立的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
agitated
|
|
| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
dread
|
|
| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
tune
|
|
| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |