They had traveled the thirty miles of Loch Ness, stopping at the village near Urquhart Castle, and again at Kilcummin, where they had nearly been caught picking the purse of one of the MacDonald chieftains. And now they were moving south beside the silver ripples2 of Loch Lochy.
Kelpie was far ahead of Mina and Bogle, moving along high on the hillside with a prancing3 motion caused partly by high spirits and partly by the masses of tough-stemmed heather that covered the slope. She was still sore from her
[27]
latest beating, and also hungry. Her life consisted largely of pain and hunger and cold, and was peopled by enemies to be feared and hated or fools to be tricked, but Kelpie had discovered all that long ago and was quite used to the fact and found life very enjoyable anyway. Certainly it was never dull, and she had a zest4 for adventure.
And in spite of everything, the world was beautiful. Kelpie could forgive it a lot for that. In any case, her day was coming! She had deliberately5 described the details in last night’s crystal quite wrongly, and Mina hadn’t known.
Or had she?
This appalling6 thought caused Kelpie to miss her usually sure footing and to step right in the middle of a gorse bush. Neither the travel-hardened toughness of the bare brown foot nor the deceptive7 beauty of the silvery leaves saved her from a good pricking8, and Kelpie swore with an ardent9 fluency10 that would have pleased Bogle greatly. Still hopping11 and cursing, she saw the movement and color of the three horsemen down the loch much later than she should have. They were coming along toward her in the path below and doubtless had well-filled purses which might well be lightened. She was halfway12 down the steep slope when suddenly the sun shone brightly from behind the latest cloud, and Kelpie recognized the scene from the crystal: young Glenfern and his red-haired companion and the giant blond ghillie riding behind.
But there was no time to wonder about it. Timing14 her
[28]
movements carefully, Kelpie threw herself headlong down the last steep bank and sprawled15 full length in the path, almost under the horses’ feet.
“Dhé!” exclaimed Ian Cameron as he and Alex reined16 the horses so sharply that they reared for a moment on their hind13 legs. All he could see on the ground was a pitifully small and tattered17 figure, clearly in great danger of being trampled18 to death.
Alex MacDonald, from his better position behind, saw something a little more. As Ian’s horse stepped alarmingly close to Kelpie, one “thin and helpless” arm moved, neatly19 and efficiently20, the precise six inches required for safety. Alex’s red eyebrows21 arched, and an appreciative22 grin danced on his face. He relaxed and prepared to enjoy the comedy that was sure to follow.
The crisis was over in a moment. “Is it all right you are?” demanded Ian of the wee figure, and the wee figure nodded biting its lip in a fine imitation of silent courage as it raised itself painfully to an elbow. For Kelpie had discovered that this sort of act was much more touching23 than loud wails24 and tears. She decided25 to have a hurt back, this being hard to disprove, as well as more impressive than other hurts. So she winced26 to indicate great pain and looked up with a brave and pathetic smile.
The lads looked back at her. A scrawny waif it was, tattered and unbelievably dirty. The tangled27 dark hair, apparently28 never touched by water or comb, fell over the
[29]
thin face in a way that reminded Ian of shaggy Highland29 cattle—except that these eyes were unlike those of any cattle that ever lived. They were long and black-fringed, set at a slant30 in the narrow face, and strangely ringed. Around each black pupil was a wide circle of smoky blue, then a narrow one of lightish gray, and a third of deep and vivid blue. Astonishing eyes, almost alarming! Where had he seen them before?
While Ian stared in wonder and pity, Alex made a few further observations of his own. He noted31 the high cheekbones and the pointed32 chin and the wicked slant of black brows and the short upper lip—giving rather the effect, thought Alex, of a wicked elfin creature, or perhaps a witch. Amused but wary33, he sat back and let his foster brother make up his mind. Ian wouldn’t have been noticing, of course, that the wee briosag threw herself into the path on purpose. Ian had the way of always believing the best of everyone.
Ian was aware of the cynical34 smile behind him. A nasty suspicious mind Alex had! It was a pity. What else could he be expecting of a poor wild waif like this? What sort of life must she have had? Then Ian remembered where he had seen her before: with that wicked old witch Mina. Och, the poor creature!
“’Tis hurt you are,” he said worriedly, to Kelpie’s relief. She had feared for a moment that she’d been too subtle altogether.
[30]
“Och, only a little,” she whispered, putting on a braw show of dreadful pain heroically borne.
“Now, do not be overdoing35 it,” drawled Alex.
Kelpie shot him a look which, had she been a properly qualified36 witch, would surely have caused him to break out with every loathsome37 disease known to mankind. Unfortunately the only effect of her venomous glare was that Alex’s smile broadened to an insulting chuckle38. Och, what a beast he was, then, with the bony, freckled39, jeering40 face of him, and the two jaunty41 tufts of red hair jutting42 upward just where horns ought to sprout43! She was about to tell him so, and in great detail, but just in time she remembered her role and Ian, who was still showing his pity and dismay.
What a misfortune, he thought, that this should happen now, just when he and Alex were nearly home again after those long months away in Oxford44, where he had been savagely45 homesick. They were about to get home early, and with very important news, and now this had to happen, not five miles from Glenfern.
“What shall we be doing with you at all?” he said. “We cannot just be leaving her here!” he added fiercely, turning on Lachlan, the blond ghillie, who, looking larger than usual on his short shaggy pony46, had muttered something from behind.
“Give her a copper47,” Alex said, laughing, “and see how quickly she’ll mend!”
[31]
Copper indeed! thought Kelpie. It was silver she was wanting. But she didn’t hide the gleam in her eyes quickly enough.
“I’ll show you,” said Alex. Slowly, tantalizingly48, he drew a coin from his sporran and held it up. It gleamed silver, and Kelpie stared at it greedily. “See?” Alex chuckled49 and spun50 it toward her.
Quick as the flash of bright metal in the air, her brown hand shot out to catch it in flight—then dropped, and the coin fell noiselessly on the path. Kelpie sat staring first at it and then at her own shoulder with dismay that was, for a change, perfectly51 genuine.
“I—I am hurt!” she said with astonishment52 and then hastily snatched up the coin with her good left hand before they should change their minds.
“Not too hurt to be picking up the silver,” observed Alex, but the gibe53 lacked his earlier light tone. Ian had already dismounted and was touching rather gingerly the filthy54 rags covering the shoulder in question. The lass frankly55 stank56.
This time Kelpie’s face showed an honest flicker57 of pain. “I think it will be sprained58, or perhaps out of place,” Ian decided and looked at Alex.
Alex looked back at him. “Well, so. And where does she live, then? Where are her people? Perhaps Lachlan could be taking her home.”
Ian shrugged59. “I think I’ve seen her with Old Mina and
[32]
Black Bogle. Is that so?” he asked Kelpie, who nodded.
Alex raised his eyebrows, not in the least surprised. It was logical that she should belong to the nastiest witch in Scotland.
“Will they be coming along, then?” Ian inquired, and again Kelpie nodded, so bewildered by her unexpected hurt and the pain that was now shooting sharply through her shoulder that she couldn’t really think clearly at all.
A glum60 silence settled on them, broken only by furtive61 and disapproving62 mutters from Lachlan. His duty was to be protecting his young masters, and now here they were consorting63 with witches, and he not able to prevent them at all, at all. He crossed himself.
Ian sighed with relief when the bent64 figures of Mina and Bogle appeared up the loch-side. They would take care of their lass, and he and Alex could be away home.
But it wasn’t that easy. Mina, after taking in the situation at a glance, burst into lamentations and curses that caused the ruddy Lachlan to go pale. “And is it our poor lass you have harmed, wicked beasts that you are?” she wailed65, while Bogle stood like a massive old tree in disconcerting silence. “Ocho, ocho, whatever shall we be doing now? May the Evil Eye fall on all your cattle, and the pox upon yourselves, uruisgean that you are!”
Ian himself recoiled66, not from the curses, but from the evil that was in this horrible old woman. What a dreadful thing that a young lass should belong to such as these! It
[33]
was wicked! And yet, what could he do? What could anyone do? Unhappily he stood and stroked his horse’s nose while Alex handled the matter.
Alex did handle it beautifully, with just the right mixture of indulgence, severity, and money. “’Twas no fault of ours that she fell, but altogether her own,” he told them. “Still, we are kind-hearted and willing to give you a bit of silver.” And when Mina would have demanded more, he fixed67 her with a stern hazel stare that caused her own pale, muddy eyes to waver and fall. It was all settled then, and Ian, feeling depressed68, turned to mount his horse.
And then Black Bogle, perhaps feeling that they had been worsted in the bargaining, reached down and jerked Kelpie roughly to her feet by the injured arm.
The bit of brutality69 wrenched70 a choked cry of anguish71 from the girl. Ian whirled around, and Alex was off his horse in a flying leap and seized Bogle’s arm in a grip that had no gentleness whatever.
“Let go of her, you vile72 bully73!” Alex snarled74, red with fury, while Ian removed the sagging75 Kelpie from Bogle’s grasp. Lachlan, brandishing76 a steel dirk a foot long, loomed77 ominously78 behind....
When Kelpie was again able to take an active interest in events, she heard several voices: a cold, contemptuous one and a dangerously quiet one, Bogle’s growl79 and Mina’s whine80, with dour81 grumblings in the background. More
[34]
money changed hands, and then Mina bent over Kelpie, a cunning, complacent82 look on her face.
“The fine gentlemen will be taking you home with them to fix your hurt, and we will come to fetch you in the morning,” she said. “You will be properly grateful—and behave as I’d be wishing you to,” she added meaningly, and Kelpie nodded. She knew quite well what Mina meant—steal whatever she could lay hands on.
Then Ian’s concerned face was close to hers as he removed the grimy once-red sash from about her waist and gently bound the injured arm to her side. “And who’s knowing what further damage the brute83 will have done?” he muttered.
After that she found herself lifted to the fearful height of Alex’s horse and felt his hard young arm firmly around her. And at a slow walk they set along toward the fork in the path that led through the hills to Glenfern.
By the time they reached the top of the pass, Kelpie was feeling much better. She began to relish84 the adventure, and she stared with interest at the scene before her as they paused. Ian’s face was alight with joy, and Lachlan actually had tears in his eyes. A strange thing that was, she thought wonderingly, ignorant as she was of the love of the Highlander85 for his own hills. Kelpie knew no home but the ground she walked on.
The glen ran westward86 ahead of them, a long little valley cradled in hills that were just turning jewel-green
[35]
with new bracken and showing dark with juniper and white here and there with birch trunks and unmelted snow. On the northern slope stood a weathered gray house which seemed large and grand indeed to Kelpie, and scattered87 along the glen were little rye-thatched shieling huts of unmortared stone, nestled into the hillside as if they had grown there. Farther down the glen was a wee loch of silver and blue, ringed with white birches and dotted with green islets.
“Loch nan Eilean—Lake of the Islands,” murmured Ian with his heart in his voice, and they rode on down the hill and along to the stables.
Alex lifted Kelpie down from the horse, looked at her oddly, and then with a grin forced open her left hand.
“You little devil!” He laughed. “You’ve picked my pocket!”
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1
gusty
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| adj.起大风的 | |
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ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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fluency
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| n.流畅，雄辩，善辩 | |
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hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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28
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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overdoing
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| v.做得过分( overdo的现在分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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jaunty
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| adj．愉快的，满足的；adv.心满意足地，洋洋得意地；n.心满意足；洋洋得意 | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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47
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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48
tantalizingly
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| adv.…得令人着急，…到令人着急的程度 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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51
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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52
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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53
gibe
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| n.讥笑；嘲弄 | |
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54
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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stank
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| n. (英)坝，堰，池塘 动词stink的过去式 | |
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flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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58
sprained
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| v.&n. 扭伤 | |
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59
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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disapproving
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| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
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consorting
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| v.结伴( consort的现在分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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65
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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70
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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71
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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72
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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74
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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75
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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76
brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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77
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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78
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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80
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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81
dour
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| adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈 | |
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82
complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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83
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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84
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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85
highlander
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| n.高地的人，苏格兰高地地区的人 | |
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86
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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87
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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