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Malcolm Chapter 3 - The Mad Laird · The George McDonald Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER III. THE MAD LARED When Mistress Karna arrived at
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  Speaker 1: the opening of a street which was just opposite her
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  Speaker 1: own door, and led steep toward the sea-town, she stood,
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  Speaker 1: and shading her eyes with her hooded hand, although the
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  Speaker 1: sun was far behind her, looked out to sea. It
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  Speaker 1: was the forenoon of a day of early summer. The
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  Speaker 1: larks were many and loud in the skies above her, for,
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  Speaker 1: although she stood in a street, she was only a
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  Speaker 1: few yards from the green fields. But she could hardly
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  Speaker 1: have heard them, for their music was not for her.
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  Speaker 1: To the northward, whither her gaze, if gaze it could
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  Speaker 1: be called, was directed, all but cloudless blue heavens stretched
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  Speaker 1: over an all but shadowless blue sea. Two bold, jagged promontories,
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  Speaker 1: one on each side of her, formed a wide bay.
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  Speaker 1: Between that on the west, and the sea-town at her feet,
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  Speaker 1: lay a great curve of yellow sand, upon which the
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  Speaker 1: long breakers, born of last night's wind, were still roaring
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  Speaker 1: from the northeast, although the gale had now sunk to
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  Speaker 1: a breeze, cold and of doubtful influence. From the chimneys
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  Speaker 1: of the fishermen's houses below ascended a yellowish smoke, which
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  Speaker 1: against the blue of the sea assumed a dull green
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  Speaker 1: color as it drifted vanishing towards the southwest. but Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Cardinal was looking neither at nor for anything. She had
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  Speaker 1: no fisherman husband, or any other relative at sea. She
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  Speaker 1: was but revolving something in her unwholesome mind, and this
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  Speaker 1: was her mode of concealing an operation which naturally would
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  Speaker 1: have been performed with down-bent head and eyes on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: While she thus stood, a strange figure drew near, approaching
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  Speaker 1: her with step almost as noiseless as that with which
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  Speaker 1: she had herself made her escape from Miss Horne's house.
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  Speaker 1: At a few yards' distance from her it stood, and
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  Speaker 1: gazed up at her countenance as intently as she seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be gazing on the sea. It was a man
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  Speaker 1: of dwarfish height and uncertain age, with a huge hump
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  Speaker 1: upon his back, features of great refinement, a long thin beard,
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  Speaker 1: and a forehead unnaturally large, over eyes which, although of
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  Speaker 1: a pale blue mingled with a certain mottled milky gleam,
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  Speaker 1: had a pathetic dog-like expression. Decently dressed in black, he
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  Speaker 1: stood with his hands in the pockets of his trousers,
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  Speaker 1: gazing immovably in Mrs. Cadenas' face. Becoming suddenly aware of
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  Speaker 1: his presence, she glanced downward, gave a great start and
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  Speaker 1: a half-scream, and exclaimed in no gentle tones,' Preserve us!
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  Speaker 1: Where come ye frae?' It was neither that she did
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  Speaker 1: not know the man, nor that she meant any offence.
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  Speaker 1: Her words were the mere embodiment of the annoyance of
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  Speaker 1: startled surprise, but their effect was peculiar. Without a single
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  Speaker 1: other motion he turned abruptly on one heel, gazed seaward
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  Speaker 1: with quick flushed cheeks and glowing eyes, but apparently too
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  Speaker 1: polite to refuse an answer to the evidently unpleasant question,
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  Speaker 1: replied in low, almost sullen tones,' I dinna ken where
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  Speaker 1: I come frae. Ye ken at I dinna ken where
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  Speaker 1: I come frae. I dinna ken where ye come frae.
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  Speaker 1: I dinna ken where anybody comes frae.'' Hoot, laird. Nae offence,'
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  Speaker 1: returned Mrs. Cadenaugh.' It was your ain wake.' What guard
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  Speaker 1: you stand glorin' at the body that gate?' On tell
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  Speaker 1: them it you was there.'' I thought you was lookin'
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  Speaker 1: where you came frae,' returned the man,' in tones apologetic
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  Speaker 1: and hesitating.' Deed I fash would no suck frae'ts,' said Mrs. Cadenaugh.'
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  Speaker 1: So long's you can where you go until,' suggested the man.' Toot,
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  Speaker 1: I fash as little with that either,' and kin just
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  Speaker 1: as muckle about the tain as the tither,' 'she answered
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  Speaker 1: with a low, oily, guttural laugh of contemptuous pity.'' I
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  Speaker 1: ken mere nae that myself, but no muckle,' said the man.'
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  Speaker 1: I dinna ken where I ken frae, and I dinna
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  Speaker 1: ken where I'm goin' till. But I ken that I'm
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  Speaker 1: goin' where I ken frae. That stands to reason, you see.
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  Speaker 1: But they tell me at yek end all about where
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  Speaker 1: we all come frae.'' Deal a bit of it,' persisted Mrs. Cadenaugh,
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  Speaker 1: in tones of repudiation.' What care I where I come frae,
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  Speaker 1: so long as—'' So long as what, gin you please?'
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  Speaker 1: pleaded the man, with a childlike entreaty in his voice.' Well,
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  Speaker 1: then you will have it, so long as I came free.
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  Speaker 1: My mother, said the woman, looking down on the inquirer
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  Speaker 1: with a vulgar laugh. The hunchback uttered a shriek of dismay,
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  Speaker 1: and turned and fled. And as he turned, long, thin,
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  Speaker 1: white hands flashed out of his pockets, pressed against his ears,
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  Speaker 1: and intertwined their fingers at the back of his neck.
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  Speaker 1: With a marvellous swiftness he shot down the steep descent
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  Speaker 1: towards the shore. The deal's in it that I booed
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  Speaker 1: to anger him, said the woman, and walked away, with
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  Speaker 1: a short laugh of small satisfaction. The style she had
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  Speaker 1: given the hunchback was no nickname. Stephen Stewart was laird
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  Speaker 1: of the small property and ancient house of Kirkbyers, of
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  Speaker 1: which his mother managed the affairs, hardly for her son,
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  Speaker 1: seeing that, beyond his clothes and five pounds a year
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  Speaker 1: of pocket money, he derived no personal advantage from his possessions.
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  Speaker 1: He never went near his own house, for, from some
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  Speaker 1: unknown reason,' plentifully aimed at in the dark by the neighbours,'
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  Speaker 1: he had such a dislike to his mother' that he
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  Speaker 1: could not bear to hear the name of mother,' or
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  Speaker 1: even the slightest allusion to the relationship.' Some said he
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  Speaker 1: was a fool, others a madman, some both.' None, however,
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  Speaker 1: said he was a rogue,' and all would have been
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  Speaker 1: willing to allow' that whatever it might be that caused
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  Speaker 1: the difference' between him and other men,' throughout the disturbing element,'
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  Speaker 1: blew ever and anon the air of a sweet humanity.'
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  Speaker 1: Along the shore... IN THE DIRECTION OF THE GREAT ROCKY
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  Speaker 1: PROMENTORY THAT CLOSED IN THE BAY ON THE WEST, WITH
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  Speaker 1: HIS HANDS STILL CLASPED OVER HIS EARS, AS IF THE
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  Speaker 1: AWFUL WORD WERE FOLLOWING HIM, HE FLEW RATHER THAN FLED.
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  Speaker 1: IT WAS NEARLY LOW WATER, AND THE WET SAND AFFORDED
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  Speaker 1: AN EASY ROAD TO HIS FLYING FEET. BETWIXT SEA AND SHORE,
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  Speaker 1: A SAIL IN THE OFFING THE SOLE OTHER MOVING THING
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  Speaker 1: IN THE SOLITARY LANDSCAPE, LIKE A HUNTED CREATURE HE SPED,
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  Speaker 1: HIS FOOTSTEPS MELTING AND VANISHING BEHIND HIM IN THE HALF-QUICK SAND.
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  Speaker 1: Where the curve of the water line turned northward at
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  Speaker 1: the root of the promontory, six or eight fishing boats
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  Speaker 1: were drawn up on the beach in various stages of existence.
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  Speaker 1: One was little more than half built, the fresh wood
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  Speaker 1: shining against the background of dark rock. Another was newly tarred.
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  Speaker 1: Its sides glistened with the rich shadowy brown and filled
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  Speaker 1: the air with a comfortable odor. Another wore age-long neglect
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  Speaker 1: on every plank and seam. Half its props had sunk
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  Speaker 1: or decayed. and the huge hollow leaned low on one side,
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  Speaker 1: disclosing the squalid desolation of its lean-ribbed and naked interior,
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  Speaker 1: producing all the phantasmic effect of a great swampy desert.
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  Speaker 1: Old pools of water, overgrown with a green scum, lay
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  Speaker 1: in the hollows between its rotting timbers, and the upper
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  Speaker 1: planks were baking and cracking in the sun. Near where
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  Speaker 1: they lay, a steep path ascended the cliff, went through
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  Speaker 1: grass and plowed land, it led across the promontory to
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  Speaker 1: the fishing village of Skournos, which lay on the other
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  Speaker 1: side of it. There the Mad Laird, or Mad Humpy,
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  Speaker 1: as he was called by the baser sort, often received shelter,
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  Speaker 1: chiefly from the family of a certain Joseph Mare, one
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  Speaker 1: of the most respectable inhabitants of the place. But the
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  Speaker 1: way he now pursued lay close under the cliffs of
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  Speaker 1: the headland, and was rocky and difficult. He passed the boats,
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  Speaker 1: going between them and the cliffs at a foot-pace, with
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  Speaker 1: his eyes on the ground and not even a glance
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  Speaker 1: at the two men who were at work on the
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  Speaker 1: unfinished boat. One of them was his friend, Joseph Mare.
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  Speaker 1: They ceased their work for a moment to look after him.'
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  Speaker 1: That' s the poor laird again,' said Joseph, the instant he
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  Speaker 1: was beyond hearing.' Something' s wrong with him. I wonder what's
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  Speaker 1: come o'er him.'' I ha'n't seen him for a while now,'
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  Speaker 1: returned the other.' They tell me that his mither made
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  Speaker 1: him o'er to the devil afore he came to the light,
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  Speaker 1: and so I as his birthday comes round.'' Certain gets
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  Speaker 1: the power ower him.'' Yeah, but he's a fearsome sight
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  Speaker 1: when he's tae in that gate,'' continued the speaker.' I
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  Speaker 1: met him once in the glowman, just ower by the tone,'
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  Speaker 1: with his eyeing glowering like oily lamps,' and this liver
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  Speaker 1: running down his long beard.' I just lop as gine
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  Speaker 1: I had seen the muckle certain himself.'' You not na
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  Speaker 1: had done that,' was the reply.' He' s just as harmless,
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  Speaker 1: e'en at the worst, as any lamb.' He' s but a
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  Speaker 1: poor creature whose troubles ower strong for him, that's all.''
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  Speaker 1: Certain has as little to do with him as with
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  Speaker 1: any man I ken.' End of chapter 3