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048 - The Peat-Moss · Whats Mines Mine

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  Speaker 1: Volume three, chapter fourteen of What's Mine's Mine by George
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: mac donald. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The peat moss. For the first winter, the Clonrud had
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  Speaker 1: not much to fear, hardly more than usual. They had
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  Speaker 1: their small provision of potatoes and meal, and some a
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  Speaker 1: poor trifle of money. But Lady mac Rud was anxious
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  Speaker 1: lest the new cottages should not be quite dry, and
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  Speaker 1: gave a general order that fires were to be burned
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  Speaker 1: in them for some time before they were occupied. For
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  Speaker 1: this they must use their present stock of dry peats,
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  Speaker 1: and more must be provided for the winter. The available
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  Speaker 1: strength of the clan would be required to get the
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  Speaker 1: fresh stock under cover before the weather broke. The peat
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  Speaker 1: moss from which they cut their fuel was at some
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  Speaker 1: distance from the castle, on the outskirts of the hill farm.
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  Speaker 1: It was the nearest moss to the glen, and the
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  Speaker 1: old chief, when he parted with so much of the land,
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  Speaker 1: took care to accept it, knowing well that his remaining
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  Speaker 1: people could not without it live through a winter. But
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  Speaker 1: as of course, his brother, the minister who succeeded him,
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  Speaker 1: and the present chieftain, had freely allowed all the tenants
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  Speaker 1: on the land sold to supply themselves from it. As before,
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  Speaker 1: the notion had been generated that the moss was not
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  Speaker 1: part of the chief's remaining property. When the report was
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  Speaker 1: carried to mister Peregrine Palmer that the tenants Mister Brander
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  Speaker 1: and he were about to eject, and who were in
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  Speaker 1: consequence affronting him with a new hamlet on the very
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  Speaker 1: verge of his land, were providing themselves with a stock
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  Speaker 1: of fuel greatly in excess of what they usually laid
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  Speaker 1: in for the winter, that in fact they were cutting
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  Speaker 1: large quantities of peat besides the turf for their new cottages.
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  Speaker 1: Without making the smallest inquiry or suspecting for a moment
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  Speaker 1: that the proceeding might be justifiable. He determined, after a
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  Speaker 1: brief consultation with men who knew nothing but said anything,
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  Speaker 1: to put a stop to the supposed presumption. A few
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  Speaker 1: of the peats cut in the summer had not yet
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  Speaker 1: been removed, not having dried so well as the rest,
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  Speaker 1: and the owners of some of these two widows went
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  Speaker 1: one day to fetch them home to the new village, when,
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  Speaker 1: as it happened, there were none of the clan besides
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  Speaker 1: in the moss. They filled their creols, helping each other
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  Speaker 1: to get them on their backs, and were setting out
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  Speaker 1: on their weary tramp home when up rose two of
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  Speaker 1: mister Palmer's men, who had been watching them, cut their
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  Speaker 1: ropes and took their loads, emptied the peats into a
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  Speaker 1: moss hag full of water, and threw the creels after them.
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  Speaker 1: The poor women poured out their wrath on the men,
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  Speaker 1: telling them they would go straight to the chief, but
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  Speaker 1: were answered only with mockery of their chief and themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They turned in despair, and with their outcry filled the
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  Speaker 1: hollows of the hills as they went, bemoaning the loss
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  Speaker 1: of their peats and their creels, and raging at the
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  Speaker 1: wrong they had received. One of them, a characterless creature
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  Speaker 1: in the eyes of her neighbors, harmless and always in want,
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  Speaker 1: had faith in her chief, for she had done nothing
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  Speaker 1: to make her ashamed, and would go to him at once.
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  Speaker 1: He had always a word and a smile and a
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  Speaker 1: hand shake for her, she said. The other, commonly called Crafty,
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  Speaker 1: was unwilling. Her character did not stand high, and she
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  Speaker 1: feared the face of the macrud. He does not like me,
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  Speaker 1: said Crafty. When a woman is in trouble, said the other.
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  Speaker 1: The macrud makes no questions. You come with me, you
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  Speaker 1: will be glad to do something for you. In her confidence,
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  Speaker 1: she persuaded her companion, and together they went to the Chief.
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  Speaker 1: Having gathered courage to appear, Crafty needed none to speak.
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  Speaker 1: Where that was the call. She was never slow to respond,
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  Speaker 1: Crafty said the Chief, is what you are telling me true?
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  Speaker 1: Ask her, answered Crafty, who knew that asservation on her
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  Speaker 1: part was not all convincing. She speaks the truth, mac crud,
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  Speaker 1: said the other. I will take my oath to it.
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  Speaker 1: Your word is enough, replied the chief, as Crafty knew
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  Speaker 1: when she brought you with her. Please it was myself
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  Speaker 1: brought Crafty. She was not willing to come, Crafty said
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  Speaker 1: the Chief. I wish I could make a friend of you,
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  Speaker 1: but you know I can't. I do know it, mc crude,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sorry for it. Many is the good time.
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  Speaker 1: But my door never had any latch, and the word
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  Speaker 1: is out before I can think to keep it back.
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  Speaker 1: And so you send another and another to back the first. Ah, Crafty.
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  Speaker 1: If Purgatory don't do something for you, then indeed, and
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  Speaker 1: I hope I shall fall into it on my way farther,
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  Speaker 1: Chief said Crafty, who happened to be a Catholic, but
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  Speaker 1: now resumed the chief, when will you be going for
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  Speaker 1: the rest of your peats? They's sure to be on
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  Speaker 1: the watch for us, and there's no saying what they
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  Speaker 1: mightn't do another time was the indirect and hesitating answer.
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  Speaker 1: I will go with you when you please, then, Chief.
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  Speaker 1: So the next day the poor women went again, and
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  Speaker 1: the chief went with them their guard and servant. If
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  Speaker 1: there were any on the watch, they did not appear.
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  Speaker 1: The ma crude fished out their creoles and put them
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  Speaker 1: to dry, then helped them to fill those they had
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  Speaker 1: borrowed for the occasion. Returning, he carried now the one,
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  Speaker 1: now the other creole, so that one of the women
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  Speaker 1: was always free. The new laird met them on the
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  Speaker 1: road and recognized with a scornful pleasure the chief, bending
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  Speaker 1: under his burden, that was the fellow who would so
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  Speaker 1: fain be his son in law. About this time, Circum
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  Speaker 1: and Valentine came again to the new house. Circum, although
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  Speaker 1: he had of late had no encouragement from Christina, was
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  Speaker 1: not therefore prepared to give her up, and came to
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  Speaker 1: press the siege. He found the lady's reception of him
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  Speaker 1: so far from cordial, however, that he could not but
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  Speaker 1: suspect some new adverse influence. He saw too, that Mercy
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  Speaker 1: was in disgrace, and as Ian was gone. Concluded there
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  Speaker 1: must have been something between them had the Chief been
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  Speaker 1: trying it on with Christina. The brute was always getting
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  Speaker 1: his way, but some chance of serving him out was
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  Speaker 1: certain to turn up. For the first suitable day, Allister
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  Speaker 1: had arranged an expedition from the village with all the
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  Speaker 1: carts that could be got together to bring home as
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  Speaker 1: many peats as horses and men and women could together carry.
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  Speaker 1: The company was seen setting out, and report of it
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  Speaker 1: carried at once to mister Palmer, for he had set
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  Speaker 1: watch on the doings of the clan. Within half an
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  Speaker 1: hour he too set out with the messenger, accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: circum in grim delight at the prospect of a row.
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  Speaker 1: Valentine went, also, willing enough to see what would happen,
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  Speaker 1: though with no ill will toward the chief. They were
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  Speaker 1: all furnished as for a day's shooting, and expected to
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  Speaker 1: be joined by some of the keepers on their way.
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  Speaker 1: The Chief, in view of possible assault, had taken care
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  Speaker 1: that not one of his men should have a gun,
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  Speaker 1: even hector of the stags, he requested to leave his
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  Speaker 1: at home. They went in little groups, some about the
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  Speaker 1: creeping carts, in which were the older women and younger children.
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  Speaker 1: Some a good way ahead, some scattered behind, but the
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  Speaker 1: main body attending the Chief, who talked to them as
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  Speaker 1: they went. They looked a very poor company, but God
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  Speaker 1: saw pass their poverty. The chief himself, save in size
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  Speaker 1: and strength, had not a flourishing appearance. He was very thoughtful,
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  Speaker 1: much lay on his shoulders, and Ian was not there
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  Speaker 1: to help his clothes. All their clothes were shabby, with
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  Speaker 1: a crumpled blown about look like drifts in their many
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  Speaker 1: faded colors of autumnal leaves. They had about them all
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  Speaker 1: a forgotten air, looked thin and wan like a ghostly
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  Speaker 1: funeral to the second sight, as if they had walked
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  Speaker 1: so long they had forgotten how to sleep, and the
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  Speaker 1: grave would not have them. Except in their chief. There
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  Speaker 1: was nothing left of the martial glance and gait and
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  Speaker 1: show once so notable in every gathering of the Klan Rude,
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  Speaker 1: when the men were all soldiers born, and the women
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  Speaker 1: were mothers, daughters and wives of soldiers. Their former stately
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  Speaker 1: grace had vanished from the women. They were weather worn
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  Speaker 1: and bowed with labor too heavy for their strength, too
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  Speaker 1: long for their endurance. They were weak from lack of
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  Speaker 1: fit human food, from lack of hope, and from the
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  Speaker 1: dreariness of the outlook, the ever gray spiritual horizon. They
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  Speaker 1: were numbed with the cold that had ceased to be felt,
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  Speaker 1: the deadening sense of life as a weight to be borne,
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  Speaker 1: not a strength to rejoice in. But they were not abject.
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  Speaker 1: Yet there was one that loved them, their chief and
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  Speaker 1: their friend. Below their level was a deeper depth in
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  Speaker 1: which alas lie many of like heart and passions with them,
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  Speaker 1: trodden into the mire by Dives and his stewards. The
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  Speaker 1: carts were small, with puny horses, long tailed and droop
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  Speaker 1: necked in harness of more rope than leather. They had
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  Speaker 1: a look of old men, an aspect weirdly venerable, as
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  Speaker 1: of life and labor prolonged after due time, as of
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  Speaker 1: creatures kept from the grave and their last sleep to
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  Speaker 1: work a little longer. Scrambling up the steep places, they
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  Speaker 1: were like that rare sea bird which unable to fly
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  Speaker 1: for shortness of wing makes of its beak a third
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  Speaker 1: leg to help it up the cliff. These horses seem
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  Speaker 1: to make fifth legs of their necks and noses. The
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  Speaker 1: chief's horses, alone, always at the service of the clan,
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  Speaker 1: looked well fed, well kept, and strong, and the clan
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  Speaker 1: was proud of them. And what news is there from een,
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  Speaker 1: asked an old man of his chief. Not much news yet,
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  Speaker 1: but I hope for more. Soon it will be so
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  Speaker 1: easy to let you hear all his letters. When we
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  Speaker 1: can meet any moment in the barn. I fear he
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  Speaker 1: will be wanting us all to go after the rest,
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  Speaker 1: said one of the women. There might be a worse thing,
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  Speaker 1: answered her neighbor. A worse thing than leave the hills
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  Speaker 1: where we were born. No, there is no worse for me.
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  Speaker 1: I trust in God. I shall be buried where I
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  Speaker 1: grew up. Then you will leave the hills, sure enough,
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  Speaker 1: said the chief. Not so sure, Mac Cruid. We shall
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  Speaker 1: rest in our graves till the resurrection, said the old man.
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  Speaker 1: Only our bodies returned Allister. Well, and what will my
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  Speaker 1: body be but myself? Much I would make of myself
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  Speaker 1: without my body. I will stay with my body and
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  Speaker 1: let my soul step about waiting for me and craving
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  Speaker 1: a shot at the stags with the big branches. No,
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  Speaker 1: I won't be going from my own strath. You would
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  Speaker 1: not like to be left in it alone with none
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  Speaker 1: but unfriendly sassanax about you, not one of your own
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  Speaker 1: people to close your eyes. Indeed, it would not be pleasant,
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  Speaker 1: But the winds would be the same, and the hills
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  Speaker 1: would be the same, and the smell of the earth
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  Speaker 1: would be the same, and they would be our own
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  Speaker 1: worms that came crawling over me to eat me. No,
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  Speaker 1: I won't leave the strath till I die, and I
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  Speaker 1: won't leave it. Then. That is very well, John, said
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  Speaker 1: the woman. But if you were all day with your
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  Speaker 1: little ones, all of them, all day, looking hunger in
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  Speaker 1: your face, you would think it a blessed country wherever
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  Speaker 1: it was that gave you bread to put in their mouths.
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  Speaker 1: And how to keep calling this home? Said another? Why
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  Speaker 1: it will soon be everywhere a crime to set foot
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  Speaker 1: on a hill for frightening of the deer. I was
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  Speaker 1: walking last month in a part of the country I
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  Speaker 1: did not know when I came to a wall that
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  Speaker 1: went out of my sight, seeming to go all round
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  Speaker 1: a big hill. I said to myself, he's no poor
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  Speaker 1: man to climb to heaven any more. And with that
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I came to a bill stock on a post, which
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  Speaker 1: answered me. For it said thus, any well dressed person
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  Speaker 1: who will give his word not to leave the path
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  Speaker 1: may have permission to go to the top of the
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  Speaker 1: hill by applying to I. Forget the name of the
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  Speaker 1: door keeper, But sure he was not of God, seeing
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  Speaker 1: his door was not to let a poor man in,
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  Speaker 1: but to keep him out. They will do well to
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  Speaker 1: starve us before they choke us. We must else fight
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to the air to breathe have patience,
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  Speaker 1: my sons, said the chief. God will not forget us.
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  Speaker 1: What better are we for that? It would be all
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  Speaker 1: the same if he did forget us, growled the young fellow,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: shambling along without shoes. Shame, Shame cried several voices. Has
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  Speaker 1: not God left us them a cruid? Does he not
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  Speaker 1: share everything with us? The best coat in the clan
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  Speaker 1: is on his own back, muttered the lad, careless whether
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  Speaker 1: he were heart or not, You scoundrel, cried another. Yours
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  Speaker 1: is a warmer one. The chief heard all and held
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  Speaker 1: his peace. It was true he had the best coat.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what said Donald Shoemaker. If the Chief
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  Speaker 1: give you the stick, not one of us will say
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  Speaker 1: it was more than you deserved. If he will put
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  Speaker 1: it into my hands, not to defile his own, I
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  Speaker 1: will take and give it with all my heart. Everybody
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  Speaker 1: knows you for the idlest vagabond in the village. Why
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the chief, with his own hands works ten times as much.
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  Speaker 1: That's how he takes the bread out of my mouth.
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  Speaker 1: Doing his work himself rejoined the youth, who had been
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  Speaker 1: to Glasgow and thought he had learned a thing or two.
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  Speaker 1: The chief recovered from his impulse to pull off his
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  Speaker 1: coat and give it him. I will make you an offer,
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  Speaker 1: my lad, he said, instead, come to the farm and
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  Speaker 1: take my place. For every fair day's work, you shall
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  Speaker 1: have a fair day's wages, and for every bit of
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: idleness a fair thrashing. Do you agree? The youth pretended
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  Speaker 1: to laugh the thing off, but slunk away and was
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: seen no more till eating time arrived and Lady mac
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Cruid's well filled baskets were opened. And who wouldn't see
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: a better coat on his chief? Cried the little tailor.
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  Speaker 1: I would clip my own to make lappets for his
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they reached the moss. It lay in a fold of
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  Speaker 1: the hills, desert and dreary, full of great hollows and
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  Speaker 1: holes whence the peat had been taken, now filled with water,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: black and terrible, a land hideous by day and at night,
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  Speaker 1: full of danger and lonely horror. Everywhere stood piles of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: peats set up to dry, with many openings through and
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  Speaker 1: through windy drains to gather and remove their moisture. Here
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  Speaker 1: and there was a tuft of dry grass, a bush
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of heather, or a few slender stalked hoary heads of
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: cannach or cotton grass. It was a land of devoted desolation,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: doing nothing for itself. This bountiful store of life and
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: warmth for the winter sieged houses of the strath, they
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: went heartily to work. They cut turf for their walls
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and peats for their fires. They loaded the carts from
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the driest piles and made new piles of the fresh,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: wet peats they dug. It was approaching noon, and some
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of the old women were getting the food out of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: my lady's baskets, when over their nearest ridge beyond rose
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: men to the number of seven carrying guns. Rob of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the angels was the first to spy them. He pointed
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: them out to his father, and presently they too disappeared together.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: The rest went on with their work, but the Chief
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: could see that, stooping to their labor, they cast upward
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and sidelong glances at them, reading hostility in their approach. Suddenly,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: as by common consent, they all ceased working, stood erect
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and looked out like men on their guard. But the Chief,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: making them a sign, they resumed their labor as if
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they saw nothing. Mister peregrin Palmer had laid it upon
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: himself to act with becoming calmness and dignity. But it
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: would amaze most people to be told how little their
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: order is self restraint, their regular conduct to their own,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: how much of the savage and how little of the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: civilized man goes to form their being, how much their
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: decent behavior is owing to the moral pressure like that
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: of the atmosphere of the laws and persons and habits
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and opinions that surround them. Witness how many who seemed
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: respectable people at home become vulgar, self indulgent, ruffianly cruel,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: even in the wilder parts of the colonies. No man
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: who has not, through restraint, learned not to need restraint,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: but be as well behaved among savages as in society,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: has yet become a true man. No perfection of mere
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: civilization kills the savage in a man. The savages there
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: all the time till the man passed through the berth
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: from above, till then he is no certain hiding place
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: from the wind, no sure covert from the tempest. Mister
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Palmer was in the worst of positions as to protection
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: against himself. Possessed of large property, he owed his position
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to evil and not to good. Not only had he
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: done nothing to raise those through whom he had made
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: his money, but the very making of their money his
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: was plunging them deeper and deeper in poverty and vice.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: His success was the ruin of many. Yet he was
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: full of his own imagined importance, or had been full
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: until now that he felt a worm at the root
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of his God. The contempt of one man for his
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: wealth and position, Well might such a man hate at
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: such another, And the more that his daughter loved him.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: All the chief's schemes and ways were founded on such
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: opposite principles to his own, that of necessity. They annoyed
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: him at every point, and incapable of perceiving their true nature,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: he imagined his annoyance their object and end. And now
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: here was his enemy, insolently daring, as mister Palmer fully believed,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to trespass in person on his land. Add to all
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: this that here mister peregrine Palmer was in a place
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: whose remoteness lightened the pressures of conventional restraints, while its
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: wildness tended to rouse all the old savage in him,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: its very looks suggesting to the city man its fitness
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: for an unlawful deed for a lawful end. Persons more
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: respectable than mister Palmer are capable of doing the most
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: wicked and lawless things when their selfish sense of their
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: own right is uppermost. Witness the acccasional iniquitous judgments of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: country magistrates in their own interest, how they drive law
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: even to cruelty. Are you not aware you are trespassing
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: on my land? Ma crud, cried the new laird, across
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: several holes full of black water, which obstructed his nearer approach.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, mister Palmer replied the chief, I am
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: perfectly aware that I am not. You have no right
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: to cut peats there without my permission. I beg your pardon.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: You have no right to stand where you speak the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: words without my permission, But you are quite welcome. I
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: am satisfied. There is not a word of truth in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: what you say. Rejoined, mister Palmer. I desire you to
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: order your people away at once. That I cannot do.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: It would be to require their consent to die of cold.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Let them die. What are they to me or to anybody?
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Order them off, or it will be the worse for
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: them and for you too. Excuse me, I cannot. I
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: give you one more warning. Go yourself and they will follow.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I will not go, or I will compel you. As
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: he spoke, he half raised his gun. You dare not,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: said the chief, drawing himself up indignantly. Together, mister Palmer
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and mister Circum raised their guns to their shoulders, and
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: one of them fired to give mister Palmer the benefit
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: of a doubt. He was not quite at home with
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: his gun and would use a hair trigger. The same instant.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Each found himself breath and consciousness equally scant, floundering, gun
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and all in the black bog water on whose edge
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he had stood. There now stood Rob of the angels,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: glaring after them into the depth with the look of
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: an avenging seraph. His father beside him, grim as a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: gratified fate. Such a roar of rage rose from the
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: clansmen with a shot, and so many came bounding with
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: sticks and spades over the rough ground that the keepers,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: knowing if each ca killed his two men they would
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: not after escape with their lives, judged it more prudent
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to wait orders. Only Valentine came running in terror to
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the help of his father. Don't be frightened, said Rob.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: We only wanted to wet their powder, but they'll be drowned,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: cried the lad, almost weeping. Not a hair of them,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: answered Rob. We'll have them out in a moment, but
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: please tell your men if they dare to lift a gun,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: we'll serve them the same. It wets the horn, and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: it cools the man. A minute more, and the two
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: men lay coughing and gasping on the crumbly bank, for
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in their utter surprisal, they had let more of the nasty,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: soft water inside than was good for them. With his
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: first breath, Circum began to swear drop that Sir if
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: you please, said Rob. Or in you go again. He
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: began to reply with a volley of oaths, but began
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: only for the same instant the blackwater was again choking him.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Might Hector of the Stags have had his way, he
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: would have kept there, the murderer of un Cobrock more
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: till he had to be dived for Rob, on his part,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was determined he should not come out till he gave
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: his word that he would not swear come come, gasped
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: circum at length, after many attempts to get out, which
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the bystanders easily foiled. You don't mean to drown me,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: do you? We mean to drown your bad language? Promise
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to use no more on this peat moss, returned Rob.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Damn the promise you get from me? He gasped. Men
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: must have patience with a suffering brother, remarked Rob, and
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: seated himself with a few words in Gaelic, which drew
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: a hearty laugh from the men about him, on a
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: heap of turf, to watch the unyielding flounder in the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: peat hole, where there was no room to swim. He
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: began to think the man would drown in his contumacy.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: When his ears welcomed the despairing words, take me out,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and I will promise anything. He was scarcely able to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: move till one of the keepers gave him whisky, but
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in a few minutes he was crawling homeward after his host,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: who parent of little streams, was doing his best to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: walk over rocks and through bogs with the help of
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Valentine's arm, chattering rather than muttering something about proper legal fashion.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, the Chief lay shot in the right
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: arm and chest, but not dangerously wounded by the scattering lead.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: He had lost a good deal of blood and was faint,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a sensation new to him. The women had done what
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: they could, but that was only binding his arm, laying
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: him in a dry place, and giving him water. He
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: would not let them recall the men till the enemy
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: was gone. When they knew what had happened, they were
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: in sad trouble. Rob of the Angels, especially that he
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: had not been quick enough to prevent the firing of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the gun. The Chief would have had him get the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: shot out of his arm with his knife, but Rob
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: instead started off at full speed, running as no man
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: else in the country could run, to fetch the doctor
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to the castle. At the chief's desire. They made a
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: hurried meal, and then resumed the loading of the carts,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: preparing one of them for his transport. When it was
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: half full, they covered the peats with a layer of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: dry elastic turf, then made on that a bed of heather.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Top's uppermost, and more to please them than that he
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: could not walk, Allister consented to be laid on this luxurious,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: invalid carriage, and borne home over the rough roads like
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a disabled warrior. They arrived some time before the doctor.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: End of Volume three, chapter fourteen, recording by Hannah Mary