McLeod of the Camerons

Front matter

McLeod of the Camerons By the same A uthor A Self-Denying Ordinance Price, 6.r. "The characters are exceptionally distinct, the movement is brisk, and the dialogue is natural and convincing." — The Aihcnœvm. Across an Ulster Bog Wrapper, is. 6d. net ; cloth, y. net. [Pioneer Series "Across an Ulster Brg is a simple story and a strong one. It is written with a thorough knowledge and understanding of Irish peasant life, and many a strong point in characrer and description is made." — Literary World. London : Win. Heinemann McLeod ot the Camerons By M. Hamilton Author of A Self- Denying Ordinance'' London Wm . Heine ma n n All rights reserved

Book I. Chapter

I. " Mks. Stoddart, I am looking for my stable compan ion. I suppose you haven't happened to see a tall man any where about the deck, with red hair and a swagger? " " Well, the place is strewn with reviving invalids. Pos sibly he forms a nucleus for some of those rugs and shawls. But there's no distinguishing one bundle from another." " I've searched several, and got myself disliked. I don't know where he can have got to. It's his first appearance since we left the Thames, and I feel rather responsible. He's had nothing but hard biscuits and whisky for two days, and he owes me half-a-crown for the sweep." Mr. Grant had his anxiety under control; he gave a final glance round, and then drew up a long chair beside Mrs. Stoddart. All the passengers of the P. and 0. Australia, except the invalids who were not up to date, had been confidently waiting for this climax, and one or two officers near the smoking room who knew Mr. Grant personally had had a bet on the number of times he would think it necessary to saunter past Mrs. Stoddart's chair before he stopped there.

Everybody knew that Mrs. Stoddart was going out to Malta to join her husband, after being separated from him for three years, though it was impossible to say from whom the information had originally come. It had grown to be known in the occult way everybody's private concerns do grow to be known on board ship. And Mr. Grant's atten tions had not escaped criticism. A scrap of scandal was a godsend to a set of idle and A bored people who had found two rough days at the beginning of the voyage pass very slowly. "It's rather dull, isn't it?" Christina Stoddart said; " everybody is looking suspiciously at everybody else, now that it is calm enough to think about grandfathers. And even the people who have not been ill have no energy. That pretty girl with the blue cloak asked me to play buckets just now, but neither she nor the men who played with us got one ring in six into the bucket, and they didn't even try."

" I don't suppose I shall be any better," said Grant, " but I'll play you after lunch if you like. Captain McLeod is the best fellow in the regiment for games, only he wouldn't come. He hates ladies. I need hardly say I consider him to have execrable taste." " Hardly, indeed," said Christina, laughing. " And I can't say I feel very keen to make Captain McLeod's acquaintance, judging by your various bits of information as to his manners and customs." " C'an you make a woman more anxious to know a man than by telling her he hates women? That's the glaring injustice of it," said Mr. Grant, tenderly. " Shall I tuck in the rug at your feet? You are sure you are warm enough? " He leaned forward and rearranged Mrs. Stoddart's wraps with an air of being completely engrossed by her, which came to him by instinct when he had anything to do with a woman.

A remark about the weather from him had a tenderness and fervour of expression which made it almost equivalent to an assurance of eternal devotion. He was a good-looking, pleasant young fellow, and he got through life very comfortably and happily, being thor oughly well satisfied with himself and all that concerned him. Mr. Grant considered himself the smartest man in the smartest regiment in the service. He looked well, undoubtedly, and he had been more than civil to Christina; nevertheless she found him the smallest trifle dull. Just now, having had his society with short intervals since breakfast, it was beginning to pall. She strangled a yawn behind her book. "Is it nearly time for the next event of the day— lunch?" she said. "I expected life on board ship would be amusing, but it certainly isn't." " What an unkind remark!

" said Grant, as she had felt sure he would, immediately after she had spoken. " Supposing my watch is right, can you endure me for a quarter of an hour longer? Have you amusing people at your table?" " Far from it. I sit at one of the long tables, and I have on one side the fourth officer, who hardly ever turns up, and asks me disgusting riddles when he does; on the left I've an old man who never speaks, and opposite there are the most awful people you can imagine. They are a mother and daughter, called White, and the daughter has a fringe like a haystack and wears low dresses in the even ing — you know the sort of girl. And they are going to Malta, I'm sorry to say." " It sounds fascinating," said Grant, with sympathy. " I wish you were at our table; we have just some of our fellows and a couple of men in the Qireen's. Is your hus band in the service ?

" " He is in the navy — on the Dauntless." " I have a brother on the Dauntless," said Grant, with interest. " George has only just been appointed," said Christina, eagerly; " what sort of a ship is it? Do tell me." " You are a sailor's wife, Mrs. Stoddart, and yet you call a ship ' it ' ! And, if I am not mistaken, I heard you speak only yesterday of going up and down stairs? " Christina laughed, but to Grant's amusement she coloured too. " I didn't mean to make you blush for your ignorance," he said. " It wasn't that," said Christina; "it is because I can't get used to hearing myself called ' Mrs. Stoddart.' It does sound so funny! " Grant was decidedly surprised. " Why," he said, " didn't you say you had been mar ried for more than three years? Haven't you got used to it in all that time?

" " Yes — of course," Christina said, with unmistakable hesitation. _ a She was annoyed with herself for having spoken with out thinking. What would Mr. Grant think of her? There was such decided question in his handsome blue eyes that she was half inclined to explain further, and probably would have done so if the luncheon bell had not come just then as an interruption. It was impossible to say anything more not intended for the whole ship. In the utter idleness of the first few days of a voyage everybody welcomed mealtimcs as epochs, and Mrs. Stoddart's chair was quite close to the companion. "I suppose we had better put the rugs in the music saloon? " was all she said after a pause.

Chapter II

Captain McLeod had established his deck chair in a comfortable corner near the smoking room, and was lounging half in and half out of it, playing languidly with a small fox terrier of the name of Jinks. He had the deck almost to himself. It had been so un expectedly calm all afternoon that a few energetic souls had roused their fellow-passengers to play cricket, and now everybody had gone down to tea. McLeod never went in for ship games or afternoon tea. In the smoking room whist and piquet were in full swing, and a little distance off a couple of men had found themselves a sheltered spot and were playing chess with businesslike silence and deliberation. As the sun went down the sea was beginning to rise a little, and the ship was swaying with a deliberate motion not as yet unpleasant even to such a bad sailor as McLeod.

Now and then through the dusk he could catch a glimpse of the Spanish coast. It grew gradually into view and as gradually the side of the ship shut it out, giving him just a gleam of gray-blue water opposite in exchange. But this was only when a specially large wave came. McLeod felt a languid sense of contentment. If the Australia were to go down at this instant, in this quiet even ing light, he did not think he would take the trouble to fight for his life. If that were to happen, it would solve so many difficulties, save him from so much suffering. Jinks, after waiting for some time, like a well-bred dog, to see if his master wished him to repeat any of his per formances, had jumped up on the end of the chair, and made himself a very cosey nest in the rug; but McLeod was not taking much notice of him.

He was thinking — trying to imagine the sudden sinking of the ship beneath him, the sudden plunge into cold water and darkness; in such a case, would he have the courage — or the cowardice — to keep his arms to his sides and make no effort to save him self, knowing as he did that it would be the best, the very best thing that could happen to him. McLeod did not look like a man to let go life or any thing else very easily. He was tall and well-made, with a plain, powerful face and grave, steady brown eyes under his reddish eyebrows. His hair was red and straight and thin, and was in his regiment popularly supposed to be a sore point with him, affording scope for innumerable friendly if not very brilliant witticisms. A certain self-confidence in his manner was often put down to affectation and " side," as was a habit of withdraw ing himself from general conversation if he was not in terested and without concealment allowing himself to think of something else.

This afternoon he felt particularly unsociable. Grant, who took the trouble of strolling up the deck to inquire for his health, was by no means welcome. But that he could be unwelcome anywhere was beyond Grant's conception. He was conscious of looking his best as he sauntered along the deck, had there been more day light to do him justice. He was absolutely suitably dressed, as he always was, and he knew he had been par ticularly successful with his moustache, which was waxed into exact half circles. He felt at peace with the world, and smiled benignly down on McLeod. The absurd sense of superiority a good sailor feels over TITE CAMERONS. a bad one had quite blotted out a certain uneasy jealousy which made him inclined to avoid McLeod on shore as much as one man in a regiment can avoid another.

"Got a light?" McLeod shook his head. " You'll get one in the smok ing room," he suggested. Grant, under all circumstances, bored him to distrac tion. He had met him every day for seven years, McLeod had once declared in exasperation, and had never heard him speak of anything but women and clothes. But his effort to get rid of him was unsuccessful. Grant only went just inside the smoking room, and came back again immediately. " Faugh! how that place reeks of smoke and whisky! " he said; " do you know the bar's open, Tommy? " Captain McLeod's godfathers and godmothers had given him the name of Andrew, and in the regiment he was generally called " Bones," for unknown reasons, but " Tom my " was a form of address indiscriminately used among a certain set of about the same standing. " I am not going below till dinnertime," he said, playing with Jinks's ears.

" Feel like a constitutional? " McLeod shook his head. " The fact is," said Grant, in a burst of confidence, " I want your chair for a lady." McLeod laughed. " Trust you to be looking after something in petticoats," he said; " but in the present state of my health you must really excuse me. Why not give her your own chair? " " It's not half so comfortable. She sat in yours all yesterday and liked it immensely." " But it's rather rough on me not even to have the reward of gratitude," said McLeod, placidly. Grant saw that he had not the slightest intention of moving. " She's a Mrs. Stoddart — such a nice girl and very good fun," he said, " I am going to teach her to inhale cigarettes and play piquet this evening." " Hadn't you better go and look after her, then? " said McLeod, by way of a delicate hint.

But Grant stayed where he was; he stood with his hands in his pockets, lazily letting himself sway backward and forward with the motion of the ship. " Will you come into the music saloon after dinner? " he said; " some of them want you to play accompaniments, and that banjo breakdown of mine sounds nothing with out the piano." " My good fellow, quite impossible this evening. Can't some of those dozens of girls you know play for you, 01 there's that tall chap in the Queen's? " " Well, there's a very smart little girl there awfully keen to know you," said Grant. His cigarette was finished, and he flung away the end into the sea, taking out his hand kerchief to dust some ashes off his coat and sending a whiff of wood violet towards McLeod, who hated scent. " Great Scott, what a smell! " he said.

People were beginning to straggle up on deck again, sometimes singly, sometimes in festive groups. There was nothing left of the sunset but a vague red glow in the sky, and there was an exceedingly cold wind blowing down one side of the deck. A shivering Lascar was going about lighting the lamps, which made little patches of brightness emphasizing the darkness round. A few men and one or two adventurous girls began to try and keep their feet up and down the deck, but the ship was rolling more and more, and an occasional dash of spray made it slippery; they cannoned into each other and into other people at frequent intervals. " Do you see that girl just under the lamp ? " said Mr. Grant. " What, the girl in the knitted cap with all her hair coining down? " " No, no, that's the young woman we call the Man-eater.

If she wants to get to know a man she goes and settles down beside him and introduces herself, and she was discovered after dinner last night in the fourth officer's cabin, sitting on his knee — a whole lot of fellows went in and found them. No, the methods of the girl I mean aren't quite so simple; she's the little creature with a sailor hat who nearly knocked that man into the scuppers a minute ago." McLeod looked deeply uninterested. " Well, she came up to me just now at tea; and she said: ' Won't vou introduce me to that Captain McLeod in your regiment? I used to know a Mr. Geoffrey McLeod in the Civil Service in India, and I am so anxious to know if he is any relation.' Of course I said I should be delighted. There, I bet you ten bob she will walk past us now very slowly, and if possible the motion of the ship will jerk her against your chair."

" Then for goodness' sake let us go," said McLeod has tily; " this motion is getting rather too much of a good thing, anyway." " No, no, sit still and I'll protect you; it's too late in any case. It's getting cold, isn't it, Miss Eraser? I don't advise you to go round the smoking room — you'll probably get a wave right in your face." McLeod lay back in his chair, looking and feeling very unapproachable, till Miss Fraser retraced her steps, which was not for some time — not, in fact, till three or four stray men had made their appearance from the smoking room, and one had been told off to help her to look for a sheltered spot for her chair. " I shall catch it for not introducing you," said Grant, with a laugh. " Can you understand, Campbell, what half the girls on the ship see in Tommy here, who won't look the same side of the deck with them, when they have vou and me ready and willing to make ourselves agreeable?"

" My good chap, my personal charms — it only needs a glance to see " said McLeod, modestly. " Hi! get up, Jinks; you and I are going below." " Perversity of the sex," said Campbell, a small, freckled youth who had spent the last few years at the depot, and was going out to Malta for the first time. " Are you going below, McLeod? It's nowhere near dinnertime." " Don't talk of dinner to me," said McLeod, tragically, " Good-night, you fellows — it may be a trifle early, but I am going to bed." "A nice stable companion you are!" said Grant, and there was a general laugh, while McLeod, quite unper turbed, collected his rugs and whistled to Jinks. " Never mind, Bones, we shall be at Gib. by one o'clock to-morrow, and I suppose you are going ashore." " Rather! " said McLeod, with emphasis; " you don't catch me on the sea a minute longer than I can help.

Be sides, I want to look up some of the fellows in the Black Watch — Crayshaw particularly." " But the Lord only knows when we'll get in," said Campbell. " A few days ago the captain said in time for breakfast, but the rough weather in the Bay kept us back, and the doctor says we mayn't have time to go in at all, and the second officer says we'll get in about four p. m. So you take your choice." " Well, it's to be hoped we get in to Malta on Friday anyhow — it's the very limit of our leave, extension and all," said McLeod. " If it hadn't been for that d — d quarantine, I should be steaming across the continent in a comfortable train, instead of having a foretaste of purgatory in this cursed ship! " And having thus relieved his mind he went below.

Chapter III

" Captain McLeod, vou are drawn with Mrs. Stod dart." McLeod was in the smoking room with a book and a pipe, rejoicing in the calmness of the morning and the prospect of at least two hours on firm land in the course of the day. He had not even noticed the entrance of Mr. Graham, an energetic, conceited young man, who was some thing or other in Ceylon, and who had established himself president and promoter of games and festivities of all kinds, and was known on board as " the Bounder." "McLeod — you are McLeod, aren't you? — you are drawn with Mrs. Stoddart," the Bounder repeated. "What?" " For the bull tournament, I mean; Grant put down vour name." "Grant had very little to do," said McLeod, pulling at his moustache after a fashion of his when annoyed. " / can't play bull — never did in my life.

Put some one else in my place." " Oh now, do come like a good fellow; you'll upset all arrangements; I shall have to change the whole tiling." The Bounder looked despairingly at his list. Almost every one had wanted something altered: some wouldn't play at the last moment, others objected to the partners tin v had been drawn with, and a third variety wanted to choose their own time for playing and make their own rules. " Upon my word, I think I'll chuck the whole thing! " he said, tragically. McLeod was quite sorry for him. " Really," he said, " I haven't a notion how the con founded thing is played, or " The Bounder broke in eagerly: "Mrs. Stoddart will teach you — she's awfully good. Do come, for Heaven's sake; she knows she's drawn with you, and how am I to go and tell her you won't play with her?

" McLeod yawned, stretched, and yielded; in his opinion very few things in the world were worth making such a fuss about. " I'll slaughter Grant," he reflected by way of consola tion, and then he shook the ashes out of his pipe and sauntered down the deck with the Bounder, with Jinks at his heels, and a little extra manner. Half the passengers of the ship were round the bull board, which had been repainted for the occasion, for this was to be a very grand performance indeed, and every body had to pay two shillings entrance fee, to be spent in prizes at Gib. It was the turn of McLeod and his partner to play against the doctor and a girl in a dirty red blouse, and they were all waiting for McLeod, which, however, was certainly not his fault. He raised his cap gravely to Mrs. Stoddart when he was introduced.

" I am very sorry," he said, " to be late; but I knew nothing about this till five minutes ago. I don't know how to play in the least, and I am afraid you will find me a very bad partner." TnE CAMERONS.^ 11 Whereupon he relapsed into calm silence. It was not that he meant to be rude; simply he had nothing to say, and consequently said nothing. Mrs. Stoddart took a businesslike and real interest in the game, and played very well; her attention was fully engrossed till she discovered that her partner had a straight eye and a steady hand, and that their victory was a fore gone conclusion. But most undoubtedly McLeod did not look exhila rated; he picked up her bits of lead for her promptly, played carefully when his turn came, and amused himself with Jinks in the intervals. Christina began to feel slightly piqued by his inatten tion, and called it " incivility " and " side " to herself.

" You don't seem very keenly interested," she said, abruptly. McLeod had lifted Jinks on to the rail of the ship, and was amusing himself by blowing into the little dog's ears and making him shake his head. From this engaging pastime he turned at once. " Well, I hope we shall win," he said with a smile. " but I am afraid my manners are deplorable. I don't shine in society." Christina thought to herself that he had a remarkably nice smile, and McLeod, after a pause, returned to Jinks. But curiosity and perversity combined to determine her to make him speak. Next time he had finished playing she intercepted him on his way to Jinks with a remark, her originality failing her, on the calmness of the sea. " I am glad to see you on deck. I am afraid you haven't had a very cheerful voyage so far," she said.

"It is an awful shame of Mr. Grant to give me away," McLeod said. " I am a wretched sailor. It's your turn, Mrs. Stoddart — we are for the right bull, coming back. If vou take my advice vou will stand a little more side ways." " Play up for the honour of the regiment, Tommy," said Campbell, standing near. " McFerran and I have disgraced ourselves and distracted our partners." " We are only five numbers to the good. Look here, Jorrocks, I'll back our play at two to one, if you like," said McLeod. But Campbell wisely shook his head, and went to pick up Mrs. Stoddart's leads, returning to where she and her partner were standing, and proving much more successful in bringing McLeod into the conversation. He and Mrs. Stoddart were on quite friendly terms by the time Mr. Grant appeared, he having adjourned half an hour before for a whisky and soda and a cigarette.

He sauntered up with his usual benign appearance, his cap on one side of his head and a general air of satisfaction with himself and all the world on his handsome face. "' Hullo! Tommy, so you are in the height of society," he said to McLeod, who had just ended the game by a triumphant throw of three tens running.. " I'll thank you properly when we go below to-night," said McLeod. " And let me further increase my right to your gratitude by introducing you to Miss White — that girl with the fringe like a horse's tail — you know her, Mrs. Stoddart," said Grant, completely unabashed. " She deserves it, for she has done her best to manage it for herself. I saw her trying on the chair trick this morning, but you walked past with your head in the air, and never even saw the unfortunate girl trying to fix her chair north-northeast, instead of due south."

Whereupon McLeod disclaimed any knowledge of Miss White, or any desire to make her acquaintance, and turned the conversation by an inquiry as to when they were ex pected to get into Gib., and Campbell was struck with ad miration of a gorgeous pair of yellow boots, just then the most striking part of Mr. Grant's attire, and expressed his admiration loudly. " Never mind, Tommy." said McLeod, " they'll look very fetching in the Strada Reale. — Mrs. Stoddart, I am quite at your service whenever you like to arrange for us to play again, if you wouldn't mind sending somebody to the smoking room for me." " And, Mrs. Stoddart, it's just teatime, and I invite you to tea with me," said Mr. Grant. " Ship tea and ship buns, and ' animal grab ' and ' up Jenkins ' afterward. The deck is really too cold, and we'll make a select party.

Will you come, Tommy? " McLeod ungratefully declined. " My dear fellow," he said, " I daren't risk it; it would be as much as my character in Mrs. Stoddart's eyes is worth. The saloon is no place for any one not in the rudest of health." With which he slightly raised his cap and strolled away, Jinks trotting ac his heels. "Well, what do you think of McLeod?" said Grant, as he and Mrs. Stoddart and Campbell went down the com panion together. " I should like him better with less side on and without such enormously high collars," said Christina, without en thusiasm. " He's not bad on the whole; he doesn't talk, but I don't think it is because he is stupid." " It's not that, certainly," Grant said. " He's a queer fellowr. Which table shall we go to? Let me make tea — I flatter myself I know how."

They were rather early, and there was an unfinished match at bull going on on deck, so they had no difficulty in finding a table for themselves in a comfortable corner and just under a porthole. Then, after a few social amenities, such as Mr. Grant's requesting to know who had invited Campbell to his tea party, and Campbell's refusing to drink his tea unless made by Mrs. Stoddart, and with the sugar put in before the milk, the conversation returned to McLeod. " He's an awfully good sort," Campbell said, helping himself largely to cake, " and he's had a queer sort of life. He studied for the stage for two years, and he was always mad about it — is now, for the matter of that. Then all of a sudden he chucked it — I don't think anybody knows why — and he never mentions the subject." " But he comes out strong in regimental theatricals or at the garrison concerts in Malta," added Grant.

" Let me give you some more tea, Mrs. Stoddart? " Christina remarked that Captain McLeod had a very sad face; she had thought so the very first time Mr. Grant had pointed him out. Didn't he like the army as well as the stage? TnE CAMERONS. 14 " Poor chap," said Campbell, with sudden gravity, " if I were he, I should feel pretty down on my luck. He shot his greatest friend in the regiment about a year ago." " Shot him! " Christina exclaimed. Campbell turned to Grant. " Tommy knows more about it than I do," he said. " I was at the depot." " It is not a pleasant thing to talk about," Grant said, shortlv. " But you must tell me now you have begun," said Christina. " He didn't— kill him? " " It was a fellowcalled Beresford," said Grant, un willingly. " He was to have been married in a week, and a lot of us were going up to the wedding.

McLeod was to have been best man. Beresford died the day he was to have been married in the most awful agony. McLeod nearly went off his head. It's not a nice story for afternoon tea, Mrs. Stoddart." " Oh, poor fellow! " said Christina. Neither Campbell nor Grant said any more, and there was a silence. The thoughts of the two men were full of Beresford; he had joined on the same day as Grant, and they had been six years in the regiment together. Christina was thinking of McLeod, whom she had been inclined to laugh at as con ceited ten minutes ago, and who she now thought more to be pitied than anybody she had ever met. But it was many a long clay before she knew how much he was in need of pity. Somebody came over from the next table and asked if Mrs. Stoddart knew that they would not get into Gib. till after dinner, and that it would be too late to go ashore.