Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships Part 49

Her hand slowly dropped from her brow, and she gazed forth on the ocean.

"What--what is yonder object? Is it a phantom of the brain or a reality?" she exclaimed, rising from her seat, and pointing towards the south-west. "See, there--there at the very spot where that beautiful ship first appeared, which the cruel ocean dashed to fragments on these rocks of Shetland, floats her counterpart. Can it be her--the 'Saint Cecilia' herself? Is all that has pa.s.sed for these long years a dream?

No, no; it has been too real, too palpable, too full of pain, and sorrow, and hope deferred, to be a dream. Yet, what is that?--a ship, come to mock me, as others have done; first to raise my hopes that my long-lost son is on board, and again as bitterly to disappoint them."

"Yes, cousin; that is a ship, and a very fine ship, too; a British man-of-war, I judge, by the ensign which floats proudly at her peak,"

said a voice behind her.

Hilda turned quickly round, and an angry frown rose on her brow as she saw Lawrence Brindister, who had entered just as she had discovered the strange ship. He shuffled up to the window, with a peculiar gait partly caused by the size of his shoes. His appearance, as he advanced in age, had become more grotesque. He wore a gay-flowered waistcoat, with knee breeches, and huge silver buckles on his shoes. His coat, which was much too large for his now shrunken figure, was trimmed with gold lace in a style already long gone out of fashion. His grey eyes looked larger and rounder than ever, while his hair, which had become perfectly white, was cropped short, and stood on end like the quills of an irritated porcupine.

"Why comes she here, I wonder?" he continued. "Once upon a time, I would have gone to ascertain, but my old arms can now scarcely paddle a boat across the voe, and were I to attempt to go, and the tide catch me, I might be swept helplessly out to sea. It might not be a bad ending for the puir auld daft bodie, you'll be saying, cousin, and a wonder it had never happened before. But I've some work to do before that time, Hilda. 'The prince will hae his ain again! The prince will hae his ain again!' and before long too, let me tell you, cousin."

"Lawrence, what is the import of those words?" exclaimed Hilda, vehemently, grasping his arm as she spoke; "for years past you have uttered them. I adjure you, tell me what you mean."

"Cousin, I am but a puir fule," answered Lawrence, looking calmly into her face; "fules speak mony things without meaning, ye ken."

Hilda looked steadfastly in his face, and he returned her gaze with an expression so unmoved and idiotic, that she saw it was hopeless to expect a satisfactory reply.

They were standing close to the window as she turned from him; her glance once more ranged over the ocean. Again she stopped and gazed; Lawrence watched the direction of her eyes.

"Ha, ha, cousin! you have discovered the other craft, have you? Who comes in her, think you? Guests are expected at the castle, I understand, and some at the cottage, if so you choose to designate my friend Rolf Morton's abode; sages learned in the law coming to investigate a knotty subject, to unravel a long-continued mystery."

"I understand you not," answered Hilda, still continuing to watch the two vessels. The latter-mentioned one was a cutter or smack, such as was employed in the summer months to keep up the communication between the islands and the ports of Aberdeen and Leith. She had come apparently from Lerwick, and was now observed to be steering directly for Lunnasting, while the corvette kept in the offing, and was, as far as could be seen, about to enter Eastling Sound from the east, or to pa.s.s it by altogether. The smack had got a favourable slant of wind, and rapidly approached.

Hilda stood watching her with trembling anxiety. Lawrence was also watching her narrowly, and taking apparently a strange pleasure in so doing. At length an idea seemed to strike him.

"I'll be off, and tell Sir Marcus of his coming guests," he exclaimed, shuffling out of the room. "He little wots how near at hand they are, and what strange tidings some of them may chance to bring. Ho, ho, ho!

you shall reap as you sow; there's truth in that saying. Ho, ho, ho!

'The prince will hae his ain again!'"

With these words on his lips he approached the door of Sir Marcus's chamber. The old man was seated in a large armchair, propped up with cushions, before a blazing fire. His long white hair drawn back, and fastened in a queue behind, exposed his high thin forehead, while his l.u.s.treless eyes and fallen jaw showed that the hand of time was pressing heavily on him, and summoning him to conclude his career on earth.

"They're coming, cousin! they're coming!" exclaimed Lawrence.

"Who--who?" asked the old man, rousing up, but trembling violently.

"Who do you mean, Lawrence?"

"Colonel Armytage and his wife and daughter, whom you sent for, and some gentlemen learned in the law, whom you didn't send for, I ween.

There'll be strange doings at Lunnasting before long, Sir Marcus. Ho, ho, ho! 'The prince will hae his ain again, his ain again!'" And Lawrence, shouting and laughing, shuffled out of the room.

Meantime, Hilda had been watching the corvette and the smack. What the former was about to do still remained doubtful, but the latter continued her course till she came to an anchor close in with the mouth of the voe. A boat which Hilda recognised as belonging to Rolf Morton went out to meet her. The smack's own boat was also lowered, and several people among whom were two ladies, embarked in her.

A tall thin man stepped into Rolfs boat with the air of a sailor, and having shaken him warmly by the hand, a.s.sisted in two other gentlemen in black dresses, who showed by their movements that they were far from well accustomed to nautical adventure.

While Rolfs boat proceeded up the voe, the other pulled towards the Lunnasting landing-place. Hilda would fain have watched the proceedings of the corvette, but believing that her sister had arrived she hurried down to meet her. At first she was about to go down to the landing-place, but her courage failed, and she waited in the great hall to receive her guests. At last they entered, ushered in by Lawrence, who kept bowing and flourishing his three-cornered hat before them in a way which seemed more like mockery than respect.

Colonel Armytage approached Hilda with formal respect, but the sisters threw themselves into each other's arms, and the younger found vent for her feelings in a torrent of tears; but not a drop fell from Hilda's eye. Edda stood hesitating for a moment, and then threw her arms round her aunt's neck, and kissed her affectionately.

"Oh, may you be more happy than either of us!" was all Hilda said, as she looked at the sweet face beaming up at her.

A gentleman followed Colonel Armytage into the room. Hilda looked towards him as if to inquire who he was.

"He is Mr Boland, my legal adviser," said the colonel. "I thought it wiser to bring him, in case any difficulties should arise about the succession to this property."

"What difficulties can arise--what doubts are there?" inquired Hilda, in an agitated tone.

"Matters will be explained to you, madam, shortly," answered Colonel Armytage, suspecting that Hilda had not heard of the discovery of her son.

He was not a man who would have attempted to prevent him from obtaining his rights, but he had not virtue enough to resist the wish that he might, after all, never appear to claim them.

The meeting between Sir Marcus Wardhill and his once favourite daughter was very painful. He scarcely aroused himself to greet her.

"You have come a long distance, daughter, and have been a long time coming," he said, putting out his hand, and looking up coldly in her face. "I suppose you feared the old man might die and leave his wealth elsewhere; it was that made you come, Edda?"

Mrs Armytage, with her eyes full of tears, stooped down and kissed the old man's forehead. "Father, no--do not be so cruel as to speak thus,"

she sobbed out. "Money I have never coveted. You sent for Colonel Armytage; you desired us to accompany him, and most gladly we came; but it was to see you, and you only, dear father."

"Ah, so I did--now I recollect," said Sir Marcus. "I never loved him and he never loved me, but he is a man--he has sense; he knows the world; he can rule a disorderly household. Go out, all of you. Let him come in; we have matters to arrange, and no time is to be lost. Go, go quickly!"

Colonel Armytage and Mr Boland, when summoned, hurried up to the old man's room with due alacrity. They were closeted an hour or more with Sir Marcus, and when they came out there was a look of satisfaction in the colonel's countenance which showed that he believed he had attained the object he had in view incoming to see his father-in-law. When he soon afterwards met his wife, he appeared to be in far better humour than she had long known him.

"Your father, my good wife, is a far more reasonable man than I expected to find him," he said, taking her hand with an unusually affectionate air. "I had few or no difficulties with him. He told me, what I have long suspected, that your sister Hilda is the victim at times of strange hallucinations, that she is eccentric always--in fact, that she is totally unable to manage this property. He has therefore, in the most sensible way, left it entirely to us, with the proviso that we make a certain allowance for your sister's maintenance. Our daughter, therefore, becomes the heiress of Lunnasting, and as such I feel has a right to make as good a match as any girl in the kingdom."

"Poor Hilda!" was all Mrs Armytage said; she was going to add, "Poor Edda!" for she foresaw the grief and trouble prepared for her daughter.

"Why, madam, you do not look pleased at this announcement of our good fortune," said Colonel Armytage.

"How can I, when I know that my poor sister, who has so long been mistress here, will ere long find herself almost disinherited?"

"Nonsensical idea!" said Colonel Armytage, scornfully. "Your sister will be as happy as her nature will allow her, with her books and abstruse studies, which, by all accounts, have turned her brain, and unfitted her for every-day life. However, we will not discuss the subject. It is settled to my satisfaction, at all events. I am no longer the miserable beggar I was two hours ago. By-the-by, what has become of our tall friend who accompanied us from Aberdeen? I expected to have seen him here. He seemed to be perfectly well acquainted with the state of things here, and intimate with those two black-coated gentlemen who professed to be ministers. From the tone of their conversation, and the merry twinkle in their eyes, I rather suspected them, to say the truth."

"A fine-looking old gentlemen came off to receive them," said Mrs Armytage. "He is a resident of the island. I know no more."

"It matters not; I only hope that we shall not have to encounter that tall, red-haired young man again," observed the colonel. "His manner to me was most offensive; he is a sailor, I feel sure, by the way he walked the deck. He recognised the sloop-of-war we saw in the offing; but when I asked her name he pretended not to hear my question; and the look he gave me, as he turned round, prevented me from again asking it. I wonder, though, what has become of her! Some of the people on board the smack seemed to think that she might anchor in the Sound near here.

What is the name gived to it?"

"Eastling Sound," answered Mrs Armytage; "we can have a perfect view of it from the eastern tower, if you like to go there."

When Colonel and Mrs Armytage reached the tower, they found their daughter already there, attended by Lawrence Brindister, who had placed himself before her, that she might rest a telescope on his shoulder to look at the corvette, which was gliding gracefully down Eastling Sound, and shortening sail preparatory to coming to an anchor. Edda had not heard her parents' approach.

"Yonder seems truly a brave and gallant ship, sweet cousin mine," said Lawrence. "Can you guess her name, or whence she comes?"

"Yes, yes--it is the 'Scorpion!'" she exclaimed.

"And what is there wonderful in the 'Scorpion,' fair coz?" asked Lawrence.

"Do not you know, cousin Lawrence, that she is commanded by a very brave officer, Captain Ronald Morton?" said Edda.

"That is fortunate, indeed," exclaimed Lawrence, turning round suddenly, and encountering Colonel Armytage's gaze fixed on him.