John Buchan - The Collected Works of John Buchan (Illustrated)

“Up here,” he commanded. “It was Mr. Heritage that fund this road.”

Dickson and his guide squeezed themselves between the nose and the cliff up a spout of stones, and found themselves in an upper storey of the gulley, very steep, but practicable even for one who was no cragsman. This in turn ran out against a wall up which there led only a narrow chimney. At the foot of this were two of the Die-Hards, and there were others above, for a rope hung down, by the aid of which a package was even now ascending.

“That’s the top,” said Dougal, pointing to the rim of sky, “and that’s the last o’ the supplies.” Dickson noticed that he spoke in a whisper, and that all the movements of the Die-Hards were judicious and stealthy. “Now, it’s your turn. Take a good grip o’ the rope, and ye’ll find plenty holes for your feet. It’s no more than ten yards and ye’re well held above.”

Dickson made the attempt and found it easier than he expected. The only trouble was his pack and waterproof, which had a tendency to catch on jags of rock. A hand was reached out to him, he was pulled over the edge, and then pushed down on his face. When he lifted his head Dougal and the others had joined him, and the whole company of the Die-Hards was assembled on a patch of grass which was concealed from the landward view by a thicket of hazels. Another, whom he recognized as Heritage, was coiling up the rope.

“We’d better get all the stuff into the old Tower for the present,” Heritage was saying. “It’s too risky to move it into the House now. We’ll need the thickest darkness for that, after the moon is down. Quick, for the beastly thing will be rising soon, and before that we must all be indoors.”

Then he turned to Dickson and gripped his hand. “You’re a high class of sportsman, Dogson. And I think you’re just in time.”

“Are they due to-night?” Dickson asked in an excited whisper, faint against the wind.

“I don’t know about They. But I’ve got a notion that some devilish queer things will happen before to-morrow morning.”

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The old keep of Huntingtower stood some three hundred yards from the edge of the cliffs, a gnarled wood of hazels and oaks protecting it from the sea-winds. It was still in fair preservation, having till twenty years before been an adjunct of the house of Dalquharter, and used as kitchen, buttery, and servants’ quarters. There had been residential wings attached, dating from the mid-eighteenth century, but these had been pulled down and used for the foundations of the new mansion. Now it stood a lonely shell, its three storeys, each a single great room connected by a spiral stone staircase, being dedicated to lumber and the storage of produce. But it was dry and intact, its massive oak doors defied any weapon short of artillery, its narrow unglazed windows would scarcely have admitted a cat—a place portentously strong, gloomy, but yet habitable.

Dougal opened the main door with a massy key. “The lassie fund it,” he whispered to Dickson, “somewhere about the kitchen—and I guessed it was the key o’ this castle. I was thinkin’ that if things got ower hot it would be a good plan to flit here. Change our base, like.” The Chieftain’s occasional studies in war had trained his tongue to a military jargon.

In the ground room lay a fine assortment of oddments, including old bedsteads and servants’ furniture, and what looked like ancient discarded deerskin rugs. Dust lay thick over everything, and they heard the scurry of rats. A dismal place, indeed, but Dickson felt only its strangeness. The comfort of being back again among allies had quickened his spirit to an adventurous mood. The old lords of Huntingtower had once quarrelled and revelled and plotted here, and now here he was at the same game. Present and past joined hands over the gulf of years. The saga of Huntingtower was not ended.

The Die-Hards had brought with them their scanty bedding, their lanterns and camp-kettles. These and the provisions from Mearns Street were stowed away in a corner.

“Now for the Hoose, men,” said Dougal. They stole over the downs to the shrubbery, and Dickson found himself almost in the same place as he had lain in three days before, watching a dusky lawn, while the wet earth soaked through his trouser knees and the drip from the azaleas trickled over his spine. Two of the boys fetched the ladder and placed it against the verandah wall. Heritage first, then Dickson, darted across the lawn and made the ascent. The six scouts followed, and the ladder was pulled up and hidden among the verandah litter. For a second the whole eight stood still and listened. There was no sound except the murmur of the now falling wind and the melancholy hooting of owls. The garrison had entered the Dark Tower.

A council in whispers was held in the garden-room.

“Nobody must show a light,” Heritage observed. “It mustn’t be known that we’re here. Only the Princess will have a lamp. Yes”—this in answer to Dickson—”she knows that we’re coming—you too. We’ll hunt for quarters later upstairs. You scouts, you must picket every possible entrance. The windows are safe, I think, for they are locked from the inside. So is the main door. But there’s the verandah door, of which they have a key, and the back door beside the kitchen, and I’m not at all sure that there’s not a way in by the boiler-house. You understand. We’re holding his place against all comers. We must barricade the danger points. The headquarters of the garrison will be in the hall, where a scout must be always on duty. You’ve all got whistles? Well, if there’s an attempt on the verandah door the picket will whistle once, if at the back door twice, if anywhere else three times, and it’s everybody’s duty, except the picket who whistles, to get back to the hall for orders.”

“That’s so,” assented Dougal.

“If the enemy forces an entrance we must overpower him. Any means you like. Sticks or fists, and remember if it’s a scrap in the dark to make for the man’s throat. I expect you little devils have eyes like cats. The scoundrels must be kept away from the ladies at all costs. If the worst comes to the worst, the Princess has a revolver.”

“So have I,” said Dickson. “I got it in Glasgow.”

“The deuce you have! Can you use it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you can hand it over to me, if you like. But it oughtn’t to come to shooting, if it’s only the three of them. The eight of us should be able to manage three and one of them lame. If the others turn up—well, God help us all! But we’ve got to make sure of one thing, that no one lays hands on the Princess so long as there’s one of us left alive to hit out.”

“Ye needn’t be feared for that,” said Dougal. There was no light in the room, but Dickson was certain that the morose face of the Chieftain was lit with unholy joy.

“Then off with you. Mr. McCunn and I will explain matters to the ladies.”

When they were alone, Heritage’s voice took a different key. “We’re in for it, Dogson, old man. There’s no doubt these three scoundrels expect reinforcements at any moment, and with them will be one who is the devil incarnate. He’s the only thing on earth that that brave girl fears. It seems he is in love with her and has pestered her for years. She hated the sight of him, but he wouldn’t take no, and being a powerful man—rich and well-born and all the rest of it—she had a desperate time. I gather he was pretty high in favour with the old Court. Then when the Bolsheviks started he went over to them, like plenty of other grandees, and now he’s one of their chief brains—none of your callow revolutionaries, but a man of the world, a kind of genius, she says, who can hold his own anywhere. She believes him to be in this country, and only waiting the right moment to turn up. Oh, it sounds ridiculous, I know, in Britain in the twentieth century, but I learned in the war that civilization anywhere is a very thin crust. There are a hundred ways by which that kind of fellow could bamboozle all our law and police and spirit her away. That’s the kind of crowd we have to face.”