McLeod

“ CHAPTER X—THE HEART OF A VILLAIN McLEOD had developed into a man of undoubted power. He was but thirty-two years old, and the dictator of his party in the state.
He had the fighting temperament which Southern people demand in their leaders. With this temperament he combined the skill of subtle diplomatic tact. He had no moral scruples of any kind. The problem of expediency alone interested him in ethics.
McLeod’s pet aversion was a preacher, especially a Baptist or a Methodist. ”

“ McLeod saw the figure of a man up ahead as he rounded the final turn in the path, still sprinting. The man stood squarely in front of him, blocking his way with a drawn parabeam.
"Did he come this way?" McLeod cried. "Talk, man! Did McLeod come this way?"
"No, sir. He, wait a minute...."
But McLeod was upon him, using the same judo-cut that had floored the captain of police. McLeod wrenched the parabeam from the man's fingers as he fell, then found his copter and was airborne by the time the vanguard of his pursuers appeared as tiny dots on the field below. ”

“ Next to Lord Reay’s country on the south side of the Firth called Edrachaolis and on the west coast is the country of Assint, belonging of old to a branch of the McLeod Family. This country fell into the hands of the [Pg 74] McKenzies for debt in Charles the Second’s time. [258] McLeod kept possession violently till Letters of Fire and Sword were executed against him by the Earl of Seaforth. The Commons there are chiefly McLeods. McLeod of Ginnies in east Ross is the heir male of that family. ”

“ Why should I run into danger? I am ready to take heartaches. Can you tell me how best to find McLeod’s warehouse?”
“Speir at any man you meet, and any man will show you the place. I, myself, am not carin’ to send folk an ill road.”
So Ian Macrae went into the town and easily found his friend and employer. Then their business was easily settled and it appeared to be every way gratifying to both men.
“You have taken a business I hate off my hands, Ian,” said McLeod, “and I am grateful to you. 54 Where shall we go today? What would you like to do with yourself?” ”

“ He fought elbows, fists, shoulders, legs, warm human breaths, reaching the front of the room and sprinting past the weaponcheck arsenal and out into the green, summery glade that surrounded the anachronism of stone and glass that was the Fourth Estate.
Protected by a force field, the grounds around the Estate knew nothing but summer. But elsewhere, McLeod thought as he plunged on toward the copter field, man's control over the elements vied for headlines. ”

“ Next day McLeod took to his bed with a chill or something of the kind, and it was a week or more before he was in school again. And as much as a month went by without anything happening that was noticeable. Whether or not Mr. Sampson was really startled, as McLeod had thought, he didn’t show it. ”

“ He had introduced himself by an un-pronounceable name and then had explained that since the name meant "mild" or "merciful" in one of the ancient tongues of his planet, it would be perfectly all right if McLeod called him "Clement." Within minutes, it had been "Clem" and "Mac." ”

“ McLeod was a sincerely religious man, but somewhat dilatory in business matters. Lawrence knew him well, and used to call him 'the Cunctator.' He has left an amusing sketch of McLeod's character in a letter (1 Aug. 1853) to Edwardes : 'Morally and intellectually he has no superior in the Punjab, perhaps no equal But as an administrator he is behind Edmondstone, Raikes, and even Burnes. He is too fond of polishing. . . . He wastes much time on unimportant matters. ”

“ When the din of battle had ceased for a time, and the roll of the Ninety-Third was being called outside the Secundrabâgh to ascertain how many had fallen in that memorable combat, which Sir Colin Campbell said had "never been surpassed and rarely equalled," Pipe-Major John McLeod called me aside to listen to the pipers of the Seventy-Eighth, inside the Residency, playing On wi' the Tartan, and I could hear the pipes quite distinctly, although, except for the practised lug of John McLeod, I could not have told the tune. ”

“ McLeod exhaled a long plume of smoke and watched it get sucked into the unseen currents of the climatizer. "They don't let themselves get seen," he said easily. "They wouldn't be good Security men if they did, would they?"
"But what are you going to do, Darius? Can't you take some kind of positive action? It's not like you, just sitting around and waiting."
McLeod wanted to change the subject, for Tracy had a way of ferreting out the truth even if she suspected nothing. ”

“ Even if Wainwright gets you and gets his story—and I get mine—I'll never be able to trust anyone again. Don't you see the position you've put me in? I'm a lonely man, Darius."
McLeod stood up and leaned across the desk. "We've both been playing God all our lives. What do you think happens when a God loses his worshippers?"
"I haven't lost them. Just the acolytes. There are others."
"There are the people," McLeod said. "Waiting for the medical cures we promise them but never give. The farmers, praying to their own God while we ruin their crops capriciously to scoop the World. ”

“ You are one of the men now I ’ll have to crush first, thoroughly, and for all time. I’m not afraid of the old fools. I ’ll be fair enough to tell you this,” said McLeod.
“Not since Legree’s day has the Republican party had so dangerous a man at its head,” said Gaston thoughtfully to himself as McLeod strode away across the square. “He has ten times the brains of his older master, and none of his superstitions. He will give me a hard fight.”
CHAPTER III—FLORA HAMBRIGHT had changed but little in the eighteen years of peace that had followed the terrors of Legree’s régime. ”

“ McLeod nodded. He'd had trouble reaching the slidewalk through the drifts and more trouble struggling through the few yards of high-piled snow to the Star-Times building.
"Rewrite showed me the story you sent in last night, Darius. Wonderful. Someone over at the World must be biting his fingernails. They've got to be ready for split second changes in the newspaper business, though. If they don't, they're lost."
"What's that little bit of homely philosophy leading up to?" McLeod wanted to know. Overman rarely made his point without prefacing it with some mundane generalization. ”

“ He had been forced to move from his apartment; nobody wanted that dirty so-and-so, Professor McLeod, around. Besides, his money was running short. He had never seen the two thousand. "You'll get that when the Galactic bank cashes your royalty check," he had been told. He was waiting.
Not hiding. No. That wasn't possible. The U.B.I. could find him easily when they wanted him. There was no place he could have hidden from them for very long. A man needs friends to stay hidden from an efficient police organization for very long, and John Hamish McLeod had no friends. ”

“ Sandy McLeod,—or, as the papers have it, Alexander McLeod,—and Miss Margaret McLean of Scotland, an old playmate and friend, from whom our friend has been separated many years. I have received a delightful letter from him in which I am asked to make this announcement, and to 221 say that they will be at home on Wednesday evening. They extend an invitation to all the good people of this town to be present, and an especially urgent request that all the children be there. ”

“ He was a Methodist local preacher, and in 1829 started a literary and religious journal, which enjoyed, like most of its successors in that city, but a brief existence. Mr. McLeod's family numbered six—Roderick, the youngest, died in infancy; Annie, the eldest, was a teacher and never married; Sarah married James Robertson; Margaret married Rev. Albert Desbrisay, who was for some years chaplain of the old Sackville Academy; Wesley was twice married, first in 1836, to Amy Trueman, who died, leaving one daughter; and again, in 1840, to Seraphina Trueman. ”

“ Donaldson told me one night, while his partner was making a batch of bread in his own cabin, what he knew of McLeod's history. "I have never known a man," he said, "that would measure up to my partner. None of us want our record searched too closely but it wouldn't make any difference to him. Nothing, nobody, seemed to have any power to make Mac do anything crooked or dirty. Whisky, gambling, bad women—he passed them up without apparent effort. Very strange too, even the few good women we have met in these camps never won anything from him but wholesome admiration. ”

“ The Rebels do not venture to pursue
The McLeods passed the Ury about a quarter of a mile from the town and refreshed themselves at Rayne and Strathboggy, but stopped not a night till they got over Spey, where McLeod waited the coming up of such of his men as had gone other roads, and continued guarding the passes for some while after. But the Rebels were so apprehensive what might be the consequences when for ought they knew, they were joined by the Monroes, etc., that they would not venture to pursue them over the Ury. ”

“ He had tried his luck with the Gambling Cash Tiger and failed. Had he been fortunate, his parents would have received twice their usual portion, but as it was, he had lost. And now the baby, the younger brother of Little Me, was lost too.
“How did it happen?” inquired Miss McLeod.
“We were alone—the babe and I,” replied the mother. “My man was visiting and Little Me was playing in the alley. I stepped over with a bowl of boiled rice and a pot of tea for old Sien Tau. We have not much for our own mouths, but it is well to begin the New Year by being kind to those who may not see another. ”

“ In May, 1886, Acadia College conferred the well-earned degree of D.D. on Mr. McLeod. He is active in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the public, and is frequently called upon to do pulpit and platform service outside his own charge. He has not found time for a European tour, but has made two trips to the western states; spent the winter of 1882-3 in Florida for the benefit of his health; and in the summer of 1886 made the trip across the continent via the Canada Pacific Railway, spending several weeks in British Columbia, the North-West, and in Manitoba. Dr. ”

“ McClures have always had the same motto, crest and tartan as the McLeods, and their right to them has never been called in question.
McClure history, then, properly begins with the McLeods.
Some authorities aver that they are of Irish descent. In an old volume of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology there is given a long pedigree of the McLeods, deducing them from various Scottish chieftains and princes, back to one Fergus Mor MacEarcha. ”

“ No attempt will be made to follow in much detail the itinerary of the McLeod-Whitman-Spalding party on this section of their journey to the Columbia. It is impossible to more than suggest certain camping places. Pack train travel did not pay much attention to grades, but was regulated by known watering places for beast and man. It is very reasonable to suppose that their route was that of this “cut-off” from Green River to Bear River. From near Cokeville to Snake fort on the Boise River their trail very certainly was closely that which became the Oregon trail of later years. ”

“ During the four hundred years which have passed since the gorgeous panorama of the East was made known to Europe by the immortal actors in the Portuguese Era of Conquest, what numbers of human beings have perished, what untold riches have been engulphed around that stormy headland! ”

“ The sand raised from the beach was formed into sand-whirlwinds, which reached to a great altitude, and, breaking, descended with the torrents of rain invading every place; the houses themselves, even those most solidly built, trembled from the impetuous violence of the wind, and shook everything contained in them. ”

“ The volumes are just what ought to be found on every drawing-room table. Here you have nearly fifty captivating romances with the pith of all their interest preserved in undiminished poignancy, and any one may be read in half an hour. ”

“ One cannot contemplate, without the most sublime emotion, this spectacle of the conquest of mind over matter. From the first attempt of Don Henry until its fortunate accomplishment in the successful voyage of Vasco de Gama, history cannot record a more glorious triumph than that of the Portuguese discovery of the passage to India. Kings, sages, philosophers, and heroes for the actors; a century for the performance; a vast ocean washing the shores of three continents for the stage; with posterity for the spectators—it stands unparalleled as the great drama of discovery. ”

“ There the land, being a succession of terraces rising from the ocean, offers the most beautiful spots, already cleared away by the hand of nature, for the erection of residences, having for their backgrounds magnificent forests, while the sea view unfolds the boundless expanse of the Southern Ocean, through storm and calm, bearing on its bosom the argosies richly laden with the commerce of the East and the West. ”

“ If a slave is refractory, and flogging only makes him worse, the arbitrary master, enraged at his continued disobedience, bids his brutal overseer flog him until “he will require no more.” The master looks on and gloats his vengeance. ”

“ The young King of Portugal has a glorious career opened to him, if he will only prove himself worthy of the destiny to which he is called.
On the north end of the island of Mozambique, there is a large fort, called San Sebastian, having an appearance of considerable strength, which at one time no doubt was the case, for it has embrasures for at least eighty pieces of cannon, but barely half of that number are in the fort at present; even the carriages of these are dilapidated by age, and the cannon themselves honey-combed by the combined effects of climate and neglect. ”