McTavish

“ It is, of course, impossible for this Captain McTavish to reach Fort Dickey or Fort Severn again. Three sentences from him, and we are discovered, and the chase begun. We are not strong enough yet for open conflict. By spring, perhaps, but not now. McTavish must never tell. A strong arm, a well-directed blow—”
“But, my good brother, you do not counsel murder in cold blood?” asked Seguis, in a tone of horror. “To kill our old friend, Captain McTavish, because he has happened to come upon us here—oh, no, no, no! It is impossible. ”

“ The feminine warriors of Venus saw McTavish then, and a sudden murmur swept over the throng. An instant later a hundred blades flashed in the air in salute, and then all the Amazons dropped down on one knee.
"Now what the devil...?" muttered Steve Brent who had come out of the ship just behind McTavish.
"Just a proper tribute to my outstanding personality, lad!" the big Scot muttered aside. Closana read the surprise in Gerry Norton's eyes.
"There are few men in this land of Savissa," she explained, "And the wearing of a beard is the sign of a noble of the highest rank." ”

“ All McTavish's despondency had fled, and he kept his host laughing almost continuously all the while with the strange stories he told.
After dinner the Squire and he went out to smoke in the garden, while the full moon rose silently up and sparkled on the beautiful sea.
You must have known long before this that this great athlete surgeon was not the man to hang fire about anything. His motto was, if you've got to fight, why, the sooner you charge the better.
He stopped so quickly in his walk that the Squire had forged ahead a few paces before he too could stop ship and get about. ”

“ She loved it, McTavish. It pleased her to come here with me; she'd make up a lunch of her own cooking and I would catch trout in the stream by the dogwoods yonder and fry the fish for her. Sometimes I'd barbecue a venison steak and—well, 'twas our playhouse, McTavish, and I who am no longer young—I who never played until I met her—I—I'm a bit foolish, I fear, but I found rest and comfort here, McTavish, even before I met her, and I'm thinking I'll have to come here often for the same. ”

“ But to-day—well I'd not try it to-day."
"Why not?" asked McTavish.
"Why," said Miss MacNish, "she caught cold in the car yesterday, and her poor nose is much too red for company."
"Why do you all try to make her out such a bad lot?"
"Is it being a bad lot to have a red nose?" exclaimed Miss MacNish.
"At twenty-two?" McTavish looked at her in surprise and horror. "I ask you," he said. "There was the porter at Brig O'Dread, and your sister—they gave her a pair of black eyes between them, and here you give her a red nose. When the truth is probably the reverse." ”

“ And she swung into another turf walk, long, wide, springy, and bordered by birches.
"Tell me," said the American, "is it true that Miss McTavish is down on strangers?"
She looked at him over her shoulder. He still wore his enigmatic smile.
"I don't know what got into her," she said, "to let you in." She halted in her tracks and, looking cautiously this way and that, like a conspirator in a play: "She's a hard woman to deal with," she said, "between you and me."
"I've heard something of the kind," said the American. "Indeed, I asked the porter. ”

“ And I must say I don’t think you nor Big McTavish nor any of you Bushwhackers have an ounce of sense among you. Here you are fightin’ off a fortune, or at least keepin’ money, which you might have, out of your pockets. Bosh! I believe that Boy McTavish has got you all under a spell.”
“Boy is sure the strongest and bitterest fighter amongst us,” agreed Bill, “but we’re all of one opinion. We like the woods, and I guess we have reason to. ”

“ And how, on the latter occasion, McTavish had displayed his admiration so openly that there could be but the one climax.
"And after all," she concluded, "if he thinks I'm just a housekeeper, and falls in love with me and asks me to marry him—I'd know the man was sincere—wouldn't I, Traquair?"
"It seems to me," said Traquair, "that I have never seen you so thoroughly delighted with yourself."
"That is unkind. It is a wonderful thing when a girl of position, and hedged in as I have been, finds that she is loved for herself alone and not for her houses and lands, and her almost royal debts." ”

“ Harriwell took his pulse and temperature, made a show of looking out for him, and doubted that the omelet had been poisoned. Brown and McTavish also doubted; but Bertie discerned an insincere ring in their voices. His appetite had left him, and he took his own pulse stealthily under the table. There was no question but what it was increasing, but he failed to ascribe it to the gin he had taken. McTavish, rifle in hand, went out on the veranda to reconnoiter.
"They're massing up at the cook-house," was his report. "And they've no end of Sniders. ”

“ And what answer will you give?"
"Traquair," she said, "I'm not a profane girl; but I'm hanged if I know."
"He is a very wealthy man, and I have no doubt a very kind and honest man."
"He is a very cheeky man," smiled Miss McTavish.
"No doubt—no doubt," said Traquair; "and it would leave you to the honest enjoyment of your houses and lands, which otherwise you propose to hand over to him. ”

“ That's a curious twist of fate."
"You have made up your mind, then," said Traquair, "to claim your own?"
"By no means—yet," said McTavish. "I was only speculating. It's all in the air. Suppose uncle, that Miss MacNish throws me down!"
"Throws you down!" Traquair was shocked.
"Well," said McTavish humbly, "you told me to charge."
"To charge," said Traquair testily, "but not to grapple."
"In my country," said McTavish, "when a girl refuses to marry a man they call it throwing him down, giving him the sack, or handing him a lemon."
"Yours is an exceptional country," said Traquair. ”

“ They always decoy well when it looks like snow. I left a bunch of ’em at old Betsy’s.”
Big McTavish raised his head.
“And did she speak cross at you, lad?” he asked with a smile.
“No, sir, she didn’t. She’s changin’ wonderful for some reason. I’ll always like Betsy after what she’s done for us.”
“Amen to that,” said McTavish fervently. “She has been good to us all.”
“Auntie,” said Gloss, “you are tired. Hadn’t you better go to bed now? We want you to be hungry for the duck dinner to-morrow. We’ll have Mary Ann Ross and Bill Paisley over, won’t we, Granny?” ”

“ Then suddenly pretending to be heroic, "Oh, I forgot the romance of Walter Scott," he said.
"Ne'er in battle-field beats heart more brave,
Than that which beats beneath the Scottish kilt."
McTavish laughed. But Sneyd sneered. His shot hadn't hit the bull's eye.
"I suppose," he said, "like most Scots that join our Service, you're the only gentleman in your family, Mr. McTavish." This was mean, for the doctor's family were really only honest crofter folk.
"That's hitting beneath the belt," cried the engineer. ”

“ But McTavish now boldly stepped forward. "I don't think, sir," he said, "that the flag should be hoisted till the sunken ship is cleared."
"And why, my worthy doctor?"
"Well, sir, so long as this island belongs to Keppel here and Adolph, they can do as they please with it and all in it and round it. But as soon as the Union Jack is hoisted the island becomes the King's--God bless him!--with all its appurtenances; all above ground and all below becomes treasure-trove, flotsam, jetsam, ligan, or whatever other puzzling names a man of law chooses to put on them."
Captain Breezy laughed. ”

“ No one spoke much about adventures. When the Captain was asked about those in New Guinea, he only laughed. "We sailor men," he said, "think little of adventure, so used to it, and as for bravery in the battlefield, why my worthy surgeon McTavish will tell you that to be slain is a far less cruel death than dying in bed." ”

“ Cardigan scuffed with his foot a clear space in the brown litter. “Take two men from the section-gang, McTavish,” he ordered, “and have them dig her grave here; then swamp a trail through the underbrush and out to the donkey-landing, so we can carry her in. The funeral will be private.”
McTavish nodded. “Any further orders, sir?”
“Yes. When you come to that little gap in the hills, cease your logging and bear off yonder.” He waved his hand. “I'm not going to cut the timber in this valley. You see, McTavish, what it is. ”

“ McTavish, somebody's been feeding Angel-Face here, red meat!
If you know where Dan is, get him quick—before his loving brother gets us all in the papers!"
"Young man—minding your own business, pays very big dividends!"
"Sweet Papa!"
The thunder of God is not always in the sky—it may, sometimes, be in the rumble of heavy sand trucks over a cobbled street.
DANIEL McTAVISH
CONTRACTOR
"I want the truth about this concrete, McQuire—how much cement are you putting in the 'mix'?" ”

“ McTavish now,’ says I, ‘he has a couple of youngsters growing up, and they should secure an education such as the Clearview school can give them, and if that’s the case, we can’t blind our eyes to our duty as Christian men.’ Smythe is a good Christian man and just that soft-hearted that it’s no wonder my words affected him. He says: ‘Mr. Watson, money is not everything. Go forth on an errand of mercy, and offer Mr. McTavish of Bushwhackers’ Place one bright and fertile hundred acres of loam in Clearview in exchange for his bit of wilderness.’—His very words, McTavish. ”

“ On this particular day Surgeon McTavish had gone on shore to shoot anything he might come across among the heath-and-geranium-clad mountains that cluster like the hills of an earthly paradise all around the gulph or bay.
He was an ardent student of Natural History, and his gun helped him in his studies.
But he blamed himself to-day for taking leave on a coaling day, for some poor fellow might have an accident. And this made him hurry back, with his bag mostly filled with rock-rabbits and big snakes fully two hours before sundown. ”

“ It seemed the lowest and dreamiest music those Germans ever listened to, and appeared to be coming up out of some dreary pine-forest, or from far away behind a heather hill.
"Dat was glorious," cried the German. "Oh, Captain Breezy, send a sentry to request an encore." When the last notes filled the air in cadence long and low, there were tears in that Captain's eyes.
"You are a wonderful peoples, you Scotch," he said, as McTavish flung the pipes on the sofa. "Love, romance and music dwells only in a mountain-land."
One day, not long after this, the Breezy was sighted by a Russian battle-ship. ”

“ This is to certify that on April 17, 1873, I united in marriage Douglas McTavish, fur trader at Fort Miskati, son of Duncan McTavish, pure Scotch, to Maria Seguis, Ojibway Indian. “Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” ”

“ Big McTavish had urged this and was firm in his mandate.
“We’ll fight, men,” he said, his arm about his wife’s shoulder. “We’ll fight for our own, even if we be but a handful, but we’ll not fire first. Best to be sure than sorry.”
Now the men had met together again on what they seemed to feel was the eve of battle. The trails would be clear to-morrow and Hallibut and his followers would come very soon. ”

“ Here were men who had evidently banded themselves into a Free-Traders' Brotherhood. How many had enlisted in its ranks besides those in this room, he had no idea; perhaps there were hundreds. It had evidently been well organized, for it had taken shape with amazing swiftness and certainty.
Jean had been right. This was more important, vastly more important, than the pursuit of a renegade half-breed... But that half-breed was himself at the head of the organization.
“That's what half an intelligence will do for a man!” said McTavish to himself, with contempt. ”

“ They were good musicians too, and were both thrilled and delighted when Kep took out his magical little black flute with which he had charmed both snakes and savages.
But they would have McTavish to play them on the great Highland bagpipes, laments, coronachs, and battle pieces. They had never heard so wonderful or warlike an instrument before.
"Shall I play you a lullaby or cradle hymn, Captain?"
"Mein Gott!" exclaimed the German. "You think you can play a lullaby on that."
"Sit here a moment, sir. The skylights are open and I am going to play well forward, or in the ship's waist. Listen." ”

“ McTavish found himself pledged to fight a duel with a man who was, among other things, a first-class pistol shot and exceptionally expert with the "florette," all of which McTavish was not.
The affair looked particularly unpleasant—to McTavish, who was short, fat, and by no means young. But the dignity of the foreign population as represented by the editor of The Killemalivo Tribune must of necessity be upheld.
Faced by this quite unusual difficulty, McTavish bethought him of his old and tried friend, General O'Flynnone, an Irish-American of many years' residence in the Latin Americas. ”

“ But," he added, "I'll be bound that the broadsword-men of the Breezy will manage to amuse them."
When big McTavish heard this, strong though he was, he became almost hysterical at the thought of seeing Madge again once more.
Says Kep: "I say, old Mac, let me give you a straight tip. Not a word then about your having any money, nor about the treasure. My family are proud, and if my sister does not marry you for your own dear self, sister of mine though she be, she is not worth having." ”

“ Traquair.
"Fine fiddlesticks!" said The McTavish. "Man," she continued earnestly, "you have looked in his face and you tell me it will be a dance to prove him The McTavish?"
"He is a McTavish," admitted Mr. Traquair; "so much I knew before he told me his name."
"He has in his pocket the bit shirt that wee Colland wore when the gypsies snitched him and carried him over seas; it's all of a piece with many another garment of wee Colland's. I've had out the trunk in which his little duds have been stored these many years. The man is Colland's great-grandson. ”