She seemed eager to place him by the meal which she had so sedulously arranged, and to which she now added a few bunches of cranberries, gathered in an adjacent morass.Having had the satisfaction of seeing him seated at his breakfast, she placed herself demurely upon a stone at a few yards' distance, and appeared to watch with great complacency for some opportunity of serving him.
Evan and his attendant now returned slowly along the beach, the latter bearing a large salmon-trout, the produce of the morning's sport, together with the angling-rod, while Evan strolled forward, with an easy, self-satisfied, and important gait, towards the spot where Waverley was so agreeably employed at the breakfast-table.After morning greetings had passed on both sides, and Evan, looking at Waverley, had said something in Gaelic to Alice, which made her laugh, yet colour up to her eyes, through a complexion well embrowned by sun and wind, Evan intimated his commands that the fish should be prepared for breakfast.A spark from the lock of his pistol produced a light, and a few withered fir branches were quickly in flame, and as speedily reduced to hot embers, on which the trout was broiled in large slices.To crown the repast, Evan produced from the pocket of his short jerkin, a large scallop shell, and from under the folds of his plaid, a ram's horn full of whisky.
Of this he took a copious dram, observing he had already taken his _morning_ with Donald Bean Lean, before his departure; he offered the same cordial to Alice and to Edward, which they both declined.With the bounteous air of a lord, Evan then proffered the scallop to Dugald Mahony, his attendant, who, without waiting to be asked a second time, drank it off with great gusto.Evan then prepared to move towards the boat, inviting Waverley to attend him.Meanwhile, Alice had made up in a small basket what she thought worth removing, and flinging her plaid around her, she advanced up to Edward, and, with the utmost simplicity, taking hold of his hand, offered her cheek to his salute, dropping, at the same time, her little courtesy.Evan, who was esteemed a wag among the mountain fair, advanced, as if to secure a similar favour; but Alice, snatching up her basket, escaped up the rocky bank as fleetly as a roe, and, turning round and laughing, called something out to him in Gaelic, which he answered in the same tone and language then, waving her hand to Edward, she resumed her road, and was soon lost among the thickets, though they continued for some time to hear her lively carol, as she proceeded gaily on her solitary journey.
They now again entered the gorge of the cavern, and stepping into the boat, the Highlander pushed off, and, taking advantage of the morning breeze, hoisted a clumsy sort of sail, while Evan assumed the helm, directing their course, as it appeared to Waverley, rather higher up the lake than towards the place of his embarkation on the preceding night.As they glided along the silver mirror, Evan opened the conversation with a panegyric upon Alice, who, he said, was both _canny and fendy;_ and was, to the boot of all that, the best dancer of a strathspey in the whole strath.Edward assented to her praises so far as he understood them, yet could not help regretting that she was condemned to such a perilous and dismal life.
``Oich! for that,'' said Evan, ``there is nothing in Perthshire that she need want, if she ask her father to fetch it, unless it be too hot or too heavy.''
``But to be the daughter of a cattle-stealer---a common thief!''
``Common thief!---no such thing; Donald Bean Lean never _lifted_ less than a drove in his life.''
``Do you call him an uncommon thief, then?''
``No---he that steals a cow from a poor widow or a stirk from a cotter is a thief; he that lifts a drove from a Sassenach laird is a gentleman-drover.And, besides, to take a tree from the forest, a salmon from the river, a deer from the hill, or a cow from a Lowland strath, is what no Highlander need ever think shame upon.''
``But what can this end in were he taken in such an appropriation?''
``To be sure he would _die for the law,_ as many a pretty man has done before him.''
``Die for the law!''
``Ay; that is, with the law, or by the law; be strapped up on the _kind_ gallows of Crieff,<*> where his father died, and his * Note H.Kind Gallows of Crieff.<! p127>
goodsire died, and where I hope he'll live to die himsell, if he's not shot or slashed in a creagh.''
``You _hope_ such a death for your friend, Evan!''
``And that do I e'en; would you have me wish him to die on a bundle of wet straw in yon den of his, like a mangy tyke?''
``But what becomes of Alice, then?''
``Troth, if such an accident were to happen, as her father would not need her help ony langer, I ken nought to hinder me to marry her mysell.''
``Gallantly resolved!'' said Edward;---``but in the meanwhile, Evan, what has your father-in-law (that shall be, if he have the good fortune to be hanged) done with the Baron's cattle?''
``Oich,'' answered Evan, ``they were all trudging before your lad and Allan Kennedy before the sun blinked ower Ben-Lawers this morning; and they'll be in the pass of Bally-Brough by this time, in their way back to the parks of Tully-Veolan, all but two, that were unhappily slaughtered before I got last night to Uaimh an Ri.''
``And where are we going, Evan, if I may be so bold as to ask?'' said Waverley.
``Where would you be ganging, but to the laird's ain house of Glennaquoich? Ye would not think to be in his country without ganging to see him? It would be as much as a man's life's worth.''
``And are we far from Glennaquoich?''
``But five bits of miles; and Vich Ian Vohr will meet us.''
In about half an hour they reached the upper end of the lake, where, after landing Waverley, the two Highlanders drew the boat into a little creek among thick flags and reeds, where it lay perfectly concealed.The oars they put in another place of concealment, both for the use of Donald Bean Lean probably, when his occasions should next bring him to that place.