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Honest Vike used to lie by Duncan's side while he was reading, with one huge heavy paw placed over the boy's knee.
But it must have been monotonous for him; and often his head fell on the extended foot, and he went off to sleep outright.
No sooner was the reading ended, however, than Vike awoke, as full of life as a spring-born kitten. Then his game began. He used to loosen a huge boulder and send it rolling down the hill. As it gained force, it split up into twenty pieces or more, and bombarded everything it came across. Vike just stood and barked. But once, when a flying piece of the boulder killed a hare, the noble Newfoundland dashed down the hill at tremendous speed, and seized his quarry.
He came slowly up with it, and laid it solemnly down at Duncan's feet.
This was all very well; but one day, when the boys and Flora sat down about half-way up a hill, Viking, tired of the reading, found his way to the hilltop, and, as usual, loosened a boulder, and started it.
Thump, thump, rattle, rattle, rush! Fully a dozen great stones came down on our heroes in a cloud of dust, and with the force of an avalanche. The danger was certainly great, but it was all over before they could fully realize it.
Duncan hastily drew his whistle, and at its call the innocent dog instantly ceased working at another boulder he was busily engaged loosening, and came galloping down the hill.
Poor fellow! I dare say he deserved a scolding, but so full of life and happiness was he, that Duncan had not the heart to speak harshly to him. Only care was taken after this that Vike never got higher up the hill than the reading party.
Frank had been nearly three weeks at Glenvoie, before he became initiated into the mysteries of a real Highland snow-storm. Many of my readers have doubtless been out in such a blizzard, but the majority have not, and can have but little idea of the fierceness and danger of it.
The morning of the 10th of February, 18-, was mild and beautiful. Both Duncan and his brother had been early astir, and had taken their bath long before sunrise.
They went downstairs on tiptoe, as they had no desire to awake their guest.
"English boys need a lot of sleep," said Conal. "They're not like you or me, Duncan."
"N-no," said his brother; "but I could have done with another hour myself to-day. But we are Scotsmen, and must show an example. Noblesse oblige. Well," he added, "we'll have time to run up the hill anyhow, and see the sun rise."
So off they went, Vike making all the rocks and braes resound with his barking.
It was, indeed, a glorious and beautiful morning, and from their elevated situation they could see all the wild and romantic country on every side of them, for daylight was already broadening in the east. To the west the gray Atlantic ocean, the horizon buried in mist, away to the south woods and forests. Forests to the north also, while behind them hills on hills successive rose.
But the eastern sky was already aglow with clouds of crimson fire and gold. What artist could paint, what poet describe, such glory?
Then low towards a wood shines forth a brighter, more fiery gleam than all, and even at this distance the boys can see the branches, aye, and even the twigs, of the trees silhouetted against it.
And that is the sun itself struggling up behind the radiant clouds.
They stayed but little longer, for by this time breakfast would be ready, and Frank himself getting up.
After this meal was discussed, as a light breeze, sufficient to ripple the stream, had sprung up, the young folks determined to go fishing.
They took luncheon with them, and spent the whole forenoon on the banks of the bonnie wimpling burn.
But so well engaged were they that they did not at first observe that the sky was becoming rapidly overcast, and that the wind had begun to wail and moan in the trees of the adjoining forest. It had turned terribly cold too.
Duncan became fully alive to his danger now, however, especially when the tiny millet-seed snow began to fall.
"Our nearest way is through the wood," said the boy. Duncan was always pioneer in every danger and in every pleasure.
"And there is no time to lose," he added. "Florie, I wish you hadn't come. I suppose Conal and I will have to carry you."
"I won't be carried," replied the stout-hearted little Scots maiden. "I daresay you think I'm a child."
Fishing-tackle was by this time made up, and off they started.
It was terribly dark and gloomy under the great black-foliaged pine-trees, but Duncan knew every foot of the way.
They got through the forest, and out on to the wide moorland, just as the snow began to fall in earnest.
This moor was for the most part covered with heather, with broom and with whins, but dotted over with Scottish pine-trees. These last had been planted, or rather sown, by the rooks, for the black corbies turn many a heathery upland in Scotland into waving woods or forests. They bear the cones away to pick the seeds therefrom on the quiet moors. Some of these seeds are dropped, and in a short time trees spring up.
Duncan now took from his pocket a small compass, and studied it for a moment.
"We sha'n't be able to see the length of a fishing-rod before us soon," he said. "Now, I propose steering due south till we strike the old turf dike[2 - Dike (Scottice), a low fence of stone or turf.] that leads across the mountains. By following this downwards we will be guided straight to the pine-wood rookery behind our house."
They commenced to struggle on now in earnest-I might almost say for dear life's sake-for wilder and wilder blew the blizzard, increasing in force every minute, and thicker fell the snow. But I was wrong in saying it fell, for it was carried horizontally along on the wings of the wind. Not a flake would lie on the hills or bare slopes, but every dingle and dell and gully, and every rock-side facing westward, was filled and blocked.
Duncan held Flora firmly by the hand, for if she got out of sight in this choking drift, even for a few seconds, her fate would, in all probability, be that of sweet Lucy Gray-she might ne'er be seen alive again.
Frank and Conal were arm-in-arm, their heads well down as they struggled on and on.
"Let us keep well together, boys," cried Duncan, as he looked at his little compass once again. "Cheerily does it, as sailors say."
Now and then they stopped for breath when they came to a clump of pines.
Here the noise of the wind overhead was terrific. At its lightest it was precisely like the roar of a great waterfall. But ever and anon it would come on in furious squalls, that had in them all the force of a hurricane, which swept the tree-tops straight out to one side and bent their giant stems as if they had been but fishing-rods. At every gust such as this the flakes were broken into ice-dust, with a suffocating snow fog that, had they not buried their faces in their plaids, would have choked the party one and all.
Many of these pines were carried away by the board, snapped near to the ground, and hurled earthwards with the force of the blast.
Long before they reached the fence of turf, called in Scotland, as I have said, a dike, Flora was completely exhausted, and had to submit to be carried on Duncan's sturdy back.
Frank was but little better off, but he would not give in.
At last they reached the dike.
"Heaven be praised!" cried Duncan. "And now we shall rest just a short time and then start on and down. Cheer up, lads, we will manage now."
Flora descended from her brother's back, and he sat down on the turf, and took her on his knee.
But where was Vike?
Surely he had not deserted them!
No, for a dog of this breed is faithful unto death.
But now a strange kind of somnolence began to take possession of the boys.
Duncan himself could not resist its power, far less his companions.
"Let us be going, lads," he cried more than once, but he did not move.
He seemed to be unable to lift a limb, and at last he heard the howling of the wind only like sunlit waves breaking on a far-off sandy beach.
He nodded-his chin fell on his breast-he was dreaming.
Ah! but it is from a sleep like this that men, overtaken in a snow-storm, never, never arise. They simply
"Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking".
In a few minutes, however, Duncan starts. The sound of a dog's voice falls on his ear. Ah! there is no bark in all broad Scotland so sonorous and so sincere as that of honest Vike.
Wowff! Wowff! Wowff!!
There is joy in it, too, for he has found the boys-ah! more than that, he has brought relief, and here are the sturdy kilted keeper and two farm hands, ready to help them safely home. The keeper has a flask, and all must taste-even Florie, who is hardly yet awake.
How pleasant looked the fire in the fine old dining-hall when, after dressing, the boys came below.
And Glenvoie himself was laughing now, and as he shook Frank's hand, he could not help saying:
"Well, my lad, and how do you like a Highland snow-storm?"
"Ah!" said Frank, laughing in turn, "a little of it goes a long way. I don't want any more Highland snow-storm, thank you-not for Frank!"
The gale seemed to be increasing rather than abating, and it kept on all that night, and for two nights and two days more.
Then it fell calm.
"I trust in Heaven," said M'Vayne, "that Sandie, our shepherd, has reached the shelter of some hut, but I fear the worst. The sheep may be buried, but they will survive; but without food poor Sandie cannot have withstood the brunt of that awful blizzard.
"Boys," he continued, "I shall start at once on a search, and the keeper will come with me."
"And we too."
"Wowff! wowff!" barked Vike, as much as to say, "You'd be poorly off without my assistance."
It was a lovely forenoon now, with a clear sky, but not as much wind as would suffice to lift one feathery flake.
They meant to find the shepherd, but it was his hard-frozen corpse they expected to dig out of a snow-drift.
CHAPTER VI. – "THE BREATH OF GOD WAS OVER ALL THE LAND."
There were two huts on the moorland, one in the open, another close against a ridge of rocks, and in one or other poor Sandie would surely have found shelter.
So to the first they bent their footsteps. It stood with its back to the east, and on the west it was entirely covered with great banks of snow, some of them shaped like waves on the sea-shore, that are just on the eve of breaking.
It took the keeper and two men nearly an hour to break through the barrier and find the doorway.
They could see nothing when they opened it, for all were partially snow-blind.
But they groped around, and called the shepherd by name; then convinced that he was not there, dead or alive, they came sadly away, and joined the group outside.
There was still the other hut to be examined, and this was a good mile higher up the hill.
Thither, therefore, the party now wended their way, but so completely covered up did they find it, that another long hour of hard work was spent in reaching the doorway.
Like the last which they had explored, it was cold, dark, and deserted.
No one had any hope now of finding Sandie alive, but after a hurried luncheon they spread themselves out across the hill and moor somewhat after the fashion of skirmishers, and the ground was thoroughly searched.
But all in vain.
No frozen corpse was found.
They were about to return now sorrowfully homewards, when high up the hill and at the foot of a semi-lunar patch of rocks-an upheaval that had taken place probably millions of years ago-Vike was noticed, and his movements attracted the attention of all.
He was yap-yapping as if in great grief, tearing up the snow at the foot of a mighty drift and casting it behind him and over him.
A pure white dog was the Newfoundland at present, so laden was his coat with the powdery drift.
"Come on, men, come on," cried Glenvoie, "there yet is hope! The good dog scents something in spite or the snow. It may only be sheep, and yet poor dead frozen Sandie may be amongst them."
It took them but a few minutes to reach the cliff and the huge snowdrift that covered its western side. It was then that Duncan remembered something about these rocks.
"Why, father," he said, "now that I think of it, this is Prince Charlie's cave."
"You are right, lad, and my hopes are certainly in the ascendant."
"Conal and I have often been inside, and there is room enough inside to shelter a flock of sheep, or a regiment of soldiers."
"Now then, lads," cried the laird, "work away with a will. I'll take care you don't lose by it."
He handed them his flask as he spoke, and thus refreshed by the wine of their native land, they did work, and with a will too.
But hard work it was, from the fact that the snow was loose and powdery.
But at long, long last they reached the mouth of the cave.
And now a curious spectacle was witnessed, for to the number of at least a hundred, and headed by a huge curly-horned ram, with a chorus of baa-a-ing, out rushed the imprisoned sheep, kicking and leaping with joy to see once more the light of day.
Behind them came the shepherd's bawsont-faced collie Korran. But after licking Vike's ear he rushed back once more into the cave, and the rescuers quickly lighting a fire with some withered grass, found the body of the shepherd with Korran standing over it. Was he dead?
That had yet to be seen. They carried him out, and placing him on plaids, began to rub his face with snow and chafe his cold, hard hands.
In less than ten minutes Sandie opened his wondering eyes.
He could swallow now, and a restorative was administered.
I need scarcely say that this restorative was Highland whisky.
