But surely we were going at last, for everything was shipped and everything was comparatively still—far too still, indeed, as it turned out! 65
'I said I couldn't stand a hitch at the hin'eren', young sir—any trouble at the tail o' the chapter.'
I looked up—I had to look up, for the speaker was a head and shoulders bigger than I—a broad-shouldered, brawny, brown-bearded Scotchman. A Highlander evidently by his brogue, but one who had travelled south, and therefore only put a Scotch word in here and there when talking—just, he told me afterwards, to make better sense of the English language.
'Do I understand you to mean that something has happened to delay the voyage?'
'I dinna care whether you understand me or not,' he replied, with almost fierce independence, 'but we're broken down.'
It was only too true, and the news soon went all over the ship—spread like wild-fire, in fact. Something had gone wrong in the engine-room, and it would take a whole week to make good repairs.
I went below to report matters to aunt and my brothers, and make preparations for disembarking again.
When we reached the deck we found the big Scot walking up and down with rapid, sturdy strides; but he stopped in front of me, smiling. He had an immense plaid thrown Highland-fashion across his chest and left shoulder, and clutched a huge piece of timber in his hand, which by courtesy might have been called a cane.
'You'll doubtless go on shore for a spell?' he said. 'A vera judicious arrangement. I'll go myself, and take my mither with me. And are these your two brotheries, and your sister? How d'ye do, miss?'
He lifted his huge tam-o'-shanter as he made these remarks—or, in other words, he seized it by the top and raised it into the form of a huge pyramid.