So we turned back to the harbour tavern, with all the regrets of unsuccess.
The man had said two hours, but it was nearer three, ere that wretched shell returned, and, when it came, 'twas with a drunken man who could scarce stagger ashore. I was in no mood for trifling.
"Here, you drunken swine," I cried, "will you take us across and be quick about it?"
"I maun hae anither gless o' Duncan's whusky," said the fellow, with a leer.
"By God, and you will not," I cried. "Get aboard and make no more delay, or, by the Lord, I'll throw you into the stream."
The man hiccuped and whined. "I canna, I canna, my bonny lad. I had ower muckle guid yill afore I sterted, and I maun hae some whusky to keep it doon. I'm an auld man, and the cauld air frae the water is bad for the inside. Let me be, let me be," and he lay down on the quay with the utter helplessness of a sot.
"Here is a devil of a mess," I cried to Nicol. "What is to be done?"
"I'll hae to tak the boat mysel', Laird," said my servant, quietly. "If I droon ye, dinna complain."
Indeed, I was in no mood for complaining at anything which would carry me further on my quest. With some difficulty we got the horses aboard and penned them in the stalls. Then Nicol hoisted the sail, and we shoved off, while I kept those at bay with a boat-hook who sought to stop us. Once out on the stormy waters I was beset with a thousand fears. I have ever feared the sea, and now, as we leaped and dived among the billows, and as the wind scoured us like a threshing floor, and, above all, as the crazy boat now almost lay sideways on the water, I felt a dreadful sinking of my courage, and looked for nothing better than immediate death. It was clear that Nicol, who knew something of seamanship as he knew of most things, had a hard task to keep us straight, and by his set face and white lips, I guessed that he, too, was not without his fears. Nevertheless, the passage was narrow, and in less time than I had expected, we saw a dim line of sand through the fog. Running in there, we beached the coble, and brought the horses splashing to shore.
The place was dreary and waste, low-lying, with a few huts facing the river. Beyond the land seemed still flat, though, as far as the mist suffered me to see, there seemed to be something of a rise to the right. My feet and hands were numbed with cold, and the wound in my wrist, which I got in scaling the wall, smarted till it brought the water to my eyes. I was so stiff I could scarce mount horse, and Nicol was in no better plight.