Nae doubt this judgment had some weicht upon Tam Dale; but it passed again, and him nane the better. Ae day he was flyting wi’ anither sodger-lad. “Deil hae me!” quo’ Tam, for he was a profane swearer. And there was Peden glowering at him, gash an’ waefu’; Peden wi’ his lang chafts an’ luntin’ een, the maud happit about his kist, and the hand of him held out wi’ the black nails upon the finger-nebs—for he had nae care of the body. “Fy, fy, poor man!” cries he, “the poor fool man! Deil hae me, quo’ he; an’ I see the deil at his oxter.” The conviction of guilt and grace cam in on Tam like the deep sea; he flang doun the pike that was in his hands—“I will nae mair lift arms against the cause o’ Christ!” says he, and was as gude’s word. There was a sair fyke in the beginning, but the governor, seeing him resolved, gied him his dischairge, and he went and dwallt and merried in North Berwick, and had aye a gude name with honest folk frae that day on.
It was in the year seeventeen hunner and sax that the Bass cam in the hands o’ the Da’rymples, and there was twa men soucht the chairge of it. Baith were weel qualified, for they had baith been sodgers in the garrison, and kennt the gate to handle solans, and the seasons and values of them. Forbye that they were baith—or they baith seemed—earnest professors and men of comely conversation. The first of them was just Tam Dale, my faither. The second was ane Lapraik, whom the folk ca’d Tod Lapraik maistly, but whether for his name or his nature I could never hear tell. Weel, Tam gaed to see Lapraik upon this business, and took me, that was a toddlin’ laddie, by the hand. Tod had his dwallin’ in the lang loan benorth the kirkyaird. It’s a dark, uncanny loan, forbye that the kirk has aye had an ill name since the days o’ James the Saxt and the deevil’s cantrips played therein when the Queen was on the seas; and as for Tod’s house, it was in the mirkest end, and was little likit by some that kenned the best. The door was on the sneck that day, and me and my faither gaed straucht in. Tod was a wabster to his trade; his loom stood in the but. There he sat, a muckle fat, white hash of a man like creish, wi’ a kind of a holy smile that gart me scunner. The hand of him aye cawed the shuttle, but his een was steekit. We cried to him by his name, we skirled in the deid lug of him, we shook him by the shouther. Nae mainner o’ service! There he sat on his dowp, an’ cawed the shuttle and smiled like creish.
“God be guid to us,” says Tam Dale, “this is no’ canny!”
He had jimp said the word, when Tod Lapraik cam to himsel’.
“Is this you, Tam?” says he. “Haith, man! I’m blithe to see ye. I whiles fa’ into a bit dwam like this,” he says; “it’s frae the stamach.”
Weel, they began to crack about the Bass, and which of them twa was to get the warding o’t, and by little and little cam to very ill words, and twined in anger. I mind weel, that as my faither and me gaed hame again, he came ower and ower the same expression, how little he likit Tod Lapraik and his dwams.
“Dwam!” says he. “I think folk hae brunt for dwams like yon.”
Aweel, my faither got the Bass, and Tod had to go wantin’. It was remembered sinsyne what way he had ta’en the thing. “Tam,” says he, “ye hae gotten the better o’ me aince mair, and I hope,” says he, “ye’ll find at least a’ that ye expeckit at the Bass.” Which have since been thought remarkable expressions. At last the time came for Tam Dale to take young solans. This was a business he was weel used wi’, he had been a craigsman frae a laddie, and trustit nane but himsel’. So there was he, hingin’ by a line an’ speldering on the craig face, whaur it’s hieest and steighest. Fower tenty lads were on the tap, hauldin’ the line and mindin’ for his signals. But whaur Tam hung there was naething but the craig, and the sea below, and the solans skirling and flying. It was a braw spring morn, and Tam whustled as he claught in the young geese. Mony’s the time I heard him tell of this experience, and aye the swat ran upon the man.
It chanced, ye see, that Tam keekit up, and he was awaur of a muckle solan, and the solan pyking at the line. He thocht this by-ordinar and outside the creature’s habits. He minded that ropes was unco saft things, and the solan’s neb and the Bass Rock unco hard, and that twa hunner feet were raither mair than he would care to fa’.