THEY WERE LYING asleep in the same place, four of them together. I watched them while the day lightened. I trained my rifle on them one by one. When it was bright enough for me to see my sights I tried to say, ‘Waken!’ I could only whisper the word. I said ‘Waken!’ until my breath obeyed me, and they heard me call. They stirred uneasily, they roused, they sat up. I waited, savouring their fear. I turned the safety catch of my rifle deliberately that they might find me. Their eyes fell on me. They began to go for their rifles. My brain was cold and clear like ice. As I brought them down, one after one, I counted One, Two, Three. The fourth flung himself to one side at the moment I fired. I hit him but not where I aimed. He came to his knees with his rifle in his hands. We fired together. He missed me, but I struck him. I was aiming full at his breast when I saw Terry between myself and him. Her eyes gazed at me, her outstretched hands pleaded. I could not shoot. Her image faded and I jumped to my feet with my handkerchief in my hand. I dropped my rifle as I went towards my enemy. His wavering rifle fired from the hip. I saw it vomit flame before the bullet struck my breast with a force like a hammer blow. In a blur I saw him tumble backwards. I stood alone on the hill-top in the light of the rising sun, staggering like a drunk man, vomiting blood. The deep-ranked peaks climbed out of the morning to circle me round.

I came home, dragging myself along the ground by the failing strength of my arms. I lighted the lamp in our cave. There’s very little oil, enough for me. I dragged the slab of stone over the mouth of the cave after me to close our tomb. I can scarcely see. I hear my breath bubbling in my chest. The fire that burned me’s quenched. Not long now, Terry. I’ll lay myself down on our couch of birch and close my eyes to sleep. We were happy too, Terry. Terry, my love, my heart, my life.

About the Author

WILD HARBOUR

Ian Macpherson (1905–44), was born in Forres and educated at Newtonmore, Laurencekirk and Mackie Academy, Stonehaven. He graduated from Aberdeen University in 1928 with a first class honours degree in English. He spent the next two years writing his first novel Shepherds’ Calendar which was published in 1931. This book, which has been compared to Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, draws on his own rural background to tell of a young man’s growth to maturity in a farming community dominated by hard toil and the influence of the seasons.