



Produced by LM Bornath





"The Right Stuff"


Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton


BY

IAN HAY



DR JOHNSON. Oatmeal, sir? The food of horses in England and of men in
Scotland!

BOSWELL (_roused at last_). And where, sir, will you find such
horses--or such men?



_SHILLING EDITION_



William Blackwood & Sons
Edinburgh and London
1912




_TO_

_AN INDULGENT CRITIC_




CONTENTS.


BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.


CHAP.

      I. "OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM"
     II. INTRODUCES A PILLAR OF STATE AND THE APPURTENANCES THEREOF
    III. "ANENT"
     IV. A TRIAL TRIP
      V. ROBIN ON DUTY
     VI. ROBIN OFF DUTY
    VII. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP
   VIII. OF A PIT THAT WAS DIGGED, AND WHO FELL INTO IT
     IX. THE POLICY OF THE CLOSED DOOR
      X. ROBIN'S WAY OF DOING IT


BOOK TWO.

THE FINISHED ARTICLE.


     XI. A MISFIRE
    XII. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER
   XIII. A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE
    XIV. "TO DIE--WILL BE AN _AWFULLY_ BIG ADVENTURE"
     XV. TWO BATTLES
    XVI. "_QUI PERD, GAGNE_"
   XVII. IN WHICH ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD
  XVIII. A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY




BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.




CHAPTER ONE.

OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM.


The first and most-serious-but-one ordeal in the life of Robert Chalmers
Fordyce--so Robert Chalmers himself informed me years afterwards--was
the examination for the Bursary which he gained at Edinburgh University.
A bursary is what an English undergraduate would call a "Schol."
(Imagine a Scottish student talking about a "Burse"!)

Robert Chalmers Fordyce arrived in Edinburgh pretty evenly divided
between helpless stupefaction at the sight of a great city and stern
determination not to be imposed upon by the inhabitants thereof. His
fears were not as deep-seated as those of Tom Pinch on a similar
occasion,--he, it will be remembered, suffered severe qualms from his
familiarity with certain rural traditions concerning the composition of
London pies,--but he was far from happy. He had never slept away from
his native hillside before; he had never seen a town possessing more
than three thousand inhabitants; and he had only once travelled in a
train.

Moreover, he was proceeding to an inquisition which would decide once
and for all whether he was to go forth and conquer the world with a
university education behind him, or go back to the plough and sup
porridge for the rest of his life. To-morrow he was to have his
opportunity, and the consideration of how that opportunity could best be
gripped and brought to the ground blinded Robin even to the wonders of
the Forth Bridge.

He sat in the corner of the railway carriage, passing in review the
means of conquest at his disposal. His actual stock of scholarship, he
knew, was well up to the required standard: he was as letter perfect in
Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and Literature as hard study and remorseless
coaching could make him. Everything needful was in his head--but could
he get it out again? That was the question. The roaring world in which
he would find himself, the strange examination-room, the quizzing
professors--would these combine with his native shyness to seal the lips
and cramp the pen of Robert Chalmers Fordyce? No--a thousand times no!
He would win through! Robert set his teeth, braced himself, and kicked
the man opposite.

He apologised, attributing the discourtesy to the length of his legs--he
stood about six feet three--and smiled so largely and benignantly, that
the Man Opposite, who had intended to be thoroughly disagreeable, melted
at once, and said it was the fault of the Company for providing such
restricted accommodation, and gave Robert _The Scotsman_ to read.

Robert thanked him, and, effacing himself behind _The Scotsman_,--though,
for all the instruction or edification that his present frame of mind
permitted him to