Character guide

Dickson McCunn

major

Also known as Dickson, Mr. McCunn, Spring Mr. Dickson McCunn, auld McCunn, Mister McCunn, nevoy Dickson, Maister McCunn

Dickson McCunn has spent forty years weighing out sugar and tea, and now, at fifty-five, he is loose in the world with a knapsack and a taste for romance he never admitted to himself. His wife has gone to the hydropathic, his business is sold, and he is quietly terrified that adventure will prove as disappointing as a bad consignment of cheese. What makes him matter is that he brings a merchant's caution and a boy's hunger for glory to a fight that needs both.

John Heritage

major

Also known as Mr. John Heritage, Mr. Heritage, Heritage, Danish Brig Mr. John Heritage

Heritage is a man of letters who has been in the war and come out of it with a limp and a restlessness that verse cannot cure. He is hiding in Mrs. Morran's loft when Dickson arrives, and his presence transforms a walking holiday into something far more dangerous. He is brave, sardonic, and reckless in a way that makes him both an asset and a liability to the small band gathering around the mystery of Huntingtower.

Dougal

major

Also known as IV Dougal

Dougal is the leader of the Gorbals Die-Hards, a band of Glasgow street boys who have come to Galloway for a holiday and found instead a cause worth fighting for. He speaks in military jargon, keeps a Chief of Staff, and treats the crisis at Huntingtower as a campaign to be won by reconnaissance and nerve. His loyalty to Dickson and his resourcefulness in the field make him indispensable to the defence of the House.

Saskia

major

Saskia was a glittering figure in Petrograd before the revolution scattered her world, and now she is a prisoner in a remote Scottish house, hunted for the jewels she may or may not possess. She is proud, resourceful, and unwilling to be a passive victim, and her flight from the House sets the whole adventure in motion. The men who gather to help her are drawn by her plight and by something in her that commands loyalty.

Sir Archibald Roylance

supporting

Also known as Sir Archibald, Sir Archie, Yon Sir Archibald, Sir Erchibald Roylance, Sir Erchibald, Yon Sir Erchibald

Sir Archie is a laird of the neighbourhood, fresh from the war and restless for peacetime excitement. He knows the country, the people, and the shortcuts, and his willingness to throw in his lot with Dickson and the boys gives the small force a respectability and a mobility it badly needs. He is good-humoured, slightly reckless, and exactly the sort of ally a retired grocer could not have anticipated.

Mrs. Morran

supporting

Also known as Morran, Mrs. ¬†Morran, Mrs. ¬ÝMorran

Mrs. Morran takes Dickson in as a lodger and quickly becomes the quartermaster and comic conscience of the whole enterprise. She plays the part of the affectionate aunt with such conviction that she reduces herself to helpless laughter once the post-cart is out of sight. Her scones, her jam, and her willingness to march on the Tower with five boys and a middle-aged man make her the unlikely heart of the resistance.

Dobson

supporting

Dobson belongs to the shadowy crew besieging Huntingtower, and he is the first of them Dickson meets face to face, knocking politely at Mrs. Morran's door the morning after Dickson's secret return. His civility is the unnerving kind: he has already seen Loudon and Dickson together, so his friendly request for a word is really a reconnaissance. He matters because he converts Dickson's private errand into open contest, forcing the middle-aged crusader to reckon with an enemy who knows exactly where he is.

Thomas Yownie

supporting

Also known as Thomas

Thomas serves under Dougal in the Die-Hards, the ragged boy-scout army that has adopted Huntingtower's defense as its own campaign. When the Tower door is blown in and Heritage is feared lost, Thomas delivers the news without flinching, then stands ready for orders while Mrs. Morran rails and Dickson despairs. His steadiness under bad news gives the defense its tone: these are children behaving like veterans, and their composure shames the adults into action.

James Loudon

supporting

Also known as this Loudon, Mr. James Loudon, Mr. Loudon, Loudon, the factor Loudon, Maister Loudoun

Loudon manages the estate's business in Dalquharter, which makes him a natural source of information about the shut-up House and its odd new occupants. His talk with Dickson is exactly what Dobson has come to probe, so Loudon sits at the hinge between village gossip and the conspiracy closing around the Tower. Whether he is merely a wary functionary or something more is a question the early chapters keep deliberately open, and Dickson's decision to trust or not trust him shapes how much he learns before the siege begins.

Wee Jaikie

supporting

Also known as Jaikie, Wee Jaikie⁠—to

Jaikie is the Die-Hards' scout and messenger, small enough to hide in cover and steady enough to use the knife when it counts. After Dickson is bound and robbed by Ecky and Davie, Jaikie slips out, slits the thongs, and takes his report of the landing brig straight to Dougal without a tear or a boast. His rescue gives Dickson back his nerve and his faith in Providence, and it proves that the boys' discipline is not play-acting but the real article.

Alexis Nicolaevitch

supporting

Also known as Alexis

Alexis belongs to the small circle of Russian exiles at the center of the Huntingtower intrigue, bound to Saskia by blood and to the old world by everything he has lost. His presence raises the stakes of what looks at first like a local squabble over a shut-up house: behind the besiegers stand revolutionaries and a fortune in jewels. For Dickson, Alexis is part of the foreign, romantic world he has stumbled into, and the prince's fate is one more reason the quiet Glasgow merchant cannot walk away.

Léon

supporting

Léon is one of the enemy's lieutenants, reconnoitering the Tower with Dobson and Spidel and conferring in the hazel clump when Heritage's stubborn defense confuses them. His voluble French and nervous gestures contrast with Dobson's heavy silence, but he is no less dangerous for being excitable. He matters because he is the one Heritage successfully deceives: the skirt and scarf fluttered at the window, the mimicked voice of Cousin Eugénie, convince Léon the Princess is inside, and that false certainty keeps the siege fixed on the Tower while the real rescue gathers.

Cousin Eugénie

supporting

Also known as Cousin

Cousin Eugénie belongs to the inbred Kennedy stock that produces one half-cracked member per generation, and she is this generation's — harmless, imperious, and utterly fixated on the family seat she has been denied since the House was closed. Her springtime craving to return to Huntingtower overrides every social and legal obstacle, and the Kennedys have always humoured her. Her stubborn occupation of the place gives the conspirators their excuse and Dickson his first foothold inside the walls, making her oddity the hinge on which the whole adventure turns.

Mackintosh

minor

Also known as The philanthropic Mackintosh, the philanthropic Mackintosh, Mr. Mackintosh

A philanthropic businessman who funds the adventure.

Tibby

minor

A local girl who assists the group.

Mem

minor

A mysterious figure associated with the villains.

Quentin

minor

Also known as young Maister Quentin, Maister Quentin, poor Mr. Quentin, Mr. Quentin, old Quentin, Poor Quentin

An elderly servant at Huntingtower.

Peter Paterson

minor

Also known as Peter

A local man who helps the group.

McGuffog

minor

A gamekeeper involved in the action.

Dogson

minor

A minor villain and henchman.

Spidel

minor

Also known as the Lett Spidel

A Latvian villain involved in the plot.

Spittal

minor

A local man who aids the heroes.

Ecky

minor

A young boy from the village.

Dalquharter

minor

A local estate name used as a person reference.

Auntie Phemie

minor

An elderly relative of a character.

Mr. Caw

minor

Also known as Mr. Caw of Paton

A local businessman.

Paul Abreskov

minor

Also known as Paul, the Paul

A Russian villain and antagonist.

Lean

minor

A local man who assists the group.

Mr. McNair

minor

A local minister or figure.

Old Bill

minor

An elderly local character.

Sime

minor

A local man involved in the action.

Carfrae

minor

A local farmer or worker.

Mrs. McCunn

minor

Dickson McCunn's wife.

Tam Robison

minor

Also known as Tam, Robison

A local man who helps the group.

Glendonan

minor

Also known as Mr. Glendonan

A local figure.

Captain Kennedy

minor

A sea captain involved in the rescue.

Alexander Nicholson

minor

Also known as Mr. Nicholson

A local man.

Mademoiselle

minor

A French governess or companion.

Mrs. Brockie

minor

A local woman.