ADVENTURES IN THULE.
 
 ADVENTUEES IN THULE 
 
 THREE STORIES FOR BOYS 
 
 WILLIAM BLACK 
 
 NEW AND REVISED EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON & COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 1893 
 
 [All rights reserved]
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 BTAMFOED 8TKEET AND CHASING OEOSS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE 3 
 
 THE FOUR MAONICOLS 87 
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY 163
 
 AN ADVENTUEE IN THULE. 
 
 B
 
 AN ADVENTUKE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIGH up on one of the headlands of the Island 
 of Lewis two young lads were idly seated on the 
 grass, sometimes plucking a head of Dutch 
 clover, sometimes turning their eyes to a group 
 of small islands which lay far out at the horizon 
 line, beyond the wide blue spaces of the Atlantic. 
 It was a warm, still, beautiful day. The sea 
 was calm ; those low-lying islands out there 
 were faint and pale like clouds. 
 
 " Archie," said the elder (speaking in Gaelic, 
 of which the following is a translation), " I saw 
 one of the French smacks go by this morning." 
 
 " I saw her too," replied the younger lad, who 
 was the schoolmaster's son. 
 
 There was nothing said for a time. The bees 
 hummed amongst the clover ; the collie lying 
 near sleepily winked his eyes ; and Colin. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 M'Calmont, the taller of the two lads, kept his 
 gaze directed on the pale blue islands out at the 
 horizon. At length he said, 
 
 " Archie, my father is a hard-working man ; 
 and it is not easy now to make the farms pay, 
 with the rents high and sheep not selling well at 
 the market. My father has not his troubles to 
 seek, as the minister says. And to think that 
 these Frenchmen should be allowed to go and 
 kill a sheep, just as they want it, when they are 
 going by Farriskeir or Rua ; that is what angers 
 me." 
 
 " And me too," said Archie Livingston, 
 " though it is not my father's sheep they kill. 
 It angers me because they are Frenchmen ; yes, 
 and thieves beside. But what can you do, 
 Colin 1 " 
 
 They were still regarding the far islands. 
 
 " If my father would let me," M'Calmont said, 
 " I'd go out and live ;on iFarriskeir until all the 
 French smacks had gone by to Iceland. If they 
 knew any one was on Farriskeir or Rua, that 
 would be enough. They would soon talk about 
 it amongst themselves, and there w r ould be no 
 more stealing of my father's sheep. Do you 
 think I would be afraid ? 1 would not be afraid.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 5 
 
 I would build myself a hut, for there is plenty 
 of wood washed up since the big vessel went 
 ashore on Kua." 
 
 " Colin," said the other, after a while, " I 
 have something to tell you. Do you know my 
 horse-pistol ? " 
 
 " Of course I know it." 
 
 " Would it not be a fine thing, now, if you 
 and I were to go out to Farriskeir and hide 
 behind the rocks, and when the Frenchmen 
 were coming near we might have a shot at 
 them ? " 
 
 "Yes, and maybe kill some one," said the 
 other, scornfully. " That would be a fine thing. 
 It would be a fine thing to be hanged." 
 
 " How could they hang you for that ? " said 
 the schoolmaster's son. " If a man comes into 
 your house to steal your money, you may shoot 
 at him ; and if he comes to your island to steal 
 your sheep, why not the same ? Besides, he is a 
 Frenchman. The sheriff at Stornoway would 
 not say anything to you for shooting at a 
 Frenchman." 
 
 " I don't know that. I am not going to try," 
 said the elder lad, with a grim sort of smile. 
 " But I will tell you now, Archie, what would be
 
 6 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 a fine tiling. Do you think we could slip away 
 to Farriskeir without being seen ? There is no 
 one going down to the boat just now; they 
 would not miss it at all. And if any one were 
 asking for us, would they not think we had 
 gone up to the shieling with bread for Mary and 
 Ailasa and the rest of them ? Well, now, if we 
 could slip away out to Farriskeir and lie behind 
 the rocks, just as you were saying, and if one of 
 the French boats was to come near, where would 
 l)e the harm in giving a shot in the air ? Do 
 you see that now ? For they would not dare to 
 land ; and when they got up to Eeikjavik in 
 Iceland they would tell all the other boats that 
 they had been fired at, and that people lived on 
 Farriskeir and Rua-veg now ; and not another 
 Frenchman would ever come near the place 
 again. Do you see that now ? They would go 
 away up to Eeikjavik, and they would say, 
 ' There is to be no more stealing a sheep from 
 Farriskeir and making a laugh over it. They 
 have people on Farriskeir now.' And the 
 Frenchmen can understand each other very 
 well, though no one else can make out what 
 they say." 
 
 " I will go with you, Colin ; we will try it ! "
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 7 
 
 said the other, eagerly. " My father will not be 
 back from Stornoway till the Friday night. But 
 about the powder, Colin ; I have no powder, 
 and you cannot fire the horse-pistol without 
 powder." 
 
 However, there were a great many things to 
 be thought of besides getting powder before this 
 exploit could .be ventured upon ; and they set 
 about completing these details according to their 
 different temperaments ; the younger lad, who 
 was a great reader of books, filled with an eager 
 delight at the romance of the enterprise ; the 
 elder animated chiefly by a sober determination 
 that he would do what he could to prevent any 
 more of his father's sheep being stolen. Indeed, 
 it was not until late in the afternoon that Colin 
 M'Calmont found time to make his way up 
 Glen-Estera, to Sir Evan Roy's shooting-box 
 there, that he might beg some gunpowder of 
 Dugald M'Lean, the gamekeeper. 
 
 He found M'Lean who was the sole occupant 
 of the lodge at this time of the year seated on 
 the bank of the, stream that flowed past the 
 house. He was contentedly smoking his pipe 
 and regarding a noble salmon that lay on the 
 grass, while his rod was not far off. Colin had
 
 8 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 to pull his wits together in addressing the 
 keeper, who had not the best of tempers. 
 
 "Eh, but that's a fine fish, Mr. M'Lean!" 
 said he the rest of the people called the keeper 
 plain Dugald, so this was a cunning compliment. 
 " That is a fine fish indeed. I have heard them 
 saying there was not a better salmon-fisher in 
 the Lews than yourself. They were saying you 
 could throw a fly eight-and-thirty yards. Some 
 day I will be asking you to teach me how to 
 throw a fly." 
 
 "You will be better minding your own 
 business at the farm," said the keeper, rather 
 gruffly (and also speaking in Gaelic). "What 
 brings you to Glen-Estera ? " 
 
 " There is not much doing at the farm at this 
 time of the year. I was thinking, Mr. M'Lean, 
 that perhaps you could spare me a little gun- 
 powder." 
 
 " Gunpowder ! " the keeper exclaimed, angrily. 
 "To make pioyes* of and set your father's barn 
 on fire ? It is a fool that you are, Colin, and 
 
 * The word pioyes is applied in Scotland to a small cone 
 made of gunpowder kneaded with water until the powder 
 forms a sort of paste. When the tip of the cone is lit ifc 
 begins to splutter and hiss like a miniature Vesuvius.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. g 
 
 more, to think that I will be giving you any 
 gunpowder ! " 
 
 "Indeed, it's you who are wrong, then, Mr. 
 M'Lean, to think that I was wanting gunpowder 
 for pioyes" said Colin, sturdily. " I am no 
 longer at school ; it is not pioyes that I am 
 thinking of." And then he cast about for an 
 excuse. " I am sure there is no one who knows 
 better than yourself of the mischief that the 
 hoodies* make." 
 
 " Oh," continued the boy, " they are the mis- 
 chievous birds ! The young grouse the young 
 black game have no peace for them ; but worse 
 than that is the time of the eggs in the spring- 
 time. Surely you will know, Mr. M'Lean, that 
 when a young lad is looking after the sheep he 
 has many chances of seeing the nests." 
 
 And here it seemed suddenly to strike the 
 keeper that he was neglecting one of the chief 
 elements of his business which was to keep on 
 friendly terms with the men and lads about the 
 different farms. 
 
 " Now that is a good thing I am told about 
 you, Colin, my lad," said he, in quite a different 
 
 * Hoodies are a species of crow held in much disfavour 
 by the preservers of game in the Highlands.
 
 io AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 tone ; " that you do not take the eggs for 
 foolishness or mischief, and that you do not let 
 the dogs chase the young coveys or the hares ; 
 and that you are a sensible lad, and you may 
 have a farm yourself some day from Sir Evan." 
 
 " It is not wrong what you have heard about 
 the nests," said Colin, modestly. " And I keep 
 in the dogs, too, though the young dogs are 
 eager after the hares. And I was saying about 
 the hoodies ; Archie Livingston has a pistol, and 
 if you were to be giving me a little gunpowder 
 from time to time, I think I could kill a hoodie 
 or two when there was nothing doing but the 
 minding of the sheep." 
 
 The keeper rose to his feet. 
 
 " There is a job for you, Colin, my lad. Bring 
 the fish into the house, and I will give you some 
 powder." 
 
 Very joyously did Colin obey ; for besides his 
 immediate want being supplied, he had now 
 before him the prospect of unlimited stalking 
 expeditions along the shore and up over the 
 rocks after the detested hoodie-crows. And if 
 he did not tell Dugald M'Lean for what im- 
 mediate purpose he wanted some powder, it was 
 because he knew very well that M'Lean would
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 11 
 
 instantly speak of the matter and compel him to 
 abandon so dangerous an enterprise. 
 
 They went into the lodge, and the keeper, 
 who was now quite friendly in his gruff way, 
 gave him some powder in a small tin canister, 
 and even offered him some percussion caps too ; 
 but M'Calmont explained that the horse-pistol 
 was fired by flint and steel. Then he set out on 
 his way down Glen-Estera again. 
 
 When he got back to the coast and near to 
 the headland which has been mentioned, instead 
 of ascending the height, he went down and 
 struck across some broad white sands which in 
 former times were no doubt covered by the sea. 
 Then he reached a belt of rock facing the 
 
 O 
 
 Atlantic, and in a small sheltered creek 
 discovered Archie Livingston busy at work 
 overhauling the small sailing-boat that lay at 
 its moorings there. Archie looked up startled, 
 for he had not heard his friend's approach 
 the sands being soft to the foot. 
 
 " They are often saying that Dugald M'Lean 
 is an uncivil man," Colin M'Calmont remarked, 
 as he stepped into the boat that his companion 
 had now shoved alongside the rock, " but he is 
 not that. He has given me a good deal of
 
 12 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 powder, and I am to have more, too, for shooting 
 the hoodies ; and I think you and I, Archie, will 
 have many a good day after the hoodies. They 
 do not fly so quick as the birds the gentlemen 
 go after ; but they are a great deal more 
 cunning, and it is not easy to get at them. He 
 is not an uncivil man at all, but a very civil 
 man ; and he knows that we do not let the dogs 
 chase the young birds. Did you bring down the 
 bottle of water, Archie ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, I brought down the bottle of water, 
 and it's in the locker. And I have gone all over 
 the boat, Colin, and tried the sheets ; and if I 
 were you, it is a new topping-lift I would be 
 having." 
 
 But Colin did not seem quite reassured by the 
 fact that his younger companion had inspected 
 the vessel that was to carry them away from the 
 land in the morning ; so now, in the gathering 
 dusk, he set to work himself and had a thorough 
 investigation. 
 
 " The topping-lift will do very well," said he, 
 " for it is not in any gale that we are going. 
 With a north wind or a south wind I will go ; 
 with an east wind or a west wind I will not go. 
 If we were to be beating against a wind either
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 13 
 
 going or coming, would not some one see us, 
 sooner or later ? And you know very well, 
 Archie, that it is not a sure thing that we may 
 see any French smack come near, though now is 
 the time of their passing ; and that would be a 
 fine thing to have all the people making a joke 
 of us, and saying, ' Look at the boys that went 
 out to frighten the Frenchmen and came run- 
 ning back without seeing any/ I would not 
 like that, neither would you ; but it is I that 
 would have to do the quarrelling, if there was 
 any quarrelling. But now, if there is a nice 
 steady wind from either north or south in the 
 morning, then we will run away out in a short 
 time and get the boat hidden in a creek at 
 Farriskeir ; and the topping-lift will do very 
 well ; " and with that he gave another haul at 
 it, swinging the end of the boom up into 
 the air. 
 
 Now when everything had been made fast 
 and secure for their voyage on the morrow the 
 mainsail having been lowered and stowed 
 Archie was called upon to produce the weapon 
 which was to give a wholesome warning to the 
 French fishermen to avoid for the future the 
 k shores of Farriskeir and its adjacent islands. It
 
 14 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 was a large cavalry pistol, somewhat dilapidated, 
 but showing traces of ancient adornment. 
 Archie had freshly oiled and polished it ; he had 
 put a newly-chipped flint in the hammer, and 
 when his companion struck the flint on the 
 empty pan (the sparks shone with a sudden 
 brilliancy in the gathering dusk) the lock 
 worked easily. 
 
 " I would try a little powder in it, Colin," 
 suggested the younger lad. 
 
 " The night is so still they would hear it up 
 at Dunvorgan," said the elder lad, who was the 
 more prudent of the two. 
 
 " It will be giving no sound at all, Colin, if 
 there is no wadding in the barrel. You will 
 put a little powder in the barrel and a little 
 powder in the pan, and then you will see if the 
 little hole is all clear." 
 
 Well, there could be no objection to that, and 
 so Colin produced his precious canister and very 
 grudgingly measured out a few grains for the 
 experiment. The result was quite satisfactory. 
 There was a sharp click of the descending flint, 
 and almost at the same moment a flash of red 
 flame in the darkness. So the pistol was 
 carefully wrapped up in the old stocking that
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 15 
 
 was its customary case, and deposited in the 
 locker along with the bottle of water and the 
 oatmeal cakes which were their stores for the 
 forthcoming voyage. Then the two lads got 
 ashore again, and in the dusk made their way 
 across the white sands and away up towards 
 Dunvorgan farm. 
 
 For a time they were silent. 
 
 "I have been thinking, Archie," said the 
 elder of the two, at last, " that it would not be 
 a nice thing if the crew of the smack were to 
 land and hunt us out. What would we do 
 then ? " 
 
 The other made no reply. 
 
 " There would be five or six of them, Archie, 
 and if they were to land, they would catch us, 
 even if we were to go into the cave at the point 
 opposite Kua. And if they were to catch us, 
 Archie, it is not you and I that would be able to 
 fight six of them." 
 
 And again, " I was thinking, Archie, that it 
 would be better if I was to go by myself. It is 
 not right that you should go into a risk for the 
 sake of my father's sheep ; that is foolishness. 
 I can manage the boat very well by myself." 
 
 " Then you can give me back my pistol,"
 
 16 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 said the other, who was evidently deeply hurt. 
 " If you think I am afraid, you can give me 
 back my pistol." 
 
 " I did not say you were afraid. I said there 
 was a reason for my going, and there was no 
 reason for your going. If there was to be a 
 fight, what would you do ? " 
 
 " What would you ? Do you think that I am 
 more afraid of the French fishermen than you ? 
 Very well, then, I will take back my pistol." 
 
 Colin very soon perceived that his companion 
 was bent on sharing this enterprise, whatever 
 peril it might involve, and at last a compromise 
 was effected ; Archie Livingston agreeing that 
 in the event of the French fishermen venturing 
 to land to discover who had fired at them, he 
 should be the first to make for the little natural 
 cave in the rocks that both the lads knew well, 
 and that Colin should be allowed to look about 
 a little and see what was likely to happen before 
 seeking the same place of refuge. 
 
 It may be presumed that neither of the lads 
 slept very much that night; for besides the 
 excitement of the enterprise, they had agreed to 
 meet down at the little creek not later than 
 half-past four in the morning. And as each
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 17 
 
 went stealthily his own way to the place of 
 rendezvous, a fair still dawn was breaking over 
 land and sea, and everything gave promise of a 
 beautiful day. Moreover, the slight cool wind 
 of the morning was blowing up from the south ; 
 it was a fair wind to carry them out to the 
 islands, where they were to lie in wait for the 
 Frenchmen.
 
 1 3 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE setting forth of the two lads on their 
 voyage to the far islands on the horizon was 
 managed with all due secrecy and despatch, for 
 both of them were well aware that if the people 
 at the farm got to know on what mission they 
 were bent they would immediately be stopped. 
 But once away from the shore they grew more 
 confident; and they could call to each other 
 freely Archie Livingston having been sent to 
 the bow as a sort of look-out. 
 
 " Archie," called out the elder lad, who was at 
 the stern, with the sheet of the mainsail in his 
 hand and his elbow on the tiller, " they cannot 
 stop us now." 
 
 " That they cannot, Colin." 
 
 " And do you think that Ailasa and Mary and 
 the rest of them up at the shieling will be awake 
 and out yet ? " 
 
 "No doubt they will be awake and out," said
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THVLE. 19 
 
 the younger lad both of them speaking in 
 Gaelic. 
 
 " For if any one is to see us they will be the 
 first to see us, from the hillside. Yes, and 
 maybe they are saying now, ' There is the boat 
 going out; and who can be in the boat? and 
 what does any one want to go to Farriskeir 
 for ? ' Well, they will not be guessing that 
 easily." 
 
 " Colin," said the younger lad, " it will be a 
 hard thing if we have taken all this trouble and 
 find none of the French fishermen coming near. 
 I suppose you have heard that the French ships 
 were always running away when they were told 
 that Nelson was coming after them ; and that it 
 was not easy for him to fight them because he 
 could not tell where they were ? Well, they are 
 not running away from us ; but it will be just as 
 bad if we do not find any of the smacks coming 
 near Farriskeir or Rua-veg. And then w r hat will 
 you say when you go back ? " 
 
 " You are afraid of being laughed at," said the 
 elder lad, " that is what I am thinking. You 
 are afraid they will say, ' There are the boys 
 who went out to frighten the Frenchmen and 
 could not find them.' But answer me this, 
 
 c 2
 
 20 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 Archie ; if we do not tell them why we went out, 
 how will they know ? " 
 
 " If they have seen us from the shieling, 
 Ailasa, or Red-haired Maggie, or one of them 
 will be asking," said the other, diffidently. 
 
 " Yes, they will be asking ; it is the way of 
 girls. But that is no need why we should tell. 
 And this is what I am thinking of, Archie ; if 
 there is not any French smack coming near the 
 islands, well, we will go to the wreck, and there 
 are many things that we can pick up ; and why 
 should we not bring away a boatful of the spars 
 and planks that my father drew above the 
 water-mark at Rua ? It is very useful these 
 things are at the farm ; and the last time we 
 were out we had not an inch of spare room in 
 the boat when we were coming back, such a load 
 we had ; and if the girls at the shieling hear 
 that we have brought back a cargo of wood from 
 Rua-veg, what then ? Where will be their ques- 
 tions then ? " 
 
 They were now well away from the land ; and 
 so steady was this light breeze from the south 
 that the navigation of the boat involved no 
 great care. The helmsman could with sufficient 
 security turn from time to time to regard the
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 21 
 
 familiar landmarks they were leaving behind 
 the wide white sands, the masses of rock, and 
 far beyond and above these the giant peaks of 
 Mealasabhal and Suainabhal all faintly coloured 
 by the morning sun. Or again, he would stand 
 up in the boat to get a better look at the islands 
 ahead ; and these, as the distance gradually grew 
 less, were beginning to show distinctive features 
 along their shores. But of any French smack or 
 other vessel they could find no sign whatever. 
 As far as their eyes could reach, this wide circle 
 of the blue Atlantic seemed to belong to them 
 selves. Once, indeed, they caught sight of the 
 topsails of a brigantine, the rest of the vessel 
 being below the horizon ; but apparently she 
 was beating down against the southerly breeze, 
 and, having put about, was soon lost to view. 
 
 " It will be no harm if we get out to the 
 islands without any one seeing us," said Colin 
 M'Calmont. " It will be a great deal better. 
 For if one of the smacks was to see us going 
 out, and if another smack was to take the word 
 to Keikjavik that there were people now on 
 Farriskeir and that they had guns, then there 
 would be a great laughing, and some of them 
 would be for saying, ' Why, are you frightened ?
 
 22 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 It is no one but two boys who are on Farriskeir, 
 for we saw them going out. And are you 
 frightened because you heard the boys shooting 
 at the curlews ? ' ; 
 
 " That is true what you say, Colin ; and any- 
 way we will take back a load of wood with us," 
 said the younger lad, who was very clearly 
 anxious that the girls at the shieling should have 
 no cause to jeer at them. 
 
 And now the islands grew more and more 
 distinct ; and as they drew nearer and nearer, 
 the lads could see and hear that their appearance 
 was causing a vast commotion among the in- 
 numerable wild-fowl that filled the air with their 
 cries. The curlews uttered their warning whistle 
 as they wheeled high in the air ; the sea-pyots 
 whirred along close to the water ; the terns came 
 flying overhead, screaming angrily as they 
 dipped and rose again. And what was that 
 great shapeless black thing, that lay on a spur of 
 rock not nearly as large as itself ? 
 
 " Colin," the younger lad cried, " look at that 
 now ! The wreck is not all gone away yet ; and 
 they were saying she would go to pieces before 
 two days or three days were over, and not an 
 inch would be left of her."
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 23 
 
 " There is not more than a third of her left 
 now," Colin M'Calmont said ; " and it is nothing 
 but a lump of old iron she is. But we will go 
 round the point of Eua and look at her. Slack 
 the lee jib-sheet a bit, Archie ; maybe we will 
 get something out of her that may be of use at 
 the farm." 
 
 "I would not go too near, Colin," said the 
 younger of the two, " for she might tumble over 
 on us." 
 
 " Tumble over on us ! " said the other, with a 
 laugh of derision. " When she has stood out 
 two gales ! " 
 
 But indeed when they rounded the point of 
 one of the small islands and drew nearer to this 
 great broken mass of iron perched high on a 
 narrow ledge of rock, it was a gruesome sight, 
 and they approached with caution. For one 
 thing they had lowered their mainsail, and had 
 taken to the oars, backing the stern of the boat 
 towards the wreck (which towered high above 
 them) so that they could see how near they could 
 go in safety. 
 
 Huge as this rent and shattered fragment of a 
 vessel seemed, the steamer had been of no great 
 size ; but when, on a pitch-dark night, and the
 
 24 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 captain having made some mistake about the 
 lights along the coast, her stem was suddenly 
 jammed on to this rock, her impetus was great 
 enough to lift her up the shelving ledge, so that 
 at low water her keel forward was high and dry. 
 But her back was broken ; and the first heavy 
 sea that came rolling in from the west knocked 
 her boilers out and tore down her stern into 
 deep water ; leaving nothing standing but the 
 bow, which now presented an extraordinary 
 appearance. Outside the hull was black, but 
 inside everything was red with rust ; and as the 
 two lads backed their boat until this riven mass 
 of confusion seemed almost over their heads, 
 there was something awful in the evidence 
 everywhere around of the tremendous force of 
 the sea. The twisted girders, the thick iron 
 plates, torn from their rivets and bent about as 
 if they had been made of pasteboard, the iron 
 cables snapped as if they had been so many 
 watch-chains all this spoke of a frightful 
 combat ; and seemed so strange, now, with this 
 placid blue sea all around, and all around, too, a 
 silence broken only by the distant calling of the 
 curlews. 
 
 The two lads regarded this picture of ruin and
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 25 
 
 desolation without uttering a word, apparently 
 overawed by it ; but at last Colin M'Calmont 
 said, 
 
 " Archie, do you not think I could climb up 
 inside of her ? There might be something that 
 one could find." 
 
 " Indeed you will get nothing but cut fingers 
 with the broken iron," said Archie Livingston, 
 with decision. " Did they not take everything 
 out of her ? And what would you say now if 
 one of the plates of iron were to fall on you ? " 
 
 The elder lad was still looking up, however, at 
 the shattered remnant of the vessel. 
 
 " Archie, back her in a bit more ; and I will 
 see if I can get up to the lower deck there." 
 
 The younger boy did as he was bid, though 
 rather reluctantly ; and it was with a trifle of 
 dismay that he beheld his companion clamber 
 on to the wreck and begin to work his way up 
 among the rusty iron. Then he saw him reach 
 what remained of the lower deck, where there 
 was still some woodwork ; and after searching 
 about for a while he picked up something. 
 
 " Look there, Archie," he called out (his voice 
 
 sounding hollow in the shell of the wreck), 
 
 ^ " I have found a pair of deer's horns, Take
 
 26 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 care, now, and I will throw them down to 
 
 you." 
 
 The next moment the horns fell on the 
 lowered mainsail and rebounded into the bottom 
 of the boat. 
 
 " What is the use of them ? " the younger lad 
 cried for he did not like the look of his com- 
 panion clambering about up there. " If you 
 want deer's horns, you will find them along the 
 shore. It was part of her cargo. What is the 
 use of deer's horns ? " 
 
 However, something now happened that 
 brought back Colin M'Calmont speedily enough 
 into the boat, without any further remonstrance. 
 In crossing over to the other side of this lower 
 deck he found a place where he could look out to 
 sea ; and of course at this height his view was 
 far more extensive than that obtainable from the 
 little sailing-boat below. 
 
 " I can see a big steamer away out there," he 
 called, looking towards the west. " Where can 
 she be going now ? There is no steamer of that 
 size will be going to Iceland." 
 
 The next minute, as he turned to the southern 
 horizon, something caught his eye, which pro- 
 voked no exclamation, but which caused him to
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 27 
 
 hurry down from the wreck in half the time it 
 had taken him to climb up. 
 
 " Archie," said he, in an excited whisper 
 although the boat he had seen w r as still miles off 
 " do you know this ; there is a French smack 
 coming up. I. am sure of it I know it there 
 is no other vessel that would be coming so near 
 the land. Be quick now, Archie ; we will row 
 round to Farriskeir ; I will not put the sail on 
 her at all ; we will row through the channel 
 between Farriskeir and Kua, and maybe we will 
 have her in the little harbour before they can 
 see us. Do you understand that now ? " 
 
 Archie Livingston took to his oar quickly 
 enough, though, to tell the truth, he was some- 
 what alarmed. The adventure had been so far 
 pleasant and romantic in its way ; but it 
 assumed a new aspect when he definitely knew 
 that a crew of French fishermen were coming 
 along, and probable danger at hand. He did 
 not speak at all ; and both knew equally well 
 the course they had to make. They rowed 
 away from the wreck ; then along a narrow and 
 tortuous channel between two islands ; then 
 they beheld before them the open sea again.
 
 28 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 " Do you see lier ? " said Colin M'Calmont, in 
 the same low voice, as if the Frenchmen could 
 hear at that distance. 
 
 " Yes," was the reply, as the younger lad 
 descried the small dot of a vessel away down 
 there in the south. 
 
 " Do you not think that is one of the 
 smacks ? " 
 
 " That is what I think." Then he added : 
 " Colin, if they go by peaceably, and do not try 
 to kill one of your father's sheep, we need not 
 do anything ? They will not know we are 
 here." 
 
 " What did I come out for ? " said the other, 
 scornfully. "What did I come out for but to 
 let every one of them know we are here ? I 
 want it talked about at Reikjavik ; that is what 
 I am thinking of, I do not wish to have any
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 29 
 
 more of my father's sheep killed. I wish them 
 to take the story to Keikjavik that there are 
 people on Farriskeir now, and that if any one 
 goes near to Farriskeir to have a shot at the 
 sheep well, the shooting may not be all on one 
 side. It is not for nothing that I have come to 
 Farriskeir." 
 
 They rowed round the southern end of the 
 island, and then on the eastern side made their 
 way into a small naturally-formed harbour 
 which was protected by a low ridge of rock. 
 Over this rock the mast of the boat could be 
 seen easily enough ; and that was what Colin 
 M'Calmont wanted. Even if the French fisher- 
 men did not approach the island, they would at 
 least see the mast of the boat (provided they 
 came that side) and would so gather that 
 Farriskeir was not always to be a happy 
 hunting-ground for them. 
 
 They got the anchor ashore, and made the 
 boat fast ; then they had their own movements 
 to consider. 
 
 " Archie," said the elder, " if you are afraid, 
 go away to the cave at the end of the island ; 
 they will never think of searching that." 
 % " Whether I am afraid or not is no great
 
 30 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 matter," said the other ; " it is where you are 
 that I am going to be." 
 
 " Oh, very well, then ; we will now set about 
 loading the pistol." 
 
 The pistol they had brought ashore with 
 them ; likewise the canister of powder, some 
 wads, and a small paper bag full of shot. 
 
 " Are you going to put shot into it, Colin ? " 
 said the younger boy somewhat timidly, when 
 his companion had filled in the powder and 
 rammed the wad home. 
 
 " Well, now, it is much more than I that you 
 will know about this pistol, Archie ; but I was 
 thinking if there were some shot put into it, it 
 would make the greater noise, and be more like 
 a gun. What do you say to that now ? " 
 
 " But you will not fire at them ? " 
 
 Colin M'Calmont laughed derisively but not 
 very loudly. 
 
 " And that is a very fine thing ! " said he. 
 " Who was it that wanted at the very beginning 
 to have a shot at the Frenchmen ? Who was it 
 that was not afraid of the sheriff at Stornoway ? " 
 
 " But it would be a dreadful tiling to kill a 
 
 O 
 
 man, Colin." 
 
 " Now that is the truth you are speaking, like
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 31 
 
 the old man of Eoss. The old man of Eoss 
 never said anything truer than that. And it is 
 not I that want to be taken before the sheriff at 
 Stornoway. No ; I am putting in shot to make 
 a fine good noise ; but afterwards I may also 
 put in shot ; do you see that now ? This time 
 it is to make a noise, and give them a story 
 to carry to Eeikjavik ; that time it will be if 
 they want to land and chase us. And then 
 every one lor himself ; that was what the weasel 
 said when he went home." 
 
 " Colin," said the younger lad, timidly, " when 
 we were coming near the island I saw two wild 
 swans fly away. It is not a good sign to see 
 the wild swans fly away from the island." 
 
 " Your head is full of nonsense," said the 
 other, scornfully. 
 
 " They say the wild swans are princesses," 
 continued Archie Livingston, not heeding the 
 taunt, " that were changed by magic. And it is 
 not a good thing to see them fly away when you 
 come near the land." 
 
 "It is many and many a wild swan I have 
 seen yes, thirty of them together, washing 
 themselves and flapping their wings in Loch-an- 
 Innis ; but never yet one that would wait till
 
 32 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 you could put salt on its tail. Archie, my lad, 
 your head is full of nonsense. But if you are 
 afraid of wild swans, or princesses, or anything 
 else, then there is the cave for you ; and you 
 can leave me to deal with the frog- eaters. 
 This is what I am afraid of ; that they may not 
 come near enough it is not the wild swans 
 that I am afraid of." 
 
 " And if I am afraid, I am not going to run 
 away," said his companion. " That is one thing 
 1 am not going to do. Where you are, Colin, it 
 is there I am going to be." 
 
 " Very well, then, we will go and get a good 
 hiding-place behind the rocks ; and you will be 
 very quiet, Archie, so that, if they think about 
 landing to steal a sheep, we will see it very 
 plainly ; and then, after the shot, you will do as 
 I do but not a word all the time." 
 
 It was not without a great deal of difficulty 
 and cautious experimenting that Colin M'Cal- 
 mont found a suitable hiding-place for himself 
 and his, companion. But at last he discovered 
 an abrupt little hollow behind a ledge of rock, 
 where, himself unseen, he could peep over and 
 watch the approach of the vessel that was now 
 drawing nearer and nearer ; while, in the event
 
 AN ADVENTURE L\ THVLE. 33 
 
 of the fishermen landing and pursuing them, 
 they could from this point slip unperceived up 
 to the northern end of the island, where there 
 was a cave not likely to be discovered. 
 
 The smaller lad lay prone on the rock, motion- 
 less, scarcely daring to breathe. His companion 
 from time to time cautiously peered over the 
 edge ; and now there was no doubt at all that 
 the vessel was one of the French fishing-smacks 
 bound for Iceland. M'Calmont took the pre- 
 caution of putting a few grains of fresh powder 
 in the pan of the pistol ; then they waited in a 
 profound silence, broken only by the mono- 
 tonous plashing of the sea along the rocks and 
 the shingle. 
 
 Just in front of his head, as he lay on the 
 sloping ledge of rock, M'Calmont had placed a 
 few tufts of withered heather, through which he 
 could easily see what was going on. And when 
 the French vessel came along, and when he saw 
 them deliberately put her head up to the wind, 
 and lower a boat, and put two men in the boat, 
 who calmly began to row to the island, his face 
 grew red with anger. He dared not even 
 whisper to his companion, who was lying mute 
 
 and motionless beside him (and very much 
 
 
 
 D
 
 34 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 afraid, too, though he would not have admitted 
 it), and he was. saying to himself, 
 
 " If this now is not the most impudent thing ! 
 Oh, yes, you will come and help yourself to a 
 sheep a sheep belonging to a poor man who 
 has to work hard enough for his living ; and 
 you will have a good dinner on board, and a 
 good laugh when you go to Iceland. It would 
 take little now to make me fire at you and your 
 boat, you French thieves ! " 
 
 But whether or no it was the fear of the 
 sheriff at Stornoway, wiser counsels prevailed. 
 When he had allowed the boat and the two men 
 to come within thirty or forty yards of the 
 island he took up the big horse-pistol and 
 cocked the hammer. Then, holding it tight (for 
 fear of the recoil) at arm's length from him, he 
 pointed the pistol along the gully behind him, 
 and pulled the trigger ; and the next second there 
 was a sudden crash of noise in the silence, and a 
 puff of splintered rock where the shot had struck. 
 
 Archie Livingston looked terrified; but 
 M'Calmont, having serious work on hand, 
 turned to his hiding-place again, and peeped 
 through the tufts of heather to see what effect 
 this shot might have had.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 35 
 
 The men in the boat were very obviously 
 surprised. They had stopped rowing. One 
 of them, indeed, was now standing up, closely 
 scanning the shore ; and M'Calmont kept him- 
 self closely concealed, for he knew that the 
 smoke from the gunpowder would give them 
 some more or less vague indication of his 
 whereabouts. 
 
 What would they do ? Would they go back 
 to the fishing-smack, merely with the impression 
 that now there were people living on the island ? 
 Or would they consider that they had been fired 
 at, and be tempted to make reprisals ? 
 
 He could see that they were excitedly talking 
 to each other ; and one of them pointed to the 
 little creek in which M'Calmont's sailing-boat 
 lay ; then they put their oars into the water 
 again, and continued rowing for the shore. 
 
 " They are going to land, Archie 1 " said 
 M'Calmont, in a quick whisper. " Come along 
 sharp ! We will make for the cave ; and 
 there will be time to load the pistol there. 
 Quick 1 quick, now ! and keep low down." 
 
 But every nook and gully of the island was 
 well known to both of them ; and they easily 
 made their way to the north end of the island 
 
 D 2
 
 36 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 without showing themselves on any of the little 
 grassy plateaus or of the higher rocks. Fortu- 
 nately, too, for them, their appearance earlier in 
 the day had frightened the half- wild sheep over 
 to the western side of the island, so that there 
 was no scurrying of startled animals to show 
 their track. 
 
 They reached the coast-line again ; made their 
 way along some rocks ; and then slipping down 
 cautiously, entered a small cave that just allowed 
 them to stand upright. The floor was of sand 
 and shells washed in by the high tides ; a few 
 tufts of sea-asplenium showed their dark-green 
 fronds in the shelves and crannies ; otherwise 
 the cave was pretty much of a bare, black 
 hole, with a curious damp odour of sea-weed 
 in it. 
 
 " Now, Archie, the powder quick ! " for the 
 younger lad had charge of the ammunition. 
 
 It cannot be denied that Archie's fingers were 
 trembling somewhat as he produced the tin 
 canister ; but his companion did not notice that 
 he was too anxious to have the pistol loaded. 
 And when that was completed he seemed to 
 breathe more freely. 
 
 "Now do you see this, Archie," said he,
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 37 
 
 cheerfully, " that we have the best of the 
 position ? For if they come after us and find 
 out the cave, we are in the dark, and they 
 cannot make us out, but they are in the light, 
 and we will see everything they mean to do. 
 And there are only two of them ; and what I 
 am determined on is this if they try to do any 
 harm to us, I will put a shot on to them, 
 whether there is a sheriff in Stornoway or no. 
 It is no use speaking to them, for they do not 
 understand any language but their own. And 
 if they point a gun at you or me, it is I that 
 will be firing first, or you may call me a splay- 
 footed* fellow. But as for you, Archie, if they 
 find out the cave, you will go right to the back 
 of the cave, and you will lie down, with your 
 face to the ground, and they will not see you at 
 all. For it is better to be safe without fighting 
 
 o o 
 
 than to be safe after fighting, as the old man of 
 Eoss said." 
 
 They waited and waited, and there was not a 
 sound outside. 
 
 " I wonder now," the elder lad said at length, 
 
 * Guagaire was the word he used, but, besides meaning 
 " splay-footed," it is also used to denote one who is idle oj 
 , giddy or frivolous.
 
 38 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 " whether they thought I was firing the shot at 
 them ? Perhaps they did not come ashore at 
 all. That will be much better ; if they have 
 gone back to the others, and told them that 
 the time is past now for having a sheep off 
 Farriskeir." 
 
 " I am sure I hope they have gone away, 
 Colin," said the younger of the boys, who had 
 not spoken since they entered the cave. 
 
 He had been listening for sounds without, not 
 quite certain whether, in the event of pursuit, 
 he should take his companion's advice and hide, 
 or whether he ought not to lend what help he 
 could. 
 
 Suddenly something occurred that made both 
 the lads start. They found two eyes glaring 
 into the cave two large, soft, staring eyes, that 
 belonged to a bushy, flat-shaped head ; and then 
 the next moment, before they had time to re- 
 cover from their fright, the strange creature had 
 turned and made off as quickly as its webbed 
 feet and long tail would allow. 
 
 " Well, I never saw an otter on the land 
 before," said Colin M'Calmont, who was the first 
 to recover his presence of mind. " He must 
 have come up through the sea- weed there. If
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 39 
 
 it was not for the Frenchmen, maybe I could 
 catch him yet ; for they go very slow on the 
 land." 
 
 " Colin, do not go out of the cave," the other 
 entreated. " As for the otter, what is an otter ? 
 You can trap one at Camus Head if you want 
 one. And as for that one, he is down through 
 the sea-weed and into the sea long ago. He 
 will be as far away as Rua-veg by this time." 
 
 Nevertheless, with the natural curiosity of a 
 young lad, Colin must needs go to the mouth of 
 the cave, and peer cautiously around. There 
 was no sign of any otter, and there was neither 
 sign nor sound of the French fishermen. But 
 the next second something else caught his eye. 
 
 " Archie, come here ! " he called out. " Come 
 here, now ! See, the smack is away to the 
 north. I know that is the same one from the 
 red patch on her mainsail. They have gone 
 away now, Archie." 
 
 " And a good thing, too," said the younger 
 lad, coming out to the light and the warmer air. 
 " Yes, that is the smack, Colin, I believe. And 
 now they will take the story to Reikjavik." 
 
 " Yes," said his companion, with something of 
 triumph in his face and tone. " That is true.
 
 40 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 And there will be no more stealing of the sheep 
 now. And what we have to do now is to put 
 some of the timber and the spars into the boat, 
 and get away back to the mainland. And you 
 will not be afraid of the questions any more, 
 Archie, if the girls at the shieling will be asking 
 you why you went to Farriskeir. For did we 
 not prevent the Frenchmen landing ? And we 
 have saved one, or maybe more, of my father's 
 sheep ; and the warning to the frog-eaters will 
 be a ~good thing besides. There is only the one 
 thing now that I am sorry for." 
 
 " And what is that, Colin ? " 
 
 " That I did not have a shot at the otter." 
 
 " That am I not sorry for," said his friend 
 (who had regained all his modest confidence and 
 cheerfulness), " it was a more important thing 
 than an otter that we came for ; and never be- 
 fore did I hear my pistol make such a noise." 
 
 " I thought my arm was off," said Colin, with 
 a laugh. 
 
 They had by this time got back to the gully 
 behind the ledge of rock which they had chosen 
 for their hiding - place ; and some distance 
 beyond that again was the creek where they 
 had moored their sailing-boat. AH at once
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 41 
 
 JVrCalmont paused with a strange look on his 
 face. 
 
 " Archie, where is the boat ? " said he. 
 
 The younger lad glanced at him awe-stricken. 
 It was more from the look of Colin's face than 
 from anything else that he guessed something 
 was wrong. 
 
 " Archie, they've stolen the boat they've 
 taken away the boat ! " said the elder lad, gazing 
 at the empty creek. 
 
 " That is not possible, Colin," said the other 
 (but with a sudden sinking of the heart). 
 " They dare not do that. It would be seen. 
 They had no boat towing astern. Maybe they 
 have hid it, Colin, for a joke." 
 
 Without answering Colin ran up to the top of 
 one of the higher plateaus, and eagerly scanned 
 every little indentation of the coast-line. But 
 no mast was visible ; and the mast of the boat 
 was higher than any of these rocks. Then his 
 quick eye noticed something floating on the 
 water some forty or fifty yards out, and then 
 something else a basket that he recognised ; 
 and then he knew what had happened.
 
 42 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BUT before going down to his companion he 
 pulled himself together. He knew that Archie 
 Livingston was easily frightened ; and this that 
 had happened was enough to frighten an older 
 lad than he. M'Calmont descended from the 
 plateau slowly, considering what he should say, 
 and doing his best to assume an indifferent 
 demeanour. 
 
 " Archie," said he, " there is no doubt about 
 what the Frenchmen have done. They have 
 taken out the boat and sunk her. Yonder are 
 things belonging to her, floating on the water ; 
 but not the oars. They have stolen the oars." 
 
 Almost mechanically the younger lad's eyes 
 were turned to the space of water indicated by 
 his companion ; then he said, aghast, 
 
 " Colin, we shall die of hunger." 
 
 Colin had been prepared for this. 
 
 " Die of hunger ! " he exclaimed. " Now you
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 43 
 
 are talking like some poor creature who has 
 never been away from a town. You are talk- 
 ing like the tailor who came to Bernera last 
 year, and he did not know that cattle could 
 swim." 
 
 " How could we swim to the mainland ? " 
 said the younger lad, who seemed ready to cry. 
 " It is twelve miles and more." 
 
 " I did not mean that at all. I say you are 
 talking foolishness when you speak of dying of 
 starvation ; and that you ought to know better, 
 being a Highland lad, and not a tailor from 
 Glasgow." 
 
 Indeed, this raising of his companion's spirits 
 was giving M'Calrnont himself plenty of spirits. 
 
 " Now look here, Archie. The loss of the 
 boat, that is bad; my father can ill afford to 
 lose the boat, and that is a hard thing. But 
 there is no more than that. They will soon find 
 out that we are here, and they will send over for 
 us ; and until they send over for us, do you not 
 think we will find enough and plenty to eat ? 
 Is there no dulse along the shore ? Are there 
 no eachans* in the sand ? One would think, to 
 
 * The eaclian is a shell-fish resembling the cockle, but a 
 faifle smaller, and with a smooth shell. It is similar to, if it
 
 44 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 hear you talk, that you were the high Lord 
 Provost of London, who eats all the day long 
 and half-way through the night, and only stops 
 to sleep for an hour or two. Tell me this, now ; 
 if eachans and dulse will not do, if it is to be 
 like the Lord Provost you are wishing, could I 
 not shoot a sheep ? Just think of that ; and do 
 not talk any more about starvation." 
 
 " But how will they know that we are here, 
 Colin ? " said the younger lad, looking far away 
 over to the blue line, with one or two higher 
 peaks, that represented the mainland. 
 
 " I will tell you a story, Archie. It was a 
 fishing-boat at St. Kilda, and she went away in 
 the morning, with five men in her, and there 
 was a heavy storm during the day, and the boat 
 was smashed on a small island perhaps it was 
 Eilean Mor and perhaps it was Gealtaire Mor ; 
 that is no matter ; but the five men saved them- 
 selves. Very well, then ; what did they do ? 
 They gathered bits of stick, and dried heather, 
 and the like, and they made them into five 
 
 is not identical with, the American clam ; and it is odd that, 
 while it is the common shell-fish of the sandy bays in the 
 western Highlands, it is quite unknown, as far as I am 
 aware, in the south of Great Britain.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 45 
 
 fires ; and when the night came they lit the 
 five fires, and their wives and the people at St. 
 Kilda saw the fires, and they knew that all the 
 men were saved. Now, does that story tell you 
 anything, or does it not tell you anything ? " 
 
 " We will light a fire to-night, Colin 1 " said 
 the younger lad, eagerly. 
 
 " We will not. What would be the use of 
 that ? They will not be looking out for us at 
 all ; for they will think that we have gone away 
 up to the shieling with bread for the girls. But 
 to-morrow the girls will be sending down ; and 
 then they will ask where we are ; and then 
 there will be a search everywhere ; and then in 
 the evening we will have a great heap of wood 
 together and the dried heather too ; and they 
 will see the fire well enough." 
 
 " Will we have to stay on the island to-night, 
 Colin ? " said Archie, looking apprehensively 
 around for his mind was stocked with the 
 mysterious legendary tales and fancies of these 
 northern solitudes. 
 
 " I do not say that, Archie," replied his com- 
 panion, grimly. " If you can swim to the main- 
 land, there will be no need to pass the night on 
 Farriskeir, But if you can, it is not I that can.
 
 46 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 It is a good swim from Farriskeir to the White 
 Sands of Uig." 
 
 And then he looked out at the one or two 
 objects floating in the water which told him 
 where the Frenchmen had sunk the boat. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " and they have sunk our oat- 
 cake, too, and our bottle of water. I know 
 where there are two springs, but the sheep tread 
 over them, and if we clean them out, it will be 
 a long time before they settle. So we will do 
 that first, Archie. You will clean out the 
 springs, and I will go to the wreckage that 
 my father and the rest of them collected, and 
 I will get two or three boards and put over the 
 springs so that the sheep may not trample over 
 them." 
 
 The first spring they went to looked un- 
 promising enough ; it was more like a patch of 
 green mire in a hollow of one of the grassy 
 plateaus. But they sought out its source, and 
 the younger lad set to work to remove the 
 muddy herbage, while his companion went away 
 for two or three planks. 
 
 Indeed, they had plenty of work cut out for 
 themselves during the day. They hunted for 
 dulse. They each got a piece of iron from off
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 47 
 
 the wreckage and dug in the soft sand for 
 eachans. And then they gathered bracken for 
 their bedding ; whereupon arose the question as 
 to where they should pass the night. 
 
 "The driest place would be the cave," said 
 Colin, " and you will see by the withered sea- 
 weed on the shore that it is many a day since 
 the sea washed any sand into the cave. There 
 is no danger of that at all. It is with a spring 
 tide and a heavy gale from the west that you 
 might have water in the cave." 
 
 " Colin," said the other, doubtfully, " I have 
 heard about wild cats being about the caves." 
 
 " There is not a wild cat on the island," said 
 the other, impatiently. " Do you think that 
 wild cats can swim from the mainland ? It is 
 all very well for an otter to swim from the 
 mainland, and if an otter comes into the cave, 
 who will be the more frightened ? It is not you 
 or I, but the otter, that will get a fright if he 
 comes in the night-time and finds us there 
 asleep. And this is what I am thinking of now, 
 Archie ; will we not take some of the planks 
 into the cave, and put them on the sand, and 
 put the bracken on them ? and that will make a 
 very good bed indeed. Oh, we will do very
 
 48 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 well. You know what they say ; when you 
 cannot get a deer of ten* be satisfied with a 
 deer of eight." 
 
 He was a shifty lad ; and when the two com- 
 panions that night, having had their supper of 
 eachans, with a good drink of clear spring water, 
 went and lay down on a comfortable bed of 
 bracken made up within the cave, they could 
 not be considered to be very badly off. 
 
 But what chiefly exercised Colin M'Calmont's 
 mind (though he said nothing about it to Archie) 
 was as to the w r ay in which his father would 
 receive the news of the loss of the boat. Would 
 he take into consideration his son's good inten- 
 tions? Or would he jump to the conclusion 
 that he had lost this valuable piece of property 
 simply through an inexcusable outburst of 
 boyish folly ? It was a serious question ; for 
 old M'Calmont was a strict disciplinarian. In 
 the meantime Colin had but little doubt about 
 himself and his companion being able to get 
 back to the mainland when once they had had 
 a great bonfire lit on the highest point of Farris- 
 keir. 
 
 The gray dawn broke. 
 
 * Of ten points referring to the antlers.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 49 
 
 "Colin," said the younger lad, who had not 
 slept much, " did you hear the strange sounds in 
 the night?" 
 
 " No, I heard no sounds at all," said his com- 
 panion drowsily. 
 
 " There were cries and strange noises ; I do 
 not wish to have another night on the island." 
 
 " It is your head that is full of nonsense ; and 
 you were hearing the sea-pyots and curlews. 
 Now I am going to sleep again." 
 
 " I cannot sleep any more," the younger lad 
 said. " Now that there is daylight I am going 
 to the spring for a drink of fresh water." 
 
 Colin M'Calmont turned himself over on his 
 bed of bracken ; and the younger lad wandered 
 out into the silence and solitude of the early 
 morning. 
 
 Very soon M'Calmont was asleep again. He 
 was not an over-imaginative person ; he did not 
 bother his head about dreams and portents ; 
 and besides, they had been very early up on 
 the previous morning. The bed of bracken was 
 soft enough, and there was no sound to break 
 the silence save the drowsy murmur of the sea 
 outside. He was fast asleep. 
 
 But suddenly he found himself wakened 
 
 E
 
 So AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 again ; and he became dimly aware that Archie 
 Livingston had a tight grip of his arm and was 
 kneeling beside him. He roused himself. He 
 found that his companion was all trembling ; 
 and that he could scarcely speak. 
 
 " What is it, Archie ? " he said. 
 
 " I I have seen one of them," the younger 
 boy gasped, and still he clung to his companion's 
 arm as if for safety. " Oh, Colin, it is a terrible 
 sight ! Quite plain down by the rocks it did 
 not move " 
 
 Colin sat up and rubbed his eyes. 
 
 " What is this now ? " said he, with a trifle of 
 impatience. 
 
 "It is no foolishness this time," the younger 
 lad said, almost entreatingly. "You will see 
 for yourself, Colin, if you have the courage to 
 go. It is like a woman. It is one of the prin- 
 cesses. But she did not see me ; or she would 
 have changed into a swan and flown away. But 
 it was a terrible, terrible sight ; I will never 
 forget it till the day I die " 
 
 " I tell you, Archie," said the other, angrily, 
 " that if you let such nonsense come into your 
 head, it is mad you will be in time. Come and 
 let me see your princesses and your wild swans
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 51 
 
 now ! And if it is a wild swan, perhaps I will 
 tickle him before he flies away." 
 
 He got up and sought out the horse-pistol, 
 which he had put in a dry place. 
 
 " Come away, now, and let me see your wild 
 swan that is like a princess." 
 
 " Oh no, I cannot ! I cannot, Colin ! " said the 
 younger lad, who was still trembling. 
 
 " But I say you must now. I will put the 
 nonsense out of your head. Do you wish to be- 
 come mad, and go through the villages like Alister, 
 the piper's son, that the children make a fool of ? " 
 
 And then he took to the ironical method. 
 
 " Do you know this now, Archie, that I never 
 heard of the ghost yet that would stand to have 
 a charge of buck-shot put into it. It will be 
 very fine now to have a shot at a ghost. 
 Come away, Archie ; and if we meet any ghost 
 or princess or anybody of that kind, it is I who 
 will go forward and speak to them and say, 
 1 Good morning.' For that is good manners to 
 a stranger ; and my father has the farming of 
 Farriskeir ; and if a stranger comes to Farriskeir, 
 it is not I that would be so unfriendly as not to 
 say ' Good morning.' " 
 
 It was with the greatest reluctance that 
 
 E 2
 
 52 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 Archie Livingston consented to go out from the 
 cave again with his companion ; and when at 
 last he undertook to show M'Calmont where he 
 had seen this strange thing he advanced with 
 stealthy step and bated breath. Of course 
 M'Calmont did not expect to see anything. It 
 was to cure the imagination of the boy that he 
 had insisted on going to the spot. And there- 
 fore he w r ent on unheeding, chiefly watching the 
 wild birds that were flying about. 
 
 At a certain eminence on one of the little 
 plateaus, Archie Livingston gripped his arm, and 
 he stopped to ask what this meant ; but at the 
 same moment he caught sight of something 
 down by the shore there that despite all his 
 determination made his face turn perfectly 
 white. He would not budge. He stood still ; 
 but he found himself incapable of speaking. 
 
 There, sure enough, down near the water's 
 edge and seated on a rock, was a figure. It 
 could not be an optical illusion ; for they were 
 both regarding the same spot. And it was the 
 figure of a woman, too bent forward, her face 
 resting on her hands and covered. And this 
 woman was not dressed as any person in the 
 Highlands dressed.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 53 
 
 He stood and stared ; trying to get the better 
 of this thumping of his heart, and summoning to 
 his aid all his declared disbelief in ghosts. Then 
 the woman down there lifted her head wearily, 
 as it seemed to him ; then she caught sight of 
 the lads, and sprang to her feet with a slight 
 cry, and advanced to them her hands stretched 
 out before her, and she was saying something. 
 Now when she made this sudden and quick 
 advance, Colin M'Calrnont, despite himself, re- 
 treated a couple of steps ; but he kept his face 
 towards her ; and then he stood.
 
 54 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " ARCHIE," said Colin, in a low voice, " it is a 
 woman. It is not any ghost. I cannot make 
 out what she says except ' peety, peety I ' 
 
 The young woman came nearer to them now 
 timidly and slowly her hands still outstretched, 
 and tears running down her face, while she 
 spoke rapidly and imploringly. This appeal, 
 which was a mute appeal so far as he was con- 
 cerned, drove any remnant of fear out of his 
 mind ; he forgot even his timid companion 
 behind ; he went forward to her, wondering how 
 he could convey to this poor young lady that 
 they wished to be very friendly to her. 
 
 He shook his head, to let her know he did not 
 understand her ; and then she, with a great deal 
 more of gladness in her face for she could not 
 but see that the lads wished to be friendly 
 began to try to explain her situation by signs. 
 And again and again she pointed to the north, 
 though there was no boat visible.
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 55 
 
 " Colin," said the younger lad, " she has been 
 going to Iceland in one of the smacks ; and the 
 smack has got wrecked, and she has been saved." 
 
 " How could that be ? Her clothes have not 
 been in the water." 
 
 " Colin, say France to her, and you will see if 
 she is French." 
 
 Colin repeated this word to her, which, to 
 tell the truth, was all of the French language 
 that either he or his companion knew ; and 
 instantly the young lady nodded eagerly, and 
 said something which, of course, they did not 
 understand. 
 
 And now that they had begun to communi- 
 cate with each other by signs it soon became 
 clear that the younger lad was much sharper 
 at that than his companion. In fact, Archie 
 Livingston became the interpreter. 
 
 " When she means ' yes/ " said he, to his 
 companion, " sometimes she says see and some- 
 times wee ; but a nod of the head is still surer. 
 And she says she will go with us to the main- 
 land ; but how am I to tell her that we have no 
 boat, and that she must wait till the evening 
 before we can light the bonfire ? " 
 
 " Well, you must get on as well as you can,
 
 $6 AN ADVENTURE IN THVLE. 
 
 Archie," said the other ; " and there is the whole 
 day for you to talk to her with your head and 
 your hands ; and in the meanwhile I am going 
 away to dig for eachans, for who knows when the 
 lady may have had anything to eat,? " 
 
 " Do you think she will eat eachans ? " said 
 Archie, doubtfully." 
 
 " It is better to eat eachans than to starve," 
 said the other. " You do not need the old man 
 of Eoss to tell you that. And if she is from 
 France, people who eat frogs need not turn up 
 their noses at eachans." 
 
 In not much more than a quarter of an hour 
 Colin M'Calmont returned, carrying in both 
 hands a sort of basket made of the fronds of the 
 bracken, and in this green nest lay a quantity of 
 eachans, like so many eggs, all washed white and 
 clean. He put them down in front of her, and 
 took out his pocket-knife and opened a few, as 
 one might open oysters ; and these he offered to 
 her. What she did was singular. She took his 
 hand and pressed it, and then smiled and shook 
 her head. 
 
 " Perhaps see is not hungry," Colin said, after 
 a second. 
 
 "Perhaps she does not like shell-fish raw,"
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 57 
 
 said the other. " Could you not roast some, 
 Colin, as the mussels are roasted ? Could we 
 _not make a small fire now, and roast some 
 eachans in the ashes ? " 
 
 " I see no difficulty about that whatever." 
 
 Nor was there. He collected some tufts of 
 withered heather, and broke up one or two 
 pieces of wood, and put underneath the pile a 
 piece of a copy of the Oban Times that he . had 
 brought with him for wadding ; and at the edge 
 of the paper placed a small pioye. The flint 
 from the horse-pistol and the back of his knife 
 did the rest, and soon they had a small fire 
 burning the precursor of the greater bonfire of 
 the evening. 
 
 When the eachans were roasted Colin carefully 
 picked out some of them from the ashes with a 
 bit of stick ; and Archie, when they were suffi- 
 ciently cool to be touched, brought them along 
 and offered them to the lady. Tears came into 
 her eyes as he did so. He thought it very 
 strange that any one should cry for no apparent 
 reason ; but he was glad to see that she took 
 one or two of the roasted shell-fish. 
 
 " I am thinking," said the elder of the lads, 
 " that she is only taking them to please us.
 
 5 8 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 If she was hungry, she would be quicker. I 
 wonder now if it is not a drink of water she 
 would rather have than anything else ? These 
 French people are very unfortunate that they 
 speak such a language." 
 
 But Archie Livingston, taking the hint, went 
 away along the shore, kicking the sea-weed 
 about until he found a large scallop shell, which 
 he washed free of sand in the nearest pool. 
 Then he went away over the grassy hillocks till 
 he came to the spring, where he filled the shell. 
 To carry anything like the full quantity back 
 was clearly impossible ; but at least there was 
 enough to let her understand that there was 
 fresh water on the island. 
 
 And how grateful the young lady seemed ! 
 She patted the boy on the head on the 
 shoulder on the hand. And she spoke to him, 
 though she knew he could not comprehend what 
 she said. 
 
 " But did you hear that, Colin ? " he said, 
 turning to his companion. " She said a great 
 deal about mercy.' She said the water was a 
 mercy. Now, that is what they say also in 
 English ; when you have your food put before 
 you the meat and the drink and when you
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 59 
 
 do not ask the blessing in Gaelic, then you have 
 to call these things on the table ' mercies.' She 
 must be very well brought up, and not a 
 heathen at all." 
 
 " But this is what I am thinking of, Archie," 
 said the other ; " that the little water you can 
 get in a scallop shell is not of much use to any 
 one. And if I could understand the lady as well 
 as you can, I would ask her to go with me to the 
 spring, and there she can have as much water as 
 she likes." 
 
 When this proposal was conveyed to her, she 
 followed her guide gladly, and when they 
 reached the spring she drank of the water freely 
 by means of this shell. And then they went 
 back to the fire, where Colin M'Calmont was 
 having his breakfast ; and the young lady made 
 signs to the younger lad that he, too, was to 
 join in that feast of roasted eachans, arid that 
 she was quite content. 
 
 " Well, this is a strange thing," said the 
 younger one ; " but when we get back to the 
 mainland we will know all about it, for my 
 father knows French as well as Latin and a great 
 many other things." 
 " But what is the use of knowing French ? "
 
 60 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 said the elder lad, who was a practical youth, 
 and better acquainted with the price of sheep. 
 
 " The use of it ? The use of it is to make 
 you a learned person, and then the people pay 
 you for teaching others." 
 
 " But your father does not teach any one 
 French, Archie." 
 
 " Well, then, the use of it is to make you not 
 so ignorant as the other common people. When 
 Sir Evan Roy comes to Glen Estera he will be 
 speaking quite freely with my father ; but the 
 other ones they have to think about their 
 English." 
 
 " I think Gaelic is as good a language as any ; 
 and also that it is more easily spoken than any 
 other." 
 
 " But of what use to you is Gaelic if you go 
 away from the Lewis ? For my part, I would 
 like to know six or seven languages." 
 
 " That would be a fine thing ! " said the other, 
 with a laugh of scorn. " To spend all your life 
 in learning the languages of other people ; and 
 then, when you had got them, it would be time 
 to die. I think one language is quite enough 
 for any one ; and Gaelic is the easiest." 
 
 When they had finished their breakfast, they
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 61 
 
 also went and had a drink of fresh water ; and 
 then they set to work to carry up to the highest 
 plateau a pile of the wood that plentifully be- 
 strewed the western shores of the island some 
 of it, indeed, having been hauled up above high- 
 water mark for transportation to the main- 
 land. The steamer had been comparatively a 
 new one, and much of this wreckage consisted of 
 internal fittings cabin doors and tables, bottle 
 ranges, benches, lockers, and what not that 
 had been wofully smashed. 
 
 " It is very hard to burn all this good wood," 
 said Colin M'Calmont ; " and much of it ma- 
 hogany, too ; but we must have a big blaze, and 
 then we are saving the lady's life." 
 
 " Yes, and our own lives too," said the 
 younger lad, sitting down for a rest, for it was 
 stiff work carrying these planks. "They will 
 not be mourning over the wood when they find 
 us alive. And by this time now, Colin, by this 
 time, do you not think some one of the girls 
 must have been sent down from the shieling for 
 bread ? " 
 
 " By this time, surely." 
 
 "Then they will know we were not at the 
 ^hieling last night, and they will be looking
 
 62 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. . 
 
 everywhere for us ; and they will be sure to go 
 and look if the boat is in the creek. And when 
 they see that the boat is not in the creek, they 
 will know how we went away ; and you may be 
 sure there will be many a sharp eye on the look- 
 out all the day and all the evening." 
 
 " Very well, now, Archie, I will tell you what 
 you will do. You will leave the rest of the 
 building of the bonfire to me, for I am not 
 easily tired ; and you will go back and talk to 
 the lady with your hands and your head as you 
 were doing. Perhaps I will not use any more of 
 the wood ; that is the thing that is grieving 
 me. I will build up three or four feet of the 
 withered heather, and then I will put the wood 
 on that. If it was only the autumn now, and 
 we could get the withered bracken, there would 
 be no need' to use all that fine wood." 
 
 " Have you a lead pencil, Colin ? " 
 
 " I have a small bit." 
 
 Archie was at this moment rummaging among 
 the splinters and boards they had brought up ; 
 and at last he lit upon a piece of wood, painted 
 white, that had been part of the door of a locker. 
 
 " Give me your pencil, Colin, and I will go 
 and tell the lady what we are waiting for."
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 63 
 
 " And if you cannot speak French, are you 
 going to be writing French ? " said the other, 
 with a laugh. 
 
 " I am not going to write at all, Colin, except 
 in the way that the ancient people wrote, on 
 the Pyramids and such places as that. And you 
 will see whether the lady will understand or 
 whether she will not understand." 
 
 " Very well, then, Archie ; go back to the 
 lady, and I will go on with the bonfire ; and 
 this is w r hat I am thinking, that I will build a 
 bonfire that will be . easily made out from the 
 land. For you know what they say : 'There 
 cannot be anything in the sky or on the earth, but 
 the Islay men's eyes can behold ; nor can anything 
 in a corner or lockfast place escape the eye of a 
 JMullman.' But what I say is that the Lewis 
 men have sharper eyes than either." 
 
 " I think every one knows that," said Archie, 
 "from Fraserburgh all the way round to 
 Greenock." 
 
 Well, when M'Calmont had finished piling up 
 this great heap of heather and driftwood, ho 
 went and rejoined his companion ; and found, to 
 his great astonishment, that the young lady 
 whose black eyes seemed to be full of gladness
 
 64 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 and kindness and gratitude appeared to under- 
 stand the whole situation of affairs. For young 
 Livingston had drawn various things, in a rude 
 sort of way, on the bit of white wood ; and she 
 seemed a clever, imaginative sort of person, for 
 she guessed eagerly what he meant to convey. 
 
 " I never saw a boat like that, Archie," said 
 the elder lad, laughing, " for you have got the 
 mast in the middle of her." 
 
 " That is no matter at all," said the other, 
 without confusion, " if the lady understands that 
 the boat will come for her after the bonfire 
 is lit." 
 
 " Then you might be doing a worse thing 
 than asking her to come and look at the bonfire, 
 now that it is complete. I can tell you, Archie, 
 that my arms will be sore to-morrow." 
 
 The boy showed her the rough sketch of a 
 bonfire that he had made on the board, and 
 then pointed to the middle of the island, him- 
 self setting out, and inviting her to accompany 
 him. She understood at once, and smilingly 
 assented. They led her by the driest ways (for 
 there was some mossy ground on these plateaus) 
 to the spot, and she seemed greatly pleased. 
 
 " She can speak a little, Archie," said the
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 65 
 
 elder one. " It is not much ; but it is a little. 
 She cannot say ' bonfire/ but she says ' bon, bon ' 
 which is a part of it. Though she speaks 
 through her nose, she understands well enough. 
 The French are not so stupid as people say." 
 
 They passed the afternoon somehow. More 
 eachans were roasted. As the evening fell the 
 southerly wind freshened, and the skies got 
 darkened over. 
 
 " I hope there is not going to be a gale," said 
 the younger lad, apprehensively. 
 
 " That is not any gale," said the other. " And 
 if there was a gale now ? We should be two or 
 three days more on the island, perhaps ; and 
 what is that ? Maybe I would have to shoot a 
 sheep ; for the finely brought up people they 
 cannot live on a handful of eachans and a bit of 
 dulse as you or I could, Archie. But that is not 
 any gale ; and the darker it grows the sooner 
 will we light the bonfire ; and the fresher the 
 wind the sooner will the people come across in 
 your father's boat. So there is nothing to have 
 a downcast face about ; and you must not show 
 a downcast face ; for the lady there she watches 
 us both, and every one knows that women are 
 easily frightened persons." 
 
 F
 
 66 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 They waited until the dusky twilight had 
 gathered over land and sea before they lit the 
 bonfire. At first there was only a little 
 crackling ; then a few thin red tongues of fire ; 
 then a growing blaze of crimson and orange 
 that made the surrounding twilight look a 
 strange, intense, livid blue. And then the fire 
 began to roar, for the breeze fanned it ; and 
 soon there was a blazing mass of flame that 
 surely would carry a message to the distant 
 shores of Lewis. 
 
 " Archie," said the elder lad, " you will keep 
 stirring the bonfire now, and I will go for 
 another armful or two of wood. We must have 
 a big blaze in case there might be a shower of 
 rain. Yes ; and if there are any French smacks 
 going by in the night, do you not think now 
 that such a blaze as that will tell them that 
 there is some one on Farriskeir ? " 
 
 He went and came back with the first load of 
 the driftwood. 
 
 " The sheep are wild with fright, Archie ; 
 they never saw anything like this on Farriskeir 
 before." 
 
 He fetched another load. 
 
 " There, now," said he, " that will make a
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 67 
 
 blaze that will be seen from Gallon Head to 
 Scarfa Island. And if they are already in your 
 father's boat, it is not I that would be surprised ; 
 and with a good breeze of wind like this they 
 will not be long in coming over." 
 
 " Colin," said the younger lad, " this is what I 
 am thinking of; when your father, or my 
 father, or perhaps Dugald M'Lean from Glen 
 Estera, conies over in the boat, and they will 
 ask about the lady there, and who she is, and 
 where she came from, what is it now that we 
 will be saying ? " 
 
 Colin laughed, in his superior wisdom. 
 
 "Then you do not remember what the old 
 man of Ross said. This is what he said, Archie : 
 ' That which you do not know, tell that to no one. 1 
 How are we to be answering anything about the 
 French young lady ? Let them ask for them- 
 selves. And indeed I wish they were here ; for 
 it is not a pleasant thing that you and I should 
 be talking and talking, and the lady there not 
 able to know what is going on, because she 
 understands nothing but that useless language. 
 And if your father can speak that language, it is 
 not anything to be proud of. He might have 
 made a better use of his time." 
 
 F 2
 
 68 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. : 
 
 The younger lad thought over this for some 
 time. Then he said, 
 
 "Well, perhaps the French is not a very 
 useful language while you are in the Lewis or 
 any other part of that country. But if you 
 wished to go to France ? If you wished to go 
 to France, Colin, you would have to learn it. 
 There now." 
 
 "If I wished to go to France ! " said the 
 other, scornfully. "And who would be so 
 foolish as that ? There is another wish that I 
 have, that has more of common-sense in it. I 
 would like to go to Fraserburgh, and see the 
 great fleet of fishing-boats. Now there would 
 be some sense in that."
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THEY formed a picturesque group there on the 
 summit of the level plateau the smaller lad 
 stirring up the smouldering portions of the 
 bonfire, the elder heaping on broken planks and 
 sticks, the young girl standing apart and some- 
 times watching them and sometimes scanning 
 the now darkened plain of the waters whence 
 she understood that help was to come ; while as 
 the masses of roaring fire waxed or waned, the 
 long black shadows moved on the greensward 
 and the rocks. 
 
 Perhaps, indeed, it was their tending of the 
 bonfire that prevented the lads from keeping a 
 sharp look-out ; at all events it was neither of 
 them that first discovered that people were 
 coming to their rescue. They had had the 
 bonfire blazing for nearly an hour, when 
 ^suddenly the young lady came to them and
 
 70 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 eagerly said something, and pointed towards the 
 sea in the direction of the mainland. 
 
 Both of the lads withdrew from the glare of 
 the bonfire and peered into the darkness with 
 eyes that were well accustomed to descry distant 
 objects. 
 
 "Well, now," said Colin M'Calmont, with 
 some mortification, " it will be a strange thing if 
 a French lady can make out what I cannot make 
 out ; but there is not anything that I can make 
 out between here and the land." 
 
 "Your eyes are blind with the fire, Colin, and 
 so are mine," said his companion. " I wish I 
 could ask her what it is." 
 
 " I see it ! I see it ! it is a light ! " exclaimed 
 M'Calmont, with involuntary eagerness. Then 
 he immediately checked himself. Throughout 
 he had spoken as if their rescue was a matter 
 of course in order to keep up his companion's 
 spirits. He was not going to betray any 
 extraordinary surprise, or delight, or thankful- 
 ness now. So he continued in a tone of cool 
 criticism, 
 
 " Well, now, Archie, that is a strange sort of 
 light. Your father has a lantern for the dark 
 nights ; but that is not a lantern at the mast-
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 71 
 
 head at all. It is very low down, and it is 
 red." 
 
 " Maybe it is a torch at the bow," suggested 
 Archie Livingston. 
 
 " And you will be making a very good guess 
 that time, Archie, for now I can see the sparks ; 
 and the sparks are dropping like sparks from a 
 squib. Oh, this is a fine breeze, to be sure ; and 
 your father's boat is as quick a sailer as any one 
 on the west coast of the Lewis. I should not 
 wonder if they could hear us now." 
 
 Herewith he gave a tremendous long, slow 
 howl, such as the shepherds use when the dogs 
 are far up on the hill. But there was no response. 
 
 " They will be too far away yet," said his 
 companion. " Indeed, Colin, it is not I that am 
 sorry we have not to stay another night on the 
 island. It was terrible the cries " 
 
 " They were the cries of the French lady, that 
 was all," said the elder lad. "To think they 
 were the cries of ghosts I Tell me this, Archie ; 
 if you can see through a ghost, and if a ghost 
 can go away into nothing, where is the throat 
 for it to make a cry with ? It is your head that 
 is full of nonsense about ghosts and things like 
 that. This is what I will do for you now,
 
 72 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 Archie ; you will catch one of your ghosts and 
 bring him to me ; and I will take the knife I 
 have for opening the mussels for bait, and I will 
 cut open the ghost for you, and then you will be 
 seeing whether he has any lungs, or a throat, or 
 a tongue that could make a noise. I tell you I 
 have not as much fear of a ghost as I have of a 
 skate. When you are cutting open a skate, 
 sometimes he will snap at your linger. I will 
 let the ghost snap at my finger if he can." 
 
 Whether this logic quite convinced Archie 
 Livingston is not of much moment ; he merely 
 said, " It is I who am glad not to have another 
 night on Farriskeir," and kept his eyes fixed 
 on the sputtering red light that was now 
 momentarily coming nearer. 
 
 What a wild torrent of Gaelic was poured 
 forth when the farmer and the schoolmaster got 
 ashore Colin and Archie helping to haul the 
 bow of the boat up on to the shingle ! Indeed, 
 amid all these questions and exclamations and 
 remonstrances the worthy schoolmaster quite 
 forgot that ordinarily he made it a strict rule to 
 speak only in English. How could English 
 which is a slow, formal, limited language have 
 got from the boys a narration of all their
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 73 
 
 adventures during these past two days? But 
 that over, Mr. Livingston recollected himself. 
 
 "Archie," said he, in his best English, "you 
 \vass saying the leddy is a French leddy !" 
 
 " Seadh ! " said Archie ; and then he too, 
 recollected himself. "Ay, she's French. And 
 no word of English at ahl." 
 
 " Kott pless me ! " said the schoolmaster, 
 looking somewhat distressed. And then he 
 turned to his friend M'Calmont, Colin's father. 
 
 " It is a temple pusiness," said he, " to speak 
 in another langwich when one is not speaking it 
 for many years and years. Heh, Duncan, gif 
 me the oat-cake and the whiskey out of the 
 locker; and be quick about it, too. The boys 
 are goot boys, and do not touch the whiskey ; 
 but if the young leddy has had nothing to eat 
 ahl the day but eachans, she will hef a drop 
 of whiskey and no harm whatefier. And 
 whiskey is a goot langwich that every one can 
 understand." 
 
 The young French lady had come down from 
 
 the plateau, and was standing apart observing 
 
 everything eagerly, but not attempting to speak. 
 
 She could see by their gestures and by their 
 
 ^occasionally looking towards her, that they were
 
 74 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 telling the story, so far as they knew it. But 
 presently Mr. Livingston, having got some 
 whiskey in a tumbler, and carrying a piece of 
 oat-cake in his other hand, went along to where 
 she was standing and made her a most gracious 
 and courteous bow. 
 
 Then he considered. He looked at her dark 
 eyes vaguely (everything was lit up by the glare 
 from the bonfire), as if he was wondering how to 
 open communication with her. Then he said, 
 slowly, 
 
 " Mademoiselle id est est oat-cake et aussi 
 whiskey tres bon pour vous " 
 
 But at the same instant he was evidently 
 startled by her uttering a slight cry partly of 
 delight, partly of entreaty ; and the next 
 moment 'she was pouring out the story of her 
 wrongs and griefs, with many piteous gestures 
 and appeals. 
 
 The schoolmaster was quite bewildered. She 
 spoke so rapidly, so pathetically, that he did not 
 understand a single word ; he could only vaguely 
 gather from her piteous intonation that she had 
 suffered injury and was begging him to be kind 
 to her. 
 
 " Kott pless me ! Kott pless me ! " he mur-
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 75 
 
 mured to himself ; " it is a terriple thing to 
 understand a stranche langwich. The poor 
 creature ! She will pay no heed to the oat-cake 
 and the whiskey." 
 
 Then to add to his confusion the farmer came 
 up. 
 
 " Well, now, Mr. Livingston, and what iss 
 the matter about the young leddy ? It is the 
 stranchest thing I ever heard of. How wass she 
 come to Farriskeir ? " 
 
 "You will see this, Dunvorgan,"* said the 
 schoolmaster, " the French langwich is not like 
 other langwiches ; when it iss spoke slow, then 
 effery one will understand it that knows it : but 
 when it iss spoke quick, then no one understands 
 it at ahl. We will get the young leddy into the 
 poat, and we will tek her back home with us ; 
 and maype on the way I will hef the story to 
 tell to you." 
 
 When the young lady understood that she was 
 to" go into the boat, she obeyed willingly ; and 
 when she had taken her seat in the stern, there 
 was handed to her a rug made of the very finest 
 sheep's wool, that Archie Livingston's mother 
 
 * The name of the farm. These territorial designations 
 *are common in Scotland.
 
 76 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 had sent, thinking that the boys might have 
 been shipwrecked and be found on the rocks 
 with wet clothes. But indeed the night was not 
 cold, and she merely let the rug lie across her 
 knees. She seemed to care about nothing but 
 having her story understood by the only one 
 among these friendly people who knew a little of 
 French. 
 
 And when at length they had got the boat 
 afloat again, and the mainsail hoisted, and when, 
 in the silence of the night, they proceeded to 
 make their way back to the mainland of Lewis, 
 the schoolmaster managed to hint to her that, if 
 she would speak slowly, and say what she had 
 said all over again, he would understand her 
 better. This intimation she seemed to compre- 
 hend very well ; for now she began very 
 patiently to speak to him ; and she instantly 
 paused when he seemed not to follow her, so 
 that he might have time to repeat the word or 
 to question her. 
 
 " Pless me, Dunvorgan," said he, at length, 
 " but this is the stranche story ; and if the two 
 lads wass not happen to be on the island, it 
 would hef been a murder, as sure as death. Poor 
 thing 1 that was to hef been marriet this ferry
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 77 
 
 clay. "We will hef the sheriff at Styornoway to 
 inquire into this." 
 
 " And what does she say, Mr. Livingston ? " 
 asked the farmer. 
 
 " Well, you see, Dunvorgan, it is not easy in 
 the dark, where there iss no light to write down 
 a word, to understand such a langwich as the 
 French langwich ; but if I do not mek a great 
 mistake, the young leddy was stolen away from 
 her friends, and put on board the smack ; and 
 little doubt hef I that the master of the smack 
 wass paid to mek away with her maype in the 
 night-time, if there wass no one seeing. She 
 iss from Morlaix, that iss on the coast of 
 Brittany ; and any one that iss well-read, and 
 acquented with geography and other things, 
 knows that the people of Brittany are ferry 
 revencheful people. But the young leddy she 
 wass making a prayer to the master of the 
 smack ; and maype he wass afrait ; or maype he 
 thought that leaving her on an island wass ass 
 goot ass anything to put her away ay ! ay ! 
 the poor young lass that wass to hef been 
 marriet this ferry day mirover ! " 
 
 " Mr. Livingston, some one will hef to answer 
 for this ; what do you think now ? "
 
 78 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 " That is what I think. And we will get at 
 the story better when we hef the sheriff from 
 Styornoway ; and the sheriffs leddy oh, she is 
 wonderful goot at ahl langwiches, except the 
 Gaelic, and she is not so goot at the Gaelic : arid 
 the sheriff will be for taking the young leddy 
 over to Styornoway, no doubt, and putting her 
 on board of the Clansman, and sending her back 
 to her friends. And the goot heart of her ! do 
 you know what she hass been offering to me ? " 
 
 " How can I know ? " 
 
 " She wass wanting me to tek her gold rings 
 and her gold watch and chain, too ; and to gif 
 them to the boys for their kindness. Do you 
 hear that, now, Colin, and you, too, Archie ? 
 But I would not hef her go away back to France, 
 and be speaking to the French people, and be 
 saying that the Highland people would tek 
 money for a kindness. I would not hef any one 
 say that." 
 
 " That iss right, Mr. Livingston ; my boy 
 Colin would tek no money for being of help to 
 any one. And if he would tek money, then it 
 iss a stick I would tek to his back, to gif him a 
 little goot manners. But it iss a stranche thing 
 that the master of the yacht, if he wass such a
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 79 
 
 scoundrel as that, wass not for stealing the 
 'young leddy's watch and other things too." 
 
 " Dunvorgan," said the schoolmaster, thought- 
 fully, " I will tell you my opinion now : that the 
 master of the smack wass afrait of what he had 
 done, and wass glad to get her away out of the 
 smack without thinking of anything else. And 
 I suppose he wass thinking that if he left her on 
 Farriskeir, no one would efFer see or hear of her 
 again that she would go mad and drown 
 herself, maype ay, ay and ferry likely that 
 would hef happened but for the two young lads 
 it wass a very stranche chance." 
 
 When they reached the shore on the other 
 side it was close on midnight ; but all the same 
 there were near a dozen people waiting for 
 them ; and great was the wonderment among 
 the folk when they heard the strange news. 
 And they were civil enough not to stare at the 
 young French lady ; but they were very kind to 
 her ; and she was taken up to Dunvorgan farm, 
 where they got some supper for her, and some 
 tea, and gave her a bedroom all to herself 
 which is a luxury in those parts. And amid all 
 this the lads found occasion to have a little talk 
 between themselves of course in Gaelic.
 
 So AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 " There is one good thing, Archie, that every 
 one is taken up with the young French lady ; 
 and my father has not said anything about the 
 loss of the boat." 
 
 " And I do not think they will say anything 
 now, Colin ; for three lives are better than a 
 boat." 
 
 " But it is hard on my father, Archie, that he 
 should have to pay for another boat." 
 
 However, as it turned out, the new boat was 
 paid for in quite an unexpected way. For when 
 the sheriff of Stornoway had learned all this 
 story, and when he had communicated with the 
 young lady's friends in Brittany, there was, of 
 course, a great commotion ; and the two lads 
 had to go over to Stornoway to give evidence 
 there before some gentlemen sent all the way 
 over from France for the purpose. 
 
 Then the young lady left with these gentle- 
 men (though it seemed as if she would never 
 cease expressing to the two lads, through the 
 sheriff, her gratitude to them), and no one ex- 
 pected to hear any more of the thing, except the 
 sheriff, who knew better. 
 
 One day Colin M'Calmont and Archie Living- 
 ston, with their respective fathers, were sum-
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. Si 
 
 moned to go over to Stornoway, to the sheriffs 
 office ; and they went. 
 
 " I have got the reward now, for you two 
 boys," said he. 
 
 " What reward ? " they both said at once. 
 
 " The reward that was offered in the French 
 papers for information about that young lady 
 when she was found to be missing." 
 
 He showed them an oblong piece of paper. 
 
 " It is five thousand francs ; do you know 
 how much that is ? " 
 
 " I do not," said Colin ; and the schoolmaster's 
 son looked doubtful. 
 
 " I suppose you can divide by twenty-five, 
 surely ? " said he, good-naturedly. 
 
 "That would come to two hundred pounds," 
 said the younger lad. 
 
 " Very well, then. That piece of paper is 
 worth two hundred pounds ; and that is one 
 hundred pounds for each of you. If I were 
 you, I would put it in the savings-bank ; and 
 when you grow up, it would be a fine thing for 
 you." 
 
 " I will not do that, sir," said Colin M'Cal- 
 mont. 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 % 
 
 o
 
 82 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 " I will buy a boat for my father as good as 
 the one that was sunk ay, and better, too. 
 And if there is anything over, that is what I 
 will put into the savings-bank." 
 
 "But wait a minute, my lad. This five 
 thousand francs is the reward offered by 
 Mademoiselle Desclin's guardians for she has 
 neither father nor mother ; but she wishes to 
 add something to show that she does not forget 
 your kindness to her. She wishes to be allowed 
 to give you a boat, sails and all complete, 
 similar to the one that was sunk ; only it is to 
 be your own. But that will do for your father 
 as well as for yourself." 
 
 " Surely, surely," said Dunvorgan. " Let the 
 lad have the whole of the hundred pounds put 
 in the bank in his own name. It will be a good 
 thing for him when he will take a farm for 
 himself." 
 
 " And you, Archie Livingston ; I am to buy 
 you a silver watch. And if I were you I would 
 sit down and write the young lady a letter in 
 very good English. And there is another thing, 
 Colin, my lad ; she wants you to have the boat 
 called the Felicite for that is her own name ; 
 and you can have no objection to that."
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 83 
 
 " Surely no, sir ; and will I write her a letter, 
 too?" 
 
 " You could not do better. And so that is all 
 settled. But wait a minute, iny lads ; I think 
 the next time you go out to frighten the 
 Frenchmen from stealing the sheep at Farris- 
 keir, you'd better leave the pistol ashore ; you 
 might get into trouble. And perhaps if the 
 Government were to send the Jackal round that 
 way once or twice about this time of the year, 
 that would give them a greater fright than any 
 horse-pistol." 
 
 So that was the end of the adventure ; and if 
 you should happen on the west coast of Lewis 
 to run against a smart little cutter called the 
 Felicite, and should wonder at the name, they 
 will tell you the story there about the two boys 
 who went to frighten the French fishermen away 
 from Farriskeir and Eua-veg. 
 
 G 2
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 JUVKNTUS MUNDL 
 
 IT was on a bright and glorious morning in July 
 that the great chieftain, Robert of the Red 
 Hand, accompanied by his kinsmen and allies, 
 put to sea in his war-galley, resolved to sweep 
 the Spanish main free of all his enemies, and 
 thereafter to hold high revel in the halls of 
 Eilean-na-Rona. At least, that was how it 
 appeared to the imagination of the great 
 chieftain himself, though the simple facts of 
 the case were a trifle less romantic. For this 
 Robert of the Red Hand, more familiarly known 
 as Rob MacMcol, or even as plain Rob, was an 
 active, stout-sinewed, black-eyed lad of seven- 
 teen, whose only mark of chieftainship appa- 
 rently was that, unlike his brothers, he wore 
 shoes and stockings ; these three relatives con-
 
 88 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 stituted his allies and kinsmen ; the so-called 
 Spanish main was in reality an arm of the sea 
 better known in the Hebrides as Loch Scrone ; 
 and the war-galley was an old, ramshackle, 
 battered, and be-tarred boat belonging generally 
 to the fishing village of Erisaig ; for, indeed, the 
 boat was so old and so battered that nobody 
 now seemed to claim any special ownership of it. 
 These four MacNicols, Robert, Neil, Nicol, 
 and Duncan, were, it must be admitted, an 
 idle and graceless set, living for the most part a 
 hand-to-mouth, amphibious, curlew-like kind of 
 life, and far more given to aimless voyages in 
 boats not belonging to them than inclined to 
 turn their hand to any honest labour. But this 
 must be said in their excuse, that no boy or lad 
 born in the village of Erisaig could by any 
 means whatsoever be brought to think of be- 
 coming anything else than a fisherman. It was 
 impossible to induce them to apprentice them- 
 selves to any ordinary trade. They would wait 
 until they were old enough to go after the 
 herring, like the others ; that was man's work ; 
 that was something like ; that was different from 
 staying ashore and twiddling one's fingers over a 
 pair of somebody else's shoes, or laboriously
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 89 
 
 shaping a block of sandstone for somebody else's 
 house. This Eob MacNicol, for example : it was 
 only for want of a greater career that he had 
 constituted himself a dreaded sea-rover, a stern 
 chieftain, etc., etc. His secret ambition his 
 great and constant and secret ambition went 
 far further than that. It was to be of man's 
 estate, broad-shouldered and heavy -bearded ; to 
 wear huge black boots up to his thighs, and a 
 blue flannel jersey ; to have a peaked cap (not 
 forgetting a brass button on each side by way of 
 smartness) ; and then to come along, in the 
 afternoon, with a yellow oilskin tied up in a 
 bundle, to the wharf where the herring fleet lay, 
 the admiration and the envy of all the miserable 
 creatures condemned to stay ashore. 
 
 In the meantime in these days of joyous 
 idleness, while as yet the cares and troubles 
 which this history will have to chronicle were 
 far away from him and his simply because they 
 were unknown Eob MacNicol, if he could not 
 be a fisherman, could be an imaginary chieftain, 
 and in that capacity he gave his orders as one 
 who knew how to make himself obeyed. As 
 soon as they had shoved the boat clear of the 
 smacks, the jib was promptly set ; the big lumps
 
 90 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 of stone that served for ballast were duly 
 shifted ; the lug-sail, as black as pitch and full 
 of holes, was hoisted, and the halyards made 
 fast ; then the sheet was hauled in by Nicol 
 MacNicol, who had been ordered to the helm ; 
 and finally the shaky old nondescript craft began 
 to creep through the blue waters of Erisaig Bay. 
 It was a lovely morning ; the light breeze from 
 the land seemed steady enough ; altogether, no- 
 thing could have been more auspicious for the 
 setting out of th6 great chieftain and his kinsmen. 
 
 But great as he is, he is not above fearing 'the 
 criticism of people ashore on his method of 
 handling a boat. Kob, from his proud position 
 at the bow, darted an angry glance at his 
 helmsman. 
 
 " Keep her full, will ye ? " he growled in an 
 undertone. " Do ye call that steering, ye 
 gomeril ? Eun her by Daft Sandy's boat ! It 
 is no better than a cowherd you are at the 
 steering." 
 
 This daft Sandy, who will turn up in our 
 history by and by, was a half-witted old man, 
 who spent his life in fishing for flounders from a 
 rotten old punt he had become possessed of. 
 He earned a sort of living that way ; and
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 91 
 
 seldom went near the shore during the day 
 except to beg for a herring or two for bait, 
 when the boats came in. He got the bait, but 
 in an ignominious way ; for the boys, stripping 
 the nets, generally saved up the " broken " 
 herring in order to pelt Daft Sandy with the 
 fragments when he came near. That is to say, 
 they indulged in this amiable sport except when 
 Kob MacMcol happened to be about. That 
 youth had been heard to remark that the first 
 he caught at this game would pay a sudden visit 
 to the dead dog-fish lying beneath the clear 
 waters of the harbour ; and it was very well 
 known among the urchins of Erisaig that the 
 eldest MacNicol had very little scruple about 
 taking the law into his own hand. When he 
 
 o 
 
 found a bigger boy thrashing a smaller one, he 
 invariably thrashed the bigger one, just to keep 
 things even, as it were ; and he had invented 
 for the better guidance of his brethren and 
 associates a series of somewhat stringent rules 
 and punishments, to which, it must be acknow- 
 ledged, he cheerfully submitted himself. At 
 the same time, he was aware that even the 
 most moral and high-principled government has 
 .occasionally to assert itself with rude physical
 
 92 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 force ; and although his hand was not particu- 
 larly red, as might have been expected, it was 
 uncommonly hard, and a cuff from it was under- 
 stood to produce the most startling lightning 
 effects in the region of the eye. 
 
 Well, as they were nearing Daft Sandy's punt, 
 Rob called out to him, 
 
 " Sandy, have ye had any luck the day ? " 
 
 The little, bent, blear-eyed old man looked up 
 from his hand-lines. 
 
 " No mich." 
 
 As the boat was gliding past Rob flung a 
 couple of herring into the punt. 
 
 " There's some bait for ye." 
 
 " Ay ; and where are ye for going, Robert ? " 
 the old man said, as they passed. " Tak' heed. 
 It's squally outside." 
 
 There was no answer ; for at this moment the 
 quick eye of the chieftain detected one of his 
 kinsmen in the commission of a heinous crime. 
 Tempted by the light and steady breeze, Nicol 
 had given way to idleness, and had made fast 
 the main-sheet, instead of holding it in his hand, 
 ready for all emergencies. This, and not un- 
 naturally, on such a squally coast, Rob MacNicol 
 had constituted an altogether unforgivable
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 93 
 
 offence ; and his first impulse was to jump down 
 to the stern of the boat and give the helmsman, 
 caught inflagrante delicto, a sounding whack on 
 the side of the head. But a graver sense of 
 justice prevailed. He summoned a court-martial. 
 Nicol, catching the eye of his brother, hastily 
 tried to undo the sheet from the pin ; but it was 
 too late. The crime had been committed ; there 
 were two witnesses, besides the judge, who was 
 also the jury. The judge and jury forthwith 
 pronounced sentence : Nicol MacNicol to forfeit 
 one penny to the fund being secretly stored up 
 for the purchase of a set of bag-pipes, or to be 
 lowered by the shoulders until his feet should 
 touch the ground in the dungeon of Eilean-na- 
 Eona Castle. He was left to decide which alter- 
 native he would accept ; and it must be said 
 that the culprit, after a minute or two's sulking, 
 perceived the justice of the sentence, and calmly 
 said he would take the dungeon. 
 
 " Ye think I'm feared ? " he said contemp- 
 tuously, to Neil and Duncan, who were grinning 
 at him. " Wha was it that gruppit the whutte- 
 ruck ? * And is there anything worse than 
 whutterucks in that hole in the castle ? " 
 * Anglice, seized hold of the weasel.
 
 94 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 " Ye'll find out, Nicol, my man," said his 
 cousin Neil. "There's warlocks. And they'll 
 grup ye by the legs." 
 
 " I'll save the penny anyway," said Nicol, to 
 whom a penny was a thing of known and sub- 
 stantial value. 
 
 Now if any proof had been needed that Rob 
 MacNicol's stringent sailing rules were a matter 
 of stern necessity, it was quickly forthcoming. 
 On this beautiful summer morning, with the 
 sea smooth and blue around them, they were 
 sailing along as pleasantly as might be. But 
 they had scarcely got through the narrow 
 channel leading from the harbour, and were 
 just emerging into Lot^i Scrone, when a squall 
 of wind came tearing along and hit the boat 
 so that the lug-sail was almost flattened on to 
 the water. 
 
 " Run her up ! Haul in your sheet 1 " yelled 
 Rob to the frightened steersman. 
 
 Well it was at such a moment that the main 
 sheet was free to be hauled in ; for as the bow 
 was put up to the wind, the varying squall 
 caught her on the other beam and threw her 
 over, so that she shipped a bucket or two of 
 water. Had the water got into the belly of the
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 95 
 
 sail the weight would have dragged her down ; 
 but Eob instantly got rid of this danger by 
 springing to the halyards, and, the moment the 
 crank craft strove to right herself, bringing sail 
 and yard rattling down into the boat. By this 
 time, so fierce was the squall, a pretty heavy sea 
 had sprung up, and altogether things looked 
 very ugly. When they allowed the jib to fill, 
 even that was enough to send the boat over, and 
 she had already a dangerous lot of water surging 
 among the ballast ; while, when they were 
 forced to put her head to the wind, she drifted 
 with a heavily running tide, and right to leeward 
 was a long reef of rocks that would inevitably 
 crunch her into matchwood. The younger 
 brothers said not a word, but looked at Kob, 
 ready to obey his slightest gesture, and Eob 
 stood by the mast calling out from time to time 
 to Nicol. 
 
 Matters grew worse. It was no use trying 
 merely to keep her head to the wind, for she 
 was drifting rapidly, and the first shock on the 
 rocks would send her and her stone ballast to 
 the bottom. On the other hand, there was no 
 open sea-room to let her run away before the 
 with a straining jib. At all hazards it was
 
 96 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 necessary to fight her clear of that Ion g ledge of 
 rock, even if the wind threatened to tear the 
 mast out of the boat. So Kob himself sprang 
 down to the stern and took the tiller. 
 
 " Duncan, Neil, stand by the halyards now I 
 When I sing out to ye, hoist her be ready 
 now ! " 
 
 He had his eye on the rocks all this time. 
 On the highest of them was a tall iron perch, 
 painted scarlet a warning to sailors ; but from 
 that point long shelves and spurs ran out, the 
 yellow surface of barnacles growing greener and 
 greener as they went deeper into the sea. Al- 
 ready Kob MacNicol could make out some of 
 these submarine reefs even through the turbu- 
 lent water. 
 
 "Now then, boys; up with her! Quick 
 now!" 
 
 It was a venturesome business ; but there was 
 no help for it. The moment the sail w r as half 
 hoisted, a gust caught the boat and drove her 
 over until her gunwale again scooped up a lot of 
 the hissing water. But as she righted, staggering 
 all the while, it was clear there was some good 
 way on her, and Eob, having had recourse to 
 desperate remedies, was determined to give her
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 97 
 
 enough ol the wind. Down ao-ain went the 
 
 o O 
 
 gunwale to the hissing water ; and the strain on 
 the rotten sheets of the old boat was so great 
 that it was a wonder everything did not go by 
 the board. But now there was a joyous hissing 
 of foam at the bow ; she was forging ahead ; if 
 she could only stand the pressure, in a minute or 
 so she would be clear of the rocks. Rob still 
 kept his eye on these treacherous shelves of 
 yellow-green. Then he sang out, 
 
 " Down with her, boys ! " 
 
 The black lug-sail rattled into the boat ; there 
 was nothing left now but the straining jib. 
 
 " Slack the lee jib-sheet ! " 
 
 The next minute he had put his helm gently 
 up ; the bow of the boat fell away from the wind ; 
 and presently just as they had time to see the 
 green depths of the rocks they had succeeded in 
 weathering the war-galley of the great chief- 
 tain was spinning away down Loch Scrone, 
 racing with the racing waves, the wind tearing 
 and hauling at her bellied-out jib. 
 
 " Hurrah, my lads ! we'll soon be at Eilean- 
 na-Rona now, eh ? " Rob shouted. 
 
 He did not seem much put about by that 
 narrow escape. Squalls were common on this 
 
 H
 
 98 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 coast, and it was the business of one aspiring to 
 be a fisherman to take things as they came. 
 
 " Come, set to work and bale out the boat, 
 you bare-shanks lot ! How d'ye think she can 
 sail with the half of Loch Scrone inside her ? " 
 
 Thus admonished, the younger brothers were 
 soon among the stone ballast baling out the 
 surging water with such rude utensils as they 
 could find. But the squall was of no great 
 duration. The wind moderated in force ; then 
 it woke up again, and brought a smart shower 
 of rain across ; then, as if by magic, the heavens 
 suddenly cleared, a burst of hot sunlight fell 
 around them, the sea grew intensely blue, the 
 far hills on the other side of Loch Scrone began 
 to shine green in the yellow light, and all that 
 was left to tell of the squall that had very 
 nearly put an end to the great chieftain and all 
 his clan was a quickly-running sea, now all 
 sparkling in diamonds. 
 
 The danger being thus over, Eob once more 
 delivered the tiller into the charge of his brother 
 Nicol, and went forward to his post of observa- 
 tion at the bow. About the only bit of the 
 imaginative voyage on which he had started 
 that had a solid basis in fact was the existence
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 99 
 
 of an old castle or rather the ruins of what had 
 once been a castle on the island called Eilean- 
 na-Kona ; and now that they were racing down 
 Loch Scrone, that small island was drawing 
 nearer, and already they could make out the 
 dark tower and ivied walls of the ancient keep. 
 Far darker than the tower itself were the legends 
 connected w r ith this stronghold of former times ; 
 but for these the brothers MacNicol, who had 
 seized on the place as their own, cared little. It 
 is true, they had some dread of the dungeon, 
 and none of them would have liked to visit 
 Eilean-na-Eona at night ; but in the daytime 
 the old ruins formed an excellent retreat, where 
 they could play such high jinks or hold such 
 courtly tournaments as they chose. 
 
 They ran the boat into a little creek of the 
 uninhabited island, driving her right up on the 
 beach for safety's sake, there being no anchor. 
 Then Neil carrying a small basket the while 
 and Duncan a coil of rope they passed through 
 a w r ood of young larches and spruce, the air 
 smelling strongly of bracken and meadow-sweet 
 after the rain ; and finally they reached the 
 rocky eminence on which stood the ruins. There 
 jvas no way up, for tourists did not come that 
 
 H 2
 
 loo THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 
 
 way, and the owner of the island, who was a 
 farmer on; the mainland, had but little care for 
 antiquities. However, the lads found no diffi- 
 culty. They swarmed up the face of the crags 
 like so many squirrels, and found themselves on 
 a grassy plateau which had once formed the 
 outer courtyard of the keep. Around this 
 plateau were fragments of what in former days 
 had been a massive wall, but most of the 
 crumbling masonry was hidden under ivy and 
 weeds. In front of them, again, rose the great 
 tower with its arched and gloomy entrance, and 
 its one or two small windows, in the clefts of 
 which bunches of wallflower were growing. The 
 only sign of life about the old castle or the 
 uninhabited island was given by two or three 
 jackdaws that wheeled about overhead, and 
 cawed harshly in resentment of this intrusion. 
 
 The great chieftain, Robert of the Red Hand, 
 having now assembled his kinsmen and allies in 
 the ancient halls of Eilean-na-Rona, proceeded to 
 speak as follows : 
 
 " Nicol, my man, ye have been tried and con- 
 victed." 
 
 " I ken that," was Nicol's philosophical reply. 
 
 " Ye had no business to make fast the sheet
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 101 
 
 of the lug-sail ; ye might have drooned the lot 
 of us." 
 
 Nicol nodded. He had sinned, and was pre- 
 pared to suffer. 
 
 " Have ye aught to say against your being- 
 lowered into the dungeon ? " 
 
 " I have not. Do you think I'm feared ? " 
 said Nicol scornfully. 
 
 " Ye will not pay the penny ? " 
 
 " Deil a penny will I pay ! " 
 
 " Nicol," said his cousin Neil, with some touch 
 of compassion for indeed he knew that the 
 dungeon was a gruesome place " Nicol, maybe 
 you have not got a penny ? " 
 
 " Well, I have not," said Nicol. 
 
 "Will I lend ye one?" 
 
 " What would be the use of that ? " said 
 Nicol ; " I would have to pay it back. Do you 
 think I'm feared ? I tell you I am not feared." 
 
 So there was nothing for it but to get the 
 rope and pass it under Nicol's arms, fastening 
 it securely at his back. Thus bound, the culprit 
 was marched through the archway of the old 
 tower into an apartment that was but feebly lit 
 by the reflected glare coming from without. 
 The other boys, as well as Nicol, walked very
 
 102 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 carefully over the dank-smelling earth, until 
 they came to what seemed to be a large hole 
 dug out of the ground, and black as midnight. 
 This was the dungeon into which Nicol was to 
 be lowered, that he might expiate his offence 
 before the high revels began.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 103 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LAST OF THE GAMES. 
 
 BUT before proceeding to relate how the captive 
 clansman was lowered into the dungeon of the 
 castle on Eilean-na-Rona, it will be necessary to 
 explain why he did not choose to purchase his 
 liberty by the payment of the sum of one penny. 
 Pennies among the boys of Erisaig, and more 
 especially among the MacNicols, were an ex- 
 ceedingly scarce commodity. The father of the 
 three MacNicols, who was also burdened with 
 the charge of their orphan cousin Neil, was a 
 hand on board the steamer Glenara Castle, and 
 very seldom came ashore. He had but small 
 wages ; and it was all he could do, in the 
 bringing up of the boys, to pay a certain sum 
 for their lodging and schooling, leaving them 
 pretty much to cadge for themselves as regarded 
 food and clothes. Their food, mostly porridge, 
 potatoes, and fish of their own catching, cost
 
 104 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 little ; and they did not spend much money on 
 clothes, especially in summer time, when no 
 Erisaig boy except Eob MacNicol, who was a 
 distinguished person would submit to the en- 
 cumbrance of shoes and stockings. Nevertheless, 
 for various purposes, money was necessary to 
 them ; and this they obtained by going down 
 in the morning, when the herring boats came in, 
 and helping the men to strip the nets. The 
 men were generally tired out and sleepy with 
 their long night's work ; and if . they had had 
 anything like a good haul, they were glad to 
 give these lads twopence or threepence apiece to 
 undertake the labour of lifting the nets, yard by 
 yard, out of the hold, shaking out the silvery 
 fish and dexterously extricating those that had 
 got more firmly enmeshed. Moreover, it was a 
 work the boys delighted in. If it was not the 
 rose, it was near the rose. If it was not for 
 them as yet to sail away in the afternoon, 
 watched by all the village, at least they could 
 take this small part in the great herring trade. 
 And when they had shaken out the last of the 
 nets, and received their wages, they stepped 
 ashore with a certain pride ; and generally they 
 put both hands in their pockets as a real fisher-
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 105 
 
 man would do ; and perhaps they would walk 
 along the quays with a slight lurch, as if they, 
 also, had been cramped up all the long night 
 through, and felt somewhat unused to walking 
 on first getting back to land. 
 
 Now these MacNicol boys, again imitating the 
 well-to-do among the fishermen, had each an 
 account at the savings bank ; and the pence 
 they got were carefully hoarded up. For if 
 they wanted a new Glengarry cap, or if they 
 wanted to buy a book telling them of all kinds 
 of tremendous adventures at sea, or if it became 
 necessary to purchase some more fishing-hooks 
 at the grocer's shop, it was their own small store 
 of wealth they had to look to ; and so it came 
 about that a penny was something to be 
 seriously considered. When Rob MacNicol had 
 to impose a fine of one penny, he knew it was a 
 dire punishment; and if there was any alter- 
 native the fine was rarely paid. The fund, 
 therefore, which he had started for the purchase 
 of an old and disused set of bagpipes, and which 
 was to be made up of those fines, did not grow 
 apace. Of course, being a chieftain, he must 
 needs have a piper. The revels in the halls of 
 Eilean-na-Rona lacked half their impressiveness
 
 io6 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 through the want of the pipes. No doubt Rob 
 had a sort of suspicion that, if ever they should 
 grow rich enough to buy the old set of bagpipes, 
 he would have to play them himself ; but even 
 the most ignorant person can perceive that to 
 be one's own piper must at least be better than 
 to have no piper at all. 
 
 And now the captive Nicol MacNicol was led 
 to the edge of this black pit in the floor of the 
 lower hall of the castle. On several occasions 
 one or other of the boys had been lowered, for 
 slighter offences, into this dungeon ; but no one 
 had ever been condemned to go to the bottom 
 if bottom there were. But Nicol did not 
 flinch. He was satisfied of the justice of his 
 sentence. He was aware he deserved the 
 punishment. Above all, he was determined to 
 save that penny. 
 
 At the same time, when the other three had 
 poised themselves so as to lower the rope 
 gradually, and when he found himself descending 
 into that black hole, he looked rather nervously 
 below him. Of course he could see nothing. 
 But there was a vague tradition that this 
 dungeon was haunted by ghosts, vampires, war- 
 locks, and other unholy things ; and there was o
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 107 
 
 chill, strange, earthy odour arising from it ; and 
 the walls that he scraped against were slimy and 
 damp. He uttered no word, however ; and those 
 above kept slowly paying out the coil of rope. 
 
 Rob became somewhat concerned. 
 
 " It'll be no easy job to pull him back," he 
 said in a whisper. 
 
 " It's as deep as the dungeon they put Donald 
 Gorm Mor into," said his cousin Neil. 
 
 " Maybe there's no bottom at all," said 
 Duncan, rather awe-stricken. 
 
 Suddenly a fearful thing happened. There 
 was a cry from below a quick cry of alarm ; 
 and at the same moment they were startled by 
 a wild whizzing and whirring around them, as if 
 a legion of fiends had rushed out of the pit. 
 With a shriek of fright Duncan sprang back 
 from the edge of the dungeon ; and that with 
 such force that he knocked over his two com- 
 panions. Moreover, in falling, they let go the 
 rope ; when they rose again they looked round 
 in the twilight, but could find no trace of it. It 
 had slipped over the edge. And there was no 
 sound from below. 
 
 Rob was the first to regain his senses. He 
 rushed to the edge of the hole and stooped over.
 
 io8 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 " Nicol, are ye there ? " 
 
 His heart jumped within him when he heard 
 his brother's voice. 
 
 " Yes, I am ; and the rope too. How am I to 
 get up ? " 
 
 Kob turned quickly. 
 
 " Duncan, down to the boat with ye ! Loosen 
 the lug-sail halyards, and bring them up quick, 
 quick ! " 
 
 Duncan was off like a young roe. He slid 
 down the crags ; he dashed through the larch- 
 wood ; he jumped into the boat on the beach. 
 Presently he was making his way as quickly 
 back again, the halyards coiled round his arm so 
 as not to prevent his climbing. 
 
 " Nicol ! " shouted Rob. 
 
 "Ay?" 
 
 " I am lowering the halyards to ye. Fasten 
 them to the end of the rope." 
 
 " I canna see them." 
 
 " Grope all round till ye come to them." 
 
 And so, in process of time, the end of the 
 rope was hauled up, and thereafter to the 
 great relief of every one and to his own, no 
 doubt, Nicol appeared alive and well, though 
 somewhat anxious to get away from the
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 109 
 
 neighbourhood of that dungeon. He went 
 immediately out into the warm summer air, 
 followed by the others. 
 
 " Man, what a fright I got ! " he said at last, 
 having recovered his speech. 
 
 " Ay, and so did we," Neil admitted. 
 
 " What was't ? " said he, timidly ; as if almost 
 afraid to put his own fears and suspicions into 
 words. 
 
 " I dinna ken," Neil said, looking rather 
 frightened. 
 
 " Ye dinna ken ! " Eob MacNicol said, with a 
 scornful laugh. "Ye ought to ken, then. It 
 was nothing but a lot of bats ; and Duncan 
 yelled as if he had seen twenty warlocks ; and 
 knocked us over, so that we lost the rope. 
 Come ! boys, begin your games now ; the 
 steamer will be in early the day." 
 
 Well, it seemed easier to dismiss superstitious 
 fears out here in the sunlight. Perhaps it had 
 been only bats after all. Warlocks did not 
 whirr in the air at least, they were understood 
 not to do so. Witches were supposed to reserve 
 their aerial performances for the night-time. 
 Perhaps it was only bats, as Eob asserted. 
 Indeed, it would be safer especially in Eob's
 
 no THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 presence to accept his explanation of the 
 mystery. At the same time the younger boys 
 occasionally darted a stealthy glance backward 
 to that gloomy apartment that had so suddenly 
 become alive with unknown things. 
 
 Then the games began. Rob had come to 
 the conclusion that a wise chieftain should foster 
 a love for national sports and pastimes ; and to 
 that end he had invented a system of marks, the 
 winning of a large number of which entitled the 
 holder to pecuniary or other reward. As for 
 himself, his part was that of spectator and 
 arbiter ; he handicapped the competitors ; he 
 declared the prizes. On this occasion he 
 ensconced himself in a niche of the ruins, where 
 he was out of the glare of the sun and gracefully 
 surrounded by masses of ivy ; while his relatives 
 hauled out to the middle of the green plateau 
 several trunks of fir-trees, of various sizes, that 
 had been carefully lopped and pruned for the 
 purpose .of "tossing the caber." "Well, they 
 " tossed the caber," they " put the stone," they 
 had wrestling-matches and other trials of 
 strength, Rob the while surveying the scene 
 with a critical eye, and reckoning up the proper 
 number of marks. But now some milder
 
 THE FO UR MA CN1COLS. 1 1 1 
 
 diversions followed. Three or four planks, 
 rudely nailed together, and forming a piece of 
 rough flooring about two or three yards square, 
 were hauled out from an archway, placed on 
 the grass, and a piece- of tarpaulin thrown over 
 it. Then two of the boys took out their Jew's- 
 harps alas ! alas I that was the only musical 
 instrument within their reach, until the coveted 
 bagpipes should be purchased and gaily struck 
 up with " Green grow the rashes, 1 " as a 
 preliminary flourish. What was this now ? 
 What but a performance of the famous sword- 
 dance by that renowned and valiant henchman, 
 Nicol MacNicol of Erisaig, in the kingdom of 
 Scotland ! Nicol, failing a couple of broad- 
 swords or four dirks, had got two pieces of rusty 
 old iron and placed them cross-wise on the 
 extemporised floor. With what skill and 
 nimbleness he proceeded to execute this sword- 
 dance, which is no doubt the survival of some 
 ancient mystic rite, with what elegance he 
 pointed his toes and held his arms akimbo ; 
 with what amazing dexterity, in all the evolu- 
 tions of the dance, he avoided touching the bits 
 of iron ; nay, with what intrepidity, at the most 
 critical moment, he held his arms aloft and
 
 H2 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 victoriously snapped his thumbs, it wants a 
 Homeric chronicler to tell. It needs only be 
 said here that, after it, Neil's " Highland Fling " 
 was a comparative failure, though he, better 
 than most, could give that outflung quiver of 
 the foot which few can properly acquire, and 
 without which the dancer of the " Highland 
 Fling " might just as well go home and go to 
 bed. The great chieftain, having regarded these 
 and other performances with an observant eye, 
 and having awarded so many marks to this 
 one and to that, declared the games over, and 
 invited the competitors one and all to a royal 
 banquet. 
 
 It was a good deal more wholesome than most 
 banquets, for it consisted of a scone and a glass 
 of fresh milk apiece butter being as yet beyond 
 the means of the MacNicols. And it was a 
 good deal more sensible than most banquets, for 
 there was no speech-making after it. But there 
 was some interesting conversation. 
 
 " Nicol, what did ye find in the dungeon ? " 
 Duncan said. 
 
 " Oh, man, it was a gruesome place," said 
 Nicol, who did not want to make too little of 
 the perils he had encountered.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 113 
 
 "What did ye see?" 
 
 " How could I see anything ? But I felt 
 plenty on the way down ; and I'm sure it's fu' o' 
 creeping things and beasts. And then when I 
 was near the foot, I put my hand on something 
 leevin', and it flew up and hit me ; and in a 
 meenit the whole place was alive. Man, what a 
 noise it was ! And then down came the rope, 
 and I fell ; and I got sich a clour on the head ! " 
 
 " Nothing but bats I " said Rob, contemp- 
 tuously. 
 
 " I think it was houlets," * said Duncan, 
 confidently ; "for there was one in the wood 
 when I was gaun through, and I nearly ran my 
 head against him. He was sitting in one of the 
 larches man, he made a noise ! " 
 
 " Ye've got your heads filled with nothing 
 but witches and warlocks the day ! " said Rob, 
 impatiently, as he rose to his feet. " Come, and 
 get the things into the basket. We maun be 
 back in Erisaig before the Glenara comes in." 
 
 Very soon thereafter the small party made 
 
 their way down again to the shore, and entered 
 
 the war-galley of the chieftain, the halyards 
 
 being restored to their proper use. There were 
 
 * Anglice, owls. 
 
 I
 
 H4 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 no more signs of any squall ; but the light steady 
 breeze was contrary ; and as Eobert of the Red 
 Hand was rather anxious to get back before the 
 steamer should arrive, and as he prided himself 
 on his steering, he himself took the tiller, his 
 cousin Neil being posted as look-out forward. 
 
 It was a tedious business this beating up 
 against the contrary wind ; but there was 
 nothing the MacNicols delighted in so much as 
 in sailing, and they had grown to be expert in 
 handling a boat. And it needed all their skill 
 to get anything out of these repeated tacks with 
 this old craft, that had a sneaking sort of 
 fashion of falling away to leeward. However, 
 they had the constant excitement of putting 
 about ; and the day was fine ; and they were 
 greatly refreshed after their arduous pastimes 
 by that banquet of scones and milk. Nor did 
 they know that this was to be the last day of 
 their careless boyish idleness ; that never again 
 would the great chieftain, heedless of what the 
 morrow might bring forth, hold these high 
 frolics in the halls of Eilean-na-Rona. 
 
 Patience and perseverance will beat even 
 contrary w T inds ; and at last, after one long tack 
 stretching almost to the other side of Loch
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 115 
 
 Scrone, they put about and managed tq, make 
 the entrance to the harbour, just weathering the 
 rocks that had nearly destroyed them on their 
 setting out. But here another difficulty waited 
 them. Under the shelter of the low-lying hills, 
 the harbour was in a dead calm. No sooner 
 had they passed the rocks than they found 
 themselves on water as smooth as glass, and 
 there were no oars in the boat. For this 
 oversight Rob MacNicol was not responsible ; the 
 fact beins; that oars were valuable in Erisaig, and 
 
 O o 3 
 
 not easily to be borrowed, whereas this old boat 
 was at anybody's disposal. There was nothing 
 for it but to sit and wait for a puff of wind. 
 
 Suddenly they heard a sound the distant 
 throbbing of the Glenaras paddles. Eob grew 
 anxious. This old boat was right in the fairway 
 of the steamer ; and the question was whether, 
 in coming round the point, she would see them 
 in time to slow. 
 
 " I wish we were out of here," said he. 
 
 As a last resource, he threw the tiller into the 
 boat, took up the helm, and tried to use this as 
 a sort of paddle. But this was scarcely of any 
 avail ; and they could hear, though they could 
 not see, that the steamer was almost at the point. 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 The next moment she appeared ; and it 
 seemed to them in their fright that she was 
 almost upon them towering away over them 
 with her gigantic bulk. They heard the scream 
 of the steam-whistle, and the sharp " ping ! 
 ping ! " of the indicator, as the captain tried to 
 have the engines reversed. 
 
 It was too late. The way on the steamer 
 carried her on, even when her paddles were 
 stopped ; and the next second her bows had 
 gone clean into the old tarred boat, cutting her 
 almost in two and heeling her over. 
 
 She sank at once. Then the passengers of the 
 steamer rushed to the side to see what should 
 become of the lads struggling in the water ; the 
 mate threw overboard to them a couple of life- 
 buoys ; and the captain shouted out to have a 
 boat lowered. There was a great confusion. 
 
 Meanwhile, all this had been witnessed by the 
 father of the MacNicols, who had stood for a 
 second or two as if paralysed. Then a sort of 
 spasm of action seized him, and, apparently not 
 knowing what he was about, he threw open the 
 gangway abaft the paddle-box and sprang into 
 the sea.
 
 THE FOUR MACMICOLS. 117 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALTERED CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 EVEN with this big steamer coming right down 
 on them, Rob MacNicol did not lose his head. 
 He knew that his two brothers and his cousin 
 Neil could swim like water-rats ; and as for 
 himself, though he would have given a good 
 deal to get rid of his boots, he did not fear being 
 able to get ashore. 
 
 But there was no time to think. 
 
 " Jump clear of the boat ! " he shouted to his 
 companions. 
 
 The next second came the dreadful crash. 
 The frail old boat seemed to be pressed onwards 
 and downwards, as if the steamer had run right 
 over her. Then Rob found himself in the water, 
 and very deep in the water too. The next 
 thing he perceived was a great greenish-white 
 thing over his head ; and as he knew that that 
 was the hull of the steamer, he struck away
 
 1 1 8 THE FO UR MA CNICOLS. 
 
 from it with all the strength at his disposal. 
 He remembered afterwards experiencing a sort 
 of hatred of that shining green thing, and 
 thinking it looked hideous and dangerous, like 
 a shark. 
 
 However, the next moment he rose to the 
 surface, blew the water out of his mouth, and 
 looked around. There was a life-buoy within a 
 yard of him, and the people on the steamer were 
 calling to him to lay hold of it ; but he had 
 never touched one of these things, and he pre- 
 ferred to trust to himself, heavy as he felt his 
 boots to be. It was the others he was looking 
 after. Neil, he perceived, was already off for 
 the shore, swimming hand over hand, as if a 
 sword-fish were after him. Nicol was being 
 hauled up the side of the steamer at the end of 
 a rope, just as he had been hauled up from 
 the Eilean-na-Eona dungeon ; and his brother 
 Duncan had seized hold of the helm that had 
 been cast loose when the boat went down. 
 Satisfied that every one was safe, Eob himself 
 struck out for the side of the steamer, and was 
 speedily hauled on board, presently finding 
 himself on deck with his two dripping com- 
 panions.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 119 
 
 The strange thing was that his father was 
 nowhere to be seen, and even the captain looked 
 round and asked where John MacNicol was. 
 At the same moment a woman, all trembling, 
 came forward and asked the mate if they had 
 got the man out. 
 
 " What man ? " said he. 
 
 She said she had been standing by the paddle- 
 box, and that one of the sailors, the moment the 
 accident had occurred, had opened the gangway 
 and jumped into the water, no doubt with the 
 intention of rescuing the boys. She had not 
 seen him come up again, for just as he went 
 down the steamer backed. 
 
 At this news there was some little consterna- 
 tion. The mate called aloud for John MacNicol ; 
 there was no answer. He ran to the other side 
 of the steamer ; nothing was visible on the 
 smooth water. They searched everywhere, and 
 the boat that had been lowered was pulled 
 about, but the search was in vain. The 
 woman's story was the only explanation of this 
 strange disappearance ; but the sailors suspected 
 more than they dared to suggest to the be- 
 wildered lads. They suspected that old Mac- 
 Nicol had dropped into the water just before the
 
 120 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 paddles had made their first backward revolu- 
 tion, and that in coming to the surface he had 
 been struck by one of the floats. They said 
 nothing of this, however ; and as the search 
 proved to be quite useless, the Glenara steamed 
 slowly onward to the quay. 
 
 It was not until the next afternoon that they 
 recovered the body of old MacNicol ; and from 
 certain appearances on the corpse, it was clear 
 that he had been struck down by the paddles in 
 his effort to reach and help his sons. That was 
 a sad evening for Kob MacNicol. It was his 
 first introduction to the cruel facts of life. And 
 amid his sorrow for the loss of one who, in a 
 sort of rough and reticent way, had been very 
 kind and even affectionate to him, Eob was 
 vaguely aware that on himself now rested the 
 responsibility for the upbringing of his two 
 brothers and his cousin. He sat up late that 
 night, long after the others were asleep, thinking 
 of what he should do. In the midst of this 
 silence the door was quietly opened, and Daft 
 Sandy came into the small room. 
 
 " What do ye want at this time o' night ? " 
 said Rob angrily, for he had been startled. 
 
 The old, bent, half-witted jnaii looked
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 121 
 
 cautiously at the bed, in which Neil lay fast 
 asleep. 
 
 " Whisht, Rob, my man," he said in a whisper; 
 " I waited till every one in Erisaig was asleep. 
 Ay, ay ! it's a bad day this day for you. And 
 what are ye going to do now, Rob ? Yell be 
 taking to the fishing '\ " 
 
 11 Oh, ay ; I'll be taking to the fishing ! " said 
 Rob bitterly, for he had been having his dreams 
 also, and had turned from them with a sigh. 
 " Of course I'll be taking to the fishing ! And 
 maybe ye'll tell me where I am to get 40 to 
 buy a boat, and where I am to get 30 to buy 
 nets ? Maybe ye'll tell me that, Sandy ? " 
 
 " The bank " 
 
 " What does the bank ken about me ? They 
 would as soon think of throwing the money into 
 Loch Scrone." 
 
 "But ye ken, Rob, Coll Macdougall would 
 give ye a share in his boat for 12." 
 
 " Twelve pounds ! Man, ye're just daft, 
 Sandy. Where am I to get 12?" 
 
 " Well, well, Rob," said the old man coming 
 nearer, and speaking still more mysteriously, 
 " listen to what I tell ye. Some day or other 
 ye'll be taking to the fishing ; and when that
 
 122 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 day comes I will put something in your way. 
 Ay, ay ; the fishermen about Erisaig dinna know 
 everything ; come to me, Kob, my man, and I'll 
 tell ye something about the herring. Ye are a 
 good lad, Kob ; many's the herring I've got from 
 ye when I wouldna go near the shore for they 
 mischievous bairns ; and when once ye have a 
 boat and nets o' your own I will tell ye some- 
 thing. Daft Sandy is no so daft, maybe. Have 
 ye ony tobacco, Kob ? " 
 
 Kob said he had no tobacco ; and making sure 
 
 o 
 
 that Daft Sandy had come to him with a pack 
 of nonsense merely as an excuse to borrow 
 money for tobacco, he bundled him out of the 
 house and went to bed. 
 
 Kob was anxious that his brothers and cousin, 
 and himself, should present a respectable appear- 
 ance at the funeral ; and in these humble pre- 
 parations nearly all their small savings were 
 swallowed up. The funeral expenses were paid 
 by the Steamboat Company. Then after the 
 funeral, the few people who were present de- 
 parted to their own homes, no doubt imagining 
 that the MacNicol boys would be able to live as 
 hitherto they had lived that is, anyhow. 
 
 But there was a kindly man called Jamieson,
 
 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 123 
 
 who kept the grocery shop, and he called Rob in 
 as the boys passed home. 
 
 " Rob," said he, " ye maun be doing some- 
 thing now. There's a cousin of mine has a 
 whiskey shop in the Saltmarket in Glasgow, and 
 I could get ye a place there." 
 
 Rob's very gorge rose at the notion of his 
 having to serve in a whiskey shop in Glasgow. 
 That would be to abandon all the proud 
 ambitions of his life. Nevertheless, he had 
 been thinking seriously about the duty he owed 
 to these lads, his companions, who were now 
 dependent on him. So he swallowed his pride 
 and said, 
 
 " How much would he give me 1 " 
 
 " I think I could get him to give ye four 
 shillings a week. That would keep ye very 
 well." 
 
 "Keep me?" said Rob. "Ay, but what's to 
 become o' Duncan and Neil and Nicol ? " 
 
 " They must shift for themselves," the grocer 
 answered. 
 
 " That winna do," said Rob, and he left the 
 shop. 
 
 He overtook his companions and asked them 
 to go along to some rocks overlooking the liar-
 
 124 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 bour. They sat down there the harbour below 
 them with all its picturesque boats, and masses 
 of drying nets, and what not. 
 
 " Neil," said Rob to his cousin, " we'll have to 
 think about things now. There will be no more 
 Eilean-na-Rona for us. We have just about as 
 much left as will pay the lodgings this week, 
 and Nicol must go three nights a week to the 
 night school. What we get for stripping the 
 nets '11 no do now." 
 
 " It will not," said Neil. 
 
 " Mr. Jamieson was offering me a place in 
 Glasgow, but it is not very good, and I think we 
 will do better if we keep together. Neil," said 
 he, " if we had only a net, do ye not think we 
 could trawl for cuddies ? " * 
 
 And again he said, " Neil, do ye not think we 
 could make a net for ourselves out of the old 
 rags lying at the shed ? " 
 
 And again he said, " Do ye think that Peter, 
 the tailor, would lend us his old boat for a 
 shilling a week ? " 
 
 It was clear that Rob had been carefully 
 
 * "Cuddies" is the familiar name in those parts for 
 young saithe. " Trawling," again, means there the use of 
 jin ordinary seine,
 
 THE FOUR MACN1COLS. 125 
 
 considering the details of this scheme of co- 
 operation. And it was eagerly welcomed, not 
 only by Neil, but also by the brothers Duncan 
 and Nicol, who had been frightened by the 
 thought of Eob going away to Glasgow. The 
 youngest of all, Nicol, boldly declared that he 
 could mend nets as well as any man in Erisaig. 
 
 No sooner was the scheme thoroughly dis- 
 cussed, than it was determined, under Rob's 
 direction, to set to work at once. The woman 
 who kept the lodgings and cooked their food for 
 them had intimated to them that they need be 
 in no hurry to pay her for a week or two until 
 they should find some employment ; but they 
 had need of money, or the equivalent of money, 
 in other directions. Might not old Peter, who 
 was a grumbling and ill-tempered person, insist 
 on being paid in advance ? Then, before they 
 could begin to make a net out of the torn and 
 rejected pieces lying about the shed, they must 
 needs have a ball of twine. So Rob bade his 
 brothers and cousin go away and get their rude 
 fishing-rods and betake themselves to the rocks 
 at the mouth of the harbour, and see what fish 
 they could get for him during the afternoon. 
 
 Meanwhile he himself went along to the shed
 
 126 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 which was used as a sort of storage-house by 
 some of the fishermen ; and here he found lying 
 about plenty of pieces of net that had been cast 
 aside in the process of mending. This business 
 of mending the nets is the last straw on the 
 
 o 
 
 back of the tired-out fisherman. When he has 
 met with an accident to his nets during the 
 night, when he has fouled on some rocks in 
 dragging them in, for example, it is a desperately 
 fatiguing affair to set to work to mend them 
 when he gets ashore, dead beat with the labours 
 of the morning. The fishermen, for what reason 
 I do not know, will not entrust this work to 
 their wives ; they will rather, after having been 
 out all night, keep at it themselves, though they 
 drop off to sleep every few minutes. It is not 
 to be wondered at, then, that often, instead of 
 trying to laboriously mend holes here or there, 
 they should cut out a large piece of torn net 
 bodily and tack on a fresh piece. The conse- 
 quence is, that in a place like Erisaig there is 
 generally plenty of netting to be got for the 
 asking, which is a good thing for gardeners who 
 want to protect currant bushes from the black- 
 birds, and who will take the trouble to patch the 
 pieces together.
 
 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 127 
 
 Rob was allowed to pick out a large number 
 of pieces that lie thought might serve his 
 purpose ; and these he carried off home. But 
 then came the question of floats and sinkers. 
 Sufficient pieces of cork to form the floats might 
 in time be got about the beach ; but the sinkers 
 had all been removed from the cast-away 
 netting. In this extremity, Rob bethought of 
 rigging up a couple of guy-poles, as the salmon- 
 fishers call them, one for each end of the small 
 seine he had in view ; so that these guy-poles, 
 with a lump of lead at the lower end, would 
 keep the net vertical while it was being dragged 
 through the water. All this took up the best 
 part of the afternoon ; for he had to cadge about 
 before he could get a couple of stout poles ; and 
 he had to bargain with the blacksmith for a lump 
 of lead. Then he w r alked along to the point 
 where the other MacNicols were busy fishing. 
 
 They had been lucky with their lines and bait. 
 On the rocks beside them lay two or three small 
 codling, a large flounder, two good-sized lythe, 
 and nearly a dozen saithe. Rob got hold of 
 these ; washed them clean to make them look 
 fresh and smart; put a string through their 
 gills, and marched off with them to the village.
 
 128 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 He felt no shame in trying to sell fish : was it 
 not the whole trade of the village ? He walked 
 into the grocer's shop. 
 
 " Will ye buy some fish ? " said he, " they're 
 fresh." 
 
 The grocer looked at them. 
 
 " What do you want ? " 
 
 " A ball of twine." 
 
 " Let me tell ye this, Rob," said the grocer, 
 severely, " that a lad in your place should be 
 thinking of something else than fleein' a 
 dragon."* 
 
 " I dinna want to flee any dragon," said Rob, 
 " I want to mend a net." 
 
 " Oh, that is quite different," said the grocer ; 
 and then he added, with a good-natured laugh, 
 " Are ye going to be a fisherman, Rob ? " 
 
 " I will see," Rob said. 
 
 So he had his ball of twine and a very large 
 one it was. Off he set to his companions. 
 
 " Come away, boys, I have other work for ye. 
 Now, Nicol, my man, ye'll show us what ye can 
 do in the mending of nets. Ye havena been 
 telling lies ? " 
 
 Well, it took them several days of very iiard 
 * " Flecin' a dragon " flying a kite.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 129 
 
 and constant work before they rigged up some- 
 thing resembling a small seine ; and then Eob 
 affixed his guy-poles ; and they went to the 
 grocer and got from him a lot of old rope on the 
 promise to give him a few fresh fish whenever 
 they happened to have a good haul. Then Kob 
 proceeded to his fateful interview with Peter 
 the tailor. 
 
 Peter was a sour-visaged, gray-headed old man, 
 who wore horn-rimmed spectacles. He was sit- 
 ting cross-legged on his bench when Eob entered. 
 
 " Peter, will ye lend me your boat ? " 
 
 " I will not." 
 
 " Why will ye no lend me the boat ? " 
 
 " Do I want it sunk, as ye sunk that boat the 
 other day ? Go away with ye. Ye're an idle 
 lot, you MacNicols. Ye'll be drooned some 
 day." 
 
 " We want it for the fishing, Peter," said 
 Kob, who took no notice of the tailor's ill- 
 temper. " I'll give ye a shilling a week for the 
 loan o't." 
 
 " A shilling a week ! " said Peter with a laugh. 
 " A shilling a week ! Where's your shilling 1 " 
 
 " There," said Kob, putting it plump down on 
 the bench.
 
 130 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 The tailor looked at the shilling ; took it up, 
 bit it, and put it in his pocket. 
 
 " Very well/' said he, " but mind, if yc sink 
 my boat, ye'll have three pounds to pay." 
 
 Eob went back eager and joyous. Forthwith, 
 a thorough inspection of the boat was set about 
 by the lads in conjunction ; they tested the 
 oars ; they tested the thole-pins ; they had a 
 new piece of cork put into the bottom. For 
 that evening, when it grew a little more towards 
 dusk, they would make their first cast with their 
 net. 
 
 Yes ; and that evening, when it had quite 
 turned to dusk, the people of Erisaig were 
 startled with a new proclamation. It was Neil 
 MacNicol, standing in front of the cottages, and 
 boldly calling forth these words : 
 
 " Is THERE ANY ONE WANTING CUDDIES ? 
 THERE ARE CUDDIES TO BE SOLD AT THE WEST 
 SLIP FOR A SIXPENCE A HUNDRED ! "
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 131 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FURTHER ENDEAVOUR. 
 
 THAT was indeed an anxious time when the four 
 MacNicols proceeded to try the net on which 
 they had spent so much forethought and labour. 
 They had no great expectation of catching fish 
 this evening ; their object was rather to try 
 whether the ropes would hold, whether the floats 
 would be sufficient, and whether Rob's guy-poles 
 would keep the net vertical. So they -got into 
 the tailor's boat, and rowed away round the 
 point to a sandy bay where they had nothing 
 to fear from rocks on this their first experiment. 
 It was, as has been mentioned in the previous 
 chapter, nearly dusk an excellent time for 
 catching saithe, if saithe were about. The net 
 had been carefully placed in the stern of the 
 boat, so that it would run out easily, the rope 
 Attached to the guy-pole neatly coiled on the 
 top. Rob was very silent as his two brothers 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 pulled away at the long oars. He knew what 
 depended on this trial. They had just enough 
 money left to settle with their landlady on the 
 following evening ; and Nicol's school-fees had 
 to be paid in advance. 
 
 They rowed quietly into this little bay, which, 
 though of a sandy bottom, was pretty deep. 
 Rob had resolved to take the whole responsi- 
 bility of the experiment on himself. He landed 
 his brothers and his cousin, giving the latter the 
 end of the rope attached to the guy-pole ; then 
 he quietly pulled away again from the shore. 
 
 When the length of the rope was exhausted, 
 he himself took the guy-pole and gently dropped 
 it over, to prevent splashing ; and as he did so 
 the net began to pay out. He pulled slowly, 
 just to see how the thing would work ; and it 
 seemed to work very well. The net went out 
 freely, and apparently sank properly ; from the 
 top of the guy -pole to the stern of the boat you 
 could see nothing but the line of the floats on 
 the smooth water. But the net was a small 
 one : soon it would be exhausted : so Eob bec;an 
 
 o 
 
 to pull round towards the shore again. At the 
 same time Neil, who had had his instructions, 
 began to haul in his end of the net gently, so
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 133 
 
 that by-and-by, when Eob had run the boat on 
 the beach, and jumped out with his rope in his 
 hand, the line of floats began to form a semi- 
 circle that was gradually narrowing and coming 
 nearer the shore. 
 
 It was a moment of great excitement, and not 
 a word was spoken. For although this was 
 ostensibly only a trial to see how the net would 
 work, each lad in his secret heart was wondering 
 whether there might not be a haul of fish 
 captured from the mysterious deep ; and not one 
 of them, not Rob himself, could tell whether 
 this very considerable weight they were gradu- 
 ally pulling in was the weight of the net merely, 
 or the weight of fish, or the weight of sea-weed. 
 
 The semicircle of the floats came nearer and 
 nearer, all eyes striving to pierce the clear 
 water. 
 
 " I hope the rope'll no break," said Rob, 
 anxiously, for the weight was great. 
 
 " And it's only sea-weed ! " said Duncan, in a 
 tone of great disappointment. 
 
 But Rob's eye had been caught by some 
 unusual appearance in the water. It seemed 
 troubled somehow ; and more especially near the 
 line of floats.
 
 134 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 " Is it ? " said he ; and lie hastily bade Duncan 
 take the rope and haul it gently in. He himself 
 began to take up handfuls of small stones, and 
 fling them into the sea close by the two guy- 
 poles, so that the fish should be frightened back 
 into the net. And as the semicircle grew still 
 smaller, it was very obvious that, though there 
 might be sea-weed in the net, it was not all sea- 
 weed. By this time the guy-poles had been 
 got ashore ; they were now hauling at the net 
 itself. 
 
 " Quicker now, boys ! " Rob called out. " Man 
 alive, look at that ! " 
 
 All the space of water now enclosed by the 
 net w r as seen to be in a state of commotion ; the 
 net itself was being violently shaken ; here and 
 there a fish leapt into the air. 
 
 " Steady, boys ! Don't jerk, or ye'll tear the 
 net to bits ! " Rob called out in great excitement. 
 
 For behold ! when they had hauled this great 
 weight up on the shore with a final swoop, there 
 was something there that almost bewildered 
 them a living mass of fish floundering about in 
 the wet sea-weed some springing into the air 
 others flopping out on to the sand many help- 
 lessly entangled in the meshes. It was a won-
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 135 
 
 derful sight ; but their astonishment and delight 
 had to give place to action. 
 
 " Run for the boat, Nicol ! There's more 
 where they came from ! " Rob shouted. 
 
 Nicol rushed along to the boat ; shoved her 
 out ; pulled her along to where his companions 
 were ; and backed her, stern in. They had no 
 bucket ; they had to fling the fish into the 
 bottom of the boat. But this business of strip- 
 ping the nets shaking out the sea-weed and 
 freeing the enmeshed fish was familiar to 
 them ; and they all worked with a will. There 
 was neither a dog-fish nor a conger in all the 
 haul, so they had no fears for their hands. In 
 less than a quarter of an hour the net was back 
 in the boat, properly arranged, and Rob ready to 
 start again at a place farther along the beach. 
 
 They \vere soon full of eagerness. In fact, 
 they were too eager ; and this time they hauled 
 in with such might and main that, just as the 
 guy-poles were nearing the shore, the rope 
 attached to one of them broke. But Rob in- 
 stantly jumped into the water, seized the pole 
 itself, and hauled it out with him. Here, also, 
 they had a considerable take of fish ; but there 
 was a heavy weight of sea-weed besides ; and
 
 136 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 one or two rents showed that they had pulled 
 the net over rocks. So ^they went back to 
 their former ground ; and so successful were 
 they, and so eagerly did they work, that when 
 the coming darkness warned them to return to 
 Erisaig, they had the stern of the boat nearly 
 full of very fairly-sized saithe. 
 
 Neil regarded this wonderful treasure of the 
 deep as he laboured away at his oar. 
 
 " Man, Eob, who could have expected such a 
 lot ? And what will ye do with them now ? 
 Will ye send them to Glasgow by the Glenara ? 
 I think Mr. M'Aulay would lend us a box or 
 two. Or will ye clean them and dry them, and 
 sell them from a barrow ? " 
 
 " We canna start two or three trades all at 
 once," said Rob, after a minute or two. " I 
 think we'll sell them straight off, if the folk are 
 no in bed. Ye'll gang and see, Neil ; and I'll 
 count the fish at the slip." 
 
 " And what will I say ye will take for them ? " 
 
 " I think I would ask a sixpence a hundred," 
 said Rob, slowly ; for he had been considering 
 that question for the last ten minutes. 
 
 At length they got into the slip ; and Neil at 
 once proceeded to inform the inhabitants of
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 137 
 
 Erisaig, who were still lounging about in the 
 dusk, that for sixpence a hundred they could 
 have fine fresh " cuddies." It might be thought 
 that in a place like Erisaig, which was one of the 
 headquarters of the herring-trade, it would be 
 difficult to sell fish of any description. But the 
 fact was that the herring were generally con- 
 tracted for by the agents of the salesmen, and 
 shipped directly for Glasgow, so that they were 
 but rarely retailed in Erisaig itself ; moreover, 
 people accustomed to herring their whole life 
 through preferred variety a freshly-caught 
 mackerel, or flounder, or w T hat not. Perhaps, 
 however, it was more curiosity than anything 
 else that brought the neighbours along to the 
 west slip, to see what the MacNicols had been 
 about. 
 
 Well, there was a good deal of laughing and 
 jeering, especially on the part of the men (these 
 were idlers : the fishermen were all gone away 
 in the boats) ; but the women, who had to pro- 
 vide for their households, knew when they had a 
 cheap bargain ; and the sale of the "cuddies" 
 proceeded briskly. Indeed, when the people had 
 gone away again, and the four lads were by 
 themselves on the quay, there was not a single
 
 138 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 " cuddy " left except a dozen that Rob had put 
 into a can of water, to be given to the grocer in 
 the morning as part payment for the loan of the 
 ropes. 
 
 " What do you make it altogether ? " said Neil 
 to Rob, who was counting the money. 
 
 " Three shillings and ninepence." 
 
 " Three shillings and ninepence ! Man, that's 
 a lot. Will ye put it in the savings bank ? " 
 
 " No, I will not," said Rob. " I'm no satisfied 
 with the net, Neil. We must have better ropes 
 all the way round ; and whatever money we can 
 spare we maun spend on the net. Man, think of 
 this now : if we were to fall in with a big haul of 
 herring or Johnnie-Dories, and lose them through 
 the breaking of the net, I think ye would jist sit 
 down and greet." 
 
 It was wise counsel, as events showed. For 
 one afternoon, some ten days afterwards, they 
 set out as usual. They had been having varying 
 success ; but they had earned more than enough 
 to pay their landlady, the tailor, and the school- 
 master ; and every farthing beyond these neces- 
 sary expenses they had spent on the net. They 
 had replaced all the rotten pieces with sound 
 twine ; they had got new ropes ; they had
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 139 
 
 deepened it, moreover, and added some more 
 sinkers to help the guy-poles. Well, on this 
 afternoon, Duncan and Nicol, being the two 
 youngest, were as usual pulling away to one of 
 the small quiet bays, and Rob was idly looking 
 around him, when he saw something on the sur- 
 face of the sea at some distance off that excited 
 a sudden interest. It was what the fishermen 
 call " broken water " a seething produced by a 
 shoal of fish. 
 
 "Look, look, Neil!" he cried. "It's either 
 mackerel or herring ; will we try for them ? " 
 
 The greatest excitement at once prevailed on 
 board. The younger brothers pulled their 
 hardest to make for that rough patch on the 
 water. Rob undid the rope from the guy-pole, 
 and got this last ready to drop overboard. He 
 knew very well that they ought to have had two 
 boats to execute this manoeuvre ; but was there 
 not a chance for them if they were to row hard, 
 in a circle, and pick up the other end of the net 
 when they came to it ? So Neil took a third 
 oar : two rowing one side and one the other was 
 just what they wanted. 
 
 They came nearer and nearer that strange 
 hissing of the water. They kept rather away
 
 140 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 from it : and Eob quietly dropped the guy-pole 
 over, paying out the net rapidly, so that it 
 should not be dragged after the boat. Then the 
 three lads pulled hard, and in a circle, so that 
 at last they were sending the bow of the boat 
 straight towards the floating guy-pole. The 
 other guy-pole was near the stern of the boat, 
 the rope made fast to one of the thwarts. In a 
 few minutes Rob had caught this first guy-pole : 
 they were now possessed of the two ends of the 
 net. 
 
 But the water had grown suddenly quiet. 
 Had the fish dived and escaped them ? There 
 was not the motion of a fin anywhere : and yet 
 the net seemed heavy to haul. 
 
 " Rob," said Neil, almost in a whisper, " we've 
 got them I " 
 
 " We havena got them," was the reply ; " but 
 they're in the net. Man, I wonder if it'll stand 
 out." 
 
 Then it was that the diligent patching and 
 the strong tackle told. The question was not 
 with regard to the strength of the net, it was 
 rather with regard to the strength of the 
 younger lads ; for they had succeeded in en- 
 closing a goodly portion of a large shoal of
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 141 
 
 mackerel, and the weight seemed more than 
 they could get into the boat. But even the 
 strength of the younger ones seemed to grow 
 into the strength of giants when they saw 
 through the clear water a great moving mass 
 like quicksilver. And then the wild excitement 
 of hauling in ; the difficulty of it ; the danger of. 
 the fish escaping ; the warning cries of Rob ; 
 the clatter made by the mackerel ; the possibility 
 of swamping the boat altogether, as all the four 
 were straining their utmost at one side. Indeed, 
 by an awkward tilt at one moment some 
 hundred or two of the mackerel were seen to 
 glide away ; but perhaps that rendered it all the 
 more practicable to get into the boat what 
 remained. When that heaving, sparkling, 
 jerking mass of quicksilver at last was captured 
 shining all through the brown meshes of the 
 net the younger lads sat down quite exhausted, 
 wet through, and happy. 
 
 " Man, Rob, what do you think of that ? " said 
 Neil in amazement. 
 
 " What do I think ? " said Rob ; " I think 
 that if we could get two or three more hauls like 
 that I would soon buy a share in Coll Mac- 
 Dougall's boat and go after the herring."
 
 142 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 They had no more thought that afternoon of 
 '' cuddy "-fishing after this famous take. Eob 
 and Neil the younger ones having had their 
 share rowed back to Erisaig ; then Rob left the 
 boat at the slip, and walked up to the office of 
 the fish-salesman. 
 
 . " What will ye give me for mackerel ? " he 
 said. 
 
 The salesman laughed at him, thinking he had 
 caught a few with rods and Hies. 
 
 " I'm no buying mackerel," said he ; " no by 
 the half-dozen." 
 
 " I've half a boat load," said Rob. 
 
 The salesman glanced towards the slip, and 
 saw the tailor's boat pretty low in the water. 
 
 " Is that mackerel ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is mackerel." 
 
 " Where were you buying them ? " 
 
 " I was not buying them anywhere. I caught 
 them myself my brothers and me." 
 
 " I do not believe you." 
 
 " I cannot help that, then," said Rob. " But 
 where had I the money to buy mackerel from 
 any one ? " 
 
 The salesman glanced at the boat again. 
 
 " I'll go down to the slip with you."
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 143 
 
 So he and Rob together walked down to the 
 slip, and the salesman had a look at the 
 mackerel. Apparently he had arrived at the 
 conclusion that, after all, Eob was not likely to 
 have bought a cargo of mackerel as a commercial 
 speculation. 
 
 " Well, I will buy the mackerel from you," he 
 said. " I will give you half-a-crown the hundred 
 for them." 
 
 " Half-a-crown ! " said Rob. "I will take 
 three-and-sixpence the hundred for them." 
 
 " I will not give it to you. But I will give 
 you three shillings the hundred, and a good 
 price, too." 
 
 " Very well, then," said Rob. 
 
 So the MacNicols got altogether 2 : 8s. for 
 that load of mackerel : and out of that Rob 
 spent the eight shillings on still further im- 
 proving the net ; the 2 going into the savings 
 bank. It is to be imagined that after this they 
 kept a pretty sharp look-out for " broken 
 water ; " but of course they could not epect to 
 run across a shoal of mackerel every day. 
 
 However, as time went on, with bad luck and 
 with good, and by dint of hard and constant 
 work whatever the luck was, the sum in the
 
 144 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 savings bank slowly increased ; and at last Rob 
 announced to his companions that they had 
 saved enough to enable him to purchase a share 
 in Coll MacDougall's boat. Neil and Duncan 
 and Nicol were sorely disinclined to part with 
 Rob ; but yet they saw clearly enough that he 
 was getting too old to remain at the cuddy- 
 fishing, and they knew they could now work 
 that line of business quite well by themselves. 
 What Rob said was this : 
 
 " You see it is a great chance for all of us 
 that I should get a share in the boat ; for what 
 I make at the herring-fishing will go into the 
 bank along with what you make at the trawling 
 by the shore. And who knows, if we all work 
 hard enough, who knows but we may have a 
 herring-skiff all to ourselves some day ? And 
 that would be a fine thing to have a herring-skiff 
 to ourselves, and our own nets ; and all that we 
 earned our own, and not in debt to any one 
 whatever." 
 
 Of course that was a dream of the future ; for 
 a herring-skiff costs a considerable sum of money, 
 and so do nets. But in the meantime they 
 were all agreed that what Rob counselled was 
 wise ; and a share in Coll MacDougall's boat was
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 145 
 
 accordingly purchased, after a great deal of 
 bargaining. 
 
 A proud lad was Rob MacNicol the afternoon 
 lie came along to the wharf to take his place in 
 the boat that was now partly his own. His 
 brothers and cousin were there to see him 
 (envious a little, perhaps ; but proud also, for 
 part of their money had gone to buy the share). 
 He had likewise purchased second-hand a huge 
 pair of boots that were as soft and pliable as 
 grease could make them ; and he carried a 
 brand-new yellow oilskin in his hand that 
 crackled as he walked. Neil, Duncan, and Nicol 
 watched him throw his oilskin into the boat, and 
 go forward to the bow, and take his place there 
 at the oar ; and they knew very well that if 
 there was any one who could pull a huge oar 
 better than Rob MacNicol, it was not in Erisaig 
 that that person was to be found. Then the big 
 herring-skiff passed away out to the point in the 
 red glow of the evening ; and Rob had achieved 
 the first great ambition of his life.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE HIGH ROAD. 
 
 THAT was not a very good year for the herring- 
 fishing on this part of the coast : but at all 
 events Rob MacNicol learned all the lore of the 
 fishermen, and grew as skilled as any of them in 
 guessing at the whereabouts of the herring ; 
 while at the end of the season he had more than 
 replaced the 12 he had used of the common 
 fund. Then he returned to the tailor's boat, 
 and worked with his brothers and cousin. He 
 was proud to know that he had a share in a 
 fishing-skiff; but he was not too proud to turn 
 his hand to anything else that might help. 
 
 These MacNicol boys had giown to be 
 greatly respected in Erisaig. The audacity of 
 four " wastrel laddies " setting up to be fisher- 
 men on their own account had at first amused 
 the neighbours ; but their success and their 
 conduct generally, soon raised them above
 
 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 147 
 
 ridicule ; and the women especially were warm 
 in their commendation. They saw how Rob 
 gradually improved the appearance of his 
 brothers and cousin. All of them had boots and 
 stockings now. Not only that, but they had 
 white shirts and jackets of blue cloth to go to 
 church with on Sunday ; and each of them put 
 twopence in the collection-plate just as if they 
 had all been sons of a rich shopkeeper. More- 
 over, they \vere setting an example to the other 
 boys about. Four of these, indeed, combined to 
 start a cuddy-fishing business similar to that of 
 Rob's. Neil was rather angry ; but Rob was 
 not afraid of any competition. He asked the 
 new boys to come and see how he had rigged up 
 the guy-poles. He said, 1 there were plenty of 
 fish in the sea ; and the market was large 
 enough. But when the new boys asked him to 
 lend them some money to buy ropes he distinctly 
 declined. He had got on without borrowing 
 himself. 
 
 It was a long and dreary winter ; but Nicol 
 had nearly finished with his schooling ; and the 
 geine-net had been largely added to ; and every 
 inch of it overhauled. Then the cuddy-fishing 
 began again ; and soon Rob, who was now 
 
 L 2
 
 M8 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 nearly eighteen, and remarkably firm-set for his 
 age, would be away after the herring. 
 
 One day, as Eob was going along the main 
 thoroughfare of Erisaig, the banker called him 
 into his office. 
 
 "Eob," said he, "have ye seen the skiff* at 
 the building-yard ? " 
 
 " Ay," said Rob rather wistfully, for many a 
 time he had stood and looked at the beautiful 
 lines of the new craft. " She's a splendid boat." 
 
 "And ye've seen the new drift-net in the 
 shed ? " 
 
 "Ay, I have that." 
 
 "Well, ye see, Rob," continued Mr. Bailie, 
 regarding; him with a ffood-natured look : "I 
 
 o o o 
 
 had the boat built and the net bought as a kind 
 of speculation ; and I was thinking of getting 
 a crew through from Tarbert. They say the 
 herring are beginning to come about some of the 
 western lochs. Now I have been hearing a good 
 deal about you, Rob, from the neighbours. They 
 say that you, and your brothers and cousin, are 
 sober and diligent lads ; and that you are good 
 
 * Though the herring-skiffs are so-called, they are com- 
 paratively large and powerful boats, and will stand a heavy 
 sea.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 149 
 
 seamen, and careful. Then you have been a 
 while at the herring-fishing yourself. Now, do 
 you think you could manage that new boat ? " 
 
 " Me ! " said Rob, with his eyes staring and 
 his face aflame. 
 
 "I go by what the neighbours say, Rob. 
 They say ye are a prudent lad, not over 
 venturesome ; and I think I could trust my 
 property to ye. What say ye ? " 
 
 In his excitement at the notion of being made 
 master of such a beautiful craft, Rob forgot the 
 respect he ought to have shown in addressing so 
 great a person as the banker. He blurted out 
 
 " Man, I would just like to try ! " 
 
 " I will pay ye a certain sum per week while 
 the fishing lasts," continued Mr. Bailie, " and ye 
 will hire what crew ye think fit. Likewise I 
 will give ye a percentage on the takes. Will 
 that do?" 
 
 Rob was quite bewildered. All he could say 
 was 
 
 " I am obliged to ye, sir. Will ye wait for a 
 minute till I see Neil ? " 
 
 k And very soon the wild rumour ran through 
 Erisaisj that no other than Rob MacNicol had 
 
 O 
 
 been appointed master of the new skiff, the
 
 150 7 HE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 Mary of Argyle, and that lie had taken his 
 brothers and cousin as his crew. Some of the 
 women shook their heads ; and said it was a 
 shame to let such mere lads go to the herring- 
 fishing for some night or other they would be 
 drowned ; but the men, who knew something of 
 Bob's seamanship, had no fear at all ; and their 
 only doubt was about the younger lads being up 
 to the heavy work of hauling in the nets in the 
 morning. 
 
 But their youth was a fault that would mend 
 week by week. In the meantime Eob, having 
 sold out his share in MacDougall's boat, bought 
 jerseys and black boots and yellow oil-skins for 
 his companions ; so that the new crew, if they 
 were rather slightly built, looked smart enough 
 as they went down to the slip to overhaul the 
 Mary of Argyle. 
 
 With what a pride they regarded the long 
 and shapely lines of her the yellow beams 
 shining with varnish ; the tall mast at the bow, 
 with its stout cordage ; the brand-new stove, 
 that was to boil their tea for them in the long 
 watches of the night ; the magnificent oars ; the 
 new sheets and sails everything spick and 
 span. And this great mass of ruddy netting
 
 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 151 
 
 lying in the shed, with its perfect floats and 
 accurate sinkers this was not like the make- 
 shift that had captured the cuddies. 
 
 Then on the morning that the Mary of AT gyle 
 put to sea on her trial trip, her owner was on 
 board ; but he merely sat on a thwart. It was 
 Eob who was at the tiller ; Rob wanted to try 
 the boat ; the owner wanted to observe the 
 crew. And first of all she sailed lightly out of 
 the harbour, with the wind on her beam ; then 
 outside, the breeze being fresher, they let her 
 away down Loch Scrone, with the brilliant new 
 lug-sail bellying out ; then they brought her 
 round, and fought her up against the stiff wind 
 Kob's brief words of command being obeyed 
 with the rapidity of lightning. 
 
 " Well, what do ye think of her ? " said Mr. 
 Bailie to his young skipper. 
 
 Rob's face was aglow with pride. 
 
 " I think she's like a race-horse ! " he said. 
 " I think she would lick any boat in Erisaig 
 Bay." 
 
 " But it is not to run races I have handed her 
 over to ye. You must be careful, Rob ; and 
 run back if there's any squally weather about. 
 I'll no be vexed if you're over cautious. For yc
 
 152 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 
 
 know if anything was to happen to one of they 
 lads, the people would say I had done wrong in 
 lippening * a boat to such a young crew." 
 
 " Well, sir," said Eob, boldly, " ye have seen 
 them work the boat. Do they look like lads 
 who do not know what sailing a boat is ? " 
 
 Mr. Bailie laughed, and said no more. 
 
 Then came the afternoon on which they were 
 to set out for the first time after the herring. 
 All Erisaig came out to see ; and Eob was a 
 proud lad as he stepped on board (with the lazy 
 indifference of the trained fisherman very well 
 imitated) and took his seat as stroke oar. The 
 afternoon was lovely ; there was not a breath of 
 wind ; the setting sun shone over the bay ; and 
 the Mary of Argyle went away across the 
 shining waters with the long white oars dipping 
 with the precision of clock-work. It was not 
 until they were at the mouth of the harbour 
 that something occurred which seemed likely to 
 turn this brave setting-out into ridicule. 
 
 This was Daft Sandy, who rowed his punt 
 right across the path of the Mary of Argyle, 
 and, as she came up, called to Rob. 
 
 " What is it ye want ? " Rob called to him. 
 * Lippening trusting.
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 153 
 
 " I want to come on board, Rob," the old man 
 said, as he now rowed his punt up to the stern 
 of the skiff. 
 
 " I have no tobacco, and I have no whisky," 
 Rob said impatiently. " There'll be no tobacco 
 or whisky on board this boat so long as I have 
 anything to do with her ; so ye needna come for 
 that, Sandy." 
 
 " It's no for that," said Daft Sandy, as, with 
 the painter of his boat in one hand, he gripped 
 the stern of the skiff with the other. 
 
 Now Rob was angry. Many of the Erisaig 
 people would still be watching their setting-out ; 
 and was it to be supposed that they had taken 
 this doited old body as one of the crew ? But 
 then Daft Sandy was at this moment clambering 
 into the boat ; and Rob could not get up and 
 fight with an old man, who would probably 
 tumble into the water. 
 
 " Rob," said he, in a whisper, as he fastened 
 the painter of his punt, " I promised I would tell 
 ye something. I'll show ye how to find the 
 herring." 
 
 " You ! " said Rob derisively. 
 
 " Ay, me, Rob, I'll make a rich man of you. 
 I will tell you something about the herring that
 
 1 5 1 THE fO UR MA CNICOLS. 
 
 not any one in Erisaig knows that not any one 
 in Scotland knows." 
 
 "Why ha vena ye made a rich man of 
 yourself, Sandy ? " said Eob, with more good- 
 nature. 
 
 The half-witted creature did not seem to see 
 the point of this remark. 
 
 " Ay, ay," he said, " many is the time I was 
 thinking of telling this one or telling that one ; 
 but when I would go near it was always ' Daft 
 Sandy ! ' and ' Daft Sandy ! ' and there was 
 always the pel tin' wi' the broken herring 
 except from you, Rob. And I was saying to 
 myself that when Rob MacNicol has a boat of 
 his own, then I will show him how to find the 
 herring, and no one will know but himself." 
 
 By this time the MacNicols had taken to 
 their oars again ; and they had pulled outside 
 the harbour, the old punt still astern. Then 
 Rob had to speak plainly. 
 
 " Look here, Sandy, I will not put ye ashore 
 by force. But I canna have your punt at the 
 stern of the boat. It'll be in the way of the 
 nets." 
 
 But the old man was more eager than ever. 
 If they would only pull into the bay hard by,
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 155 
 
 lie would anchor the punt and leave it. He 
 begged Rob to take him for that night's fishing. 
 H3 had discovered a sure sign of the presence of 
 herring unknown to any of the fishermen. 
 What was the phosphorescence in the sea ? the 
 nights were too clear for that. What w T as the 
 mere breaking of the water ? a moving shoal 
 that might escape. But this sign that the old 
 man had discovered went to show the presence 
 of large masses of the fish, stationary and deep : 
 it was the appearance on the surface of the 
 water of small air-bubbles. He was sure of it. 
 He had w r atched it. It was a secret worth a 
 bankful of money. And again, he besought Rob 
 to let him accompany him ; Rob had stopped 
 the lads when they were throwing herring at 
 him ; Rob alone should have the benefit of this 
 valuable discovery of his. 
 
 Rob MacNicol was doubtful ; for he had never 
 heard of this thing before ; but he could not 
 resist the importunities of the old half-witted 
 creature. They pulled in and anchored the 
 punt ; then they set forth again, rowing slowly 
 as the light faded out of the sky, and keeping a 
 watch all around on the almost glassy seas. 
 
 There was no sign of any herring ; no solan
 
 i $6 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 geese sweeping down ; no breaking of the 
 water ; and none of the other boats, so far as 
 they could make out, had as yet shot their nets. 
 The night was coming on, and they were far 
 away from Erisaig ; but still old Sandy kept up 
 his watch, studying the surface of the water, as 
 if he expected to find pearls floating there. 
 And at last, in great excitement, he grasped 
 Rob's arm. Leaning over the side of the boat 
 they could just make out in the dusk a great 
 quantity of minute air-bubbles rising to the 
 surface of the sea. 
 
 " Put some stones along with the sinkers, 
 Rob," the old man said in a whisper, as if he 
 were afraid of the herring hearing ; " go deep, 
 deep, deep." 
 
 Well, they quietly let out the seemingly in- 
 terminable drift-net as they pulled gently along, 
 and when that was accomplished they took in 
 the long oars again. Nicol lit up the little 
 stove, and proceeded to boil the tea. The 
 bundle containing their supper was opened, and 
 Sandy had his share and his can of tea like the 
 others. 
 
 They had a long time of waiting to get over 
 through the still summer night, but still Rob
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 157 
 
 was strangely excited, wondering whether Sandy 
 had really, in pottering about, discovered a new 
 indication of the whereabouts of the herring, or 
 whether he was to go back to Erisaig in the 
 morning with empty nets. There w r as another 
 thing too. Had he shown himself too credulous 
 before his companions'? Had he done right in 
 listening to what might be only a foolish tale ? 
 The others began to doze off ; Kob not. He did 
 not sleep a wink all night. 
 
 Well, to let out a long drift-net, which some- 
 times goes as deep as fifteen fathoms, is an easy 
 affair, but to haul it in again is a sore task ; and 
 when it happens to be laden, and heavily-laden, 
 with silver-gleaming fish, that is a break-back 
 business for four young lads. But there is such 
 a thing as the nervous, eager, joyous strength of 
 success ; and if you are hauling in yard after 
 yard of a dripping net, only to find the brown 
 meshes all bestarred with the silver herring, 
 then even young lads can work like men. Daft 
 Sandy was laughing all the while. 
 
 "Kob, my man, what think ye o' the air- 
 bubbles now? Maybe Daft Sandy is no sae 
 daft. And do you think I would be going and 
 telling any one but yourself, Rob ? Do you
 
 153 THE FOUR M AC N I COLS. 
 
 think I would be going and telling any one that 
 was throwing the broken herring at me, and 
 always a curse for me when I went near the 
 skiffs, and not once a glass of whisky for an old 
 man ? Well, Rob, I will not ask you for a glass 
 of whisky. If you say it is a teetotal boat, it is 
 a teetotal boat ; but you will not forget to give 
 me whole herring for bait when you are going 
 out of the bay ? " 
 
 Rob could not speak ; he was breathless. 
 Nor was their work nearly done when they had 
 got in the net with all its splendid gleaming 
 treasure. There was not a breath of wind ; they 
 had to set to work to pull the heavy boat back 
 to Erisaig. The gray of the dawn gave way to 
 a glowing sunrise ; when they at length reached 
 the quay, dead-beat with fatigue and want of 
 sleep, the people were all about. 
 
 They were dead-beat ; but there were ten 
 crans of herring in that boat. And vou should 
 
 / 
 
 have seen Rob's air when he counselled Neil and 
 Duncan and Nicol to go away home and have a 
 sleep, and when he loftily called on two or three 
 of the boys on the quay to come in and strip the 
 nets. But the three MacNicols were far too 
 excited to go away. They wanted to see the
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 159 
 
 great heap of fish ladled out in baskets on to 
 the quay. Mr. Bailie came along not long 
 after that, and shook hands with Bob, and con- 
 gratulated him ; for it turned out that while not 
 another Erisaig boat had that night got more 
 than from two to three crans, the Mary of 
 Argyle had turned ten crans as good herring as 
 ever were got out of Loch Scrone. 
 
 Well, the MacNicol lads were now in a fair 
 way of earning an independent and honourable 
 living, and this sketch of how they had struggled 
 into that position from being mere wastrels- 
 living about the shore like so many curlews may 
 fitly cease here. Sometimes they had good luck, 
 and sometimes bad luck ; but always they had the 
 advantage of that additional means of discover- 
 ing the whereabouts of the herring that had 
 been imparted to them by Daft Sandy. And 
 the last that the present writer heard of them 
 was this, that they had bought outright the 
 Mary of Argyle and her nets from the banker ; 
 and that they were building for themselves a 
 small stone cottage on the slope of the hill 
 above Erisaig ; and that Daft Sandy had been 
 taken away from the persecution of the harbour 
 boys to become a sort of general major-domo
 
 160 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 cook, gardener, and mender of nets. Moreover, 
 each of the MacNicols has his separate bank 
 account now ; each has got a silver watch ; and 
 Rob was saying the other day that he thought 
 that he and his brothers and his cousin ought to 
 take a trip to London (as soon as the herring- 
 fishing was over), for perhaps they might see the 
 Queen there, and at any rate they could go and 
 have a look at Smithfield, where the English 
 beheaded Sir William Wallace.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 A HIGHLAND TALE.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 A HIGHLAND TALE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DONNACHA RUA. 
 
 ONE warm and golden evening in August a 
 young lad was standing at the door of a wayside 
 cottage in one of the most remote and moun- 
 tainous districts in Inverness-shire, and he was 
 watching a slow-moving cloud of dust, which, in 
 the distance, told of a flock of sheep being 
 driven up from the plains below to seek pastur- 
 age in those alpine solitudes. All at once he 
 turned and quickly went into the house. 
 
 " Mother," said he, " I know it is my uncle 
 
 that is cominor this time. I can see the white 
 
 > 
 
 collie. I am sure it is my uncle this time." 
 
 The woman who sat in the high-backed 
 wooden chair by the empty fireplace seemed too 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 ill to heed. The pale, emaciated face was quite 
 listless and hopeless, and her hands lay idly in 
 her lap. 
 
 " It is a poor house he will find us in this 
 year," she said, without raising her head. 
 " There is neither bite nor sup for him." 
 
 " It is not that he will be thinking of," said 
 the lad ; and then he added : " You know well, 
 mother, there might be both bite and sup if you 
 would let me go away to Glasgow, to work like 
 the others." 
 
 " I am too ill," she said, with the excusable 
 petulance of an invalid. " I am too ill, Andrew. 
 Ye mustna think of going away to Glasgow yet." 
 
 Andrew Eoss did not stay to urge the point, 
 for he thought the best thing he could do was to 
 go away along the road and meet his uncle, and 
 tell him how matters stood. There would be 
 little enough time, for Donnacha Eua that is 
 Eed Duncan was taking these sheep up to the 
 wilds of Allt-nam-ba, some half a dozen miles 
 farther on, and his visit to his sister-in-law in 
 the little cottage was likely to be of the briefest. 
 
 " Well, Andrew," said the tall red-bearded 
 shepherd, when the lad drew near, " and how is 
 your mother now ? "
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 165 
 
 " She is out of the fever," said Andrew Ross ; 
 " but still she is very ill. But it is no wonder. 
 The doctor says she is to have better food. But 
 where are we to get better food ? It is to Glas- 
 gow that I am thinking of going, to work like 
 the others, and then I could send money to my 
 mother and Maggie. But my mother says no, 
 and Maggie she begins to cry ; and what am I 
 to do ? " 
 
 " I was hearing they would not be wanting 
 you on the hill this year," his uncle said. 
 
 " No, nor at the kennels either ; for Big 
 Murdoch brought two or three strange lads with 
 him in the spring. But this year they will want 
 no gillies whatever. Did you not hear that the 
 grouse round about here had all been killed with 
 the disease ? " 
 
 " Yes, I was hearing that too." 
 
 " It is a bad thing for us, uncle. There are 
 none of the gentry coming up this year, and the 
 lodges are all empty every one of them between 
 here and Corrievreak, and so my mother sent 
 away the lass that helped her with the washing. 
 And what are we to do now, if I do not go away 
 to Glasgow, or to Greenock ? The schoolmaster 
 says I could get a good place. I have learned
 
 1 66 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 book-keeping by double entry, and now it is no 
 use my stopping here, as long as Big Murdoch 
 has the charge at Etherick Lodge." 
 
 He was clearly anxious to get away, and 
 doubtless not without some hope that his uncle 
 would approve of the step ; but at this moment 
 they arrived at the cottage, and nothing further 
 could be said. 
 
 The big red-bearded shepherd posted his 
 sagacious collies so that the sheep should not 
 stray too far, and then went indoors. 
 
 " It is not the best news I have heard, 
 Christina," said he, sitting down and taking 
 out his pipe, but not lighting it. " But when 
 things are at their worst, they maun mend." 
 
 " I do not see how they are to mend," said 
 this sickly -looking woman, in dejected and hope- 
 less fashion. " There will be no one at Etherick 
 Lodge this year. I sent away the young lass 
 that used to help me with the washing. It was 
 but another mouth to feed." 
 
 " Where is wee Maggie ? " he asked, to vary 
 the subject. 
 
 " She is out herding the cow. That is the 
 last thing that belongs to us ; and I suppose we 
 will have to sell that."
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 167 
 
 Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. It 
 was clear that the illness from which she was 
 recovering had left her in a state of extreme 
 nervous depression and despair, and that she 
 was not at all in a condition to face the very 
 actual and literal troubles of the hour. 
 
 " Come, come, Christina," the big shepherd 
 said, cheerfully, " it's no so bad as that. You'll 
 no have to sell the coo as long as Andrew here 
 has a pair of willing hands to work wi'. You'll 
 just have to make the best o' things, as other 
 folks have had to do ; and the first thing is to 
 get back a little o' your strength. That is what 
 is the matter with ye a kind o' weakness, I can 
 see ; and I was hearing that the doctor was 
 recommending ye to have some better food. 
 You're ower white-faced, woman. There will 
 be no much chance for ye to fight the battle o' 
 the world on a little oatmeal, and I suppose that 
 is all there is in the house ? " 
 
 She did not answer ; and he knew he had 
 guessed the truth. 
 
 " Well, now, Christina," he continued, " here 
 is Andrew willing to go away to Glasgow." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Not yet ; not yet," she said, feebly. " Let
 
 1 68 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 him wait till the end. It will no be long. My 
 days are numbered " 
 
 " Toots ! toots ! woman," he said, impatiently. 
 "Are you going to leave the bairns to fight 
 their way by themselves ? Is that like a wise 
 woman ? What you have to do is to get back 
 some o' your strength, and then you'll be in 
 a better state to say what Andrew maun do, 
 and your head will be clearer. I suppose now," 
 said he, regarding her thin, pinched face, " if 
 Lord Etherick were at the Lodge, he might be 
 sending you a hare now and again ? " 
 
 " Many's the hare he used to send me," the 
 widow woman said, " and her ladyship too. 
 When Maggie was ill, it was one thing or 
 another she was always sending even a picture- 
 book for her to look at. But this year there is no 
 one at the Lodge no one at all ; and it would 
 be waiting many a day before Big Murdoch 
 would think of doing any one a kindness." 
 
 " I do not see why we should be beholden to 
 Big Murdoch, or to any one else, mother," said 
 Andrew Eoss. " Let me go to Glasgow, and 
 get a good wage. What is it here, even if John 
 Malcolm were to come back and give me a 
 place ? For driving the woods, a shilling a day.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY, 169 
 
 and when I was at the kennels, another six 
 shillings a week. What is that? I am not 
 afraid to go to Glasgow." 
 
 And here, to his amazement, his uncle inter- 
 posed with a sullen and definite negative. 
 
 " No, no, Andrew, my lad. It is no use 
 distressing your mother. Wait till she is better 
 wait till she is stronger then you can see 
 what is to be done." 
 
 He rose. 
 
 " Good-bye, Christina. I will be hearing of 
 you from time to time, when any of the 
 shepherds are coming up to Allt-nam-ba. And 
 if any bit present do ye understand ? should 
 reach ye from the hills a hare or two, maybe, 
 or something like that just you take them, and 
 use them, and say nothing about them ; and I 
 hope by the next time I see ye, you'll no have 
 such a white face." 
 
 As he was going out, he quietly touched his 
 nephew on the shoulder ; and the lad under- 
 stood, and followed. 
 
 " Andrew, my lad," said he, when they were 
 outside, " I have something to say to ye ye 
 can walk along the road with me for a bit. Your 
 mother is ill ; and I'm thinking the doctor is
 
 i;o THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 right she'll no be much stronger till she gets 
 something better to eat than a pickle oatmeal. 
 It's a great pity that his lordship's family is 
 no coming up the year ; and there'll be no 
 shooting ; and the hares on the tops up there 
 just running about in such numbers that it's 
 a sin and a shame to see them, and to think 
 there are sick folk in the country that a potful 
 o' hare-soup would be a kind o' providence to. 
 Ay, ay." 
 
 The tall and stalwart shepherd, as he stalked 
 along after his flock, seemed cautious in his 
 speech ; and yet there was a humorous twinkle 
 in his eye. 
 
 " Now, Andrew," said he, " if a body were to 
 put his hand on one or two o' they hares 
 there's far too many of them for the ground, and 
 if they do not thin them down there will come a 
 murrain among them, as a sensible keeper would 
 know and if they were put somewhere where 
 they could be found, to be taken down to your 
 mother, and for her to say nothing, but to make 
 use o' them, and put some life into the poor 
 woman, do ye think you know of a smart lad 
 anywhere who would come up to Allt-nam-ba, 
 and find the place I could tell him of, and make
 
 THE BLA CK BOTHY. 171 
 
 his way back in the dusk without letting Big 
 Murdoch or any of them see him ? " 
 
 Andrew Ross understood at once, and his eyes 
 lit up at the prospect of this adventure. There 
 were several reasons that made him willing to 
 undertake it. It was not only that his mother 
 was ill, and that this addition to their scanty 
 supply of food would be of inestimable value to 
 her ; but also, among other things, it would give 
 him an opportunity of outwitting Big Murdoch, 
 who, succeeding to John Malcolm, had brought 
 his own gillies with him, and had thus deprived 
 two or three of the lads about there of their 
 occupation, and who was known to be of such a 
 jealous and grudging disposition that he would 
 have prosecuted a starving crofter for picking 
 up a stray rabbit. 
 
 " I would come up myself," said the lad 
 boldly, " at any time you like, and at any hour 
 of the night you like." 
 
 " There's better than a hare," said the red 
 shepherd, after a minute or two. " If I could 
 get a fine young roebuck, that would be a better 
 thing ; and many's the good meal you could 
 make of one for a weakly woman. Sometimes 
 there are a few roe in the woods at Allt-nam-ba ;
 
 1/2 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 and what would be the harm to take one, when 
 there is no one shooting, and all the roe going 
 away again before the winter ? Andrew, my 
 lad, could you carry a roe from Allt-nam-ba over 
 the hills to your home ? " 
 
 " Indeed I could try," said the other, " and I 
 should not be afraid to try. But how are you 
 going to get a roe, uncle, when you have no gun ? " 
 
 Ked Duncan, without saying anything, took 
 out a bit of string from his pocket ; and in a 
 second or two had fitted up, in miniature, a 
 clever running noose. 
 
 " Do you see that, Andrew ? All that you 
 want is to know their track ; and if you have 
 the line just a little below the level of their 
 head, and wide enough, and well hidden among 
 the young larches, in he goes, and the more he 
 struggles the faster he is." 
 
 " Give me the chance, and you will see 
 whether I can carry him or not," said young 
 Eoss. " And my mother, she will be having her 
 dinner every clay, like the Queen at Balmoral, 
 for a week or a fortnight after that." 
 
 " Well, then, I will tell you, Andrew ; but it 
 is very cautious you must be ; for Big Murdoch 
 is a hard man, and many's the one he has
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 173 
 
 summoned for taking less than a roe. Do you 
 know the little swinging bridge where the Allt- 
 crom comes down ? " 
 
 " Well I know it." 
 
 "Very well, if you go over the bridge and 
 cross a strip of bog, there is a small gully there 
 that leads up to the moor above. Do you know 
 it?" 
 
 " Oh, very well." 
 
 " Then you know the rocks at the top of the 
 gully, I am sure of that. Now, this is Tuesday 
 night ; on Thursday night, the night after to- 
 morrow, Andrew, you will go over the hills I 
 am sure you know the way as well as anyone 
 keeping out of sight of Etherick altogether; 
 and you will cross over the bridge and go up 
 the rocks, and not until the sun is about to go 
 down. Maybe you will find something there ; 
 maybe a hare or two, maybe a roe, maybe a 
 small piece of paper telling you to wait a little 
 until it is darker, and then you will know I am 
 bringing something, and they may be following 
 you, for Big Murdoch is after every one that 
 conies up the glen. You will mind that, now. 
 You will keep away from the glen back among 
 the hills, until you come down to the water;
 
 174 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 and if you cross over by the stones instead of 
 by the bridge, that will be better still. Do you 
 think you can manage it ? " 
 
 " Indeed, I am sure I can manage it, uncle, 
 if you can manage the catching of the roe." 
 
 " Maybe it will be a roe, and maybe not," said 
 the red shepherd, " for it is a short time ; but 
 any one that would be seeing your mother 
 would be a hard man if he was grudging her a 
 roe or a hare or two until the illness has left her. 
 Indeed, I am sure if his lordship was at Etherick 
 this year, there would be no need for you and 
 for me. to be setting about this thing for our- 
 selves, and all the time afraid of Big Murdoch 
 and the strange gillies." 
 
 Shortly after this Andrew Eoss bade good- 
 night to his uncle, and set out on his return 
 homeward, sufficiently impressed with the 
 seriousness of what he had undertaken and yet 
 not over-dismayed. For one thing, there were 
 few in that neighbourhood who knew it better, 
 or were better fitted for an enterprise of the 
 kind. Every sinuous water-course, every lonely 
 cairn and chasm, was familiar to him ; and if 
 his uncle was not afraid to take the risk of 
 snaring this roe-deer, he, on his part, was not
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 175 
 
 going to shrink from the task of carrying it 
 home across the hills. 
 
 It is true he would rather have done that- 
 had it been possible in the daylight. There 
 are many superstitions still existing in that part 
 of the country dark traditions of water-kelpies 
 and other ghostly creatures that are supposed to 
 wander away in the night-time from the lakes, 
 which are their proper habitations. Loch 
 Etherick was known to be haunted by a black 
 horse or an animal resembling a horse which 
 on more than one occasion according to popular 
 belief, had been encountered among the neigh- 
 bouring hills; and it was across those very hills 
 that young Ross had to make his way back in 
 tlje dark. However, he was a sensible and 
 shrewd-headed lad, and he contented himself 
 with thinking that the actual labour and fatigue 
 of carrying a roebuck some five or six miles 
 would be quite enough to drive imaginary 
 terrors out of his brain. And who could tell 
 but that this poor widow woman, nourished by 
 this more solid and substantial food, might get 
 
 ' O O 
 
 into a more cheerful and hopeful condition, and 
 might be willing to see him start away on his 
 adventurous journey to Glasgow, now that Big
 
 176 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 Murdoch and the grouse disease together had 
 deprived him of occupation in his native glen ? 
 
 Next day while attending to the various 
 duties demanded by the small patch of ground 
 attached to the cottage, he also managed to rig 
 up a piece of mechanism, consisting of a bent 
 piece of wood and a double coil of stout rope. 
 This whether his uncle should secure two or 
 three mountain hares or a roebuck would 
 enable him to carry the precious booty all the 
 more easily across the hills. 
 
 And then again the next afternoon and not 
 without some little tremor of anxiety, though he 
 whistled loudly and cheerfully as long as his 
 small sister Maggie was within hearing he set 
 out to keep his tryst ; and after many subtle 
 and sinuous wanderings through solitary glens, 
 along stony mountain-slopes, and by the sides of 
 brawling streams, he at length reached the cairn 
 of stones at the top of the gully that his uncle 
 had described ; and here he found himself the 
 sole inhabitant of the wilderness lyinff all around 
 
 J O 
 
 him, just as the dusk of a rather cloudy and 
 stormy and troubled day was about to fall over 
 the lonely landscape.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 177 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 A RETREAT. 
 
 THE first glance round his hiding-place had 
 shown him that neither roe nor hares had been 
 left for him there by his uncle ; but it was not 
 until his eyes had got accustomed to his sur- 
 roundings to this little dell of boulders, and 
 bracken, and heather, that he observed, on the 
 top of one of the stones, a tiny piece of folded 
 paper. This he instantly opened ; and found 
 written on it the single word " Wait." Then he 
 understood. No doubt his uncle had been suc- 
 cessful, and was only allowing the daylight to 
 wane still further, for safety's sake, before 
 bringing the game to Andrew Ross's place of 
 concealment. There was nothing for it but to 
 obey in patience that monosyllabic injunction. 
 
 And yet, despite himself, the lad grew anxious 
 and restless. It was a wild-looking evening. 
 Every minute the gusts that came tearing down 
 
 N
 
 1 78 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 from the mountain ravines, to go howling along 
 the empty glens below, seemed to increase in 
 force, and there was every promise of a tem- 
 pestuous night. No doubt, he said to himself, 
 if he were struggling under the load of a roe- 
 buck, or some three or four mountain hares and 
 having, besides, the roughest of country to get 
 over at the same time this nervousness would 
 disappear ; but, in the meantime, it must be 
 confessed he did not feel at all comfortable, and 
 again and again he impatiently peered over the 
 boulders only to find before him the same 
 stretch of heathery hillside leading away down 
 to a ravine, where the swollen waters of the 
 Allt-crom were noisily brawling. 
 
 Then suddenly, in this gloomy twilight, he 
 made out in the distance the figure of a man, 
 coming rapidly along by the outskirts of the 
 young birch trees that fringed the side of the 
 ravine. It was the figure of a tall man, and he 
 seemed to be carrying something slung over his 
 shoulder. Another second or two of anxious 
 observation, and now the lad Ross knew for 
 certain that this was his uncle, and was almost 
 convinced that he was bringing a roebuck. 
 Then all his nervousness vanished. He be-
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 179 
 
 thought him only of the hard fight across the 
 hills under the heavy weight. He was anxious 
 to get away before the darkness of night came 
 on ; once up on the hills above the loch, he 
 would be able to find his way right enough. 
 Nor did he stop to ask himself whether this roe- 
 buck which was now being brought him did not 
 belong, strictly and morally, to Lord Etherick ; 
 and, indeed, that was a question that might have 
 puzzled a more able casuist, for, in these alti- 
 tudes, the roe-deer are mere fleeting summer 
 visitors, sometimes remaining in the woods for 
 only a day or two, sometimes for a month or 
 two, but always returning to their homes in the 
 lower valleys before the coming winter. 
 
 Red Duncan was now coming rapidly yet 
 cautiously on, keeping always by the birch-trees, 
 so that he should not be observed from the other 
 side of the glen. Andrew had got his coil of 
 rope prepared ; he was ready to sling the deer 
 over his shoulders at a moment's notice. Sud- 
 denly there was a sharp whistle that sounded 
 ^strangely distant, oven in the howling of these 
 mountain gusts. He saw his uncle stop and 
 look behind him. At the same moment, to his 
 inexpressible alarm he beheld two figures 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 emerge from the thicket of birch-trees, clamber- 
 ing up into the open, and he heard one of them 
 call out, in loud and bantering tones : 
 
 " Not so fast ; you will be soon enough in 
 Inverness gaol ! " 
 
 The wind was blowing towards him ; he heard 
 the rancorous tones of the man's voice, and well 
 he knew the voice to be the voice of Big 
 Murdoch. With his heart beating with fear and 
 apprehension he lay down among the rocks and 
 bushes never hare lay closer. He scarcely 
 dared to breathe. If they were to discover him, 
 that would only make the evidence against Bed 
 Duncan more complete ; he kept wondering to 
 himself whether they had seen him peering over 
 the edge of the boulders whether they were 
 now running towards him. But time passed, 
 and he heard nothing. The blasts of wind that 
 were howling over his head brought no other 
 sound. Had the keeper and the gillie returned 
 down the glen, then, satisfied with the results of 
 their watching ? and had his uncle gone away 
 back to the hillside, with the knowledge that 
 soon a summons for day -poaching would be out 
 against him ? Andrew Eoss raised his head a 
 little bit, and listened intently. Then he ven-
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 181 
 
 tured a little farther until at length, with the 
 greatest caution, he could just look over the 
 edge of one of the boulders. There was no one 
 there. The gloomy and darkening landscape 
 was empty. Finally, having assured himself 
 that the coast was clear, he slipped out of his 
 hiding-place, made his way down through the 
 bushes by which he had come up, waded knee- 
 deep across the stream rather than make himself 
 conspicuous by crossing the foot-bridge, and with 
 such speed as was possible for a kind of terror 
 haunted him followed the windings of the 
 stream until, in the deepening gloom, he could 
 vaguely make out before him the wide waters of 
 Loch Etherick. 
 
 And yet it was not any terror for himself that 
 haunted him, it was the dread of what might 
 happen to his uncle. Would they take him to 
 the county police office at Inverness ? would 
 they interview him in the gaol in the great red 
 building that is known as the Castle ? would his 
 name be in the newspapers, so that every one 
 should know ? And all this shame to befall him 
 because he had taken pity on a poor widow 
 woman his own sister-in-law. But all this ad- 
 venture now looked different in the eyes of the
 
 1 82 THE BLA CK B TH Y. 
 
 iad Boss. lie had 1>een excited by the risk and 
 danger of it. lie had looked forward with pride 
 to telling his mother and his sister Maggie that 
 now there was a store of food in the house, and 
 they might have a dinner fit for a queen. But 
 all this was gone now. There was nothing but 
 shame and exposure. And it seemed hard that 
 his uncle's good-nature should have brought this 
 trouble on him. What would his master, 
 Colonel Graham, say ? Would he keep in his 
 employment a man w T ho had been convicted of 
 poaching ? And there was no doubt that Big 
 Murdoch would take out the summons not the 
 least. If John Malcolm had been still at 
 Etherick Lodge, some intercession might have 
 been possible. Donnacha Eua might have been 
 let off with a warning. But Big Murdoch had 
 always gone to the severest extremes, and his 
 name was of evil omen in the neighbourhood. 
 And then Etherick Lodge was empty this year, 
 otherwise his mother might have pleaded with 
 her ladyship, and told her that it was not for 
 himself that Eed Duncan had snared the roe. 
 The more he looked at it, the more did Eoss's 
 heart sink within him, and he thought he never 
 would be able to hold up his head again if he
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 183 
 
 were to see his own uncle taken away into 
 Inverness by a couple of policemen. 
 
 These anxious and troubled forebodings were 
 all at once startled out of his head by a more 
 immediate peril. Eight in front of him, though 
 still at some distance, in the middle of the path 
 skirting the edge of the loch, stood the Etherick 
 bull. There was no mistaking him for any 
 water-kelpie or other ghostly creature, dark as 
 the nio-ht was. He knew the beast too well. 
 
 O 
 
 It was the terror of the country-side an ill- 
 tempered brute, that cared not for any obstacles 
 once its anger was aroused. And now young 
 Ross paused, peering through the gloom at this 
 animal, and trying to make out whether it was 
 disposed to advance and stop his way, or whether 
 he might try to slip by it unobserved. Of one 
 thing he was certain. If the beast happened to 
 be in an ill-temper, it was no use his taking to 
 the steep hillside, for the bull was as active as a 
 roe. His only safety was in the water sup- 
 posing him to have time to run down and jump 
 into the boat which usually lay moored at this 
 end of the loch. 
 
 He had not the opportunity of thinking twice. 
 With a slow muttering, rather than any roaring,
 
 1 84 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 the beast slowly advanced. There was nothing 
 for it but immediate flight. Fortunately the 
 boat was quite close by, at a small, rude, 
 landing- quay built of stone, and a very few 
 seconds indeed were sufficient for him to reach 
 the mooring-post, throw off the iron chain, and 
 leap into the boat. The bull had not, as he 
 expected, charged him. It had merely come 
 sulkily and threateningly onward ; and when 
 at last he managed to shove off the boat into 
 deeper water, the animal was down at the side 
 of the loch, still regarding him, and muttering 
 and growling, as it were. He took no more 
 heed of it. His immediate business was with 
 the boat, which was rapidly drifting away before 
 the fierce squalls of wind which came scouring 
 down the glen. Indeed, before he had got the 
 oars fixed in their places, and was trying to get 
 the bow of the boat round, he found that he 
 had drifted well out into the loch, the almost 
 unseen waters of which were now driven and 
 lashed by the gale. 
 
 This Loch Etherick was a small loch some 
 two miles long by half a mile broad and his 
 first rapid thought, when he was driven to take 
 refuge in the boat by the advance of the bull,
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 185 
 
 was that he would row along the shore until he 
 was out of sight of the animal, then land, and 
 fasten the boat to any rock that might be handy. 
 The boat belonged to Etherick Lodge, and some 
 of the people there would be sure to see it in 
 the morning, and would doubtless take it back 
 to the proper moorings. But very speedily he 
 found that it was not where he wished that the 
 boat was going, but where those sharp and 
 sudden hurricanes were driving it and that was 
 right over to the other shore. Do what he 
 could, it was impossible for him to fight against 
 these squalls. Sometimes there was a lull- 
 indeed, he had made some good progress in the 
 direction he was aiming for though it was now 
 so dark he could scarcely see either shore ; and 
 then again another whirl of the gale would come 
 sweeping down the glen, and way he would go 
 helpless. Moreover, he knew there, was no path 
 along the other side of the loch. The hills there 
 came sheer down into the water ; in one or two 
 places they overhung the loch in projecting 
 crags. If he were to land, his only chance of 
 getting home that night would be to climb a 
 mountain-side about as steep as the side of a 
 house, and then take the risk of finding his way
 
 1 86 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 across the Etherick deer forest. So, again and 
 again lie put the bow of the boat against the 
 heavy wind-squalls, and fought and fought as 
 best he could, and again and again he found 
 himself beaten and driven back by the wind. 
 Besides this, he had not the strength with which 
 he began : his arms were aching, his back was 
 like to break. To crown all, it was now so dark 
 that he could not see across the loch ; and to be 
 out on this sheet of black water at this time of 
 night, with a hurricane roaring and shrieking 
 around, was far from being comfortable, and so 
 at last he yielded to circumstances, and allowed 
 the wind to drive the boat before it, until she 
 suddenly and noisily crashed on to some stones ; 
 then, in almost pitch blackness, he jumped out 
 into the water, and tugged and hauled at the 
 boat until he had got the bow well up on the 
 shore, and finally he got the chain and wound 
 that twice round a boulder of rock, making 
 everything as secure as he knew how. He had 
 then to consider his own position. 
 
 It was not a pleasant one. If there had been 
 any glimpse of starlight or moonlight to show 
 him his surroundings, that might have helped 
 him somewhat ; but at present he only knew
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 187 
 
 that behind him was the loch, and before him 
 the steep side of the hill, without any path or 
 track, and covered with loose blocks of granite, 
 which at any moment might give way beneath 
 his feet, and cause him to go hurling down an 
 unknown depth. He thought of trying the boat 
 again, but his arms were now powerless. That 
 was useless. Then he wondered whether it 
 would not be better to grope his way to some 
 big granite boulder, and lie down under the lee 
 of that until the light of the morning should 
 show him some way out of his perplexities. But 
 then again he knew his mother and the little 
 Maggie would be dreadfully alarmed by his not 
 coming home, and would make sure that he had 
 perished in the storm ; and so, at all hazards, he 
 resolved to try to get to the top of this steep 
 hillside. Once on the soft moss and heather of 
 the deer forest he felt sure he would be able 
 to make his way somehow, for he knew this 
 mountainous district well, and had many a 
 time before had to make his way home in the 
 dark. 
 
 Then he bethought him of a small river-course 
 that he knew well enough from seeing it from 
 the other side of the loch. In summer this was
 
 1 88 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 little more than a steeply-ascending mass of dry 
 stones, with some small channels of water 
 trickling through. Now, he thought, if he could 
 only make his way to this water-course, would it 
 not lead him up to some corrie above, by which 
 his way to the top would be made more easy ? 
 It was, at all events, the only thing he could 
 think of doing in the extremity of the moment ; 
 and he set about it forthwith. He groped his 
 way along the shore, stumbling over the stones, 
 and always feeling for some boggy bunches of 
 grass to tell him where the rivulet came down. 
 These he speedily found, discovering that he was 
 up to the ankles and over in marshy and spongy 
 holes ; and so at once he set to work to climb, 
 almost hand over hand, up the rough water- 
 course. He got pretty wet, and his knees and 
 shins received a sufficient number of bruises ; 
 but always he had the notion in his head that, 
 once on the top, in the open deer forest, there 
 would be some faint starlight to enable him to 
 see his way. As he went on he found that this 
 water-course retreated into a small glen. It 
 was easier going now ; but also it was much 
 darker ; and he had to get over whatever 
 obstacles came in his way blindly enough
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 189 
 
 granite blocks, bushes, or splashing little water- 
 falls. He was soaked through now, partly with 
 the wet from without, partly from perspiration ; 
 but he fought on courageously, squirming up 
 this little ravine like some wild animal ; and 
 constantly wondering whether any human being 
 had ever been in this wild place before. 
 
 Well, if that was the question he was asking 
 himself, it was quickly and definitely answered. 
 In the recesses of this little ravine there was 
 almost silence ; the wind seemed to go roaring 
 by outside of it. And it was in the half-silence, 
 and in the absolute darkness, that young Koss 
 little thinking that human creatures could be in 
 his neighbourhood suddenly heard voices. He 
 stopped, paralysed, not daring to move. The 
 voices sounded quite near, but he could see 
 nothing. Then all at once there was a red flash 
 in the blackness it was a ray of light ap- 
 parently from the other side of the chasm. A 
 sort of terror rooted him to the spot ; all sorts 
 of weird and frightful stories crowded into his 
 recollection ; he was trembling in every limb. 
 He had not self-possession enough to reflect that 
 the sounds he had heard were undoubtedly 
 human voices ; he could only crouch among the
 
 193 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 bushes unable to stir, and almost unable to 
 breathe ; his fascinated, fear-stricken eyes gazing 
 on that small point of red light that burned 
 steadily enough there in the darkness, not 
 more than a dozen or twenty yards away from 
 him.
 
 THE BLA CK BOTHY. 191 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BOTHAN DUBH. 
 
 INDEED, the lad was far too terrified to reflect. 
 That he should suddenly encounter human 
 beings in this almost inaccessible chasm on the 
 verge of the deer forest, and at this time of 
 night, was quite as extraordinary as anything 
 supernatural, and he kept his eyes fixed on that 
 small point of red light with a sort of fascination 
 of fear, dreading he knew not what, and not 
 daring to stir hand or foot. Presently the light 
 seemed to grow bigger to show itself in a 
 number of streaks, then in a wide broad glow, as 
 if a hole had been cut in the side of the 
 mountain, revealing a mass of fire within. Then 
 two dark figures appeared between him and the 
 *brendth of ruddy light ; and with a strange 
 distinctness for he was but a stone's throw 
 away from them he heard them speak. And 
 surely he recognised this voice :
 
 192 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 " Pete, my man, ye'll have to go round and 
 bring the boat across the loch ; and look sharp 
 too. We're late the nicht ; it will never do to 
 keep the cart standing at the end of the loch, 
 and four sacks o' malt in it too. A fine thing if 
 some o' the supervisor's chiels were to come 
 along the road ! " 
 
 "No fears," said one of his companions 
 for there seemed to be three or four there. 
 " They'd rather be in their bed on a wild night 
 like this. Here, Sandy, just give us a hoist wi' 
 this cask till I fasten the rope." 
 
 Again a dead silence. The dark figures were 
 moving this way and that, engaged in some 
 occupation or other. But now, in spite of all 
 his terror, the lad who was crouching there 
 could not but .understand what was going on 
 before him. He had accidentally tumbled over 
 a lothan dubh a black bothy an illicit still ; 
 and these men seemed to be so convinced of 
 their security in this inaccessible place that they 
 allowed the entrance to the bothy to remain 
 without cover or concealment while they talked 
 openly of their affairs outside here in the dark. 
 Probably if he had had time to think the lad 
 would have been glad to assure himself that
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 193 
 
 there was nothing of the supernatural, after all, 
 in his immediate neighbourhood ; but he was 
 too intent on observing what was going on, 
 and in listening for the slightest sound. More- 
 over, he knew well that his own safety depended 
 on his remaining there unperceived by them. 
 There was at that time and there is now a 
 good deal of illicit distillation going on in the 
 county of Inverness ; and the men engaged in 
 it were known to be rather a wild and reckless 
 lot though, ordinarily, when the Supervisor of 
 Inland Revenue and his assistants of the 
 Preventive Force made ! a raid on a mountain 
 distillery, the owners of it preferred to show a 
 clean pair of heels. But here, at this moment, 
 supposing they were suddenly to discover this 
 youth spying on them ? Andrew Ross knew 
 that the loch was near, and the night dark. If 
 they were to throw him in, how should one ever 
 hear of him again ? And, indeed, it was not of 
 his own free will that he was playing the spy. 
 He would have given all his worldly possessions 
 * which did not amount to much if he could 
 have been allowed to crawl away through the 
 bushes unheard and unseen. That, however, 
 was impossible. If he could hear them so 
 
 o
 
 194 THE BLACK BOTH\. 
 
 distinctly, in the hush of this chasm, so they 
 would hear him if he made the slightest sound ; 
 and if he attempted to move, some loose stone 
 or rotten branch would almost certainly betray 
 him. There was nothing for it but to wait until 
 the men had gone ; and it was apparent that 
 two of them, at all events, were getting ready 
 to go. 
 
 "By the time ye've brought back the malt, 
 Pete," said the biggest of the three men, in a 
 voice that again struck Andrew Eoss as being 
 familiar to him, though he was too much 
 alarmed and excited to think further about it 
 " I'll be waiting for ye doon at the loch side. 
 We maun get it into the malting bothy by 
 oursels, for it will be better for Sandy to go 
 right on wi' the cart to Inverness." 
 
 " That's a fine long turn on a coarse night 
 like this," said one of them, rather discon- 
 tentedly. 
 
 " Why, man," said his companion, with a 
 bantering laugh, "the wind's behind ye; it'll 
 blow ye there in no time." And then he added, 
 more gravely : " I'm no sure about that man 
 Munro. He's a stupid creature, and as frightened 
 as a hare. If a bit bairn were to ask him what
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 195 
 
 he had in the cart I believe he'd leave every- 
 thing and run. I'm thinking ye'd better drive 
 the cart yourself, Sandy, when you're going into 
 Inverness ; and just whistle a bit tune, or be 
 smoking your pipe like, until ye get round to 
 the cooper's. We maun get another man than 
 Munro, sooner or later. For ten shillings I 
 believe he'd tell the whole story at the Inland 
 Eevenue Office if once they had frichtened him. 
 Keep an eye on him, Sandy keep an eye on 
 him ! It would be a fine thing if all our gear was 
 to be seized the new mash- tin and everything." 
 
 "Ay, and that would be the least o't, 
 Murdoch, for you and for us, too. I'm thinking 
 his lordship wouldna be long in gieing us notice 
 to quit." 
 
 This word " Murdoch " threw a new light on 
 the affair. Yes, there could be no doubt that 
 the biggest of these three men was Murdoch, the 
 head keeper. And Sandy, too, and Pete ; he 
 knew these as the names of two of the gillies 
 two of the strange gillies whom Murdoch had 
 'brought with him. And so it was to Murdoch 
 that the black bothy belonged ? And this was 
 the trade he was carrying on when the gentry 
 
 were not at Etherick for the shooting ? 
 
 o 2
 
 196 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 "Are you ready, Pete?" said one of the 
 gillies. 
 
 "lam." 
 
 " Gang on first, then ; and take care o' your 
 neck. I'll take my time and wait for ye to 
 bring round the boat. Good-night to ye, 
 Murdoch." 
 
 " Good-night, Sandy. Mind what ye're about 
 in Inverness. And tell the cooper the new 
 mash-tin holds a hundred and twenty gallons. 
 He'll soon be driving a roaring trade." 
 
 When the dark figures moved away from the 
 glare of the entrance to the bothy, Andrew Ross 
 completely lost sight of them, so dense was the 
 surrounding darkness ; but he could hear the 
 sound of them as they set out to make their way 
 down to the loch. He could not tell whether 
 each of them had a small cask strapped on to his 
 shoulders, or whether both were engaged in 
 lowering one large barrel by means of ropes. 
 But, at all events, they made slow progress, to 
 judge by the noise ; and for some little time the 
 third remaining figure doubtless that of Big 
 Murdoch stood at the bothy, probably listen- 
 ing. Then he disappeared into the glow. The 
 light grew gradually less and less. At last
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 197 
 
 there was darkness. And now, for the first 
 time during this long and anxious half-hour, the 
 lad who had been lying concealed there could 
 raise himself and breathe freely. 
 
 His first and anxious thought was to get 
 away. He had no idea as yet as to the import- 
 ance of the discovery he had so accidentally 
 made. For a minute or two he remained in 
 suspense, wondering whether Big Murdoch might 
 not come out again from the bothy. Then, 
 hearing and seeing nothing, he began quietly to 
 push his way onward and upward through the 
 ravine, hoping at last to reach the smoother 
 heights of the forest. In this he was in time 
 successful. The gusts of wind that met his face 
 occasionally told him that he was nearing a 
 more open district, and by-and-by he made sure 
 that he had reached the summit, and might now 
 endeavour to steer as straight a course home- 
 ward as his guessing and knowledge of the 
 country suggested. The night was still dark, 
 and it was blowing hard ; but he had now got 
 amongst smooth heather and moss, and he held 
 on his way for some considerable time, until his 
 wandering into some bushes told him he had 
 reached the outskirts of the long range of woods
 
 198 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 lying between the deer forest and the valley in 
 which stood his mother's cottage. By working 
 down through these woods he could at any 
 moment strike the main road, so that he now 
 knew he was safe, and this consciousness en- 
 abled him to think over with a little more clear- 
 ness the strange things that had just occurred. 
 
 And then it suddenly flashed across his mind 
 that here might be the means of saving his uncle 
 from the shame and disgrace that threatened 
 him. He had no doubt whatever that it was 
 Big Murdoch himself who was conducting this 
 secret enterprise of illicit distillation, and that 
 was a good deal more serious crime than the 
 mere snaring of a roebuck. At least, so it 
 would appear in the eyes of Lord Etherick 
 that he knew well ; for his lordship had again 
 and again declared that he would not tolerate 
 the existence of any " black bothy " on his 
 estate, and had always been eager to give aid to 
 the Excise officers in their quest. But how was 
 he to approach Lord Etherick ? How was he to 
 prove what he had seen ? Nay, would the one 
 thing be held to condone the other ? Even if 
 Big Murdoch were shown to be working an illicit 
 still, how would that save Ked Duncan from
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 199 
 
 a summons for poaching ? And what would 
 Colonel Graham say ? It would be no excuse 
 to him. If Donnacha Rua were fined or im- 
 prisoned in Inverness for having snared the roe- 
 deer, it was almost certain that Colonel Graham 
 would no longer employ him as shepherd. 
 
 And then again young Ross remembered that 
 he had taken away the boat from its proper 
 moorings, and brought it to the side of the loch 
 just under the bothy. It was pretty certain 
 that the two gillies would find it there ; indeed, 
 whichever of them sought to go round the shores 
 by the loch would be almost sure to stumble 
 against it ; but would not its removal suggest 
 to them that some stranger had been there ? 
 Would they not take instant steps to remove all 
 the distilling apparatus to some other hiding- 
 place ? There were many corries and ravines in 
 that neighbourhood, and he had often heard how 
 the entrance to a " black bothy " could be so 
 cunningly hidden over with heather that the 
 keenest eye would fail to detect it. In that 
 case, what could he prove ? This story would 
 be no better than an old wife's tale. Nay, it 
 would only make Big Murdoch all the more 
 savage, and drive him to put upon Red Duncan,
 
 200 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 as far as he could, the extremest penalty of the 
 law. 
 
 These were not cheering reflections, especially 
 to one who considered himself as, in a measure, 
 responsible for the calamity that was likely to 
 overtake his uncle ; but, at all events, he was 
 soon to have one small grain of comfort vouch- 
 safed him. He had not quite reached the road 
 (having struggled down through the thick 
 underwood), when he heard in the distance the 
 sound of the wheels of a cart. He instantly 
 flung himself down on the heather and waited. 
 Of course there could be only the one cart in 
 such a lonely neighbourhood as this, and at such 
 an hour the cart conveying the illicit whiskey 
 to Inverness. So he lay, face downwards, and 
 waited and listened, and very soon, as the cart 
 came along in the darkness, he heard the voices 
 of two men talking in rather low tones. This 
 greatly reassured him. It was now clear 
 enough that they had not taken alarm at finding 
 the boat on the wrong side of the loch. If they 
 had, Sandy, the gillie, would undoubtedly have 
 gone back to the bothy and reported. Instead 
 of that, it must be he who was now talking to 
 the carter as they trudged on together through
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 201 
 
 the night, and young Ross allowed them to get 
 on some distance ahead before he rose and 
 followed. 
 
 Then he recollected that the Roman Catholic 
 priest at Edenbridge had permission from Lord 
 Etherick not only to fish in the loch, but also to ' 
 use the boat when he wished ; and as his rever- 
 ence was rather a portly personage, and 'not 
 given to much violent exercise, he was in the 
 habit of leaving the boat wherever was most 
 convenient to him, on the understanding that 
 Big Murdoch would take it back to its proper 
 moorings when he happened to cast his eye on 
 it. And so the gillies had had no suspicion 
 aroused ? The " black bothy " was still to be 
 found in that chasm, with all its apparatus of 
 mash-tin, worm, and still. It was still possible 
 for the Inland Revenue officers from Inverness, 
 supposing they were led by a trusty guide, to 
 make a sudden descent and capture not only all 
 the spirit, but perhaps also to arrest Big Mur- 
 doch in the very midst of his illicit doings ? 
 
 " Very well, then," said Andrew Ross to him- 
 self (for the Highlander is a revengeful person 
 where any of his family have been wronged, as 
 history has shown before now) ; " maybe I can-
 
 202 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 not save my uncle from being sent to Inverness. 
 Maybe he has to be sent to gaol because he took 
 pity on my mother. Perhaps I cannot help 
 that; but this I will make sure of that if he 
 has to go to gaol, the man that sent him there 
 will very soon find himself there too ! " 
 
 When he reached home he found his mother 
 still sitting up, and the poor woman was in a 
 dreadfully anxious and agitated state, and over- 
 whelmed him with questions as to where he had 
 been, and what had kept him out on so wild a 
 night. But he had strength enough of mind to 
 keep his own counsel. He was not going to 
 alarm her still further by saying what had 
 happened to Donnacha Rua. 
 
 " I went up to see my uncle," said he, " and I 
 stayed until it was nearly dark, and it's a long 
 way over the hills on so black a night." 
 
 " A black night, indeed ! " the widow woman 
 said. " I was thinking of waking up Maggie, 
 and sending her to Edenbridge to the school- 
 master ; but when I went to the door I saw it 
 would be useless. What made you stay so late, 
 Andrew ? " 
 
 " Well, mother, I met the Etherick bull, and 
 I had to jump into the boat ; and the wind was
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 203 
 
 so strong it blew me over to the other side of 
 the loch, and I couldna get back ; so I left the 
 boat and climbed up the hillside, and came 
 down by the edge of the forest. It was a long 
 way, with the night so dark." 
 
 Very soon after he got to bed, but not to 
 sleep. The adventures of that evening had been 
 too exciting, the possibilities of the future too 
 alarming, to permit of that. He lay awake 
 hour after hour, despite all the fatigue he had 
 undergone ; and if there was one conclusion that 
 he arrived at amidst all this turmoil of conjec- 
 ture, fear, and anxiety, it was that the first 
 thing he would do in the morning would be to 
 go along to Edenbridge to seek counsel of the 
 schoolmaster there. He had been the master's 
 favourite while he was at school, and the two 
 had remained very good friends not to say 
 cronies ever since.
 
 204 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 LONG before school-time next morning he made 
 his way to Edenbridge, and there he found the 
 schoolmaster a shock-headed young man of 
 twenty-five or so at his breakfast, which con- 
 sisted of a capacious dish of oatmeal porridge. 
 To him the lad rapidly and eagerly told all the 
 story of his adventures of the preceding evening 
 and night, and he had scarcely completed that 
 when Mr. Angus bade him dismiss at least one 
 apprehension from his mind. 
 
 " They'll no put your uncle in gaol. Ye need 
 not fear that, anyway, Andrew, my lad. The 
 worst will be a summons to Inverness and a 
 fine." 
 
 " But is that no bad enough ? " Andrew Ross 
 said, almost reproachfully. " Where is he to 
 get the money to pay the fine ? And if Colonel
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 205 
 
 Graham hears of it, will he not be for sending 
 him away ? And what is to be done then ? " 
 
 The schoolmaster finished his porridge, and 
 rose and took a turn or two up and down the 
 room. 
 
 " It's pretty hard," said he, " Andrew ; but 
 the law is the law, and ye'll no get the authorities 
 at Inverness to look on the snaring o' the roe as 
 an act of good-nature and charity to a poor 
 widow woman. And this that ye tell me about 
 Big Murdoch is most extraordinar'. Your 
 coming on the distilling bothy looks like a 
 providential kind o' thing ; and I can see what 
 you have been thinking about that somebody 
 should go and say to Big Murdoch : ' Let 
 Duncan Ross alone for the snaring of the roe, 
 and we will say nothing about the black 
 bothy.' " 
 
 The lad looked eagerly at him. It was clear 
 that some project of this kind had been in his 
 mind. But the schoolmaster shook his head. 
 
 "That winna do, Andrew. I'm afraid it 
 would be what the lawyers would call com- 
 pounding a felony. And yet it seems hard that 
 your uncle should be fined and might lose his 
 place as well for taking a bit roe-deer that was
 
 206 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 of no use to anybody, and that this man 
 Murdoch should be the prosecutor. Faith, a 
 fine prosecutor ! A fine prosecutor, on my 
 word ! I wonder what Lord Etherick would 
 say were he to learn that there was an illicit 
 distillery doing a splendid trade within half a 
 mile or so of Etherick Lodge ? " 
 
 " But, Mr. Angus," said the lad, " is there 
 nothing to be done to help my uncle ? I am 
 not afraid to go to Big Murdoch. I will tell 
 him I know where the still is, but that I can 
 hold my tongue if he will say nothing about the 
 summons. It is a hard thing to think of what 
 is going to happen to my uncle and not be 
 able to do anything. It was my mother he was 
 trying to help ; it was not for himself that he 
 was taking the roe." 
 
 " I understand ye well enough, Andrew, my 
 lad," said the schoolmaster ; " but we maun 
 consider. Now, if ye were to go to Big Murdoch 
 with that fine proposition of yours, what would 
 happen? He would laugh, take the still to 
 some other place, and just flatly contradict ye 
 and defy ye. It would be the same as giving 
 him warning. Do ye think he would depend on 
 your holding your tongue ? Not likely."
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 207 
 
 The schoolmaster took another turn or so up 
 and down the room. It was obvious that he 
 was studying his own solution of this problem. 
 
 " I have no goodwill to Big Murdoch myself," 
 said he, after a minute or two. " He was the 
 first that ever checked me for fishing in the 
 Etherick burns, as if it could ever have entered 
 any human creature's head to write for permis- 
 sion to fish in burnlets like these ! Ay, and so 
 this very strict person is busy day and night 
 cheating the Excise ; and making more out o' 
 that, I'll be sworn, than out o' his keepership. 
 And now I understand, Andrew, why he brought 
 the strange gillies with him, do ye see ? " 
 
 The lad was less concerned about this, though 
 it had lost him his own employment, than about 
 the safety of his uncle. But at this moment 
 the schoolmaster seemed to have arrived at 
 some sudden decision, for he struck his hand on 
 the table. 
 
 "I'll do it," he said "HI do it! Justice 
 demands it. It's not right, it's not morally 
 tight that your uncle should be punished for a 
 harmless kind of thing, and this man be let off. 
 I see my way now. To-morrow is Saturday. 
 I'll give the bairns the whole holiday, instead of
 
 208 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 a half one, and I will go into Inverness and go 
 straight to his lordship's agent, Mr. Maclnnes ; 
 and if there's any one that ought to know that 
 there's smuggling going on on the Etherick 
 estate, Mr. Maclnnes is the man. It will cost 
 me something, Andrew, my lad; but fiat justitia, 
 ruat ccelum. Let them say who like that there 
 is a spice of revenge in my trip, I care not. To 
 catch a wheen trout was a small matter it was 
 a mere idle amusement ; but to be checked for 
 fishing without leave by this fellow by this 
 fellow who is driving an illicit trade almost 
 within sight of the mansion-house, that is too 
 much ! We'll see what Mr. Maclnnes will say 
 to that ! " 
 
 The shock-headed schoolmaster seemed to 
 contemplate this projected journey of his with 
 great satisfaction, and of course Andrew Ross 
 eagerly welcomed anything that seemed likely 
 to be of aid to Donnacha Eua. He did not 
 quite understand what the schoolmaster pro- 
 posed to do ; but it was something, and surely 
 his interference would be for good. 
 
 " There's one thing I maun tell ye, Andrew," 
 said the schoolmaster, after a few minutes' 
 consideration. "It is your story that I am
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 209 
 
 taking in to Inverness. Now, I know every 
 word of it is true, for I know you; but the 
 people in Inverness, now, supposing they were 
 to say, ' Oh, that is a fine story ! It is natural 
 that the lad Ross should bring such a charge 
 against Big Murdoch, in order to get his uncle 
 off ; but how are we to know that it is true ? 
 If Big Murdoch says there is not a word of 
 truth in it, what then ? ' ' 
 
 Andrew Ross's face flushed. There was a 
 kind of shame attached to the possibility of his 
 being called upon to prove that he was not a 
 liar. 
 
 "All that I can say," said he, "was that I 
 heard Big Murdoch speaking as clearly as I hear 
 you, and I heard Sandy and Pete, the gillies ; 
 and if people will not believe me, I cannot 
 help it." 
 
 " But you could not make out their faces, 
 Andrew ? " 
 
 " I could not make out their faces because it 
 was so dark," said the lad, rather sullenly. 
 
 "Well, now, Andrew, you need not look 
 vexed with me," said his friend, "for I know 
 that every word of your story is true. It is 
 what the Inverness people will ask me that I am
 
 210 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 thinking of. And supposing, now, that they 
 ask me whether you could take them to the 
 black bothy, and show it to them, what am I to 
 say to that ? " 
 
 " Well," said the lad, " if they think that I 
 should be able to take them straight to the 
 bothy, perhaps I could not do that ; for every 
 one knows that such places are covered over and 
 hidden ; but this I am sure of that, with a 
 little time, I can find it out." 
 
 " It was all I wanted to ask you," said the 
 schoolmaster, good-naturedly. "And now the 
 bairns will be coming, I maun go over to the 
 school-house. Do not be afraid, Andrew, I'll do 
 what I can for your uncle. And I'm thinking 
 your friend, Big Murdoch, will be dancing to 
 another tune before many days are over." 
 
 And so the lad went away greatly comforted, 
 if still anxious and only sorry that he could not 
 convey to his uncle away up there in the 
 wilds of Allt-nam-ba some idea of the inter- 
 vention that was being made in his favour. 
 
 Early the next morning the schoolmaster set 
 out from Edenbridge on his friendly mission ; 
 and what with a lift he obtained from a mail- 
 cart for part of the way, and what with diligent
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 211 
 
 walking, he managed to reach Inverness a little 
 before noon. He went straight to the office of 
 Mr. Maclnnes, in the High Street, and was 
 lucky enough to find that gentleman within. 
 He was admitted to his private room, his name 
 being known, and he was about to open his 
 business, and make intercession on behalf of 
 Donnacha Rua, when the lawyer who did not 
 look like a lawyer, by the way, for he was 
 an immense, tall, white-headed, and broad- 
 shouldered Highlander interposed, and that in 
 a sufficiently angry manner. 
 
 " God bless my soul, do not I know ? " he 
 exclaimed, and he smacked the back of his hand 
 on to a sheet of paper that was lying before him 
 on the table. "There there it is. I got it 
 this morning, and he would have me take out 
 a summons against this shepherd. Now, Mr. 
 Angus, you may not know it is not your duty 
 to know ; but this I will tell you that a keeper 
 that quarrels with the shepherds is a fool, and 
 does not know his business. I say he is a fool 
 of a keeper, and not fit for his place. What 
 is a roe-deer? Nothing. The useless animal 
 would be away again before the winter, and 
 there is none of the gentry there. It is not I 
 
 p 2
 
 212 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 that will complain of a shepherd taking a roe- 
 deer, especially as you say it was not to sell it, 
 but for the Widow Eoss, that her ladyship was 
 writing to me about no longer ago than yester- 
 day. But what I complain of, Mr. Angus, is a 
 keeper that is foolish enough to quarrel with 
 the shepherds, when he should know that 
 everything on a shooting depends on the good- 
 will of the shepherds. Who can leave the nests 
 alone in the spring ? Who can keep in their 
 dogs from chasing the young birds and the 
 leverets? Who can give them notice when a 
 stag is coming into the woods, instead of 
 frightening him out again ? I say to you, Mr. 
 Angus, that a man who is not great friends with 
 the shepherds is a fool, and not fit to be in the 
 place a moment longer ! " 
 
 The angry vehemence of the tall Highlander 
 seemed entirely bent on the head of the poor 
 schoolmaster ; but he, seeing how well it served 
 his turn, did not care to protest. 
 
 "Then you'll not be for taking out the 
 summons, Mr. Maclnnes ? " he ventured to ask. 
 
 " I will not take out a summons ! " he said, 
 stamping his foot. "If I thought that Red 
 Duncan, or any other one of them, was in the
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 213 
 
 habit of poaching and selling the game, I would 
 soon mend matters ; I would have Colonel 
 Graham dismiss him there and then ; but you 
 tell me yourself, Mr. Angus, that it was to give 
 the poor widow woman a better mouthful ay, 
 and she just out of a fever and what do you 
 think his lordship would say to me if I was to 
 make him a prosecutor in such a case, and have 
 all the shepherds saying we were tyrants and 
 cruel men, when they heard the story ? Would 
 that help us? Would that be better for the 
 young grouse ? Would that keep the woods 
 any quieter ? " 
 
 " Indeed, Mr. Maclnnes," said the school- 
 master, " it was to ask you not to summons 
 Donnacha Eua that I have come all the way in 
 from Edenbridge ; for he was only doing a 
 kindly turn to his sister-in-law, that is very 
 badly off ; and I am sure he is no poacher ; for 
 I can answer for what the young lad Eoss, that 
 is a friend of mine, says of him ; an' the young 
 lad Eoss and his mother are in poor circum- 
 stances since Big Murdoch brought the strange 
 gillies to the place " 
 
 " It was only yesterday," said Mr. Maclnnes, 
 looking among his papers, " that I had a letter
 
 214 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 from her ladyship directing me to say nothing 
 about rent this year to the Widow Eoss ; and 
 likewise that as there was no one at the lodge I 
 was to provide that a bit present of game should 
 be sent her from time to time ; and I was 
 waiting to see Murdoch myself, for he's an ill- 
 conditioned, thrawn-necked, contentious, can- 
 tankerous kind of creature " 
 
 " I can tell you something more about Big 
 Murdoch, Mr. Maclnnes," said the schoolmaster, 
 who was not ill-pleased to learn in what estima- 
 tion the keeper was held by the all-powerful 
 agent. " Would ye be surprised to learn that 
 Big Murdoch keeps a whisky-still going within 
 a mile of Etherick Lodge ? " 
 
 The tall Highlander stared in a kind of 
 dumbfounded way ; and he stared in still greater 
 amazement when the schoolmaster was giving 
 him the full particulars of Andrew Eoss's ad- 
 venture. Indeed, he was far too astounded to 
 give vent to either indignation or anger. 
 
 " The audahcity the audahcity ! " he kept 
 repeating. " My certes, what will his lordship 
 say to this ? " 
 
 And then he turned sharp on the school 
 master.
 
 THE BLA CK BOTHY. 215 
 
 " How do ye know this story is true ? Man, 
 it's no possible ! He wouldna dare. On the 
 very edge of Etherick forest ? within sight o' 
 the lodge ? The lad has invented the story to 
 do Murdoch an ill turn for threatening his 
 uncle." 
 
 "I expected that might be said," answered 
 the schoolmaster, quietly, " though well I know 
 that the lad is speaking the truth. However, it 
 is an easy thing to show whether or no. He 
 says he can find out the black bothy if he is 
 allowed to search for it." 
 
 "And prove that Big Murdoch has had a 
 hand in it," said the other suspiciously. 
 
 " Well, no ; for that is asking too much, Mr. 
 Maclnnes. But I would have ye reflect on the 
 matter. Do ye think it possible that any black 
 bothy could be there just on the outskirts of 
 the forest and him not know ? A fine keeper 
 that would be to have such things happening 
 under his nose ! A fine watch he must have 
 been keeping on the deer, when men could be 
 corning and going, and sacks of malt, and barrels, 
 and all the rest of it ! And think of this, Mr. 
 Maclnnes these things must have been coming 
 and going by way of the loch "
 
 2 16 THE BLA CK BO THY. 
 
 " In our own boat in his lordship's own 
 boat ? " exclaimed Mr. Maclnnes, in tones of 
 horror. " I never heard the like ! " 
 
 " Surely ye maun see it's no possible that 
 such things could be going on and Murdoch and 
 the rest of them be in ignorance of it ! Now, I 
 have been thinking of it, Mr. Maclnnes, and this 
 is what I take to be fair that if the lad can 
 take you, or me, or the supervisor, or any of the 
 officers, and find out the bothy, we are bound to 
 believe the rest. It's no likely ye'll find Big 
 Murdoch there I should think not a keeper's 
 eyes will soon tell him there are strangers on 
 the hills, or else he's no much of a keeper." 
 
 " I agree with ye, Mr. Angus ; I agree with 
 ye," the big Highlander said, with decision. 
 " If there is a still so near the forest as that, 
 it maun ha' been there wi' the knowledge o' 
 Murdoch and the gillies as well ; and the fair 
 presumption is that they are concerned in it. 
 Eh, me, winna his lordship be an angry man at 
 such audahcity 1 I never heard the like ! And 
 a fine change we made when we sent away John 
 Malcolm, that is a douce, honest, hard-working 
 fellow, to Glenelg, and put in his place this 
 thrawn-necked scoondrel. No, I will no say
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 217 
 
 that. I take back the word, Mr. Angus. Proof 
 first is a lawyer's motto. But if this is true his 
 lordship'll be making this country side too het 
 for our neighbour Murdoch ; and I maun see 
 that I am not remiss about acting on your 
 information. Will ye oblige me, Mr. Angus, by 
 stepping along with me to the Inland Eevenue 
 Office ? " 
 
 The schoolmaster was in nowise loth, for he 
 had absolute confidence in the story that had 
 been told him by Andrew Eoss. But as they 
 were walking along the street he ventured to 
 say : 
 
 " Then, Mr. Maclnnes, you will not be taking 
 out the summons against the shepherd ? " 
 
 The answer was brief. It consisted in ap- 
 plying a phrase to the summons which was 
 distinctly emphatic, but which was highly 
 improper, and needs not therefore be repeated 
 here.
 
 7i8 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " THE HUNT IS UP." 
 
 IT was late that night when the schoolmaster 
 got back to Edenbridge ; but there was Andrew 
 Eoss anxiously waiting to hear the news. 
 
 " Well, Andrew," said he cheerfully, " ye may 
 fling your bonnet in the air. There is to be no 
 summons." 
 
 " Is it you, then, that we have to thank for 
 that ? " said the lad. 
 
 " Me ? Not one bit ! Mr. Maclnnes is a 
 sensible man he is for keeping on good terms 
 with the shepherds. He would not have taken 
 out the summons in any case. But that is only 
 one-half of the business. I had my own score 
 to settle with Big Murdoch ; and I'm thinking 
 he'll have to pay I'm thinking he'll have to 
 pay." 
 
 The schoolmaster grinned and rubbed his 
 hands; it was very clear that he had not
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. $19 
 
 forgotten his being prohibited from fishing in 
 the Etherick burn. 
 
 " I shouldna wonder now, Andrew, lad," said 
 he, more seriously, " if this turned out well for 
 you. I had a talk with Mr. Maclnnes, and he 
 asked about you, and I assume that Lady 
 Etherick was writing to him about your mother, 
 and I told him how you were placed this year, 
 and that it was a bad year for you, and you 
 were thinking of going away to Glasgow. Now, 
 tell me this, Andrew ; if you were to get work 
 here, would you rather have that, or would you 
 rather go away to Glasgow ? " 
 
 "I would rather be here," said the lad at 
 once ; "for my mother is ill, and she does not 
 like the thought of my going away. But if 
 there was a certainty of work here, would it not 
 be better than the chance of work in a great 
 town ? But there is no hope of it that I can 
 see." 
 
 " Do not be so -sure," said the schoolmaster, 
 * mysteriously. " Mr. Maclnnes was speaking to 
 me about what his lordship would think of all 
 this business, and that he might consider that 
 you have done him a service who knows ? It 
 is a fine thing to be in a position like his. You
 
 220 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 nod your head, or say half a dozen words to 
 your agent, and you give someone a good place 
 and a good weekly wage at a moment's notice. 
 If his lordship thinks you have done him a 
 service, it's but a nod of the head and the thing 
 is done. But we'll not count on the chickens 
 before they are hatched, Andrew, my man. "We 
 ha vena found the still yet." 
 
 " I do not know about the still," said young 
 Ross ; " but this I know that I can find the 
 black bothy." 
 
 " If you can make your way back to the 
 corrie you told me of," said the schoolmaster, 
 "that will be quite enough. There will be 
 others with you more accustomed to search for 
 such things than you. The supervisor will be 
 here the first thing on Monday morning, and 
 two or three of the officers with him, and maybe 
 Mr. Maclnnes too ; and if you can take them to 
 the corrie they will soon find out the rest that 
 is, unless Big Murdoch has got some inkling and 
 has cleared out in the meantime. And now 
 good-night for you must be getting home. Be 
 ready early on Monday morning. I do not 
 know what hour they may call at your mother's 
 cottage for you.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 221 
 
 The lad still lingered, however. 
 
 " Mr. Angus," said he, with some hesitation, 
 " I have been thinking I will go up to-morrow 
 to Allt-nam-ba, to let my uncle know there is to 
 be no summons. And if I was to wait until 
 night and come round by the corrie again " 
 
 " Why, you're daft, Andrew ! " the other ex- 
 claimed, good-naturedly. " You would be 
 running against some one or other of them, 
 and then they would only give you a beating, 
 and pack up their things and clear out, and 
 there would be nothing to bring against them. 
 No, no ; keep as far away from the place as ye 
 can until the officers go up with ye on Monday ; 
 then the sharper the work the better though 
 it's not to be expected ye'll find any o' them 
 there. I was for advising a midnight raid, so as 
 to catch them maybe ; but the officers are 
 against it in this case, it seems. They will be 
 satisfied if they can destroy the apparatus, and 
 they will find out the different places better in 
 the daylight. As for Mr. Maclnnes, if he finds 
 a black bothy just on the outskirts of Etherick 
 forest, there's no need to tell him who must 
 have been working it, that's sure enough ; and 
 ye may depend on't that Big Murdoch and his
 
 222 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 gillies have taken their last look at this country 
 side." 
 
 It was well done on the part of the school- 
 master to conceal from Andrew Ross the fact 
 that Mr. Maclnnes had at first regarded his 
 story with considerable suspicion, for that would 
 only have made him nervous, whereas, when the 
 party of officers called at the cottage in the gray 
 dawn of the Monday morning, and he set out to 
 guide them, he was quite confident that he could 
 at least find the corrie, whatever they might 
 discover afterwards. And as they proceeded to 
 ascend the steep hillside, through a straggling 
 wood of birch and rowan, Mr. Maclnnes, who 
 was also with them, began to question the lad 
 more particularly as to how he had managed to 
 stumble against Big Murdoch and his com- 
 panions. Young Ross told the whole story 
 frankly, confessing his share in that projected 
 purloining of the deer, and though the tall High- 
 lander, as was his duty, rebuked him smartly, 
 still, there was no great severity in his tone. 
 
 " Your uncle should have known better than 
 to lead a young lad like you into such a thing. 
 But we will not Bay much about it, for it was 
 not to sell the beast I am told "
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 223 
 
 " Indeed it was not, sir," said the lad. " It 
 was because he saw that my mother was not 
 well since she had the fever." 
 
 " Well, well, we will not say any more about 
 it ; but it is better for a young lad to keep out 
 of such things, for who knows but that at any 
 moment a situation might be offered him ? and 
 there should be no stories of that kind attached 
 to him. And maybe everything has happened 
 for the best if we manage to dig out this wasps' 
 byke of smugglers. That will be a good day's 
 work whatever." 
 
 The Inland Eevenue officers made no effort to 
 conceal their approach. They were talking and 
 laughing among themselves freely enough, 
 though they were now clear of the woods and on 
 the open heathery slopes forming the outskirts 
 of the forest.* Probably they had no expecta- 
 tion of effecting a surprise, for they knew the 
 nature of the country, and concluded that, if 
 there were people at work in the black bothy, 
 they would be sure to have some outlying scout 
 ready to apprise them of any approaching 
 danger. But what they next saw as they were 
 going on in this free and easy fashion did astound 
 * There are no trees in a Highland deer forest.
 
 224 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 them in no small measure. Quite suddenly a 
 man stood before them. He seemed to have 
 jumped out of the earth, so unexpected was his 
 appearance ; and even Mr. Maclnnes, who re- 
 cognised the stranger to be one of the gillies, for 
 a second or two regarded him as if he were an 
 apparition. 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " said Maclnnes 
 rather angrily. 
 
 The small, broad-shouldered, Celtic-looking 
 man answered with some sulkiness : 
 
 " I was setting a trap, sir." 
 
 " Let me see it," said the agent, who had his 
 suspicions. 
 
 But there, true enough, was the trap, very 
 artfully laid, and the gillie added, as if to con- 
 firm his story : 
 
 " I saw a dog-fox come by here on Saturday 
 morning." 
 
 " Is Big Murdoch at the lodge ? " said Mac- 
 lnnes, looking at the man sharply. 
 
 The gillie betrayed no concern, he only glanced 
 from one to the other of the officers, as he said : 
 
 " Oh yes, sir. I think he will be at the lodge." 
 
 " Then go down and tell him not to go away 
 anywhere until I see him."
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 225 
 
 " Very well, sir," said the man, setting off 
 with much self-possession, as one of the officers 
 said to the other : 
 
 " That fellow was there to give some signal, 
 as sure as you're alive." 
 
 It was almost directly after this that they 
 struck the head of the small ravine they were in 
 search of. At least Andrew Ross made sure 
 that this was the corrie ; and having descended 
 it for some little distance he came in sight of the 
 loch, just as he had expected. And now a 
 general search began. He gave them a guess as 
 to the whereabouts of the bothy ; but, naturally, 
 it was only a guess. They began to pry behind 
 boulders and push aside bushes, even to sound 
 the heather. Andrew Ross was as active as any 
 of them ; but in the end, as it proved, the dis- 
 covery was not to be his. All at once one of the 
 officers uttered a short, low whistle, and then 
 they could see him push aside some branches of 
 a small birch tree, and then step over one or two 
 large pieces of rock. 
 
 " I don't know whether the wasps are inside, 
 Mr. Maclnnes," said he facetiously ; " but here's 
 the byke." 
 
 Of course there was a general rush to the 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 place, and the officer who had made the dis- 
 covery, after taking a box of matches from his 
 pocket, lifted aside a rude kind of door that had 
 been constructed of two or three planks nailed 
 together, with a most ingenious coating of 
 heather, grass, and ferns glued on to it, and 
 passed on by the dark aperture that was thus 
 disclosed. The others lost no time in following; 
 
 o 
 
 him, and presently there was a glow of light in 
 the cavern which they got into, for the first 
 visitor had now lit a candle. This recess they 
 were now exploring had probably been in the 
 first place of natural formation, and not more 
 than four or five feet deep ; but the ingenuity of 
 the smugglers, having perceived the opportune- 
 ness of this entrance, had easily succeeded in 
 clearing out behind a large space admirably 
 adapted for their illicit trade. And here was all 
 the apparatus necessary for that trade, though 
 there was no trace of recent occupation, and not 
 a single jar or barrel of whisky there. The still 
 seemed a comparatively new one, and so also the 
 copper worm ; these the officers said they would 
 have to take to the Inland Revenue Office at 
 Inverness. But the fermenting casks which 
 they found standing they instantly proceeded to
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 227 
 
 demolish ; and the task took no great time. All 
 this while Mr. Maclnnes stood looking on like 
 one amazed. 
 
 " The audahcity of it the audahcity of it I " 
 he kept exclaiming. "Almost within sight 
 of the lodge ! Did ever any one hear the 
 like ? " 
 
 The detective officers, however, had not nearly 
 done. In the course of another hour or so, their 
 close and diligent searching of this corrie, from 
 the very top of it down almost to the loch, had 
 disclosed to them no fewer than three other 
 places of concealment, each furnished with its 
 own supply of stores ropes and pulleys, casks, 
 sacks of malt, and what not, all of which were 
 instantly confiscated. And then, when they had 
 satisfied themselves that they had thoroughly 
 dug out that wasps' byke, they playfully sug- 
 gested to Mr. Maclnnes that he and they to- 
 gether could do no better than proceed to 
 Etherick Lodge to see whether Big Murdoch 
 could not afford them some entertainment in the 
 way of breakfast. Mr. Maclnnes was for going 
 on to Etherick Lodge, but in no such humorous 
 mood. There could be no manner of doubt that 
 this black bothy had belonged to Big Murdoch 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 and his allies. It was impossible for this thing 
 to have been going on without his knowing well 
 of it, and he certainly would not have risked his 
 situation to allow other people to carry on an 
 illicit still on the very edge of Lord Etherick's 
 house. The audacity of it this was what over- 
 whelmed the mind of Mr. Maclnnes ; and while 
 he consented to go on to the lodge, it was with 
 no facetious hopes of breakfast. He was in 
 doubt as to which would be the more appropriate 
 mood for the forthcoming interview indignant, 
 anger or sardonic sarcasm. One thing he was 
 determined on at least that Big Murdoch and 
 his gillies should have instant and peremptory 
 dismissal, bag and baggage. 
 
 Of that interview, however, which proved to 
 be a somewhat stormy one, Andrew Eoss was 
 not a spectator. His part in the business was 
 over. 
 
 "Ye may go back home now, my lad," Mr. 
 Maclnnes said to him ; " and I think I may tell 
 ye that his lordship will be obliged to ye for this 
 service. I hear ye were sometimes at the lodge 
 when John Malcolm was there." 
 
 " Oh yes, sir, every autumn, and sometimes in 
 the. winter too."
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 229 
 
 " And they tell me ye have learned something 
 about the breaking in of dogs." 
 
 " I hope, sir, I know a little of that, for it is 
 little I know of anything else," was the modest 
 reply. 
 
 " Well, ye must not be thinking that his 
 lordship has to turn every young lad about here 
 into a keeper to prevent his being a poacher ; 
 but when I get John Malcolm up from Glenelg, 
 I will see what he says about ye. And you can 
 tell your mother that her ladyship was writing 
 about her, and she need not think any more 
 about the rent for this year ; and maybe if I find 
 that the roe-deer that was near getting Donnacha 
 Rua into trouble is to the fore yet, there may be 
 a bit of it find its way to the cottage." 
 
 And so young Ross set out home with a light 
 heart, and gave the messages to his mother ; 
 but he said nothing about the mysterious hints 
 with regard to himself that had fallen from Mr. 
 Maclnues, for he knew not what they might 
 mean. 
 
 It was about a week after that that he de- 
 finitely learned. He was at work in the little 
 patch of potato garden adjoining the cottage, 
 when a dog-cart came driving along, and
 
 230 THE BLACK BOTHY, 
 
 stopped. Then there was a sharp whistle, and 
 instantly he put down his spade and went to the 
 roadside. It was Lord Etherick himself a 
 little, thin, wiry, gray-haired man who was in 
 the dog-cart ; so Andrew quickly touched his 
 cap, as in duty bound. 
 
 " You are Andrew Ross eh ? " said his lord- 
 ship, who spoke rapidly and sharply, and had a 
 habit of answering his own questions. " Much 
 obliged to you, my lad, for putting us on the 
 scent of those impudent scoundrels. Has John 
 Malcolm gone by this morning ? No ? " 
 
 " No, your lordship." 
 
 "You'll see him "in the afternoon most likely, 
 then. He is a friend of yours, I take it ? 
 Well, you've done him a good turn by getting 
 rid of Murdoch. Malcelm will be head 
 keeper now, and he will see that your mother 
 hasn't to set the shepherds poaching. How 
 is the poor woman ? Much the same, I 
 suppose ? Here, take this parcel ; it's from her 
 ladyship." 
 
 He handed out of the dog-cart a large tin box, 
 which young Ross took in his arms. 
 
 " You're good friendu with Malcolm eh ? 
 Yes ; I guessed that. He spoke well of you.
 
 THE BLACK BOTHY. 231 
 
 He says you're smart with the dogs. You may 
 be under-keeper, if you like, at the lodge, take 
 charge of the kennels, and have a pound a week. 
 Would you like it ? Is that enough ? Eh 
 what?" 
 
 " It is a very good wage, indeed, your lordship," 
 said young Ross, who was rather breathless. 
 
 " Speak to Malcolm about it," his lordship 
 continued, in the same rapid way. " Is that 
 your sister, the little girl with the cow ? Yes ; 
 I thought so. Tell her not to keep the cow by 
 the roadside. Drive her down to the meadows 
 by the bridge, and get her fattened up a bit. 
 Say I said so ; do you understand ? " 
 
 And therewith he drove on again, leaving 
 young Ross rather amazed and stupefied by his 
 sudden good fortune. But the horse had not 
 gone a dozen yards when he was pulled up, and 
 his lordship called back 
 
 " Hi, look here, my lad ! No more of that 
 snaring of roe-deer, do you understand ? You 
 are a keeper now', remember." 
 
 " Yes, your lordship," said Andrew Ross, 
 dutifully, though it may be doubted if he knew 
 at that precise moment whether he was standing 
 on his head or his heels.
 
 23.2 THE BLACK BOTHY. 
 
 And then it suddenly occurred to him that it 
 was high time that this wonderful news should 
 be carried into the cottage. No such welcome 
 tidings had been taken thither for many and 
 many a day. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY \VM. CLOWES AND SO^'S, LIMITEP, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHAKING CliOSS.
 
 The following is a complete list of the new Half-Crown Edition 
 of Mr. BLACK'S Novels, and the probable order of their 
 monthly issue beginning January 1892. 
 
 A Daughter of Heth. (Ready.) 
 The Strange Adventures of a 
 
 Phaeton. (Ready.) 
 A Princess of Thnle. (Ready.) 
 In Silk Attire. (Ready.) 
 Kilmeny. (Ready.) 
 Madcap Violet (Ready.) 
 Three Feathers. (Ready.) 
 The Maid ol Killeena. (Ready.) 
 Green Pastures and Piccadilly. 
 
 (Ready.) 
 
 Macleod of Dare. (Ready.) 
 Lady Silverdale's Sweetheart. 
 
 (Ready.) 
 White Wings. (Ready.) 
 
 Sunrise. (Ready.) 
 The Beautiful Wretch. 
 
 (Ready.) 
 
 Shandou Bells. (Ready.) 
 Adventures in Thuie. (Ready) 
 Tolande. 
 
 Judith Shakespeare. 
 The Wise Women of Inverness. 
 White Heather. 
 Sabina Zembra. 
 The Strange Adventures of a 
 
 House Boat. 
 In Far Lochaber. 
 The Penance of John Logan. 
 Prince Fortunatus. 
 
 LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, LntrriD, 
 ST. DUNSTAN'S HOUSE, FETTEB LANE.