S8«:3<Ht5j5fiw:yi 
 
 '^.immsm 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 Joseph Whitmore Barry 
 dramatic library 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 TWO FRIENDS 
 
 OF Cornell University 
 
 1934 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR4124.A21883 
 
 Adventures in Thule: three stories for bo 
 
 3 1924 013 435 171 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013435171 
 
ADVENTURES IN THULE 
 
ADVENTURES IN THULE 
 
 %hxzz §toxiz8 f0r §o^s 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BLACK 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON,' ETC. 
 
 EonOon 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1883 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The second of these Stories, " The Four MacNicols," 
 is also published along with " The Beautiful Wretch," 
 and "The Pupil of Aurelius," i vol., Macmillan and 
 Co., London. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Adventure in Thule ..... i 
 
 The Four MacNicols 65 
 
 The Black Bothy 123 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THULE 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 High up on one of the headlands of the Island of 
 Lewis two young lads wefe idly seated on the grass, 
 sometimes plucking a head of Dutch clover, some- 
 times 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 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, — 
 
4 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. i. 
 
 " 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 ? " 
 
 They were still regarding the far islands. 
 
 " If my father would let me," M'Calmont said, " I'd 
 go out and live on Farriskeir 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 would be no more stealing of my father's 
 sheep. Do you think I would be afraid ? I would 
 not be afraid. I would build myself a hut, for there 
 is plenty of wood washed up since the big vessel 
 went ashore on Rua." 
 
 " 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, 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 
 
 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 a fine thing. 
 Do you think we could slip away to Farriskeir with- 
 out 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 be 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 Reikjavik in 
 Iceland' they would tell all the other boats that they 
 had been fired at, and that people lived on Farris- 
 keir 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 Reik- 
 javik, 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 
 
6 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. i. 
 
 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 !" 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 com- 
 pleting 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 after- 
 noon 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 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 
 
CHAP. I.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 7 
 
 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 ask- 
 ing 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 per- 
 haps you could spare me a little gunpowder." 
 
 " 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 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 
 
 ' 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 it begins to splutter and hiss like a 
 miniature Vesuvius. 
 
 2 Hoodies are a species of crow held in much disfavour by the pre- 
 servers of game in the Highlands. 
 
8 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. i. 
 
 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 yoUj 
 Colin, my lad," said he, in quite a different 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 
 
CHAP. I.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 9 
 
 Dugald M'Lean for what immediate purpose he 
 wanted some powder, it was because he knew very 
 well that M'Lean would instantly speak of the matter 
 and compel him to abandon so dangerous an enter- 
 prise. 
 
 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 ex- 
 plained 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 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 
 
lo AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. i. 
 
 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 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 
 
CHAP. I.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. ii 
 
 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 main- 
 sail 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 shores of Farriskeir and 
 its adjacent islands. It 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," sug- 
 gested 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 
 
12 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. i. 
 
 So the pistol was carefully wrapped up in the old 
 stocking that 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 forth- 
 coming 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 
 Rua. 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," 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 
 
CHAP. I.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 13 
 
 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 excite- 
 ment 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 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. 
 
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 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." 
 
CHAP. II.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE.. 15 
 
 " 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 what 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, 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 
 ''ad ; and if the girls at the shieling hear that we 
 
i6 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. ii. 
 
 have brought back a cargo of wood from Rua- 
 veg, what then? Where will be their questions 
 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 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 themselves. 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 Reikjavik 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? 
 It is no one but two boys who are on Farriskeir, for we 
 
CHAP. II.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 17 
 
 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 anyway 
 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 dis- 
 tinct ; and as they drew nearer and nearer, the lads 
 could see and hear that their appearance was causing 
 a vast commotion among the innumerable 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 1 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." 
 
 " There is not more than a third of her left now," 
 Coli^ M'Calmont said ; " and it is nothing but a 
 lump of old iron she is. But we will go round the 
 point of Rua and look at her. Slack the lee jid-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 
 C 
 
i8 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 
 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 every- 
 where 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 
 
CHAP. II.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE, 19 
 
 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 
 desolation without uttering a word, apparently over- 
 awed by it ; but at last Colin M'Calmont said, — 
 
 " Archie, do you not think I could climb up in- 
 side 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 dis- 
 may 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 wood- 
 work ; 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 care, now, and 
 I will throw them down to you." 
 
20 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 companion 
 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 cross- 
 ing 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 provoked 
 no exclamation, but which caused him to 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 was 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 Far- 
 riskeir ; I will not put the sail on her at all ; we 
 
CHAP. II.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 21 
 
 will row through the channel between Farriskeir and 
 Rua, 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 somewhat 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. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 "Do you see her?" 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, scorn- 
 fully. " 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 more of my father's sheep 
 killed. I wish them to take the story to Reikjavik 
 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 
 
CHAP. III.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 23 
 
 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 
 fishermen 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 matter," 
 said the other ; " it is where you are that I am going 
 to be." 
 
 " Oh, very well, then ; we will now set about load- 
 ing the pistol." 
 
 The pistol they had brought ashore with them ; 
 
24 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. hi. 
 
 "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 thing to kill a man, 
 Colin." 
 
 " Now that is the truth you are speaking, like the 
 old man of Ross. The old man of Ross 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 Reikjavik ; that time it will 
 be if they want to land and chase us. And then 
 every one for 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," con- 
 tinued 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 ni^r^t 
 yet one that would wait till you could put salt on its 
 
CHAP. III.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 25 
 
 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 I 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'Calmont found 
 
26 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. hi. 
 
 M'Calmont took the precaution 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 monotonous 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 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 
 
CHAP. III.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 27 
 
 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'Cal- 
 mont, 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. 
 
 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 himself 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 con- 
 tinued rowing for the shore. 
 
 " They are going to land, Archie!" 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 ! 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 without showing 
 themselves on any of the little grassy plateaus or of 
 
28 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. iii. 
 
 the higher rocks. Fortunately, 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 1" — 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, 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 
 
CHAP. III.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 29 
 
 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 with- 
 out fighting than to be safe after fighting, as the old 
 man of Ross said." 
 
 They waited and waited, and there was not a 
 sound outside. 
 
 " I wonder now," the elder lad said at length, 
 " 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 recover from their 
 fright, the strange creature had turned and made off as 
 quickly as its webbed feet and long tail would allow. 
 
 ^ Guagaire was the word he used, but, besides meaning "splay- 
 footed," it is also used to denote one who is idle or giddy or frivolous. 
 
30 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. in. 
 
 " 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 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 en- 
 treated. " 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 some- 
 thing 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. 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 
 
CHAP. III.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 31 
 
 of the questions any more, Archie, if the girls at the 
 shieling will be asking you why you went to Farris- 
 keir. 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 cheer- 
 fulness), " it was a more important thing than an 
 otter that we came for ; and never before 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 be- 
 hind 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. All at once M'Calmont 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 
 nbt do that. It would be seen. They had no 
 
32 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. hi. 
 
 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 rnast 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. 
 
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, con- 
 :sidering 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 com- 
 panion ; then he said, aghast, — 
 
 " Colin, we shall die of hunger." 
 
 Colin had been prepared for this. 
 
 " Die of hunger ! " he exclaimed. " Now you are 
 talking like some poor creature who has never been 
 away from a town. You are talking 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 
 D 
 
34 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. iv. 
 
 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'Calmont 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 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. 
 
 1 The eachan is a shell-fisli resembling tlie cockle, but a trifle smaller, 
 and with a smooth shell. It is similar to, if it 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. 
 
CHAP. IV.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 35 
 
 " 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 M6r and perhaps 
 it was Gealtaire M6r ; that is no matter ; but the 
 five men saved themselves. Very well, then ; what 
 did they do ? They gathered bits of stick, and 
 dried heather, and the like, and they made them 
 into five 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 ! " 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 legend- 
 ary tales and fancies of these northern solitudes. 
 
 " I do not say that, Archie," replied his companion, 
 grimly. "If you can swim to the mainland, there 
 will be no need to pass the night on Farriskeir. 
 
36 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap, iv. 
 
 But if you can, it is not I that can. 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 unpromising 
 enough ; it was more like a path 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 com- 
 panion 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 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 
 
CHAP. IV.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 37 
 
 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 think- 
 ing 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 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 way in which his father would receive 
 the news of the loss of the boat. Would he take 
 into consideration his son's good intentions? Or 
 1 Of ten points — referring to the antlers. 
 
38 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. iv. 
 
 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 
 Farriskeir. 
 
 The gray dawn broke. 
 
 " 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 
 
CHAP. IV.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 39 
 
 drowsy murmur of the sea outside. He was fast 
 asleep. 
 
 But suddenly he found himself wakened 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 com- 
 panion 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 your- 
 self, Colin, if you have the courage to go. It is like 
 a woman. It is one of the princesses. But she did 
 not see me ; or she would have changed into a swan 
 and flown ajvay. 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 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. 
 
40 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. iv. 
 
 " 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 non- 
 sense out of your head. Do you wish to become 
 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, ' Good morning.' For that is good 
 manners to a stranger ; and my father has the farm- 
 ing of Farriskeir ; and if a stranger comes to Farris- 
 keir, it is not I that would be so unfriendly as not to 
 say ' Good morning.' " 
 
 It was with the greatest reluctance that 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 
 therefore he went 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 
 
CHAP. IV.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 41 
 
 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. 
 
 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'Calmont, 
 despite himself, retreated a couple of steps ; but he 
 kept his face towards her ; and then he stood. 
 
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 l'" 
 
 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 concerned, drove 
 any remnant of fear out of his mind ; he forgot 
 even his timid companion behind ; he went for- 
 ward 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. 
 
 " 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." 
 
CHAP, v.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 43 
 
 " 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 communicate 
 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 com- 
 panion, " sometimes she says see and sometimes 
 wee ; but a nod of the head is still surer. And she 
 says she will go with us to the mainland ; 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, 
 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 eachaiis, 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 Ross 
 to tell you that. And if she is from France, people 
 who eat frogs need not turn up their noses at 
 eachans!' 
 
44 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. v. 
 
 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 she is not hungry," Colin said, after a 
 second. 
 
 " Perhaps she does not like shell-fish raw," 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 with- 
 ered 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 ilint 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 sufficiently 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 
 
CHAP, v.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 45 
 
 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. 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, turn- 
 ing 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 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 
 
46 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. v. 
 
 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 break- 
 fast ; and the young lady made signs to the younger 
 lad that he, too, was to join in that feast of roasted 
 eachans, and 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?" 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 speak- 
 ing 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." 
 
CHAP, v.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 47 
 
 " 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 
 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 bestrewed 
 the western shores of the island — some of it, indeed, 
 having been hauled up above highwater mark for 
 transportation to the mainland. 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 mahogany, 
 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 mourn- 
 ing 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." 
 
48 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. v. 
 
 "Then they will know we were not at the shiel- 
 ing last night, and they will be looking 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 build- 
 ing 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." 
 
 " 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 Pyra- 
 mids and such places as that. And you will see 
 
CHAP, v.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 49 
 
 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 what 
 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 Mullman.' 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, he went 
 and rejoined his companion ; and found, to his great 
 astonishment, that the young lady — whose black 
 eyes seemed to be full of gladness and kindness and 
 gratitude — appeared to understand the whole situa- 
 tion 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, with- 
 out 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 
 
 E 
 
so AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. v. 
 
 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 bon- 
 fire that he had made on the board, and then pointed 
 to the middle of the island, himself 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 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 dark- 
 ened 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 
 
CHAP, v.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. Si 
 
 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." 
 
 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 arm- 
 ful 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 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 
 
52 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. v. 
 
 am thinking of ; when your father, or my father, or 
 perhaps Dugald M'Lean from Glen Estera, comes 
 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' How 
 are we to be answering anything about the French 
 young lady ? Let them ask for themselves. 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 lan- 
 guage, it is not anything to be proud of He might 
 have made a better use of his time." 
 
 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 How." 
 
 "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 Fraser- 
 burgh, and see the great fleet of fishing-boats. Now 
 there would be some sense in that." 
 
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 sometimes 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 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 
 
S4 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. vi. 
 
 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 thankfulness 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-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 com- 
 panion. " Indeed, Colin, it is not I that am sorry 
 
CHAP. VI.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 55 
 
 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 ! 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, 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 finger. 
 I will let the ghost snap at my finger if he can." 
 
 Whether this logic quite convinced Archie Living- 
 ston 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 
 
S6 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. vi. 
 
 language— have got from the boys a narration of all 
 their adventures during these past two days ? But 
 that over, Mr. Livingston recollected himself. 
 
 "Archie," said he, in his best English, "you wass 
 saying the leddy is a French leddy ! " 
 
 " Seadh ! " said Archie ; and then he too, recol- 
 lected himself. " Ay, she's French. And no word 
 of English at ahl." 
 
 " Kott pless me 1 " said the schoolmaster, looking 
 somewhat distressed. And then he turned to his 
 friend M'Calmont, Colin's father. 
 
 " It is a terriple 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 but 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 whateffer. 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 every- 
 thing eagerly, but not attempting to speak. She 
 could see by their gestures and by their occasionally 
 looking towards her, that they were 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 
 
CHAP. VI.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 57 
 
 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 — ici est — est oat-cake — et aussi 
 whiskey — trh 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 1 Kott pless me ! " he murmured 
 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 school- 
 master, " 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 
 
 \ 
 
 1 The name of the farm. These territorial designations are common 
 
 in Scotland, 
 
58 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. vi. 
 
 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 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 school- 
 master 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 intima- 
 tion she seemed to comprehend 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 ! that was to 
 
CHAP. VI.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 59 
 
 hef been marriet this ferry day. 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 lang- 
 wich ; 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 see- 
 ing. 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 ?" 
 
 " That is what I think. And we will get at the 
 story better when we hef the sheriff from Styorno- 
 way ; and the sheriff's leddy — oh, she is wonderful 
 goot at ahl langwiches, except the Gaelic, and she 
 is not so goot at the Gaelic : and 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 
 
6o AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. vi. 
 
 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 scoundrel as 
 that, wass not for stealing the young leddy's watch 
 and other things too." 
 
 "Dunvorgan," said the schoolmaster, thoughtfully, 
 " 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 
 
CHAP. VI.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 6i 
 
 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. 
 
 " 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 gentle- 
 men sent all the way over from France for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Then the young lady left with these gentlemen 
 (though it seemed as if she would never cease ex- 
 pressing to the two lads, through the sheriff, her 
 gratitude to them), and no one expected to hear any 
 
62 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [chap. vi. 
 
 more of the thing, except the sheriff, who knew 
 better. 
 
 One day Colin M'Calmont and Archie Living- 
 ston, with their respective fathers, were summoned 
 to go over to Stornoway, to the sheriff's 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'Calmont. 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 " 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." 
 
CHAP. VI.] AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 63 
 
 " 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 com- 
 plete, 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 
 Fdiciti — for that is her own name ; ani you can 
 have no objection to that." 
 
 " 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, my lads ; I think the 
 next time you go out to frighten the Frenchmen 
 from stealing the sheep at Farriskeir, 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 
 
64 AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 you should happen on the west coast of Lewis to 
 run against a smart little cutter called the FMciti, 
 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 Rua-veg. 
 
THE FOUR MACNICOLS 
 
THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 
 
 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 MacNicol, 
 or even as plain Rob, was an active, stout-sinewed, 
 black-eyed lad of seventeen, whose only mark of 
 chieftainship apparently was that, unlike his brothers, 
 he wore shoes and stockings ; these three relatives 
 constituted 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 
 
68 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 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 belong- 
 ing 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 becoming anything else than a fisherman. It was 
 impossible to induce them to apprentice themselves 
 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 shaping a block of sandstone 
 for somebody else's house. This Rob MacNicoI, 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 oil- 
 skin tied up in a bundle, to the wharf where the 
 
CHAP. I.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 69 
 
 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 idle- 
 ness, 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 — 
 Rob 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 him- 
 self obeyed. As soon as they had shoved the boat 
 clear of the smacks, the jib was promptly set ; the 
 big lumps 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, nothing could have been more auspicious 
 for the setting out of the 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. Rob, from his proud position at the bow, 
 darted an angry glance at his helmsman. 
 
 " Keep her full, will ye ?" he growled in an under- 
 tone. " Do ye call that steering, ye gomeril ? Run 
 her by Daft Sandy's boat ! It is no better than a 
 cowherd you are at the steering." 
 
 This daff Sandy, who will turn up in our history 
 by and by, was a half-witted old man, who spent his 
 
70 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 life in fishing for flounders from a rotten old punt he 
 had become possessed of. He earned a sort of liv- 
 ing that way ; and 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 thi's amiable 
 sport except when Rob MacNicol 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 Mac- 
 Nicol had very little scruple about taking the law 
 into his own hand. When he 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 strin- 
 gent rules and punishments, to which, it must be 
 acknowledged, he cheerfully submitted himself. At 
 the same time, he was aware that even the most 
 moral and high-principled government has occasion- 
 ally to assert itself with rude physical force ; and 
 although his hand was not particularly red, as might 
 have been expected, it was uncommonly hard, and a 
 cufF from it was understood to produce the most 
 startling lightning eiTects in the region of the eye. 
 
 Well, as they were nearing Daft Sandy's punt, 
 Rob called out to him, — 
 
CHAP. 1.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 71 
 
 "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 kins- 
 men 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, in- 
 stead of holding it in his hand, ready for all emer- 
 gencies. This, and not unnaturally, on such a 
 squally coast, Rob MacNicol had constituted an alto- 
 gether unforgivable offence ; and his first impulse 
 was to jump down to the stern of the boat and give 
 the helmsman, caught in flagrante 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 
 
72 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 Eilean-na-Rona Castle. He was left to decide which 
 alternative he would accept ; and it must be said 
 that the culprit, after a n^iinute or two's sulking, per- 
 ceived the justice of the sentence, and calmly said he 
 would take the dungeon. 
 
 "Ye think I'm feared?" he said contemptuously, 
 to Neil and Duncan, who were grinning at him. 
 " Wha was it that gruppit the whutteruck ^? And is 
 there anything worse than whutterucks in that hole 
 in the castle?" 
 
 " 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 any way," said Nicol, to whom 
 a penny was a thing of known and substantial value, 
 
 Now if any proof had been needed that Rob Mac- 
 Nicol'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 har- 
 bour, and were just emerging into Loch 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 !" 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 
 1 AngHci, seized hold of the weasel. 
 
CHAP. I.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 73 
 
 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 sail the weight would have 
 dragged her down ; but Rob instantly got rid of this 
 danger by springing to the halyards, and, the 
 moment the crank craft strove to right herself, bring- 
 ing 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 
 Rob, ready to obey his slightest gesture, and Rob 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 wind with a straining jib. At 
 all hazards it was necessary to fight her clear of that 
 long ledge of rock, even if the wind threatened to 
 tear the mast out of the boat. So Rob himself 
 sprang down to the stern and took the tiller. 
 
 " Duncan, Neil, stand by the halyards now ! 
 When I sing out to ye, hoist her- — be ready now !" 
 
 He had his eye on the rocks all this time. On 
 
74 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 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. Already Rob MacNicol could 
 make out some of these submarine reefs even through 
 the turbulent 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 was 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 Rob, 
 having had recourse to desperate remedies, was 
 determined to give her enough of the wind. Down 
 again went the 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 
 
CHAP. I.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 7S 
 
 depths of the rocks they had succeeded in weathering 
 — the war-galley of the great chieftain 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 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, Rob once more 
 delivered the tiller into the charge of his brother 
 Nicol, and went forward to his post of observation 
 at the bow. About the only bit of the imaginative 
 voyage on which he had started that had a solid 
 
76 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 basis in fact was the existence of an old castle — or 
 rather the ruins of what had once been a castle — on 
 the island called Eilean-na-Rona ; 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 with 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-Rona 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 unin- 
 habited 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 wood 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 was no way up, for tourists did not 
 come that 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 difficulty. 
 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 
 
CHAP. I.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 77 
 
 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 unin- 
 habited 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 of the 
 lug-sail ; ye might have drooned the lot of us." 
 
 Nicol nodded. He had sinned, and was prepared 
 to suffer. 
 
 " Have ye ought 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?" 
 
78 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. i. 
 
 "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 apart- 
 ment that was but feebly lit by the reflected glare 
 coming from without. The other boys, as well as 
 Nicol, walked very 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. 
 
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 exceedingly 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 little ; and they did 
 not spend much money on clothes, especially in 
 summer time, when no Erisaig boy — except Rob 
 MacNicol, who was a distinguished person — would 
 submit to the encumbrance of shoes and stockings. 
 Nevertheless, for various purposes, money was neces- 
 sary to them ; and this they obtained by going 
 
8o THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 two- 
 pence 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 extri- 
 cating 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 fisherman 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 
 
CHAP. II.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 8i 
 
 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 alternative 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 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 bag- 
 pipes, 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 qourse he could see nothing. But there was a 
 vague tradition that this dungeon was haunted by 
 
 G 
 
82 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. ii. 
 
 ghosts, vampires, warlocks, and other unholy things ; 
 and there was a 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 M6r 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 legend 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 companions. 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. 
 
 " 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 ?" 
 
CHAP. II.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 83 
 
 Rob turned quickly. 
 
 " Duncan, down to the boat with ye ! Loosen 
 the lug -sail halyards, and bring them up — quick, 
 quick 1" 
 
 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 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!" Rob MacNicol said, with a 
 
 scornful laugh. " Ye ought to ken, then. It was 
 
84 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 per- 
 formances for the night-time. Perhaps it was only 
 bats, as Rob asserted. Indeed, it would be safer — 
 especially in Rob's presence — to accept his explana- 
 tion 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 pecu- 
 niary or other reward. As for himself, his part was 
 that of spectator and arbiter ; he handicapped the 
 competitors ; he declared the prizes. On this occa- 
 sion he ensconced himself in a niche of the ruins, 
 where he was out of the glare of the sun, and grace- 
 fully 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 
 
CHAP. 11.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 85 
 
 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 diversions 
 followed. Three or four planks, rudely nailed to- 
 gether, 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 tar- 
 paulin thrown over it. Then two of the boys took 
 out their Jew's-harps — alas ! alas 1 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, O !" as a 
 preliminary flourish. What was this now? What 
 but a performance of the famous sword-dance by 
 that renowned and valiant henchman, Nicol Mac- 
 Nicol of Erisaig, in the kingdom of Scotland 1 
 Nicol, failing a couple of broadswords 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 evolutions 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 victoriously snapped his 
 thumbs, it wants a Homeric chronicler to tell. It 
 needs only be said here that, after it, Neil's " High- 
 land 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 
 
86 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 inter- 
 esting 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. 
 
 "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 !" said Rob, contemptuously. 
 
 " I think it was houlets,"^ said Duncan, confidently; 
 " for there was one in the wood when I was gaun 
 ^ AngUci, owls. 
 
CHAP. 11.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 87 
 
 through, and I nearly ran my head against him. He 
 was sitting in one of the larches — man, he made a 
 noise 1" 
 
 " 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 no more signs of any 
 squall ; but the light steady breeze was contrary ; 
 and as Robert 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. 
 
88 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. ii. 
 
 Patience and perseverance will beat even contrary 
 winds ; and at last, after one long tack stretching 
 almost to the other side of Loch Scrone, they put 
 about and managed to 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 over- 
 sight Rob MacNicol was not responsible ; the fact 
 being that oars were valuable in Erisaig, and 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 Glenart£s paddles. Rob 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. 
 
 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, 
 
CHAP. II.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 89 
 
 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. 
 
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 from it with all the strength at his 
 disposal. He remembered afterwards experiencing a 
 sort of hatred of that shining green thing, and think- 
 ing 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 
 
CHAP. III.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 91 
 
 people on the steamer were calling to him to lay 
 hold of it ; but he had never touched one of these 
 things, and he preferred 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-Rona 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, Rob himself struck 
 out for the side of the steamer, and was speedily 
 hauled on board, presently finding himself on deck 
 with his two dripping companions. 
 
 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 consternation. 
 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 
 
92 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. in. 
 
 been lowered was pulled about, but the search was 
 in vain. The woman's story was the only explana- 
 tion of this strange disappearance ; but the sailors 
 suspected more than they dared to suggest to the 
 bewildered lads. They suspected that old MacNicol 
 had dropped into the water just before the paddles 
 had made their first backward revolution, 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 Rob 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, 
 Rob 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 man looked cautiously 
 at the bed, in which Neil lay fast asleep. 
 
 " Whisht, Rob, my man," he said in a whisper ; 
 
CHAP. III.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 93 
 
 " 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 ? Ye'll be taking to the 
 fishing?" 
 
 " 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 £^0 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 day comes I will put 
 something in your way. Ay, ay ; the fishermen 
 about Erisaig dinna know everything ; come to me, 
 Rob, my man, and I'll tell ye something about the 
 herring. Ye are a good lad, Rob ; many's the herring 
 I've got from ye when I wouldna go nea,? the shore 
 for they mischievous bairns ; and when once ye have 
 a boat and nets o' your own I will tell ye something. 
 Daft Sandy is no so daft, maybe. Have ye ony 
 tobacco, Rob?" 
 
94 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. hi. 
 
 Rob said he had no tobacco ; and making sure 
 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. 
 
 Rob was anxious that his brothers and cousin, and 
 himself, should present a respectable appearance at 
 the funeral ; and in these humble preparations 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 departed 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, who 
 kept the grocery shop, and he called Rob in as the 
 boys passed home. 
 
 "Rob," said he, "ye maun be doing something 
 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 ?" 
 
 " I think I could get him to give ye four shillings 
 a week. That would keep ye very well." 
 
CHAP. III.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 95 
 
 "Keep me?" said Rob. "Ay, but what's to be- 
 come 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 harbour. 
 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 Glas- 
 gow, 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 consider- 
 ing the details of this scheme of co-operation. And 
 
 1 " Cuddies" is the familiar name in those parts for young saithe, 
 " Trawling," again, means there the use of an ordinary seine. 
 
96 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. hi. 
 
 it was eagerly welcomed, not only by Neil, but also 
 by the brothers Duncan and Nicol, who had been 
 frightened by the thought of Rob 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 discussed, 
 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 employ- 
 ment ; 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 
 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 pro- 
 cess of mending. This business of mending the nets 
 is the last straw on the back of the tired-out fisher- 
 man. 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 
 
CHAP. III.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 97 
 
 fatiguing affair to set to work to mend them when he 
 gets ashore, dead beat with the labours of the morn- 
 ing. 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 
 consequence 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 blackbirds, 
 and who will take the trouble to patch the pieces 
 together. 
 
 Rob was allowed to pick out a large number of 
 pieces that he 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 be- 
 thought 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 after- 
 noon ; 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 walked 
 
 H 
 
98 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. hi. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 think- 
 ing 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 hav'ena been telling 
 lies ?" 
 
 1 "Fleein' a dragon " — flying a kite. 
 
CHAP. III.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 99 
 
 Well, it took them several days of very hard and 
 constant work before they rigged up something 
 resembling a small seine ; and then Rob 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 Rob proceeded to his fate- 
 ful interview with Peter the tailor. 
 
 Peter was a sour-visaged, gray -headed old man, 
 who wore horn-rimmed spectacles. He was sitting 
 cross-legged on his bench when Rob 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 Rob, 
 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 ? " 
 
 "There," said Rob, putting it plump down on 
 the bench. 
 
 The tailor looked at the shilling ; took it up, bit 
 it, and put it in his pocket. 
 
 "Very well," said he, "but mind, if ye sink my 
 boat, ye'll have three pounds to pay." 
 
 Rob 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 
 
loo THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. hi. 
 
 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 !" 
 
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 even- 
 ing ; 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 care- 
 fully 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 pulled away at the long oars. He 
 knew what depended on this trial. They had jiist 
 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, 
 
I02 THE FOUR MACNICOXS. [chap. iv. 
 
 though of a sandy bottom, was pretty deep. Rob 
 had resolved to take the whole responsibility 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 Rob 
 began 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 that 
 by-and-by, when Rob had run the boat on the 
 beach, and jumped out with his rope in his hand, the 
 line of floats began to form a semicircle 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 myste- 
 rious deep ; and not one of them, not Rob himself, 
 could tell whether this very considerable weight they 
 were gradually pulling in was the weight of the net 
 merely, or the weight of fish, or the weight of sea-weed. 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 103 
 
 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 some- 
 how ; and more especially near the line of floats. 
 
 "Is it?" said he; and he 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 
 was 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'U 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 
 
I04 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. iv. 
 
 out on to the sand — many helplessly entangled in 
 the meshes. It was a wonderful 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 stripping 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 were 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 instantly 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 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. 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 105 
 
 Neil regarded this wonderful treasure of the deep 
 as he laboured away at his oar. 
 
 " Man, Rob, who could have expected such a lot ? 
 And what will ye do with them now ? Will ye send 
 them to Glasgow by the Glenaraf — 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 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 contracted for by the agents of the sales- 
 men, 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 what not. Perhaps, however, it was 
 more curiosity than anything else that brought the 
 
io6 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. iv. 
 
 neighbours along to the west slip, to see what the 
 MacNicols had been about. 
 
 Well, there was a good deal of laughing and jeer- 
 ing, 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 provide 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 " 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 break- 
 ing 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 schoolmaster ; and every 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 107 
 
 farthing beyond these necessary expenses they had 
 spent on the net. They had replaced all the rotten 
 pieces with sound twine ; they had got new ropes ; 
 they had 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 surface 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 from it : and 
 Rob 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- 
 
io8 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. iv. 
 
 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 !" 
 
 "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 enclosing a goodly portion of a 
 large shoal of 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 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 109 
 
 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 MacDougall's boat 
 and go after the herring." 
 
 They had no more thought that afternoon of 
 "cuddy "-fishing after this famous take. Rob 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 flies. 
 
 " 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." 
 
no THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. iv. 
 
 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, Rob 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 improving 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 
 expect 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 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 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. iii 
 
 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 accordingly 
 purchased, after a great deal of bargaining. 
 
 A proud lad was Rob MacNicol the afternoon he 
 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, per- 
 haps ; 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. 
 
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 ;^I2 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 grown to be greatly 
 respected in Erisaig. The audacity of four " wastrel 
 laddies" setting up to be fishermen on their own 
 account had at first amused the neighbours ; but 
 their success and their conduct generally, soon raised 
 them above 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- 
 
CHAP, v.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 113 
 
 plate just as if they had all been sons of a rich shop- 
 keeper. Moreover, they were setting an example to 
 the other boys about. Four of these, indeed, com- 
 bined 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 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 seine-net 
 had been largely added to ; and every inch of it 
 overhauled. Then the cuddy-fishing began again ; 
 and soon Rob, who was now nearly eighteen, and 
 remarkably firm-set for his age, would be away after 
 the herring. 
 
 One day, as Rob was going along the main 
 thoroughfare of Erisaig, the banker called him into 
 his office. 
 
 " Rob," 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, regard- 
 
 1 Though the herring-skiffs are so-called, they are comparatively 
 large and powerful boats, and will stand a heavy sea. 
 
 I 
 
"4 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. v. 
 
 ing him with a good-natured look ; " I 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 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?" 
 
 And very soon the wild rumour ran through 
 Erisaig that no other than Rob MacNicol had been 
 
CHAP, v.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 115 
 
 appointed master of the new skiff, the Mary of 
 Argyle, and that he 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 Rob'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 Rob, 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 — every- 
 thing spick and span. And this great mass of ruddy 
 netting lying in the shed, with its perfect floats and 
 accurate sinkers — this was not like the makeshift 
 that had captured the cuddies. 
 
 Then on the morning that the Mary of Argyle put 
 to sea on her trial trip, her owner was on board ; but 
 he merely sat on a thwart. It was Rob who was at 
 the tiller ; Rob wanted to try the boat ; the owner 
 wanted to observe the crew. And first of all she 
 
ii6 THE FOUR kACNICOLS. [chap. v. 
 
 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 — 
 Rob'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 ye 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 Rob, 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 Rob 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 
 
 1 Lipfening — trusting. 
 
CHAP, v.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 117 
 
 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.pufit 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. 
 
 " 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 not 
 
ii8 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. v. 
 
 any one in Erisaig knows — that not any one in 
 Scotland knows." 
 
 " Why havena ye made a rich man of yourself, 
 Sandy?" said Rob, 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 think- 
 ing 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 peltin' 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 har- 
 bour, 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, he would 
 anchor the punt and leave it. He begged Rob to 
 take him for that night's fishing. He had discovered 
 a sure sign of the presence of herring — unknown to 
 any of the fishermen. What was the phosphor- 
 escence in the sea? — the nights were too clear for 
 that. What was 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 
 
CHAP, v.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 119 
 
 deep : it was the appearance on the surface of the 
 water of small air-bubbles. He was sure of it. He 
 had watched 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 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 intermin- 
 able drift-net as they pulled gently along, and when 
 that was accomplished they took in the long oars 
 
120 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. v. 
 
 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 was 
 strangely excited, wondering whether Sandy had 
 really, in pottering about,' discovered a new indica- 
 tion of the whereabouts of the herring, or whether 
 he was to go back to Erisaig in the morning with 
 empty nets. There was another thing too. Had 
 he shown himself too credulous before his com- 
 panions ? Had he done right in listening to what 
 might be only a foolish tale? The others began to 
 doze off; Rob not. He did not sleep a wink all 
 night. 
 
 Well, to let out a long drift-net, which sometimes 
 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. 
 
 " Rob, 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 think I would be going and 
 telling any one that was throwing the broken herring 
 
CHAP, v.] THE FOUR MACNICOLS. 121 
 
 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 tee- 
 total 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 you 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 great heap of fish ladled out in 
 baskets on to the quay. Mr. Bailie came along not 
 long after that, and shook hands with Rob, 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, 
 
122 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. [chap. v. 
 
 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 discovering 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 per- 
 secution of the harbour boys to become a sort of 
 general major-domo — 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 L 
 
 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 mountainous 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 pasturage 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 coming 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 ill to heed. 
 The pale, emaciated face was quite listless and hope- 
 less, and her hands lay idly in her lap. 
 
 " It is a poor house he will find us in this year," 
 
126 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. i. 
 
 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 Ross 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 Rua — that is, Red 
 Duncan — was taking these sheep up to the wilds 
 of Allt-nam-b^, 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 shep- 
 herd, when the lad drew near, "and how is your 
 mother now ?" 
 
 " 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 Glasgow 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 
 
CHAP. I.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 127 
 
 brought two or three strange lads with him in the 
 spring. But this year they will want no gillies what- 
 ever. 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 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 doubt- 
 less 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 saga- 
 cious 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 hopeless 
 fashion. " There will be no one at Etherick Lodge 
 this year. I sent away the young lass that used to 
 
128 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. i. 
 
 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." 
 
 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 con- 
 dition 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 him 
 
CHAP. I.] THE BLACK BOTHY, 129 
 
 wait to 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 
 Ross. " 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, 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 interposed 
 with a sullen and definite negative. 
 
 " No, no, Andrew, my lad. It is no use distress- 
 ing your mother. Wait till she is better — wait till she 
 is stronger — then you can see what is to be done." 
 
 K 
 
I30 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. i. 
 
 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 understood, 
 and followed. 
 
 " Andrew, my lad," said he, when they were out- 
 side, " 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 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 
 
CHAP. I.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 131 
 
 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 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 under- 
 take 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 ; and what would be the harm to take 
 
132 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. i. 
 
 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 ?" 
 
 Red 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 Ross. "And my 
 mother, she will be having her dinner every day, 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 summoned for 
 taking less than a roe. Do you know the little 
 swinging bridge where the Allt-cr6m 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, 
 
CHAP. I.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 133 
 
 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 any one — 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 comes 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 ; 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 ourselves, and all the time afraid of Big 
 Murdoch and the strange gillies." 
 
 Shortly after this Andrew Ross 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 
 
134 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. i. 
 
 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 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 neighbouring hills ; and 
 it was across those very hills that young Ross 
 had to make his way back in the 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 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 Murdoch and the 
 grouse disease together had deprived him of occupa- 
 tion in his native glen ? 
 
CHAP. I.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 13S 
 
 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 roe- 
 buck — 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 wander- 
 ings 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 lying all 
 around him, just as the dusk of a rather cloudy and 
 stormy and troubled day was about to fall over the 
 lonely landscape. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 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 surroundings — 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 
 successful, 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 from the 
 mountain ravines, to go howling along the empty 
 glens below, seemed to increase in force, and there 
 was every promise of a tempestuous night. No 
 doubt, he said to himself, if he were struggling under 
 the load of a roebuck, or some three or four moun- 
 tain hares — and having, besides, the roughest of 
 
CHAP. II.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 137 
 
 country to get over at the same time — this nervous- 
 ness 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-cr6m 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 bethought 
 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 roebuck 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 altitudes, 
 the roe-deer are mere fleeting summer visitors, some- 
 times 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. 
 
138 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. ii. 
 
 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 pre- 
 pared ; he was ready to sling the deer over his- 
 shoulders at a moment's notice. Suddenly there was 
 a sharp whistle that sounded strangely distant, even 
 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 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 Inver- 
 ness 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 Red 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 
 
CHAP. II.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 139 
 
 would be out against him ? Andrew Ross raised his 
 head a little bit, and listened intently. Then he 
 ventured 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 him- 
 self 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 gloorh, 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 
 adventure now looked different in the eyes of the 
 lad Ross. He had been excited by the risk and 
 danger of it. He 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 ex- 
 posure. And it seemed hard that his uncle's good- 
 
I40 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. ii. 
 
 nature should have brought this trouble on him. 
 What would his master, Colonel Graham, say? 
 Would he keep in his employment a man who 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 Rua 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 Red Duncan had snared the roe. 
 The more he looked at it, the more did Ross's heart 
 sink within him, and he thought he never would be 
 able to hold up his head again if he 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. Right 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 night was. He knew the beast 
 too well. 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 
 
CHAP. II.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 141 
 
 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 — 
 supposing 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, 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 ex- 
 pected, 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 regard- 
 ing 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, was that he would 
 
142 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. n. 
 
 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 hurri- 
 canes 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 away he would go help- 
 less. 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 find- 
 ing his way across the Etherick deer forest. So, 
 again and again he 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 
 
CHAP. II.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 143 
 
 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 sud- 
 denly 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 some- 
 what; but at present he only knew 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 hurl- 
 ing 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 
 
144 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. n. 
 
 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 be- 
 fore 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 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, dis- 
 covering 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 
 shi-ns 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 
 — granite blocks, bushes, or splashing little water- 
 
CHAP. II.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 145 
 
 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 him- 
 self, 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 dark- 
 ness, that young Ross — 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 apparently 
 from the other side of the chasm. A sort of terror 
 rooted him to the spot ; all sorts of weird and fright- 
 ful 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 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. 
 
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, re- 
 vealing a mass of fire within. Then two dark figures 
 appeared between him and the breadth 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 : 
 
 " 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 super- 
 visor's chiels were to come along the road !" 
 
 " No fears," said one of his companions — for there 
 
CHAP. III.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 147 
 
 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 occupa- 
 tion or other. But now, in spite of all his terror, the 
 lad v(rho was crouching there could not but under- 
 stand what was going on before him. He had acci- 
 dentally tumbled over a bothan 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 re- 
 main 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 there was 
 nothing of the supernatural, after all, in his imme- 
 diate neighbourhood ; but he was too intent on 
 observing what was going on, and in listening for 
 the slightest sound. Moreover, he knew well that 
 his own safety depended on his remaining there un- 
 perceived 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 In- 
 land 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 sud- 
 denly to discover this youth spying on them ? 
 
148 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. in. 
 
 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 impos- 
 sible. If he could hear them so 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 Ross 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 discontentedly. 
 
 " 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 he had in the cart I believe he'd 
 
CHAP. III.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 149 
 
 leave everything 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 Revenue 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 every- 
 thing." 
 
 " 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 ? 
 
 "Are you ready, Pete?" said one of the gillies. 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " 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." 
 
ISO THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. hi. 
 
 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 dark- 
 ness ; 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 listening. Then he dis- 
 appeared into the glow. The light grew gradually 
 less and less. At last 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 importance of the dis- 
 covery 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 
 homeward as his guessing and knowledge of the 
 country suggested. The night was still dark, and it 
 
CHAP. III.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 151 
 
 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 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 enabled him 
 to think over with a little more clearness 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 Red Duncan from a 
 summons for poaching? And what would Colonel 
 Graham say? It would be no excuse to him. If 
 Donnacha Rua were fined or imprisoned in Inverness 
 for having snared the roe-deer, it was almost certain 
 
1 52 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. hi. 
 
 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, 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, respon- 
 sible for the calamity that was likely to overtake his 
 uncle ; but, at all events, he was soon to have one 
 small grain of comfort vouchsafed 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 
 
CHAP. III.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 153 
 
 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 re- 
 ported. Instead of that, it must be he who was now 
 talking to the carter as they trudged on together 
 through 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 reverence 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 Murdoch in the very 
 midst of his illicit doings ? 
 
154 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. in. 
 
 " Very well, then," said Andrew Ross to himself 
 (for the Highlander is a revengeful person where any 
 of his family have been wronged, as history has 
 shown before now) ; " maybe I cannot 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 overwhelmed 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 say- 
 ing 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 schoolmaster ; 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 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." 
 
CHAP. III.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 155 
 
 Very soon after he got to bed, but not to sleep. 
 The adventures of that evening had been too excit- 
 ing, 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 conjecture, 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. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 Long before school-time next morning he made his 
 way to Edenbridge, and there he found the school- 
 master. — a shock-headed young man of twenty-five 
 or so — at his breakfast, which consisted 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 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. 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 157 
 
 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 compounding a felony. 
 And yet it seems hard that your uncle should be 
 fined — and might lose his place as well — for tak- 
 ing a bit roe-deer that was 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. 
 
158 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. iv. 
 
 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 schoolmaster took another turn or so up and 
 down the room. It was obvious that he was study- 
 ing his own solution of this problem. 
 
 "I have no good-will 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 permission 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 school- 
 master seemed to have arrived at some sudden deci- 
 sion, for he struck his hand on the table. 
 
 " I'll do it," he said — "I'll do it! Justice demands 
 it. It's not right, it's not morally right that your 
 uncle should be punished for a harmless kind of 
 think, 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 a half one, and I 
 will go into Inverness and go straight to his 
 lordship's agent, Mr. Maclnnes ; and if there's 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 159 
 
 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 cczlum. 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 his mansion-house, that is too much ! 
 We'll see what Mr. Maclnnes will say to that!" 
 
 The shock-headed schoolmaster seemed to con- 
 template 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 Rua. He did nof quite understand what 
 the schoolmaster proposed to do ; but it was some- 
 thing, 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 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. 
 
l6o THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. iv. 
 
 "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 thinking of And sup- 
 posing, 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 school- 
 master, 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 intervention that was 
 being made in his favour. 
 
 Early the next morning the schoolmaster set out 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE BLACK BOTHY. i6i 
 
 from Edenbridge on his friendly mission; and what 
 with a Hft he obtained from a mail-cart for part of 
 the way, and what with diligent 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 ex- 
 claimed, 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 that will complain 
 of a shepherd taking a roe-deer, especially as you say 
 it was not to sell it, but for the Widow Ross, that 
 her ladyship was writing to me about no longer ago 
 than yesterday. 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 
 
 M 
 
i62 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. iv. 
 
 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 school- 
 master ; 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 1" he said, stamp- 
 ing his foot; " If I thought that Red Duncan, or. any 
 other one of them, was in the 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 mouth- 
 ful — 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 schoolmaster, 
 " it was to ask you not to summons Donnacha Rua 
 that I have come all the way in from Edenbridge; 
 for he was only doing a kindly turn to his sister-in- 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 163 
 
 law, that is very badly off; and I am sure he is no 
 poacher; for I can answer for what the young lad 
 Ross, that is a friend of mine, says of him; an' the 
 young lad Ross 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, look- 
 ing among his papers, " that I had a letter from her 
 ladyship directing me to say nothing about rent this 
 year to the Widow Ross ; 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, 
 cantankerous kind of creature " 
 
 " I can tell you something more about Big Mur- 
 doch, Mr. Maclnnes," said the schoolmaster, who 
 was not ill -pleased to learn in what estimation 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 dumb- 
 founded way; and he stared in still greater amaze- 
 ment when the schoolmaster was giving him the full 
 particulars of Andrew Ross's adventure. Indeed, 
 he was far too astounded to give vent to either in- 
 dignation or anger. 
 
 "The audahcity — the audahcity!" he kept repeat- 
 ing. "My certes, what will his lordship say to 
 this?" 
 
 And then he turned sharp on the schoolmaster. 
 
 " How do ye know this story is true ? Man, it's 
 
i64 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. iv. 
 
 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 coming and going, and 
 sacks of malt, and barrels, and all the rest of it 1 
 And think of this, Mr, Maclnnes — these things must 
 have been coming and going by way of the loch " 
 
 " In our own boat — in his lordship's own boat !" 
 exclaimed Mr. Maclnnes, in tones of horror. " I 
 never heard the like 1" 
 
 " 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 1 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 
 
CHAP, IV.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 165 
 
 no likely ye'll find Big Murdoch there — I should 
 think not — a keeper's eyes will soon tell him there 
 are stranger 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 ! 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 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 
 Revenue Office?" 
 
 The schoolmaster was in nowise loth, for he had 
 absolute confidence in the story that had been told 
 him by Andrew Ross. 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 applying a 
 phrase to the summons which was distinctly em- 
 phatic, but which was highly improper, and needs 
 not therefore be repeated here. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 "THE HUNT IS UP." 
 
 It was late that night when the schoolmaster got 
 back to Edenbridge ; but there was Andrew Ross 
 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 sen- 
 sible man — he is for keeping on good terms with the 
 shepherds. He would not have taken out the sum- 
 mons 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 forgotten his being 
 prohibited from iishing 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 
 
CHAP, v.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 167 
 
 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, mys- 
 teriously. " 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 nod your head, or say half 
 a dozen words to your agent, and you give some one 
 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 havena 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 accus- 
 tomed 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 
 
l68 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. v. 
 
 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 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 sum- 
 mons. And if I was to wait until night and come 
 round by the corrie again " 
 
 " Why, you're daft, Andrew!" the other exclaimed, 
 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 gillies have taken their last look 
 at this country side." 
 
 It was well done on the part of the schoolmaster to 
 
CHAP, v.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 169 
 
 conceal from Andrew Ross the fact that Mr. Maclnnes 
 had at first regarded his story with considerable sus- 
 picion, 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 particu- 
 larly as to how he had managed to stumble against 
 Big Murdoch and his companions. Young Ross told 
 the whole story frankly, confessing his share in that 
 projected purloining of the deer, and though the tall 
 Highlander, 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 say much about it, for it was not to sell the beast 
 .1 am told " 
 
 " 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." 
 
I70 THE" BLACK BOTHY. [chap. v. 
 
 The Inland Revenue 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 expectation of effecting a sur- 
 prise, 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 out- 
 lying 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 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 recognised 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 confirm his story: 
 
 " I saw a dog-fox come by here on Saturday 
 morning." 
 
 "Is Big Murdoch at the lodge?" said Maclnnes, 
 looking at the man sharply. 
 
 1 There are no trees in a Highland deer forest. 
 
CHAP, v.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 171 
 
 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 any- 
 where until I see him." 
 
 " 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 discovery 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 v/asps are inside, Mr. 
 Maclnnes," said he facetiously ; " but here's the 
 byke." 
 
 Of course there was a general rush to the place, 
 and the officer who had made the discovery, after 
 taking a box of matches from his pocket, lifted aside 
 a rude kind of door that had been constructed of two 
 
172 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. v. 
 
 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 dis- 
 closed. The others lost no time in following 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 
 opportuneness of this entrance, had easily succeeded 
 in clearing out behind a lar^e 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 com- 
 paratively 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 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!" 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 conceal- 
 ment, each furnished with its own supply of stores — 
 
CHAP, v.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 173 
 
 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 
 suggested to Mr. Maclnnes that he and they together 
 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 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 sar- 
 donic 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 Ross was not a spec- 
 tator. His part in the business was over. 
 
 " Ye may go back home now, my lad," Mr. Mac- 
 lnnes said to him ; " and I think I may tell ye that 
 his lordship will be obliged to ye for this service. 1 
 
174 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap v. 
 
 'hear ye were sometimes at the lodge when John 
 Malcolm was there." 
 
 " Oh yes, sir, every autumn, and sometimes in the 
 winter too." 
 
 "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. Maclnnes, for he 
 knew not what they might mean. 
 
 It was about a week after that that he definitely 
 learned. He was at work in the little patch of 
 potato garden adjoining the cottage, when a dog-cart 
 came driving along, and 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. 
 
CHAP, v.] THE BLACK BOTHY. 175 
 
 "You are Andrew Ross — eh?" said his lordship, 
 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. Malcolm 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 friends with Malcolm — eh ? Yes ; 
 I guessed that. He spoke well of you. 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 con- 
 tinued, 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 under- 
 stand ?" 
 
176 THE BLACK BOTHY. [chap. v. 
 
 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 snar- 
 ing 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. 
 
 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; 
 
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