bents, no hurry of ours could mend the speed of the boat's coming:

time stood still with us through that uncanny period of waiting.
"There is one thing I would like to ken," say Alan. "I would like to

ken these gentry's orders. We're worth four hunner pound the pair of
us: how if they took the guns to us, Davie! They would get a bonny

shot from the top of that lang sandy bank."
"Morally impossible," said I. "The point is that they can have no

guns. This thing has been gone about too secret; pistols they may
have, but never guns."

"I believe ye'll be in the right," says Alan. "For all which I am
wearing a good deal for yon boat."

And he snapped his fingers and whistled to it like a dog.
It was now perhaps a third of the way in, and we ourselves already hard

on the margin of the sea, so that the soft sand rose over my shoes.
There was no more to do whatever but to wait, to look as much as we

were able at the creeping nearer of the boat, and as little as we could
manage at the long impenetrable front of the sandhills, over which the

gulls twinkled and behind which our enemies were doubtless marshalling.
"This is a fine, bright, caller place to get shot in," says Alan

suddenly; "and, man, I wish that I had your courage!"
"Alan!" I cried, "what kind of talk is this of it! You're just made of

courage; it's the character of the man, as I could prove myself if
there was nobody else."

"And you would be the more mistaken," said he. "What makes the differ
with me is just my great penetration and knowledge of affairs. But for

auld, cauld, dour, deadly courage, I am not fit to hold a candle to
yourself. Look at us two here upon the sands. Here am I, fair

hotching to be off; here's you (for all that I ken) in two minds of it
whether you'll no stop. Do you think that I could do that, or would?

No me! Firstly, because I havenae got the courage and wouldnae daur;
and secondly, because I am a man of so much penetration and would see

ye damned first."
"It's there ye're coming, is it?" I cried. "Ah, man Alan, you can wile

your old wives, but you never can wile me."
Remembrance of my temptation in the wood made me strong as iron.

"I have a tryst to keep," I continued. "I am trysted with your cousin
Charlie; I have passed my word."

"Braw trysts that you'll can keep," said Alan. "Ye'll just mistryst
aince and for a' with the gentry in the bents. And what for?" he went

on with an extreme threatening gravity. "Just tell me that, my mannie!
Are ye to be speerited away like Lady Grange? Are they to drive a dirk

in your inside and bury ye in the bents? Or is it to be the other way,
and are they to bring ye in with James? Are they folk to be trustit?

Would ye stick your head in the mouth of Sim Fraser and the ither
Whigs?" he added with extraordinary bitterness.

"Alan," cried I, "they're all rogues and liars, and I'm with ye there.
The more reason there should be one decent man in such a land of

thieves! My word in passed, and I'll stick to it. I said long syne to
your kinswoman that I would stumble at no risk. Do ye mind of that? -

the night Red Colin fell, it was. No more I will, then. Here I stop.
Prestongrange promised me my life: if he's to be mansworn, here I'll

have to die."
"Aweel aweel," said Alan.

All this time we had seen or heard no more of our pursuers. In truth
we had caught them unawares; their whole party (as I was to learn

afterwards) had not yet reached the scene; what there was of them was
spread among the bents towards Gillane. It was quite an affair to call

them in and bring them over, and the boat was making speed. They were
besides but cowardly fellows: a mere leash of Highland cattle-thieves,

of several clans, no gentleman there to be the captain and the more
they looked at Alan and me upon the beach, the less (I must suppose)

they liked the look of us.
Whoever had betrayed Alan it was not the captain: he was in the skiff

himself, steering and stirring up his oarsmen, like a man with his
heart in his employ. Already he was near in, and the boat securing -

already Alan's face had flamed crimson with the excitement of his
deliverance, when our friends in the bents, either in their despair to

see their prey escape them or with some hope of scaring Andie, raised
suddenly a shrill cry of several voices.

This sound, arising from what appeared to be a quite deserted coast,
was really very daunting, and the men in the boat held water instantly.

"What's this of it?" sings out the captain, for he was come within an
easy hail.

"Freens o'mine," says Alan, and began immediately to wade forth in the
shallow water towards the boat. "Davie," he said, pausing, "Davie, are

ye no coming? I am swier to leave ye."
"Not a hair of me," said I.

"He stood part of a second where he was to his knees in the salt water,
hesitating.

"He that will to Cupar, maun to Cupar," said he, and swashing in deeper
than his waist, was hauled into the skiff, which was immediately

directed for the ship.
I stood where he had left me, with my hands behind my back; Alan sat

with his head turned watching me; and the boat drew smoothly away. Of
a sudden I came the nearest hand to shedding tears, and seemed to

myself the most deserted solitary lad in Scotland. With that I turned
my back upon the sea and faced the sandhills. There was no sight or

sound of man; the sun shone on the wet sand and the dry, the wind blew
in the bents, the gulls made a dreary piping. As I passed higher up

the beach, the sand-lice were hopping nimbly about the stranded
tangles. The devil any other sight or sound in that unchancy place.

And yet I knew there were folk there, observing me, upon some secret
purpose. They were no soldiers, or they would have fallen on and taken

us ere now; doubtless they were some common rogues hired for my
undoing, perhaps to kidnap, perhaps to murder me outright. From the

position of those engaged, the first was the more likely; from what I
knew of their character and ardency in this business, I thought the

second very possible; and the blood ran cold about my heart.
I had a mad idea to loosen my sword in the scabbard; for though I was

very unfit to stand up like a gentleman blade to blade, I thought I
could do some scathe in a randomcombat. But I perceived in time the

folly of resistance. This was no doubt the joint "expedient" on which
Prestongrange and Fraser were agreed. The first, I was very sure, had

done something to secure my life; the second was pretty likely to have
slipped in some contrary hints into the ears of Neil and his

companions; and it I were to show bare steel I might play straight into
the hands of my worst enemy and seal my own doom.

These thoughts brought me to the head of the beach. I cast a look
behind, the boat was nearing the brig, and Alan flew his handkerchief

for a farewell, which I replied to with the waving of my hand. But
Alan himself was shrunk to a small thing in my view, alongside of this

pass that lay in front of me. I set my hat hard on my head, clenched
my teeth, and went right before me up the face of the sand-wreath. It

made a hard climb, being steep, and the sand like water underfoot. But
I caught hold at last by the long bent-grass on the brae-top, and

pulled myself to a good footing. The same moment men stirred and stood
up here and there, six or seven of them, ragged-like knaves, each with

a dagger in his hand. The fair truth is, I shut my eyes and prayed.
When I opened them again, the rogues were crept the least thing nearer

without speech or hurry. Every eye was upon mine, which struck me with
a strange sensation of their brightness, and of the fear with which

they continued to approach me. I held out my hands empty; whereupon
one asked, with a strong Highland brogue, if I surrendered.

"Under protest," said I, "if ye ken what that means, which I misdoubt."
At that word, they came all in upon me like a flight of birds upon a

carrion, seized me, took my sword, and all the money from my pockets,