THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 c 
 
 R
 
 SILVER SAND
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 PRINCESS PENNILESS 
 
 Popular Edition, 6d. 
 
 THE DEW OF THEIR YOUTH 
 
 Popular Edition, 6d. 
 
 ROSE OF THE WILDERNESS 
 
 Popular Edition, 6d. 
 
 THE STICKIT MINISTER'S WOOING 
 
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 MAID MARGARET 
 
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 THE CHERRY RIBBAND 
 
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 LADS' LOVE 
 
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 DEEP MOAT GRANGE 
 
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 LOVE IN PERNICKETTY TOWN 
 
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 THE SMUGGLERS 
 
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 ANNE OF THE BARRICADES 
 
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 THE MOSS TROOPERS 
 
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 SWEETHEARTS AT HOME 
 
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 A TATTER OF SCARLET 
 
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 London : HODDER & STOUGHTON
 
 SILVER SAND 
 
 BY 
 
 S. R. CROCKETT 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 MCMXIV
 
 PR 
 
 FOREWORD C35/' 
 
 The Declaration of Nathan Crogo, Dominie in Leswalt, 
 Prefixed to this Trustworthy History, writ for such as 
 love the Quaint and Humorsome. 
 
 I, Nathan Crogo, sometime schoolmaster and parish clerk 
 in Leswalt {or Saulseat) in the Rhynns of Galloway, have 
 checked carefully page by page this story of the wonderful 
 youth of John Faa — most often called Silver Sand — but by 
 the grace of God, and the belting of King James the Sexth 
 and First, rightful Lord and Earl of Little Egypt. 
 
 In my frisky youth I could doubtless have allowed the 
 chronicle to go forth in the more fluent and romantical style 
 in which it was first written, but age steals the poetry out 
 of a man's joints, though, to make amends, it sometimes 
 makes his mood more humorous and ironic. So blame the 
 rusty jade Time, if you find I have not left enough of the 
 flowers of language, and if the most part be written in a 
 dry and jog-trot way, as if, while the writer scribbled, he 
 smiled at his own folly. The which, indeed, I often enough 
 did for him. But it stiffens the wits to be setting dunces' 
 copy-lines for well-nigh forty years. The searching out of 
 proverbs which shall just fill a line of small text, breaks the 
 fine roll of page-long sentences, and the habit of petulance 
 betrays the dominie — though sometimes it adds flavour to 
 the conversations. The rule I have laid down of avoiding 
 references to the classics, however apposite, though a grief 
 to myself, is relentlessly carried out in the interests of the 
 unlettered reader. 
 
 Indeed, I have allowed the writer to obtrude himself, save 
 in the matter of reflections by the way, just as little as his 
 intimate and particular connection with the history would 
 permit. Nor would I have ventured so far as I have done, 
 
 5 
 
 2
 
 6 FOREWORD 
 
 save for the commands and encouragements of my friend 
 and patron, the noble Sir Andrew Agnew, of Lochnaw, 
 Hereditary Sheriff of Galloway. He it is who has ordered 
 me to suppress no part of this diary, especially those in which 
 he himself is made to appear in a merry light. 
 
 Otherwise, I have done my part with care, verifying the 
 irregular spellings, and doing what was possible to chasten 
 the style, though in the matter of good honest humour I 
 trust I have showed myself no spoil-sport. 
 
 From Saulseat, this eleventh of April, in the 
 
 Good Year of our Deliverance, 1688.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD ------ 5 
 
 I. A DARK MISTY MORNING - - - g 
 
 II. THE HEREDITARY SHERIFF - - - I3 
 
 III. JEAN HAY ------ 20 
 
 IV. A GALLOWAY JUSTICE AIRE - - - 27 
 V. THE KILLER AND JASPER " " " 33 
 
 VI. OUTLAW COUNTRY ----- 4I 
 
 VII. A SWORD AND DAGGER FIGHT - - - 47 
 
 VIII. THE ASKING OF SILVER SAND - - - 54 
 
 IX. TWO ON THE MOUNTAINS - - " 63 
 
 X. HAND-FASTED, HEART-FREE - - - 70 
 
 XI. THE WILD MAN OF THE HEATHER - - 78 
 
 XII. HAL OF WINDY STANDARD - - - 82 
 
 XIII. MISTRESS LILIAS FLOUT-THE-WIND - - 88 
 
 XIV. SILVER sand's DILEMMA - - - - 98 
 XV. THE GLED's NEST ----- 109 
 
 XVI. NEVIN's isle ------ 120 
 
 XVII. THE POINT OF NEVIN'S ISLE - - - 126 
 
 XVIII. THE COOLING OF THE FIERY FURNACE - 135 
 
 XIX. JULIUS AND JULIANA - - - - 139 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XX. " MASTER ALL-TOO-PRETTY ! " - - - I46 
 
 XXI. THE SULKS OF SILVER SAND - - - 152 
 
 XXII. THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIANA - - I58 
 
 XXIII. THE GUEST OF DOMINIE CROGO - - 168 
 
 XXIV. SILVER SAND MAKES A RESOLVE - - I75 
 XXV. APPLES OF SODOM 180 
 
 XXVI. LIKE A FOUNTAIN SEALED - . - 184 
 
 XXVII. " CLEAR IN THE CLOSING STRAIN " - - 189 
 
 XXVIII. THE TAKING OF SILVER SAND - - - I98 
 
 XXIX. JULIANA IN PURSUIT - - - - 206 
 
 XXX. CLATTERINGSHAWS - - - - - 209 
 
 XXXI. JULIANA ASCENDS MOUNT PLEASANT- - 2l8 
 
 XXXII. THE QUEEN OF EGYPT THE LITTLE - - 224 
 
 XXXIII. AVE ATQUE VALE ----- 230 
 
 XXXIV. GREY ROGER, OUTLAW - - - _ 240 
 XXXV. THE COCK-SURE ASS — AND SOME OTHERS 252 
 
 XXXVI. HIS EARTHLY FATHER - _ - _ 262 
 
 XXXVII. THE RAID OF LILIAS AGNEW - - - 267 
 
 XXXVIII. THE CHAPERON 272 
 
 XXXIX. THE LAST PERVERSITIES OF LILIAS - - 281 
 
 XL. THE THREE BAD MEN - - - _ 289 
 
 XLI. IN GASH GABIE - - - _ _ 295 
 
 XLII. BIRDS OF PASSAGE --.--- 308
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A Dark Misty Morning 
 
 On a dark misty morning in the heart of May, the sun 
 evident in the heavens, but slow in breaking through, 
 Stanley the English gipsy lay out open-mouthed on 
 the heather. His tribe had passed on, knowing better 
 than to waken their lord after a night of emptying the 
 mutchkin. 
 
 The Stanleys had left a fire alight in the bottom of the 
 dingle. A blackened pot hung on a tripod and the frag- 
 rance of the stew was wafted to the edges of the little 
 cleft in the upland moors where their camp had been 
 pitched the night before. 
 
 But the fire sank low and the sun was high before 
 Jasper Stanley rose on one elbow, stretched himself and 
 yawned. 
 
 " Where be I now ? This be noan Ormskirk Dell that 
 I wot of ! " His bloodshot eye roved about him with 
 gathering anger in it. 
 
 " Left me again they have ! Owd Scratch stap their 
 vitals," he growled, sitting up on the rough couch of 
 heather which had kept him free from the dew drizzle on 
 the earth. " There be Tomat Darby, an' Gaffer Rowley, 
 an' Roy Rice, all as calls theirselves of my band — and 
 they have left me like this. Sylvester too, a pretty 
 lad among the maids, he shall skip for this. Supple 
 Sylvester, ye shall desarve your name or I be through 
 hands with you ! " 
 
 His rheumy eye rested on the three-legged pot and on 
 the grey embers beneath it. Then he glanced at the sun 
 and as he cast his head up was conscious of an ache inside. 
 Then he took an observation of the pot on the embers. 
 
 9
 
 10 SILVER SAND 
 
 " That were Julia Stanley for a garron ! " he said. 
 " Julia Stanley — alius the best and prettiest, if she be 
 my daughter — which is her mother's affair after all. 
 Out of two and twenty the only one to think of her father. 
 Hello, young fellow, you there on the dingle-break, what 
 might you be after oop there ? No good, I'll warrant ! 
 How is it that I do not know you ? You should be a 
 good Romany by your complexion, a Sylvester by the 
 slimness of your waist. Speak up and give an account of 
 yourself, d'^e hear ? " 
 
 The young man did not answer. He was cunningly 
 laying flint to steel and blowing lightly on the tinder 
 hidden in a handful of dry moss. He soon had the fire 
 blazing, and sat looking at it with his back to the man 
 with the inflamed red eyes like one struck with deep 
 matter for meditation. 
 
 " Hey, lad, thou hast surely never heard Jasper Stanley 
 speak to his folk, or thou would be quicker to obey ! 
 Look you, I am the King of the Gipsies ever since I 
 settled with Killer Smith in twenty rounds. All in 
 Moston Clough it were — which is Owd'am way. Turn 
 and speak or I will serve thee likewise." 
 
 By this time Jasper Stanley, King of the Gipsies, had 
 staggered to his feet. His arms hung knotted and hairy 
 to his knees. His jaw protruded in a way that was not 
 pretty to see, and he thrust up his shirt-sleeves to the 
 armpits so that he might hit the cleaner. 
 
 Still the young man by the fire did not take any notice 
 of him. He came on muttering imprecations in Romany 
 and Low Dutch whenever he tripped in his English. 
 
 " Get up, you hedge cripple, sacre dammit ! " he 
 shouted, and swung a blow which had it reached the 
 young man would have laid him on the heath. But the 
 shadow of the approaching enemy warned him of his- 
 danger. He sprang over the fire from the position known 
 as " hunkering," so swiftly that he seemed to pass (and 
 perhaps he did) between the legs of the tripod on which 
 the pot was swinging. 
 
 " Thy cat's tricks will not serve thee with Jasper 
 Stanley," cried the man with red eyes. " Sylvester thou
 
 A DARK MISTY MORNING ii 
 
 art, and I shall serve thee as I served Killer Smith as 
 was left for dead in Moston Clough, and well-nigh sat 
 upon by coroner's jury in the ' Little Horse,' in Oldham 
 town. Strip and stand out like a man ! " 
 
 " I am very well as I am ! " said the young man, giving 
 a faggot a kick into place. " Come to your breakfast, 
 silly man, and leave fighting alone till your stomach is 
 fuller." 
 
 " I will fight where and when it pleases me," shouted 
 Jasper Stanley, " you stand up and take your medicine. 
 Your monkey tricks shall not help you before me — me 
 that no man ever looked into the eyes of without 
 quailing ! " 
 
 The young man laughed aloud. It was such a very 
 dry scornful laugh that it had the gift of enraging the 
 red-eyed man beyond endurance. He made a rush, over- 
 turning the tripod, and in a moment was upon his foe. 
 Or rather he would have been had not the youth (for he 
 was no more) paused to assure the equilibrium of the pot 
 with one foot before leaping easily aside. 
 
 Never did Jasper Stanley, whose life's delight had been 
 the conquest of others by his fists, know what had hap- 
 pened. Somehow or other he received a succession of 
 sharp and heavy blows on the eyes and jaw, as it seemed 
 from a dozen antagonists, and then he found himself 
 stretched out on his back among the heather, wondering 
 how it came about that so many had attacked him at once. 
 
 Cautiously he rose to his elbow and gazed around. 
 Only a slim young man stood before him with his arms 
 folded, the only living thing amid all that ocean of 
 moorland. 
 
 " Where be the others that set upon me ? " Jasper 
 Stanley demanded sulkily. " Come— let's see 'em. I'm 
 noan one to bear malice. There be a dozen lads t' Moston 
 Clough that could give both thee and them the devil 
 of a doing ! " 
 
 The young man still smiled, but presently, as if recol- 
 lecting something, he unfolded his arms and exhibited 
 his knuckles, which being out of practice, were somewhat 
 bruised and swollen.
 
 12 SILVER SAND 
 
 " These are the others," he said, " and they like not 
 the job, not being to the manner born — Hke your black- 
 smith fists." 
 
 Jasper Stanley raised himself slowly, and regarded 
 his huge hands with considerable interest. 
 
 " Why, you never do mean to tell me that them maid's 
 puds o' thine struck out the King o' the Ormskirk Gipsies 
 — aye, of all the Romanies o' Lancasheere." 
 
 " It was to teach you your place," said the lithe young 
 man, resuming his whittling at the head of the staff he 
 was making. 
 
 " To teach-me-my-plaace ! " the big man repeated 
 after him. " Say that again, young man, wilt tha' ? " 
 
 The young man obliged, and without looking up he 
 could feel the grit of Jasper Stanley's teeth and the 
 whitening of his knuckles as he firmed his hands to strike. 
 
 " Come, none of that ! " he ordered peremptorily, 
 standing on his guard. The stick dropped at his feet. 
 " If I strike again, Jasper Stanley, it will be to hurt." 
 
 The red-eyed man lost confidence, wavered in his 
 intention and stammered out, " And who the deyvil be 
 you, maister, to speak like a cock o' the roost ? " 
 
 " Since you are, as you say, king of the gipsies of Lan- 
 cashire, you are welcome to know that I am John Faa, 
 eldest of the blood royal of Egypt." 
 
 Jasper Stanley sprang forward, clutching at his shaggy 
 locks and holding his head between two hands as he 
 sank on one knee. 
 
 " I am thy man, John Faa, and do ye kindly put your 
 hand upon my girt ugly pow. I answer for the Stanleys, 
 the Burts, the Aliens, and the Smiths — all good northerly 
 names. Ye have only to blow the whistle I see about 
 your neck and Jasper Stanley will fetch them trooping."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Hereditary Sheriff 
 
 *' Ha, fighting. I cannot have the Uke on my lands ! " 
 
 A burly, bearded, broad-beamed man strode forth from 
 a clump of scanty larches by which he had been concealed. 
 He was blue-bonneted and blue-coated, with an abun- 
 dance of silver buttons, on which was embossed a heraldic 
 emblem. Grey rig-and- furrow stockings rose to his knees. 
 Above were corduroy smalls, while on his feet he wore 
 old-fashioned shoes stoutly soled, unbuckled, but with 
 leather latchets — altogether a bien, couthy, well-appear- 
 ing, obstinate looking man of the better classes. 
 
 But the slender young man was in no way put out, 
 
 " Sir," he said, as if addressing an equal, " pardon 
 me if I finish my business with this man first. After- 
 wards I shall hold myself at your disposition." 
 
 He whispered a few words into the ear of Jasper 
 Stanley, spoken in a strange tongue. The red-eyed 
 man listened carefully, and nodded at each sentence. 
 
 " You understand, then," said the young man slowly, 
 " see that there is no mistake — remember, the white 
 birches by the loch of Cree ! " 
 
 " I shall not forget," said Jasper saluting as he moved 
 off at the long swinging trot which is called the Irish- 
 man's gallop, because the files of harvesters crossing 
 Galloway for the English wheat-cutting can keep the 
 gait up for hours without fatigue. 
 
 He was almost immediately out of sight, so cloistered 
 was the glade in which the encounter had taken place. 
 
 " And now, sir," said the youth, turning with the 
 utmost assurance to the man in the dark blue and silver, 
 " I am at your service. Command me."
 
 14 SILVER SAND 
 
 " I daresay you are," cried the man of the leather shoe 
 latchets, " but you are also on my ground." 
 
 The young man shrugged his shoulders as if it were no 
 use arguing stupidities. 
 
 " I fear, Sir Andrew, that you have not read your 
 title-deeds," he said. " Your man of business (if you 
 had one worth his salt), would have told you that when 
 King James of the Baggy Breeches conveyed Ryan Moor 
 to your ancestor he excepted Leswalt Dale and the Burn- 
 side of Knock-an-mays in favour of ' his loveit, John 
 Faa, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt.' " 
 
 " I have heard of such like," quoth bluff Sir Andrew, 
 " but suppose it were so, what has that to do with you ? " 
 
 " Because I am John Faa, and my grand-dad's own 
 * oie.' You are of an ancient family and royally con- 
 nected on the distaff side. But I am royal — so, as they 
 say hereabouts, ' Mochrum before Monreith,' an earl 
 before a baronet ! " 
 
 " Hech, lad, but how will you justify that ? " cried Sir 
 Andrew. 
 
 " As for my title-deeds and parchments," retorted Faa, 
 " the Lyon King-at-Arms must be your informant. I do 
 not carry my titles of nobility in my tail pocket. As for 
 the rest, there is a sword at your side and another at 
 mine, and I am ready to justify any and all of my pre- 
 tensions. Or it may be that you, being a man loving to 
 do as the people do, would prefer the simple arbitrament 
 of the bare hands " 
 
 Sir Andrew burst into a fit of laughter which resounded 
 all about the dell. 
 
 " Ah no, my lord," he said, " the clean metal maybe — 
 ril no say. I have some skill in fence learned from 
 canny Williarn Forbes, but the knuckles — mind, I saw 
 you streek that English loon as quick as twice two is 
 four, so you and I will not play at that game, no, my 
 lord ! " 
 
 He spoke with a certain mockery in his voice which 
 was very evident to the young man, and which aroused 
 an anger at the bottom of his heart that he should be so 
 mocked and lightlied.
 
 THE HEREDITARY SHERIFF 15 
 
 tt 
 
 Sheriff," he said, " if I pay you the respect due to 
 your rank, I do not claim from you, save in private, the 
 respect due to mine, I am aware that there is a difference 
 between a gipsy, even of the blood royal, and the tenth 
 hereditary Sheriff of Galloway." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Master John Faa," said the Sheriff , 
 " but your figure hke a willow by the burnside, and your 
 comely youthful countenance, have played the deuce 
 with my good manners. I would give much to have you 
 for my doer — my helper, to aid me at home with my 
 papers, and to ride at the head of my posse against 
 evil doers." 
 
 The young man seemed to bethink himself a while. 
 
 " There is a word to be advanced both for and against," 
 he said. " It is true I have had a suitable and sufficient 
 education abroad, aided and perfected after my return 
 in matters classical by diligent private study, and not 
 forgotten while in Claverhouse's company. Now I would 
 gladly be your man and help you in all things, only let 
 it be understood that at all times you treat me as a gentle- 
 man and not as a dependent." 
 
 " Agreed ! " cried hearty Sir Andrew. " I know well 
 who will be the master. You shall be as one of mine 
 own house, I promise you — like young French or my 
 nephew of Garthland — can I say more ? " 
 
 " There needs no more, Sir Andrew, save that I must 
 not be known by my own name of Faa, which has been 
 somewhat too often put to the horn at the cross of Edin- 
 burgh by the King's orders, and may be again." 
 
 " Faith, as to that," said the Sheriff, " so have we all 
 one time and another. But I am not a man to strain 
 either at gnat or camel ; why not call you Silver Sand, 
 which is a good name and one well earned in your busi- 
 ness of carrying sythe-sand down from the straths of the 
 mountain lochs where no other dares venture — no, not 
 I myself, the Sheriff with thirty men in armour clinking 
 behind me. So Silver Sand be it then. And we shall 
 take our way home to Lochnaw, for my lady and Lillias 
 will be sore put to it to think what has become of me." 
 
 " I fear I am but an earthen pot and unsafe to tie to
 
 i5 SILVER SAND 
 
 in these troublous times, but mayhap you may be a brass 
 pot, and I, in turn, may be glad to follow in your wake ! 
 The King is great for things hereditary, so long as these 
 concern the Crown, but he mislikes the hereditary sheriffs 
 because they will not always do his bidding. It is a sad 
 thing to be afflicted with a conscience in these times. 
 I know not where the Agnews got theirs — perhaps they 
 brought it with them from France. Ah, if only I were 
 like John Dalrymple, whom my lord his father calls the 
 chameleon, so quickly does he change his colour." 
 
 " Sir Andrew," said Silver Sand, " I wager that you 
 and I by laying our heads together can turn most corners 
 of this crooked way by which we are sent athwart the 
 world. A gipsy is not born with any conscience, and if I 
 had suchlike it must have been gotten from my mother 
 who was not of the blood of Egypt," 
 
 Sir Andrew looked puzzled, as if a remembrance he 
 could not locate pricked him. 
 
 But the young man only smiled and whistled a well- 
 known tune — the Ballad of John Faa. 
 
 • ' The gypsies cam' to Cassillis yett, 
 And oh, but they sang sweetly, 
 They sang sae sweet and sae complete. 
 That doon cam' cur fair lady ! " 
 
 " So you are the son ! " said Sir Andrew, suddenly 
 enlightened. " I knew there was more about you than 
 plain gipsy. Laddie, ye gar me forget my wife and 
 bairns — and what's mair extraordinary, my dinner o* 
 fine black-faced mutton. Ye have either the honeyed 
 speech of the enchanter or the forked tongue of the ser- 
 pent that deceivit Eve — aye, even as the daddie o' ye 
 coost the glamour ower the leddy o' the castle when her 
 guid man was frae hame. And now, my lord of Little 
 Egypt, take precedence according to our agreement, and 
 we will be stepping towards Lochnaw." 
 
 Sir Andrew, the Hereditary Sheriff, called everywhere 
 " the Sherra," was a man of middle life, pleasant and 
 kindly, well seen among his equals and adored by his 
 tenants and the commonalty.
 
 THE HEREDITARY SHERIFF 17 
 
 " There is no man like Sir Andrew," was said of him 
 everywhere, and indeed he had a way with him which 
 indicated that he was aware in a jovial fashion of his 
 deserts, and possessed a habit of command which was 
 not lessened by the consciousness of two hundred and 
 fifty years of hereditary jurisdiction. But he was a 
 joyous man by nature, being what was called in Gallo- 
 way " jocose," a quality which enabled him without loss 
 of dignity to mingle mercy with judgment on his days of 
 " justice aires." 
 
 And now as he and Silver Sand went along together, 
 many a broad blue bonnet was doffed to the " Sherra," 
 and the answering lusty hail " Good-day to you, Saunders 
 man ! " carried far over the fields from the edge of the 
 moorland which they were skirting. 
 
 " Fetch in your nowt off the Fairgirth," he shouted 
 to one man, " they will be ram-stammin' amang the 
 braird o' the young crap. Hear ye me, Tam MacWhit- 
 terick, if I hae to send for them, there will be a fine to 
 pay as lang as your airm ! " 
 
 As they went towards the loch of Lochnaw which his 
 son was one day to drain, the Sheriff rather belatedly 
 questioned his new secretary upon his qualifications. 
 
 " Five years with the Saint Sulpicians at Issy ! " he 
 exclaimed, " then ye will be a Catholick, I'm feared ! " 
 
 " No more than ye are a gipsy, Sir Andrew. I was in 
 their company as you are in mine, but that makes you 
 neither a Faa nor me a Jesuit ! " 
 
 " Come round by the Liggate o' Leswalt, and ye shall 
 see a man that is the very cask o' lear. Nathan Crogo 
 is his name, and dominie is his station. But he could 
 give instruction to the diocese of Glasgow, and as for 
 the Highland herd laddies that Burnet the Archbishop 
 has whistled doon frae the hill taps to fill the manses of 
 decent responsible men, they should be sent to him to 
 learn their ruddiments." 
 
 And so it came about that I, the editor of this chronicle, 
 had my first sight of John Faa, Lord and Earl of Little 
 Egypt — though in this matter the Sheriff bound me 
 strictly to secrecy, and bade me call him nothing but 
 
 B
 
 i8 SILVER SAND 
 
 Silver Sand. This is a name he gets in the countryside, 
 because, having the right of way among the wild outlaws 
 of the innermost hills, he brings down the white scythe- 
 sand from the lochs among the granite, such as Enoch, 
 Valley, Neldrichen, Arron, and Glenhead, besides others 
 nearer the main road like Grannoch and Skerrow — the 
 produce of which last, though passable, has not the 
 edge-giving qualities of the sand from the high lying 
 lochs. 
 
 " Silver Sand here has learned his Latin from the 
 Jesuits in France," said Sir Andrew, tauntingly, " so 
 have a care, dominie, that he does not take the wind 
 from your sails." But Nathan Crogo was not af eared 
 of any Jesuits' scholar that lived, so I turned him upon 
 several passages of my beloved Catullus. He managed 
 very well — so much I will say, seeing that he was taken 
 as it were, at unawares. And even professed to render a 
 poem into the same metre in English, which was a ploy 
 far beyond me at that time. 
 
 Altogether I was much pleased with the lad and did 
 not at all mind when Sir Andrew, after keckling behind 
 his hand like a great foolish calf at what he considered 
 my discomfiture — at last gave out a holiday to all the 
 school and invited me over to Lochnaw to dine with 
 himself and the Lady Jane. 
 
 " Come and see Jean Hay," he cried, meaning his wife. 
 " she has better broth in her pot than any wife in the 
 Stewartry or Shire, besides there is a sheep's head, and 
 that is not to turn up one's nose at in these hard times ! " 
 
 " Good-bye till dinner-time, Crogo, Nathan Crogo ! " 
 Sir Andrew called out, " why man, it stands you in a 
 fortune to own such a name. 'Tis like the raven's croak- 
 ing among the hill tops ! " 
 
 " I let him take what liberties he would with my name. 
 For was he not my patron and a fine hearty man who 
 always performed much more than he promised, and 
 shut his eyes to all that it was better for him not to see ? 
 For instance, there had been for two years a list to be 
 made out of those who did not attend the Episcopaliar 
 curate, poor ignorant body, which being session-clerl<
 
 THE HEREDITARY SHERIFF 19 
 
 it was my duty to compile along with Sir Andrew. I 
 noted down the names with care, and took the statutory 
 oath that the owners of these names had not been seen 
 at the public service during the twelve-month — which, 
 when you think on it, was in no way wonderful, seeing 
 that every one of them had been safe in the kirkyard for 
 at least ten years. 
 
 But Sir Andrew never blenched nor winked an eyelid. 
 He knew, no man better, that we were defeating the ends 
 of justice, but all he said was that he would bear witness 
 that the parishioners I mentioned occupied fine eligible 
 holdings with permanent tenures, and were not likely to 
 be disturbed — not even by the fines of the Council of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Ah, a broad buirdly man was Sir Andrew, and a master 
 of all about him. For though he seemed easy to take 
 a liberty with, the lairds and great folk who were under 
 his jurisdiction had not found it either safe or profitable 
 to meddle with the Sheriff.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Jean Hay 
 
 LocHNAW, when Silver Sand first saw it, seemed to him 
 (what indeed it is), a most romantic and noble mansion, 
 with the waters of the loch lapping the walls and the 
 towers standing up with a kind of dignified Sabbath morn 
 serenity, the highest of them crowned by the fluttering 
 banner of the Hereditary Judicature. 
 
 " Aye, it's graund, nae doot," said Sir Andrew, " but 
 they are sending Graham of Claverhouse and his peddling 
 whipster of a brother, David, to show the Agnews how 
 to deal out justice in Gallowa'. Yon flag will soon hae 
 to come doon. Silver Sand, and the thumbscrews and 
 the boot will be set up in the place of my kindly justice." 
 
 " That time has not come yet," said Silver Sand, " and 
 it will be a sore day when you and I do not find a way 
 of getting round about the work of those deil's buckles 
 o' Grahams." 
 
 " It's true, Silver Sand, lad. They are far frae their 
 ain land, and they ken little about Gallowa', But for 
 all that, they hae laid 6,000 marks of fine on Lochnaw — 
 because I have not proved forward in the service of the 
 King ! " 
 
 " Come to the hills, Sir Andrew," said Silver Sand, 
 promptly, " I ken a cave where we will keep ye safe 
 while the storm blaws its worst." 
 
 " What ? And leave a' that ? " said the Baronet, 
 moving an index finger across the feudal front they were 
 now approaching. " And prithee, what would become 
 of Jean Hay, my honest wife and winsome leddy ? Sax 
 thousand marks is a great sum, but there is mair than 
 that in the strong box at Lochnaw. I should have my 
 
 20
 
 JEAN HAY 21 
 
 house turned into a barracks like my Lord of Kenmure, 
 and my son James sent to the gallows, because they 
 dared not touch myself for fear that the country should 
 rise ! " 
 
 They came to the door of Lochnaw, and at the sound 
 of the laird's footsteps half-a-dozen dogs came leaping 
 out about him. After some parley they accepted Silver 
 Sand also as one who not only loved their kind, but came 
 to the castle vouched for by the highest authority known 
 to them. 
 
 " Jean ! Jean Hay — where are you, Jean Hay ? " 
 the Sheriff called out as soon as he set foot within the 
 threshold of Lochnaw. 
 
 A tall lady of a pleasant countenance, and wearing her 
 hair banded about with golden hoops, came forward 
 smiling. 
 
 " Be not so noisy, Sheriff ! They will hear you all 
 over the house ! " 
 
 " What, good wife, is the bairn asleep ? " he queried 
 merrily, for of course all his family was grown up long ago. 
 
 " No," she answered, " there is no bairn in this house 
 save the master thereof, and Guid kens, he is charge 
 enough for any one poor woman. But introduce me to 
 your friend." 
 
 " He is by his degree an earl, but it will be as well that 
 for the present we let that rest between oursel's, Jean, 
 and while he bides in this house we shall call him Silver 
 Sand. For the Government is not exactly pleased with 
 him, and if it were known that you and I were inter- 
 communing with him, it might be a matter of our necks 
 and not a paltry 6,000 marks." 
 
 The Lady Jean Hay looked at Silver Sand with a more 
 friendly expression than he could have expected. " It 
 was aye the rule o' my faither's house," she said, " that 
 the greater the peril the more the need of a friend and the 
 friend's open door. Neither shall be wanting in this 
 house of my husband — King's man and Sheriff though 
 he be." 
 
 " A poorlike King's man," said Sir Andrew, looking 
 quaintly at Silver Sand. " The King has taken my
 
 22 SILVER SAND 
 
 bishopric from me and has given it to that wirricow, the 
 brother of the Laird of Claverhouse ! He will head and 
 he will hang. His brother will ride and shoot, where my 
 son James and I would merely have sent a dozen or so 
 rough-tongued Whigs across to Ireland for a change of 
 air. Our cousin Patrick over there at Ballikill by Loch 
 Larne has need of a few to be ready to help with his 
 harvest and to dig his potatoes." 
 
 Lady Jean smiled, a quiet smile, very peaceful and full 
 of humour. 
 
 " And maybe, Sheriff, that is why he is so slow in 
 sending over the rent ye were complaining about yestreen. 
 Your grand Whig friends will be eating poor Patrick out 
 of rick and byre ! " 
 
 The Sheriff regarded her in an open amazement, with 
 which he attempted to mingle some pretended dread. 
 
 " She's a fair marvel, Jean Hay," he said in an aside 
 to Silver Sand, " to look at her standing on the step o' 
 her ain hoose and smiling upon us, ye wad think that 
 there was naething in her mind but to bid us welcome 
 ben, and say that the denner wad be on the table in half- 
 an-hour. But, ah lad, deep and dark is the mind o' 
 Jean Hay, and I'll wager she has been running the peer- 
 ages o' the kingdoms in her mind to think wha ye may 
 be ! This will I tell ye, Jean Hay. He is far ower weel 
 learned to be o' this country, and can blatter ye off the 
 Latin faster than any Papist clerk ! " 
 
 Silver Sand had observed himself under the lady's 
 scrutiny, but his instinct told him there was nothing 
 hostile in it, so he waited quietly and modestly till he was 
 bidden to enter. 
 
 " We will send for your baggage to-morrow," she said, 
 as if there was no question of an early departure. " Where 
 will I tell Davie MacWhae to drive f or it ? " 
 
 " My belongings are mostly books with some small 
 stock of clothing. They are in the care of Lucky Mowatt 
 of the Port Ryan Inn at Stranraer. But I had better 
 go with Davie. They have laid so long in her care that 
 
 the good lady will need some recompense " 
 
 " Recompense — fiddledee, heard ye ever the like of
 
 JEAN HAY 23 
 
 that, guid wife — recompense for giving a box or twa 
 house-room ? " 
 
 " I think the gentleman is very much in the right," 
 said Lady Jean, with one of her warm approving smiles, 
 " what is courtesy to a castle dame is courtesy to an 
 alehouse wife." 
 
 " Then, faith, if that be the sough o't, Jean Hay, I 
 shall e'en ride ower the muir wi him. There are a feck 
 o' backward tenants in Stranraer that will be nane the 
 worse o' a cry at their doors ! " 
 
 On the way, which proved sufficiently desolate and 
 barren, with heather and the bent underfoot and a long 
 look over the knowes of bracken down into the loch, the 
 Sheriff laid all western Galloway before them like an 
 open book. Who should know it if not he ? He had 
 been the high, the low and the common justice. From 
 him the tenant had received his due when hard pressed 
 by his feudal superior, and he it was who the next market 
 day had brought the sulky laird to a better frame of mind 
 over a bottle of Burgundy in John Sloan's or Lucky 
 Mcwatt's. 
 
 But the times were out of joint and the King's advisers 
 were to blame. They had eaten out the Western counties 
 with a horde of hungry Highland locusts who came only 
 to plunder and to live at free quarters. They had not 
 left an heirloom nor a picture at Lochnaw. The very 
 furniture was new, and yet the Sheriff had been a moderate 
 man. Had he been a rebel his gear would have been 
 taken better care of, as being Crown property, and handed 
 back to him when he made his peace. As it was, a horde 
 of young men, rough and roaring. Lag, Earlshall, Wester- 
 hall, had been given riding commissions over him at the 
 instance of Claverhouse (who chiefly had the royal ear), 
 and from them no man was safe, not even Hereditary 
 Sheriffs of four hundred years standing. 
 
 *' I am untested," said the Sheriff, " if you know what 
 that means. No ? Well then, I will swear an obligation 
 to serve His Majesty faithfully at any time and with any 
 man, but the Lords of the Privy Council slipped into the 
 tail of the last oath a bit clause that the King was to choose
 
 24 SILVER SAND 
 
 my religion for me. Most o' the lords and lairds hereabout 
 betook themselves out o' the road, or had a call to try the 
 air o' the Holland dykes. But I and my son James were 
 held by the sheriffdom and we have stayed, though James 
 is seldom to be seen in public, and we at the house of 
 Lochnaw have to sit down with barred windows and 
 locked doors to dinner and supper." 
 
 " I have something to tell ye. Sir Andrew," said Silver 
 Sand, " that may change your disposition with regard to 
 me. I also am at the horn for a deserter. On my return 
 from France I was taken up at the Brigend of Dumfries 
 as a likely young fellow to recruit Claverhouse's horse, 
 and rode with them some while before I escaped, and 
 now there is a reward out for me, and a description of my 
 person. There's for ye, Sheriff ! " He tossed him a paper. 
 
 " Deserted ! A young-looking man with yellow chafts 
 and no beard, very active and a good horseman, of the 
 age of twenty or twenty-one years ; would likely be serving 
 in some stable or coaching inn south of the Border, speaks 
 in an English or foreign-sounding tongue." 
 
 " Nothing could be better ! " cried the Sheriff. " If 
 they had set themselves to mark down another man 
 and let you go free, they could not have done better." 
 
 " It is very likely drawn up by my late officer, Ensign 
 Bailie, who is of good gipsy blood, and in some way a 
 cousin of my own (for all Romany is cousin to the Faa, as 
 you. Sir Andrew, are to the King.") 
 
 A comparison at which Sir Andrew wriggled a little. 
 It was a tender point, his connection on the distaff side 
 with the Kings of Scotland. 
 
 But Silver Sand had something of youthful and engag- 
 ing tact about him, so that his smile could disarm petulance 
 much sharper and dislike much more pronounced than 
 any of which honest Sir Andrew was capable. 
 
 As they rode in great harmony over the face of the 
 moorland, all scabbled with grey granite stones from 
 the size of a coffin to that of a cathedral, quoth the Sheriff : 
 '' Silver Sand, lad, if I were doing my duty as my
 
 JEAN HAY 25 
 
 excellent father would have done it, what think you I 
 should be doing now ? " 
 
 " I do not know," said Silver Sand, astonished that 
 his host should start an abstract question. 
 
 " I should e'en be turning bridle about and riding with 
 you to Lochnaw to clap you safe under hatches." 
 
 " And what if I would not come ? " 
 
 The Sheriff rolled his huge muscles, and rocked his 
 shoulders to the great amusement of his companion, who 
 knew that his slim figure and trained members had in 
 them far more power to strike than existed in any half- 
 a-dozen porridge-fed Galloway rustics like the Sheriff's 
 retainers, 
 
 " You would not refuse to come," said Sir Andrew, 
 gravely. 
 
 " No, certainly," said Silver Sand, with a still deeper 
 note of gravity in his voice, " I should not refuse to go 
 anywhere with you because I am your guest." 
 
 " Ah, you have me there," cried Sir Andrew, throwing 
 up his hands with a gesture of surrender, " and my father 
 would have said the same. Lochnaw holds to the law 
 of hospitality. Jamie, ye thief, come out o' that whin 
 bush ! " 
 
 The baronet had caught the wag of a bonnet-feather 
 from a green covert of gorse by the side of the track, 
 and almost instantly a well-girt young man appeared and 
 in the coolest possible manner accosted his father, first 
 with a deferential salute and afterwards with a hearty 
 handshake, which told a tale of good relations and 
 friendship as well as of sonship. 
 
 " Where hae ye left your garron that I find ye whistling 
 like a lintie under a bush o' broom, James ? " 
 
 " She is back at the Folds, well blanketed and rubbed 
 down by James Loan. I had rather a long ride to-day, 
 father, and " 
 
 " I can guess where. It may be as well to say nothing 
 of the matter to Jean Hay — I mean your mother. She 
 has all the Park prejudices and never could bide the 
 Montgomeries ! " 
 
 The young man answered nothing, but a fresh blush
 
 26 SILVER SAND 
 
 rose to his cheek, which in one of his years and training 
 was a very pleasant thing to see. Good wine needs no 
 bush, and modesty is a flower which if it bloom? at all 
 must bloom early in the golden season. 
 
 " She will love her when she knows her ! " he said. 
 
 " Of course she will," said the Sheriff, ironically, " as 
 surely as our thread of hfe is but a thrum, mot?iers always 
 love the beloveds of their sons. And Jean Hay will be 
 no exception." 
 
 " Father," said young James, cunningly, " put her in 
 mind of her own young days. Did never you slip over 
 to Park between the dark and the daylight, for a word 
 from a window and the pressure of a hand ? " 
 
 " If I did, young man, that is none of your business ! 
 Moreover, learn you this — that good proper women like 
 your admirable mother, as soon as they are wedded, 
 condemn in others what they did with joy themselves. 
 Strange that the passing of a ring before a minister and 
 the muttering of certain prayers should make such a 
 difference ! But a woman like Jean Hay will not suffer 
 in a bearded son what she took as a pleasant right for 
 herself in the time of her teens and early twenties. So 
 count not upon me to soften the angers of Madame your 
 mother. Jean Hay was bred to think all good that went 
 in at the doors of the Park. The Park ways are her ways 
 and no others need apply. So wed, my lad, and ask 
 pardon afterwards, that's my advice to you. As for the 
 lady's father, I will undertake to manage him. He will 
 be reasonable in spite of his place and fortune, in spite 
 of your outlawry and forfeiture. There is no fear of men 
 before my eyes, son James. But as for Jean Hay, my 
 wedded wife — I most utterly decline to have anything 
 to do with the calming of her wrath or with bringing 
 her to give the hand of friendship to your young mistress. 
 When ye are married to the lady of your heart as long 
 as I have been to Jean Hay — well, ye will not stand there 
 looking for explanations."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A Galloway Justice Aire 
 
 These were the years of Topsy Turvy in the State, in the 
 Kirk and in the family, through all the west and south of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Sir Andrew Agnew was the representative of the King 
 as his forbears had been for centuries, yet his house was 
 a defenced castle against the King's officers who came 
 riding with mandates which superseded his, and any 
 one of whom might carry a v/arrant for his apprehension. 
 
 His son James v/as already " at the horn," that is to 
 say, outlawed, and might be shot at any dykeback. But 
 yet Sir Andrew v/as received at all houses, and might 
 even at Kenmure or Castle Kennedy chance to encounter 
 Claverhouse himself as two enemies m^eet on neutral 
 ground. 
 
 Lag and Captain Windram, of course, kept no such 
 great company, and were but rude, hectoring blades, 
 seldom very sober and often very drunk. They vrere 
 under Claverhouse 's orders and shrank at the sound of 
 his voice, but in all houses and the benrooms of farms 
 they roistered and roared, thinking themselves very great 
 men — as indeed they were, having the power of life 
 and death according to the accident of their tipsy 
 humours. 
 
 The Hereditary Sheriff had been superseded in his 
 duties in so far as the religious offence of non- attendance 
 at I.piscopalian services was concerned, as well as the 
 keeping of conventicles, having children baptized by 
 Presbyterian ministers, attending field preachings and 
 other like grievous offences. All other crim<"s (being 
 judged light by comparison) remained to the Sheriff and 
 
 37
 
 28 SILVER SAND 
 
 his outlawed son to judge, punish and remit, in the well 
 tried patriarchal manner. 
 
 But it was little that crafty, slippery David Graham 
 could effect at his courts, even with his formidable brother 
 at his elbow. He could and did, fine women, " for har- 
 bouring their husbands within the space of the present 
 year," and he could cause a child to be carried by a 
 soldier to church and there be baptised by the hated 
 " curate," or the mother to be punished for refusing 
 to hold up the child to receive the sacrament from such 
 uncovenanted hands. But in reality he could change 
 nothing of the minds of men and women. 
 
 " No a bairn wants the water of blessing," said the 
 Sheriff to Silver Sand as they sat out on the shores of the 
 loch listening to the rustle of the bulrushes. " And why 
 should it, the poor thing ? Every burn that rins between 
 the back shore o' Leswalt and the Brig o' Nith is a holy 
 baptistry. The trees and the sky are temples, and out 
 of his cave or moss-hag the faithful minister passes to his 
 task. Lord, man, I have seen sixty bairns baptised in 
 the lirks o' the Knock burn, while along the road not twa 
 hundred yairds awa', the iron-shod feet of Claverhouse's 
 troop-horses went clattering. And, man, it was bonny 
 to see how the bit bairns neither cried nor whinged — aye, 
 just as if they kenned. And wha will say that they 
 didna ken, puir wee devils ? 
 
 " There's Kenmure now — he's steward depute o' Kirk- 
 cudbright, there's Stair and my Lord Galloway. Ye wad 
 think they wad bide wisely at hame and never set their 
 noses ower the door cheek. And so they wad if they 
 had been left alane. But I have seen them all at the 
 field preachings — aye, even Kenmure and wise Lord Stair, 
 President o' the Court o' Session. What do the like o' 
 these men want hearkening to Sandy Peden ? When he 
 was minister of Old Luce, would they have stirred from 
 their chimney corners to hear him ? Not they ! No, 
 nor were they more than occasional attenders at their 
 parish kirks when served by their own ministers. Once a 
 year on communion Sabbath was as often as ye wad see 
 either o' them in the front o' the gallery.
 
 A GALLOWAY JUSTICE AIRE 29 
 
 '* What then sets such men all agee after religion, 
 even to following the dispossessed and interdicted ministers 
 under the dripping leaves and down by the sough o' the 
 burn getting their deaths o' cauld ? " 
 The Sheriff laughed as at a gay reminiscence, 
 " And I have seen Stair with his feet fair water-logged, 
 standing miserable as a cat on a rainy day and thinkin' doot- 
 less o' the comforts o' Carscreuch as he listened to Semple's 
 ' Thirdly, my brethren ' ! Ha, ha ! What brought him 
 out there ? What sent him to a lodging of one room in 
 a Dutch garret — nothing but the order of the King that 
 henceforth he had not the right to think for himself 
 what he liked, or to worship as and where he pleased ! " 
 
 The Court halden by Sir Andrew Agnew, Sheriff Principal, 
 and his son James, his depute, was in the Town House 
 of Wigtown, and Silver Sand rode there with all the 
 Sheriff's train to see how outlawed men could still 
 administer the King's justice. 
 
 Captain Windram and his men were quartered in the 
 town, but the Captain saluted gravely, recognising that 
 the Agnews were there on duty. The provost, an ancient 
 Scots Vicar of Bray, fat and falsely jovial, a persecutor 
 with the persecutors, and a Revolution man when King 
 William came over, met Sir Andrew with the keys. His 
 bailies and councillors were in the robes which had been 
 bought for the King's coronation more than twenty years 
 ago. But every man had the feathers in his bonnet set 
 to the right angle (which made a great scarcity among the 
 Bladnoch blackcock). Their wives saw to the arrange- 
 ment themselves before they let their men go out, while 
 the few bachelors among them passed by the provost's 
 door, where Mistress Coltran set them as featly in trim 
 for the ceremony as if she had been legally responsible 
 for very man of them. 
 
 " There will be nothing much out of the ordinar, 
 Silver Sand," said the sheriff, with that ease which comes 
 to those who have the habit of administering justice.
 
 30 SILVER SAND 
 
 But to Silver Sand all was new and strange. He had 
 seen the incomprehensible long-drawn-out processes of 
 French law, where the original cause is drowned fathoms 
 deep in procedure paper. He was bitterly familiar with 
 the firing party at the barn-end, or out on the open moor, 
 which the new rulers of Scotland had introduced, but he 
 was not prepared for the fatherly way in which Sir 
 Andrew treated his prisoners. 
 
 " Davvid Farrar in Drumrash ! " 
 
 The town crier magnified voice and office, though he 
 saw the man already in his place not more than a yard 
 from where he stood. 
 
 " What's this, Davvid," said the sheriff, as if the culprit 
 were a small boy caught among the sugar plum trees 
 of Lochnaw orchard — " stealin' a horse is a thing ony 
 man may make a mistak' in when he mounts ower weel 
 loaded at Lucky Mowatt's door, but a cow, Davvid — and 
 what's mair, a cow and a calf off my ain lands ! " 
 
 The culprit, a shaggy-headed man, a face lost in hair 
 with a pair of startling blue eyes, small as pockmarks, 
 muttered something unintelligible. 
 
 " What does the Fingaul say, James ? " the Sheriff 
 inquired of his son. 
 
 " He says he is very sorry, that he had no idea that the 
 beasts belonged to his chief when he stole them." 
 
 " Well, Davvid," said the Sheriff, " this is the first 
 offence, man, and see ye that it be not followed by a 
 second, as the calf followed the coo. For if so, it is a 
 Quid's truth that ye shall be hangit on the Gallow's Hill 
 at Clay Pottie by the common hangman." 
 
 " Sherra," said Davvid Farrar, " there is no damage 
 done. I tried to sever the bit calf from the coo, but ilka 
 yin set up siccan a rowtin' that Maister James, your son 
 (being in hiding) cam' oot o' the heather and bade me 
 drive them baith hame again — which I did." 
 
 Sir Andrew looked across at his son for confirmation 
 of this strange turn to a capital charge. James nodded. 
 He had indeed been in concealment and being a man who 
 occupied himself with cattle, he knew that the rowting
 
 A GALLOWAY JUSTICE AIRE 31 
 
 (or bellowing) of a cow after her calf had no right to come 
 from Drumrash, the tenant of which possessed none. So 
 he had " taken a step over " to inquire — with the result 
 that he had not only recovered his father's property, but 
 caused the thief to drive the cow and calf back to where 
 he had found them. 
 
 " It's Maister James that has the head," said the 
 culprit, ungrudgingly. 
 
 " I think you mentioned that Mr. James came forth 
 from some cave near your dweUing," said Provost Coltran, 
 suavely, for he thought that this would be an item worth 
 knowing. 
 
 " Did I say so — I'm not mindin'," the cattle stealer 
 remarked with unmoved countenance, " Maister James may 
 have been at a county meeting or having a splore with the 
 curate for aught I ken." 
 
 Whatever might be his fate, Davvid Farrar was not 
 going to deliver the hiding place of his chieftain's son 
 and heir to a rank traitor and malignant like the provost 
 of Wigtown. 
 
 " Aweel," said the Sheriff, " as the cow and the calf 
 were brought back, and this is your first offence, I will 
 forgive ye, Davvit. But mind, my son's coming was no 
 less than an interposition of providence, and if he had 
 not heard the ' rowtin' ' o' my coo, she wad hae been 
 butchered before this and you, Davvit, getting fat on 
 ribs o' veal ! Sae my will and pleasure is, Davvit, that 
 ye gang ower to Ireland to my cousin Patrick, and if 
 ye steal the value of a groat yonder, Davvit lad, ye will 
 find yourself danglin' frae the tree before ye can cry for 
 mercy — nae courts o' justice yonder wi' your ain chief 
 and laird on the bench, but just a tow rope, a dozen willing 
 hands to reeve ye up, and the Lord hae mercy on your 
 saul ! Stand doon, Davvit." 
 
 In this manner the Court proceeded from case to case 
 and Silver Sand wondered at the kindly wisdom which 
 enlightened the decisions of Sir Andrew. He had not 
 till now thought highly of his friend's capacity — com- 
 paring him with the subtle Jesuits among whom his youth 
 had been passed. But now he saw that he possessed a
 
 32 SILVER SAND 
 
 more precious thing, the uncommon wisdom of judging 
 with mercy. Rarely did he apply the law of the land. 
 He never quoted precedents. He never consulted law 
 books, but my Lord Stair had said of him that he would 
 sooner put his case into the Sherra's hands than in those 
 of the Fifteen.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Killer and Jasper 
 
 " Call Jasper Stanley, Egyptian, and with him Juliana 
 Stanley his daughter, and the men of his tribe — to wit, 
 Tomat Darby, Gaffer Rowley, Roy Rice, and Supple 
 Sylvester, atteint for the crime of Miirthcv ! " 
 
 Silver Sand started at the sound of the names. He 
 recalled all the incidents of his first meeting with the 
 gipsy Chief from Moston Clough. He tasted the chill 
 sea salt on his lips which the wind brought up that misty 
 morning in the midst of May, when all the hedgerows were 
 budding. He had fought Jasper Stanley to put an end to 
 malice between them, before claiming (what he knew would 
 in no case be refused) allegiance to the name of John Faa. 
 
 This became suddenly his business. That huge fellow, 
 the blacksmith with the red eyes, having put his head 
 between his hands in due Romany form, had become 
 his man. Therefore it fell upon him as their superior, 
 to see that these folk got justice in the court of the 
 " Gorgio." 
 
 Gipsies were not popular in Galloway, owing to the 
 operations of the great raiding clans, the Mackittericks 
 and the Valley Smiths, who had their headquarters in 
 the wild country about Loch Enoch on the borders of 
 Ayrshire and the Stewartry. 
 
 And Juhana Stanley ? At the name something struck 
 Silver Sand cold. For he knew very well the lash and 
 the cart-tail nakedness which were served out to gipsy 
 women for even slight offences, or merely as appendices 
 to their husbands' crimes. 
 
 But in a time when a lady of Arioland, a daughter of 
 the house of Craichlaw, was sold into plantation slavery 
 
 33
 
 34 SILVER SAND 
 
 for a religious offence, what mercy could a tramping 
 gipsy expect ? 
 
 The men stood up with as much of the Romany callous- 
 ness as they were wont to show in presence of the justice 
 of the alien. Of course, every man instantly recognised 
 Silver Sand as a kinsman, but not an eyebrow twitched. 
 He was a " rye " among " ryes " and it did them good to 
 see him so respected in a place from which they might go 
 forth to the gallow's tree which grew on the Potty Knowe 
 of Wigtown. 
 
 " Jasper Stanley, said to be of Moston Clough near 
 Oldham in England, Juliana his daughter (and so forth 
 through the list of names), indicted before this court 
 for the slaughter of Thomas Ellerton and Ralph Kidney, 
 gentlemen privates in His Majesty's first regiment oi 
 Dragoons, found dead with many wounds upon their 
 bodies at the hostelry of the ' Rowan Tree ' near by the 
 Back Shore of Leswalt." 
 
 The Procurator Fiscal (or public prosecutor) of Wig- 
 town then entered into the case which (he said) had caused 
 great scandal and annoyance among the military chiefs, 
 and might bring on the country another visitation of 
 the Highland Host, who in such a case would have burnt 
 and slain at random for miles around. The country 
 might think itself well off that it was in the hands of a 
 man so merciful as those of Colonel Graham of Claverhouse. 
 
 The grim smile on the faces of the listeners showed an 
 appreciation of the fulness of their sense of John Graham's 
 mercy. 
 
 " The inn or hostelry of the ' Rowan Tree,' " the Fiscal 
 proceeded, " is a lonely stance, on the edge of the cliff 
 between Port Patrick and the Heads of Kirkcum. But 
 it is well patronised and many relays of carters, carriers, 
 and travellers halt there every day to bait their horses. 
 
 " At night, however, they are all off again, and the place 
 is left to ' Rantin' Rob ' the landlord, a few chance 
 gipsies, to whom on account of a dead wife of their blood, 
 he has a tender side, and the sea fowl that gawp and 
 chuckle and channer on the rocks beneath, 
 
 " On the night of the murder charged in the indictment,
 
 THE KILLER AND JASPER 35 
 
 the tribe which called Jasper Stanley its King or Chief 
 camped there, some in their own tents or shelters and 
 others in the ample barns belonging to ' Rantin' Rob ' 
 Rorrison, the landlord of the ' Rowan Tree.' 
 
 (The narrative still follows the Fiscal's charge). 
 
 " The two soldiers on leave from Stranraer, where they 
 were of Captain Windram's second company, arrived at 
 the ' Rowan Tree ' about seven of the evening. They had 
 money in their pockets and appeared inclined to make 
 a night of it. They had made acquaintance with Jasper 
 Stanley's gang the day before on the fair-grounds of 
 Logan, and had drunk with Jasper himself. There had 
 been also on the part of Ellerton, some passages of hussar- 
 like tenderness with the girl Juliana. It was likely, then, 
 that the young woman had enticed them to this rendez- 
 vous, and so been the bait of the trap into which, like silly 
 sheep, they had walked. 
 
 " So (continued the Procurator) having ordered a platter 
 of scones, a whang of new cheese, and twelve Scots pints 
 of the best ale, to be sent into the cartshed, the soldiers 
 Ellerton and Kidney proceeded to entertain the wander- 
 ing tribe to the best of their poor ability. No more was 
 known of them till they were found tossing in the tides 
 of the Sandeel Bay with many desperate incised wounds 
 in their bodies, and about the throat of each a ' lingel ' 
 of leather such as gipsies wear in their foot gear, knotted 
 and twisted. Their arms and accoutrements had 
 disappeared. 
 
 " No suspicion attached to the Landlord Rorrison of 
 the inn, who, honest man, had gone quietly to his bed 
 as soon as he had seen his guests settled down ' to make 
 a night of it,' as they informed him. 
 
 " He had not spared his basket and his store. There 
 was a plate of knowt's foot jelly garnished with syboes 
 and roasted peas which had been left over from the 
 dinner of an Enghsh lord on his way to Ireland. To 
 which the kind man of the inn had added kebbucks of 
 cheese like lappered milk, fresh and toothsome, with swats 
 of brandy to help down the twelve Scots pints of the best 
 ale. What landlord (inquired the Procurator) could have
 
 36 SILVER SAND 
 
 done more — who indeed except ' Rantin' Rob ' of the 
 Rowan Tree would do as much ? 
 
 " But all in vain was his bounty, since the wicked tribe 
 of gipsies had first partaken of these poor men's hospitality 
 and then feloniously and with bloody purpose aforethought, 
 had murdered them, and cast their bodies over the cliff, 
 to the loss of their lives, the danger of their never-dying 
 souls and the damage of their uniforms and accoutrements 
 which belonged to His Majesty." 
 
 Sir Andrew bade the chief gipsy stand up and answer 
 to the indictment, 
 
 " Am I to be allowed to tell ma story ? " demanded 
 Jasper Stanley, raising his red eyes for the first time. 
 
 " Aye, surely, what else ? " said Sir Andrew, " that is 
 what we are here for ! " 
 
 " Then," said Jasper Stanley, " I will speak the truth 
 and swear it on the head of the young man who sits 
 beside you " 
 
 " What young man ? " cried Sir Andrew, greatly 
 astonished. " James, my son, do you mean ? " 
 
 " Nay, the young man on t'other side, him wot favours 
 the Sylvesters — he looks that slim. 'Tis on his head I 
 would swear." 
 
 " Silver Sand," said the Sheriff, turning to him. " Do 
 you know this man who is accused ? " 
 
 " I know him, Sir Andrew, because I gave him a good 
 thrashing one fine morning in May, and my knuckles did 
 not get the better of it for a week. But still I do not 
 believe that either he or his folk had aught to do with 
 the killing." 
 
 " Aye, aye," said the Sheriff. " I had forgot your 
 place and rank. Well, Silver Sand, ye have the full 
 license of the defence in this court to speak your mind." 
 
 " All in good time," said Silver Sand. " I have only 
 a French pleader's diploma, but I daresay the Procurator 
 Fiscal will waive ceremony and for the nonce admit me 
 as a brother." 
 
 The Fiscal bowed graciously. He was of the borough, 
 and though he was generally subservient to Coltran and 
 the military party, he knew very well that Provosts and
 
 THE KILLER AND JASPER 37 
 
 King's commissioners might come and go, but a Hereditary 
 Sheriff was a thing of permanence. He would not, there- 
 fore, for anything in the world cross Sir Andrew or his son, 
 even though under a temporary cloud. 
 
 As Fiscal MacMillan said to his wife that night, when he 
 was pulling on his night-cap, " Lochnaw is none so bad 
 himsel'. He speaks fair, and he acts fair, but I got a look 
 frae young Lochnaw, Jamie, the son that is so far ben 
 with the Hill Folk. I declare it chilled the bluid in my 
 veins. He's no canny, that young lad. What should the 
 like o' him be bothering his head about psalm-singing 
 and field-preaching. A lass at his knee and a pint o' 
 wine at his oxter would fit him better." 
 
 " For shame, Fiscal," said his wife. " Would you have 
 the good young man live in sin ? " 
 
 " Sin be hanged," cried her husband, settHng his red 
 cap with both his hands well down behind his ears. 
 " At his time o' life one is more natural than the other. 
 Look at his faither — was there ever a wilder blade than 
 Sir Andrew, when he bade the dance go round at Inver- 
 nessan, and twirled frae Bess to Bet and frae Bet to ]\Iirren 
 wi' a kiss and a compliment for a' ! " 
 
 " Ah, Fiscal," said his wife. " I have not forgotten 
 that ye were at Invernessan too in thae days, and I doubt 
 not that the tyke was greedy eneuch of the master's 
 leavings ! " 
 
 " Nonsense, Maty, I was only thinkin' — he is a fine 
 man, Sir Andrew, this day, very grave and wise. But 
 I hae seen the day when he cam' doon Lochnaw braes 
 wi' his whimsies as thick on him as blackberries — like 
 Inverey doon Deeside whistling and singing, his thumbs 
 in the arm holes o' his slashed doublet. Eh, but he was 
 a blade in his day. Sir Andrew." 
 
 " Aye, and that day was your day. Fiscal MacMillan. 
 Sae if ye are the wise man I think ye, ye will leave sharp 
 swords in their furrow-sheathing, and gang decently 
 to sleep." 
 
 The trial proceeded, and the gipsy made his statement.
 
 38 SILVER SAND 
 
 Neither he nor any of his company had anything to dc 
 with the slaying of the soldiers. It was true they had 
 raised a riot at the fair of Logan Holms the day before. 
 It was true that they had come to invite himself and his 
 daughter to make it up. But his daughter had sent them 
 a message that she had nothing to say to them or their 
 like, neither in the way of telling their fortunes nor 
 supping with them, and so had gone to her couch in the 
 barn-loft of the " Rowan Tree," her father and four men 
 of the company laying down straw beds across the door 
 in case of any persecution such as that which had nearly 
 ended in bloodshed the day before. 
 
 But there had been no alarm even. The dragoons 
 caroused as long as he, Jasper Stanley, was awake, but 
 they never ascended the stair, and neither he nor any of 
 his company knew anything of the manner of their death. 
 
 " Now, landlord, tell your tale such as ye know it ! " 
 Sir Andrew commanded. 
 
 " Aye, Sir Andrew," quoth Rantin' Rob, with a tug 
 at his forelock, " I trust I see your Honour well, and the 
 leddy and the dear children " 
 
 " This one of the dear children will commit you for 
 contempt if you do not tell your story without preface or 
 reasons annexed," said James Agnew with a black look 
 that quelled the landlord's complaisant humour, as 
 swiftly as a bucket of water puts out a fire of peats. 
 
 (" Gad zooks, kimmer," said the landlord afterwards 
 to his intimates, " I wished I were safe in my bed. Yet 
 the callant was young enough to be my ain son, but with 
 a look on him that was all knife-edge ! ") 
 
 Accordingly he proceeded with further preface of 
 politesse. 
 
 " I served the military gentlemen as their pleasure 
 was, and to my bed I went. I slept but ill, for I was 
 on tenterhooks lest some disturbance should arise between 
 them and the gipsies for which I should be blamed. Also 
 they made a great noise singing and shouting of choruses.
 
 THE KILLER AND JASPER 39 
 
 Once they made a loud outcry for more liquor, and I did 
 on my small clothes to go down to the cellar for the where- 
 withal to satisfy them. When I brought out the Hollands, 
 which was what they called for, I found a smallish man 
 with a red wig (as it seemed to me) seated beside them 
 in great joviality and good fellowship." 
 
 " Ah," said Sir Andrew. " Do you see the man among 
 any of the accused ? " 
 
 " I do not, my lord — honourable Sheriff, I mean. 
 He was altogether a smaller man, but remarkable broad 
 across the shoulders, a man built like a double six of 
 dominoes, with welts and warbles of muscle all over him. 
 Oh, I saw the rascal very well. I should know him 
 again were I to see him — and he was none of these. To 
 that I swear like an honest vinter. If I am doubted may 
 I turn lawyer and plead at the bar, instead of serving 
 over it ! " 
 
 " Did you go straight to bed, sirrah ? " said James 
 Agnew, looking up from his clerking at the table. 
 
 " I counted my silver, put the price of the gin in a safe 
 place, undid my breeches' points and so to my honest 
 bed ! I saw no more — neither did I hear aught. The 
 noise was over when I awoke. And when I looked out 
 the door of the cartshed was open, the table was overset, 
 and the tankards thrown about." 
 
 " Did you infer nothing from that ? " said Sir Andrew. 
 " Nothing, except that my lads had made what havoc 
 they could before leaving. But that they most always 
 do, and I had already provided for it in the reckoning. 
 Besides, there was nothing of value set before them. I 
 have learned wisdom since the days of the Highland Host 
 which came down upon us in the year of the '79." 
 
 So far the evidence had been all in favour of the accused, 
 and Sir Andrew said so very clearly. Still he could not 
 let a wandering band disappear from an inquiry just 
 begun, and in which the military would certainly mix 
 themselves so soon as Claverhouse returned from Dumfries. 
 He must have surety and bail for their appearance. 
 
 The men in the dock looked at each other with 
 the hopeless doggedness, which characterises deUcately
 
 40 SILVER SAND 
 
 organized and artistic races in the presence of the barbarian 
 power. 
 
 " I will stand for them, Sir Andrew," said Silver Sand. 
 " I will give you any sureties you desire, and I shall 
 promise you on my own head and fortune that they shall 
 be here to answer any charge, on any day, upon a week's 
 notice being given to me." 
 
 " I accept," said Sir Andrew. " Make out the papers, 
 James, and you Silver Sand, your friends being at liberty, 
 perhaps you would like to talk to them as to the matter 
 of the non-forfeiture of your bond on their behalf. You 
 will be conscious that I stretch a point for your sake." 
 
 " I am deeply in your debt. Sir Andrew," said Silver 
 Sand, as he rose from signing the document, presented 
 to him by James Agnew, with a name, which seemed to 
 strike that young man into an image of stone.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Outlaw Country 
 
 Silver Sand and the little tribe of Stanleys were high 
 up on the hills which looked down on the Loch of Cree. 
 They were keeping well to the northward of the deep 
 trough of Trool — holding Ben Yelleray (or the eagle's 
 hill) in line with the Spear of Merrick. 
 
 They were on their way, as straight as the nature of 
 the ground would allow, for the Faa's country. Far and 
 very far away they could sometimes see the shining of a 
 whitewashed cothouse on the breast of the moss, or maybe 
 among the heather the faint blue reek of a still. Also 
 though they saw no man about, keen eyes watched them 
 out of every heather bush, and the word was quickly sent 
 forward of strangers penetrating into the outlaw country. 
 
 Whereupon ensued a sudden but not angry uprising. 
 For it was plain enough that those who came made 
 straight for the fastness of Mackitterick, where Timothy, 
 Chief of the clan, would be ready for them. Moreover 
 (so ran the rumour ahead of them), they were all of good 
 Romany blood, though with something of foreign about 
 them which made a difference to the keen eyes of the 
 Bailies, Mackittericks and the clan royal of the Faas, 
 who were jealously watching their advance. 
 
 At each second hilltop the intruders lit a fire of dried 
 moss and bracken, and having damped it down with 
 wet branches, suddenly lifted these last and let three or 
 more puffs of smoke escape which hung like clouds in 
 the still air. One set of these had scarcely melted away 
 before the quick-handed Stanleys were ready with 
 another. 
 
 Silver Sand was signalling his master-words to his kin, 
 
 41
 
 42 SILVER SAND 
 
 and the number of smoke wreaths told tales to the watch- 
 ing outlaws of the hills. Presently there came an answer 
 from between two black rocks which stood up on either 
 side of a pass. 
 
 " The Dungeon of Buchan," said Silver Sand. " Tim 
 McKitterick has gone to the limit of his tether. He is 
 in much fear, I wonder what monstrous evil deed he has 
 on his conscience to make him so careful of me." 
 
 They progressed slowly enough for Juliana was still 
 ailing, not having got over her days of confinement in 
 the Thieves' Hole of Wigtown. But Silver Sand kept 
 close at her elbow and assisted her with a ready deference 
 such as was never learned within the " six firths of 
 Scotland." 
 
 Though they went on with speed from grey-mossed 
 boulder to flat granite slab, yet when they lifted their 
 eyes they seemed to be standing still in the midst of a 
 wide and vacant world. 
 
 Beneath, the links of the Black Water shone like frosted 
 silver in the haze of heat. Yellow, brown, purple, and 
 black the far-reaching peat-hags stretched about them. 
 An eagle hung motionless above in the pearl-grey sky, 
 and the smoke over the Dungeon of Buchan slowly melted 
 into faint cloud mists against the uprising slaty blue of 
 the mountains. 
 
 Silver Sand piloted his company into the heart of the 
 wilderness, till he came to the bottom of the great preci- 
 pice which is called the Spear of the Merrick. Then he 
 led them behind a fallen rock where was a den of clean- 
 laid sand and heather, wholly cleared of boulders. The 
 hanging brows of the rock sheltered it. 
 
 " Take off your knapsacks and gear," he commanded. 
 " You will find cooked food in the cavern yonder. The 
 shelves are made to the right of the entrance. Jasper 
 Stanley comes with me to see the Mackitterick ! " 
 
 (The spelling is various in legal and other documents, 
 but the name of the famous outlaw was always pro- 
 nounced " McKitterick," and indeed is so till this day.) 
 
 Juliana was put carefully down on a special couch 
 of heather, laid three feet thick on the smooth blue water-
 
 OUTLAW COUNTRY 43 
 
 pitted whinstone, a dry and permanent bedstead, though 
 one which gives small promise of downy softness. But 
 up on these altitudes, the air is so shrewd and quick 
 that when one lies down, the eyelids pull together as if 
 by strings, and the bed a man lies upon is not minded 
 by him any more than that last one of kirkyard soil. 
 Whether it be of sand or clay is no great matter to the 
 dead — though in life I do admit that wholesome dry 
 sand would ever be my fancy. Still though forty years 
 parish clerk and dwelling close among the tombs, I never 
 heard any complaints from any who were really interested 
 — no, not though quite half of our Leswalt burying- 
 ground is but little better than a swamp, where the jack- 
 o-lanterns and corpse candles flicker and shine, so that, 
 if so minded I could almost have sat on a gravestone and 
 read my Horace by the light of them. 
 
 Jasper Stanley and Silver Sand pushed on, leaving 
 Juliana and the rest of the tribe behind. Silver Sand 
 crossed many spouts of shifting rubble, with his eyes 
 on the unstable material and on the inexpert feet of 
 Jasper Stanley, who had never been in such a " devil of 
 a country," and who wished himself back again safe in 
 the seclusion of Moston Clough. 
 
 But there was no letting up of the speed. The man 
 from the plains might pant and sweat, but the hill gipsy 
 pushed on remorselessly over the lichen-covered rocks and 
 across the dark-blue ridges about which the thin mist 
 hung. Silver Sand and Jasper forded mountain brooks 
 roaring down out of the wilderness of granite above. 
 Silver Sand sprang across as if his feet were winged with 
 the wind, while Jasper Stanley splashed and cursed in his 
 rear. So they went till at last they came to a great 
 parting among the hills from which they looked down 
 upon Enoch, the loch of marvellous things, spread out 
 with its islands, piers, and promontories, its bights of 
 silver sand and glittering pebble reaches — all as if laid 
 out by the hand of a cunning landscape gardener, and 
 carefully tended every day. 
 
 Stanley, the Lancashire blacksmith, was no little 
 amazed, and the freshness and vigour of the air caused
 
 44 SILVER SAND 
 
 him to stride out, filling his huge chest with great sobbing 
 intakes of breath, as he would have filled his bellows. All 
 was strange to him. The brilliant colours of the water 
 and shore, and the prodigious upspringing of the black 
 and terrible ramparts of the Dungeon, lightning-scarred 
 and seamed with tornado gullies, struck the man with 
 amazement. 
 
 But he stared and gaped when, without warning, 
 Silver Sand led him to the Dungeon edge and, more than 
 a thousand feet beneath him, he saw little lochs gleaming 
 no bigger than so much water held in the palm of his hand, 
 with streams that wimpled and meandered no thicker than 
 a fine thread. This is the great cirque of the Dungeon of 
 Buchan, the like of which is not in all Scotland, with the 
 rocks falling away in purple precipices all about it, and 
 only the one way out, which is shut by the bottomless 
 green " well-eyes " and sleechy quicksands of the ill- 
 omened moss of Cooran. 
 
 There was no more than time for Jasper Stanley to 
 stand farther back with a terrified halt and a dizziness of 
 the head, before Silver Sand led him into a narrow twist 
 or " lirk " in the rock. The cliff mounted high overhead, 
 and Jasper cast an eye backward up the defile in case of 
 the need of retreat. They were among many scattered 
 rocks and boulders, set against each other like planks in 
 a woodyard, and anon like slabs piled up in a bairn's 
 play of keeping house. But Jasper felt that behind each 
 of these lurked armed men, who might be friends, and 
 again, who might be foes. 
 
 Then all suddenly they were fronted by a house — or to 
 be more correct and exact, a kind of lean-to of masonry 
 against the rock, which here had been hollowed away 
 inside, partly by nature and partly by the hand of 
 man. 
 
 The walls were thick and solid, of the undressed granite- 
 stone of the country, but laid with mortar and carefully 
 jointed. Jasper specially noted a door with a window 
 on either hand protected by iron shutters of good black- 
 smith's work, and above three larger windows, barred 
 only and admitting light to a covered walk or corridor
 
 OUTLAW COUNTRY 45 
 
 from which the chambers opened out into the dusk of 
 the rock-dwelling. 
 
 Silver Sand did not pause a moment, but stepped 
 lightly to the door, laid his hand on the wooden latchet, 
 and, with a cunning twirl, threw it open. A whitewashed 
 hall full of arms and ammunition laid out in canisters and 
 powder horns, was immediately in front of him. But 
 the place was empty with a wide resonant emptiness, and 
 their feet sounded hollow as in some ocean cave. Silver 
 Sand glanced into the rooms to right and left, but no one 
 was within. He went straight to the staircase and 
 mounted quickly enough, but by no means like one who 
 hurries himself. 
 
 Evidently he knew how to find what he had come to 
 seek and without pausing he opened the third door of 
 the range which gave upon the corridor and stepped 
 within. Jasper followed him, and there in the quietest 
 room in the world, a sheep dog asleep on the mat beside 
 him, his belt undone, his pistols laid on the end of the 
 table to be out of the way, a squat httle man with cropped 
 hair was throwing dice all by himself, his right hand 
 against his left, a red wig on his knees and a bottle of 
 brandy at his elbow. 
 
 "Smith the Killer!" cried the English gipsy, surprised 
 out of himself. 
 
 " Hold your tongue in a gentleman's house when it 
 is a matter of names. This is not Boggart Clough, Jasper 
 Stanley," said the square-built little man. " You downed 
 me once there when I had had too much grog, but now 
 I am on my own ground and among my own people." 
 
 " You forget," put in Silver Sand, gravely, " in whose 
 presence you are sitting." 
 
 The man let the dice rattle on the table, and clapping 
 his red wig on his head, he rose to his feet and made a 
 low obeisance. 
 
 " Faith," he exclaimed. " I am in such a moider that 
 I forgot my manners and the allegiance which every good 
 gipsy owes to the blood royal. John Faa, I await your 
 commands." 
 
 " Timothy," said Silver Sand. " I do not like your
 
 ^6 SILVER SAND 
 
 Smith-the-Killer work. So long as it is a matter of cattle- 
 driving and the taking of white mail from the pursy 
 farmers of the lowland acres, I let you gang your ain 
 gait — due honour being done to me. But the slaughter 
 of two men at an inn where you were drinking — soldiers 
 of Claverhouse too — surely you must have known that 
 you were letting loose the dogs upon your own kith and 
 kin." 
 
 " Sit down then," said Smith the Killer, whose real 
 name (though proscribed) was Timothy, chief of the 
 McKittericks. 
 
 He pushed water, in a finely cut carafe of Venice ware, 
 towards them, and passed the brandy bottle to Silver 
 Sand. 
 
 " Thank you, a glass of wine I shall be glad of — but 
 after ye have cleared yourself." 
 
 Silver Sand's voice was full of the habit and quality 
 of rule, and, without insisting further, the man in the red 
 wig pushed the bottle over to Stanley, who instantly 
 turned it up and swallowed an ample portion. He had 
 come far and fast, and his legs were not so well used to 
 the moss-hags as his arms to the hammer. 
 
 " I will tell you the tale, John Faa, and stand by your 
 judgment. I kenned that my work would come to light, 
 and that the ill-doing Grahams would make a great work 
 about such a thing, though it was but a trifle. But what 
 matters it to you or me, John Faa, if it were blamed on 
 a pack of praying Whigs, that are keen on the scent of 
 martyrdom, at any rate." 
 
 " But," Silver Sand struck in, " here is a man, your 
 blood brother, whom, with his daughter and all his folk, 
 I saved out of the clutches of the law by making myself 
 responsible for their future appearance. They are no 
 Whigs, surely ? And it was their lives that ye put in 
 danger — their women and children who lay and rotted 
 in the Thieve's Hole of Wigtown. Nevertheless, tell your 
 tale."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A Sword and Dagger Fight 
 
 " So," said the domino-shaped man in the red wig, taking 
 an easier position, " since I am to tell you of the doings 
 at the ' Rowan Tree,' and what befell my rascals there, it 
 may be as well to begin at the beginning." 
 
 " It will be just as well," said Silver Sand, in a tone 
 which was not devoid of a threatening quality. 
 
 " Oh, never fear, I have my witnesses. I shall call 
 them in due time ; and, in the meanwhile, you, John 
 Faa, who know my evil deeds ever since I could draw 
 the neck of another man's turkey, did ye ever find that 
 the telhng of lies was one of my faults ? Answer me 
 that." 
 
 Silver Sand smiled, 
 
 " Not to me," he answered readily. ' 
 
 " I shall not begin now," said McKitterick. " Death 
 has passed too near me. What I have done, I have done — 
 but not for myself. And not even Sir Andrew could 
 condemn me, still less the head of our people." 
 
 " That is yet to be decided. You have put your kin 
 in great danger. Let us hear your tale." 
 
 Silver Sand spoke with unusual austerity. His eyes 
 in that dusky place plunged into the man before him, 
 but though httle frames like will-o'-the-wisps danced in 
 them, the McKitterick did not flinch. 
 
 " Very well," said Silver Sand, " at present you are 
 speaking the truth." 
 
 " So I shall continue," said McKitterick of the red 
 wig. " It is true that I am the man known in England, 
 and by this Jasper Stanley, as ' Smith the Killer.' I 
 could never remain long in one place, and for that reason 
 
 47
 
 48 SILVER SAND 
 
 the Dungeon of Buchan is not wide enough for me, 
 though I will not deny that it makes a good place of 
 refuge when pursuers are many and active down there 
 among the yokels and town bodies, with their warrants 
 and magistrates." 
 
 " What were you doing at the ' Rowan Tree ' ? " Silver 
 Sand interrupted, for he was not to be turned aside from 
 his inquiry. The face of the McKitterick darkened. 
 
 " A man is bound to answer his chief in all things which 
 concern the clan, but there are private matters which a 
 man may keep to himself and be loyal still." 
 
 " This is a case of men and women of your blood 
 accused of murder, and it will be better that you trust 
 your chief." 
 
 " That will I do, but you will let me speak with you 
 for a moment apart. For what John Faa may know of 
 his clansman, is not knowledge for all the world." 
 
 " Go to the door, Jasper Stanley, and bide till I call," 
 said Silver Sand, and the blacksmith went out with a 
 suddenly lowering brow, which showed his sullen and 
 intractable disposition. 
 
 " Whatever concerns you or yours, you shall know, 
 Jasper Stanley," said Silver Sand, remarking his despite. 
 " Besides, if you asked the same favour — to speak in my 
 private ear — the McKitterick here would at once go to 
 the yard, though we are in his own house." 
 
 " Ye have heard of the Auld Leddy of Charteris 
 Lodge ? " the red-headed man began, tugging his wig 
 well down over his brow. " She is sib to the Sherra — an 
 Agnew, own sister to his father. She has siller, too, and 
 that never comes wrong to a man like Sir Andrew. A 
 man cannot be free-handed on an empty pocket, beside, 
 it is no long time since he paid his fine of six thousand 
 marks. So down comes Lilias, his bonny niece, with 
 her maid, Priscilla Temple, both on a visit to their Aunt 
 Anne Agnew at the Lodge. Being half a Kennedy, 
 she was named Susan Anne, but in the countryside
 
 A SWORD AND DAGGER FIGHT 49 
 
 she was never kenned by ither name than just Aunt 
 Anne. 
 
 " Now, in your private ear, Chief. I am no great 
 follower of farthingale or petticoat, but I do admit it 
 (to you alone) that this Priscilla Temple had cast the 
 glamour over me. Where did I meet her ? Why, in the 
 house of a good dissenting Roundhead in England. 
 'Twixt Essex and Suffolk it came about. But she was 
 little like her surroundings, though she led everybody by 
 the nose, from the swineherd in the meadow to the 
 broad-hatted old hot gospeller himself. Isaac Selby was 
 the name of him, and the weaving of hosiery was his 
 trade, which he did on frames, finishing them with a seam 
 up the back after the Flemish manner, and so could under- 
 sell everybody, who knitted round and round in the old 
 way. Well, Mistress Priscilla was a woman of parts, 
 learned in Gorgio ways, but as true a Romany as ever 
 crossed a hand with silver. I came down to the Shore 
 Side, near the ' Rowan Tree,' to see her, as it had been 
 my habit ever since she entered into the sheriff's service. 
 For she tells me all that is being talked over in the house, 
 and all the pains and penalties which may threaten us 
 of Egypt. 
 
 " I came down, therefore, across the hills, keeping 
 wide of the towns and villages, but provisioning myself 
 readily from the poor folk, who had httle but their oat- 
 cakes and the braxy mutton hanging to their smoky 
 rafters. 
 
 " And on the eve of a day when I had made nigh 
 twenty miles over the heather, I crept into the cartshed 
 of an inn to sleep. I got among the good dry sheaves, 
 and pulled them all about me for a covering. So weary 
 was I that I was asleep before I had time to be conscious 
 of my hunger. ' Who sleeps, dines,' I have heard the 
 French say, and the proverb is true. 
 
 "I woke up with the comfortable smell of cooked 
 viands in my nostrils, and the shouting of drunken songs 
 in my ears. I lay still and listened, for I dared not move, 
 hearing the clanking of military accoutrements, and not 
 knowing how many there were there at the drinking 
 
 D
 
 50 SILVER SAND 
 
 bout, or in the shelter into which I had gotten by mis- 
 fortune. 
 
 " But presently I heard these two — Ellerton and 
 Kidney, by their names — laying out their plans to take 
 Charteris Lodge, to torture the old lady till she should 
 discover to them her treasure, and then to have at their 
 pleasure ' the two wenches,' as they called my Priscilla 
 Temple and her mistress Lilias, niece of the Sheriff of 
 Lochnaw. 
 
 " Now, I do not ask you to take me for a man soft 
 at heart, or one who stands upon a nicety of meum and 
 iuum, when the odds are equal, and there is a man in 
 the case. But I have no gout for such work as these 
 rascals proposed, and the very thought of them torturing 
 women — perhaps, even Priscilla — turned the very stomach 
 within me " 
 
 Silver Sand nodded, and his brow began forthwith to 
 clear. 
 
 " There I lay," said Smith the Killer, " and heard 
 them laugh over the details of their plan ; allotting this 
 one and that to the other, and tossing the dice for the 
 first choice in the matter of the maids. 
 
 " So, being well armed, and with an anger such as I 
 never felt before burning in my heart, I slipped down the 
 corn-mow, and so out of the back door, entering again 
 at the front, and making a low bow to both of my martial 
 men. 
 
 " Ellerton was for running me through the body on 
 the spot, but Kidney, his companion, cried to him to 
 hold his hand, for who knew but that I might be a useful 
 ally. But, at any rate, they were two to one, and could 
 dispose of me later if need were. 
 
 " So I sat beside them, but well on the opposite side 
 of the table, with a long rapier naked between my legs, 
 and a dagger ready and loose in its sheath, where my 
 right hand could grip it. A pair of pistols were on the 
 table, but I managed to spill some wine over the pan and 
 priming. The troopers were so drunk they never took 
 the least notice, though all their talk was of blood and 
 killing, and their speech so coarse I never heard the like.
 
 A SWORD AND DAGGER FIGHT 51 
 
 though I have been where men are not squeamish about 
 expressing themselves . ' ' 
 
 " I have heard," said Silver Sand, " the men were not 
 of my regiment, but I did not ride long behind Colonel 
 John Graham without hearing such talk from foul English 
 carles. It is permitted, and even encouraged. The 
 officers called the process ' dragonnading ' — which means 
 quartering the rank and file upon suspected people in 
 lonely houses, and riding off themselves to a tavern, 
 leaving the men of the troop to the devilish freedom of 
 their own wills." 
 
 The Killer took off his red wig, and sat caressing it 
 on his knee, his shorn, stubborn, black poll changing his 
 appearance completely. 
 
 " There you had the advantage of me," he said gravely 
 to Silver Sand. " Still, I was ready for my gentlemen 
 when they made their advances to me. There was, it 
 seemed, a fortune for the lifting within half a mile of 
 where we sat — only an old dotard of a man-servant, who 
 slept in a cottage near the house. He, if he proved 
 awkward, might be served first, and, for the rest, only 
 women. Would I join ? If I had not a horse, the land- 
 lord had two in his stable, I might borrow one, and, if 
 it pleased me, carry off a rich young heiress across my 
 saddle bow ! 
 
 " I appeared to weigh the matter, but at last I agreed 
 to take part with them, and we called for a stirrup cup 
 from Rantin' Rob, the landlord of the ' Rowan Tree.' 
 The stub of one candle was guttering in its socket, and 
 so he was able to describe me. But he did not stay long, 
 being anxious to get back behind his locked doors, and 
 into his naked bed, for he trusted little to the red troopers 
 when in liquor, having seen quite enough of them as they 
 passed to and fro upon their bloody errands. 
 
 " Soon we were out on the road, and there, as I had 
 agreed, I led, with my two ruffians stumbhng after me. 
 As you m.ay imagine, I kept them well away from the 
 straight road to Charteris Lodge, holding instead to the 
 chff edge, till I came to the darksome place where the 
 Mays burn runs through a dell, with alder and bhch
 
 52 SILVER SAND 
 
 fringing both sides, and a fine little piece of land, level 
 as a bowling green, lying under the shadow. 
 
 " Now, ye butchers," said I, " fight for your lives. 
 You are great men to talk of strangling old men, tor- 
 menting women, and carrying off maids — let us see what 
 ye can do against a man. You are only two to one, 
 which, I own, is poor odds in your profession, where it 
 takes a dozen or twenty of you to shoot an unarmed 
 Whig at his own door cheek." 
 
 " That we will soon show you," cried Kidney, snapping 
 his pistol at me, but it went not off, for the spilt wine had 
 done its work. 
 
 " Here, Thomas, at him with the other pair," he roared, 
 but before he could get the first out of its belt-casing of 
 soft leather, I had nicked my dagger through the back 
 of his hand, which did not improve his temper. 
 
 " Then they drew their swords, and fell to cursing me — 
 ' blood-and-wounds traitor ' being the friendliest of their 
 words. In the angle of the burn I had noticed a sheep- 
 ree built of flat slabs, and in the corner of this I placed 
 myself, back to the wall — only in time, be it said, for 
 Kidney was already bidding EUerton to get behind me. 
 They had their great swords, such as dragoons use in 
 making a charge, each with a hundred pounds of steel 
 in blade, basket, and sheath. I had only my little small- 
 sword, and a dagger in my left hand, to outface them. 
 
 " But my eyes were better than theirs, and so I had 
 kept them away from the full moonshine which lay all 
 around on the cliffs almost as clear as day, but only 
 sparkled and dimpled in the blue dusk of the alder shade 
 around the sheep-ree. So the fight was more equal than 
 would appear. Indeed, the advantage was mostly on 
 my side. A dozen times I could have passed my rapier 
 through one and the other, only that I feared the slashing 
 return stroke from the one I had not touched. But when 
 Ellerton had sunk his sword deep in the earth, having 
 missed his stroke at my head, I nicked him neatly with 
 the left hand, and while I was about it sent my rapier 
 home under Kidney's guard. The two fell across one 
 another like two trees blown down in a wood. Then I
 
 A SWORD AND DAGGER FIGHT 53 
 
 made all siccar with the dagger, and had my gentlemen 
 over the cliff so fast that Ellerton had not sunk to the 
 bottom before Kidney was splashing after him. 
 
 " The devil receive his own," I cried after them by 
 way of funeral service, and started back for the Dungeon 
 of Buchan before the time of noon-setting. So, John 
 Faa, here I am, and I pray you tell me what you would 
 have done in my place ? " 
 
 " Perhaps," said Silver Sand, " I should not have done 
 so well. But, at any rate, you and I must have a bout 
 at the foils one of these days. But no dagger — for, 
 except against odds, I count it a traitorous implement."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Asking of Silver Sand 
 
 Now the Dungeon of Buchan is a wide place, and many 
 men can be safely accommodated there, not to be found 
 even if a regiment should come searching them — that is, 
 not without someone to guide them. 
 
 So Silver Sand sent back one of McKitterick's men, 
 along with Jasper, to bring up the rest of his party. 
 Then he went out himself to walk by the side of the loch. 
 He lay down in the shadow of a rock to rest and think. 
 There were difficulties before him which would become 
 more evident as time went on. How much of the Killer's 
 tale could be told to the Sheriff ? Some of it must be, 
 for the sake of those women within Charteris Lodge ; 
 yet how was he to keep the secret of the Killer's identity. 
 He could not deliver him up to Clavers, who would be 
 raging like a desert lion because of the deaths of his 
 troopers. After all, Sir Andrew was Sheriff, and in 
 criminal matters still responsible ; though the authority 
 in affairs of the Kirk and the " tests " had been removed 
 from him. He resolved to speak to James Agnew, who 
 was not only in hiding for opposition to the Grahams, 
 but had no official position to be considered like that of 
 Hereditary Sheriff. 
 
 Silver Sand knew that his son's word had much weight 
 with his father, and so he resolved, as soon as might be, 
 to lay the whole case before him, keeping back only the 
 identity of the Killer with the Chief of the outlaw 
 McKittericks. 
 
 Presently he was roused from his deep meditation 
 by the sound of footsteps and the trampling of 
 hoofs. 
 
 ^4
 
 THE ASKING OF SILVER SAND 55 
 
 A score of hardy little Galloway ponies were bringing 
 up supplies to the house of the Dungeon of Buchan. 
 
 Several youngsters of the tribe straggled behind, getting 
 what amusement they could out of the attempts of the 
 English gipsies to control their small, spirited steeds 
 among the accidental rock-scarps and boulder mounds of 
 Lock Enoch side. Now and again one of the Stanleys 
 would find himself thrown off, to their infinite delight. 
 They danced about and yelled, stimulating the other 
 shelties, so that they, in their turn should rid themselves 
 of their cavaliers. 
 
 No harm was done and no bones broken, for the 
 distance was nothing, and the heather soft. But the 
 amount of swearing and chasing needed to estabhsh order 
 delighted the young McKittericks, who, fleet-footed as the 
 hill deer, could easily run down and bring back the 
 runaway ponies. 
 
 Often the young rascals would return lying full length 
 on the shelties' backs, or with their faces to the tail, guiding 
 with the heel, and riding as easily as if they were upon 
 a horse carefully gentled and provided with saddle and 
 bridle. 
 
 It was thus that they showed off their skill before the 
 English, whom they looked upon as of an inferior blood 
 to the Faas, Marshalls, BaiHes, and McKittericks of these 
 ultimate hills. 
 
 Then all except Juliana, the only daughter of the red- 
 eyed smith, turned along the edge of the Dungeon wall, 
 and so upwards to the rock house where Chief McKitterick, 
 called in his journeyings Killer Smith, was serenely throw- 
 ing dice for groat pieces, his right pocket against his 
 left. 
 
 But it chanced, as such things chance, that Juliana 
 slipped from her pony at the sight of the blue lake set 
 in its granite frame, with the dainty white beaches of 
 silver sand, the like of which are not to be found in 
 Scotland, and little green meads where the burns run 
 down, gay and fresh, among the heather. 
 
 She had not dreamed of finding anything so fair 
 in this high wilderness of moor and niountain. So she
 
 56 SILVER SAND 
 
 went down to walk by the water-side, fearing (as all 
 must who look upon Enoch from a distance) that such 
 beauty must vanish into nothingness, as when one walks 
 towards the end of a rainbow. 
 
 But it was not so. Juliana stood on the utmost verge 
 of the strand of silver. She stooped and undid her hair. 
 She dabbled it in the limpid water, through which the 
 spotty, stumpy-tailed trouts steered their swift way, and 
 she turned round laughing, only to encounter the eyes of 
 Silver Sand laughing with her. 
 
 She tossed the damp ringlets out of her eyes, and 
 banded them quickly with a far-descended gipsy hoop of 
 silver, cunningly inlaid with gold in wonderful lines and 
 wimples. It had come from Damascus, they said, and 
 had made part of her mother's dowry, and that of many 
 mothers of Romany daughters ever since they first came 
 out of the mysterious east to be tossed and battered, 
 and sown broadcast ; and yet, somehow, to hold their 
 own in those western lands, in which they chose not to 
 be dwellers, but birds of passage. 
 
 Juliana was not startled to find Silver Sand there. 
 He was one of her race, and the Rom may appear 
 an5rwhere, and at any time, without needing to give an 
 explanation like one of the stranger race. 
 
 " Greeting, my lord ! " she said, hastening to take him 
 by the hand. She kissed his upturned wrist where upon 
 the olive skin the blood of Egypt lay purple black in the 
 veins, a sign which cannot be mistaken. 
 
 " I prefer to be called ' Silver Sand,' " he said, with 
 a quick smile. " I am only a brother Romany whom 
 you come to visit in these wilds of Chief McKitterick. 
 Be good enough not to forget." 
 
 " I shall never forget," she cried, with an exaggeration 
 of feeling in her tone, which was, however, only apparent. 
 " Am not I Juliana Stanley, and cannot I understand 
 these things ? " 
 
 It was Silver Sand's turn to kiss the girl's hand. He 
 did it with a gentle pensive grace, eminently foreign, such 
 as she had never experienced. Yet the gipsies honour 
 their women, and are repaid by them with a rare fidelity.
 
 THE ASKING OF SILVER SAND 57 
 
 Juliana Stanley could hold her own with credit in a 
 contest of smart speeches against a score of young bucks 
 at Ormskirk Fair. But this slenderly built stranger with 
 the soft manners and the commanding eyes that shone 
 with a cool interior light — she had never seen anything 
 like him. All men seemed awkward and rude beside him. 
 He was somehow attuned with this wild stillness, to the 
 blue loch, the green granite-fringed islands, and the far- 
 spread glittering beaches. She felt herself woefully 
 ignorant and tongue-tied before him. Yet he had kissed 
 her hand, though, as she knew, he was a belted earl, 
 and the only king of the tribes which own the sway of 
 Little Egypt. 
 
 In the doughs and dales between Yorkshire and Lan- 
 cashire she had left many dusky swains lamenting. She 
 had left them with a laugh which showed her white 
 teeth, and a flirting of a small brown hand in the air, to 
 show how little the separation affected her. 
 
 But now, looking on this young man, she knew that 
 they were amply avenged — these aspirants at whom she 
 had mockingly bitten her thumb, when the apple blossom 
 was bright all along Moston Bottoms. 
 
 Juliana's heart suddenly beat faint and fast. She had 
 always known that love (at which she mocked) would 
 overtake her one day with a terrible suddenness. The 
 steady circle of the granite-starred hills ran round her 
 like a wheel, and, but for his sustaining arm about her 
 shoulders she would have fallen — she, Juliana, who had 
 tamed a strong stallion which her father had left behind 
 from the fair, because none of the tribe could master him ; 
 had taken him and sold him at Ormskirk for forty guineas 
 of the right gold, while her father was still chaffering over 
 his mares with the dealers from the Palatinate. 
 
 But her time had come, and Juliana knew it. She had 
 been meant to love this young man, but now it was past 
 praying for. If he would love her — so much the better. 
 Yet if not, she would not complain, but, hke a true gipsy, 
 take her life as it came to her. 
 
 They sat down on the shore together, the Isle of the 
 Headless Folk shining before them, the miniature loch upon
 
 58 SILVER SAND 
 
 it upheld, a mere fleck of blue, vivid as a peacock's 
 feather, against the rugged face of the conical Mountain 
 of the Star. 
 
 They talked together. Silver Sand with no thought of 
 love, but desirous of showing respect to the daughter of 
 the man he had saved. Besides, he was a man, and 
 could not help noting the exquisite shape of the nape of 
 the girl's neck, and, divining the perfections hidden be- 
 neath her gown, he shuddered as he thought of the 
 hangman's lash applied to that warm brown skin. Well 
 was it for Juliana Stanley that he had happened to stand 
 well with Sir Andrew, for the best of men and the kindest 
 of Sheriffs did not look favourable upon gipsies, sorceresses, 
 fortune-tellers, and witch-wives. 
 
 Juliana did not know what was passing in the young 
 man's mind, but the instinct of her blood told her that 
 it was full of kindly thoughts for her, and the mere idea 
 caused her to blush. Not, indeed, with the timid down- 
 looking blush of the Gorgio, but with that proud, self- 
 revealing reddening of the dusky cheek which does not 
 trouble at all the women of a race among whom, through 
 all the ages, the girls have first hoisted the love signals 
 to the men of their choice. 
 
 " Sit down and talk," he said, making a place for her 
 where he had been reclining on a couch of clean granite 
 sand, heaped into billowy dunes by the waves of the 
 lake. Juliana obeyed, and the silver particles cried out 
 crisply under her weight as she flung herself down. 
 
 She spoke to him of her father, and of the home he had 
 made for her in the winter. No, she had never known 
 her mother, but had always been like a princess among 
 the Stanleys. They were the greatest and richest of all 
 the Enghsh tribes, and were respected in their own 
 country. 
 
 " We only wander in the summer and autumn," she 
 said, " because — because it is in our blood. But in 
 Moston Clough we have stone-and-lime houses of our 
 own. My father has a forge of three fires, and both 
 journeymen and apprentices, whom he sends with travel- 
 ling apparatus to the villages about. Then for selling to
 
 THE ASKING OF SILVER SAND 59 
 
 the Gorgio he has a stable of horses. I have seen thirteen 
 in it, and all honestly come by, with the good silver 
 money paid down, and the receipts in the powder-drawer." 
 " I fear," said John Faa, with a curious look at the 
 girl beside him, " I cannot say as much for my clan. 
 The nearness of the mountains, where none can come 
 without my leave, and the easily-opened latchets of the 
 stable-doors down yonder on the farms, prove too much 
 for the Faas. But now I am returned from France, if 
 the rascals will listen to me, I must wean them from the 
 horse-stealing, except, of course, from the barracks and 
 exercise-grounds of the dragoons." 
 
 " I understand," nodded Juliana, brightly ; " who 
 steals from the King only takes back his own." 
 
 " Do you know French ? " asked Silver Sand, who 
 thought that he recognised in the girl's saying the trans- 
 lation of an Angevin proverb. 
 
 " Only a very little, a word here and there, gathered 
 from the talk of a woman who sometimes journeyed with 
 us as we came northward from the dales. She had the 
 black magic and could founder horses, dry the milk of 
 cows, raise storms, and even take the lives of men and 
 women by thrusting pins into the breasts of images of 
 wax made after their likeness." 
 
 " What was her name ? " asked Silver Sand, who had 
 known many of his race in France, where they wandered 
 about Angoulome, and came about his school, watching 
 for him on days when they knew him likely to be abroad, 
 " We only called her ' Tarantella,' " said Juliana, 
 " and she would never tell us of what tribe she was. 
 While she was with us she passed as a Stanley, but she 
 ran away between Carlisle and Penrith with a man who 
 tamed snakes and made knots of his own body — a brown 
 man and an uncanny. Ah, the sight of him made me 
 shudder." 
 
 " I fear she is no true Romany, this Tarantella of 
 yours," said Silver Sand ; " such do not leave friendly 
 folk to go off with any half-caste tumbler or sleight-of- 
 hand man that runs the road." 
 
 " She left a note for my father, saying the juggler was
 
 6o SILVER S/VND 
 
 her brother," Juliana answered, " but I think no one 
 beheved it except myself, who saw no improbability. 
 For why else should she leave us, who had been kind to 
 her ? " 
 
 " There are good and there are evil, little Juliana," 
 said Silver Sand ; " you have learned to trust none of 
 the outland Gorgio people. And that has been your 
 safety. But even among us there is the false blood of 
 Egypt and the true. The difference is harder to know, 
 but you must learn, and I would have you beware of this 
 Tarantella of the Black Magic, who is a gipsy of no tribe 
 and practises devil's tricks, such as are not permitted of 
 any clean-blooded Romany." 
 
 The girl sighed as she leaned over the broad blue mirror 
 of the loch. 
 
 " I had no other woman to speak to among many men, 
 and she was kind to me." 
 
 " All the same, beware, Juliana," he said ; " witch- 
 crafts and Italian poisonings end but one way, and that 
 is on the flaming pyre of wood steeped in tar." Then 
 Silver Sand very quietly told the girl many wise and 
 needful things. Scotland, he said, was very different 
 from rich England. Her father had done wrong to come 
 into a country of which he knew not the harsh customs. 
 Especially had he done wrong to bring a young maid 
 with him. So soon as this business of the two soldiers 
 had blown over he must take her back to the cottage and 
 the forge of Moston Clough. 
 
 " And I shall never see you again ? " said the girl, as 
 if stung. " I am a free Romany lass, though born under 
 a roof, and I see not why I should not choose my man 
 and follow him through the world, in tan and barn and 
 byre, under hedgerow and into the earth caves. I could 
 follow a man if he were my man " 
 
 She stopped out of breath, while John Faa, without 
 a movement of his face, let the sand from which he took 
 his soubriquet, trickle between his fingers. She could 
 not even be sure that he was listening to her, and some- 
 how the thought made her wild. 
 
 "If you will have none of me, John Faa," she said,
 
 THE ASKING OF SILVER SAND 6i 
 
 rising to her knees, " well, it is your right. But it is also 
 my right to tell you that I love you, for a true gipsy maid 
 may speak without shame to the man of her heart and 
 blood, no matter how high his rank may be. I have 
 been much courted — my father will tell you that I do 
 not boast. I would make you a partner of whom no 
 Romany, even of the blood royal, need be ashamed," 
 
 Silver Sand was still silent, but there was a troubled 
 look on his finely-cut face. His hands, usually so still, 
 twisted nervously. He knew the girl was well within 
 her rights as a gipsy maiden freely declaring her choice, 
 but how to answer her he knew not. She interpreted 
 his silence after her fashion, and, lest he should forbid 
 her to continue, she went on, hurrying her words. 
 
 " Consider," she said. " I do not ask for recognition 
 or to be received among your grand folk. You saved us 
 from the gorgiko law, and you are hand and glove with 
 the head judge of these parts. You are learned in all 
 the learning of their wise men, as befits the Prince of 
 Egypt. You sit at his table and you talk with him of 
 things high and strange, which Juliana Stanley never 
 heard of nor could understand. All this is right and 
 proper for you. It is your winter under the roof, and 
 clipped about with walls. But you will need your summer 
 also. Then you will yearn for the tent pitched in the 
 glade among the birches, the trout streams running 
 briskly, where you can be free as the birds overhead, 
 or the great white clouds sailing by. Then, too, you will 
 begin to bethink you of the girl who is waiting for you 
 with fire bright and pan clattering, the scent of the fried 
 bacon and bread, and all the love she has been keeping 
 for you since you and she were fast-handed and she gave 
 you her word." 
 
 The chief of the Faas muttered something a little 
 shamefacedly. 
 
 " A ' gorgio ' marriage, John Faa, what Romany maid 
 cares for that when her man is of her own blood ? There 
 is one law for Egypt and another for the stranger. I 
 should not stand in your way, nor keep you from your 
 destiny. But I should be ready to welcome you when
 
 62 SILVER SAND 
 
 the need for the white tents tingled in your blood and 
 you longed for the airs of the mountain and the salt, 
 blown fresh and wet up from the sea." 
 
 She paused for breath, and Silver Sand, greatly per- 
 plexed, extended a hand to her, which she pressed to her 
 lips. 
 
 " You grant my request — you will be my man — at 
 least among the Romanies ? I do not tie you for the 
 rest of your life, so be that no girl of our blood comes 
 between us. If she does, let her look to it." 
 
 " Juliana," said Silver Sand, speaking at last, " I 
 acknowledge your right, and I see not how to refuse your 
 service. But I must be plain with you. There is now no 
 thought of love in my heart for you or any other woman. 
 I have lived in a world of books, and then in a world of 
 fighting and riding. Scholar and soldier I have been, 
 but never has a woman made my heart beat faster. I 
 warn you that I may meet a woman who may awake the 
 Unknown in me " 
 
 " I do not care," cried Juliana, " so that you are mine 
 now. If the woman is a gipsy, as I say, let her look to 
 it, John Faa, for I, Juliana Stanley, will fight for my 
 Romany. If she be white-faced and of high station, 
 learned like yourself, let her commune with you on what 
 I shall never know. I shall in full content be your 
 Romany wife, and the bond shall hold for me, but not for 
 you, so long as you look on no other gipsy with the light 
 of kindness in your eyes. Do you accept, John Faa ? 
 If I am the first who has dared to ask, I have already a 
 right upon you by our law." 
 
 She lifted herself up, and, pressing her hands upon 
 his shoulders, kissed him long upon the lips. 
 
 Then she sprang to her feet, clapping her hands glee- 
 fully. " King of the Gipsies, I am your gipsy wife ! " 
 she cried.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Two ON THE Mountains 
 
 John Faa knew the law of his folk, which is the same 
 from the banks of the Indus to those of the Tay. A maid 
 of spotless character has a right to choose her man if he 
 be unmarried. His only way of escape is to wed eariy, 
 so that he is safe from the shelter of sudden attacks. 
 But Silver Sand had lived too long among the outlanders. 
 He had forgotten many of the customs which his fore- 
 fathers had made in their wisdom, and had judged the 
 ways of Romany women by those of more sheltered lands, 
 where women are content to wait and wait and be silent, 
 hiding their loves, damping down their desires. 
 
 He knew, however, that all his people would approve 
 Juliana Stanley, and that as a true Egyptian, commoner 
 or of the blood royal, there was no way out for him with- 
 out shaming himself and having the blood of Juliana on 
 his conscience. For a girl refused, specially one of 
 Juliana's birth and spirit, would certainly kill herself to 
 escape the contemptuous eyebrow and the pointed 
 finger. She had declared herself his for life, and (as 
 betwixt Rom and Rom) that is sufficient. She had only 
 to do the same before witnesses, and they were man and 
 wife, according to gipsy law — married, as the Scots called 
 it, " across the tongs." 
 
 So from the shore of the loch, glittering in azure and 
 white, they took their way towards the House of the 
 Dungeon. And as they went the hand of Juhana stole 
 into his and gripped his fingers. 
 
 They came suddenly upon a group looking over into 
 the grey changeful haze of the Dungeon of Buchan, and, 
 at the sight of the red-eyed smith, her father, Juliana 
 
 63
 
 64 SILVER SAND 
 
 cried out from afar, " I have asked him. He is my man. 
 I am his gipsy wife. So long as he bides among us no 
 other has the right to Hght his fire or make ready his meal 
 of meat ! See, we are hand-fasted and promised accord- 
 ing to the law of Egypt, which says that, being a maid, 
 once in her life a woman may, without shame, ask a 
 man ! This I have done ! Bear witness, father, and 
 you others — I have asked and have not been refused ! " 
 
 Silver Sand walked forward, feeling within him the 
 passive soul of a sheep driven market-ward. It was the 
 first time that his chiefship had turned against him. 
 Hitherto he had dictated among all the tribes, and the 
 laws of Egypt had been with him. They were so now. 
 He could beat or even slay this girl who put herself in his 
 hands. He had only to bid her dig a grave, and in that 
 grave he had the right to bury her alive — nor would she 
 complain of his harsh treatment. 
 
 Only, the training of the people of books and cities 
 was deeply impressed in him. He must walk according 
 to the custom and the law of Egypt like any other Rom, 
 and he could not rid himself of this net cast about him 
 by the methods of Egypt. Besides, was he so sure that 
 he wanted to ? There were indeed many who would 
 envy him, and with good cause. 
 
 Large black eyes, that flashed and languished alter- 
 nately, the figure and easy carriage of Diana sporting 
 with her maidens, tall and supple like a young tree bent 
 by the winds, her dark rippled hair loose and straining 
 in the wind of these altitudes — that was Juliana Stanley, 
 by whom he had been formally " asked." He knew well 
 that the connection was one which a man so high placed 
 as himself could repudiate at any moment after a certain 
 time without giving a reason. In that case the shame 
 would fall not upon the man, but upon the woman. All 
 Egypt would take his side, and the girl would resume her 
 place in her father's caravan or in the blacksmith's cottage 
 in Moston Clough. 
 
 But such a solution seemed impossible to Silver Sand, 
 because of his training among the outlander — the Gorgio of 
 France, with his absurd prejudices and childish courtesies.
 
 TWO ON THE MOUNTAINS 65 
 
 All unwittingly he had aroused in Juliana's heart 
 something that at once was tigerish and maternal. If 
 he told her to kill a man, that man was as good as dead, 
 and if he denied or deceived her, she would plunge the 
 dagger into herself — or perhaps even into her lord if he 
 drove her to despair. Juliana was a fine animal, with some- 
 thing of Cleopatra about her, and still more of the heroines 
 of the Greek tragedies he had spent so much time over 
 among the good monks of Issy. 
 
 Certainly there was a weak strain in Silver Sand some- 
 where — perhaps it was that he fell between two incom- 
 patible civilisations, having the blood of one and the 
 education of the othe^:. He could not bear to make a 
 woman unhappy. Besides, he had not another attach- 
 ment, though instinct told him that this was not the one 
 for which his soul was on the watch. 
 
 But from that moment of the declaration before 
 witnesses all the band treated them as married persons. 
 Juliana had made her choice, and, if anything went 
 wrong, the penalty would be hers to bear. The young 
 Lancashire lads who had pretended to her hand and 
 made part of her father's band, went about sober and 
 sullen. She had been snatched out of their reach, and that 
 by her own act. They, too, knew the laws of Egypt, 
 and recognised that there was nothing to be done — that 
 is, till they should see if, within the year, the Gipsy King 
 did not use his right of sending her back to her father's fan. 
 
 Then began a time of strange experiences for Silver 
 Sand. He had been a recluse and a solitar}^ upon the 
 earth. Reared among monks, he had in spirit something 
 of the monachal about him. It was, therefore, passing 
 strange for him to find himself in the depths of a green 
 dell, sitting idle with a book of classics in his hand, while 
 Juliana, with happiness in her eyes, and a flush upon 
 her face which told of desires fulfilled, flitted here and 
 there among the trees, brought water from the brook, 
 or buttered the saucepan for the trout her husband had 
 
 E
 
 66 SILVER SAND 
 
 caught earlier in the day as they tramped the moorlands 
 together. 
 
 At first Silver Sand had attempted to take upon his 
 shoulders part of the burden of adjusting their equipage, 
 tent, ropes, cooking utensils, upon the two strong asses 
 they took with them. But Juliana had flung herself 
 down on the heather in such a tornado of weeping and 
 protesting, that he had been obliged to allow her to do it 
 herself. And indeed she loaded the beasts far better and 
 quicker than he could. 
 
 Did he mean to shame her before all the women of her 
 tribe ? Did he think her weak or unworthy ? She would 
 kill herself. She knew a place where the sands sucked 
 you down. If he did not love her as a Romany ought, 
 if she offended in anything, he ought to beat her, to kill 
 her — but he had no right to shame her. 
 
 It was the same in camp. Juliana would not permit 
 him to fetch even one of the heavy pails of water from 
 the spring or burnside. He had done enough by per- 
 mitting himself to be waited upon as became a woman of 
 the gipsies who had " asked " a man. 
 
 So after a while our solitary Silver Sand, who found 
 himself watched and tended like a spoilt child, became 
 conscious of a strange feeling of contentment. He 
 explained it to himself thus : 
 
 " So did my fathers through the centuries — it is all 
 familiar to my inward eye — the running water, the tall, 
 dusky trees, the busy girl. So they formed their women 
 to labour for them, and themselves to accept service 
 centuries before they came out of the East." 
 
 Then, when the meal was ready, and the whole glen 
 filled with the scent of the trout fried in oatmeal, or the 
 rashers of bacon and eggs, Juliana, with a proud humility, 
 would summon her lord to his meal. She never sat 
 down with him, but spread the cloth on a tree stump 
 or a patch of dry grass for himself alone. This was her 
 privilege — to do everything for him. She served him, 
 silent and happy, foreseeing and anticipating his needs, 
 handing the salt at the proper time and clearing away 
 the debris with swift unobtrusive readiness.
 
 TWO ON THE MOUNTAINS 67 
 
 During these seasons Juliana's face wore a look of bliss. 
 She had her man to herself, and she alone was there to 
 care for him. She was the blessed among women. 
 
 Busy as she was, guarding and guiding the donkeys on 
 the long journeys they took, as Silver Sand went from 
 tribe to tribe, she would keep her eyes about the moor- 
 land for the eggs of plover and curlew. And it was rare 
 that she did not collect a dozen at least in the sack of 
 cord which she wore at her side. She separated egg from 
 egg, wrapping each in thick cool moss and tying the 
 whole about with strips of willow bark so that they 
 would not shift. As to the main provisions, Silver Sand 
 must see to those. He either bought them at a farm 
 or cothouse on the way, or shot a hare, a rabbit, or a 
 brace of muir fowl, which Juliana instantly took pos- 
 session of and carried hidden away among the paraphernalia 
 of her cooking apparatus on the back of Darsie, her 
 favourite donkey. 
 
 Once or twice, as he had opportunity, Silver Sand wrote 
 to the Sheriff at Lochnaw Castle. He was (he said) upon 
 the business of Egypt, and busily enforcing the King's 
 peace where Sir Andrew's writ did not run. All which 
 was true enough, but in none of these letters was there 
 any question of Juliana or the wondrous new life he was 
 leading. 
 
 It was not long before the taste for the free air, the 
 blowing wind, the broad couch of heather in the lea of 
 the wood, the simple fare, and the glorious uncertainty 
 of the hfe, began to take hold upon him. 
 
 Older and more primeval ideals called to him. His 
 blood rose insurgent, and he felt that he had never been 
 so happy before, as he was with this girl who with smiles 
 and gratitude, made herself his slave. 
 
 Sometimes, as he smoked over the fire in the evenings, 
 she permitted herself to draw near, and, if he indicated 
 a heather tuft or a fallen tree with his hand (as he always 
 did), she would seat herself opposite him, but always at 
 a markedly respectful distance, like one who is there on 
 sufferance. All the same, it was clear that Juliana Stanley 
 was ecstatically happy. Furthermore, that she did not
 
 68 SILVER SAND 
 
 intend to give him any excuse for sending her back to her 
 father. 
 
 When they talked, she showed herself insatiably 
 curious as to all his past life in foreign countries. She 
 could not get over the thought of all those hundred monks 
 living in that great house without any women to serve 
 them. How did they make their fires ? Who prepared 
 their meals ? It was a strange idea for men to be without 
 women. 
 
 " But I, though no monk, was equally alone till you 
 chose me, Juliana ! " said Silver Sand, laughing at her 
 serious and vaguely disgusted expression. 
 
 " Ah, that was different — a young man, being marriage- 
 able and no woman-seeker or petticoat-follower, waits 
 till he is asked. You were waiting for me — for me, John 
 Faa. I am glad, I am glad. Do not fear — this is the 
 crown of my happiness. No woman of the wandering folk 
 is so happy as I. Yet I know that this our life cannot 
 continue always. And I have promised to be no drag 
 upon you. It will be harder now, having tasted bliss, 
 to let you go. But I know my duty, and I shall wait 
 your return as the need comes upon you — when there 
 remains nothing for Juliana but to notch upon a staff 
 the days as they pass, while she expects your home- 
 coming." 
 
 Juhana was never tired of the tale of Silver Sand's 
 wanderings. But she never asked which of the daughters 
 of the Gorgios he had cast a spell over, as his father was 
 said to have done over the Countess at the gate of Cassillis. 
 
 Fain would she have spoken, but the words would not 
 pass her lips. She was content with what it should 
 please him to tell her, and her parted red lips and heaving 
 breast were the measure of her interest. So that the 
 recitals of strange doings v/ere often prolonged far into 
 the night. 
 
 Silver Sand took a liking to these seances. The racing 
 clouds, the surge of the wind among the tree-tops, the 
 moon looking through, as the big white banks of vapour 
 gave way and revealed at intervals the starry lift, the 
 silence of the woods, the wild scent of the gall bushes and
 
 TWO ON THE MOUNTAINS 69 
 
 the heather, the unwonted and still strange influence of 
 the girl nestling close and closer beside him, all affected 
 his imagination with a sense of something gay and bright 
 which he had come near to winning, and which alone 
 made life worth living. 
 
 There were other things in the background, heavy 
 vague things, shadows that waited by his path, not to 
 be evaded. But for the moment he had not come to them. 
 They could wait. The wild wood and the wild girl for 
 him ! That which would be, would be. But in the 
 meantime, the waters ran, and the air and the laughter 
 of youth were better than all books and all shadows. 
 Besides, he had had little of enjoyment, little of freedom 
 hitherto. For a little while, just a little while, the gods 
 would be good to him, and he would be grateful, taking 
 what they gave.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Hand-fasted — Heart-free 
 
 John Faa was John Faa in these days, the true heir of 
 the man whom King James ihe Sixth and First had made 
 Lord and Earl of Little Egypt. He interpreted the Law. 
 He composed quarrels. He settled the blood-money 
 which the Lennoxes were to pay to the Shirmers-Gordons 
 for the dead man they had left behind them after the last 
 New Galloway Fair. 
 
 His was a Law which had never been written, his a 
 judgment against which there was no appeal. He alone 
 interpreted its spirit, and that, without any help except 
 the statements of the two parties, who held up their right 
 hands and swore that their lives should be forfeit if in the 
 smallest matter they misled their chief. 
 
 Strangest of all, his decisions contented both parties, 
 and they often adjourned together to the nearest change- 
 house to drink a burial-service and sing a " dirgie " to 
 the extinct blood-feud. 
 
 On such occasions Juliana waited on her lord with a 
 pride in her heart that she hardly troubled to conceal. 
 Almost she wished that in some congress of angry parties 
 to a vexed cause, he might be attacked, so that she might 
 spring in and save him. But, in spite of internecine 
 quarrels, they were all good Romanies and knew what 
 was due to the chief of the Faas. 
 
 Sometimes, indeed, they forgot to pay their dues, but 
 not so often as formerly, for the new institution of the 
 King's revenue duties bade fair to make their wandering 
 manner of life an extremely profitable one. 
 
 It was in this very matter that Juliana gave the earliest 
 proof of her capacity and watchfulness. 
 
 70
 
 HAND-FASTED, HEART-FREE 71 
 
 " How is John Faa, who is your Lord and Earl, to hold 
 up his head among the outland Gorgios if you do not pay 
 him his tithes ? You, Curtis the Kemper, you took 
 sixty shillings of the King's sterling money at Muirkirk 
 Tryst. That makes six that are due to my man and 
 your chief — John Faa ! Pay your dues, like a true son 
 of Egypt." 
 
 "Sixty shillings Scots/" squealed the weasel-faced 
 little man, in an agony of anxiety and fear. 
 
 " Sterling shillings," Juhana repeated, calmly, " and 
 they are in your wallet now. I know those who saw the 
 Strathaven farmer pay them over. Take care I do not 
 go farther back. My man has been over lenient, and 
 has forborne to ask. But that is past and done with. 
 I am here — Jasper Stanley's daughter — and I shall ask 
 for him. Ye know bis yearning care for you and the like 
 of you, his sore travel and labours. Were it not for 
 John Faa and his friendship with the great of the earth, 
 you would be linking it this moment among the tobacco- 
 plants in Virginia, a naked slave shrinking from the 
 driver's lash ! " 
 
 Without a word Curtis paid over the six shillings, which, 
 in the most business-like way in the world, Juhana put 
 aside in her kirtle-pocket for her master. 
 
 " And, mind you," she added, " do not let me have to 
 find out and come asking, as if the wife of John Faa were 
 a beggar's brat whining for a bawbee at a great man's 
 door. If John Faa be not within reach, ye shall come 
 to me with your tithes, or else send them by the first sure 
 hand. And I warrant you, Kemper Curtis, that in this 
 Scotland and as far south as the Cheshire Dee, any Romany 
 hand is sure. So on that score there need be no keeping 
 back. John Faa will make all of his blood-kin his bankers 
 and go-betweens. Nothing shall be lost or mistrysted in 
 Egypt any more. WTien the Gorgio is spoilt, that is a 
 matter which concerns you and the outlander's own 
 justice. But my husband shall see to it that Egypt shall 
 not cheat Egypt, and I, Juhana Faa, that Egypt does not 
 cheat him, who is my Lord and the Lord of all of you !" 
 
 So it came about that when they sighted a town, or
 
 72 SILVER SAND 
 
 even a sizeable clachan, in their wanderings, Juliana would 
 tie a red kerchief about her head to hide the damascened 
 gold bands (which only the women of the Faas might wear) , 
 lest they might prove a temptation to the rampaging 
 raw stots of Highland soldiery who were ever ready for 
 plunder. Then she slipped off into the town to find this 
 merchant, and that other dealer, leaving Silver Sand with 
 his back against an oak, or couched under some great 
 boulder, enjoying a sweet blink of sunshine and rest 
 after a hard and bitter day, the winds lown and laid 
 about him, and his soul at peace. 
 
 Those of his first hand-fasting were good days for Silver 
 Sand. Juliana was a mother to him, hedging him about 
 with her protections. She was proud of him, as a mother 
 is of a famous son. Also, she was full of the same 
 anxieties for him, and always set him before herself, and, 
 indeed, all else. 
 
 After an hour or two she would return from the town 
 with her net of cord bursting with all that was to be 
 bought of tempting and costly. Was her man not the 
 head of all Egypt, and she would see to it that every 
 Rom should pay tribute to him, as was the law. She 
 even engaged in a famous quarrel with her father, in 
 which she made use of knowledge acquired as Smith 
 Stanley's cashier and chief clerk, to compel that doughty 
 warrior to pay certain arrears of dues to his chief. 
 
 Jasper called her an ungrateful wasp, but agreed to a 
 compromise, by which he would pay his tithes on all 
 moneys not yet expended by him or his tribe. And 
 with this partial success Juliana was forced to be 
 content. 
 
 But she made good arrangements for the time yet to 
 come, and her father promised to see to it that all the 
 northern clans as far south as Blackstone Edge, and the 
 mouths of Dee and Mersey did likewise, the Laws and 
 the Pontons alone excepted, with whom he was on no 
 good terms, they being dwellers in caravans drawn by 
 horses, instead of in tents carried by women or asses, as 
 was the good Romany custom all the world over. 
 
 But in the very midst of Silver Sand's dream of bliss.
 
 HAND-FASTED, HEART-FREE 73 
 
 there came a black sorrow to blight it, and to call him 
 back again to the world. 
 
 At the foot of Loch Moan, on the shore which looks 
 toward the Shalloch-on-Minnoch they were camped, and 
 the two asses which John Faa had bought for their lading 
 beasts were wandering about seeking sound herbage, when 
 there came a runner from the house by Loch Enoch. 
 He had a foot wrapped in a handkerchief plucked from 
 a washing green, and marks of haste were evident upon 
 him. 
 
 " I am sent with this letter," he gasped, " the Mc- 
 Ketterick and Jasper Stanley bade me find you, and give 
 you this immediately. For it comes from Agnew, the 
 Sheriff of Galloway, and has been following you manv 
 days." 
 
 He tore it open, breaking the great legal seal, and his 
 eye took in the Sheriff's message. 
 
 " From Lochnaw High Wood, that looks towards the 
 sea, where there is a woodman's shelter under a cliff, I, 
 Sir Andrew Agnew, Sheriff of Galloway, send to you, John 
 Faa, Earl of Little Egypt, this first day of May, greeting 
 and fellowship. 
 
 " The reason I write is to tell you that I am held sus- 
 pect by Claverhouse and his corbies for the death of the 
 two soldiers on the heuchs by the ' Rowan Tree,' and 
 especially for allowing the disappearance of the suspected 
 persons that ye ken of. 
 
 " They have (for the time that is) utterly deprived me 
 of my jurisdiction, so I hereby release you from your 
 bonds to produce the man Jasper Stanley and his daughter, 
 with their company. Indeed, I saw well enough that 
 they were nowise guilty, for I am accustomed to judge 
 such things, and the evidence against them was but wind 
 and naught. 
 
 " They would help me nothing, even if they were all 
 here, though it might well mean the gallows for them. 
 For the Grahams, and especially that misbegotten David, 
 whom one day I shall thraw the neck of, have used this 
 business as a handle against me to oust me from my
 
 74 SILVER SAND 
 
 powers, lands, and heritages. Thank God, they cannot 
 oust Andrew Agnew from the consideration of his nati^'e 
 shire, and even from that of the common folk, of which 
 James and I have daily and touching proofs, more, indeed, 
 than ever I had in my life before. 
 
 " But this do I say, John Faa, that if you value your 
 friend as he values you, you will come at once to the 
 high-lying plantation of Lochnaw, and if anything has 
 befallen between this writing and your coming (which 
 may be delayed by accidents out of my ken) you will 
 hear the latest news of me from my friend, the dominie 
 Crogo at the school-house of Leswalt, whom you will do 
 well to take in your course, in any event. 
 
 " Keep wide of Lochnaw, where are only the ladies, 
 and a strong garrison of troopers under Captain Bruce. 
 These have put the lady, my wife, and my niece Lilias 
 to more than the wonted disturbance incident upon the 
 placing of a garrison in a gentleman's private house. 
 But nothing of any private insult hath been offered, he 
 (Captain Bruce) being under some former obligations to 
 me, and not so forgetful of them as that roaring rake-hell 
 of a Rob Grier, laird of Lag. 
 
 " So, good friend, in the hope of speedily seeing you 
 face to face, I subscribe myself, 3^our humble servitor, 
 
 "Andrew Agnew." 
 
 Juliana stood a little apart while he read the letter. 
 Instinctively she felt the gravity of it as expressed on 
 the face of her husband. She knew, without telling, that 
 it was a summons calling him away from her, and even 
 before he had spoken she had summoned to her aid all 
 her pride and strength, so that she might not show herself 
 to him more weak than she had promised. 
 
 She gripped herself to keep back the tears which she 
 was determined he should not see. Then, with a very 
 grave face. Silver Sand turned to her, and read the 
 Sheriff's letter. Juliana instantly said that he must go, 
 and that she would abide with her father till such time 
 as he could return to her again. He would thus see that 
 in no wise would she hinder him. Silver Sand kissed her
 
 HAND-FASTED, HEART-FREE 75 
 
 as she stood up to aid him with his dressing for the 
 society of lords and baronets among whom he was going. 
 
 " Do not be too kind, John Faa, I pray you, or I shall 
 break my plighted word, which never Juliana Faa did 
 yet." 
 
 But even as she spoke the tears were running down 
 her face. 
 
 " It was all your fault, John Faa," she said, trying to 
 swallow down her grief, " you should not have kissed 
 me. A gipsy wife does not bargain for kindness from 
 her man, though I knew it was in your nature." 
 
 She drew out his handsomest brocaded suit, and would 
 have put it on. But he laughed and said : " What is 
 this, Juliana — to go and visit a man hiding in the woods. 
 He will be wearing homespun himself, if I know the 
 Sheriff. Besides in what a state will I bring it back to 
 you, if I have to stretch myself in moss-hags or on the 
 damp floor of sea caves with the purple dulse dripping 
 over me." 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " and I not there to pick it for you. 
 I am a great hand at the dulse, John." 
 
 " You are a great hand at everything, httle girl," he 
 said, patting her hand, " I am beginning to find out that 
 I have married a miracle." 
 
 " Oh, no," she protested, with something hke fear in 
 her tone, " do not laugh at me. Only a very ignorant 
 gipsy girl, but one who knows her place, and will never 
 lower you either in the opinion of Egypt or of the world." 
 
 She smiled upon him now and persisted till she won 
 the battle that he should wear his fine blue broadcloth 
 with brocade facings, telling him how well it became him, 
 and kneeling to fasten the silver tassels at the knee. 
 
 " And if you do spoil it," she said, brightly, " what 
 great matter is it ? Does not Tailor Byron live in the 
 High Street of Stranraer, and may you deny me if there 
 is not another and a better waiting for you — aye, and 
 paid for on your return." 
 
 She laughed a little at the sight of his blank face. 
 
 " Oh, it is the money you are thinking of, I know you 
 have let shp the tithes of Egypt for many years, accepting
 
 76 SILVER SAND 
 
 only what the clan-chiefs thought fit to give you. But 
 I am Jasper Stanley's daughter and your wife. I know 
 what has been kept back and what shall now be paid. 
 I kept my father's accounts, and now I shall keep yours. 
 You shall have an honest cash-keeper and doer. See, 
 John ! " 
 
 She drew from the pocket which swung from about 
 her waist under her red petticoat, a fat pocket-book. 
 She opened the leather band with a proud solicitude. 
 
 " The cash-keeper of His Majesty the King of Egypt 
 remits this statement of her accounts, and the money 
 accrued, amounting in all to one hundred and seventy- 
 seven pounds sterling in gold Charleses. Do you take 
 one hundred with some loose silver for the journey. I 
 will keep the odd seventy-seven, which you may send for 
 as you need it. Be nothing afraid. It shall grow like 
 a snowball running down hill when the snow is soft. If 
 you send for another hundred to the house of the Killer, 
 I shall have it for you in ten days, as soon as my mes- 
 sengers have got back out of Cumberland, and from 
 Durham and Northumberland. There are many tribes 
 there with full tans who have paid nothing for years, 
 the Cannons and the Sherards, the Pinsons and the 
 Pynes — besides the Yetholm folk, who have counted 
 themselves privileged, because of calling themselves Faas, 
 and having the protection of the Davidsons, on condition 
 of keeping safe the sheep on their hills and the cattle in 
 the byres ! " 
 
 Silver Sand took the glowing, happy face between his 
 hands. 
 
 " Truly," he said, touching her dense black hair with 
 his lips, " I have gone much about the world, scholared 
 it and soldiered it, till I was tired of books and musketoons, 
 but I never knew that what I wanted was a mate, and 
 sure I am that I have gotten the best in the world when 
 I gat you." 
 
 " Nay," she objected, " do not speak of it. It was I 
 who asked and got you, which would be accounted a 
 great shame among all peoples except those who are of 
 the black blood of Egypt. But take the hundred pieces
 
 HAND-FASTED, HEART-FREE 'j^ 
 
 of gold, John. The rest I shall keep against the day of 
 your need." 
 
 " Or your own, Juliana." 
 
 " Oh, for me — I thank you, but I can provide for 
 myself, and that without frequenting of fairs or fortune- 
 telling of the common sort, for that might hurt you if it 
 came to be known. Not that you are to tell any of the 
 Gorgios — your friends, that you are married to a gipsy 
 
 girl." 
 
 " But so I am, and I am proud of it," said Silver Sand. 
 
 " Proud here — proud there," cried Juliana, waving her 
 arms to take in the East and the West from the rising 
 sun to his setting, " you are hand-fasted to a gipsy woman, 
 and so far as Egypt is concerned, she is your slave and 
 servant. But among the great folk, or even the little, 
 this is no marriage, nor the form of one. Remember our 
 compact, John Faa, Free for you, bound for me ! I am 
 your representative in your absence, a faithful Romany 
 wife, but you go forth a bachelor as far as the Gorgios are 
 concerned. Remember our contract, John Faa, pro- 
 nounced and promised before we made our bond, and 
 without which the bond would never have been made. 
 For it could not have been seemly if I had taken away 
 what was not mine^all the learning and the grace of 
 living among folk who can understand you. I cannot 
 be a fit companion for you in these things, being only the 
 daughter of Jasper Stanley the blacksmith, and un- 
 learned save in gipsy ways. But at least I shall never 
 shame you nor keep you back, and now go, John Faa, 
 for it pains me to have you gone. I would be alone with 
 no need to talk even to you, my own soul's lord. This 
 lad will see me safe back to my father 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Wild Man of the Heather 
 
 Silver Sand walked lightly over the heather, looking 
 back often at Juliana, and wondering if the past weeks 
 were not a dream. It was so long since he had been 
 alone, and already the bonds of the flesh knit so close 
 that parting seemed an actual tearing open as of a wound 
 that has been imperfectly healed. 
 
 But though he stood waving his broad hat (" as fine 
 as the King's" as she had boasted), Juhana never once 
 turned round nor looked back, but walked on ahead 
 with the young McKitterick messenger, a sHm, silent 
 lad, and the pair of laden asses following in her wake. 
 
 Yes, it was true (he owned to himself) , at first he thought 
 little of it seriously — a girl's whim which he could not 
 refuse, and now he found his wild harebrained maid a 
 woman formed and finished, wiser than himself in a 
 hundred ways, more experienced and of a delicate humility 
 such as, in his limited commerce with women, as a scholar 
 in France, or as a rough soldier in Scotland, he had never 
 found. 
 
 Love her ? Ah, he could not tell. There was the 
 wrench and the pain of parting with her. These he 
 certainly experienced. But — was there something else ? 
 It was somehow terribly unequal, this bond of theirs. 
 She was ready to lay down her life to serve him. He was 
 the one man for her, and had been since the first moment 
 she had set eyes on him. But of this he had experienced 
 nothing. It might be that all this was yet to come for 
 him, and the fear of such a thing shook him to the heart. 
 He stood on that moory hill-top, deep-set amid a world 
 of spiky gorse, yellow as flame is at night, and watched 
 
 78 

 
 THE WILD MAN OF THE HEATHER 79 
 
 her go from him. How much of himself went with her ? 
 He shook his head sadly, and turned away in his turn, 
 for indeed he could not tell. 
 
 He had not gone far across the heather, and was keep- 
 ing well to the southward along the edge of the fells, 
 when he saw a man coming towards him, bending low 
 and hiding himself behind every peat hag and knoll of 
 " spritty " heather. 
 
 For a moment Silver Sand thought that he might be 
 in danger of an attack. The hundred golden Charleses 
 in his belt made him uneasy. Then he laughed at himself. 
 " The Deceitfulness of Riches," he thought, and took his 
 hand from the butt of his pistol. Who but a smuggler 
 or a hill gipsy would accost any man on the Fell of Kin- 
 caid ? And to these was he not John Faa — besides 
 being youthful, strong, quick-eyed, and trained to the 
 use of arms ? 
 
 The man who had been skulking came nearer, so that 
 now Silver Sand could see his wild elf locks straggling 
 out from under his bload blue Kilmarnock bonnet. The 
 hair fell on his shoulders, long and matted, and as it 
 were, dank with night mists, and smeared with the clay 
 of land caverns. Undoubtedly he had before him one 
 of the " wanderers," as it was the fashion of the time 
 and the country to call those who outcasted themselves 
 for righteousness' sake. Of such stuff they made the 
 Martyrs — or rather John Graham and Robert Grier of 
 Lag martyrised them merrily whenever found, spending 
 a dozen bullets upon each martyr, being liberal men where 
 Whigs were concerned. 
 
 " Are you of the people ? " said the wild man, suddenly 
 standing upright a couple of paces from Silver Sand. 
 
 " I am of their party," said Silver Sand, not affecting 
 to misunderstand him, " and I go westward to help one 
 who is outlawed and searched for by the persecutors." 
 
 The wild man bounded forward. 
 
 " I am he that was minister of Luce, even Alexander 
 Peden," he said. " I bid you welcome. At first I was 
 afraid, having regard to your care for the appearances 
 of this world and the gauds of cleading that you had
 
 8o SILVER SAND 
 
 been of the evil party — or worse still — of the Indiffer- 
 ents ? But whom do you go to seek ? " 
 
 " Indeed, Mr. Peden, I am not allowed to tell. He 
 is a man of the highest position, and is much threatened." 
 
 " Do you think Alexander Peden would betray you, 
 but yet — you are right. Whom do / trust with my 
 secrets ? Who knows how, like a blind mole, I creep and 
 steal through the earth — under it as often as upon it. 
 I blame you not, but I would have news of your own 
 condition. Have you taken the Test ? " 
 
 " I have not, and it is for that cause that I am taking 
 the crown of the moorland this day." 
 
 " That is good, but it is not the one thing needful. 
 The sun may shine on your head, good lad, yet sin may 
 make an eclipse in your heart. The believer is married 
 never to be loosed, but you may be held in the marriage 
 bonds only for a season." 
 
 And seeing that Silver Sand winced at this very plain 
 dealing, he added hastily, " I speak of the Spirit and its 
 works — which to the elect are camphor, and myrrh, and 
 cinnamon. Now, answer me, young sir, for have I not 
 been set in your ways as one with a mission to search 
 under the rubbish heaps of earthliness deep into your 
 spirit? Next to the Scriptures, do you make use of the 
 Confession of Faith, the Smaller and Larger Catechisms, 
 Directories of Public Worship, Knox's Elocutions, and 
 the Sum of Saving Knowledge ? " 
 
 " I am afraid not," said Silver Sand, " I have just 
 returned from a long sojourn abroad and have not had 
 time to perfect myself in Scots divinity, but I shall be 
 glad to learn under your instruction, if so be opportunity 
 is given." 
 
 " Do you go to Ireland, sir ? For if you do, you will 
 find me bewailing the misfortunes of this poor land in 
 the parish-house of Ballymena where many godly Presby- 
 terian folk are gathered, as birds flock close in a season 
 of evil weather." 
 
 " For that I cannot promise," said Silver Sand, " I do 
 not know my movements." 
 
 *' Who but stark fools would say they do ? But in
 
 THE WILD MAN OF THE HEATHER 8i 
 
 the meantime and till I or other true gospel minister 
 can give you needed instruction, read Mr. Gray's, Mr. 
 Binning's, and Mr. Guthrie's sermons. You do not know 
 them ! Then so much the worse for you. It is a shame 
 to see you so ignorant. There is not a cottier but could 
 master you — even as they did the great Bishop Burnet, 
 according to his own candid confessing. Every hedger 
 and ditcher in the country knows at least the rudiments 
 of truth as expressed very briefly and compendiously in 
 the Jus Populi, the Apologetical Relation, Lex Rex, Aaron's 
 Rod, History of the Indulgence, Testimony against Tolera- 
 tion, and God's Revenge against Murther " ! 
 
 Silver Sand was staggered with the rapidity and ease 
 with which the ex-minister reeled off this list. 
 
 " I am a poor scholar and ignorant," he said, with due 
 humility, " but I learned the Greek and Hebrew languages, 
 and so can read the Scriptures in the originals, or rather 
 I could do so again, for I may have somewhat forgotten." 
 
 " Scholarship is a great thing," said Peden, " but 
 there be greater. It is better neither to take up with 
 right hand backslidings nor left hand extremes ! " 
 
 " Better still as I read it," quoth Silver Sand, " to live 
 in love and charity among brethren ! " 
 
 "Ah, but who are the brethren ? " cried the preacher, 
 and without waiting for an answer he turned on his heel 
 and went over the heather, neither looking to the right 
 nor to the left, as if at every step he would avoid those 
 backslidings and extremes of which he had spoken.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Hal of Windy Standard 
 
 It was Silver Sand's full intention to obey Sir Andrew's 
 direction to the letter and keep wide of the Castle of 
 Lochnaw, but it chanced that Fate, as represented by 
 a fair maid, had otherwise decided. 
 
 Indeed coming from the east it was no easy matter to 
 reach the High Wood of Lochnaw without coming within 
 view of the Castle and lake (which son Jamie was one day 
 to drain, but which at that date still lappered and swayed 
 under the windows in changeful mirrorings and innumer- 
 able tremulousnesses) . 
 
 The night had withdrawn itself, and on the meadows 
 whence Jamie was to garner home his hay — a thrifty 
 husbandman of all that his father left in his hand — 
 the larks sang loud, dimpling the sky as they rose and 
 fell to the measure and cadence of their song. 
 
 It will be remembered that Silver Sand had upon him 
 a suit made by the best tailor in the country, from a 
 French model which he had brought with him from Paris 
 — the same that Juliana had promised him the like of 
 as the hansel of his return. 
 
 It is strange how in fine weather the mere joy of travel 
 and change intoxicates the young. For though in his 
 way Silver Sand had grown to love his gipsy girl-wife, 
 now that she was out of sight, he could bear well enough 
 to leave her alone with her heavy heart and stretch out 
 upon a new and uncharted course. 
 
 The human heart is cruel in its early twenties and it 
 must be allowed that Silver Sand tasted the fine morning 
 and the sense of unknown adventure into the thick of 
 which he was making his way. 
 
 8s
 
 HAL OF WINDY STANDARD 83 
 
 But through the fair sounds of the choiring birds, the 
 dewy tops of the meadow-sweet clogged with sweetness, 
 and the rusthng of the tall grasses, his eye caught the 
 flash and flutter of a woman's robe, held high as if for 
 flight. 
 
 He betook himself behind a tree to watch. 
 
 Yes, a girl was running swiftly in his direction, and 
 behind her, laughing, yet still pursuing, came a young man 
 flushed of face, but as it seemed full also of merriment, 
 and perhaps a little touched with wine — though at that 
 hour of the morning the supposition seemed to our 
 abstemious Silver Sand most unlikely. 
 
 " Mistress Lilias — Mistress Lilias— stop," cried the 
 young man, pausing with his hands on his sides, " I meant 
 no harm. I but cried ' Trill-lil, boys,' and made to fall 
 on, as they say at mess when we drink healths. But I 
 would not have kissed you against your will — no, not for 
 the command of a regiment ! " 
 
 But the girl ran on, till as she came near to the tree 
 behind which Silver Sand was standing, she turned aside, 
 and to his amazement claimed his protection. 
 
 " I saw you from the window of the tourelle of Lochnaw 
 the day my uncle brought you home, and my aunt would 
 not let me come down. Pray protect me from this young 
 fool. He is in liquor and he does not know what he is 
 doing. I am Lilias Agnew, as you may guess, Lilias whom 
 James my cousin will not marry because, forsooth, he 
 loves another — and God speed him ! " 
 
 The young madam seemed in no great fright, for she 
 stopped talking while her pursuer, though out of breath, 
 was coming up. She seemed curious to see the interview, 
 
 " Now then," he cried when Silver Sand had come 
 forward to put himself across his path, " whom have we 
 here, young heather-cock with the French clothes ? " 
 
 " My name is Percy," said Silver Sand, " and I am a 
 friend of this young lady's house." 
 
 " What — of the Percys of Northumberland ? " 
 
 " Perhaps not by direct descent, but the Earl gave 
 my forefathers the right to quarter their arms," said 
 Silver Sand.
 
 84 SILVER SAND 
 
 This was true, for the Earl of Northumberland, in the 
 days when the gipsies were everywhere, secured the good- 
 will of the all-powerful Faas of the Border by a permission 
 to assume his name — as was also the habit of many other 
 great folk, the Stanleys, the Talbots, the Scropes, and 
 even the Arundel Howards. So Silver Sand told no lie. 
 
 " I am Hal Bruce of Windy Standard, cousin to the 
 Captain of this garrison," said the youth when he had 
 recovered breath, " and I shall be much obliged if you 
 will explain to Mistress Lilias that I am very much 
 her humble servant." 
 
 " If you will bide with me," said Silver Sand, " I am 
 sure that the lady will overlook your behaviour. Mistress 
 Lilias, I shall remain and talk further with this gentleman. 
 I warrant when he returns he will be more fit to carry the 
 colours of his regiment." 
 
 The girl gave him a charming smile of thanks, and even 
 nodded to the repentant boy officer, which showed that 
 at no time had she been quite so much frightened as she 
 made out. 
 
 " My duty to my uncle, Mr. Percy," she said, dropping 
 him the most dainty of curtsies, and so off she tripped 
 in the direction of the Castle. It seemed to Silver Sand 
 that there was a slight ironic flavour in her voice when 
 she called him " Mr. Percy," as if she judged rightly that 
 it was no more than a nom de circonstance. 
 
 The young fellow who had called himself Hal Bruce 
 (and who came of a good family on the borders of Ayrshire 
 and the Stewartry) looked after the girl with unconcealed 
 admiration. 
 
 " There's the girl for me," he cried. " Hark you, Percy, 
 they are a Puritanic lot, these Agnews, and I cannot bring 
 myself to give up wine-cups for psalmbooks so early in 
 life. But if I thought I could get that girl — rot me but 
 I would do it — aye, and pray with the best, Percy. 
 You are no Puritan — that I can see. But I see not that 
 there is much Percy about you either. The Percys are 
 all rose leaf and shell pink, while you (if it displeases you 
 not) are as tawny as a Turk — may I slide down St. Paul's 
 steeple if you are not ! "
 
 HAL OF WINDY STANDARD 85 
 
 " I see not what the devil's service it is to you to know 
 whether I be Puritan or no," said Silver Sand, curtly. 
 " But I am not ashamed to tell you that I was bred of the 
 Duke of York's rehgion, by the Sulpicians of Issy " 
 
 " Of Issy — that's in France," cried the young man, " did 
 I not tell you I was none so drunk. I knew these for 
 French-patterned small clothes as soon as I clapped my 
 eyes on them. I say, come your ways into the Castle 
 by the back door and let us have a drink. Which will 
 you have — a tankard of ale, a black jack of wine, or a caup 
 of spirits neat ? ' ' 
 
 " None of them, I thank you," said Silver Sand. " And 
 if you will take my advice you will get your man to pump 
 well upon your head at the horse trough, and after that 
 go and lie down. You have had enough sack, grilled 
 bones, and red pepper for one night." 
 
 " Good advice, Percy," said the youth clapping him 
 on the back, " but I cannot take it, sir. I am on duty — 
 off-officer of the watch (though there is no watch except 
 two privates, who are both in the dog-kennel as drunk 
 as David's sow). A pretty lot they have given me to 
 command. What is a man to do with a castle to defend 
 and ladies to protect ? " 
 
 " Ladies to protect ! " cried Silver Sand, making beHef 
 of astonishment, " why, where are Sir Andrew and his son 
 James ? " 
 
 The Ensign laid his finger along his nose, and tried to 
 look as knowing as might be possible for one whose hand 
 was shaking and the corners of whose mouth was wickering 
 with weakness after a night of debauch. 
 
 " Tell me that you do not know ! " he cried. " That 
 is a good trick, like rubbing off one's own tavern score 
 with a turn of the elbow. Why, Percy, do you not know 
 that the colonel and his black corbie brother have loaded 
 Sir Andrew and his son James with the murder of Ellerton 
 and Kidney, two soldiers of my company ? And so 
 everybody is out on the hills and along the shore looking 
 for them. I should have gone too, only my cousin of 
 Earlshall said that he would have no such drunken fool 
 riding with him, and that I might stay here and rot —
 
 86 SILVER SAND 
 
 which I take it is not the language of one gentleman to 
 another, even though he be of near kindred. I shall 
 fight him for it — that he shall see. He is a Justice of the 
 Peace, as we call it at mess, and gets drunk only once a 
 quarter. But when he does he is worse than all the 
 regiment — worse even than Roaring Rob Grier of Lag. 
 He is infernally unruly in his cups, my cousin, and now 
 he cheeks me that am like a lamb, all so quiet and easy. 
 Earlshall swaggers and plucks you by the arm into a 
 tavern by force. He drinks hugger-mugger, all sorts of 
 liquor mixed together like pig's swill. He flings drawers 
 downstairs and pelts them with their own pint pots. 
 He breaks glasses, and after calling for the fiddlers he 
 beats them about the heads with their bows because he is 
 too far gone to keep the measure." 
 
 " But surely," said Silver Sand, " your commander 
 remembers that there are ladies under his protection here 
 in this house ? " 
 
 " Ah," cried Hal Bruce, " you little know my cousin. 
 The last time he was piped, he sent a corporal's file for 
 my lady Agnew and her niece, because they had refused 
 to come down and dance with him. If Sir Andrew gets 
 within gunshot of him, I wager there will be bloodshed. 
 He will surely fit him with a shroud and a nightcap. 
 But I keep my head at such times, and mostly he listens 
 to me. For he is afraid of my father who used to thrash 
 him when he was a boy, and could do it yet. Besides 
 he owes him money." 
 
 " Hal Bruce," said Silver Sand, " I mean to go into the 
 house and see her ladyship." 
 
 " It is my duty to prevent you ! I am ordered to allow 
 no ' intercommuning.' 'Tis a fine big word to say that — 
 even for a sober man. How am I to know that you will 
 not go straight to her husband or her son ? And then 
 what a box should I be in, left behind like a poor sot with 
 the whole reckoning to pay." 
 
 " You can swear that you were in bed — which you will 
 be in a quarter of an hour " 
 
 " I will not — I defy you, Percy — I will be the slave 
 of no led-Captain in all Northumberland, and so I tell
 
 HAL OF WINDY STANDARD 87 
 
 you ! I shall bid them sound the clarion and call out my 
 men ! 
 
 " Better let them sleep cagily and cosily in the pig-stye," 
 said Silver Sand. " Come along, Ensign Bruce. Re- 
 member I was bred to the Duke's rehgion, and as his 
 Highness is in Edinburgh I have only to write to him 
 to have you put in the boots ! " 
 
 It was just the kind of threat to impress a drunken 
 man whose wits were still wandering, more than a score 
 of serious arguments. 
 
 Hal of Windy Standard rose meekly, pulled up his fine 
 silk hose which had sagged down into his regimental 
 boots, and having fastened the buckles of his knee 
 breeches, followed Silver Sand to the House of Lochnaw, 
 his spurs jingling and his sword most intrepidly insisting 
 upon getting between his legsc
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Mistress Lilias Flout-the-Wind 
 
 My lady of Lochnaw was sitting calmly at her embroidery 
 frame, with Mistress Lilias knitting on a little stool 
 beside her. Silver Sand made due reverence and told 
 her that he had come from very far away in answer to 
 a letter from the Sheriff. He was anxious to know if 
 he could take any news from the Castle to her husband, 
 or carry any parcel to him — both of which tasks he would 
 safely perform. 
 
 " As you see," said Lady Agnew, " they abuse the 
 Castle and tear down even the fine oak carvings for fire- 
 wood. They cut and hack the mantelpieces and window- 
 sills, but to us they do little harm — none indeed that 
 cannot be passed over with a smile and a little compliance. 
 I would not have you tell Sir Andrew anything that 
 would give him the idea of returning hither. So I beg 
 you to deliver him this message word for word. It will 
 comfort him more than aught else — mind you let it be 
 word for word — No ' My Ladyings,' or you will lose the 
 flavour by the v^ay. This is my message : 
 
 " ' Jean Hay kens the track o' the auld grey charger ! 
 She will mount and ride after him when there is need ! ' 
 You have it ? Then repeat it exactly, for it is a signal 
 between us, and he will laugh the more and think me 
 the safer when he gets it by word of mouth. As for a 
 parcel, Lilias, haste thee, like a good lass, and get the 
 Sherra's shaving gear. Or no, I had better go myself. 
 Bide here and see that this young man whose name is so 
 difficult to come by, does not run away." 
 
 Smiling, the stately lady of Lochnaw glided away, as 
 light of foot as when she had come there from Park, a 
 
 88
 
 MISTRESS LILIAS FLOUT-THE-WIND 89 
 
 quarter of a century ago, and Silver Sand was left alone 
 with Lilias. He looked at her with interest, and acknow- 
 ledged that she was worth any man's regard. 
 
 Lihas Agnew was a blonde of the palest, with hair like 
 the ripe August wheat on the sunny lands of Holywood 
 down near the Nith. She had deep blue Irish eyes, being 
 come of that side of the Agnew house, and having brought 
 with her more than a dash of Irish recklessness and 
 insouciance. 
 
 " I am not so frightened now^ she said. " Indeed I 
 might have managed as it was, only that I spied you come 
 stepping along so grave and stately in your French clothes. 
 I wanted an excuse for a closer look at my-lord-the-Earl- 
 of-Nowhere-in-Particular ! " 
 
 She laughed and showed her small white teeth as she 
 spoke. 
 
 " You forget, madame," he answered very gravely. 
 " I am Mr. Percy from Northumberland, and though you 
 will not believe me, I assure you of my right to bear that 
 
 name." 
 
 " Well, so be it, Mr. John Faa, Silver Sand, Percy, 
 Earl-of-Anything-You-Please ! Will you take a message 
 to my cousin James, who ought to marry me but will not. 
 You need not tell him that I am dying for love of him, 
 because he would not believe you. But you will remember 
 to bid him kiss his Mary Montgomerie for me, at least twice 
 over, for each once he does it on his own account. But 
 tell him I am a poor deserted female on whom no one will 
 have pity, and that I pass my time in wetting my kerchief 
 with unavailing tears. See ! " 
 
 She held out a handkerchief no larger than the palm 
 of her hand (which was not large), and let him respire 
 the fragrance at his pleasure. 
 
 " 'Tis hke the roses have gotten into my tears," she 
 confided. " Because often I sit under them and garland 
 my hair with them in the garden by the Lake ! " 
 
 She spoke these words with a freshness and charm 
 which quite took away from them any formal character. 
 It was her gift and she used it with a delicious uncon- 
 sciousness which became her to a marvel.
 
 90 SILVER SAND 
 
 " You are a d'Agneaux, not an Agnew," said Silver 
 Sand, charmed in spite of himself. " You make me think 
 me back again at Issy with the St. Sulpicians." 
 
 " Then the good fathers must have talked a great deal 
 of nonsense," said the girl pertly, looking up from her 
 embroidery. 
 
 " There were ladies at Issy," began Silver Sand. 
 
 " Ah, now you interest me. I wager you did not see 
 them in the monastery parlour nor kiss their hands from 
 behind the grille. Ah, Percy, have I caught you ? Go 
 on quick and tell me before aunt comes back with the 
 Sheriff's chin-stropping gear. I am all pins and needles 
 to hear ! " 
 
 Of course, Silver Sand should have cared nothing, and 
 immediately fled temptation. But then he was not 
 conscious of any harm done to his memories of Juliana. 
 The girl was all wit and esprit, and it pleased him after 
 so long to be once more in France. 
 
 " One was called the Marquise de St. Lo," he said, 
 " and another the Lady of Belle Isle and the Isle 
 Marie!" 
 
 " They are my cousins," cried Lilias, " and Madame 
 de St. Lo taught me to speak good French. I had not 
 thought we were fellow studejits, you and I. But you, 
 I warrant, were diligent, while as for me my study is a 
 walk that is woody, where the sun shines through and the 
 birds sing. I was not like you of whom it might be said : 
 
 " The Muse shall be thy bed-fellow, 
 A bundle of books thy pillow ! " 
 
 " The ladies received us at the good fathers' instance," 
 said Silver Sand, without attempting to follow her quick- 
 silvery talk. " That is, all of us seniors who were not 
 bound for church promotion, and the wearing of the black 
 soutane." 
 
 " Madame de LTsle Marie is young and pretty, I have 
 heard say ! " Lilias let fall the words inquiringly, and 
 in a casual manner. She also kept her eyes down and 
 feigned a great diligence with her embroidery. 
 
 " On the contrary," said Silver Sand. " She is old and
 
 MISTRESS LILIAS FLOUT-THE WIND 91 
 
 is given to snuff-taking, but of a spirit marvellously young 
 and witty." 
 
 " Ah," sighed Lilias, " how can I have been so 
 misinformed ? 
 
 " She has a daughter-in-law, Charles d'Agneaux's wife, 
 who is a great court lady, but she lives at Versailles, and 
 I never saw her except once in a box at the theatre of the 
 Palais Royal, when Poquelin was playing the Miser." 
 
 Lilias rose to her feet and looked out through the open 
 window at the breeze ruffling the lake, and bending the 
 heads of the meadow-sweets on the grassy holms. 
 
 " How strange," she said pensively, " to hear of Paris 
 and the Palais Royal, in a place where no one talks of 
 anything except the price of cattle and the persecution of 
 the Saints — which you must pronounce ' Sants ' ! " 
 
 " Oh," said Silver Sand, smiling, " Louis the Grand 
 has his own persecuting to do, and if you have any 
 Protestant or even Jansenist leanings, you are infinitely 
 more safe in Lochnaw, even with Captain Bruce' s troop 
 quartered upon you." 
 
 " I am not complaining," said Lilias. " Though I 
 shall never love the place again. They have cut down 
 the trees in the park, red fir and black. They have 
 kindled their fires with the bushes where my dear hedge- 
 sparrows nested. They lie drunk in the thickets, where 
 I fear to go. Now you are come and that is better, for 
 you can talk to me of Paris and Madame St. Lo. But you 
 will be gone in a moment, blown from us as the leaves that 
 are blown. A maid in this dear drear land has never 
 anything she wants — or at least she has it not for long. 
 In France she has her heart's desire, especially if she be 
 married — after, I should say. But here, it is only big 
 boots stamping, spurs jingling, and tender consciences 
 fleeing. Who would have suspected either you or the 
 Sheriff of a liking for the Shorter Catechism ? Yet there 
 you are off like the wildest Whigs to the dens and caves 
 of the earth, leaving us poor women with only our finger- 
 nails to bite — and a poor meal we make of them ! Never 
 a thought for us so that you can conscientiously disobey 
 the King ! "
 
 ^2 SILVER SAND 
 
 " We do not disobey the King," said Silver Sand, " But 
 his ramping, stamping dragoons, who come down to put 
 a pistol to our heads, saying, ' Believe this or that, or 
 you shall be shot dead ! ' It is no great matter to me, 
 nor I fancy to Sir Andrew, whether bishop or presbytery 
 wins out ahead — only we will not be ordered to believe 
 this or that on the order of a King who does not believe 
 anything." 
 
 " Ah, in France 'tis better managed. Our grand 
 monarch believes just what his latest lady-love tells him, 
 and so somebody has respite during the favourite's reign — 
 unless, that is, she changes her mind ! ' ' 
 
 " That is true. Mademoiselle Lilias, but I do not think 
 you ought to have known it." 
 
 " You should hear my cousin of Belle Isle talk, she 
 does not spare his most Luminarious Majesty, I can tell 
 you. Poor Roi Soleil ! But I know I am too young to 
 talk in her strain. You are a stranger, and — an earl ! 
 Lord, how wicked I am not to have remembered ! But 
 I will amend, and you shall carry a good report of me to 
 my uncle." 
 
 She put her finger in her mouth and pulled down her 
 lower lip, sinking at the same time the corners of her 
 mouth : 
 
 " Lilias wants no vain delights 
 No more she thinks oj jolly. 
 Nothing in the world is bright 
 But only melancholy." 
 
 " Well tagged," she cried, breaking out into a ripple of 
 silver laughter like coins flung down on a counter. " But 
 Uncle Andrew will not believe it of me. He will only 
 think I have been practising on your innocence — the 
 innocence of a pupil of Madame St. Lo ! Ah, save me, 
 gentle gods, who come from mead and stream ! " 
 
 She apostrophised the view from the open window sash 
 with extended arm. 
 
 " That is the way the pretty Demoiselle Bejart does it 
 at the new Palais Royal," she explained. " But do not call 
 me, * vapouring little fool,' as Uncle Andrew does ! " 
 
 " And what does Cousin James say ? "
 
 MISTRESS LILIAS FLOUT-THE-WIND 93 
 
 " Oh, he cares not a joiner's shaving from a cart shaft. 
 Though indeed, and indeed he ought to marry me — so 
 it was nominated in the bond, and I sit often all night 
 and weep, because of his hard heart ! Oh, you may laugh. 
 I am a maid of very deep feelings. I would have you 
 know — and I do not see why Mary Montgomerie should 
 be preferred to me, though she is an Earl's daughter, and 
 will have a dowry. I shall only have my simple childlike 
 modesty, a sweet blue flower with a heart of gold ! But, 
 maybe somebody will think that just as good as Cis 
 Montgomerie' s portion of the Eglinton estates." 
 
 " That, I think, is highly probable," said Silver Sand. 
 " And now if you have done flashing through all your 
 moods, you might tell me where your uncle was when 
 last you heard from him." 
 
 " Oh," she cried, holding her thumbs close together. 
 " I am not allowed to know lest they should put these in 
 the thumbscrews, and then I should tell. Aunt is sure I 
 should, and indeed I am not very certain myself ! So 
 they tell me nothing." 
 
 " You would not betray your folk if it came to the 
 pinch," said Silver Sand. " It is like this, my little lady. 
 In Paris you thought of costly gowns, with kirtles, 
 carknets, and suchlike noble gear, and now when 
 put to it, you go simply robed, think nothing at all 
 about the matter, and look a thousand times hand- 
 somer." 
 
 " Much you know how I look in Paris, Master Percy ! 
 Why, you have never even seen me walking the faubourg, 
 as sweet and sumptuous as a Christmas pie, all tricked 
 out by Madame Berthe, and ogling the world through 
 a double lorgnette with the glasses out." 
 
 " What nonsense 3^ou talk, child," said her aunt, coming 
 back. "You know well that you never did anything of 
 the kind, save to make that foolish young man, Hal Bruce, 
 keep his place. And your uncle's friend is a very different 
 person, I am sure — or he would not have the right to call 
 himself so." 
 
 " Oh, very, aunt," said Lilias with excellent show of 
 contriteness. " But did you know that he has been
 
 94 SILVER SAND 
 
 educated in Paris, and knows our cousin de Belle 
 Isle, the Demoiselle de I'lsle Marie, and Madame St. 
 Lo?" 
 
 Fearing some of her niece's frequent mystifications, 
 the lady of Lochnaw looked at Silver Sand for 
 corroboration. 
 
 " It is true enough," he said with a smile. " This 
 young lady and I were just counting our acquaintances 
 with a view to bettering our own." 
 
 Lady Agnew looked at him a moment with a veiled 
 consideration. In those days one had to know to whom 
 one was trusting. 
 
 " You do not speak much hke a covenant man, and 
 Paris is no nursery for such as support the Kirk's Jurisdic- 
 tion, Vindication, and Testimony." 
 
 " Hearken to my aunt," cried Lilias. " Hath she not 
 got it pat ? She has been at the back door sending a 
 basket of provender to Sandy Peden, I'se warrant, and 
 now she comes in full of the milk of human kindness to 
 suspect you and lecture me ! " 
 
 " For shame, Lilias," said Lady Agnew, " if you care 
 nothing for 3^ourself, think that your uncle is in peril on 
 the wild hills, without a roof to cover his head — besides 
 James " 
 
 " Oh, James," cried Lilias mischievously, " 'tis James's 
 own fault, whatever happens ! He had only to stay here 
 and marry me — which I should have thought adventure 
 enough for any man — Solemn League, persecution, and 
 martyrdom all provided on the premises ! Oh, for James 
 I have no sorrow. Besides he had taken to lurking before 
 the soldiers chased out Uncle Andrew." 
 
 " I wonder you are so without shame, Lilias Agnew," 
 said the mother of the injured one. " You know well 
 that our dear James was willing to stand by the old family 
 bargain and that when he asked you to marry him, you 
 refused ! " 
 
 " No, dear aunt," said the rebel, coaxingly, shding her 
 arm about my lady's comfortable waist. " It was like 
 this, and you can ask James if I do not speak the truth. 
 He came up to me here in this very room, and says he.
 
 MISTRESS LTLIAS FLOUT-THE-WTND 95 
 
 * Lilias, the Sheriff and my lady bid me ask you to be 
 my wife. Will you ? ' 
 
 "Of course I answered, ' Gentle James, I am well-nigh 
 carried off my feet by the whirlwind of your passion and 
 the winged words in which you express it. But seeing 
 that you are so unmanned and desolated with your devo- 
 tion for me, it behoves me to think for two. Sit down, 
 James, and with your heart beating out hammer-strokes 
 like a new betrothed virgin's, answer me one thing — 
 whether do you love me or Mary Montgomerie best ? ' " 
 
 " James never told me that," said my lady, biting her 
 lip, " nor shall I believe it till I have other proof than your 
 saying so. Mistress Limber-Tongue." 
 
 " No, nor did Master James tell you what happened 
 when he hung his head and played with the beard he 
 has not got " 
 
 " He has as good and shapely a beard as any of his age," 
 said his mother, faithful to the absent, " and I am sure 
 that my James never denied you. He hath always loved 
 you." 
 
 " He denied not at all. Aunt Jean," laughed the girl. 
 " Not even when I pointed out how much prettier and 
 more desirable I was than any long-nosed Montgomerie 
 ever hatched under the eaves of Eglinton. 
 
 " ' No matter, puss,' he said. ' I ought to, I know, 
 and I am as fond of you as of my sister, Grizel — fonder 
 indeed, for you are more of my age and Grizel is all red 
 wrists and elbows at present. But — hut I want to marry 
 Mary Montgomerie and nobody else ! ' " 
 
 " Dear, dear James," said his mother, dotingly, " how 
 like he is to what Sir Andrew was at his age." 
 
 "Not like at all," said Lilias. " Why, I offered to kiss 
 him so as to part friends, and he would not because (he 
 said) it would be treachery to his Mary. Oh, the dolt ! " 
 
 " Sir Andrew would have had just the same feeling, 
 that I know. It did James credit." 
 
 " Not a bit of it. Aunt Jean," said the rebel. " I 
 know better. I heard Uncle Park and Sir Andrew 
 laughing over their port and accusing each other concern- 
 ing maids they used to court time about, and Unck
 
 96 SILVER SAND 
 
 Charles of Park strung out a list of a dozen or thereby 
 at which the Sheriff only laughed and denied nothing, 
 sipping his wine like a man well pleased." 
 
 " Who were they ? " cried Lady Agnew, suddenly 
 serious. " I insist upon knowing." 
 
 " Nay, but I have forgotten — none whom I knew," 
 said the girl beginning to regret her loose tongue. 
 
 " I will have it out of brother Charles the first time he 
 comes over," said Lady Agnew, still frowning. 
 
 " I judge that he will have forgotten also by now. 
 Uncle Andrew blocked his advance by reeling off twenty 
 names to his dozen, and then both the gentlemen laughed 
 and agreed that they were a couple of old fools. After 
 which they shook hands and went out without ever seeing 
 the rat behind the arras — which was me !" 
 
 " Oh, Lilias you shameless girl ! And to tell it before 
 this gentleman ! Where is your maidenly decorum ? " 
 
 " Aunty dear " (she kissed her cheek), " there is so 
 much decorum about Lochnaw when everybody wears 
 his company face, that it quite cheered me to see the two 
 old campaigners shaking hands on petty rascalities of 
 thirty years standing : 
 
 " When the bloom was on the orchard 
 And the May was all in flower I " 
 
 At which heresy the lady of Lochnaw very naturally 
 threw up her hands. 
 
 " I pity the man that gets you, Lilias. He will need 
 a strong arm and a strong will to hold you, besides a supple 
 rod to chastise you, and make you speak the truth. For 
 I declare it on my faith and honour that I cannot tell 
 the difference between the times you are lying like a fish- 
 wife and telling the truth like a demure maid brought up 
 under a gospel dispensation. So there's for you, and 
 my solid opinion, Mistress Lilias." 
 
 " It is a good opinion. Aunty Jean, and solid as the first 
 sheriff tower. And faith, I should be the last to blame 
 you, for sometimes when I think over what I have been 
 saying I am bothered to know what really happened and 
 what just came into my head I "
 
 MISTRESS LILIAS FLOUT-THE-WIND 97 
 
 " It is a dangerous gift, Lilias, and one which I have 
 often warned you against. But you will not alter my 
 belief that you shamefully refused my poor boy's offer 
 of his hand." 
 
 " I never refused him, Aunt Jean. I give you my 
 word. I besought him to make love to me, and when 
 he stood like a stucco image planted before me, I even 
 told him what to do and say — how he should get down 
 on one knee (on both makes a man look so top-heavy !) 
 and clasping his hands, cry out ' Oh, my sweetest mistress, 
 my rarest of rarities, my casket of diamonds, shrouded in 
 loveliness from top to toe, hear my plea for pity ! Infirm 
 and rude, I weep for thy daintiness. I would conquest 
 the world for your sake — yea, give up : 
 
 ' Lavender and Rose Marie 
 Laurel leaf and Fame's bright bay 
 Only grant me what I pray ! ' 
 
 " But the great stot could only stand there with his 
 bonnet twisting between his fingers and no more words 
 than his old stupid sing-song upon his lips : 
 
 " ' I would rather have Mary Montgomerie — really I 
 would rather have Mary Montgomerie.' 
 
 " And I believe he would have been standing there 
 stammering and shaking, but that I took him by the 
 shoulders, turned him about and pushed him downstairs, 
 bidding him go seek his Mary Montgomerie ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Silver Sand's Dilemma 
 
 Silver Sand made his way back to the hills with more 
 than usual care, because he had stayed too long at Loch- 
 naw. He must find Sir Andrew, and he must keep out 
 of sight of any chance spies posted about the Castle to 
 take note of the comings and goings of those who visited 
 the ladies. It was not indeed likely that there were any 
 such at that moment, for he had the word of Hal Bruce, 
 the madcap from Windy Standard, that only two men 
 were left of the garrison. These two he had found 
 snoring in the pigstye, as their officer had said. Bruce 
 himself was asleep, but still Silver Sand would go by 
 hidden, unkenned, outlandish ways, so that at the end he 
 might come from behind upon the High Wood of Loch- 
 naw, the last remnant of the old Caledonian forest which 
 the district could show. 
 
 But the real reason why Silver Sand chose this round- 
 about road was that he wanted a good long space in 
 which to bethink himself. His being was in a kind of 
 whirl, and the gipsy in him seemed in danger of being 
 forgotten. 
 
 Worse than all, there was the remembrance of Juliana. 
 The name came to him with a bitter hurting reproach. 
 In spite of his own will he had been charmed into for- 
 getting her. It was not in the least use telling himself 
 that he had neither done nor thought of any infidelity. 
 He was conscious of having been a different man in that 
 room in Lochnaw Castle. The voice of a charmer won- 
 drously wise had taken him and held him as a bird is 
 taken in a snare. He could see her figure as she stood in 
 silhouette against the small green window panes. His 
 
 98
 
 SILVER SAND'S DILEMMA 99 
 
 heart retained as though it could never forget (he knew 
 it would not), the bend of her lithe figure as she stopped 
 to look through the open casement, the small hand laid 
 fiat on the sill, and the deep fold of soft white lace fallen 
 back from the bare arm. 
 
 No, it was not of these things he thought most. Juliana 
 was to the full as beautiful and as perfect of figure and 
 proportion. But Juliana, simple loving soul, could not 
 think as he thought, talk as he talked — anticipate his 
 mood and change his melancholy into mirth, as this girl 
 could do — all with the quick birdlike changefulness which 
 was at once her charm and her danger. 
 
 " If you find me a man whom I shall love for knowing 
 why I should be loved, send him to me — that is he for whom 
 I have been waiting," she had said. 
 
 And then at their final adieu, " Don't forget your 
 man must take me as I am and love me for it ! But 
 give him no hints — let him find out why I should be loved, 
 and I will charge myself with showing him how." 
 
 So Lilias Agnew had spoken and Silver Sand, who was 
 only just discovering his emotions to be complicated, 
 marvelled as to her meaning with an extreme and almost 
 unworldly simplicity. Had he known Mistress Lilias 
 better he would have wondered less. But as it was he 
 troubled himself exceedingly, and thought deeply of how 
 much Juliana had done for him, of how he loved her, and 
 of how he would rather die than cause her the smallest 
 sorrow. 
 
 He was crossing a piece of fine firm turf where sheep 
 had been grazing, and the sun being full and strong he 
 saw his shadow projected before him down the slope. 
 
 " Man and shadow ," he murmured to himself. 
 
 " Shadow and man — and the gipsy, John Faa, is the 
 shadow." 
 
 Had he been older and wiser he would have added, 
 *' to-day." All the same he was conscious of a marvellous 
 change in himself. He seemed so far from the man who 
 had dreamed about the camp kettle in the glade, and lost 
 himself watching the upward twirl of the reek among the 
 trees.
 
 100 SILVER SAND 
 
 He passed an ancient tower of the earlier lords of 
 Galloway, before the Norman came into the land, and 
 pausing a moment he meditated under the ruined archway. 
 Sea-green shadows were being charioted over the slopes — 
 dark-blue on the hills, glaucous on the Sheriff's pastures. 
 Everything spoke of unremitting husbandry. The wild 
 soaring heights and deep glens about Loch Enoch were 
 very far away. Yet in two days he could be there, with 
 luck and fast travelling. He called up before him the 
 loch all azure and white, the thunder splintered cone of the 
 hill of the Star, the huge precipices of the Merrick Spear. 
 He saw exactly where he would turn aside in order to 
 find Juliana, busy with her knitting, or merely sitting 
 wistfully with her eyes fixed on the gap in the hills through 
 which he must return. 
 
 Silver Sand put the vision behind him with a sigh. Yes, 
 there was a man to whom all these things appealed, a 
 man who was bound by them, to whom they were a 
 sort of pleasant fatherland — another life, intimate and 
 seductive. But for the moment at least, he was not that 
 man. 
 
 He was not conscious of any sort of shame. Lilias 
 Agnew was far above him in race and fortune. All the 
 same, her parting words troubled him with a sense of 
 having missed something, of being passed over when life 
 gave out her best gifts. Besides, was he quite sure that 
 there was not something personal in the girl's repeated 
 injunction to send her a man who would know why to 
 love her ? She had meant that to trouble his mind, and 
 had said it with that intent. Only, Silver Sand was too 
 inexperienced to know that. In fact she was as wilful 
 and as perverse as every woman is who is worth possessing, 
 as saith the wise man out of the East, even Saadi of 
 Gulistan. 
 
 Manfully Silver Sand took the heather again, striving 
 his best to banish all thoughts of Lilias the enchantress 
 from his mind. Loyally he recounted his happy days 
 with Juliana, the star-filled nights, the wide-blowing 
 free-passing days. They came back to him like the sweeter 
 moments of dreams from which he had been awakened.
 
 SILVER SAND'S DILEMMA loi 
 
 He had talked to Juliana, but she had only sat and 
 listened, wistful and worshipping. This Lilias met him 
 with common friendliness, and passed on to raillery and 
 careless maiden pride. Then at the last she had relented 
 and given him a quest so personal and so sacred that for 
 him it was hke the search for the Holy Grail. 
 
 Yet it was just as likely that from beginning to end 
 she was only laughing at him ! What wonder if Silver 
 Sand strode forth upon the heather a sadly perplexed 
 young man. He was in the mood now to turn about and 
 go straight back to the Dungeon of Buchan. It would 
 have been simpler if he had, but then this book would 
 never have been written : 
 
 " Bold Heart, J air J ace, 
 Ready speech, lack of grace." 
 
 The old lilt ran in his head as he had learned it from his 
 mother, as she taught him his letters, printing them with 
 her forefinger among the meal of the baking board. 
 
 But he remembered also the gipsy motto : 
 
 " Spare- to-speak, makes no speed. 
 Blown about like river reed. 
 Bait-your-hook, cast-your-cast 
 Brings fish to land at last." 
 
 Presently Silver Sand struck into the shore road. It 
 was the longest way, but the High Wood of Lochnaw 
 was not easy to be come at by a young man with so much 
 upon his mind. 
 
 Now there runs a bar of hills, wild, heathery, benty, half 
 sand, half rock, interposed between Lochnaw and the sea. 
 As a whole they are called the Knocks, and serve to shelter 
 the fertile lands from the hurling assaults of the winter 
 winds off the sea. 
 
 Generally in times more recent these stand stark and 
 bare, but when the tenth Sheriff hid away among their 
 fastnesses, the High Woods were thick enough upon them. 
 
 It was the caller evening when Silver Sand pushed 
 over the ridge of the Knock Breck, which is to say the
 
 102 SILVER SAND 
 
 " spotted hill." Thrushes and their cousins the black- 
 birds, who both go early to bed, were already channering 
 and squabbling in the crotches of the underbrush. But 
 that fly-by-night the blackcap sang loud, and the shrill 
 tits chattered angrily among the pines, still warm and 
 odorous with the long sunshine of the day. 
 
 Silver Sand set his feet with a sigh of relief on the 
 silent couches of the fallen pine needles. The glades 
 shut sombrely behind him. At last he was in the way of 
 action, and he would not need to think any more about 
 women. He cursed himself for his folly. He had gone 
 so far and done so well without them — why had he now 
 let them clash and trouble his spirit. 
 
 " Ho there, are you Silver Sand ? " said a voice behind 
 him, which took him by surprise in the midst of his 
 musings. "If so you have taken the Moffat road to 
 Dublin. I never saw so careful a man. Did you not 
 know that the whole troop, with roaring Earlshall 
 at their head, was off to rout out the decent burghers 
 of Chapel and cause them to pay their fines twice 
 over ? 
 
 " All but three," said Silver Sand, shaking hands with 
 Sir Andrew heartily, and with a feeling of infinite relief. 
 
 " Aye, and who might the three be ? " the Sheriff 
 inquired. 
 
 " Young Hal Bruce of Windy Standard and a couple 
 of drunken troopers," said Silver Sand promptly. And 
 he went on to give him news of the Castle and the messages 
 from my Lady. 
 
 " This way with the provender, Silver Sand," said Sir 
 Andrew. " I cannot offer you the accommodation of 
 the Castle. But James, my son, who is an expert in this 
 sort of craft, has sparred a lean-to up against the chff 
 on the bieldy side, which is very well — though of course 
 not exactly an inn chamber with a four-post bed." 
 
 They found the young man busy at the camp fire, and 
 something was frizzling with a pleasant noise. 
 
 " Fhng out that carrion," cried the Sheriff cheerily. 
 " We will not live on ' braxy ' when we can have my 
 Lady's fresh eggs and a flitch of bacon. We are indebted to
 
 SILVER SAND'S DILEIMMA 103 
 
 you for this, and for much else — first and chiefly for the 
 pleasure of your company." 
 
 Silver Sand explained that he had been away in the 
 wilds of Loch Moan when the letter reached him. To 
 please the Sheriff he had done what he could with the 
 McKittericks, the Bollands, the Bailies, and the Garpel 
 Smiths. Of course nothing but extermination would 
 keep them from blackmail, or, in default of pajrment, from 
 cattle-driving. But he had seen most of the farmer folk 
 and made reasonable terms of protection. Sir Andrew 
 would not think that any very legal remedy, but it was 
 a practical one. And a farmer or small landlord on the 
 dangerous marshes did not mind paying a bawbee a head 
 for his cattle, a groat for his horses, and a doit a score for 
 his sheep, if he knew that that was the end of the matter, 
 and that henceforth he might sit snug and easy-minded 
 among his corn-stacks and hay-ricks. 
 
 The little shelter called the Gled's Nest, in which the 
 Sheriff abode during the early days of the Killing Time 
 'was very cunningly contrived. James, who was a careful 
 lad and experienced in the game of hiding, had designed 
 it with a view rather to his father's years and old-fashioned 
 notions of comfort than to his own needs. 
 
 " I he hght in my plaid in any decently dry peat hag," 
 he said. " So I travel the faster as soon as I hear the 
 peewits beginning to whimper. But my father has been 
 accustomed to his seat at the chimney-comer all his life, 
 and I dread the rheumatic pains for him." 
 
 So he had cleared out the under side of a long shelving 
 rock on the ridge which turns away from the sea. A 
 pair of giant pines grew into and about it, their stout 
 fibres wrapping the roots of the hill and firmly anchored 
 far within. James had filled up with a wicker work of 
 daubed clay the space between the two boles, and the 
 resulting shelter was completely wind and rain proof, 
 with an entrance from the land side into which a man 
 might creep, and another which gave upon a narrow 
 gully leading down to the sea in case of any sudden alarm. 
 
 The Gled's Nest, as at first constructed, was long and 
 narrow, following the natural bent of the ridge of rock —
 
 104 SILVER SAND 
 
 giving perhaps in all fifteen feet of length by five or six 
 in breadth, and high enough in the middle to clear the 
 tallest man, where all were tall. It was curious to see the 
 fibrous pine roots everywhere and to notice the care 
 with which the architect had utilised every jutting point 
 and elbow-loop — how hats, bonnets, nightgear, plaids, 
 hung ready to the inmate's hands, all having been arranged 
 with the most courteous filial piety. 
 
 On one point, however, James did not mean to obey 
 his father. He would not marry his cousin Lilias, but it 
 certainly seemed that in the construction and fitting out 
 of the Gled's Nest, the lad had made what amends he 
 could. 
 
 Silver Sand was full of praise. The floor, rough enough 
 certainly, was nevertheless covered with abundant heather, 
 and the mattresses brought from the Castle were each 
 upborne on framework of resilient branches. Besides 
 the Gled's Nest lay so high and was so thoroughly sifted 
 out by the blowing sea-airs that all was as dry as a gude 
 wife's linen closet. 
 
 Here they could sit among the pines and keep their 
 watch on the comings and goings of the Lochnaw garrison, 
 with the certainty that they would not be attacked with- 
 out due notice, and, as soon as he understood their need, 
 Silver Sand volunteered the aid of his gipsy eyes (which 
 were like those of cats) for the darker watches. He would 
 call James as soon as the first rose showed above the tree 
 tops, and immediately afterwards the primrose banks, 
 from a mere blurring of dim colour, sprang into delicate 
 beauty beneath his feet. 
 
 Yet he often stayed awake longer to watch the marvel 
 of the morning across the North Channel. Yonder, a 
 dark-blue line, was the coast of Ireland, the headland of 
 Donnachadee standing out a splendid purple. To his 
 right a crowd of fishing boats would come elbowing their 
 way out of Loch Ryan, and sometimes a great King's ship 
 guarding that half-rebel coast, would go slowly by, 
 bowing to the swell of the Seven Tides, men crowding her 
 deck, hanging in festoons about the shrouds, her white 
 sails blowing out like puffed cheeks, and the anchor
 
 SILVER SAND'S DILEMMA 105 
 
 swinging at the bowsprit — tall and delicate as a haughty 
 lady balancing in a court dance. From this morning 
 spectacle Silver Sand could hardly tear himself away. 
 
 All day long the Sheriff and his young friend would sil 
 and take council. It was difficult to come to any con- 
 clusion in the matter of the two soldiers who had met 
 their well-deserved end at the " Rowan Tree" Inn. It 
 was not the guilty the Grahams wanted, but a victim — 
 if possible a prominent victim — whose death would strike 
 terror into the disaffected. And who could serve their 
 purpose so well as Sir Andrew Agnew, the Hereditary 
 Constable of the County ? 
 
 Silver Sand told the tale as he had had it from the 
 one who knew the whole truth. The Sheriff was silent 
 with the silence of a man considering deeply. By his 
 office he was accustomed to weigh evidence, and this was 
 his verdict. 
 
 " It appears certain that this McKitterick, called 
 Killer Smith, slew the men somewhat as he says. There 
 is no reason for him to lie, and it is true that my niece 
 Lilias was that night with her aunt at Charteris. But 
 Clavers and that monkey-faced brother Davvid, whom 
 he has put to sit in my chair, would care nothing for that, 
 even if they had the man delivered them to be hung — of 
 which there does not seem much probability. For that 
 is not the satisfaction they want. They want blood, 
 high-placed blood, and nothing will serve them but 
 James there, and me his father. That would put hered- 
 itary sheriffdoms out of count for awhile, and with us 
 out of the way, Clavers and Brother Davvid, who had 
 been snapping up the forfeited lands of the condemned, 
 would soon oust her ladyship and make a corbie's nest 
 of bonnie Lochnaw. 
 
 " No, Silver Sand, there is no safety in telling the truth. 
 That will not serve us to-day. If I am driven from the 
 Gled's Nest, I must even go farther afield — perhaps up 
 into your Faa's shelter among the hills at the back of the 
 Merrick. That would be a strange turn-about of fortune 
 — that the Sheriff should bide and hide with broken men 
 and outlaw gipsies ! Eh, man, what think ye o' that ? "
 
 io6 SILVER SAND 
 
 Silver Sand flushed vividly under his olive tan. He 
 could not say what he thought, for he knew the impos- 
 sibility of the Sheriff of Lochnaw being made to understand 
 the gipsy law which had made his alliance with Juliana 
 so inevitable. 
 
 " We will provide, never fear," he said, cheerfully. 
 " The blast is too strong to last. The hensil blows down 
 too many trees. They will tire of it, and besides — the 
 life of a man is no more than the breath upon his lips." 
 
 But there was something in the tone of his reply that 
 made James look curiously at him. He understood more 
 quickly than his father that a chief of the Faas was found 
 to have secrets into which those not of his blood could 
 never be admitted. 
 
 " Well, well, at least they will have to 'head me in the 
 Grassmarket if they catch me," said bluff Sir Andrew. 
 " I am too big a fish for any of their barn-end courts- 
 martial. You, James, and you, Silver Sand, would get 
 the short shrift from one of Earlshall's firing parties, but 
 I should require a Privy Council decision and an escort 
 of gentlemen to convoy me down to the Grassmarket like 
 my Lord of Argyle." 
 
 John Faa did his best to combat these ideas, which 
 hung darkly about the mind of the Sheriff. But Sir 
 Andrew put all his consolations aside. He knew the 
 hatred of the land-snatching persecutors far better than 
 Silver Sand. Unless something happened which none 
 of them could foresee, the highest heads in Galloway were 
 marked for the block. And already over their wine, 
 the Grahams and Lag with their roaring tail were portion- 
 ing out the forfeited estates. John Graham would geX 
 the lion's share — grants of Fintry and Lochnaw, of Ken- 
 muir and Lochinvar — David must content himself with 
 Barscob and Garthland. Even my Lord of Galloway 
 sat not too secure at Castle Stewart. That would probably 
 go to his cousin the King's Majesty. 
 
 Then there came a curious look into Silver Sand's face 
 as he listened. The blue North Channel, beating out its 
 eternal edge of white foam against the rugged black 
 shores, blurred and faded. He was (as it seemed) in a
 
 SILVER SAND'S DILEMMA 107 
 
 great chamber, tapestried and curtained. Many gentle- 
 men stood about a state bed, silent and with bowed heads. 
 The man who lay there dying was he whose handsome 
 face had adorned the coins of the realm for many a year. 
 He murmured jests and reached out his hand to be kissed 
 with his old famous careless air. 
 
 But somehow Silver Sand, in his trance of the second 
 sight, knew that the man was dying and would presently 
 be dead. 
 
 When Silver Sand cam.e to himself as out of a swoon, 
 it was to find his temples wet and the two men bending 
 over him. The Sheriff asked him if he felt no longer faint, 
 and he could only answer. " I have seen him die ! " 
 
 " Whom ? " both of them said together. 
 
 " Charles the King," said Silver Sand. " That is, I 
 have seen your day of release which is coming. It shall 
 not be yet, or I should have seen the end, but the man 
 shall die within the year, and the new King will deal more 
 leniently." 
 
 " How are you sure of that ? " the Sheriff demanded. 
 
 " I cannot tell you. It is the gift of Egypt, and it is 
 certain — so long as we do not use it to see for our own 
 ends." 
 
 " I have heard of such things among the Highland 
 folk," said the Sheriff. " But save and except Sandy 
 Peden of Old Luce, who is a prophet and a man of God, 
 we count that the less a man has to do with such warlock 
 work the better for him ! " 
 
 " Nay, but I dislike the gift as much as any one," said 
 Silver Sand. " Nevertheless all my folk possess it — all, 
 that is who are of the true race, and moreover Sir Andrew, 
 what make you of the dog which swims the loch to howl 
 beneath the tower windows of Lochnaw, and the White 
 Lady of the Montgomeries ? I but fell into a dream, 
 and yet I wager you the dream shall come true." 
 
 "I see not how that will greatly help us," said Sir 
 Andrew. " James of York is apt to be a worse master 
 than Charles of the Worcester Oak." 
 
 " Well," said Silver Sand. " I cannot convince you, 
 but this I know, the vision was sent for our good. We
 
 io8 SILVER SAND 
 
 have but to keep you out of the persecutors' fingers for a 
 month or two, and you will find yourself back in your 
 judicial office and ancient heritages. Be wise — you have 
 sent many to the safe shelter of Ireland. Go there 
 yourself. Listen, Sheriff, there goes not a boat out of 
 Loch Ryan but would be proud to waft you across for 
 the love of the Agnews." 
 
 " And Jean Hay ? What would become of my wife 
 alone in that great castle with only pretty Lihas and a 
 garrison of armed men, not always too sober ? " 
 
 " Lady Agnew wall be rejoiced to know you in safety. 
 Her brother the laird of Park is well seen by the govern- 
 ment. He will certainly protect her — as will my Lord 
 Stair, with Monreith and Cassillis — will see no harm comes 
 to her or your niece. It is only your head and your son's 
 that they seek." 
 
 " As for me I shall not go," said James emphatically. 
 " There are reasons which make it imperative for me to 
 remain, but I agree that my father ought to go to cousin 
 Pat at Ballikill.' 
 
 Silver Sand smiled at the young man to intimate that 
 he had a full knowledge of and sympathy with the liens 
 which bound him to Scotland. 
 
 " Besides," he said, " I am in no ways affected. I have 
 taken no part in any rebellion, and I can promise to 
 protect the ladies in Lochnaw. I know Lady Agnew 
 would not leave her house to the general plunder which 
 must ensue if she fled — and Mistress Lilias would not 
 leave my lady. We will send you a message every week 
 to Ireland, if only you will be wise and take yourself out 
 of harm's way for a little till the first burst of the storm 
 blows itself out." 
 
 But Sir Andrew was not convinced, he summed up 
 the situation in the dutiful words, " I shall do what 
 Jean Hay says — that and naught other." 
 
 And with semi-promise Silver Sand was obliged to be 
 content. At least the Sheriff would not again ask for 
 a shelter among the hills of the Dungeon.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The Gled's Nest 
 
 Half a dozen times in his life Silver Sand had been 
 taken with these uncanny seizures — once when he was 
 on the eve of being recruited by Claverhouse and, as a 
 proper young man set to ride in his companies — again 
 when in the Sheriff's court room he had seen, like a picture 
 flashed before his inward eye, the innocence of Stanley 
 and his daughter Juliana, and the responsibility of Killer 
 Smith. 
 
 But the sight of the King dying in London was some- 
 thing which had not happened to him before. 
 
 " I may set up for another Peden the Prophet," he 
 thought. But all the same he had within him the cer- 
 tainty that the days of Charles were numbered — that Star 
 Chambers, shootings and dragoonings were coming fast 
 to an end — he did not know how or when, but the fact 
 was clear and patent within him. 
 
 Sir Andrew was bodily comfortable in the Gled's Nest 
 in the High Wood of Lochnaw. He had several volumes 
 of divinity which he judged appropriate to the occasion, 
 besides (what suited him better), on a well-hidden shelf, 
 half a dozen volumes of plays, including Shakespeare, 
 with Beaumont and Fletcher, and the two small folios 
 of Ben Jonson. 
 
 But he was uneasy about these if any visitor called 
 suddenly, and would drop any one of them which he 
 happened to be reading into the meal barrel, or behind 
 Jean Hay's kebbuck of Galloway cheese. 
 
 Then he would fall to Knox's Reformation or the last 
 treatise of Mr. McWard printed in Holland with the 
 most furious and convincing zeal. 
 
 «09
 
 no SILVER SAND 
 
 But it was no easy matter for Silver Sand to arrange 
 the meeting between the Sheriff and his well-beloved 
 Jean Hay, without which the stout Sir Andrew absolutely 
 refused to move a step out of the country, even though 
 his life was in greater danger each moment that he stayed. 
 
 " Jean Hay alone kens what I should do and what 
 she is able for without me," he answered to their joint 
 remonstrances — for by this time Silver Sand had secured 
 James Agnew as a supporter of the policy of getting the 
 Sheriff out of the way of the hot blast of persecution 
 which was directed against his life. 
 
 A good canny man was the Sheriff. Left to himself 
 he would no more have rebelled against his sovereign than 
 he would have questioned the good sense and loyal affec- 
 tion of his own Jean Hay. 
 
 But the Grahams had set themselves to drive him into 
 the traps and snares which they laid for his not too wary 
 feet. 
 
 Lochnaw was an excellent estate, in good heart and 
 loyally tenanted. It had been well herded for five 
 hundred years by his forbears, mostly Sir Andrews like 
 himself. His office, which he called his " bishopric," 
 was a good and remunerative charge for an outlying 
 Sheriffdom. 
 
 Both of these would (as he said) " set up the hungry 
 Grahams," who, not for any great loyalty but simply 
 for what they could get, were fining and confiscating from 
 one end of Galloway to the other. 
 
 I am well aware that after our noble William was dead 
 and the Tories came again into power, they made great 
 case of the " Bonny Dundee," and of his dying in the 
 flush of victory at Killikrankie. Now I, Nathan Crogo, 
 know nothing about all these noble deeds of their " Gallant 
 Graham." I only know what the man did in Galloway, 
 and that was neither gallant nor bonny, but only rankly 
 self-seeking and most bloodily cruel. 
 
 He never stood up to an enemy unless he had ten times 
 his force, but there was nothing he liked better than to 
 shoot a man in sight of his wife and children, and then 
 in his report, slip in a claim for the dead man's heritage.
 
 THE GLED'S NEST iii 
 
 Oh, there is small use of his admirers coming to Gallo- 
 way, or anywhere else in the West, to tell us what a fine 
 man he was. He wrote his own memoirs on our moors 
 and in our kirkyards, and to-day the heather glows the 
 redder and the grass grows the greener for the lavish 
 blood he shed. 
 
 And that is the opinion of me, Nathan Crogo, Dominie 
 in Leswalt, and of all men and women, gentle and simple, 
 from Nith Brig to the braes of Glenap — save and except 
 a few old hoary desperadoes like Grier of Lag, still linger- 
 ing on, sulking and suffering, cursing and accursed, in 
 Lag's Tower. But as to the gallant Grahams — faugh — 
 we know how gallant they were when they stamped their 
 spurred riding boots upon us in Galloway. I am not 
 a bloody minded man, only a peaceful dominie — but 
 when at Sir John Clerk's house upon the Esk, near to 
 Edinburgh, I saw the buff coat which Clavers wore at 
 Killikrankie, with the bullet hole under the armpit, I 
 could not contain myself but cried out : "I would give 
 all I possess and all my children's portions if I had any, 
 to have fired that shot, and so rid Scotland of a cruel 
 monster ! " 
 
 They hustled me out of the house where was the buff 
 coat, for they were all Jacobites there, and might have 
 done me an injury, but that I was an elder of the General 
 Assembly of the Kirk and Sir James Agnew, son of my 
 patron, was present also. 
 
 But I forget the tale, which I have hitherto told as 
 straightforwardly as I can. 
 
 The question was how, without danger, to arrange an 
 interview between the Lady of Lochnaw and her husband 
 and faithful servant, Sir Andrew. It was no use listening 
 to any suggestion of the Sheriff's. He was quite capable 
 of marching straight up to the castle, and entering into the 
 great hall with his head high and all his dogs at his heels. 
 
 James and Silver Sand had often a sad and difficult 
 business with him. His son warned his companion that 
 at any moment the Sheriff might break all threads of 
 arrangement and convention, take the bit between his 
 teeth and march upon certain death.
 
 112 SILVER SAND 
 
 Nor was Silver Sand's task made the easier by the 
 young man's frequent and quite unexplained absences, 
 generally extending over a period of two days. When 
 Silver Sand woke in the morning to take his turn at 
 watching, he would find James gone, and no more would 
 be seen of him till next night towards the stroke of ten, 
 when he would come up like a ghost out of the dusk of 
 the pines, and fling himself down on a couch of heather, 
 being obviously dog tired like one who has travelled 
 both fast and far. 
 
 His father never asked him any questions on these 
 occasions. He would only remark : " Poor Jamie, I 
 used to be feared that he would turn out somewhat 
 peefering and over-godly. But, faith, the lad is a man 
 for a' that. I will take his watch mysel' and let him get 
 a good sleep till the morning." 
 
 It was obvious to Silver Sand that in order to bring 
 about an interview between Sir Andrew and his lady, 
 he must have an accomplice within the house of Lochnaw 
 — someone more free in their incomings and outgoings 
 than the lady herself, who was naturally more or less 
 under observation by the spies of the garrison. 
 
 It was with this end in view that he arranged for his 
 next meeting with Lilias Agnew. He contrived without 
 much difficulty that a missive in his writing, but in the 
 French language, should be carried to her by a bare- 
 legged girl of twelve, whom he had met out on the cliffs 
 one day. Her head had suddenly appeared over the 
 edge. She carried an empty basket with a folded white 
 napkin in the bottom, which made her errand obvious. 
 But she was calm under Silver Sand's eye. She knew 
 to whom she spoke for she began at once, eager to have 
 the first word. 
 
 " You are him that's in hidin' wi' the Sheriff in the 
 Gled's Nest ? I see you every day as I come along the 
 heuchs after the goats. But I dinna ken your name. 
 INIine's Mirren McNoah, and my faither is forester to Sir 
 Andrew. Oh, j^ou needna be feared. I hae only been 
 doon the heuchs, takin' his dinner to Mr. Walter Dunning 
 — him that was minister o' Partun parish in the Stewartry.
 
 THE GLED'S NEST 113 
 
 He is doon there in the Doocot Cave, with only the gulls 
 to keep him company, and a poorer place it is than your 
 braw wicker wattles of the Gled's Nest that mony a cot- 
 man would be glad o' ! " 
 
 The girl's head had loomed up suddenly, ruddy as a 
 fire whereat to toast chill fingers. She had begun to 
 speak instantly without a moment's hesitation, and had 
 from the first moment captured the confidence of Silver 
 Sand. Never had he seen a bairn so frank without 
 impudence, or so freckled that nowhere on hands, neck 
 or face, could you pose your little finger without touching 
 a brown speckle. Never a head of hair had he seen 
 like Mirren McNoah's, so aggressively, so amusingly, 
 so inspiringly red. Clearly Mr. Walter Dunning, late 
 minister of Parton, was safe in her hands. 
 
 But Silver Sand began to consider how he could make 
 her useful. Did she know Miss Lihas ? Who but she 
 knew Miss Lilias at the Castle. Was it Miss Lilias he 
 was speering about ? Had she not given her the neck- 
 kerchief she was wearing at that very moment for out- 
 pacing her in a foot-race ! 
 
 Where did they run ? Oh, through the lower woods 
 from the comer of the Loch, and (she laughed aloud at 
 the remembrance) Mistress Lilias was beaten the first 
 time. Then she fastened up her gown and wihcoats with 
 a string well above the knee and won the return match 
 easily. But that was partly because she, Mirren McNoah, 
 laughed so much that she had to stop to take breath. 
 Oh, but she was a great one, was Miss Lilias. It was 
 not a trifle that would be stopping her when her mind 
 was made up. 
 
 " Could you take a letter from me to your Miss Lihas ? " 
 said Silver Sand, " and deliver it to her when no one 
 else is by ? " 
 
 The girl laid her finger to the side of her nose, and 
 looked reproachful. 
 
 " You, too," she said, " and I thought you were in 
 hidin' for a saint ! Why, you are as bad as that daft 
 loon Hal Bruce of Windy Standard, who gives me a 
 silver shilling for taking his notes to my mistress ! " 
 
 H
 
 114 SILVER SAND 
 
 " And Miss Lilias— what does she say ? " 
 
 " She only laughs and gives me the letters to read, so 
 that I may instruct myself against the time when I may 
 be getting suchlike myself." 
 
 " And does she give you the answers to carry back ? " 
 said Silver Sand cunningly. 
 
 " Answers— is it now ? What foolishness to be speak- 
 ing ! And what would the like of Miss Lilias be wasting 
 her time to answer such trash. She that has half the 
 young officers ready to cut each other's throats, so I'm 
 tellin' ye, and the t'other half ready to cut their own ! " 
 
 " My letter is no such fooHshness, Mirren," said Silver 
 Sand, "it is about her uncle, Sir Andrew, who would be 
 much safer in Ireland than here, but who will not go for 
 all we can say, till he has seen my Lady. Now, Mirren, 
 will you help us ? Only Miss Lilias can bring it about. 
 The watch on my Lady is too close, and I must see Miss 
 Lilias." 
 
 Mirren McNoah, the chief forester's daughter of Loch- 
 naw policies, pulled down her ruddy locks, and with a 
 hither-and-thither toss, cleared them away from her eyes. 
 
 " I will do it," she said, " give me the letter ! " 
 
 " I will write it," said Silver Sand, " I did not know 
 that I should meet anyone so trustworthy, or I should 
 have had it ready. But I shall not be long. Come your 
 ways into the Gled's Nest and sit ye down." 
 
 " I think I see myself," Mirren retorted, shaking her 
 sundown aureole, " with Sir Andrew there and the young 
 Master James' e'en boring holes into me ! Na, na, when 
 you are ready, come oot wi' your letter, and you will 
 find me stride-legs on the auld fir-tree that grows out o' 
 the side o' the heuch." 
 
 Silver Sand went and wrote his letter, using the French 
 language with the grace and readiness which only pupils 
 of Issy and Port Royal acquire. 
 
 " Most fair and sweet-thoughted " (he wrote), " I have 
 an opportunity which I have much desired of writing to 
 you. It is a privilege in itself to do so, but my immediate 
 object is to bring about a meeting between Sir Andrew
 
 THE GLED'S NEST 115 
 
 and his lady wife. He is in danger every hour, and we 
 know not what informers there may be about even on 
 the estate. He ought to retire to Ireland for a few 
 months, colourably to look after his properties there. 
 Now, this he will not do unless his wife first persuades 
 him to go and leave her behind to look after Lochnaw. 
 Do you urge my Lady to this, and on the first night that 
 the garrison lies in Stranraer I shall be waiting for you 
 by the big Irish yew beyond the Loch, where there is a 
 little island of green (or peninsula rather) with the water- 
 lilies winking like stars all about it. Indeed, I shall wait 
 for you there every night this week, because the sooner 
 the matter is arranged the better it will be, and also I 
 know not which night or hour may be convenient or 
 even possible for you. If you have any information or 
 any need to write to me, Mirren McNoah can find me at 
 any time. I understand that she is a friend of yours and 
 conspicuously fleet of foot, though not always rewarded 
 with an equal success. 
 
 " Devotedly your Servitor, 
 
 "John Faa." 
 
 Silver Sand saw the bare, brown legs go twinkling 
 through the copses of the High Woods, and with a sigh 
 turned from the homely prattle of Mirren McNoah to 
 higher, though perhaps less interesting matters. 
 
 He went to the cliff edge, and after a moment's keen 
 scrutiny, began to let himself down towards the Doocot 
 Cave where dwelt in grim solitude the late minister of 
 Parton. Old Walter Dunning was, he knew, rather a 
 famous man, and belonged rather to the older theologic 
 school of Rutherford and Semple, than to the younger 
 warlike leaders like Shields and Cameron, called the 
 Lion of the Covenant. 
 
 Their antique ministrations rather dropped like dew 
 upon the tender herb, than shook the mountains with 
 thunderclaps. Nevertheless, Claverhouse, having fallen 
 across him at the house of my Lord Kenmure in the 
 Glenkens, had told him that he was an old " greeting 
 varlet," and that if after that day and date he should
 
 ii6 SILVER SAND 
 
 find him anywiiere in Galloway, he would shoot him like 
 a brock. For which reason Lord Kenmure had sent him 
 on to Sir Andrew with a recommendation, and the baronet, 
 not foreseeing the time when they would be near neigh- 
 bours, established him comfortably in the Doocot Cave, 
 and bade his man, John McNoah, a fervent Cameronian, 
 see to his guest's well-being. 
 
 The way down was clearly enough marked by stout 
 iron hoops driven into the face of the rock, for the place 
 had long been used in perilous times as a convenient 
 shelter. Silver Sand brushed his way through tufts of 
 wind-beaten broom. He was scratched and scarified by 
 spiky whin bushes. Sprouts of tufted heather gave him 
 an uncertain hold here and there, but every twenty feet 
 or so, he would come upon a little doorstep of turf quite 
 green and quiet, from which he could look down upon the 
 white surf mumbling and chafing the dark cliffs beneath. 
 Hoary sea poppies bloomed all about in chinks and 
 crevices, and lower still he came upon the rustling russet 
 sea-pink and the salt-water holly, which is blue as an 
 easterly day of March wind. These were all drenched 
 with spray instead of the kindher dew, and often crystals 
 of sea-salt glittered upon them, brilliant as frost flakes 
 after a frozen December fog. 
 
 At last Silver Sand arrived at the cave's mouth. It 
 was quite small, and well set back on one of the smooth 
 grassy shelves like those which had afforded resting-places 
 for Silver Sand on his descent — only this one was at 
 least twice as large as any of the others. 
 
 A little man in a black coat, very neat and trim, sat 
 in the corner of the pleasant green apron of turf. He 
 was seated on a small " creepie " stool which, when out 
 of use, he could fold up and carry off under his arm. 
 He was reading a large book which was spread out on 
 his bony knees. This was Walter Dunning perusing one 
 of the famous books of solid divinity of which the author 
 was the great Dr. Owen. 
 
 He must have been immensely startled and alarmed 
 by the vision of Silver Sand's feet and legs appearing 
 from above, but of this fear he allowed nothing to appear.
 
 THE GLED'S NEST 117 
 
 The minister of Parton rose, laid his book carefully 
 on a shelf of the rock with a dried leaf of sea-grass mark- 
 ing the place, and stepped forward to bid his visitor 
 welcome, all in a grave, modest, dignified manner which 
 was characteristic of the man. 
 
 He had indeed been a college professor, or at least 
 assistant therein, and still spoke like one, calling the town 
 of Sant Anders, Santus Andreus, lengthening out the 
 vowels pleasantly in the Dutch manner. He had also a 
 kind of burr in his speech as though he came from North- 
 umberland, but he was only East country bred and 
 college trained, which makes a great difference to the 
 Galloway ear, always avid of distinctions. 
 
 As soon as he knew that Silver Sand was also in hiding 
 along with Sir Andrew, Mr. Dunning laid aside the little 
 reserve he had shown and spoke freely. 
 
 " I am no firebrand," he said with a gentle resignation. 
 " I should have been most glad to remain in my quiet 
 garden at Parton, but when I saw that I could not do 
 so in peace I e'en took my Lord Kenmure's advice and 
 came my way hither. Those who were opposed to me 
 (God pardon them !) barricaded the doors of the Kirk 
 with stones, hung the benches up on the edge of the loft, 
 and but for the uprising of the people would have chased 
 me ignominiously out of my own parish. So I came 
 away willingly enough. For I saw how that if I did not, 
 the malignants would get their will — which was to cause 
 bloodshed among a peaceful people." 
 
 Then Silver Sand revealed to him all his upbringing 
 among the monks of Issy, and the difficulty he was in 
 to know the rights and the wrongs of the warring Scottish 
 sects. 
 
 Walter Dunning bade him not to trouble his head about 
 the matter. Had he not an open Bible ? And the gates 
 of prayer (he reminded him) were not shut. All that was 
 needful would be revealed to one who prayed much and 
 communed much with his own soul. Altogether he spoke 
 so tenderly and in a manner so kindly intimate that 
 Silver Sand was moved to communicate his greater — his 
 greatest difficulty to him. He spoke to him of the privilege
 
 ii8 SILVER SAND 
 
 of gipsy maidens once during their lives " to ask 
 a man " without prejudice to their good name, and on 
 the duty incumbent on that man to content them if 
 he was unmarried at the time of asking. 
 
 The gentle professorial man listened attentively, but 
 allowed Silver Sand to continue. He spoke of the great 
 love and kindliness of Juliana, and of the obligation 
 he lay under not to do anything to hurt her. Yet he 
 could not hide from himself that the tenderness he felt 
 for her, he might equally feel for an affectionate and 
 faithful dog. It was (he said) impossible that he should 
 love her as a wife ought to be loved, and he went about 
 in daily dread of meeting the woman who should indeed 
 be his true mate, and to whom all his heart should go out. 
 He whispered no word of Lilias — that of course, for what 
 confession is ever complete, but he asked Mr. Dunning 
 what was his opinion of his dilemma and what he thought 
 he ought to do. 
 
 The minister took some time to consider his answer. 
 
 " Sir," he said at last, " I take it that you are a true 
 Protestant, though perhaps not very clearly defined as 
 to sect." 
 
 Silver Sand nodded. He was not conscious of a decided 
 preference for any particular doctrinal position. 
 
 " After all," said the minister, "it is not a matter of 
 confessions at all, but of right and wrong. If you lived 
 so long among the monks of Issy without becoming a 
 Roman Catholic, it is certain that you are a Protestant 
 of no ordinary strength of conviction. 
 
 " But, "continued the little man," you were, as you 
 permit me to gather, born to very particular honour. 
 You are the acknowledged head of all the gipsy folk in 
 these islands. They look to you for guidance. If you 
 interpret their laws, consequently you yourself must obey 
 them. Therefore being ' asked,' you are married accord- 
 ing to your own law, though probably not according to 
 the law of the land, since the testimony of your race 
 is not accepted in our courts of justice, which I think 
 a shameful discrimination. Still, undoubtedly in the 
 present state of the law of Scotland, you are not wedded
 
 THE GLED'S NEST 119 
 
 according to the law of the country — still less so in 
 England. But, nevertheless, you are under distinct and 
 grave moral obligations to the young woman, because you 
 are bound by your customs. As to the suppositious case 
 which you submit to me, I think we need not say anything 
 about that till the need arises. But all the same I do not 
 see, even though you may legally be unmarried, how 
 you can seriously propose to yourself to have two wives, 
 one for the gipsy side of your existence, and the other 
 for your own rank and education, chosen from among those 
 with whom you habitually associate." 
 
 The word caused the young man to wince, though the 
 recluse of the Doocot Cave had shot his bow at a venture. 
 Mr. Dunning noted the change in Silver Sand's expression. 
 
 "I do not wish to ask for any further auricular 
 confessions," he said smiling. " They are not so common 
 among ministers of the Kirk as with your monks of Issy. 
 Only bear in mind what I say. It is written ' No man 
 can serve two masters ' — which according to the best 
 commentators is as much as to say ' wives ' 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Kevin's Isle 
 
 Duskier and ever more dusky fell the night. Silver 
 Sand stood among the trees on the promontory called 
 Nevin's Isle, after that wild fighting scion of the house 
 of Agnew who had laid so many thwacks on the retreating 
 backs of the Kennedies in the matter of the Leswalt 
 jurisdiction. Here in his boyhood Nevin had made 
 himself forts, cut ditches and laid do^^^l wooden guns 
 before he was breeched, ready for the times when it 
 should be said of him : 
 
 " The battle is their pastime. Forth they go. 
 Gay in the morning as to summer snow." 
 
 And Nevin's Isle it has to this day remained, though 
 for the time being, James' draining operations have made 
 but a reed-grown peninsula of it, jutting into a waste of 
 heavy meadow hay. 
 
 But when Silver Sand waited there that night, he heard 
 the winds sigh among the tall bulrushes, and felt on his 
 face the blossoms blowing down from the apple trees. 
 For the birds were silent, even the marsh blackcaps 
 suspiciously watching the tall erect sentinel who had 
 ventured into their fastnesses so untimeously. 
 
 His olive cheeks touched by exposure and seawind, 
 his eyes bright with expectation, and his fine hands thin, 
 nervous, but composed, thrust into his belt, he waited 
 the coming of Lilias Agnew. If he thought of the advice 
 of the man in the tall-crowned puritanical hat, who had 
 laid down his duty for him in the Doocot Cave, it was so 
 little that he might as well not have thought at all. 
 
 1 20
 
 NEVIN'S ISLE I2T 
 
 Silver Sand could not help himself. He meant to be 
 merely kind and wise — to advise with Lilias as to the 
 meeting between Sir Andrew and Jean Hay. But what 
 should come of the silence, of the dusky night and the 
 duskier eyes which only reflected the stars why, as to 
 these, only the mysterious twilight could tell — and She 
 would not. She had listened to too many confidences, 
 overheard too many lovers' secrets to play the tale- 
 bearer now. 
 
 She came, and at once Silver Sand's heart beat thick 
 and dull like that of one awaking from a nightmare. 
 
 Free and careless as if she walked at noon in the garden 
 close of Lochnaw she came, holding her light skirts clear 
 of the ragweed and meadowqueen, and bringing faint 
 airs with her, as of hawthorn on a dewy hedge or far off 
 bean-fields dreamily sweet. 
 
 And as she approached, for Silver Sand the waters 
 ceased to ripple and the breeze to blow. Speech fled 
 his lips and he was silent before her, his purpose to tell 
 her of Juliana quite broken. He could only stand still 
 and wait. 
 
 Indeed it was well that Lilias had brought with her 
 all her old carelessness and teasing spirit, for these, more 
 than the wisdom of the wise, conjured the vain dreams 
 which had been overbrooding his spirit. 
 
 " And that man you promised me," she began as soon 
 as she had shaken hands. " Have you brought him ? 
 Did you trouble to find him ? I wager you have never 
 even looked for him, and — I had so been counting on you, 
 Mr. Percy of Northumberland." 
 
 Silver Sand had it in his mind to tell her on the spot 
 how fair she seemed to him with her gold hair ranged 
 garlandwise about her head, and her breath as sweet as 
 meadows newly mown. But his tongue had that good 
 reticence, which helps a man more than any wisdom, 
 to refuse a foolish and wicked office. He began with a 
 clear plain courage. 
 
 " I would speak with you. Mistress Lilias, of what I 
 could not write more fully. Sir Andrew must leave 
 Scotland for a season — not as I think for long, but certainly
 
 122 SILVER SAND 
 
 for a matter of months. If he takes my Lady with him —   
 if she leaves Lochnaw, the Castle will be pillaged and 
 perhaps burned. If you and she stay, there is little 
 danger, James and I will stay and watch over you " 
 
 " Ugh," cried the girl contemptuously. " I am obliged 
 to James. Tell him that I will dispense with his care. 
 It will take him all his time to watch over his long-nosed 
 Mary Montgomerie. But for all that (which matters 
 nothing), I think we can manage the meeting. Let me 
 see. On Sunday night the garrison will drink itself 
 helpless. All day the troopers will have ranged the moors 
 after conventicles and keepers of conventicles. One 
 they say — that is Hal Bruce saj^s — is to be held in the 
 ancient Chapel of Loch Ryan, from which place Stranraer 
 had its first name in the days of the Kennedies. Be 
 sure that Captain Bruce will not let that chance slip. 
 Then Peden the Prophet is out on the muirs near Car- 
 screuch, and a detachment is to start early to ride down 
 his followers, and if possible to bring back the Prophet. 
 How do I know ? Well, if there is anything Daft Hal 
 of Windy Standard will not tell me for the asking, I am 
 not the wise maid I took m3/self for. 
 
 " So when they get back there will be a fine carouse, 
 from which as is her custom, my Lady will ask Captain 
 Bruce's permission to retire. He will give it because he 
 can the more easily restrain his lambs when a lady is 
 not by to hear him do it. I shall then bring her to this 
 place at the hour appointed, if you will be responsible for 
 Sir Andrew. The danger is not great. The red-coated 
 hogs in the Castle sit down between six and seven, which 
 gives them three hours at the Sheriff's wine " 
 
 " And what says my Lady ? Is she willing he should go?" 
 
 " Willing and anxious," said Lilias, with quick em- 
 phasis. " She bids me say she is content to bide at 
 Lochnaw for the sake of the Castle, the goods and gear — - 
 which is more than I should do if I loved a man and he 
 loved me as these two do. I should don a page's doublet 
 and ride point-device at my good man's elbow — so that 
 all the maids in the hamlets we passed through should 
 fall in love with me and by no means with hint / "
 
 KEVIN'S ISLE 123 
 
 " Very likely," said Silver Sand, dryly. " Point 
 device and a page's tunic and riding boots would rarely 
 become you, but you could not very well have my Lady 
 Agnew masquerading so ! " 
 
 At the idea Lilias burst into a thrill of happy laughter, 
 which caused the thrushes to chatter discontentedly at 
 being disturbed on their perches among the old scroggie 
 thorns of the Isle. She put her hand hastily to her 
 mouth, and then as the wind whipped her loosened 
 ringlets about her face, she stood silhouetted against 
 the glowing west, a statue in the attitude the most 
 picturesque of women's repertoire, that of a beautiful 
 girl with upraised arms swiftly ranging abundant locks 
 about a shapely head. 
 
 Silver Sand quivered with sudden passion, yet he had 
 seen Juliana do the same with a vague mind and an eye 
 on the blue mists of the distance. But he recovered him- 
 self to answer Lilias concerning my Lady's resolve. 
 
 " I am heartily glad of Lady Agnew's decision," he said 
 with some formal stiffness as if regretting his own recent 
 emotion. " It will make our task the easier. I shall 
 get round the Ipswich ' hoy ' which is now under the 
 Fairland Point waiting for cargo to sail for Belfast Lough, 
 After which we shall whisk Sir Andrew out of all danger 
 from the Grahams before the morrow's sunrise be red." 
 
 " So she said to me — I am her faithful messenger," 
 said Lilias, " but remember, I vouch not at all for what 
 she will say on Sunday night after she hath seen Sir 
 Andrew, Then she may not be so willing to let him 
 
 go." 
 And the girl chanted softly to herself, with the drawl 
 
 of the accompUshed ballad singer at fairs : 
 
 '' Come learn oj me what's womans' trade 
 
 And wherejore they are made — 
 Their hands are made oj woven rush, 
 
 Their minds are made of say* 
 Their love is like silk changeable — 
 
 It lasteth but a day ! " 
 
 * Say : soie — silk.
 
 124 SILVER SAND 
 
 " You can keep fine and steadfast if you will," per- 
 sisted Silver Sand, " you can do anything " 
 
 " With a man perhaps — at least Hal Bruce says so. 
 But you see, my Lady is a woman. Lo, in a moment my 
 arrows are blunt, my powder damp, my sword broken 
 at the hilt. What can a woman do with a woman — 
 and such a one as my Lady Agnew ? Hal Bruce says " 
 
 Silver Sand growled a malediction upon the young heir 
 of Windy Standard, which luckily was couched in the 
 deepest Romany, and therefore unintelligible to Lilias. 
 But all the same she smiled well pleased to herself. 
 
 " After all," she said aloud, " this young Percy is no 
 pagan. So that is the way the Holy Fathers of Issy 
 taught you to say your prayers. I wish I had my little 
 Latin as pat on my tongue' s-end. But do not let me 
 stand in your way ? Down on your knees and let us 
 have full vespers, or is it nones ? I am a good Protestant, 
 but I respect the liberty of belief in whatsoever strange 
 garb I find it." 
 
 Silver Sand understood that she was mocking him, and 
 the medicine was that of all others most useful to him for 
 his complaint. He could not be sentimental nor let his 
 heart speak out. The stars in their courses, aided by 
 the high spirits of Lilias, were fighting for Juliana. But 
 for the girl's winsome perversity. Silver Sand might have 
 drifted into irretrievable disaster. But Lilias was no 
 beginner — rather a maid of experience who knew by 
 instinct what was coming. So she kept him at arm's 
 length by saucy speeches and musically contemptuous 
 laughter. 
 
 " Well Master Percy," she said, " is there no other 
 name you have gained a right to since last I saw you ? 
 I will e'en be going. Have you nothing else you would 
 like to say to me ? No ? Are you sure ? Here I am 
 alone and unprotected — at your mercy, a gipsy's mercy ! 
 Blackmail and whitemail, felony and highway robbery — 
 all are within your power. Fll wager you may live to 
 repent such soft-hearted moderation. I have a matter 
 of sixpence farthing in my pocket, and I owe for the very 
 gown I have on — which I hope Sir Andrew will pay for.
 
 KEVIN'S ISLE 125 
 
 I dare not tell my aunt, so I must get him to send me 
 an allowance from Ireland — or better still, leave it to- 
 morrow night that Madame Lilly of the Tron Steeple may 
 not call me a mansworn debtor. I promised that she 
 should have the money by St. John's Eve — and if Sir 
 Andrew won't, I must go to the fairies to help me ! " 
 
 She picked up her gown which she had let drop while 
 she stood on the dry turf to bind her head gear. With 
 a swirling movement she threw the long court train over 
 her shoulder and caught it across her bosom. 
 
 " I cannot work — to beg I am not ashamed," she said. 
 " As my Uncle Andrew sowed so he must expect to reap. 
 Besides he has my father's property in keeping for me 
 when I reach the age of wisdom — which he falsely pro- 
 fesses is as good as sa3nng never. Tell him that I shall 
 not ask my Lady or James, and that if I am to be prisoned 
 for a dyvour (debtor) I shall pursue him before David 
 Graham's court and have a decree of accounting and 
 trusteeship sent after him to Ireland ! So good-night to 
 you. Prince Cautious-Charming, and the kindly providence 
 of all the persecuted and afflicted watch over you. Amen ! 
 But lay your lance in rest for me, for I am of all maids 
 the most helpless and forlorn. If uncle will not listen, 
 there is nothing for it but to apply to Hal Bruce, some time 
 — when he is sober."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Point of Nevin's Isle 
 
 A GREAT and sore task it was to get Lady Agnew down 
 to Nevin's Isle on Sunday night. The good lady was not 
 well proportioned for the secret hidings, disguises, and 
 stratagems to which Lilias took as a young duck takes to 
 water. 
 
 Mistress Jean Hay was matronly of build and carried 
 herself like a full-rigged ship going into action. She had 
 so long queened it in stiff Lyons silks and Valenceens 
 stomachers at Lochnaw, that even with a King's garrison 
 in the house could not break herself of the habit of 
 command. 
 
 All this dignity was so much to the good when she 
 was dealing with Earlshall and even with Clavers on his 
 swift, unexpected dashes. She was so stately and so 
 well dressed that men who had been born gentlemen left 
 off being swashbucklers, at least while she was in their 
 presence. 
 
 And the poor soldiers worshipped her. She constantly 
 denuded her table to send dainties to the sick and wounded 
 in the bam. But to steal out of her own house secretly 
 and under cloud of night was too much for the noble lady. 
 It took all her devotion to her liege-lord to get her consent 
 to the like. 
 
 But she went nevertheless, and kept tight hold of Lilias' s 
 arm all the way, starting at every shadow and stopping 
 to listen for any sound of pursuit. In vain Lilias cheered 
 her, urging the absence of all danger, and only the thought 
 of her Andrew waiting for her on Nevin's Isle brought her 
 forward at all. 
 
 " Oh Andrew — Andrew ! " she gasped, when she had 
 
 126
 
 THE POINT OF NEVIN'S ISLE 127 
 
 fallen into his arms, " this is terrible wark. You and me 
 to be meeting like malefactors, and the windows o' oor 
 ain hoose shinin' doon upon us, as if to cry shame." 
 
 " Wheesh, Jean, there's my life in the turning o' a 
 hair — mind ye that. I ken brawly that jinkin' and 
 jookin' aboot the waterside like lads and lasses in a 
 stackyard are not for the like o' you and me at our ages, 
 Jean. But must do will not be argued with ! So just 
 compose your mind, Jean Hay, and let us take counsil 
 together, you and me, Jean. For I am wae to think 
 o' leavin' ye even for a season, Jean — as Son Jamie and 
 this young birkie Silver Sand tell me will be for the best." 
 
 The thought of danger to her husband (over whom at 
 other times she fairly tyrannised) steadied my Lady, and 
 she sat down on a ridge of piled turf overgrown with 
 primrose plants and loose-strife, which had once formed 
 part of madcap Nevin's defensive works. 
 
 The young people discreetly withdressv to the extreme 
 point of the peninsula where they stood close together 
 in a clump of alder trees, out of earshot of their seniors, 
 and tasted the freshness of young delight in the solitary 
 adventure, the danger, and above all, in the proximitj'-. 
 
 Somehow or other — Silver Sand is certain that he did 
 not make the advance (yet how think it of Lilias) — their 
 hands were discovered to be clasping each other — the 
 tender tips of her lingers touching his cool firm hands 
 with a slight clinging pressure which went right to the 
 young man's heart. They did not speak much — rather 
 they listened to the shouted choruses from the open 
 windows of the Castle : " Giles and Jone — Jone and Giles 
 — Come woo-all ! Come try all ! ' ' and others equally 
 choice. But louder still they could hear the beating of 
 their own hearts, and, mysteriously signalling, these were 
 calling one to the other without spoken word. 
 
 All that long day when he was discussing the outcome 
 of the meeting with Sir Andrew, and combating the 
 Sheriff's often expressed opinion that Jean Hay would 
 never come a step (" Bless me, I ken her — she has not 
 done siccan a thing since she was a lassie ! "), a glad spirit 
 had been singing within him, and he had been put to it
 
 128 SILVER SAND 
 
 to hide his joy. Note that Silver Sand was fully aware 
 of the danger and reproached himself bitterly, even to 
 suffering dire torments. Yet he could not help rejoicing. 
 He had an instinct that, feeling herself protected by her 
 aunt and uncle, Lilias would not flout him as she had 
 hitherto done. 
 
 " Never was a man in such case," he said to himself, 
 " yet I warned Juliana of it before she ' asked ' me by 
 the side of the waters of Enoch. I told her that I had 
 never known my heart stirred by woman, but that the 
 time might come. It has come, suddenly and terribly. 
 There is no way out, and how to tell her who is watching 
 for me up there — the fondest and the truest, with her 
 pride in her account books, her dues to pay over, and 
 the new suit waiting for me that I may do her credit ! " 
 
 Yet what was he to do ? He remembered her talk 
 of a gipsy wife to whom to return, when the hills should 
 call him back with the voice that lay dormant in the wild 
 blood in his veins. But that solution was not a prac- 
 ticable one. Mr. Dunning's lecture, and still more, his 
 own instinct, told him that no woman would be content 
 to that partage of a beloved man. 
 
 He saw that he could not go on for ever taking and 
 Juliana for ever giving. But yet — and yet ! 
 
 No, he did not see the way out. He was only conscious 
 of the gentle breathing of Lilias, the rise and fall of her 
 bosom, the clasp of her hand, and the way she had of tossing 
 her head to clear the wind-blown ringlets from her brow. 
 
 " Ah, if only Juliana were my mother," he thought, 
 " how I should love her ! Or (he added, with some sense 
 of the proportion of years) even my sister ! " 
 
 For he perceived quite correctly that Juliana's love 
 and care for him had in it many of the best elements of 
 the maternal. She lavished it upon him, unstinting, 
 unregarding, and he like a favourite son never for a 
 moment thought of repaying the good she had done him. 
 Why should he ? He had not asked for it. It was her 
 happiness. Heaven would record it, and if there was a 
 God, He would reward such unselfishness. What is He 
 for, if not to pay such inconvenient debts ?
 
 THE POINT OF NEVIN'S ISLE 129 
 
 So, as a gipsy thinks, thought John Faa, the King of 
 them all — and there are many others, neither kings nor 
 gipsies who receive the love of their womenkind with 
 equal unconcern, and leave the settlement of the account 
 to God. 
 
 This reads hardly for Silver Sand, but let it be remem- 
 bered that the thing had indeed come upon him unawares. 
 The situation was none of his seeking. He had done his 
 best to fight it off. It was not his fault that his heart 
 leaped and his eyes shone when he walked a few steps 
 by the side of Lilias. Nor was it his fault that he had 
 come to accept the happiness of her presence and society 
 as in a favoured land one accepts the warmth of the sun, 
 the seasonable weather, the former and the latter rain, 
 and the fruits in their seasons, 
 
 John Faa was a gipsy king, but he was also a well 
 educated, much travelled, experienced man of the world, 
 with talents and reading, prudence and sagacity quite 
 beyond his years. Yet all these did not aid him to 
 control the leaping blood within him, nor how to be one 
 man and not two. 
 
 If only he could have chosen his part and remained 
 John Faa, the gipsy law-giver and law-expounder, he 
 wouW (and could) have made one woman perfectly happy. 
 
 But, there was another man, the scholar of Issy, the 
 habitue of the salons of the Marquise de Belle Isle and 
 Madame St. Lo — to whom Sir Andrew spoke as an equal, 
 and who in swift give-and-take bandied the wit of 
 Versailles with Lilias Agnew. 
 
 They had not gone far, ere there was that between 
 them which told both how well they pleased one another — 
 something which would soon lead them farther — perhaps 
 even beyond the possibility of ever turning back. 
 
 Ten times had Silver Sand been on the verge of con- 
 fession. He knew which way his duty lay, but still when 
 it came to the point, he shrank affrighted from the fear 
 of losing her — and with her all that made his life worth 
 living. Lihas, it is true, often helped him, quite uncon- 
 sciously, by some gay light word, which dammed back 
 the heavy weight of his unspoken secret. 
 
 I
 
 130 SILVER SAND 
 
 She permitted her hand to he in his — nay, when she 
 took it away to point where the great trout they called 
 " Black Nevin " was wont to sulk under the bank, it 
 slid back of itself without remark on either side. Per- 
 haps she felt the safer under the thunder of these brawling 
 choruses. And he — well, for him the rushy island 
 became his lady's dear bower, and the very cows cropping 
 and wrenching at the grasses in the meadow passed on their 
 way with a new unconscious charm. 
 
 " I am glad you are not going to Ireland," Lilias said, 
 with a sigh and a very slight emphasis on the pronoun. 
 
 " Thank you," said Silver Sand, quietly, " I could not 
 go. If Sir Andrew sets sail, I have promised to look after 
 you in the Castle." 
 
 " But you could never fight Earlshall and all his 
 dragoons ? " 
 
 " Perhaps not," he said, smiling confidently, " the 
 troops I command are not disciplined, but they are 
 admirable for a dashing assault. Better still at hiding 
 away for an ambush, and I shall always have enough of 
 them within call to insure me of being able to carry you 
 and my Lady off in case of need." 
 
 " How delightful ! " the girl whispered, leaning to- 
 wards him, " I love mystery and adventure. I think 
 I was bom with a turn for it. Aunt Jean likes all things 
 fixed and ranged, so that they can stay that way through 
 all the eternities. A book must not stray, but stand erect 
 upon its shelf, volume three following volume two, and 
 she resents that I cannot always remember to return 
 them to their places. She never reads one herself, dear 
 Aunt Jean, but she has a high sense of their purpose, 
 which is to stand in rows straight and stiff calf-bound 
 and buckramed, like soldiers on parade. I do believe 
 she is a little affronted when anyone takes one of them 
 down to read ! She wonders why people should disarrange 
 things so. Well ought to be left alone." 
 
 All too quickly the minutes passed without much 
 interchange of speech. The waters plashed softly about 
 their feet, and the wind came in vague, sweet gusts of 
 perfume from this field and that other meadow. 
 
 I
 
 THE POINT OF NEVIN'S ISLE 131 
 
 Behind them the seniors talked in whispers, and if 
 Lady Jean wept on her husband's shoulder, it was in the 
 dark, and the next instant she was urging him to take 
 ship for Ireland. James and the young man Silver Sand 
 were right. Every day spent in his own country increased 
 his danger. Claverhouse himself would be back soon, 
 and then (to use Lady Agnew's strong expression) all 
 Wigtonshire would be searched "as a man ripes his 
 pipe ! " 
 
 " But what will you do, Jean, my poor woman ? " said 
 Sir Andrew. " My heart is full of wae to be leaving 
 you." 
 
 " Fear na, Andrew," she said, " 'tis your life and not 
 mine that is in question. I am only in danger through 
 you, guidman. Otherwise I can hold the Castle — aye, 
 and the hordes that are therein. I was not bom a Hay 
 of Park for nothing. Even to Claverhouse I am ' my 
 noble lady,' which I should not be if you were captured 
 and executed. For, mark you, Andrew, that is what 
 they are determined upon. Nothing else will settle them 
 securely in the Sheriffdom ! Gang then, Andrew, if ye 
 love me ! " 
 
 " I love ye, Jean, and I will gang ! " 
 She lifted her head and gave his cheek a little pat with 
 her open hand. 
 
 " Fie, for shame, Sheriff," she said, " you and me to 
 be speakin' about love and such like at our time o' life. 
 But it was your obstinacy that drove me to it. But 
 where in the world are these young folk that slid away so 
 daintily to give us leave to talk ? " 
 
 " They are yonder at the point of the Isle, looking at 
 the lighted windows of the Castle, and never saying a 
 word one to the other ! " 
 
 " Then you think " 
 
 " No, I do not, Jean. The young man is all for book- 
 learning, and he will be a clever chiel that gets Lilias 
 Agnew to listen to him. Whiles I think she is fretting 
 about James ! " 
 
 " How about James ? " said his wife. 
 
 " Oh, just James's no wantin' to marry her, and
 
 132 SILVER SAND 
 
 running all the time after the Montgomerie lassie. I have 
 heard her speaking reproachful words more than once 
 to Jamie, and I could have clouted his lugs to see the 
 poor lass so put upon." 
 
 " Oh, Sir Andrew, Sir Andrew, you are a brave and a 
 staunch man, also a good sheriff, but as to reading the 
 heart o' a young lassie, ye are still in the horn-book. 
 Do you not see and hear that she is flouting Jamie, as 
 she is flouting this young man Silver Sand, as she flouts 
 Hal of Windy Standard, as she lightlies all that come 
 near her ? If she were hankering after James, would 
 she be telling the world about it ? Would she publish 
 her pain ? Little fear, she knows that it annoys James 
 to have the thing cast up to him — therefore she casts it 
 up, and for no other reason." 
 
 " And in the Castle, when the garrison is within doors, 
 is the hempie any hindrance to you ? " 
 
 " A help, Sir Andrew, a great help ! She has all the 
 elders listening to her stories of the great folk in France, 
 and all the younger are her servants to command, what 
 with her singing and her merry flouting ways. Yet there 
 is no quarrelling, for she never distinguishes one more 
 than another, but treats all alike, and if any officer comes 
 into her presence touched with liquor, she will not speak 
 to him for a week." 
 
 " Well, well, Jean Hay, you doubtless ken her best. 
 But maybe lasses have not changed so greatly since 
 one I ken of sat up to watch the lights of Ireland, and 
 thought them bonny over the heaving breast o' the 
 North Channel ! " 
 
 " Andrew, I have forgotten, if ever I did the like, and 
 besides you cannot say that ever I had a flouting tongue 
 or a butterfly wing, poising here and settling there like 
 our Lilias." 
 
 " No, Jean, no — there never was a lass like you — I have 
 said it thirty year, and if I live I shall say it thirty more. 
 But ye ken, ' God made of one blood,' and so forth. 
 That includes Lilias Agnew, mind ye, Jean, and some 
 day her tongue will falter in its flouting, and her butterfly 
 wing become heavy as lead."
 
 THE POINT OF KEVIN'S ISLE 133 
 
 " Maybe you are right, Andrew. At any rate ye are 
 right enough for you and me not to differ about it when 
 we have so soon to part. Let us go and find the young 
 folk. We will behave ourselves more seemly before them, 
 and I must not be seen making my way in at the back 
 door of the Castle with my e'en all begrutten. A bonny 
 tale that would be among the wenches and the men-at- 
 arms." 
 
 Sir Andrew gripped his wife in his arms. 
 
 " Jean — Jean," he said hoarsely. 
 
 " I tell you what it is, Andrew," she said severely. 
 " Let me go. I do not want to greet like a bairn, and as 
 true as my name's Jean Hay, I will not ! Let us go, 
 I say ! " 
 
 She stamped her foot, and extricated herself a little 
 dishevelled from his embrace. 
 
 " Did I not tell j^ou, you great bairn ! " she chided. 
 " Now come and find the young folk." 
 
 Silver Sand and his companion had stood for a period 
 of time which seemed to them relatively short, facing the 
 lighted windows and hearkening to the strains of vinous 
 mirth. The young man was restraining himself, com- 
 pelling himself to silence amid the ruins of his old life. 
 Yet in spite of himself his imagination was whirling him 
 forward, devising new tactics, scheming how to reconcile 
 two things manifestly irreconcilable. 
 
 He despised himself that he allowed the hand of Lilias 
 to remain in his, yet he grasped it all the more jealously 
 on that account. She did not know, and he called him- 
 self a hound for not telling her. She must know, he 
 acknowledged that, but not yet. ... He dared not risk 
 being sent into the outer darkness with no hope of looking 
 upon her face again. Besides, something whispered 
 within him, he was not taking anything from Juliana. 
 He could not take from her what she had never possessed. 
 
 Had he not foretold this day, and yet she had taken 
 him in full knowledge. She had promised that she would 
 not stand in his way. But now when the thing had 
 come to pass and Lilias and he stood hand in hand, in 
 what was more than a promise — almost, indeed, a
 
 134 SILVER SAND 
 
 dedication — would Juliana keep her word. He felt she 
 could not. It was more than any man could expect 
 from a woman. 
 
 Silver Sand, deep in his reverie, had not noticed the 
 end of the conversation between husband and wife. 
 Yet when Lady Agnew came up behind them, Lilias, a 
 full yard away, was pointing out the reflection of the 
 lighted windows upon the waters. Yet ere she turned 
 to go, she secretly broke a little sprig from the bush of 
 alder under shade of which they two had joined hands. 
 
 Something youthful and triumphant sang clear as a 
 clarion in her spirit. 
 
 " I have found him — he is mine ! " was the burden of 
 that jubilant chant. 
 
 And so it ought to have been — only the lords of life 
 are jealous of a too quickly won joy. They love not 
 easy triumphs. Weeping must endure for a season, 
 even though joy comes in the morning. 
 
 " Bairn, the time grows late ! " said Lady Jean, " do 
 you, Silver Sand, see that Sir Andrew comes by no harm. 
 God keep you, Andrew. No, do not touch me ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Cooling of the Fiery Furnace 
 
 Sir Andrew Agnew was duly set ashore on the strands 
 of Lame Lough, and with his departure the household of 
 Lochnaw settled back into a peace to which it had long 
 been a stranger. The hated Claverhouse had come and 
 gone. The search for Sir Andrew had been so keen that 
 James and Silver Sand had been obliged to dismantle 
 the refuge of the Gled's Nest not a day too soon, and store 
 the beams and planks in a cave on the face of the ravine 
 called Gash Gibbie. Then they went still lower down 
 and took shelter with Mr. Walter Dunning in the 
 Doocot Cave, the safest of all hiding-places on that wild 
 shore. 
 
 They could get no news from Lochnaw except through 
 Mirren McNoah, and she could not always tind access 
 to the interior of the house. Claverhouse had treated 
 Lady Agnew with some austerity, but at the same time 
 had warned Earlshall against permitting any roistering 
 in the Castle. While at Lochnaw he had gone out each 
 day to see that the search for the missing Sheriff and his 
 son was zealously carried out. 
 
 In spite of all attempts no trace of either could be 
 found, and Claverhouse threatened to send Earlshall 
 home in disgrace. Earlshall replied with truth that no 
 man could have done more or better, but that he had 
 been obliged to depend upon his own men, strangers 
 and ignorant, for information. The whole neighbourhood 
 was devoted to the Agnews, and a spy would not live a 
 day in such a country. Such an one might expect to 
 follow Ellerton and Kidney over the cliff, before ever he 
 got his first message to headquarters — which was all 
 
 »35
 
 136 SILVER SAND 
 
 most true, but had (as perhaps Earlshall intended) the 
 gift of rendering Claverhouse quite savage. 
 
 " You do not deserve to wear His Majesty's uniform," 
 he told Earlshall, " and if I have any credit with the 
 Honourable Privy Council, you shall not much longer 
 hold his commission." 
 
 " I do not wear the Privy Council's livery," said Earl- 
 shall, " and before I am stripped of the King's, there are 
 those about His Majesty's person who will have a word 
 to say." 
 
 " You lose two soldiers and find their bodies thrust 
 through with wounds. You are content to sit still under 
 the insult, though it has been committed upon the lands 
 of the Hereditary Sheriff. He walks in and out as if 
 still Lord of the Heritage, while you and that tipsy fool 
 Windram bow low before him and give him an escort 
 and safe conduct to and from his Justice Aires." 
 
 " We obeyed our instructions, Colonel Graham, and 
 prosecuted the search as best we could, considering the 
 intractable nature of the people hereabouts. Moreover 
 you yourself have directed the parties for three days, 
 and I do not see that, so far as results go, you have any 
 great advantage over us." 
 
 " Get to your quarters, sir," thundered Claverhouse 
 " give up your sword. I put you under arrest." 
 
 Earlshall, who was somewhat mounted with his pota- 
 tions, undid the clasp of his sword belt and let the whole 
 fall upon the chill blue flags of the hall with a resounding 
 clatter. Then he saluted after the foreign fashion (for 
 he had served in King Louis's household troops, as 
 Claverhouse had done with William of Orange) and finally, 
 chcking his heels together, he swaggered off to his quarters 
 with defiance in every twirl of his moustachios. 
 
 John Graham could have killed him, so angry was he. 
 It was the first breath of the coming change which now 
 blew chill upon him. The King did not show his former 
 eagerness to push matters to an extreme. In fact, he 
 had secretly become a Catholic, and had already begun 
 to feel that he could not afford to coerce and slay for 
 nonconformity when he was a nonconformist himself.
 
 THE COOLING OF THE FIERY FURNACE 137 
 
 Besides, the Duke of York, though he had enjoyed 
 seeing the torture of the boot and the thumbscrews in 
 Edinburgh as he might sit out a performance in a theatre, 
 was an open and averred Papist. He, more than anyone, 
 had at this time the King's ear, and he was for ever 
 representing the case of his persecuted fellow religionists. 
 
 " There must be a General Toleration," he kept repeat- 
 ing, " to grant it in Scotland first will have a good effect. 
 Then we can with some show of generosity extend it to 
 the dissenters of England, and so include the Catholics 
 as well." 
 
 " I am sure I let off all those whose names are brought 
 before me," said Charles dismally, " I want only peace 
 in my time — peace and a little gentle society. By the 
 way, did I tell you what Nelly said to Rochester last 
 night ? " 
 
 " Never mind her just now," York persisted, " put a 
 rein on that wildbull of Bashan, John Graham. Bid 
 him to stop shooting and setting the people by the ears. 
 They are loyal enough, as I could very well see when I 
 was in Edinburgh. They only require to be let alone. 
 But the Grahams and their pack keep them all the time 
 on the run, worrying and chasing them from one place 
 to another like ill-set strange collies among sheep." 
 
 The news of this change in high places gradually 
 filtered down, and though naturally the Grahams and 
 the lairds of Lag and Westerhall were the last to hear of 
 it, those who had no expectation of forfeited estates 
 looked at the business a little differently. 
 
 This was Captain Bruce's position, and explains a 
 good deal of the mildness with which Wigtonshire was 
 being treated in comparison with the terrors and exactions 
 which were still being launched against the Eastern half 
 of Galloway. 
 
 " I wish," the King had said laughingly, " that they 
 would let me pit one half of the kingdom of Scotland 
 against the other as they did at the Red Harlow. If 
 the Highlanders lose, they shall learn the Westminster 
 Catechism as they made me do at Scone before they would 
 crown me. If they win, then the Lowlands shall be
 
 138 SILVER SAND 
 
 obliged to sit quietly under law-abiding prelates. They 
 are all for ever pestering me about their ministers. These 
 are ignorant — others rebellious ! Jack wants rid of 
 the one set, Jill of t'other. I do not see why they can- 
 not do without them altogether. They have Moses and 
 the Prophets, let them hear them ! There, brother, is 
 a quotation which you with all your Jesuits cannot 
 cap ! 
 
 Claverhouse, with great discomfort in his mind, re- 
 turned to Dumfries. He had restored Earlshall to his 
 command, having on the whole no officer so distinguished 
 as the fighter of Ayr's Moss. But though he drove ever 
 the harder, the despatches which he received from the 
 Privy Council were not satisfactory. He appeared 
 to have lost the royal ear, and the Duke of York never 
 answered his reports and demands for reinforcements. 
 It is doubtful even if he ever read them. 
 
 "A set of political Trimmers," he cried, " they are 
 waiting for the weather to change so that they may set 
 their sails accordingly — I would to God I had them here. 
 I should trim them to some purpose. They should get 
 the shelter of a dykeback while the firing party was 
 loading. At least, even though the King himself does, 
 John Graham of Claverhouse will never turn." 
 
 He spoke the truth — and it was his only merit — at 
 least the only one which his cruel rages in Galloway will 
 let us see at this day and date. 
 
 At his final departing — but some hours afterwards — 
 there was a bonfire made in the market-place of Stranraer, 
 and Captain Windrum had to send a sufficient force to 
 f ut it out. But the 'prentice lads only lit it in another 
 place, and sat round drinking to the King's health and 
 confusion to the Privy Council, This it was difficult to 
 find fault with, for it was a toast that was nightly drunk 
 at the officers' mess with a foot upon the table and three 
 times three.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Julius and Juliana 
 
 The necessity which now presented itself to Silver Sand's 
 mind was a visit to the Dungeon of Buchan, or if that 
 proved impossible in his present state of mind, he must 
 at least have more direct news of Juliana and the party 
 he had left behind him there. 
 
 Silver Sand was indeed in a most difficult case. He had 
 not the courage to lay the whole affair before Lilias, who, 
 he felt sure, would instantly have sent him about his 
 business. Nor had he the heart to leave the new life 
 which had opened for him, and return to be hurt by the 
 loving smiles and simple adorations which he knew were 
 waiting for him up among the Dungeon fastnesses. 
 
 A man of less heart would not have suffered at all. 
 He would merely have kept two good things in water- 
 tight compartments, enjoyed them both to the utmost, 
 and trusted to luck not to be found out. But though 
 there was little enough of the orthodox Christian about 
 Silver Sand, and though he rather kept the peculiar law 
 which had been given to his people, yet his heart was 
 green and tender within him, and in a manner of speaking 
 he had cast in his lot with the Saints — lonely saints, like 
 Walter Dunning in his rock oratory ; restless prophesying 
 saints like Peden ; pensive, foredoomed saints like young 
 James Renwick, even then getting ready for a belated 
 martyrdom. 
 
 But it became necessary to take a part, and all might 
 have ended with Silver Sand going with his tale to Lilias, 
 but that something happened which he had not been 
 counting upon, and which in a moment brought to an 
 end all his projects and resolves. 
 
 One day Silver Sand ascended the little iron ladder 
 
 139
 
 140 SILVER SAND 
 
 which led up from the Doocot Cave. The morning was 
 just coming over the short chpping wavelets of the Sol way, 
 The chillish wind which runs before the sun was fretting 
 them and sending them seaward, windcapt and angry. 
 But overhead to the east spread a canopy of pale green 
 and rose pink, still, ambient, and, like Heaven's gate 
 in the Revelation " one pearl." 
 
 At the ladder's top Silver Sand came out on the new 
 and beautiful world of turf, gorse, and broom and the 
 tender purple of the dwarf marsh-mallow which grew 
 abundantly in every hollow. 
 
 But he found something awaiting him infinitely more 
 astonishing than these daily marvels which met his 
 eye. A young man stood before him, black against the 
 coming light. He was dressed in a well-fitting suit of 
 dark material. A cloak was thrown loosely about his 
 shoulders, and on his head was a broad bonnet with a 
 feather in it, like that which James Agnew wore. Some- 
 thing in the blithesome carriage of the head set off the 
 young and handsome figure, and showed as if by intention, 
 that this was no city dandy or young squireen aping his 
 betters. A sword hung at his side in an accustomed 
 and workmanlike fashion and it seemed to Silver Sand 
 that he could just make out the hilts of a pair of pistols. 
 He sprang instantly to his feet, his own sword leaping 
 to his hand that he might not be taken by surprise. 
 
 But before he could utter a word or even put himself 
 into a posture of defence, two arms were held towards 
 him and a voice that he at once loved and feared to hear 
 said softly, " Do you not know me — Juliana ! " 
 
 What could he do except fold her in his arms ? After 
 all, she had first claim upon him. He thought with 
 a sort of wistful self-pitying agony of Lilias, but it was 
 clear to him that the presence of Juliana there on the 
 cliffs of the black shore of Leswalt, within sight of the 
 towers of Lochnaw, put an end to all else. 
 
 " I could not wait longer," she whispered pleadingly, 
 " I had this suit made by Tailor Byron in the street of 
 Stranraer. Do not be angry, I shall help and not hinder 
 you, being now a young man. No one need know,
 
 JULIUS AND JULIANA 141 
 
 and except my father and the Killer no one does know. 
 The clan thinks I have gone to England to gather in 
 your dues, which is, indeed, where I ought to be ! " 
 
 Silver Sand could not immediately adjust himself to 
 the new circumstances, but all the same he was conscious 
 that the unexpected appearance of Juliana rather sim- 
 plified matters than otherwise. At least he should have 
 no more lies to act. 
 
 " You are not angry, John Faa ? " she asked anxiously, 
 and when he had reassured her, she added, " I knew you 
 were in hiding, and therefore in danger. For you had 
 sent word for the Killer and half a dozen of those who 
 best knew the countryside to join you. I came with 
 them and now I shall share your troubles with you ! 
 I am glad. And how much money do you think I have 
 brought ? Guess— it is all here safe in my belt. Oh, I 
 have thought so much of giving into your own hands 
 the dues of Egypt which I have collected for you." 
 
 The light had now come clearer and Silver Sand could 
 see Juliana in her short skirted coat, well padded out to 
 conceal her girlish figure. 
 
 " Juliana," he said, " I declare you are a devilish 
 handsome lad. If there are any women in these parts 
 with hearts to break, you are the fellow for the business ! " 
 
 " I care neither for man nor woman," said Juliana, 
 with her eyes on him, " no, nor ever did — except for 
 you alone ! " 
 
 It was all going -to be harder than he had anticipated 
 because he knew that she spoke the truth, 
 
 " But your hair," he queried, to keep her off the diffi- 
 culties as long as possible, " you have never cut your 
 beautiful hair ? " 
 
 " Indeed I have," she laughed, " but there is quite 
 enough left and I was careful about the curls on my neck 
 that you used to like. I can wear it long to my shoulders, 
 for that is the fashion. I sold the rest in Dumfries to 
 a trader — a Jew man with such oily eyes, and by this 
 time it is well on its way to London Town to deck the 
 head of some shrivelled old court dame, who has more 
 need of it than I ! Guess how much I got for it — and.
 
 142 SILVER SAND 
 
 oh, John Faa, you have never guessed how much money 
 I have brought you to play the fine gentleman with. 
 It will be splendid to stand behind your chair and see 
 you risk your pieces with the cocks of the dice-box ! " 
 
 Silver Sand laughed at Juhana's innocent ideas of his 
 occupations. Yet he wished he had indeed had no more 
 to reproach himself with, and that the scattering of 
 guineas was the worst he could lay to his charge. 
 
 " Well, Juliana," he said to pleasure her, " have you 
 brought your spendthrift a hundred pounds ? That is 
 a good round sum and one which I should have taken 
 long to get paid in my ragged regiments." 
 
 " Two hundred and fifty," cried the girl triumphantly. 
 " I have taken in arrears from all the clans — even from 
 the Faas of Yester and Yetholm, who have hitherto 
 counted themselves exempt, they are so proud. I had 
 to use your authority pretty freely to get it. But they 
 will respect you the more." 
 
 " Juliana, you are a marvel ! " 
 
 " JuHus, if you please— Juliana is no name for a well 
 grown young man with the makings of a moustache. 
 See — it is quite visible if you look long enough." 
 
 And Master Julius Stanley smoothed and caressed, 
 twirled and pointed an imaginary moustache. 
 
 " Well then. Master Julius," said Silver Sand, re- 
 solving to take the plunge, " I have business at the Castle 
 yonder. I am Sir Andrew's agent while he is hiding 
 in Ireland, and down there is a garrison of soldiers, and two 
 women to keep them in good humour — my Lady Agnew 
 and Mistress Lilias, Sir Andrew's niece, the daughter 
 of his brother. Come down with me, I have money 
 to pay over to them — what I can scrape from the tenants ; 
 though, with the dragoons driving their cattle and stealing 
 their hay and com, it is but Uttle that the poor folk can 
 give." 
 
 " So you help them out of your own pocket, John ? " 
 
 "How can I do otherwise, Juliana — I mean Julius 
 (I must practise that name or I shall forget myself !). 
 I do not spend more than a few shillings upon myself, 
 and in the time of my need and yours it was Sir Andrew
 
 JULIUS AND JULIANA 143 
 
 who helped us — nay, who put his neck into the halter 
 for you and me ! " 
 
 " That grave wise old judge before whom we were 
 dragged out of that foul thieves' hole in Wigtown burgh ? " 
 
 " The same," said Silver Sand, "he is now blamed for 
 letting you go, and if he is caught, he will go to the gallows 
 for it, as your father and you were then in danger of 
 doing — if he had not listened to me, and for my sake let 
 you go ? " 
 
 " Oh, I am sorry — so sorry. He was a kind man," 
 said Juliana, leaning against one of the red tasselled 
 larches the sheriff had planted, " but all the same it 
 was to 3"ou alone we owed our deliverance." 
 
 Silver Sand shook his head gravely. He had his 
 reasons for wishing Juliana to be conscious what he and 
 she owed to the family at Lochnaw, 
 
 They went down through the woods and out upon the 
 v/ind-driven slopes where the very grass looks tired with 
 the ceaseless thresh of the west wind. All the way the 
 Chief of the Faas instructed his secretary-page, Julius, 
 upon his behaviour, and the manner he must assume. 
 He must speak as little as possible, but when anything 
 was to be made a note of, at a turn of the master's hand, 
 he must be ready to write it in a book. And Silver Sand 
 gave him his own pocket-book with the portable writing 
 tablets and a taxgatherer's inkhorn swinging to a silver 
 tasche. Thus instructed and so equipped they made 
 their way down to the Holm Wood, where Silver Sand 
 expected that Lilias would be waiting for him. 
 
 " Remember," he said, " salute the lady with a low bow 
 and your bonnet off. She comes for the money to furnish 
 food for the troops. I have to tell her that it is sent 
 by Sir Andrew, or she would not take it." 
 
 " So that is where the money goes which I gathered 
 for you with much pains," said she with something of 
 curtness in her tone. 
 
 " Oh," said Silver Sand, with an ease he was far from 
 feeling, " Sir Andrew's debt to me makes sure and good 
 interest. He will pay me back with usury when the wind 
 changes and he comes to his own again — and if what
 
 144 SILVER SAND 
 
 I saw in the Clear Vision be true (and it is true), that time 
 is not far off." 
 
 " You have had a warning — the Second Sight ? " 
 
 "It is given to those of my house to foretell events, 
 though none can see into his own future. But we of the 
 Faas prefer to call it the Clear Vision." 
 
 " And what did you see, John ? Tell me." 
 
 " I saw the King he a-dying, and better times coming 
 for us all." 
 
 " Yet they say he is a kindly man, this King, and not 
 cruel save that he takes no heed of States business, so 
 that evil and bitter wrong are wrought unchecked in his 
 name." 
 
 " All the same it is wrought — that evil, and he is 
 guilty because he does not prevent it." 
 
 It was not long before they came down to the level of 
 the cultivated fields and fenced woods which ring about 
 Lochnaw, and at the sight of the dusky shadows of the 
 Holm Wood, the heart of Silver Sand began to beat 
 thick and fast within his bosom. 
 
 Juliana prattled on, careless of whom they were going 
 to meet. She was with Silver Sand and therefore nothing 
 could happen amiss. She certainly acted her part to a 
 marvel. The stride was easy yet not exaggerated. She 
 had a slightly swinging gait, at once boyish and imperti- 
 nent, which went very well with the character of a page. 
 She spoke well and occasionally aired a few words of 
 French, which, though not of the quality of Madame de 
 Belle Isle's or the speech of Lilias, were forceful and idio- 
 matic, such as one might expect from a boy who when he 
 could had played truant from his grammar lessons. Al- 
 together Silver Sand was satisfied that Lilias would 
 suspect nothing. The difficulty lay all the other way. 
 What might not Julius suspect ? 
 
 Silver Sand had not too much time to dwell upon 
 the question, for they had only to pass along the daisy- 
 starred edges of a field of green which already had the 
 satin sheen of growing oats upon it. They could hear 
 the miller down at the mill (" in the clough-bottom " 
 as Juliana said) beating out the oatmeal for the porridge
 
 JULIUS AND JULIANA 145 
 
 of the dragoons in a swimming haze of hiist and clatter, 
 while the water lashing into the pool spread abroad a 
 grateful coolness, and the lap-lap-lap of the wheel fell 
 cadenced upon the ear. 
 
 Through sunlit dusky spaces where motes danced and 
 wheels spun, they could spy the miller within though he 
 could not see them. He was checking figures in a book, 
 while a couple of troopers with a harnessed " trail-cart " — 
 the body fitted on ash-branches — stood ready to receive 
 and acknowledge the week's supply for dinner and supper. 
 
 " All the com has now to be bought," said Silver Sand, 
 " bought in Ireland and paid for before delivery. Perhaps, 
 Juliana, it is just as well that you are such a rich woman, 
 or our friends to whom we are so deeply indebted might 
 chance to see the roof burned over their heads." 
 
 " I had thought of you spending it gallantly among 
 gay gentlemen," said Juliana, wistfully. 
 
 " Thank you, Julius, my dear page," said Silver Sand, 
 " but I have no mind to fling your hardly gained gold 
 pieces through the window " 
 
 " Nay, but they are yours ! " 
 
 " Well then, mine be it, Julius. All the same it would 
 be no pleasure to me to live rafiishly, to sport and drink 
 and dice, to play ombre and tric-trac till my gear was 
 all spent. If I could buy some few score of good books 
 with it now, and find some place in which to store them — 
 that I should not mind at all. But as it is I can do no 
 better than lend my guineas to Sir Andrew and so help 
 him to keep the ancient foundations of the Agnew's 
 from being ploughed up and sown with salt." 
 
 K
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Master All-Too-Pretty 
 
 They had left behind them the hill pines, sighing and 
 creaking in the sea wind. Lower down they came upon 
 the httle dells and watercourses sprayed and spotted 
 with birches, alternate light and shadow like spangles 
 or tinsel on a jester's coat. 
 
 Juliana moved beside her husband — lightsomely, har- 
 bouring no thought in her heart save that she was again 
 with him and that he was not angry. That Silver Sand 
 should receive her ill, that he should drive her from him, 
 had appeared to her likely and not unjust. Gipsy 
 husbands often punish disobedience severely and hers 
 had been flagrant. 
 
 She meant in that case to make the money an excuse, 
 to deliver it and then to return. 
 
 But the affair had turned out otherwise. She was 
 not sure but that she would have liked it better if he 
 had been rude with her and sent her about her business, 
 as her father or any ordinary son of Egypt would have 
 done. Then she would have been certain of making it 
 all up at their next camping place. But Silver Sand 
 received her as an equal, almost as one to whom — such 
 a thing was never heard of in Romany land — apologies 
 were due. He called her in to help him with his business 
 among the Gorgios. That was natural enough, but that 
 he had neither been angry nor yet had punished her, 
 these things were not to be explained. 
 
 She remembered the gipsy proverb, " I have not a 
 bruise on me from head to foot — my man loves me not." 
 
 Yet she remembered his long sojourn among the 
 stranger folk across the sea. They did not treat their 
 
 146
 
 " MASTER ALL-TOO-PRETTY ! " 147 
 
 women so — perhaps he had forgotten. Also she recalled 
 his gentle nature, which prevented him from giving pain 
 to any — except, alas (and unwittingly to himself) the 
 heart-pain which cannot be healed. 
 
 They set foot on the Holm Wood of Lochnaw. The 
 little stile came first. Silver Sand had made it for 
 Lilias, and Juliana's feet bounded across hardly touching 
 the projecting fiat stones on either side. 
 
 Lilias Agnew was there before them. She had been 
 marching up and down wondering what kept the punctual 
 Silver Sand so long behind his time. She saw the young 
 man with him and thought she understood. This was 
 a messenger from Sir Andrew in Ireland and had brought 
 the money my Lady was in such great need of, to feed her 
 army of hungry pensioners. 
 
 But why bring him there — when she would so much 
 rather that Silver Sand had come alone ? They had not 
 long to speak together but now this stranger would spoil 
 the few minutes she had looked forward to, more than 
 all the others which made up the day. But Lilias could 
 not sulk long. The thing was not in her nature. Besides, 
 the lad was so handsome and so well dressed. He must 
 be one of the younger Ballikill Agnews, though she tried 
 in vain to remember any who could have turned out into 
 this pretty fellow. 
 
 A moment more and he was bowing before her, bowing 
 and reddening very properly — this was no court-bred 
 youth, to blush like that. 
 
 She looked at him attentively. There was none of the 
 roughness of a Scots bred youth about the lad, but then 
 neither was there about Silver Sand — " French trained 
 (she thought) and perhaps some cousin of Madame St. 
 Lo." 
 
 " What is your name, sir ? " she asked after her hand 
 had been kissed by both her visitors. 
 
 " Julius Stanley, an it please your ladyship ! " 
 
 " Come," she laughed, " do not be over polite. Silver 
 Sand is not exactly a pale shrinking violet for whom you 
 have to search under the hedge. Take an example by 
 him if you wish to succeed with ladies."
 
 148 SILVER SAND 
 
 " I have never know him anything but gentle," said 
 Juliana in her throaty contralto. 
 
 " Save us," cried Lilian, " you should have seen him 
 putting down Hal Bruce of Windy Standard when he 
 gave offence by his noisy drunkenness. The lad has never 
 offended again. But I daresay you have been too well 
 brought up by the good fathers ever to make a beast of 
 yourself by such excess ! " 
 
 The young lad looked at Silver Sand as if for guidance, 
 and he struck in rather hastily taking the burden of the 
 explanation upon himself. 
 
 " This young man, Julius Stanley, is of my blood, and 
 comes from England. He speaks some little French 
 as a proper young man ought, though hardly the brand 
 which would please your cousins of Belle Isle and St, Lo. 
 I have been charged with him by his father, as he serves 
 me in the quality of secretary-page," 
 
 Lilias laughed heartily, 
 
 " Hearken to the Frenchman," she said, "he is out- 
 lawed and goes with a price upon his head, but he must 
 have his — what did you call it — his secretary-page ! 
 Wait, lad, till I can tell my uncle. You shall never hear 
 the end of it," 
 
 Silver Sand smiled without showing annoyance. He 
 looked down at her gravely and indulgently, so that 
 the girl's laughter died away. It did not sound very 
 convincing in any case, 
 
 " If I were a knight, I should call the young man my 
 squire. But as it is I am only a poor gipsy and a merchant 
 of scythe-sand. He keeps my accounts very well." 
 
 Lilias showed all her pretty teeth, and laid her hand 
 on the shoulder of the secretary-page. 
 
 " He looks better fitted for my lady's chamber than to 
 be a carrier of granite sand for lowland * strakes,' " Lilias 
 declared. " Then he is too good-looking by far. If 
 he came to Lochnaw we should have all the toasts of 
 the county pulling caps for him. And yet I warrant he 
 twirls his moustache as if he were the very devil of a 
 fellow." 
 
 " I saw him last loading a pair of very awkward donkeys
 
 " MASTER ALL-TOO-PRETTY ! " 149 
 
 and leading them through one of the most difficult tracks 
 in the country. He seemed not unhappy. Pray do 
 not spoil him, Mistress Lilias, with your praises, and let 
 us get to business. I have received a hundred gold 
 pieces to send to your aunt, my Lady Agnew, on her 
 husband's account." 
 
 " Now that is very strange," said the girl, putting her 
 forefinger meditatively to her chin, " for Lady Agnew 
 has just had a letter from her husband Sir Andrew. It 
 came by an honest seaman out of Loch Larne, and he 
 walked over from Chapel harbour with it." 
 
 " And what said Sir Andrew ? " 
 
 " He said that God knew (but he did not) where you 
 got the money to give to my Lady. For his purse was 
 as light as a blown bladder and Cousin Pat, though rich 
 in whisky, oatmeal and potatoes, kept declaring that he 
 had not one crown piece to rub against another ! That is 
 what your friend Sir Andrew wrote. Now, what do you, 
 Master Percy of Northumberland, find to say to that ? " 
 
 " The tenants of the estate " Silver Sand murmured, 
 
 completely put out of countenance. " You must under- 
 stand I am Sir Andrew's agent, Mistress Lilias. I have 
 ventured to uplift — on my own authority " 
 
 " Do not trouble yourself to invent more lies. Silver 
 Sand — at least not to me. They do not become your 
 style of conversation. Worse still, you do it very poorly. 
 But there at your elbow stands the lad who could make 
 women believe him — aye, though he were to tell them 
 that twice two make five," 
 
 Julius Stanley met the frank smile of Lilias. 
 
 " He does not make a good dissembler, Mr. All-too- 
 Pretty-Secretary, that excellent master of yours. We 
 must teach him better. We have the good sense to 
 know how to time and season our lives, you and L Now 
 I have taken a liking to you and if you come to Lochnaw 
 there are some pinch-waisted young gentlemen who will 
 do you the honour to be very jealous of you indeed. 
 But if you and I are friends, as I feel certain we shall be, 
 you must take the bitter with the sweet." 
 
 " I would gladly come. Lady Lilias," said the page-
 
 150 SILVER SAND 
 
 secretary, " for never have I seen any one half so beauti- 
 ful as you are — nor one who speaks so pleasantly and 
 lightsomely. Were I a gentleman — I mean one of 
 your degree, I would gladly follow you to the world's 
 end." 
 
 " There's for you, Silver Sand — your first lesson ! 
 That is the way to talk to a woman, and mark if you please 
 the baby curls clustering about his lace collarette. Fegs, 
 he can teach you the lilt of it. Master Percy. Why, you 
 are all buckram and hide to this secretary of yours, so 
 when you go a-courting let him first tell you what to say ! " 
 
 " Nay, but I mean it," cried the young secretary, 
 impetuously, " suffer me to speak : I am not, as you 
 suppose expert in such matters, but you have only to 
 shake your locks to tangle a man's heart therein " 
 
 There came a kind of sob into Juhana's throat, but she 
 concluded gaily enough, out of a poetry-book Silver Sand 
 had left behind him at the Dungeon : 
 
 " And who that sees them can forget 
 The roses on your jresh lip blown." 
 
 " Does the little fool fancy himself in love with me ? " 
 thought Lilias, " if so I must be careful. But no — it is 
 impossible. He is speaking to impress his master and 
 no doubt has gotten his lesson by heart." 
 
 Mistress Lilias was quite conscious that pretty boys 
 were made to be played with, but like all women still 
 young she reserved her serious thoughts for men of figure 
 and parts. Silver Sand broke in again : 
 
 " I have here a hundred pounds for which I shall 
 hereafter account to Sir Andrew when he comes across 
 the water — also ten for James, which I shall keep till 
 I see him. Count them over and sign this receipt, if it 
 please you, Mistress Lilias." 
 
 " Willingly, good agent," said the girl, " and I shall 
 write to my uncle that he is a far richer man than he knows 
 of. The farmers undo their purses. The cottagers take 
 down a stone in the chimney, and lo ! there is a gold 
 Charles or two behind it. Spanish dollars, French
 
 " MASTER ALL-TOO-PRETTY ! " 151 
 
 crowns, and thin rose nobles from the land of the Percies 
 grow plenty as gooseberries. However, it is not my 
 business. All I have to do is to carry the gold to her 
 ladyship, who uses it without question, as if Sir Andrew 
 himself dropped it piece by piece into her hand. But 
 you and I, Sir Secretary, are wiser. We know — and you 
 better than I, from what store these most needful guineas 
 of African gold have come so kindly to hand, and how 
 in so dark a time they see the light that the Agnew acres 
 may be kept together." 
 
 The secretary could not take his eyes off Lilias as she 
 spoke, and Silver Sand was on the rack all the while. 
 That there was more than admiration in that look, of that 
 he was convinced; and he began to regret deeply that he 
 had brought these two together. But the thing was 
 done now and must be made the best of. He therefore 
 hurried his task and paid over the hundred guineas 
 against a receipt which Lilias signed, hoping that then 
 she might go her way and leave him to find out what lay 
 behind the strange liquid light in the black eyes of Juliana. 
 Whatever it was, he would be glad to get it over. 
 
 But whether she hoped again to hear her beauty 
 praised, or because she had taken a genuine liking to 
 his secretary. Mistress Lilias seemed in no such hurry 
 to take herself off. 
 
 As if to provoke him, she laid her hand and arm upon 
 Juhana's shoulder. 
 
 " Why do you glower, and look at us so sour and un- 
 couth ? " she asked him. " Can you fault or quarrel 
 with me that youth takes to youth ? Remember if there 
 be offence, the offence is mine. Do not make this paragon 
 suffer long amends for a short fault— and that fault none 
 of his. If I love him, what is that to you, John Faa ? 
 If I own it, that is my business, and from the blush on his 
 cheek, I see that he finds it quite natural. You are a 
 great man, my lord Earl. You may even be a king, 
 but by my troth, Hke the folk in the bailard, there is 
 more of Brown Robin about you than of Sweet William ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The Sulks of Silver Sand 
 
 Nothing must serve Lilias Agnew but that she must 
 take her new friend with her to Lochnaw. 
 
 " I would give a five guinea Charles large as my palm 
 to see Hal Bruce's face as the two of us come in at the 
 door and go linking arm in arm up the stair to my Aunt 
 Jean's chamber ! " 
 
 Silver Sand made an obvious objection. 
 
 " No," she said, " there will be no danger and no 
 fighting. Earlshall is off with Windram scouring the 
 northerly moors. They think my uncle and James 
 have broke away in that direction. They quarter to- 
 night at Girvan and we at Lochnaw shall be rid of them 
 till late to-morrow night. There is only Hal of Windy 
 Standard, who is as good as no one, and a few saddle- 
 galled troopers whom the servants ply with liquor when- 
 ever they are awake— which is not often. Let Master 
 Stanley come with me to see Aunt, and to keep me com- 
 pany for an hour or two in the dullness of that ancient 
 house. You have no idea how dull it is — that great 
 mansion — with so many men to whom one must not speak 
 — only acknowledge their salutations — all, that is, except 
 madcap Hal Bruce. Nevertheless if you will lend me 
 your secretary, we shall soon have them all by the ears." 
 
 " Very likely, Mistress Lihas, but it seems to me that 
 you had better keep the peace you have, than rob me of my 
 secretary to be a sword of strife among that lawless crew." 
 
 Lihas turned to the young man with a smile which 
 would have corrupted an archangel, but which was some- 
 what wasted upon Juliana, even in her bravery of mas- 
 culine attire. 
 
 152
 
 THE SULKS OF SILVER SAND 153 
 
 " I will do even as my Chief bids," said the secretary. 
 
 *' But " she added after a little hesitation, " if it 
 
 is only that he fears for me, I can take care of myself." 
 
 " Nay," said Silver Sand, " you may go if you like, 
 but I will have no duelling. As to that. Mistress Lilias 
 must pledge her word — otherwise you shall not stir a 
 step ! " 
 
 " I do pledge it," said Lilias Agnew, promptly, " and 
 now come thy ways. Leave Sobersides to his accountings. 
 He must manage them for once by himself, and you shall 
 take me in with lovelocks flying like the gallantest cavalier. 
 Lord, it will be nutmeg and cinnamon sprinkled upon 
 shortcake to see Hal Bruce ! He will take it like a furious 
 Gascon and I shall tame him like a white lamb of Cheviot. 
 We shall speak French before him, which he does not 
 understand — except my Aunt should be there, which 
 would be rude. I shall throw you all my love-letters 
 and if there are any that please you, you can take copies, 
 for I warrant you they have tried all styles, mes chers 
 amoureux.'" 
 
 " Go with Mistress Lilias to see my Lady," said Silver 
 Sand, resigning himself. " Forget nothing I said to you, 
 and come back to-night. I shall wait for you at ten of 
 the clock on Nevin's Isle, which is a nearer and a safer 
 night rendezvous than these woods," 
 
 Juliana avoided his eyes as they parted, but her cheek 
 was flushed even to the soft warm brown of her neck on 
 which the little undipped ringlets lay light as sea foam. 
 For some reason or another she wanted much to go, or 
 else she would never have consented to part so quickly 
 with John Faa whom she had come so far to seek. 
 
 Silver Sand stood and looked after these two as they 
 went across the meadows. He heard the echoes of 
 clownish mirth come from the outhouses, and he knew 
 that both Lilias and Juliana were in some danger to them- 
 selves, though the headstrong nature of the Sheriff's 
 niece would not permit her to own it. 
 
 " A year ago I thought no more of women than of 
 elephants. Now I have a pair of them on my hands, 
 and find them about as easy to handle. What a fool I
 
 154 SILVER SAND 
 
 was to bring them together ! One woman may obey 
 and be led, so long as you deal with her apart, but a pair 
 of them — the devil himself, though a bachelor, could not 
 drive them ! " 
 
 The voices about the castle rose louder. Invitations 
 to some one or another to show himself a good fellow 
 — to " drink a pot and dowse it down,'" made Silver 
 Sand shudder and curse himself for a fool. 
 
 Into what danger might not these two heedless young 
 things be running themselves ?, He went up to the head 
 of the wood and sent a smoke message to Killer Smith 
 and his men to come to him directly. The Castle must 
 be watched till Juliana came out. 
 
 What was more, he himself must stay there to watch 
 Killer Smith. It would not do to taint Castle Lochnaw 
 with such a solution of the difficulty as might readily 
 occur to the Killer if left to the freedom of his own will 
 — a little active dagger practice and then the garrison 
 sunk in the loch ! The Killer was a dangerous enemy, 
 but for a quiet man, a still more dangerous ally. 
 
 So Silver Sand abode all day hungry, among the rich 
 and various flowers which proclaimed the ecstasy of 
 that high summer. The Killer and his men brought each 
 a crust and a " whang " of skim-milk cheese, but though 
 they offered a share to Silver Sand, he saw that they 
 had not brought more than enough for themselves. He 
 could fast better than they, so he sat and gloomily watched 
 the Castle through the tall boles of the trees and the tangle 
 of underbrush. 
 
 The Killer crouched beside him, half asleep, and only 
 full and eagerly awake when one of his two spies came in 
 to report. One, Jabez McKitterick, had gone right up 
 to the back door and begged a " piece." This he had 
 received and disposed of on the spot (to prove his good 
 faith) — a huge buttermilk scone and all the meat which 
 remained on a soup bone out of the broth pot. His 
 Majesty's brave drunkards were now lying snoring among 
 the straw in the bam, so overcome that when they wanted 
 anything they had to crawl towards it upon their knees. 
 
 The second, called Viper McKitterick, a Uttle wormy
 
 THE SULKS OF SILVER SAND 155 
 
 youth as lithe as a weasel in a dyke, had gone right up 
 to the window of the hall and had seen an officer in the 
 King's uniform talking with another slender young man 
 in fine clothes, while a lady sat and knitted listening to 
 them. 
 
 " Was the lady old or young ? " Silver Sand demanded. 
 
 " Young — quite young, a very proper looking madame." 
 
 The answer came with a readiness which convinced 
 Silver Sand that the Viper had given the best part of 
 his attention to the knitting lady. So there was no 
 doubt about it. In spite of her promise, Mistress Lilias 
 was again at her tricks. 
 
 He got up and paced to and fro, cursing himself for all 
 the dolts that ever ran their heads into a hanging noose. 
 What would Juliana make of all that, and how would 
 she come out ? These were the questions which troubled 
 him — as indeed, considering all the circumstances, they 
 might well. If only he had told Lilias in time as he had 
 promised himself to do ! If only he had not been such 
 a fool as to bring them together. If only — if only — all 
 the way through a dozen more rearrangements of the past. 
 If only he had to do it all over again, how different it 
 would be ! The sentiment is as old as Adam, when, 
 camped on the outside of the Eden Wall and lit by the 
 flicker of the whirling Sword of Fire, he reconsidered his 
 position, and as usual, ended by throwing the blame upon 
 his wife. 
 
 Towards evening, as he was growing more and more 
 nervous and anxious, a lightfoot girl, in the dusk of whose 
 face he made out the freckled and weather-tanned features 
 of Mirren McNoah, brought him a note. 
 
 " It was all twisted billycocked like that when I got 
 it, so don't go blaming me ! " explained Mirren. " That ? 
 — oh, that's only some cherr3''-tree gum which I carry to 
 make a taste in my mouth. But I can lick it off easy — 
 see ! " 
 
 The tongue of the messenger licked the " billycocked " 
 letter like a lambent flame. She dried the place with a 
 casual sweep of her elbow and a dab of her pinafore. Then 
 she presented it to Silver Sand.
 
 156 SILVER SAND 
 
 " For you — from my lady Lilias," she precised. " I 
 was to give it into none but your own hands. There 
 I've done it — I did not trouble to open it for I kenned 
 what it was aboot. The lad Stanley is biding on at the 
 Castle ! " 
 
 It was even as Mirren McNoah had stated, but the 
 letter, being in its way unique (like the circumstances), 
 had better be reproduced in this place. 
 
 " Great Lord of Little Egypt (it began), — I know you 
 will want to slay me and make black puddings of my 
 heart's blood when you hear that I am going to keep your 
 page-secretary, and that I really do not know when I 
 shall be able to spare him to return him to you. He 
 is quite thrown away among your damp caverns and 
 sticky moss-hags. Besides being much more in pla«e 
 keeping me company ! As to my Lady he has taken her 
 heart by storm already, and it really will not do to advise 
 Sir Andrew of her foolish fondness for Master Julius 
 Stanley. 
 
 " But (for your comfort) I do expect that I shall be 
 able to keep him out of mischief by attaching him more 
 closely to my own person. And oh, Silver Faa — John 
 Percy — Scythe Sand, and so forth, Ikiss your earl's belt and 
 am ever your humble and obedient servant to command, 
 
 " Lilias." 
 
 " And now will some one kindly tell me what the minx 
 means by that ? " said Silver Sand furiously, as he gave 
 the word to the Killer and his men to follow him up to 
 the reconstructed Gled's Nest, where he expected to meet 
 with James Agnew. 
 
 " And Juliana ? " he meditated angrily, " she has 
 never disobeyed me before. What is she doing in the 
 Castle with that rattlepate of a girl ? They are mocking 
 me most likely." 
 
 But as he went towards the upper cave which was 
 now entered from a precipitous fissure in the face of the 
 sea-cliff, he saw beneath him the stretch of sward and 
 shingle called Nevin's Isle, where on a certain night not
 
 THE SULKS OF SILVER SAND 157 
 
 so long ago, he had stood so long and let a small warm 
 hand nestle into his. No, he denied it to himself. He 
 had never wooed Lilias, He had never wooed any 
 woman — not JuHana herself for that matter — yet for 
 all that they came and tangled themselves up with a 
 life which had always been easy, simple, above board, 
 and fancy free ! 
 
 Silver Sand crushed the little billycocked missive in 
 his hand, but he let it remain, crumpled as it was, in his 
 pocket. 
 
 He was angry because he could not understand. The 
 oriental idea of womenkind was still in his blood — also 
 the remembrance of faith sworn. So with the natural 
 cross-grainedness of man he solved the question by 
 deciding that though he might forgive Lilias (who was 
 an ignorant outlander) he never could forgive Juliana, 
 who really knew how John Faa ought to be treated. In 
 fact, for the first and last time in this history Silver Sand 
 fell into a fit of sulks and needed for his cure just what I, 
 Nathan Crogo, give to naughty boys who show themselves 
 at my school troubled with the same complaint.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 The Second Asking of Juliana 
 
 I HAVE hitherto said Uttle about myself, and with reason. 
 For he who is the true author of this book has mostly 
 been permitted to speak and shall be again. But, seeing 
 that on the first page, I revindicated the responsibility 
 for everything that appears betwixt cover and cover, 
 it is meet that I should inform the world concerning 
 myself — at least in so far that the reader may know in 
 whom he is trusting. 
 
 I set it not down to praise myself up, living the life 
 of a recluse and having no need of testimonials, but I 
 may say — nay, it behoves me to put on record, that one 
 who has had so long the confidence of Sir Andrew Agnew 
 and his son James, a session clerk for nigh upon forty 
 years, is, and must be, a man well kenned for sobriety and 
 discretion. 
 
 I was not, and I am not now, any party man, and I 
 admit that many look " cross their noses " at me because 
 I took whatever Tests, Oaths, Affirmations, and such like 
 just as they were demanded of me. What a man of 
 official trust is compelled to do by " the major force " 
 is not his doing, but the King's. I could not have brought 
 up the bairns of Leswalt and Port Patrick unless I had 
 been supple with my tongue and pen. I could not have 
 continued session clerk under Bishop Sydserf and saved 
 many score of honest folk from persecution. I could not 
 have clerked at the courts both military and civil, made 
 out warrants, and then sent on warnings ahead so that 
 when they arrived, the dragoons might find a toom nest 
 and a bird flown, if I had not done as the great apostle 
 of the Gentiles bade, and made myself all things to all men. 
 
 158
 
 THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIANA 159 
 
 In all this I acted wisely and prudently, not only for 
 myself (which mattered little) but above all, for my 
 neighbours. 
 
 For one thing I could go about at all hours, and so 
 saved many a man from facing a firing party. I had only 
 to give a cry in to the curate at the manse on some pretext 
 of a theological difficulty to be solved, or a book to be lent 
 or returned. There I got my information, and so, a little 
 later, did the threatened family. 
 
 Furthermore, I was friends with the lads on the muirs 
 who made the potheen, the secret of which had been 
 brought back as a precious gift by the godly exiles who 
 had been sent to Ireland — as indeed was only just, for 
 these good men, expelled from their parishes in the black 
 year 1662, spent a great part of their lives preaching and 
 praying in Ireland, without fee or reward, save and 
 except the knowledge of how to make the potheen. 
 
 So as I say I knew the bulk of these free distillers of 
 the hills and northern moors as far as Pinwherry and the 
 Gairland. Also I made it my business to stand well 
 with the revenue men whom King Charles of unhappy 
 memor}' sent among us. (They were mostly called 
 " Plunder Jacks," " Bore-a-Hole Jenkins," and other 
 more opprobrious names, and were generally much de- 
 spised by the people). Indeed they were glad enough to 
 talk to one like myself, who made them free of my larder 
 and my pleasant conversation. So I not only got early 
 notice of their intended seizures, but was kept well sup- 
 plied with cognac and French wines taken from the 
 smugglers. So I was enabled to do without danger to 
 myself a great many good turns to vast numbers of poor 
 folk who would otherwise had been despoiled, not only 
 of the fruits of their labours, but of the little drop of 
 comfort which, with a squeeze of lemon, sent them 
 cantily and soberly to their beds, at peace with their 
 neighbours and, I hope, with their Maker. 
 
 These would fain have filled my cellar with casks of 
 the good moor-brewed spirits. But first of all I liked 
 not to take from my friends and neighbours. Secondly, 
 the preventive men might have found it there and asked
 
 i6o SILVER SAND 
 
 questions — while thirdly, and most particularly, I have 
 never been able to drink even a single quaich (or double- 
 handled horn) of the country spirit called whisky, because 
 it gives me the heartburn with other matutinal dis- 
 conveniences. 
 
 For these reasons I declined all rewards of that sort, 
 and was well thought of on that account throughout the 
 countryside. 
 
 Of my learning it does not befit me to speak, but this 
 I will say, that the lads from my school of Leswalt have 
 taken the road by scores to the University of Glasgow, 
 and many of them are now lawyers and doctors and learned 
 theologians. Besides there are Captains sweeping the 
 seas to whom I have taught the navigation according 
 to Napier's tables, also land agents and surveyors, who 
 would never have pulled a chain after them but for me, 
 with big strapping fellows who have taken to cattle 
 breeding, and little hop-o'-my-thumbs who have nothing 
 for it but scribbling at a desk in order to get rich. They 
 all come to me, and by my native genius and strength of 
 arm I teach them to fight the battle of life. 
 
 Very exactly do I mind the day when Silver Sand came 
 down to the school. Well could it be seen that he was 
 not himself, though why he should come to me I did not 
 know. I judged that he must have some important news 
 from Sir Andrew. 
 
 So I ordered out my most advanced Latinists, together 
 with the Grecians (who to tell the truth were in number 
 only three, all aiming for the Kirk and the University of 
 Groningen). I had time to slip into the house and change 
 my coat, and so was ready to meet the great Jesuit- 
 taught scholar at the door. 
 
 He came in and I set the Grecians before him, to whom 
 he put a question or two, and rather listlessly listened 
 to them translating a passage from the Gospel of St. Mark 
 with which they were entirely familiar. 
 
 But he waked up when the Horace class was in front 
 of him, and suggested translations so fit and apt, that I 
 could not have made better myself. 
 
 Then he declared himself highly satisfied, intimated
 
 THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIANA i6i 
 
 that he would report the great progress of the school 
 to his friend Sir Andrew (" friend " indeed, he might 
 have said his master !) and would I have the goodness 
 to grant the school a holiday ? For he knew that nothing 
 would give greater pleasure to Sir Andrew than to think 
 of the joy of these young hearts. 
 
 I bowed my head to conceal my own pleasure and 
 granted the request, giving out that the lessons which 
 had not been heard that day would stand over till the 
 morrow. 
 
 " Dominie Crogo," he said, after the shouting and 
 tumultuous riot of the dispersal had died away in a 
 sobering silence. " I came to speak to you upon an 
 affair of business — Sir Andrew's and mine." 
 
 I again bowed my head and signified that I was the 
 last man to refuse a request from such a source, or one 
 arriving with so high credentials. 
 
 " Then," he said, " I may, I think, count upon you. 
 You know the awkward and difficult position of affairs 
 at the Castle — Lady Agnew and her niece being left, two 
 lonely women among a raffle of drunken men-at-arms, 
 the officers httle better than the privates, both for the 
 most part black sheep and natural disgraces of many a 
 decent family." 
 
 I consoled him by saying — what was true enough — 
 that there was that about Lady Agnew which would 
 ensure her respect even from Lag himself, and as for the 
 young lady, she was full of natural spirit, and no one 
 could take the better of her, as I had often heard from 
 the father of Mirren McNoah, a man eminently fitted to 
 judge. 
 
 But, as was to be expected, he hardly listened, being 
 full of his own idea. 
 
 " Do you know that Mistress Lilias has taken up to 
 the Castle a very handsome young man from Lancashire, 
 one Julius Stanley, to whom both she and my Lady are 
 for some reason or another showing a great deaJ of favour. 
 Now, what effect is that likely to have on the officers of 
 the garrison, when they return to Lochnaw ? " 
 
 " I should think, sir, if I might make so bold, that 
 
 L
 
 i62 SILVER SAND 
 
 the handsome young gentleman is Hkely to find his skin 
 as full of holes as is a milk-sieve or the hd of a warming- 
 pan ! 
 
 " I agree with you, Master Crogo, I think it is alto- 
 gether likely, but as in a manner I am responsible for 
 the young man to his father, who is a Lancashire Stanley, 
 I would not have any evil happen to him here. I am 
 sure you will help me." 
 
 " What I can do, I will do," I answered, " for your 
 sake as well as for that of our noble patron." 
 
 " We must get the young man away from the Castle 
 before the return of Captain Bruce and the bulk of his 
 men. I shall charge myself with that, but I look to you 
 to take the lad in and give him shelter and countenance 
 afterwards." 
 
 I represented that my cottage was no fit lodging for a 
 young English gentleman, and that I had no service but 
 old Mistress Conachar for a few hours in the morning. 
 
 " I daresay, however, she would come in the after- 
 noon if I paid her," I added, seeing how he was put out. 
 " She would be glad of the extra money to send to that 
 rascal son of hers who ran to Dunifries and 'listed in the 
 dragoons." 
 
 " There is not the least need," said Silver Sand, " the 
 young man, though of ancient birth, has been brought 
 up among my people and is not afraid to put his hand 
 to anything." 
 
 I agreed because I could do no other, but the idea of 
 receiving a young gentleman into my house was a diffi- 
 culty to me. It lay heavy on my mind, which shows 
 how little one can judge beforehand. For the coming of 
 Master Julius Stanley was one of the most memorably 
 pleasant events which ever diversified the course of my 
 life, and I was to remember it long afterwards. 
 
 Only at the first go-off it seemed a strange thing that 
 a gentleman should come directly from the Castle of 
 Lochnaw to lodge with me in my thatched school-house 
 of no more accommodation than a story and a half. 
 However, I had a bed put up in my library, where the 
 young man could dwell among my ancient and valuable 
 
 iF
 
 THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIAN \ 163 
 
 books, and from the windows of which he could look up 
 the pleasant vale of Leswalt, past the Druid stones, and 
 so on, among the sheep and cattle quietly browsing on 
 the Sheriff's holms, till the eyes' progress was barred 
 by the sandy ridges called the dunes of Loch Ryan. 
 
 Silver Sand went away satisfied with his meeting 
 with the dominie of Leswalt. He had obtained his 
 promise, somewhat grudgingly given, but still not to be 
 taken back. He did not care to have Juliana in the 
 promiscuity of the new Gled's Nest along with Killer 
 Smith and his acolytes. Nor would she be subjected to 
 the constant scrutiny of the occupant of the Doocot Cave, 
 Mr. Walter Dunning. 
 
 But at Castle Lochnaw neither Lilias nor the young 
 man Julius were thinking of such things. Yet hardly a 
 moment did they cease speaking of Silver Sand. 
 
 Julius Stanley told the tale of how his family owed 
 their lives to him, though he said nothing about Sheriff 
 Agnew and his court at Wigtown. They had been on 
 the wrong road, she admitted, like many other of good 
 blood. Silver Sand had had influence on the right, and in 
 the nick of time had used it to save their lives. 
 
 They never tired of these talks. They two walked out 
 among the woods and miles of fallen pine needles bent 
 elastic under their tread. Then out on the top of the 
 chff was a carpet, yellow and purple broidered up the 
 greyish green of the short sea grasses. Here they would 
 stop long and talk the matter out. 
 
 " He is the bravest man," Juliana Stanley would say, 
 " the bravest and the truest. If any woman were to 
 love him, she would love him so that she would be \villing 
 to sacrifice her soul for him. There is no one among all 
 the gipsy folk who would not accept the hangman's rope 
 that he might go free. He has your learning, having 
 been sent (as the chief of the clan ought) to the best of 
 schools, where he has learned many languages — yet 
 without for a moment forgetting that he was born to 
 rule the gipsy folk."
 
 i64 SILVER SAND 
 
 " Then," said Lilias, " he must always at the last go 
 back to his own ? " 
 
 " He must bide a time with them and apply the laws of 
 Egypt," said the young man, knitting his hands nervously. 
 " How otherwise could justice be done between tribe and 
 tribe ? Why, even when he was in France in the school 
 at Issy, little more than a boy in years, I have heard my 
 father say that cases were sent over to him to be decided." 
 
 Lihas looked keenly and almost suspiciously at Julius 
 Stanley. 
 
 " Why do you praise this man so much to me ? Why 
 do you not, like all the other young men, strive to 
 advantage yourself ? Hal Bruce will show you how." 
 
 This was not the way in which handsome young men 
 had been wont to treat her. They scrambled for her 
 least favours and the higher she held the handkerchief 
 the better they had liked it. But this young Julius had 
 nothing in his mouth save praises of his chieftain. He 
 spoke with intense conviction and a pleading earnestness 
 which at last ended by irritating the girl. 
 
 " If Silver Sand has aught to say to me, let him come 
 and say it," she broke out suddenly, and with quite 
 uncalled-for resentment, " when he is with me he is not 
 nearly so candid in speech as you make him out to be." 
 
 "He is shamed," said Juhus, flushing deeply, " he 
 thinks himself bound in honour not to speak." 
 
 " And why ? Dear lad, is it possible that he has set 
 you to do his courting ? With a face like yours it would 
 set you better to go a-wooing on your own account. 
 Never a maid would say you nay ! " 
 
 " He thinks himself bound by a gipsy custom," said 
 the young man, falteringly. "He is not so really, but 
 the idea bids him be silent. Besides he loves you — I 
 know he loves you " 
 
 Juliana steadied her voice so that she could speak 
 without a tremor. She had keyed herself up for this, 
 and now she was suddenly in the midst of it, not in the 
 least sure how she might acquit herself. 
 
 " I saw how it must be as soon as I set eyes upon you. 
 I knew he could not help himself. He had been waiting
 
 THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIANA 165 
 
 for you for years, and then — there you were in flesh 
 and blood." 
 
 The eyes of Lilias shone, and she turned quickly upon 
 Juliana, who was busily going from white to dusky rose 
 and back again to white. 
 
 " Did he tell you this ? " she demanded with a certain 
 fierceness. 
 
 " Certainly not," said Juliana, " he did not need to 
 tell me. I knew ! " 
 
 " You must observe very closely ! " 
 
 " He is my chief, and my father's chief. We of the 
 Stanleys learn to understand and to obey without being 
 told." 
 
 " How can you be sure ? " said LiHas. 
 
 " I am all too sure — he loves you. He cannot help 
 himself, and loving you as he does will detach him from 
 us, who are his kinsmen of Egypt." 
 
 " Still — I cannot understand why you tell me all this. 
 After all. Silver Sand is of age, and can speak the English 
 tongue — why need you meddle ? " 
 
 " Because I know he will not ask for himself. He will 
 think he is bound." 
 
 " Bound — why bound ? " queried Lilias, losing patience, 
 " perhaps he is bound ! He may have secrets he has 
 not told you." 
 
 " Oh no, no, I beseech you to believe me," cried Juliana, 
 trying hard to keep back the tears out of her eyes. " I 
 know his secrets. They are good and innocent secrets. 
 He is my comrade as well as my chief. But when for a 
 scruple I see him willing to lose the delight of his heart 
 — to pass by in silence, I have taken the risk. I have 
 thought it best to speak. Only you must not tell him, 
 for he would never forgive me if he imagined I had be- 
 trayed him." 
 
 So Juliana battled fiercely that her man might have 
 the thing he must desire. She had promised and she 
 would perform. She was a gipsy, and she had neither 
 asked nor claimed more than the gipsy side of him. All 
 that came from his mother, all that appertained to his 
 years of learning, were not hers and never could be.
 
 i66 SILVER SAND 
 
 The salons of great ladies, the Paris streets, their fine 
 folk and fine clothes, the studious, quiet and bookish air 
 of great libraries — these were a full half of life to the 
 man whom she had " asked." 
 
 But what were they to a gipsy, accustomed to the ring 
 of hammer on anvil at the bottom of Moston Clough ? 
 She could and would count him hers when, by a purling 
 brook, brown in the pools and clear-running over the 
 shallow pebbles, his tent stood pitched. Then among the 
 heather and the granite John Haa was hers — hers and 
 not another's. 
 
 She had no shame, and she felt no jealousy — at least 
 none that she could not subdue, if she could do her man 
 a good turn which he would never have done for himself. 
 She was a woman of the Orient and of the older day. 
 So Naboth's widow might have felt in the matter of 
 Bathsheba, or Bathsheba when David the King, being 
 old, took the Shulamite to lie in his bosom. 
 
 Yet for all that, she had never loved him more — ^never, 
 indeed, so much, not even during those weeks when the 
 blue reek of their camp fire stole aloft between the white 
 tent and the hobbled asses. 
 
 Up in the Dungeon her love had slept. It had been 
 barren and selfish, but now it was gloriously awake. If 
 she, Juliana Stanley, could compass it, he should have 
 this woman on whom he had set his heart. 
 
 She would stay this one night. She would speak for 
 him to my Lady Agnew, then she would return to accept 
 his just angers for her disobedience. 
 
 But first she would make him happy if she could. 
 Afterwards — well, she dared not think of the " after- 
 wards." Perhaps he would be so absorbed with the 
 girl with ringlets of pale gold and the eyes of lapis lazuli, 
 that he would think no more of the hills, the skies, and 
 the gipsy tans — all the fresh, humble, marvellous outdoor 
 life they had lived together. 
 
 Never a moon should rise but she would pray : " For 
 a month — only a month, leave him to me — to be mine 
 alone — altogether mine." Never a sun should rise but 
 love would leap up all fresh in her heart, as on that first 
 
 IKt
 
 THE SECOND ASKING OF JULIANA 167 
 
 morning, when she moved about so stilly getting break- 
 fast, fearing to disturb him. Then under her breath 
 she would call to the sun : " Awaken him with the glory 
 in his eyes, and let him be mine for just this one day 
 more ! " 
 
 Nevertheless, because he wished it — because he could 
 not help but wish it, she would give him his heart's 
 desire.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 The Guest of Dominie Crogo 
 
 The waves roared beneath the cHffs of the Black Shore. 
 On the long sweep of the Knock Bay the wide North 
 Atlantic made riot, pouring like a mill stream through 
 the narrow trap-door of the Irish Channel. I was on 
 the look out for my pensionaire. Indeed for the second 
 time that week I had dismissed the boys and girls earlier 
 than usual that I might be at liberty to do the bidding 
 of Silver Sand. 
 
 I knew very well that I must not do this too often, 
 because after one of these extra half-holidays, it always 
 costs me a frayed ash-plant and a good forenoon to 
 bring the school to an exact knowledge of itself. 
 
 The chambers were all in order, and I could not but 
 admit that Mistress Connachar had done her best. I had 
 helped her with the scouring part — for I am a great 
 boiler of soap, and many came from Kirkcolm and even 
 Glenluce to learn the right rendering of the tallow, the 
 burning of the bracken, and the careful admixture of the 
 two after a fashion of my own. 
 
 So the boards were scoured, white as napery, such 
 rugs as I possessed were laid down in the young man's 
 room, and I found a farmer, the father of three of my 
 lad bairns, who by a useful providence had killed a sheep 
 that week. I had plenty of eggs — it was luckily the 
 time when the hens gave the best harvest — and Crummie, 
 the cow, stood at the yard gate twice a day complaining 
 to be eased of the fullness of her udder. I had also caught 
 a basket of trout which would do bravely for supper, 
 and for the morrow Jack Fingask, the fisher-lad, had 
 
 J6«
 
 THE GUEST OF DOMINIE CROGO 169 
 
 promised me the " pick of his catch," in return for a 
 little book-keeping in the winter evenings. 
 
 My young lad was late in arriving, but I knew that 
 Silver Sand would not fail me. All day long I had smelt 
 the smoke signals by which the gipsies talk to one another. 
 Nay, once going to the school-house door, I counted 
 seven puffs of clear white reek like fleecy fine-weather 
 cloudlets, only small, round, and unmistakably of human 
 artifice, follow each other into the blue, where they slowly 
 faded. 
 
 I think it was about nine of the clock when I saw 
 the two come towards me, one marching before very 
 proud and angry — that was Silver Sand, and the other 
 a few steps in the rear — that was my gentleman. 
 
 Now I had not an idea of what had taken place between 
 them, but I could quickly see that all the hotness was 
 on Silver Sand's part. Once or twice he spoke sharply, 
 even snappishly, to the young man, but the other only 
 looked down and was silent. I could have pitied him, 
 he seemed so humble, and so conscious of ill-doing. 
 
 " A good-night to you, Dominie," said Silver Sand. 
 " I have brought you the young man. Master Julius 
 Stanley. He will stay v/ith you for the present at my 
 charges. He is not exactly in hiding, but it will be better 
 for himself, and still better for his kin if he shows himself 
 out of doors as little as possible." 
 
 " I understand," said I, " Lord, what a raft of good 
 brave gentlemen are in hiding here and there, like Mr. 
 James and yourself, in holes and corners of the earth. 
 Now, though I own but a thatched cottage, it is sufficiently 
 far from the wayside to be generally safe, except from 
 such as know of its whereabouts. Also I am in good 
 odour with the curate (whose accounts and writings I 
 do for him) and indeed no safer and more comfortable 
 shelter can any young gentleman expect who has meddled 
 with the King's concerns, a thing which I never do myself. 
 So come your ways. Master Julius, and see what I and 
 that deaf old woman Widow Connachar have prepared 
 for you." 
 
 Silver Sand turned about with a general gesture of
 
 170 SILVER SAND 
 
 farewell, but he did not speak — neither to the young lad 
 nor to myself, which I for my part, thought very ill done 
 of him. It mattered not a buckie to me, of course. But 
 when I saw the young lad stand as if he had been struck 
 in the face, God only knows how sorry I was for him. 
 
 " What have you been doing to put him in such a heat 
 against you ? " I asked, while the youth stood fixed and 
 gazing. 
 
 " I disobeyed," he murmured, so low that I could hardly 
 hear his voice, " I disobeyed — but it was meant for his 
 own good." 
 
 " Why then not tell him so ? " 
 
 " Oh, that ! " he cried with a gesture of despair. " That 
 is no use. It would only make him far angrier than he 
 is now ! Some day he shall know and forgive." 
 
 So dismally enough the two of us took our way into 
 the school-house of Leswalt. 
 
 4:   H: *   
 
 The next dav was dull and dowie, the wet birds cowering 
 with fluffed feathers on the drooping branches, or sitting 
 in moist clutches under the eaves, but somehow it seemed 
 as if the house were all right within, and there was a 
 fire in every room. 
 
 I found to my great surprise that the lad Stanley, whom 
 I had taken to be a young gentleman accustomed to be 
 waited on hand and foot, had descended between five 
 and six of the clock and had — but stay; i cannot tell so 
 briefly and at this tail-end of a sentence what he had done. 
 
 Julius Stanley had found a clean blue apron of Mistress 
 Connachar's and had belted it about him, rolling up his 
 sleeves, and, so prepared, had lit the kitchen fire. The 
 brasses were shining a ad the bars were blackened with 
 charcoal paste of which I kept a store in the little cup- 
 board along with my family Bible. 
 
 I thought as I lay in bed half asleep and half awake, 
 that surely Windram's troopers from Stranraer had taken 
 the school-house of Leswalt and were making free with 
 my good things. Then I bethought me that I had given
 
 THE GUEST OF DOMINIE CROGO 171 
 
 the key to my deaf old helper Mistress Connachar, so 
 that she might come early and wait upon Silver Sand's 
 young gentleman — taking him his hot water, or his boots 
 well greased, or anything else his aristocracy might require 
 
 So I was not in so great a haste to get up and dress as 
 I might have been, knowing that all was going on well. 
 
 But the cry that came presently from below caused me 
 to spring clean out of my bed. 
 
 " Come your ways down, dominie, your breakfast will 
 be on the table as soon as I hear your heels on the stair." 
 
 I can assure you I never dressed more quickly in my 
 life — not even when at dead of night, a troop of horse 
 stumbled against the old school-house and thundered 
 at the door demanding liquor. 
 
 I went down and lo, there was a white cloth laid as if 
 for a provost and glasses set out for the morning ale ! The 
 eggs and bacon being cooked together garnished the apart- 
 m.ent more than all flowers or odorous oils. I felt myself 
 filled with a hoard of hardy healthy desires, vigorous 
 hungers, and the blood of life drummed in my ears at least 
 twenty years younger than when I went to bed the night 
 before. 
 
 Julius stood at the table-end saluting me with a " Good- 
 morning, dominie, this is what they teach us the trick 
 of in France ! " 
 
 " And a very good trick too," quoth I, laughing, 
 " when I marry and have sons, I shall send them all to 
 France." 
 
 " Send the girls also," he said, " it hath done wonders 
 for Lilias Agnew." 
 
 " Ah, the Lady Lilias, tell me how she does. You rogue, 
 I can see that there is a strong attraction in that quarter 
 — mayhap an orange ribband already in the knotting." 
 
 This I thought not so ill for an old dog of a dominie. 
 But the young man did not seem dismayed. He neither 
 laughed like one flattered, nor deprecated like a man who 
 would say, " It is so, but pray do not say anything about 
 it." 
 
 He seemed to be circling round and round as gannets 
 do before they plunge, in a world of dreams all his own,
 
 172 SILVER SAND 
 
 or perhaps dwelling alone in his heart with his own heart 
 sorrow. He was of English birth and as I supposed of 
 gipsy blood — which of itself might account for anything 
 strange. 
 
 " If I could make Mistress Lilias happier," he said 
 soberly, " I would give my life." 
 
 But he said it in such a manner that I did not think 
 any more of showing myself jocose — which I own to 
 being, sometimes, after the manner of my patron, my 
 good master Sir Andrew. For in Galloway there are 
 certain things upon which a man is expected to be jocose in 
 company — such as good feeding at table, and who eats the 
 most — the pairing of young couples at Yule and Hallowe'en 
 — who goes with which at the lantern-carrying on St. 
 John's Eve. On these and such like topics a man can 
 never exhaust his wit, for he can repeat himself — or he 
 can repeat what he has heard from others, and yet the 
 laugh will follow loud and hearty, as though he had said 
 something as fresh to the ^^•orld as is a babe new-born. 
 
 So feeling rather than understanding his mood, I sat 
 me down at one table-end and he at the other. The meal 
 was such as I had not tasted since my mother Mary 
 Crogo died, and indeed for some time before, for latterly 
 she was a poor bed-bound woman. Served it was, too, 
 in a fashion that I never saw the mate of. 
 
 " Are you a changeling or a fairy child, Master Julius ? " 
 I said. " Tell me at once that I may know what an honest 
 man has taken into his house." 
 
 He shook his head smilingly, but I am not sure that 
 he paid any great attention to my compliment. Of course 
 I might have kno'WTi. So well-looking a youth would 
 have matters of his own to think over without troubling 
 his head about the musty conceits of a grey old fellow 
 in a scratch wig. 
 
 When my deaf house-wife appeared, she was set to 
 such a cleaning and scrubbing, water-laving and dusting, 
 as she had never even vaguely imagined. I expected 
 every minute she would put down her water-pail and go, 
 the which would have suited me very ill, for it was diffi- 
 cult for a well-looking bachelor man to have any woman
 
 THE GUEST OF DOMINIE CROGO 173 
 
 in his house without scandal in that rumour-spreading, 
 free-talking, censorious county of Wigtown. But Mistress 
 Connachar was like Caesar's wife. At least she was 
 above suspicion, though not perhaps for the same reason 
 — which was an ugliness so consummate, so intimate, 
 so domestic that even a session clerk had perforce to be 
 held guiltless. 
 
 Yet this slip of a youth had managed to steal into that 
 grim old heart and she not only did what he suggested 
 to her, but accepted emendations as to ways and means, 
 which if I had offered would have been rejected with 
 contumely — that is, the bucket of water would have been 
 thrown in my face. 
 
 In the course of that day the school-house was entirely 
 a different place. It seemed that even the scholars going 
 to take their dinner pails into the kitchen were quieted 
 by the presence of the newcomer. He exercised a kind 
 of fascination for us all. I believe I taught better during 
 the hour or two that Julius Stanley passed at my desk 
 listening to the routine of the school. Then again he 
 would go out into the little wood beyond the dyke of my 
 cabbage beds and walk there alone. It is neither sad 
 nor unusual so to do. When I myself was thinking out 
 anything difficult of solution, or even solely for something 
 to do, I had trodden out a plainly marked way, where the 
 feet would not stumble, and there he was walking up and 
 down. But in his case I was sure it was no page of 
 Euripides, no problem of Newton, newly set, which 
 troubled him. He walked wistful and sad, up and down, 
 back and forth in a way which made me sad to see. 
 
 It came into my mind that it was because of Mistress 
 Lilias that he carried this burden on his mind. So I 
 set paper fine and white before him, on a desk in the ben 
 room, and whispered low in his ear that, as I had my 
 great and little entries at the Castle, I could get a note 
 quite safely to the young lady's hand without the know- 
 ledge of anybody. 
 
 Whereupon at once he sat him down and kept at it all 
 the afternoon, writing as for a wager, and covering 
 sheet after sheet of my foolscap — so that when all was
 
 174 SILVER SAND 
 
 ended, tied, and sealed, it was more a sort of Liher Amorum 
 which I had to carry to Lochnaw than a billet doux 
 which can be passed from palm to palm without anyone 
 being the wiser. 
 
 I must admit that though for the time being the young 
 gentleman seemed interested and solaced by the writing 
 of this letter, yet the results were not what I expected. 
 He stood at the edge of the orchard which looks towards 
 the High Woods as if he were waiting for the appearance 
 of Silver Sand or James Agnew. 
 
 " They dare not stir out either of them till it is the dusk 
 of the evening. (So I spoke to comfort young Stanley 
 seeing him to be disappointed.) And what is more, 
 I am doubtful if they will venture then. Do you hear 
 that ? " 
 
 The rattle of musketry sounded far over among the 
 headlands. Then my young gentleman suddenly paled, 
 gasped, and would have dropped on the floor if I had not 
 caught him. 
 
 " They are killing him ! Let me go ! " he murmured, 
 " I will go to him ! " 
 
 A speech which would have surprised me intensely 
 in any other circumstances, save for the fact that in giving 
 him air (which was necessary in his half-fainting condition) 
 I had discovered that Julius Stanley was a woman 1
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 Silver Sand Makes a Resolve 
 
 Silver Sand deserved to be pitied, for the good reason 
 that his case was indeed pitiable, but I am not sure that 
 any reader will grant him more than the vengeful " serve 
 him right " which punishes stupidities far oftener than 
 it does crimes. 
 
 Silver Sand had certainly not behaved well. He had 
 taken Juliana to be introduced to Lilias entirely of his 
 own accord. He could not have foreseen the conse- 
 quences — man that is mortal cannot foretell how two 
 women will deal the one with the other, but consequences, 
 and those serious, of one kind or another the simplest 
 might have foretold. 
 
 It was his fate to be beloved where he could not fully 
 respond — his fate to love where he could not hope for a 
 return in kind. Yet he deserved better things than Fate 
 seemed to promise him now. 
 
 " For Nature had but little clay, 
 
 Like that of which she moulded him." 
 
 Gipsy born and gently bred, he had two sides to his 
 nature, and one or the other of them was certain to bring 
 him into trouble. This had happened now, and \vith the 
 eternal reticence of the sons of the Black Blood, he had 
 been silent when half-a-dozen words might have cleared 
 all. His own fault ! Of course, but then he was not you 
 or I. He was John Faa, gipsy chief and man of the world. 
 To me he was a gorgeous pomegranate flower, flaming 
 scarlet in a world of modest daisies and douce pot-plants. 
 
 But at least in his earlier years, when love is the crown 
 
 175
 
 176 SILVER SAND 
 
 of life, his nature was not arranged so that he could be 
 continuously happy. He would have sunny blinks by 
 the way, and perhaps many of these — but of solid, solid, 
 four-walled happiness he could know nothing. 
 
 He came stepping down to the school-house, at what 
 in Scotland has ever been the amorous hour, the hour 
 of leaning on stiles and of slow, quiet, mostly silent 
 promenades among the barley stooks. And knowing how 
 my guest had watched the gaps among the hills to the 
 left of the High Woods, I ostentatiously took my candle 
 and went into my study, there to drowse over an ode 
 of Horace, a satisfactory translation of which refused 
 to come to my mind. 
 
 All the same for the purposes of this book I am privileged 
 to know how they met — Silver Sand and his girl-secretary, 
 who had watched all day for him. 
 
 Over the sterile sand of the dunes he came to her, and 
 she watched him come — seeing him through a kind of 
 transparent mist which may have been in the Leswalt 
 valleys or again only in her eyes. Then along the edge 
 of the pines, where they had sent a young but agile party 
 of shoots clambering down the sides of the water-course. 
 Anon through the fields of cultivated land to the patches 
 of brier and blackberry. There she meant to meet him, 
 for indeed she could stand it no longer. Memories beat 
 about her heart. A yellow half-moon shone down through 
 the haze, swollen and misshapen as if seen through welling 
 tears. 
 
 But at last she met him, and in an irresistible elan of 
 tenderness she threw herself into his arms, sobbing out, 
 " Oh, forgive me — forgive me. Send me back and I will 
 go gladly. But I cannot bear that you should be angry 
 with me ! " 
 
 " I am not angry with you, Juliana," he said, holding 
 her head tenderly. " I ask you to pardon me. For I 
 only am to blame. I alone have done wrong, and it is 
 just that I should be punished." 
 
 " No, no, it was I, Juliana — I had this suit made and 
 came as a boy, to surprise you, thinking that you would 
 be pleased. Only the whole world turned upside down
 
 SILVER SAND MAKES A RESOLVE 177 
 
 somehow, and the happiness I meant turned into the 
 bitterness of disappointment." 
 
 Again she came near to weeping, but Silver Sand, 
 lajdng his hand on her head said with great solemnity, 
 " Juliana Faa, you are my wife, and it is right that as 
 such I should acknowledge you. We shall leave this 
 place and go back among the hills. But first there is a 
 declaration to make. The Killer has been to the Dungeon 
 and brought back for you the dress of a maid. It lies 
 now in the school-house yonder. You must return and 
 put it on. Then we will go down to Nevin's Isle and call 
 out the Lady Lilias that she may hear the whole tale from 
 my lips." 
 
 " No, no, no," cried Juliana, almost fiercely, her arms 
 about his neck and tightly clasped, " I have told her all 
 it is good for her to know. I am not married to you, 
 John Faa. I will not have it said. I shall never marry 
 any man. Let me go back alone and I shall bless you 
 all the days of my life. But for God's sake do not make 
 me humble myself to Lilias Agnew ! " 
 
 " Humble yourself," Silver Sand's voice was dangerous, 
 " I count it no humiliation to any woman that I should 
 declare myself married to her." 
 
 " Oh no, no, John Faa — " cried the girl, fairly anguished 
 now by the misunderstanding, '' I would be prouder of 
 that than anything in the world. But I have pled 
 your case with her — told her how you loved her — I have 
 beseeched her for you." 
 
 She had sunk down before him in the deep twilight 
 of the copse, so low that she was almost crouching. He 
 stood above her black and menacing against the faint 
 violet of the evening sky. 
 
 " You have told Lilias Agnew that I love her — you 
 have beseeched her — pled my cause with her ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes, I have told you so, my dear master — who 
 should tell her so if not I ? What other than I has a 
 right to give you happiness if it be in my power ? But 
 do not be angry with me. I saw it the moment I set 
 eyes on you two together ! " 
 
 Like the sudden illumination of the field of battle by 
 
 M
 
 178 SILVER SAND 
 
 the lightning flash, the truth came upon the mind of 
 Silver Sand. He lifted the true wife in his arms and held 
 her there. She had done her best to separate them for 
 ever, but it was by such a sacrifice as never woman was 
 called upon to make. 
 
 " Juliana," he said gently, " it shall be as you say. 
 You shall not be shamed before another woman, because 
 I love you for yourself and not for what you have done." 
 
 " You do not — you cannot — you love Lilias — I saw 
 it in your eyes." 
 
 " You came in time to save me, Juliana," said Silver 
 Sand, heavily, " I was in some danger, I do not deny — 
 as who would not ! But I thank God that I have neither 
 hurt her heart nor troubled her repose. You and I, 
 Juliana, shall make a new start. I did wrong not to 
 return when the Sheriff was safe away for Ireland, and 
 there was nothing more for me to do there. We shall 
 start for the hills and leave the Red Killer and his 
 men to watch over my Lady and her niece in Castle 
 Lochnaw." 
 
 Hardly yet could Juliana grasp what was before her. 
 She had burned up her universe, sacrificed her dearest 
 dreams, and now for the moment she seemed like some 
 half-drowned thing cast up after the tempest among the 
 foam-froth and rust-wrack of the shore. 
 
 " But Lilias," she murmured, " the happiness I pro- 
 mised her ? What can we say to Lilias ? " 
 
 " Do not think of it, Juliana," he said, " I shall know 
 what to say to Lilias. I shall do what I ought to have 
 done at the first— I shall make things clear beyond any 
 farther risk of mistake." 
 
 " But I told her of your love ! " 
 
 " Then you spoke without knowledge, the imagining 
 of your brave fantastic heart. But I never have spoken 
 a word to Lilias which her brother might not speak — 
 oh, what a dullard I am (he broke off) I talk like a prating 
 poll-parrot — and I making all this sorrow." 
 
 " Not you, John Faa, I made it when I was a silly girl, 
 by setting my heart on you suddenly — when I asked you 
 knowing that you could not refuse."
 
 SILVER SAND MAKES A RESOLVE 179 
 
 " Only let me go and tell the truth to Lilias," said 
 Silver Sand. 
 
 " Let you ! — You are my master — go." 
 
 And with bitter grief in his heart Silver Sand turned from 
 the cultivated fields below the High Woods and set his face 
 for what he counted the last time in the direction of the 
 well-trodden path which led to the point of Niven's Isle. 
 He did not know how he was to make his confession, 
 nor how she would take it, in silent scorn or with the 
 fierce bitterness of accusation. But he knew already 
 that the worst was over. He would again be a true man, 
 and walk in his own self-respect as on a clear night after 
 thunder and lightning, deluge and hail. 
 
 JuUana according to her custom watched him out of 
 sight and then turned also, and with slow steps walked 
 to the house of the dominie, there to find a canvas roll 
 laid out for her upon her bed. It was the change of 
 costume which Silver Sand had promised her. The Killer 
 had arrived and her father and her father's clan were in 
 waiting to welcome them in the Dungeon of Buchan. 
 
 " Oh, I am not worth it — why did he do it ? ''
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Apples of Sodom 
 
 His feet trampled among pure orange gold. That which 
 splashed his instep was buttercups. That which swept 
 his knee was ragweed, but in the low broad Hght from 
 the west all appeared of that rich colour, fading farther 
 off into smoky patches of turquoise and the deeper purple 
 shadows of the great park trees. 
 
 He reached the edge of the promontory where he feared 
 to go. Everywhere the long grass, where it was not 
 worn down by their feet on happy nights, rustled and 
 rippled like waves of wheat. 
 
 The last glory of the sun had sunk down into the sea. 
 The lakes of pale violet had faded into the velvet glory 
 of a night of stars, and Silver Sand knew that before 
 that sun peered over the rim of the Stewartry mountains 
 and inundated with light all the wide plain of the shire, 
 the die would be cast. 
 
 Late as it was the bees had not ceased humming in 
 the Sheriff's lime trees. On such days of heat they are 
 greedy and work late. Silver Sand stood alone with his 
 feet on the familiar pebbles. The windows of the Castle 
 were dark that night. So in all probability Earshall 
 was holding high revel with Windram in Stranraer, and 
 his men were safely billeted among the burghers. 
 
 Silver Sand was sad. Like all men of gipsy blood, 
 he was easily and strongly impressed by the moods of 
 nature. And now the sough of the wind in the pines, the 
 lapping of the wavelets on the shore, the pale glow of 
 Will-o'-the-Wisp among the reed-beds all saddened and 
 discountenanced him. 
 
 She came, not with her usual frank comradeship holding 
 
 i8o
 
 APPLES OF SODOM i8i 
 
 out both her hands, but slowly and with reserve, almost 
 as if she already knew. Silver Sand wished that she did 
 know. But his subtle gipsy instinct, as sensitive to the 
 mind of a woman as for a mood of nature, revealed to 
 him the true reason. She had listened to the words of 
 Juliana. She believed that here was the man who loved 
 her and who had come to tell her so. To go forth to 
 meet such an one at close of day, was not the same as to 
 talk over family affairs and the day's doings at the Castle 
 with her uncle s friend and the house's protector. 
 
 She came with her high riding boots parting the deep 
 fringe of gold which summer had spread everywhere along 
 the ways of the wood. 
 
 " If only she would begin to speak, it would be easier," 
 groaned Silver Sand within his own heart. But aloud 
 he said, " The garrison has left you in peace, I see, at 
 least for to-night." 
 
 " Yes," she answered indifferently, her fingers toying 
 with a spray of May-blossom plucked on the way, " we 
 have the Castle to ourselves and our usual guard — Hal 
 Bruce and his pair of sleepy drunkards. There was 
 no real need to come to-night, because I knew that the 
 unlighted windows would tell you all I have to say 
 
 " I am glad you have come," Silver Sand broke in 
 desperately, " I have to tell you that I am summoned 
 suddenly away on the business of Egypt ! " 
 
 She turned upon him quickly, with a gesture at once 
 inquiring and yet ready for wrath. 
 
 " I thought your friend young Stanley said that you 
 were to take less part in such things, and I remember 
 the charge my uncle gave you before he consented to go 
 on board ship. Are these things to be forgotten — are 
 we to be cast aside — now that his back is turned ? " 
 
 " I am bound indeed by great friendship, and such 
 bonds of amity as may exist among men, to Sir Andrew. 
 I promise you that Lochnaw shall be as safe in my 
 absence as in my presence — perhaps more so. But I am 
 called by a tie of another nature to depart, and whether 
 I return or not depends on you." 
 
 The light was not clear enough for Silver Sand to see
 
 i82 SILVER SAND 
 
 the red which sprang to the girl's cheek. But he divined 
 it and cursed himself for the awkwardness of his tongue. 
 He was talking exactly as, after hearing Juliana's plead- 
 ing of his cause, she would expect him to speak. 
 
 But the slip restored resolve and he determined to get 
 the worst over, come what might. Thereupon he plunged 
 into the tale of how he had begun the administration 
 of the folk of Egypt in Scotland, which was his birthright. 
 He told of the fight with Jasper, and how on the shores 
 of the Loch of Enoch he had been " asked " by Jasper's 
 daughter, Juliana. 
 
 " But you refused the forward minx ? " the clear voice 
 of Lilias rang out, so that had he been awake, Hal Bruce 
 might have heard it on the terrace of the Castle. 
 
 " I could not refuse," said Silver Sand, steadily, " a 
 chief of the Faas does not live for himself, but for the 
 clan. Besides the girl was strictly within her right — 
 such is the law of our people." 
 
 " Then you married her — and all I have heard — all I 
 have thought is false — lies — lies — only lies ! " 
 
 " According to gipsy custom I was married to her," 
 continued Silver Sand, who felt the edge of his world 
 crumbling and breaking beneath him like rotten ice. 
 " But I do not say that all you have heard is untrue. I 
 do not know what you have heard." 
 
 " You know very well, John Faa, you sent that young 
 Stanley to work upon me. He was a handsome lad 
 and could speak well. You counted upon him. Thank 
 God I have a heart that is not to be taken by wiles. 
 But oh, the meanness of it ! " 
 
 " I think not," said Silver Sand, restored to himself 
 by the hostile douche of speech. " I knew not that any 
 intimate speech would pass between you, and I had the 
 best reasons for thinking so." 
 
 " What were those reasons ? " And her voice for once 
 sounded harsh and untender. 
 
 " I did not believe there would pass any confidence 
 between you, because (he hung long on the words he 
 was to speak, they could never be recalled) because 
 Julius Stanley was Juliana, my wife."
 
 APPLES OF SODOM 183 
 
 He could have added, " according to the gipsy law," 
 but he desired in nothing to spare himself. She would 
 detest him — that was certain. He had better become 
 accustomed to that as soon as might be. At any rate, 
 he would have no more misunderstandings. He had 
 already supped his fill of them and he recognised his fault. 
 
 " But — but," faltered LiUas, " he — she— who spoke to 
 me — pleaded for you — swore that you only loved me. Oh, 
 cruel, cruel ! How she must have hated me to do that." 
 
 " On the contrary," said Silver Sand, very gravely, 
 " it was because she loved me over much. She thought 
 mistakenly to make me happy." 
 
 " Mistakenly," the voice of LiHas took on a more scorn- 
 ful intonation, " ah, yes — how mistakenly. I suppose 
 she thought she was not worthy of you — of you ! " 
 
 Her voice gathered strength and volume. 
 
 " Why, a loving woman is worth ten thousand thousand 
 of such men. But do not be afraid. I shall not betray 
 you. After all, you are like other men — only a coward 
 where women are concerned. But I would have you 
 remember that only my pride and not my heart has been 
 hurt. John Faa, I wish you well. Still more, I wish well 
 to your wife. She is a noble woman, may she never know 
 how base a man can be. \i so, the worse for you ! For 
 I warn you, John Faa, she will not pass it over as I am 
 doing No, do not speak — do not follow me. Good-bye ! " 
 
 She glided into the dusk of the trees and for a moment 
 as her figure crossed the interstices of the columnar 
 trunks, where the flame of sunset lingered, he could see 
 her flitting rapidly towards the house. He stood still 
 quite unconscious of his own pain (like a man who has 
 received a mortal wound and knows it not). The cue 
 owls cried Hke cats in the brake and passed unseen over- 
 head with a soft " fluff " of feathers. 
 
 He saw the dark house and stood watching it, set massive 
 and foresquared against the abyss of night. He never 
 took his eyes off the black part of the roof where it cut 
 the stars, till high in the Eastern tower he saw a light 
 break out. It was the taper lit by Lilias Agnew in her 
 chamber.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 Like A Fountain Sealed 
 
 Silver Sand had at last done what was right. He had 
 spoken the word he ought to have spoken at first, and 
 so spared much agony of hearts. Yet it is strange how 
 Httle comfort the fact brought him. 
 
 All the way back to the school-house of Leswalt he 
 went over and over in his mind the stages of his interview 
 with Lilias. It had been harder than he had dreamed of 
 — harder, he thought, than he deserved. She ought 
 to have understood the necessities of his position. He 
 did not know that a woman will forgive anything, even 
 a crime, to the man who proves himself the master of 
 circumstances. But contrary wise, will have nothing to 
 say to a man who lets circumstances master him. 
 
 In spite of the troubled dream in which he walked, 
 his educated ear and natural aptitude for remarking and 
 registering all things, made him conscious of the reviving 
 ease and pleasant routine of the country, which took 
 up its course again with the absence of the dragoons. 
 The very presence of the red coats, hated and feared as 
 they were, stopped the spontaneous gaiety of rural life. 
 He passed a farm and heard the cows munching steadily 
 in the home pastures. Last night they had been hidden 
 deep among the moors. But they would be watched 
 carefully till they fed their fill and long ere Earlshall was 
 back again, they would be lost among the clefts of the 
 mosses, or blocked and guarded in heathery hollows 
 and defiles from which neither head nor horn ever showed. 
 
 It was a strange time, those last days of the great 
 Persecution. I cannot say that bairns never cried. 
 But I do say that they made little noise, weeping silently 
 
 184
 
 LIKE A FOUNTAIN SEALED 185 
 
 to themselves. Cattle lowed no more at the milking stile. 
 Sheep did not cry to each other across the gulfs of air. 
 There was a Sabbath silence, and a few women only were 
 to be seen about a farm in the daytime. But the work 
 was done at night. 
 
 A voice hailed Silver Sand out of the gloom — " Come 
 and lend a hand here!" And as he hesitated, scarcely 
 awakened out of his dream of anguish, the voice added 
 " Be not afraid — it is upon the Wanderers' service ! " 
 
 This showed how carefully the policing of these mid- 
 night labours was done, that they should speak out to a 
 chance passer-by in the darkness without fear of mistake. 
 
 But as a fact, except for the uniformed dragoons and a 
 few camp-followers, the whole country, lairds, loons, 
 farmers, and shepherd laddies, were with the persecuted 
 and against the King. The dragonnades had only suc- 
 ceeded in fixing a deep dislike, an inflexible resolve, upon 
 the whole face of a country once as loyal and law-abiding 
 as Kent or London City. 
 
 Now the wind blew no longer at the King's bidding, 
 but where it listed. 
 
 From among the red roofs of one of the larger farms, 
 there came the noise of flails falling, steady and muffled, 
 upon the sheaves on the threshing floor. 
 
 A lantern hung to a peg in the south-eastern wall, and 
 in the flickering glow Silver Sand could see stalwart 
 forms stripped to the waist, massive brown arms falling 
 bare and rhythmical. Not from these had the summons 
 come. 
 
 He leaped a dyke and found a woodman with faggoted 
 wood piled high on a huge trail cart. He was disengaging 
 four tired horses from the shafts. 
 
 " Wait a little, friend, and give me a hand. This is 
 my Lady's wood for the winter, concerning which Sir 
 Andrew has written to my father." 
 
 He was back again as soon as he had his horses safe in 
 the stall, and Silver Sand helped him to stack the faggots 
 in an outhouse belonging to the home-farm of Lochnaw. 
 Sounds of subdued laughter and rustic merriment came 
 from byre and stackyard. He heard the plunge of the
 
 i86 SILVER SAND 
 
 butter chum from somewhere quite unseen, and as he 
 tossed down faggot after faggot from the high piled 
 load, he could see, over the open half-door of the barn, 
 the girls come with winnowing sieves and the flat baskets 
 of stretched skins called locally " wechts." They bent 
 and scooped up the seed from the beaten ears with both 
 hands, while the men stood looking at them, resting and 
 leaning upon their flails. Then outside on the winnower's 
 platform the work was also begun. The wind from the 
 sea was scarcely strong enough, but still Silver Sand 
 could hear the dry rattle as the grain poured down into 
 a cone-shaped heap, and the chaff blew in his face as he 
 stood there on the great wood waggon and pitched fag- 
 gots to a man half seen below. 
 
 " So much harvesting. 
 So little grain, 
 So much hither -thithering — 
 7s life worth the pain ? " 
 
 The thing rhymed itself in Silver Sand's mind as he 
 received the teamster's hearty " Thank you, brother 
 Wanderer — as much to you next time." 
 
 He went on his way. Down on Nevin's Isle he had lost 
 a friend, perhaps if he had been wise or even discreet, more 
 than a friend. He had seen that lonely light break out 
 from the dark front of the great house, and he knew that 
 Lilias was moaning, " Oh, why did he spoil it all ? " 
 
 Ah, why indeed ? Why had he killed that gay careless- 
 ness, that complete and childlike trust ? He was the 
 better man — the honester man — but, ah, how much the 
 more unhappy ! It ought not to be so. Account ought 
 to be taken of the circumstances. He had done what he 
 could. He had a thousand excuses, a thousand ex- 
 planations, all sound and excellent. Only he had let 
 himself be condemned unheard. Judgment had been 
 entered by default, and the breach could never be repaired, 
 labour he never so hard, charm he never so wisely. 
 
 But there was JuHana — JuHana, of whom as Lilias 
 had most truly said, he would never be worthy. He had 
 to consider Juliana. He must throw off the burden he
 
 LIKE A FOUNTAIN SEALED 187 
 
 had hoisted on his own back, and meet her with a smile. 
 She deserved that — yes, a thousandfold more. Never 
 had he imagined it to be in the power of any woman so 
 to love a man. He knew he was not worthy, but if men 
 were only to be loved according to their deserts, most of 
 us would go loveless from the earth. 
 
 There she was, her gay gallants' trappings all packed 
 away, dressed in her sober gown of grayish Quaker blue, 
 pleated and short-skirted, ready for the road. 
 
 The dominie, very proud and joyful that dominie was, 
 as I do remember, had her by the hand. 
 
 " I like Juhana better than her brother," said I. 
 
 " What brother ? " Silver Sand asked as he came in. 
 He was somewhat dazed I think — by coming into the 
 shining of so many lights, for in honour of the event I 
 had lit up as for a meeting of Kirk Session. 
 
 "What brother,?" I laughed, "Hear to him ! why 
 who but the dear departed Julius, who is now folded up 
 neatly in that hand-package ! " 
 
 I mention this to show that even at my age I really 
 was a ready and jocose man. 
 
 " You are late, John," she said, looking up at him, 
 beseechingly, with eyes so full and moist — that — well 
 never mind what I thought. If Silver Sand had not 
 stepped up and kissed her, by gad, I should ! 
 
 But he did, perhaps because he did not wish to lose 
 all my good opinion of him. Perhaps, at least so I hope, 
 for other reasons. 
 
 " It is done," he said, " done as I said, and I am glad 1 " 
 
 " Glad, John," (she laughed suddenly and nervously) 
 " tell me, are you really glad ? " 
 
 " Glad — glad — glad, I tell you, Juliana, glad that it is all 
 done with, but she says, and she says true, that you ought 
 never to forgive me ! " 
 
 " Oh, that — " cried Juliana in a little sobbing throbbing 
 ecstasy, " she knows nothing about that. Do not let 
 us speak about it, John. You have not told me what 
 kept you so late. The dominie and I were almost coming 
 out to look for you." 
 
 " You would have found me at the home farm pitching
 
 i88 
 
 SILVER SAND 
 
 faggots from a trail cart to help a teamster whom I had 
 never seen, but who hailed me as a brother and a helper." 
 
 " Why did you do it, John ? Could not I have done 
 it for you ? Or the Red McKitterick or any of his men ? 
 What need was there for you, the chief of the Faas and 
 my husband, to be standing on any yokel's trail cart ? " 
 
 Accord was made, gladsome and complete on Juliana's 
 side, and only in the most secret place of John Faa's 
 heart, slept, like a fountain sealed, the image of Lilias. 
 
 II
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 " Clear in the Closing Strain " 
 
 They spent the suave month of September, distinctively 
 and eminently Scottish among all the months of the 
 year, with their tents and the two grey asses among the 
 dry rustling heath bells and the full glory of the heather. 
 
 In the short space of separation Juliana had bloomed 
 into the fuller woman. She was clear-eyed, more reso- 
 lute, more apt to speak, infinitely more companionable. 
 She had been tried in the fire, and, being fine gold, had 
 not been found wanting. She chose the camps always 
 half-way or thereby between tribe and tribe. It was not 
 fitting (she said) that John Faa should set up his tent 
 among the dirty tans of his wandering tribes. He must 
 keep himself apart, and so his decisions should owe nothing 
 to this one's suggestion or that man's prompt payment 
 of dues. She made it a law that before any complaints 
 were brought, or any of the justice of Egypt administered, 
 all that was owing to John Faa should be paid, settled, 
 and approved by Juliana, his wife, whose judgment in 
 such matters was held by the clans to be far more accurate 
 than her lord's. And this did John Faa good among the 
 turbulent brotherhood, penuriously adding silver and 
 copper pieces to their hoard at kirk and market, farm- 
 town and clachan, from one end of Scotland to the other. 
 
 In their opinion it did not become a Faa to appear too 
 hungry for his dues. But no fault could be found with 
 a woman who showed herself determined that an easy- 
 going great man should not be put upon. So everyone 
 was satisfied, and the brown-skinned Gitanos nudged 
 each other after a bargain was struck or a Gorgio flouted 
 and cheated. 
 
 189
 
 190 SILVER SAND 
 
 " Remember Juliana's part is so much and so much." 
 And, as a matter of fact, they came secretly during the 
 dark hours and laid information against each other with 
 grins of wicked pleasure on their faces. 
 
 And the next morning before an intent and approving 
 tribe, the guilty were summoned forth and made to pay 
 up according to their dues. 
 
 So during the last September of the Terror before the 
 Great Indulgence, Silver Sand moved about slowly and 
 tasted again the life of his people. Once a week he had 
 a messenger from Chief McKitterick on guard above the 
 Doocot Cave, and a letter from the dominie down at the 
 school-house, telling him all the news of the Castle. How 
 the troops were little now at Lochnaw, how Windram 
 had been moved to Kirkcudbright— where there was a 
 hotter brand of disaffection or at least a hatred more 
 easily blown into a flame of rebellion— how gladly enough 
 Bruce of Earlshall had settled his men down into 
 Windram' s old quarters at Stranraer, pleased to be within 
 a town again, and nearer to the norland moors, the 
 country of their sweepings and scourings and countless 
 marchings. Lastly, how Hal Bruce of Windy Standard 
 had been left alone to garrison Lochnaw, with his usual 
 brace of good-for-nothings. But he was minded so little 
 that as often as James was not at Eglinton or Inner- 
 messan he would both dine and sleep at the Castle— of 
 course with a sentinel or two posted. 
 
 In these communications I said no more than " Mistress 
 Lilias seems to go much about her ordinary "—or some- 
 thing equally vague and unsatisfactory. I did not tell 
 him that she walked abroad with the dignity of an offended 
 queen, or rather like Diana after she had caught sight of 
 Acteon. What, I ask you, would have been the good of 
 unsettling the lad's mind ? 
 
 So I let him go on his way, under the healing blinks of 
 the soft September sunshine, the September silences, and 
 the rustle of September foliage, which, if you have noticed, 
 (or whether or no) is like an old man's wit, a httle dryer 
 and more bitter than when bursting with the soft sap 
 of spring.
 
 " CLEAR IN THE CLOSING STRAIN " 191 
 
 Silver Sand minded many things of his September 
 circuit among his kin long afterwards. They returned 
 to him in dreams to the day of his death — not the happiest 
 or most memorable memories perhaps, but by a great 
 deal the most clear and permanent. He remembered, 
 for instance, Ingleston Glen, where the tall trees spring 
 up suddenly from their rock anchorages. High up there 
 the flowers were late and sparse, but aloft he could hear 
 the tits cracking the pine cones in their constant angry 
 search for insects, boring beetles and such like. Higher 
 still the rooks clustered and swayed clamorously, or 
 chased each other with exultant shrieks down the wind. 
 He had become the true wanderer of the ancient time, a 
 man out of the age of stone axes and flint arrow-chippings. 
 
 He would cast his mind back to the days at Lochnaw. 
 He could call up the point of Nevin's Isle, and hear the 
 waters lap on the little beach of pebbles. But he was 
 not hurt by the remembrance. His whole being was 
 simplified and his horizon bounded by that clear season 
 of autumn weather, and his mind attuned to that stormy 
 parliament which the crow people were holding overhead. 
 
 It was not at all like his first time with Juliana. Now 
 they had captured as if by right of conquest a confidence 
 in each other — the gift and capacity of interesting talk. 
 For one thing (and it was a great thing) Juliana proved 
 herself infinitely more skilled than Silver Sand in the 
 lore of the country. She read the air, the light summer 
 flaws, and high balanced wisps of cloud, the random 
 gusts of wind that came, stirring only the tops of the 
 highest trees and that only for a moment — the mystery 
 of " carry " and " over-carry," when the clouds scudded 
 different ways, or a thunderstorm banked itself up in 
 the south after a day of heat. Then they would strike 
 their tents and make for a shelter — generally a shieling 
 with a roof, where in lambing time the shepherds watched 
 their flocks — or a cave among the rocks — anywhere to 
 get out of the danger of trees where the thunderbolts 
 began to fall. 
 
 All this lore was new and delightful to the school-bred 
 Silver Sand, who drank it all in mth the eagerness of a
 
 192 SILVER SAND 
 
 boy, but still with a latent sense of having known it all 
 once and forgotten it. Which, indeed, was true enough, 
 seeing that Juliana was teaching him the gipsy inheritance 
 of the wisdom of Out-of-doors — the rich heritage of a 
 thousand years of careful and continuous observation. 
 
 She could tell him to a nicety where any " Wanderer " 
 lay deep hidden, or where a stray dog was hunting, by 
 the noise of the curlews crying, or the lapwings stooping 
 and diving. She could tell the time of day by the shut- 
 ting or opening of the flowers, and the season of the year 
 in the gipsy calendar by the departure of some birds oi 
 passage and the arrival of others. 
 
 Mostly they kept high up on the barrens of the moun- 
 tains, penetrating deep into the head waters of Dee and 
 Doon, and reaching even to the springs of Clyde and Nith. 
 
 At night he would look out of their tent door, and if 
 Juliana were awake, or as often happened, perhap? 
 adjusting a log on their camp fire, he would fall to com- 
 paring his Jesuit-trained knowledge with hers. He knew 
 all the constellations, and could tell many stars by their 
 names. But Juliana gave one casual glance at the 
 slow- wheeling multitude and said : " It is half past two 
 — better sleep for another good hour. I shall wake you, 
 John. Have no fear. It is good to sleep in the morning 
 coolness. Let me draw a silk sash of mine about your 
 head, and you wdll find sleep come. So ! " 
 
 Then sure enough he would drop back into dreamless 
 sleep, and when he awoke, Juhana would be bending 
 over him, smiling a smile of happiness unutterable, the 
 smile of the woman who possesses. The asses would be 
 tethered quite near the camp, waiting the master's edict, 
 whether they were to go on that day or not, and the 
 breakfast of the hills, trout from the bums, bacon from 
 their flitch, eggs from the last farm, would be ready for 
 the excellent appetite with which he rose. 
 
 So on these barren mountain heights and under these 
 changeful Western skies, life passed like a dream. It 
 was the true apprenticeship of Silver Sand to his gipsy 
 trade. Every day or two they found some encampment 
 of gipsy folk, who are most widely scattered at this
 
 *' CLEAR IN THE CLOSING STRAIN " 193 
 
 season, Wallaces, Bollands, Highland Shuans and Rorri- 
 sons, who had come far from their winter " hauf " or 
 homing shelter. 
 
 Juliana collected the dues of the Chief ship from all, 
 and if they were dull or slow of comprehension, who but 
 Juliana taught them in clean-cut Romany their duty to 
 the head of all Egypt. Then John Faa himself dealt out 
 the true justice with a sentence against which there was 
 no appeal. He would compose quarrels of trade and 
 barter, make himself an umpire in gipsy horse-races for 
 valuable stakes — wild dashes from point to point, with 
 everything allowed except striking the other man's horse 
 over the head, a mob of keelies or rag-tag urchins yelling 
 behind, or battling for the honour of their favourite in 
 the dust or head-over-heels among the heather. 
 
 Then again John Faa, having so learned in Paris, 
 showed himself a wise surgeon, and the old women of 
 the tribe gathered about to watch his manner of setting 
 of a bone or reducing a fracture. They had their own 
 skill and art, which Juliana knew and could practise, but 
 they were not above learning things so simple and yet so 
 serious. So John Faa operated with his shining French 
 instruments which (it is hardly necessary to say) were in 
 Juliana's keeping. And when he laid them out on a 
 white cloth to be ready for his magic, and during the brief 
 gasping minutes of the mystery itself, she was his only 
 acolyte, his confidant, his assistant, quick and ready, 
 needing no commanding and not a word of advice. He 
 merely turned at a critical moment, and there she was 
 ready with what he wanted. 
 
 Then, after all was over, when the patient, having 
 passed the minutes which were almost like the agony of 
 death, now lay smiling and bandaged, there would be a 
 feast and a conclave. Nothing formal, of course, but the 
 news of Egypt and of the wilds, all fresh and fresh like a 
 newspaper brought damp from the press into a coffee- 
 house of the city. 
 
 Sometimes such tribal feasts would take place during 
 the heat of an afternoon heavy with sunshine and stirless 
 air, the ripe chestnuts popping and pelting in a ruddy 
 
 N
 
 194 SILVER SAND 
 
 golden shower all down the glade — or again after a 
 swiftly passing storm, the sky unnaturally blue, cleaned, 
 besomed, and swept out by the cloud whisks, every point 
 and leaf ghttering with its diamond drop, which as the 
 wind blew went pitter-patter on the trodden earth. 
 
 At such times they crowded close in to the great tree 
 trunks — pines for choice, where all was dry as under an 
 umbrella of deep green shade. 
 
 " Who are the Wanderers for conscience' sake," he 
 would ask, " whom ye have met and succoured since 
 last I saw you ? " 
 
 Then the head man of the tribe would answer : " John 
 Faa, we saw Gilbert Raith and two men of the Wanderers 
 in a moss-hag on the Fell of Barullion. Yesterday at 
 morning it was, and we waited long, for the men were 
 reading in their books. Then we went down, and they 
 welcomed us for the breakfast we gave them, and the 
 warm drop out of the bottle. For 'tis hmp and drenched 
 they were, poor things, with the dews of the night and 
 the dampness of their beds. It is a strange thing, John 
 Faa, that they who are so holy know not what we pagans 
 learn as bairns — how to dwell among the heather, and 
 yet keep bien and healthy and hearty all the while, with 
 routh of good meat to eat and no man the worse. But 
 the Wanderers are a feeble and feckless folk who cannot 
 look after themselves, and expect nothing better than 
 the ' Ready — present — fire ! ' which they mostly do hear at 
 last from Lag or John Graham." 
 
 So Silver Sand and Juliana would carry away with 
 them such information as would have set the Privy 
 Council of the Persecutors sitting at Edinburgh to doubling 
 its riders and enforcing its dragonnades. But when they 
 did find them they were sorely thinned companies, on 
 whom the winds of adversity had blown, biting them to 
 the bone. Some of them Silver Sand had seen before 
 on his previous wanderings. 
 
 On Cree moss they crossed the little band who followed 
 the Black McMichael, whose voice had been so long 
 heard in the house conventicles of Kilbride : 
 " Clear in the closing strain," 
 
 I
 
 •' CLEAR IN THE CLOSING STRAIN *' 195 
 
 A hasty man, violent of hand, vehement of tongue was 
 McMichael, but with the heart of a child they found him. 
 And so soon as he knew that Silver Sand had been put 
 to the horn along with Sir Andrew Agnew for the killing 
 of the two soldiers at the " Rowan Tree " Inn, he spoke out 
 all the sorrow of his heart. 
 
 " It matters little in town and populous places when or 
 how a man is taken. There is a funeral with solemn 
 observances and the consoling word of a minister. But 
 here on the wild moors we ascend every rising ground 
 with hearts that sink and flutter. What or who shall 
 we find at the top ? The wide moss, the level moor are 
 like the sea. One man can see another for miles, and 
 though we can beat them at the hiding game, they take 
 us at last. 
 
 " Only yesterday my nephew, Rob, left our poor 
 castle here on the Clints of Dromore. We have kept 
 close in and about it for nigh on eighteen months, and 
 we have never crossed any dangerous man, except one 
 of the barefoot harvesting Irishry, who cursed us for 
 * sour-faced Whigs ' and ' canting long-cloaks ' when we 
 could give him no brandy but only poor ale and not 
 much of that. But there was no harm in the wild 
 creature, for he laid no information, and we were not 
 disquieted on account of him. 
 
 " But yesterday Rob went to dig some of our little 
 patches of potatoes in the hidden nooks, and what the 
 folk here call ' lazy-beds ' — which for a year or two 
 flourish abundantly among the mossy soil, but after that 
 do not so well but go back to the heather. So down 
 in the hollow of the Little Fleet, Rob my nephew went 
 to dig, whistling ' Martyrs ' between his teeth and his 
 heart free as a young kid. He came not back at midday, 
 which is meal time, and late in the afternoon we began 
 to say among ourselves that surely Rob had found the 
 crop heavy, and that he would need a help home with 
 his sackful of the kindly fruits of the earth. 
 
 " So I went in search of Rob, my brother's son, and 
 I had it in my mind to tance him soundly, if he had gone 
 to sleep behind a heather bush. We had grown so well-
 
 196 SILVER SAND 
 
 accustomed that we thought but little of our dangers, 
 the troops keeping mostly to the military road far to the 
 south, or when they searched the heather holding well 
 to the crown of the country, while in either case, we in our 
 nook above the Fleet abode still and tranquil. 
 
 " I came to the edge of the heather where it abuts on 
 our lazy-beds, and whistled ' Up wi' the banner o' Blue,' 
 which was our signal. But no sign o' Rob ! 
 
 " ' Rascal,' I thought, ' he takes after his father. He 
 has tired of the work and gotten into some nook with a 
 book — that will suit him better than breaking his back 
 sacking those potatoes ! ' 
 
 " And not over well pleased I took a step or two for- 
 ward, and there in the ' sheuch ' (or trench between two 
 beds) lay Rob, fallen forward on his face, his hand still 
 grasping the cross of the spade, his bonnet fallen a little 
 off, and his bonny locks that the lasses liked to tug at, 
 red-wet with his blood ! They had seen him as they 
 went by and fired a volley without asking a question or 
 putting any test. They had killed him just as if he 
 had been a young crow, to prove their pieces and their 
 marksmanship. Thus is Scotland, or at least all the 
 South and West of it, governed this day." 
 
 Silver Sand looked at Juliana hopelessly, for to cure 
 this bereaved soul was beyond his medicine. 
 
 " We buried Rob where he fell on the potato-patch. 
 He could not have been a braver soldier if he had died on 
 the battle-field. And indeed he took his life quite as 
 much in his hand as any hero, and in a better cause than 
 is common. 
 
 " But oh, the difference to us ! You see we had been 
 together so long, close-nested at night to keep us dry 
 among the rocks — while all day long each man had his 
 task, and now wherever we turn, there is a blank where 
 Rob should have been. 
 
 " Often I had reproved him for the singing and whistling 
 of vain tunes, also for the laughter which comes natural 
 to the young, and now when all that had ceased for ever, 
 the very gladness of the world, nay even our confidence 
 in God, built on such wonderful experiences, seemed to 
 
 1
 
 " CLEAR IN THE CLOSING STRAIN '' 197 
 
 founder, because He had allowed Rob to fall into the 
 hands of his enemies ! " 
 
 Yet (such is the strange mixed nature of man) after 
 praying and a long grace said, the Black McMichael and 
 his company, together with Silver Sand and Juliana, sat 
 down and ate heartily of the very potatoes which poor 
 Rob had dug and left in a trail behind him. This troubled 
 Silver Sand, but after turning it over in his mind he 
 understood that though one man ceases to live, the bodily 
 needs of others — aye, even his nearest and dearest kin, 
 still require to be supplied. Moreover, while man is on 
 the earth and not under it, he must be fed with the meat 
 of the body, which is no subaltern, but claims an equal 
 captainship over Life with his immortal part the Soul.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 The Taking of Silver Sand 
 
 October came, and with it glimpses of steel-blue locks, 
 of rolling leagues of rusty heather, where a month ago 
 the moor had shone, gorgeous as the mantle of Caesar. 
 The green " awns " became grey, and the gladness went 
 out of the earth. But there were compensations. The 
 days were shorter, but the skies were clearer, crisper, 
 more luminous. The camp-fire, now retired farther under 
 the cliff-edge or deeper into the cavern, glowed with 
 the new lustre and warmth of oncoming winter. 
 
 Quiet dwelt among these treeless hills. Juliana and 
 Silver Sand followed the two grey donkeys over the coarse 
 bent grass and turfy heather. Sometimes they saw the 
 sea's blue semicircle glittering in the west, or the Isle 
 of Man hung like a cloud in the southern fairway. Above 
 their heads the wind erected and demolished groined and 
 fluted architecture of cloud, planned and overturned 
 towers of sunlit snow. 
 
 They looked out on evenings wild and fiery-splendid, 
 and the very shortness of the time left to them gave an 
 edge to their peace in the enjoyment of Nature — which 
 was the protest of these summer-wanderers against the 
 season when the waters should be as iron and the hills 
 covered down with an equal sheeting of snow. 
 
 They reached the Dungeon of Buchan on a stubbornly 
 bitter forenoon of blowing snow from the east, which 
 came up out of the open jaws of the Wolf's Slock in a solid 
 headlong push — like the fall of a wave on a deck, it 
 swept the gorge from end to end. It plastered up the 
 front windows of the Red Killer's house, and had already 
 
 19S
 
 THE TAKING OF SILVER SAND 199 
 
 rendered exceedingly ill-tempered the temporary occu- 
 pant thereof — Jasper, the head of the clan Stanley. 
 
 " Now't like this were ever seen in Moston Clough," 
 he had been grumbling not a quarter of an hour before 
 their arrival, " fine seasonable weather for the North Pole 
 (if there be such a place) with bears tO' dance about it like 
 girls on May Day, as they do tell. But this is none good 
 enough for a man who has a fine smithy with three fires 
 and a covered court for shoeing horses all within his own 
 freehold." 
 
 But when the two grey asses came in, laden and con- 
 tent, with Silver Sand grave as usual, and Juliana red- 
 lipped and smiling — why, skirmishing hail and volleying 
 snow might fall and beat as they pleased upon the house 
 of the Dungeon. The old man had seen the desire of his 
 heart, and although he should depart, it would be as one 
 who was assured of the happiness of Egypt. 
 
 Then how eagerly he showed all the treasure he had 
 gathered in his son's name. So great had been his fervour. 
 
 " Them Taidies wad not pay," he explained, " Tom, as 
 fancies hisself upon his fist work, gave back talk — back 
 talk to me, Jasper Stanley o' Moston Clough ! By the 
 Boggart-That-Walks, I made him eat his words first and 
 pay his money afterwards. For the power o' the Lord 
 came upon me — I were always somewhat o' a church 
 man, more or less — and aye, lad, I thumped Tom Taidy— 
 I thumped him good. For the good of his soul, I stretched 
 him as often as he would coom to t' scratch. But he tired 
 o' that, though not afore he were a bonny sight. He shook 
 me by the hand forbye, and when I asked him if he were 
 satisfied like, he said he was well satisfied, and so with 
 all the Taidies at his tail he went his way. 
 
 " Aye, lass, here is the reckoning by itself, mostly in 
 silver shillings and Spanish dollars, but there are also 
 two well-grown pigs hanging to the roof in hams, quarters, 
 flitches, gammons, and also puddings black and white. 
 Oh, devil a Taidy could gammon me in a matter of the 
 dues of Egypt. Only it came to this on't, that some o' 
 my lads were that graidly upsot wi' me hevvin' all the good 
 fighting, and not letting them go at the Taidies, as they
 
 200 SILVER SAND 
 
 were planning to do, that I had a kind o' ruction on my 
 hand — so be that I had to fall to and thump Tomat 
 Darby and Gaffer Rowley, as an example of peace and 
 discipline. I have my sense o' justice, ye see. For sez I, 
 ' Ye shall not fall upon the Taidies, ye shanna' take their 
 cuddies, that are but poor things anyway. The Taidies 
 are of the blood, though not the pure Black Blood, and 
 so long as I am doing justice for my son and daughter, 
 Egypt shall not spoil Eg^^^t. Besides they have paid 
 their dues and Tom Taidy has been thumped most 
 wholesome ! ' 
 
 " ' Aye,' says they, ' he has been thumped. We 
 knaws that, but where do we come in — what has our share 
 been, answer us that, Jasper Stanley ? ' 
 
 " And I answered them cleanly, ' You come in here. 
 I will give ye your share, money down ! ' sez I. So I 
 thumped Tomat Darby again, and to content all the 
 world I roughly-handled half-a-dozen Stanleys, and sent 
 Roy Rice and Supple Sylvester skipping among the rocks 
 to keep out o' my gate. Ah, a man that is a chief, must 
 knaw how to hold his folk in order like ! " 
 
 Jasper Stanley had proved a most efficient keeper of 
 the castle, and supplies both of money and provender 
 were sent off to the new Gled's Nest, and to Mr. Walter 
 Dunning sitting faithfully over his Bible and his Virgil 
 in the Doocot itself, nursing the hope of better days over 
 a fire of driftwood and the smoulder of dried seaweed. 
 
 Jasper Stanley, having insisted upon rendering the 
 detailed account of his stewardship to his daughter 
 Juliana, and having vaunted, as well he might, of the 
 well-stocked beef barrels, meal-arks, and mutton-hams for 
 the winter (in addition to Taidy' s pigs before mentioned), 
 was induced to stay on a little that he might partake of 
 the good spell of weather which is always expected in 
 Scotland in early November. 
 
 More than that the bands of Lag and Windram were 
 reaching ever farther and farther up into the hill country 
 and driving the Wanderers deeper and deeper into the 
 wilderness of the upper lochs from Enoch and McKitterick 
 even to the old walls of Doon. The Glenkens men were 
 
 i
 
 THE TAKING OF SILVER SAND 201 
 
 now feeling the push so much that they were no longer 
 safe among the lirks of green Cairsmuir or m the dens 
 of Garpel and Garryhom. They set forth across the 
 wilderness towards the central boss where, till now, the 
 red of the King's coat and the trampling of his horses had 
 never come. 
 
 John Faa gave them help and shelter, and set the 
 McKitterick's men who knew the wilds to construct them 
 some shelters against the bitter season which must soon 
 come over the uplands. 
 
 They were good men and loyal to their belief, but 
 being of the Glenkens they brought with them a certain 
 assertive hardness and even quarrelsomeness to which 
 Mr. Dunning and the folk of Cree and Trool had not been 
 accustomed. 
 
 Silver Sand refused no man shelter. He sent none back 
 to those dangerous glens where Lag's roysterers and 
 Claverhouse's troopers were waiting for them, with 
 musket primed and firing parties picked. 
 
 Still he was perfectly aware that he was bringing 
 infinitely greater danger upon himself and his people. 
 The refugees had left friends and dependents across the 
 long ridge of Millyea and the Kells Range. Letters and 
 communications must needs pass. Provisions would 
 be hastened across, and the spies from the enemy's head- 
 quarters at Garryhom, well placed for such work, would 
 certainly track them at the last. 
 
 They blessed him, these hoary-headed elders and 
 snowy-haired ministers who had made up the famous 
 godly fellowship known as the Covenant of Auchinskeoch — 
 Gillespies and Lauries, Fishers, Thomsons, and McNeils. 
 
 " Sir, hearken to me," said the ousted minister of Kells 
 to Silver Sand, " we are a trial to you, and more than a 
 trial, a danger. But because you have been sorry for us, 
 the least of His Httle ones, you shall receive ten fold in 
 the Day of Judgment, the reward we are too poor to 
 offer you in this life 1 " 
 
 * * « « « 
 
 News arrived regularly from the school-house of Leswalt,
 
 202 SILVER SAND 
 
 and if all was not duly received it was not the fault of old 
 Nathan Crogo, Dominie, who, as the winter closed in and 
 the Atlantic gusts blew more fierce and chill, shut his storm 
 shutters earher, lighted his candle, drew in his table near 
 the fire of peat and bog oak, and so having mended his 
 goosequill, fell to it. 
 
 It was to him the sweetest hour of all the day, and the 
 hens among the smoky " baulks " chuckled sleepy ap- 
 proval as he laid sheet to sheet. He had a great sheepskin 
 coat down to his heels, this dominie, the leather softly 
 tanned and the wool inside. Sir Andrew had brought 
 it all the way from Paris, but being a great out-of-doors 
 fiery furnace of a man, he had soon tired of it, and so 
 had given it to one who was his good friend and servitor. 
 
 And surely the dominie was grateful. For, though a 
 fair trencherman and upon good terms with his stomach 
 for one of sedentary habits, he had never been very strong 
 all the days of him, but lived always in some dread of the 
 advent of Winter in his icy jerkin. 
 
 The dominie set the supper-pot to simmer with what 
 was left of the noonday rabbit, mixed with good soup, 
 thickened with potato, carrot, and all manner of good 
 dried beans and peas, so that as he wrote the savoury 
 smell came in cheerful whiffs to his nostrils as the escaping 
 steam lifted the lid. 
 
 Not much of Lilias, and that httle, casually did he write, 
 sprinkled with care like a rare condiment. Much of my 
 Lady and her anxiety for the return of Sir Andrew, and a 
 great deal of James, now duly married to Mary Mont- 
 gomerie, and dwelling rather uncertainly at Innermessan, 
 but ever in fear of the tramp of horses and the midnight 
 summons. Probably, however (the dominie sagely 
 averred), his father-in-law, the Earl of Eglinton, had spoken 
 a word for his daughter's young husband, or, having 
 missed the old cockbird, the Grahams were content to 
 let the young brood alone. 
 
 Their time would come surely when Sir Andrew was 
 taken, or else slept with his fathers, but in the meantime 
 James and his Mary had peace under the tiled roof of 
 Innermessan,
 
 THE TAKING OF SILVER SAND 203 
 
 In the South-west about this time the persecutors 
 grew more desperate and sullen. Things were not going 
 too well in Edinburgh. Men of the King's religion (which 
 is to say plain Papist) were lording it at the Council 
 Board. The Earl of Perth had recanted, and built him- 
 self a chapel in which to say Mass. The city mob, always 
 the wildest in the kingdom, rose to tear mass-hearer 
 and chapel to pieces, and it took all the soldiers within 
 call to hold them in check. 
 
 But in the two halves of Galloway, and especially in 
 the Stewartry or Eastern portion, the hand of the oppressor 
 lay the more sullenly heavy. They were unquiet. They 
 knew that they had filled their cups almost to the brim, 
 and judging by themselves, they expected no mercy when 
 their time came, and the men of the Covenants should have 
 their day. 
 
 As the mosses hardened that bitter winter of the final 
 fury of the ungodly, Claverhouse shook himself clear of 
 Edinburgh Privy Council, and acted as his own cruel 
 heart bade him. Ten thousand Killicrankie deaths shall 
 not wipe out the stain of the blood which he caused to 
 bespatter the South and West, but especially Galloway, 
 and far into the centuries his name shall be accursed. 
 He may have been beautiful as Lucifer, whom good 
 Master Milton has pictured forth for us, but he showed 
 himself still more heartless and evil. We of Galloway 
 shall teach the doings of that fair face and that black heart 
 to our children's children far down through the genera- 
 tions. But I divaginate. I am recounting a history. 
 Well then, to it ! 
 
 Horses were shod all about the moors as soon as ever 
 the frost should cause the lochs and bogs to harden. 
 Lag, Bruce, Westerhall, the Morton Douglases — all the 
 troops- in position were ready to obey the master mind. 
 
 Claverhouse had his quarters mostly alone in Dumfries. 
 He dwelt apart, a superior fiend, loving not to chamber 
 with Westerhalls and Mortons, nor to sit long about the 
 roaring board with Bruce and \Mndram. 
 
 All the same he saw that every man was at his post, 
 and with the falling of the frost, he ordered the great
 
 204 SILVER SAND 
 
 sweeping movement which was to envelop all the fast- 
 nesses of Galloway and southern Ayrshire. 
 
 The muskets rattled from hill to hill, and the fugitives 
 fell like moor fowl, prone and bleeding on the rusty heather. 
 As the fan-shaped troop moved away, a humane or careful 
 sergeant stayed behind with a pair of pistols to give 
 the coup de grace where the muskets had failed — which 
 was not often, for the men had grown expert from much 
 practice. 
 
 The troop which owned Douglas of Morton for its chief 
 had been the latest formed, and its captain was eager 
 for distinction. Grier of Lag held the record for indis- 
 criminate slaughter, but he would often spend time on 
 private feuds. Under cloud of night he had stolen by 
 dim moorland tracks upon Bell of Whiteside, and in the 
 dawning had shot him because he was a relative of my 
 Lord Kenmure. But Morton had come straight from 
 his keep among the Queensferry fells and knew nothing 
 of distinctions. He shot for the bag. 
 
 The names of certain men were given to him. He would 
 seek these out and kill them. If he made a mistake, 
 it was no great matter — there would be no outcry about 
 one Whiggish malcontent the less. Besides very probably 
 the fellow deserved shooting quite as much as the other. 
 
 So all the way up the Moss of Cree till he could turn 
 off towards the deep-set Loch of Trool, Morton and his 
 men made their way. They slew a Steel of Lesmahagow, 
 who was found in a widow's house. At the gable end by 
 the peat stack they shot him blindfolded, and threatened 
 to do the Hke with the woman, but passed on into the 
 wild country because there was no time to be lost. 
 
 It was the greying of the afternoon when they came 
 over the rig of the Loch Valley, following the white curves 
 of the Gairland Burn. Silver Sand was on his way back 
 from carrying provisions to a cave on the south-looking 
 face of the Merrick where Barbour of the Brae and 
 Semple of Rig were in special hiding. They were being 
 sought for everywhere, because the death of the Curate 
 of Carsephairn was (quite erroneously) laid to their charge. 
 
 Silver Sand was spied so near their cave mouth that
 
 THE TAKING OF SILVER SAND 205 
 
 he could not slip back without revealing their where- 
 abouts. At the worst, he said to himself, I have a better 
 chance than they. So he pushed straight on to where 
 Morton was riding at the head of his troop, and saluted 
 with his plumed hat sweeping the heather. 
 
 Morton, a rough tyke enough, shaggy as a Scaur Water 
 coUie, looked him up and down. He took in the details 
 of the costume. The French clothes of the newest and 
 finest material, braided by Tailor Bjrron after the pattern 
 of my Lord's in which he went to London, might be a little 
 out of date to a city eye, accustomed to the coffee-houses, 
 but they were of a marvellous freshness on the side of the 
 Merrick. 
 
 " Who may you be ? Stand and give an account of 
 yourself to His Majesty's officer." Morton's voice was 
 not quite so loud as usual. He was a little anxious to 
 know with whom he had to do. 
 
 " My name is John Percy Faa," said Silver Sand. " I 
 am here on the business of my people. I am an Earl of 
 this kingdom of Scotland by the creation of James the 
 First, and a cousin of his Grace the Duke of Northumber- 
 land, whose name I bear." 
 
 " I tell you, sir, you may be all you say, and yet you 
 fall under my jurisdiction. Will you take the Test ? " 
 
 " As often as you like," said Silver Sand. " I was 
 bred of the King's religion." 
 
 " A lie — a He — ! " cried a little foxy man running up 
 from the rear of the column, fumbling all the while with 
 his side wallet of notary's leather. " I have his name, 
 notification, and description. This is none other than 
 John Faa the gipsy, attainted with the death of Ellerton 
 and Kidney, art and part with the Prophet Peden, and 
 the very man who snatched Sir Andrew Agnew out of our 
 hands and set him on the high seas ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Juliana in Pursuit 
 
 There was a movement of surprise among the troop 
 and the firing party looked significantly to the priming 
 of their pieces. But Sergeant Donellan, who commanded 
 them, scrutinised with well- trained plunderer's instinct 
 the pearl clusters at the wrists of Silver Sand's shirt and 
 the golden buttons on his coat. These should be his 
 perquisite — that is, unless the Captain should take them 
 to deliver to the Privy Council as proof of indemnity. 
 Already he had lost half-a-dozen signet rings and gold 
 snuff-boxes in this way — losses which made of Sergeant 
 Donellan almost a rebel at heart. 
 
 Captain Douglas of Morton stood reflecting, in so far 
 as his dull brain and muddled intelligence permitted 
 that exercise. It might be dangerous to shoot a man 
 who claimed kinship with an English Duke. It might be 
 still worse to prevent the Privy Council from bringing 
 its potent engines of discovery to bear upon a man who, 
 if the Deil's Rattlebag spoke truth, carried the key to a 
 hundred mysteries in his bosom. He was new to the 
 service, and not having proved himself, did not stand 
 high in the esteem of Clavers. 
 
 On the whole it was better not to shoot the fellow out 
 of hand. He would meet Windram at the shieling of 
 Loch Dee that night. Windram was the fellow. He was 
 Claverhouse's senior Captain, and the most trusted. 
 He would truss the gipsy earl (if so he were, which seemed 
 not likely), and Windram would counsel him what to do 
 with him. 
 
 But as he rode on with Silver Sand well guarded in the 
 midst, Captain Douglas had no idea of how the country 
 
 io6
 
 JULIANA IN PURSUIT 207 
 
 was rising behind him. Fifty minutes after his arrest 
 news had been brought to Juliana, who, her work being 
 done for the day, was busy with the issue of Chamherlain' s 
 State of Scotland for the current year. Juliana was eager 
 to improve her mind, and the books she read were serious. 
 Indeed, no others could be got in Scotland for love or 
 money. Pitscottie's Chronicle was her handbook, and 
 a French manual of universal history in a huge folio 
 helped her to remember whether the Romans or the Greeks 
 came first. 
 
 But now, at the news of the disaster, she let her book 
 drop and stood for a minute pale as the snow, which at 
 that altitude was already licking the windows. 
 
 She was ready to save him, but a troop of regular 
 soldiers was a serious matter for a tribe of half-armed 
 and quite untrained hill gipsies to attack. She felt the 
 want of the Red Killer at such a juncture. 
 
 Bred among the hills he would have known where to 
 fall on the straggling march of the troopers, as had already 
 been successfully done at the head of the pass of Enterkin. 
 
 But an awful fear smote her. The troop of horse 
 were not taking prisoners, only shooting as they went. 
 
 Perhaps at that very moment ! And as she saw the 
 
 picture of Silver Sand lying dead with the snow thinly 
 sprinkled on his face — all her soul went forth in one cry 
 of anger and vengeance. 
 
 At least, if that were so, she and all who should cleave 
 to her would fight to the death to avenge him. She soon 
 had her Stanleys ready, with Tomat Darby, and all the 
 Rices, Rowleys and Sylvesters of fighting age. The 
 Faas also could be counted upon to retake their chief. 
 But they were but poor shots, and might well do as much 
 harm as good. The McKittericks were eager to serve 
 as guides and advisers, but the absence of their chieftain 
 slackened the bonds of discipline among them, and 
 Juliana could see their women bidding them be careful not 
 to mix themselves up with the quarrels of others. 
 
 " This is your quarrel," she cried, when the caution 
 came to her ear. " John Faa is your king — your over- 
 lord. He is in the hands of his enemies If the Red
 
 2o8 SILVER SAND 
 
 Killer were here no man among you would dare hold back 
 for a moment. And when he comes, he shall know the 
 names of the laggards ! " 
 
 This brought them out, but by force as it were, and not 
 over willingly. Only Juliana was so fierce, so tall, so 
 terrible, that in an hour she seemed to have added a 
 cubit to her stature. 
 
 No man dared to withstand her to her face. She would 
 have slain him on the spot. She caused even that stout 
 old fighter her father to quail, by the despair that had 
 gathered in her eyes. 
 
 The troop of horse was following the southern verge 
 of the Loch of Dee when the hill gipsies came pouring 
 down towards their quarry. Ah, if only Juliana could 
 have kept them in order and restraint as Silver Sand 
 would have done ! 
 
 The gipsies slid behind stones and heather bushes, 
 but their fowling pieces were next to useless, save a few, 
 carefully preserved, which belonged to the Lancashire 
 lads. Egypt preferred to settle its quarrels with the 
 steel. What then could they do against carbine and long- 
 sword, armed as they were only with knives ! 
 
 It was in noways courage which they lacked. But 
 professional soldiers, counted with the Maison du Roy 
 of the French King, and the Scotch Dutch regiments to 
 be the best in Europe — the odds were long against them ! 
 What wonder that the McKittericks hesitated and that 
 even the Stanleys needed leading ! If time had been given 
 to raise the Cameronian Society men as was done some- 
 what later, in the Revolution year, there might have 
 been a chance. And worst of all, no one knew where 
 a court martial might be formed — probably as soon as 
 Morton was joined by another detachment of the 
 " sweepers " of the moorland. Then it would be short 
 shrift and a dozen bullets for the gipsy chief. For 
 though the dream of Silver Sand was now fulfilled, and 
 King James sat in his brother's seat, the milder days 
 of the Toleration were slow of coming in Galloway, for 
 the heart of Claverhouse was bitter within him that so 
 much good gear should slip through his fingers.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Clatteringshaws 
 
 Juliana, for the purposes of her campaign and to save her 
 husband, had donned her young gallant's suit, which she 
 had cleaned and pressed on her return from Lochnaw with 
 her husband. She was not very clear as to what she 
 should do for him, but it was obvious from the temper of 
 her followers that an open attack was out of the question. 
 
 Her father, stout old frog-eyed blacksmith, would 
 have risked a rush — and perhaps Tomat Darby with one 
 or two of the real " Owdham " lot would have followed. 
 But Juliana knew that this was merely throwing away the 
 lives of brave men because they were brave and felt their 
 kinship to herself. Their deaths would neither benefit 
 her husband nor influence his fate, except to make it more 
 sure and immediate. 
 
 Prisoners who gave no trouble, sometimes owing to 
 rank or circumstances and sometimes to gifts of money, 
 found their way to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. But 
 any attempt at rescue, if not immediately successful, 
 merely caused them to be shot out of hand to save further 
 trouble. 
 
 So far as a man unlearned in the ways of women can 
 make out, Juliana had some vague idea of surrendering 
 herself to the Captain of the troops, and claiming that 
 she alone was guilty in the matter of the two soldiers 
 Ellerton and Kidney. She would take over the Red 
 Killer's story and make herself the hero of it. She would 
 describe the sword- and- dagger fight in the angle of the 
 old sheep-ree. 
 
 In this way she might hope to assure her husband of 
 freedom, as there were no other grounds on which he could 
 
 *09 O
 
 210 SILVER SAND 
 
 be held a prisoner. I should not venture this guess, being, 
 as you know, but an old dominie with his mind more apt 
 for Terance and Plautus than for penetrating the secret 
 heart of a young girl. But I have a reason foi my daring 
 — which is that Mistress Lilias, my well-loved friend and 
 pupil (for so she signs herself) has deigned to signify that 
 she agrees with me in this interpretation of Juliana's 
 motives at this time. Nothing is likely to be clearer, so 
 that we may take it that Juliana was travestied in 
 masculine attire for the pupose of offering herself up 
 instead of her husband. 
 
 Looked at calmly after so many years, there is little 
 doubt that such a project was chimerical and fore-doomed 
 to failure. Juliana would have lost her life without alter- 
 ing the fate of John Faa, who was accused by the small busy 
 practitioner called the " Deil's Rattlebag " of conveying 
 Sir Andrew Agnew out of the country — a defeat which, 
 in the eye of the Grahams, was worth a hundred such 
 obscure lives as those of John Faa the gipsy and Juliana 
 Stanley. 
 
 What is certain is that she followed closely the march 
 of the squadrons. It was easy to escape detection, for 
 the soldiers did not look behind them, nor survey the 
 ground over which they had just passed their besom. 
 John Faa rode on a raw-boned grey mare, no doubt taken 
 from some hill farmer's stable, all shaggy about the fet- 
 locks and hoary with age from nose to eyebrow. 
 
 Juliana could see him quite well. He was bound, 
 but his guards did not seem to be in any way severe. 
 On the contrary, all six of them took turns to ride by his 
 side and talk with him. 
 
 So they made their way to Loch Dee, and at the little 
 herd's shieling on the southerly slope, a rough camp 
 follower of Windram's was waiting for them. 
 
 " You are to go and meet the Captain at the change 
 house of Clatteringshaws which is on the New Galloway 
 track. We are all to go post haste to the south — I do 
 not know wherefore, but there is to be no more of this 
 moorland work ! " 
 
 And as he spoke Silver Sand turned hastily round to
 
 CLATTERINGSHAWS 211 
 
 question him, but the guards thinking that he meant to 
 escape, pointed their pieces at his breast and bade him 
 stand and be silent. 
 
 Clatteringshaws is a little low-browed house by the 
 wayside — as it were, forgotten in that great solitude. 
 Properly speaking it ought to be tenanted only by the 
 peewits and wild fowl of the moors, and the shy dun 
 deer in times of storm. But as a matter of fact during 
 all these stirring days it was a flourishing change-house 
 kept by Kirsty Jardine, a stout, florid, fair-headed Annan- 
 dale woman, who declared herself wedded and as such 
 wore a ring, but had neglected to bring her husband along 
 with her. This, however, rather increased her popularity 
 among the marching details and scouting troops who 
 formed her principal clientele in the bad days when the 
 Blue Flag of the Covenants was trailed in the dust. 
 
 Kirsty was of the Border, and had none of the tender- 
 ness of conscience and scrupulosity of action which were 
 characteristic of Galloway good wives even when they 
 kept inns or change-houses for a livelihood. Her house 
 was full on the main road or more exactly military bridle- 
 path between the clachans of Creebrig and Minnigaff on 
 the West, and the burgh of Newton Galloway on the 
 East. By going still farther on you would come out upon 
 Moniaive, Sanquhar, or Drumlanrig, at all of which were 
 strong garrisons of King's men, brought thither for the 
 brave sport of the Whig hunting. 
 
 With infinite patience and caution the McKitterick 
 light infantry skirmished about the flank of the heavy 
 troopers of Captain Morton. He also heard with relief 
 of the rendezvous on the New Galloway road. By starting 
 early that was within a long day's ride of his own keep on 
 the bonny hawthorn- covered knowes above Thomhill 
 and Durisdeer. 
 
 The McKittericks had no mind to engage the troopers 
 of the King. They were wild people who had not yet 
 lost their respect for muskets and the marvel of shod 
 horses. When a shot went off from one of their old 
 brass-bound blunderbusses, they gave three cheers and 
 congratulated the marksman. But it never struck them to
 
 212 SILVER SAND 
 
 go and look for the game. So the soldiers' carbines, which 
 actually killed men at twenty paces and more, were 
 wonderful to them, and such a death had something of 
 wizardry about it in no ways natural or canny. 
 
 Nevertheless, the McKittericks were incomparable 
 scouts. None in Scotland could touch them, and the 
 heavier Stanley's, accustomed to the limestone plateaus 
 of Lancashire and the ribbed wolds of Yorkshire, kept 
 well behind, following the indication of a waved hand 
 or a beckoning finger as the hill gipsies pushed forward, 
 secure in their invisibility. 
 
 The great fiats of the lower Cooran and the upper Dee 
 Water were already hard bound by frost. So the big 
 men on the big cavalry horses mostly passed cleanly over. 
 Now one and then another would break through, amid 
 shouts of laughter from their comrades, but though a 
 fall or two took place, nothing more serious than jest and 
 nicknames resulted. 
 
 As they came eastward they began to catch glimpses of 
 the few stunted shelter trees planted about Clattering- 
 shaws Inn to break the winds of the west, which in that 
 exposed region swept over the face of the moorland with 
 a fury inexpressible. The north wind might, as in the 
 ballad, tear the bent. But here, the west wind, sweeping 
 across those winter plateaus almost uprooted the little 
 low-set inn and damaged its many outhouses. To com- 
 bat this Mistress Kirsty Jardine had laid broad fiat stones 
 along all her roofs of thatch, binding them down with 
 tarred ropes anchored to great boulders brought long ago 
 from the granite hills. 
 
 The hostelry of Clatteringshaws was well seen from far — 
 a long low sad-coloured range of buildings, then in good 
 condition, but now when last I passed sorely fallen into 
 dis-repair — much of it indeed carted away to make dykes — 
 but the outlines of its past glories still plain in ruined 
 walls and extensive foundations. 
 
 Be sure the keen eyes of the gipsies were on the outlook 
 to make out what number of enemies was to meet them 
 there. If Captain Windram had his officers with him to 
 make the legal quorum of five, it was probable that John
 
 CLATTERINGSHAWS 213 
 
 Faa would be put through the semblance of a trial, and 
 shot on the spot. It was before this tribunal that (as 
 the Lady Lilias and I both think) Juliana had resolved 
 to attempt to substitute herself for her husband. 
 
 Gradually the grey walls grew out of the grey wilderness. 
 The stones on the roof and the black tarry cables seemed 
 to anchor it down to the waste of heather and tufty gall- 
 bushes which grew right up to the narrow windows. 
 But no riot of tippling soldiery could be seen anywhere 
 about as, following the troop, the gipsies carefully 
 approached. 
 
 The McKittericks redoubted a surprise, until one of their 
 swift-foot scouts, having taken the face of the south- 
 looking hills opposite to the inn's main door, came racing 
 back to report that only half-a-dozen horses were tethered 
 at the main door of Kirsty's. A soldier was on faction 
 there, for the gUnt of his musket barrel could be seen, 
 and still more clearly the flash as of Hghtning on the sword 
 bayonet then newly served out to the troops. 
 
 So there was a real rendezvous after all, and the soldiers 
 of Morton's troop, all newly raised men, looked to their 
 accoutrements and pulled their belts tighter that they 
 might make an appearance before the veterans of Captain 
 Win dram. 
 
 There was much dressing of lines and ordering of the 
 files on the more level ground as they approached. The 
 sergeants swore under their breaths and the Captain rode 
 a little ahead to give them freedom of prophesy. For he 
 knew that in matters of drill and discipline he was in their 
 hands. 
 
 So it came about that the prisoner, with only two men 
 of his escort, was left to follow behind. The rest of 
 Morton's command was ordered to take their places in 
 the troop, that Captain Windram might find nothing to 
 report against them the next time he foregathered with 
 Colonel Graham. 
 
 As the troop came closer and the road from the Bridge 
 of Cree was seen wimpHng and knotting itself across the 
 wilderness like an endless serpent, half a dozen men came 
 out of the inn and began hastily to mount their horses.
 
 214 SILVER SAND 
 
 They were not even seriously touched with Hquor, which 
 in such a lonely place showed only one thing, to wit, that 
 they were under a strong commander who knew how to 
 keep his men well in hand. 
 
 As the troops which had so long been crossing the frozen 
 bog debouched into the comparative open of the well-trod 
 path, a tall soldierly man came out in full uniform and 
 vaulted into the saddle. The man at the horse's head 
 saluted and Captain Windram rode forward alone to meet 
 his junior Morton. 
 
 He did not waste any time in greetings, but called out 
 while he was yet a score of paces off in the loud raucous 
 voice of the habitual drinker, " 'Tis all up, Morton — 
 no more riding for us in Scotland ! We are wanted in 
 England where we shall be safer at any rate." 
 
 "Why, man, what's the matter? " cried Morton, as 
 they ranged up alongside, the head gear of their horses 
 clanking, and the two beasts trying to bite each other in a 
 friendly manner. 
 
 " What's the matter, quotha ? " shouted Windram, 
 " curses on the son of the King's father ! He is going the 
 right way to lose his crown and his neck as his father did ! " 
 
 " What has the King done ? " 
 
 " His Papist cabal — Jesuits and placemen — has caused 
 him to send down an Indulgence to all dissenters, and what 
 is worse, a pardon to all offenders ; and I not yet infefted 
 in the lands of Arioland which were promised me when I 
 took Gordon of Earlston and carried him to Edinburgh, 
 Curses on the black Papist croakers, say I ! I meant to 
 reform and live cleanly — blood me, if I did not ! Marry 
 perhaps. I had my eye on a beauty and a heiress, the lady 
 Lilias of Lochnaw. Her uncle would have dowered her 
 well if I had made his peace. And now it is back again 
 to riding and roistering, only in England this time mark 
 you, where they will cashier a man for a whimsy which 
 goes unnoticed here." 
 
 " But what matters an Indulgence less or more ? " 
 «iaid Douglas, " we have had such before by dozens, but 
 they never altered our practice." 
 
 " Maybe not, Morton," retorted the grizzled veteran
 
 CLATTERINGSHAWS 215 
 
 of many wars and a thousand punch bowls, " but you 
 will find this difference. We have always had the best 
 legal talent in the country to show us how to override the 
 Acts of Parliament and royal proclamations. But this 
 time the Privy Council is filled with Papists, and Sir 
 George is down — outcasted — broken like a pewter pot ! " 
 
 " What, not Sir George Mackenzie? " 
 
 " Who else ? There are not two like him, and guess 
 you whom they have set over us as King's advocate ? " 
 
 " I cannot guess ! " 
 
 " Oh, a friend of yours — one that will not forget you — 
 no other than my Lord Stair's son — slippery Johnny. And 
 our heads are all in the sack if he gets his way with us. It 
 is done with the Grahams in Galloway. Agnew will be 
 back again in his sheriffdom, and instead of hunting, we 
 shall be the hunted." 
 
 " What is to be done, Windram — tell me and I shall do 
 it!" 
 
 " It depends whether you mean to stick to the soldier's 
 trade, or let it go hang. For me I have no choice. I ride 
 to Dumfries to confer with Claverhouse. Then I shall 
 take my men by forced marches to Hounslow Heath 
 to overawe the burgesses of London. That is where the 
 King wants us. He throws Scotland over, with all who 
 have fought for him and his house for twenty years, with 
 no more feeling than if he cast a pair of old shoes out at 
 the window at Whitehall — bishops, soldiers, lawyers, 
 every man who has earned a nation's hatred by doing 
 his dirty work — he casts them off with the true Stuart 
 gratitude." 
 
 " I shall stand by him nevertheless," said Morton, 
 after a struggle which was obvious on his face. 
 
 " Then you must turn your coat, as my friend Melford 
 did. Only men of the King's religion can now serve 
 the King. It is no matter for me. I should be a Turk 
 to-morrow and pray on a carpet five times a day if any 
 one would double my pay. But you have a castle and 
 an estate. I never could understand what bee stung 
 Westerha' and you to start the soldier's trade. It is 
 different with Claverhouse who was born a soldier, and will
 
 2i6 SILVER SAND 
 
 die like one. But you with a comfortable downsitting, with 
 rent, beeves, and dairy kine — what do you want raging 
 and raking after these poor devils who will not preach 
 and pray as the King wants them? I tell you what, 
 friend Douglas, take an old friend's advice, go home, 
 marry and multiply. Lag has already gone to earth 
 and Westerha' has made over his troop to me. Let me 
 have yours and I will stand your friend with the King. 
 He is bound to make me a Colonel when I ride into his 
 camp with six or eight hundred hardy men all well 
 mounted." 
 
 " I must see John Graham," said Douglas, " I must 
 write Queensberry, my chief and patron." 
 
 " You must do neither, Master Captain Douglas of 
 Morton Castle. You must make your own broth out of 
 your own kail, and give me your answer now, for I ride 
 to cross the border to-morrow evening. I have no time 
 to lose — say Yea or say iVay, only make haste. John 
 Dalrymple is a cunning loon, and if we do not hasten to 
 seek the King's realm of England, there will be a won- 
 drous harvest of hemp spun, twisted, knotted, and noosed 
 for our benefit in the land of the Scots." 
 
 " I cannot go home without my retainers and tenantry. 
 I dare not. The countryside would rise and tear me to 
 pieces, pretending that I had sold them," 
 
 " How many are there of such ? " 
 
 " Why, six or seven only — let me have them and you 
 may have the troop." 
 
 " Done, by the King of Moldiworts. Tell off your 
 Nithsdale varlets." 
 
 This Morton did with as much speed as possible, yet 
 not fast enough to satisfy the impetuous Windram, 
 eager for his course to the south. 
 
 " A pace to the front, all Morton's Nithside men — 
 dwellers on his estate, who followed him for love — eight. 
 Douglas, go prove them ! What, you do not know that 
 man second to the right ! Well, he shall ride the triangle 
 for that when I get him to Carlisle. You would cheat 
 me, sirrah — ah, would you ? Seize him, you there to 
 the left ! "
 
 CLATTERINGSHAWS 217 
 
 The threatened man, who like most of the troop had 
 heard the whole conference of their officers, suddenly 
 swung his heavy charger about and burst through the 
 ranks. He had been one of the two guards left behind 
 to look after Silver Sand, and in a moment the whole 
 command was in confusion. The deserter broke back 
 along the waste through which they had come, and Silver 
 Sand's mare seeing her stable companion put to the gallop 
 turned also and followed closely. 
 
 Whereupon ensued confusion and pursuit, and before 
 Windram could bring up his few veterans, half-a-dozen 
 of Morton's command were riding off in different directions 
 like sparks driven from hot iron by the forgeharamer. 
 
 In a moment Silver Sand was conscious that some one 
 was running alongside, cutting his bonds as he went, 
 
 " Now, when we come to yon willow clump, slip down 
 off the beast on the far side, and leave the rest to me ! " 
 
 In the light trim figure running so swiftly Silver Sand 
 recognised Julius of the days of Lochnaw. 
 
 " Juliana ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Hush," she answered, " not a word. Keep your 
 head well down close to the mane. Now off with you ! " 
 
 And the next moment Silver Sand found himself, a 
 little stiff, but safe, in the hands of the McKitterick guides, 
 while Juliana, erect in her saddle, was riding along the 
 flank of the disordered column to draw off the enemy's 
 pursuit.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 Juliana Ascends Mount Pleasant 
 
 A JOYOUS rout it was which brought the chief home to the 
 House of the Dungeon, All across the wild frozen moor 
 of Buchan, they had given free vent to their rejoicings. 
 Only Juliana, riding by Silver Sand's side, was strangely 
 silent. 
 
 " You are not hurt ? " he enquired anxiously, " surely 
 you are not hurt ? " 
 
 Always with a gentle smile she told him " no." She 
 was only too happy to talk, she said. She had gone out 
 white-faced and hopeless, ready to throw herself before 
 the slayers of her man. She came back quiet and con- 
 tent. She had saved him. No bullet had touched her, 
 and she was still riding the mare on which he had been 
 tied so shamefully, his feet drawn tight with a cart rope 
 beneath the beast's belly. 
 
 Yes, it was true, shots had been fired at her. She had 
 heard the whistle of the bullets as she rode. But none 
 had touched her. The whole command of King's men 
 was in an uproar and she could see one of the officers 
 (Windram to a certainty) laying lustily about him with 
 the fiat of his sword. He saw his colonelcy vanishing 
 with the fleeing troopers of Morton's half-baked command. 
 He threatened death, with hell following after, against 
 every deserter. He cursed and smote till he had instilled 
 some semblance of order into the troop which he had 
 taken over at so cheap a rate. But it may well be ques- 
 tioned if he succeeded in bringing two thirds of them to 
 Claverhouse's headquarters at the Brigend of Dumfries. 
 
 The gipsies came to the Dungeon head in a tumult of 
 singing. The torches were lit at the Shieling of Glenhead, 
 
 aiS
 
 JULIANA ASCENDS MOUNT PLEASANT 219 
 
 and the last of the journey had to be performed 
 under hurried glimpses of a moon hidden among snow 
 clouds, or, in the rifts of the black sky, the sudden radiance 
 of a star. 
 
 Silver Sand spoke time and again to Juliana, and she 
 answered him softly like one in a dream. She had done 
 her work far above her thought, and now she went back 
 in a kind of ecstasy, a joy that was too deep for expres- 
 sion. As they passed Cameron's grave by the upper 
 lochside the mare stumbled on the ridge of the mound, 
 and Silver Sand, having bidden a sheltie to be saddled, 
 set her upon it sideways, having first quadrupled the 
 cloth under the pad. Then he walked all the way by her 
 side, his arm about her waist and she looking down upon 
 him with eyes of dumb and lovely yearning. 
 
 Thus they came to the House of the Dungeon of Buchan, 
 and there, at the entrance of the rocky gorge, they met 
 the master of these solitudes, the Red Killer himself, newly 
 lighted down from the long cross-country journey from 
 the Gled's Nest on the Black Shore of Leswalt. 
 
 He took but a look at Juliana's face as she slid down 
 fainting at her husband's feet — another at the concerned 
 and puzzled countenance of Silver Sand. 
 
 " God, man, did ye not see ? Do you tell me that you 
 did not know ? " 
 
 The blankness of his chief's regard answered him. 
 
 " Run, you young imps," he shouted fiercely to the 
 nearest underlings, " bring Elspeth McKitterick from the 
 ' Star,' and if you are not back in sixty minutes, I shall 
 break every bone in your worthless bodies. Hear me, 
 you Angus, and you Hector, take your feet to it going, 
 but coming back, see that the good wife rides. Tire 
 down a mount and catch another, but get her here ! " 
 
 And before midnight of that winter night, Silver Sand's 
 first-bom son lay within Juliana's folding arms, and 
 between sleeping and waking, out of the great peace, she 
 watched him by the flickering of the red peat fire, while 
 without the snow made rage among the cliffs of the 
 Dungeon. 
 
 Dazed and tremulous of soul Silver Sand sat by the
 
 ^^0 SILVER SAND 
 
 window looking out into the night. The good wife of 
 the " Star " would not let him come near the bed, though 
 he had been allowed to view the boy. But he knew that 
 on Juliana's face there appeared at intervals a rare joy, 
 the enlightenment of one who has found a final peace. 
 
 Elspeth of the " Star " said little. But she spoke 
 once at the door to the Red Killer, and the minute after 
 the noise of men pledging the heir of Egypt sank into 
 stillness as if ashamed. 
 
 Presently Juliana whispered to the nurse. 
 
 " Let him come near me, where I can see him — close 
 by the bed. It wiU do me no harm, and I have much to say." 
 
 Elspeth of the " Star," not the most commendable or 
 douce of dames in her ordinary life, but now turned to a 
 ministering angel, seeing all things and forestalhng all 
 things, conferred apart at the window with her daughter 
 Bess whom she had brought with her. She left the two 
 alone, almost with the delicacy of a gentlewoman, to 
 speak together what was in their hearts. 
 
 " Kiss me, my lord," said Juliana, " and pardon me 
 that I hid this thing from you. I meant to tell you. 
 But then our precious time together would have been 
 the shorter. I wanted it long, because I knew it might 
 not come again. Now I have saved your life, my hus- 
 band, and I have given what men desire, a first-bom son ! 
 This is he, here on my arm, and his name is John — John 
 Faa — mine and yours, John. No one — no one at all 
 can take that from me. I walk in dark places, but there 
 are two white angels who go with me — two Johns — you 
 and the boy. Kiss me — once again. Your lips are hot, 
 John — they are flames of fire. Bid the woman put wood 
 on the fire — more and more faggots — peat is too slow. 
 I am cold. Yes, you feel me trembling. Hold me about 
 with your arm. Now again I am warm. Ah, if I fall 
 asleep, do not be afraid. I shall awake, dear. Never 
 fear. Long ago I was all vanity and folly. I took you, 
 because I saw it was my one chance of dreaming a 
 woman's dream, and of loving the greatest of men. And 
 I do not say I am sorry. I have made you love me a 
 httle, John Faa ? Say it — tell me ? And though you
 
 JULIANA ASCENDS MOUNT PLEASANT 221 
 
 have yet fifty years to live (as you will have, my husband) 
 you will never forget Juliana, the mad girl who laid aside 
 modesty and ' asked ' you, and whom you married out 
 
 of pity." 
 
 Silver Sand groaned aloud in the agony of his spirit. 
 
 At the sound the elder of the two women came hastily 
 from the stormbeaten window. Juliana motioned her 
 off with her hand, smiling all the time that inscrutable 
 new smile. " Let us talk, I am well. Aunt Elspeth, and 
 John's arm helps me bravely. There is nothing in the 
 world like a man's arm when that man is the husband 
 of your youth — Elspeth, have you not found it so ? " 
 
 Now in her heart, Elspeth, wife of the " Star," thought 
 there was a word to say against as well as for that pro- 
 position. But she was a wise woman, and knew that 
 the present was not the time to say it. She only nodded 
 and went below stairs to compound a soothing potion of 
 which she foresaw that her patient would presently have 
 need. 
 
 So with Silver Sand's arm about her Juliana talked 
 low and triumphantly. But oftentimes she would en- 
 tangle her ideas, as an angler does his hook among the hly 
 roots at the comer of a pool where the fishes slip past, 
 cool and safe, and the clear brown water eddies away. 
 
 Then Silver Sand would touch her cheek with his lips 
 and with one hand ease her pillows, but he dared not 
 move his arm from about her neck. 
 
 " I have two good books here," she said, showing him 
 the New Testament and another, " I learned in it from 
 a man who used to bide with us in Moston Clough. Bun- 
 yan was his name — John also, and he gave me this and 
 bade me read it. Also he had written with his own hand 
 the wanderings of a man who left home for religion's 
 sake — a kind of Wanderer, as I judge. I did not know 
 what religion was, but the tinker taught me. He told 
 me that these two books would keep me safe till I met the 
 Man-That- Was-To-Be, and then I should forget all for 
 that man's sake. Oh, how right he was ! I have for- 
 gotten all but you, but for that God will not deal hardly 
 with me. Many a time, John, when I lay leaning on my
 
 222 SILVER SAND 
 
 elbow and watched you in the day dawning, when the 
 birds were just waking to chirp, I have said, " He is not 
 angry, for He is love. He says so, and if this be not love, 
 sure I am that He will not find it anywhere upon earth ! 
 Take the little books, John, and read them sometimes for 
 that Love's sake — for love, as you know and I know, is 
 stronger than death." 
 
 The green glass of the windows, brought all the way 
 from France, was blended and hoar with frost and 
 plastered snow. The blast from the Dungeon mouth 
 had blown itself out, and the winds of heaven were hushed 
 and laid. 
 
 " It is the Sabbath, John," she said, cUnging to him, 
 " surely it is the Sabbath day. I can hear the church 
 bells ringing. I used to hear them in Moston Clough 
 and steal away to service unbeknown to father. For it 
 is very well for a man to lightly such things, but with 
 a girl it is different. So I loved Sunday morning when 
 Parson Elmes had a service at six of the clock and the 
 men slept late. Breakfast was not till eight — sometimes 
 half an hour later, and then there was plenty of time 
 to get back with a handful of blooms all wet with dew, 
 to make believe you had been down the dell flower 
 gathering." 
 
 Silver Sand did not interrupt her, but let her talk on. 
 
 " You are different, John, and I should have spoken 
 earlier. I have heard you talk of holy things with holy 
 men, and though you seldom agreed, you reverenced. 
 I have seen you take off your plumed hat (and how noble 
 you looked) when they prayed to their God." 
 
 Then she appeared to be wandering a little, and spoke 
 of the Duchrae Bank and Mount Pleasant, mixing them 
 with the tinker's book about Delectable Mountains, and 
 calling them the fairest spots on earth. 
 
 " I have made the fire, John," she whispered, " we 
 shall have a sweet camp, on a knowe all flowers, sheltered 
 by the hill pines, and the white water lilies sleeping not 
 a stone's cast from our feet. There we shall rest and 
 spend the Sabbath. I like the country far inland better 
 than the noisy sea, which breaks and lashes and roars
 
 JULIANA ASCENDS MOUNT PLEASANT 223 
 
 the same way Sunday and Saturday. We are out of the 
 gloomy noise of waves among caves. The sad moor-birds 
 cry not here. Only the birds sing, and with our love 
 so wonderful and rich, but oh, so swift to run away — 
 we can rest, all this day and to-morrow — and the day 
 after — well, the day after — that is in the hands of God." 
 And so indeed was the morrow in so far as Juliana 
 was concerned. Silver Sand was left alone with his 
 first-bom son. For Juliana, his wife, had fared forth, 
 content and triumphant, full of joy, and carrying her 
 love with her by way of Mount Pleasant into the purple- 
 stained Sabbath of those who have suffered and con- 
 quered for love's sake.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIl 
 
 The Queen of Egypt the Little 
 
 They buried her in a sunny dale by the waterside of 
 Enoch, just where a burn tinkles away half hidden among 
 the heather. The snow was not all melted yet, but the 
 spot was sheltered and the frost had not bitten deep. 
 The sparkling white of fresh fallen snow marked all the 
 precipices of the Merrick, and outlined the black arrogance 
 of its Spear, to which, because of its steepness, no snow 
 clung. The red-eyed smith had worked day and night 
 to make from bog oak, iron and copper, a fitting coffin for 
 his daughter, and Elspeth of the " Star" had carried the 
 babe home to nurse. Her eldest daughter, Bess, had a 
 child of four weeks, but Bess was so robust that she had 
 milk for them both. John Faa would be satisfied. She 
 was not one to mislippen a beggar's brat, still less the 
 descendant of kings, the true black blood of Egypt. 
 
 And Elspeth herself squared many a doubtful item in 
 her account by the kindness of her thought — the heaped- 
 up linen and lace which she brought from the "Star" 
 to deck out the dead for the burying. Juliana lay like 
 something hardly of earth, so refined and frail, all the 
 baser parts of humanity drained away by the great 
 accomplishing act of completed love, which is maternity, 
 that those who looked on her, rough men and simple 
 untaught women, thought that they, when their time 
 came, would not be loth to die. 
 
 Silver Sand mused upon life and death. New visions 
 of love and its meaning came to him. He understood 
 for the first time all the unselfishness of Juliana, and, 
 manlike, wished her alive that he might " make it up to 
 her." Deep in his heart he was aware that though his 
 
 224
 
 THE QUEEN OF EGYPT THE LITTLE 225 
 
 years might stretch out Hke those of any patriarch on the 
 roster of noble names, though time and fate should give 
 him the best the world held, he would never be so loved 
 again, with such innocent abnegation and full surrender. 
 Her hands were still clasped as they had been about his 
 neck. No one had been able to unclasp them. The 
 loving dead resisted, and so they let her go to her grave 
 with love-locked fingers, a sweet resolute soul steeped in 
 joy, with the tender smile of a sainted love upon her lips. 
 
 A year ago she had only been rather a wild gipsy 
 maiden, racing with the colts and uncommonly masterful 
 with the lads. And love had wrought this marvel — a 
 woman sainted, frailty-freed, and leading even bad, 
 rough women, not free from reproach, upward to the 
 Unknown God, by the gentle path which is service and 
 love and happy death. 
 
 The gipsies sang the old hymns and laments for their 
 Saint Sara, that handmaiden of Mary Madeleine who 
 lies cloistered in the low crypt of Les Trois Maries on the 
 Provencal beach amid the scent of tufted romarin and 
 the hale herbs of that lonely foreshore : 
 
 " The tree and the cross oj Sara the Saint, 
 And the Man who hung thereon. 
 The daughter oj Egypt shall see them all. 
 When her jeet touch Mount Sion." 
 
 Or again, it was the mysterious call of the Romany 
 for a home, which certainly for him is not of this world, 
 seeing that by his own immemorial choice, he is the 
 world's sole wanderer. 
 
 " Mv blood so red 
 
 For thee was shed — 
 Come home again, come thy ways home ! 
 My own sweet heart, come thy ways home ! 
 Hast gone astray 
 Out oj thy way ? 
 A well — awell ! 
 Come home again — come thy ways home ! " 
 
 This was the overword of their song, mingled with the 
 tags of Romany laments and all the wild but not hopeless 
 lament of the Oriental.
 
 226 SILVER SAND 
 
 But even the immemorial wail of Egypt for their dead 
 queen left Silver Sand cold — cold as the snowflakes which 
 sprinkled them, dusting down from the peaks of the 
 Dungeon. 
 
 The Stanleys started for their own land as soon as 
 the mists began to creep up warm and laden with the 
 breath of spring from the sea. The Killer had made sure 
 that they would pass the Border without difficulty, after 
 which they must fend for themselves. 
 
 Not a red-coat at Lagwine, at Carlinwark, at Crocket- 
 ford or even in Dumfries — all (so they said) had gone 
 south to fight the King's battles. He was in sore need, 
 this James of York, and the greater was his need the 
 greater became his folly. They were gone, at all events, 
 like a roosting covey of birds scared by the sudden clap- 
 ping of hands under the branches. Scotland could 
 hardly believe in her own good fortune, and men talked 
 in whispers and visited each other by night as if they 
 were still in hiding. 
 
 And to his host of the Dungeon, the red-eyed smith 
 left a complete set of travelling blacksmith's gear — a 
 treasure almost inestimable in that time and place. 
 Jasper Stanley would find another waiting for him in 
 the Clough of Moston under the care of Buskar and 
 Jankar, his brawny 'prentices. Yet all the same the 
 deed of gift was a memorable one, and one that the 
 dwellers of the wild speak of to this day. Indeed, it 
 became a custom to send to Jasper and afterwards to 
 his successors, Buskar and Jankar Stanley, a sturdy lad 
 to learn the trade, so that the fame of the hill forge of 
 the Dungeon reached from Cree Water to Kells, and the 
 McKittericks and John Faa, their over-lord, had both 
 siller and renown. 
 
 Thus they parted, and Silver Sand went with them to 
 accompany the party as far as the Eden. But the Red 
 Killer, charmed with his bellows and anvil, stayed behind 
 to hammer and weld. For, as the French say, " 'tis only 
 in forging that one becomes a smith."
 
 THE OUEEN OF EGYPT THE LITTLE 227 
 
 Little was said. There was little to say. The grave 
 in the sheltered nook above Enoch constantly returned 
 to the thought of both husband and father. The babe 
 she had left hardly counted as yet. That faint gleam 
 of too-early light might any day flicker out like a blown 
 lantern. At any rate, if any could keep him in life, it 
 was the wise woman Elspeth and her daughter, whose 
 fostering care he shared. 
 
 For children of Egypt they travelled nobly. Silver 
 Sand had been lavish. He had given to her father the 
 golden pieces which he had had made into hoops for 
 Juliana's splendid blue-black hair. The thick bands of 
 gold-smithery work, old as their first coming into the 
 land, were kept for his young son's wife, if he should live 
 so long. Silver Sand had also bought for them hardy 
 Galloway ponies and noble asses in plenty. He had 
 given them tents and tent equipage, so that the Stanleys 
 should go back to their own land like princes. 
 
 A hard grey day it was when they crossed the Dee 
 Water at the Boat Croft, a mile below Glenlochar Abbey, 
 where, in the summer season, is a ford. And Conchar 
 McConchie swore to the miller of Barnboard that things 
 were come to a pretty pass when common gipsies were 
 trigged out hke lairds — " Aye, and one o' them sat his 
 horse with the air of a prince ! " 
 
 " And a prince he was," said Miller Johnstone, who 
 knew something of these matters, " for who was he but 
 John Faa, who is as good an earl of the realm of Scots as 
 Castle Stewart himself ! " 
 
 The ferryman stared down the road after them, and 
 turned over the crown piece in his hand. Then he 
 crossed himself (being but an Annandale pagan) and spat 
 upon it to keep away ill luck. 
 
 " Curse me, if I should not gladly ferry the like of 
 them twice a day across Dee Water. From Claverhouse 
 I never got a nod, though I make twelve journeys with 
 his provender, and as for Westerha', he does nothing 
 but damn me and curse me because my father has not 
 paid his half-year's rent." 
 
 They drew near England, passing down the Long
 
 228 SILVER SAND 
 
 Wood of Lochrutton, and so at last losing sight of the 
 white peaks on the north- western horizon. They ven- 
 tured the Bridge of Dumfries, passed the Sands in safety 
 and so, skirting the Solway, they came to the lowlands, 
 where already at close of day the ploughman was leaving 
 his plough sidelong-tilted in the last furrow. 
 
 On the knowetops they saw snug homesteads fortified 
 with rows of corn-ricks climbing tier upon tier, and at 
 such places they sometimes asked for the shelter of barn 
 or byre. 
 
 The folks moved about without any fear, though at 
 Rockall Tower still dwelt Grier of Lag, but then the 
 Annandale folk were no good Whigs at any time. 
 
 They met with few rude answers, and none such were 
 given to Silver Sand, who looked like a prince and travelled 
 like one. Before they parted at the side of the Eden 
 Water, Silver Sand made Jasper his overman and the 
 collector of his dues and obligations for all the English 
 clans. This had been Juliana's work, and for the sake 
 of her husband and son, the smith of the Clough took the 
 matter in hand. 
 
 "It is not meet that the Faa himself should ask and 
 beg, bargain and chaffer," said Jasper Stanley, "so as 
 I cannot live for ever I shall take young Sylvester to 
 help me — Supple Sylvester of Harpurhey Dean. He is 
 quick of wit, and for his weight a non-such fighter. He 
 will look to all the border and southland as far as the 
 Wash and the Marches of Wales, But you must speak 
 to the Red Killer about this country we have quitted. 
 For look you, John Faa, though you have been a noble 
 benefactor as well as a good son to me, I have left up 
 yonder all I hold dear — and I have no mind to see again 
 that strange land and barren which has been our place 
 of refuge these many months. I shall, therefore, send 
 Supple Sylvester twice a year to you to the place which 
 you shall appoint by letter. But for Jasper Stanley, 
 once he has crossed Eden Water, he comes no more to 
 the black hills where he left the pride of his old, sad 
 heart." 
 
 The two men stood alone on the edge of the full-fed
 
 THE QUEEN OF EGYPT THE LITTLE ±2^ 
 
 dniinly water. They could hear the pipes of the Stanleys 
 pla5dng a march of rejoicing because they were once 
 more on the plain red English earth. 
 The overword came to their ears : 
 
 " And he will comjort you sometimes 
 Mother, as I have done." 
 
 They stood on the margin and sang as they watched 
 the boatman go back for their chief. 
 
 " Oh, joy the rose, the gentle rose. 
 
 And the Jennil that grows so green I 
 God give us grace in every place 
 
 To pray jor our King and Queen ! " 
 
 The huge smith dashed the water from his eyes and, 
 almost with the same gesture indicated the hills of Scot- 
 land, of which only the white dome of Criffel was now 
 visible. 
 
 " Our Queen ! " he said bitterly, " she that was our 
 Queen, lies yonder ! " 

 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 Ave Atque Vale 
 
 Silver Sand did not again return to the hill country. 
 He provided liberally for Juliana's son, and set on the 
 Red Killer to be his guardian. He made him also doer 
 or agent, and in the change-house of Creetown bound him 
 by the crossing of bloods to a special fidelity. He was 
 to decide ordinary cases of gipsy justice and appeal only 
 was to lie to John Faa, So that he should be less bound 
 to travel about from tribe to tribe. He had as yet no 
 idea where he would settle or how far afield he would 
 wander. But for his fear of anarchy at home and the 
 bringing down upon Egypt of the stranger's justice, he 
 would have gone back to France. 
 
 But this, it was evident he could not do while James 
 Stuart reigned and a fearful people took their bread day 
 by day, in uncertainty and trembling, from the hollow 
 of God's hand. 
 
 All was at last regulated, and Silver Sand was now 
 free to go where he pleased. He turned his horse's head 
 to the west and rode into the eye of the sunset. 
 
 No, you are wrong, reader. He was not going at 
 all to Lochnaw, neither to Charteris Lodge, which her 
 aunt's recent death had conveyed to Lilias. He was not 
 travelling towards the North Channel to see any woman, 
 but just to stable his beast and draw in his chair at the 
 inglenook of an old dominie, whose privilege it has been 
 to stitch together all these records of strange happenings. 
 At least that is what he told me. 
 
 He came to the school -house with the grey of the 
 nightfall and the salt sea mist which rolled up over the 
 Rhynns, as the tides drave in from the Atlantic. Never was 
 
 230
 
 AVE ATOUE VALE 231 
 
 man more welcome, hardly even a sweetheart ! For, as 
 God is my hope I had feared to look upon his face no more, 
 and I had taken a fancy to love the lad. I had changes 
 to make when he came, for in the winter season, when 
 few folk travel, even a dominie gets into out-at-elbov.'s 
 ways. I had some pet fowls to shut back into the hen 
 house, and a she-goat and kidling to change from the 
 stable to the byre, lest Silver Sand's long-tailed Arab 
 should object to such fellowship of the commons. I 
 need not have troubled ; in twenty-four hours Myrrha was 
 back again with her young one, and indeed finished by 
 taking quite the upper hand of good-natured Saladin. 
 
 But I hastened my supper and kept busy about the 
 fire, hardly daring to look Silver Sand in tbe eyes. I did 
 not speak at all of Juliana, nor of the boy, though I knew 
 all. For the Killer had written me two letters by the post 
 of Egypt (which is mysterious as the blowing of the wind), 
 and John Faa knew by my silence and perhaps by my 
 hasty and ill-regulated chatter, that I knew. So neither 
 of us said anything of consequence, but ate and drank with 
 the relish and good comradeship of men who love and 
 respect each other of a long season. Then after I had 
 cleared away and washed the vessels — I fear with that 
 showing of haste which is called " a lick and a promise," 
 I set down the square-faced case of Hollands upon the 
 table, with smuggler's brandy and good country spirit 
 made by Sir Andrew's forest-guard — who having nothing 
 to do but see that no one killed muir-pouts before the first 
 of August, would undoubtedly without his still have been 
 driven into a melancholy. A little basket of rushes 
 filled with new clay pipes and a ten-pound jar of the best 
 Virginia tobacco settled us for the night — that is to say, 
 with the kettle singing on the hob and the fine yellow 
 lemons which Silver Sand had carried in a net at his 
 saddle bow all the way from Dumfries Sands. 
 
 I had wine also, the gift of my good patron, but I did 
 not present it. For a man in Silver Sand's position and 
 mood of mind needs the stronger comfort — that is, wisely 
 and in reason, as two men such as he and I meant to use 
 it. I think we were at least a good quarter of an hour
 
 232 SILVER SAND 
 
 mixing and stirring as if there was nothing more in our 
 minds than to get the beverage to our taste. 
 
 The candles, six in number, were set in sconces of soHd 
 silver, for though but a dominie, the Crogos are of a good 
 house in East Galloway, and have chiefly followed the 
 Church and mine own way of life — dominie and minister 
 succeeding each other according to the accident of large 
 or small families. And now I had no family but Myrrha, 
 my goat, Fleckie in the byre, and the hens which regularly 
 misconducted themselves with sleepy peckings upon my 
 own rafters. 
 
 We felt shy of speech — that is, of the frank free speech 
 of men such as ourselves. We were not the men to put 
 one another off with counters or tags of conversation. 
 I spoke at last of the news from Sir Andrew at Ballikill, 
 and, the good thought coming to me, I got down the 
 letters out of the high wall-press and read them one by 
 one to him. No one of them ended without a request 
 for news of Silver Sand. And when Sir Andrew had got 
 a letter for himself from the Dungeon of Buchan he was 
 not content till he had copied half of it for my benefit, 
 lest his news might be later or fuller than mine. 
 
 When I had finished the reading of the last, I looked 
 up suddenly and put my thought to him. 
 
 " If I were you. Silver Sand, I should take the boat 
 at the Chapel steps and hie me over to greet Sir Andrew. 
 He will not believe all that has come to pass here during 
 these last weeks. Yet it will not do for him to come 
 home too soon. We are not at the final cast of the dice 
 yet, and the enemies who have gone may yet come 
 riding back up the Lochnaw loaning ! " 
 
 I could see him hesitating at the cross-roads, his mind 
 uncertain which way to take. So I put in my word. 
 
 " We are able to do the watching for now the country is 
 raised. The Society Men are drilling. They have four 
 officers of the old Scotch Dutch between here and Glenluce, 
 and as many more in the valley of the Dee. Besides 
 James Agnew is at Innermessan with his bride, and my 
 Lord Eglinton has sent him a score of Montgomeries 
 and Cunninghams to keep the castle, Hal of Windy
 
 AVE ATQUE VALE 233 
 
 Standard, now the laird and a reformed character, has 
 brought down half-a-dozen Loch Doon men, and swears 
 that he will die before ever hoof of a King's horse clatters 
 on the paved court of Lochnaw. Besides he is a merry 
 lad enough, well-liked, and good company for Lilias. 
 Every forenoon, between ten and eleven of the clock you 
 can see them riding together, and as often as not they look 
 in upon the dominie to the destruction of his senior 
 classes, and the open - mouthed admiration of the 
 pinafored rabble." 
 
 " I shall go to Ireland," answered Silver Sand, promptly, 
 and indeed I was glad he should say that. For I knew 
 he would only wear his heart out as things were here — 
 with Juliana Ijdng under the snow of the Dungeon, her 
 babe among friendly but fremit folk, and Lilias riding out 
 daily with Hal Bruce of Windy Standard. The fact is, 
 he had yielded to a sudden impulse in coming to us on 
 the Back Shore of Leswalt. One life had closed down upon 
 him with the suddenness of a trick in a theatre, and Silver 
 Sand had turned his horse's head towards the only other 
 he knew, and, so far as I was concerned, he had done well. 
 But all the same I realised that he was too near Loch- 
 naw, and the daily comings and goings of its people 
 between Charteris Lodge and Innermessan. 
 
 It was a couple of hours after that he first spoke of 
 Juliana and the bairn. I let on that, save the bare fact, 
 everything was news to me. He spoke with a sad manful- 
 ness which I had not thought within his compass a year 
 ago. No wife could have been more to him than Juliana. 
 Love, service, self-sacrifice — she had given him her 
 woman's all, and he was not going to forget her. As to the 
 boy he did not see his way so clear. But this he did see, 
 when the time came he should be either altogether a 
 gipsy like Jasper Stanley, his grandfather, or educated 
 without the least knowledge of Egypt. He should not be 
 condemned like his father to be the sport of two irrecon- 
 cilable laws, so that if he obeyed one he stood condemned 
 by the other. He should not fall between two stools 
 as he (Silver Sand) had done, with instinct warring 
 against reason, and the present against the past.
 
 234 SILVER SAND 
 
 I listened as he spoke, saying little but nodding my 
 head whenever he looked for approval, and at the end 
 extending my hand to clasp his. I was beginning as a tact- 
 ful man to understand my John Faa, just as long ago 
 I had plumbed the possibilities of my patron, good 
 Sir Andrew. 
 
 Silver Sand's idea of his own double nature entertained 
 me vastly, affording me a field for curious thought and 
 what I may call philosophical theory. He was far more 
 entertaining than Sir Andrew, who for his part was as 
 little complicated as a Jack-pudding, though (let me add) 
 of a rare tender nature, kindly as heather honey, and yet 
 refreshing as four-year-old October ale. 
 
 The next day I was up early and went over to Port 
 Patrick clachan where was an old crony of mine, Captain 
 Paul Wishart, who had left the ploughing of the seas to 
 try the growing of cabbages and potatoes on that wind- 
 swept promontory. He had however built his house 
 on a little stance which the laird had given him near the 
 entrance of the glen. You could see the Channel and the 
 ships from the front windows — that of course. Paul 
 Wishart could not have lived without the sea, but the 
 garden extended down into the shelter of the glen, and 
 promised marvellous things with flowers and vegetables. 
 
 I asked the Captain what ships were in Loch Ryan 
 or hanging about the coast, which in case of necessity 
 could be depended upon to land a passenger safely in 
 Lame Loch. 
 
 " A friend o' yours," quoth he. " And needing a safe 
 cast ashore ! Then I judge that the fewer who are 
 treated to the name of the gentleman the better. Why 
 look for a first rater ? I have down yonder in the cove, 
 a dainty lugger, little bigger than a ship's boat. But I 
 will warrant her for speed and safety. I will sail her 
 myself, and no one the wiser. ' There goes old Paul — 
 always at his sailing ploys — his fingers itch for the 
 ropes. He does not know what else to do with them. 
 Look, the Bella is new painted, and when he comes back 
 he will begin and repaint her all over again ! ' Oh, I 
 Joiow how they talk. Well, let them — all that makes for
 
 AVE ATQUE VALE 235 
 
 safety. When did ever the King's new preventive men 
 take a look at my cargo when I landed, no — not though 
 I have run from Ramsey Bay in the Isle of Man, time and 
 again ? " 
 
 I was most content and set up with this promise. For 
 sometimes Captain Paul Wishart was inclined to be 
 stiff in his notions and especially afraid of taking any 
 risks which might embroil him with the Government or 
 entail the seizure of his beloved Bella. 
 
 I communicated my news to Silver Sand, whom on 
 my return I found pacing gloomily up and down in front 
 of the house, keeping to the open space of trodden pro- 
 menade (which I call Areopagus) from which a fair view 
 of Castle Lochnaw and its approaches could be had. 
 
 He listened attentively and courteously, as indeed he 
 did in all circumstances. (For excepting that one time 
 with poor Juliana I have never seen his temper ruffled.) 
 
 But he answered that he could not go to see Sir Andrew 
 in Ireland without first paying his respects to my Lady, 
 and taking \vith him her latest commands. 
 
 Of course I knew that this was merely an excuse — 
 an excuse made not to me but to himself and to poor 
 Juliana who lay dead among the headlands of Buchan. 
 I did not think it for the best, and told him so. But I 
 might as well have talked to the rocks of the Black Head. 
 He had made up his mind, and I could only remind him 
 of the Nvilful man's proverb : " He that will to Coupar, 
 maun to Coupar ! " 
 
 So in the afternoon he set off. I could watch him go 
 without interfering with the discipline of the school. 
 For it was that somnolent hour which all dominies know 
 — when whole classes drowse, and not a lesson can be 
 reasonably heard, when a black-board of sums or a sheaf 
 of copy-lines serves to pass the time, when the buzzings 
 of a blue-bottle on a \\ indow pane, or the drowsy falling 
 in of wood or peat ash in the big school-room grate are 
 the most notable incidents. Then the dominie, if he be 
 a wise man, puts his authority into his desk with his tawse, 
 becomes a little deaf and more than a little blind, and with 
 a sigh of what in any other man would be pleasure, draws
 
 236 SILVER SAND 
 
 out a favourite volume and betakes himself to the refresh- 
 ing of his spiritual part. 
 
 I say I watched Silver Sand stride down the road. 
 There was about him a something which was wholly new. 
 Never again could he be mistaken for a supple Sylvester, 
 nor imagined as doing battle for his rights with the 
 red-eyed smith. 
 
 This was a man, not merely an agile scholar of the 
 fathers at Issy, and of the Parisian salle d'armes. He 
 walked like a great gentleman too, and yet planted his 
 feet like one who has met and outfaced the high problems 
 of Life and Death. 
 
 He must be let go his own way. Nothing that honest 
 old Nathan Crogo could say would influence him any 
 more — that is, once when his mind was made up. How- 
 ever, I might still find room to shove in my oar while his 
 course was in the making. 
 
 I am not at liberty to say how I came by the narrative 
 of what happened that memorable day. It is sufficient 
 that I do know the details intimately, and that I am 
 at liberty to produce them. 
 
 In the front of Lochnaw Castle there existed at that 
 time and till the time of Son James' cruel reparations, 
 a kind of English " garden wild," called by some learned 
 men (though not by Sir Andrew who owned it), the 
 Spenserian. Tall ash trees overshaded it, the boles 
 shooting up clean of branches to a crown of foliage, and 
 the space beneath green and cool Uke the aisle of a 
 natural cathedral. Then under foot was only clean 
 grass, and the cheerful beds of flowers, self-sown mostly, 
 appearing unexpectedly among the greenery. 
 
 Lilias Agnew was moving about, looking at this and that 
 tender bud of spring, or even the promise of a bud. A 
 sound of laughter came to Silver Sand's ear, but he knew 
 well enough that it was not Lilias's argentine tinkle. 
 When he came in sight of her, she was bending over a 
 rose-bush in the act of pruning it, her brows bent in 
 earnestness, and the crescent-shaped blade firmly held 
 in her hand. Young Hal Bruce walked beside her, and 
 with his hands stuck into his silken sask, laughed at her
 
 AVE ATQUE VALE 237 
 
 devotion. She took no more notice of his merriment 
 than of the yapping of a puppy, but serenely went on 
 with her task. 
 
 Presently she looked up, perhaps conscious of a third 
 presence, and saw the grave slender figure of Silver Sand 
 standing uncovered before her. 
 
 She grew pale and turned away as if to go indoors 
 without a salutation. But Silver Sand was not now a 
 man to put up with that from any woman. 
 
 " Mistress Lihas," he said, " I have a word to speak 
 to you before I cross the sea to visit your uncle. It 
 is a word which can only be spoken in private. This 
 gentleman (he bowed courteously to Hal Bruce) will 
 understand and excuse me. I have only the time between 
 two tides in which to transact much business." 
 
 " My lady is in the Castle," said Lihas, coldly, and 
 without looking at him, " you may transact your busi- 
 ness with her. You can have none with me ! " 
 
 " I have business with her ladyship, but first with 
 you. Mr. Bruce, I have the honour to invite you — to 
 retire ! " 
 
 The young man flushed and laid his hand angrily 
 
 on his sword-hilt. " I am not accustomed " he began, 
 
 hotly. 
 
 Lilias turned upon him with a flash of temper. 
 
 " Oh, go away," she said, " do you not see that this 
 is no place for boys ! " 
 
 He went without a word, and did not even strut or 
 cock his plumed beaver, yet young Windy Standard 
 was a lad of mettle too when among his fellows and 
 cup-companions. 
 
 " Now, sir, pray be brief," said Lilias, wearily, " this 
 interview is none of my seeking, and it is as much as I 
 can do to listen to you. Do not strain my good will." 
 
 Silver Sand remained bareheaded before her, but liis 
 black mourning dress upon his tall slight figure had 
 something commanding which engaged the eye of Lilias. 
 
 " You were good enough, when you last bade me 
 farewell, to say that you wished me well, and also that 
 you wished well to my wife 1 "
 
 238 SILVER SAND 
 
 As Silver Sand paused the blood mounted hotly to the 
 girl's cheek. 
 
 " I spoke hastily, I daresay," she said, " and uttered a 
 great deal more than I meant. It is my habit and my 
 fault." 
 
 " I beheve — I am constrained to believe — that so far 
 as concerns the good woman who was my wife according 
 to the laws of my people, you did wish her well. And 
 your wishes have been granted. She is dead ! " 
 
 " Dead — dead," exclaimed Lilias, the blood ebbing 
 from her face, " I did not know. I am sorry — oh, beheve 
 that I am sorry." 
 
 " I am sure of it," said Silver Sand, " she died in 
 rescuing me from the dragoons. She left behind her a 
 child — my son ! " 
 
 " She died — where is the baby ? " 
 
 Lilias spoke with more than her usual impetuosity. 
 She seemed to be compelling him to answer. 
 
 " I have left it with some good honest people at the 
 House of the Star near Loch Enoch. The daughter has a 
 child of her own." 
 
 " Why did you not take the child to your wife's 
 people ? " 
 
 " They were present at the funeral, but they dwell 
 far away. I do not know their women, and I have not 
 yet made up my mind whether he shall be brought up 
 a gipsy or a house-dweller. I only know that he must 
 be wholly one or wholly the other — and not have his 
 condemnation written from the moment of his birth ! " 
 
 Lilias looked at him a little wanly. The flashing 
 heat of temper had died out of her eyes. Something 
 soft and beautiful irradiated about her, which became her 
 as a summer day becomes a fair landscape. 
 
 She had thought love to be selfish and now it was turn- 
 ing out to be generous. Indeed her anger had long ago 
 made a private truce with Silver Sand, as is the case with 
 all noble women. Love had come home to her, not as 
 a guest merely, but as an angel at unawares, and she had 
 found herself making excuses for him. 
 
 Only at his sudden appearance her pride had risen to
 
 AVE ATQUE VALE 239 
 
 her aid, and helped her to speak harshly — as she had done 
 before. 
 
 But as he stood there, so changed, so distant, so 
 proudly humble, without anything to ask and yet with 
 certain accents of command in his voice, her heart grew 
 warm and pitiful within her. 
 
 " Poor Juhana," she murmured, " I may call her that 
 now ? She won the gift of gifts, the good she asked for, 
 but to enjoy it she had but short time. Her sweet httle 
 world, all of her own making, came so soon to an end ! 
 Tell me at the last that she did not suffer — she could not 
 — she had you ! " 
 
 Silver Sand's face grew dark and pained to recall the 
 time and place. But he manned himself and gave what 
 account he could of Juhana's end. Lihas Ustened breath- 
 lessly with parted lips and brimming eyes. The dark 
 and serious tale-teller spoke on softly, and sparing himself 
 no whit, blamed his own blindness and ignorance. But 
 Lilias interrupted him : 
 
 " It would have made no difference. God had willed 
 it so, and she had the joy of possessing her first-bom 
 man-child which none could take from her ! " 
 
 " That is what she said — almost the last thing before 
 she died." Lilias started and held out her hands with 
 a gesture of friendship suddenly offered. 
 
 " Make the boy a good man," she said quickly, " make 
 him like Sir Andrew. Let him be simple and true. Bring 
 him up far from the world. You and I, Silver Sand, are 
 spoilt by Paris. We can never taste clean spring water 
 again." 
 
 " I shall endeavour," Silver Sand added sadly, " that 
 he does not grow up to resemble his father."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 Grey Roger, Outlaw 
 
 The Bella was running before the wind, and the Skipper, 
 who had never commanded so small a vessel, nor one he 
 loved so greatly, was observing that she was not much 
 to look at, but a wonder to go. He told Silver Sand also 
 that he did not believe in " cracking on " too much 
 canvas in these twisty cross currents, but that what the 
 Bella lost in spread of sail, she made up for in lightness. 
 
 Captain Paul gave orders to Silver Sand, whose quick 
 agility delighted him, and though he had often to translate 
 his meaning into land terms to be understood, he declared 
 that a single voyage round the Horn would make a sailor 
 of his passenger. 
 
 " See how she elbows aside the waves. Never a 
 splash — oh, that did not count — I but eased her off a 
 point. But you can tell Sir Andrew that if he names 
 the day and hour, he will find Captain Paul waiting for 
 him at the port of Lough Lame, and that he will undertake 
 to bring him safe into Loch Ryan in the teeth of a Nor'- 
 Easter gale." 
 
 " But," he added, " there are a plenty of fine days, 
 and Lord love you, it takes a sailor to tell what a fine 
 thing fine weather is — fair wind, fair sea, and homeward 
 bound ! Tell him the Lochnaw people are wishful and 
 wae for the sight of him. I speak not for those within, 
 but of those outside the Castle. Let him send a word or 
 a line to Captain Paul of Port Patrick and he will serve 
 his turn and that with a will." 
 
 He was in high spirits with the good speed they were 
 making, and sang old sea songs and interminable ballads, 
 sometimes in a wind-in-the-keyhole falsetto, and again 
 
 240
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 241 
 
 in a deep sea bass, all about land lubbers and pirates, and 
 highwaymen who rob poor sailors. 
 
 And ever as the Bella dipped and ducked, the salt 
 water swishing and spraying from her bows, the Captain 
 would lean forward and chuckle. 
 
 " Marrying ? Why now, marrying is nothing to this. 
 If I were married, would I be allowed to race the Bella 
 across the North Channel like this, a joy to all good Scots 
 and an envy-ing to all Irishmen ? No, Master Silver 
 Sand, I should be dock-hauled, and a dry dock at that 
 — while as for the Bella, she, poor darling, would get her 
 permanent retreat, and be tarpaulined down in a boat- 
 shed, fit only to take the bairns round to Sand Eel Bay 
 on a fine Saturday once or twice in the month of August. 
 That's why I never wedded. The Bella is more to me 
 than wife or bairns ! " 
 
 All the while the cliffs of Scotland sank into the sea, 
 lost their greyish white glint and became blue and misty. 
 Ireland mounted victoriously, until far to the south 
 Silver Sand could see over the flats of Belfast, the tiny 
 Sierra of Mourne Mountains, dainty and faint, as a picture 
 drawn in aquatint. 
 
 The Skipper sang his sea ballads and sailed the Bella 
 with equal delight. The wind helped them all the way, 
 and soon they saw the shore of Lame Loch — or at least 
 the Captain did, for Silver [Sand could see no way into 
 it, and said so. But Paul Wishart laughed and set the 
 Bella's bow at the swell, adroitly turned a corner, and 
 lo ! there before them were the houses of the little town, 
 a snug landing-place, and a small church with a steeple 
 into the portal of which the people were trooping, though 
 it was not the Sabbath. 
 
 Captain Paul and Silver Sand made all snug, and upon 
 landing they went together to the church. It was a 
 fast-day meeting in preparation for the Communion of 
 Sunday. And nothing astonished Silver Sand more than 
 to be told that though the church was a Presbyterian one, 
 many of those present were " Episcopians," and that the 
 sects of Protestantism dwelt in friendliness together, 
 instead of harassing and oppressing each other by royal 
 
 Q
 
 242 SILVER SAND 
 
 command as in Scotland. The two did not stay long, 
 because Silver Sand desired to be put on the road to 
 Ballikill, while Captain Paul wished to take advantage 
 of the wind and tide to carry him back again to his 
 anchorage at Port Patrick, 
 
 Silver Sand dared not offer money to his friend. But 
 he took from a bunch at his fob a little gold compass, 
 very accurate, and mounted in ivory after the fashion of 
 a steering wheel, which he had bought in the Palais 
 Royal suburbs from the great Monsieur Oudin, who 
 made suchlike for the officers of the King's navy. 
 
 " Let this be a souvenir of the Bella s best run," he 
 said with real gratitude. 
 
 " It has been a pleasure, sir, and if you were to favour 
 me with your com.pany back, I could show you the Bella 
 do better still. But I thank you for the compass. It 
 was never made on this side of the channel. What, 
 Oudin ? — Once I had a bridge-clock of his making, the 
 best that ever ticked." 
 
 He stepped aboard, shook hands warmly, repeated his 
 invitation to Sir Andrew, and in five minutes the Bella 
 was spinning between the heads and pointing for the open 
 sea. 
 
 " They that go down to the sea in ships, who do their 
 business upon the mighty waters." The words came 
 to Silver Sand, inveterate landsman that he was, and he 
 gave thanks that his feet were once more on the solid 
 ground. 
 
 He understood little of the danger, nothing of the 
 fascination. Life so short, the sea so vast. The sailor 
 must submit to the whims of the sea, its rages, its flat 
 calms, its incalculable currents, as he submits to death — 
 because things are so and he cannot help it. 
 
 He turned away when the sail of the Bella was finally 
 adjusted for the long homeward tack. 
 
 " The yockels, the townsmen, the soldiers, the priests, 
 Sing high, sing low, my own little maid 1
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 243 
 
 ** She minds them less than the farmyard beasts. 
 She fasts not their fasts, and she feasts not their feasts, 
 Sing high, sing low, my own little maid ! " 
 
 Silver Sand heard the words of the Captain's song 
 bite through the gathering mists of evening. Then he 
 himself was hailed out of the unseen. 
 
 " Gentleman, kind gentleman, I will take you far, I 
 will take you near. I am the guide of the stranger and 
 his friend, certified and appointed as such by the muni- 
 cipality of Belfast. I heard it said that you were on your 
 way to Sir Andrew. Now I will guide you there for a 
 trifle — such as would be of no consequence to so well- 
 dressed a gentleman. Sure, I am an old man, but there's 
 a flash about your eye, my lord, that minds me of the 
 owld country, and of me in my youth " 
 
 " I can find the road for myself," said Silver Sand, with 
 some sharpness. " I doubt not that you have been in 
 Scotland, but never a Scot. You are a Romany, my 
 friend, a rogue Romany whom my father expatriated. I 
 know my own people. Let me see the veins on your wrist." 
 
 " Who are you that knows so much, upon the sea- 
 wrack of Lame Loch ? " said the man sullenly. 
 
 " I am John Faa, the son of John, and you are an 
 outcast from the tribes," said Silver Sand to the tall 
 man with the pendant arms. " Take care, John Faa's 
 writ runs here as it did when you killed Lidgett Sylvester 
 on the commonty of Kirkcudbright town. There is 
 blackness in your heart and a knife under your cloak. 
 Bethink you. Grey Roger. I can name you though I 
 have never seen you. My father left me the gift of the 
 Faas, which is to see into the heart of man, and also I 
 know the records of Egypt. Your name is written there 
 and not for good, sirrah. You were given one chance 
 more, and I fear you have misused it. But I shall make 
 more sure inquiry. And, by the way, did you ever hear 
 of the Red Killer ? " 
 
 " Is he with you, John Faa ? " shrieked the man, his 
 voice pitching upward into the keening note, as if he 
 were singing a this own death wake. " If you set him 
 on me I am no better than "
 
 244 SILVER SAND 
 
 " No better than Lidgett Sylvester who lies six foot 
 deep in the land of Selkirk's Isle with your knife thrust 
 through his heart ! " 
 
 The man called Grey Roger — he had no other name, 
 so he sometimes gave himself out as Roger Grey, 
 because his own name and clan had solemnly renounced 
 him — stood dazed and stupefied before his chief. He 
 did not for a moment doubt into whose hands he had 
 fallen, and so he submitted. 
 
 " I took you for a foreigner, sor, so I did," he muttered, 
 " what is a poor man to do ? Let the son of John Faa 
 put himself in my position." 
 
 " I would not fasten on strangers with the hope of 
 cutting their throats before dawn. Why, man, where is 
 your gipsy wit ? Did you never think of going to a fair 
 with a garron or two on a rope to sell to the Gorgios ? " 
 
 " I might think till all was blue," said Grey Roger, 
 sullenly, " but how am I to get the garrons — not in 
 traffic, for I have no money, and not by finding them 
 convenient in a field, for here they hang a man for no 
 other reason than that a mare has taken a fancy to follow 
 him." 
 
 " Give me your knife. Grey Roger. It is no safe play- 
 thing for you and the brace of pistols I see at your waist- 
 belt. Then I shall give you money to buy a string of 
 good doctorable crocks which will do you honour at any 
 fair. Only on the third morning from now you shall 
 come to the farm town of Ballikill and send word for 
 Silver Sand (which is my name here) and you will let me 
 see what you have bought with the money of the tribe ! 
 If you try to cheat — well, so much the worse for you — 
 there remains the Red Killer ! " 
 
 " I will do ut .f' said the man sourly, watching Silver 
 Sand as he stowed away his arms, " but ye leave me 
 protectionless with much money, among a bad mis- 
 trustful people, who will chase and chivvy me if I cannot 
 show them my teeth." 
 
 " Use the money well," said Silver Sand, " let me hear 
 no ill report of you, or Captain Paul shall bring over the 
 McKitterick, who, I think, has some little matters
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 245 
 
 outstanding to regulate with you. The Captain could have 
 him on your trail in six hours, and shortly after you 
 would lie as still as did ever Lidgett Sylvester ! " 
 
 '* I will do ut ! — I tould ye I wud do w^ / " repeated the 
 man with dogged dulness, " what more can a man say 
 even to his chief ? " 
 
 " A man can obey. Here are the gold pieces ! " 
 
 The black gipsy eyes, small and evil, became mere 
 beads in an acreage of bloated face. But he was dis- 
 appointed. He had hoped to see the purse of his chief, 
 and though he cringed before John Faa, yet his long 
 crime-stained career and residence in Ireland had made 
 him little better than a common cut-throat or " road- 
 ganger." He was full of stratagems, which, after all, 
 gained him hardly enough with which to buy potheen 
 and rye-bread. He was " crooked as the Killy burn," 
 as they say in that part of Ireland, and cunning as " the 
 owld blackman." But all served him nothing. The 
 settlers treated him as an outlaw, and he had felt the 
 lash and more than once narrowly shaved the gallows. 
 He took John Faa's money, but he should have preferred 
 to cut his throat for it first. 
 
 Silver Sand went after service to the Presbyterian 
 minister, and opened himself (in so far as was necessary) 
 to Mr. Bean, whose ancestors had come from Clachan- 
 pluck, a village exactly in the centre of Galloway East. 
 
 The good man was delighted to see Silver Sand. He 
 knew Mr. Dunning, whose presbytery had licensed him 
 to preach, and he himself would bring him safe to Ballikill 
 on the morrow. They should go in his own boat, and the 
 tide would serve them by six o'clock. 
 
 They were on the water before that hour, and the 
 minister's young wife from Causewayend in Kelton 
 parish, had risen to give them a good Galloway breakfast 
 of oatcakes, porridge, and bacon. 
 
 The waters of the loch were leaping and glittering with 
 a wind which came straight up from the flats of Lough 
 Neagh. They could see the brown top of Dunroe on the 
 horizon and on the other side the smoke rose from hundreds 
 of early hearth-fires in the great new town of Belfast.
 
 (( 
 
 246 SILVER SAND 
 
 A pleasant dappled glen opened before them. Meadow 
 and orchard, wattle-fence and well-hung gate, told of 
 the planters from Scotland whose pride it was to keep 
 all snug and trim within sight of the Irishry. 
 
 " Mistress McClarty may do for Ayrshire," they said, 
 
 but here good Protestants must be clean ! " 
 
 Having arrived at their destination the minister and 
 Silver Sand turned up the well-kept path, among the 
 laurels and evergreens, the like of which was not to be 
 seen, except at Hillsborough, throughout all the North 
 of Ireland. 
 
 Ballikill was more like a fortress than a gentleman's 
 mansion. Long blank walls, loopholed for musketry 
 fire and furnished with a top gallery protected by a 
 breastwork, behind which men might walk in safety, 
 surrounded the square court on all sides. 
 
 " Aye," quoth the minister, " Patrick Agnew knows 
 how to look after himself. The rapparees from Knock- 
 many and the Donegal hills yonder will not catch him 
 napping, all the more that now he has his chief with 
 him, who I am given to understand has been a man of 
 war from his youth up." 
 
 " But the house ? " queried Silver Sand, " where is 
 the house ? " 
 
 He had been accustomed, both in Scotland and in 
 France, to white houses set openly under a shelter of 
 trees, and these long fortress-like walls made him wond^ r 
 where the people must live. 
 
 " And ye may well ask," said the minister, " never a 
 snugger house or a more commodious than this of Balli- 
 kill ! Only, you see, it was built in troubled times and 
 stood the siege of '41, in the time of Pat Agnew's father, 
 when O'Donnell's men threw the quarters of murdered 
 tenants over the riggings of the ofhce-houses with the 
 cry that if they were hungry the besieged were at liberty 
 to have a snack at what was left. As for them they had 
 eaten all the Protestants they could. Small wonder that 
 the Agnews still put up their chains and shoot their 
 bolts every night." 
 
 Silver Sand and the minister were ignorant that they
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 247 
 
 were being watched from the depths of the park shrub- 
 beries by two pairs of eyes — those of the renegade gipsy 
 Grey Roger and his comrade Doran O'Flannigan of 
 Killibegs, son of the great rebel and a prominent man 
 in the bandit Society of the " Devil's Requiem." 
 
 " The ' Dying-Day '* doth steal aloft 
 And all who do offend it, 
 IJ any laugh, they laugh not ojt, 
 A blitnderbitss shall end it." 
 
 So, having no fear even of their own religion before 
 their eyes, the " Dying Day " outlaws took upon them- 
 selves to parody the Latin hymn for the dead, which 
 is only heard when the priest having sprinkled the 
 consecrated clay, takes the spade and throws on the 
 coffin the first spadeful of earth. 
 
 Doran O'Flannigan had promised to lend Grey Roger 
 as many Donegal ponies as would pass muster, for a 
 quarter-share of the money which he had received from 
 Silver Sand to make him an honest man. 
 
 The minister and Silver Sand passed within the great 
 gate of Ballikill which was bolted and barred every 
 night. It was a noble piece of smith-work and swung 
 on its hinges with a harsh grating sound which, in spite 
 of abundant grease, the proud peasants of the estate 
 declared could be heard three miles. 
 
 Once within, a range of byres, barns, cart-sheds, 
 bullock ranges, potato-shelters and henroosts spread 
 themselves round three sides of a vast quadrangle. The 
 shorter end facing the south was occupied by a com- 
 fortable gentleman's mansion, of necessity compact, 
 but airy and garden-fronted with flowering shrubs and 
 lawns of such emerald turf as only Ireland can show. 
 The house was tiled in red after the Scottish fashion 
 of the greater folk, and not a yard of thatch entered 
 into the construction of those long ranges of roofing. 
 
 Pat Agnew did not mean to be burnt out if he could 
 help it. 
 
 * " The Dying Day " This hymn tune, used as a warning, was sung 
 or whistled at night under the windows of threatened houses.
 
 248 SILVER SAND 
 
 As they arrived at the door the two gentlemen whom 
 they were seeking came leisurely out of a great barn, 
 stuffed with well-trimmed, closely packed mows of yellow 
 sheaves. 
 
 At sight of them Sir Andrew let out a " golder " of 
 astonishment, which may have been an oath or again, 
 considering the presence of the minister, may have 
 been intended for a benediction. 
 
 He rushed towards Silver Sand and caught him by 
 both hands, shaking them up and down and from side 
 to side in a passion of joy. " Patrick," he cried to the 
 thin dark man with the hooked nose and humorous 
 mouth who had accompanied him, " this is Silver Sand 
 of whom I have told you, come all the way from Scotland 
 to see his friend at his home in Ireland." 
 
 " I am glad to see ye, Mister Silver Sand," said the 
 eagle-beaked man smiling, " Sir Andrew has talked of but 
 little else except your sayings and doings ever since he 
 came to Ballikill. It is the proud man that he will be 
 (and I his cousin to the back of him) to welcome you 
 to the good house. And you, Mr. Bean, my best service 
 to you, and to your good lady." 
 
 They went indoors and Patrick Agnew, who had 
 become a true Ulster Protestant, conforming to the habits 
 and speech of the colonists in King James's Plantation, 
 first gave orders about immediate dinner, and then took 
 out the minister to view the stock. 
 
 Sir Andrew, a little greyer, a little stouter, but brim- 
 full of the old good-natured shrewdness and kindly wit, 
 laid his hand on the young man's arm where the crape 
 covered the silk-facings after the French mourning 
 fashion. 
 
 " I have lost my wife," he said, answering the un- 
 spoken question, " a noble woman to whom I was married 
 according to the custom of my tribe." 
 
 " Yes," said Sir Andrew, " Jean Hay told me the story. 
 We have nothing that is not common knowledge between 
 us, so I warn you it is dangerous to tell either of us 
 secrets. Yet I had thought — I had thought " 
 
 He paused and looked at Silver Sand.
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 249 
 
 The young man's eyes met his frankly, 
 
 " And you did well to think, Sir Andrew. I came near 
 to being a hound, but I was not. I fled temptation. It 
 is true that I was compelled for tribal reasons to marry 
 a wife I had never courted, but for all that she proved 
 herself a true and noble wife to me, and I shall never say 
 less." 
 
 Sir Andrew patted his shoulder with his hand. 
 
 " Indeed no one would wish you to say less, but am 
 I to take it — is it still the case ? " 
 
 " Oh," cried Silver Sand, hardly able to speak his 
 words intelligibly, " you may take it that what I could 
 not help, when I had good cause to help it — I cannot help 
 now ! But it is not I that will trouble her with the 
 knowledge ! " 
 
 Sir Andrew shook his head with an air of one possessing 
 omniscient experience. 
 
 " One never knows with women — at least a man does 
 not prophesy, even when he reaches my age — what he 
 may say or do. But come out to the hill-top and let us 
 see about us while you tell me all about Jean Hay, and 
 James my son, and my niece Lilias, whom I wager, for 
 all your airs and graces, you visited most and last ere you 
 left Lochnaw." 
 
 So they went up to the top of Knockanmore, and beheld 
 the dark flowery heath spread out before them, the sun 
 shining with the freshness of a new spring, and the cloud, 
 which had hung about the mountain tops, breaking away 
 in white argosies to float across the plain-land. Larks 
 spirted up from about their feet singing as they went 
 as if to celebrate their escape — peewits stooped, and 
 curlew wailed their weird " willy wha." 
 
 But beneath them they saw pastures richer and of a 
 more vivid green than was ever seen in Scotland, and on 
 them, guarded everywhere by boys with longs witches, 
 roamed herds of sleek cattle, browsing cows, brood mares, 
 restless colts, while from the upper pastures came the 
 bleating of yews and lambs, which, when heard at a 
 distance, is the most pensive, gracious, and sweet of all 
 country sounds. Even Sir Andrew, not easily moved
 
 250 SILVER SAND 
 
 by the beauty of natural things, having known nothing 
 else all his life, was moved to remark, " Well may Cousin 
 Patrick find some money at last to pay the rent of all 
 this! 
 
 " 'Tis time he did, so I was telhng him. But poor Pat, 
 after all he had better put by a trifle out of the profits, 
 while I am above the daisies. For James will be quite 
 another man to deal with, than he whom Jean Hay calls 
 ' her ain mickle kindly saft clach o' a man,' Andrew ! " 
 
 A blackbird whistled fiutily in an early flowering thorn, 
 and called back Sir Andrew's thoughts. He asked par- 
 ticularly how all his household were looking, and especially 
 if Jean Hay wanted him back. 
 
 Silver Sand went into the details of all that had happened 
 in Scotland since the reading of the Acts of Indulgence. 
 The Sheriff could not sit still when he heard of Lochnaw 
 Castle cleared of its oppressive garrison and of the south- 
 ward march of the troops to protect the King in his own 
 capital. He instantly declared his intent of making the 
 crossing as soon as Captain Paul Wishart had been 
 apprised. It wearied him to think of Lochnaw and Jean 
 Hay. Besides if they did come back — the Grahams and 
 their weary red-coats, he could always take the hill for 
 it, and the Gled's Nest and the Doocot Cave were as safe 
 for him and as comfortable as ever they had been for 
 the much frailer bones of Mr. Walter Dunning. 
 
 " My lady bade me not let you venture," Silver Sand 
 repeated for the twentieth time. 
 
 " And I am telling you, you obstinate gipsy lord, that 
 I ken my ain wife better than ever you can. She shall 
 be glad enough and smiling enough when she sees her 
 ' muckle kindly saft clach o' an Andrew.' Do not distress 
 yourself about me and Jean Hay. It is not yestreen that 
 we first understood one another." 
 
 And the Sheriff stood erect and chanted with his head 
 up and his chest thrown out, " Impatient I wait for my 
 love to return." Then with a short laugh he broke off, 
 " Listen to the old foci — there is no fool hke him ! " 
 
 But Silver Sand stood silent and admiring. To this 
 strong, sturdily-sensed man — the most remote from 
 
 I!
 
 GREY ROGER, OUTLAW 251 
 
 sentiment and emotion it was possible to conceive — the 
 very name of Jean Hay, heard am.id either beautiful or 
 sordid surroundings, was as the call of a trumpet. He 
 saw the best of Ireland, heath and pasturage, flock and 
 herd. Yet at a word of his wife there came a tear into 
 his eye, and he was once more wandering with her hand 
 in his, and both as young as when he had fetched her over 
 from Park, riding on the grey filly her father had given 
 her and asking when they would come in sight of Lochnaw. 
 He remembered that she had talked much of a very 
 dainty dairy she was going to have as soon as they were 
 settled, and he wondered how the project had fallen into 
 the background. If she liked she could have it now with 
 part of the money he had got in Ireland from his cousin's 
 long arrears. 
 
 Silver Sand flicked with his switch at the pale blue 
 of the flax and wondered. He could not hinder this 
 return. Did he want very much to prevent it ? Echoes, 
 of old mysteries began to sing in his soul. Strange music 
 sounded deep down within him like gnomes and pixies 
 chanting in caverns. John Faa was still a young man, 
 and though he had learned to love Juliana, it was because 
 she had so largely, nobly, and unselfishly loved him. He 
 had a great store still unexpended. Indeed all that 
 was really love still remained shut up within him, like 
 the water in a deep well, which in its cool rock dark- 
 ness waits to be pierced. It would be wonderful — it 
 was past all thinking — that one day he should worship 
 and serve a woman as Juliana had worshi])ped and served 
 him. He had known the love maternal, and the love 
 protective. He was familiar with falling tears and tender 
 grateful glances. Now even these had gone past him, 
 and left him standing as one who watches blossoms, 
 too early snatched, float do\\n to the sea which is Forget- 
 fulness — but which at the same time (thanks be to God) 
 is Peace also
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 The Cocksure Ass — and Some Others 
 
 Of all fools the worst is the cocksure young ass. See 
 him sit in the great comer chair^ which should be his 
 grandfather's, arrogant and supercilious, not only dis- 
 pensing wisdom, but willing to inform his seniors in what 
 wisdom consists ! Every age has doubtless possessed 
 him, and I have seen not a few in my day, both before 
 the Revolution and after. The breed was more courtly 
 before, more political and quasi-philosophic afterwards. 
 But never did I see any one quite so complete in all his 
 parts, movements, and adjustments, as young Heathcote 
 Lumley who came from Oxford to instruct us barbarians 
 concerning the wonders of the University and incidentally 
 to marry Mistress Lilias if she chanced to please him. 
 
 For Heathcote Lumley was a young man without 
 fortune, of good appearance and no particular prospects, 
 who was perfectly suited to be an agreeable companion 
 to the ladies of a nobleman's family — if that peer had 
 been in want of an idle secretary. But the duties attached 
 to such a position daunted him, and after three months 
 in the service of my Lord the Earl of Beaupre, he had 
 decided to fall back upon the plan of marrying an heiress 
 as at once a neater and more convenient way of earning 
 money than sordidly working for it. 
 
 He had met in the French capital my lady of Belle 
 Isle, who had told him so much of Lilias Agnew, and had 
 so greatly exaggerated the fortune of Aunt Anne of the 
 Lodge, that within a month after setting out in the Calais 
 diligence, Heathcote Lumley, furnished with all imagin- 
 able introductions and titles to hospitality, was installed 
 at Lochnaw, where he preened himself to the silent 
 
 252
 
 THE COCKSURE ASS— AND SOME OTHERS 253 
 
 contempt of James, and the open resentment of Hal Bruce. 
 But as the ladies appeared to Uke it, no one could suggest 
 that a young man anxious to see the northern part of 
 His Majesty's dominions ought not to tarry week after 
 week in the most outlandish parts of Galloway. 
 
 Of all imaginable and unimaginable facts to which Sir 
 Andrew had looked forward, that of being received at his 
 own door and ushered into his own house — nay, almost 
 introduced to his own wife, by Heathcote Lumley, was 
 perhaps the most unexpected and astonishing. It was 
 a wonder that the honest, but not particularly long- 
 suffering gentleman, did not explode. 
 
 Since he had been landed at the mouth of the Knock 
 Water, he had not waited a moment for man or beast, 
 but had taken the directest road for Lochnaw, on foot 
 and alone. Silver Sand had waited behind to see the 
 baggage loaded on the horses, and he had further divided 
 himself from the cavalcade at my door, taking down his 
 belongings and stowing them himself in the poor dominie's 
 gable chamber, which was always a great joy and a great 
 honour for me. 
 
 The cases of books and clothes which had arrived from 
 the House of the Dungeon I had put in a safe place to 
 await his return. For though there was peace on the 
 country, who could say for how long it would last ? And 
 the school-house was so near the sea-board that a 
 search by the crew of a revenue cutter was always 
 possible. 
 
 But in a moment Sir Andrew had swept past or over- 
 run the intruder and found himself with his arms about 
 Jean Hay. Lilias held him closely about the neck, 
 while the young man from the South dusted down his 
 waistcoat and made his reflections on the lack of delicacy 
 among these outlanders. Even Lilias — but — she was 
 young — he would teach her different. 
 
 After a minute of fine confused affection, my Lady 
 pushed her prodigal away with her usual " Andrew, you 
 forget yourself. We are not alone." 
 
 Sir Andrew turned round and for the first time taking 
 in Heathcote, he burst out with the somewhat brusque
 
 254 SILVER SAND 
 
 query " Save us, lass, what's this ye hae gotten aboot 
 the hoose ? " 
 
 " This," said my Lady with dignity, " is Mr. Heath- 
 cote Lumley, whom your cousin Madame de Belle Isle 
 has sent to us." 
 
 " Oh," said Sir Andrew dryly, " I am just terribly 
 obleeged to Madame de Belle Isle. Master Lumley, 
 your servant ! I am feared that I kind o' fell ower ye 
 in the incoming. But ye see I was kind o' pressed for 
 time and maybe no just mindin' the road I was gangin'. 
 But I hope that ye werena muckle hurt, A whammle 
 mair or less at your age is neither here nor there." 
 
 " I own I was some little disarranged," said the young 
 man, settling the lace about his dainty wrist-bands, " but 
 I am more rejoiced than I can say to welcome the Judge 
 back to his ancestral mansion." 
 
 " Welcome the what ? " cried Sir Andrew. 
 
 " The Judge, my Lord," said Heathcote, who had been 
 intended for the bar. " I was given to understand that 
 you had been appointed Judge for this part of the High- 
 lands." 
 
 " Judge — the Heelants ! " cried Sir Andrew. " Whaur 
 hae ye come frae, caain' folk ill names like that ? " 
 
 " The gentleman is from Oxford, though of late he has 
 been much with Lord Beaupre in Paris," my Lady ex- 
 plained. " He has news of the Court with which he 
 greatly amuses both Lilias and myself." 
 
 Again Heathcote preened his feathers in the familiar 
 atmosphere of feminine approval. 
 
 " The Court — the Court," cried Sir Andrew, " I think 
 you and Lilias hae but little to do, Jean Hay, than to 
 listen to havers aboot Lewis and his besoms, as if we had 
 not a court at Whitehall that is making itself a scunner 
 and a heart-break to a' decent men ! " 
 
 " Sirce alive, Andrew," cried his wife, " blame not the 
 young man. The days were long with you over-seas, 
 but all things will now be changed. Besides as the lad 
 comes from Paris and is acquaint with my lady Belle 
 Isle, so he will find a suitable companion in Silver Sand. 
 It will be bonny to hear the three o' them, Lilias and the
 
 THE COCKSURE ASS— AND SOME OTHERS 255 
 
 lads leathering awa' at the French. For me, I was once 
 in Paris, as ye ken, and I never heard but three words — 
 le roi, r argent, and travail — oh yes, and ho7i jour. That 
 makes four, and a brave new gown should I get for being 
 so mindful ! " 
 
 My Lady was more than a little excited and beside 
 herself with her husband's homecoming, and presently 
 signed to Lilias to take Hal Bruce and the newcomer 
 out for a walk. The glance said as plain as print, that 
 she wanted her Andrew to herself, and Lilias obeyed 
 well pleased, for she thought that if she had to meet 
 Silver Sand again, it would be well that she should be 
 flanked with two squires, one on either side. Silver Sand 
 was no great respecter of the convenances and there was 
 no saying what he might do or say if there were only 
 Hal Bruce in attendance. But she had more hopes of 
 the late secretary of my Lord Beaupre. 
 
 But there was no smallest intention of intrusion of any 
 kind in the mind of Silver Sand. He had ordered his 
 lodging with his usual calm decision, and now in the cool 
 of the day he was stepping eastward over the sandy foot- 
 hills to inform Sir Andrew where he might find him in 
 case of need. 
 
 At the beginning of the holly thicket where the avenue 
 of Lochnaw makes an elbow (I speak of the time before 
 Mr. James's alterations, and as it had existed for many 
 generations) is a clump of bushes dense and green, a 
 capital shelter for small birds. There, since Sir Andrew 
 allowed no pot-shooting — not even on the moors except 
 at due season and with his approval — a congregation of 
 blackbirds, thrushes, and chiefly starlings (then a rare 
 bird elsewhere than Galloway) chattered and chided, 
 thick sown among the foliage and filling the plantations 
 with their garrulous babble. They squabbled about their 
 roosts. They iought about those they had occupied last 
 night and those they meant to have the night after. 
 They fought, wrangled, scolded, and quarrelled merely 
 for the quarrelling's sake. 
 
 Silver Sand stopped to listen. The bickering amused 
 him. He shrugged his shoulders and muttered " Pohtics 1 "
 
 256 SILVER SAND 
 
 He thought how Hke men they were, misusing the 
 pleasant brevity of dayhght while about them in- 
 exorably fell the long chill night. 
 
 A pleasant sense of being at home warmed his heart. 
 He was no longer shut within a walled and gloomy fort- 
 ress, loopholed and menacing, like Cousin Patrick's house 
 of Ballikill. For a moment the gipsy side of his nature 
 was out of sight, and he rejoiced in the clustered ricks of 
 the home-farm stackyard, the track of the plough where 
 it had been lifted from the furrow, the teams following 
 each other, four and four (it took four stout horses to drag 
 the clumsy ploughs of those days) towards the stables 
 with the directness of homing pigeons. Only over a 
 ridge in full labour, one conscientious ploughman urged 
 his plough. The silhouette stood out clean cut against 
 the western refulgence, the straining beasts, the huge un- 
 wieldy plough, creaking and pitching like a ship in a 
 sea-way, and last of all he saw the man, bent bow-backed 
 over the plough-stilts, and occasionally shouting an order, 
 now to the horses and now to the limber urchin who ran 
 at their heads. 
 
 But it was fated that they should meet, and indeed 
 they could hardly fail. For Lilias, in her eagerness to 
 escape him, had by a strange mischance taken the path 
 which led past the home-farm and over the ridge into the 
 valley of the school-house. It was a path she had often 
 trod of late, for she had grown curiously anxious for news 
 of her uncle at Ballikill. And so and so, now that she 
 had left Sir Andrew safe indoors gossiping with his Jean 
 Hay, she turned into the same way, with the uncon- 
 sciousness of feet treading a well-known path of which 
 each pebble and dimple is familiar. 
 
 Down yonder was Niven's Isle and the reeds were 
 swinging there busily as ever, but the feet of Lilias car- 
 ried her an easier way. There was (she owned it) a new 
 beauty in the world. Her uncle had come home, and 
 with his coming all things had changed. Lochnaw 
 would be itself again — so (and I hope you see the connec- 
 tion) having been ordered out by her aunt that she might 
 have Sir Andrew to himself, Lilias took the road to
 
 THE COCK-SURE ASS— AND SOME OTHERS 257 
 
 the school-house with her two rival cavaliers by her 
 side. 
 
 How gay and glad was her talk ! Alternately she 
 flouted and encouraged the two young men, bewildering 
 them by abrupt turns of humour, now silent and melan- 
 choly till she had passed a certain stone which held a 
 memory for her. Anon she broke into some song of 
 French origin : 
 
 *' Yestreen when the sun were setting 
 And harvesters home were getting, 
 I set me out on the road to Lannion 
 With the devil for my companion, 
 With the devil for my companion." 
 
 Recklessly the ditty rang out and at every turn the 
 girl watched for the man who was to be scandalised. 
 Finally she looped up the train of her dress through the 
 crook of her left elbow and taking an arm of each, she 
 strolled along flinging new verses of the " Road to Lan- 
 nion " into the stillness of the air : 
 
 " The devil was my companion 
 On the long long road to Lannion, 
 But behind came a Benedict father, 
 A-sprinkling holy wather." 
 
 The Irish brogue which prevails all along the Scottish 
 side of the North Channel enabled the rhymes of Lilias 
 to pass muster, and in any case the singer was not par- 
 ticular. For at that moment Silver Sand came out of 
 the shadow of the great ash trees which are the glory of 
 Lochnaw, and with grave and decorous salutation passed 
 them by. 
 
 Heathcote laughed aloud, " Speak of the devil and he 
 appears," he cried, "all in black too and a black plume 
 in his hat which cost something, I will wager, in Paul's 
 Churchyard." 
 
 But Lihas had had enough of her play and now turned 
 her disappointment on those who least deserved it. 
 
 " You, Hal Bruce," she said, " why do you stand there 
 like a dumbstruck mooncalf ? You are not so handsome 
 
 R 
 
 \
 
 258 SILVER SAND 
 
 that you can afford to look a greater fool than you are. 
 And you, Mr. Heathcote, I pray you be not so quick to 
 laugh at your betters, or he may condescend to give you 
 a taste of his rapier's quality. The gentleman who 
 passed " 
 
 " Is a friend of Miss Lilias and a belted earl — the only 
 one who is never seen in Holyrood or Whitehall ! " 
 
 Hal Bruce was in his own opinion getting equal with 
 Lilias for making a fool of him. 
 
 " He is of the peers of Scotland," said Lihas, who was 
 not to be put down, " and a better man than you, Hal 
 Bruce, a better soldier, and your master with every 
 weapon from bare knuckles to rapier. Aye, and withal 
 a better scholar than you or your Oxford masters, Mr. 
 Heathcote, and what is more, a better Parisian of Paris, 
 trained at St. Sulpice and a friend of Madame de Belle 
 Isle and our cousin of St. Lo. You do not know of whom 
 you speak, and if I were a man I should call you a couple 
 of sots and challenge you to fight ! There ! " 
 
 She flung away from them in a temper, leaving them 
 standing planted like the supports of some vanished 
 escutcheon, facing one another. Her little feet padded 
 rapidly down the path to the Castle and the green dusks 
 of the wood hid her from view. 
 
 " And now," said Heathcote Lumley, with more per- 
 tinence than his remarks often showed, " you are the 
 older friend of Miss Lilias. Will you kindly tell me what 
 is the matter, and what we are supposed to have done ? " 
 
 " I believe," said Hal Bruce with a sudden sad lucidity, 
 " we may as well go home. We are wasting our time. 
 That girl ran off to cry by herself." 
 
 " Nonsense," said Heathcote Lumley, " bless you, I 
 know girls. At Oxford I was noted for it, and at Paris — 
 but that I must confide to you over a bottle of Bur- 
 gundy." 
 
 " You fool," burst out Hal Bruce, " I have a great mind 
 to fetch you a buffet. Do you think your Paris tarts and 
 college wenches give you a right to sit in judgment upon 
 our Lilias ? Only say so, Master Maudlin, and I will 
 have the matter out with you now ! "
 
 THE COCKSURE ASS— AND SOME OTHERS 259 
 
 (( 
 
 I meant nothing of the kind," said Mr. Lumley, " I 
 am no braggart Hke some men we hear about, either in 
 learning or arms, but I can take my own part in a quarrel 
 or a debate, and when I fall, it is Hke a cat on all four feet. 
 Ho, friend Bruce, where are you going ? You are not 
 thinking of deserting us ? " 
 
 " I am going to the stables to order my horses. I am 
 off to Windy Standard this very night. Why not come 
 with me ? Our noses are equally out of joint. Come, 
 we shall agree yet ! You shall teach me French, which 
 seems the key to ladies' hearts in these days, and I will 
 warrant you a little beef and much good mutton, the best 
 of ale and such claret as you will not find in any gentle- 
 man's house in Galloway, We shall hunt the hare and 
 shoot the birds over the moors, and what is best of all, 
 there is not a woman under fifty about the place or with- 
 in half-a-dozen miles of us ! " 
 
 So under cloud of night the two took their leave of 
 Lochnaw, leaving letters which declared urgent business 
 as the reason for their sudden departure. 
 
 " What ill have you been doing, Jean Hay, my lass— 
 you and your Lilias, that your gay young gallants fly 
 the country at the first sight of me ? " 
 
 " I wonder at you, Andrew," said his wife, with the 
 easy reproach of one who fears no cause of serious offence, 
 " and you an elder o' the Kirk ! It's sitting there, 
 judging the sins o' ithers, that does the mischief." 
 
 But outside under the cloud of night, while steeds 
 were being mounted, letters of farewell penned hastily 
 on stable corn-chests and sealed with a stirrup iron. 
 Silver Sand pursued his way towards the little Loch of 
 Lochnaw. His steps brought him unconsciously to the 
 path through the ragweed and meadowsweet which led 
 down to the point of Nevin's Isle, nor could he have 
 put into words the motives which led him thither. 
 
 He had met Lilias with two young men. She was
 
 26o SILVER SAND 
 
 singing a gay song the chorus of which echoed in his 
 ear : 
 
 "The devil was my companion. 
 On the long long road to Lannion." 
 
 Now Silver Sand was no precisian. He dressed gravely 
 but his muse was rather gay than otherwise, and yet 
 and yet — he would have preferred not to have met Lilias 
 with these two young men, and if sing she must, at least 
 singing some other song. It did not for a moment cross his 
 mind that the road, the walk, the supporting cavaliers, 
 and the devil-may-care chanson, had all been chosen 
 expressly for his edification. 
 
 In spite of Juliana's spoiling of him during the months 
 of his marriage, Silver Sand was fundamentally a modest 
 man. He never thought more highly of himself than he 
 ought to think. Contrariwise indeed. So now among 
 the defaced marvels of Nevin's dam-dykes and fortifi- 
 cations, he stood and looked up at the front of the Castle. 
 He knew the window, already lighted, where doubtless 
 Lilias' s maid was arranging her night-gear. He saw the 
 range of windows where the shadows of these good friends 
 Sir Andrew and Jean Hay moved to and fro, gesticulating 
 as they walked. 
 
 He felt singularly alone, and he listened for footsteps 
 on the terrace and another burst of careless song. He 
 must (he thought) hear the night wanderers returning. 
 But instead he heard only the reeds shivering and the 
 little silvery song of the water lapping at his feet. 
 
 He stood grave and sombre-thoughted as if he were 
 in the aisle of a cathedral whence the worshippers were 
 scattered, the bell silent, the priests of the mysteries with- 
 drawn, but in which the scent of incense still lingers. 
 
 He might have been composing a requiem for his own 
 soul, so solemn was he, so dead to curiosity, with the stern 
 face of a prisoner who hears his sentence pronounced 
 " For Doom." 
 
 At that moment the little peninsula which had seen 
 Niven Agnew's wildest pranks, and echoed to the mad 
 songs of Lilias, seemed to him the saddest place in the
 
 THE COCKSURE ASS— AND SOME OTHERS 261 
 
 world. The little smiling loch with its water lilies became 
 a tarn, gloomy and fathomless. 
 
 He could see the yellowing sedges all round and the rip- 
 ples came in soft and whispering over the shelving pebbles. 
 But in his own mind Silver Sand stood like a timid bather 
 on a shore as black as that of Lethe. Imagination is 
 a noble gift, but he who has it must pay the price and 
 Silver Sand had a long score to settle. 
 
 He heard the voices of the night speak to him, urging 
 him to a desperate act, the only deed (they whispered) 
 fit for a man in his position. But over the marsh grasses 
 of the Isle and from high above my lady's flower pots 
 and flowering evergreens, through the open window of 
 the chamber of Lilias, there came to his ear, clear and 
 unmistakeable, a child's cry in the night.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 His Earthly Father 
 
 The black water seemed to swirl about him. The voice 
 of the child up there in the silence of the Castle moved 
 him marvellously. He sat down on Nevin's dyke and 
 kept his eyes upon the clear oblong of light high on the 
 face of the Castle Tower. 
 
 He could not think with any sequence of ideas. He 
 would think no evil of Lilias, that was certain, but the 
 young man who had appeared so suddenly — might she 
 not have met him and married him secretly in Paris ? 
 Both of them knew Madame de Belle Isle, than whom a 
 more romantic matchmaker never existed. She might 
 have kept it secret during the lifetime of Aunt Anne — or 
 — a score of hypotheses swarmed in his mind — of all of 
 which he would see the folly as soon as the morrow's light 
 should have come. 
 
 But for that night, at least, the darkness had sway over 
 Silver Sand, and there did not seem to be one single wise 
 or good thing in all the world. 
 
 He heard the ringing of bridle reins and rapid beat of 
 horses' feet on the avenue, the clanging of gates, and told 
 himself that there was nothing strange in that. Lilias 
 had merely fled with her lover ! Yet even as he uttered 
 the words he was conscious of their falsity. Neverthe- 
 less, he pleased his soul with imagined evil, and then was 
 angry with himself that he should have created Lilias in 
 his own image — " altogether such an one as thou art," 
 he repeated, with some flash of his old training. 
 
 But still for all that, and to his own everlasting con- 
 tempt he would play the spy. No, after all she had not 
 fled, she had merely let her lover go — because Sir Andrew 
 
 262
 
 HIS EARTHLY FATHER 263 
 
 had come to his own— (" What a contemptible dog am I ! "). 
 Yes, he would watch. She had held the cup high with him 
 but he would dash it to the ground — a babe in his niece's 
 chamber in the Castle of Lochnaw — what would Sir 
 Andrew say when he heard of that ? (" Go, foul beast 
 and blow your brains out as the sole honourable thing 
 left for you to do ! "). There was no more spirit in Silver 
 Sand. He was not the man whom Juliana had known, 
 the grave man of council beloved of Sir Andrew, the 
 Dominie's model gentleman and scholar. Jealousy ran 
 green and yellow in his veins, and he hated all who might 
 persuade him that he was wronging Lilias. Yet as ever, 
 one Silver Sand strove with the other. The true man 
 knew the speaker of lies. One by one he nailed them 
 down, as a merchant fastens a piece of bad money to his 
 counter. 
 
 One Silver Sand despised the other, but then that other, 
 sunk in an abasement of lying thoughts, did not care. 
 
 Where now is your high-mindedness ? Where your 
 tolerance ? Can a child not cry in the night from the 
 window of a great house, but you must blacken the very 
 purity of God, which should be dearer to you than your 
 own soul ? Hold there, coward ! If neither God nor 
 man have weight with you, have faith at least in the 
 purest of women. 
 
 So in a sudden fit of remorse Silver Sand was carefully 
 withdrawing his foot from the little peninsula, where he 
 had known so many emotions, when from the door of 
 Lochnaw he saw two women glide out. They were 
 mantled and hooded so that at first nothing as to their 
 identity could be guessed from their faces or figures. 
 But in a moment the instinct of the gipsy tracker came 
 upon Silver Sand and he followed them, silent and soft 
 as a wind-borne dandelion seed-feather. 
 
 He had no doubt that one of them was Lilias, for the 
 lightsome carriage betrayed her. The other, a taller and 
 heavier woman, carried with care and solicitude a white- 
 wrapped bundle, and more than once she paused to draw 
 the wrappings closer — as about a child's face. 
 
 Silver Sand was now more than ever determined to see
 
 264 SILVER SAND 
 
 the business to the end. He glided noiselessly from tree 
 to tree, keeping well above the path and avoiding by 
 instinct of woodcraft, the rotten branch in the undergrowth 
 and the dry twig underfoot which would snap with a sharp 
 crack. 
 
 The hooded women struck into a side path which led 
 to the wood forester's cottage — that of Joan McNoah, the 
 Cameronian, who had sent his daughter at the peril of her 
 life and his own, to provide for the needs of Mr. Walter 
 Dunning, in his secret haunt of the Doocot Cave. 
 
 This astonished Silver Sand, because he knew that 
 Elder McNoah and his wife would lend themselves to no 
 unworthy business. In the woodland path the two 
 women drew together and talked. Once Lilias, for now 
 he could recognise the voice, offered to carry the child, 
 but the other would not be parted from her burden even 
 for a moment. They approached the cottage, and by the 
 open door and comfortable light in the windows, Silver 
 Sand could see that they were expected. 
 
 Mrs. McNoah, stout and rosy from her life among the 
 breezy firs at the edge of the wood, held out her arms like 
 one well accustomed, and eased the stouter woman of her 
 burden. 
 
 They entered and Elder McNoah rose with a rugged 
 face, kindly and solemn. He had taken on something of 
 the wild wood, yet there was in his expression a note of 
 high communion, which bore out his assertion that no 
 man can know the woods who does not know the Lord. 
 He had long been allowed to choose his own helpers and 
 so, in the heart of his estate. Sir Andrew, prop of the Kirk, 
 representative of the power temporal, cherished the little 
 knot of high-flying Society Men who owned no allegiance 
 to any earthly king, and were ready to draw the sword 
 whenever it seemed necessary to smite the armies of the 
 alien. 
 
 But to-night John McNoah in his own house and 
 welcoming his master's niece, was full of the milk of hum.an 
 kindness. 
 
 " Come your ways in. Miss Lilias, and bring ben the 
 bairn. Though of pagan birth, he shall be blessed by a
 
 HIS EARTHLY FATHER 265 
 
 minister of the Word, and since I have no right to dictate 
 my beUef to others, Mr. Walter Dunning shall pour the 
 water of baptism upon the child's head. I have sent my 
 daughter Mirren to bring him. I know not what is keeping 
 them. Ah— there — I hear them come. Mr. Dunning, sir, I am 
 not of your Kirk, but I bow the head to a true servant of 
 the Lord who has suffered for the cause." 
 
 " Brother John," said the minister of Parton, " you 
 have made my sufferings light. I owe my life to you, and 
 the bread that sustains it." 
 
 " Hoot, hoot," said the Cameronian, with a dry little 
 smile, " what would I be doing giving succour to an 
 Erastian ? That would sort ill with my character. If 
 ye will be thankin' somebody besides your Maker, thank 
 the guid wife and wee Mirren there. Bless me, where is 
 the lassie ? She was here by your side when you entered. 
 She is like quicksilver, or a glint o' April sunshine. Ye 
 think ye hae her — ye put doon your hand and lo, she is 
 not there ! Yet she is a wise child at most times, which 
 maketh a glad father." 
 
 " I must gratefully thank you and those whom God has 
 given you. Elder McNoah," said the minister. " I have 
 been laid aside by the brook Cherith and there in my 
 solicitude, angels ministered unto me. On the face of that 
 heuch among the wind-battered rocks with only the great 
 empty crying of the sea beneath me, I have flourished 
 like a green olive tree in the house of my God. That is 
 your doing, John McNoah, and you cannot refuse the 
 prayers of one who has no other riches ! " 
 
 " Indeed I refuse no good man's prayer," said the 
 Cameronian Elder. " The Lord knows I have need of them. 
 But now, Mr. Dunning, before you proceed with your work, 
 it is meet that you should break bread in my house, and 
 also drink of the wine which makes glad the heart of man." 
 
 " Indeed, Elder John, I thank you, but we shall first 
 receive this httle one within the fold of the Christian 
 Communion — I say not Church, friend John, and then 
 after the work, we shall do well to accept of your hospit- 
 ality, for bread strengtheneth the heart of man and oil 
 maketh his face to shine."
 
 266 SILVER SAND 
 
 " Aye, aye, ye are in the right, minister," said the Elder, 
 "man goeth forth to his work and to his labour — until ths 
 evening, which is to say duties first and mercies afterwards. 
 Where is that lassie, Mirren ? The trees of the Lord are 
 full of sap, but she is full of quicksilver. We shall not 
 wait for her, but proceed to the first, or lesser sacrament." 
 
 The two women laid aside their cloaks, and all v/atched 
 with a proud anxiety the behaviour of the child upon whom 
 the waters of baptism were to descend " like dew on 
 Hermon," as said the Elder, 
 
 Lilias and her companion, a buxom woman with the 
 high colour of the hills in her cheeks sat close together, 
 conferring as to what they should do if the child cried. 
 
 " Och," said the experienced Mistress McNoah, " if 
 the bairn greets just whammle him ower on his bit 
 stammack. Maist o' mine got the water of reconcihation in 
 the back o' their necks, and feint a bit the waur were they ! " 
 
 The minister of Parton began his address to those 
 present. He recalled the wonderful words of God con- 
 cerning children — of whom could it be said that his heart 
 was as the heart of a little child ? Not the purest on 
 earth. Therefore the Most High would certainly look 
 most favourably upon this little one — all the more that to 
 present him before the altar of God, he had no earthly 
 father " 
 
 " Aye, but he has ! " cried the triumphant Mirren, 
 pushing forward Silver Sand, blinking from the outer 
 darkness, where she had caught sight of him. " This 
 is him I "
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIl 
 
 The Raid of Lilias Agnew 
 
 " How did it happen ? That is a long story, but I shall 
 tell it you if you will have patience." 
 
 Lilias and Silver Sand were seated under a great cedar 
 tree in the policies of Lochnaw. The night had made 
 peace between them, a peace which Silver Sand knew 
 well enough that he must not disturb. 
 
 " I shall tell you. Silver Sand. I took a great respons- 
 ibility upon me, but not greater than I can bear. I 
 remembered your words how that the boy must not be 
 brought up half gipsy, and half man-of-the-world. You 
 were in Ireland. I could not consult you, and I do not 
 think I should have done so in any case. For of all the men 
 that I ever saw, John Faa, you are the least qualified to bring 
 up a child. So I spoke to my Aunt Jean, and I went down 
 with the little witch Mirren into the cave, passing among 
 the rows of guillemots, gulls, and terns till we came to the 
 Doocot, which Mirren and the minister keep as bright 
 as a new pin. I laid the case before him and from what he 
 said, I saw that the child would be better and safer with 
 me, or in the house of Mistress McNoah than running the 
 risks of perilous weather and dangerous folk up on your 
 solitary mountains." 
 
 " But how did you get the child brought down ?" Silver 
 Sand asked, for he remembered Dame Elspeth of the 
 ** Star," a woman not at all commodious to deal with. 
 
 Lilias Agnew smiled a sweet far-away smile. 
 
 " Indeed at first I could not make up my mind. There 
 were many difficulties. The woman at the " Star " would 
 listen to no reason. But I wrote to the red-wigged man 
 to whom we owed much during the ill days. I said that 
 
 267
 
 268 SILVER SAND 
 
 I desired the custody of my brother's child. I know not 
 whether he beheved me or not, but he rode to this house 
 of Lochnaw, and talked with Forester McNoah, with his 
 wife, and with me. I gathered that he did not think 
 highly of the wife of the " Star" and in the end I persuaded 
 him to let me ride back with him " 
 
 " You, Lilias, you rode all the way among the wild hills 
 — for me." 
 
 " No," said Lilias demurely, " for my brother's son, 
 as I have the honour of telling you. It was a glory of 
 summer, and the gipsies said that the blessing was sure 
 to come. For every night the sky was furrowed with 
 fiery tracks of falling stars, and every morning the twilight 
 broke from a fairer day, banks and fells in holiday of spring, 
 the heather greening at the tip, the fields not yet shorn. 
 
 " They told me that the man by my side was no other 
 than the Red Killer, but I had no fear. He was gentle and 
 careful with me. He spoke much of you and of the 
 foreign lands where he had wandered. I was never lonely 
 and more than once, coming out to see the stars, I found 
 him seated by the camp fire, a gun across his knees 
 keeping watch. If he slew the two soldiers as they say — 
 well, he did that also for my sake, and he is worth a 
 thousand chattering jays such as come hither sometimes 
 to fret me. 
 
 " At last, we came among the true hills, where ridge 
 overlaps ridge, brown fades into purple, purple 
 into blue, and blue into the sky. I remembered it was all 
 your country and so I took heart. The men who came 
 were your men and they knew for what purpose I had come. 
 
 " The Killer made me heartsomely welcome at the house 
 of the Dungeon. He showed me the Loch and the island 
 you used to love. He and all speak well of you, and nobly 
 of her. I do not desire to give you pain, brother, but the 
 words made my heart proud. I rejoiced that the little 
 son should have such a worthy mother. 
 
 " Then the Killer took a score of his men and we went 
 to the house of the ' Star,' which lies very far out on the 
 waste, at the foot of that strange rocky hill like a pyramid 
 which lies across Enoch on the verges of Ayrshire. Only
 
 THE RAID OF LILIAS AGNEW 2(39 
 
 T was mounted, for the rest went faster than my pony 
 could carry me. The Killer had looked with care to the 
 arms of his men, and when I asked the cause, he said it 
 was on account of a brother of yours, one Hector Faa, 
 who had lately come from abroad and wished no good to 
 you or the bairn. Is this true ? " 
 
 " I have a brother Hector, the son of my father," said 
 John Faa, " but I know almost nothing of him, or he of 
 me. He has spent his life among the wild Hungarian 
 gipsies who are of our kin." 
 
 Silver Sand's iron composure was never more remark- 
 able. No one, not even Lilias, could have told how deeply 
 he was touched by the appearance of his brother at such 
 a juncture of affairs in the Faas country. 
 
 " We came to the house (Lilias continued) and found 
 that as the Killer had said, the wife of the ' Star ' was 
 no ways willing that the bairn should depart. And as 
 for Hector Faa, I saw him as I came in, a tall and insolent 
 young man, dark and dangerous, with long hair and silver 
 rings in his ears. He was well enough dressed, though in a 
 strange style, with a doublet and hose all of velvet, silver 
 buttoned and befrogged with many brandebourgs. He 
 stood with his hands stuck into a great scarlet scarf of 
 many folds which he wore wrapped about his waist. He 
 was warming himself at the fire in the kitchen with a 
 lordly air, and I could see that his gaze was by no means 
 friendly, 
 
 " ' Good day to you, wife,' said the Killer, in that soft 
 voice of his which is almost like a girl's, 'we have come 
 to take young John Faa to his father ! ' 
 
 " ' I have heard no word,' said the wife of the ' Star,' 
 * let John Faa come and seek his bairn where he left him. 
 He is here among his kinsfolk. This gentleman is Hector, 
 his brother, newly come from fighting the infidel Turk 
 at Belgrade. He will help me to tak' braw care o' the 
 lad bairn till such time as his daddie comes to claim 
 him.' 
 
 "Elspeth McKitterick,' said the Killer in his most 
 honeyed voice, ' can you not think of any reasons why 
 you should do as I ask you ? You are of my clan and
 
 270 SILVER SAND 
 
 people. I am your chief. But with some little thought 
 you will perhaps stumble upon other reasons.' 
 
 " Then the big black man who had stood peacocking 
 before the fire turned suddenly and pulling out a long 
 dagger cried that he would not see Elspeth of the ' Star ' 
 put upon, and that whoever tried it should have to deal with 
 him, Hector Faa, who had slain two Turkish Janissaries 
 at one blow ! 
 
 " I was watching the Killer. He seemed to grow little 
 and light, and as if dancing upon his feet. His head was 
 bent forward and slightly sunk between his shoulders. 
 
 " ' Hector Faa,' he said, ' I have twenty men without 
 who will see fair play. Come outside and try your weapon 
 with me. I see you wear a rapier, you have a dagger in 
 your hand. I think you will find it too long to be service- 
 able. But if you will honour me, we shall see if you can 
 kill me as you killed the Turks ' 
 
 " ' Or as you killed the soldiers,' retorted the dark man. 
 ' No, thank you. Killer. I am not afraid of you, but I do 
 not fight against such odds. H you fell, what would these 
 twenty of your men do to me ? ' 
 
 " ' That is what I was wondering myself ! ' said the 
 Killer smiling, ' and for that reason (among others) I was 
 counting on Elspeth there letting her daughter take a 
 little trip over the hill into the shire. What say you, 
 Bess ? That the change of air will do you good ! That's 
 well spoken and like a brave lass. John Faa shall see to 
 it that you do not suffer and I pledge my word that you 
 shall return when you will.' 
 
 " Hector Faa took a look as if he were minded to slay us 
 all, but the Killer's men swarmed in till the house was 
 full, and he made haste to put his dagger back in its 
 sheath. They are not canny folk, these McKittericks. But 
 for the Killer they would have stripped Hector of his 
 magnificence as a herd peels a willow wand, and the big 
 man felt that he was noways safe out of earshot of their 
 chief. 
 
 " The boy was brought down from his chamber, and 
 Bess declared that she vv^as greatly content to go with us to 
 the lowlands*. So we left Hector Faa with his two or three
 
 t 
 
 THE RAID OF LILIAS AGNEW 271 
 
 outlandish men under the roof of Elspeth the spaewife. 
 But the Killer, catching the greedy look of some of his 
 men, swore that he would hang the first man who dared 
 to plunder — that is, till he gave him leave. So with the 
 Killer still riding or running, as the fancy took him, Bess 
 and I brought the bairn home to Lochnaw, where we found 
 Aunt Jean in a terrible taking, and speaking of nothing 
 less than fitting out a party of Agnews to go in search 
 of me. 
 
 " And there (concluded Lilias) that is all I know till I 
 conveyed Bess and the bairn to Elder McNoah's cottage, 
 and Mirren in the nick of time brought you in to hold 
 the child up to the minister. There is nothing remarkable 
 in all that — when once you know " 
 
 " Except," said Silver Sand, quietly, " why you did it 
 at all 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 The Chaperon 
 
 The home-coming of Sir Andrew brought a new spirit 
 about the House of Locknaw. The caves on the barren 
 moors and the black spray-battered chffs were cleared of 
 their inhabitants. Some of these spent a day or two 
 about the outbuildings of the Castle. But no one wished 
 to bring any trouble upon the family, and all knew that 
 Sir Andrew was a marked man, against whom a little 
 evidence might work great mischief because of his great 
 place and possessions. 
 
 So of their own accord they scattered silently among 
 the famiers and cottiers with whom they could be un- 
 remarked and upon whom no government, however cruel, 
 could levy fines. 
 
 Still Silver Sand abode with me at the school-house, but 
 went every day to Lochnaw and every day also he called 
 in to see BessMcKitterick at the forest cottage in the lee 
 of the pines. 
 
 Never had I seen our Lilias so fair and smiling, so 
 radiant of face, or so carelessly tossing such wayward 
 tresses. She lost her pensive look. The babe seemed 
 more and more to fill her heart, and there was mirth as 
 well as contentment in her brimming eyes. 
 
 I would that I could say as much for Silver Sand, but 
 he was never two hours of one humour, and many days 
 he was hardly to be spoken to. 
 
 Again he would return in the gayest humour which, like 
 a fire of whins, would soon blaze itself out, and leave his 
 mood scorched and gloomy as before. 
 
 Sometimes he would hardly be persuaded to leave the 
 dell of the school-house, where his grave silent figure 
 
 272 
 
 I
 
 THE CHAPERON 273 
 
 always clad in t»lack, with white lace at the neck only, and 
 silver buckles at his knees, frightened the small scholar- 
 people worse than my taws. 
 
 He sat so still and silent that he never seemed to move 
 from the moment they entered school at nine till they 
 came forth at noon. Yet some were favourites with him 
 too, and oppressed him with requests to see his foreign 
 watch, and the seals and trinkets he wore on a broad 
 ribband attached to it. And he would smile and allow 
 them play with, his few treasures till Mirren McNoah, who 
 considered him as her own special property, arrived to 
 drive them off, a small vehement fury darting here and 
 there among the scholastic pines. 
 
 Then the two would march off together to some more 
 distant glade. And indeed I was often glad to see them 
 go, because I think the fiery child did the young man 
 good, and he would listen to her childish prattle about 
 the cottage and the comings and goings of Miss Lilias, 
 when my newest and most jocose talk would leave him 
 occupied and inattentive. 
 
 I knew from the first of Miss Lilias' quest to find 
 Juliana's child, and how she meant to bring it down to 
 milder climes and a more generous nurture. I judged the 
 whole thing perfectly Quixotic, as indeed it was, but after 
 consideration I said nothing. It certainly was no business 
 of mine and — still more to the point, my opinion had not 
 been asked — though I was to the full as well qualified to 
 give advice as ]\Ir. Dunning who had not one tenth of 
 my knowledge of the family. 
 
 Still if I had been Silver Sand, I do not set up to be so 
 modest a man that I would not have guessed what sent 
 Lilias up among the hills, and why she brought down my 
 son that he might be the better educated. 
 
 Yet Silver Sand's modesty came nearer to the truth. 
 For the truth was finer and more delicate than any man 
 could guess or, of his own divining put into words. I had 
 the facts from Mistress McNoah and I regret that my 
 habit of reading and writing the English only, prevents 
 me from giving its full force to the fine Scots in which she 
 conveyed it to me. 
 
 S
 
 274 SILVER SAND 
 
 " Ye see," she said, " this is the gait o't. My wee 
 leddie was feared. Oh, no' for hersel' she wasna feared — 
 though she might well hae been. But she was feared 
 for him — whas ' him ' ? What should it be but Silver 
 Sand ? And brawly ye ken it. Ye werena born on the 
 Sabbath, dominie ! Well, Lilias was feared for Silver 
 Sand, and that he wad be thinkin' and thinkin' aboot her 
 — till a day cam' when he would throw his bonnet be- 
 tween the mill-stanes, and she would hae to send him 
 aboot his business. For (says she) it wad be an unseemly 
 thing for ony man to be thinkin' aboot another woman 
 and the grass scarce green abune his first wife's grave. 
 Oh, I ken he had to mairry her whether he would or no, 
 but I'm tellin' you what Miss Lilias was thinkin'. Ye 
 can put in the excuses and explanations for yoursel', as 
 I ken ye will be gleg to do ! 
 
 " ' But ', thinks she, '" if I have the bairn there by me, 
 close under my hand, / can manage him. The bit thing 
 that is his ain flesh and blood will keep minding him o' 
 Juhana. Men forget soon, but not so soon as that, and 
 whenever I see words that are better unspoken trembling 
 on his tongue, or the look in his e'e, I shall e'en propose 
 a walk through the woods to see the bairn ! ' Noo, was 
 that no' clever o' Miss Lihas ? She made — that is the 
 Frenchified word she used — a ' chaperong ' o the puir 
 wee mite. I dinna suppose ye see even noo, dominie, 
 hoo clever it was o' her, and the plan is workin' juist 
 somethin' marvellous ' ! Cruel ?— Havers, dominie, juist 
 havers ! That comes o' never having been married 
 yoursel'. Silver Sand is a man, and when ye are garrin' 
 a man behave onything and everything is fair, I'm only 
 feared that she will let him aff ower easy. In this war 
 there is nae truce. If she doesna best him and keep him 
 bested, he will win in upon her. For a woman's heart is 
 a puir feckless thing and the only safe way wi' a man, is 
 never to let him get a sicht o' it ! " 
 
 I answered Mistress McNoah that she was very likely 
 right, but that all the benefits appeared to be on the side 
 of Miss Lihas — whereas I was also concerned for my friend 
 Silver Sand.
 
 THE CHAPERON 275 
 
 She gave me a curious look and shook her head, smiling- 
 ly, but with something of contempt. 
 
 " Ye are weel matched, the pair o' ye — yin kens as 
 muckle as the ither, and that's a God's blessing ! " 
 
 Nor would she explain more fully, bidding me in an 
 extremely vulgar phrase, which I was surprised to hear 
 from so respectable a woman, to " go and scart my fit ! "* 
 
 Then she took her way homeward, because (she said) 
 it was a responsibility to have a young bairn in the house, 
 with only that wild hill filly Bess McKitterick, and her 
 own young ne'er-do-weel, Mirren, to look after the bit 
 thing. 
 
 The which, being interpreted, meant that Mistress 
 McNoah had given her evidence in chief and did not mean 
 to let herself be cross-examined thereon. At any rate, 
 sure it was that she went her way smiling in the direction 
 of the forest cothouse of which she was so firm and worthy 
 a mistress. 
 
 That very day her husband came earlier to supper, 
 and she could see by the ply between his eyes that he had 
 come across something that pleased him httle. But 
 Mistress McNoah knew a great deal better than to pester 
 her lord with questions. If she did, he would only bid 
 her attend to the broth-pot, and stride out of the house. 
 But by little thoughtfulnesses and silent forestallings 
 of his desires, she knew how to smooth that V-shaped 
 mark, and that before they slept that night, he would 
 pour out his whole trouble into her wise and wifely ear. 
 
 It fell out even as she had foreseen. The ease and 
 warmth of the cottage soothed John McNoah. The child 
 was asleep, and the nurse, Bess McKitterick, had slipped 
 away to breathe the fresh air. Miss Lilias had been ac- 
 companied homeward by Mirren, so they had the cottage 
 among the pines of the Sheriff's knowe to themselves. 
 Then John McNoah spoke. 
 
 " This day at the comer of the Tinker's Hollow, I came 
 on a tribe that troubled me sair. Gipsies they were, but 
 
 * A phrase used in Galloway to express contempt for any very useless 
 occupation.
 
 276 SILVER SAND 
 
 like none that ever set foot on this estate of ours. Yet 
 I do not hke to trouble Sir Andrew. He would flee into 
 one of his passions and speak of hunting them down like 
 mad dogs — never thinkin' that we are not now in the 
 braw days of the Hereditary Sheriffdom ! " 
 
 " What like were they, John ? " his wife put in, as 
 quietly as if he had been telling her of some neighbour 
 lads he had seen at kirk or market. 
 
 " There was a great black foreign-looking man with 
 ringlets like a woman, and a nose that minded me o' 
 Silver Sand." 
 
 " That would be his brother Hector, a dangerous 
 loon. I was hearin' Miss Lilias speakin' aboot him only 
 yesterday. Had he a sash aboot his waist ? " 
 
 " The same," quoth John McNoah, bringing down his 
 hand with a crash, " to think that you should ken and no 
 me, me that am paid for the like ! " 
 
 " And the others — were they beribboned and besashed 
 like the big man ? " 
 
 " Not they, mistress, they were more like Irish har- 
 vesters without their reaping hooks — shock-headed and 
 black-haired — as black as sloes, and the e'en set in their 
 heads like currants in a gingerbread rabbit." 
 
 The good wife, completely posed this time, could only 
 shake her head and advise that her John should step over 
 to the dominie's the first thing in the morning and con- 
 sult Silver Sand. He would know if anybody knew, and 
 he might have authority to send the rascals about their 
 business. 
 
 " I doubt it much," said the guidman, " they looked 
 more like desperate Irish reivers or Heelant catherans, 
 broken by their own clan, outlawed by their own name 
 and people. They were setting up a band of their own, 
 as I guessed at the matter. Why, I had hardly spoken 
 to them, and that only to ask what was their business 
 upon my grounds, before they had a brace of pistols at 
 my head. The tall man with the shiny black ringlets 
 that ye guess to be Hector Faa made no sign, but looked 
 on with a sneer that frightened me far worse than the 
 pistols."
 
 THE CHAPERON 277 
 
 He was silent a moment, and then added : " There 
 must be some ill-work going forward, which would bring 
 three rascals of that stamp to the Tinker's Hollow, without 
 camp equipage or women folk at eleven o'clock of a brisk 
 forenoon. And then for a question, which it was my 
 bounden duty to put — pistols flashing out and pointed 
 at an honest man's head, I told them plainly, if they 
 would put aside these brimstone trinkets, that I, though 
 a man of peace, would try a fall with any one of them 
 upon the green grass." 
 
 " Oh, John," cried his wife, " and after what you 
 promised good Maister Peden about the weapons of the 
 flesh." 
 
 " Deed, guid wife, I have never been a Passive Resister 
 where tyranny was concerned. Both thieves wearing 
 crowns and thieves wearing blue bonnets and leather 
 jerkins I will resist in my master's interest. But after 
 two-and-forty years it came hard on a man to take down 
 his flag and go his ways without coming to grips — which 
 is what I had to do." 
 
 That night John McNoah slept not at all. He sum- 
 moned a couple of his aides from their shakedowns at 
 the stables, and the three of them, aided by Mirren in 
 one of her mother's short petticoats, cleaned and loaded 
 guns, which they placed on racks ready to their hands. 
 
 Then John McNoah kept watch till midnight, when he 
 gave place to Dickin Telford, and at four Dickin Telford 
 yielded to Nick McKerrow, who was still patrolling when 
 the good wife arose. Then ten minutes later John 
 McNoah sat him down on the edge of a settle to pull on 
 the leathern gaiters. Indeed, he was never seen without 
 them in the woods of Lochnaw, for he cherished and 
 pruned the plantations with his own hands. They were 
 his work and as dear to him as his own children. 
 
 The thought that foreign rascaldom was abroad among 
 them unchecked, most likely lighting fires and causing 
 damage, was enough to banish sleep had he been ever 
 so weary. 
 
 He turned out of the cottage without a word, only 
 with a single well understood gesture, bidding Dickin
 
 278 SILVER SAND 
 
 Telford and Nick McKerrow to stay where they were. 
 This time he took a brace of pistols in his belt and a gun 
 over his shoulder. He would not be caught napping a 
 second time, though he was only going along Mirren's 
 path to the dominie's house of Leswalt. 
 
 I was up among the hens in the yard when I saw him 
 come. John McNoah and I were good friends. I never 
 harmed his birds or interfered with his young plantations. 
 These he planted in the new English manner described 
 by Evelyn in his Sylva, which he had used in the nurture 
 of the Sheriff's woods since 1664, when Sir Andrew's 
 father brought him a copy fresh bought in Paul's 
 Churchyard. 
 
 John and I did not agree as to the bickering of sects. 
 For I stood for the established order, and he was the 
 bluest blood of the Covenant. But in all that conceded 
 the well-being of any decent living man in the parish, he 
 knew that I was to be trusted to do my best, both in the 
 matter of conveying early intelligence to the Wanderers 
 and in the more subtle business of misleading the man- 
 hunting ruffians of the neighbouring garrisons. 
 
 " I came to see Silver Sand," he announced, as soon 
 as he was within hearing, and when I had indicated where 
 my young guest was likely to be found, in a glade where 
 he often paced up and down in meditation, I went on 
 busying myself with the business of my little garden. 
 For I had risen early in order to sweep out the school 
 house, which (to her shame) Mirren McNoah had 
 neglected to do for me the night before, though regularly 
 paid a silver shilling a week by the parish for so doing. 
 But as she very impertinently informed me, she had 
 undertaken to clean a school and not a poultry roost, 
 I could not find it in my heart to object. For indeed 
 my chickens and their ancestors, male and female, had 
 always perched on the cross beams of the school-house, 
 and resorted thither regularly as soon as the last belated 
 scholar, " kept in " for unlearnt lessons, had at length 
 been liberated. 
 
 The Cameronian chief-forester met Silver Sand, and 
 they greeted one another soberly as became men of
 
 THE CHAPERON 279 
 
 weighty business and rare discourse. John McNoah 
 told what he had seen in the Tinker's Hollow, and how 
 the two with the sloe-black eyes had set a pair of pistols 
 to his head, while the tall ringletted man looked mockingly 
 on. 
 
 " There is no doubt as to the last," said Silver Sand, 
 " it is Hector Faa and no other. The two with the 
 pistols are somewhat more difficult to trace. I have 
 my suspicions about one of them, a stoop-shouldered, 
 frosty-polled man such as you describe, might point 
 to a fellow whose life is forfeit in Scotland, one Grey 
 Roger " 
 
 " What," exclaimed the forester, " not the murderer 
 of Lidgett Sylvester." 
 
 " Hush," said Silver Sand, " you a woodcraft man, 
 and speaking out your mind like that, for any lurking 
 eavesdropper to overhear ! " 
 
 " There is not cover within a mile to hide a crow," 
 quoth John McNoah, " and besides you took me by 
 surprise." 
 
 " Let us sit down and talk the matter over. Lay aside 
 your gun. I will venture that no pistols shall be fired 
 in this glade while we hold council." 
 
 The two men seated themselves and looked down the 
 forest glade — John McNoah, to whom each branch and 
 shoot and sprout, each knot and the thickening of each 
 bole was familiar, and also Silver Sand, who saw only 
 the deep green above, the blue haze of the distance, and 
 the dance of motes in the slant sunshine as the sun began 
 to rise in the East. 
 
 " What we have to find out is what brings these three 
 rascals together — two (as is likely) from Ireland, and the 
 third, my brother Hector, from his comfortable howf by 
 the fireside of Elspeth McKitterick at the House of the 
 'Star.'" 
 
 " The Irishmen have followed Sir Andrew over, knowing 
 well that he is here in some danger of his life, with intent 
 to sell him to those persecuting villains, the Grahams ! " 
 
 " No, forester," said Silver Sand, " I do not deny that 
 Grey Roger is capable of that, as he is of every other
 
 28o SILVER SAND 
 
 villainy. But Roger could not move against Sir Andrew 
 without putting his own neck into the halter-noose. 
 Besides he would see his money down before he took the 
 risk — and now, who is to pay him ? The plot lies deeper, 
 and be sure that my brother is in it. He is far more 
 subtle and dangerous than swashbucklers like Grey 
 Roger, It is not your young plantations nor yet your 
 master's liberty that are threatened, but some scheme 
 which we cannot yet fathom ! What else would have 
 brought Hector Faa back from Hungary, where the 
 gipsies are still a power, and the son of the Lords of Little 
 Egypt can claim a name and a place among the highest," 
 
 The forest-guard remained silent. 
 
 "I do not forget (Silver Sand added thoughtfully) 
 that Hector is the gipsy out and out — far more so than I — 
 deeper read in the mysteries, having never given his mind 
 to any other subject, and doubtless consumed with the 
 burning jealousy of a younger brother. More than that 
 I cannot guess, and perhaps even so I do him wrong." 
 
 4
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 The Last Perversities of Lilias 
 
 LiLiAS went lightly between Castle and cottage, dreaming 
 of no danger, but full of peace and the feeling of safety 
 which is so sweet after numberless distempered days. 
 She could again flash through the gamut of sensibilities 
 each time she encountered Silver Sand, She had no 
 fear of him now. The barrier she had so cunningly reared 
 was between them, and she could be as wild and wilful 
 as ever she had been in the days when they met on 
 Niven's Isle. 
 
 " Do you remember," she said smiling, " the night we 
 spoke in whispers because Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jean 
 were bidding sweethearts' adieux as though they were 
 only eighteen years old, and had not been wedded a 
 week ? " 
 
 Silver Sand trembled. Did she remember that it was 
 that night my lady had come upon them standing silent, 
 hand in hand, the west all a golden glory about them and 
 the deep and solemn ash trees, high as a cathedral, 
 whispering down strange things to them as they stood, 
 soul-joined, on the sedgy brink of that lagoon. 
 
 Yes, Lilias thought of these things. She felt the touch 
 of Silver Sand's arm against her shoulder as they took 
 their way along the narrow woodland path. But though 
 it thrilled her, that light pressure, though her heart 
 responded to the deep murmur of the wind among the 
 trees, she lingered, rejoicing that she dared to enjoy the 
 situation. 
 
 What after all did she risk ? At any moment she 
 could catch her dress, hold it high at the side, and offer 
 
 281
 
 282 SILVER SAND 
 
 to race him to the forester's cottage. The baby — 
 Juliana's baby had need of her. 
 
 So deceiving herself thus, Lilias' courage, her light- 
 ness of heart, returned to her. She was treading on 
 dangerous ground, she knew, but the process was an 
 interesting one, and in all ages has been popular with 
 women. Eve, no doubt, began by wondering how far 
 she could go — safely, of course — with the serpent. There 
 is not the least doubt but that Lilias found the interest 
 of her walks to and fro much increased — still less that, 
 in common with all such experimentalists, she imag- 
 ined a vain thing — to have and not to have at the same 
 time. 
 
 The immunity of Lilias lay not at all in the insen- 
 sibility of Silver Sand, for he felt the change of her 
 treatment of him with the exquisite delicacy of his feeling 
 for moods of the mind which characterised him. But he 
 did not divine the reasons of Lilias — what man could ? 
 Besides his mind was filled with the dangers which 
 surrounded Sir Andrew and all at Lochnaw. 
 
 For the defence of a house, for a battle in the open 
 against odds nothing better could be imagined than the 
 trained Society men. But there was no denying that 
 they tramped up and down like bullocks, and that their 
 value as spies was small. Yet, Silver Sand must give 
 no sign of taking alarm. He must go and come with his 
 old freedom though his life was every moment in peril. 
 He might move among ambuscades, yet he turned aside 
 at the sight of a flower blooming in a dusky covert, a 
 peony hid amid the shrubbery, its brilliant bloom burning 
 a hole in the cool grass never swept by the scythe. 
 
 Also he was left a great deal to Lilias. Sir Andrew 
 needed him every day, and often many times a day. So 
 that he fell into his former habit of dining at noon in the 
 hall of Lochnaw, where he had the advantage of listening 
 to a short grace before meat from Mr. Walter Dunning, 
 and a long returning of thanks from Mr. Prophet Peden — 
 Sir Andrew had arranged this precedence on philosophic 
 grounds. 
 
 " A man can listen better to a long ' say-away ' wi' his
 
 THE LAST PERVERSITIES OF LILIAS 283 
 
 victuals comfortably under his belt than reekin' under 
 his nose ! " 
 
 The Sheriff's authority had not yet been given back 
 though nothing had been heard of David Graham, and 
 as for John, his brother, he was in London, where in that 
 place of treasons and divided councils, he found himself 
 not at all the great man he had been in Scotland. He 
 had indeed got himself made into " Bonny Dundee," 
 and confirmed in all his grants and claims to other people's 
 property. But so far as Galloway was concerned, all 
 that we asked was that he should stay bonnily out of it 
 — a prayer which seemed like to be granted, for storms 
 were gathering about the head of those cruel men, James 
 Stuart and John Graham, who had made bloodshedding 
 their pastime and hatred their daily bread. 
 
 " We have come forth of the fire not unscathed. Silver 
 Sand," said Mr. Walter Dunning. " But now we are 
 steel and no longer iron. Our feet have come far and 
 are not unbruised. But still we are near the goal. The 
 lark mounts high in the meadows, but he sings not so 
 loud, nor towers so high as our hopes." 
 
 He was speaking of the coming of the Prince of Orange, 
 and Sir Andrew who though persecuted, had never fancied 
 it possible that any other king should reign, showed him- 
 self no little shocked. Events were however moving 
 a little too fast for him, and in his nightly consultations 
 with Jean Hay, he had even uttered the most subversive 
 and revolutionary sentiments that whosoever was worthy 
 to yield the power was the real king, a definition which 
 Jean Hay reminded him would make Cromwell no 
 usurper. 
 
 " Well," answered Sir Andrew, " I shall go with the 
 Estates and the Parliament of Edinburgh. It would ill 
 become me at my time of life to be riding with ill-faured 
 Grahams, and so far as I can hear, King James will have 
 no other friends in Scotland, an' it be not a wheen raggetty 
 clansmen out o' the wild North, where they never had 
 as muckle religion as wad fill a tobacco pipe ! "
 
 284 SILVER SAND 
 
 Meantime, Silver Sand and Lilias walked abroad, 
 content and joyous as devotees in the sunshine of a 
 Sainted Morning. Their lonely season, sunless, frost- 
 bitten, mist-wrapped, had wonderfully passed away. 
 New horizons were opening out upon the mind of Lilias, 
 glorious visions which she dared not acknowledge even to 
 herself. Still the brightness on her face was reflected 
 like an after-glow on his also — and he was glad, he knew 
 not why. 
 
 He knew that the demons of discord still walked the 
 earth, but when Lilias reached him her hand at the stile, 
 he forgot everything evil and dangerous at the touch of 
 her fingers, and walked on by her side, his head knocking 
 against the skies and his feet quite unconscious of touching 
 the earth. 
 
 They did the maddest things — yet most of which 
 indirectly contributed to their safety. They drove the 
 wild goats from John McNoah's plantations, shepherding 
 them down towards the sea coast where they would find 
 no young tree-tops to nibble. They sat on fallen trees 
 till the sun drooping into the west said to them (having 
 pity, because he had seen so many in their case) : " Arise, 
 my fair ones and come away ! ' ' 
 
 One day of soft breathing airs and bird cadences, Lilias 
 and Silver Sand sat together watching one httle cloud, 
 all white, drift across the sky and disappear. It was 
 a warm pale blue sky such as comes in Scotland only 
 with the finest weather. They were far enough out on 
 the dunes to be safe from all intrusion, near enough to the 
 sea to hear its moaning and blind groping, always restless 
 and unquiet, at the foot of the steadfast cliffs. They were 
 near enough to the woods to see them lie out half hidden 
 by a dusky bloom of mist, which at times the sun 
 made iridescent and unreal as the veil of some divine 
 bride. 
 
 Lilias broke his dream and her own by asking suddenly : 
 " What did she call you ? " 
 
 " She— who ? " 
 
 " You know that I mean Juhana — what did she call 
 you?
 
 THE LAST PERVERSITIES OF LILIAS 285 
 
 " She called me John — John Faa ! " 
 " Then I shall call you Silver Sand," 
 
 The wind sang among the rippled com down on the 
 Sheriff's holms, the minister's hay-pasture, and the 
 dominie's herb-garden, and there was nothing to tell 
 that a watershed had been passed upon the hills of 
 Time. 
 
 She was silent for full five minutes after this, but her 
 eyes were dark blue like the sapphire of a short summer 
 night when the sky never really blackens. It was a sign 
 with Lilias that she was moved in deep places far removed 
 from her light everyday merriment of behaviour. 
 
 " Tell me if you loved her very much. Silver Sand ? " 
 
 He bent his head towards the white foamy drawl of 
 the surf as if that league-long voice would help him to 
 answer. Then he sat up and squared his shoulders. 
 He would not be a coward just in the place where most 
 men are. 
 
 " Yes, I loved her — not at first, perhaps, but 
 afterwards." 
 
 Lilias snatched at and captured a vagrant dandelion 
 plume which was balancing itself uncertainly before her, 
 the sport of light sweet airs which came in puffs off the 
 sea. Then she launched her interrogatory. 
 
 " She made you love her, though not at first. Tell me 
 how ? " 
 
 " Lilias, is this fair ? — Is this worthy ? " 
 
 " Tell me how she made you love her, when you did not 
 — at least you say you did not ! " 
 
 There was a rising inflection in the sentence which 
 indicated temper rising above the normal — and that 
 rapidly, 
 
 " No man can tell such things. Women should under- 
 stand " 
 
 Lilias drove the heel of the little shoe deep into the 
 sward. 
 
 " Tell me," she commanded. " I want to be told. 
 I must hear. I must know ! " 
 
 Now a more loyal and conscientious man than Silver 
 Sand did not live, and all his long history affirms him
 
 286 SILVER SAND 
 
 to have been bravest where all were brave, but this was 
 too much for him. 
 
 " You ask me the impossible," he answered, firming 
 his voice. " You propose a treachery to a true man. 
 But because you are Lilias Agnew I shall try and satisfy 
 you. JuHana made me love her because when I loved 
 her not at all — she took my very indifference as a precious 
 gift. Each look I cast upon her, were it in the bygoing, 
 she thanked me for with a smile. She took my careless 
 alms as if they had been a king's dowry ! " 
 
 " Then she had no spirit," snapped Lilias, her eyes 
 sparkling. " I wonder you could bear a spiritless woman. 
 She was not even jealous, you say ! " 
 
 " To-day Juliana has no spirit in her body. She is 
 dead ! " said Silver Sand pensively. " It is true she was 
 patient with me and though she knew what she knew, 
 she was not jealous. But I have yet to learn that that is 
 a fault." 
 
 " It is a fault in a loving woman," cried Lilias snatching 
 handfuls of the grass here and there about her and flinging 
 them towards the cliff. 
 
 " It was no fault in Juliana," said Silver Sand gravely. 
 " She had made her bargain before marrying me according 
 to our laws, and she kept her faith to the end. God give 
 us all strength to do as much," 
 
 " You have not yet answered my question; how did 
 she make you love her ? " 
 
 " By loving me — no man could help it," said Silver 
 Sand suddenly firing up at the girl's injustice, or what 
 seemed like it. " Juliana Stanley loved me at first sight, 
 and being a virgin, used the privilege of her people and 
 ' asked ' for me as her husband. A man asleep does not 
 awake so quickly as that. I had put women from me 
 as so much uncertain April weather — ' fickle mind, 
 unstable heart ' so I counted them. I found I was wrong. 
 She showed me." 
 
 " She spoilt you, you mean," said Lilias. " She made 
 herself your slave. She hewed wood and carried water 
 for you ! " 
 
 ," I admit the water," said Silver Sand. " But I deny
 
 THE LAST PERVERSITIES OF LILIAS 287 
 
 the other. I it was who cut the wood, and I bear the 
 marks of the task to this day, where the axe missed the 
 branch and hit my toe ! " 
 
 " I would bow to no man's caprice ! " 
 
 " JuHana taught an idle fellow his duty by doing her 
 own," Silver Sand went on. " And now she might well 
 teach you yours, Mistress Lilias." 
 
 " Teach me my duty — she ! " the little lady's lip 
 curled. " I have never been taught that by any that 
 live." 
 
 " So much is evident," said Silver Sand, very low. 
 " But you may listen with better grace when the dead 
 come forth to teach you ! " 
 
 Lilias started and looked shudderingly around. But 
 the face of the dunes was bare, the sky bent reassuringly 
 above and beneath the incoming tide began to rattle the 
 pebbles. 
 
 " She never spoke or thought ill of any," he proceeded, 
 for he felt his advantage instinctively. " Not even when 
 she knew that I had met you, and loved you at first sight, 
 as she had done me — and for the same reason, because I 
 could not help it." 
 
 " She knew that — and it made no difference ? " 
 
 " None that I know of. She would have given me up. 
 You know how she pleaded with you — to deaf ears." 
 
 " One was deaf," said the girl, smiling perversely 
 through a tear. " The other heard only too well." 
 
 " Yes, Juliana knew and it made her only the braver 
 and the more true. It is a strange world, and women are 
 the strangest things in it. But I loved her more and 
 was kinder to her, after she knew about my feeling for 
 you than ever before." 
 
 '" And you expect me to believe in your love for me ? " 
 
 " I do — so much the more that a woman has died to 
 prove it." 
 
 " Ah," wailed LiUas suddenly clasping her hands about 
 his arm. " You should not have said that ! I am a 
 thankless, jealous, ill-tempered minx, quite unworthy 
 of you, and not worthy to tie Juliana's shoe strings, but 
 I never needed any other woman dead or alive to tell
 
 288 SILVER SAND ^ 
 
 me that you loved me. How did I know ? As I know 
 whether the day be wet or fine. ' Loves me not !' — I 
 take my cloak and pass my way. ' Loves me ' — the 
 sun is shining, the air is warm, my heart glows. I pout 
 out my lips and whistle a tune. Then I take my sprigged 
 gown, hold it out daintly — so — and dance a minuet."
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Three Bad Men 
 
 Meanwhile the three outlaws outside drawn together by 
 a kind of association of evil, were perfecting their plans 
 and already squabbling about after-profits. Doran of 
 Killibegs, the simple brigand, could be satisfied with a 
 few score of the ringing Magyar gold pieces which Hector 
 Faa had brought with him from Buda-Pesth, the city 
 of fair, frail women. 
 
 It was another matter to content Grey Roger, who had 
 cruel instincts and wanted revenge as well as money. He 
 was entirely willing that Silver Sand should die. He 
 was altogether too well dressed. He had an air of com- 
 mand that irked the tribal outcast. He had overcome 
 him with his eye and taunted him with his crimes. It 
 would be sweet to make him suffer — he the chief of Egypt, 
 who m^ade himself so secure in his place and power. A 
 little torture even would be grateful to Grey Roger's 
 feelings — and that maid with the yellow locks, Silver 
 Sand was vulnerable there. It was a pity Hector was 
 the man's brother. With one or two of his own stamp 
 they might amuse themselves well. 
 
 Now for his part Hector Faa hated his brother, and 
 wished his death, not foreseeing that after a long life in 
 which crime lay nested in crime like a China puzzle, they 
 two should die together fighting in a good cause, the 
 untarnished honour of the elder ransoming the younger's 
 dishonour. 
 
 But they were both young men then, and had long 
 life before them. One had much good, the other much 
 evil to get through before it was time to make their 
 
 289 T
 
 290 SILVER SAND 
 
 excuses to life and take their leave not wholly 
 unfraternally. 
 
 But just at this moment Hector Faa desired his brother's 
 place and honour, the inherited hoards of generations 
 of gipsy captains. He had come back from Hungary 
 with some experience of the Turkish wars, a vast opinion 
 of himself, an overweening ambition, and the most perfect 
 unscrupulousness. But — he gave Grey Roger to under- 
 stand that he would have no superfluity of cruelty. A 
 clean knife stroke and a toss over the cliff edge he had no 
 objection to. That was why he was there, but, for the 
 rest — well, if Grey Roger tried any tricks or made any 
 trouble behind backs, he would find that his throat was 
 as easily cut as another man's — as he, Hector Faa, 
 would soon prove to him. 
 
 Grey Roger knew enough of his leader's desperate 
 reputation to hold his tongue. He was something of a 
 hand with the knife himself, but from the brief, fierce 
 lesson he had had of the fate of the unknown Bedlington 
 man whose grave he had helped to dig, he did not propose 
 to match himself with the cadet of the House of Egypt. 
 Still, he comforted himself with the thought that some- 
 thing might be done without Hector Faa's knowledge, 
 and Doran as a son of the glorious slaying of '41, could 
 be trusted to assist in the wringing of Protestant nerves 
 as well as the spilling of Protestant blood. 
 
 The three lay among the tall bearded grass and plotted, 
 each advising or criticising in turn, though it was only 
 Hector Faa whose decision counted at the last. They 
 knew a kind of happiness too, dreaming an evil man's 
 dream of success, and as they looked upward, each 
 biting at the succulent ends of the grasses, they had 
 some vague idea that Heaven smiled upon their pro- 
 jects ! 
 
 It is a mistake to think that bad men have no religion. 
 They may be deaf to Lord's prayer and holy psalm. 
 They keep no count of Paternoster and Ave. But they 
 have a natural sense that it is God's bounden duty to 
 make the world a pleasant place for them. And if He 
 fails in this His manifest business, it is theirs to do it for
 
 THE THREE BAD MEN 291 
 
 Him. Hence the sudden tightening of many halters 
 and good King's dues paid to Jack Ketch, 
 
 The mission of these three was plain death, yet a 
 booming bee in the broom bush would distract them. 
 They rose together and threw cudgels and stones at a 
 pattering rabbit or a timid hare. For, barring their rascality, 
 villains are wont to behave amazingly like honest men — a 
 fact which makes them as inexplicable for the philosopher 
 as it is disturbing and unsatisfactory to the thief-taker. 
 
 When the time for action should arrive Doran was the 
 man in whom they had confidence. His face and figure 
 were unknown in the countryside. He had his own 
 accent which was that of one of the many thousand of 
 Irish reapers passing through to reap the harvests of the 
 rich English fields. There was nothing of the gipsy about 
 him. It was at least a possible thing that John McNoah 
 might give him a shakedown or a chaff bed in his bam. 
 All depended on the temper on which he might be found, 
 and as to that they must run their chances. The shooting 
 of Silver Sand presented no insuperable difficulties. He 
 went about like a chief among his clan, the lord of his 
 own domain. 
 
 They must, of course, choose their hour, but thereafter 
 as unquestioned heir of Egypt, Hector Faa would enter 
 into its rights and revenues. These were known to be 
 considerable, for the new methods brought to perfection 
 by Juliana, had been continued by her father in the 
 South and by Chief McKitterick in the North. Hector 
 saw no difficulty. He would take all into his own hand, 
 and he would know how to make up to Smith Stanley 
 and the McKitterick for the loss of their positions as 
 middlemen. He had overcome far greater difficulties 
 in Hungary, where in the name of Faa he had dealt with 
 a people infinitely stronger and more difficult than these 
 scattered tribes. He had warred with the Turk even to 
 the walls of Belgrade. He had shaken his curled locks 
 in the great mosque of Adrianople, where the dust of 
 many warlike caliphs lies, and where his life would not 
 have been worth a groat's purchase if the bearded Turk 
 had known him for an infidel.
 
 292 SILVER SAND 
 
 They sat about and listened, Doran open-mouthed with 
 admiration of the travelled man, but Grey Roger too 
 ignorant and mean a villain to believe that any man 
 could do the things Hector Faa said he had done. He 
 smiled furtively as he whetted his knife, and foresaw 
 that when Hector was chief of the Faas, he would have 
 to pay sweetly for his silence. Grey Roger was never a 
 man to forego an advantage, and here was this braggart 
 giving away names and places, a knowledge of which 
 would be invaluable when it came to a settlement of 
 accounts. So, feeling his importance increasing every 
 moment. Hector spoke, his demands rose with the infor- 
 mation at his command. He did not stop to think that 
 if Hector spoke the truth he was not the sort of man to 
 suffer a blackmailer gladly. Or that, if he were a liar 
 of that force, he must be a man still more dangerous. 
 
 Now a man in Galloway is more cautious whom he 
 receives into his barns and byres of a Saturday night 
 than on the other nights of the week. Sabbath began 
 in Old Testament fashion at six o'clock on Saturday 
 evening, and any wanderer received after that became 
 " the stranger within thy gates," and could not on any 
 pretext be turned away before the morning of Monday. 
 Otherwise the master of the house would not only be 
 abetting — he would be directly responsible, for " Sunday 
 travelling ! " 
 
 So when Doran presented himself with his reaping- 
 hook over his arm at the gate of the little enclosure of 
 McNoah's cottage, the good wife looked at him mistrust- 
 fully, and said that he must bide till the good man came 
 in out of the wood, whereupon Doran sank down with so 
 wearied an air that Mistress McNoah, touched to the 
 heart, sent out Nurse Bess with a bowl of broth. Open 
 the barn-door on Saturday night she dared not, because 
 she was one of those women who unfeignedly fear their 
 lord. But outside the gate a bowlful of good mutton- 
 broth would put life into the weariful Irish papist, and.
 
 THE THREE BAD MEN 293 
 
 perhaps, even so little might be counted to her for 
 righteousness. 
 
 Presently John McNoah came stepping masterfully 
 forth from his woods, a billhook, weapon of his profession, 
 over one shoulder, where it made as brave a show as any 
 bayonet. Doran cringed before him, as even chiefs of 
 the Irishry soon learned to do. 
 
 John eyed him narrowly. 
 
 *' Stand up and say your Ave /"" he commanded. " It 
 is a popish prayer, but if you are an Irelander you will 
 know it. Good ! Now what does your priest ask you 
 when you go to confess ? Very well, so far. Now let 
 me hear you say ' thirty-three men of force and arms.' " 
 
 " Tirty-tree men av forrce and arrums ! " said Doran 
 promptly, 
 
 " Come your ways, Teague," said the forester, " you 
 were never reared on this side of the Irish Channel, and 
 the rest of what you say may be true. At any rate you 
 are welcome to a straw bed in my barn, and bite and sup 
 from my table — of which, if you abuse or have any evil 
 thought, the Lord of the Sabbath have mercy on your 
 soul." 
 
 And with this brief warning he led the way into the 
 steading. He unlocked the door and left the sorner 
 within. 
 
 " I am cowld, that I am," whimpered Doran, who was 
 anxious to get a look at the internal arrangements of the 
 cottage, which he had not had time to discuss with Bess 
 of the " Star." 
 
 " Hoots," said John McNoah, bending his brows, " a 
 fine simmer nicht as ever was, and you will get your 
 kite full of steaming parritch in half an hour. Meantime 
 there lies a pile of barley sacks in the corner. Help 
 yoursel', or better still, take the axe and split the good 
 wife's kindling wood for her morning fire. That will 
 warm you the better — keep at it till the sweat breaks, 
 and then betake yoursel' to the barley sacks. The 
 parritch will be sent to you at six exactly, and after that 
 you mind that you are to behave yoursel', as becomes 
 an Elder's house on the Sabbath Day ! "
 
 294 SILVER SAND 
 
 The meal was brought in a large wooden " bicker '* 
 bound externally with broad rings of brass, but to Doran's 
 grave disappointment it was not Bess the nurse who 
 brought the " cogie " but Mistress Mirren, who stood 
 and asked him questions of the most embarrassing char- 
 acter, as she watched him sup his porridge and milk. 
 
 " Where's the big black man wi' the rings in his ears ? " 
 Thus she opened point-blank fire at him from a distance 
 of a couple of yards. 
 
 " What black man ? I do not be knowing anny man 
 wid rings in his ears. 'Tis Jock, the bull, you will be 
 thinkin' av, and faith, he wears his in his nose, for I saw 
 it when he chased me across the Park, where I lost me 
 bundle, three shirts and a pair av ruffled frills." 
 
 Doran thought he could get off under cover of a jest, 
 but he did not know the sleuth-hound tenacity of Mirren 
 on the track of information. 
 
 " Do not burden your soul with lies — you have been 
 about the country with the big black man. You made 
 tracks like a drove of horses running the grass in fly time 
 — a blind man might have followed you with the point 
 of his kent ! " 
 
 " 'Twas another man entirely — so it was, darhnt," 
 asserted Doran, making the sign of the cross. " Indeed 
 I am only new come ashore from Mike O'Flanigan's 
 boat, that do be lyin' off Port Logan at this very minute. 
 And the divil fly away wid my sowl if it is not the God's 
 truth I'm tellin' ye. Is it likely that I would be askin' 
 shelter in your father's barn if I was aught but what 
 your father called me — a poor papish Teague, trotting 
 the bogs to cut the harvests he will never eat ? " 
 
 Mirren was daunted by such assurance, and felt that 
 it would be ungenerous to press the guest farther. She 
 still thought that the man lied, but she was no longer 
 so confident as to mention the matter to her father — 
 which, if she had done, would have made a great differ- 
 ence to Doran of Killibegs the Donegal " scraun," and a 
 still greater difference to this story.
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 In Gash Gabbie 
 
 The night was cold and a little whiffling wind blew ofi 
 the sea, when the gable window of Forester McNoah's 
 cottage was cautiously opened. The hinge, which creaked 
 a little, had had to be eased with such grease as all good 
 nurses carry. 
 
 " Mind you," whispered Bess of the " Star," " I am to 
 take the bairn back to my mother, and no harm is to 
 be done to either of us. No, I will not give you John 
 Faa's son to hold. Let me have the money first, I tell 
 you." 
 
 Good coined gold clinked pleasantly in the darkness, 
 and then slowly through the window came something 
 strange and misshapen — Bess of the " Star " scrambling 
 out backwards, and the babe clasped to her bosom. Three 
 shadows waited upon her anxiously, guiding her feet so 
 that she should not scrape the wall, and letting her 
 gently down lest she should awaken the child. But 
 John Faa the younger had just been suckled and slept 
 the sleep of contented repletion. 
 
 " Quick now, hurry with them," whispered Hector Faa. 
 " It is high tide, and O'Flannigan will be able to stand 
 close in. Do not come back till they are both on board." 
 
 Bess of the Star was hurried away into the silence of 
 the wood, where the dews of a clear sky were falling 
 fitter-patter in big solid drops like the beginnings of a 
 thunderstorm. 
 
 The pleasant freshness, the regular movement, caused 
 the babe on Bess's shoulder to sleep profoundly. Bess 
 of the "Star" — a stupid woman, of a slow hulking nature 
 — yielded herself to Doran and Grey Roger. They were 
 
 295
 
 296 SILVER SAND 
 
 soon out on the fragrant slopes of thyme and heather, 
 and anon came out upon the yellow sands. A boat 
 grated within a cable's length, and without a word Doran 
 and Grey Roger joined hands, and carried Bess and her 
 charge on board, wading waist deep into the slow heave 
 of the tide. Bess was passed down by strong hands to 
 her place in the bottom of the boat, and in a few minutes 
 afterwards a lantern was lowered from a ship riding at 
 anchor under the rocks of the Black Head, a windlass 
 clanked, and Bess of the " Star " and her charge were lost 
 to the ken of any in Galloway for years — though among 
 the black blood of Egypt there were always to be found 
 those who kept the pair under observation. So, in spite 
 of the interference of Lilias, the son of Juhana Stanley 
 and John Faa was fated to be brought up among gipsies 
 where they are strongest and most unmixed, which is to 
 say on the great Hungarian levels — a tzigane among the 
 tziganas. 
 
 * * * « 
 
 It was a strange Sabbath mom which broke over the 
 Leswalt valleys, and many of the most faithful never 
 saw the inside of a Kirk that day. From the elder's 
 house in the wood Bess of the "Star" and her charge 
 were missing — snatched mysteriously away from a guarded 
 house. By eight of the clock a search party was riding 
 straight across the northerly moors towards Loch Moan 
 and the Dungeon of Buchan. 
 
 But there was something still graver to relate, which 
 caused Sir Andrew himself, on his way to the public 
 worship of his parish Kirk, to turn about and ride as 
 rapidly as his horse could carry him to the house of 
 Nathan Crogo, Dominie in Leswalt. 
 
 The report which had met him like a blow in the face 
 was that Silver Sand had been killed in his chamber in 
 the schoolhouse, that his body had been dragged across 
 the dunes to the nearest heuch, whence it had been 
 dumped into the tide, which at the hour of midnight, or 
 half an hour afterwards, would be at the full. 
 
 There was some measure of truth in this report —
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 297 
 
 altogether too much for my peace of mind. For I had to 
 stand Gutside my door all day ; indeed, outside the little 
 retainirig wall of my orchard where it had been broken 
 down in one place, so that the marks might not be effaced 
 nor the sparsely-sprinkled gouts of blood tampered with. 
 
 But before I could welcome my good patron, one 
 alighted from a shelty at the great Louping-on Stone by 
 the school-house yett. It was the man for whom Silver 
 Sand and I had been waiting for these four days. His 
 pony was too wearied even to crop the grass, and stood 
 with grey shaggy head hung down between its knees. 
 He himself was so mired by the bogs, that, except for 
 his wig, I could not have recognised my sometime guest 
 the Chief McKitterick, commonly called the Red Killer. 
 
 " Why did you not tell me sooner ? " he broke out 
 savagely, " it seems I have come the day after the fair." 
 
 I hastened to introduce him to Sir Andrew as the 
 owner of the House of the Dungeon, where Silver Sand 
 had so often dwelt. 
 
 " I have heard of you, McKitterick," said Sir Andrew, 
 drawing together his brows, " you sometimes assist the 
 laws without saying ' by your leave ' to me." 
 
 The Killer felt that he was somehow on his defence, 
 and had his answer pat to his tongue tip. 
 
 "If it had been yourself. Sir Andrew, I should have 
 come the readier, but I do not believe either one of us 
 was eager to taste the tender mercies of David Graham, 
 then Sheriff by decree royal." 
 
 " Well," said Sir Andrew, brusquely, "it is not an 
 affair of red soldiers now, but of what has become of 
 Silver Sand and the lad bairn. Have you the letter 
 which John Faa wrote you ? No, I shall not read it. 
 Do you pick out the passage which, in your opinion, it 
 will be well for me to hear. I want none of your secrets, 
 but, though presently without mandate, I am ready to 
 do the business of the office in which I have had for long 
 a faithful helper in Silver Sand." 
 
 I took the two upstairs to view the gable chamber 
 which it had been my pride to prepare for Silver Sand's 
 use. Sir Andrew found that nothing had been touched
 
 298 SILVER SAND 
 
 among the effects of the missing man. The clothes he 
 had worn by day w&re neatly folded on the lid of the 
 chest, and a great fiat board weighted with books placed 
 over to press them. For John Faa had learned a 
 conspicuous neatness in France, among the monks of 
 Issy. And though learning may be forgotten, and the 
 formulae of the schools relegated to the shades, habit 
 remains strong ; and Silver Sand continued to fold and 
 press his clothes as though he had been still a junior 
 Sulpician, with a pion standing, notebook in hand, ready 
 to make a report if he failed or forgot. 
 
 One great riding cloak of blue Westphalian stuff was 
 missing, and it is certain that I had seen it about his shoul- 
 ders when he came into the kitchen the night before. He 
 had shaken off the big dew-drops which had fallen from 
 the trees, and looked to a tag which he fancied to be loose. 
 
 On a nail projecting from the wall hung his small sword 
 and pistols and the little gable window swung flapping 
 upon its hinges. It was impossible, we all agreed, that 
 he could have been seized in the room so near my own, 
 however soundly I might have been sleeping, and carried 
 downstairs without waking me. More, he had not been 
 killed there, for the place was all in order, and in the same 
 order as his clothes, not a chair displaced nor a book 
 knocked from its shelf. 
 
 " I have it," said the Killer, cocking his wise little eye 
 at Sir Andrew, " he has been called from below by some- 
 one he knew. He rose and answered from the gable 
 window, before running down with his cloak wrapped 
 about his night gear, and a pair of old easy French slip- 
 pers on his feet, as was his custom. See, there is a soft 
 place under the drip of the eaves. I can make out the 
 print of a shoe without a heel." 
 
 Sir Andrew caught the spirit of the hunt, and was as 
 keen as the best, but the real discoveries were made by 
 the little red-wigged ferret with the long oval head and 
 short ears. 
 
 It was plain that until they had got Silver Sand clear 
 of the orchard no harm had been done to him. But on 
 the far side of the three-stepped wooden stile began the
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 299 
 
 first marks of blood. The top rail had been wrenched 
 i away and was found a dozen paces from the path, lying 
 among the grass with six inches of one end broken off. 
 
 " He has defended himself well," said Chief McKitterick, 
 " but what could an unarmed man do against three, one 
 of whom at least used a knife, while probably another 
 stunned him with a slung stone. How do I know ? There 
 are the footsteps of three booted men who have stood 
 under the shadow of the big hawthorn at the stile — and 
 here, mark you, he has fallen down. They have gathered 
 him up and carried him off in the great blue military 
 cloak ! " 
 
 Sir Andrew stood grimly attentive and considered. 
 He was naturally suspicious of the evidence of senses 
 other than his own. But he was an old enough Justiciar 
 to know that some men have a special gift for the unfolding 
 of crime, needing only like a bloodhound to be put on the 
 scent to run down the quarry. 
 
 When he looked again at the little man standing so 
 quaintly on one leg, scratching his calf with the toe of 
 the other foot, and quite unconsciously twisting his red 
 wig between his fingers, he found in his heart a new 
 respect for the Chief of the McKittericks of the Dungeon 
 and Loch Dee. 
 
 The Red Killer had not spoken his whole mind to the 
 Hereditary Sheriff. Such indeed was nowise his custom. 
 His mind rebelled against the ordinary channels of human 
 justice. He preferred instinctively to follow the trail 
 and work out his own vengeance. He had lived a hard 
 and desperate but by no means evil life even before the 
 coming of John Faa. Then when the young man came, 
 his heart had gone out to him with a free vivacity. He 
 was now on fire, with something of the beati tigre about 
 him, added to an almost maternal feeling for Silver Sand 
 whom he looked upon as a son. 
 
 In the search Mirren was the Killer's most able and 
 intelligent assistant. She told him of the tall black man 
 who had lounged and chewed grasses with his couple of
 
 300 SILVER SAND 
 
 followers on the grassy slopes above her father's cottage. 
 The Killer found her exact in observation and unequalled 
 in description. 
 
 " You should have been a laddie," he said in a trans- 
 port of compliment. 
 
 But this was a sore subject with Mirren McNoah. 
 
 " That's what they are a' hintin' at," she complained, 
 " I rin and hide — I risk my neck for the clergy, and my 
 character for the like of you, and feint a body ever says 
 that I'm a good lass. It's only ' whatna peety she is no 
 a laddie ' — or ' she wad hae worn the breeks weel, that 
 yin.' " 
 
 " Never mind," said the Killer, smiling down at the 
 small indignant face, " when you are married you shall 
 wear them as sure as my name is McKitterick." 
 
 But the jest was lost upon Mirren, who went on to give 
 him her experience of the hiding-places along the coast. 
 These were numerous, but only two possessed the double 
 entrance which alone rendered them a suitable shelter 
 for such as might wish to escape by sea. These were the 
 Gled's Nest and the Doocot Cave. Now the Doocot was 
 ruled out of the reckoning because the iron hoops and 
 forkings, though practicable by day, were out of the 
 question when it came to lowering a gagged, bound, and 
 probably unconscious man in the darkness of a summer 
 night. 
 
 The Gled's Nest then — and could Mirren show him the 
 back entrance ? Who indeed was better able than 
 Mirren ? But as the Lady Lilias was so distressed, might 
 she not say a word to her ? If they should find Silver 
 Sand, she ought to be there. 
 
 " And why, pray ? " the Killer asked the question to 
 try her. 
 
 " That I am not at liberty to say, being but a lassie," 
 said Mirren, " lassies do not tell on one another." 
 
 " I shall have some little matters to arrange with the 
 gentleman whom I hope to find there," said the Killer, 
 in his gentlest manner. " Then you can go to Lochnaw 
 and tell Miss Lilias if you like. But do not be in too great 
 a hurry coming back."
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 301 
 
 ** Oh, I ken," said the girl clapping her hands, " you 
 want to have him shaved and bonny before our wee leddy 
 sees him. Think ye I ken naething, if they do caa' me 
 half-a-laddie — half-a-lassie ? " 
 
 " You are indeed a particularly well-informed young 
 person. But you will remember not to come down 
 ' Gash Gabbie ' till ye hear me whistle three times." 
 
 Now "Gash Gabbie" was the narrow rock-cleft, not 
 wide enough to be called a ravine, which cut into the 
 cliffs from topping turf to tide-wash, and by which access 
 to the upper cave as well as to the beach could be 
 obtained. 
 
 Mirren promised, but she did not in the least see the 
 reason for such niceness. 
 
 " I tell ye Lilias is as muckle to be trusted as me, 
 though she be the Sheriff's niece, and the richt hand o' 
 the Great Leddy." 
 
 " I make no doubt," said the Killer, " but I have my 
 little fancies. I am getting old, you see, Mirren, and I 
 must be humoured." 
 
 The girl nodded her head emphatically. " That's juist 
 what my minnie says when my faither tears the fine 
 lace falls off his sark-sleeves and stamps on them, caa'in' 
 them ungodly vanities. She gathers them up, and sews 
 them on her ain Sabbath goon, and he never says a 
 word." 
 
 " Now I will take a look at ' Gash Gabbie ' with your 
 good leave and assistance," said the Killer to end the 
 colloquy, which was always a matter of difficulty when 
 talking with Mirren McNoah. " Where is the best hiding 
 cover, and from what point can I observe the comings 
 and goings of those in the cave ? " 
 
 " And you so long aboot the countryside watching over 
 Lochnaw Castle ! Do ye not ken that from no point can 
 ye see anything either of the Gled's Nest or the Doocot 
 Cave till ye are at their doors ? " 
 
 The Killer made himself very humble and teachable. 
 He had, he said, been set to watch the great house, and 
 over the welfare of the ladies within it : "A bonny-like 
 thing it would have been," he added, " if Silver Sand
 
 302 SILVER SAND 
 
 had come and fand me out huntin' gulls' eggs on the 
 rocks of the Black Head." 
 
 Having got rid of his guide, and with two clear hours 
 before him in which to make his solitary search of the 
 ravine called " Gash Gabbie," and of the Gled's Nest 
 which opened into it about a third of the way down, 
 the Killer first of all gave himself up to a leisurely and 
 thorough examination of his weapons. After a moment 
 of hesitation he decided to conceal his rapier in a tuft 
 of heather. There would be no room for a display of 
 his skill in fence. That, too, was a pity, for it was his 
 strong point ; and of all fights he hated a rough-and- 
 tumble. 
 
 But with three against him he could look for nothing 
 else. Knife and pistol must be trusted. The odds must 
 be endured ; and the Killer comforted himself with the 
 reflection that he never fought his best when the parties 
 were anyway equally matche-d. Still — three to one ! 
 He whistled softly — well, he had seen worse than that, 
 but then he had had his discarded small sword, and room 
 in which to use it. He whistled again, and made a little 
 grimace. 
 
 Already the solans were beginning to cease their diving 
 operations in the deep water off the rocks ; and, after a 
 wheel or two high in the pale blue-white sky, to measure 
 their direction, they launched themselves across moor, 
 loch, and unstable sea- water, straight for their abode upon 
 Ailsa. 
 
 A kind of tense silence fell upon " Gash Gabbie," as 
 the Killer girt himself tighter with his broad belt of 
 leather with the big silver buckle, and began a careful 
 descent. He left coat and shoes to keep the rapier com- 
 pany ; and now, in his shirt, knee-breeches and hose, he 
 accounted himself like a vessel stripped to her fighting 
 trim. Then the make of the man stood out — the per- 
 fect proportions, the sinewy arms, the feet which accom- 
 modated themselves to the rocky cleft as easily as to a
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 303 
 
 high road — a man light and supple, with restless grey 
 eyes, and a jaw which, in times of danger, advanced 
 itself so that it almost hid his features. 
 
 Presently he picked off a fragment of blue cloak, torn 
 cornerwise by a protruding bush of gorse. Here, too, 
 were traces of blood where a hand had grasped the stem. 
 A little way down a silver button glistened. The Killer 
 picked it up and slipped it into his fob. Then he con- 
 tinued his descent with art and care, the sea fowl crying 
 about him, and making dashes almost into his face, as he 
 crawled downwards. 
 
 He was near the entrance of the cave now, and paused 
 to give himself time to breathe before more serious action. 
 
 He heard a low, continuous moaning sound come to 
 him, as it were, from the depths of the earth. 
 
 " Good God ! " he murmured, " have they got a 
 woman there ? " But quickly he dismissed the idea. 
 No, it was not the protest of humanity against the primal 
 curse, li not that, what else ? 
 
 And there flashed on his mind the word which alone 
 is more terrible than murder — torture. 
 
 They were torturing some one in there, man or woman 
 — but almost certainly man — the man he was seeking — 
 John Faa, his lord and chief — upon whom his heart was 
 set as a mother's on a favourite and unfortunate son. 
 
 The Red Killer flung himself flat on the rocky plat- 
 form which led to the back entrance of the cavern. He 
 wormed himself forward with a swift, keen action, like 
 that of a snake. He poured his lithe body delicately 
 about the obstacles, as if he had been a slowly moving 
 fluid. 
 
 The moaning continued, hastening the advance of the 
 Killer, and tightening every muscle of his body to be 
 ready for the spring. He turned the corner, or rather 
 his unwigged head did, for only his close-cropped poll 
 emerging from the rocks could be seen. Two men were 
 bending over a third, who was stretched bound upon the 
 little apron of rock and turf in front of the cave. Their 
 backs were towards him, and they were twisting a pair 
 of sticks about which a cord was wrapped.
 
 304 SILVER SAND 
 
 "Tell us where the money is, John Faa," said one, 
 whose voice stung the Killer like the tooth of a serpent. 
 " Tell us, and we promise you shall be put aboard a 
 vessel bound for France." 
 
 " I know you will kill me," answered a voice which 
 could hardly be known for the firm ringing tones of Silver 
 Sand, so hoarse and low they sounded. " But it is no use 
 to ask. The money of Egypt is far out of your reach, 
 and of all such cowards and traitors ! " 
 
 The Red Killer saw the sticks twist just once more, but 
 before the moaning had time to follow, he had launched 
 himself upon them bent almost double. With one blow 
 of his cropped poll, used like a battering-ram, he sent 
 Doran headforemost over the cliff. It is hardly likely 
 that he ever knew what struck him. His body struck the 
 jutting rock fifty feet beneath the lower cave, turned a 
 somersault and plunged heavily into the sea. 
 
 The Killer erected himself and looked at his remaining 
 enemy with a smile of such hateful pleasure that the 
 colour died out of the man's face. He even looked to- 
 wards the cliff over which his companion had disappeared 
 as if tempted to try a leap. If the way had been clear 
 he would have risked it, but the noise Doran had made 
 in his descent warned him of a certain fate. 
 
 " Grey Roger," said the Killer, as caressingly as if he 
 had been a lover speaking to his lass in the twilight, " not 
 this day and not yesterday did I begin to pray for our 
 meeting each other alone — indeed ever since the day when 
 you treacherously slew Lidgett Sylvester, I have thought 
 of you night and morning. Stand back, there — to the 
 rock ! My pistol is upon you. I am first going to cut 
 the bonds of this man whom you have tortured." 
 
 " It was nothing — we had but begun to threaten him 
 a little — it was one of Doran's Donegal ideas ! " 
 
 The words of Grey Roger stumbled one over the other, 
 and his excuses would not frame themselves on his Hps. 
 
 The blade of the Killer's knife flickered hither and 
 thither. Silver Sand, released, sank back with a sigh, 
 but there were drops of blood on his cheek and brow. 
 
 " This is your chief's blood," said the Killer. " and I
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 305 
 
 swear to avenge it. Stand still, you hound ! This pistol 
 is very light on the trigger, but I mean to give you a 
 fight for your life, before I send you Doran's way. I 
 owe that to my chief and to the oath I swore over Lidgett 
 Sylvester's grave." 
 
 " You are not going to murder me ? ' groaned Grey 
 Roger, whose ashen lips and colourless cheeks were now 
 in perfect keeping with his name. 
 
 " My dear Roger," said the wary little man who stood 
 between him and the ravine, " in your case I should 
 not hesitate if you had as many lives as a cat. For, 
 as you have doubtless heard, there are cases where 
 ' killing is no murder.' Yours is precisely such an one. 
 But, Roger, I shall not shoot you like a mad dog, as you 
 deserve. Take up John Faa carefully and lay him in the 
 hollow by the cave's mouth where he may be out of the 
 way. Do not let your hand stray to your belt or sheath- 
 knife. This pistol will be just behind your ear. You 
 start — the muzzle tickles your neck. Most thoughtless 
 of me ! But do as I tell you and you are quite safe till 
 we choose weapons and begin our little play." 
 
 " You will fight me for my life ? " — Grey Roger looked 
 up eagerly, " you have no men ready to kill me if I win ? " 
 
 " Be calm, Roger," purred the Killer, " you will not 
 win. I cannot quite give you the choice of weapons. 
 No, I cannot go that length. For a pistol-ball is an un- 
 certain thing, and in your hand the charge might go off 
 too soon. But I have here two good Spanish knives, 
 forged at Toledo. You shall have your choice, and what 
 is more you shall have the shadier position with your 
 back to the rock. There's for you, Roger. Choose one 
 and I shall take the other. Do not try to snatch both — 
 that will not help you, I shall keep the pistol levelled 
 till such time as you are ready." 
 
 They stood up watching each other eagerly, their 
 heads a little forward and their bodies bent. But there 
 was a great difference between them in defence. Grey 
 Roger held his arm high with elbow flexed, the action of 
 one who fights with a dagger. But the Killer advanced 
 smilingly, his knife low, and the cutting edge turned 
 
 U
 
 3o6 SILVER SAND 
 
 upwards after the Spanish fashion. But both were dan- 
 gerous with their weapons and at first, till he had proved 
 his man, the Killer took no liberties. He fenced almost 
 too carefully, for in stopping a lightning down stroke 
 from Grey Roger, who was much his superior in height 
 and reach, the white sleeve of his shirt was slashed open, 
 and a thin red line sprang along the back of the fore-arm 
 from the wrist nearly to the elbow. 
 
 This success intoxicated the outlaw gipsy, and he 
 sprang forward with fury, trying to force the Killer to the 
 edge of the cliff. But, with the same little contemptuous 
 smile playing about his mouth, McKitterick ducked his 
 head and stepped easily aside. This alertness exasperated 
 Grey Roger and after a while, when he had missed his 
 stroke five times, he began to understand that he was 
 being played with. He had been trapped, and was now 
 fighting with a man infinitely his superior. He must 
 die, but at least he should not die alone. 
 
 There, under the ledge by the mouth of the cavern 
 called the Gled's Nest, lay the helpless body of Silver 
 Sand. So at each bout he began to edge his way round 
 in that direction, gaining sometimes a foot and sometimes 
 two, but always getting nearer. A rapid wheel and one 
 plunge of his blade would clear accounts with John Faa, 
 and disappoint the Killer who had come to save him. 
 His adversary, too, did not appear to notice that stealthy 
 retreat. He pleased himself by dextrous parry, elaborate 
 thrusts which did no more than scratch, and with keeping 
 a watch on the mouth of " Gabble's Gash," by which alone 
 the man whom he had doomed had any chance of escape. 
 
 The time had come. Grey Roger was now within 
 striking distance, and if his enemy were not fatigued, 
 at least he was not pressing him very hard. A quick 
 whirl, a lifted knife that gleamed over the prostrate 
 body of Silver Sand, and all might have been over. 
 
 But even as he swerved a pistol cracked, and Grey 
 Roger flung up his hands as the Killer drove the Toledo 
 steel under his arm-pit. 
 
 " Traitor," he gasped, pointing to the mouth of 
 " Gabble's Gash," where the dark blue shadows of evening
 
 IN GASH GABBIE 307 
 
 were gathering on the slaty rock, " I had your promise 
 that you would fight me alone." 
 
 It was Lilias who stood there with pistol smoking in her 
 hand, astonished and alarmed at what she had done. 
 For Mirren, divining treachery, had picked up the Killer's 
 discarded weapon and handed it to Lihas just in time. 
 
 " He would have killed him — I saw him turn to strike," 
 said the girl, " and before I knew — the pistol went off." 
 
 " All the better," said the Killer, " the next moment 
 would have sent him spinning Hell-ward at any rate. 
 He talks of traitors who killed Lidgett Sylvester, an 
 innocent boy who never did him any harm ! I was a 
 fool to give him a chance, and now it is to you, and not 
 to me, that John Faa owes his hfe. Let us carry him 
 to the spring and do you bathe his temples. So — it is 
 an affair of yards. He will be himself before I can be 
 with you." 
 
 Lilias and Mirren were safely out of sight in the depths 
 of the Gled's Nest. The Red Killer was left alone with 
 the double traitor. He bent over him, and as he looked 
 an eyelid quivered and was hfted. The Killer's broad 
 Toledo flickered in the pale evening light reflected up 
 from the sea. 
 
 It fell once or twice, and before each stroke the voice 
 of the executioner of justice said in the dying man's ear, 
 " Lidgett Sylvester — think of Lidgett Sylvester ! " 
 
 Then flinging the steel, stained as it was, over the 
 edge, he rolled up the thing which had been Grey Roger, 
 as one rolls a camp mattress, carried him to the edge of 
 the cliff and with a sudden heave and a straightening of 
 the strong lithe body the Killer lifted his dead enemy 
 high above his head and tossed him into the suck of the 
 out-going tide, now racing furiously oceanwards. 
 
 When Lilias came out to announce that Silver Sand 
 was himself again, the little balcony of rock and turf 
 before the entrance of " Gash Gabbie " was as clean as 
 a newly swept-parlour. And the Red Killer was smiling 
 as at a pleasant memory.
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 
 Birds of Passage 
 
 It was long before Silver Sand was able to come forth 
 again into the pale clear September sunshine. Harvest 
 was late in Galloway that year, and many fields still lay 
 unreaped. But sitting in the rose garden of Lochnaw 
 with Lilias by his side, all sights and sounds (except only 
 those of her face and voice) appeared to the man whom 
 Death had spoken and passed by as very strange, very 
 distant and very unearthly. Other things were strange 
 to him too. For instance, Lilias had spoken once or 
 twice of the boy, but he only shook his head, not under- 
 standing what she meant. 
 
 She mentioned Juliana's name. He seemed to search 
 as for something mislaid. Then he said, " Juliana — 
 JuHana — it is a pretty name. I never knew a Juhana." 
 
 And Lilias secretly ashamed, but glad of her shame, 
 did not again press him, nor was Juliana's name mentioned 
 again between them for many months. 
 
 " And will Sir Andrew, really give his consent to our 
 marriage ? " he asked more than once. 
 
 " He must — the good man has no choice," said Lilias. 
 " I told him that if he did not we should simply do 
 without." 
 
 " We shall be poor, Lilias — far poorer than I have been. 
 For I cannot touch the money of Egypt. I have only my 
 mother's money and a house that was hers on the hill 
 called Danes' Bury in Essex." 
 
 " Very well — perhaps we shall live there, for James's 
 horse-faced Eglinton would turn up her nose at us here. 
 Or at least, I, Lilias Agnew, do not mean to give her the 
 chance. But what matters your money — I shall have all 
 
 308
 
 BIRDS OF PASSAGE 309 
 
 my own and all my Aunt Anne's. I shall sell Charteris 
 to Sir Andrew, who for the estate's sake will jump at 
 the chance. I have seen such cruel things here, Silver 
 Sand, that I have no desire ever to look upon the place 
 again. At least not for many years ! " 
 
 Lilias rose and threw a shawl about his shoulders, 
 for she was so afraid of his health that out of every zephyr 
 she made a gale. 
 
 The Lady Jean said little, but deep down she had all 
 the pride of the Hays of Park, which is sajring no small 
 word. However, one thing which Lilias said effectually 
 silenced pride. 
 
 " Bless the woman," Lihas had cried gaily. " Does 
 Aunt Jean think that she is the only woman in the world 
 who can love a man ? Can she not understand that 
 Silver Sand is as necessary to me as Andrew Agnew is 
 to her? " 
 
 This was a speech which had closed controversy 
 between the two women, and now they sat together in 
 amity and like good forehanded Scottish women sewed 
 diligently at Lilias's trousseau. Sometimes they had 
 the aid of Croose Nancy Saunders from the port, but 
 mostly they sat and gossiped contentedly in the parlour 
 — Lilias rising every few minutes to see that Silver Sand 
 wanted for nothing as he lay stretched out among his 
 books and papers. She had taken on a habit of anticipat- 
 ing his wishes already, and would get the books about 
 him of which he had need. 
 
 Again, once or twice a day, having given her aunt 
 sufficient time to show that she was not neglecting her, 
 Lilias would slip in to Silver Sand and persuade him to 
 come out and view the cornfields. Yonder was Sir Andrew 
 labouring at dressing a comstack as if he had never 
 heard of a Justice Court, and James, come over from 
 Innermessan, stripped to the shirt, or as his mother 
 expressed it, " all in a pour of sweat and crying like a 
 ploughman to his beasts. But/' she would add, " James 
 has no real dignity. He is Agnew all over." 
 
 When the time came round for the half-yearly dues of 
 the tribes of Egypt, Silver Sand sent messengers to all
 
 310 SILVER SAND 
 
 the heads of families to meet him in the school-house of 
 Leswalt on a certain Sunday of October. I reproached 
 him with the ungodly proceeding. But he said that 
 if he did not see these men face to face much more and 
 worse evils would happen. Sunday was their only day 
 — he must make it his. He quoted the ears of com which 
 the Lord himself permitted to his disciples, and said 
 that if I would not lend the school-house, he must go 
 into the greenwood which would disquiet Lilias and 
 cause him for ever to lose caste and character in the eyes 
 of John McNoah, that extreme Cameronian Sabbatarian. 
 
 Of course he got his own way, and I had to entertain 
 such a flock of dusky gipsies, all clad in their best, as 
 perhaps never was seen in one house before or since. 
 
 First of all the Killer told the story of the capture and 
 torturing of John Faa, and then amid plaudits, the death 
 of the two caitiffs, the disappearance of the heir of Egypt 
 and the flight of Hector Faa. 
 
 " I cannot accuse Hector Faa of more than plotting 
 against his brother, but if he should return, claiming his 
 brother's portion, you will know how to deal with him." 
 
 " Let us alone — we shall deal with Hector Faa," said 
 the chiefs. And Silver Sand continued to speak feebly 
 but clearly. He had been near to death. It would be 
 months, perhaps years, before he was himself again. 
 He could not in the meantime perform the duties of the 
 Chief of Egypt, These he would be compelled to delegate 
   — for the North to Chief McKitterick of the Dungeon, 
 who would receive and account for all dues, and who 
 should see justice done in the name of John Faa, as 
 Jasper Stanley would likewise do for the South. Some 
 day he would come back, when his wounds were healed 
 and he was fitted to take his place at the head of his race. 
 
 As to the tithes of the Chieftainship, the great clan 
 leaders refused with one mind to alienate them. They 
 would obey. They would accept the delegate justices. 
 The Killer and the Smith should be paid for their labours. 
 But they also were of the blood and to obey was their 
 business. The tithes were John Faa's and belonged (and 
 could belong) to none other, and if he would not take them
 
 BIRDS OF PASSAGE 311 
 
 himself, they should be laid aside year by year for the 
 heir who, without doubt, would one day reappear. They 
 were not afraid or discouraged. They knew what they 
 knew. It had been so before. Faas had disappeared in 
 infancy and had come back girt with authority — there 
 was Silver Sand himself for an example. He had been 
 reared among the Romish Gorgios, yet who had ever made 
 a better ruler of Egypt ! 
 
 " Besides, you yourself shall come back," said Bailie, 
 the head of the famous and wide-spread border clan. 
 " So my wife read it yesterday, from the ink-pool seeing 
 of my son's young son. Rejoicing yet sorrowing you 
 shall return, and you shall die among your own people 
 that they may escape. Soldiers shall hem them round, 
 but you who are of the blood royal of Egypt, shall die 
 an old man, but more gloriously than any of your fathers 
 and of a death longer to be remembered." 
 
 Silver Sand bowed his head. He was exhausted with 
 the effort he had made and summoned his last strength 
 to find words with which to dismiss his people kindly. 
 
 " I am very feeble and have need of rest," he said. 
 " Grey Roger and his comrades struck me hard. It will 
 be long before I can return to do justice among you. 
 Nevertheless my place shall be known, and if a quarrel 
 rise which cannot be settled by those whom I leave in my 
 place, I desire only a week's warning and I shall still 
 judge according to the justice and the laws of Egypt. 
 Now go and fare you well ! " 
 
 The conference being ended, the men mounted their 
 horses and rode away, scattering to the four winds of 
 heaven. But their hearts were glad within them that 
 John Faa should surely come back among them, and 
 that his son should reign in his stead. So the seers had 
 seen and so it should come to pass. 
 
 Silver Sand lay at ease in the couch bed which Sir 
 Andrew had caused Robin Thomson of Port Patrick to 
 make for his use. The lingering days of a glorious autumn 
 drew to a close, and it was clear to all that if Silver Sand
 
 312 SILVER SAND 
 
 was to grow strong he must flee from the rude Atlantic 
 blasts which would soon sweep the Back Shore of Wig- 
 town. They spoke to him of Ireland, but he had no 
 mind to be immured all winter within the grim fortress 
 which Pat Agnew had made of Ballikill. 
 
 His heart was set on other things and other places. 
 Visions haunted him of clear skies, of saccular trees 
 rising about village shrines, of an air equable and warm 
 — and with all and through all the raillery of Lilias's 
 speech, the smile of her glad eyes. His nights were filled 
 with the odour and sweetness of flowers. 
 
 " Who has sprinkled rose-water in my room ? " he 
 would ask when he awoke. 
 
 " There is not a drop within a hundred miles," said 
 Lilias, who had been watching him sleeping, perfectly 
 divining his malady, but waiting for him to find out for 
 himself. She was resolved that he should not be " asked " 
 twice in a lifetime. 
 
 It came about one day after he had wearied himself 
 making up Sir Andrew's books, both of the estate and 
 those of the Justice Courts of the shire. Indeed the stout 
 and worthy knight gave himself very little trouble about 
 such things, if he could find any one else to harness to the 
 drudgery. 
 
 Silver Sand was standing on the point of Niven's Isle 
 in the old place. She saw him from the window and came 
 down with a shawl over her arm. He turned at the sound 
 of her footsteps, light though they were. Laborious 
 James had cut the hay and the meadowsweet was no 
 more. 
 
 Silver Sand turned upon her with a sudden strange 
 wist fulness. 
 
 " I think I am sick for you, Lilias," he said, holding 
 out both his hands with a swift passionate gesture, " Let 
 us rise up and go ! " 
 
 " Why, you have me beside you all day long, you long- 
 legged Egyptian — what would you have more ? " 
 
 " More — oh, much more," he cried fiercely. " All the 
 corn is reaped and all the beasts in barn. There is no 
 more work for us to do. Let us go home ? "
 
 BIRDS OF PASSAGE 313 
 
 " I am at home," said the girl. " I have never known 
 any other." 
 
 " I will show you another, Lilias. We shall cross the 
 seas. We shall tread love's ways where fireflies star the 
 earth, and stars make golden the night air. Come to the 
 south, Lihas, ah come, if you love me enough " 
 
 She drew his head down upon her shoulder and com- 
 forted him. 
 
 " Great goose," she said cheerfully, " of course I will 
 come. Why did you not ask me before ? " 
 
 « * * * * 
 
 Mr. Walter Dunning sent home for the doctor's gown 
 he had worn at Sanctus Andreus, his most ancient uni- 
 versity. Sir Andrew would have had his tenantry hold 
 high festival, but Silver Sand persuaded him that it was 
 not the time to roast oxen whole or set bonfires flaring 
 on heathy outlands. He wanted a change. He wanted 
 other winds than those which even now bit into his mar- 
 row as he paced the fruitless orchard and the flowerless 
 garden. 
 
 " Ye want your lass — can ye no say it and be dune ! " 
 quoth plain Sir Andrew, and in spite of Jean Hay's sense 
 of propriety he hastened on the marriage. They had a 
 perfect day for it, a true Saint Martin's summer. To help 
 them the east wind had turned south and blew gently 
 from lands to which they hoped to go. 
 
 My Lady WcLS gorgeous in a new dress, never worn before, 
 and looked so well that Sir Andrew told her before every 
 one that she ought to have been the bride ! 
 
 From Innermessan came James. I walked up the 
 avenue with him and methought he looked a little shame- 
 faced. His wife could not come — she had a headache. 
 
 " Call it an indisposition, James," I counselled him, 
 " for that is a good word in Galloway and may cover 
 many things." 
 
 But bluff Sir Andrew, with whom he spoke apart, called 
 out, " I will have none of that — I shall go and fetch her 
 myself. The man who is good enough for me is good
 
 314 SILVER SAND 
 
 enough for any Montgomerie that ever breathed — aye, 
 or Kennedy either " 
 
 He added the last phrase quite irrelevantly, while 
 James whispered assiduously in his ear. 
 
 " Oh," he said at length, persuaded against his will, 
 " if it be as you say some woman's trouble — the green and 
 not the yellow sickness — there's no more to be said. But 
 take the news at once to Jean Hay. She will not be over 
 well pleased to see you here by yoursel' on siccan a day." 
 
 So they were married, and I, Nathan Crogo, signed 
 the register, and so did a little man very grave and 
 grey (something like a retired lawyer one skilled in 
 conveyancing) and the clearly written name of Timothy 
 McKitterick covered no less formidable a personality than 
 the renowned Red Killer. Mirren upheld the bride's 
 train and felt that she would not be so excited when she 
 stood up before the minister on her own account. In fact 
 she had known that it would come to this, a good while 
 before either of the principals faced the facts. 
 
 After the little writerlike man had ridden away Silver 
 Sand found in his travelling bags a heavy pouch of gold 
 upon which was written, " The Faa's part," and within 
 at the bottom was Sir William Forbes' s written order upon 
 his bank in Edinburgh High Street, for a thousand pounds 
 of sterling money on the great Roman banker the Prince 
 Polonia. 
 
 In the purse along with Sir William Forbes' s order was 
 the following letter from Darya Servian of Budapest, the 
 Chief of all the Hungarian gipsies, the only man whom in 
 influence, if not in blood, could be compared to John Faa 
 himself. He was rich and powerful from the Fairground 
 of Nizni Novgorod to the gates of the Bosphorus, but he 
 wrote to the Red Killer as comrade to comrade. 
 
 He began with compliments after the eastern fashion, 
 but came soon, like a man of business habits, to the matter 
 in hand. 
 
 " To Chief McKitterick, called the Killer, greeting and 
 honour between us two who have drunk each other's 
 blood. I received your letter concerning the babe John 
 Stanley Faa, Son of John of the blood royal. I made
 
 BIRDS OF PASSAGE 315 
 
 search and found Hector Faa in Cracow. The Scottish 
 woman and the child were with him. I took the child 
 and set him with honour among my own youngelings in 
 the women's quarters. He shall be brought up as my own 
 sons. Also I took sharp order with Hector Faa, so that 
 he shall no more trouble you, nor concern himself with 
 his brother's heir. I am in my own land and do my own 
 justice. Salute John Faa. When he is recovered he 
 shall one day do me an equal service. I am glad that you 
 cleared his blood feuds so swiftly. In these I do not 
 think Hector Faa had any part. The man is a good 
 soldier. He would kill but not torture. 
 
 " Come our way when you are weary of your hills and see 
 the son of John Faa growing up Hke a young colt and 
 meantime do not forget your ancient friend and brother 
 of the Red Cap, 
 
 " Darya Sirvian." 
 
 Then both Lilias and Silver Sand were comforted, for 
 in their hearts they were ashamed to acknowledge how 
 little they had thought of the son of JuUana. 
 
 They crossed the Bay of Storms with a clean, clear 
 breeze, and never shortened sail till they were at Leghorn, 
 from which in a short day's journey they came to Pisa. 
 
 Though it was now late November they walked out in 
 a glow as of a Scottish June among the flowers of the 
 Campo Santo. Lilias watched Silver Sand with growing 
 happiness. Not once during the voyage had he put up 
 his hand to his head in the pitiful way which had been 
 habitual to him during the months in Galloway, when he 
 had often made her heart ache. 
 
 Hers was a gladness so calm and serene that she did 
 not dare speak of it lest she should again tempt the 
 jealous gods. 
 
 " Lilias," said her husband, taking her hand as they 
 sat in the sun on an ancient tomb, " why did you hurry
 
 3i6 SILVER SAND 
 
 me down into the cabin that day when the west wind 
 blew us eastward out of our course ? " 
 
 " Because," said LiUas smihng, " I was afraid you 
 might turn back even then. That press of sail we saw 
 scudding before us was the topsails of the Prince of 
 Orange's fleet entering Torbay." 
 
 Silver Sand drew her closer, because the place was 
 lonely. 
 
 " Dear," he said, " I would not have left you then, for 
 all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them ! " 
 
 " And now ? " 
 
 " Now," said Silver Sand, " I wake each morning to a 
 new Lilias and a new day. Old things are blank and 
 faded, like stories they told me to hush me to sleep. 
 You have cured me, as I knew you would when you 
 promised to come away with me." 
 
 " Nonsense, Silver Sand," said Lilias, rising up to 
 prevent further sentiment, " how much money have you ? 
 I saw a jewel of a villa to-day, with deep piazzas which 
 look towards the mountains of Carrara. From there we 
 could see the white oxen dragging their wooden-axled 
 car, laden with marble slabs. Yet we would not be near 
 enough to the road to hear the creaking of the ungreased 
 wheels." 
 
 " I have enough for you and me and the villa too, 
 Lilias, unless the owner proves altogether a brigand." 
 
 " Well, then we can take possession to-morrow. The 
 place is furnished and the servants are engaged." 
 
 " It seems to me," quoth Silver Sand, " that you were 
 a little late in asking me as to my money." 
 
 " Not a whit," retorted Lilias cheerfully, " not nearly 
 so belated as you are in asking about my dowry. If 
 you took no better care of Sir Andrew's finances than 
 you do of your own, I am sorry for him. You treat me 
 as if I came to you as poor as a tinker's wife." 
 
 " That is just what you are, my poor Lilias, a poor 
 tinker's wife ! " Silver Sand spoke gravely. 
 
 Lilias threw herself upon his shoulder in a burst of 
 contrition. 
 
 " Oh, I am sorry, Silver Sand — I did not mean to say
 
 BIRDS OF PASSAGE 317 
 
 that. How bad and foolish of me ! You are the wisest 
 and the best " 
 
 " Of tinkers — well, perhaps ! " said Silver Sand, " at 
 any rate I am a great deal the happiest ! " 
 
 " And I," she whispered, " I am — oh, such a proud 
 little tinker's wife ! " 
 
 As Lilias spoke the mellow glow of candles began to 
 light up the cathedral windows with green, lilac, and 
 glorious blue, deep as the heart of a sapphire. A scarlet- 
 robed cardinal passed by borne in a sedan chair, and 
 over their heads the bells of the leaning tower rang out 
 sudden and sweet. 
 
 Silver Sand and Lilias loosed their hands, kissed one 
 another in the gloom, and went in thankfully to evensong.
 
 The End 
 
 And yet not the end ! For much remains to tell — of 
 my dear son Silver Sand and his wife Lilias first of all. 
 But afterwards more completely of the return of that 
 most adventurous young pink of chivalry, the lost heir 
 of the Faas. Thanks be to the Giver of all good that 
 He spared me to see these later things, and hath so 
 preserved my life and intellects that He will (life and time 
 being granted) enable me to rememorate them more 
 fully and in another place. 
 
 If it were not for the good hope of this task yet before 
 me, I declare I should feel life ended for me indeed. I 
 am so old and have seen so much, that sometimes out of 
 a full heart, I stay the writing of my copy-lines, push 
 my Latin books aside, and lay my old head down on the 
 ink-stained, knife-scarred bench where, if I weep, nobody 
 is the wiser or the worse, except the hens in the baulks 
 overhead, who crane their necks regardant, but say 
 never a word. 
 
 Then, when I lift my head, my eyes fall upon my 
 favourite text of Scripture, which I have had printed in 
 large letters, so that it may sink into the hearts of all, 
 as it has into mine, after knowing Silver Sand and my 
 dear patron. Sir Andrew, 
 
 " DEAL COURAGEOUSLY, AND THE LORD SHALL 
 BE WITH THE GOOD." 
 
 The End 
 
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