sight, and she did not know where to look for the
Wishing Well. If she had walked straight forward through the trees she
would have come to it; but she was so tired, and so hungry, and so hot,
that she sat down at the foot of the cairn and cried as if her heart
would break.

Then she fell asleep.

When Jean woke, it was as dark as it ever is on a midsummer night in
Scotland.

It was a soft, cloudy night; not a clear night with a silver sky.

Jeanie heard a loud roaring close to her, and the red light of a great
fire was in her sleepy eyes.

In the firelight she saw strange black beasts, with horns, plunging and
leaping and bellowing, and dark figures rushing about the flames. It was
the beasts that made the roaring. They were bounding about close to the
fire, and sometimes in it, and were all mixed in the smoke.

Jeanie was dreadfully frightened, too frightened to scream.

Presently she heard the voices of men shouting on the hill below her.
The shouts and the barking of dogs came nearer and nearer.

Then a dog ran up to her, and licked her face, and jumped about her.

[Illustration: Page 267]

It was her own sheepdog, _Yarrow_.

He ran back to the men who were following him, and came again with one
of them.

It was old Simon Grieve, very tired, and so much out of breath that he
could scarcely speak.

Jean was very glad to see him, and not frightened any longer.

"Oh, Jeanie, my doo'," said Simon, "where hae ye been? A muckle gliff ye
hae gien us, and a weary spiel up the weary braes."

Jean told him all about it: how she had come with Randal to see the
Wishing Well, and how she had lost him, and fallen asleep.

"And sic a nicht for you bairns to wander on the hill," said Simon.
"It's the nicht o' St. John, when the guid folk hae power. And there's
a' the lads burning the Bel fires, and driving the nowt* through them:
nae less will serve them. Sic a nicht!"

* Nowt, cattle.

This was the cause of the fire Jean saw, and of the noise of the cattle.
On midsummer's night the country people used to light these fires, and
drive the cattle through them. It was an old, old custom come down from
heathen times.

Now the other men from Fairnilee had gathered round Jean. Lady Ker had
sent them out to look for Randal and her on the hills. They had heard
from the good wife at Peel that the children had gone up the burn, and
_Yarrow_ had tracked them till Jean was found.

[Illustration: Chapter Seven]