was one of its first teachers. He was undoubtedly clever,
and, though he had not come to Coila without a little cloud on his
character, his plausibility and his capability prevailed upon my father to
give him a chance. There used at that time to be services held in the
school on Sunday evenings, to which the most humbly dressed peasant could
come. Humble though they were, they invariably brought their mite for the
collection. It was dishonesty--even sacrilegious dishonesty--in Duncan to
appropriate such moneys to his use, and to falsify the books. It is
needless to say he was dismissed, and ever after he bore little good-will
to the M'Crimmans of Coila.

He had now to live on his wits. His wits led him to dishonesty of a
different sort--he became a noted poacher. His quarrels with the
glen-keepers often led to ugly fights and to bloodshed, but never to
Duncan's reform. He lived and lodged with old Mawsie. It suited him to do
so for several reasons, one of which was that she had, as I have already
said, an ill-name, and the keepers were superstitious; besides, her house
was but half a mile from a high road, along which a carrier passed once a
week on his way to a distant town, and Duncan nearly always had a
mysterious parcel for him.

The poacher wanted a safe or store for his ill-gotten game. What better
place than the floor of the ruined church? While digging there, to his
surprise he had discovered a secret vault or cell; the roof and sides had
fallen in, but masons could repair them. Such a place would be invaluable
in his craft if it could be kept secret, and he determined it should be.
After this, strange lights were said to be seen sometimes by belated
travellers flitting among the old graves; twice also a ghost had been met
on the hill adjoining--some _thing_ at least that disappeared immediately
with eldritch scream.

It was shortly after this that Duncan had imported two men to do what they
called 'a bit of honest work.' Duncan had lodged and fed them at Mawsie's;
they worked at night, and when they had done the 'honest work,' he took
them to Invergowen and shipped them back to Aberdeen.

But the poacher's discovery of the priest's Bible turned his thoughts to a
plan of enriching himself far more effectually and speedily than he ever
could expect to do by dealing in game without a licence.

At the same time Duncan had found the poor priest's modest store of wine.
A less scientific villain would have made s