t. But he was a man of more resources than I knew;
searched the wood until he found a quill of a cushat-dove, which he
shaped into a pen; made himself a kind of ink with gunpowder from his
horn and water from the running stream; and tearing a corner from his
French military commission (which he carried in his pocket, like a
talisman to keep him from the gallows), he sat down and wrote as
follows:

"DEAR KINSMAN,--Please send money by the bearer to the place he kens
of.

"Your affectionate cousin,
"A. S."

This he intrusted to the bouman, who promised to make what manner of
speed he best could, and carried it off with him down the hill.

He was three full days gone, but about five in the evening of the third,
we heard a whistling in the wood, which Alan answered; and presently the
bouman came up the water-side, looking for us, right and left. He seemed
less sulky than before, and indeed he was no doubt well pleased to have
got to the end of such a dangerous commission.

He gave us the news of the country; that it was alive with red-coats;
that arms were being found, and poor folk brought in trouble daily; and
that James and some of his servants were already clapped in prison at
Fort William, under strong suspicion of complicity. It seemed it was
noised on all sides that Alan Breck had fired the shot; and there was a
bill issued both for him and me, with one hundred pounds reward.

This was all as bad as could be; and the little note the bouman had
carried us from Mrs. Stewart was of a miserable sadness. In it she
besought Alan not to let himself be captured, assuring him, if he fell
in the hands of the troops, both he and James were no better than dead
men. The money she had sent was all that she could beg or borrow, and
she prayed Heaven we could be doing with it. Lastly, she said, she
enclosed us one of the bills in which we were described.

This we looked upon with great curiosity and not a little fear, partly
as a man may look in a mirror, partly as he might look into the barrel
of an enemy's gun to judge if it be truly aimed. Alan was advertised as
"a small, pock-marked, active man of thirty-five or thereby, dressed in
a feathered hat, a French side-coat of blue with silver buttons, and
lace a great deal tarnished, a red waistcoat and breeches of black
shag"; and I as "a tall strong lad of about eighteen, wearing an old
blue coat, very ragged, an old Highland bonnet,