"Is that you, Tommy?"

"Whist! Do you mind the password?"

"Stroke!"

"Right. Have you heard Gav Dishart coming?"

"I hinna. I doubt his father had grippit him as he was slinking out o'
the manse."

"I fear it, Corp. I'm thinking his father is in the Woman's pay."

"What woman?"

"The Woman of Hanover?"

"That's the queen, is it no?"

"She'll never get me to call her queen."

"Nor yet me. I think I hear Gav coming."

Gav Dishart was the one who had come by the burn, and his boots were
cheeping like a field of mice. He gave the word "Stroke," and the three
then looked at each other firmly. The lights of the town were not
visible from the Cuttle Well, owing to an arm of cliff that is
outstretched between, but the bell could be distinctly heard, and
occasionally a shout of revelry.

"They little ken!" said Tommy, darkly.

"They hinna a notion," said Corp, but he was looking somewhat perplexed
himself.

"It's near time I was back for family exercise," said Gav, uneasily,
"so we had better do it quick, Tommy."

"Did you bring the wineglasses?" Tommy asked him.

"No," Gav said, "the press was lockit, but I've brought egg-cups."

"Stand round then."

The three boys now presented a picturesque appearance, but there was
none save the man in the moon to see them. They stood round the Cuttle
Well, each holding an egg-cup, and though the daring nature of their
undertaking and the romantic surroundings combined to excite them, it
was not fear but soaring purpose that paled their faces and caused their
hands to tremble, when Tommy said solemnly, "Afore we do what we've come
here to do, let's swear."

"Stroke!" he said.

"Stroke!" said Gav.

"Stroke!" said Corp.

They then filled their cups and holding them over the well, so that they
clinked, they said:

"To the king ower the water!"

"To the king ower the water!"

"To the king ower the water!"

When they had drunk Tommy broke his cup against a rock, for he was
determined that it should never be used to honor a meaner toast, and the
others followed his example, Corp briskly, though the act puzzled him,
and Gav with a gloomy look because he knew that the cups would be
missed to-morrow.

"Is that a' now?" whispered Corp, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

"All!" cried Tommy. "Man, we've just begood."

As secretly as they had entered it, they left the Den, and anon three
figures were standing in a dark trance, cynically watching the revellers