g in a direction nearly straight across the lake, said,
'Yon's ta cove.' A small point of light was seen to twinkle in the
direction in which he pointed, and, gradually increasing in size and
lustre, seemed to flicker like a meteor upon the verge of the horizon.
While Edward watched this phenomenon, the distant dash of oars was heard.
The measured sound approached near and more near, and presently a loud
whistle was heard in the same direction. His friend with the battle-axe
immediately whistled clear and shrill, in reply to the signal, and a
boat, manned with four or five Highlanders, pushed for a little inlet,
near which Edward was sitting. He advanced to meet them with his
attendant, was immediately assisted into the boat by the officious
attention of two stout mountaineers, and had no sooner seated himself
than they resumed their oars, and began to row across the lake with great
rapidity.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HOLD OF A HIGHLAND ROBBER

The party preserved silence, interrupted only by the monotonous and
murmured chant of a Gaelic song, sung in a kind of low recitative by the
steersman, and by the dash of the oars, which the notes seemed to
regulate, as they dipped to them in cadence. The light, which they now
approached more nearly, assumed a broader, redder and more irregular
splendour. It appeared plainly to be a large fire, but whether kindled
upon an island or the mainland Edward could not determine. As he saw it,
the red glaring orb seemed to rest on the very surface of the lake
itself, and resembled the fiery vehicle in which the Evil Genius of an
Oriental tale traverses land and sea. They approached nearer, and the
light of the fire sufficed to show that it was kindled at the bottom of a
huge dark crag or rock, rising abruptly from the very edge of the water;
its front, changed by the reflection to dusky red, formed a strange and
even awful contrast to the banks around, which were from time to time
faintly and partially illuminated by pallid moonlight.

The boat now neared the shore, and Edward could discover that this large
fire, amply supplied with branches of pine-wood by two figures, who, in
the red reflection of its light, appeared like demons, was kindled in the
jaws of a lofty cavern, into which an inlet from the lake seemed to
advance; and he conjectured, which was indeed true, that the fire had
been lighted as a beacon to the boatmen on their return. They rowed right
for the mouth of the cav