aw
Angus leave the house and wander away into the forest with his
gun on his shoulder. As they had surmised, he took a direction
entirely different from his route of the two days before.

Sandy waited until he was out of sight, and then hurried back to
the bridge, where he met Alan by appointment, and the two walked
briskly on to the little gray house together. When they reached
it, the wag-at-the-wall clock was just striking nine, and Jean,
her morning work done, was "caning" the hearth with blue chalk as
a final touch of elegance to her clean kitchen.

"Come on," said Alan. "I've a plan in my head, and we'll have to
start directly if we're going to carry it out. Let me have some
of that blue chalk, Jean; we may need it. I've got plenty of food
with me, so don't wait to put up anything."

"I'm with you," said Jean, giving a final flourish with the blue
chalk before she clapped on her bonnet, and in another minute the
Rob Roy Clan was afoot, leaving Tam nursing his wounded paw on
the doorstep and gazing after them with pathetic eyes.

They left their luncheon in the cave and hurried on at Alan's
command to the little mountain tarn where Angus had killed the
stag, and there the Clan gathered about him to hear his plan.

"I've been thinking about this," Alan began, "and I'm sure of two
things. Angus must have a place where he puts the game he kills,
and he must have somebody to help him. The other man comes along
and carries it down the mountain to some point where he can ship
it to the city. I say, let's find out where that hiding-place
is."

"What will we do with it when we find it?" asked Jean.

"That's where the blue chalk comes in," said Alan. "We'll let him
know we've been there!"

"You'll never be writing your name there?" asked Sandy anxiously.
"He'd be shooting us next!"

"Oh! Sandy, you're a daft body," said Jean, and Jock added: "Mind
the Chief, you dunderhead, and keep your tongue behind your
teeth. He's none so addled as you think!"

Sandy subsided a little sulkily, and Alan went on.

"When Angus crossed the lake with the stag he landed right over
there by that dead pine tree, for I watched him to see, and the
place where he hid the stag can't be far from there, because he
came back so soon. We'll just take his boat and see if we can't
find it."

"Oh!" gasped Jean, who had never been in a boat in her life, "do
you know how to make it go?"

"I can row and I can swim," said Alan, "but I tell