od a boy
not much older than themselves, but taller and thinner. He had a
pale face with large black eyes and dark hair partly covered with
a Glengarry bonnet set rakishly over one ear. He wore a suit of
gray tweed with plaid-topped stockings, and carried a fishing-rod
over his shoulder.

"Hello!" said the stranger again.

"Hello, yourself!" responded Jock.

Jean and Sandy were so relieved to find it wasn't Angus Niel that
for an instant they merely gazed at him without speaking.

"What's there?" asked the new boy.

"Fish," said Jock.

"Fish!" cried the new boy, shifting his rod into position.
"Where? Let me have a crack at 'em!"

"Na, na, don't be so hasty," cried Jock, heading him off. "You'll
get yourself into trouble! Angus Niel would be after you in no
time, and if he caught you, he'd cuff your lug for you, and drag
you before the bailie for poaching!"

"Who's Angus Niel?" demanded the boy. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Not yet," answered Jock, "but just go on and you will be! He's
gamekeeper to the Laird, and he'd rather do for you than not.
Aye, he'd just like the feel of you in his fingers, he would."
Jock rubbed his ear. "It's but two days gone since he nearly
pulled the lug off me because I was running after a rabbit that
was eating up our garden. He's terrible suspicious, is Angus, and
he's mad at us besides."

"What for?" asked the boy.

"I stepped on him by accident," explained Jock, "and butted him
into the burn."

"No wonder he was mad," laughed the boy. "Come on, now. Surely a
body can fish. There's no law against that!"

"Well," said Sandy, "law or no law, Angus is against it, and the
Auld Laird is terrible particular. He's going to turn out all the
farmers in this region and make it into a great game preserve.
Nothing else. You're strange hereabouts, I doubt, or you'd ken
all this yourself. Where are you from?"

"I'm from London," replied the boy. "I'm staying with Eppie
McLean at the castle."

"Are you, now?" gasped Sandy. "Is Eppie your aunt, maybe? She'll
be telling you about Angus herself."

"Eppie's not my aunt," said the boy. "She's a friend of my
mother, and my mother got her to take me in because I've been
sick, and she thought I'd get strong up here, and I'm not going
to have my summer spoiled by Angus Niel or any other old bogie
man. Stand back now while I cast."

He swung his rod over his head, and the fly fell with a flop in
the middle of the pool. He waited a breathl