ng Jean and pointing; "they came
up the other side of the burn." Then, making a cup of his hands,
he called across the stream, "Did you see him?" The boys nodded.
"Slip back as fast as you can down that side of the burn," Alan
said, "and we'll meet at the fall. Wait at the foot if you get
there first. We've got something to show you. Whist, and be
quick, for he'll be coming back before long, and this way like as
not."

Jock and Sandy nodded and disappeared, and Alan and Jean,
springing from their hiding-place, hurried as fast as they could
down their side of the stream to the trysting-place.

VII. THE CLAN

When Jean and Alan reached the waterfall, they found Jock and Sandy
there before them. "Come over to our side," Alan called. The two boys
ran further down stream and crossed the brook on stones which stood
out of the water, and in a moment more were back again at the foot of
the fall.

"What have you got to show us?" demanded Jock. "I hope it's
something to eat." Jock had bitterly regretted his morning
decision to find his food in the forest. The scone which Sandy
had brought from home had been divided and eaten long ago; and
all four of the children were now so hungry that they could think
of nothing else, not even of Angus Niel and their adventures by
the lake.

Alan looked cautiously around in every direction. "Follow me, and
keep quiet tongues in your heads," he said. Then he disappeared
under the fall, and Jean instantly followed him. For a moment
Jock and Sandy were as mystified as Jean had been when Alan first
found the secret stairway, but it was not long before they, too,
saw the hole in the rock, plunged in and, following the winding
passage-way, came out upon the top of the rock.

"There," said Alan, beaming with pride, as he displayed his
wonderful lair, "doesn't this beat Robinson Crusoe all to pieces?
If he had found a place like this on his desert island, he
wouldn't have had to build a stockade or anything."

"It's one of the very caves where Rob Roy hid! I'm sure of it,"
Jock declared with conviction, and Sandy was so overcome with
admiration that he turned a back somersault and almost upset
Jean, who was coming out of the cave with the basket on her arm.

"You see," said Alan, "we could stay here a week if we had food
enough, and never come down at all. All we'd have to do for water
would be to hold a pan under the edge of the fall. There's no way
of getting up here except by th