"What on earth is the matter?" cried Jean.

"Matter, indeed!" gasped Jock, out of breath. "Angus Niel is down
there, and he's seen the smoke! He almost saw us, but we just
gave him the slip and got by."

"Keep out of sight, all of you," commanded the Chief, "and leave
him to me."

The obedient Clan flattened themselves against the back of the
cave, while Alan crept to the edge of the rock on his stomach
like a lizard, and, lying there, was able to peep through the
thick screen of leaves and see what was going on below. The
gamekeeper was still scrambling over the rocks and looking, as
Alan said afterward, "for all the world like a dog who had lost
the trail and was trying to find it again."

As the lookout was well screened, Alan soon allowed the rest of
the Clan to join him, and Angus Niel little guessed, as he
prowled about over the rocks, that every move was watched from
above. Despairing of finding the path, he decided at last to get
up a tree and make an observation. He selected a large pine which
grew near the cave and began to climb.

So long as he stood on the ground, the children knew it was
impossible for Angus to see them, but when he began to climb,
they scuttled back into the cave as fast as they could go.

Climbing is hard work for a fat man, and the gamekeeper found
himself covered with pitch before he had gone more than halfway
up, but he puffed on in spite of difficulties and at last reached
a point from which he could look directly across the surface of
the rock, but from which the cave was entirely hidden behind a
projection in the wall of the cliff.

Angus saw what he supposed to be the whole shelf of the rock, and
he saw that there was no one there. He could see the fire and the
frying-pan, the egg shells lying about, and even the portion of
bacon that Jean had not cooked. They were all in full view, but
apparently the poachers had gone away into the woods, leaving
their airy camp deserted. There was no one there; of that he
felt, certain.

"I'll just give'em a surprise," thought the gamekeeper to
himself. "If they found a way up, I can, too. I'll help myself to
a snack of that bacon, and if they come back and find me--well, I
have my gun with me and I don't like being interrupted at my
meals."

He backed down the tree like a fat cat, and made a desperate
search for the path, and this time he actually succeeded in
finding it. He chuckled to himself as he plunged into the passage
and