capering for glee
at seeing once again his master and hearing his voice.

"Lie down, sir, quiet. Now, my men, what think you of this for a ghost?
Thanks, Geordie, for your story. I remember now, I heard it when a
child. Well, let's hope it will be a long while yet before Sir David's
ghost is put to the trouble of a midnight walk."

"Hist, my young master," said Tam; "it's ill jesting with the spirits."

"What, Tam! one would think, now, by the way you speak, you would not
dare to keep a solitary watch on the east terrace yourself."

"I'd dare anything," replied Tam, "but--"

"But you would rather not," replied Singleton, laughing.

That laugh roused the spirit of Tam, who, though superstitious, was
hardly a coward.

"I never said that," he cried; "and if needs be I would do it, even to-
night."

"_Even_ to-night!" repeated Singleton. "What does the man mean? _Even_
to-night! I've a good mind to order you to the watch to-night for
talking in riddles, sirrah!"

"The watch here has always been a double one since I can remember," put
in auld Geordie.

"To my mind, one man ought to be able to watch as well as two, for the
matter of that. And so, Tam, you mean you would be more comfortable
with a comrade on the east terrace to-night. Perhaps Sir David would
oblige you," he added, with a laugh.

The soldier flushed angrily.

"Ay, you may say that," he muttered, in an undertone; "it's more than
likely Sir David _will_ be walking to-night."

The boy caught these last words, and glanced quickly at the speaker.
The meaning of these mysterious utterances suddenly flashed upon him.
These men, then mistook him, their chief, their captain, for a coward!

A crimson flush suffused his face, a flush of shame and anger, as he
sprang to his feet.

At that instant, and before he could utter a word, a bugle sounded at
the gate, and there entered the hall a soldier whose appearance bore
every mark of desperate haste.

"Singleton," he cried, as he entered, "the king's friends are up!
Glencairn musters his men at daybreak at Scotsboro', and expects the
thirty men of the Singletons promised him, there and then!"

Here was a piece of news! The long-wished-for summons had come at last,
and the heart of each Singleton present beat high at the prospect of
battle! And yet in the midst of their elation a serious difficulty
presented itself.

"Thirty men!" said Geordie, looking round him. "Why there are but
thirty-on