n had been watching this
intrusive stranger. Suddenly Roy gave a cry, and the prospect-glass
shook in his hand. A little after there came the far-away sound of a
gun.

"Somebody has let a shot intil him," said Roy, dancing with excitement,
"but it has no' been a verra good shot, for he's sittin' on a stane an'
rubbin' the croon o' his hat. Have I no telled you till I'm tired
tellin' you, that there was no' be no shootin' till there was no fear o'
missin'? It is not good to have to shoot; but it iss a verra great deal
waur to shoot an' miss. If that's Gavin Stevenson, the muckle nowt, I
declare I'll brek his ramshackle blunderbuss owre his thick heid."

Taming for an instant his fury, the old man kept his eye on the distant
point of interest, and the others fixed their eyes on him. Suddenly he
leapt to his feet, uttering what, by the sound, were very strong words
indeed, for they were in the Gaelic, a language in which it is good and
mouth-filling to read the imprecatory psalms. When at last his feelings
subsided to the point when his English returned to him, he said--

"May I, Roy Campbell, be boiled in my ain still-kettle, distilled
through my ain worm, an' drucken by a set o' reckless loons, if that's
no my ain Flora that's speakin' till the man himsel'!"

The old man himself seemed much calmed either by the outbreak or by the
discovery he had made; but on several of the younger men among his
followers the news seemed to have an opposite effect.

* * * * *

At the same moment, high on the hill-side above them, a young woman was
talking to a young man. She had walked towards him holding a
bell-mouthed musket in her hands. As she approached, the youth rose to
his feet with a puzzled expression on his face. But there was no fear in
it, only doubt and surprise, slowly fading into admiration. He put his
forefinger and the one next it through the hole in his hat, and said
calmly, since the young woman seemed to expect him to begin the
conversation--

"Did you do this?"

"I took the gun from the man who did. The accident will not happen
again!"

It seemed inadequate as an explanation, but there was something in the
girl's manner of saying it which seemed to give the young man complete
satisfaction. Then the speaker seated herself on a fragment of rock, and
set her chin upon her hand. It was a round and rather prominent chin,
and the young man, who stood abstractedly twirling his hat,