xander produced from his
pouch four small red-cheeked apples. They ate and talked, with between
their words silences of deep content. They were two comrade hunters of
long ago, cavemen who had dispossessed bear or wolf, who might
presently with a sharpened bone and some red pigment draw bison and
deer in procession upon the cave wall.--They were skin-clad hillmen,
shag-haired, with strange, rude weapons, in hiding here after hard
fighting with a disciplined, conquering foe who had swords and shining
breastplates and crested helmets.--They were fellow-soldiers of that
conquering tide, Romans of a band that kept the Wall, proud, with talk
of camps and Caesars.--They were knights of Arthur's table sent by
Merlin on some magic quest.--They were Crusaders, and this cavern an
Eastern, desert cave.--They were men who rose with Wallace, must hide
in caves from Edward Longshanks.--They were outlaws.--They were
wizards--good wizards who caused flowers to bloom in winter for the
unhappy, and made gold here for those who must be ransomed, and fed
themselves with secret bread. The fire roared--they were happy, Ian
and Alexander.

At last the fagots were burned out. The half-murk that at first was
mystery and enchantment began to put on somberness and melancholy.
They rose from the rocky floor and extinguished the brands with their
feet. But now they had this cavern in common and must arrange it for
their next coming. Going outside, they gathered dead and fallen wood,
broke it into right lengths, and, carrying it within, heaped it in the
corner. With a bough of pine they swept the floor, then, leaving the
treasure hold, dropped the curtain of brier in place. They were not so
old but that there was yet the young boy in them; he hugged himself
over this cave of Robin Hood and swart magician. But now they left it
and went on whistling through the glen:

Gie ye give ane, then I'll give twa,
For sae the store increases!

The sides of the glen fell back, grew lower. The leap of the water was
not so marked; there were long pools of quiet. Their path had been a
mounting one; they were now on higher earth, near the plateau or
watershed that marked the top of the glen. The bright sky arched
overhead, the sun shone strongly, the air moved in currents without
violence.

"You see where that smoke comes up between trees? That's Mother
Binning's cot."

"Who's she?"

"She's a wise auld wife. She's a scryer. That's her ash-tree."