nd that an exasperated porter was able to express
his mind freely.

"Dinna try tae lift that box for ony sake, man. Sall, ye 're no'
feared," as Carmichael, thirsting for action, swung it up unaided; and
then, catching sight of the merest wisp of white, "A' didna see ye were
a minister, an' the word cam oot sudden."

"You would find it a help to say Northumberland, Cumberland,
Westmoreland, and Durham," and with a smile to Carmichael, still
bareheaded and now redder than ever, Miss Carnegie went along the
platform to see the Hielant train depart. It was worth waiting to
watch the two minutes' scrimmage, and to hear the great man say, as he
took off his cap with deliberation and wiped his brow, "That's anither
year ower; some o' you lads see tae that Dunleith train." There was a
day when Carmichael would have enjoyed the scene to the full, but now
he had eyes for nothing but that tall, slim figure and the white bird's
wing.

When they disappeared into the Dunleith train, Carmichael had a wild
idea of entering the same compartment, and in the end had to be pushed
into the last second by the guard, who knew most of his regular people
and every one of the Drumtochty men. He was so much engaged with his
own thoughts that he gave two English tourists to understand that Lord
Kilspindie's castle, standing amid its woods on the bank of the Tay,
was a recently erected dye work, and that as the train turned off the
North trunk line for Dunleith they might at any moment enter the pass
of Killiecrankie.

CHAPTER II.

PEACE.

"The last stage now, Kit; in less than two hours we'll see Tochty
woods. The very thought makes me a boy again, and it seems yesterday
that I kissed your mother on the door-step of the old lodge and went
off to the Crimean war.

"That's Muirtown Castle over there in the wood--a grand place in its
way, but nothing to our home, lassie. Kilspindie--he was Viscount Hay
then--joined me at Muirtown, and we fought through the weary winter.
He left the army after the war, with lots of honour. A good fellow was
Hay, both in the trenches and the messroom.

"I 've never seen him since, and I dare say he 's forgotten a battered
old Indian. Besides, he's the big swell in this district, and I 'm
only a poor Hielant laird, with a wood and a tumble-down house and a
couple of farms."

"You are also a shameless hypocrite and deceiver, for you believe that
the Carnegies are as old as the Hays, and you kn