n
the Spy!"

* * * * *

But the man lay limp in Stair's grasp. He appeared to have fainted.
However, Stair knew a cure for that. He took a handful of the harsh
half-melted sugar-loaf snow and rubbed the spy's face hard. Then he
pulled him up into a sitting position.

"Come, Eben," he growled, "no malingering! I have no time to waste on
you. If you do not get ready very quickly to do as I tell you, there is
a chance that you will be found out here in the morning with an extra
hole in your head which none of his Majesty's regimental surgeons will
be able to plug--at least not in time to do you any good!"

"I ... am ... not what you think--indeed I am not," the man gasped, as
he began to get his breath back after Stair's rough handling.

"That's as may be," said his captor, "you are too open-minded a man to
expect me to believe a syllable of what you say, merely on your word."

"No, sir," said Eben, "but I am the more to be pitied--I am outlawed by
the Government, and your people shot at me as I was escaping--"

"Ah," said Stair, "you mean when you fled with the Duke's money and
jewels the night of the little trouble at the White Loch."

"Indeed," said Eben the Spy, "I am altogether on your side, though I
cannot expect you to believe it. But I can bring you a good witness.
Even before what occurred there, I had given up all my work for the
Government. I intended to make a bolt for it anyway. I knew it was only
a question of time when I should be shot. I had been missed already more
than once, and indeed, sir, I carry lead in my body at this moment."

Stair grinned so that the man caught the flash of his teeth in the
uncertain glimmer, and got his first ray of hope that his life might be
spared. He knew very well that nothing he could say would convince Stair
of his good faith, but it might be possible to soften him by taking the
situation with a certain humour.

"Ah, you laugh, sir," he continued, "but it is no light thing to be a
superintendent of recruitment and to belong to the parish of Stonykirk!"

"Say a press-gang spy!" flashed Stair. "That will be the truth."

"A press-gang spy, then," said Eben meekly. "I am not boggling about
words--"

"And your business to betray your own folk!"

"I always endeavoured to temper justice with mercy," said the man,
feeling at his throat with one of his now disengaged hands.

"Come--none of that," said Stair, "at least, have the co