nk ye of the landing? Can we make the auld place within
the bight of the Mays Water? That would be the nearest to the Bothy on
the Wild o' Blairmore!"

"Maybe," said the Captain, grimly, "but being the nearest is not to say
the safest. They will have a cordon o' marines and, what is far worse,
maybe blue-jackets on the lookout. Sodjers and Preventives do not matter
so muckle. For at night the sodjers canna see onything, and the
Preventives are apt to be lookin' the ither road."

"Ye think, then, that we had better try the Burnfoot?"

"I think nothing," said Captain Penman, irritably. "I am here to sail my
ship according to your orders. But I will take nothing to do with what
may happen after you set your foot on shore."

"Na, then, wha was thinkin' itherwise?" said Kennedy McClure,
soothingly, "but surely a word o' advice is worth having from siccan an
auld hand as you!"

"If I were you, then," said the Captain, instantly mollified, "I should
e'en keep the lower side o' the Abbey Water, away from the Wild. Even if
the red-coats have caged the mice, they are sure to have reset the
trap--and great fools would ye be to walk straight into it!"

* * * * *

As soon as it was dark enough, Captain Penman let his vessel drift
landward with the tide, then running strong into the wide swallow of the
Solway. The wind was light, and a jib was sufficient to give her
steerage-way. It was intended that the passengers should be set on shore
at a point nearly opposite to Julian Wemyss's house, where a spit of
sand and the shoulder of cliff formed a neat little anchorage. The
sailors of the _Good Intent_, accustomed to the work, were ordered to
convey the little luggage they had brought with them from London to the
nearest "hidie-hole" known to Kennedy McClure, where, if all went well,
men from Supsorrow could easily dig them up and carry them to their
owners.

Attempts were made to signal as the _Good Intent_ glided along the
coast, but all remained obstinately dark. Dark lay Glenanmays at the
head of the wide Mays Water. The cliffs of the Wild sent back no
answering flashes, and it was not till the _Good Intent_ was well-nigh
abreast of the Partan Craig that a faint light glimmered out, low down
by the edge of the water.... _Flash--flash--flash_--(it went, and then
darkness). _Flash--flash--flash_--each double the duration of the first.
Then came the blackness of darkness again, and anon half-