and
down. Then, at a signal from Patsy, Godfrey McCulloch let down the
anchor and pulled in hand over hand the little skiff which they had been
dragging in their wake all day.

Stair thought that it was a reckless thing to put ashore while the sun
was still high above the horizon. Still the spot was a lonely one--on
one side great heathy tracts rising slowly away towards the foothills of
Criffel--on the other a turmoil of huge cliffs and purple summits to the
west, while behind them all the expanse of Solway lay like polished
silver, clean as a platter ready for the service of a great house.

The two men walked steadily to and fro. The boat, propelled lustily by
Godfrey of the saturnine smile, bounded towards the land. It grounded on
a rapidly shelving beach on which they sprang ashore. Godfrey attached
the boat to a stone, and gave her plenty of rope to ride.

Then all three went to the encounter of the two men. Both of them were
dressed in decent black with something vaguely official about it, and
the taller of the two had a scrap of black cloth after the fashion of a
college gown but infinitely shorter, thrown over his shoulders. The
other was a smaller and tubbier man, pleasant to look upon, a man
evidently who lived for and by good eating and drinking. He had a large
book under his arm, so heavy that as often as the two paused in their
walk he laid it carefully down on the sand and sat upon it--while the
tall man, undisturbed, continued his monologue over his comrade's head.

The two parties met at last, their shadows thrown far beyond them on the
moist sand and mingling ludicrously as they altered their positions.

"Aweel," said the tall man, "what's a' this?"

His voice was not at all unkindly, and it was to Patsy he spoke. He
turned in time to catch the little round man in the act of plumping down
his big book on the sand, and he lifted him up again by inserting the
hook of a huge forefinger in his collar as if he had been a deep-sea
catch.

"Stand up there, Saunders Duff! God made man to stand erect on his two
feet, but you would be for ever hunkering like a monkey eatin' nuts.
Chin up, and shoulders back, man! If you dinna ken your duty to King and
Country, I ken mine!"

"Aye, aye, skipper," said Saunders Duff, shaking his head sadly, "but
this vollum is a plaguey heavy cargo and 'tis a long time between
ports!"

"It had need to be," said the tall man, "it contains weighty
matters--matters that shal