, trembling from head to foot, and unable
to speak. She showed to Annie a short paragraph, which told that a
vessel chartered by Mr Hope, advocate, of Edinburgh, and bound to the
Western Islands, had put into the Horseshoe harbour in Lorn, to land a
lady whom the captain refused to carry to her destination through a
quarrel on the ground of difference of political sentiment. The lady,
wife of a minister of the kirk, had sought the aid of the resident
tenant to be escorted home through the disturbed districts in Argyle,
while the vessel proceeded on its way--not unwatched, however, as Mr
Hope's attachment to the house of Stuart was no secret, etcetera,
etcetera.

The widow was perplexed; but Lady Carse knew that Mr Hope, her lawyer
and her friend, was a Jacobite--the only fault he had, she declared.
She was persuaded that the lady was Mrs Ruthven, and that the vessel
was on its way to rescue her--might arrive at any hour of the day or
night.

"But," said Annie, "this lady is loyal to King George, and you
reproached the Ruthvens for being on the other side."

"O! I was wrong about her, no doubt. I detest him; but she is a good
creature; and I was quite wrong ever to suspect her."

"And you think your loyalty to the king would do you no harm with Mr
Hope? You think he would exert himself for you without thinking of your
politics?"

"Why, don't you see what is before your eyes?" cried Lady Carse. "Is it
not there, as plain as black and white can make it?"

The fact was so, though the lady's reasoning was not good. The vessel,
with armed men in it, was sent by Mr Hope to rescue Lady Carse; and
Mrs Ruthven was to act as guide. In consequence of a quarrel between
the captain and her, she was set ashore at the place where the little
town of Oban has since arisen; and the vessel sailed on out of sight.
It was an illegal proceeding of Mr Hope's, and resorted to only when
his attempts to obtain a warrant from the proper authority to search for
and liberate Lady Carse were frustrated by the influence of her husband
and his friends.

"He will be coming! Burn the paper!" cried Lady Carse impatiently,
looking from the door.

"Better not. Indeed we had better not," said Annie quietly. "They have
no suspicion, or they would not have let us see the paper. They do not
know that Mr Hope is your agent; and Mrs Ruthven's name is not
mentioned. If we do not return both the papers, there will be
suspicion; and you will