ing his stirrup leathers and bridle, to be satisfied they were in
order. Even I thought I saw his hand drop down to his right garter,
where a Highlander wears his skean-dhu, or short dirk, an ornament
mostly, with its Cairngoram stone in the handle, but likewise a solid
weapon in an emergency, like the present.

There, probably, I did him an injustice or, if his hand did make the
furtive inquiry, I could think wrongly of the reason behind it.
Anyhow, he said never a word, hating to be openly suspicious, where, as
I could have sworn, on my conscience, there was no reason for
suspicion, whatever might have happened among others, apart from me and
my night's doings.

Thus we held our places, two unarmed men, for the Black Colonel had
said in his letter that he would come weaponless, as he expected me to
come, and a hose-dirk did not count, being, as I have said, in the
first place, an ornament for a well-made leg, an Order of the Garter,
to borrow an ancient title. We had met in the habiliments and
disposition of peace, and if we were to close in strife it would not, I
reasoned and hoped, be at our direct wish or bidding. Would it?

He must have been asking himself the same question, for he broke the
silence in a changed voice which seemed doubly changed, because he had
to keep it low, lest it should be overheard, and what he said was, "How
comes all this, sir?"

"I don't know," I answered simply, naturally, truthfully, to his
charge, for it was a charge in words and in directness.

"You don't," he went on, and I could not miss the tone which was like
the growl of a dog, an ill-natured dog; not like that of my own little
Scots terrier, Rob, whose bark is only meant to give himself confidence
and never had the snap of biting in it.

"You don't!" repeated the Black Colonel. "I must believe you, though a
suspicious man might read the signs otherwise. Still, why should you
have kept the red-coats from their sleep this night and morn, in the
castles of Braemar and Corgarff? There is no reason, for a talk
between Highland gentlemen, if so we be, about a Highland lady, whose
ladyship is beyond doubt, needed no garrison as audience. No, no, if
the red-coats had been summoned to round-up some poor Jacobite devil,
say myself, Captain Ian Gordon would have been with his men, as a
soldier should, much as he might--and I put this to his credit--have
disliked the mission."

It was idle for me to pretend any misunderstandi