excelled, I was not surprised when it came in the form of another
dispatch, also borne secretly by the vagrant Red Murdo.

We actually had an old clanish knowledge of each other, this fellow and
I, because, although he was a Farquharson, the croft on which his
people dwelt was near the Gordon estate of Balmoral. We had played
with each other as boys, for the feudal system of the clans was
communal and democratic. It was, to take one illustration, customary
for the sons of chiefs to have foster-brothers adopted from the
commonalty, companions in peace time, comrades and defenders in war
time.

When then, Red Murdo, who had been lurking in a peat-moss near Corgarff
Castle, surprised me, out-of-doors, one day, it was with the friendly
salutation, "Good-morning, Captain Ian."

"Hullo," I said, "isn't it dangerous for you to be here again?"

"Not when it's to see you, but I wis gettin' weary waitin' in this damp
hole, an' the Cornel, he'll be wonderin' why I'm no' back."

"Well, my friend," said I coldly; "I won't keep you from him."

"But, I've a word to say to ye for him, and something to gie ye. I'm
to say that he expects to hear from ye in satisfaction of his letter.
But if you need remindin', will ye study, as conveyin' his feelin's and
intents, a plain copy, made by him, which I've carried in my sporran,
of my Earl Mar's known epistle to the first Jock Forbes of Inverernan,
near by Corgarff."

With this mysterious message haltingly said, as if the Black Colonel
had drilled it into his man, which was, no doubt, the truth. Red Murdo
held me out a crumpled sheet of paper.

"Tak' it, sir," he added, "an', as advice from a humble man who wishes
ye no ill, obleege the Black Cornel if you can, or he'll be tryin'
other means. You an' I ken him, Captain, ken him weel, I'm thinkin',
an' it disna' dae to neglect him, as I've found mysel' at various
times."

It was a famous and familiar document with which I had been served, or,
rather, with a fair copy of it, in the Black Colonel's best round-hand;
but its use by him to convey his sentiments and intentions to me was
quaintly original. Here was he, framing himself in the words of
urgency and high consequence, which the Earl of Mar, when that nobleman
was raising the "Standard on the Braes o' Mar," flung, like a fiery
cross, at Jock Forbes of Inverernan. You will perceive the lordly
egotism of the Black Colonel when I give you the missive, as I read it
myself, wit