he hut corner I ran full into a man.

"Hold you," cried the stranger, and laid hands on my arm; but I shook
him off violently, and continued the race. The collision had cracked my
temper, and I had a mind to give Muckle John a lesson in civility. For
Muckle John it was beyond doubt; not two men in the broad earth had
that ungainly bend of neck.

The next I knew we were out on the river bank on a shore of hard clay
which the tides had created. Here I saw him more clearly, and I began
to doubt. I might be chasing some river-side ruffian, who would give me
a knife in my belly for my pains.

The doubt slackened my pace, and he gained on me. Then I saw his
intention. There was a flat-bottomed wherry tied up by the bank, and
for this he made. He flung off the rope, seized a long pole, and began
to push away.

The last rays of the westering sun fell on his face, and my hesitation
vanished. For those pent-house brows and deep-set, wild-cat eyes were
fixed for ever in my memory.

I cried to him as I ran, but he never looked my road. Somehow it was
borne in on me that at all costs I must have speech with him. The
wherry was a yard or two from the shore when I jumped for its stern.

I lighted firm on the wood, and for a moment looked Muckle John in the
face. I saw a countenance lean like a starved wolf, with great weals as
of old wounds on cheek and brow. But only for a, second, for as I
balanced myself to step forward he rammed the butt of the pole in my
chest, so that I staggered and fell plump in the river.

The water was only up to my middle, but before I could clamber back he
had shipped his oars, and was well into the centre of the stream.

I stood staring like a zany, while black anger filled my heart. I
plucked my pistol forth, and for a second was on the verge of murder,
for I could have shot him like a rabbit. But God mercifully restrained
my foolish passion, and presently the boat and the rower vanished in
the evening haze.

"This is a bonny beginning!" thought I, as I waded through the mud to
the shore. I was wearing my best clothes in honour of my arrival, and
they were all fouled and plashing.

Then on the bank above me I saw the fellow who had run into me and
hindered my catching Muckle John on dry land. He was shaking with
laughter.

I was silly and hot-headed in those days, and my wetting had not
disposed me to be laughed at. In this fellow I saw a confederate of
Gib's, and if I had lost one I had th