plenty of tobacco? A cigarette is too feeble a thing
to smoke by the side of a dead stag. And--and on my way south I mean to
stop at Inverness, and I'll send you as much tobacco as will last you
right through the winter; for you see I'm very proud of my first
stag--and, of course, it was all owing to your skill in stalking."

Roderick handed the young man his pipe and pouch.

"Indeed, you could not do better, sir, than sit down and hef a smoke,
while me and Alec are gralloching the beast. Then we'll drag him to a
safe place, and cover him up with heather, and send for him the morn's
morning."

"Couldn't you put him on the pony and take him down with us? I can
walk," Lionel suggested; for had he not some dim vision in his mind of a
triumphal procession down the strath, towards the dusk of the evening,
with perhaps a group of fair spectators awaiting him at the door of the
lodge?

"Well, sir," the keeper made answer, as he drew out his gralloching
knife, "you see, there's few things more difficult than to strap a deer
on the back of a powny when there's no proper deer-saddle. No, sir,
we'll just leave him in a safe place for the night and send for him in
the morning."

"And do you call that a good head to get stuffed Roderick?" the young
man asked, still gazing on his splendid prize.

"Aw, well, I hef seen better heads, and I hef seen worse heads," the
keeper said, evasively. "But the velvet is off the horns whatever."

This was tremendously strong tobacco that Roderick had handed him, and
yet, as it seemed to him, he had never smelt a sweeter fragrance
perfuming the soft mountain air. Nor did these appear grim and awful
solitudes any longer; they were friendly solitudes, rather; as he sat
and peacefully and joyously smoked, he studied every feature of
them--each rock and swamp and barren slope, every hill and corrie and
misty mountain-top; and he knew that while life remained to him he would
never forget this memorable scene--with the slain stag in the
foreground. No, nor how could he ever forget that wan glare of sunlight
that had come along the plateau where the deer were quietly feeding?--he
seemed to see again each individual blade of grass close to his face, as
well as the noble quarry that had held him breathless. And then he took
out the bright little coin; surely Honnor Cunyngham could not object to
his wearing it, seeing that it had proved itself such a potent charm? He
rejoiced that he had not been frig