down through the glen, for
yonder will be Sandy Nicol driving his stots to the bay."

We made up on the drover, a wild unkempt man with a great red beard
wagging on his broad chest, and fierce blue eyes that seldom winked,
and it seemed to me that his dogs--for two deep-chested, lean-flanked
black collies slunk at his heel--it seemed to me that they kent his
mind before he spoke a word, for they worked the wild hill-bred stots
like the dogs the old folk will be telling about.

"Ye would be looking to the hogs," said he, as if he had kent us from
the hillside and no greeting was needed; and as he spoke I thought of
an old door swinging on rust-eaten hinges, for his voice was deep and
harsh, as though he opened his mouth seldom to speak; and indeed such
was the case, for he lived on his farm among the hills alone with his
dogs.

"It's no great day this to be travelling beasts," said Dan, as we
walked at the tails o' the little herd.

"Ay, but this is just the day for Sandy. Nae fears o' the evil eye wi'
the snaw on the road, for there's something clean aboot snaw, and auld
wives are at their firesides, wi' their ill wishes and evil eyes."

"You will ken the Red Laird's deid and buried, Sandy?"

For a wee while after Dan's question we three walked in silence, and
then the drover turned his wild face to us.

"We watched the devil coming for him yon night; we watched his coming,
ay, away far out on the sea, the black stallions stretched to the
gallop like racing hounds, and the hoofs o' them striking white fire
frae the water, and the flames o' hell curling and twisting round the
wheels o' his chariot. Ay, we watched oor lane, the dogs and me, and
his whip was forked lightning, and his voice drooned the roar o' the
gale."

I felt a grue slither through me when the man stopped, for his harsh
voice intoned his words like some dreadful chant.

"Ye would be late out that night," said Dan, and again we were silent
till the drover spoke, and the thought came to me that he arranged all
his words in his mind, and then loosed his tongue to them.

"They were round us, that night, evil spirits and evil beasts, and they
would be lifting the thatch from the roof; and we went out, the dogs
and me, and a' the great rocks on the hillside would be jumbling and
jarring thegether, for all the evil ones were loose from the pit, and
tumbling the hills, and setting them straight, and the blue lowes were
rissling on the hill-tops. B