obin Oig," he said, when it was done, "ye are a great piper. I am not
fit to blow in the same kingdom with ye. Body of me! ye have mair music
in your sporran than I have in my head! And though it still sticks in
my mind that I could maybe show ye another of it with the cold steel,
I warn ye beforehand--it'll no be fair! It would go against my heart to
haggle a man that can blow the pipes as you can!"

Thereupon that quarrel was made up; all night long the brose was going
and the pipes changing hands; and the day had come pretty bright, and
the three men were none the better for what they had been taking, before
Robin as much as thought upon the road.

CHAPTER XXVI

END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH

The month, as I have said, was not yet out, but it was already far
through August, and beautiful warm weather, with every sign of an early
and great harvest, when I was pronounced able for my journey. Our money
was now run to so low an ebb that we must think first of all on speed;
for if we came not soon to Mr. Rankeillor's, or if when we came there he
should fail to help me, we must surely starve. In Alan's view, besides,
the hunt must have now greatly slackened; and the line of the Forth and
even Stirling Bridge, which is the main pass over that river, would be
watched with little interest.

"It's a chief principle in military affairs," said he, "to go where
ye are least expected. Forth is our trouble; ye ken the saying, 'Forth
bridles the wild Hielandman.' Well, if we seek to creep round about
the head of that river and come down by Kippen or Balfron, it's just
precisely there that they'll be looking to lay hands on us. But if we
stave on straight to the auld Brig of Stirling, I'll lay my sword they
let us pass unchallenged."

The first night, accordingly, we pushed to the house of a Maclaren in
Strathire, a friend of Duncan's, where we slept the twenty-first of the
month, and whence we set forth again about the fall of night to make
another easy stage. The twenty-second we lay in a heather bush on the
hillside in Uam Var, within view of a herd of deer, the happiest ten
hours of sleep in a fine, breathing sunshine and on bone-dry ground,
that I have ever tasted. That night we struck Allan Water, and followed
it down; and coming to the edge of the hills saw the whole Carse of
Stirling underfoot, as flat as a pancake, with the town and castle on a
hill in the midst of it, and the moon shining on the Links of