ds that I pounced like any
recruiting-sergeant. This I do not believe. But what, after a long
pause, I said was this: "If you are innocent or unconscious of
offending, you can only wait for your neighbours to explain
themselves. Meanwhile, why not leave them? Why not travel, for
instance?"

"Travel!" he echoed, as much as to say, "You ought to know, without my
telling, that I cannot afford it."

"Travel," I repeated; "see the world, rub against men of your age. You
might by the way do some fighting."

He opened his eyes wide. I saw the sudden idea take hold of him, and
again I liked what I saw.

"If I thought--" He broke off. "You don't mean--" he began, and broke
off again.

"I mean the Morays," I said. "There may be difficulties; but at this
moment I cannot see any real ones."

By this time he was gripping the arms of his chair. "If I thought--"
he harked back, and for the third time broke off. "What a fool I am!
It's the last thing they ever put in a boy's head at that infernal
school. If you will believe it, they wanted to make a priest of me!"

He sprang up, pushing back his chair. We carried our wine into the
great hall, and sat there talking the question over before the fire.
Before we parted for the night I had engaged to use all my interest to
get him a commission in the Morays; and I left him pacing the hall,
his mind in a whirl, but his heart (as was plain to see) exulting in
his new prospects.

And certainly, when I came to inspect the castle by the next morning's
light, I could understand his longing to leave it. A gloomier, more
pretentious, or worse-devised structure I never set eyes on. The
Mackenzie who erected it may well have been (as the saying is) his own
architect, and had either come to the end of his purse or left his
heirs to decide against planting gardens, laying out approaches or
even maintaining the pile in decent repair. In place of a drive a
grassy cart-track, scored deep with old ruts, led through a gateless
entrance into a courtyard where the slates had dropped from the roof
and lay strewn like autumn leaves. On this road I encountered the
young Laird returning from an early tramp with his gun; and he stood
still and pointed to the castle with a grimace.

"A white elephant," said I.

"Call it rather the corpse of one," he answered. "Cannot you imagine
some _genie_ of the Oriental Tales dragging the beast across Europe
and dumping it down here in a sudden fit of disgust? As