ken by a
fall. In the darkness and confusion he must have tried to escape in
that direction, and he had chosen an impracticable road or had slipped
on the edge. It was returned as "death by misadventure," and the
CARRICK HERALD and the AUCHENLOCHAN ADVERTISER excelled themselves in
eulogy. Mr. Loudon, they said, had been widely known in the south-west
of Scotland as an able and trusted lawyer, an assiduous public servant,
and not least as a good sportsman. It was the last trait which had led
to his death, for, in his enthusiasm for wild nature, he had been
studying bird life on the cliffs of the Cruives during the storm, and
had made that fatal slip which had deprived the shire of a wise
counsellor and the best of good fellows.

The tinklers of the Garplefoot took themselves off, and where they may
now be pursuing their devious courses is unknown to the chronicler.
Dobson, too, disappeared, for he was not among the dead from the boats.
He knew the neighbourhood, and probably made his way to some port from
which he took passage to one or other of those foreign lands which had
formerly been honoured by his patronage. Nor did all the Russians
perish. Three were found skulking next morning in the woods, starving
and ignorant of any tongue but their own, and five more came ashore
much battered but alive. Alexis took charge of the eight survivors,
and arranged to pay their passage to one of the British Dominions and
to give them a start in a new life. They were broken creatures, with
the dazed look of lost animals, and four of them had been peasants in
Saskia's estates. Alexis spoke to them in their own language. "In my
grandfather's time," he said, "you were serfs. Then there came a
change, and for some time you were free men. Now you have slipped back
into being slaves again--the worst of slaveries, for you have been the
serfs of fools and scoundrels and the black passion of your own hearts.
I give you a chance of becoming free men once more. You have the task
before you of working out your own salvation. Go, and God be with you."

Before we take leave of these companions of a single week I would
present them to you again as they appeared on a certain sunny afternoon
when the episode of Huntingtower was on the eve of closing. First we
see Saskia and Alexis walking on the thymy sward of the cliff-top,
looking out to the fretted blue of the sea. It is a fitting place for
lovers--above all for lovers who have