en into the water down by the quay; and
nothing at all was said about Keith Macleod having had to leap into the
sea off the coast of Colonsay. Macleod got into Castle Dare by a back
way, and changed his clothes in his own room. Then he went away upstairs
to the small chamber in which Johnny Wickes lay in bed.

"You have had the soup, then? You look pretty comfortable."

"Yes, sir," said the boy, whose face was now flushed red with the
reaction after the cold. "I beg your pardon, sir."

"For tumbling into the water?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, look here, Master Wickes; you chose a good time. If I had had
trousers on, and waterproof leggings over them, do you know where you
would be at the present moment? You would be having an interesting
conversation with a number of lobsters at the bottom of the sea off the
Colonsay shores. And so you thought because I had my kilt on, that I
could fish you out of the water?"

"No, sir," said Johnny Wickes. "I beg your pardon, sir."

"Well, you will remember that it was owing to the Highland kilt that you
were picked out of the water, and that it was Highland whiskey put life
into your blood again; you will remember that well. And if any strange
lady should come here from England and ask you how you like the
Highlands, you will not forget?"

"No, sir."

"And you can have Oscar up here in the room with you, if you like, until
they let you out of bed again; or you can have Donald to play the pipes
to you until dinner-time."

Master Wickes chose the less heroic remedy; but, indeed, the
companionship of Oscar was not needed; for Janet Macleod--who might just
as well have tried to keep her heart from beating as to keep herself
away from any one who was ill or supposed to be ill--herself came up to
this little room, and was very attentive to Master Wickes, not because
he was suffering very much from the effects of his ducking, but because
he was a child, and alone, and a stranger. And to her Johnny Wickes told
the whole story, despite the warnings he had received that, if Hamish
came to learn of the peril in which Macleod had been placed by the
incaution of the English lad, the latter would have had a bad time of it
at Castle Dare. Then Janet hastened away again, and, finding her
cousin's bedroom empty, entered; and there discovered that he had, with
customary recklessness, hung up his wet clothes in his wardrobe. She had
them at once conveyed away to the lower regions, and she went, wi