ceiving! She will laugh when it is all over--she will call it a
stratagem--she will say that a drowning man will catch at anything. And
this is the last effort--but it is only a stratagem: she herself will
absolve me, when she laughs and says, 'Oh, how could you have treated
the poor theatres so?'"

A loud rattling overhead startled him.

"We must be at Erith," he said to himself; and then, after a pause of a
second, he took the letter in his hand. He passed up the companion-way.
Perhaps it was the sudden glare of the light around that falsely gave to
his eyes the appearance of a man who had been drinking hard; but his
voice was clear and precise as he said to Hamish,--

"Now, Hamish, you understand everything I have told you?"

"Oh yes, Sir Keith."

"And you will put away that nonsense from your head; and when you see
the English lady that you remember, you will be very respectful to her,
for she is a very great friend of mine; and if she is not at the
theatre, you will go on to the other address, and Colin Laing will go
with you in the cab. And if she comes back in the cab, you and Colin
will go outside beside the driver, do you understand? And when you go
ashore, you will take John Cameron with you, and you will ask the
pier-master about the moorings."

"Oh yes, Sir Keith; have you not told me before?" Hamish said, almost
reproachfully.

"You are sure you got everything on board last night?"

"There is nothing more that I can think of, Sir Keith."

"Here is the letter, Hamish."

And so he pledged himself to the last desperate venture.

Not long after that Hamish, and Laing, and John Cameron went in the
dingy to the end of Erith pier, and left the boat there; and went along
to the head of the pier, and had a talk with the pier-master. Then John
Cameron went back, and the other two went on their way to the
railway-station.

"And I will tell you this, Hamish," said the little black Celt, who
swaggered a good deal in his walk, "that when you go in the train you
will be greatly frightened; for you do not know how strong the engines
are, and how they will carry you through the air."

"That is a foolish thing to say," answered Hamish, also speaking in the
Gaelic; "for I have seen many pictures of trains; and do you say that
the engines are bigger than the engines of the _Pioneer_, or the _Dunara
Castle_, or the _Clansman_ that goes to Stornoway? Do not talk such
nonsense to me. An engine that runs along the