Colonsay still true to him? The ruby ring
she had given him had never paled. There was one woman who could remain
true to her absent lover.

Hamish came forward.

"Will we go on now, sir?" said he, in the Gaelic.

"No."

Hamish looked round. The shining clear evening looked very calm,
notwithstanding the tossing of the blue-black waves. And it seemed
wasteful to the old sailor to keep the yacht lying-to or aimlessly
sailing this way and that while this favorable wind remained to them.

"I am not sure that the breeze will last, Sir Keith."

"Are you sure of anything, Hamish?" Macleod said, quite absently. "Well,
there is one thing we can all make sure of. But I have told you, Hamish,
I am not going up the Sound of Iona in daylight: why, there is not a man
in all the islands who would not know of our coming by to-morrow
morning. We will go up the Sound as soon as it is dark. It is a new moon
to-night; and I think we can go without lights, Hamish."

"_Dunara_ is coming south to-night, Sir Keith," the old man said.

"Why, Hamish, you seem to have lost all your courage as soon as you put
Colin Laing ashore."

"Colin Laing! Is it Colin Laing!" exclaimed Hamish, indignantly. "I will
know how to sail this yacht, and I will know the banks, and the tides,
and the rocks better than any fifteen thousands of Colin Laings!"

"And what if the _Dunara_ is coming south? If she cannot see us, we can
see her."

But whether it was that Colin Laing had, before leaving the yacht,
managed to convey to Hamish some notion of the risk he was running, or
whether it was that he was merely anxious for his master's safety, it
was clear that Hamish was far from satisfied. He opened and shut his big
clasp-knife in an awkward silence. Then he said,--

"You will not go to Castle Dare, Sir Keith?"

Macleod started; he had forgotten that Hamish was there.

"No. I have told you where I am going."

"But there is not any good anchorage at that island sir!" he protested.
"Have I not been round every bay of it; and you too, Sir Keith? and you
know there is not an inch of sand or of mud, but only the small loose
stones. And then the shepherd they left there all by himself; it was mad
he became at last, and took his own life too."

"Well, do you expect to see his ghost?" Macleod said. "Come, Hamish, you
have lost your nerve in the South. Surely you are not afraid of being
anywhere in the old yacht so long as she has good sea-room around her?"