oom more
intent on his face than on the balefire. "My old luck bides with me.
I thought the weather guaranteed me a season's rest, but here's the
claymore again! Alasdair, Craignish, Sir Donald, I wish you gentlemen
would set the summons about with as little delay as need be. We have
no time for any display of militant science, but as these beacons carry
their tale fast we may easily be at the head of Glen Aora before the
enemy is down Glenurchy."

Sir Donald, who was the eldest of the officers his lordship addressed,
promised a muster of five hundred men in three hours' time. "I can have
a _crois-tara_," he said, "at the very head of Glen Shira in an hour."

"You may save yourself the trouble," said John Splendid; "Glen Shira's
awake by this time, for the watchers have been in the hut on Ben Bhuidhe
since ever we came back from Lorn, and they are in league with other
watchers at the Gearron town, who will have the alarm miles up the Glen
by now if I make no mistake about the breed."

By this time a servant came in to say Sithean Sluaidhe hill on Cowal was
ablaze, and likewise the hill of Ardno above the Ardkinglas lands.

"The alarm will be over Argile in two hours," said his lordship. "We're
grand at the beginnings of things," and as he spoke he was pouring, with
a steady hand, a glass of wine for a woman in the tremors. "I wish to
God we were better at the endings," he added, bitterly. "If these Athole
and Antrim caterans have the secret of our passes, we may be rats in a
trap before the morn's morning."

The hall emptied quickly, a commotion of folks departing rose in the
courtyard, and candle and torch moved about. Horses put over the bridge
at a gallop, striking sparks from the cobble-stones, swords jingled on
stirrups. In the town, a piper's tune hurriedly lifted, and numerous
lights danced to the windows of the burghers. John Splendid, the
Marquis, and I were the only ones left in the hall, and the Marquis
turned to me with a smile--

"You see your pledge calls for redemption sooner than you expected,
Elrigmore. The enemy's not far from Ben Bhuidhe now, and your sword is
mine by the contract."

"Your lordship can count on me to the last ditch," I cried; and indeed I
might well be ready, for was not the menace of war as muckle against my
own hearth as against his?

"Our plan," he went on, "as agreed upon at a council after my return
from the north, was to hold all above Inneraora in simple defence while