could see the tear at the cheek
he laid against the youth's ruddy hair.

"Wild men coming!" said the child, not much put about after all.

"They shan't touch my little Illeasbuig," whispered his lordship,
kissing him on the mouth. Then he lifted his head and looked hard at
John Splendid. "I think," he said, "if I went post-haste to Edinburgh,
I could be of some service in advising the nature and route of the
harassing on the rear of Montrose. Or do you think--do you think----?"

He ended in a hesitancy, flushing a little at the brow, his lips
weakening at the corner.

John Splendid, at my side, gave me with his knee the least nudge on the
leg next him.

"Did your lordship think of going to Edinburgh at once?" he asked, with
an odd tone in his voice, and keeping his eyes very fixedly on a window.

"If it was judicious, the sooner the better," said the Marquis, nuzzling
his face in the soft warmth of the child's neck.

Splendid looked helpless for a bit, and then took up the policy that
I learned later to expect from him in every similar case. He seemed to
read (in truth it was easy enough!) what was in his master's mind, and
he said, almost with gaiety--

"The best thing you could do, my lord. Beyond your personal
encouragement (and a Chiefs aye a consoling influence on the field, I'll
never deny), there's little you could do here that cannot, with your
pardon, be fairly well done by Sir Donald and myself, and Elrigmore
here, who have made what you might call a trade of tulzie and brulzie."

MacCailein Mor looked uneasy for all this open assurance. He set the
child down with an awkward kiss, to be taken away by a servant lass who
had come after him.

"Would it not look a little odd!" he said, eyeing us keenly.

"Your lordship might be sending a trusty message to Edinburgh," I said;
and John Splendid with a "Pshaw!" walked to the window, saying what he
had to say with his back to the candle-light.

"There's not a man out there but would botch the whole business if you
sent him," he said; "it must be his lordship or nobody. And what's to
hinder her ladyship and the children going too? Snugger they'd be by far
in Stirling Lodge than here, I'll warrant. If I were not an old runt
of a bachelor, it would be my first thought to give my women and bairns
safety."

MacCailein flew at the notion. "Just so, just so," he cried, and of a
sudden he skipped out of the room.

John Splendid turned, pushed the door to afte