ling."

He hurriedly stamped out the fire, that smoked a faint blue reek which
might have advertised our whereabouts, and Betty clutched the child to
her arms, her face again taking the hue of hunt and fear she wore when
we first set eyes on her in the morning.

"Where is safety?" she asked, hopelessly. "Is there a sheep-fank or
a sheiling-bothy in Argile that is not at the mercy of those
blood-hounds?"

"If it wasn't for the snow on the ground," said M'Iver, "I could find a
score of safe enough hidings between here and the Beannan." "Heavens!"
he added, "when I think on it, the Beannan itself is the place for us;
it's the one safe spot we can reach by going through the woods without
leaving any trace, if we keep under the trees and in the bed of the
burn."

We took the bairn in turns, M'Iver and I, and the four of us set out for
the opposite side of Glenaora for the _eas_ or gully called the Beannan,
that lay out of any route likely to be followed by the enemy, whether
their object was a retreat or a hunting. But we were never to reach this
place of refuge, as it happened; for M'Iver, leading down the burn by
a yard or two, had put his foot on the path running through the pass
beside the three bridges, when he pulled back, blanching more in chagrin
than apprehension.

"Here they are," he said "We're too late; there's a band of them on the
march up this way."

At our back was the burned ruin of a house that had belonged to a
shepherd who was the first to flee to the town when the invaders came.
Its byre was almost intact, and we ran to it up the burn as fast as we
could, and concealed ourselves in the dark interior. Birds came chirping
under the eaves of thatch and by the vent-holes, and made so much
bickering to find us in their sanctuary that we feared the bye-passers,
who were within a whisper of our hiding, would be surely attracted Band
after band of the enemy passed, laden in the most extraordinary degree
with the spoil of war. They had only a rough sort of discipline in their
retirement: the captains or chieftains marched together, leaving the
companies to straggle as they might, for was not the country deserted
by every living body but themselves? In van of them they drove several
hundreds of black and red cattle, and with the aid of some rough ponies,
that pulled such sledges (called _carns_) as are used for the hauling
home of peat on hilly land, they were conveying huge quantities of
household plenish