M'Iver a vagabond of the deepest dye?"

"If she thought that," I cried, "she baffles me; for a hint I let drop
in a mere careless badinage of your gallanting reputation made her
perilously near angry."

John with pursed lips stroked his chin, musing on my words. I was afraid
for a little he resented my indiscretion, but resentment was apparently
not in his mind, for his speech found no fault with me.

"Man, Colin," he said, "you could scarcely have played a more cunning
card if you had had myself to advise you. But no matter about that."

"If she thinks so badly of you, then," I said, "why not clear yourself
from her suspicions, that I am willing to swear (less because of your
general character than because of your conduct since she and you and the
child met) are without foundation?"

"I could scarcely meet her womanly innuendo with a coarse and abrupt
denial," said he. "There are some shreds of common decency left in me
yet."

"And you prefer to let her think the worst?"

He looked at me with a heightened colour, and he laughed shortly.

"You'll be no loser by that, perhaps," he said; and before I could
answer he added, "Pardon a foolish speech, Colin; I learned the trick of
fanfaron among foreign gentry who claimed a _conquete d'amour_ for every
woman who dropped an eye to their bold scrutiny. Do not give me any
share of your jealousy for Lachlan MacLachlan of that ilk--I'm not
deserving the honour. And that reminds me----"

He checked himself abruptly.

"Come, come," said I, "finish your story; what about MacLachlan and the
lady?"

"The lady's out of the tale this time," he said, shortly. "I met him
stravaiging the vacant street last night; that was all."

"Then I can guess his mission without another word from you," I cried,
after a little dumfounderment. "He would be on the track of his cousin."

"Not at all," said John, with a bland front; "he told me he was looking
for a boatman to ferry him over the loch."

This story was so plainly fabricated to ease my apprehension that down I
went, incontinent, and sought the right tale in the burgh.

Indeed it was not difficult to learn the true particulars, for the place
rang all the worse for its comparative emptiness with the scandal of
M'Iver's encounter with Mac-Lachlan, whom, it appeared, he had found
laying a gallant's siege to the upper window of Askaig's house, whose
almost unharmed condition had made it a convenient temporary shelter for
such as