his life. And a great owl swooped softly by and hooted mockingly:

"For your life! for your life! for your life!"

PART V OWD BOB O' KENMUIR

Chapter XXII A MAN AND A MAID

IN the village even the Black Killer and the murder on the Screes were
forgotten in this new sensation. The mystery in which the affair was
wrapped, and the ignorance as to all its details, served to whet the
general interest. There had been a fight; M'Adam and the Terror had been
mauled; and David had disappeared--those were the facts. But what was
the origin of the affray no one could say.

One or two of the Dalesmen had, indeed, a shrewd suspicion. Tupper
looked guilty; Jem Burton muttered, "I knoo hoo 'twould be"; while as
for Long Kirby, he vanished entirely, not to reappear till three months
had sped.

Injured as he had been, M'Adam was yet sufficiently recovered to appear
in the Sylvester Arms on the Saturday following the battle. He entered
the tap-room silently with never a word to a soul; one arm was in a
sling and his head bandaged. He eyed every man present critically; and
all, except Tammas, who was brazen, and Jim Mason, who was innocent,
fidgeted beneath the stare. Maybe it was well for Long Kirby he was not
there.

"Onythin' the matter?" asked Jem, at length, rather lamely, in view of
the plain evidences of battle.

"Na, na; naethin' oot o' the ordinar'," the little man replied,
giggling. "Only David set on me, and me sleepin'. And," with a shrug,
"here I am noo." He sat down, wagging his bandaged head and grinning.
"Ye see he's sae playfu', is Davie. He wangs ye o'er the head wi' a
chair, kicks ye in the jaw, stamps on yer wame, and all as merry as
May." And nothing further could they get from him, except that if David
reappeared it was his firm resolve to hand him over to the police for
attempted parricide.

"'Brutal assault on an auld man by his son!' 'Twill look well in the
Argus; he! he! They couldna let him aff under two years, I'm thinkin'."

M'Adam's version of the affair was received with quiet incredulity. The
general verdict was that he had brought his punishment entirely on his
own head. Tammas, indeed, who was always rude when he was not witty,
and, in fact, the difference between the two things is only one of
degree, told him straight: "It served yo' well reet. An' I nob'but wish
he'd made an end to yo'."

"He did his best, puir lad," M'Adam reminded him gently.

"We've had enough o' yo'," c