oncerned; but how about danger from
wild animals? This was what concerned Donalblane, and he was glad that
he had put a pistol in his belt before leaving the ship. Wearied and
perplexed, he had thrown himself down on the sward, when there suddenly
hove in sight a big boar leading a small band of sows and piglings. He
was a tusker of most forbidding appearance, and the instant his wicked
little eyes fell upon Donalblane he bristled up and began gnashing his
tusks ominously.

The boy sprang to his feet and drew his pistol, while he looked
anxiously about him for a way of escape. "Save us a'!" he cried.
"What a fearsome brute! He means ill to me, I'm thinking."

There seemed nothing for it but to stand firm and trust to his pistol.
So, after a swift glance to make sure that the priming was in its
place, he braced himself for the attack.

The boar did not waste much time. Having satisfied himself that this
intruder upon his domain deserved no mercy, he charged fiercely at him,
the foam flying from his gleaming tusks, and the thick bristles
standing out on his mighty front.

Donalblane wisely waited until the fierce creature was within a few
yards of him, and then fired, taking aim at the very centre of the
forehead. At the report of the pistol the boar pitched forward,
driving his snout into the ground, so great was his impetus, and
Donalblane, thinking him dead, shouted triumphantly, "Noo, ye fool!
will ye be trying to scare folk who meant ye no harm?" But his words
had hardly left his lips when the boar, which had been only stunned,
his tough, wrinkled hide proving an effectual shield, got upon his feet
again and renewed the charge so furiously that Donalblane barely saved
himself by a sudden spring aside. Baffled for the moment, the maddened
brute swiftly swung round for a fresh onset, and Donalblane was fain to
flee towards the cliffs, followed by the boar and his whole family,
grunting and squealing.

There was no boy in Leith could out-foot him, and he dashed away at
such a speed as gave him a good lead. But where was he to go, in order
to escape the relentless monster that sought to rend him? And if it
came to a question of endurance, the boar would assuredly run him down
in the end.

CHAPTER V.

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

Running as one runs whose life is at stake, Donalblane looked hither
and thither for some break in the cliffs that would give him a chance
to climb out of his fell pursuers'