hen. No one was there; Rorie and the black had both
stealthily departed long before; and my heart stood still at the
discovery. I could rely on Rorie's heart, but I placed no trust in his
discretion. If he had thus set out without a word, he was plainly bent
upon some service to my uncle. But what service could he hope to render
even alone, far less in the company of the man in whom my uncle found
his fears incarnated? Even if I were not already too late to prevent
some deadly mischief, it was plain I must delay no longer. With the
thought I was out of the house; and often as I have run on the rough
sides of Aros, I never ran as I did that fatal morning. I do not believe
I put twelve minutes to the whole ascent.

My uncle was gone from his perch. The basket had indeed been torn open
and the meat scattered on the turf; but, as we found afterwards, no
mouthful had been tasted; and there was not another trace of human
existence in that wide field of view. Day had already filled the clear
heavens; the sun already lighted in a rosy bloom upon the crest of Ben
Kyaw; but all below me the rude knolls of Aros and the shield of sea lay
steeped in the clear darkling twilight of the dawn.

"Rorie!" I cried; and again "Rorie!" My voice died in the silence, but
there came no answer back. If there were indeed an enterprise afoot to
catch my uncle, it was plainly not in fleetness of foot, but in
dexterity of stalking, that the hunters placed their trust. I ran on
farther, keeping the higher spurs, and looking right and left, nor did I
pause again till I was on the mount above Sandag. I could see the wreck,
the uncovered belt of sand, the waves idly beating, the long ledge of
rocks, and on either hand the tumbled knolls, boulders, and gullies of
the island. But still no human thing.

At a stride the sunshine fell on Aros, and the shadows and colours
leaped into being. Not half a moment later, below me to the west, sheep
began to scatter as in a panic. There came a cry. I saw my uncle
running. I saw the black jump up in hot pursuit; and before I had time
to understand, Rorie also had appeared, calling directions in Gaelic as
to a dog herding sheep.

I took to my heels to interfere, and perhaps I had done better to have
waited where I was, for I was the means of cutting off the madman's last
escape. There was nothing before him from that moment but the grave, the
wreck, and the sea in Sandag Bay. And yet Heaven knows that what I did
w