at other chance ye have, I answer: Nane.
Either take to the heather with me, or else hang."

"And that's a choice very easily made," said I; and we shook hands upon
it.

"And now let's take another keek at the red-coats," says Alan, and he
led me to the north-eastern fringe of the wood.

Looking out between the trees we could see a great side of mountain,
running down exceeding steep into the waters of the loch. It was a rough
part, all hanging stone, and heather, and bit scrogs of birchwood; and
away at the far end towards Balachulish, little wee red soldiers were
dipping up and down over hill and howe, and growing smaller every
minute. There was no cheering now, for I think they had other uses for
what breath was left them; but they still stuck to the trail, and
doubtless thought that we were close in front of them.

Alan watched them, smiling to himself.

"Ay," said he, "they'll be gey weary before they've got to the end of
that employ! And so you and me, David, can sit down and eat a bite, and
breathe a bit longer, and take a dram from my bottle. Then we'll strike
for Aucharn, the house of my kinsman, James of the Glens, where I must
get my clothes, and my arms, and money to carry us along; and then,
David, we'll cry, 'Forth, Fortune!' and take a cast among the heather."

So we sat again and ate and drank, in a place whence we could see the
sun going down into a field of great, wild, and houseless mountains,
such as I was now condemned to wander in with my companion. Partly as we
so sat, and partly afterwards, on the way to Aucharn, each of us
narrated his adventures; and I shall here set down so much of Alan's as
seems either curious or needful.

It appears he ran to the bulwarks as soon as the wave was passed; saw me
and lost me, and saw me again, as I tumbled in the roost; and at last
had one glimpse of me clinging on the yard. It was this that put him in
some hope I would maybe get to land after all, and made him leave those
clues and messages which had brought me (for my sins) to that unlucky
country of Appin.

In the meantime, those still on the brig had got the skiff launched, and
one or two were on board of her already, when there came a second wave
greater than the first, and heaved the brig out of her place, and would
certainly have sent her to the bottom, had she not struck and caught on
some projection of the reef. When she had struck first, it had been
bows-on, so that the stern had hitherto be