the first he caught at this game
would pay a sudden visit to the dead dog-fish lying beneath the clear
waters of the harbour; and it was very well known among the urchins of
Erisaig that the eldest MacNicol had very little scruple about taking
the law into his own hand. When he found a bigger boy thrashing a
smaller one, he invariably thrashed the bigger one, just to keep things
even, as it were; and he had invented for the better guidance of his
brethren and associates a series of somewhat stringent rules and
punishments, to which, it must be acknowledged, he cheerfully submitted
himself. At the same time, he was aware that even the most moral and
high-principled government has occasionally to assert itself with rude
physical force; and although his hand was not particularly red, as
might have been expected, it was uncommonly hard, and a cuff from it
was understood to produce the most startling lightning effects in the
region of the eye.

Well, as they were nearing Daft Sandy's punt, Rob called out to him,

'Sandy, have ye had any luck the day?'

The little, bent, blear-eyed old man looked up from his hand-lines.

'No mich.'

As the boat was gliding past Rob flung a couple of herring into the
punt.

'There's some bait for ye.'

'Ay; and where are ye for going, Robert?' the old man said, as they
passed. 'Tak' heed. It's squally outside.'

There was no answer; for at this moment the quick eye of the chieftain
detected one of his kinsmen in the commission of a heinous crime.
Tempted by the light and steady breeze, Nicol had given way to
idleness, and had made fast the main-sheet, instead of holding it in
his hand, ready for all emergencies. This, and not unnaturally, on
such a squally coast, Rob MacNicol had constituted an altogether
unforgivable offence; and his first impulse was to jump down to the
stern of the boat and give the helmsman, caught _in flagrante delicto_,
a sounding whack on the side of the head. But a graver sense of
justice prevailed. He summoned a court-martial. Nicol, catching the
eye of his brother, hastily tried to undo the sheet from the pin; but
it was too late. The crime had been committed; there were two
witnesses, besides the judge, who was also the jury. The judge and
jury forthwith pronounced sentence: Nicol MacNicol to forfeit one penny
to the fund being secretly stored up for the purchase of a set of
bag-pipes, or to be lowered by the shoulders until his feet should
tou