nd he would do better
than a Frenchman would, for the lads would not care for the place unless
it was kept by one of the regiment. He asked me what were the profits. I
told him.

"'Then I am afraid that you would want a bigger sum than I could pay,
MacIntosh,' he said. 'I have been a saving man, especially since I first
thought of marrying, and I have laid by half my pay for the last eight
years; but that would not go far towards the purchase of the place, for
your profits in a year are as much as my savings of eight years.' So I
said to him, 'Well, we will get the place valued. You will want half the
money that you have saved to stock it well, the other half you shall pay
me down; and I will give you five years to pay the rest, you paying me a
tenth part every half year.'

"Well, sir, we struck a bargain on that. The place has been valued, and
on Saturday evening Morrison will come straight in and take it over. He
is a popular man in the regiment; and as he is only just leaving it he
is known to them all, while there are not above a quarter of the men who
knew me as a comrade in the old days."

They then had a long talk over the sergeant's new duties, and Hector
gave him a plan of the new fortifications that he had drawn out,
together with full instructions how they were to be carried out.

"The steward will arrange all about the tenants coming to work, and the
proportion of labour that each will have to give. As I have told you, he
will manage all details of that kind, look after the indoor retainers,
and see to the food. You will have entire control of the garrison,
of the tenants who will come to drill, and of the works on the
fortifications. You will find the steward a very pleasant and agreeable
young man. He will take his meals with you. I have chosen a room for
you, and you can have another near it for your two sergeants. You can
pay them at the same rate as sergeants of the regiment receive, and
I need hardly say that the position will be a good deal better. As
commander of the garrison and castellan of the castle you will be called
Captain MacIntosh, and as such you will be named in my letter appointing
you to the post, and I propose that you shall receive the pay of
captain."

"The pay is immaterial, lad, I have been nigh twelve years here, and
have laid by enough to keep me comfortably all my life, and as, so far
as I can see, there will be nothing to spend down there, I don't know
what I should do wit