rt as daft as a besom. Thoo
_hes_ made a botch on't, thoo blatherskite. Stick that in thy gizzern,
and don't thoo go bumman aboot like a bee in a bottle--thoo Judas,
thoo."

Mr. Garth was undoubtedly taken by surprise this time. To be attacked
in such a way by the very person he meant to attack, to be accounted
the injurer by the very person who, he thought, had injured him,
sufficed to stagger the blacksmith's dull brains.

"Nay, nay," he said, when he had recovered his breath; "who's the
Judas?--that's a 'batable point, I reckon."

"Giss!" cried Liza, without waiting to comprehend the significance of
the insinuation, and--like a true woman--not dreaming that a charge of
disloyalty could be advanced against her,--"giss! giss!"--the call to
swine--"thoo'rt thy mother's awn son--the witch."

Utterly deprived of speech by this maidenly outburst of vituperation,
Mr. Garth lost all that self-control which his quieter judgment had
recognized as probably necessary to the safety of his own person.
White with anger, he raised his hand to strike Liza, who thereupon
drew up, and, giving him a vigorous slap on each cheek, said, "Keep
thy neb oot of that, thoo bummeller, and go fratch with Robbie
Anderson--I hear he dinged thee ower, thoo sow-faced 'un."

The mention of this name served as a timely reminder to Mr. Garth, who
dropped his arm and rode away, muttering savagely under his breath.

"Don't come hankerin' after me again," cried Liza (rather
unnecessarily) after his vanishing figure.

This outburst was at least serviceable in discharging all the
ill-nature from the girl's breast; and when she had watched the
blacksmith until he had disappeared, she replied to Rotha's
remonstrances as so much scarcely girl-like abuse by a burst of the
heartiest girlish laughter.

* * * * *

There was much commotion at the Red Lion that night. The "maister men"
who had left the funeral procession at Watendlath made their way first
to the village inn, intending to spend there the hours that must
intervene before the return of the mourners to Shoulthwaite. They had
not been long seated over their pots when the premature arrival of
John Jackson and some of the other dalesmen who had been "sett" on the
way to Gosforth led to an explanation of the disaster that had
occurred on the pass. The consternation of the frequenters of the Red
Lion, as of the citizens of Wythburn generally, was as great as their
surpris