ble coward.

"I'm down here, and with the chance of learning all these out-door
sports, and I shall try. I will not be so cowardly, and when Kenneth
comes I'll go down and bathe, and try to master all this horrid fright."

As soon as he had bravely come to this determination he felt better,
though all of a tremor the while, and his agitation increased as from
time to time he heard a sound which his excited imagination told him was
the coming of Kenneth.

But he did not spring out of bed and begin to dress, so as to be ready
when Kenneth came, but lay feeling now uncomfortably hot as he recalled
his previous experience in the water, and his terrible--as he termed
it--adventure over the fishing, and his being hooked out by Tavish, but
all the time he could not help a half suspicion taking root, that, had
he been a quick, active lad, accustomed to such things, he would not
have been swept off the rock, and, even if he had been, he would have
struggled to some shallow place and recovered himself.

"I will try!" he said aloud. "I'll show him that if I am a coward, I am
going to master it, and then perhaps they will not tease me and laugh at
me so much."

Kenneth did not come, and, in spite of his determination, the boy could
not help feeling relieved, as he lay thinking of what a long time it
seemed since he came down there, and what adventures he had gone
through.

Then there were footsteps, and a bang outside the door.

Kenneth at last!

No; the steps were not like his, and they were going away. It was some
one who had brought his boots.

Max lay and thought again about the people he had met,--about The
Mackhai, and his haughty, distant manner. He did not seem to like his
visitor, and yet he was very polite.

"Perhaps he doesn't like my father," thought Max sadly. "Perhaps--"

Perhaps it was being more at ease after his determination to master his
cowardice:

Perhaps it was from the feeling of relief at the non-appearance of
Kenneth:

Perhaps it was from having undergone so much exertion on the previous
day:

Perhaps it was from the bed being so warm and comfortable:

Be all this as it may, Max Blande, instead of getting up, dropped off
fast asleep.

"Max! I say, Max, do you know what time it is?"

Max started up in bed, and had hard work to collect his thoughts, as his
name was called again, and there was a loud knocking at the door.

"Yes, yes; coming!" cried the boy, leaping out of bed, and