itting posture, and
the cloth was snatched from his head.

The glowing light of a fire shone right into his eyes, dazzling them, so
that for some few moments he could make out nothing but the fact that he
was in a stone-built hut, before a fierce fire, and that two
fierce-looking bearded men were glaring at him.

Before he could collect himself to speak, some one shouted from outside,
and one of his captors replied, but the Gaelic words were quite
unintelligible to the prisoner, as was also the conversation which
ensued between the two men before him, though it was apparent that one
was urging the other to do something from which he shrank.

"Hwhat will she want?" said the latter at last, in a harsh voice.

"I've lost my way in the mountains," said Max. "I'm tired and cold and
hungry. Please undo this rope; it hurts."

The man who had not spoken said something now to Max's questioner, and
it seemed that the words which had passed were translated, with the
result that he burst into a torrent of harsh-sounding speech, apparently
full of dissent.

This seemed to be the case, for the one who tried to speak English
exclaimed sharply,--

"She shall tell her a lee."

"I--I don't understand you," said Max.

"She came along wi' ta exciseman."

"No," said Max. "I came quite alone."

"Sassenach" was the only word which Max could make out in the dialogue
which followed, and this was at its height when a third fierce-looking
man came in, and the three laid their heads together, glancing toward
the door uneasily, and then at what seemed to be a great copper boiling
over the fire.

As they stood together, with the ruddy glow playing upon their fierce
countenances, it seemed to Max that he must have fallen into the hands
of Scottish freebooters, and the next thing he felt was that he should
be robbed and murdered, or the operations be performed in reverse
fashion.

The men's appearance was wild enough to have excited dread in one of
stouter nerves than Max Blande, who, faint and exhausted, lay there in
so helpless a plight that he was not in a condition to do more than
anxiously watch his captors, as they talked loudly in Gaelic and
gesticulated angrily.

To Max it seemed as if they were debating how he should be done to
death; and, in spite of the horror of the thought, he was so stunned, as
it were, his feelings were so deadened, that he did not feel the acute
dread that might have been expected. There was almo