mile already
twitching at his mouth.

"Creagh, you don't mean to impeach the courage of Captain Macdonald, do
you?" I asked.

"Not at all--not at all. Faith, I never saw a man more keen to fight," he
admitted, smiling.

"He was wounded at Culloden. You know that?"

"So I have heard." Then he added dryly, some imp of mischief stirring him:
"In the heel, wasn't it?"

"Yes, in the foot," I told him hastily. "I suppose you do not doubt the
valour of the Captain's clan any more than his own."

"Devil a bit!" he answered carelessly. "I've seen them fight too often to
admit of any question as to their courage at all, at all. For sheer daring
I never saw the beat of the Highland troops--especially if there chanced
to be any plunder on the other side of the enemy, Egad!"

I turned to Donald Roy, who was sullenly waiting for me to have done. "Are
you satisfied, Captain, that Tony meant to impute nothing against you or
your men?"

"Oich! Oich!" he grumbled. "I wass thinking I heard some other dirty
sneers."

"If the sneers were unjust I retract them with the best will in the world.
Come, Captain Macdonald, sure 'tis not worth our while doing the work of
the redcoats for them. 'Slife, 'tis not fair to Jack Ketch!" exclaimed the
Irishman.

"Right, Donald! Why, you fire-eating Hotspur, you began it yourself with a
fling at the Irish. Make up, man! Shake hands with Tony, and be done with
your bile."

Creagh offered his hand, smiling, and his smile was a handsome letter of
recommendation. Donald's face cleared, and he gripped heartily the hand of
the other.

"With great pleasure, and gin I said anything offensive I eat my words at
all events," he said.

"You may say what you please about O'Sullivan, Captain Macdonald. Ecod, he
may go to the devil for me," Creagh told him.

"Well, and for me too; 'fore God, the sooner the better."

"If there is to be no throat-cutting to warm the blood maybe we had better
push on to the bothy, gentlemen. I'm fain niddered [perishing] with the
cold. This Highland mist goes to the marrow," I suggested merrily, and
linking arms with them I moved forward.

In ten minutes we had a roaring fire ablaze, and were washing down with
usquebaugh the last trace of unkindness. After we had eaten our bannocks
and brose we lay in the shine of the flame and revelled in the blessed
heat, listening to the splash of the rain outside. We were still
encompassed by a cordon of the enemy, but for the pres