her, the Duke, and receive my soul.' His arms
dropped for the signal, and Arthur Elphinstone of Balmerino passed to the
Valhalla where brave men dwell as gods."

"God bring peace to his valiant restless soul," I said, much moved.

"'Tis a thing to admire, the sturdy loyalty of you Jacobites," he said
after a pause. "You carry it off like gentlemen. Every poor Highlander who
has yet suffered has flung out his 'God save King James' on the scaffold.
Now I'll wager you too go to death with the grand air--no canting prayers
for King George, eh?"

"I must e'en do as the rest," I smiled.

"Yet I'd bet a pony you don't care a pinch of snuff for James Stuart. 'Tis
loyalty to yourselves that animates you."

Presently he harked back to the topic that was never closed between us.

"By this time next week you will have touched the heart of our eternal
problem. The mystery of it will perhaps be all clear to you then. 'Tis
most strange how at one sweep all a man's turbulent questing life passes
into the quiet of--of what? That is the question: of unending death or of
achieved knowledge?" Then he added, coming abruptly to the issue: "The day
draws near. Do you think better of my offer now?"

"Sir Robert, I have lived a tempestuous life these past months. I have
known hunger and cold and weariness; I have been at the top of fortune's
wave and at the bottom; but I have never found it worth my while to become
divorced from honour. You find me near dead from privations and disease.
Do you think I would pay so much for such an existence? Believe me, when a
man has passed through what I have he is empty of fears."

"I could better spare a better man," he said.

"Sorry to inconvenience you," I told him grimly.

"I' faith, I think you're destined to do that dead or alive."

"I think I am. You will find me more in your way dead than alive."

"I'll outlive your memory, never fear." Then quietly, after a moment's
hesitation: "There's one thing it may be a comfort for you to know. I've
given up any thought of putting her on the rack. I'll win fairly or not at
all."

I drew a deep free breath. "Thank you for telling me."

"I mean to marry her though. I swear to you, Montagu, that my heart is
wrapped up in her. I thought all women alike until I met this one. Now I
know better. She could have made a different man of me; sometimes I think
she could even yet. I vow to you I would not now injure a hair of her
head, but willy-nilly, in the