ow let's
begin again."--He went to the door and threw it open.--"The way is clear
for you to leave if you want to go, but I would be most happy to have you
stay with us. It's men like you we're looking for, and-- Won't you strike
a blow for the King o'er the sea, Montagu?"

"He is of the line of our ancient monarchs. He and his race have ruled us
a thousand years," urged Balmerino. "They have had their faults
perhaps----"

"Perhaps," I smiled.

"Well, and if they have," cried Donald Roy hotly in the impetuous Highland
way. "Is this a time to be remembering them? For my part, I will be
forgetting their past faults and minding only their present distresses."

"It appears as easy for a Highlander to forget the faults of the Stuarts
as it is for them to forget his services," I told him.

"Oh, you harp on their faults. Have you none of your own?" cried
Elphinstone impatiently. "I have seen and talked with the young Prince. He
is one to follow to the death. I have never met the marrow of him."

"I think of the thousands who will lose their lives for him."

"Well, and that's a driech subject, too, but Donald Roy would a hantle
rather die with claymore in hand and the whiddering steel aboot his head
than be always fearing to pay the piper," said the young Highlander
blithely.

"Your father was out for the King in the '15," said Balmerino gently.

Oh, Arthur Elphinstone had the guile for all his rough ways. I was moved
more than I cared to own. Many a time I had sat at my father's knee and
listened to the tale of "the '15." The Highland blood in me raced the
quicker through my veins. All the music of the heather hills and the
wimpling burns wooed me to join my kinsmen in the North. My father's
example, his brother's blood, loyalty to the traditions of my family, my
empty purse, the friendship of Balmerino and Captain Macdonald, all tugged
at my will; but none of them were so potent as the light that shone in the
eyes of a Highland lassie I had never met till one short hour before. I
tossed aside all my scruples and took the leap.

"Come!" I cried. "Lend yourselves to me on a mission of some danger for
one night and I will pledge myself a partner in your enterprise. I can
promise you that the help I ask of you may be honourably given. A fair
exchange is no robbery. What say you?"

"Gad's life, I cry agreed. You're cheap at the price, Mr. Montagu. I'm
yours, Rip me, if you want me to help rum-pad a bishop's coach," exc