rd of fifteen guineas in his
hand. "My own industrious Cattie!" he exclaimed, "how very hard you
have worked in my absence! You have earned a holiday, my dear. Say,
how and where shall we spend the week I have to devote to you?"

"O Laurie!" I cried, "on the Black Mountain--sketching on the Black
Mountain! You don't know how I long to explore it, and to paint its
scenery and its splendid-looking peasants! Do let us start at once!"

"My dear, are you crazy?" he answered quietly, "Why, those mountaineers
are a set of lawless cut-throats, that regard neither life nor property.
They--"

"I know, I know!" cried I. "They glory in cutting off as many Turkish
heads as they can, and carrying them home on the points of their lances.
Yes, it _is_ horrible, Laurie; still, we must make allowance for an
oppressed race, and remember how cruelly the Turks have treated them for
ages. I don't believe the Black Mountaineers would hurt a hair of our
heads, or of any unoffending traveller who threw himself on their
honour. Just let us try, Laurie."

I was only nineteen then, and quite fearless. For many days my lonely
rambles had been in the direction of Montenegro, and my upward gaze had
turned hourly towards the path which leads thither, issuing forth from
the gate of the town in a zigzag form, and mounting till it seems lost
in the clouds. It was so tantalising to know that three hours' ascent
on one of the stout mules of the country, would bring one to the heart
of the Black Mountain, and to the palace of its chivalrous Vladika, or
Prince-Bishop, the feared and adored monarch of a hundred and twenty
thousand Montenegrins. His praises and his exploits had been
continually rung in my hears by some hill-people with whom I had made
great acquaintance in the market-place. Week by week they brought me
fuel, eggs, and fruit, and in my dealings with them I had picked up a
smattering of their beautiful Slavonic language, and was eager to
display this new accomplishment to your uncle. However, I soon saw that
was not the time for pressing the subject upon him; on scanning his
sunburnt features there was a look of care upon them that was not usual.
When the bright look my little surprise called forth had faded away, he
appeared grave and harassed, and his tone, for the first time, was a
little abrupt. I felt sure something had gone wrong in the affairs of
Popham and Company.

So it proved; a younger brother of the firm, Mr John