ton Hill."

On my part I thought it was not good judgment so to anger the wild crew.
But Maisie was not to be spoken to at such a time; so perforce I held my
tongue.

"But ye shall all streek a tow for this," she said; "this day's wark
shall be heard tell o' yet!"

By this time the word had been passed round the hill to Jock the tinkler
that there were but two of us, and we unarmed. At which the loon became
at once very bold.

"Have at them! Blood their throats! Bring the basin!" he cried. And the
words were no vain things, for that was their well-accustomed way of
killing--to let their victim's blood run into a basin, so that there
might be no tell-tale stains upon the grass.

So from all sides they came speeling and clambering up the hill, loons
yelling, dogs barking, till I thought my latest hour was come, and
wished I had learned my Catechism better--especially the proofs. Gay
Garland stood by with a raised look upon him, lifting his feet a little,
as though going daintily over a bridge whose strength he was not sure
of, and drawing all the while the wind upward through his nostrils.

Then though Maisie had been very bold, I can lay claim on this occasion
to having been the wiser, for I caught her by the arm, taking Gay
Garland's mane firmly with the other hand the while, lest he should
startle and flee.

"Up with you," I cried, bending to take her foot in my hand, and she
went up like a bird.

In a moment I was beside her, riding bare-back, with Maisie clasping my
waist, as indeed we had often ridden before--though never so perilously,
nor yet with such a currish retinue yowling at our tail.

I wore no weapon upon me--no, not so much as a bodkin. But stuck in my
leather belt I had the two crooked sticks, which I had blackened with
soot for pistols at our play of Troopers and Wanderers. I put my heels
into Gay Garland's sides, and he started down-hill, making the turf fly
from his hoofs as he gathered way and began to feel his legs under him.

The gang scattered and rounded to close us in, but when Gay Garland came
to his stride, few there were who could overtake him. Only Jock Marshall
himself was in time to meet us face to face, a great knife in either
hand. And I think he might have done us an injury too, had it not been
for the nature of the ground where we met.

It was just at the spring of a little hill and the good horse was
gathering himself for the upstretch. I held the two curved sticks at the