and
heaving as it went, but with a smooth even surface.

"Two hundred yards farther up," the boy said, "is the beginning of the
deep; if you take the water there you will get across so as to climb up
by that sloping bank just opposite."

He led the way to the spot he indicated, and then plunged into the
stream, swimming quietly and steadily across, and allowing the stream to
drift him down.

The horsemen followed his example. They had swum many a swollen river,
and although their horses snorted and plunged at first, they soon
quieted down and swam steadily over. They just struck the spot which the
boy had indicated. He had already arrived there, and, without a word,
trotted forward.

It was soon dark, and the horsemen were obliged to keep close to his
heels to see his figure. It was as much as they could do to keep up with
him, for the ground was rough and broken, sometimes swampy, sometimes
strewn with boulders.

"It is well we have a guide," Colonel Munro said to his companion; "for
assuredly, even had we got safely across the stream, we should never
have found our way across such a country as this. Scotland is a fine
country, Hume, a grand country, and we are all proud of it, you know,
but for campaigning, give me the plains of Germany; while, as for your
weather here, it is only fit for a water rat."

Hume laughed at this outburst.

"I sha'n't be sorry, Munro, for a change of dry clothes and a corner by
a fire; but we must be nearly there now if I remember right. Graheme's
hold is about three miles from the Nith."

The boy presently gave a loud shout, and a minute later lights were seen
ahead, and in two or three minutes the horsemen drew up at a door beside
which two men were standing with torches; another strolled out as they
stopped.

"Welcome, Hume! I am glad indeed to see you; and--ah! is it you, Munro?
it is long indeed since we met."

"That is it, Graheme; it is twelve years since we were students together
at St. Andrews."

"I did not think you would have come on such a night," Graheme said.

"I doubt that we should have come tonight, or any other night, Nigel, if
it had not been that that brave boy who calls you uncle swam across
the Nith to show us the best way to cross. It was a gallant deed, and I
consider we owe him our lives."

"It would have gone hard with you, indeed, had you tried to swim the
Nith at the ford; had I not made so sure you would not come I would have
sent a man down th