yes took on a haunted
expression, and Sandy observed that he kept looking over his
shoulder as if he thought some one were following him, even when
he walked the village streets.

He dared not stay away from the forest lest others should
discover the dreadful blue signs before he did, and at the same
time he was afraid to go in. He swung like a pendulum between
these two difficulties and grew daily more nervous and unhappy.
By the end of June he had lost ten pounds of flesh as well as the
money he might have made out of poaching and selling the game. By
the middle of July he was so haggard that people began to remark
on his appearance. There seemed no way out of his troubles but to
lie about them, and soon wild stories were circulated through the
village about the haunted forest and its dangers.

Women were warned not to let the children stray into the woods lest
they be carried away by witches or water cows, and it was also
reported that a gang of poachers of a particularly blood-thirsty
character infested the region, carrying off game and property and
leaving no trace. Angus had been watching this band of desperadoes for
some time, he said, and knew there were at least twenty of them who
would stop at nothing.

With Angus's tale of the mysterious loss of his boat, the
excitement reached a climax, and there was talk of organizing an
armed band of men from the village to protect the woods and rid
the neighborhood of the bandits. The people were surprised that
Angus himself should oppose this plan, but as he was gamekeeper
and in authority, the matter was dropped. To Angus's horror,
however, these rumors and events were all faithfully recorded on
rocks not far from his own home soon after, and he realized that
to the very doors of his own house he was pursued by the same
mysterious and vigilant power. It was then that he lost his
appetite, and if the Clan could have followed him into his home
and seen him look under his bed before he got into it at night,
their joy would have been full.

The wild stories he told had the effect of keeping every one else
out of the forest and made the Clan more than ever free to stalk
their prey without fear of discovery. In this occupation several
exciting weeks passed by, and then there came an unhappy surprise
to the Clan, and it was not Angus Niel who sprang it upon them
either.

One morning in late July, Alan came up the road toward the little
gray house, where he was now so