," he said, quickly dropping the things with which he had been
busy, "is there a stout rope anywhere? Oh, yes; I forgot," he added,
springing towards the attic. "Blessings on you, Beauty, for having
guided me here!"

In a few seconds a stout rope or cable was procured. The end of this
Ian ran out at the main doorway, round through the parlour window, and
tied it in a trice. The other end he coiled in the punt, and soon made
it fast to a stout elm, under whose grateful shade Angus Macdonald had
enjoyed many a pipe and Martha many a cup of tea in other days. The
tree bent slowly forward; the thick rope became rigid. Ian and Peegwish
sat in the boat anxiously looking on.

In that moment of enforced inaction Ian conceived an idea! Thought is
quick, quicker than light, which, we believe, has reached the maximum of
"express speed" in material things. By intermittent flashes, so rapid
that it resembled a stream of sparks, the whole plan rushed through his
mind, from conception to completion. We can only give a suggestive
outline, as follows. The knoll, the smoking-box, the smoker, his words,
"Mark what I say. I will sell this knoll to your father, and give my
daughter to you, when you take that house, and with your own unaided
hands place it on this knoll!" The impossible had, in the wondrous
course of recent events, come just within the verge of possibility--a
stout arm, a strong will, coupled with a high flood--"There is a tide in
the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood,"--immortal and
_prophetic_ bard! There could be no chance of Elsie now, but even to
win the right to claim her if she had been willing was better than
nothing. In any case old Angus and the knoll would be united!

"Peegwish!" shouted Ian, turning on the unfortunate ex-brewer with a
flushed face and blazing eyes that caused him to shrink in alarm, "can
you sit still and _do nothing_?"

"Eh?" exclaimed Peegwish, in surprise.

"Bah!" said Ian, seizing the sculls.

The punt whirled round, leaped over the water, dashed through the
doorway, and went crashing into the staircase. Before Peegwish could
pick himself up, Ian had vanished up the stairs. The savage found him a
moment later wildly selecting a rope from the heap that lay on the floor
of the attic. As Peegwish entered, Ian suddenly turned on him with a
gaze of increased intensity. Had the young man gone mad? Peegwish felt
very uncomfortable. He had some reason to! Another th