ot so tall nor so largely made as
was Glenfernie's heir, all came upon the purple hilltop.

CHAPTER IV

Alexander raised himself from his couch in the heather.

"Good day!" said the new-comer.

"Good day!"

The youth stood beside him. "I am Ian Rullock."

"I am Alexander Jardine."

"Of Glenfernie?"

"Aye, you've got it."

"Then we're the neighbors that are to be friends."

"If we are to be we are to be.... I want a friend.... I don't know if
you're the one that is to answer."

The other dropped beside him upon the heath. "I saw you walking along
the hilltop. So when you did not come on I thought I'd climb and meet
you. This is a lonely, miserable country!"

Alexander was moved to defend. "There are more miserable! It's got its
points."

"I don't see them. I want London!"

"That's Babylon.--It's your own country. You're evening it with
England!"

"No, I'm not. But you can't deny that it's poor."

"There's one of its sons, named Touris, that is not poor!"

Rullock rose upon one knee. "The wise man gets rich and the fool
stays poor. Do you want to be friends or do you want to fight?"

Alexander clasped his hands behind his head and lay back upon the
earth. "No, I do not want to fight--not now! I wouldn't fight you,
anyhow, for standing up for one to whom you're beholden."

Silence fell between them, each having eyes upon the other. Something
drew each to each, something repelled each from each. It was a
question, between those forces, which would gain. Alexander did not
feel strange with Ian, nor Ian with Alexander. It was as though they
had met before. But how they had met and why, and where and when, and
what that meeting had entailed and meant, was hidden from their gaze.
The attractive increased over the repellent. Ian spoke.

"There's none down there but my uncle and his sister, my aunt. Come on
down and let me show you the place."

"I do not care if I do." He rose, and the two went along the hilltop
and down the path.

Ian was the readier in talk. "I am going soon to Edinburgh--to
college."

"I'm going, too. The first of the year. I am going to try if I can
stand the law."

"I want to be a soldier."

"I don't know what I want.... I want to journey--and journey--and
journey ... with a book along."

"Do you like books?"

"Aye, fine!"

"I like them right well. Are there any pretty girls around here?"

"I don't know. I don't like girls."

"I like them at times, in their