reside for them, and then I've noticed they're
as ready to listen as Peggy would be at the Cross well."

She had him half way to the parlour before he thought of a protest, he
had found such satisfaction in being relieved from her mistaken pride
in him. Then he concluded it was as well to go through with it, thinking
that if the rescue of the girl was not to be in the story, his own
shortcomings need not emerge. She pushed him before her into the room;
her brothers were seated at the fire, and they only turned when her
voice, in a very unaccustomed excitement, broke the quietness of the
chamber.

"Do you hear this?" she cried, and her hand on Gilian's shoulder; "a
vessel's sunk on the Ealan Dubh."

"I knew there would be tales to tell of this," said the General. "The
wind came too close on the frost. I mind at Toulouse----"

"And Gilian was down at the Waterfoot and saw it all," she broke in upon
the reminiscence.

"Was he, faith?" said the Cornal. "I like my tales at first hand. Tell
us all about it, laddie; what vessel was she?"

He wheeled his chair about as he spoke, and roused himself to attention.
It was a curious group, too much like his old court-martial to be
altogether to the boy's taste. For Miss Mary stood behind him, with an
air of proud possession of him that was disquieting, and the two men
seemed to expect from him some very exciting history indeed.

"Well, well!" said the Cornal, drumming with his fingers on his
chair-arm impatiently, "you're in no great hurry with your budget. What
vessel was it?"

"It was the _Jean_," said Gilian, bracing himself up for a plunge.

"Ye seem to be a wondrous lot mixed up with the fortunes of that
particular ship," said the Cornal sourly. "What way did it happen?"

"She was in the mouth of the river," said Gilian, "and the spate of the
river brought down the wooden bridge at Clonary. I saw it coming, and I
cried to them, and Black Duncan cast off, leaving boat and tiller. She
drove before the wind and went on Ealan Dubh, and sunk, and--that was
all."

The story, as he told it, was as bald of interest as if it were a page
from an old almanack.

"What came of the men?" said the Cornal. "The loss of the _Jean_ does
not amount to muckle; there was not a plank of her first timbers left in
her."

"They got ashore in the small boat," said Gilian.

"Which was left behind, I think you said at first," said the Cornal,
annoyed at some apparent link a missing in th