shed--drew him from the
protection of the gown and turned his face to the window. He put his
hand under the boy's chin; Gilian in the touch felt an abhorrence of the
hard, clammy fingers that had made dead men, but his eyes never quailed
as he looked up in the scarred face. He saw a mask; there was no getting
to the secrets behind that purple visage. Experience and trial, emotions
and passions had set lines there wholly new to him, and his fancy
refused to go further than just this one thought of the fingers that had
made dead men.

The Cornal looked him deeply in the eyes, caught him by the ear, and
with a twist made him wince, pushed him on the shoulders and made his
knees bend. Then he released him with a flout of contempt.

"Man! Jock's the daft recruiter," he said coarsely with an oath. "What's
this but a clerk? There's not the spirit in the boy to make a drummer of
him. There's no stuff for sogering here."

Miss Mary drew Gilian to her again and stiffened her lips. "You have
nothing to do with it, Colin; it's John's house and if he wants to keep
the boy he'll do it. And I'm sure if you but took the trouble to think
that he is a poor orphan with no kith nor kin in the world, you would be
the first to take him in at the door."

The Cornal's face visibly relaxed its sternness. He looked again more
closely at the boy.

"Come away into our parlour here, and the General and I will have a
crack with you," said he, leading the way.

Miss Mary gave the boy's hand a gentle squeeze, and softly pushed him in
after her brother, shut the door behind them, and turned and went down
to the kitchen.

CHAPTER VI--COURT-MARTIAL

Gilian was in a great dread, but revealed none of it in the half dusk of
the room where he faced the two brothers as they sat at either side of
the table. The General took out a bottle of spirits and placed it with
scrupulous care in the very centre of the table; his brother lifted
two tumblers from the corner cupboard and put them on each side of the
bottle, fastidious to a hair's breadth as if he had been laying out
columns of troops. It was the formula of the afternoon; sometimes they
never put a lip to the glass, but it was always necessary that the
bottle should be in the party. For a space that seemed terribly long
to the boy they said no word but looked at him. The eyes of the Cornal
seemed to pierce him through; the General in a while seemed to forget
his presence, turning upon him a f