be at your service or not, I cannot
tell. As for me, if you are the gallant gentlemen you look, you will
bring me a pailful of fresh water from the spring--see, yonder at the
foot of the rock--ah, thank you!"

"Captain, we are wasting valuable time," insinuated Eben McClure, the
superintendent of recruitment, touching the officer lightly on the arm.

"Keep your dirty fingers off my sleeve, sir, and go to the devil. I
command here. Miss Ferris, I beg your pardon. I may as well fetch a pair
when I am about it."

Captain Laurence had noticed that the second pail contained very little
water. So with a quick heave he sent a shining spout in the direction of
the spy, who was drenched from knee to shoe-buckle. Then he caught up
the pails with a clash of their iron handles and with the easiest
swagger in the world took the direction of the spring, his spurs
jingling as he went. A sailor on guard behind the rock would have aided
him to fill them, but he told the man to keep his station, and dipped
for himself. He brought them back brimming and with a courtly bow
inquired of Patsy if she had any further commands for him, because if
not he must go about the duties of his service.

Patsy thanked him with the distinctive simplicity of one who has
officers of dragoons to carry water for her every day of her life. But
she went to the door and showed Captain Laurence the way over the ridges
to the house of Cairn Ferris. "My father is likely to be at home," she
said, "but if you do not find him, he is sure to be at my Uncle Julian's
at the Abbey. You have only to follow the glen."

"Your uncle?" said Captain Laurence, "your father's brother?"

"No, my mother's," said Patsy. "Mr. Julian Wemyss of Auchenyards and
Wellwood--and the best man in the world--the wisest too!"

"I shall have pleasure in making the acquaintance of your uncle; his
family (and that of your mother) is from my part of Scotland."

He bowed low and withdrew. The lieutenant of the _Britomart_ and the
Superintendent of Enlistments were in a state of incipient lunacy. Oh,
the fool! They would break him if they could. They would write to the
Secretary. They would--but as they growled and cursed behind him, Eben
McClure suddenly remembered that Julian Wemyss and my Lord Erskine were
first cousins, and that so long as the government remained in office, it
would be advisable to stand well with all friends and neighbours of the
Secretary, Erskines, Wemysses, Melvilles