l not leave you till he sees you safe in your own valley and among
your own people."

Patsy heard this with outward impatience, but, like every girl, with
something also of inward pride. She smiled at what Louis Raincy would
have to say to this constant watchfulness, and how she herself would
like it when next Louis and she climbed up to their "Nest" for one of
their long talks. Would Louis be in danger from the bullets of the
arrogant Stair?

She wondered if what Uncle Julian said could indeed be true--that though
the men's secret of the heather ale had been lost, the women of the
Picts would keep theirs and whistle men to heel, as sheep-dogs follow
their masters. Uncle Julian said that she had in her the blood of
Boadicca, who once on a day was a queen of the Picts far to the south.

But, after all, Uncle Julian jested so often, even when he appeared most
serious, that you could not tell whether he meant it or no.

It would be nice if it were true, thought Patsy, but, after all, just
because Uncle Julian said so did not make it true.

* * * * *

"Your daughter, sir," said Lieutenant Everard, half an hour later, "has
aided the escape of three young men, all deeply implicated in breaking
the laws of the land."

It was in the ancient hall of Cairn Ferris that Adam, tall, black and
solemn, was receiving unexpected visitors. The hall, oak-beamed and
still lighted mainly by tall, narrow windows, originally slotted for
arrow and blunderbuss, was discouraging for men in search of the support
of a modern justice of the peace.

The chief of a clan, some of whose members had been cattle-lifting,
might have received them so.

"What men? What laws?" demanded Adam Ferris.

"The young men Garland, sons of one of your tenants," said the officer;
"and as for the laws, they are those of His Majesty's excise."

"Ah," said Adam, dryly, "pardon me. Your uniform misled me. From your
dress I took you for a naval officer."

"And so I am," cried Lieutenant Everard indignantly; "of His Majesty's
ship _Britomart_, presently cruising in these waters."

Adam Ferris bowed gravely, as one who receives valuable information.

"I congratulate you," he said. "As for the young men, Fergus, Stair and
Agnew Garland, they are fine lads and a credit to the neighbourhood. I
cannot imagine that they have anything more to do with the traffic of
which you speak than I myself. But if they have been reported to you a