uddenly backward on the
bed. The Minister rose from his knees and came towards the window.

He opened it, and I saw his face shining in the moonlight--like a
saint's--haggard yet triumphant.

'Gie thanks to God, laddie,' he cried to me, as he bent his head
reverently, 'we hae striven like Jacob an' hae prevailed. _There's a
deid man lies upon the bedstraw._'

BY PEDEN'S CLEUCH

INSCRIBED TO

WILSON PEASE

TO WHOSE SUGGESTION THE TALE IS OWING

BY PEDEN'S CLEUCH

The Border hounds had gone right away up Redewater after an old dog fox
they had picked up on the rocks beside the Doure; twice had he circled
the Doure, then setting his mask westwards had crossed the Rede, and,
turning right-handed, made straight for Carter Fell.

My mare had gone splendidly for the first hour, but by the time we
passed the cairn on the Carter she had lost a shoe, and in addition had
sustained a bad 'over-reach,' so I was fain to pull up and dismount,
while I watched the Master and whip, and one other intrepid horseman,
struggling gamely on towards Carlin's Tooth on the Scottish side of the
Border after the tail of the vanished hounds.

I determined to descend to the grass-grown Hawick road which leads into
the Jedburgh-Newcastle road half a mile from the ancient Border boundary
line. The early morning that particular April day had been lovely;
curlews newly returned had luted their love-song overhead; golden
plovers had piped upon the bents; there was a scent of heather-burning
in the snell air, but suddenly the weather had changed, and with an idle
motion snowflakes now drifted down the wind. Cheviot was fast
disappearing behind a white shroud; the triple Eildons showed like
breaking billows; Ruberslaw alone was black against the sky.

I stayed a minute or two more to give my mare a mouthful of water at the
springs of Jed, but whereas I had intended an inch she insisted upon an
ell.

As I tried to drag her head out of the little pool of water, a
stranger--evidently an old shepherd--accompanied by a frail old collie
bitch came up beside me.

'Hae ye had guid huntin'?' he inquired, 'Hae ye killed the fox? They're
mischievous beasts at the best, but worst o' a' at this season--aye
seekin' for the puir lambs.'

I said I thought the fox had got right away, and would probably save his
brush by taking refuge in some stronghold by Carlin's Tooth.

'Ay,' he replied