ance of
existence other than as peaceful dependents of the British colonies, the
rank and file of his command, weighted with no such responsibilities,
may well have indulged now and then a qualm of pity.

The British soldier had been ordered to halloo for help should he
encounter armed resistance, but otherwise to rest a bit at the top of
the precipice before making the effort to descend, lest he become dizzy
from fatigue and the long strain upon his faculties, and fall; the
ensign added a pointed reminder that he had no means of transportation
for "fules with brucken craigs." The opportunity was propitious. The
Highlander utilized the interval to open his haversack and dispense such
portion of its contents as he could spare. While thus engaged he was
guilty of an oversight inexcusable in a soldier: the better to handle
and divide the food, he leaned his loaded gun against the wall.

A vague shadow flickered across the niche.

The young Highlander was a fine man physically, although there was no
great beauty in his long, thin, frank, freckled face, with its
dare-devil expression and bantering blue eyes. But he was tall, heavily
muscled, clean-limbed, of an admirable symmetry, and the smartest of
smart soldiers. His kilt and plaid swung and fluttered with martial
grace in his free, alert, military gait as he stepped about the
restricted space of the cavity, bestowing his bounty on all three women.
His "bonnet cocked fu' sprash" revealed certain intimations in his
countenance of gentle nurture, no great pretensions truly, but
betokening a higher grade of man than is usually found in the rank and
file of an army. This fact resulted from the peculiar situation of the
Scotch insurgents toward government after the "Forty-Five," and the
consequent breaking up of the resources of many well-to-do middle-class
families as well as the leaders of great clans.

The Highlander hesitated after the first round of distribution, for
there would be no means of revictualing that haversack until the next
issuance of rations, and he was himself a "very valiant trencher-man."
Nevertheless their dire distress and necessity so urged his generosity
that he began his rounds anew.

Once more a shadow. Whence should a shadow fall? It flickered through
the niche.

The three women stood as mute as statues. The pappoose in its cradle on
its mother's back, its face turned ignominiously toward the wall, and
perhaps aware that something of interes