him you'll soon be," replied the Highlander, putting
on his hat. "Goot tay, Tuncan, my boy, an' see that you'll be tellin'
the truth, if ye can, when ye come to be tried."

To this the youth made no reply.

"O Duncan!" said the girl, when her father had retired, "how came they
to invent such lies about you?"

The tender way in which this was said, and the gentle touch on his arm,
almost overcame the stubborn man, but he steeled himself against such
influences.

"What can I say, Elspie?" he replied. "How can I tell what iss the
reason that people tell lies?"

"But it _is_ lies, isn't it, Duncan?" asked the poor girl, almost
entreatingly.

"You say that it iss lies--whatever, an' I will not be contradictin'
you. But when the trial comes on you will see that it cannot be proved
against me, Elspie--so keep your mind easy."

With this rather unsatisfactory assurance, Elspie was fain to rest
content, and she returned home a little, though not much, easier in her
mind.

To make the trial quite fair and regular, a jury of twelve men, chosen
by lot from a large number, was empanelled, and as many witnesses as
possible were examined. These last were not numerous, and it is
needless to say that Annette Pierre and Marie Blanc were the chief. But
despite their evidence and the strong feeling that existed against the
prisoner, it was found impossible to convict him, so that in the end he
was acquitted and set free. But there were men in the colony who
registered a vow that Cloudbrow should not escape. They believed him to
be guilty, in spite of the trial, and made up their minds patiently to
bide their time.

It now seemed as if at last a measure of prosperity were about to dawn
upon the farmers in that distant land, and, as usual on such occasions
of approaching prosperity, Dan Davidson and Duncan McKay senior began to
talk of the wedding which had been so long delayed.

"I wass thinkin', Tan," remarked the old man one morning, while walking
in the verandah with his after-breakfast pipe, "that I will be getting
in the crops pretty soon this year, an' they're heavy crops too, so that
we may look forward to a comfortable winter--whatever."

"True, and as our crops are also very good, thank God, I begin now to
hope that Elspie may see her way to--"

"See her way!" exclaimed McKay with some asperity: "she will hev to see
her way when I tell her to open her eyes an' look!"

"Nay, but there are two to this bargain,