out twelve tons, had been built
by the young commander soon after he settled at Bercaldine. What naval
officer, who has the means in his power, would fail of possessing a
vessel of some sort? She was not only a pleasure-yacht, but was useful
as a despatch-boat to bring the necessary stores for the house from
Oban, and served also for fishing in summer and for wild-fowl shooting
in winter. She was a trim yacht, notwithstanding her multifarious
employments. Ben Snatchblock, who acted as master, with a stout lad as
his crew, was justly proud of her. He boasted that nothing under canvas
could beat her, either on a wind or going free, and that in heavy
weather she was as lively as a duck. Not a better seaboat could be
found between the mainland and the Hebrides. Indeed, she had often been
pretty severely tried; and on one occasion Murray had had the
satisfaction of preserving the crew of a wreck on a dangerous reef, when
no other craft was at hand to render them assistance. He had, of
course, named his yacht the _Stella_; for what other name could he have
thought of giving her? He now watched her with the interest which every
seaman feels for the vessel he owns, as, close-hauled, she stood up the
loch. Now a breeze headed her, and she had to make a couple of tacks or
more to weather a point. Now she met a baffling wind, and it seemed
impossible that she would do it. "Keep her close, Archie!" exclaimed
Murray, as if addressing his cousin; "now keep her full again and shoot
her up round the point. That will do it, lad. Capital! Another tack
and you will have the wind off the shore; that is only a flaw. Put her
about again. With two more tacks you will do it."

The breeze freshening and proving steady, in a short time the _Stella_
was near enough to enable Murray to distinguish Terence Adair and
another person, in addition to those who had gone away in the yacht. As
the jib and foresail were taken off her, she shot up to the buoy.
Murray hastened down to the landing-place, in time to meet Adair and the
stranger, whom Archie pulled on shore in the punt.

Adair sprang to land with much more agility than the old admiral had
exhibited, and was warmly greeted by Murray. "As you told me that
Archie was staying with you, I brought that broth of a boy, my nephew,
Gerald Desmond, to bear him company and to help keep him out of
mischief," exclaimed Adair, turning round and pointing to his nephew,
who hung back till hi