pay for your own passage, if you choose to accompany us on our flank
march; I have enough for Secundra and myself, but not more--enough to be
dangerous, not enough to be generous. There is, however, an outside seat
upon the chaise which I will let you have upon a moderate commutation;
so that the whole menagerie can go together--the house-dog, the monkey,
and the tiger."

"I go with you," said I.

"I count upon it," said the Master. "You have seen me foiled; I mean you
shall see me victorious. To gain that I will risk wetting you like a sop
in this wild weather."

"And at least," I added, "you know very well you could not throw me
off."

"Not easily," said he. "You put your finger on the point with your usual
excellent good sense. I never fight with the inevitable."

"I suppose it is useless to appeal to you?" said I.

"Believe me, perfectly," said he.

"And yet, if you would give me time, I could write--" I began.

"And what would be my Lord Durrisdeer's answer?" asks he.

"Ay," said I, "that is the rub."

"And, at any rate, how much more expeditious that I should go myself!"
says he. "But all this is quite a waste of breath. At seven to-morrow
the chaise will be at the door. For I start from the door, Mackellar; I
do not skulk through woods and take my chaise upon the wayside--shall we
say, at Eagles?"

My mind was now thoroughly made up. "Can you spare me quarter of an hour
at St. Bride's?" said I. "I have a little necessary business with
Carlyle."

"An hour, if you prefer," said he. "I do not seek to deny that the money
for your seat is an object to me; and you could always get the first to
Glascow with saddle-horses."

"Well," said I, "I never thought to leave old Scotland."

"It will brisken you up," says he.

"This will be an ill journey for someone," I said. "I think, sir, for
you. Something speaks in my bosom; and so much it says plain--that this
is an ill-omened journey."

"If you take to prophecy," says he, "listen to that."

There came up a violent squall off the open Solway, and the rain was
dashed on the great windows.

"Do ye ken what that bodes, warlock?" said he, in a broad accent: "that
there'll be a man Mackellar unco sick at sea."

When I got to my chamber, I sat there under a painful excitation,
hearkening to the turmoil of the gale, which struck full upon that gable
of the house. What with the pressure on my spirits, the eldritch cries
of the wind among the turret-tops, a