with the mother's help."

"That's just it precisely, Hamish; and what better place could she be
hidden than here, with Scaurdale and your uncle so very friendly, and
this so quiet a place?"

CHAPTER III.

IN WHICH I CHASE DEER AND SEE STRANGE HORSEMEN ON THE HILL,
AND A LIGHT FLASHING ON THE SEA.

The corn was in the stackyard and the stacks thatched, and all that
summer Belle and her wean stayed with us, the lass working at the
weeding and the harvesting, and the wean well cared for, for the
mistress remained not long abed after the spaewife's coming. Belle's
wean might be "a tinker's brat" in whispered corners in byres and
hay-sheds, where the wenches could claver out of hearing, but the
Laird's son got no better attention than the tinker's brat when the
mistress was near.

And now that the corn was secure and the stackyard full, the deer came
down from the hills and lay close to till nightfall, and then wrought
havoc in the turnip-drills, and I noticed that, like cows in a field of
grain, they spoiled more crop than they ate, both of potatoes and
turnips; and, indeed, it angered a man to see his good root-crops
haggled and thrawn with the thin-flanked beasts, like the lean cattle,
and I thought to go round the hill dyke with the dogs on an October
evening, and harry them back to their heather and bracken again.

It was early in the evening, so I took my stick and daunered to the
hay-shed (which was next to the planting) behind the stackyard, for I
liked the noise of the wood, and would lie on the hay and listen to the
scurry of the rabbits, the rippling note of the cushats in the
tree-tops, and watch for the coming of the white owls that flitted
among the trees. And as I lay on the sweet-smelling clovery hay there
came over me a drowsiness, for I had been early abroad, and I dovered
and dovered till sleep and waking were mingled, and strange voices came
into my ears; and then I knew the voices, and felt myself go hot all
over, for I could not move or I would be discovered with the rustling
of the hay.

"I have waited long for ye, my bonny dark lass, waited when I was
shivering to take ye in my arms," and I could see Dan lean forward and
look into Belle's black eyes, one great arm round her shoulders and his
hand below her chin, and she was bonny, bonny in the blink o' the moon.

"Ye were a good lad," says she, smiling up at him; "it whiles made me
angry ye would be so good, and I would be lying a