ckson gazed at the body and observed that there was a slight
deformation between the shoulders.

"Poor fellow," he said. "That explains a lot.... As my father used to
say, cripples have a right to be cankered."

CHAPTER XVI

IN WHICH A PRINCESS LEAVES A DARK TOWER AND A PROVISION MERCHANT
RETURNS TO HIS FAMILY

The three days of storm ended in the night, and with the wild weather
there departed from the Cruives something which had weighed on
Dickson's spirits since he first saw the place. Monday--only a week
from the morning when he had conceived his plan of holiday--saw the
return of the sun and the bland airs of spring. Beyond the blue of the
yet restless waters rose dim mountains tipped with snow, like some
Mediterranean seascape. Nesting birds were busy on the Laver banks and
in the Huntingtower thickets; the village smoked peacefully to the
clear skies; even the House looked cheerful if dishevelled. The Garple
Dean was a garden of swaying larches, linnets, and wild anemones.
Assuredly, thought Dickson, there had come a mighty change in the
countryside, and he meditated a future discourse to the Literary
Society of the Guthrie Memorial Kirk on "Natural Beauty in Relation to
the Mind of Man."

It remains for the chronicler to gather up the loose ends of his tale.
There was no newspaper story with bold headlines of this the most
recent assault on the shores of Britain. Alexis Nicholaevitch, once a
Prince of Muscovy and now Mr. Alexander Nicholson of the rising firm of
Sprot and Nicholson of Melbourne, had interest enough to prevent it.
For it was clear that if Saskia was to be saved from persecution, her
enemies must disappear without trace from the world, and no story be
told of the wild venture which was their undoing. The constabulary of
Carrick and Scotland Yard were indisposed to ask questions, under a
hint from their superiors, the more so as no serious damage had been
done to the persons of His Majesty's lieges, and no lives had been lost
except by the violence of Nature. The Procurator-Fiscal investigated
the case of the drowned men, and reported that so many foreign sailors,
names and origins unknown, had perished in attempting to return to
their ship at the Garplefoot. The Danish brig had vanished into the
mist of the northern seas. But one signal calamity the
Procurator-Fiscal had to record. The body of Loudon the factor was
found on the Monday morning below the cliffs, his neck bro