a sound or a motion; but Macleod sprang forward, caught
the man Fraser by the throat, and shook him thrice--as he might have
shaken a reed.

"You scoundrel!" he said. "You coward! Are you afraid to own it was you?
There has been nothing but bad feeling since ever you brought your ugly
face among us--well, we've had enough of you!"

He flung him back.

"Hamish," said he, "you will pay this man his month's wages to-night.
Pack him off with the Gometra men in the morning; they will take him out
to the _Pioneer_. And look you here, sir," he added, turning to Fraser,
"it will be a bad day for you the day that I see your face again
anywhere about Castle Dare."

He walked off and up to the house again, followed by the reluctant
Hamish. Hamish had spoken of this matter only that Macleod should give
the men a renewed warning; he had no notion that this act of vengeance
would be the result. And where were they to get a man to put in Fraser's
place?

It was about an hour later that Hamish again came into the room.

"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, "but the men are outside."

"I cannot see them."

"They are ferry sorry, sir, about the whole matter, and there will be no
more bathing in the front of the house, and the man Fraser they hef
brought him up to say he is ferry sorry too."

"They have brought him up?"

"Ay, sir," said Hamish, with a grave smile. "It was for fighting him
they were one after the other because he will make a bad speech to you;
and he could not fight three men one after the other; and so they hef
made him come up to say he is ferry sorry too; and will you let him stay
on to the end of the season?"

"No. Tell the men that if they will behave themselves, we can go on as
we did before, in peace and friendliness; but I mean to be master in
this place. And I will not have a sulky fellow like this Fraser stirring
up quarrels. He must pack and be off."

"It will not be easy to get another man, Sir Keith," old Hamish ventured
to say.

"Get Sandy over from the _Umpire_."

"But surely you will want the yacht, sir, when Mr. Ogilvie comes to
Dare?"

"I tell you Hamish, that I will not have that fellow about the place.
That is an end of it. Did you think it was only a threat that I meant?
And have you not heard the old saying that 'one does not apply plaster
to a threat?' You will send him to Gometra in the morning in time for
the boat."

And so the sentence of banishment was confirmed; and Hamish go