e kilt
BLUENOSE, and with him goes our chance of the treasure. But, maybe,
it's not yet too late."

So saying, he plucked the head from the floor and clapped it again
upon its shoulders. Then, drawing a long stick of sealing-wax from
his pocket, he held it well before the Captain's ruddy face. The wax
splattered and melted. The Doctor applied it to the cut with deft
fingers, and with a strange condescension of manner in one so proud.
My heart beat like a bird's, both quick and little; and on a sudden
BLUENOSE raised his dripping hands, and in a quavering kind of voice
piped out--

"Fifteen two and a pair make four."

But we had heard too much, and the next moment we were speeding with
terror at our backs across the desert moorland.

CHAPTER IV.

You are to remember that when the events I have narrated befell I
was but a lad, and had a lad's horror of that which smacked of the
supernatural. As we ran, I must have fallen in a swoon, for I remember
nothing more until I found myself walking with trembling feet through
the policies of the ancient mansion of Dearodear. By my side strode
a young nobleman, whom I straightway recognised as the Master. His
gallant bearing and handsome face served but to conceal the black
heart that beat within his breast. He gazed at me with a curious look
in his eyes.

"SQUARETOES, SQUARETOES," said he--it was thus he had named me, and
by that I knew that we were in Scotland, and that my name was become
MACKELLAR--"I have a mind to end your prying and your lectures here
where we stand."

"End it," said I, with a boldness which seemed strange to me even as
I spoke; "end it, and where will you be? A penniless beggar and an
outcast."

"The old fool speaks truly," he continued, kicking me twice violently
in the back, but otherwise ignoring my presence; "and if I end him,
who shall tell the story? Nay, SQUARETOES, let us make a compact. I
will play the villain, and brawl, and cheat, and murder; you shall
take notes of my actions, and, after I have died dramatically in a
North American forest, you shall set up a stone to my memory, and
publish the story. What say you? Your hand upon it."

Such was the fascination of the man that even then I could not
withstand him. Moreover, the measure of his misdeeds was not yet full.
My caution prevailed, and I gave him my hand.

"Done!" said he; "and a very good bargain for you, SQUARETOES!"

Let the public, then, judge between me and the Master,