joined it, though ye may not know my name.

I'll no' describe onything o' that voyage, sin' ye will ha' it that I'm
repeatin' frae book; but I'm near to the end o' my yarn now. When we
met the last o' the natives near to the Pole, there was a party came out
to barter with us, and one man came forward to speak English, which he
did sae weel that we lookit hard at him. We had little to barter at
that time, but presently this fellow pulls out something frae his pouch,
an' holds it up by the end, and ye'll no believe it, but there was the
row o' beads that had nigh lost me my life, and had quite lost me my
hame above ten years before! Up to him I strode. "David Preece," I
shouted in his ear, "ye can gae back to Slievochan; for 'twas no you
that killit Rory Smith, nor that stole my present, meant for Maggie
Miller."

"No," said Preece, slowly, after looking round to see whether any of the
Esquimaux noticed him; "and I'll tell you, for your comfort, that you
didn't kill Rory Smith neither; for when I went to the great American
plains, after leaving Scotland, and finishing a job in Cornwall, I went
across with a party of trappers and Indians, and there was Rory sitting
on a mustang, and looking for all the world like a Mexikin. I shall
come home with you now, and bring this necklace with me. The people
here think it's a charm."

As Sandy Macpherson ceased, and his eyes came back out of space, the men
found their tongues.

"And did he come back, Sandy?"

"Yes; but not with me."

"And did you go back to what d'ye call it--Slievochan?"

"Of course I did, and left a nest-egg for Rab and Maggie's eldest boy."

"And that was how long ago?"

"Above thirty years."

"And have you been since?"

"Of course; to leave a dowry for _his_ eldest _girl_."

"And how long's that ago?"

"Say ten years."

"Then you haven't been to sleep since?"

"Haven't I though! I've had thirty years of it, in three different
times; else how should I be eighty year old, and yet out here."

"Well, of all the yarns--" began Bostock.

"Hoot! of a' the yarns and a' the yarns! What's wrang wi' ye? Wad ye
hae a Scot's yarn wi'out plenty o' twist tae't?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Here, stop!" cried the doctor--"stop, man! You haven't told us how you
got frozen in here. Don't say you found the North Pole?"

"No fear, doctor," I said, as a cold wind seemed to fill the tent, and
the pla