eyed his word.

And then I saw the reason of his command, for with a sudden swift leap
forward the Clachlands rose, and flooded up to where I stood an instant
before high and dry.

"It's come," said the shepherd in a tone of fate, "and there's fifteen
no ower yet, and Lord kens how they'll dae't. They'll hae to gang
roond by Gledsmuir Brig, and that's twenty mile o' a differ. 'Deed,
it's no like that Sandy Jamieson will get a guid price the morn for sic
sair forfochen beasts."

Then with firmly gripped staff he marched stoutly into the tide till it
ran hissing below his armpits. "I could dae't alone," he cried, "but
no wi' a burden. For, losh, if ye slippit, ye'd be in the Manor Pool
afore ye could draw breath."

And so we waited with the great white droves and five angry men beyond,
and the path blocked by a surging flood. For half an hour we waited,
holding anxious consultation across the stream, when to us thus busied
there entered a newcomer, a helper from the ends of the earth.

He was a man of something over middle size, but with a stoop forward
that shortened him to something beneath it. His dress was ragged
homespun, the cast-off clothes of some sportsman, and in his arms he
bore a bundle of sticks and heather-roots which marked his calling. I
knew him for a tramp who long had wandered in the place, but I could
not account for the whole-voiced shout of greeting which met him as he
stalked down the path. He lifted his eyes and looked solemnly and long
at the scene. Then something of delight came into his eye, his face
relaxed, and flinging down his burden he stripped his coat and came
toward us.

"Come on, Yeddie, ye're sair needed," said the shepherd, and I watched
with amazement this grizzled, crooked man seize a sheep by the fleece
and drag it to the water. Then he was in the midst, stepping warily,
now up, now down the channel, but always nearing the farther bank. At
last with a final struggle he landed his charge, and turned to journey
back. Fifteen times did he cross that water, and at the end his mean
figure had wholly changed. For now he was straighter and stronger, his
eye flashed, and his voice, as he cried out to the drovers, had in it a
tone of command. I marvelled at the transformation; and when at length
he had donned once more his ragged coat and shouldered his bundle, I
asked the shepherd his name.

"They ca' him Adam Logan," said my friend, his face still bright with
excite