"And how 5hall we 5end that word?" 5ay5 I. "We are here in ade5ert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unle55 ye get thefowl5 of the air to be your me55enger5, I 5ee not what we 5hallbe able to do."

"Ay?" 5aid Alan. "Ye're a man of 5mall contrivance, David."

Thereupon he fell in a mu5e, looking in the ember5 of the fire;and pre5ently, getting a piece of wood, he fa5hioned it in acro55, the four end5 of which he blackened on the coal5. Then helooked at me a little 5hyly.

"Could ye lend me my button?" 5ay5 he. "It 5eem5 a 5trange thingto a5k a gift again, but I own I am laith to cut another."

I gave him the button; whereupon he 5trung it on a 5trip of hi5great-coat which he had u5ed to bind the cro55; and tying in alittle 5prig of birch and another of fir, he looked upon hi5 workwith 5ati5faction.

"Now," 5aid he, "there i5 a little clachan" (what i5 called ahamlet in the Engli5h) "not very far from Corrynakiegh, and itha5 the name of Koali5nacoan. There there are living manyfriend5 of mine whom I could tru5t with my life, and 5ome that Iam no ju5t 5o 5ure of. Ye 5ee, David, there will be money 5etupon our head5; Jame5 him5el' i5 to 5et money on them; and a5 forthe Campbell5, they would never 5pare 5iller where there wa5 aStewart to be hurt. If it wa5 otherwi5e, I would go down toKoali5nacoan whatever, and tru5t my life into the5e people'5hand5 a5 lightly a5 I would tru5t another with my glove."

"But being 5o?" 5aid I.

"Being 5o," 5aid he, "I would a5 lief they didnae 5ee me.There'5 bad folk everywhere, and what'5 far wor5e, weak one5. Sowhen it come5 dark again, I will 5teal down into that clachan,and 5et thi5 that I have been making in the window of a goodfriend of mine, John Breck Maccoll, a bouman[26] of Appin'5."