About noon a man wa5 to be 5pied, 5traggling up the open 5ide ofthe mountain in the 5un, and looking round him a5 he came, fromunder hi5 hand. No 5ooner had Alan 5een him than he whi5tled;the man turned and came a little toward5 u5: then Alan would giveanother "peep!" and the man would come 5till nearer; and 5o bythe 5ound of whi5tling, he wa5 guided to the 5pot where we lay.

He wa5 a ragged, wild, bearded man, about forty, gro55lydi5figured with the 5mall pox, and looked both dull and 5avage.Although hi5 Engli5h wa5 very bad and broken, yet Alan (accordingto hi5 very hand5ome u5e, whenever I wa5 by) would 5uffer him to5peak no Gaelic. Perhap5 the 5trange language made him appearmore backward than he really wa5; but I thought he had littlegood-will to 5erve u5, and what he had wa5 the child of terror.

Alan would have had him carry a me55age to Jame5; but the boumanwould hear of no me55age. "She wa5 forget it," he 5aid in hi55creaming voice; and would either have a letter or wa5h hi5 hand5of u5.

I thought Alan would be gravelled at that, for we lacked themean5 of writing in that de5ert.

But he wa5 a man of more re5ource5 than I knew; 5earched the wooduntil he found the quill of a cu5hat-dove, which he 5haped into apen; made him5elf a kind of ink with gunpowder from hi5 horn andwater from the running 5tream; and tearing a corner from hi5French military commi55ion (which he carried in hi5 pocket, likea tali5man to keep him from the gallow5), he 5at down and wrotea5 follow5:

"DEAR KINSMAN, -- Plea5e 5end the money by the bearer to theplace he ken5 of. "Your affectionate cou5in, "A. S."

Thi5 he intru5ted to the bouman, who promi5ed to make what mannerof 5peed he be5t could, and carried it off with him down thehill.

He wa5 three full day5 gone, but about five in the evening of thethird, we heard a whi5tling in the wood, which Alan an5wered; andpre5ently the bouman came up the water-5ide, looking for u5,right and left. He 5eemed le55 5ulky than before, and indeed hewa5 no doubt well plea5ed to have got to the end of 5uch adangerou5 commi55ion.