'Well, Mr. MacLean, we came to see whether you could help us,' said Allan; 'we have made a compact, and promised not to rest until we have found out that Neil didn't really do it, and have him brought home again.'

'Proud to hear you say so, Mr. Allan;' broke out the Highlander; 'and hev you ahl made a compact, the young ladies too?'

'Yes,' replied Tricksy, dimpling; 'we are all in it; Marjorie and I, and even Laddie.—Down, Laddie; don't jump up on me,' as the collie, who had been sitting with an amiable expression in the centre of the group, sprang up and put one paw on her knee.

'Ferry proud indeed that you should hev done so,' repeated Mr. MacLean.—'My tear,' he added, turning to his wife, who had re-entered the cottage with a pitcher of milk; 'these young ladies and gentlemen will hev been making a compact that they will help Neil, and prove that he hass not committed the robbery.'

The woman, who knew very little English, replied in Gaelic, and the young folk took up that language, somewhat to the relief of MacLean, who prided himself on his knowledge of the Saxon tongue but found it easier to sustain a conversation in his own.

'That would be a great comfort to Neil, did he only know of it, and to his mother too,' he said. 'Poor lad, I wish we could send him a message.'

'Does any one know where he has gone?' inquired Reggie.

'Some one must know, Master Reggie, since he could hardly have got clear away without help; but we do not know how he managed his escape. Some say that he went away with the gipsies that left Inchkerra the day of the trial, for they put in at Stornwell harbour that same night; and others think that it was smugglers who helped him. He will no doubt try to escape to America; but the poor lad stands a thousand chances of being caught before he gets there.'

'Oh, I hope not,' cried the girls.

'I don't know, young ladies. If there was any chance of his being cleared, it might be better for him to stand his trial. It is a very strange thing indeed, how everything seemed to point to his being guilty.'

'Then do you think some one has been trying to make him appear so?'

'I don't know, Master Reggie. It is very mysterious indeed who can have done it. The police made an inspection of the gipsy camp, but there seemed to be no evidence against them. Well, we are all very pleased that you are so kindly disposed towards Neil, and we can only hope that you or some one else may be able to find out who really did it. If you must go, young ladies and gentlemen, will you not look in at Mrs. Macdonnell's cottage and tell her that you have resolved to help Neil? Poor soul, she is very sorrowful, and it might comfort her to know what true friends her son has.'

'Do you think she would care to be disturbed to-day?' said Marjorie, somewhat doubtfully.

'I think she would be very glad to see you, Miss Marjorie, when you come on such an errand.'

Mrs. MacLean said nothing; but she filled the young people's pockets with oat-cakes, and stood watching them as they walked soberly along the path.

'It's too late to go to Mrs. Macdonnell before dinner-time,' said Allan, who seemed to be glad of an excuse to postpone so trying an interview. 'You'd better come with us, Hamish and Marjorie; it's half-past twelve now; much too late for you to go home.'

Places were found for the MacGregors at the hospitable table of Ardnavoir; and after dinner, Tricksy drew her mother aside, while Marjorie lingered to hear what Mrs. Stewart would say.

'Mummie,' said Tricksy, 'Rob MacLean wants us to go and see Mrs. Macdonnell and tell her that we don't believe that Neil stole the letters. Do you think we can go?'

'Perhaps you might, as Rob wishes you to do so,' replied her mother. 'Don't stay long, and don't talk much, for, poor woman, this has been a terrible blow to her. Give her your message, and then say good-bye.'

'Do you think we need to go too?' said Allan, as the young people were discussing their intention.

'Of course we must all be there,' declared Marjorie; 'it will encourage her when she sees that we have all joined the compact.'

'Whatever are you doing that for?' asked Allan, when he saw his little sister gathering flowers in the garden.

'They are for Mrs. Macdonnell,' said Tricksy, looking up with her soft, dark eyes; 'I think she would be glad if we brought her some.'

Allan said nothing, and Reggie's dark face looked approving.

A walk of a mile or two brought the young folk to the heather-roofed cottage where Mrs. Macdonnell lived. A dog rushed out and barked, but wagged his tail when he saw who the visitors were.

'Neil's dog,' said Allan; 'look how he speaks to Laddie. Poor Jock; poor old fellow; come here.'

'Where's your master, Jock; where's Neil?' said Reggie in a low voice, as the dog came up to be petted.

They knocked at the outer door, but there was no answer. After a moment's hesitation, they pushed it open and knocked at the door of the kitchen.

'Come in,' said a faint voice; and they entered.

A woman was sitting by the peat fire, with her neglected spinning-wheel beside her. She was strikingly handsome, in spite of her mournful expression and dejected attitude. Her black hair, as yet only slightly touched with grey waved on either side of a broad low forehead, and she had a straight nose like Neil's and a beautifully shaped face; but the eyes which she raised at the children's entrance were full of sorrow.

The boys hung about the doorway, and Marjorie felt a lump in her throat; but Tricksy advanced courageously.

'How do you do, Mrs. Macdonnell?' she said, with a little gurgle in her voice, that expressed more than she had the power to say in words. 'Mother said we might come and see you; and we thought you might like some flowers.'

'Eh, Miss Tricksy, what a pretty posy! It wass ferry good of you to come. Tek a seat, Miss Marjorie. Will you be finding places, young gentlemen?'

'I hope you are pretty well, Mrs. Macdonnell?' said Marjorie, in a voice which she could not keep from trembling a little.

'Pretty fair, thank you, Miss Marjorie,' replied Mrs. Macdonnell, while Reggie and Hamish sat very stiffly upon their chairs, and Allan had much ado to keep from fidgeting.

'We thought you would like to know, Mrs. Macdonnell,' began Tricksy; 'Bob MacLean said we might tell you; we wanted to say—Allan does, and we all do—that we know Neil couldn't have done such a thing, and we have made a compact, all of us—Marjorie and Hamish and Euan Macdonnell too—that we will never rest until we find out that he didn't do it, and bring him home again. I thought you would be glad, Mrs. Macdonnell; for Allan and Hamish are going to try very hard, and Euan will do his best to help us.'

Mrs. Macdonnell's eyes glistened.

'It iss ferry good of you ahl, I am sure,' she said; then after a pause she added, 'Indeed it is proud I am to know that my puir laddie——'

Her voice became husky and then failed; and feeling that the interview had lasted long enough, the girls kissed her and they all took leave, wondering whether they had done harm or good by their visit.

'One thing we might do,' said Allan, after they had trudged for awhile in a somewhat uncomfortable silence, 'we might take a look at Andrew MacPeters.'

'Yes, let's get something done,' said Reggie; 'where do you think we shall find him?'

'I heard that he was cutting peats on the hillside,' said Allan; 'isn't that a cart over there, and two men stacking peats?'

'Yes, that is Andrew MacPeters,' said Reggie, when they had advanced a little nearer; 'the red-headed man on this side.'

'Fine day, young ladies and gentlemen,' said the farther-away man; but Andrew only gave them a sidelong look out of his red-lidded eyes.

'Fine day,' replied Allan civilly; then they all stood still and looked at Andrew, who went on stolidly with his work.

'Let's come to the post-office now,' said Allan, and they all trudged away.

'Eh, young ladies and gentlemen, pleased to see you,' said Mrs. MacAlister in her lilting Gaelic; 'eh, but it's been a weary business since you were here last! Poor Neil, poor laddie!'

'Yes, Mrs. MacAlister,' said Marjorie; 'and of course we are all quite sure that Neil had nothing to do with it.'

'So are we all, Miss Marjorie; but the hard thing is to prove it. Things looked very black against him when the order came out of the poor lad's very letter, and he the only person who had been in the house that night. Wait a bit, young ladies and gentlemen, and I'll fetch my husband; he's been bad with the rheumatism but he's working in the garden now,' and the good woman departed, leaving the field clear for the young people.

'Look,' said Allan, 'there are the letters lying on the table. They've been taken out of the box, and they're waiting now until Mrs. MacAlister is ready to stamp them. The door's open, and any one can come in and out. It wouldn't be difficult to rob a post-office like this!'

Just then the door opened, and Andrew MacPeters came slouching in, looking very awkward when he saw who were in the shop. The visitors all watched him as he made his way clumsily across the room to fetch something that he wanted; and when he came near the table Reggie said suddenly, 'Been taking anything from here lately, Andrew?'

The man looked at him with a surly gleam in his eyes but did not answer. After a minute or two he went out, all eyes following him curiously.

'There,' said Reggie triumphantly, 'did you see what a bad conscience he has?' and they all looked at each other in silent assent.

Declining Mrs. MacAlister's invitation to stay to tea, they trooped out of the post-office.

'We'll watch that man,' said Reggie, and Tricksy began to walk on the tips of her toes in anticipation.

'Hulloa, young people, glad I've overtaken you,' said the doctor's voice behind them. 'It's just going to pour with rain, and you're due at my house to tea, I believe. It's lucky I have the closed carriage; jump in as many of you as it will hold, and the rest of you can sit on the box.'

By the time the doctor's house was reached the rain had stopped, and the sun was peeping out again. A scrap of white paper fluttering on the ruins attracted Reggie's attention, and he ran across the garden, climbed the wall, and captured it.

After looking at it he gave a violent start, then ran towards the house.

'It's a postal order,' he said, giving it to the doctor; 'what's the meaning of this?'

All clustered round, and the doctor took the piece of paper and examined it.

'Strange thing,' he exclaimed; 'this order bears the number of one of those that went missing on the night of the robbery. How did it come there? It's wet with the rain, but not very dirty; probably hasn't been there long. This ought to shed some fresh light upon the case. I'll have the police to make a thorough search of the ruins.'



CHAPTER VI

A DISCOVERY

'Reggie,' said Allan, 'there they are at last.'

Reggie slid down from the garden wall, looked towards the road, and said, 'Where?'

'They're behind that hill now. They'll be here in no time. You'd better call Tricksy, and tell her to be ready.'

Reggie went into the house, and called, standing at the foot of the staircase, 'Tricksy, it's Graham major and Graham minor with their Pater; and they're almost here.'

Tricksy came downstairs and waited in the hall, somewhat shyly, beside her brothers.

'Oh, I do hope they will be nice,' she whispered apprehensively to Reggie, as the dog-cart drew up at the door.

A tall pleasant-faced gentleman was beside the driver, and two boys were on the back seat wrapped in Inverness capes, and with caps drawn over their brows as a protection against the wind.

As Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were receiving their guests in the hall, Reggie and Tricksy had an opportunity of observing the boys. One was dark, about twelve years of age; thin, alert, with bright, restless hazel eyes; and the other was about as old as Reggie, with blue eyes and reddish-golden hair; almost too pretty to be a boy, Reggie thought; while Tricksy said to herself that he looked rather "nice."'

After greeting the grown-up folk, the new-comers turned to encounter Tricksy's solemn, dark eyes and Reggie's bright, twinkling ones. Tricksy shook hands very shyly, and Reggie a little stiffly; then the visitors were taken upstairs to prepare for lunch.

Tricksy turned to Reggie, whose countenance wore a non-committal expression; then she looked at Allan and heaved a little sigh.

'What do you think of them, Tricksy?' inquired Allan.

'Well, I think the little one looks rather nice, but the other is a little proud.'

'Do you think they'd care about our Pirates' Island, and all that?' asked Reggie doubtfully.

'Of course they would. They're no end of a good sort. Hush, they're coming downstairs again.'

'Are you tired after the steamer?' Allan asked his guest during lunch.

'A bit, not very,' replied the elder lad, whose name was Harry. 'Feel a bit as though the floor was rocking.'

'You'll feel like that until you've had a night's rest, anyway,' said Allan. 'Are you too tired to do anything this afternoon?'

'Not at all,' answered his friend. 'Gerald, you're game to do something after lunch, aren't you?'

His brother, who had been trying to make a conversation with Reggie, while Tricksy sat shyly on his other side, looked up with a smile.

'The steamer went close under some fine rocks, not far from the village,' he said; 'very high ones, with birds sitting in rows, all the way up, and making an awful screaming.'

'Yes,' said Allan, 'those are the Skegness Cliffs, a great nesting-place of the birds. We'll take you there after lunch, if it's not too far.'

The boys looked pleased, and as soon as freed from the restraint of their elders' presence they ran to fetch their caps and demanded to be taken to the rocks.

'We had better not go so soon, I think,' said Allan. 'We are expecting Hamish and Marjorie, our friends from Corranmore, and we'll ask them to go with us. There's a jolly burn that runs quite near the house; suppose we go and fish in it until they come.'

Fishing-tackle was found for the entire party, and they proceeded to the banks of the burn, which trickled down the hill-side and across a meadow, widening into little pools fringed with ragged-robin and queen o' the meadow; and finally falling in a little cascade down to the shore.

'What a fine dog this is of yours,' observed Gerald, caressing Laddie, who had been fawning upon the new-comers, and now ended by sitting down between Gerald and Tricksy.

Tricksy looked gratified.

'He's my dog,' she said. 'He likes you, I think.'

Gerald stroked Laddie's head and his white ruffle, and the dog made a little sound to express gratification.

'Tricksy, keep your dog quiet, he'll frighten away the trout,' sang out Allan warningly; and Tricksy requested Laddie to 'trust.'

The sun shone down upon green grass and brown pools, and drew out the perfume of the flowers and heather. Not far distant was the pleasant noise of the sea, and the calling of the gulls answered the plaintive cry of the plovers which fluttered about the moor and the meadows.

The day was too bright, and the trout which could be seen at the bottom of the pools refused to take. After a little while the strong fresh air and sun began to have a drowsy effect upon the anglers.

Gerald rubbed his eyes once or twice, and stifled a yawn; and Tricksy found that he was disinclined for conversation.

'Hulloa!' cried a voice from the top of a ridge; and Marjorie and Hamish came racing down. Laddie's welcoming bark roused Gerald, who jumped into a sitting posture, and looked about him in a surprised way.

'Hulloa, Marjorie,' said Allan; 'glad you've come. This is Harry Graham, and this is Gerald.'

Marjorie looked at the new-comers with approval, and Hamish shook hands good-naturedly.

'Are we going to fish all afternoon,' said Marjorie, 'or shall we take a scramble?'

'A scramble,' replied Reggie; 'they want to see the rocks.'

'If Gerald isn't too tired,' put in Tricksy considerately; 'he was asleep a minute ago.'

'No,' protested Gerald, flushing and looking very much vexed; 'I wasn't. I'm quite ready for a walk.'

'Suppose we take them to the Smugglers' Caves,' suggested Marjorie. 'They're the finest sight in the island, I think.'

At the mention of smugglers Harry's eyes began to sparkle, and Gerald's blue ones opened very wide.

'Are there—are there any smugglers there now?' asked Harry.

'Sometimes there are,' replied Marjorie, 'but I don't expect we shall meet any. Smuggling isn't what it used to be,' she added somewhat regretfully.

'What luck if we could only come across some,' said Harry. 'Let's go and see the caves anyhow.'

'It's a long walk, across moors and bogs, and steep hills,' said Marjorie; 'but if you're game, come along.'

Harry, walking beside Reggie, looked at the girl's slight, erect figure as she went in front with Gerald.

'Does she always do what you fellows do?' he inquired, rather doubtfully.

'Of course she does,' replied Reggie; 'she's fifteen years old, you know; a year older than Allan.'

Harry looked at her again, and considered.

'Bit of a tomboy, isn't she?' he inquired again.

'An awful tomboy. We've got her into the way of doing all kinds of things. She couldn't be much jollier if she was a boy.'

Harry took another look at her.

'Has she a bit of a temper?' he asked unexpectedly.

'A bit,' acknowledged Reggie, somewhat disconcerted, 'when she's roused, you know. She's fond of her own way; and she and Allan used to quarrel a good deal at one time; but they seem to have made it up now.'

Reggie added to himself that there was no time to quarrel, now that every one's thoughts were occupied with Neil.

Harry looked at Marjorie again.

'Does she ever quarrel with you?' he asked.

'N—no, not much,' he replied, his face darkening slightly.

Harry looked at Marjorie's tall young figure, and then at Reggie's smaller and slighter one, and arrived at the conclusion which particularly annoyed Reggie; that the girl disdained to quarrel with a boy so much younger than herself.

Marjorie turned her bright face towards them.

'Find it tiring, walking on the heather?' she said. 'It's very fatiguing when you're not accustomed to it. We might take a rest after we've climbed this hill; there's a beautiful view from the top.'

It was a steep climb, and when they reached the summit, all the young folk were glad to fling themselves down on the short, fragrant heather.

The breeze came laden with the scent of wild thyme and heather and salt from the sea; and the only live creatures save themselves were the mountain sheep and the crested plovers, and grey gulls which wheeled above the heads of the wayfarers.

Harry looked about him with brightening eyes.

'What an awfully jolly place this is of yours,' he said. 'I say, you do see a lot from the top of this hill.'

He was right. The hill crest commanded a view of nearly the whole island, with green fields and moors, and the white roads stretching across them; houses and cottages in their little gardens; and the village with the pier jutting out into the sea. One or two larger islands were in the distance; brown rocks and skerries lying like dots upon the blue water; and away to the east the Highland hills rose among the clouds.

'It must be awfully jolly, having an island all to yourselves,' continued Harry.

'Yes,' replied Marjorie, perched on a boulder, 'and it's jollier still to have an island of your very own, where no one comes but ourselves, and we can do exactly as we like.'

'Where's that?' inquired Harry.

'I may tell them, mayn't I?' asked Marjorie of the others.

'Of course you may,' replied Allan; 'we must take them there some day soon.'

Marjorie slipped down from her perch.

'Do you see the little island over there?' she said, pointing southwards; 'a little black dot on the water, with some bright green in the middle of it? Well, that's our own island which we have all to ourselves, and we've made a place in it that we call our secret hiding-place or Pirates' Den. We must show it to you some day.'

The boys stood up and gazed out to sea, their eyes widening and brightening.

'I say, this is jolly,' they murmured, rather than said to any one in particular.

'Hamish,' said Allan, who had been looking at some object on the southern side of the island; 'is that your father's gig, that has just stopped before Mrs. Macdonnell's cottage?'

Hamish looked in the direction indicated.

'Yes, I believe it is,' he said. 'It must be true then, what we heard Duncan say, that Mrs. Macdonnell is very ill.'

Such a grieved silence fell upon the island young people that the Grahams looked at them inquiringly.

'They said that she would fall ill,' said Marjorie in a low voice, 'if—if she continued to fret so about——'

Allan pushed his cap to the back of his head, and Reggie looked hard in the direction of the cottage, where the black dot was still standing by the gate.

'Nothing else found in the ruins?' said Allan in an undertone.

'Nothing yet,' replied Hamish; 'the police are still trying to follow up the clue——'

Marjorie's eyes encountered those of the guests, and she looked at Allan and Reggie.

'Are you going to let them know about it?' she asked. 'Might as well, you know; for they are sure to hear of it before long.'

Allan put his hands in his pockets and reflected; then he consulted Reggie with a look, after which he turned to Hamish. 'Perhaps we might as well tell them,' he said, and the others consented.

'Well, Graham major and Graham minor,' he began, to the boys who were waiting expectantly; 'we are very much bothered about a friend of ours;' and he told them about the robbery of the post-office and Neil's flight, while the boys listened with wide-open mouths, throwing themselves about and uttering exclamations of interest.

'You say that you are quite sure he couldn't have taken the letters?' asked Harry, drawing himself into an upright position on the heather.

'Perfectly certain,' replied Allan. 'He would no more have done it than you or I. No one who knows him would believe such a thing of Neil.'

'Oh!' interposed Tricksy, in a shocked tone, 'I think Dr. MacGregor believed it.'

Hamish became very red and Marjorie's lips tightened.

'And he's so awfully, awfully jolly,' pursued Harry.

'One of the very jolliest people we know,' answered Marjorie. 'Father doesn't really believe it of him. He did everything for us, and was up to all kinds of inventions. We don't seem to have any fun at all without him.'

'It's a most extraordinary story,' said Harry, jerking himself into a fresh attitude; and both the new boys sat and pondered.

'What do you say to letting them both join the Compact?' suggested Reggie.

Marjorie's eyes said yes; and Hamish, whom Allan consulted with a look, gave a nod.

'What's that; a Compact?' inquired Harry eagerly.

'It's an agreement that we've all made,' said Allan, 'that we'll back Neil up, and show that he didn't commit the robbery.'

'Hooray, what fun,' said Harry; 'I'm game.'

'You might let Gerald join too,' cried Tricksy from where she sat beside her new friend; 'he's quite the right sort, and he only wants to learn a thing or two to be equal to any of us.'

Gerald wriggled, and blushed to the roots of his golden hair.

'Well, then, you must do all you can to help us,' said Allan, 'and see whether you can find out who really did it.'

'All right,' said Harry; 'I'll help you to catch the thief.'

'And you must sign an agreement like the rest of us, and you can each have a copy to carry about with you always, as we do. See, this is the principal copy, that I have to take care of.'

'You can write it out now, with Allan's new fountain pen,' cried Tricksy; 'this flat stone will do for a desk, and I've got some pieces of paper that I've been carrying in my pocket in case we might find any new people to join our Compact;' and she produced with great gravity some crumpled sheets of note-paper, much soiled at the edges.

'All right,' said Allan, 'this is the agreement; "We hereby promise never to rest until we show that Neil is innocent and have him brought home again."'

Reggie held the papers down to keep them from blowing away, while Allan made out fresh copies of the agreement; then all the documents received the signature of Harry, who wrote his name with much ceremony and handed the pen to Gerald.

'What an awful lark,' said Harry, who had clambered on to the boulder and sat swinging his legs; 'it will be fine fun tracking the thief.'

Allan began to whistle.

'We haven't found much to track yet,' he said; 'neither have the police, who have been at it nearly three weeks. The less you talk about it the better, except among ourselves, for it isn't a game, this.'

'Come along,' said Marjorie, springing up, as Harry looked somewhat crestfallen, 'we've dawdled long enough; let's run down the side of the hill, and then we shan't take long to get to the cliffs.'

'All right,' said Harry briskly, 'let's go to the Smugglers' Caves; oh, I say, what a jolly island this is!'

All started to run down the steep descent, bounding from one tuft of heather to the other, their speed increasing as they neared the bottom.

Allan, Marjorie, and Reggie reached level ground at about the same time; then they turned to look at Harry and Gerald, who arrived next, looking somewhat shaken, and Hamish, who had stopped to help Tricksy.

'Not far now to the caves,' said Marjorie encouragingly. 'Do you see that headland, stretching far out into the sea? They are on the side farthest away from us. Tired, Tricksy?'

'Not at all,' protested the child, stepping alone and trying to hide a little roll in her gait, although her small face was beginning to look pale.

Reggie glanced at her approvingly as Tricksy toiled along beside Hamish, hoping that no one observed that she was hanging on to big hand.

'Oh, what a height from the ground,' said Gerald in an awed tone of voice, as the moor ended abruptly and they found themselves gazing down from the crest of what seemed a sheer precipice, with long lines of breakers falling upon the strip of sand at the foot. 'What a disturbance the birds are making, and what strange noises there are.'

'It's the waves echoing among the rocks,' said Marjorie. 'You must come here some stormy day when the tide is up; the caves get flooded and the noise is just like thunder.'

'If you'll come a little further along,' said Allan, 'there's a break in the cliffs where we can get down pretty easily. The tide is out, so we have lots of time.'

'Can we really climb down there,' said Harry, as they came to where a chasm opened in the line of cliff, with rough steps and ledges of rock standing out in the riven walls. Not a bird was to be seen in the gloomy crevasse; although the skuas and black-backed gulls were flying about and clamouring before the face of the cliff.

'Come along,' said Allan on the first step. 'Are you a good climber, Harry?'

'Pretty fair,' replied Harry, with a rather wild look in his eyes. Gerald said nothing, but swung himself down with a serious countenance.

'If any one wants help, just sing out,' cried Allan, descending by the rocky steps. 'Don't look down, and you'll be all right.'

'Take my hand, Gerald,' said Tricksy graciously to Gerald, who hesitated at a perilous-looking gap.

Gerald flushed pink, and pretended not to have heard the offer of assistance; and the two strangers braced themselves to their unaccustomed feat.

The way led round the chasm and downward, sometimes approaching the face of the cliff, where the inquisitive eyes and red bills of the puffins peered out of the crevices, and whole rows of auks and kittiwakes were thrown into violent agitation by the sight of the intruders; and sometimes leading back to the dark interior of the chasm. The place was full of echoes; the hollow boom of the breakers, the swirling of water round half-submerged rocks, the hoarse cries of the gulls and the shrill scream of the smaller sea-birds joining in an uproar which made the air tremble. Many a time, during the descent, it cost the new-comers an effort to avoid being overcome by dizziness.

At last Allan reached the last ledge, and swung himself to the ground; Reggie and Marjorie followed; Tricksy came last, and the Grahams dropped down with an air of relief.

'Well done for you,' said Allan approvingly; 'it's your first climb of the kind, and you haven't shown an atom of funk.'

Gerald's cheeks became a little redder, and Harry bore himself with greater self-consciousness.

'Only Hamish now,' said Allan, looking up at the cliff; 'how cautiously the old fellow is coming down; he has the steadiest head of the lot of us although he is so slow.'

'"Sleepy Hamish,"' remarked Harry to Gerald in an aside, repeating a nickname which he had heard Allan use. Low as the words were spoken, Marjorie heard them, and turned upon the boy like a flash.

'Some people have more in them than they make a show of,' she said. 'Perhaps you don't understand that kind of thing, though.'

Harry did not chance to have a reply ready, but he observed to Reggie afterwards that it was a pity Marjorie seemed to be a quick-tempered kind of a girl.

'Here we are,' said Allan, pausing beneath a great overhanging archway, and speaking loudly so as to be heard above the din; for the waves and the clamouring of the birds made a noise which was almost deafening.

'Can we go in?' asked Gerald.

'Of course we can. There's no danger except in a westerly gale. It's dark after you get in a little way.'

The young people scrambled and slipped over the sea-weed at the mouth of the cave, and presently found themselves standing on a floor of light-coloured sand, strewn with shells and sea-drift. The sides of the cave were black and shiny with wet, and water dripped slowly from the roof.

'Is this where the smugglers used to come?' asked Gerald in an awed tone.

'Yes,' replied Allan; 'the schooners used to sail under the rocks on moonlight nights when the tide was high, and the cargo was stored in the caves until the people came secretly to take it away. It was very dangerous work sometimes, for if a storm comes from the west the caves are often flooded.'

The light which glimmered under the archway did not penetrate far, and the young people were soon in total darkness. The air was damp and chilly. Strange draughts crossed each other from unexpected quarters, and the water dripping from overhead, awoke weird echoes which seemed to be repeated among far-reaching clefts and passages.

'Strike a light, Hamish,' said Allan, 'and let them see what kind of a place they're in.'

The match spluttered and blazed, revealing dark rocks gleaming with wet and the black openings to what appeared to be a series of underground passages branching off from the main one.

'The caves are all connected with one another,' explained Allan, 'and have separate openings to the sea. Light up again, Hamish; strike two this time, and they'll get a better idea.'

Again there was a splutter, and the flare revealed strange shifting shadows among the rocks, and a circle of faces that looked unnaturally white in the surrounding darkness.

Reggie's eyes were the sharpest.

'Hullo!' he exclaimed, 'there's something in that passage. What can it be?'

All crowded to examine the mysterious object, and the light flickered upon a pile of kegs and bales lying half-concealed behind a corner of rock.

'Smugglers!' declared Marjorie.

'Looks like it,' said Allan, as Hamish struck fresh matches and the others crowded round, giving utterance to ohs! and ahs! of excitement.

'They're at their old trade again,' said Allan, examining the barrels; 'I wonder what Pater will say to this?'

'That's the last match, Allan,' said Hamish, as the light flickered out.

The darkness seemed to come down like a weight, and the young people found themselves groping for each other's hands.

'We had better make the best of our way out of this,' said Allan. 'Try to move quietly, for we don't know who might be about. Help Tricksy, Hamish; I think she's by you, and here, Tricksy, give me your other hand.'

They groped their way towards the entrance, and soon were in the strong sunshine at the mouth of the caves.

'Well,' said Allan, 'that was an adventure;' and they looked at one another with varying expressions.

'Do you think they may have had anything to do with the robbery?' said Marjorie.

'Shouldn't wonder,' replied Allan. 'Anyhow, we'll see what Pater says.'

'In the meanwhile,' said Marjorie, 'we had better be quick; the breakers are close under the rocks, and we're almost cut off already.'

A stream of foaming, angry-looking water was running up into a hollow on the shore, and the young folk could only escape by jumping on to a stone in the middle of the flood, and from thence to the other side.

'Jump, Tricksy,' cried Reggie half impatiently, as his little sister hesitated.

Tricksy, who was pale and overwrought, sprang, but fell short and plunged overhead in the water.

Instantly two or three were in the flood, trying to prevent her being swept out to sea.

Allan secured her; and gasping, struggling, with water running over her face, Tricksy was pulled on to dry land.

'It isn't so very bad, is it, Tricksy?' inquired Reggie, in a tone of somewhat forced cheerfulness; 'what a thing to do, to jump in when you're told to jump over!'

Tricksy tried to smile; a miserable attempt, for her teeth chattered and her lips were blue with the cold.

'Run to Rob MacLean's cottage, Reggie,' said Hamish, throwing off his coat and wrapping it round Tricksy; 'ask him to lend us his pony, and we'll take Tricksy to Corranmore; it's nearer than your house.'

With Hamish running by her side and holding her on to the pony, Tricksy was not long in reaching Corranmore, and when the others arrived she was already in bed, with Mrs. MacGregor beside her; the little girl drinking hot milk and trying to restrain the tears that would roll down her cheeks, even when she forced herself to laugh.

'Feeling better, Tricksy?' asked Reggie apprehensively.

'She has had a nasty fall,' said Mrs. MacGregor somewhat reproachfully, 'and we may be thankful it is not any worse. She can't possibly go home to-night; you had better tell your parents that she is safe with us.'

A look of relief overspread Tricksy's tired features.

'Oh, you are a dear,' she exclaimed, springing up and throwing her arms round Mrs. MacGregor's neck, forgetting that the lady had once said that Tricksy Stewart was a spoilt little girl. 'Hooray, I'll sleep with Marjorie and we can talk about what we have seen to-day!'



CHAPTER VII

THE SIEGE

'No, Mr. Allan,' Duncan was declaring, 'if I wass you, I would not pe telling the laird whateffer; it can do no good pringing honest folk into trouble.'

'But they are not honest folk if they're smugglers,' interposed Reggie, who had been listening to the conversation without joining in.

A peculiar expression flitted across Duncan's face.

'Well, but, Mr. Allan,' he maintained; 'I'm just telling you, that it will pe petter if you will not pe telling the laird; you will only pe meking trouble in the island and will pe doing no good at ahl, at ahl.'

'But what if it was they who robbed the post-office?' said Allan.

'Robbed the post-office, Mr. Allan!' cried Duncan; 'what will they pe doing that for? Not them, Mr. Allan! So do not pe meking trouble by telling the laird——'

'But we have told him,' said Reggie.

'Dear, dear, Mr. Allan and Master Reggie,' said Duncan with a vexed face; 'what will you haf peen doing that for? That wass a treatful thing to do, to pe tale-bearers. Tear me; and what iss to pe done now?'

'But, Duncan, smuggling is against the law, and it will be their own fault——'

'Well, but, Mr. Allan, you will pe for punishing folks that iss not deserving to pe punished if you do such a foolish thing ass to pring the police to them, and—och! Mr. Allan, Mr. Allan, why can't young folks hev some sense! What iss to pe done now, after all you young ladies and gentlemen hev tone such a senseless thing!'

Duncan's evident excitement showed that argument was in vain; and there was something in his manner that tended to convince the boys, against their better judgment, that they had done wrong in speaking of their discovery. They wandered down to the cricket-field, where the Grahams were indulging in a solitary practice.

'We'd better go and play with these fellows,' said Allan; 'we can't leave them to amuse themselves all the time.'

Presently the sound of wheels caused them to look round, and they saw the doctor's gig turning in at the gate, with Tricksy on the front seat beside Dr. MacGregor, and Marjorie and Hamish behind.

'Brought you back the missing one,' cried the doctor to Mrs. Stewart, who had come to the door to meet them; 'none the worse for her bath;' and Tricksy jumped down and ran into the playing field followed more slowly by the other two.

'Come along and have a game,' cried Reggie; but the new-comers appeared to have something on their minds. They stood eyeing one another in an embarrassed way; Hamish looking sheepish and Marjorie mischievous; while Tricksy's little flushed face was breaking into dimples, and both girls displayed an inclination to giggle.

'Wait a minute,' whispered Tricksy, as Allan came towards them, and Marjorie said to her in a sharp undertone, 'Go on, can't you, and don't be silly.'

Thus admonished, Tricksy composed herself into gravity and produced a large piece of cardboard with ornamental lettering from which she read the following:—

PROCLAMATION

TO THE BOYS OP ARDNAVOIR

We, the undersigned, hereby declare war against you. We challenge you to open combat at our Fort. You must give us warning at what date and time you will attack us. Any advantage gained in not attending to these rules will be considered unfair. Any weapons allowed except stones.

(Signed) 'HAMISH MACGREGOR, 'MARJORIE, 'TRICKSY.'

'Our Fort is the hut, of course, in you-know-where,' added Marjorie; 'and the challenging party have the right to choose whether they will be besiegers or defenders, advantages to be as equal as possible. That's all,' she concluded, with a sudden lapse into her usual manner.

The two new boys had been listening with all their might.

'Whatever does she mean?' they asked in an aside, turning to Reggie.

'It's a challenge,' said Reggie. 'Let's hear what Allan says.'

Allan was considering.

'Shall we accept now, Reggie?' he asked.

Reggie thought the combat might as well take place without delay; and Allan replied to the Proclamation in these terms:

'The Challenge is accepted. We will meet you at the Fort. You will be the garrison, as there are fewer of you, and we'll attack.—Come along.'

'Call the dogs, Reggie,' said Marjorie. 'Do you like sieges?' she asked Gerald, as they were on their way to the shore.

'Awful fun,' replied the fair-haired boy, whose pink and white face was fast becoming tanned by wind and sun.

'What weapons are to be used?' asked Marjorie, turning quickly to the others.

'Turfs,' replied Allan, 'and lumps of wet sea-weed if you like.'

Marjorie gave a little jump as though she were pleased.

The boat was launched, and cut swiftly through the transparent water, while the new boys looked around with expectant faces.

'What an awfully jolly place,' they said, as they sprang out on the beach. 'Awful fun, having an island of your own to do as you like with.'

'Half-an-hour allowed for gathering ammunition,' called out Marjorie. 'We'll show Harry and Gerald over the place when we've had our fight. We had better defend from the roof of the cottage, for we might pull down the walls if we defended from the inside.'

Some time was spent in digging clods of turf, a quantity of which was piled on the roof of the hut for the defenders, while the attackers disposed theirs in little heaps at a short distance from the fort.

'Now for the sea-weed,' cried Marjorie; 'nothing like getting a heap of wet tang thrown in your face when you're fighting.'

The tide was far out, and quantities of wet sea-weed lay exposed on the rocks.

'No stones to be taken,' said Allan, sawing through the tough, thick stalks with a large pocket-knife.

'How do you like our way of playing?' asked Marjorie of Harry, as she passed him, grasping in each hand a mass of wet sea-weed which dripped down on her frock and shoes.

'Awful fun,' replied the boy, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

'Come along then, I think we've got enough.'

She swung herself nimbly on to the roof, followed by Hamish and Tricksy. The wind was freshening, and sang in their ears, making them feel excited and eager for the fray.

'It's rather stormy,' said Harry; 'do you think we'll get back?'

'Of course,' said Marjorie; 'why, this is nothing! We like it to be a little stormy, it's better fun. Call the others,' and they shouted for the rest of the attacking party, who came hurrying, armed with missiles. Laddie and Carlo followed in the rear, suspending their operations among the rabbit burrows to see what was going to happen.

'To your post, Gerald,' shouted Allan; and Gerald made a dart towards the besiegers, just in time to avoid being caught in a rain of clods which hurtled through the air.

Allan and Reggie showed great dexterity in avoiding the missiles, but Harry and Gerald, not having had so much practice in this kind of warfare, acted the part of unwilling targets, and their neat suits were soon bespattered with mud.

'All in the day's work, eh?' said Allan, as he hurried past Gerald, who was somewhat ruefully wiping the dirt off his cheek with one hand; 'Awful fun, isn't it?'

'Awfully jolly,' assented Gerald, trying not to think that in the bottom of his heart there was a doubt.

A fresh shower of sods came from the cottage, accompanied by shouts both from besiegers and besieged; and Laddie, who had been looking on with a puzzled face and trying to make out what was the matter, came to the conclusion that his young friends were engaged in deadly warfare, and rushed between the opposing sides with a bark and a wagging tail, bent upon making peace.

'Down, Laddie, down,' shouted Allan, as the dog jumped up to lick his face, after running frenziedly from one side to the other; 'trust, sir! Go and lie down;' and Laddie, looking heart-broken, retired to the turf dyke and lay watching the fray in consternation.

The battle raged long and furiously, neither side appearing to gain the advantage.

The attacking party pressed round the walls of the cottage, only to be beaten back by the projectiles which were showered upon them. Nerving themselves to fresh efforts, they rushed to the attack, Allan calm, Reggie intrepid, and the two Grahams animated by the wildest excitement.

Seeing one spot undefended, Gerald made a dash for it, and had already one foot on the wall, preparatory to scaling the cottage, when 'swish' came a lump of sea-weed in his face; and before he had recovered from the shock a pair of strong hands seized him and Marjorie's voice shouted, 'A prisoner!'

A wild rush was made to effect a rescue, but Hamish came to Marjorie's assistance, and Gerald was pulled kicking and struggling up on the roof.

'Now you had better sit down quietly,' said Hamish; 'you can watch the fight from behind the chimney,' and Gerald was reluctantly obliged to remain inactive.

Furious at the loss of one of their number, the attacking party precipitated themselves against the walls of the fort and the battle became fiercer than ever. For some time the issue appeared doubtful, but gradually the besiegers gained a footing on the walls from which they could not be dislodged. Panting, buffeted, they forced their way upwards, while the defenders rained blows and clods upon them.

With a shout of victory, Allan had swung himself on to the roof, when a cry of dismay was raised.

'The roof is giving way!'

Hastily they all jumped, and not a minute too soon, for some gaping holes appeared in the thatch, and there was a rumble of falling stones.

'It's all right,' panted Marjorie; 'we can put that right in a morning's work. Oh, wasn't it a first-rate fight!'

'Capital,' agreed the others, and Tricksy's voice piped in. 'I fought very well too, didn't I, Marjorie?'

'Oh, very well,' replied Marjorie, who had been greatly hampered by Tricksy getting in her way at critical moments. 'But I think we all need a rest now, don't we?'

No second suggestion was needed; and they all flung themselves on the ground and lay where they were, letting the sea-breeze blow upon their heated faces.

'Awfully jolly,' murmured Gerald; 'I should like to have a fight like that every day.'

Harry lay stretched out with a restless face looking about him with eyes that sparkled notwithstanding his fatigue, and kicking his heels when he had the energy to do so. Had he been less completely exhausted, he would have got up and explored the island, taking Gerald with him, but a cricket match and a siege in one afternoon, following a long walk in the morning, are as much as most boys are capable of.

Presently Reggie jumped up.

'Allan,' he said, 'don't you think we ought to be going?'

Allan looked at the waves which were beginning to jostle one another in mid-channel.

'Just about time,' he said.

'Couldn't we show them the inside of the house first,' said Marjorie; 'it won't take a minute.'

'All right,' said Allan, 'but we must be quick.'

'Is this where you stay when it is wet,' said Harry, as they pushed open the door of the cottage. 'What a jolly place. Can you light fires on the hearth?'

'Of course we can,' said Marjorie, 'and bake bannocks—why, Allan; some one has been here since we left!'

'Nonsense,' said Allan, looking about him. 'Why, I declare, some one has!'

'There has been a fresh fire lighted on the hearth,' said Marjorie, 'and the things are not as we left them. There are marks like footprints on the floor too.'

'What impudence,' said Reggie, with a darkening face. 'We must put up a notice board. No one has any business to come here except ourselves.'

Allan had been looking about him, and he suddenly darted forward and took possession of some object lying upon the floor. After a glance at it he turned white, gave an odd little gasp and slipped it into his pocket.

'What is it, Allan?' asked the others, crowding around.

'Nothing,' he said; 'nothing at all. I don't think any one has been here; it's all fancy.'

Reggie's eyes looked very much astonished at this change of front.

'Come along,' said Allan impatiently; 'it's time we went home,' and he swept them out of the cottage with so much decision that they obeyed, looking at him with puzzled faces.

'Hulloa!' cried Hamish; 'we had better be going.'

'Going?' echoed Allan; 'why, yes, we have no time to lose. Come along, all of you.'

'What's the matter?' asked Harry of Marjorie as they hurried towards the boat.

'It's a very high tide,' she said. 'Soon there will be a dangerous current flowing between the two islands, and if we get into it we might be swept out to sea. We are allowed to have the boat on condition that we watch the tide-ways; so we have to be careful.'

It took some hard rowing to gain the opposite shore; and when they had landed, Reggie turned to Hamish. 'A near thing that, eh, Hamish?' he said; and they all looked at the dark swift current which filled the channel.

'Ten minutes later, and we couldn't have crossed,' said Marjorie. 'What do you think, Allan?'

Despite the danger so recently escaped, Allan's thoughts were wandering. He looked round abstractedly, and slid into his pocket some object which he had been turning over unobserved; and Reggie fancied he caught a glimpse of a sailor's knife with some elaborate carving on the handle.

Reggie looked at his brother with a gleam of curiosity in his eyes.

'Come along,' said Allan authoritatively; 'don't let's stand dawdling about.'



CHAPTER VIII

A CRUISE IN THE 'HEROIC'

'I can't understand Allan at all,' declared Marjorie. She and Reggie, armed with large pocket-knives, were engaged in cutting heather on the moor, which stretched, a mass of purple, to the verge of the cliffs. A pile of heather lay beside them, the result of an hour's hard sawing of the wiry stems.

Marjorie's remark had interrupted a busy silence.

Reggie looked up with a twinkle in his eyes. He had been growing thinner and browner during the summer, and his wrists came further beyond the sleeves of his jacket.

'What's the matter with Allan?' he asked.

'Why,' said Marjorie impatiently, 'he is going on so oddly. First of all, he wasn't to be found when we came here this morning—had been away for hours—and he isn't usually in such a hurry to get up in the holidays. Then when he comes back we all have to go off and get heather to patch up the roof of the Pirates' Den. I can't make out why he has grown so particular all of a sudden.'

Reggie looked at her with a provoking smile.

'I thought it was you who wanted the place kept water-tight,' he suggested, 'in case we might be storm-stayed some evening and have to spend the night there——'

'That's all very well,' interrupted Marjorie, 'but that's not what's making you and Allan so busy just now. Why did you go off together yesterday, and stay away for such a time, leaving us to entertain your guests? You're busy with something that you don't want us to know about and I'd just like to find out what it is. It always irritates me when people make mysteries out of nothing.'

Reggie was looking grave, and his dark eyes studied Marjorie intently.

'Hullo, you two,' said Allan, coming up; 'how are you getting on?'

Marjorie rose up from the ground, and seated herself upon the pile of cut heather.

'I've just been telling Reggie that I know that you and he have a secret between you,' she said, looking boldly at Allan. 'I'd just like to know what it is. Hardly fair, I call it; keeping something from the other members of the Compact——'

She broke off upon seeing the grave, concerned expression in Allan's eyes.

'It's all right,' she said, looking fixedly out to sea; 'it's something that you know you ought to keep from me, and I'm not going to find out what it is.'

She had become flushed, and her heart was beating fast as a suspicion forced itself upon her. She turned, and stooping down, took up her armful of heather.

'I'm going to carry this to the boat,' she remarked, without looking round.

The boys looked after her retreating figure.

'H'm,' said Allan, 'not bad for a girl.'

Marjorie's reflections were interrupted by a about, and Harry came running down the hill and caught her by the arm.

'Well, what's the matter?' she asked irritably.

'Look!' he panted, pulling her round. 'Look at that! Well, if you're so cross you needn't, but you must be a duffer if you don't care to see what's coming round that headland——'

Marjorie's eyes followed in the direction pointed out by his shaking finger, and her face cleared.

A large vessel was gliding into view.

Tricksy came running as fast as her little short legs would carry her, the two dogs barking in her wake.

'Marjorie,' she gasped, it's a man-o'-war; oh, don't you hope it's that nice one that came last year!'

By this time the vessel had been sighted by the others, who came down to discuss the situation.

'Perhaps she's a stranger,' suggested Hamish, feeling that it might be better to prepare for a disappointment.

'She's a fine big vessel, whatever she is,' said Harry.

'She's like the one that was here last year,' said Marjorie.

'Oh, don't you hope she's the same,' sighed Tricksy.

'You are right, Marjorie,' said Reggie, whose eyes were the best; 'I'm certain it's the old Heroic.'

'What fun!' said Marjorie; while Tricksy sighed 'Oh, how nice!'

'I wonder whether the same men are on board,' said Reggie, whose serious expression had changed.

'Don't know,' said Allan briefly, looking out to sea with his hands in his pockets and a thoughtful face.

His lack of enthusiasm caused all the others to look at him, and Marjorie felt her fears revive.

The man-of-war came to a standstill in Ardnavoir Bay and a boat put off from her side.

'Look, oh look,' cried Tricksy, 'they're coming on shore.'

'Do you think they'll speak to us if they meet us?' inquired Harry, whose eyes had never ceased to sparkle since the first discovery of the vessel.

'We'll go down to the landing-place as soon as the boat comes in,' said Allan.

'Can I go too?' asked Tricksy.

Allan looked at her.

'I think you two girls had better stay up here,' he said; and Tricksy's face showed her disappointment.

The boat was rapidly coming nearer, and soon she grounded near the spot where the Pirate Craft lay beached.

'There,' said Allan; 'there are three officers in the boat, and they're getting out.'

The young people clustered at the edge of the rocks and looked down.

'We had better wait until they are gone,' said Allan; 'don't let them see that we are watching them.'

'They are going in the direction of Ardnavoir,' said Marjorie; 'I believe they are going to call for your father and mother!'

'Oh,' sighed Tricksy after the breathless pause during which they were uncertain whether the officers were really going to enter the gate or would pass by; 'they've gone in. I saw that nice one who came here last year. Do you think they can be going to invite us to come on board?'

This question being rather difficult to answer, Allan suggested that the boys should go down to the shore and see if any of their old friends were in the boat.

'Marjorie,' said Tricksy, as the two girls remained looking down from above; 'do you think we should have better fun if we were boys?'

Marjorie's reply was forestalled by a shout from below; and the girls scrambled down to the beach.

'Come along, you two,' said Allan; 'here's Jim Macdonnell, Euan's twin brother, and a lot of the men who were here last year.'

Greetings were exchanged with the pleasant-faced young blue-jacket and his companions; and then the boys and girls sat down on the stones to talk with their friends.

The men could not come on shore, as no leave had yet been given, but they hoped to be allowed to land on the following day.

'You will be glad to see Euan,' said Marjorie to Jim Macdonnell.

'Yes, Miss Marjorie,' replied the lad, but his handsome face clouded; and Marjorie knew that he was thinking of his cousin Neil, once the favourite of the island.

'We were going to ask you, Mr. Allan,' he said, 'whether you young gentlemen would come and have tea on board this afternoon; just with us men, you know, sir.'

'Thank you very much,' replied Allan, while all the boys looked gratified; 'it would be no end jolly, and we'll come if Father will let us. I'm sure he will. May we bring our friends too, Harry and Gerald Graham?'

'To be sure, sir,' replied Jim; 'we'll be glad to see the young gentlemen. Are you fond of the sea, sir?' he inquired, turning to Harry.

Yes,' replied Harry, 'and I'm going into the navy.'

'That's good,' said Jim. 'Perhaps I'll see you as a midshipman next time we meet.'

'Perhaps,' said Harry; 'and I hope I'll be a captain before very long.'

'I hope you will be an admiral some day, sir, I'm sure,' answered Jim gravely.

'Thank you,' said Harry; 'yes, I daresay I shall be.'

Allan turned his head away, and a smile gleamed out for an instant upon Marjorie's face. Harry saw it and did not feel pleased, and he remarked to Gerald afterwards that he was afraid Marjorie thought a great deal too much of herself.

'And what are you going to be, air?' inquired another of the men, turning to Gerald, who was sitting by with a thoughtful face.

'I'm going into the army, I think,' answered Gerald; 'but I don't know if I can pass the exams. They're very difficult, but I'm going to try.'

'Here are the gentlemen coming back again,' said Jim.

'Then we'll leave you now,' said Allan; 'but we'll see you again in the afternoon.'

'Right you are, sir,' replied Jim; 'we'll send a boat to fetch you.'

'You are lucky,' said Marjorie to the boys. 'How I wish we could go too. Do you think they meant to invite us?'

Allan looked doubtful.

'I don't know,' he said. 'I don't think they thought of it. But I daresay they would be glad to see you if you came.'

'It's no good, I'm afraid,' answered Marjorie; 'I'd have to ask Mother and she'd be sure to say no. But there is the boat going away, and listen, isn't that the horn?'

They hearkened for a moment, and it was unmistakably the old ram's horn which was sounded at Ardnavoir to summon those at a distance when any notable event was about to take place.

'I wonder what it can be,' said Tricksy, as they scampered in the direction of the mansion-house; 'do you think it can have anything to do with the Heroic, Allan?'

Mrs. Stewart was in the doorway.

'We are invited to luncheon on board the Heroic,' she announced. 'The officers have signalled to ask Dr. and Mrs. MacGregor to come too, and we have telephoned to say that Marjorie can get ready here, if Mrs. MacGregor will bring her things with her.'

The young people did not look so pleased as Mrs. Stewart had anticipated.

'How many of us are asked, Mummie?' inquired Tricksy.

'As many as care to come,' answered Mrs. Stewart. 'The boys may come too if they like.'

All the boys looked unwilling.

'Don't you want to go?' asked Mrs. Stewart in surprise.

'Yes, Mother,' answered Allan; 'but the men have invited us already.'

'And would you rather go with them?'

The boys' faces showed that they would, and Mrs. Stewart gave permission with a laugh.

Tricksy sidled up to her mother.

'Mummie, don't you think that Marjorie and I could go too?' she asked.

'No, I am quite sure that it wouldn't do,' replied Mrs. Stewart; and the girls looked disappointed.

'You had better go upstairs and begin to get ready,' said Mrs. Stewart. 'Marjorie can brush her hair'—looking dubiously at the tangled mass of curls, in which bits of grass and heather had become intermixed, 'and perhaps by that time her other frock and her hat will have arrived.'

The girls turned to go upstairs, but paused to look at Carlo, who came running down the steps, wriggling his small body, and whining as though he were in pain.

'What's the matter with the poor little dog?' they cried.

Every one turned round as Carlo landed on the rug, and stood yelping distressfully.

'Whatever is the little brute going on about?' said Reggie, looking at him with curiosity.

'Something is hurting him,' said Hamish.

'I never saw him go on like that before,' remarked Allan.

Laddie sprang forward, wagging his tail and running to every one in turn, trying to explain that his little friend needed help.

'Look how he bites his tail,' cried Mrs. Stewart, 'why do you do that, Carlo?'

'Hydrophobia, perhaps,' suggested Allan; and some of the bystanders edged a little farther away.

'Poor little dog,' said Gerald soothingly; 'tell us what's the matter with you.'

At the sound of the pitying voice the little dog gathered up his ears, then sat up and uttered a doleful howl, accompanied by agitated movements of his fore-paws.

'There's something clinging to his tail,' cried Reggie suddenly, pouncing upon him. 'Why, just look at this; it's a couple of small crabs!'

'Where can he have got them from?' asked Mrs. Stewart, looking bewildered; 'he came from upstairs.'

'Oh, it's—it's—I know,' stuttered Gerald, flushing deeply. 'It's—I'll put it all right, you needn't come.'

The remainder of the sentence was lost as he hurried upstairs.

'Whatever is he about?' said Marjorie; 'let's go and see.'

Gerald became very red again as he was discovered in the room which he shared with Harry, collecting some small objects from the floor.

You needn't have come,' he said. 'It's—it's only my collection, and they've been escaping——'

'Ha, ha!' laughed Harry; 'it's those snails and things that he has been gathering on the beach, and they've crawled all over the place!'

Gerald stood, flushing to the roots of his hair, and shrinking from the mirth of the others.

His treasures had been trying to make themselves at home in their new quarters. The little crabs and lobsters had scattered in search of water, and the shell-fish had crawled over the floor or attached themselves to the wall, where they waited with tilted shells for the tide that failed to come.

'Never mind, Gerald,' said Marjorie, as tears began to start in the boy's eyes; 'it's very nice making a collection, and I've got a nice pail with a lid that I'll give you to keep the things in.'

'And now,' said Mrs. Stewart, 'I see the pony cart coming up the drive, with Mrs. MacGregor in it; run and get ready, girls, or we shall be late.'

After about a quarter of an hour's tidying, Marjorie was released from her mother's hands, dressed in a cream serge frock and a large hat, and with her hair brushed out and neatly arranged.

Feeling unlike herself and hardly satisfied with the change, she peeped in the glass as soon as her mother's back was turned.

Her own reflection caused her to start and colour with surprise.

Blue eyes, bright with suppressed excitement, a wild rose face framed in short fair curls and set off by the light colours of her attire, slender hands and neat ankles—'and that's me,' said Marjorie to herself in bewilderment.

Tricksy came into the room, wearing a white hanging frock with a big floppy white hat.

'Dear me,' said Marjorie to herself, taking another glance in the mirror, after the eyes of the two girls had met in silent approval of one another; 'curious that we've never thought of it before—perhaps it's because we so seldom have bothered to look in the glass—but it strikes me that we're actually a pair of very pretty girls—with our hair brushed and our faces washed!'

They went downstairs without speaking, and encountered the boys in the hall.

All eyes were attracted to them; then an approving expression came into the boys' faces, and as the girls passed they moved somewhat aside to look at them from another point of view.

Despite the anxiety which had brooded over her since morning, Marjorie began to feel her spirits rise.

'Marjorie,' said Tricksy solemnly, as Duncan was driving them to the landing-stage, 'which do you think is the best fun, being a boy or being a girl?'

Marjorie had been lost in thought, but at Tricksy's question her eyes began to dance.

'I think it's best of all to be a tomboy,' she said, 'and then you can be a bit of both!'

When the sailors had shipped their oars, and the boat glided under the side of the great war-vessel, first the ladies, and then the girls were assisted on deck and greeted by the captain, erect and broad-shouldered, and by the officers, the youngest of whom was Tricksy's friend of the year before. Dr. MacGregor and the laird and Mr. Graham were already on board.

'Hullo, Miss Tricksy, how do you do?' said a voice, and Tricksy looked up to see the Sheriff, who was smiling at her with outstretched hand.

Tricksy looked solemnly up in his face.

'Well, aren't you going to shake hands, Tricksy?' said the Sheriff.

'No,' said Tricksy deliberately.

The Sheriff's expression altered.

'And why not, Miss Tricksy, if I might inquire?' he said.

Tricksy met his grim smile with a solemn stare of disapproval.

'Because you let a great friend of ours be put in prison when he didn't deserve it,' she replied. 'That was why I sent back the big box of chocolates that you sent me by post. Mother did not know that it had come. We can't be friends until you've owned yourself in the wrong. We've all joined a Compact to get our friend back again and to show that it wasn't he who did it. I've got it with me,' and Tricksy began to fumble in her pocket.

The smile was beginning to twitch at the corners of the Sheriff's lips again when he was addressed by one of the officers. The little scene had passed unobserved by all save Marjorie, as the captain suggested that, the weather being fine and time at their disposal, the Heroic should take their visitors on a tour round Inchkerra.

'Certainly, certainly,' said the Sheriff at haphazard, and Tricksy slipped away.

'In the meanwhile I think lunch is ready,' said Captain Redwood, and each of the officers took a lady downstairs, Tricksy falling to the share of the youngest.

'Dear me, this isn't half so exciting as I expected,' said Marjorie to herself. 'What stupid grown-up things they are talking about; I am sure they wouldn't be interested if I were to tell them about the things we do, riding bare-backed ponies, and about the Craft and the Den, and finding the smugglers; and I have nothing else to talk to them about. They haven't taken much notice of Tricksy and me after all; they weren't a bit surprised when they saw us; we're pretty, but not any prettier than lots of other girls, and it isn't enough to make a fuss about.'

She wondered what Tricksy was finding to say to Lieutenant Jones, the young officer by whose side she was sitting, and who appeared to be greatly entertained by the little girl.

After lunch they returned on deck to see a boat bring the boys on board; then the screw was set in motion and the water began to churn itself into foam round the vessel's sides.

'It isn't bad,' said Marjorie to herself as the Heroic ploughed her way past the well-known shores, 'but it's a bother not having anything to do. I've seen all this before, and it isn't as though we were rowing for all we were worth in the old Mermaid—I mean, the Craft—and in danger of getting into currents and being swept away to I don't know where. Now I have no doubt the boys are having no end of a good time, going into the engine-room and getting themselves dirty, and climbing all over the place, and listening to the sailors' yarns. Once I get out of this, catch me bother any more about looking nice, and being grown-up, and all the rest of it—it will be time enough when I'm so old that I get no fun out of being a tomboy any more.'

Lieutenant Jones left Tricksy and came to sit beside Marjorie for a turn.

'I suppose you are quite accustomed to sailing as you live in an island, Miss MacGregor?' he said.

'Yes,' replied Marjorie, 'we are all very fond of boating, the boys and Tricksy and I,' and after talking for a little while she began to think that a grown-up man was nearly as good company as a boy once you got him upon the right subject.

'Now,' said the Sheriff, coming up with his spy-glass, 'we are coming near the finest bit of rock scenery on the island; one of the finest, in my opinion, on this part of the West Coast.'

The Heroic was just rounding the point which concealed the Smugglers' Caves from view.

'The Corrachin Crags,' continued the Sheriff; 'the caves are remarkably fine; interesting, too, as in former times they are said to have been used for smuggling purposes, and as hiding-places for pirates and other lawless characters——'

'Now!' burst from the lips of the gazers as the lofty cliffs came in view, with the waves tumbling at their base.

Captain Redwood had issued orders to slacken speed, and as the vessel steamed slowly past, a fine view was obtained of bold masses of rock and the black openings to the caves, with the startled birds rising in clouds and screaming.

'If all stories are true, the caves are still sometimes put to their old uses,' observed Mrs. MacGregor as the Heroic's engines throbbed through the smooth swell of the water; 'for all we know, the most thrilling adventures may be taking place there.'

'A score of men might lie in hiding without discovering one another's presence,' said the laird; 'the caves form a regular network, and stretch a long way underground. The entire headland is said to be honeycombed with them——'

'Hullo, good people!' cried a soft little voice from overhead, followed by a triumphant laugh.

Every one looked round, and half-way up the mast Tricksy was discovered, who having become annoyed at her desertion by Lieutenant Jones, was indulging in an exploring expedition on her own account. Her little round face smiled mischievously from between a large white hat and tumbled frock, and she sat swinging her heels in perfect contentment.

Jim Macdonnell's duties having brought him to the quarter-deck at this moment, the captain made him a sign almost without pausing in the sentence which he was addressing to Mrs. Stewart.

The sailor climbed into the rigging and removed Tricksy very gently from her perch, tucked her under one arm with her head hanging in front and her heels behind, slid down the ropes and deposited the little girl on the deck.

Tricksy stood and looked at every one in speechless wrath. Her dignity, being as great as her anger, prevented her from giving way to an outburst before she should have discovered who deserved it most.

Lieutenant Jones crossed over to her.

'I suppose you have been round all this place before, Miss Tricksy,' he said in a conversational tone.

Tricksy looked at him with mistrust.

'I believe you are great explorers and rock-climbers, you and your brothers, Miss Tricksy,' continued the officer, as though being carried down from a mast before a crowd of people were a matter of everyday occurrence; 'I envy you your opportunities——'

This sounded quite like the way the other officers had been talking to the grown-up ladies, and Tricksy found her stiffness begin to forsake her.

The most important point was to discover whether the Sheriff had seen what had occurred. If he had not been a witness, Tricksy felt that she might allow herself to get over it.

Her eyes sought her enemy, but that magistrate was, or affected to be, engrossed in trying to bring his telescope to bear upon the caves, and the episode had apparently escaped him.

'Talking of people hiding in the caves,' he said suddenly; 'Mrs. MacGregor, do you see the figure of a man at the mouth of the one which we are now opposite? From his attitude he might be a fugitive from justice or any other of these interesting desperadoes about whom we have been talking——'

Marjorie's face flushed, and she began to tremble from head to foot.

'Wait a minute, Mrs. MacGregor,' said the Sheriff, 'I will get my glasses adjusted. Curious; there is something in the man's appearance which seems familiar to me——'

He was about to take another look when the air was rent by the shrill whistle of a siren.

They all turned round in astonishment, and when they looked towards the rocks again the figure had disappeared.

The captain's face had become stern, but the culprit proved to be only a small boy in a jacket whose sleeves were too short for him.

Marjorie had seen more, however; she had seen that it was Jim Macdonnell who had made Reggie blow the siren.

During the rest of the afternoon things seemed to be swimming before Marjorie's eyes, and she heard only a confused murmur of voices.

When the voyage was over she went straight to Allan.

'Allan,' she said abruptly, 'I may as well tell you that I know your secret. Neil is in Inchkerra—and he is in hiding.'



CHAPTER IX

DISAPPOINTMENT

Allan looked at Marjorie with his hands in his pockets.

'It's all right,' said Marjorie hastily; 'I won't tell any one, but I couldn't help finding it out, for I saw Neil. Anyhow, I know so much already that I might as well know the rest. To begin with, it was Neil's knife that you picked up in the Den; I saw the letters on the handle.'

Allan watched Marjorie narrowly for a minute, and then he seemed to become reassured.

'Listen, Marjorie,' he said; 'mind you don't let out a word of this to any one. It would be an awful thing if Neil were taken now. He came back a few days ago, in a smuggling vessel, to see his mother. Mrs. Macdonnell is very ill, as you know'—Marjorie nodded, a lump being in her throat—'and she thinks she can't live long. Some one who knew where Neil was wrote and told him that she was always saying how much she wished she could see him before she died, and he came back at once, although the police may get him at any minute and he knows it. In the meanwhile she is much worse, and he refuses to go away until he sees whether she is going to recover. Mrs. Macdonnell keeps asking him to clear out, but he always says there is no hurry, and that he will wait until she is better. It's awfully senseless of him, for he might be seen any day; but Neil always was a bit obstinate once he takes a thing into his head. He hides most of the day and comes out when there isn't much chance of his meeting any one. But if he were found out he would be taken and sent to prison as sure as fate, so you must tell no one, Marjorie, not a soul. Reggie knows, but none of the others.'

Every particle of colour had left Marjorie's face, but her lips set themselves firmly.

'You needn't be afraid of me, Allan,' she said. 'We must get him persuaded to go away at once, for his mother would never get over it if he were caught.'

'Can't do anything just now,' said Allan; 'there is no way of getting him out of the island while the Heroic is here, and this afternoon the men were declaring that as soon as they got shore leave they would search the island for the man who they say is "skulking round." We can only hope that they won't go very far into the caves, or that the ship will soon be ordered north. But, Marjorie, don't go about with a face like that, whatever you do, or you'll show people that something's the matter. Remember that if either the Pater or your father were to find out that Neil is here, it would be their duty to let the police know, and they wouldn't like to have to do that.'

Marjorie drew herself together.

'You needn't be afraid of me, Allan,' she said, as she turned away. 'I can keep a secret as well as you and Reggie, and you know it.'

On the following morning Allan was hardly surprised to encounter Marjorie upon the little hill which commanded a view of the sea near Ardnavoir. Her pony was beside her, and she had evidently risen with the dawn and ridden over the moors.

'Any news?' she inquired anxiously.

'Nothing at all,' he replied. 'The Heroic is quite quiet yet, as you see.'

They looked at the dark hull which was lying motionless upon the water.

'Duncan rode over to the caves last night to tell Neil to keep out of sight while the Heroic is here,' said Allan. 'The only fear is if the men should try exploring with torches. There are openings from the caves on to the moors, but if the island is swarming with men it wouldn't be much good trying to escape by them.'

'Oh,' cried Marjorie, looking at the Heroic, 'if only they would go away. Couldn't we invent some excuse for getting them out of the way while we get Neil into safety.'

'No good, I'm afraid,' said Allan. 'They have their orders from the Admiralty, and they wouldn't attend to anything else.'

Marjorie looked hopeless.

'I shall have to go home now,' she said; 'there's some one moving about in your garden, so it must be nearly breakfast-time. Let me know if there's any news.'

'Don't go yet,' said Allan decidedly. 'You must stay and have breakfast with us. I bet you didn't have anything before you left?'

'I had a crust of bread,' said Marjorie reluctantly. 'Elspeth keeps everything locked up at night, and I couldn't wait.'

'Come along,' said Allan. 'You'll be in the best place for seeing what the Heroic is about.'

The argument was irresistible and Marjorie yielded.

'Never mind Cheeky,' said Allan; 'he won't wander far.'

The bridle was taken off the shaggy little pony whom Marjorie had not waited to saddle, and Marjorie and Allan went down the hill.

Reggie and Harry were already out of doors, Harry addressing himself with sparkling eyes to Reggie, who was unusually silent. When Allan came in view together with Marjorie, Reggie studied the pair inquiringly and received a reassuring nod from Allan.

'Seen the Heroic?' began Harry; 'I say, if the men get their leave to-day do you think they will let us come with them?'

'We might show them the interesting places on the island,' said Reggie, with a sidelong glance at Allan.

'Oh, I say, what fun,' exclaimed Harry; 'I'd take them to the Smugglers' Caves and let them explore.'

Reggie looked at Allan again.

'I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Harry,' said Allan. 'You don't know much about the caves yourself yet, you know, and they're most awfully dangerous; great holes full of water where you don't expect them, and rocks that might fall on the top of you and crush you to pieces; and then the smugglers might be lying in ambush round the corners, you know.'

Tricksy, who had come out to join the others, opened her eyes very widely at this account of the hidden perils of the caves.

'Look,' cried Reggie, 'they're signalling something from the Heroic.'

A string of flags had suddenly floated out from the Heroic's masthead.

'Wait, and I'll fetch a spy-glass,' said Allan, running towards the house.

'Something about telling something to Father,' he said, after studying the signals for awhile; 'I can't make out the rest.'

They looked at each other with frightened eyes.

'Here, Reggie,' said Allan, handing him the glass, 'you try.'

Reggie looked, then shook his head.

'Can't make anything of it,' he said.

'Perhaps they want us to come on board again,' said Harry. 'You might give me the glass for a minute, Reggie.'

'They can't have been exploring already?' suggested Marjorie, in a voice designed only for Allan's and Reggie's ears.

'Don't know,' said Allan. 'If only they hadn't gone and made Father a J.P.!' he added, with a judiciously suppressed groan.

'They're signalling from the coastguard station, do you see?' cried Tricksy.

'Where's Gerald?' said Harry; 'he ought to be here to see this. Lazy beggar, if I don't remember to wake him at four in the morning he always oversleeps.'

He flew into the house, and returned shortly, followed by Gerald, who came rubbing his eyes and trying to seem grateful to his brother for having roused him out of the first good sleep he had enjoyed for weeks.

'There's a coastguard just coming up the drive,' said Reggie.

'Perhaps all the men are going to ask us to a picnic or something,' suggested Harry; while Marjorie, Allan, and Reggie watched the messenger.

Nothing was to be gathered from the demeanour of the coastguard, and after he had gone down the avenue all the young people crowded into the hall.

'A letter,' said Allan, looking at an envelope lying on the hall table; 'Allan Stewart, Esq. that doesn't tell us much, and Father has gone out.'

'Perhaps it's for you,' suggested Tricksy.

'Not it,' said Allan unwillingly; 'they'd never address me as esquire, especially as Father is Allan too. Can't do anything until he comes back.'

'What do you think he can have gone out for?' inquired Marjorie, and the faces of the others were as anxious as her own.

'Now, young people,' cried Mrs. Stewart's voice, 'come to breakfast; the Heroic will wait while you have some food.'

Marjorie, Allan, and Reggie tore themselves unwillingly away from the letter.

'Mother,' said Allan persuasively, 'there's a letter for Father out there on the hall table; it's some message from the Heroic; don't you think you might open it and see what they say?'

Mrs. Stewart looked surprised.

'I can't open a letter addressed to your father,' she said. 'Have patience a little while; he may not be long.'

'But, Mother, perhaps it's something very important,' persisted Allan; 'they may be waiting for an answer, you know.'

'I don't think it can be so important as all that,' said Mrs. Stewart. 'Take your places, Allan and Reggie, everything is getting cold.'

The young people felt that their patience would give way in another minute.

'Come here, Gerald,' said Mrs. Stewart, 'beside Tricksy; and Harry, you can sit by Marjorie.'

Harry looked unwilling.

'Oh, Mother,' cried Tricksy, 'you are putting him with his back to the window!'

Mrs. Stewart looked mystified.

'He wants to see the Heroic,' explained Tricksy; 'we are watching to see when the boats leave.'

Mrs. Stewart gave Harry a seat on the other side of the table, an arrangement which placed Allan where he could not see what was going on. He and Marjorie and Reggie had to rest satisfied with the discovery that they were able to communicate by means of kicking one another's shins under the table, although this method of intelligence made them feel if possible more distracted than before.

'Look how the men are running about on board,' said Tricksy. 'They look like little black ants! They must be going to launch the boats now.'

Harry's bright eyes did not leave the vessel for an instant. Of a sudden his jaw dropped and his face became blank.

'What's the matter?' cried every one.

'They're going away,' cried Harry.

Every one sprang from table and looked.

'They can't be going round to the caves,' said Marjorie. 'Oh, dear, how can we stop them. I'll take Cheeky and go and warn him.'

Fortunately this remark passed unnoticed amid the hubbub.

'They aren't going away altogether, are they?' asked Tricksy, her eyes becoming large with dismay.

Allan made a rush for the door, and ran up against his father, who was coming in.

'Hard luck,' said Mr. Stewart, holding out the letter; 'the Heroic has received unexpected orders, and they have to sail northward without delay. No shore leave, so they take this opportunity of saying good-bye.'

'Aw—w—w,' said Harry, Gerald, and Tricksy, while the others had difficulty in repressing an inclination to cheer.

'When are they coming back again?' asked Gerald.

'Next year, perhaps,' said Mr. Stewart, smiling.

The faces became if possible more blank than before.

'She's out of sight,' said Harry in a dejected tone, going to the window.

'Is she?' said Gerald, looking out too; 'why, so she is.'

'If you fellows want to see her,' said Allan, 'why don't you go to the top of the hill? You'll get a first-class view from there.'

Without a word the boys darted from the room and out at the front door, Harry with his bootlaces untied and flapping about his ankles, and Gerald without a hat. In scrambling over the wall Harry became caught, and fell sprawling on the ground, but picked himself up and ran on as if nothing had happened.

'Come, you two,' said Allan, 'now that we've got them safely out of the way we've got to do something.'

Marjorie ran for her bridle and put it on Cheeky, who was cropping grass by the stream.

'Go on,' shouted Allan; 'don't wait for us, we'll soon catch you up. Let's go and catch Dewdrop and Daisy, Reggie; bicycles are no good for the moors.'

In a short time Marjorie was overtaken by the two boys, perched upon bridleless, bare-backed ponies.

The wind whistled past as they galloped over the level ground, and they were almost too breathless to speak as they urged their ponies up the slopes of the hill.

'Oh, gee up, Daisy; gee-up!' cried Allan, 'we have no time to lose to-day!'

'Glad we got away all right,' he panted as they stood breathing their ponies on the summit; 'it would never do to have these two dragging about and asking questions. We've just got to get Neil out of there before anything more happens,' he continued. 'The boat is waiting about, watching for an opportunity to leave as soon as the Heroic goes; and we must make Neil promise to leave with her.'

The sturdy little ponies descended the slopes with the sure-footedness of cats; then sprang pluckily over the moss-hags which covered the greater part of the peninsula.

Suddenly, without warning, they became entangled in a treacherous piece of bog, from which they did not struggle into safety until Marjorie's pony had lost a shoe.

'Look out,' cried Allan, as they were about to spring forward once more; 'it's here that there are those holes that go down into the caves, and you don't see them until you've nearly fallen into them.'

Curbing their impatience, they dismounted and walked, leading the ponies by the bridle.

'There,' said Marjorie as they neared the cliff, 'the tide's rising, and they're shaking out the sails on the smugglers' vessel.'

'Shall we all go down?' asked Reggie.

'No,' said Allan, 'the fewer the better. You stay here with the ponies, and I'll go down with Marjorie.'

'Me?' said Marjorie, surprised.

'Yes, you. You've got to speak to him and get him to leave. Come along.'

They lowered themselves over the edge of the cliff, and clambered to the beach.

Two faces scowled at them over the bulwarks of the boat, and the captain waiting on the shore, a man of foreign appearance, with a shaggy black beard and a sou'-wester, glanced disapprovingly at Marjorie.

Somewhat alarmed, she turned and discovered Duncan standing beside her.

The butler was more disturbed at the encounter than seemed to Marjorie at all necessary, and her astonishment was completed when Rob MacLean and the lighthouse-keeper appeared, rolling a heavy barrel between them.

'Here, lend a hand,' they cried to Duncan; then they stopped short on observing Allan and Marjorie.

'Why, they are all smugglers!' Marjorie was on the point of exclaiming; but Allan seized her arm and gripped it warningly.

'We've come to see Neil, and to try to make him go with you,' he said, addressing himself to the men in a body.

Immediately the faces became less grim.

'That iss ahl right, Mr. Allan,' said Rob MacLean; 'you will pe finding him in a cave right opposite. Speak to him, Miss Marjorie; he iss ferry foolish and he will not pe wanting to come.'

Marjorie was still looking in a surprised way at Duncan, whom she hardly seemed to recognise in his new character of a smuggler; but Allan renewed his pressure upon her arm.

'Tell him he must go, Mr. Allan and Miss Marjorie,' said Duncan, 'and he must not be long, ta captain cannot be waiting or he will miss the tide. He iss a ferry impatient man iss ta captain, whateffer.'

All right,' said Allan; 'we'll talk to him. You go in first, Marjorie.'

A short way from the entrance Marjorie came upon Neil; but what a change in her old playmate! Pale, and looking still paler in the dim light; with worn and soiled clothing, and his former bright, pleasant expression changed into sullen despair.

Marjorie's heart sank.

'Neil,' she began, 'we've come to see you, Allan and I.'

'Indeed, Miss Marjorie, it is ferry good of you,' said the lad, rising and looking down upon her with a grateful expression, 'but wass it not ferry unwise of you to come? That sea-captain iss a rough character and he might——'

'Never mind us, Neil,' said Marjorie, 'we're all right. We only wanted to say that we are your friends, whatever happens, and we hope that things will come right for you. And now, Neil, you will go away for a little while, will you not? Don't stay here while you are in such danger of being found.'

Neil looked down upon her, and his face darkened again.

'I cannot be leaving Inchkerra just now, Miss Marjorie,' he said.

'Oh, Neil, do go away. Think what it would be to your mother if you were found—think what it would be to all of us, Neil——'

'Schooner's beginning to weigh anchor,' cried a gruff voice outside.

'Come, Neil, don't waste time,' said Marjorie.

Neil seated himself determinedly upon a fragment of rock.

'I will not be leaving the island just now, Miss Marjorie,' he said.

Marjorie looked at him, and noted the dulness of his eyes and the obstinate lines round his mouth.

'Neil, do, do go,' she said, clutching him by the arm. 'Come with me, Neil, and don't be foolish.'

'Are you ready, Neil?' said Allan, appearing inside the cave; 'the schooner can't wait much longer.'

Marjorie turned round in despair.

'Oh, this will never do,' said Allan. 'Come along, Neil, there's a good fellow, and don't keep them waiting.'

Neil remained firm and Marjorie felt that it was hopeless.

'Are you not for coming, Neil?' said Duncan, standing in the mouth of the cave; 'ta captain says he iss in a hurry to be gone.'

'Come, Neil,' said Rob MacLean persuasively, 'it will not pe meking Mistress Macdonnell any better, puir soul, for you to be waiting here with ta police, silly bodies, at your heels.'

Neil came forward, Marjorie and Allan following him anxiously.

'I will not pe going,' he said briefly.

'Of all ta fulish gomerals!' burst out Duncan, and clenched his fists and stormed in Gaelic to the lad, who remained unmoved.

'That will be a ferry foolish thing, Neil; gang wi ta captain,' said Bob soothingly.

'Go on board, Neil; it isn't too late yet,' implored Allan.

'Tide's on the turn,' shouted the gruff voice of the captain. 'Come if you're coming, and if not, don't keep honest folks waiting.'

Neil leaned against the cliff and looked stubbornly into vacancy. From his attitude it was plain that he was inflexible.

'Yo-ho!' sang out the sailors; 'heave-ho!' and the sails of the little vessel slowly filled as her bows swung round to the sea.

Marjorie made a bolt towards the cliff, and began to climb.

On the top she turned and looked at Allan, whose face was as white as her own.

'Can't be helped,' he said in a hard voice. 'Some ass went and told him that Mrs. Macdonnell was worse.'

'Hullo,' called out Reggie as they came within hearing, 'is he gone?'

'Gone!' echoed the others, and Marjorie sank down on the heather and gasped.

When she looked up the boys were sitting beside her.

'Well?' began Reggie sympathetically.

'He wouldn't go,' said Allan; 'we did all we could. Duncan and Rob are still storming at him down there.'

There was nothing to be said, and they all sat and reflected.

'The worst of it is,' said Marjorie in a trembling tearless voice, 'that in spite of our Compact and everything else, we haven't been able to do him a bit of good!'

The others assented by their silence.

'And I don't believe we ever shall,' continued Marjorie, 'we don't seem to have set about it the right way, somehow.'

The boys looked so downcast that Marjorie judged it inadvisable to pursue the subject further and they mounted their ponies and rode slowly in the direction of Ardnavoir.

Half-way down the hill they discovered Tricksy sitting on a clump of heather, with Hamish beside her and Laddie curled at her feet.

'You are nice, kind people,' said Tricksy reproachfully, 'going away like that and leaving me all alone!'

'Why, Tricksy,' began Marjorie, 'why didn't you go with the others?'

'Go with the others!' echoed Tricksy, 'do you think I could run up the hill as they did? If it hadn't been for Hamish I shouldn't have seen anything. Then leaving me all alone too.'

'But, Tricksy, where are Harry and Gerald?'

'I don't know, I'm sure. Gone off somewhere by themselves, and I came to meet you with Hamish. I think you might have let me come with you.'

'Don't be a little silly, Tricksy,' said Reggie irritably; 'you are too little to go all that distance.'

'Too little!' cried Tricksy, exasperated; 'I'm not too little to be sent messages for the others, and I'm not too little to dig in the garden and carry stones for the Pirates' Den; I'm only too little when it's a jolly piece of fun that you want to keep to yourselves. Oh, Laddie, dear,' to the dog who had jumped up and was licking her face, 'you are the only nice ones, you and Hamish'—and she threw her arms round the collie's neck to hide a tear. 'Don't lick my face though,' she added, with a change of manner that forced a laugh even from the tired and weary adventurers.

'You haven't shown them what you found, Tricksy,' said Hamish.

'No,' said Tricksy, 'neither I have,' and she fumbled in her pocket and drew out a crumpled paper which she gave to Allan.

Her brother looked at it.

'What's this?' he said. 'I don't understand.'

'Look at the number, Allan, and the date,' said Hamish.

Allan examined the paper; then flushed to the ears.

'Tricksy, you little owl,' he burst out; 'to think of you going on about your potty little feelings and wounded dignity and all that when you had this to show us.'



CHAPTER X

IN WHICH ALLAN IS VERY WISE

'I—I—I didn't know,' stammered poor Tricksy.

'What is it?' cried the others, pressing round to look.

'It's one of the orders that were stolen,' said Allan.

'Tell them where you found it, Tricksy,' said Hamish.

'It was in the box-room, where the spare coats and the fishing baskets are kept,' said Tricksy. 'I went to see if Reggie's knife was in the pocket of his old great-coat, and when I pulled it off the shelf this fluttered down.'

'Well,' said Allan, while the others were dumb with astonishment, 'this beats me altogether. It wasn't we who were the thieves!'

Every one looked at the order, and turned it round, and examined the back of it, but there was no clue to the mystery.

'Let's go and have a thorough search of the box-room,' said Marjorie; 'who knows what we may bring to light.'

'Take my pony, Tricksy,' said Reggie considerately. 'Those who haven't ponies will have to walk. Don't begin the search until we are all there!'

When the walkers reached Ardnavoir they found the others standing guard at the door of the box-room.

'Now!' said Marjorie, throwing open the door; and they all burst in.

All the garments were taken down from the shelves and unfolded and shaken, but nothing was to be found. Every pocket was turned out; but the contents were only pebbles, and bits of string, and pieces of dried seaweed.

All the fishing baskets were opened and peeped into, and turned upside down and shaken, but without result.

Afterwards they pulled out the boxes that were ranged against the wall, and looked behind them, but no postal orders were found.

'This box is unfastened,' cried Tricksy; 'let's look inside it.'

'Do you think we should do that,' demurred Hamish; 'Mrs. Stewart might object.'

'Can't stop to think of that in a case of necessity,' replied Reggie, and Marjorie's hands were soon in the trunk.

Furs smelling strongly of camphor, some old chair covers, then a quantity of frocks and boys' suits grown too small, and a layer of boots at the bottom.

'Nothing there,' said Marjorie, cramming the things into the box again.

'These other trunks are all locked,' said Reggie, trying them one after the other.

'They'll have to be opened when the police come,' observed Hamish.

Marjorie and Allan looked at each other.

'Do you think we ought to bring the police back at this time?' asked Marjorie in an undertone.

Allan sat down on a box, and the others all followed his example.

'We've got to consider what's to be done about this discovery,' began Allan. 'The first question is, have you showed the order to Pater or Mother already, Hamish?'

'Not yet,' said Hamish.

'Well, then,' said Allan, 'we've got to make up our minds whether we'd better do it or not.'

Hamish looked astonished.

'I don't see how there can be any doubt about that,' he began. 'Surely it's the very first——'

Marjorie, Allan, and Reggie were all looking at each other.

'We couldn't possibly keep back evidence like this,' pursued Hamish.

Marjorie's and Reggie's eyes were saying 'Don't tell them.'

Allan pushed his hair back from his forehead, thrust his hands into his pockets, and then turned to Hamish again.

'We've got to think of a lot of things in an affair like this,' he said. 'For instance——'

'It seems to me there's only one way of looking at it,' replied Hamish, his slow voice becoming steadier. 'You've got an important piece of evidence which may prove the turning-point of the case, and you don't even tell your father and mother.'