" In his holsters this
gentleman carried a brace of pistols.
Surely here was good fortune for M'Fadyen! A party so well armed could
afford to look with contempt on any highwayman that ever cried "Stand
and deliver" over all broad Scotland. And it was not long before the
honest drover, in the joy of his heart at finding himself in such goodly
company, had expressed to the red-coated stranger the pleasure it would
give him if he might be granted the escort across the moor of a
gentleman so well armed and mounted; "for," said he, "in sic ill times
it was maist mischancey wark to ride far ane's lane." Little objection
had the tall gentleman in red to make to such a proposition, and on they
rode, amicably enough, with just such dryness of manner on the
stranger's part as the humble drover might expect from an army officer,
yet nothing to keep his tongue from wagging. "It was a gey kittle bit
they were comin' to, where the firs stude, and he wad hae liked ill to
be rubbit. Muckle? O--oo, no; just a wee pickle siller, but nae man
likit to lose onything. And folk said they highwayman wad skin the
breeks aff a Hielandman. No that he was a Hielandman, though his name
did begin wi' a "Mac."
And so chattering, they had already won half-way across that lonely
stretch of moor regarding which the drover had had misgivings.
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