The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

364 The Highland Monthly.
upon which I have spent so much care and money, will by
and bye not take long to clip."
" Grieved would I be to hear that news, and not I only,
but every true man in the parish of Keilangus, for since the
day that you set your foot among us, you have given a lift
to many, and injured none. But here we are, come to the
Gallows Knowe." Having halted on this summit for a few
moments, the two riders parted, James Macbride heartily
wished his friend a good market and a safe return home.
The farm of Dell lay some miles up a glen that opened on
the right, from whence issued the stream that made its way
under the Gallows Knowe. It was said that the bodies of
malefactors after hanging in chains for a certain time,
used to be flung down into the gorge far below. The
locality had, as might be supposed, an evil reputation.
Strange sights and stranger sounds had here frequently
terrified the lonely wayfarer. Mark Teviot lived in an age
and in a land where none doubted the reality of such
visitation. But he had crossed the Gallows Ford for many
a year by night and by day and had never encountered any
object of terror ; nor had he ever heard sounds more dis-
agreeable than issued from a colony of owls that haunted
the crevices of the rocks on either side of the deep ravine,
or fluttered among the branches and overarched the water.
Teviot saw his companion ride along the edge of this ravine
until he was near the crofting township of Balmoris, which
extended on both sides towards the opening of the Glen to
which I have referred. There was no moon, but the stars
shone brighty in the frosty skye, and the twinkling lights
of Balmoris seemed too like stars set in the dark hillside.
Glenbeltane slowly turned his horse to the left and
descended the rough pass which led to the water, that here
flowed over a broad bed of brown shingle. When he
had reached about the middle of the ford, he became aware
that a form was moving among the bushes on the opposite
side, which were partially concealed by a light milky vapour.
Teviot's first idea was that some individual had been