The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

" Stop !
A Strange Rcz'CJio-e. 395
" pleaded Flora, throwing herself on her knees
b}- the bedside ; for m)- sake retract these fearful words
remember that I saved your life, that
drowned but for my help."
\-ou would have been
" The witch canna droon ;
the
—
witch canna droon," w as
the hissing response "
; It wasna you that did it, but the
deevil, the deevil that made ye dae't—my freend, Auld
Nicky. Ha, ha, ha ! I see him sittin' aside ye the noo ;
hech, d'ye want to ken what he says aboot ye ?
" Xo, no," screamed Flora, trying to grasp the old
beldame's hand ;
but she was pushed angrily away.
" Then run for the life o' ye ;
yer sad heart wi' ye."
oot
o' my sicht an' tak'
Flora needed no second bidding. She flew out of the
hut with a shriek— ^as if a dozen ghosts gibbered at her
heels—followed by hysteric laughter from the witch, which
sounded in her ears as not of this world. The shriek was
renewed at the doorway when she rushed upon and nearly
knocked the breath out of the new tenant of the Hall.
She recognised him at once, and the presence of this
mysterious individual in the vicinity of the witch's abode
increased rather than abated her terror. Without word or
apology, she raced through the wood, sprang upon the back
of her impatient pony, and rode castlewards with Tam o'
Shanter-like speed.
The gentleman she had encountered watched her
retreating form, and recovered his breath at the same time ;
then, with a cynical smile, he entered the witch's hut.
CHAPTER IV.
THE LAIRD'S MAN GATHERS GOSSIP AND GETS A WIFE.
John Maxwell was to Stuart Castle what a beadle is to a
kirk, though to John himself the analogy would have looked
ridiculously far fetched and unnecessarily humiliating. On
one occasion the beadle, at a juncture when he was rather
"