The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

The Legend of the Dark Loch. 741
rushed through her mind and nearly made her shriek with
terror. And stiU she ran on with beating heart and
throbbing temples, at times floundering through dismal
swamps up to her knees, and falling headlong into dark
gullies, and again running with the swiftness of a deer over
unbroken tracts, where her stockings were torn and her bare
feet cruelly lacerated with the long heather. But she cared
little for this as long as her flight was not impeded.
Occasionally the shrill cry of the heron, or the whistle of
the golden plover, reached her alert ears from the direction
of the dark loch, and made her heart, for a moment, stand
still, only to renew its wild beating the next minute with
two-fold energy. At last, when she feared she could
bear the mental and physical strain no longer, she per-
ceived a few yards in front of her a dim light issuing
sounds of merriment reached her
and the next moment, panting, and with a face white
through a low doorway ;
ears ;
as that of a ghost, she stood inside the hut and explained,
in a few broken sentences, to a startled group of young
men and women, the events of the night, her own miraculous
escape, and the dreadful position in which she had
left Morag.
The young men—there were six of them in all, and the
same number of girls—at once resolved to attempt the
rescue of Morag. They knew that in a trial of strength
they would have no chance of success against their supernatural
opponents, but they hoped to be able to drive them
away by the use of spells and incantations, in the exercise
of which the youth of those times were adepts. They also
knew that their adversaries could not injure them except
through some act of -indiscretion on their own part. To
this it must be added that the contents of a couple of black
bottles had been discussed during the night, with the result
that the young men's courage was increased four-fold ;
and,
lastly, each was anxious to display his own bravery before
the eyes of the girl he loved. In a few minutes after
Molly's arrival at their shieling, the whole party, including