nothing more could I get out of him, but strange glances and an ominous

nodding of the head. In spite of myself, I was infected with a measure

of uneasiness; I turned also, and studied the wake. The water was still

and transparent, but, out here in the middle of the bay, exceeding deep.

For some time I could see naught; but at last it did seem to me as if

something dark--a great fish, or perhaps only a shadow--followed

studiously in the track of the moving coble. And then I remembered one

of Rorie's superstitions: how in a ferry in Morven, in some great,

exterminating feud among the clans; a fish, the like of it unknown in all

our waters, followed for some years the passage of the ferry-boat, until

no man dared to make the crossing.

'He will be waiting for the right man,' said Rorie.

Mary met me on the beach, and led me up the brae and into the house of

Aros. Outside and inside there were many changes. The garden was fenced

with the same wood that I had noted in the boat; there were chairs in the

kitchen covered with strange brocade; curtains of brocade hung from the

window; a clock stood silent on the dresser; a lamp of brass was swinging

from the roof; the table was set for dinner with the finest of linen and

silver; and all these new riches were displayed in the plain old kitchen

that I knew so well, with the high-backed settle, and the stools, and the

closet bed for Rorie; with the wide chimney the sun shone into, and the

clear-smouldering peats; with the pipes on the mantelshelf and the three-

cornered spittoons, filled with sea-shells instead of sand, on the floor;

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