"What he wants with you in clear enough--it's siller. But what can

he want with Alan Breck?"

"O, it'll be just an excuse," said I. "He is still after this

marriage, which I wish from my heart that we could bring about.

And he asks you because he thinks I would be less likely to come

wanting you."

"Well, I wish that I kent," says Alan. "Him and me were never

onyways pack; we used to girn at ither like a pair of pipers.

'Something for my ear,' quo' he! I'll maybe have something for his

hinder-end, before we're through with it. Dod, I'm thinking it

would be a kind of divertisement to gang and see what he'll be

after! Forby that I could see your lassie then. What say ye,

Davie? Will ye ride with Alan?"

You may be sure I was not backward, and Alan's furlough running

towards an end, we set forth presently upon this joint adventure.

It was near dark of a January day when we rode at last into the

town of Dunkirk. We left our horses at the post, and found a guide

to Bazin's Inn, which lay beyond the walls. Night was quite

fallen, so that we were the last to leave that fortress, and heard

the doors of it close behind us as we passed the bridge. On the

other side there lay a lighted suburb, which we thridded for a

while, then turned into a dark lane, and presently found ourselves

wading in the night among deep sand where we could hear a bullering

of the sea. We travelled in this fashion for some while, following

our conductor mostly by the sound of his voice; and I had begun to

think he was perhaps misleading us, when we came to the top of a

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