Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-03-18
Dayton, Nevada, Saturday, March 49, 1903.

thought, and by that time we were past
the greatest danger and could walk upon
our feet like men instead of crawling
like brutes. But, dear heart, have
mercy! What a pair we must have made,
going double like old grandfathers,
stumbling like babes and as white as
dead folk. Never word passed be-
tween us; each set his mouth and kept
his eyes in front of him, and lifted up
his foot and set it down again, like peo-
pie lifting weights at a country play,
all the while, with the moor fowl cry
ing "peep!" in the heather and the light
coming slowly clearer in the east.
say Alan did as I did; not that ever
looked at him, for l had enough ado 20
keep my feet, but because it is plain he
must have been as stupid with weari-
hess as myself, and looked as little where
we were going, or we should not have
walked into an ambush like blind men.
1t fell in this way. We were going
down heathery brae, Alan leading and
| following pace or two behind, like
fddlnr aud his wife, when upon a sud-
den the heather gave rustic, three or
four ragged men leaped out, and the
next moment we were lying on our
backs, each with a dirk at his throat.
don't think l cared; the pain of this
rough handling was quite swallowed up
by the pains of which | was already full.
and was too glad to have stopped walk
ing to mind about dirk. lay looking
up i'll the face of the man that held me,
and | mind his face was black with the
sun and his eyes very light, but was
not afraid Of him. | heard Alan and
another whispering in the Gaelic, and
what they said was all one to me.
Then the dirks were put up, our
weapons were taken away, and we were
set face to face, sitting in the heather.
They are Clunys men," said Alan.
eve couldnae have fallen better.
We're just to bide here with these.
which are his outsentries, till they can
get word to the chief of my arrival"
Now, Cluny Macpherson, the chief of
the clan Vourich, had been one of the
leaders of the great rebellion six years
before; there was price on his life,
and l had supposed him long ago in
France. with the rest of the heads of
that desperate party. Even tired as l
was the surprise of what l heard half
awakened me.
"Whatw l cried. "Is Cluny still
hereF"
"Aye, is he sor' said Alan. "Still IN
his own country and kept by his own
clan. King George can do no more"
think i would have asked further,
but Alan gave me the put off. Il am
rather wearied,' he said, "and I would
/ like fine to get a sleep" And without
more words he rolled on his face in a
deep heather bush and seemed to sleep
at once.
There was no such thing possible for
me. You have heard grasshoppers
whirring in the grass in the summer
| time? Well l had no sooner closed my
eyes than my body, and above all my
head, belly and wrists, seemed to be
filled with whirring grasshoppers, and
must open my eyes again at once and
/ tumble and toss, and sit up and lie down,
and look at the sky which dazzled me,
! OF dG SluuN wiz anu ulip SSAAUA 'S7
peering out over the top of the brae and
chattering to each other in the Gaelic.
That was all the rest had until the
messenger returned, when, as it ap-
peared that Cluny would be glad to re-
ceive us, we must get once more upon
our feet and set forward. Alan was in
excellent good spirits, much refreshed
by his sleep, very hungry and looking
pleasantly forward to dram and disl
of hot collops, of which, it seems, th'
messenger had brought him word. Fo
my part sort Of horror of despair Sa
on my mind, so that | could have wep
at my own helplessness.
l saw Alan knitting his brows at mt
and supposed it was i'll anger, and thu
next moment two of the gillies had mt
by the arms, and began to be carried
forward with great swiftness Tor so i
appeared to me, although dare say i
was slowly enough in TRUTH through 1
labyrinth of dreary glens and hollow'
and into the heart of that dismal noun
tain of Ben Alder.