Evening star., 1898-10-22

| the master armorer twinkled with appre-
| citation of his jest
! do not play at cats cradle with Douglas.
You might tempt me to that 1 might after
ward be sorry for A man once dead
| monks prate. But tell me how knew you
| whittier had gone yestereven? For in
| deed, l knew not myself when I set out
And. in any event, was 1t a thing well done
| for my fosterfather to spy upon me- who
! am also his lord?'
The anger was mostly gone now out of
| the frank face of the earl, and only humili-
| alton and resentment with touch of boy
| ish curiosity remained.
Indeed" answered the smith. Il watch
ed you not save under my hand as you
| rode away upon Black Darnaway and then
| turned me to the seat by the wall to lis
| ten to the questionings of Dame Barbara
| the humming of the bees and the other
| comfortable and composing sounds of ma
| ture.''
| How, then, did you come to follow me in
| the undesirable company of my uncle the
| abbott"
For that you are in the debt of my son
| Sholto, who, seeing lady wait for you in
| the greenwood, climbed tree. and there
| from among the branches he was a wit
| ness of your encounter"
| So" said the Douglass, cit is to Mas
| ter Sholto that | owe somewhat"
Aye said his father, do not forget
| him. For ne is a good lad and a bold, as
| indeed he proved to the hilt yestrenr
| In what consisted his boldness?' asked
| the earl
lin that he dared to come home to me
| with cock-and-bull story of witch lady,
| who appeared suddenly where none had
| been a moment before. and who had i'm
| mediately bewitched my lord earl. Well
| nigh did | twist his neck, but he stuck to
it. Then came riding by my Lord Abbot,
| and l judged that the matter as one of
! witchcraft, was more his affair than mine 8"
Now, harken.' cried the earl, in quick
tones of high anger, let there be no more
| such folly, or on your life be it. The lady
! was travelling with her company through
| Galloway from France. She invited me TO
sup with her and dared me to adventure to
| Edinburgh in her company. Wherein was
the witchcraft of that, saving the witchery
| natural to all fair women?'
| Did she not prophesy to you that today
! you would be Duke of Touraine and receive
| the ambassadors of the king of France"
! We'll" said the earl, where is your wit
that you give ear to such babbings? Did
| she not come from that country as | tell
you, and who should hear the latest news
| more readily than she?"
The smith looked little nonplussed, but
| stuck to it stoutly that none but a witch
woman would ride alone at nightfall upon
! a Galloway moor, or unless by enchant-
| ment, set up pavilion of silk and strange
| device under the pines Of Loeb Roam.
| "Well," said Earl William, feeling his
advantage and making the most of it, Il
| see that in all my little love affairs / needs
must take my maSter-armorer with me to
| decide whether or no the lady be witch.
| He shall resolve for me all spiritual ques-
| tons with his forehammer. Malise Mac
| Kim witch prieker! Ha! this is change
| indeed. Malise the smith. the censor of
| his lords love affairs, after what certain
| comrades of his have told me of his own
| love makings. Will he deign to come to
| the weapon showing today, and instead of
examining the swords and halberts the
! French arbalasts and German fusils demit
| that part of his Office to Ninian the High
! landman and go, peering into ladies' eyes
| for sorceres and scanning their upper lips
| for the signs of the devil, which lurk in
the dimples of their chins. In this he will
| find much employment and that of a con-
genial sort! r,T
| Malse was vanqushed, less by the sar-
| casm of the earl than by the fear that per-
| haps the Highlandman might indeed have
| his place Of honor as chief expert at his
| masters right hand at the examination or
weapons that day on the green holms of
| Balmaghie
Il may have been overhasty, my lord :"
| he said, but still do I think that the wo-
| man was far from canny."
The earl laughed, and, turning him about
! by the shoulders gave him q push down
! the stair, crying out: "Oh, Malise, Maiise,
| have you lived so long in the world with
| out finding out that a fair woman is al
| ways uncanny?
The levy that day of men owning fealty
| to the Douglas was no hasty or local one
| 1t was not, indeed. a rising of the country
| sde, such as took place when the En-
| glish were over the border and the beacon
| fires were thrown west from Criffel to
Screel, from Screel TO Cairnharrow and
| then tossed northward by the three Cairns
| muirs and topmost Merrick far over the m
lands Of Kyle. till on the sullen brow Of