Finding himself so listened to, though the listener was little more than a child, the heart of the chief began to swell in his great bosom. Like a child he was pleased. The gray day about him grew sweet; its very grayness was sweet, and of a silvery sheen. When they arrived at the burn, and, easily enough from that side, he had handed them across, he was not quite so glad to turn from them as he had expected to be.
"Are you going?" said Christina with genuine surprise, for she had not understood his intention.
"The way is easy now," he answered. "I am sorry to leave you, but I have to join Ian, and the twilight will be flickering down before I reach the place."
"And there will be no moon!" said Mercy: "how will you get home through the darkness?"
"We do not mean to come home to-night."
"Oh, then, you are going to friends!"
"No; we shall be with each other—not a soul besides."
"There can't surely be a hotel up there?"
Alister laughed as he answered,
"There are more ways than one of spending a night on the hills. If you look from a window—in that direction," he said, pointing, "the last thing before you go to bed, you will see that at least we shall not perish with cold."