She uttered a half-stifled scream.
'For Heaven's sake let me go, Mr. Snaggs, or I shall scream for help,' said Minnie, as a rosy crimson replaced the paleness of her cheek.
'None can hear you.'
'Be not so sure of that,' she retorted, with a scornful smile.
'Remember your uncle, his sick wife and family! Why are you so afraid?' he whispered; 'I will be your protector for life, Minnie, and will open up a thousand new scenes and pleasures to you. Let me teach you that you were not born to live always in this dull and hideous glen. Oh, Minnie, have my eyes not told you the secret of my heart?'
'I am getting quite faint,' said Minnie, overcome by excitement and alarm.
'Apply my handkerchief to your nostrils—this strange perfume may revive you.'
He placed his voluminous silk handkerchief close to her face. In a moment a tremor passed over the form of Minnie, and she sank senseless on the grassy mound of the Clach-na-greiné. With a triumphant chuckle the pious moralist knelt down and threw his arms around her; but in the next moment a fierce shout rang in his startled ears, and the strong hand of Callum Dhu was on his throat, while the blade of a bare skene glittered before his eyes.
For a moment these two men glared at each other like a snake and a tiger. In the next, the frail moralist was dashed upon the turf, and the iron fingers of Callum compressed his throat like a vice, until his eyeballs were starting from their sockets.
'Mac Innon,' cried my fosterer, 'what shall I do with him? we are near the old Hill of Justice—his life in your hands—say but the word, and the last breath is in the nostrils of our tormentor!'