"Not where you anxiously wish it may end—on the gallows-tree; but it shall end when our wrongs are righted."
"At civil law you have——"
"What!" interrupted MacGregor, with a fierce and hollow laugh, "would you have me, upon whose head a price has been set for these nine years past, sneak into the Lawyers' Court at Dunedin, among truculent Whigs and psalm-singing pharisees, to crave and beg the restoration of my patrimony? The hills, with all their woods and waters, were given to the Gael in the days of old, to be their dwelling-place and inheritance, and none but He hath a right to deprive us of them."
"Then we part in peace, MacGregor?" urged Killearn.
"Part—far from it, my good chamberlain," said Rob.
"How?" asked Killearn, uneasily.
"I must have the pleasure of your company with me into the Highlands."
Killearn again grew deadly pale, and faltered out,—
"For what purpose?"
"To be kept as a hostage until Montrose pays me the sum of 3,400 merks which he is justly owing me."