"She would be having nothing good to be saying," says he with a laugh. "For everything I did was a fault except just I would be sitting at home with my old mother, and so I just fell in wi' McGilp, and left the lassies to claver among themsel's for a year or two, for they will have too many cantrips for a simple man."
"It would just be that lass that told us about the Preventives lying in the cove near the Snib, and she was sore feart a lad Ronny McKinnon would be transported."
"And would she be saying just that," says Ronny.
"She would just," says I.
"It's no like her temper at a', but I'll be thanking her for that kind thought," says he, and commenced to his whistling o' pipers' tunes.
[1] Cormorants.
[2] Boghay.
CHAPTER IX.
MIRREN STUART BIDS HER DOG LIE DOWN.
It was after the burial of the Red Laird that we returned to the Quay Inn in McKelvie's skiff, and this time we had McKelvie's lass and Ronny McKinnon with us. The Seagull was at anchor now over near Donal's Point, for McGilp had much business to attend to. Little skiffs had flitted in the night through the darkness of the bay. The cove was empty, and in the sand ballast of many a smack sailing for the mainland ports, there was that hidden that the smacksmen prized more than their honest cargoes of coal or potatoes. Ronny McKinnon had been aye about the cove, concealed in the daytime and busy in the night, for McGilp trusted him much, and McKelvie's skiff had made a run with only the innkeeper and swart Robin on board, except for a keg or two concealed beneath a sail and a tangled long line. At the Quay Inn Mrs McKelvie made a great work with her lass, and would not be letting her do a hand's turn, but just sit and be resting, and every one was very merry about the place. The two sons were scattering clean sand on the floor, and the fine scent of cooking in the kitchen was wafted to the tap-room and made my very teeth water for a square meal, for the sea had made me hungry. Ronny left us at the inn and made his way homewards, and I would be hearing his cheery cries to the folk he passed, for he would be everybody's fair-headed laddie, and maybe Mirren Stuart would be feeling surer of her man when he would be sitting at home with his old mother, for it seemed to me that the lassies that would be passing had very bright eyes, and that they would be looking back often too.