“None, save a Highlander’s readiness to accept signs and portents. Look at this seal.”
He unfastened from his waistcoat his watch and chain, with a small bunch of pendants attached, and handed them to Brett. The latter examined the seal with deep interest. It was cut into a bloodstone, and showed a stag’s head, surmounted by five pointed rays, like a crown of daggers.
“I cannot decipher the motto,” he said; “what is it?”
“Fortis et audax.”
“Hum! ‘Strong and bold.’ A stiff-necked legend, too.”
He reached to his bookcase for Burke’s “General Armoury.” After a brief search, he asked:
“Do you know anything about heraldry?”
“Nothing whatever.”
“Then listen to this. The crest of your, house is: ‘A stag’s head, erased argent, charged with a star of five rays gules.’ It is peculiar.”
“Yes, so my father says; but why does it appeal to you in that way?”