And now we will board the steamer, where Keith Macleod is up on the bridge, occasionally using a glass, and again talking to the captain, who is beside him.  First of all on board he had caught sight of the red flag floating over Castle Dare; and his heart had leaped up at that sign of welcome.  Then he could make out the dark figures on the quay, and the hoisting of the lugsail, and the putting off of the boat.  It was not a good day for observing things, for heavy clouds were quickly passing over, followed by bewildering gleams of a sort of watery sunlight; but as it happened, one of these sudden flashes chanced to light up a small plateau on the side of the hill above the quarry, just as the glass was directed on that point.  Surely—­surely—­these two figures?

“Why, it is the mother—­and Janet!” he cried.

He hastily gave the glass to his companion.

“Look!” said he.  “Don’t you think that is Lady Macleod and my cousin?  What could have tempted the old lady to come away down there on such a squally day?”

“Oh yes, I think it is the ladies,” said the captain; and then he added, with a friendly smile, “and I think it is to see you all the sooner, Sir Keith, that they have come down to the shore.”

“Then,” said he, “I must go down and get my gillie, and show him his future home.”

He went below the hurricane deck to a corner in which Oscar was chained up.  Beside the dog, sitting on a campstool, and wrapped round with a tartan plaid, was the person whom Macleod had doubtless referred to as his gillie.  He was not a distinguished-looking attendant to be travelling with a Highland chieftain.

“Johnny, my man, come on deck now, and I will show you where you are going to live.  You’re all right now, aren’t you?  And you will be on the solid land again in about ten minutes.”

Macleod’s gillie rose—­or, rather, got down—­from the campstool, and showed himself to be a miserable, emaciated child of ten or eleven, with a perfectly colorless face, frightened gray eyes, and starved white hands.  The contrast between the bronzed and bearded sailors—­who were now hurrying about to receive the boat from Dare—­and this pallid and shrunken scrap of humanity was striking; and when Macleod took his hand, and half led and half carried him up on deck, the look of terror that he directed on the plunging waters all around showed that he had not had much experience of the sea.  Involuntarily he had grasped hold of Macleod’s coat as if for protection.

“Now, Johnny, look right ahead.  Do you see the big house on the cliffs over yonder?”

The child, still clinging on to his protector, looked all round with the dull, pale eyes, and at length said,—­

“No.”

“Can’t you see that house, poor chap?  Well, do you see that boat over there?  You must be able to see that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That boat is to take you ashore.  You needn’t be afraid.  If you don’t like to look at the sea, get down into the bottom of the boat, and take Oscar with you, and you’ll see nothing until you are ashore.  Do you understand?”