nodding to the dead man.

"I'se warrant I

needna wush ye to sleep sound."

So saying, he staggered away, much to Amherst's relief, who, by the strength of the light, had seen his red eyes staring up within a few inches of his own; and who had felt the very heat of his breath, poisoned as it was with the stench of the spirits he had been swallowing, and who, every moment dreading he must certainly be discovered by him, had more than once been on the eve of springing down in desperation, and attempting to fight his way to the door.

Having thrown his torch into the fire, the miller retired into a corner, and dropped himself down, quite overcome; and before Alexander Macgillivray had raked the embers together, he was snoring as audibly as any of the other sleep

ers.

The villain looked around him to see that all of them were certainly sound; and then hastily taking a key from his pocket, he opened the chest, into which he had put the money-bag, and taking it out, he picked a number of the gold pieces from it, and putting them into an old stocking, he secreted them in his otter-skin purse; then

locking up the bag again in the chest, he wrapped himself in his plaid, and lay quietly down beside the miller, where he soon composed himself to sleep.

CHAPTER XII.

O! whither shall I run, or which way fly
The sight of this so horrid spectacle?

MILTON.

AMHERST had watched Alexander Macgillivray's motions with considerable anxiety, being now rather impatient for an opportunity of slipping down from his irksome and hazardous concealment, and attempting his escape. But even were he certain that the villain was asleep, he saw, with great uneasiness, that it would be almost impossible to approach the door, far less to open it, without disturbing those of the gang, whose bodies lay like the spokes of a wheel round the decaying fire, and over several of whom he must step before he could get near to it.

Believing that their leader was undoubtedly slumbering, he surveyed them with much attention, studying how he could best pass over them. Two or three several times he had moved silent

ly from his place, and was almost in the act of putting down one toe on the lid of the large chest, when an accidental motion of some of the sleepers, such as the laboured stretching of an arm, or a leg, when they dreamt of their waking deeds, or perhaps the turning of a head to an easier position, would disconcert his purpose. Being so often disappointed, he was almost resolved to risk the desperate chance, and was arming himself with the resolution necessary for the unequal combat that must have followed his attempt, when, to his astonishment, the door was suddenly forced in, and thrown down upon the sleepers, by a large stone driven with such fury against it, that it scattered the very embers of the fire about the floor.

In the aperture, a little figure appeared for an instant, shrouded in a large fleece of green moss, torn from the ample surface of some rock or bank. It screamed in a shrill voice: "Let the dead watch their time, and come down and flee !"—and then instantly disappeared.

The whole gang, roused by the crash, were upon their legs in a moment; but being so suddenly awakened from a profound sleep, they arose con

fused and ignorant of what occasioned the alarm; and the clamour in Gaelic and English was so loud, that not a word could be heard. All inquired, and none could explain.

As they were standing debating, another large stone came bang against the sods forming the back wall of the building; and the shock was followed by a wild unearthly laugh.

"Damnation!" exclaimed Alexander Macgillivray. "What are ye all standing and chattering at as if it were a ghost? There's somebody playing tricks upon us; let's out after them!" And seizing a claymore, he sprang to the door, followed by the miller and the whole gang.

Amherst heard them crashing through the bushes behind the hut, as if in pursuit of some one in that direction. His first thought was to make an immediate effort to escape; but having observed from their looks, that most of the gang believed there was something really supernatural in this assault, and arguing from thence, that they would probably not venture very far beyond the light that glimmered from the door-way, he readily interpreted the friendly hint that had been given him, and lifting the dead body of the