"I certainly shall not fail to do so," rejoined Hector.

The party broke up, Lovel returned to Fairport, and early next morning
was waited upon by a military friend of Captain M'Intyre. Upon Lovel
declining to give his name the captain insisted on his fighting, and
that very evening the duel was arranged to take place in a valley close
by the ruins of St. Ruth.

Captain M'Intyre's ball grazed the side of his opponent, but did not
draw blood. That of Lovel was more true, and M'Intyre reeled and fell.

The grasp of old Ochiltree, who had appeared on the scene, roused Lovel
to movement, and leaving M'Intyre to the care of a surgeon, he followed
the bedesman into the recesses of the wood, in order to get away by boat
the following morning.

Amid the secret passages of the ruins, well known to Ochiltree, Lovel
was to pass the night; but all rest was impossible by the discovery of
two human figures, one of whom Lovel made out to be a German named
Donsterswivel, a swindling impostor who promised discoveries of gold to
Sir Arthur Wardour, gold buried in the ruins, and only to be unearthed
by magic and considerable expenditure of ready money.

"That other ane," whispered Edie, "maun be, according to a' likelihood,
Sir Arthur Wardour. I ken naebody but himself wad come here at this time
wi' that German blackguard."

Donsterswivel, with much talk of planetary influences, and spirits, and
"suffumigation," presently set fire to a little pile of chips, and when