She went swiftly up to Castle Dare again, and he walked on toward the
shore. By-and-by he reached a small stone pier that ran out among some
rocks, and by the side of it lay a small sailing launch, with four men
in her, and Donald the piper boy perched up at the bow. There was a lamp
swinging at her mast, but she had no sail up, for there was scarcely any
wind.

"Is it time to go out now?" said Macleod to Hamish who stood waiting on
the pier, having carried down his master's portmanteau.

"Ay, it will be time now, even if you will wait a little," said Hamish.
And then the old man added, "It is a dark night, Sir Keith, for your
going away from Castle Dare."

"And it will be the brighter morning when I come back," answered the
young man, for he could not mistake the intention of the words.

"Yes, indeed, Sir Keith; and now you will go into the boat, and you will
take care of your footing, for the night is dark, and the rocks they are
always slippery whatever."

But Keith Macleod's foot was as familiar with the soft sea-weed of the
rocks as it was with the hard heather of the hills, and he found no
difficulty in getting into the broad-beamed boat. The men put out their
oars and pushed her off. And now, in the dark night, the skill of the
pipes rose again; and it was no stately and mournful lament that young
Donald played up there at the bow as the four oars struck the sea and
sent a flash of white fire down into the deeps.

"Donald," Hamish had said to him on the shore, "when you are going out