he was running too quick for a sore hurt man. When I fired I thought
it was the other man--the one they were expecting."

Dickson marvelled at himself, yet his speech was not bravado, but the
honest expression of his mind. He was keyed up to a mood in which he
feared nothing very much, certainly not the laws of his country.
If he fell in with the Unknown, he was entirely resolved, if
his Maker permitted him, to do murder as being the simplest
and justest solution. And if in the pursuit of this laudable
intention he happened to wing lesser game it was no fault of his.

"Well, it's a pity ye didn't get him," said Dougal, "him being
what we ken him to be....I'm for holding a council o' war, and
considerin' the whole position. So far we haven't done that badly.
We've shifted our base without serious casualties. We've got a far
better position to hold, for there's too many ways into yon Hoose,
and here there's just one. Besides, we've fickled the enemy.
They'll take some time to find out where we've gone. But, mind you,
we can't count on their staying long shut up. Dobson's no safe in
the boiler-house, for there's a skylight far up and he'll see it when
the light comes and maybe before. So we'd better get our plans ready.
A word with ye, Mr. McCunn," and he led Dickson aside.

"D'ye ken what these blagyirds were up to?" he whispered fiercely
in Dickson's ear. "They were goin' to pushion the lassie. How do I
ken, says you? Because Thomas Yownie heard Dobson say to Lean at the
scullery door, 'Have ye got the dope?' he says, and Lean says, 'Aye.'
Thomas mindit the word for he had heard about it at the Picters."

Dickson exclaimed in horror.