sword and pike. At first he had but a wooden sword. Then, as his
limbs grew stronger, he practised with a blunted sword; and now
at the age of fifteen Sandy Grahame had as much as he could do to
hold his own with his pupil.

At the time the story opens, in the springtime of the year 1293,
he was playing at ball with some of the village lads on the green,
when a party of horsemen was seen approaching.

At their head rode two men perhaps forty years old, while a lad of
some eighteen years of age rode beside them. In one of the elder
men Archie recognized Sir John Kerr. The lad beside him was his
son Allan. The other leader was Sir John Hazelrig, governor of
Lanark; behind them rode a troop of armed men, twenty in number.
Some of the lads would have ceased from their play; but Archie
exclaimed:

"Heed them not; make as if you did not notice them. You need not
be in such a hurry to vail your bonnets to the Kerr."

"Look at the young dogs," Sir John Kerr said to his companion.
"They know that their chief is passing, and yet they pretend that
they see us not."

"It would do them good," his son exclaimed, "did you give your
troopers orders to tie them all up and give them a taste of their
stirrup leathers."

"It would not be worth while, Allan," his father said. "They will
all make stout men-at-arms some day, and will have to fight under