here. What's the boy going to do now? Show us a place for crossing?"

The lad, on seeing the hesitation of the horsemen, had run along
the bank up the stream, and to their surprise, when he had gone a
little more than a hundred yards he dashed into the water. For a
time the water was shallow, and he waded out until he reached the
edge of the regular bank of the river, and then swam out into the
current.

"Go back," the horseman shouted; but his voice did not reach
the swimmer, who, in a few strokes, was in the full force of the
stream, and was soon lost to the sight of the horsemen among the
short foaming waves of the torrent.

"The boy will be drowned," one of the horsemen said, spurring his
horse up the valley; but in another minute the lad was seen breasting
the calmer water just above the ford.

"You cannot cross here, Captain Hume," he said, as he approached
the horsemen. "You must go nigh a mile up the river."

"Why, who are you, lad?" the horseman asked, "and how do you know
my name?"

"I'm the nephew of Nigel Graheme. Seeing how deep the floods were
I came out to show you the way, for the best horse in the world
could not swim the Nith here now."

"But this is the ford," Captain Hume said.