"You will only make black blood between them and you."

"Dinna heed him, Mr. Dishart," cried some women.

"You had better heed him," cried a man.

"I will not desert my people," Gavin said.

"Listen, then, to my prescription," the doctor replied. "Drive
that gypsy lassie out of the town before the soldiers reach it.
She is firing the men to a red-heat through sheer devilry."

"She brocht the news, or we would have been nipped in our beds,"
some people cried.

"Does any one know who she is?" Gavin demanded, but all shook
their heads. The Egyptian, as they called her, had never been seen
in these parts before.

"Has any other person seen the soldiers?" he asked. "Perhaps this
is a false alarm."

"Several have seen them within the last few minutes," the doctor
answered. "They came from Tilliedrum, and were advancing on us
from the south, but when they heard that we had got the alarm they
stopped at the top of the brae, near T'nowhead's farm. Man, you
would take these things more coolly if you smoked."

"Show me this woman," Gavin said sternly to those who had been