none of your weapons would do more than mark it.' 'What am I to do
then, Angus, for kill him I will somehow?' 'I'll tell you what to do;
but it needs a brave man to do that.' 'And do you think I'm not brave
enough for that, Angus?' 'I know one thing you are not brave enough
for.' 'And what's that?' said Allister, and his face grew red, only he
did not want to anger Nelly's father. 'You're not brave enough to
marry my girl in the face of the clan,' said Angus. 'But you shan't go
on this way. If my Nelly's good enough to talk to in the glen, she's
good enough to lead into the hall before the ladies and gentlemen.'

"Then Allister's face grew redder still, but not with anger, and he
held down his head before the old man, but only for a few moments.
When he lifted it again, it was pale, not with fear but with
resolution, for he had made up his mind like a gentleman. 'Mr. Angus
MacQueen,' he said, 'will you give me your daughter to be my wife?'
'If you kill the kelpie, I will,' answered Angus; for he knew that the
man who could do that would be worthy of his Nelly."

"But what if the kelpie ate him?" suggested Allister.

"Then he'd have to go without the girl," said Kirsty, coolly. "But,"
she resumed, "there's always some way of doing a difficult thing; and
Allister, the gentleman, had Angus, the shepherd, to teach him.

"So Angus took Allister down to the pot, and there they began. They
tumbled great stones together, and set them up in two rows at a little
distance from each other, making a lane between the rows big enough
for the kelpie to walk in. If the kelpie heard them, he could not see
them, and they took care to get into the cottage before it was dark,
for they could not finish their preparations in one day. And they sat