"If they can make the small crofts pay——" said she, vaguely. "But they cannot," said he, with south country bluntness. "The land is too poor; and there are too many of them wanting to live on it. Over there at Cruagan the crofters manage to earn a little money by serving as gillies in the autumn, and hiring their ponies to the sportsmen; and along the coast here they eke out a living with the fishing; but they would fairly starve on the crofts, if that was all. And then, besides the poor soil, I do believe they’re the idlest and laziest creatures on God’s earth! I’ll undertake to say there has not been a boat put off from shore this last week past, though there must be plenty of stenlock in the bay——" But here Käthchen struck in, a little indignantly. She had Highland blood in her veins; and she did not like to hear her countrymen and countrywomen traduced by an _Albannach_. "Stenlock? You mean big lythe?" said she. "But you know very well, Mr. Purdie, there is no market for lythe. They’re no use to send away. And even if they were—even if there were a market for them—how could the people get them sent? How often does the steamer call in here?" "Oh, well, not very often at this time of the year," he said. "But how often?" she persisted. "Once in three weeks," said the factor. And now it was Mary’s turn to interpose, which she did eagerly and gladly, for she was ever on the alert for some actual and definite thing to tackle. "Oh, really, Mr. Purdie, that is too bad! How can you expect them to be diligent with the fishing, if the steamer only calls in once in three weeks? That must be put right, and at once!" said she, in her generous ardour. "I will appeal to the Government. I will appeal to the Treasury." "You’d better appeal to Mr. MacBrayne," said Käthchen, drily; and therewithal that subject was laid aside for the moment. Unfortunately this reasonable mood on the part of the Little Red Dwarf—if he could properly be called little whose great breadth of frame caused him to look like a compressed giant—did not last very long. His half-smothered hatred of the house of Heimra broke into flame again; and it is possible that a glass of whiskey which he took at the end of dinner, combined with the previous sherry, may have added fuel to the fire. "I’ve warned ye, Miss Stanley, not to say a word about the Ross family, or what I’ve told ye, or about any of your plans, before that lass Barbara." "Why all this mystery and suspicion!" said Mary, with a touch of impatience. "The girl seems a very obliging and good-natured girl indeed."