"Umphm," said Sandy--as he poured out a glass of Solway waters from the bottle which the woman had brought, and raised it to his lips. The two sat down by the fire--the bottle between them--and for a time turned all their attention to its contents. I tried to move--=but I was gripped as in a vice. I was in sore case. I cared not what happened to myself, but there was my message. I alone could prevent the massacre on the morrow, and now the proud hope I had cherished of doing service to the Covenant was brought to naught. Was there a God in heaven, that such things could be? I was not left long to my thoughts. Suddenly the giant rose, and standing over me glowered into my eyes as he shouted: "Are ye a Covenanter?" Temptation assailed me. If I denied the Covenant, I could with a firmer claim demand to be set free--and then I might yet carry my message through. "No" was upon my lips--but it died unspoken there. I heard the notes of a flute on a heather-clad hill-side: saw again a heap of smouldering ashes where a home of love had been. I could not deny the Covenant. Firmly I answered "I am"--and in the gathering shadows I saw the radiant face of Mary smiling upon me--as she blew me a kiss with either hand. "Umphm," said Sandy, "I thocht as muckle." "So ye’re a Covenanter, are ye?" roared the giant. "I’ll learn ye! Wull ye say ’God save the King?’" "God save the King," I answered promptly. "I am a loyal subject and a Covenanter." "Ye lie," he shouted. "The Covenanters are a’ rebels. Wull ye tak’ the Test?" In the cave at the Linn I had heard Hector repeat the involved sentences of the Test with scorn upon his lips, and I knew that this half-drunken trooper could not possibly find his way through them; so I answered: "If you can put the Test to me you shall have my answer." Sandy--with the bottle in his hand--looked over his shoulder and laughed softly. The giant turned upon him. "Whit the deevil are ye lauchin’ at"--and then turning to me, "I’m nae scholar--and I canna min’ the words, but if I canna pit the Test to you I can pit you tae the test--and by heaven I will." A look of fiendish cruelty swept over his hard face. "Try him wi’ the match," said Sandy. "Ay--that’ll test him." While Sandy busied himself about my fastenings to free my left arm for the ordeal, the other trooper was trying to make the long match he had unwound from his head-gear take light. It was damp and would not burn. I watched in a strange state of abstraction. Only a few minutes ago the vision of Mary had smiled upon me. Pain and torture were nothing to me now. Let them do their worst! "It winna burn: it’s wat," said the giant. Throwing the match on the floor, he gripped my left arm savagely and pushed back the sleeve of my coat.