Wat grunted contemptuously. This was the last thing he was afraid of. "I want," he said, "whatever arms ye can furnish me with, some food of any portable sort--and a rope." "Save us, laddie!" said Bess, holding up her hands; "ye might just as lief ask me this nicht for the Earldom of Barra." "I must have them," said Wat, firmly, "if I have to forage for them myself." "Aweel, I can but do my best," said the woman from Colmonel, resignedly; "but I kenna where I shall get them." Very cautiously they made their way back to the cottage of Alister. "Wheesht!" said Bess; "lie cowered behind that stone. They are on their road away. For this nicht surely your lass will be left at peace." "And after that it will not matter," said Wat, looking cautiously over the edge of the bowlder, "for either we will be safe out of this evil isle, or else she and I will be where Barra and his devils can trouble us no more." When Bess and Wat reached the dwelling of the son of Alister, they found it fallen strangely silent and dark. Bess went in boldly and promptly. Presently her voice was heard in high debate, and after a pause her husband, as if driven with ignominy from his own house, stumbled past Wat, and began clambering like a cat up the steep rock to the castle dungeon as easily as if he had been walking on a grass meadow by a water-side. No sooner was he safe out of the way than the door of the hut opened circumspectly. "Here!" said the mistress of the dwelling, in a far-reaching whisper. Wat went up to the door-step. Bess Landsborough put out a hand, guided him through the murky intricacies of her outer room, and pushed him into that in which he had met his love the evening before. Kate was sitting fully dressed on her bed with her head in her hands. She looked up with a sharp little cry as he entered. "Kate," he whispered, "it is I--Wat." Whereat she ran to him with a sob of relief that was very sweet to hear, and nestled with her head on his broad shoulder. "Oh, thank God you have come! All will now be well." Wat did not feel so sure of that, but, nevertheless, he caressed the clustering curls and held his love to his bosom, murmuring little meaningless words which Kate felt were better to listen to than much wisdom. Presently Bess Landsborough brought Wat a pair of pistols, a double flask of powder, and a bagful of bullets. "We must see about getting John Scarlett out of his prison," she said. "I have the victuals all ready. There is a rope behind the dike at the corner that looks to the sea. But ye had better get John Scarlett out first, and then ye can all three lend a hand at the carrying--save us! What's that?" Bess Landsborough sprang sharply out of the inner room to the door which gave upon the moor. "Hide ye, Wat Gordon," she said; "here comes some one to visit us."