_facing page_ THOUGHTS OF HOME _A. Monro_ 4 THE WEB RETURNED _A. S. Boyd_ 28 THE DEATH OF KEPPOCH _Harrington Mann_ 32 ON THE BLASTED HEATH _A. Monro_ 58 JEANIE _A. S. Boyd_ 60 THROWING THE HAMMER _A. S. Boyd_ 72 MASSACRE OF GLENCOE _A. Monro_ 108 THE GENTLE ART _S. Reid_ 120 FORBIDDEN WATERS _S. Reid_ 136 MURRAY’S CURSE _A. Monro_ 144 ARCHIE _A. S. Boyd_ 170 “SERVE!” _S. Reid_ 180 THE LAST HOUR _A. S. Boyd_ 204 SEVEN MILES OF ICE _S. Reid_ 216 TRONGATE OF ST MUNGO _S. Reid_ 232 A ROMAN ROAD. Still and soft with the mild radiance of early spring the afternoon sunshine sleeps upon the rich country, moor and woodland and meadow, that stretches away southward towards the Border. The top of a ruined tower far off rises grey amid the shadowy woods, and a river, like a shining serpent, gleams in blue windings through the russet valley-land, while the smoke of an ancient Border town hangs in the distance, like an amber haze, above the side of its narrow strath. Northward, too, league upon league, sweep the rich pasture-lands of another river valley. The red roofs of more than one peaceful hamlet glow warm there among the bowering road-avenues of ancient trees. And afar at the foot of the purple mountain to the west lies the grey sequestered abbey of the Bruce. North and south upon that rich landscape history marks with a crimson stain the field of many a battle; and though peace and silence sleep upon it to-day in the sunshine, hardly is there hamlet or meadow in sight whose name does not recall some struggle of bygone times. Across these hills a hundred and forty years ago Prince Charles Edward led the last raid of the clans, and before his time the battlefields of Douglas and Percy, of Cumberland and Liddesdale, carry the mind back into the mists of antiquity, out of which looms the sullen splendour of more classic arms.