Produced by Al Haines. STAND FAST, CRAIG-ROYSTON! A Novel BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER OF HETH," "MACLEOD OF DARE," ETC. _IN THREE VOLUMES._ VOL. III. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, LIMITED St. Dunstan’s House FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 1891. [_All rights reserved._] LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHAPTER I. In Vain—in Vain II. Beyond Seas III. West and East IV. Enlightenment V. Marriage not a la Mode VI. A Split at Last VII. New Ways of Life VIII. In a Northern Village IX. A Babble o’ Green Fields: the End STAND FAST, CRAIG-ROYSTON! CHAPTER I. IN VAIN—IN VAIN. One evening Mr. Courtnay Fox, the London correspondent of the Edinburgh _Chronicle_, was as usual in his own room in the office in Fleet-street, when a card was brought to him. "Show the gentleman up," said he to the boy. A couple of seconds thereafter Vincent Harris made his appearance. "Mr. Fox?" said he, inquiringly. The heavy-built journalist did not rise to receive his visitor; he merely said— "Take a chair. What can I do for you?" "No, thanks," said Vincent, "I don’t wish to detain you more than a moment. I only wanted to see if you could give me any information about Mr. George Bethune." "Well, that would be only fair," said the big, ungainly man, with the small, keen blue eyes glinting behind spectacles; "that would be only a fair exchange, considering I remember how Mr. Bethune came down here one night and asked for information about you." Vincent looked astonished. "And I was able," continued Mr. Fox, "to give him all the information he cared for—namely, that you were the son of a very rich man. I presume that was all he wanted to know." There was something in the tone of this speech—a familiarity bordering on insolence—that Vincent angrily resented; but he was wise enough to show nothing: his sole anxiety was to have news of Maisrie and her grandfather; this man’s manner did not concern him much. "I do not ask for information about Mr. Bethune himself; I dare say I know him as well as most do," said he with perfect calmness. "I only wish to know where he is."