"No--nothing; and when anything comes I shall intercept it," she replied without the smallest hesitation. "What is concerning me most is that, in about three weeks’ time, Malcolm will be at home, loafing about idle in the glen, and I shall never know a moment’s ease of mind. That’s the redeeming feature of Creagh--it’s at least five miles from everywhere. But, of course, he can’t be permitted to loaf about. He must find some occupation. I wonder----" She stopped there, however, and Neil was left to conjecture what it was that she wondered. He would not have been so well pleased had he known that her thoughts had flown with a curious sense of restfulness and hope to the man who had just left them. The hated man had said that the business of his life was to demolish difficulties and to build bridges where none had been before. Could he--or would he--undertake the problem of Malcolm’s life? Kitty returned while that question was still lingering in Isla’s mind, and, after a little more desultory talk, the brother and sister took their departure. "Tell Kitty on the way home, Neil," whispered Isla as she bade him good-bye, her fingers aching under his strong, almost painful, pressure which was intended to convey all the thoughts of which his heart was full. "Give Aunt Betty my love, and tell her that I will pay her a visit before I go to Creagh," she added. "Yes, of course, tell her about Malcolm too, but don’t say too much about it, and, of course, outside Garrion----" She laid a significant finger on her lip. Neil nodded, and, with gloom sitting on his brow, ascended to his high perch on the dogcart and tucked the rug about his sister’s knees. The next three weeks passed in a whirl of business for Isla Mackinnon. The very next morning after the visit of the Americans to Achree she had Jimmy Forbes up from Lochearn to drive her to Creagh. The sun was shining so brightly and the air was so soft and balmy that all of a sudden she decided that the drive might do her father good. He had only just come down from his bedroom and was standing in the doorway, enjoying the air, when the trap drove up, and Isla came down the stairs. "Where are you for this morning, my dear?" "I’m going to Creagh. Will you go with me, dear? I have some particular business to do at Creagh this morning, and it’s so deliciously sunny and warm and I think the drive would do you good." "Yes, I’d like to go," said the old man with the wistful pleasure of the child, at the same time taking a critical look at the stout roan cob that had come up from the hotel stable, well and fit for the rough road over Creagh moor. It did not take Isla and Diarmid long to wrap the General up, and off they went through the pleasant spring sunshine, mounting slowly all the time until they reached the broad plateau of the moor of Creagh, which was the one valuable asset of Achree and constituted its only claim to the dignity of being a sporting estate.