"The headmost craft wasna a mile frae the Buddon-ness when the gloaming fell," replied the fisherman, looking keenly to the eastward; "the wind was off the land then, but it veered round a point to the north. Wow but the moon bodes a grand haul o' herrin' off St. Monan's the morn! I wish I had gane to the fishing-ground----" "And lost these six lions--eh? But here is thy boat, grumbler," said the third personage, who as yet had scarcely spoken; "now let us shove off." "If these are English ships, sir," said Jamie, as he assisted the three to embark, and cast off the painter, "I marvel mickle at their impudence in being off the Tay, while Sir Andrew Wood is at anchor in the Firth." "Marvel at nothing; but keep thy wind for cooling thy porridge, or for better uses," retorted the haughty Gray, rolling himself up in his mantle, and his companion did the same, while Borthwick and Jamie shipped their oars, and turned the boat's prow to the sea. When the shadows of the land and the square dark keep of Broughty, with its broad barbican and flanking towers were left behind, the night (even while the moon was enveloped in clouds) was not so murky that objects could not be distinguished; yet the three voyagers looked in vain for a vestige of the ship which they expected to be nearest the shore. A pale stripe of white light edged the horizon, and between it and the boat the waves were rising and falling, like those of an inky ocean; and in that streak of sky, and between the flying clouds, a few red, fiery stars were seen to sparkle at intervals. Cold currents of air swept over the estuary, bringing that peculiar fragrance which a night breeze always bears off the land; and the hoarse roar of the heavy surf, as it bellowed on the rocks of Broughty Castle, and rolled far inland upon the shingly beach to the eastward of it, could be hoard distinctly, as the boat of Gair was pulled directly out to sea. "Tarry a moment, Gair," said Sir Patrick Gray; "now where are those vessels--eh?" "You'll see them, sir, when they are lifted into the streak o' light; there they are! awa' doon to windward." "But what the devil is windward--which way?" asked Borthwick. "Well mayst thou ask that, for it seems to be whichever way I turn my face; but oho! I see them now!" added Gray--as the dark outlines of two vessels, with all their sails set, appeared in the distant offing, between the black vapours that seemed to rest on their mast-heads and the darker ocean on which they floated. "'Sdeath! they are ten good miles off." "Outside the Inchcape, at least, I should say," added his hitherto silent friend. "But where is the _Harry_--this devilish craft, which Gair says was visible near the Buddon-ness?" "I'll soon find out." "What was the signal agreed upon?" whispered Gray. "_This_," replied the other, discharging a hand-gun the air,