 sea, so that the soft sand rose over my shoes. There was no
more to do whatever but to wait, to look as much as we were able at the creeping
nearer of the boat, and as little as we could manage at the long impenetrable
front of the sandhills, over which the gulls twinkled and behind which our
enemies were doubtless marshalling.
    »This is a fine, bright, caller place to get shot in,« says Alan suddenly;
»and, man, I wish that I had your courage!«
    »Alan!« I cried, »what kind of talk is this of it? You're just made of
courage; it's the character of the man, as I could prove myself if there was
nobody else.«
    »And you would be the more mistaken,« said he. »What makes the differ with
me is just my great penetration and knowledge of affairs. But for auld, cauld,
dour, deidly courage, I am not fit to hold a candle to yourself. Look at us two
here upon the sands. Here am I, fair hotching to be off; here's you (for all
that I ken) in two minds of it whether you'll no' stop. Do you think that I
could do that, or would? No' me! Firstly, because I havena got the courage and
wouldna daur; and secondly, because I am a man of so much penetration and would
see ye damned first.«
    »It's there ye're coming, is it?« I cried. »Ah, man Alan, you can wile your
old wives, but you never can wile me.«
    Remembrance of my temptation in the wood made me strong as iron.
    »I have a tryst to keep,« I continued. »I am trysted with your cousin
Charlie; I have passed my word.«
    »Braw trysts that you'll can keep,« said Alan. »Ye'll just mistryst aince
and for a' with the gentry in the bents. And what for?« he went on with an
extreme threatening gravity. »Just tell me that, my mannie! Are ye to be
speerited away like Lady Grange? Are they to drive a dirk in your inside and
bury ye in the bents? Or is it to be the other way, and are they to bring ye in
with James? Are they folk to be trustit? Would ye stick your head in the mouth
of Simon Fraser and the ither Whigs?« he added with extraordinary bitterness
