"Welcome, Hume! I am glad indeed to see you; and -- ah! is it you,
Munro? it is long indeed since we met."
"That is it, Graheme; it is twelve years since we were students
together at St. Andrews."
"I did not think you would have come on such a night," Graheme
said.
"I doubt that we should have come tonight, or any other night,
Nigel, if it had not been that that brave boy who calls you uncle
swam across the Nith to show us the best way to cross. It was a
gallant deed, and I consider we owe him our lives."
"It would have gone hard with you, indeed, had you tried to swim
the Nith at the ford; had I not made so sure you would not come I
would have sent a man down there. I missed Malcolm after dinner,
and wondered what had become of him. But come in and get your wet
things off. It is a cold welcome keeping you here. My men will take
your horses round to the stable and see that they are well rubbed
down and warmly littered."
In a quarter of an hour the party were assembled again in the sitting
room. It was a bare room with heavily timbered ceiling and narrow
windows high up from the ground; for the house was built for
purposes of defence, like most Scottish residences in those days.
The floor was thickly strewn with rushes. Arms and trophies of the
chase hung on the walls, and a bright fire blazing on the hearth
gave it a warm and cheerful aspect.
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