A wild, savage sort of fellow, who held aloof from everyone and was known to fear nothing--neither fire nor water.

It was his own fancy to follow the trade of 'monk,' which few would have liked.
The constant danger of the business had unsettled his brain.

He was prodigiously strong, and he knew the mine as no one else--at any rate, as well as I did.

He lived on a small allowance.

In faith, I believed him dead years ago." "But," resumed James Starr, "what does he mean by those words, 'You have robbed me of the last vein of our old mine' ?" "Ah! there it is," replied Simon; "for a long time it had been a fancy of his--I told you his mind was deranged--that he had a right to the mine of Aberfoyle; so he became more and more savage in temper the deeper the Dochart pit--his pit!--was worked out.