Besides, I want to talk to you." Ian brought from his cupboard oat-cake and a flask of brandy.

The other shook his head.
"I had food at sunrise, and I drank from a spring below." "Very good!" The laird of Glenfernie sat looking down the mountain-sides and over to far hills and moving clouds, much as he used to sit in the crook of the old pine outside the broken wall at Glenfernie.

There was a trick of posture when he was at certain levels within himself.

Ian knew it well.
"Perhaps I should tell you," said Alexander, "that I came alone through the pass and that I have been alone for some days.

If there are soldiers near I do not know of them." "It is not necessary," answered Ian.