Meanwhile, Alice had made up in a small basket what she thought worth removing, and hinging her plaid around her, she advanced up to Edward, and, with the utmost simplicity, taking hold of his hand, offered her cheek to his salute, dropping, at the same time, her little curtsy.

Evan, who was esteemed a wag among the mountain fair, advanced, as if to secure a similar favour; but Alice, snatching up her basket, escaped up the rocky bank as fleetly as a roe, and, turning round and laughing, called something out to him in Gaelic, which he answered in the same tone and language; then, waving her hand to Edward, she resumed her road, and was soon lost among the thickets, though they continued for some time to hear her lively carol, as she proceeded gaily on her solitary journey.
They now again entered the gorge of the cavern, and stepping into the boat, the Highlander pushed off, and, taking advantage of the morning breeze, hoisted a clumsy sort of sail, while Evan assumed the helm, directing their course, as it appeared to Waverley, rather higher up the lake than towards the place of his embarkation on the preceding night.
As they glided along the silver mirror, Evan opened the conversation with a panegyric upon Alice, who, he said, was both CANNY and FENDY; and was, to the boot of all that, the best dancer of a strathspey in the whole strath.

Edward assented to her praises so far as he understood them, yet could not help regretting that she was condemned to such a perilous and dismal life.
'Oich! for that,' said Evan, 'there is nothing in Perthshire that she need want, if she ask her father to fetch it, unless it be too hot or too heavy.
'But to be the daughter of a cattle-stealer--a common thief!' 'Common thief!--no such thing: Donald Bean Lean never LIFTED less than a drove in his life.' 'Do you call him an uncommon thief, then ?' 'No--he that steals a cow from a poor widow, or a stirk from a cottar, is a thief; he that lifts a drove from a Sassenach laird, is a gentleman-drover.

And, besides, to take a tree from the forest, a salmon from the river, a deer from the hill, or a cow from a Lowland strath, is what no Highlander need ever think shame upon.' 'But what can this end in, were he taken in such an appropriation ?' 'To be sure he would DIE FOR THE LAW, as many a pretty man has done before him.' 'Die for the law!' 'Aye; that is, with the law, or by the law; be strapped up on the KIND gallows of Crieff, [12] where his father died, and his goodsire died, and where I hope he'll live to die himself, if he's not shot, or slashed, in a creagh.' 'You HOPE such a death for your friend, Evan!' 'And that do I e'en; would you have me wish him to die on a bundle of wet straw in yon den of his, like a mangy tyke ?' 'But what becomes of Alice, then ?' 'Troth, if such an accident were to happen, as her father would not need her help ony langer, I ken naught to hinder me to marry her mysell.' 'Gallantly resolved!' said Edward;--'but, in the meanwhile, Evan, what has your father-in-law (that shall be, if he have the good fortune to be hanged) done with the Baron's cattle ?' 'Oich,' answered Evan, 'they were all trudging before your lad and Allan Kennedy before the sun blinked ower Ben-Lawers this morning; and they'll be in the pass of Bally-Brough by this time, in their way back to the parks of Tully-Veolan, all but two, that were unhappily slaughtered before I got last night to Uaimh an Ri.' 'And where are we going, Evan, if I may be so bold as to ask ?' said Waverley.
'Where would you be ganging, but to the laird's ain house of Glennaquoich?
Ye would not think to be in his country, without ganging to see him?
It would be as much as a man's life's worth,' 'And are we far from Glennaquoich ?' But five bits of miles; and Vich Ian Vohr will meet us.' In about half an hour they reached the upper end of the lake, where, after landing Waverley, the two Highlanders drew the boat into a little creek among thick flags and reeds, where it lay perfectly concealed.
The oars they put in another place of concealment, both for the use of Donald Bean Lean probably, when his occasions should next bring him to that place.
The travellers followed for some time a delightful opening into the hills, down which a little brook found its way to the lake.

When they had pursued their walk a short distance, Waverley renewed his questions about their host of the cavern.
'Does he always reside in that cave ?' 'Out, no! it's past the skill of man to tell where he's to be found at a' times; there's not a dern nook, or cove, or corri, in the whole country, that he's not acquainted with.' 'And do others beside your master shelter him ?' 'My master ?--My master is in heaven,' answered Evan haughtily; and then immediately assuming his usual civility of manner--'But you mean my Chief;--no, he does not shelter Donald Bean Lean, nor any that are like him; he only allows him (with a smile) wood and water.' 'No great boon, I should think, Evan, when both seem to be very plenty.' 'Ah! but ye dinna see through it.