Human sounds were few in Mulindry that day. Through the morning the MacDonalds moved silently about their work for sympathy with their chief.

Towards afternoon Sir Angus MacDonald struggled back to consciousness.

While he still hovered on the borderland of waking, it seemed to him that a well-known form was bending over him. He strove to rise to grasp the strong brown hands that were so near his own, but he was powerless. A deep manly voice sounded in his ears. He tried to speak. Oh! how he tried, but he could only groan.

With the groan came fully awakened senses.

In a moment Lady Agnes was at his side, the light of hope brightening her eyes, dim with watching and weeping.

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Angus! Thank God, thank God! Speak to your mother, my son! One word."

The physician silenced her with a warning gesture, as bending he felt the sick man's pulse. Sir Angus stared from one to the other, then, lifting a feeble hand, passed it uncertainly over his brow and tried to raise himself.

"A dream," he muttered almost inaudibly. "O God! 'twas but a dream.”

His eyes closed and he fell back upon the pillows. The physician hastened to hold a cordial to his lips. He swallowed it and the effect was instantaneous.

"Mother," he said quietly. "It all comes back to me. MacLean the horse. But it seems weeks since I was hurled to the ground. Tell me, is MacLean dead ?”

"The whole truth," whispered the physician in answer to the swift enquiring glance of Lady Agnes.

more good than all my potions."

"It may do

"No, my son, no," she said eagerly, "MacLean lives and you, thank God, are spared a life-long remorse."

"I thought," Sir Angus broke in, as if speaking to himself, "that my brother Coll was here beside me. I tried to speak, to grasp his hand, but he was gone. Coll, Coll, only in dreams will I see you more! And MacLean remains. Well, be it so. I too have cheated death."

Tears were now in the mother's eyes, but they were happy tears.

"My son, our lost ones who come back to us in sleep serve

only to increase our waking misery. What would you say if in truth it was Coll you saw and no dream vision ?"

With sudden strength Sir Angus sprang up in his bed. "Mother, mother, you mock me! Or am I dreaming still? Coll alive! It cannot be."

David MacBeath, the physician, intervened authoritatively. "Calm yourself, Sir Angus. It is true. Coll MacDonald is alive and well, and was watching here with us until you gave signs of waking. Then I sent him away lest the shock of seeing him might injure you, but you must have been half-conscious and seen him before he left."

Once more the chieftain had fallen back with languid eyes half-closed and breath coming in gasps.

"It is nothing," MacBeath spoke reassuringly to Lady Agnes, "but at present he can bear no more. Leave him to me, my lady," he added respectfully.

"Thank God," the sick man's voice was heard, "that my soul is free from the murder of my brother-in-law."

"God be thanked, indeed!" exclaimed Lady Agnes fervently. "I can leave you now in peace," and kissing her son she went away marvelling and rejoicing at the change that had come over him.

But when one stands in the Vestibule of Death, great changes are wrought.

Distorted perspectives straighten themselves, and human affairs assume their true proportions. Happy the few who, like Sir Angus MacDonald, carry back with them to life dispositions altered and bettered by their near approach to Eternal Truth.

When the Earl of Lindisfarne picked himself up in the passage, he found himself face to face with Coll MacDonald. He did not know how the man believed to have been slain had come to be alive and he did not ask himself the question; but he set his back to the wall and regarded his assailant menacingly.

The look of deep abhorrence and loathing which Grace MacDonald had cast upon him when she called him murderer, seemed still to scorch his very soul. She was lost to him. He knew it, and he had given away his secret. When the MacDonalds came to know that he had been at the sack of Rathlin, he might expect short shrift from them: his life.

would not be worth a foam bubble. He felt desperate, but he was brave and spirited, and when Coll MacDonald, seething with rage against the man who had dared to alarm or molest his cousin, fiercely demanded an explanation, the Earl hurled a challenge at him.

Coll's hand flew to his sword hilt, then fell away.

From the frightened waiting women whom Grace MacDonald's scream had brought hurrying to her aid, he had gathered some idea of the reason of the Earl of Lindisfarne's presence at Dunyvaig, and he would not cross swords with one who had taken refuge in his brother's house at his brother's invitation.

"I refuse to fight with my brother's guest," said he. Then Lindisfarne, whose brain had been working rapidly, demanded a boat to carry him from Islay.

The galley that had brought Coll from Mull lay rocking in the bay, manned by a crew of islesmen, who spoke no word but Gaelic. This boat Coll placed at Lindisfarne's disposal, and the Earl, whose passion had died away, thanked his rival with something of his usual dignified courtesy.

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"I am no madman," he added, "and therefore will give you no explanation of my conduct towards your cousin; but whether you credit my words or no, I have offered no insult to Mistress Grace. Rather would I cut off my right hand. My respect for her is, and shall be always, as profound as my admiration and-and love. Stay!" as Coll, frowning, took an angry step forward. She looks upon me with horror. I am content to abide by her verdict when she is calm enough to judge me rightly. This much I will say. I am guiltless of the crime she lays to my charge. But let it pass. forgive her the blow she has dealt me. last drop of my blood to serve her. guard and cherish her as I would have done had she given me leave."

1

I would have shed the May her favoured lover

There was truth in his face and voice, and Coll MacDonald with generous impulsiveness extended his hand.

"Your pardon, Lindisfarne, if in thought I have wronged you!"

The two gripped hands before parting for ever.

Coll gave the order to the rowers to proceed to the nearest point on the Ayrshire coast, and the Earl of Lindisfarne,

gathering his belongings hastily together, sailed away from Islay, and with him, to be treasured in all his after years, he carried the brooch that had lain so often near the heart of her he had loved and lost.

He knew not how narrow was his escape, for at the very same time Sorley Boy MacDonald, with Countess Clan Connell's message in his hand, was calling for his swiftest galley to speed him to Dunyvaig.

A fleet messenger had gone to Mulindry with the news of Coll's return, and Coll as quickly followed when he had seen the last of Lindisfarne.

Who can describe the joy with which he was welcomed, or his own relief to find that Sir Lauchlan MacLean had not fallen a victim of a lying message.

The moment that Lady Agnes knew Sir Angus had passed the turning point in his illness she set off for Dunyvaig. Muriel and Ella she left behind lest their father should require them. She tried to force Coll with her, but he resisted all her efforts and would not go.

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Angus may call for Grace has no need of me.

me at any time," he said, "and Go you to comfort her."

Grace had been carried by Coll's orders to her room and laid upon her bed, where she slowly revived, hysterical and very much shaken.

A long time passed before she was calm enough to listen to Mary's tale of how Coll MacDonald was truly home again, and how the English Earl had gone from Dunyvaig. With light heart Grace heard of Lindisfarne's going, and prayed that he would never come into her life again.

She was completely exhausted by the previous night's vigil and by the trials of the day, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted till far into the morrow. Then she awoke refreshed and joyful.

It was evening when Lady Agnes reached Dunyvaig, but Grace saw her entering the courtyard and flew to meet her; and it was all of Coll MacDonald she spoke, with but one single question for Sir Angus.

Lady Agnes perceived with joy the change that had come over the Irish girl, and was not surprised when afterwards, in the seclusion of her own room, Grace confessed her newlyawakened love for Coll.

CHAPTER XXX

PRISONERS FREED

Mulindry was full of joy once more, for the lost were found and the chief was rapidly regaining strength. Dairymaids sang unrestrainedly at the milking; shepherds whistled gaily to their dogs and no one chid the little ones for boisterous mirth.

Though Sir Angus MacDonald was changed towards his enemy, no general miracle had taken place in his nature, and next day the physician found out that his old truculence was not dead, when he tried to insist on absolute rest for him.

MacBeath was compelled to humour MacDonald's desire to see his brother rather than risk the effect of a fit of rage upon his patient.

"MacBeath is over cautious," exclaimed Sir Angus when Coll had come to him. "I might be a woman with but one single strand of life remaining. Scarcely would he admit even you. Oh! but the sight of your face is more good to me than all his drugs. When came you back? They would not let me ask last night and I was over weak to combat them."

"Yesterday at noon I landed at Dunyvaig, and there learned that I and my men were mourned as dead, and that you had almost made an end of Lauchlan MacLean because of us. You were nearly made a tool of by yon Allen MacLean. Judas would be a fitter name for him-a traitor to his chief! Well would he be pleased had you slain Sir Lauchlan as he counted you would do, and as you would have done but for your accident. He aims at the chieftainship itself. Hector would have small chance against him, for he is as bold as he is treacherous."

Sir Angus MacDonald's face flushed hotly as he thought how narrowly he had escaped being the instrument of another's ambition.

"Then I am glad, Coll," said he, " that even at my body's expense the false villain is defeated. But how came he to let you away, knowing he would be discovered ?"

"It was no fault of his I got away. I and my men were closely guarded, and owe our liberty to MacLean's mother. Allen spread reports of Sir Lauchlan's danger and gathered