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324 him for having been the occasion of so much misery to Judith. He could not now drive from his head the scene of the girl's wan face at the window, looking up at the moon.

Oliver would shrink from doing anything dishonorable, but it did not seem to him that there could be aught wrong and unbecoming a gentleman in endeavoring to snatch this hapless child from the claws of the wild beast that had struck it down.

"No, father," said he hastily, as the old fellow was pouring out a pretty strong dose of his great specific and about to administer it to Jamie, "no father, it is not that the boy wants; and remember how strongly Judith objects to his being given spirits."

"Dear, dear!" exclaimed Uncle Zachie, "to be sure she does, and she made me promise not to give him any. But this is an exceptional case."

"Let him come to me, I will soothe him. The child is frightened, or stay, get him to help you with that kittiwake. Jamie, father can't get the bird to look natural; his head does not seem to me to be right. Did you ever see a kittiwake turn his neck in that fashion? I wish you would put your fingers to the throat, and bend it about, and set the wadding where it ought to be. Father and I can't agree about it."

"It is wrong," said Jamie. "Look, this is the way." His mind was diverted. Always volatile, always ready to be turned from one thing to another, Oliver had succeeded in interesting him, and had made him forget for a moment the terrors that had shaken him.

After Jamie had been in the house for half an hour, Oliver advised him to return to the Glaze. He would give him no message, verbal or written. But the thought of having to return renewed the poor child's fears, and Oliver could hardly allay them by promising to accompany him part of the way.

Oliver was careful not to speak to him on the subject of his alarm, but he gathered from his disjointed talk that Judith had given him the note and impressed on him that it was to be delivered as secretly as possible; that Coppinger had intercepted him, and suspecting something, had threatened and frightened him into divulging the truth. Then Captain Cruel had read the letter, scored over it some words in pencil, given it back