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 cliff, "I plight my faith and troth, my hand and my glove."

"Wait there a moment, then," said Westburnflat; "or, hear ye, I wad rather ye wad fa' back a pistol-shot from the door. It's no that I mistrust your word, Earnscliff, but it's best to be sure."

"O, friend," thought Hobbie to himself, as he drew back, "an' I had you but on Turner's-holm, and naebody bye but twa honest lads to see fair play, I wad make ye wish ye had broken your leg ere ye had touched beast or body that belanged to me."

"He has a white feather in his wing this same Westburnflat after a'," said Simon of Hackburn, somewhat scandalized by his ready surrender. "He'll ne'er fill his father's boots."

In the meanwhile, the inner door of the tower was opened, and the mother of the freebooter appeared in the space betwixt that and the outer grate. Willie himself was next seen leading forth a female, and the old woman, carefully bolt-