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too hastily, that he was to retrace his steps toward the direction of Loch Tay and Dunkeld. A most estimable person is Dr. Trellington Blythe, F.S.A. and Ph.D. Heid.; and at home we knew him particularly well, but never had suspected him of the condescension of a Highland tour, or of his betaking himself to fishing; much less of his looking out for good, retired summer quarters for himself and family, "in some secluded district of the mountain country, contiguous to water-within reach of agreeable acquaintance-yet not hackneyed, not hackneyed, sir." Such, nevertheless, had been his confidential words to us, in MacGregor's baronial-looking hostelry by Loch-Katrine, while we took our last evening rummer of GlenDronach toddy near him; he confining himself, as usual, to soda-water, and several times, with a frown, sniffing at the nicotine odour of Ickerson's clothes. For it must be said that the latter is singularly regardless of people's prejudices, even in sundry other uncouth traits yet, strangely enough, there is a favour for him none the less universal among his acquaintances, Dr. T. B. ineluded; still more, perhaps, Mrs. T. B., a very pretty-looking woman with highly æsthetic tastes. When agreeable society was referred to, that lady had not failed to glance our way; as if it were a pity we were but pedestrianizing in a transient manner, without aim or purpose beyond an occasional day's fishing near the road. In fact, we had not indicated any purpose at all. Far from Ickerson's knowing at the time that we had one, I was aware of his easy temperament, his too-passive or too-transient disposition, over which a superior will possessed great influence; and even to him also, I had as yet concealed my knowledge of our friend Moir's discovery; I had expressed an interest in the same scenery, towards Dunkeld, which the Blythes had in contemplation, with a similar desire to behold the tomb of Rob Roy in passing, and probably explore the rude vicinity of Loch Earn, then to witness the Celtic games of St. Fillan's. The reality was, I well knew the difficulty

of escape from that peculiar instinct, if once set upon our track, which pertains to one whom I may call a philanthropic Beagle-delicacy forbidding the word

Bore.

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Yet here was Trellington Blythe again, after all my pains, most imminently at hand in the hotel coffee-room, snatching a hasty luncheon before he issued forth. Genially fraternizing with a whole band of eager tourists from the road, whose knapsacks, and wide-awakes, and volumes of Scott and Wordsworth, had scared us both as they rushed in upon the débris of our glorious Highland breakfast; though Ickerson had only gazed his supine dismay, indiscriminately regarding them, till I perceived the direr apparition behind, and drew him with me in our retreat by an opposite door. Somewhat unprepared for immediate renewal of active measures we were, it must be owned; at least in my friend's case. Since Ickerson's personal vigour and capacity for exertion, combined with a singular faculty for abstinence when needful, are proportionate to his stature and his thews, rendering, perhaps, indispensable on his part those few ruminative whiffs. could well have spared, certainly, that formal replenishment of a meerschaum resembling a calumet, that careful replacement of the ashes, and that scrupulous ignition, that studious consciousness of every fume. Was it possible that he had hesitated to support me, till I had fortunately recollected the certain advent of M'Killop that very day?—did a hankering still possess him after the Egyptian fleshpots of Mrs. Blythe and her elegant cousins, heedless of the doctor's own educational theories, and his feeling remarks on nature? Could he so forget what was at stake in the prospect of that delicious solitude which Moir had lit upon, and to which at that moment we alone possessed the key? Could it possibly enter into his mind to avoid further ambiguity in the affair by his usual absurd candour, and, for the sake of future relations with the Trellington Blythes, to propose allowing them the opportunity, so much after their own

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both aware that Mr. M'Killop had a wife and many daughters, that the parliamentary season was just about over, and the dearth of news to be made up for by sporting matters alone; so when it struck me like a flash of lightning that he too was on the outlook for summer quarters, with the desire to lodge his family where the Tribune might still be cared for amidst his own race and original language, need it be wondered that I avowed the conviction to Ickerson, or that Ickerson was utterly overcome?

Urged by haste, though inwardly triumphant, I had but to take out again our London friend's epistle from Lochna-Diomhair; and for Ickerson's benefit, while he suspended his meerschaum anxiously, to retrace the considerate chart of our way which the postscript contained. Its first bearings and guidemarks were identically before us from that spot, far over amongst the sinewy mountain-shoulders which press from westward on the lake, reflected below more softly; above, too, in the Alps of Arrochar that overpeak these, remote beyond record even in that magic mirror. It was a blessed picture still farther in the unseen background, which the letter itself conjured up; the ecstatic affirmation from Frank Moir of an absolute Highland Arcadia undetected by guidebooks, which, allowing for some accidental rose-colour of a personal kind, he was not yet too much cockneyfied to appreciate; while, to us, in our holiday escape from rote and toil, from the weary hack-round and daily trouble, it was a precious refreshment to hear of. To one of us, lately fagged to the ut

most, and bitterly disciplined by experience, it was a longing, desperate necessity of the very life and brain, the heart and soul. We now certified ourselves there, that we had only to ferry across forthwith, then hold those peaks upon a certain side, and then the way afterwards was scarcely to be mistaken; until we should perceive that other mountain, of shape unique and indubitable position, which overshadowed the very entrance to the secluded glen of the Macdonochies. I myself, pure Goth as I was, had some practice in Highland wanderings; as to Ickerson, he was an Islesman, familiar from youth with the tongue of the Gael as with his school Latin or college Greek, almost his daily German; claiming distant Celtic blood, actually pretending, in his slow, elephantine, Teutonic humour, to "have a Tartan," with right to the kilt and eagle's feather. Though stamped by name and aspect, as by inner nature, true son of old Scandinavian sea-riders, having the noble viking always in him, sometimes the latent Berserkir like to flash forth; otherwise inexperienced, impractical, the mere abstracted quietist, who might use the eyes and help the active energy of a companion that knew the world.

It was hot already. By the nearest route it must be a good long afternoon's tramp for us, even from the opposite. shore of Benlomond, where the light would glare and the heat would broil above us. As for fear of weather or change, it had varied too long before, for any fear of it now from me; although Ickerson looked up into the very brightness of the sky, and away at some mist about the distinctest mountains, saying, in his queer, quasi-prophetic manner, that it would rain to the west. I only set some store by him in the matter, because he none the less resolutely put up his pipe, stretched his large limbs, and rose, professing himself ready. He, indeed! the half-abstracted, half-sagacious monster of good luck that I have often found him!-it was not he who needed to go back into the hotel lobby, facing the full glare of those spectacles in the sunlight,

before we could again abscond; for he invariably had borne his fishing-rod about with him in the compendious form of that huge walking-staff which he now struck upon the ground so promptly, and his plaid was always over his shoulder, enveloping in one fold that simple oilskin parcel of his. It was not he who had become responsible to the waiter for our charges, nor who had left his wellcompacted impedimenta, with every essential of pedestrian comfort, on the hall table; and despite his solemn consternation at the reiterated statement, it is impossible to get rid of a belief, from one scarce perceptible twinkle of his eye, that the hypocrite enjoyed it. "Being conscious of my own deficiences in the practical department," said he, with that provoking Orcadian accent, occasionally similar to a snuffle, "I have to guard against them, or rather, my worthy aunt and cousins have ;" uplifting and surveying his whole outfit with an air of innocent satisfaction. "But would hethe doctor, I mean-seeing you alone, my dear Brown, do you think, be so eager to accost you as you suppose? To wish to —that is, to persevere in having you of his party-that is to say, I-as you feel it disagreeable-perhaps he may not, in fact, care for your proximity and a-a -what particular exploration you might contemplate?"

It is true, as the fellow naïvely showed himself aware, Ickerson was the chief magnet to the Blythe party in general; nor am I sure to this moment that the inestimable doctor likes me at bottom. Well knowing, therefore, that I could. trust myself alone, even with Trellington Blythe, I at once cut the knot by providing that my companion should forthwith skirt the lake towards the ferryboat, while I, at every hazard, would boldly rush up to the hotel. Struck by a sudden thought at Ickerson's departure, however, I lingered instead upon the pier, as the steamer came plashing up. Already the doctor's voice was conspicuous from the other side, hurrying down among other tourists; but the sharp-prowed "Lady-of-the-Lake" was quicker than he or I had calculated;

sending an eddy before her to my very feet, when, with a roar, and a hiss, and a clamour, she came sheering round to float broadside in. The first face I discerned was that of M'Killop of the Daily Tribune, high on one paddle-box, through the steam which contrasted with his sandy whiskers, carpet-bag and umbrella in hand, firmly looking for the shore. His eye was in a moment upon me; but the motley crowd were scarce begun to be disgorged, ere, with a presence of mind I still plume myself upon, I had turned and hastened up in the van of the confusion; meeting right in the face, of course, as if newly arrived from Glasgow, with the good Trellington Blythe. It was the work of a few seconds to make my hurried and broken explanation as he stumbled against me-to mutter a reply to his alarmed inquiry about Ickerson-to nod assent to his hope of further leisure together in the hotel-and then, leaving him to meet his friend, to dash in for my indispensables, settle with the waiter, and once more escape, breathless, to the ferry-place. There the stout-built Highland boatmen, of pudgy shapes, with foxy faces, were at their oars. Ickerson was seated, calmly waiting, beside a rustic female of carroty locks, with a suckling baby, whose unreserved relations he mildly regarded, in his own placid, all-tolerating, catholic manner, dabbling his hand alongside the while.

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Why must we thus wait still, though? Why, leaving the honorary stern sheets vacant, and the helm untouched, must I pass into the forepart also, beside nursing rustics? "Somepotty is be coming," it seems, from the boatman, "off impoartanze." Was the place bespoken then? Was it engaged beforehand? They stare at me. Aye, shis two day, Hoo, Aye!" "Some superior person,' gravely whispers Ickerson, "from Glasgow, by the steamer." We were mutually appalled by the same idea: especially as I saw M'Killop's form with the doctor, over the edge of the little pier, absorbed in conversation behind the throng, in rear of a whole stalking procession of

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females with hats and feathers. Doubtless the M'Killop family! All so near, that, as we crouch, we can hear the sound of their voices across the smooth little bay; and, out of sight myself, I can still see the distincter, warmer reflection of that able editor's gestures-nay, what was not before visible, the very under-brim of his furry hat, the bristling sandiness under his full chin. He had, on a sudden, a staring-white paper in his hand, and, looking at it curiously, gave it to Trellington Blythe, who peered into it also; till they both looked round and round. Yet, to our joy, we were unobserved; indeed, as they were departing towards the hotel, we saw further proof that it was none of them the boat delayed for. A groom from the steamer, carrying a gun-case, leading two fine setters, came and stepped into the boat beside us: followed at greater leisure by two gentlemen, both young, one pleasant-faced and with a military air, his accents English; the other under-browed and Celtic, though darkly handsome, with a sulky hauteur, jealous and half awkward, that checked his friend's designed complaisance towards ourselves. We sat unheeded, therefore; while at an abrupt motion of the hand from that glooming young Gael, the rowers stretched out, and he took the tiller to steer us across for Bealach-More. Strange to say, it was the Englishman who wore a costume like a chief's, while the Celt wore the fashionable garb of to-day.

"The Macdonochy, nevertheless," murmured Ickerson to me. "The young chief, that is to say, of the Macdonochies." I stared. It was to the land of the Macdonochies we were bound. "Which?" I whispered back-"He with the kilt. and feather?" "No. With the long Noah's-ark frock-coat, the peg-top trousers, the Zouave cap, and first-rate boots -on that starboard sole of which, displayed so unconsciously, you perceive in small nails the advertisement of 'Duncan and Co., Princes Street, Edinburgh.'" There was in Ickerson, as I hinted, a slow, subterranean, subacid humour; and he noticed things unex

pectedly. I leant back, musing on the doubtful likelihood of Loch-na-Diomhair remaining an oasis long; while the Macdonochy sulked at us, and talked loud to his better-bred companion, using French phrases; then once or twice superciliously drawled to the boatmen a hideous sentence of authority, interspersed with what seemed a Gaelic oath; to which they, rowing, droned humbly back.

As we leapt upon the other shore of Loch-Lomond, the road lay before us; wild enough at best; parting, within sight, to a wilder one, up a stern pass, through which brawled a headlong river. At the parting, stood a well-equipped dog-cart, waiting. But neither help nor guidance was I inclined to, even from the looks of the best-mannered friend of the Macdonochies; and in the wilder of the two ways I recognised the "short cut," of which Moir's letter spoke. Ickerson, after another of his mystical looks overhead and up the mountains, silently acceded. So we escaped from the Macdonochy also, and took the short cut by the pass.

II.

OUR JOURNEY THITHER.

WILD, grim, desolate, it was soon, as the sternest valley of Rephidim. Away on either hand, drearier in their very formlessness, began to slant without sublimity the worn grey hill-sides, from waste to waste. Chaotic shatterings and tumblings here and there, driven back upon forgotten Titans, had long come to an end in utter stillness; where the lichen and moss were the sole living things, creeping insensibly over some huge foremost boulder, bald and blind with storm that had been. In the sultry, suffocating heat of that Glen-Ogie, the very rocks gave out a faint tinkling, as when calcined limestone cools slowly; nothing else sounded but our own feet, slipping or crackling. For Ickerson was especially taciturn, yet in haste; nor at the same time abstracted, as I could have pardoned his becoming. Thus his un

social mood annoyed the more; no sneer at Ossian, nor lure to the pipe, or to the flask of Glenlivet I bore, could draw him out. The fellow's tone and manner became positively uncomfortable, when, grasping me by the arm with a hand which is like a vice, he bade me turn and look along Glen-Ogie. We were in the bottom of it. There was nothing particular to see. That way-the other also, towards which he kept that staff of his pointed like a divining rod-was but a wild, inarticulate, rugged ascent, with dry rifts and gullies on both sides, a wrinkling off through stony beds of vanished torrents into unknown chasms; then up, as where avalanches had rolled down, or volcanic eruptions had passed. Where had the hazy sweltering sun retreated? Where were our own shadows -where the clouds-on what side, the east, west, north, or south-and which the vista of Glen-Ogie we had descended, which the perspective of it we were yet to ascend? To tell the truth, for all I know, we might then have steadily proceeded backward, even passing the last nondescript clachan of human burrows as a new one, and reaching Loch-Lomond as if it were our lake in prospect, till we ferried across to the supposed welcome of Moir, and should find the embrace of Trellington Blythe, with the exulting recognition of M'Killop! For a moment I was in Ickerson's hands: so that if he had smiled, I could have dashed him from me. But in the most earnest spirit of companionship, which never shall I forget, he thrust his staff before him like a sword, and without a word we rushed upward together. One glimpse was all I wanted now of the doubleheaded summit of Ben-Araidh, with its single cairn of stones.

At length, with something like a cry of satisfaction, my friend sprang up before me from the rocky trough, out upon a heathery knoll. Beside us was a small round mountain-tarn, fed by a quick little burn from above, which again stole out into wide-rolling moor. its own vast brown shoulder I caught sight of the bare grey top I looked for; slightly swathed, between, with a slight

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wreath of mist. Here we quenched our thirst; here we gave ourselves up, at ease, to the untroubled rapture of the pause at that high spot, our journey's zenith. The rest was plain before us; and Ickerson took out his meerschaum once more, and smoked tranquilly again.

Too well does he meditate, my friend Ickerson, and pour forth at length the tenor of his meditations; in rhapsody that takes indeed the colour of sublime phenomena around him, yet too much assimilates to the other vapour he breathes forth, till it is apt to lull one into dreams. Had it not been to avoid this, I do not think, in circumstances still requiring care, that I should have been tempted to join my rod together and leave him a little, to try the upward course of the brook. To him, forsooth,

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it may be the easiest thing to put away inveterate thoughts at will: they never haunted or terrified him. There was always a fund of latent power in the fellow, which he never troubled himself to draw upon; because, perhaps, he was six feet two without his shoes, with a bone, muscle, and length of arm that set him above need of much sparring practice with our friend Francalanza. soon heard him, but in the distance; his eyes closed, his incense ascending, his knees up-eventually, as I looked over my shoulder, raising by turns his delighted feet, in real enjoyment of the glorious hush-with the supposition, doubtless, that the silent pea-coat beside him was a drowsy companion. Alas! ye dogging remembrances, ye jading and worldly consciousnesses-ye could not so easily be left. I followed the upward vein of the brook, in its deep watercourse, broken and fern-fringed; and it is strange, though childish, how a few minutes, which self-control could not compose to peace, will glide away in puerile sport and device. Rest!-rest, said we? Flight from thought, or from the pertinacity of words and artifices? No 'tis a new, eager, wild refuge of pursuit, exultingly compensative by revenge for what you have feared and fled from before pitiless in its first savage longings for the scent, the chase, capture,

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