hold of Lerwick again, that you will not leave the ferry to-day. I dare not be seen by the minister, though I wish the good man well; and Glass will therefore go to the ferry with you, and bring to my hiding-place any answer you may think proper to write to this letter. And if you are desirous of seeing me, you may come without fear along with Glass to my retreat. Destroy this letter, for it comes from

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

"WHIGGANS."

Whiggans, who is he, Glass? I

never heard of him before."

"Ane that kens mair than me, the which he'll tell yoursel, and gif ye'll gi' me ony thing to tell him anent what the paper speaks to ye, I'se tell him.”

As the minister was a good way in advance, he did not see the letter in the

hands of Levingstone; and when they came to the ferry, he wrote to Whiggans, thanking him for his generous offer, and accepted the disinterested man's assistance; and said he would make some excuse for his not going off that day; and whenever Glass returned, he would be able to accompany him; and the letter of Whiggans had been destroyed.

Glass received the letter; but though asked by Levingstone where Whiggans was, the faithful midge's page would not disclose the retreat of his employer: and Levingstone having received Mr.Thornhill's blessing, was about to embark, and cross the ferry to the Largs, when he began to lament "he had not paid some visits he intended to have made in the north east corner of the island; and as there was no absolute necessity for his going off that day, he would rather, if the minister had no objection,

stay for a couple of days more, and leave the island with the good opinion' of all. He feared that to have bid one good-bye and to have neglected the same courtesy to another, might be construed into partiality, and he would not have it so much as suspected that there was one more dear to him than another of all Ellen's friends, except herself and Mrs. Thornhill;" and the good minister very willingly agreed to Levingstone's wishes, saying "If you wish to stay, it must be so, and we shall be happy of your company."

Glass had by this time arrived, and Levingstone left the minister under pretence of going to Rothsay, and Glass followed him.

Levingstone and his guide had not gone many furlongs on the road to Rothsay, when Glass advanced to him. bowing; and, pointing to the woodcrowned rocks that reared their rugged

faces on the western side of the road,

There, there, dinna ye see ae unco wee puckle reik amang the whins? Now, now, didna ye see the low? Its the low o' his ain pistol; there's nane gi's the signal like the captain hi'sel."

"How shall we get up to him, Glass?" "This way, sir; the burn's nae that deep;" and he plunged into a stream, leaving Levingstone to follow him.

The smuggler gained an audience of Levingstone, and offered, with the assistance of his men, "to catch the pedler if he were in Bute, in Arran, or Cantyre; but as he had come out of pure respect to Ellen, and the memory of her father, for the ruin that was brought on this young lady's house; and as the smugglers would not screen a cold-blooded murderer any more than they would not die in defence of their own property; Whiggans urged, Levingstone to promise secrecy, if in the attempt

of finding the pedler they failed; andindeed whether they failed or took him, none of Ellen's friends were to accompany Levingstone, for his life was perfectly safe, if he could trust his life into the hands of Christian smugglers."

But Levingstone "must meet them that night at nine o'clock, on the brae above the Bishop's hill, in Rothsay; and if he had not a knife, and a dirk, and a pistol, there were dirks, and pistols, and cutlasses would be there; and if the pedler was that night where he had been this fortnight past, (but by what means he got his food nobody knew; the smugglers were sure somebody must have brought it to him,) there was no doubt Lerwick would be got hold of."

Levingstone promised secrecy, and leaving the bold outlaw, went home to the manse; and after dinner he pleaded absence during the evening, as he had an appointment in the town: his ex