Violet Jacob > Flemington

3i6
FLEMINGTON
The western end of the county swarmed with
troops. Montrose was subdued; the passes of the
Grampians were watched; there remained only
this barren tract west of the river; and the warn¬
ing brought to him from a nameless source had
implored him to abandon it before the soldiery,
which his informant assured him was collecting
to sweep it from end to end, should range itself
on its borders.
Archie had withheld his name when he sent
the dweller in the little hovel speeding into the
night. He was certain that in making it known
to James he would defeat his own ends, for Logie
would scarcely be disposed to trust his good faith,
and might well look on the message as a trick to
drive him into some trap waiting for him between
the^Muir and the sea.
James did not give his brother any details of his
projected flight; he merely bade him an indefinite
good-bye. The game was up — even he was
obliged to admit that—and Ferrier, whose ardent
spirit had been one with his own since the
beginning of all things, was already making for
a fishing village, from which he hoped to be
smuggled out upon the high seas. Nothing
further could be gained in Angus for the Stuart
cause. The friends had spent themselves since
April in their endeavours to resuscitate the feel¬
ing in the country, but there was no more money
to be raised, no more men to be collected. They
told themselves that all they could do now was
to wait in the hope of a day when their services