F.A. HILLARD.
MALCOLM.
BY GEORGE MACDONALD, AUTHOR OF "ANNALS OF A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD,"
"ROBERT FALCONER," ETC. CHAPTER LXIV.
THE LAIRD AND HIS MOTHER.
When Malcolm and Joseph set out from Duff Harbor to find the laird,
they could hardly be said to have gone in search of him: all in their
power was to seek the parts where he was occasionally seen, in the
hope of chancing upon him; and they wandered in vain about the woods
of Fife House all that week, returning disconsolate every evening to
the little inn on the banks of the Wan Water. Sunday came and
went without yielding a trace of him; and, almost in despair, they
resolved, if unsuccessful the next day, to get assistance and organize
a search for him. Monday passed like the days that had preceded it,
and they were returning dejectedly down the left bank of the Wan
Water in the gloaming, and nearing a part where it is hemmed in by
precipitous rocks and is very narrow and deep, crawling slow and black
under the lofty arch of an ancient bridge that spans it at one leap,
when suddenly they caught sight of a head peering at them over the
parapet. They dared not run for fear of terrifying him if it should be
the laird, and hurried quietly to the spot. But when they reached
the end of the bridge its round back was bare from end to end. On
the other side of the river the trees came close up, and pursuit was
hopeless in the gathering darkness.
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