Neil seated himself determinedly upon a fragment of rock.

'I will not be leaving the island just now, Miss Marjorie,' he said.

Marjorie looked at him, and noted the dulness of his eyes and the obstinate lines round his mouth.

'Neil, do, do go,' she said, clutching him by the arm. 'Come with me, Neil, and don't be foolish.'

'Are you ready, Neil?' said Allan, appearing inside the cave; 'the schooner can't wait much longer.'

Marjorie turned round in despair.

'Oh, this will never do,' said Allan. 'Come along, Neil, there's a good fellow, and don't keep them waiting.'

Neil remained firm and Marjorie felt that it was hopeless.

'Are you not for coming, Neil?' said Duncan, standing in the mouth of the cave; 'ta captain says he iss in a hurry to be gone.'

'Come, Neil,' said Rob MacLean persuasively, 'it will not pe meking Mistress Macdonnell any better, puir soul, for you to be waiting here with ta police, silly bodies, at your heels.'

Neil came forward, Marjorie and Allan following him anxiously.

'I will not pe going,' he said briefly.

'Of all ta fulish gomerals!' burst out Duncan, and clenched his fists and stormed in Gaelic to the lad, who remained unmoved.

'That will be a ferry foolish thing, Neil; gang wi ta captain,' said Bob soothingly.

'Go on board, Neil; it isn't too late yet,' implored Allan.

'Tide's on the turn,' shouted the gruff voice of the captain. 'Come if you're coming, and if not, don't keep honest folks waiting.'

Neil leaned against the cliff and looked stubbornly into vacancy. From his att.i.tude it was plain that he was inflexible.

'Yo-ho!' sang out the sailors; 'heave-ho!' and the sails of the little vessel slowly filled as her bows swung round to the sea.

Marjorie made a bolt towards the cliff, and began to climb.

On the top she turned and looked at Allan, whose face was as white as her own.

'Can't be helped,' he said in a hard voice. 'Some a.s.s went and told him that Mrs. Macdonnell was worse.'

'Hullo,' called out Reggie as they came within hearing, 'is he gone?'

'Gone!' echoed the others, and Marjorie sank down on the heather and gasped.

When she looked up the boys were sitting beside her.

'Well?' began Reggie sympathetically.

'He wouldn't go,' said Allan; 'we did all we could. Duncan and Rob are still storming at him down there.'

There was nothing to be said, and they all sat and reflected.

'The worst of it is,' said Marjorie in a trembling tearless voice, 'that in spite of our Compact and everything else, we haven't been able to do him a bit of good!'

The others a.s.sented by their silence.

'And I don't believe we ever shall,' continued Marjorie, 'we don't seem to have set about it the right way, somehow.'

The boys looked so downcast that Marjorie judged it inadvisable to pursue the subject further and they mounted their ponies and rode slowly in the direction of Ardnavoir.

Half-way down the hill they discovered Tricksy sitting on a clump of heather, with Hamish beside her and Laddie curled at her feet.

'You are nice, kind people,' said Tricksy reproachfully, 'going away like that and leaving me all alone!'

'Why, Tricksy,' began Marjorie, 'why didn't you go with the others?'

'Go with the others!' echoed Tricksy, 'do you think I could run up the hill as they did? If it hadn't been for Hamish I shouldn't have seen anything. Then leaving me all alone too.'

'But, Tricksy, where are Harry and Gerald?'

'I don't know, I'm sure. Gone off somewhere by themselves, and I came to meet you with Hamish. I think you might have let me come with you.'

'Don't be a little silly, Tricksy,' said Reggie irritably; 'you are too little to go all that distance.'

'Too little!' cried Tricksy, exasperated; 'I'm not too little to be sent messages for the others, and I'm not too little to dig in the garden and carry stones for the Pirates' Den; I'm only too little when it's a jolly piece of fun that you want to keep to yourselves. Oh, Laddie, dear,' to the dog who had jumped up and was licking her face, 'you are the only nice ones, you and Hamish'--and she threw her arms round the collie's neck to hide a tear. 'Don't lick my face though,'

she added, with a change of manner that forced a laugh even from the tired and weary adventurers.

'You haven't shown them what you found, Tricksy,' said Hamish.

'No,' said Tricksy, 'neither I have,' and she fumbled in her pocket and drew out a crumpled paper which she gave to Allan.

Her brother looked at it.

'What's this?' he said. 'I don't understand.'

'Look at the number, Allan, and the date,' said Hamish.

Allan examined the paper; then flushed to the ears.

'Tricksy, you little owl,' he burst out; 'to think of you going on about your potty little feelings and wounded dignity and all that when you had _this_ to show us.'

CHAPTER X

IN WHICH ALLAN IS VERY WISE