It was a most practical work for one in his position, for it told how various eminent saints of that era escaped the attention of Claverhouse's dragoons.

Dickson stored up in his memory several of the incidents in case they should come in handy.

He wondered if any of his forbears had been Covenanters; it comforted him to think that some old progenitor might have hunkered behind turf walls and been chased for his life in the heather.

"Just like me," he reflected.

"But the dragoons weren't foreigners, and there was a kind of decency about Claverhouse too." About four o'clock Dougal presented himself in the back kitchen.