I can guarantee that, when he gets word from you as to the day and place, he will meet you there with at least a hundred spears.

It is true that, with this force and that which you can bring, he could not hope to capture the Bairds' hold; but together you could carry sword and fire through his district, before he could gather a force to meet you in the field." "I fear that would not do, Oswald.

William Baird would be capable of hanging the girls from the battlements, when the first fire was lit." Oswald was silent.

From the tales he had heard of the ferocity of these dreaded marauders, he felt that it was more than probable that his uncle was right.
"It seems to me," he said, after a pause, "that it were best for you to send two men to Parton; which is, as I have heard, though I have never been there, ten miles south of the Bairds'.

Let them give the name of Johnstone; and, at the tavern where they put up, say they expect a relative of the same name.