And then he took
out the bright little coin; surely Honnor Cunyngham could not object to
his wearing it, seeing that it had proved itself such a potent charm? He
rejoiced that he had not been frightened off his expedition by tales of
its monotonous sufferings and dire fatigues. This was something better
than arranging an out-of-door performance for a parcel of amateurs!
Stiff and sore he was, his clothes were mostly soaked and caked with
mire, and he did not know what he had not done to his shins and knees
and elbows; but he did not mind all that; Honnor Cunyngham was right--as
he rode down Strathaivron that evening towards the lodge, it would not
be of fatigues and privations he would be thinking! it would be of the
lordly stag left away up there in the hills, to be sent for and brought
down in triumph the next day.
By the time they had got the stag conveyed to a place of concealment,
and carefully covered over with heather, the afternoon was well
advanced; then they set out for the little corrie in which the pony had
been left. But Lionel was now to discover that they had come much
farther into these wilds than he had imagined; indeed, when they at
length came upon the stolid and unconcerned Maggie, he did not in the
least regret that it was a riding-saddle, not a deer-saddle, they had
brought with them in the morning.
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