his face expressed no feeling but a vague alarm.
'You were my father's brother,' I continued; 'You, have taught me

to count your house as if it were my father's house; and we are
both sinful men walking before the Lord among the sins and dangers

of this life. It is by our evil that God leads us into good; we
sin, I dare not say by His temptation, but I must say with His

consent; and to any but the brutish man his sins are the beginning
of wisdom. God has warned you by this crime; He warns you still by

the bloody grave between our feet; and if there shall follow no
repentance, no improvement, no return to Him, what can we look for

but the following of some memorable judgment?'
Even as I spoke the words, the eyes of my uncle wandered from my

face. A change fell upon his looks that cannot be described; his
features seemed to dwindle in size, the colour faded from his

cheeks, one hand rose waveringly and pointed over my shoulder into
the distance, and the oft-repeated name fell once more from his

lips: 'The CHRIST-ANNA!'
I turned; and if I was not appalled to the same degree, as I return

thanks to Heaven that I had not the cause, I was still startled by
the sight that met my eyes. The form of a man stood upright on the

cabin-hutch of the wrecked ship; his back was towards us; he
appeared to be scanning the offing with shaded eyes, and his figure

was relieved to its full height, which was plainly very great,
against the sea and sky. I have said a thousand times that I am

not superstitious; but at that moment, with my mind running upon
death and sin, the unexplained appearance of a stranger on that

sea-girt, solitary island filled me with a surprise that bordered
close on terror. It seemed scarce possible that any human soul

should have come ashore alive in such a sea as had rated last night
along the coasts of Aros; and the only vessel within miles had gone

down before our eyes among the Merry Men. I was assailed with
doubts that made suspenseunbearable, and, to put the matter to the

touch at once, stepped forward and hailed the figure like a ship.
He turned about, and I thought he started to behold us. At this my

courage instantly revived, and I called and signed to him to draw
near, and he, on his part, dropped immediately to the sands, and

began slowly to approach, with many stops and hesitations. At each
repeated mark of the man's uneasiness I grew the more confident

myself; and I advanced another step, encouraging him as I did so
with my head and hand. It was plain the castaway had heard

indifferent accounts of our island hospitality; and indeed, about
this time, the people farther north had a sorry reputation.

'Why,' I said, 'the man is black!'
And just at that moment, in a voice that I could scarce have

recognised, my kinsman began swearing and praying in a mingled
stream. I looked at him; he had fallen on his knees, his face was

agonised; at each step of the castaway's the pitch of his voice
rose, the volubility of his utterance and the fervour of his

language redoubled. I call it prayer, for it was addressed to God;
but surely no such ranting incongruities were ever before addressed

to the Creator by a creature: surely if prayer can be a sin, this
mad harangue was sinful. I ran to my kinsman, I seized him by the

shoulders, I dragged him to his feet.
'Silence, man,' said I, 'respect your God in words, if not in

action. Here, on the very scene of your transgressions, He sends
you an occasion of atonement. Forward and embrace it; welcome like

a father yon creature who comes trembling to your mercy.'
With that, I tried to force him towards the black; but he felled me

to the ground, burst from my grasp, leaving the shoulder of his
jacket, and fled up the hillside towards the top of Aros like a

deer. I staggered to my feet again, bruised and somewhat stunned;
the negro had paused in surprise, perhaps in terror, some halfway

between me and the wreck; my uncle was already far away, bounding
from rock to rock; and I thus found myself torn for a time between

two duties. But I judged, and I pray Heaven that I judged rightly,
in favour of the poor wretch upon the sands; his misfortune was at

least not plainly of his own creation; it was one, besides, that I
could certainly relieve; and I had begun by that time to regard my

uncle as an incurable and dismallunatic. I advancedaccordingly
towards the black, who now awaited my approach with folded arms,

like one prepared for either destiny. As I came nearer, he reached
forth his hand with a great gesture, such as I had seen from the

pulpit, and spoke to me in something of a pulpit voice, but not a
word was comprehensible. I tried him first in English, then in

Gaelic, both in vain; so that it was clear we must rely upon the
tongue of looks and gestures. Thereupon I signed to him to follow

me, which he did readily and with a grave obeisance like a fallen
king; all the while there had come no shade of alteration in his

face, neither of anxiety while he was still waiting, nor of relief
now that he was reassured; if he were a slave, as I supposed, I

could not but judge he must have fallen from some high place in his
own country, and fallen as he was, I could not but admire his

bearing. As we passed the grave, I paused and raised my hands and
eyes to heaven in token of respect and sorrow for the dead; and he,

as if in answer, bowed low and spread his hands abroad; it was a
strange motion, but done like a thing of common custom; and I

supposed it was ceremonial in the land from which he came. At the
same time he pointed to my uncle, whom we could just see perched

upon a knoll, and touched his head to indicate that he was mad.
We took the long way round the shore, for I feared to excite my

uncle if we struck across the island; and as we walked, I had time
enough to mature the little dramaticexhibition by which I hoped to

satisfy my doubts. Accordingly, pausing on a rock, I proceeded to
imitate before the negro the action of the man whom I had seen the

day before taking bearings with the compass at Sandag. He
understood me at once, and, taking the imitation out of my hands,

showed me where the boat was, pointed out seaward as if to indicate
the position of the schooner, and then down along the edge of the

rock with the words 'Espirito Santo,' strangelypronounced, but
clear enough for recognition. I had thus been right in my

conjecture; the pretended historicalinquiry had been but a cloak
for treasure-hunting; the man who had played on Dr. Robertson was

the same as the foreigner who visited Grisapol in spring, and now,
with many others, lay dead under the Roost of Aros: there had their

greed brought them, there should their bones be tossed for
evermore. In the meantime the black continued his imitation of the

scene, now looking up skyward as though watching the approach of
the storm now, in the character of a seaman, waving the rest to

come aboard; now as an officer, running along the rock and entering
the boat; and anon bending over imaginary oars with the air of a

hurried boatman; but all with the same solemnity of manner, so that
I was never even moved to smile. Lastly, he indicated to me, by a

pantomime not to be described in words, how he himself had gone up
to examine the stranded wreck, and, to his grief and indignation,

had been deserted by his comrades; and thereupon folded his arms
once more, and stooped his head, like one accepting fate.

The mystery of his presence being thus solved for me, I explained
to him by means of a sketch the fate of the vessel and of all

aboard her. He showed no surprise nor sorrow, and, with a sudden
lifting of his open hand, seemed to dismiss his former friends or

masters (whichever they had been) into God's pleasure. Respect
came upon me and grew stronger, the more I observed him; I saw he

had a powerful mind and a sober and severecharacter, such as I
loved to commune with; and before we reached the house of Aros I

had almost forgotten, and whollyforgiven him, his uncanny colour.
To Mary I told all that had passed without suppression, though I

own my heart failed me; but I did wrong to doubt her sense of
justice.

'You did the right,' she said. 'God's will be done.' And she set
out meat for us at once.

As soon as I was satisfied, I bade Rorie keep an eye upon the
castaway, who was still eating, and set forth again myself to find

my uncle. I had not gone far before I saw him sitting in the same
place, upon the very topmost knoll, and seemingly in the same

attitude as when I had last observed him. From that point, as I
have said, the most of Aros and the neighbouring Ross would be

spread below him like a map; and it was plain that he kept a bright