upon Randal to say a prayer. But Randal said no more than “Rot,” and went downhill with his dogs abroad on the shingle behind him. Tod dropped on one knee, and uncovered.
“May ye sleep swater than ye smell,” he said. “An’ may your luck be better to ye than that ould boyo shankin’ away beyant there.”
Then he crossed himself, and followed downward through the loneliness.
Gordon grunted through the smoke-reek.
“I knew Randal long afore that,” he said. “He got all the bowels of an empty churn, and all the heart of a seeded cabbage. I cud tell you things of Randal———”
Randal was without in the bar. Mogger saw the square of his shoulders beyond the door- jamb, and kicked Gordon’s stool in delicate warning. For Gordon was only a sluicing hand and did not know the weight of Randal’s fist.
“Go an’ tell it top o’ Lonely Hill, then, you chunk. We knows what Randal is.”
Ted Douglas knocked out his pipe with a chuckle. He was a long, well-knit boy, and head-man to Scannell of Mains. For where power to rule is in men, age and length of tenour break before it. Besides he was strong, body and brain, and clean as the snow hills that bred him.
