Part 7 (1/2)

Sandy subsided, crushed, and then Jock had a bright idea. ”I tell you what we'll do,” he cried, springing to his feet. ”Let's have a clan, like Rob Roy, and we'll just badger the life out of Angus Niel. We'll never let him know who we are, but keep kim forever stepping and give him no rest. If he thinks somebody's following him up all the time, he'll not sleep easy o' nights!”

This suggestion was greeted with riotous applause. ”He'd not sleep easy if he knew Jean was after him, I'll go bail,” laughed Alan.

”Hooray!” shouted Sandy, waving his legs frantically. ”What shall we call it?”

”Let's call it the Rob Roy Clan,” said Alan.

”Hooray!” roared Sandy again.

”If we're a Clan, we'll have to have a chief,” said Jean, ”and if the Chief bids us do anything, we'll just have to do it. That's the way it was in the real Rob Roy Clan. Father said so.”

”Jock thought of it first. Let him be Chief,” said Alan.

”No!” cried Jean promptly. ”Are you thinking I'll put my head in a bag like that, and he my own brother? 'Deed, I'd never get a lick of work out of him on Sat.u.r.day if I did! Na, na, lads!

Whoever's Chief, it won't be Jock.”

”Maybe you'd like to be the Chief yourself,” retorted Jock, ”but it's enough to be bossed by you at home! Besides, whoever heard of a girl being Chief, anyway?”

”Alan can be Chief,” said Jean, and so the matter was settled.

”If I'm Chief,” said Alan, ”you'll all have to swear an oath of fealty to me.”

”What's an oath of fealty?” Jock demanded suspiciously, and Jean added in a shocked voice, ”Alan, you'd never be asking us to take the name of the Lord in vain!”

”It's not that kind of an oath,” laughed Alan. ”You just have to vow to obey the Chief in everything.” Then an idea popped into his head. ”In a real Clan they are all kinsmen, but here's Sandy, and he's neither Campbell nor McGregor. We'll have to make a blood brother of him before he can join.”

”What's a blood brother? How do you make 'em?” asked Sandy.

”I'll show you,” said Alan. He drew his knife from his pocket and while the other three watched him in breathless admiration, he made a little cut in his wrist and immediately pa.s.sed the knife to Jock. ”You do the same,” he commanded.

Jock obeyed his Chief and pa.s.sed the knife to Jean, who promptly followed his example.

”Now, Sandy,” said Alan.

Sandy hated the sight of blood, and he was a little pale under his freckles as he shut his eyes and jabbed himself gingerly with the point. Then Alan took a drop of blood from each wrist and mingled them with a drop from Sandy's.

”Now, Sandy,” he said, as he stirred the compound into a gory paste, ”you repeat after me, 'My foot is on my native heath, my name it is McGregor.'” Sandy obeyed with solemnity, and, this important ceremony over, Alan p.r.o.nounced him a member of the Clan in good and regular standing.

Then, by the Chief's orders, Jean, Jock, and Sandy, each in turn placed their hands under Alan's hand, while they promised to obey him without question in all matters pertaining to the Clan.

”Only,” said Jean, ”you mustn't tell us to do anything wrong.”

”I won't,” promised Alan. And so the Rob Roy Clan came into being.

Alan took command at once. ”We must have a sign,” he said. ”Just like Clan Alpine in 'The Lady of the Lake.' Go, my henchmen,” he cried, striking a n.o.ble att.i.tude, and waving his hand toward the forest, ”bring hither sprays of the Evergreen Pine, and we'll stick 'em in our bonnets just like Roderick Dhu and his men.

Roderick Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! iero!”

The two boys instantly disappeared down the hole in the rock on this errand, leaving Jean and Alan to guard the cave.