Presently the lad caught sight of the flash of the sun, which had but
just risen behind him, on a spearhead at the western edge of the moor.
He ran down at once, from his post, to the principal room.
"They are coming, Mother," he exclaimed. "I have just seen the sun
glint on a spearhead."
"I trust that they are all there," she said, and then turned to two
women by the fire, and bade them put on more wood and get the pots
boiling.
"Go up again, Oswald; and, as soon as you can make out your father's
figure, bring me down news. I have not closed an eye for the last two
nights, for 'tis a more dangerous enterprise than usual on which they
have gone."
"Father always comes home all right, Mother," the boy said confidently,
"and they have a strong band this time. They were to have been joined
by Thomas Gray and his following, and Forster of Currick, and John
Liddel, and Percy Hope of Bilderton. They must have full sixty spears.
The Bairds are like to pay heavily for their last raid hither."
Dame Forster did not reply, and Oswald ran up again to the lookout. By
this time the party for whom he was watching had reached the moor. It
consisted of twelve or fourteen horsemen, all clad in dark armour,
carrying very long spears and mounted on small, but wiry, horses.
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