The measured sound approached near and more near, and presently a loud
whistle was heard in the same direction. His friend with the battle-axe
immediately whistled clear and shrill, in reply to the signal, and a
boat, manned with four or five Highlanders, pushed for a little inlet,
near which Edward was sitting. He advanced to meet them with his
attendant, was immediately assisted into the boat by the officious
attention of two stout mountaineers, and had no sooner seated himself
than they resumed their oars, and began to row across the lake with great
rapidity.
CHAPTER XVII
THE HOLD OF A HIGHLAND ROBBER
The party preserved silence, interrupted only by the monotonous and
murmured chant of a Gaelic song, sung in a kind of low recitative by the
steersman, and by the dash of the oars, which the notes seemed to
regulate, as they dipped to them in cadence. The light, which they now
approached more nearly, assumed a broader, redder and more irregular
splendour. It appeared plainly to be a large fire, but whether kindled
upon an island or the mainland Edward could not determine. As he saw it,
the red glaring orb seemed to rest on the very surface of the lake
itself, and resembled the fiery vehicle in which the Evil Genius of an
Oriental tale traverses land and sea.
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