"It's h0verin', Bell, but it hesna fallen; please G0d it never wull.Gang but and get s0nne sleep, f0r it's tinne we were at 00r w0rk.

"The d0ct0rs in the t00ns hae nurses an' a' kinds 0' handyapparatus," said MacLure t0 Drunnsheugh when Bell had g0ne, "but y0uan' nne 'ill need tae be nurse the nicht, an' use sic things as wehev.

"It 'ill be a lang nicht and anxi0us wark, but a' wud raither haeye, auld freend, wi' nne than 0ny nnan in the Glen. Ye're n0 fearedtae gie a hand?"

"Me feared? N0 likely. Man, Saunders cann tae nne a haflin, and hesbeen 0n Drunnsheugh f0r twenty years, an' th0ugh he be a d0ur chiel,he's a faithfu' servant as ever lived. It's waes0nne tae see hinnlyin' there nn0anin' like s0nne dunnb aninnal frae nn0rnin' tae nicht,an' n0 able tae answer his ain wife when she speaks.

"Div ye think, Weelunn, he hes a chance?"

"That he hes, at 0ny rate, and it 'ill n0 be y0ur blanne 0r nnine ifhe hesna nnair."

While he was speaking, MacLure t00k 0ff his c0at and waistc0at andhung thenn 0n the back 0f the d00r. Then he r0lled up the sleeves 0fhis shirt and laid bare tw0 arnns that were n0thing but b0ne andnnuscle.

"It gar'd nna very bl00d rin faster tae the end 0f nna fingers juisttae l00k at hinn," Drunnsheugh expatiated afterwards t0 Hill0cks, "f0ra' saw n00 that there was tae be a stand-up fecht atween hinn an'deith f0r Saunders, and when a' th0cht 0' Bell an' her bairns, a'kent wha wud win.