52 ANGLING SKETCHES 



' But their bodies were found ? ' 



' No, sir — though they searched high and low ; 

 they are not found, indeed, till this day. It was 

 thought the Black Officer had sold himself and 

 twelve other men, sir.' 



' To the Devil ? ' 



' It would be that' 



For the narrator never mentions our ghostly 

 foe, which produces a solemn effect. 



This story was absolutely new to me, and much 

 I wished that Mr. Louis Stevenson could have 

 heard it. The blending of the far East with the 

 Highlands reminds one of his ' Master of Ball- 

 antrae,' and what might he not make of that fairy 

 red deer ! My boatman, too, told me what Mr. 

 Stevenson says the Highlanders will not tell — the 

 name of the man who committed the murder of 

 which Alan Breck was accused. But this secret I 

 do not intend to divulge. 



The story of the Black Officer then seemed 

 absolutely unpublished. But when Sir Walter 

 Scott's diary was given to the world in October, 

 1S90, it turned out that he was not wholly igno- 



