(VOLUME II) ***




Produced by Al Haines.


                       STAND FAST, CRAIG-ROYSTON!

                                A Novel


                                   BY

                             WILLIAM BLACK,

                               AUTHOR OF
             "A DAUGHTER OF HETH," "MACLEOD OF DARE," ETC.



                          _IN THREE VOLUMES._
                                VOL. II.



                                LONDON:
           SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, LIMITED
                          St. Dunstan's House
                    FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
                                 1891.

                        [_All rights reserved._]




                                LONDON:
              PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
                   STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.




                          CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER

      I. Doubts and Dreams
     II. By Northern Seas
    III. "Holy Palmer's Kiss"
     IV. Interposition
      V. The Gnawing Fox
     VI. Put to the Proof
    VII. Renewing is of Love
   VIII. On the Brink
     IX. "And hast thou played me this!"




                       STAND FAST, CRAIG-ROYSTON!



                               CHAPTER I.

                           DOUBTS AND DREAMS.


And at first Vincent was for rebelliously thrusting aside and ignoring
this information that had reached him so unexpectedly.  Was he, on the
strength of a statement forwarded by an unknown correspondent in New
York, to suspect--nay, to condemn unheard--this proud and solitary old
man with whom he had all this while been on terms of such close and
friendly intimacy?  Had he not had ample opportunities of judging
whether George Bethune was the sort of person likely to have done this
thing that was now charged against him?  He went over these past weeks
and months.  Was it any wonder that the old man's indomitable courage,
his passionate love of his native land, and the constant and assiduous
care and affection he bestowed on his granddaughter, should have aroused
alike the younger man's admiration and his gratitude? What if he talked
with too lofty an air of birth and lineage, or allowed his enthusiasm
about Scotland and Scottish song to lead him into the realms of
rodomontade: may not an old man have his harmless foibles?  Any one who
had witnessed Maisrie's devotion to her grandfather, her gentle
forbearance and consideration, her skilful