Summary

The story begins with the narrator asking if he can forgive himself for hating his red-haired daughter when he had thought she had run away. He states he searched for her for more than ten years to no avail.

The next sections begin with the narrator searching for a man named Calum MacInnes. He goes to McInnes’ homestead and meets the man’s son and tells him a story about the time some criminals came to find him. It is revealed to us that the narrator is a dwarf. His wife asks “a boy” to go fetch him, however the boy is actually the narrator, therefore confusing the criminals. The speaker asks McInnes to guide him to the cave in the Black Mountains. McInnes agrees but states that he will not go inside, nor help him...