His first instinct was to rush down the mountainside and show his father. But something held him back. They had laughed at him when he was a child,wanting to be a Highland warrior. They would laugh again, that he would even think he could use it. They might admire the way he had cleaned and sharpened it, then they would take it away and give it to someone else.
Form hidden crevices of the mountains he began to watch Jamie's military"school'. Each morning his cousin took the young boys through their movements down on the lower meadows. Some days they learned to aim with muskets. If he was pleased with them, Jamie would fill the barrels with powder ans the sharp reports would echo round the hills. But on other days they practised cuts and parries with wooden sticks. Now Conn's sharp eyes watched with professional interest.