wearied as I was I proposed to start on foot that afternoon for Carlisle. I was down at the quay when that resolution occurred to me, and I was just moving away when I met Hutcheson." "That's right," commented Hutcheson, nodding to add strength to his confirmation, and swinging his legs for the same purpose no doubt; "and pleased and astonished I was to see ye, when I had been thinking for a towmond past that ye was at the bottom o' the sea taking your dram wi' our friend Davy." "We went up to the inn together, and whilst we drank, we of course spoke of the Colin and how his statement had been obtained from him." "Oh, there was nae particular wark about it. Carrach just tauld me that he didna want to hae ony mair ado wi' me, and I needna waste time travelling back wi' him. I ken'd that my word would be nae weight against a' the others, and as a guid berth was offered me through Carrach on board the Royal George I just took it, and signed the paper he'd got drawn up by a snivelling lawyer body-nae offence to ye, Mr. Carnegie, he wasna like ye in ony respect." "Thank you. What you say now is exactly the same as you told me this morning." "Then you know about that," resumed Falcon; "and I need not give you the explanations which passed between us in detail. But when I told him that I had been waiting for Carrach, he informed me that he had seen Donald, who had been one of the Colin's men-the special friend of the skipper --and who had been unaccountably spiteful towards me. Hutcheson had spoken to him, and learned that he was then waiting for Carrach, who was to take command of the Ailsa, which had just been bought by the Laird. "Till that moment I had been so eager to get away from the country that I had resigned all thought of punishing Carrach for his crime, and the many sorrows it had brought upon me and others. But fancy or hate put it into my head that Providence had placed the means of bringing this man to justice in my hands. I asked Hutcheson to help me, and he was ready with all his heart when I told him something of the mishaps which had befallen me through Carrach's villany. We waited for Carrach. "Yesterday morning we saw him with Donald at the harbour change-house. I got near enough to hear what they were saying. Carrach was telling Donald that they were to lie off the Links, and the Laird was to signal to them that night. As the business was particular and private, he did not want to have more men on board than they could help. I had not suspected the Laird of being this man's accomplice until that moment. The suspicion once roused I remembered many incidents which had appeared to me singular when they occurred, but which were quite plain now. The Laird had been fooling me all the time, and was really trying to help Carrach to escape me, instead of helping me to lay hands on him. "I determined to discover if possible to what extent the Laird was involved. I borrowed this suit of clothes from Hutcheson, and got my face covered with a beard by the barber at the Cross, on the pretence that I wanted to surprise my friends who had not seen me for some time. I soon found Donald seeking hands; but hands were short for a long voyage, and I was the only man he could get who was ready to start that night. But he got three other men who agreed to ship next day. "That was all I wanted, for the schooner required to lie off the harbour next day to ship her crew, and by that time I would have learned all I wanted to know. I gave Hutcheson the instructions which he has carried out, and I went on board the Ailsa. Neither Carrach nor Donald had the least suspicion of my real character. I affected to be surly, in order to keep them from speaking to me more than was necessary, lest in answering my voice should betray me. We anchored off the Links, and Carrach made me turn in and take a rest for a couple of hours, so that I might be fresh to relieve Donald. "I suppose this was chiefly to prevent me seeing anything that might be done. I went below; but immediately crept up again and remained on the watch. Carrach and Donald lowered one of the boats; and about an hour afterwards—in the midst of the skipper's impatient grumblings, which enabled me to understand that this meeting with the Laird was of much importance-a light signalled from the shore. He answered it, and then put off in the small boat. "When he came back, bringing Mistress Gray with him, I was alarmed for her sake and for my own; for my own, for I feared that she would detect my disguise, and in her surprise betray me. I went on deck just after they arrived. From some words I heard Carrach say to her I knew that she had been brought there by force; but I was puzzled by her quiet conduct. I grumbled loudly to the skipper, in order to give her some courage by showing her that one of the men on board was not entirely under his control." "And it did that," broke in Jeanie gratefully. "And also with the purpose of preparing her for the sound of my voice, so that it would either deceive her as I wished, or prevent her from showing too much surprise in the event of recognition. I wished to deceive her, because I had promised her that she would never see me again until she herself prayed me to come to her. I did not know then the sad reason she had for never expecting to see me again in this world, whether she wished it or not. When you" (turning to her) "spoke to me at the helm I understood your purpose in keeping so quiet and I saw your distress at discovering that the boat had gone adrift. You thought me callous and unwilling to help ye, but it was because-weel, no matter; I am no to speak about that." He paused. She looked him steadily in the face; and somehow the quiet trust in him which her eyes expressed gave him courage. He went on: "My purpose on board the Ailsa changed from the minute you set foot on deck. I had come there to find proof of the Laird's complicity with the Highlander. I was there then only to save you. I would have felled the man if he had touched you against your will, and I nearly did it once, as you'll mind; but I checked myself in time. It was an unfair advantage I was taking, and besides I wanted to deliver him as sound as possible to the hangman. You know how I fastened Donald in the forecastle and Carrach in the hold. The only thing that I have to explain now is why I left you so long locked up in the cabin. There was no other reason than that I was determined not to let you recognize me if I could help it. For the same reason I left you as soon as we landed." "And as he ken'd that I was to be here the-day," added Hutcheson, “he was on the look-out for me, and that's how I got word o' him sooner than I expected." Jeanie rose. "Has the opinion ye expressed to me on the road, Mr. Carnegie, been changed wi' ony thing ye hae heard ?" she asked. Mr. Carnegie scratched his ear and bit the end of his pen, coughing as he spoke. 66 Opinions are no the thing, Mrs. Gray; it's facts we want. There's plenty in what has been said to form opinions on the subject; but so far as I can see there is not a grain of positive proof yet to connect the Laird with either of the crimes, and the one seems dependent on the other. There's the gold to be sure, but his explanation about that looks quite sound and natural." She turned quietly to Falcon, drawing her plaid around her. "Our work begins now," she said; "and while ye hae been speaking a notion has come to me o' where it should begin." "Where?" "Wi' finding the man wha brought the gig for me to gang to Askaig." "The fiscal and myself have been trying to find him for the last two days and have failed," observed Mr. Carnegie, positive and somewhat nettled by her cool way of taking the matter out of his hands. "But I think we may find him now." "Aye, have ye minded who he was?" "No, but I hae a suspicion o' wha he was." "Whom do you suspect?" She looked at Hutcheson. "Was it no on Wednesday morning that you first met Donald at Ayr ?" "Aye, Wednesday morning." "Ye're sure o' that?" "I'll take my davy on't ony minute, for I only landed mysel' on the Tuesday, and it was the next morning I met him." "Then I think it might hae been him," she said, glancing at the lawyer; "sae we'll gang to the lock-up, Mr. Falcon, and ye can question him about it.” "I ken something o' the chiel', sae I'll gae wi' ye," said Hutcheson. "Mind what ye say to him," warningly ejaculated Mr. Carnegie: "you'll find me here when you're done." CHAPTER XLVI. TRACES. "My hearth is grawing cauld, And sair, sair in the fauld Will be the winter's chill."-Thomas Smibert. THE lock-up of the Port comprised the ground floor of a twostorey house in the middle of the main street. The upper flat, to which access was obtained by a straight stone staircase built outside the wall, was occupied by the constable and his family. The entrance to the lower flat was by a dirty-looking door beneath the landing of the stair. The interior of this primitive kind of prison was very simply arranged. There were whitewashed stone walls, a stone floor with several ruts where the stone had been worn or chipped out; a form, a stool, and a high desk, all of unpainted wood, but browned with age and service and marked with cracks and |