'Girzie Todd."

The Laird, with a sharp little cry, and an extraordinary agility, sprang from his chair and clutched at the documents Falcon was holding in his hand. But they were withdrawn from his reach in time; he was pushed back, and he stood, his shrivelled body quivering with baffled rage, and his eyes glaring and blinking at his own accuser.

There was no hypocrisy now; for once in his life Nicol McWhapple stood uncovered. He struggled hard to regain his self-possession, and a species of petulant venom obtained the place of his blind fury. He laughed shrilly as he gasped

"I was just making fun-when I pretended that I wanted to snatch the papers frae ye. What do ye come here to me wi' this story for? If ye think it's true, and ye can prove it, why do ye no gang to a lawyer at once and set the beagles at my heels ?"

And he laughed shrilly again, his fingers moving nervously, and his eyes hungrily watching Falcon's hand.

"I'll tell you why I come to you before placing the matter in the hands of the authorities. Had you given me Askaig when I asked for it, you would have been safe to-day. As it is, your infernal trickery has so marred the dearest hopes of my life that I do not care a single straw for the wealth or position it is in my power to claim.”

"Very kind o' you, that."

"I come to make a bargain wi' you for Jeanie's sake. Clear Cairnieford of the false charge against him: and on the day on which he leaves the jail a free and unblemished man, I will deliver these papers to you to do with them as you please. I will leave the country, and you will never hear anything more of me or the Colin. Hutcheson has agreed to go

with me; and you will be left to enjoy your fortune, if you

can, without any fear, as far as I am concerned."

The Laird regarded him with a curious expression of wonder, suspicion, and spleen. It passed his comprehension that a man believing himself entitled to a fortune, and believing that he held the proofs necessary to obtain it, should willingly

throw his chance away to rescue a man whom, according to the Laird's code, he should have been pleased to see removed from his way. His features curled into a sour sneer.

"Ye're unco generous at other folk's expense," he said presently; "bide a wee and I'll gie ye my answer to your proposition."

He limped over to the door, looked out to see that the lobby was clear, closed the door again, and faced Falcon with a mocking look.

"We're by oursel's, and for ony use ye may make o' what I say, it's just my word against yours; and I'll trust to my respectability, that I hae devoted my life to earn, to weigh the scale down on my side. So I can permit mysel' the pleasure o' speaking my mind freely for once."

"It will be a treat, no doubt," rejoined Falcon coolly; and placing the packet of papers in his pocket, he waited to know whether his terms were accepted or rejected. He could not guess the decision by any symptom in the girning politeness with which the Laird had now succeeded in cloaking his nervous fury.

CHAPTER XLIX.

REYNARD RUN HOME.

"The cat has clomb to the eagle's nest,

And suckit the eggs and scar'd the dame;

The lordly lair is daubed wi' hair,

But the thief maun strap an' the hawk come hame."-Anon. "I HAVE mentioned to you," began the Laird with a species of spiteful deliberation, "that I always admired the truth." Falcon smiled grimly. "Ye think that funny, but it's a fact for a' that, and I'll tell ye why. It has been a principle o' mine never to deny the truth, because I always found that I could twist its conclusions to my ain ends wi' far mair ease and far mair safety than it would hae been possible to do by telling lies. For the last twenty-five years I have never told a lie that could possibly be avoided; and, consequently, folk finding so many things I said to be true, gied me credit for the rest.

On that principle I'm gaun to own the truth to you now, although when it comes to other ears I will own it with the necessary modifications for my purpose. But wi' only you to hear me, and only you to bear witness against me, ye shall hae the whole truth, unqualified."

"Thank you."

"To begin then: all you hae said about Hugh Sutherland and about his wife and his bairn-that's yoursel'-is quite correct. All hae said about me is quite true; and all you hae said about Carrach, and about my knowledge o' what he has done, is quite true. Is that no frank ?"

you

"Exceedingly so."

"Od, man, ye hae nae idea what a straightforward chiel' I am in my dealings. Ye hae ken'd me as the Laird, a kirkgoing man with plenty o' siller; respected by maist folk and treated wi' civility even by them that didna like me and were ay ready to speak ill o' me ahint my back. But I was prosperous, and that made them mum afore my face. I'll tell ye what I was: a puir ragged barefoot bairn, motherless, fatherless, and friendless; lame, and no fit for hard work. A tailorbody took pity on me and began to learn me his trade: and at the same time he learned me to read and write. That let me see the way to something better nor a tailor's boad."

"You made good use of his lessons" (drily).

"I did that. I had been dunted about by nearly everybody, and I saw that to be weakly and puir was to be a football for whaever was strong or rich; and I saw that the ae thing everybody respected and bowed down to, whether the owner was weak or strong, was siller. I couldna alter my body or put pith into it; but I made up my mind to make siller. I got to be a clerk in a writer's office, and there I met Sutherland. He was a weak-headed, faint-hearted creature, wha had quarrelled wi' every friend he had in the world. I became his friend, and became his heir exactly in the way ye hae stated."

The mocking coolness, and the degree of unction with which the man confessed his villany, rendered it difficult for

Falcon to remain quiet. He ground his teeth, determined to listen to the end.

"I'm a great villain ye would say," proceeded the Laird, observing the fierce movement of his hearer's features, and the effort by which an exclamation of anger had been checked; "say it out if it will do you any guid; there's naebody to hear ye but me, and that's neither here nor there. Weel, I became master o' Clashgirn: it cost me a heap o' wark to gain that, and it has cost me twenty years o' constant watching and contriving to make my position sure. After a' that, do you think that because ye come to me wi' a wheen papers ye hae gotten frae an auld wife, that I'm gaun to cower down before ye and do just whatever ye like to bid me ?”

"You own that you have dreaded exposure, and in two hours the exposure will be made, unless you place in my hands now the means to save Cairnieford."

"I do fear exposure, and I would accept your terms maybe, if it werena that it would just be louping out o' the frying-pan into the fire. Ane can endure the pan longest, and sae I'll bide in the pan."

"I offer you safety—"

"No, you offer me a chance of twa roads to ruin, and I prefer the longest. I can snap my thumb at your papers, onyway I can repudiate them, and I hae siller enough to carry the case frae ae law court to another until body and soul o' ye are worn out. But I canna do that wi' Carrach. So long as I say nothing about him, ye'll never get a cheep out o' him ; for he'll ay be counting on me clearing him. But if I speak, he'll speak too."

"Then you admit that you are both involved in poor Wattie's death?"

"Od, man, I'm admitting everything, seeing we're by oursel's, so you can believe me that there was nae thought o' violence on our part, and there would hae been nane if it hadna been for a mistake. I never believed in violence mysel', for I could ay manage far better without it: if I thought o' ony in this case it was between you and Cairnieford."

"What had he or I, or the poor woman whose life you have made miserable, done to you, that you should have wiled us into this fiendish snare ? "

"Ye want to ken that ? I'll tell ye" (venomously). "On the night you and me had some words about Askaig, you bragged to me that ye ken'd enough to hang me if ye liked to follow up the clue. Ye referred to what you had discovered o' our cheating the gaugers wi' the tobacco and brandy, and maybe ye had a notion o' Sutherland's case. It didna matter to me which; I never forgot your words. So I doubled the insurance on the Colin, and I told Carrach never to bring her hame again. I didna tell him to murder you-that might hae been done long syne when ye were a bairn if I had been disposed to violence. I just told him that I wouldna be sorry if you never came hame ony mair than the brig."

"And for that reason, I suppose, you worked your spite upon me when I returned ? "

"I hoped that you had been drowned, but I wouldna hae sought to harm ye when ye came back if ye had gone away again as I advised. Instead o' that you threatened mealthough ye didna ken o't at the time-wi' mair power on your side than ye had got before ye left. I feared that ye would meet Cairnieford and that he would help ye. He ay doubted me; he was the boldest of any who declared their doubts o' my dealings wi' Sutherland, and the first to suspect that Mrs. Falcon was naebody but Sutherland's wife. But on that score they had naething but suspicions, whilst I held proofs o' the upright character o' my transactions."

"You mean forgeries and lies as your proofs."

"That doesna matter. I wanted to get you out o' the country, and to prevent you meeting Cairnieford as a friend. The easiest way seemed to me just to make him suspicious o' his wife and you. If ye quarrelled and ane o' ye got killed, so much the better for me. But at the least there would be nae chance o' friendly dealings atween ye, and one or other would be sure to quit the country-I didna care which, but I had nae doubt it would be you. The plan was a braw ane,