) a gentleman brushed against me going by,
gave me a meaning look, and turned into a close. I knew him with the
tail of my eye--it was Stewart the Writer; and, blessing my good
fortune, turned in to follow him. As soon as I had entered the close I
saw him standing in the mouth of a stair, where he made me a signal and
immediately vanished. Seven stories up, there he was again in a
house-door, the which he locked behind us after we had entered. The
house was quite dismantled, with not a stick of furniture; indeed, it
was one of which Stewart had the letting in his hands.

"We'll have to sit upon the floor," said he, "but we're safe here for
the time being, and I've been wearying to see ye, Mr. Balfour."

"How's it with Alan?" I asked.

"Brawly," said he. "Andie picks him up at Gillane Sands to-morrow,
Wednesday. He was keen to say good-bye to ye, but, the way that things
were going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best apart. And that
brings me to the essential: how does your business speed?"

"Why," said I, "I was told only this morning that my testimony was
accepted, and I was to travel to Inverary with the Advocate, no less."

"Hout awa!" cried Stewart. "I'll never believe that."

"I have maybe a suspicion of my own," says I, "but I would like fine to
hear your reasons."

"Well, I tell ye fairly, I'm horn-mad," cries Stewart. "If my one hand
could pull their Government down I would pluck it like a rotten apple.
I'm doer for Appin and for James of the Glens; and, of course, it's my
duty to defend my kinsman for his life. Hear how it goes with me, and
I'll leave the judgment of it to yourself. The first thing they have to
do is to get rid of Alan. They canna bring in James as art and part
until they've brought in Alan first as principal; that's sound law: they
could never put the cart before the horse."

"And how are they to bring in Alan till they can catch him?" says I.

"Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrestment," said he. "Sound law,
too. It would be a bonny thing if, by the escape of one ill-doer another
was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to summon the principal and put
him to outlawry for the non-compearance. Now there's four places where a
person can be summoned: at his dwelling-house; at a place where he has
resided forty days; at the head burgh of the shire where he ordinarily
resorts; or lastly (if there be ground to think him furth of Scotland)
_at the cross of Edinburgh, and the pie