e down here
cannily behind a dyke, and make sure."

So we lay for about a quarter of an hour, whiles whispering, whiles
lying still and hearing nothing earthly but the washing of the water on
the piers. At last there came by an old, hobbling woman with a crutch
stick; who first stopped a little, close to where we lay, and bemoaned
herself and the long way she had travelled; and then set forth again up
the steep spring of the bridge. The woman was so little, and the night
still so dark, that we soon lost sight of her; only heard the sound of
her steps, and her stick, and a cough that she had by fits, draw slowly
farther away.

"She's bound to be across now," I whispered.

"Na," said Alan, "her foot still sounds boss[32] upon the bridge."

And just then--"Who goes?" cried a voice, and we heard the butt of a
musket rattle on the stones. I must suppose the sentry had been
sleeping, so that had we tried, we might have passed unseen; but he was
awake now, and the chance forfeited.

"This'll never do," said Alan. "This'll never, never do for us, David."

And without another word he began to crawl away through the fields; and
a little after, being well out of eye-shot, got to his feet again, and
struck along a road that led to the eastward. I could not conceive what
he was doing; and indeed I was so sharply cut by the disappointment that
I was little likely to be pleased with anything. A moment back and I had
seen myself knocking at Mr. Rankeillor's door to claim my inheritance,
like a hero in a ballad; and here was I back again, a wandering, hunted
blackguard, on the wrong side of Forth.

"Well?" said I.

"Well," said Alan, "what would ye have? They're none such fools as I
took them for. We have still the Forth to pass, Davie--weary fall the
rains that fed and the hillsides that guided it!"

"And why go east?" said I.

"Ou, just upon the chance!" said he. "If we canna pass the river, we'll
have to see what we can do for the firth."

"There are fords upon the river, and none upon the firth," said I.

"To be sure there are fords, and a bridge forbye," quoth Alan; "and of
what service, when they are watched?"

"Well," said I, "but a river can be swum."

"By them that have the skill of it," returned he; "but I have yet to
hear that either you or me is much of a hand at that exercise; and for
my own part, I swim like a stone."

"I'm not up to you in talking back, Alan," I said; "but I can see we're
making bad wor