nt
for the reception of travelers he possessed the advantage of being known
to the landlord as Mrs. Inchbare's right-hand man, and of standing high
on the head-waiter's list of old and intimate friends.

Inquiring for the waiter first by the name of Thomas (otherwise Tammy)
Pennyquick, Bishopriggs found his friend in sore distress of body and
mind. Contending vainly against the disabling advances of rheumatism,
Thomas Pennyquick ruefully contemplated the prospect of being laid up
at home by a long illness--with a wife and children to support, and with
the emoluments attached to his position passing into the pockets of the
first stranger who could be found to occupy his place at the inn.

Hearing this doleful story, Bishopriggs cunningly saw his way to serving
his own private interests by performing the part of Thomas Pennyquick's
generous and devoted friend.

He forthwith offered to fill the place, without taking the emoluments,
of the invalided headwaiter--on the understanding, as a matter of
course, that the landlord consented to board and lodge him free of
expense at the inn. The landlord having readily accepted this condition,
Thomas Pennyquick retired to the bosom of his family. And there was
Bishopriggs, doubly secured behind a respectable position and a virtuous
action against all likelihood of suspicion falling on him as a stranger
in Perth--in the event of his correspondence with Mrs. Glenarm being
made the object of legal investigation on the part of her friends!

Having opened the campaign in this masterly manner, the same sagacious
foresight had distinguished the operations of Bishopriggs throughout.

His correspondence with Mrs. Glenarm was invariably written with the
left hand--the writing thus produced defying detection, in all cases,
as bearing no resemblance of character whatever to writing produced by
persons who habitually use the other hand. A no less far-sighted cunning
distinguished his proceedings in answering the advertisements which the
lawyers duly inserted in the newspaper. He appointed hours at which he
was employed on business-errands for the inn, and places which lay
on the way to those errands, for his meetings with Mrs. Glenarm's
representatives: a pass-word being determined on, as usual in such
cases, by exchanging which the persons concerned could discover each
other. However carefully the lawyers might set the snare--whether they
had their necessary "witness" disguised as an artist