he set off late to go home,
and was thrown from his horse. How it happened canna be said, but they
found him in the morning lying by the dike-side, dead--it was supposed
at first. But they carried him to the infirmary, and he is living yet.
He is coming to himself, and kens folk, and he _may_ live to leave the
place, but it's less than likely."

"And who bade you come to Allison Bain with all this?" asked Mrs
Beaton, gravely. "And are you quite sure it is true?"

"Oh! ay, it's true. I didna come to her with hearsays. I gaed mysel'
to the infirmary and I saw him with my ain een. And who bade me come
here to her, say ye? It was the Lord himself, I'm thinking. The man's
name wasna named to me, nor by me. I kenned him because I had seen him
before. And it was borne in upon me that I should tell Allison Bain o'
his condition. Or wherefore should the knowledge of it have come to me
who am the only one here beside yoursel' who kens how these twa stand to
ane anither?"

But Mrs Beaton's heart sickened at the thought of what might be before
Allison.

"What could she do for him if she were to go there? He is in good hands
doubtless, and is well cared for. Has he been asking for her?"

"That I canna say. But ye may ken without my telling you, that there is
no saying `wherefore?' to a message from the Lord. And it is between
the Lord and this woman that the matter is to be settled now."

But Mrs Beaton shook her head.

"I canna see it so. If he really needed her--if it were a matter of
life and death--"

"A matter of life and death! Do ye no' see, woman, that it is for more
than that? It is the matter of the saving of a soul! Do ye not
understand, that a' the evil deeds o' a' his evil life will be coming
back now on this man, and setting themselves in array against him, and
no' among the least o' them the evil he brought on her and hers? And
what kens he o' the Lord and His mercy? And what has he ever heard of
salvation from death through faith in the Son of God?"

Mrs Beaton had no words with which to answer him, and they all were
silent for a while. Then Crombie began again, more gently:

"And if he were to come out of his fever, with all the dreads and doubts
upon him that hae been filling his nights and days, and if he were to
see her face with a look of forgiveness on it, and the peace of God, it
might encourage him to hope in God's mercy, and to lippen himsel'--
sinner as he kens himsel' to