"Did she escape in a boat?" asked Waldron.

"I am positively not going to tell you any more about it," said Mr.
George. "You must find out for yourself. Your father has paid ever so
much money to send you to school, to have you educated, so that you
could read history for yourself, and not be dependent upon any body; and
now for me to tell it to you would be ridiculous. You must go to a
bookstore, and buy a history of Mary, Queen of Scots, and begin at the
beginning, and read the whole story."

Mr. George said this in a somewhat jocose sort of manner, and Waldron
understood that his refusing to give him more full information about
Mary, Queen of Scots, arose, not from any unwillingness to oblige him,
but only to induce him to read the story himself, in full, which he
knew very well would be far better for him than to receive a meagre
statement of the principal points of the narrative from another person.

"I mean to get the book," said Waldron, "as soon as we arrive at
Edinburgh. But there is one thing I can do," he added; "I can ask the
guide. The guide that shows us the castle will tell me how she got
away."

"Well," said Mr. George, "you can ask the guide; but I don't believe you
will get much satisfaction in _that_ way."

The next morning after this conversation took place, Mr. George and the
boys bade Stirling farewell, and set off in the cars, on the way to Loch
Leven. After riding about an hour they left the train at the station
called Dunfermline, where there was a ruin of an abbey, and of an
ancient royal palace of Scotland. They left their baggage at the
station, and walked through the village till they came to the ruin. It
was a very beautiful ruin, and the party spent more than an hour in
rambling about it, and looking at the old monuments, and the carved and
sculptured windows, and arches, and cornices, all wasted and blackened
by time and decay. A part of the ruin was still in good repair, and was
used as a church, though it was full of old sepulchral monuments and
relics. There was a woman in attendance at the door, to show the church
to those who wished to see the interior of it.

After looking at these ruins as long as they wished, Mr. George and the
boys went back to the station, in order to take the next train that came
by, and continue their journey. They went on about an hour longer, and
then they got out again at a station called Cowdenbeath, which was the
place on the road that was neares