the matter as well, for I believe him to have been killed by
the young----" he caught himself at this, with a correction. "I have my
beliefs in the case," he amended. "But ye can rest by this, if a man is
innocent of a crime in this country he can prove it. It is a
prosecution, not a persecution, that will be conducted by the
government."

And here a lighter vein seemed to take him, for he added:

"And so, Jock Stair, you would come to me to use an old friendship to
buy the laddie off! Ye're a nice citizen; a fine, public-spirited
body!"

"Hugh Pitcairn," I answered, "if you were in trouble, and it needed the
last shilling I had in the world to help ye, you'd find me beside ye,
with it held out in my hand; and it seems a little thing I am asking of
you, and not for myself either----"

"Your daughter's a better man than you," he broke in on me. "It was a
fine thing she did--a fine, public-spirited thing!"

"Ye've trained her well in the lawing," I said, leading him on a bit,
for Nancy had held the silence of the dead concerning the murder since
the day of his visit, and I had no knowledge of what he meant.

"Mark you," he said, and there was almost a glow upon his face, "the
first day that she was able to sit up after her illness Nancy Stair
sent for me. 'Mr. Pitcairn,' said she, 'a most unwelcome task has come
to me, and I am needing your advice.' And on this she went over the
talk, part of which I had overheard, between herself and the young
Carmichael, with neither heat nor fallacy of emphasis, as accurately as
I might have done myself," he ended, as though higher praise were
inconceivable.

"There's a girl for ye!" he cried. "I've set but little store by her
verse-making; or her charity work, which is sentiment; but by the
lawing the very female quality of her mind has been changed, for she is
able to put a duty to her country before her own feelings. Ye might
take a lesson from your daughter in that, Jock Stair!" he finished.

I rode back to Stair on a gallop and went straight to Nancy's room.

"What is this ye've done?" I cried. "What is this thing that ye've done
against the man who has loved ye ever since his eyes lighted upon you,
and whom your own indecision has helped to the place he now stands?"

There was a look of reproach in her eyes as she sat looking up at me,
but her words were quiet enough.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I've been having a talk with Pitcairn----" I began.

"For Heave