ed Scots minister's,
for he had heavy eyebrows and whiskers which joined each other under
his jaw, while his chin and enormous upper lip were clean-shaven. His
eyes were steely grey and very solemn, but full of smouldering energy.
His voice was enormous and would have shaken the walls if he had not
had the habit of speaking with half-closed lips. He had not a sound
tooth in his head.

A saucer full of tea and a plate which had once contained ham and eggs
were on the table. He nodded towards them and asked me if I had fed.

'Ye'll no eat onything? Well, some would offer ye a dram, but this
house is staunch teetotal. I door ye'll have to try the nearest public
if ye're thirsty.'

I disclaimed any bodily wants, and produced my pipe, at which he
started to fill an old clay. 'Mr Brand's your name?' he asked in his
gusty voice. 'I was expectin' ye, but Dod! man ye're late!'

He extricated from his trousers pocket an ancient silver watch, and
regarded it with disfavour. 'The dashed thing has stoppit. What do ye
make the time, Mr Brand?'

He proceeded to prise open the lid of his watch with the knife he had
used to cut his tobacco, and, as he examined the works, he turned the
back of the case towards me. On the inside I saw pasted Mary
Lamington's purple-and-white wafer.

I held my watch so that he could see the same token. His keen eyes,
raised for a second, noted it, and he shut his own with a snap and
returned it to his pocket. His manner lost its wariness and became
almost genial.

'Ye've come up to see Glasgow, Mr Brand? Well, it's a steerin' bit, and
there's honest folk bides in it, and some not so honest. They tell me
ye're from South Africa. That's a long gait away, but I ken something
aboot South Africa, for I had a cousin's son oot there for his lungs.
He was in a shop in Main Street, Bloomfountain. They called him Peter
Dobson. Ye would maybe mind of him.'

Then he discoursed of the Clyde. He was an incomer, he told me, from
the Borders, his native place being the town of Galashiels, or, as he
called it, 'Gawly'. 'I began as a powerloom tuner in Stavert's mill.
Then my father dee'd and I took up his trade of jiner. But it's no
world nowadays for the sma' independent business, so I cam to the Clyde
and learned a shipwright's job. I may say I've become a leader in the
trade, for though I'm no an official of the Union, and not likely to
be, there's no man's word carries more weight than mine. And the
Goavernm