er had naething
to do with onything morally wrong; and I'm no' gaun to begin to pleasure
a wild Hielandman."

"Ye're unco scrupulous," sneered Alan.

"I'm a man o' principle," said Ebenezer simply; "and if I have to pay
for it, I'll have to pay for it. And besides," says he, "ye forget the
lad's my brother's son."

"Well, well," said Alan, "and now about the price. It's no' very easy
for me to set a name upon it; I would first have to ken some small
matters. I would have to ken, for instance, what ye gave Hoseason at the
first off-go?"

"Hoseason!" cries my uncle, struck aback. "What for?"

"For kidnapping David," says Alan.

"It's a lee, it's a black lee!" cried my uncle. "He was never kidnapped.
He lee'd in his throat that tauld ye that. Kidnapped? He never was!"

"That's no fault of mine, nor yet of yours," said Alan; "nor yet of
Hoseason's, if he's a man that can be trusted."

"What do ye mean?" cried Ebenezer. "Did Hoseason tell ye?"

"Why, ye donnered auld runt, how else would I ken?" cried Alan.
"Hoseason and me are partners; we gang shares; so ye can see for
yoursel' what good ye can do leeing. And I must plainly say ye drove a
fool's bargain when ye let a man like the sailor-man so far forward in
your private matters. But that's past praying for; and ye must lie on
your bed the way ye made it. And the point in hand is just this: what
did ye pay him?"

"Has he tauld ye himsel'?" asked my uncle.

"That's my concern," said Alan.

"Weel," said my uncle, "I dinna care what he said; he lee'd; and the
solemn God's truth is this, that I gave him twenty pound. But I'll be
perfec'ly honest with ye: forbye that, he was to have the selling of the
lad in Caroliny, whilk would be as muckle mair, but no' from my pocket,
ye see."

"Thank you, Mr. Thomson. That will do excellently well," said the
lawyer, stepping forward; and then mighty civilly, "Good-evening, Mr.
Balfour," said he.

And "Good-evening, uncle Ebenezer," said I.

And "It's a braw nicht, Mr. Balfour," added Torrance.

Never a word said my uncle, neither black nor white; but just sat where
he was on the top doorstep, and stared upon us like a man turned to
stone. Alan filched away his blunderbuss; and the lawyer, taking him by
the arm, plucked him up from the doorstep, led him into the kitchen,
whither we all followed, and set him down in a chair beside the hearth,
where the fire was out and only a rushlight burning.

There we all looked upo