factory explanation. Gibson did not wish to act hastily, but all
his private investigations pointed only to the one conclusion, and there
was no room for doubt that the ewe had been seen by shepherds on other
farms making her way across the lofty hills that lie between Newby and
Wormiston, as the latter place was locally called. Still, he hesitated
to act in so ugly looking an affair, and it was only after long and
painful consultation with a neighbour, himself of late a heavy loser,
that Gibson went to Peebles in order to get the authority necessary to
enable him to inspect the flocks on Ormiston.

With heavy heart, Gibson, accompanied by Telfer, a well-known Peebles
officer of the law, trudged out to Ormiston. As they neared the
farm-house a shepherd, leaning against an outbuilding, turned with a
start at sight of them, slipped suddenly round a corner of the outhouse,
and presently was seen, bent nearly double, in hot haste running for a
field of standing corn.

"Aye! yon's John Millar awa'. I'm feared things looks bad," muttered
Gibson to his companion as they approached the door of the farm-house.
"You keep ahint in the onstead, John Telfer, and I'll get Murdison to
come oot. We'll never can tell him afore his wife."

"Wulliam Gibson! Hoo are ye? Man, this is a sicht for sair een," cried
Murdison heartily to his visitor. "Come awa' in ben, and hae a glass."

A greeting so friendly brought a lump into Gibson's throat that he found
it hard to swallow.

"Na, I canna come in," he answered in a low voice; "John Telfer's ahint
the onstead, wantin' to speak to ye."

"John Telfer! what can _he_ want wi' me?" cried Murdison, going grey in
the face. "Oh, aye! In one minute," he said, hastily stepping back into
the kitchen and whispering a few words to his wife. Gibson did not hear
the words, but his heart sank like lead as he noticed Mrs. Murdison
fling herself into a chair, bury her face in her hands, and wail, "Oh
God! my heart will break."

"Alexander Murdison, I hae a warrant here, and I maun hae a bit look at
a wheen o' your sheep," said the officer of the law when Murdison came
with Gibson into the Steading.

Quite enough was soon seen to make it necessary for Murdison and Millar,
his shepherd, to be taken to Peebles, where bail was refused. The case
came on a few months later, in Edinburgh, before Lord Braxfield, and it
created intense interest, not only throughout the Border but amongst the
entire legal facul