' benn the hoose, as I tell ye.'

Meantime Shargar was standing on the stones, looking like a terrified
white rabbit, and shaking from head to foot with cold and fright
combined.

'I'll tak him oot o' this, but it's up the stair, Betty. An' gin ye gang
benn the hoose aboot it, I sweir to ye, as sure 's death, I'll gang doon
to Muckledrum upo' Setterday i' the efternune.'

'Gang awa' wi' yer havers. Only gin the mistress speirs onything aboot
it, what am I to say?'

'Bide till she speirs. Auld Spunkie says, "Ready-made answers are aye to
seek." And I say, Betty, hae ye a cauld pitawta (potato)?'

'I'll luik and see. Wadna ye like it het up?'

'Ow ay, gin ye binna lang aboot it.'

Suddenly a bell rang, shrill and peremptory, right above Shargar's head,
causing in him a responsive increase of trembling.

'Haud oot o' my gait. There's the mistress's bell,' said Betty.

'Jist bide till we're roon' the neuk and on to the stair,' said Robert,
now leading the way.

Betty watched them safe round the corner before she made for the
parlour, little thinking to what she had become an unwilling accomplice,
for she never imagined that more than an evening's visit was intended by
Shargar, which in itself seemed to her strange and improper enough even
for such an eccentric boy as Robert to encourage.

Shargar followed in mortal terror, for, like Christian in The Pilgrim's
Progress, he had no armour to his back. Once round the corner, two
strides of three steps each took them to the top of the first stair,
Shargar knocking his head in the darkness against the never-opened door.
Again three strides brought them to the top of the second flight; and
turning once more, still to the right, Robert led Shargar up the few
steps into the higher of the two garrets.

Here there was just glimmer enough from the sky to discover the hollow
of a close bedstead, built in under the sloping roof, which served it
for a tester, while the two ends and most of the front were boarded up
to the roof. This bedstead fortunately was not so bare as the one in
the other room, although it had not been used for many years, for an old
mattress covered the boards with which it was bottomed.

'Gang in there, Shargar. Ye'll be warmer there than upo' the door-step
ony gait. Pit aff yer shune.'

Shargar obeyed, full of delight at finding himself in such good
quarters. Robert went to a forsaken press in the room, and brought out
an ancient cloak of tartan, o