called another clerk to take his place, and made
off to find the Lord Provost, powerful friend of hameless dogs. Mr.
Traill hastened down to the Royal Exchange, below St. Giles and on the
northern side of High Street.

Less than a century old, this municipal building was modern among
ancient rookeries. To High Street it presented a classic front of
four stories, recessed by flanking wings, around three sides of a
quadrangular courtyard. Near the entrance there was a row of barber
shops and coffee-rooms. Any one having business with the city offices
went through a corridor between these places of small trade to the
stairway court behind them. On the floor above, one had to inquire of
some uniformed attendant in which of the oaken, ante-roomed halls the
Burgh court was sitting. And by the time one got there all the pride of
civic history of the ancient royal Burgh, as set forth in portrait and
statue and a museum of antiquities, was apt to take the lime out of
the backbone of a man less courageous than Mr. Traill. What a car of
juggernaut to roll over one, small, masterless terrier!

But presently the landlord found himself on his feet, and not so ill at
ease. A Scottish court, high or low, civil or criminal, had a flavor all
its own. Law points were threshed over with gusto, but counsel, client,
and witness gained many a point by ready wit, and there was no lack of
dry humor from the bench. About the Burgh court, for all its stately
setting, there was little formality. The magistrate of the day sat
behind a tall desk, with a clerk of record at his elbow, and the officer
gave his testimony briefly: Edinburgh being quite overrun by stray and
unlicensed dogs, orders had recently been given the Burgh police to
report such animals. In Mr. Traill's place he had seen a small terrier
that appeared to be at home there; and, indeed, on the dog's going out,
Mr. Traill had called a servant lassie to fetch a bone, and to open the
door for him. He noticed that the animal wore no collar, and felt it his
duty to report the matter.

By the time Mr. Traill was called to answer to the charge a number of
curious idlers had gathered on the back benches. He admitted his name
and address, but denied that he either owned or was harboring a dog.
The magistrate fixed a cold eye upon him, and asked if he meant to
contradict the testimony of the officer.

"Nae, your Honor; and he might have seen the same thing ony week-day of
the past eight an