The last two flights ascended within the walls. The old man stumbled
into the pitch-black, stifling passage and sat down on the lowest step
to rest. On the landing above he must encounter the auld wifie of a
landlady, rousing her, it might be, and none too good-tempered, from
sleep. Unaware that he added to his master's difficulties, Bobby leaped
upon him and licked the beloved face that he could not see.

"Eh, laddie, I dinna ken what to do wi' ye. We maun juist hae to sleep
oot." It did not occur to Auld Jock that he could abandon the little
dog. And then there drifted across his memory a bit of Mr. Traill's talk
that, at the time, had seemed to no purpose: "Sir Walter happed the
wee lassie in the pocket of his plaid--" He slapped his knee in silent
triumph. In the dark he found the broad, open end of the plaid, and the
rough, excited head of the little dog.

"A hap, an' a stap, an' a loup, an' in ye gang. Loup in, laddie."

Bobby jumped into the pocket and turned 'round and 'round. His little
muzzle opened for a delighted bark at this original play, but Auld Jock
checked him.

"Cuddle doon noo, an' lie canny as pussy." With a deft turn he brought
the weighted end of the plaid up under his arm so there would be no
betraying drag. "We'll pu' the wool ower the auld wifie's een," he
chuckled.

He mounted the stairs almost blithely, and knocked on one of the three
narrow doors that opened on the two-by-eight landing. It was opened a
few inches, on a chain, and a sordid old face, framed in straggling
gray locks and a dirty mutch cap, peered suspiciously at him through the
crevice.

Auld Jock had his money in hand--a shilling and a sixpence--to pay for a
week's lodging. He had slept in this place for several winters, and the
old woman knew him well, but she held his coins to the candle and bit
them with her teeth to test them. Without a word of greeting she shoved
the key to the sleeping-closet he had always fancied, through the crack
in the door, and pointed to a jug of water at the foot of the attic
stairs. On the proffer of a halfpenny she gave him a tallow candle,
lighted it at her own and fitted it into the neck of a beer bottle.

"Ye hae a cauld." she said at last, with some hostility. "Gin ye wauken
yer neebors yell juist hae to fecht it oot wi' 'em."

"Ay, I ken a' that," Auld Jock answered. He smothered a cough in his
chest with such effort that it threw him into a perspiration. In some
way, with the ju