that. But here on earth, even silly men-folk daur Him to
His face. It is nae wise; I am nae sayin' that it's wise; but it's the
pride of the eye, and it's the lust o' life, an' it's the wale o'
pleesures.'

I said no more, for we had now begun to cross a neck of land that lay
between us and Sandag; and I withheld my last appeal to the man's better
reason till we should stand upon the spot associated with his crime. Nor
did he pursue the subject; but he walked beside me with a firmer step.
The call that I had made upon his mind acted like a stimulant, and I
could see that he had forgotten his search for worthless jetsam, in a
profound, gloomy, and yet stirring train of thought. In three or four
minutes we had topped the brae and begun to go down upon Sandag. The
wreck had been roughly handled by the sea; the stem had been spun round
and dragged a little lower down; and perhaps the stern had been forced a
little higher, for the two parts now lay entirely separate on the beach.
When we came to the grave I stopped, uncovered my head in the thick rain,
and, looking my kinsman in the face, addressed him.

'A man,' said I, 'was in God's providence suffered to escape from mortal
dangers; he was poor, he was naked, he was wet, he was weary, he was a
stranger; he had every claim upon the bowels of your compassion; it may
be that he was the salt of the earth, holy, helpful, and kind; it may be
he was a man laden with iniquities to whom death was the beginning of
torment. I ask you in the sight of heaven: Gordon Darnaway, where is the
man for whom Christ died?'

He started visibly at the last words; but there came no answer, and his
face expressed no feeling but a vague alarm.

'You were my father's brother,' I continued; 'You, have taught me to
count your house as if it were my father's house; and we are both sinful
men walking before the Lord among the sins and dangers of this life. It
is by our evil that God leads us into good; we sin, I dare not say by His
temptation, but I must say with His consent; and to any but the brutish
man his sins are the beginning of wisdom. God has warned you by this
crime; He warns you still by the bloody grave between our feet; and if
there shall follow no repentance, no improvement, no return to Him, what
can we look for but the following of some memorable judgment?'

Even as I spoke the words, the eyes of my uncle wandered from my face. A
change fell upon his looks that cannot be des