t I! I'm a lad o' my word."

"Then you are a doomed man. I tell you the king has not been in
Stirling since you left St. Ninians." Then with a burst of impatience
James cried, "You stubborn fool, I am the king!"

At first the big man seemed inclined to laugh, and he looked over the
beggar from top to toe, but presently an expression of pity overspread
his countenance, and he spoke soothingly to his comrade.

"Yes, yes, my man," he said, "I knew you were the king from the very
first. Just sit down on this stone for a minute and let me examine
that clip you got on the top of the head. I fear me it's worse than I
thought it was."

"Nonsense," cried the king, "my head is perfectly right; it is yours
that is gone aglee."

"True enough, true enough," continued Hutchinson mildly, in the tone
that he would have used towards a fractious child, "and you are not
the first that's said it. But let us get on to St. Ninians."

"No, let us make direct for Stirling."

"I'll tell you what we'll do," continued Hutchinson in the same tone
of exasperating tolerance. "I'll to St. Ninians and let them know the
king's pardon's coming. You'll trot along to Stirling, put on your
king's clothes and then come and set me free. That's the way we'll
arrange it, my mannie."

The king made a gesture of despair, but remained silent, and they
walked rapidly down the road together. They had quitted the forest,
and the village of St. Ninians was now in view. As they approached the
place more nearly, Hutchinson was pleased to see that a great crowd
had gathered to view the hanging. He seemed to take this as a personal
compliment to himself; as an evidence of his popularity.

The two made their way to the back of the great assemblage where a few
soldiers guarded an enclosure within which was the anxious sheriff and
his minor officials.

"Bless me, Baldy!" cried the sheriff in a tone of great relief, "I
thought you had given me the slip."

"Ye thought naething o' the kind, sheriff," rejoined Baldy
complacently. "I said I would be here, and here I am."

"You are just late enough," grumbled the sheriff. "The people have
been waiting this two hours."

"They'll think it all the better when they see it," commented Baldy.
"I was held back a bit on the road. Has there no message come from the
king?"

"Could you expect it, when the crime's treason?" asked the sheriff
impatiently, "but there's been a cobbler here that's given me more
bother than twe