what door the judges
came out of the court, as he was a countryman, and was curious to see
their Lordships dressed in their usual every-day clothes. The request
was complied with; and Will, as a stupid gazing man from the Highlands,
who wished to get an inane curiosity gratified by what had nothing
curious in it, was placed in a convenient place to see the Solomons pass
forth on their way to their respective dwellings. They soon came; and
Will's lynx eye caught, in a moment, the face of the President, whom,
to his great satisfaction, he now found to be a thin, spare, portable
individual, and very far from the unwieldy personage which his judge's
dress made him appear to be when sitting on the bench--a reversing of
the riever's thoughts, in reference to the spareness and fatness of his
object of seizure, that brought a twinkle to his eye in spite of the
serious task in which he was engaged. Forth went the President with
great dignity, and Christie's Will behind him, dogging him with the
keen scent of a sleuth-hound. To his house in the Canongate he slowly
bent his steps, ruminating as he went, in all likelihood, upon the
difficulties of the Traquair case, from which his followers were so
anxious to relieve him. Will saw him ascend the steps and enter, and
his next object was to ascertain at what time he took his walk, and to
what quarter of the suburbs he generally resorted; but on this point he
could not get much satisfaction, the good judge being in his motions
somewhat irregular, though (as Will learned) seldom a day passed without
his having recourse to the country in some direction or other. Will,
therefore, set a watch upon the house. Another of his friends held the
horses at the foot of Leith Wynd, while he himself paced between the
watchman and the top of the passage, so that he might have both ends of
the line always in his eye. A concerted whistle was to regulate their
movements.

The first day passed without a single glimpse being had of the grave
senator, who was probably occupied in the consultation of legal
authorities, little conscious of the care that was taken about his
precious person by so important an individual as the far-famed
Christie's Will of Gilnockie. On the second day, about three of the
afternoon, and two hours after he had left the Parliament House, a
whistle from Will's friend indicated that the grave judge was on the
steps of his stair. Will recognised him in an instant, and, despatching