ttered and instantly replied to.

"Hear to the Hieland deevils," said Mr. Jarvie; "they think themselves
already on the skirts of Ben Lomond! But what's this?"

There was a clash of iron at his feet, and stooping to the causeway
cobbles, the Bailie lifted the keys of the jail which Dougal had carried
away in his flight.

"Indeed," he said, "and that's just as well. For they cost the burgh
siller, and there might have been some talk in the council about the
loss of them, that I would little like to have heard. It would not be
the first time they had cast up my kin to me, if Bailie Grahame and some
others should get wind of this night's work."

The next morning at the Bailie's hospitable table, Frank Osbaldistone
met Mr. Owen--but altogether another Owen from him of the
tolbooth--neat, formal, and well brushed as ever, though still in the
lowest of spirits about the misfortunes of the house.

They had not long begun when Frank, who could be brusque enough upon
occasion, startled the Bailie by the question, "And pray, by the bye,
Mr. Nicol Jarvie, who is this Mr. Robert Campbell whom I met last
night?"

The question, abruptly put, seemed to knock the worthy Bailie all of a
heap. He stammered and repeated it over and over, as if he had no answer
ready.

"Wha's Mr. Robert Campbell? Ahem--ahay--! Wha's Mr. Robert Campbell,
quo' he?"

"Yes," repeated the young Englishman, "I mean who and what is he?"

"Why, he's--ahay! He's--ahem! Where did _you_ meet Mr. Robert Campbell,
as you call him yourself?"

"I met him by chance," Frank answered promptly, "some months ago, in the
north of England."

"Then, Mr. Osbaldistone," said the Bailie, doggedly, "ye ken just as
much about him as I do!"

"I should suppose not, Mr. Jarvie," said Frank, "since you are, it
seems, both his relation and his friend!"

"There is doubtless some cousinship between us," said the Bailie, with
reluctance, "but I have seen little of Rob since he left the
cattle-dealing. He was hardly used by those who might have treated him
better, poor fellow."

More than this for the moment Frank could not extract from Mr. Jarvie,
and indeed his father's affairs were naturally the first consideration.
As Frank could not help with their business matters and arrangements,
the Bailie dismissed him without ceremony, telling him that he might go
up to the College Yards, where he would find some that could speak Greek
and Latin, but that he must be back at one o