e, at large, in our parish----"

"In _my_ parish----" corrected the Doctor, who was the only man alive
with a legal right to speak of Eden Valley parish as his own.

About noon the Fiscal, responsible law officer of the Crown, arrived
from Kirkcudbright escorted by Tom and Eben. The evidence was all heard
over again, the chamber--ex-cheese room, present parlour--again
inspected, but nothing further appeared likely to be discovered, when a
shadow fell across the threshold.

For some time, indeed, I had sat quaking in my corner, all cold with the
fear of a flitting figure, appearing here and there, seen with the tail
of the eye, and then disappearing like the black cat I see in corners
when my eyes are overstrained with Greek.

Of course I thought at once of the murderer Wringham Pollixfen lurking
catlike among the office-houses in the hope of striking again, perhaps
at Miss Irma--perhaps, also, as I now see, at Sir Louis. But indeed I
never thought of him, at least not at the time. It was not the pretended
Poole, however. It was a presence as quick, as agile, but more perfectly
acquainted with the hidie-holes of the farmyard--in fact, Boyd Connoway.

Long before the others I got my eyes on him, and with the joy of a boy
when a visitor enters the school at the dreariest hour of lessons, I
rushed after him. To my surprise he went round the angle of the barn
like a shot. But I had played at that game before. I took one flying
leap into the little orchard from the window of the parlour which had
been given up to the Maitlands, Louis and Miss Irma. Then I glided among
the trees, choosing those I knew would hide me, and leaped on Master
Boyd from behind as he was craning his neck to peer round the corner in
the direction of the house door.

To my utter amaze he dropped to the ground with a throttled kind of cry
as if some one had smitten him unawares. Here was surely something that
I did not understand.

"Boyd, Boyd," I said in his ear, for I began to grow a little concerned
myself--not terrified, you know, only anxious--"Boyd, it is only
Duncan--Duncan MacAlpine from the school-house."

He turned a white, bewildered face to me, cold sweats pearling it, and
his jaw worked in spasms. "Oh yes," he muttered, "Agnes Anne's brother!"

Now I did not see the use of dragging Agnes Anne continually into
everything. Also I was one of the boys who had gone with Boyd Connoway
oftenest to the fishing in Loch-in-Breck, and he need