"Andie picks him up at Gillane sands to-morrow,
Wednesday. He was keen to say good-bye to ye, but the way that
things were going, I was feared the pair of ye was maybe best
apart. And that brings me to the essential: how does your
business speed?"
"Why," said I, "I was told only this morning that my testimony was
accepted, and I was to travel to Inverary with the Advocate, no
less."
"Hout awa!" cried Stewart. "I'll never believe that."
"I have maybe a suspicion of my own," says I, "but I would like
fine to hear your reasons."
"Well, I tell ye fairly, I'm horn-mad," cries Stewart. "If my one
hand could pull their Government down I would pluck it like a
rotten apple. I'm doer for Appin and for James of the Glens; and,
of course, it's my duty to defend my kinsman for his life. Hear
how it goes with me, and I'll leave the judgment of it to yourself.
The first thing they have to do is to get rid of Alan. They cannae
bring in James as art and part until they've brought in Alan first
as principal; that's sound law: they could never put the cart
before the horse."
"And how are they to bring in Alan till they can catch him?" says
I.
"Ah, but there is a way to evite that arrestment," said he. "Sound
law, too. It would be a bonny thing if, by the escape of one ill-
doer another was to go scatheless, and the remeid is to summon the
principal and put him to outlawry for the non-compearance. Now
there's four places where a person can be summoned: at his
dwelling-house; at a place where he has resided forty days; at the
head burgh of the shire where he ordinarily resorts; or lastly (if
there be ground to think him forth of Scotland) AT THE CROSS OF
EDINBURGH, AND THE PIER AND SHORE OF LEITH, FOR SIXTY DAYS. The
purpose of which last provision is evident upon its face: being
that outgoing ships may have time to carry news of the transaction,
and the summonsing be something other than a form. Now take the
case of Alan. He has no dwelling-house that ever I could hear of;
I would be obliged if anyone would show me where he has lived forty
days together since the '45; there is no shire where he resorts
whether ordinarily or extraordinarily; if he has a domicile at all,
which I misdoubt, it must be with his regiment in France; and if he
is not yet forth of Scotland (as we happen to know and they happen
to guess) it must be evident to the most dull it's what he's aiming
for. Where, then, and what way should he be summoned? I ask it at
yourself, a layman."
"You have given the very words," said I. "Here at the cross, and
at the pier and shore of Leith, for sixty days."
"Ye're a sounder Scots lawyer than Prestongrange, then!" cries the
Writer. "He has had Alan summoned once; that was on the twenty-
fifth, the day that we first met. Once, and done with it. And
where? Where, but at the cross of Inverary, the head burgh of the
Campbells? A word in your ear, Mr. Balfour--they're not seeking
Alan."
"What do you mean?" I cried. "Not seeking him?"
"By the best that I can make of it," said he. "Not wanting to find
him, in my poor thought. They think perhaps he might set up a fair
defence, upon the back of which James, the man they're really
after, might climb out. This is not a case, ye see, it's a
conspiracy."
"Yet I can tell you Prestongrange asked after Alan keenly," said I;
"though, when I come to think of it, he was something of the
easiest put by."
"See that!" says he. "But there! I may be right or wrong, that's
guesswork at the best, and let me get to my facts again. It comes
to my ears that James and the witnesses--the witnesses, Mr.
Balfour!--lay in close dungeons, and shackled forbye, in the
military prison at Fort William; none allowed in to them, nor they
to write. The witnesses, Mr. Balfour; heard ye ever the match of
that? I assure ye, no old, crooked Stewart of the gang ever out-
faced the law more impudently.