United States or Uruguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"If you like to give the value of two hundred pounds in exchange for ten guineas, I am certainly not so green. Besides, ye ken weel enough that those things were not rightly yours. Mr. Drever has told you that." He did not appear to notice the latter part of what I said. "Two hundred pounds!" he exclaimed, looking from me to the Jew. "Two hundred pounds! What d'ye mean?"
"Well," I returned, with an earnestness that must have shown that I had not the smallest doubt upon the matter, "auld Grace Drever said it was 'as true as death, and the dominie did not deny that it was 'just possible. What for should I not believe it? and what for would the stone be bound with the gold ring and buried with the other gear if it were not of some value beyond ordinary?"
I was very late; so late that I half dreaded going into the school; and to discover if possible what humour the schoolmaster was in, I peeped through the half-open window. In the inner room I could see old Grace Drever seated with her gray cat beside the peat fire, busily twirling her spinning wheel. Nearer to me Mr.
So ye'd better let the other lads ken about this. Let them understand that they are breaking the law if they keep their discovery a secret." "Yes, sir, I'll tell Rosson and Hercus before school time in the morning." "And Kinlay?" said Mr. Drever, looking questioningly in my face.
Further evidence of an important nature, however, has since been gathered by Mr. Drever here, and it has brought new light upon the matter. You are not, I am happy to say, to be formally charged with the murder of Lothian; but, in the absence of the proper official the procurator fiscal it is necessary that I, as the senior bailie of Stromness, should make some inquiry into this case, you see.
Drever himself sat at a high desk, at the side of which hung the inevitable "tawse;" and I did not fail to notice that this instrument of torture had already been used that morning, for it still swung with a gentle motion from side to side, like the pendulum of a lazy clock.
Duke," said the dominie, "do you not think, in view of the importance of Kinlay's evidence, that it is advisable to administer the oath?" "Ah! you're right, dominie; yes, certainly," said Mr. Duke. "No, no," objected Bailie Thomson. "Why should this witness be treated differently from the others?" "Mr. Drever is right, Thomson," said Mr. Duke. "We must have the oath."
He selected one of the coins and handed it to Thora, saying, "There's to you, Thora; that's for getting to the head of the class." From his seat he then questioned several of us regarding our lessons and our homes, and finally he stood up and addressed us all, saying: "I have come in this morning, bairns, to ask Mr. Drever to give you all a half holiday.
He growled and spat as I approached him, and, fearing for the jackdaw's life, I hammered with my fist upon the door of the schoolmaster's press bed and called out: "Mr. Drever! Mr. Drever!" The dominie opened the bed door and sprang out to the rescue, his red woollen nightcap upon his head. But his help was of little use.
This was how it came into his possession. Evidently it was by a mere accident that he left it at the top of the cliff, before going down to the cave, after the death of Colin Lothian. That night, too, Andrew Drever told me, as he had promised to do, how he had received news from Copenhagen concerning Thora; how the insurance money on the ship Undine and on Mr.
Word Of The Day