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"I was juist comin' oot at the kirk door," says I, "when the minister cam' skelp up again' me." I didna mention 'at I was rinnin'. "The cratur drappit i' the flure," says I, "like's he'd been shot; an' then to crack aboot me bein' daft! Did ye ever hear the like?" The kirk offisher gaed awa' hame, clawin' his heid, an' sayin' till himsel', "Weel, it raley snecks a' thing.
"All right!" he cried defiantly. "It's a thousand." But the three had heard the name murmured by the crowd, had seen the distant horseman. Larkin was plainly elated. Raley and Smith, as plainly abashed, looked this way and that, avoiding the eyes of their leader, and every other eye as well.
Yet wudda thocht they'd kent ane anither sin' ever they were doakit. Gin we cam' back, Aleck's mither had a fine supper a' ready on the table. She had a can'le here an' there, an' pucklies o' chuckinwirth an' persly scattered roond the rob-roys. It was awfu' nice. It would raley garred ye think ye was amon' braw fowk. I was juist sittin' admirin't when Aleck says, "Ay, then, are ye a' ready?"
"That's good enough for me!" cried Raley. "Say it, Jud!" There was a distant thunder of hoofs as Haig's horse took the short bridge over the Brightwater. The crowd backed still farther away from Huntington, who was again fingering his roll of bills. "Two thousand!" he roared, shaking the handful of "yellowbacks" at the wavering Smith. Raley leaned from his saddle, and grabbed Smith's arm.
They were very weary; they had used almost the last of their powers to bring the outlaw this far; and they were plainly reluctant to undertake another tussle with the tireless animal, now ready, without doubt, to renew his struggle for liberty. Huntington watched them narrowly. "I'm all in!" grumbled Raley. "You look it," said Huntington.
"The five hundred isn't wind," said Huntington sneeringly. "It's over there in Thompson's safe, if you want it." "We'll see Haig first," said Larkin, compressing his lips, and speaking more to his companions than to Huntington. Smith shifted uneasily in his saddle, while Raley avoided Larkin's eyes, and looked appealingly at Huntington.
Larkin demanded, in a drawling tone, but with an anxious eye for the galloping figure now in plain view. "We'll give Haig a chance to bid eh, men?" Smith shot an angry but uneasy look at the leader. Huntington saw it, and guessed that there was more than weariness and greed in the willingness of Smith and Raley to combine against Larkin.
If they're no' guid, they get mair an' mair driech the langer they preach; even their auld sermons, when they turn the barrel an' start at the boddom o' her, appear to get driecher than ever. It's juist the same wi' Sandy the aulder he grows he gets the waur, till I raley winder what'll happen till him.
I wudda gien a pound note juist to gotten a richt straucht-forrit fecht amon' them for half an 'oor." "You're juist like a muckle bubbly laddie, Sandy," says I. "It's a winder you wasna awa' up the toon wi' them to see if ony o' the sojers wud lat you cairry hame their gun. I raley winder to see an auld tattie man like you goin' on like some roid loon." "That's a' you ken, Bawbie," says he.
Man, Bawbie, it's raley very interestin'. You mind I spak to you aboot some o' the triangles an' things that it tells you aboot afore?"
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