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He is just a spy, one Eben McClure from Stonykirk, a man of our own country. He works with the preventive superintendent, and when they cannot or dare not meddle with the cargo-runners, as they dare not with my brothers, they set the press upon them and the soldiers' press is the worst by far." No more was said. The girls worked quietly for an hour till all was finished.
He began to think that the fifty pounds which had been paid down by Eben of Stonykirk constituted but a feeble consolation for losses such as his. The Duke could not see him. My Lord of Wargrove would not, and Captain Laurence, to whom in desperation he made his plea, consigned him with extreme conciseness of speech to the deepest and hottest pit of Eblis.
"Well," said the man, "that's telling. But I know you, Stair Garland, and I have confidence in the man I am talking to " "If you abuse that confidence you are good enough to profess in me," said Stair with biting irony, "I beg you to remember that it will be at a price!" "I know I know, sir," the man from Stonykirk moaned, "I should not dream of deceiving you."
Over the wild uplands which lie between Leswalt and Stranryan, the Back Shore men arrived not a man missing. They were the nearest and their horses were quite unbreathed. Stonykirk and Kirkmaiden came next, and then the lads from the moors with hair bushy about the fetlocks of their steeds. They were a broad-shouldered and go-as-you-please crowd.
The spy had become a clean man again, and the same would be known from among all the folk from Nith Brig to the heuchs of the Back Shore of Leswalt. His kin would own him openly. Stonykirk parish was again free to him.
"The men were not insolent?" he asked, for he knew the manners and customs of his Majesty's press in lonely shielings. "I only saw the officers Captain Laurence and a naval lieutenant besides that smooth rascal McClure from Stonykirk!" Even then Patsy hardly dared tell her father how unconventionally she had been clad, but she plucked up heart and went through with it.
McClure knew that he was in danger anywhere west of the Cree, but the danger increased as he went westwards, and in his own parish of Stonykirk there were at least a score of young blades who would have taken his life with as little thought as they would have blooded a pig aye, and had sworn so to do, handfasted upon it, kissing alternately Bible and cold steel.
A tall five-branched silver candlestick stood in the middle of the table, and along the wall were ranged a few chairs of the rudest fashioning, but all polished with use. He motioned to Eben of Stonykirk to take a seat in one of these and proceed with what he had to say. "I can only give you a quarter of an hour," said the Laird.
Now Eben McClure of Stonykirk, though held a traitor by the countryside, came of no mean parentage. The McClures are a strong clan, and the running of many cargoes has made them well-to-do. The day of their desperate deeds is over. They prefer the cattle-market and the tussle of wit with wit, matching knowledge with cunning in the arena of the "private bargain."
There is that devil of a nephew of yours, Spy McClure from Stonykirk. They say he is still at large. If he has sold us to the land-sharks, it is the last Judas-money he will touch. I know ten men in Garlieston who will see to that!" "Attend to your own business, mate," growled Kennedy McClure. "I will be answerable for my nephew."
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