Archie dived in after him as unconcernedly as he would have dived into the mouth of hell, had his interests taken him that way. These closes, characteristic of Scottish towns to this day, were so long, and burrowed under so many sightless-looking windows and doors, to emerge in unexpected places, that he admired James's knowledge of the short cuts of Montrose, though it seemed to him no more than natural. The place for which he conceived him to be making was a house in the New Wynd nicknamed the 'Happy Land,' and kept by a well-known widow for purposes which made its insignificance an advantage. It was used, as he had heard, by the Jacobite community, because the frequent visitors who entered after dusk passed in without more comment from the townspeople than could be expressed in a lifted eyebrow or a sly nudge. It was a disconcerting moment, even to him, when the man in front of him stopped, and what he had taken for the distant glimmer of an open space revealed itself as a patch of whitewash with a door in it. The close was a cul-de-sac. Flemington stood motionless as the other knocked at the door. Flight was undesirable, for James might give chase, and capture would mean the end of a piece of work of which he was justly proud. He guessed himself to be the fleeter-footed of the two, but he knew nothing of the town's byways, and other night-birds besides Logie might join in. But his bold wit did not desert him, for he gave a loud drunken shout, as like those he had heard at the North Port as he could make it, and lurched across the close. Its other inmate turned towards him, and as he did so Archie shouted again, and, stumbling against him, subsided upon the paved floor. The door beyond them opened a little, showing a portion of a scared face and a hand which held a light. "Guid sakes! what'll be wrang?" inquired a tremulous female voice. The man was standing over Archie, pushing him with his foot. His answer may have reassured the questioner, but it had a different effect upon the heap on the ground. "Hoot, woman! don't be a fool! It's me--Ferrier!" CHAPTER V "THE HAPPY LAND" THE door opened a little further. "Here," said Ferrier to the woman, "go up and bring me the roll of unwritten paper from the table." "You'll no be coming in?" "Not now. Maybe in another hour or more." "But wha's yon?" said she. "Lord! woman, have you lived all these years in Montrose and never seen a drunken man?" exclaimed he impatiently. "Shut the door, I'm telling you, and get what I want. He will not trouble you. He's past troubling anybody." She obeyed, and Archie heard a bolt shot on the inside.