"’I am at yer service, sir,’ I said. ’What can I dae for you?’ "’Well,’ says he, ’I’ve had a message from Sir Thomas Dalzell. He tells me that four of his troopers were set on by a gang of ruffians in New Abbey Road twa or three days sin’, and seriously mishandled; and he minds that he saw you on the road at Loch End that very day. He jalouses that after he saw you you took the road to New Abbey. What he wants to ken is this: Did you see onybody on the road that afternoon who might have been guilty o’ this criminal attack upon the soldiers o’ His Majesty?’ "Weel, that was a straicht question, but it wasna to be replied to wi’ a straicht answer; so I thocht it wiser to evade the issue, an’ I said: ’Sir, can you gi’e me ony further particlers? Hoo mony sodgers were there? What was the number o’ their assailants? Where did the attack take place, and what happened to the sodgers?’ "That shook him off the scent, though, for a minute, I was feared that he saw through me, for he said: ’Now, Hector, ye talk like a damned hedge-lawyer. There were four soldiers involved. As far as Sir Thomas can make out, the number of their assailants was six or eight, and the attack took place on the road about a mile and a half from New Abbey. After being knocked senseless, the soldiers were carried into a wood and tied to a tree. They werena found till next day.’ "Now I knew where we stood. Dalzell and Lag had got the scent a’ wrang. It wasna for me to gi’e the scent richt. So it didna cost me ony scruples o’ conscience to make replies to the facts that he had laid before me. ’Sir Robert,’ says I, ’the case baffles me a’ thegither. I maun ha’e been very near the wood ye speak o’ at the time this attack was made upon the troopers, but I saw nae sodgers on the road, nor did I come across ony six or eight men wha micht ha’e assailed them. As a matter o’ fact I met naebody between Loch End and New Abbey, except a puir auld body gatherin’ a wheen sticks.’ And then an idea occurred to me--for I knew that if Lag or Dalzell couldna lay their hands upon the men wha had attacked the troopers, they would start harryin’ every hoose, where there was a likely young man, between Loch End and New Abbey. That would only mean persecution for innocent folk; so, though I was fain enough to save my ane skin and yours, I didna’ want others to be punished for oor deeds, and I threw oot a suggestion at which Lag jumped. ’It’s only a theory o’ mine, Sir Robert,’ I said, ’but it’s juist possible that this assault on the sodgers was made by the sailors frae some smugglin’ craft that micht be lyin’ in the Solway ayont New Abbey.’ "’Man, Hector,’ he said, ’that’s worth thinkin’ o’. There was a smuggler reported in the estuary a few days syne. I maun look into that.’ "And then the pain in his feet began to get bad, and he cursed horribly. When he got his breath again, he looked at me and said: