"You shall not regret going," said the judge, and he led the way to Paul's house. Half an hour later the two sat together in Paul's study. During their walk thither the man of the law had been thinking deeply. He had been trying to piece together the conversation he had heard in the market-place, trying to understand the significance of what Archie Fearn had said. He had no great hope of important revelations, but a lifetime of legal training and practice had proved to him that oft-times the greatest issues depended on the most trivial circumstances, and he could not afford to allow the most insignificant happening to pass by unnoticed. "How long have you been in Brunford?" asked the judge. "Since a month before Christmas," was the reply. "You came here to get work?" "I came here because I wasn't known in the toon, and because I thought I might be able to pick up an odd sax-pence." "You say you knew Jean Lindsay when she was a girl?" "Syne I expected her to be my ain sister-in-law, it was very natural that I should," was the reply. "Do you think you'd know her again if you saw her?" "I kenned her the moment I saw her in the streets of this toon, not long before Christmas," was the reply. "You saw her then?" "Ay, I did. I saw her and recognised her, just as I recognised you. But it took me longer to mak you oot. Although, as you say, you gave me six months in Liverpool, did not, at that time, connect you with my ain hame. But when I saw your picture as large as life in the house where I lodged, I began to put things together. When I saw you in Liverpool you had your big wig on, and your judge's goon, that's what put me off there, I expect. But in your picture you looked more natural, and I said: 'That's the lad who took away my brother Willie's lass.'" The judge's mind was working quickly by this time, and he saw that the incident might have great possibilities. "And you say you saw Jean in the streets of Brunford?" "Ay, I did." "And did you speak to her?" "Nay, not at the time. The sight of her gave me a shock, as you may say. But as I tell't you, the Scots are a canny race, so I asked a man in the street who she was, and he told me she was Mrs. Stepaside, and that led to other inquiries, till presently I found out all there was to know." "And what then?" asked the judge. "Your lordship is a rich man," replied Archie. "And you'll not be expecting me to tell all I know for nothing. And I'm in sair need of a drop of whisky, too!" The judge took a couple of sovereigns from his pocket. "When you tell me all you know, you shall have these," he said. The Scotsman's eyes glittered greedily. "Two sovereigns; weel, it's a sma' sum, a sma' sum for the likes of you, and I think I can say something that will interest you, too. In Scotland we think a great deal of a five-poon note!" "Very well," said the judge. "If you know anything worth telling me, and you speak plainly, you shall have the five-pound note."