“_Tha mise ’dol a dh’ I-challum-chille_,” Neil answered, in a low, weary voice, and as a man adream: “I am on my way to Iona.” “I am thinking I know now who you are. You are the man Macallum.” Neil looked, but did not speak. His eyes dreamed against what the other could not see or know. The shepherd called angrily to his dogs to keep the sheep from straying; then, with a resentful air, turned to his victim. “You are a silent man for sure, you are. I’m hoping it is not the curse upon you already.” “What curse?” “Ah, _that_ has brought the wind against the mist! I was thinking so!” “What curse?” “You are the man that was the Sin-Eater over there?” “Ay.” “The man Macallum?” “Ay.” “Strange it is, but three days ago I saw you in Tobermory, and heard you give your name as Neil Ross to an Iona man that was there.” “Well?” “Oh, sure, it is nothing to me. But they say the Sin-Eater should not be a man with a hidden lump in his pack.”[9] [9] _i.e._ With a criminal secret, or an undiscovered crime. “Why?” “For the dead know, and are content. There is no shaking off any sins, then--for that man.” “It is a lie.” “Maybe ay and maybe no.” “Well, have you more to be saying to me? I am obliged to you for your company, but it is not needing it I am, though no offence.” “Och, man, there’s no offence between you and me. Sure, there’s Iona in me, too; for the father of my father married a woman that was the granddaughter of Tomais Macdonald, who was a fisherman there. No, no; it is rather warning you I would be.” “And for what?” “Well, well, just because of that laugh I heard about.” “What laugh?” “The laugh of Adam Blair that is dead.” Neil Ross stared, his eyes large and wild. He leaned a little forward. No word came from him. The look that was on his face was the question. “Yes: it was this way. Sure, the telling of it is just as I heard it. After you ate the sins of Adam Blair, the people there brought out the coffin. When they were putting him into it, he was as stiff as a sheep dead in the snow--and just like that, too, with his eyes wide open. Well, someone saw you trampling the heather down the slope that is in front of the house, and said, ‘It is the Sin-Eater!’ With that, Andrew Blair sneered, and said--‘Ay, ’tis the scapegoat he is!’ Then, after a while, he went on: ‘The Sin-Eater they call him: ay, just so: and a bitter good bargain it is, too, if all’s true that’s thought true!’ And with that he laughed, and then his wife that was behind him laughed, and then …” “Well, what then?” “Well, ’tis Himself that hears and knows if it is true! But this is the thing I was told:--After that laughing there was a stillness and a dread. For all there saw that the corpse had turned its head and was looking after you as you went down the heather. Then, Neil Ross, if that be your true name, Adam Blair that was dead put up his white face against the sky, and laughed.” At this, Ross sprang to his feet with a gasping sob.