"No, no; gie him the start a bit till he gathers confidence, and then we'll pounce on him. Wary, Davy, wary! keep in a bit. Dinna shute oot your head so far. If he gets a glisk o' ye, he'll tak to his trotters in a minnit, and gie us an infernal rin for't. See what lang legs the sinner has." "I think I could rin him ony day," replied Howison's concurrent, "and gie him a start o' a hunner yards to the bargain." "I'm no sure o' that," rejoined Howison, shaking his head doubtingly; "ye dinna ken hoo a man can rin wi' a caption at his heels. It maks them go at a deevil o' a rate. I've seen great, fat, auld chaps, that ye wadna hae thocht could rin a yard an't were to save their lives, flee like the win before a 'Whereas.'" "Noo, noo, Davy," continued Howison, and now recalling his neighbour's attention to business, "let us be joggin. He's takin the richt road, so we'll just pin him at our leisure." Saying this, the pair started, and in a short time were hovering on the skirts of the heedless party, and their heedless and unwary leader, the devoted Jacob Merrilees. Wholly unconscious, as the reader will readily believe, of the plot that was thickening over his head, or, rather, at his heels, Jacob was continuing the career of banter, and lively small talk, and smart repartee, which distinguished his first appearance at the garden gate, when he suddenly felt himself gently touched from behind on the left shoulder. He turned round, but without quitting the arms of the fair ladies who hung upon him, and looked frowningly on Howison. "What do you mean, sir?" inquired Jacob, indignantly, and now glancing also at Howison's companion, who stood close by, with his stick tucked under his arm. To this query the only reply was a knowing wink, and a significant wag of the forefinger, which, when translated, meant--"Come here, friend, and I'll tell you." "Get along with you, sir!" said Jacob, contemptuously. "Thank you, but I won't," replied Howison, saucily. "No! Then what the devil do you want?" "You," said the former, emphatically. "But you had better conduct yourself quietly, for your own sake." "Now, my good fellow," replied Jacob, in a satirically calm tone, "_do_ tell me what you mean?" "Do ye ken such a man as Fairly the tailor?" inquired Howison, who always affected a degree of playfulness in the execution of this department of his duties. "Do ye ken Fairly the tailor?" he said, with an intelligent smile. "I know no such man, sir; never heard his name before," replied Jacob, angrily, and now urging his fair protegées onwards--the whole party having been stopped by the incident just detailed.