So here he was, in the very citadel of the enemy, arrayed in a brand-new broad-cloth suit, with a new tall hat, and a pair of new black gloves, to say nothing of highly polished boots, looking as neat as a new pin, and enjoying himself immensely; and no wonder, since he was telling lies by the yard. Gowrie should certainly have been a novelist, as he had a most lavish imagination, and should have put into print what he uttered by tongue. At the present moment, in his endeavours to entrap Maud Tedder into parting with five hundred pounds, he was wasting marketable stuff in a most prodigal fashion. At the same time, he was keeping a look-out for Captain Kyles, but as yet that buccaneer had not appeared on the scene. The reason of this non-appearance, Gowrie learned later. "Aye, young leddy, he'll hang as high as Haman, I doot not. And wit ye say, me'em," this to Mrs. Mountford, "is tae be fund in Deuteronomy or the Beuk o' Leviticus, I no mind the which." "I am glad to see, sir, that you read your Bible." "It's bread an' life to me," said the sage, lifting his eyes; that is, he lifted one in appeal to heaven and kept the other on Maud, who was pacing the long room in a state of high excitement. She already saw the fortune within her grasp, and was quite prepared to hang her cousin, so that she might secure her rightful inheritance. "And then he'll come back,--he'll come back," she murmured aloud. "Eh, what's yon?" inquired Gowrie. "Wha wull come back, young leddy?" "Captain----," she began unthinkingly, then, warned by an ostentatious cough from the watchful Mrs. Mountford, she stopped short. "I was talking to myself," she said haughtily. "Hoots, I ken that, but we tell tae oorsel's muckle that we wudna tell tae ithers, ye ken." "Language," groaned Mrs. Mountford, who looked more like an undertaker's lady than ever, "was given us to conceal our thoughts." "Aye, aye, me'em. Ye'll have been takin' a wee bit look at the end o' the Dictionary. Jameson's for me," cried the enthusiastic Scotchman, "and nane o' yer Johnson's an' Webster's." Maud shook her head impatiently and came to sit by the old man for the purpose of gaining information. "You have merely told us that you have found Mr. Herries," she said, looking at him with her pale blue eyes, and in an inquisitive manner. "Where is he?" "Aye, yen's a lang story," replied Gowrie folding his hands and settling himself comfortably, "an' maybe a glass of sherry wine wud help me to tell it mair lifelike." Anxious only to hear the truth, Maud crossed to the bell, and touched the ivory button, but Mrs. Mountford groaned. "What did Lemuel's mother say to him concerning strong drink?" she inquired. But Gowrie, for business purposes, knew his Bible as well as she did, if not better. "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts," he quoted. "Likewise, 'It is not for kings to drink strong wine,'" she snapped.