"Ay," rejoined Donal, glancing up; "there is something there--an'
it's airms I doobtna; but it's no a'body has the preevilege o' a
knowledge o' heraldry like yersel', lan'lord! I'm b'un' to confess,
for what I ken they micht be the airms o' ony ane o' ten score Scots
faimilies."

There was one weapon with which John Glumm was assailable, and that
was ridicule: with all his self-sufficiency he stood in terror of
it--and the more covert the ridicule, so long as he suspected it,
the more he resented as well as dreaded it. He stepped into the
street, and taking a hand from a pocket, pointed up to the sign.

"See til't!" he said. "Dinna ye see the twa reid horse?"

"Ay," answered Donal; "I see them weel eneuch, but I'm nane the
wiser nor gien they war twa reid whauls.--Man," he went on, turning
sharp round upon the fellow, "ye're no cawpable o' conceivin' the
extent o' my ignorance! It's as rampant as the reid horse upo' your
sign! I'll yield to naebody i' the amoont o' things I dinna ken!"

The man stared at him for a moment.

"I s' warran'," he said, "ye ken mair nor ye care to lat on!"

"An' what may that be ower the heid o' them?--A crest, ca' ye 't?"
said Donal.

"It's a base pearl-beset," answered the landlord.

He had not a notion of what a base meant, or pearl-beset, yet prided