hurried, willy-nilly, to a bed in the infirmary. As for wee Bobby
he wouldn't mind if--

And there he ran into his own wide-flung door. A gale blew
through the hastily deserted place. Ashes were scattered about
the hearth, and the cruisey lamp flared in the gusts. Auld Jock
and Bobby were gone.



III.

Although dismayed and self-accusing for having frightened Auld
Jock into taking flight by his incautious talk of a doctor, not
for an instant did the landlord of Greyfriars Dining-Rooms
entertain the idea of following him. The old man had only to
cross the street and drop down the incline between the bridge
approach and the ancient Chapel of St. Magdalen to be lost in the
deepest, most densely peopled, and blackest gorge in Christendom.

Well knowing that he was safe from pursuit, Auld Jock chuckled as
he gained the last low level. Fever lent him a brief strength,
and the cold damp was grateful to his hot skin. None were abroad
in the Cowgate; and that was lucky for, in this black hole of
Edinburgh, even so old and poor a man was liable to be set upon
by thieves, on the chance of a few shillings or pence.

Used as he was to following flocks up treacherous braes and
through drifted glens, and surefooted as a collie, Auld Jock had
to pick his way carefully over the slimy, ice-glazed cobble