fisher could let out line. I know who was the first woman on the
Marywell brae to hear the horn, and how she woke her husband, and
who heard it first at the Denhead and the Tenements, with what
they immediately said and did. I had from Dite Deuchar's own lips
the curious story of his sleeping placidly throughout the whole
disturbance, and on wakening in the morning yoking to his loom as
usual; and also his statement that such ill-luck was enough to
shake a man's faith in religion. The police had knowledge that
enabled them to go straight to the houses of the weavers wanted,
but they sometimes brought away the wrong man, for such of the
people as did not escape from the town had swopped houses for the
night--a trick that served them better than all their drilling on
the hill. Old Yuill's son escaped by burying himself in a peat-
rick, and Snecky Hobart by pretending that he was a sack of
potatoes. Less fortunate was Sanders Webster, the mole-catcher
already mentioned. Sanders was really an innocent man. He had not
even been in Thrums on the night of the rising against the
manufacturers, but thinking that the outbreak was to be left
unpunished, he wanted his share in the glory of it. So he had
boasted of being a ringleader until many believed him, including
the authorities. His braggadocio undid him. He was run to earth in
a pig-sty, and got nine months. With the other arrests I need not
concern myself, for they have no part in the story of the little
minister.

While Gavin was with the families whose bread-winners were now in
the lock-up, a cell that was usually crammed on fair nights and
empty for the rest of the year, the sheriff and Halliwell were in
the round-room of the town-house, not in a good temper. They spoke
loudly, and some of their words sank into the cell below.