with Ivery at Biggleswick. Anyhow there was somebody somewhere
mighty quick at compiling a _dossier. Unless I wanted to be bundled
back to Oban I must make good speed to the Arisaig coast.

Presently the road fell to a gleaming sea-loch which lay like the
blue blade of a sword among the purple of the hills. At the head
there was a tiny clachan, nestled among birches and rowans, where a
tawny burn wound to the sea. When I entered the place it was
about four o'clock in the afternoon, and peace lay on it like a
garment. In the wide, sunny street there was no sign of life, and no
sound except of hens clucking and of bees busy among the roses.
There was a little grey box of a kirk, and close to the bridge a
thatched cottage which bore the sign of a post and telegraph office.

For the past hour I had been considering that I had better
prepare for mishaps. If the police of these parts had been warned
they might prove too much for me, and Gresson would be allowed
to make his journey unmatched. The only thing to do was to send a
wire to Amos and leave the matter in his hands. Whether that was
possible or not depended upon this remote postal authority.

I entered the little shop, and passed from bright sunshine to a
twilight smelling of paraffin and black-striped peppermint balls. An
old woman with a mutch sat in an arm-chair behind the counter.
She looked up at me over her spectacles and smiled, and I took to
her on the instant. She had the kind of old wise face that God loves.

Beside her I noticed a little pile of books, one of which was a
Bible. Open on her lap was a paper, the __United Free Church _Monthly.
I noticed these details greedily, for I had to make up my mind on